Honesty

The little ones have been whisked away for a week of fun and excitement and generally being spoilt by their grandparents.  So DH and I decided to do a bit of whisking of our own to our favourite hotel.

Our room had some rather lovely wallpaper don't you think and while we gorged and rested and generally spoilt ourselves I did feel slightly wistful that our vegetable garden didn't look like this!

Although I was interested to see that they went in for close planting which is something I'm going to try next year . . .

Coming home today I was able to harvest the first of our limited crop - a cucumber.  A bit knobbly but I'm hoping it will taste lovely.

Teachers Gifts

I've been thinking about teachers gifts for a while, and then forgetting again, until it got to the point where I had to really think about what we were going to do this year.  It feels a big year, Little Roo will be leaving pre-school and starting 'big' school in September.  Flopsy  Bunny will also be moving up to Juniors in September so a big change for her too.  I can't quite believe I will have two children at school, it is quite sad to be leaving the baby/toddler stage behind, but exciting too as we start on a whole new chapter of our family life! 

So back to teachers gifts, what to do, the usual, mug/chocolate/soap solution felt a bit overdone.  We made Peppermint Bark last year so I needed to come up with something different!

I was wondering about pens - well teachers always need a pen don't they, so I thought I'd make a little pen case, that could be popped in a handbag and would hold a couple of pens - red ones - of course!  I had a rummage in my fabric stash and came across some oatmeal coloured linen and a lovely blue fabric with apples and daisy's which was given to me as a present from my brother.

To make the gift more personalised I got both Flopsy Bunny and Little Roo to write on the fabric with a vanishing fabric marker pen which I machined embroidered over the top - this took some time as I don't know how to do free-motion embroidery - I need to remind myself that I need to learn this!  A little apple appliqued on the front, a cute button and a blanket stitched loop completed the whole thing.  I hope the teachers like them!  They'll get a jar of jam too!

Scrumping wild strawberries

When we moved into our little cottage we were so delighted to find that quite a few of the flower beds were over run with wild strawberry plants.  I've tried to tame my beds and keep the strawberries to just a few places.

But at this time of the year, when they are producing strawberries in abundance I realise I shouldn't be doing any taming at all.  It is soooo good to walk along, scrumping as you go.  Little drops of loveliness.  Little Roo would happily spend the whole day sat in a flower bed eating strawberries but then he is our little fruit bat!

In other vegetable news there's not much to report this year.  Life, renovations and other things have just got in the way.  But I've managed to put in some sugar snap peas, beans and a whole load of lettuce.

In the greenhouse I have some tomatoes and a cucumber plant - everything is scaled back this year but I do have a couple of hanging baskets for some tumbling toms!

It's really a cupboard isn't it . . .?

 . . . said one of the plumbers we had working in our house!  Well it may be small be it is now rather gorgeous!  The W C letters came from some witty guests at our wedding who thought it was funny that the initials of our first names were W and C!  They have come in handy though!

I am really pleased with how this 'little' room has turned out.

Although you have to look closely to see the boxing hares and some people miss them altogether!

For those observant ones, you will notice that the tiles on the floor match those in the bathroom . . . I had a slight change of mind about what to do with the bath panel and decided not to tile it which meant we had tiles left over.  But I think they look lovely here on the floor - I wish I could say I had designed it that way all along  . . . !