Thank you Blueberry Heart! Spring Swap parcel...

Thank you sooo much to the very lovely Blueberry Heart for my gorgeous and thoughtful Spring Swap parcel that I received last week (and sorry for the delayed post-Easter post! )

Everything was so beautifully wrapped with lots of gorgeous colours which I love :))

Which I opened to reveal all these wonderful goodies...!

First of all a little note in a cupcake card...

Isn't this a delicious picture?

I just adore this Happy Easter sign which I will treasure for ever...

 Very cute stickers I love them!

This gorgeous little notebook and pen is now sitting proudly by our home phone - I now have a much more  attractive and tidy phone area now... (I just had a few biros and some post its before hehe)

Beautiful handmade card and heart which is now sitting on my bookcase with all my other little treasures...



Now, this is very me... I love these seeds! And most of all I absolutely adore these little markers, aren't they cute? And such a good idea... to be planted this afternoon!

I did a 'Yay!!' when I opened these... little butterfly outdoor lights and I have been meaning to buy some of these for ages too.... they were lovingly placed over my lavender bush last Friday when we had our first barbecue of the summer. Beautiful.

And I had a few of these lovely Eastery decoupage shapes strewn around the house too... to be stored away until next year and lots of Easters to come...

Also included were some yummy Easter egg choccies all beautifully wrapped in multi-coloured wrapping.... however they were so nice they have been eaten already before I could take a pic! (not just by me I might add there are other offenders involved whose names I will not mention...).

Thank you very much Blueberry Heart and also Jackie at Sew Special Bears for organizing another fab swap!

Not long now till the big day... enjoy the long weekend!

Sarah

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Spring Giveaway Winner announced!

Hello lovely bloggers

That you very much for your entries into my Spring Giveaway which finished this weekend....

Following a click of the random number generator...

I am pleased to announce that the winner of my Spring Giveaway is...

No 16.....Gillyflower!

Congratulations Gill... if you could send me an email to let me know you address (homemadegorgeous@gmail.com), I'll post your goodies out to you.

Sarah

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Forget Me Nots and other signs of Spring

Hello everyone,

I have to say my favourite things in the garden right now are my Forget Me Nots- I love them!

They are such a lovely shade of blue and though they are so small they are so perfectly formed. I love the way they spread so quickly too - I planted these from seed last year and they have raced around the garden like mad! Brilliant ground cover.

The blossom from the pear tree has come out too...

And also the yellow flowers from the bush behind it (not sure what it is called!)

My pink Clematis....

Not sure what this is called either but I love the shade of purple on these flowers....

I know this is called Broom!

Cath Kidston is having a one day sale today, offering 15% off everything...

How cute are these?!

I hope you are all having good weeks.

Not long until the weekend, yay!

Sarah

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Knitting needles at the ready!

Hello everyone, I have to say that normally my post consists mainly of bills and takeaway menus... but yesterday I was very chuffed indeed to receive something much more exciting through the letterbox - my giveaway prize from the lovely Verity through her brilliant blog Miss Ginger Makes..... a brand new copy of the 'Knit your own Royal Wedding' - thank you very much Verity!

This book is an absolute classic....

You can even knit the corgis!

Here is the lovely Kate in a beautiful knitted wedding dress

And the rest of the family... Her Majesty is seen to be wiping a tear from her eye in this scene...brillant.

Even their faces really do look like the royal family don't you think?

Ooh, I can't wait for the Royal Wedding... all that time off work too hooray!

I would love to knit these... I was taught to knit when I was little by my lovely Nan, however the most complicated thing I have ever finished is a simple pink scarf, so I am not very confident with all the increasing/decreasing etc, although there is a section in this book which shows you how to do this so I plan to give it a good go and start with a Corgi.

On the subject of knitting - last year I posted about my trying to learn crochet project and I am pleased to report I have made a tiny bit of progress...

Here is the dog/fox creature that I really wanted to make from my magazine...

And here is my attempt at dog/fox creature so far...

(A head and a leg)

As you can see he is missing a few vital limbs, but he is slowly getting there I think... I am having a couple of issues with it though - firstly, I am finding quite hard to keep track of the pattern and remember how many single/2 double crochets I have done when I am either decreasing or increasing - so when I pick it up after not having done anything for a day or two, I can't remember for the life of me where I got up to, and I'm not sure how to tell just by looking at the stitches I have done so far... even mid crochet I loose count!

Also... when I made the dog/fox head, for the last  5 or 6 rows I had to decrease (dc2tog), on every stitch, however I am left with lots of big (ish) holes which are quite significant next to the other stitches which are much tighter... if anyone could offer any advice on this it would be very much appreciated!! :)

It's sooo nice that the weather is getting warmer! Spring is in the air for sure...

I just love the white pansies with the purple bit in the middle... (I'm so easily pleased)

My lavender bush is starting to show green shoots...

