Boats

For about 18 months now I have been sewing like fury every week to keep my stall nicely filled and although I love sewing it was becoming clear that it was time to try something new. On my stall there are a number of things that sell well. They aren't expensive things but they just seem to be very popular and though I am well aware that I'm never going to get rich from being at the market, the small amount of extra cash is quite useful so I just keep on making them. The problem is, making the same things over and over and over and over and over ..... well you get the picture and quite frankly, I knew that if I had to make one more lavender chick or and another catnip mouse I would go mad. 

I had seen some cute little wooden boats in a very quirky little shop on my trip to Sheffield recently and I made sure that I had a really good snoop, to see how they were made. They looked simple enough and last week I decided that they were something I wanted to have a go at making. Now I don't like to copy things that I see in shops or at craft markets, I think that is kind of a dishonest, I much prefer to take the basic idea and make them my way, which is what I did with the little boats

Cue the power tools ...... a jigsaw, a drill and a sander  ........ great fun if slightly scary and after a disastrous start and a box full of wonky bits of wood, which will come in handy for lighting the fire later in the year, I finally managed to create something I am quite happy with. Actually ...... I love them. I couldn't stop making them. I made seven of them and then had to try and find a way to display them on my stall. A painted wooden crate and the addition of a little shelf that I made myself and they were ready to go off to the market. 

Checking my Fences and Yummy Soup.

It's been a grey day here in Cornwall. I don't mind so much because it's not raining and my field is at last starting to resemble a field again, rather than a mud bath. It's been quite mild too so it was a perfect time to go and have a good look at the damage the recent bad weather has caused to the fencing in my field. It's actually quite bad. I have lost about 45 foot of fencing. It just got washed away along with the riverbank itself, of which I would say there is about foot all the way down the edge of the field that has been eroded by the pounding of the river over a prolonged period of time.

You can see part of the eroded soil here.

It will take a few days to fix and about 20 fencing poles and some fencing wire which I will have to nip to my local farm shop to pick up and to be honest, I'm loathe to even start it just yet because I have a feeling that before the Winter is through there are likely to be more storms. So for now, I will have to be satisfied with picking up all the rubbish and debris that has accumulated along the fence line and bagging up all the wet leaves into black bags because when they rot down they make great compost. I'm all for free compost.

Flattened Fencing

After checking out the field, I came back inside and made one of my favourite soups, Potato and Watercress. It's so easy but it's totally delicious. 

Potato and Watercress Soup.

3 or 4 large-ish potatoes

A bag of watercress

2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes

Milk and water

Salt

Chop the potatoes into small cubes and put in a pan with a knob of butter and stir them around a bit.

Wash the watercress and add it to the pan.

Add half and half hot water and milk to cover the potatoes and watercress, or if you like you can just use milk but I'm not keen on milk so I use half and half. It makes quite a big pan full but if you don't eat it all at once you can pop it in the fridge and eat it the next day. 

Add 2 stock cubes. I use chicken stock cubes because I don't like celery and I have yet to find a vegetable stock cube that doesn't have it in.

Then all you have to do is simmer until the potatoes are soft, blitz in a blender and season to taste.  If it gets a bit low on stock during cooking, just add a bit more milk until it's the thickness you like your soup.

After lunch, I sat down and made two lavender filled chicks for a friend of mine. I call them Doris and Boris and they will be winging their way to Cheshire first thing Monday Morning :-)

Catnip Cat Toys and Lavender Hearts

A few weeks ago, my daughter Megan asked me to make some things for her to sell at her local craft fair, so, I took inspiration from my eight cats and sat down and made them some cat toys.  My cats love catnip and there is nothing more hilarious than a herd of crazoid cats charging around the house in catnip heaven (is that what a whole bunch of cats is called I wonder?) It drives them crazy ..... so with this in mind, I decided I would make some catnip toys for them. The only problem was that I didn't actually have any catnip because it hadn't arrived, so technically, they were just cat toys. My cat, who is actually named Mouse, very kindly obliged and modelled my new creations for me and the toys were a great hit even without then catnip :-)

Here's a bit of trivia ...... a group of cats is not a herd it's either a Clowder or a Glaring ......... who knew :-) 

I also decided to make some lovely lavender hearts for her to sell along with the cat toys. I have to confess that my first instinct was to rush out and buy some gorgeous fabric and luscious trimmings to make the hearts, however, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my ethos is now, as far as possible,  “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without”, which apparently was a New England proverb and the mantra of the women of The Great Depression in 1930's America. I had previously ordered a kilo of lavender from the internet, and when it arrived, the package was HUGE! I had no idea how big a kilo of lavender would be but lets put it this way, I could be making lavender hearts for the next 10 years and I still wouldn't have to buy any more lavender :-)

I have to confess to being a bit of a hoarder and I have a particular weakness for beautiful fabrics and trimmings, but, despite my longing to hop in Chuck (my trusty old truck) and dash off to my fabulous local craft shop, Craft Box, in Liskeard, I went for a rummage in my spare bedroom to see what I could find. I have to say I feel very proud of myself, I admit that I bought some gorgeous mini bobble trim to finish off the hearts and some thin ribbon for the hanging loops because I couldn't find anything in my secret craft stash but on the whole, everything used to make the hearts I already had. I even recycled a fantastic Pip Studios cushion cover that my daughter Katie brought back from a trip to Germany a couple of years ago and that our dog Indie managed to put a hole in when he was a puppy. I was very proud of myself for not succumbing to the temptations of the craft shop and I really love the hearts. 

Fairy House

I have been admiring the beautiful Fairy Houses on the gorgeous Used-to-Bees  blog and I really wanted to have a go at making one. I ordered some felt from eBay (super-fast delivery, combined postage and loads of lovely colours) and when it arrived today I couldn't wait to get started having a go at making one. I followed the pattern link on the blog but my first one turned out rather squished and I had problems with putting the decorations on, so this is attempt number two. I have to say I love it. I filled it with stuffing and dried lavender, so it smells nice as well as being cute. 

I'm thinking now that I have enjoyed the hand embroidery so much that I might have a go at making a picture. Maybe with little houses with wonky doors and windows with shutters. Maybe some trees. I'm feeling very creative at the moment, it's nice to feel creative again, it's been a while. To start with, I was a bit rusty on embroidery stitches but I found this fabulous site to brush up on the basics. The main problem is, I got rid of most of my craft equipment several years ago so now I have to start again building up a new stash. For example, the original houses have very cute fluted roofs, and they're cut with some amazing scalloped fabric shears to give the fabulous scalloped edge which, sadly, I no longer have. I still think mine looks quite nice for a first attempt though.