Sew a Day February

 

It has been a very cold and dreary month.  I’ve liked nothing better than sitting on my sofa with steaming hot mug of coffee hand stitching my quilt.  I’ve watched a little bit too much daytime tv!  (My favourite is ‘Homes Under the Hammer’, and last week, I discovered some old ‘Time Team’ programmes on in the afternoons!)  I have spent many happy hours here just sewing.  Hand sewing is very therapeutic and calming.  I’ll miss it when it is all finished!

Pleased to say that I only missed one day of my SAD.  I have very nearly finished quilting, and will show it again when the binding has been added.

And here’s a couple more photos from the odd nice day in February, when the sun did shine:

Simply a Moment–In my Garden

 

It is mid February and the light is getting stronger.  The dark dismal days of deep winter are giving way slowly to brighter warmer days.  It feels like I have come out of hibernation.  Spring is just round the corner.

My garden is very wet and soggy after prolonged winter rain and snow, but it feels like the right time to be out here cutting down and generally tidying up.  I have on my bright wellies (A Christmas present from Mum), and an old fleecy jacket.  It doesn’t feel cold out here.  I’ve collected my bright green bin, secateurs and small fork from the greenhouse, and wearing my new pink gardening gloves, am busy cutting down overgrown plants and pulling off old dead leaves.  The soil is deep dark brown and I detect a few small bulbs poking through.  Even though it has been so cold the weeds have still grown!  My back twinges as I struggle to pull out a bramble that has taken root both ends.

There is a little robin who flits about and gets really quite close to me.  I stay still and quiet and watch him hopping about looking for grubs and worms.  Hey, Mr Robin!  Here’s a big juicy worm, right here! There are lots of other birds singing in the trees.

Merlin comes up and steals a stick from my bin.  He runs off down the garden to chew it.  He notices that the dogs are out next door so goes to the fence to sniff them.

My bin is full up now, time to go and empty it!

 

I am linking up with Alexa’s blog for Simply A Moment.

Some crafting

As well as my sewing, I have been scrapbooking!  I joined a team on UKScrappers some months back, and have finally got myself in gear to do a Weekly challenge or two!

Here’s the last week of January challenge.  The challenge called for a holiday picture, with someone eating, using red, and lots of journaling.  This is a photo of me and Nicholas at one of our favourite ‘stopping-off’ places when going on holiday up north.  We were on our way to Yorkshire in early summer 1990.  I used what was left from a Basic Grey page kit, the collection is Oxford.

And here’s February week 1.  This challenge called for a picture of people who are important to you, a monogram, and journaling about what the person means to you. Here’s my Lo of Maurice’s nephew Simon and his wife Alys.  I used a starting point from Shimelle (thanks Alison, I saw it on your blog).  This paper is from a lovely collection called Victoria Gardens by Echo Park.

 

These 2 pages form part of our holiday to Scotland in Autumn 1990 (must have been a good year!) I used Bo Bunny Autumn papers.  I love the colours, but do find these highly patterned papers difficult to use!  I am really enjoying going back over old holidays, and spent a while looking places up on the internet, like the Auld Kirk in Alloway, Ayr.  It features in the poem Tam O’Shanter by Robert Burns, a famous Scottish poet.

I’ve spent this morning making a few cards.  Here’s a card for my niece who gave birth to a little girl last week and 2 simple birthday cards.

Some good news - Nicholas passed his driving test yesterday!

Finally, I thought it would be nice to have cut flowers from the garden every day.  Here are some double snowdrops.  I didn’t have a vase small enough so floated the flower heads in a bowl of water.  I love the green stripes!