 And courgette seeds are starting to grow - these things grow at a rate of knots! (unlike

 my chilli plant seeds which were not worth a photo as the little blighters refuse to show themselves)

And here are my sweet peas... hopefully I get flowers on these this year as my sweet peas last year were flower-less! Not sure why...  second time lucky, eh.

And some Oregano which I thought would be quite useful for putting on pizzas and things...

I hope that you are all having lovely weekends, and Happy Mother's Day!

I treated my Mum to this beautiful handbag mirror from the brilliant Jenny Arnott, and she loved it (thanks Jenny!)

Ooh yes, there is still time to enter my Spring giveaway here if you would like too :)

Cheerio everyone...!

Sarah

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Spring Giveaway!

I know that it was quite a few weeks ago now that I mentioned a home made gorgeous giveaway... and finally I am very pleased to announce ... here are the details!

In celebration of the approaching warmer days and lighter evenings, (and now that I have recovered from losing an hour at the weekend which feels a bit like jet lag!) I have tried to gather items of a Springy/Eastery/colourful theme. 

The winner will receive....

A couple of handmade hanging felt decorations made by me...

These would look rather nice on an Easter tree made out of blossomy twigs in a jam jar I think...

(I have taken a pic of the back of the bunny to show he has a tail)

A copy of the new Style at Home mag...

Which also has some marvellous recipes (check out the chocolate cake! swoon)

Some seeds for the garden...

A packet of purple buttons (you can never have to many of these lets be honest hehe :))

And some pink nail varnish with a fruity strawberry scent....

All you need to do is leave a comment below, and if you become a follower too (or if you confirm in your comment that you are indeed already a lovely follower), I will enter you into the hat twice!

The winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday 16th April.

Have good weeks everyone!

Sarah

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Felt flowers and a blog award!

Hello everyone on this lovely day where we had sun and a blue sky (hooray!)

I am only half way through this little felt flower creation... but thought it would be nice to make a little collection of them in different colours and turn them into colourful hanging decorations for a Springy/Easter tree type thing. Feels a bit like making Christmas tree decorations but different :)

On the subject of colour, last weekend I popped into Cath Kidston to have a little nosey at the new bits and pieces on offer and saw this beautiful tapestry cushion (which is also featured in Cath's latest book Stitch!), and yes I know it is a bit pricey for a cushion, but I could not help but completely love it to bits, and it has now also made me want to indulge in a bit of cross stitch - only another thing to add to the million other things I want to do then!!

Pop over to the fabulous blog Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping for a chance to win 'Stitch!' in a giveaway...

Last week Lakota from Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping also awarded me with a Liebster blog award and I was very chuffed and honoured. Thank you very much Lakota!

It is very very difficult to chose only a handful of blogs to pass this on to from the multitude of amazing ones that I already follow...so I am awarding this to a few of the fabulous younger blogs that haven't been up and running that long, and definitely deserve a good read!

Hazel and Blue

Luella Handmade blog

A Homespun Year

My Nest of Yarn and Buttons

Gillyflower

I hope that you are having good weekends

Sarah

x

Gorgeous green dress has arrived!

Hello everyone...

I was very excited to pick up my giveaway parcel from the lovely and very talented Dee from dee dee's Vintage Retro Delights this morning.

I am now the proud owner of a beautiful one of a kind green dress made from vintage fabric, sewn by Dee herself.

Thank you so much Dee it is gorgeous!! And thank you for the fairy cake card too...

The material has a lovely sparkley look to it which is quite subtle, and it is one of those dresses that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion I think... it has really inspired me to have a go at dressmaking myself and attempt to use one of the patterns that have been sitting unused on my shelf for a good few months/years!

Do take a look at Dee's blog it is full of vintage and sewing delights...

We went to Winchester for the day yesterday (only an hour from London) as we had heard very nice things about it and we wanted to celebrate the fact that we had a long weekend...

Here are some of the photos I took.. I think living in London makes you extremely appreciative of greenery/flowers/ducks/country pubs etc.

By the cathedral...

Lone duck...

Not sure if this is a swan as he looks a bit brown...

Lovely pub, they do yummy sandwiches and very nice white wine...

River next to another fab pub with an outdoor area (the sun came out too, wonderful!)

LOVE these tudor buildings...

Bought some Winchester cheese from a local producer at the Farmers Market...

This morning I had to buy a curtain rail from Argos to replace the broken one in our spare room... so to make the outing much more interesting I popped into my fave local haberdashery shop on the way...

Here are some pics of the fabric I bought..

Some colourful corduroy....

Cheerful 60's style print...

Vintage chintzy flowers printed on cotton...

Not sure what they will be used for yet but will add to my little collection..

I'm a bit worried that I might have a fabric addiction!

Enjoy the rest of your day everyone!

Sarah

x