Taking a break

I'm struggling with Life a bit at the moment so I'm going to take a break from blogging for a few weeks until I get my head back together.

I would just like to say Thank you to all my Christmas Swap partners, your amazing and I'm sorry if your parcels from me fell short in any way but they were made and sent with love.

So I will wish you all a Happy christmas and a fantastic New Year and i will hopefully see you all again then.

Gillx

Scavenger Hunt November

Here's my photo scavenger hunt photos from November.

  A self portrait, first time I have used my timer successfully.

Something that lights up, found in Anglesey Abbey .

 My comfort food, Tomato soup, Heinz of course.

 Something you have made.

My new Christmas cushion.

 A beautiful but poignant memorial.

 A poppy.

 on one of our local war graves.

Polka Dots on my cake tin.

 Something Purple

Purple sprouting.

Warmth.. our first fire of the Winter.

Silhouette  embroidered on a hand towel.

Staircase..in my local vintage shop.

Lucky charm  my Gran gave me this St Christopher when I was small.

Heres to Decembers

Gillxx

Swaps and Monthly Makes

I received my first Christmas swap this week. It was the Christmas decoration Swap organised by the wonderful LaaLaa and my parcel came from Cupcakejojo and Wow what a parcel.

So many parcels all beautifully wrapped.

I love this idea.

I ended up with a hamper full of gifts seen here--minus a bar of chocolate 

well I needed nourishment have way through.

One of her lovely corsages has found a home on my best coat and looks great.

This star is going to look fab in my kitchen at Christmas, just the look I want.

I can't send my parcel at the moment as Jo is moving, so I just want to say Thank you so much for everything it is fantastic and good luck with the move.

I have done a lot of crafting in the last few days but as most of them are for swaps  I can't show you.

What I can show you are a couple of stockings I have made ready to be filled as Christmas presents.

They were both made using bits from linens that were either too badly marked or damaged to sell.

I'm really pleased with the results and have put them onto Flickr as my Monthly makes.

I hope the friends who get them for Christmas think the same.

Hope you all had a great weekend and will speak again soon.

A New Venture

I can't believe it's Thanks giving already,

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

 this time last year I was in San Francisco on the last leg of my holiday of a lifetime.

This was my view from the front of a cable car.

So much has happened in the last year but there is one thing that I have been meaning to tell you all about for some time and now seems like a good time.

A few months ago I told you all about an auction buy here. It was done on a whim and afterwards

Lynn and I discussed what we were going to do with all this beautiful linen.

well the answer is we started Lavender Linen and Lace.You've been wondering what that button on the side bar was, well now you know.

We have even registered the domain name lavenderlinenandlace,co,uk  and 

Since our initial lot we have added quite a lot of other auction lots as well as sourcing things from elsewhere.

We have had a couple of personal tragedies and setbacks along the way.

But

We have opened an Etsy shop where we have sold a few things and my daughters boyfriend Nick 

( Hi Nick) 

has set up a web site of sorts which I'm struggling to get my head around at the moment I must admit.

I have given Lynn some lessons and she has started up her own blog called…yes you guessed it, lavenderlinenandlace. she would be delighted if you popped over to say hello.

This, for both of us, was a bit of fun and an excuse to go to the auctions and charity shops, we don't expected to make anything out of it, although occasionally Lynn has us taking over the world.

But we appear to be covering our costs.

Some of the linen is not in a good enough state to sell as it is frayed or stained

but has some lovely embroidery on it.

Watch this space for an idea I have for that.

The latest exciting news though is that 

these shelves will soon have some of our stock for sale on them.

As the great little tea rooms in Heydon Village in Norfolk are going to display some of things

  

So if "you want that look of faded elegance have a look at our vintage linens"

What do think? 

Anyway wish us luck.

Gillx

Treasure trove

My Mother-in - law has had a bit of a clear out and brought me a few bits and pieces she had tucked away.

I love it when she does this. 

 I'm handed a plastic bag and I feel like a kid diving in to see what I've got.

I always get her old magazines.

Then there was a couple of new zips along with some lovely old lace which had a label on from Freebody and Debenhams.

I think these are great, do they still make this sort of thing?

But this is the star of the show.  M-I-L apparently did an evening class in the early 70's where she designed the pattern herself but never actually finished it.

I will have to get one of books out to look up how to do some of the stitches but I think is Fab. 

talking of books, I thought that as I had all those patchwork templates that I needed a book to show me how to do it.

Well that's the excuse I used.

So off to finish my christmas swaps.

Have a great weekend.

Gillxx

Good for the Soul.

I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself over the last couple of weeks. 

My little one has packed her bags and gone off to the other side of the world to work for the winter and I miss her already. She is in Hong Kong as we speak and will be in Sydney at the weekend. This isn't the first time she has been away and she's not the first one of  my kids to travel, in fact they have all done it.  I really admire her for doing what she wants to do and hope she has a great time but I am finding it hard this time. 

 Of course  my son is moving to Wales on promotion hasn't helped.

I am so proud of what he has achieved at such a young age and am delighted for him but from a personal perspective I am devastated as it's a long way from Norfolk to Wales.

So I now have son in the Gower, Eldest daughter in Exeter and little one in Australia.

Then to top it off---

I came down with virus after the wedding which has left me with a real pest of a cough. 

So the last couple of days the dogs have had some long walks which I always find is good for the soul.

Forget Where's Wally,Where's Mack? Theres a Border Terrier in there somewhere

It's no wonder I keep losing him.

 Our local woods are lovely this time of year.

Then yesterday Mr T and I went to the beach.

Tilly loves the sea, well she is a Lab, it comes second only to food.

 

Unfortunately this beach is one that is eroding 

But is still very beautiful in it's own way.

So having put things into perspective, Mr T and I are on our own for the first time in 27 years ( is that a good thing ?), Little one will be back in March, eldest daughter is home for Christmas and I hear the Gower is a fabulous place so a nice place for a cheap holiday.

Have a great weekend.

Gillxx

Kitchen Update

This is my old kitchen that was ripped out 3 weeks ago 

And when it looked like this I really thought I'd done the wrong thing

and couldn't see that it would ever look good.

But , after a few mishaps,now everything is in

New floor, new cooker

even the bins look good hidden in a cupboard.

So now it's my turn to get the rest done.

These are my old kitchen chairs.

 

and here they are now after a makeover.

I know the decorating will take a little while but I'm thrilled with how it looks so far.

Gillx