Take Three Thursday

Linking up with Patio Postcards for a photography meme.  The idea is to take 3 photographs that are linked in some way.  Here's 3 I took on my dog walk yesterday up to Highdown Hill.  I love walking along paths through trees in the Spring with the dappled sunlight and bright fresh greens

Memorandum Monday–Monday 10th October

In an effort to get back to blogging, I am joining in with Sian’s Memorandum Monday.

Mine was a slow weekend.  It started off not with Boot Camp at the gym (as is usual on a Saturday morning), but queueing up at the doctors for my annual flu jab.  So of course, as the weekend wore on, my arm began to get that heavy feeling you get afterwards.  If that’s the worse I get then I am thankful.  A small price to pay for not getting a nasty bout of flu this winter.

There was a short walk to the post office to post some sales from my Etsy shop, followed by our first visit to the new Costa coffee shop in our local parade of shops.  The unanimous verdict is that it is very good!  We had a lovely long facebook call with daughter Lucy, who is working in Connecticut, USA for a few weeks.  She has been helping out at a local fair, ‘seeing the real USA, with tractor pulling and pumpkin competitions’!  They got her directing the traffic!  Not sure that was a good idea seeing as they drive on the other side of the road!

Sunday saw me sewing up a storm!  But, first a dog walk and coffee.

We have put our patio table and chairs  away for the winter, so it’s Sunday morning coffee in the summer house now.

I made some bunting from vintage fabrics to sell on my Etsy shop, and continued with my dress.

I then cut out a skirt with this lovely autumnal fabric.

 

 

 

And then of course, it was a Strictly sort of weekend!  We are loving Strictly Come Dancing, this season.  Some great dancers!

Storm Barney

It seems that we in the UK are naming our winter storms just like they do hurricaines and cyclones/typhoons around the rest of the world.  This despite the fact that they are no where near as forceful!  Anyway, we had storm Abigail (A-BIG-GAIL LOL!) last week and then Storm Barney rolled in from the Atlantic last night!  We had winds of 50+ mph here, not too bad where we live. The only damage was a bit of roofing felt blown off the shed roof. The news has just told me that the midlands have had some disruption, so hope you are Ok where you live.

But, we know about Storm Barney here!

This little pup has stormed into our lives like a whirlwind!  He is nearly 8 months old now and very teenage!  You can almost see the hormones racing around his body!!  The puppy training books tell us to be consistent and keep on top of his behaviour.  We’re trying – but it’s hard work!

As I sit here typing he is yapping at me.  We have been for a walk and play in the park with the other dogs, he should be SETTLING down now.

Oh the mud!  He has furry paws that trail mud through into my nice new kitchen!  When I try to clean the floor, he chases the mop around, and if I leave him outside, he yaps and jumps up at the back door.  (I hope the neighbours can’t hear me as I shout like a mad woman at him to ‘LEAVE IT’.)

We are trying hard to get him to walk to HEEL.  But being an inquisitive little pup, he is distracted by other dogs, people walking towards us, people getting in and out of cars, birds, squirrels, leaves blowing, shadows and sometimes it’s just a feeling!

He jumps up to the worktops and people, despite us us telling him OFF every time!  I have muddy paw prints on the doors and worktops! Luckily they wipe off easily.

BUT, he did come back to us when we blew the whistle.  We have been training him to a dog whistle, and this was the first proper RECALL.

Lucy and I gave him a bath the other night which went very well.  He looked all lovely and white and fluffy again. 

He is a very friendly little dog, always wanting to say hello, and will sit and be stroked or brushed for a long time.

I wouldn’t be without my Storm Barney!

Barney at 6 months

Actually he is nearly 7 months old as I write this, but these pictures were taken when he was 6 months old. 

Barney loves ‘helping’ with the gardening.  Here we are trying to rearrange the ‘rockery’ ready for planting.  It looks like we’ve pinned Barney down with the fork, but I promise, no tails were hurt during this shoot!  Barney is quite good at the ‘stay’ command now, as evidenced here.  He loves digging holes, as evidenced all over my garden and lawn, and if I am not careful he empties my pots all over the patio, trashing the plants in them.

 

Barney loves to play with his toys, and sometimes things he thinks are his toys!  Here he has his chicken which has sadly lost it’s squeak now it has a hole in it!  Anything squeaky is a great favourite, but so are shoes, slippers and socks –he loves to pinch a sock (clean or dirty) from the washing basket and run round the garden with it!

He is not so keen on having his paws wiped after a walk.  I had forgotten how muddy your house gets with a puppy/dog!  Barney has particularly furry paws that mud sticks to, only to let go all over my kitchen floor!  Walking on the lead is getting easier, although he is still not brilliant.  He loves to go to the local park and play with the other dogs – his favourite is a lurcher cross called Hairy McClary (Hairy for short!)  We are coming to the end of our second session of puppy training classes.  Barney is learning to walk to heel, stay, leave, to name but a few commands.

He is a very cuddly dog and loves to be stroked!  He is great fun, but hard work.  I keep saying I’m never having another puppy!  But he is so cute, I’ll forgive him almost anything!

1969 dress

Since starting to collect and sell vintage dress patterns on Etsy, I have been wanting to make one of them.  I choose Simplicity 8381, a 1969 shift dress with princess seams and pockets on the front.

The pattern istself was not in great condition, but still usable.  Laura at More Sewing helped me with the fitting.  The pattern is a size 16 (38inch bust).  Adjustments included taking an inch or so off the bust and adding onto the hips.  If you look n the pictures below, I cut the lining where the pins are.  Just shows how we have changed shape over the years!

Here’s the invisible zip going in, and a close up of the fabric.  It is a crepe like material and has a lovely drape.  It was easy to sew with and pressed nicely too.  The fabric was in a big bag of scraps given to my friend by Maryamm at Mazelino Designs, a wedding dress designer and sewing school.   I lined it with white polyester to give it that 1960s ‘rustle’ as I swish around!

I am really pleased with the fit of the dress!  I love the princess seam detail and the groovy pockets!  I found some vintage buttons to finish off the pockets.  If I made it again I think I would make the neckline a little bigger, it’s just a little high for my taste and comfort.

And a bonus!  A photobombing puppy!

My Garden in July and update on adventures

Oh gosh!  It is rather a long time since I last blogged!  I have been busy with my 2 adventures: puppy and Etsy shop.  I’ve set up a sewing blog to go side by side with my Etsy shop.  It’s here if you want to pop over and have a look.  I’m really pleased with the blog header, but not so pleased with the photos in the blog posts!  I need to get husband to take some better ones.  All I need now is some readers, so I have been avidly commenting on sewing blogs.  If you are interested, there are some great blogs in the side bar.

Anyway, my garden is looking fabulous this year after replanting the south facing border last year:

I’ve managed to do a fair bit of gardening this Summer, even though I generally have a little helper:

 

He is pretty good at ‘helping’ with the housework too!  Here is is having just jumped onto the sofa!

We are taking him out for short walks now and he is very friendly with people and other dogs.  Puppy training classes start tonight, wish us luck!

Sewing wise, I am making a dress from one of my Vintage patterns, a 1969 shift dress.  I’ll show you when it’s finished. 

I am slowly taking photos for Rinda’s scavenger hunt, need to get a move on with this! 

Meet Barney!

We collected our puppy on Sunday.  We’ve called him Barney.  Here’s a couple of cute photos:

He is very cute!  But we’re beginning to see his feisty character!  He is very playful, but wants to bite us and our clothes all the time.  We’re getting good at distracting him.