Clik here to view.
Mme de Pompadour aka My New Dressmaking Friend
One of my favourite paintings of all time is the portrait painted by François Boucher of Mme de Pompadour in 1759. Do you know it? It hangs in The Wallace Collection in London and I've loved it ever...
View ArticleClik here to view.
England In May
In this article, in The Daily Telegraph, earlier this month, about getting in training for RideLondon, Boris Johnson wrote that "There is nowhere more beautiful than England in May" with the tulips out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Blue Sky Bunting
Thank you all so much for your kind and encouraging comments on my last post - I will stop worrying about posting snapshots of the landscape here from time to time!On to other matters - bunting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gipsy Skirt
My Gipsy Skirt, which has been in various stages of production over the last month or so, has reached completion and she's a joy! She took a lot of sewing and quite a lot of fabric but she's worth...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Apron Love and Hooky Tulips
I don't know whether anyone else has been captivated by the front cover of June's "Country Living" but I am afraid I took one look and fell in love with the idea of sitting in a flowery, sunny garden...
View ArticleClik here to view.
La Vie En Rose
I always associate June with the colour pink. I instinctively notice it around me or deliberately gravitate to it at this time of year.Pink wild roses in the hedgerows...Deep pink, English...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Granny Square Book Cover & Pencil Scribblings
I am just coming to the end of the notebook I carry around with my crochet and sewing projects and will shortly need to start a new one. This notebook has become disproportionately valuable to me and I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sun-Seeking
June has mostly been a miserably grey and damp month here in the UK and high hopes of sunshine and summery living seem to have had to move to the back-burner. I am not sure whether this summer is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Summerberry Yarn Bag
I have been trying to finish off one or two projects that have been lurking in the long grass, so to speak, and one of them is this bag which I almost completed last summer but which failed to reach...
View ArticleClik here to view.
First Days Of The Holidays
The first days of the school holidays have a magic all their own. Even though I am working and not on holiday myself, the shift in routine that the arrival of the school summer holidays brings, is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Weather For A Crochet Sun-hat
When summer comes properly in the UK it surely is the business. Perhaps this is why we get so grumbly when it doesn't. These last two weeks have seen the kind of sunshine-filled hours of which the best...
View ArticleClik here to view.
La Féerie Provençale
"Alors commença la féerie et je sentis naître un amour qui devait durer toute ma vie." "And so the enchantment began and I felt a love was born that was to last my whole life." So Marcel Pagnol wrote...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Croquets à la Lavande
When I come back from holiday I always want to cook things that evoke where I've been. Sometimes rather more successfully than others, I have to admit! This time I came home from Provence armed with a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Souvenirs Recycling Style (With Crochet Of Course!)
As already indicated in these pages, I am susceptible to packaging. Shops that sell things in old-fashioned, paper bags or even better, shops which give away those nice, unbleached calico bags, get my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Preserving The Last Days Of The Holidays
The last days of the summer holidays have a wistful feel to them. None of the same magic that the first days of the holidays have, when weeks of delicious freedom, either one's own or, vicariously,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hedgerow Hooking and Cooking (But No Dyeing)
This is the time of year when I realise all the things that I have not managed to do this year and, now that it's September, I probably won't get round to doing. In the past, I used to find this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Early Autumn Satisfactions
The weather has changed abruptly here in the UK. Last week it was still summer. Now it isn't. It's not fully-fledged autumn but there's been a definite shift of gear. Some years, summer drifts lazily...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sea-Ripple Ahoy!
My sea-ripple blanket has cast its anchor and is happily afloat!It has taken a long time to complete - over a year. In the meantime there have been fits and starts in the making of it but finally it's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cinderella Slippers (and Pumpkins)
Of course we all know that Cinderella's prized slipper was made out of glass, not wool. Otherwise when the Ugly Sisters tried to fit their feet into said slipper, when it did the rounds after The Ball,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Time, Mrs T!"
Autumn's bell has been calling "time" on me. Or more accurately it's been calling "time" on some of my unfinished hooky projects. You know, those lovely summery projects that bud on a quiet, sunny...
View Article