an oldie, but a wonderful one

this is one of my all time favourite videos/ songs. what a fabulous black hat, my dear!!!this is where I'll be , if anyone wants me..............

renminders of the sunshine

lovely bursts of sunshine from the summer



gor blimey!!! , it all looks a bit dull now



oh well, I've got my gardeners sanctuary, to hide in and plot for next year, 'in the greenhouse'

well it is christmas

this is St. Stephen's church in Bournemouth, now I'm not a religious person, but I do like my churches, the more Gothic the better, and this beauty is tucked away just a couple of steps from Borders book shop, in the centre of Bournemouth , just through the park.
it's based on a french design apparently and is just stunning, it smell of incense and the coat I was wearing still smells of it.
I was very lucky to be shown the vestments( embroidered clothes worn by the priest). including the one above, from the time of Marie-antoinette.I was told that there is a matching coat at Christchurch abbey, but it's not on display. amazing embroidery. and a truly inspiring place.and wonderful people.

love this song..........neopolitan dreams by Lisa Mitchell

http://www.myspace.com/lisalisamitchell
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid4270403001/bctid4919011001and of course this is where I first heard it, OOOH I SO WANT TO BE IN THIS BED!!!

POOP!!!

This has been a very hard year, but I had hoped that the worse was over. how wrong can you be.

my blogging is always a bit erratic, and will now be even more so . my beloved dad has been diagnosed with cancer, and my heart is breaking. I have to find a way of dealing with this and be strong for him and my family.
All I want for Christmas is some sleep and peace.

I'M IN LOVE!!!!!!!!!!

these are the work of Jeanne Bayol,
http://www.jeanne-bayol.com/accueil_an.htmshe does fabulous caravans and all singing all dancing, wonderfully colourful design work.
I'm trying to get hold of her books, especially 'Les Sacs du Jeanne' but can't seem to find a way of getting them in the UK. buggar!!!!anyone in France want to help? I'll pay !!!! just wonderful.

AND THANK YOU TO HIDDEN IN FRANCE http://hiddeninfrance.typepad.com/hidden_in_france/
for pointing me in the righht direction

my own produce.....

we've had quite a few tomatoes this year, and a couple of weeks ago, I decided to use up the remaining crop, I cooked them in the oven then skinned them then reduced them and used as a thick sauce.
aren't they just full of the sunshine , wonderful colours

books I'd recommend

so as you can see there has been a bit of a food theme when buying books recently. What all these books have in common is that they all have wonderful photos inside, ( except the Sugar Queen, it being a novel)and mouth watering recipes. The Sugar queen is as delightful as the previous novel 'Garden Spells'. all wonderful in these gloomy days

happiness....

I treated myself to this album. I love it and particularly this track.

my father was in hospital last week and now we have to wait for the results to see if the lump removed is benign. or not!!!! life can be crap sometimes, but he's got through the op, survived the anesthetic and if it's not good news we will deal with it. but for now he's recovering there's beauty in the dying trees and a song like this can lift your soul.

on our pond........

We have a small pond in our front garden, it has frogs and all sorts of wildlife.I'm so glad the ducks have decided to stay, and with a 'little one' too, how sweet.

hello again......

Well when you've been to court,and gone bankrupt what is a girl to do, well dye your hair of course!!!!!
especially when the weather is so gloomy, a nice bright 'Cherry bomb' hair colour is what you need. It's amazing how I always seem to come back to this colour. I do love it. and i always seem to get a half decent photo, with this colour!!


and despite the gloomy weather, the trees in Dorset do put on a magnificent display at this time of year.

oh what a year!!!!

So what have I been up to lately, well you might well ask, it's been a real roller coaster of a month , October seems to be a month of great changes for me.
last year I was admitted in to hospital to have my thyroid removed,I was scared, and tired of all the tests and hospital visits with no positive outcomes and it had taken a couple of years to get to that point, but ultimately it was the most extreme solution but the only real possible course to take, as all other paths had been tried and failed.

And this seemed to be the theme of this October, we have had a very hard year financially,( as have a lot of people ) and after a couple of months of seeking advice, we saw that the only option left to us was Bankruptcy. Now this filled me with horror, I'd read every article and watched every TV documentary about how to reduce your bills, how to live frugally, how to live on a pound a day, how to make your own cleaning products, etc etc we where doing all the thing suggested and more. I think I could now write a book on how to live on £1 for 3 weeks!!!!! and yes it was THAT bad.We had tried EVERYTHING. we'd tried to negotiate with the bank, credit cards etc, but all they did was pile on more charges and increase the interest rates, thus making the problem worse, not that I'm bitter , you understand!!!!

I've thought long and hard about this post, and whether I should write it or just keep it to myself, but I'm a quite straight forward woman, what you see is what you get, I'm far from perfect, I have many faults, and also many good qualities. one of the qualities is being honest about who I am, I don't expect any one else to do this , but I do.
maybe I should keep this to myself, but then I thought that there must be lots of people out there that are in this position, I did have moments where I felt slightly ashamed, I'm a grown woman, and should be able to manage my finance, but without going into the whole sorry sorry , sometimes things happen in life that you have no control over (health issues etc.) and sometimes that ultimate big monster in the corner that you will do everything to avoid , is the only solution. and you have to swallow hard approach it carefully and give it a good old hug!!!!

