A song, a journey and some fabric!

To the tune of For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.

I met a girl called Jo

Who told me what she knew

About a fabric gold mine

About a fabric gold mine

About a fabric gooooold miiiiiiiiine

In a place called Oswestry.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo ...

I knew I had to go

A long way off I know

But I knew of a lovely cafe

I knew of a lovely cafe

I knew of a lovely caaaaaaaaaaaaafeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Where I ate and fed the ducks.

Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen ...

I carried on my way

On such a lovely day

I asked for lots of directions

I asked for lots of directions

I asked for lots of direeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeections

To get me to my shop.

Whispers in awe - Textile Express  

I walked into a dream

Bulging at the seams

With every kind of fabric

With every kind of fabric

With every kind of faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabriiiiiiiiiiic

All at a bargain price.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd ...

I went from room to room

The choices made me swoon

With linen, silk and cotton

Corduroy and chambray

Lace and velvet and poooopliiiiiiiiiiin

I had to make a choice.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo ...

I didn't know where to start

So decided to follow my heart

I chose some jazzy cotton

And then some floral poplin

With lots of lovely lineeeeeeeeeeeen

And a couple of trimmimgs too!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooow ...

My purse is nice and light

But what a lovely sight

I'm not sure what to do with it

I'm not sure what to do with it

I'm not sure what to do with iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

Any suggestions please!

And as a final thank you for the tip off

For Jo's a jolly good fellow

For Jo's a jolly good fellow

For Jo's a jolly good fellooooooooooooooow

Pop over and say hello!

Find Jo over here.

(Apologies for the dire use of rhyme)

Jane

xxx

Much Ado About Bloggers ...

... or as Mike would have me put 'blogging' as it is more akin to the original 'nothing' of the title.

This is the sort of conversation we were having at 5am. I couldn't get back to sleep and I was wondering how I could write about our lovely bloggy meet up that we had on Saturday in Stratford upon Avon - home of the great Bard himself. Amy and Jo have already written about it very eloquently so I was trying to think of a different angle. I thought about using the magic of song - but being a blog of the written word this proved tricky. So the Shakespeare link was broached. By 5.10am I was chuckling so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Looking back it must have been pure hysteria as the suggestions were at best mildly amusing, and at worst - not amusing at all. When Mike realised there had been ten of us he suggested The Tenpests. Whilst I sunk the lowest with Macblog.

So.

We met and drank tea and visited Sew Me Something and nattered ten to the dozen and wandered through the park where there was wonderful music then travelled back to the 1940s and I ate some comical eggs and carried on nattering and took lots of photographs and received some wonderful gifts and had lots of hugs and then had to go home.

It was the best!

Sadly my camera decided to play up and wouldn't allow me to take more than a few pics but I hope they will give you a flavour.

And here we are!

Back row:

Mel from Mel Makes

Nicky from Sunshine Reflections

Sarah from Sarah's Pigeonhole

Amy from Love Made My Home

Front row:

Jo from Three Stories High

Gilly from Gilly Makes

Mel from Mellie Moo Crochet

Mel from The Patchwork Robin

And of course we can't forget our very lovely Ashley from Lazy Daisy Jones who joined us later and even brought along her pin up man!

Thanks so much to Gilly for organising such a warm and wonderful day.

And to the rest of you:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jane 

xxx

Something to look forward to!

Thank you.

And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

The comments that you left on my last post were so thoughtful, so kind and so warm. They have helped both myself and the whole family come to terms with a sad moment.

But I don't want to dwell too much more here.

There is indeed something to look forward to!

Some time ago I met up with some lovely bloggers over at Shugborough. Before we left there was talk of getting together again. Gilly from gilly makes suggested Stratford as a meeting place as that's not only her stomping ground but also the home of the fantastic Sew Me Something (oh and of course an old writer called Bill). 

What could be better? 

After a recent flurry of emails a date was set and we oh so hope that some of you will be able to join us. Gilly has posted all the details over here - take a look! I know some of you might feel a bit shy about meeting up but I can assure you we will all be in the same boat.

So check your diaries and get in touch - either over here or at Gilly's.

Look forward to meeting you!

Jane

xxx

Blessed

Such a busy week but, after the terribly sad news about Vanessa Cabban, I'm lucky to realise that it has also been a blessed one. With that in mind I'm going to limit this post to as few words as possible.

We have enjoyed...

wonderful food

Wintry weather

Colour and cheer

And surprise gifts!

But most of all the warmth of family and friends

At a time that can be - and has been - so difficult for some I feel truly blessed. 

And out in the garden, under all the dead leaves and frosted ground, there are new things emerging. 

And with them comes hope.

I hope that wherever you are - however big or small they may be - you all have some blessings to count.

Jane

xxx

Curtailed greetings

Curtailed on account that some time this afternoon was set aside for a post - albeit a short one - about our preparations for the big day. Then in true festive spirit some old friends dropped by. Then in even truer festive spirit out came the Christmas sherry and to be honest - well - hic - best laid plans .....

Here's hoping that you will all find a little peace and joy this Christmas.

See you on the other side.

Jane

xxx

Shhhhh!

I've been busy.

Organising squirrels.

Secret squirrels. 

Which means I can't show you this

or this

And there's no way I can divulge these little treats

No way Jose.

What I can show you however is this

?

A tray of onions.

After paying £2 for four teeny tiny caramelised onions at the weekend I thought I'd have a go at making my own. The recipe is easy. Just empty bag of onions and bung in to a hot oven. They're smelling pretty tasty.

What could possibly go wrong?

!

Wish me luck.

And shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Jane

xxx 

Up and Down at the Weekend

No, no not me - if anything I was fairly up both days. But, my dear friends, the place that has stolen the majority of my daylight hours over the last week or two.

Oh yes. It's time to talk allotment. 

Again.

After more or less completing our new fancy nancy shed it was time to dismantle the old one.

Mr K was at his happiest wielding a mallet.

And soon the base was clear and ready for our greenhouse.

Sadly the marker pen that Mr K had used to label the order of the base was not waterproof so friends were called upon to ponder the puzzle.

And marvel at the old nest of a snail loving mouse.

By the evening - or in this case about four o'clock - the frame was up and lack of light forced us home.

The sunshine that we had been promised for Sunday failed to appear but we carried on with our hair raising, nerve racking insertion of greenhouse glass regardless.

Perhaps my little homilies such as 'you live by the greenhouse, you die by the greenhouse' would have been best kept under wraps, but trying to manoeuvre slippy glass to head height did smack of a scene from  'Final Destination'.

Limbs intact we persevered.

Pausing only to take a  shot across the other rooftops before the last pane went in.

Then down went a path.

And up came a parsnip from a fellow allotmenteer!

A brief period of contemplation for Mr K before the best 'up' of all.

After a quick phone around we managed to gather a few chums together to watch the old shed going up in flames.

We watched and chatted and laughed and generally shared that wonderful feeling that comes with sitting around a bonfire with friends.

From the new shed window the scene looked almost Dickensian.

And so the flames went down and home we went. A busy weekend. Lots of playing around with soil, wood and hammers. But that night I went to bed happy.

If slightly singed!

Jane

xxx

P.S. I promise that next time I will include some pretty pictures . The secret squirrels are quite busy around these parts at the moment so it's difficult to share, but things are certainly afoot!