Bankruptcy is NOT an easy option, but it has made a huge difference to my life, and despite the monthly payments I now have to make( no, you don't get off without paying anything) I have a job, luckily, we don't have a property that we love and would be forced to sell, and we have a chance to start again and do it right this time. it has been hard on our marriage , but we are soo lucky that it has made that stronger too.

so if you are facing this yourself, do your homework , get lots of advice , ( the National Debt line are fabulous) take a deep breath, and take back control of your finacial life.
Why do we assume that life will or should be easy, sometimes the hardest things really do make us stronger.

bad links

I'm still here, but due to bad/ no internet connection, appalling weather conditions and life taking some interesting turns, there is a shortage of posts from this direction, I will be back SOON.

oh buggar!.....

I've been tagged by 2!!! YES 2 LOVELY LADIES!!!! I've just about worked out what to do, and will be onto it soon, but here in the depths of lovely Dorset, we have been besieged with windy, rainy weather and this cause's havoc with the broadband, so forgive the non response, and normal viewing will be resumed shortly!!
thank you

all I want for christmas...............

is a pink Ukulele and of course learn how to play it!!! I can't play one but the urge to purchase the above instrument and learn is becoming an obsession!!!I love the Ukulele, it's just such a happy instrument, I recently heard Alex James( I think he was in band!!!) quote on radio 4 recently " all you need is a pint of real beer and a Ukulele , to make the world right" and I couldn't agree with him more.
"The UKULELE orchestra of great Britain" IS A FABULOUS collection of Ukulele playing folk, do check them out, there version of 'Wuthering Heights' is spectacular, and nearly caused me to burst my stitches after my surgery, but it did cheer me up!!
"I wish I could learn to shimmy like my sister Kate" is another classic.

out and about.........

since moving to Dorset , me and the Mr like to go out on 'Jaunts' on the weekend. just to get to know the county etc, and we always seem to end up looking in churches, and whether you are religious or not , you have to admit that there is nothing quite like an English county church.

This one is 'St Mary's' in Beaminster, and extremely picturesque little village not far from us.

it's old!!! but has obviously had some rebuild bit at some time, and unfortunately the wooden pews have gone. to be replaced from some rather 'yuk' modern stacking chairs. oh well, the alter was beautiful.And it had a wonderful window and some great statues.

some more patchwork squares.....

just a few more of the patterns from the new quilt.





this tiny patch, above, is my favourite, I'd love a large piece of this.
I suppose because I'm a dress maker first I always think in terms of clothing and amounts of fabric for an item of clothing, but this one just gives me joy to look at . and this is the joy in this quilt for me, not looking at fabric with a view to 'what can i make with it'?! but just enjoying the fabric for itself and its print.

only have items that are beautiful or useful ..........

Now, like a lot of 'sewers', I have a stash of fabric, including a large bag of fabric samples, these are squares  of mainly quilting fabric, you can buy assorted packs, charm packs I think they are called. a bit of a lucky dip.

Now it would be wasteful to throw them away, there are some quite lovely pieces, come just plan odd, but I now have a selection of fabric with a few lovely ones, but now enough of any one design to go with a theme or colour way, so what to do with them?
I also have this rather lovely quilt, I bought it as part of a bed set, in a sale, ridiculously cheap, it have a lovely subtle green boarder and a bit of embroidery , but the main part is cream. Not good with a bed sharing puss-cat. and I'm not really into the minimal thing , or cream, so it never gets used, such a waste!!! and we don't like waste in this house!!!!

I love the Kaffe Fasset school of colour and quilts and spend hours pawing over his books, and I do indeed have a stash of his fabrics to make into a quilt, but I don't want to dilute them with other fabrics that don't  'match up'. so what to do?!!!!!

go back to basics of course!!!! make a quilt out of scraps  using a backing of a quilt you don't use and VOILA!!!!  a thing of beauty( well to my eyes anyway)

How the whole patch work quilt thing started!!!! make use of things and enjoy them.

 and put all together, the patches, have a beauty of there own, and it's a joy to 'find' these slightly odd fabrics. the whole' jumbled up' effect gives  each patch a new 'feeling', and makes them more interesting than when they where viewed alone.

I 've spent ages just looking at the designs in a new light.

Yes , there is a patch with cows on it!!!! why ? I don't know, but it makes me smile.;)
 Koi carp on a bed spread anyone! pretty colours though!!!

SUMMER FLOWERS

 
REMINDERS OF SUMMER

 
REMINDERS OF SUMMER

it's friday.............

and continuing on the theme of inspirational women, we have the wonderful Kate Bush.
Now I have been a fan from the start when my father bought me my first album, 'Lion Heart' and it's still one of my favourites.
Her music Like her style, the little that we see of it, seems timeless, of no particular age or fashion era, and I love that.
various of her album evoke a time and place' The Red Shoes' will always remind me of a group of women I used to know, and late night drunken dancing in the living room, sweet memories.
and although I would love to have fewer time gaps between her album releases, I greatly admire her attitude of not taking part in the 'Celebrity 'thing.