But will it fit??

To be honest, in my mind most things come before housework ~ alphabetically or not 😉

You may recall me mentioning that my Mum had asked if I could make a cover for her favourite (and, by all accounts, very useful) pouffe ~ well, here is the finished article.  I used odds and ends that I hadn't earmarked for other projects, in colours that she requested, mostly Stylecraft Special DK and Scheepjes Colour Crafter which is also double-knit.  They are two of my favourite yarns; they are both soft and durable, and wash really well.  The dark pink is Robin double-knit (although for some reason it seems to work up more thickly than the other yarns) that I've had for a very long time.  It doesn't feel as nice as the Stylecraft and Scheepjes but is fine in a project like this, plus it's an ideal way to use it up. 

The cover looks a bit odd being demonstrated pulled over a wastebasket but it was the closest thing I had to the size of Mum's pouffe 😄  Hopefully my Dad will send me a photo in due course!  

The pattern I used was version two of the Circular Stool Covers from Granny Squares by Susan Pinner.  I had to add a few more rounds to get the size I needed, then I just continued without increasing to make the sides.  Fingers crossed that the thing fits 😮

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)

Little words of wisdom

 

It's an ill wind...

...but it did us some good!  The bad weather I mentioned in my previous post turned out to be a tad unfortunate for our neighbour ~ well, to be more precise, for one of her willow trees actually.  The gales split one of the branches but she was able to deal with it herself.

The upshot of the poor tree's misfortune is that we now have the wood in our log-store, and hopefully it will be well seasoned by the time autumn/winter 2021 comes along. 

I managed to get the blackcurrant cuttings moved into the fruit cage before the recent spell of bad weather.  I hummed and hawed over whether to plant them out or leave them in their pots over winter, but in the end decided they would be better off planted out.  I'm pretty sure that I've planted them way too close together, but my reasoning was that as our garden is rather exposed they might be better closer together.  I shall see how it goes and if they start to look unhappy then I will thin them out.

The two redcurrant cuttings are still in their pots, tucked between the two compost-bins in the back garden, along with an additional blackcurrant.  The redcurrants will go in with the three fruit trees when they arrive.  As for the lonesome blackcurrant, I may well plant it in the ornamental side of the front garden for our feathered friends to munch on 😊 

Whilst the fruit trees haven't arrived yet, the bare-root strawberry plants have so they went straight into their new raised bed home.  They are a variety called Fenella which I ordered from Pomona Fruits back at the end of July.  I do hope they do well ~ you really can't beat the taste of freshly picked British strawberries 😋

A bauble and a blanket

 

The weather up here hasn't been great, lots of rain and gales, so I've been spending a lot of time listening to the radio and watching (well, I say watching but it's more like listening if I'm honest 😄) TV whilst I've been working on my crochet projects.

I bought some polystyrene balls to make crochet baubles and when I told Beverly she took the mickey out of my latest purchase.....until she heard the word "baubles" and promptly asked if I would make her a Christmas pudding one!  I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out and as seems to be usual lately, it's a mix 'n' match effort using a couple of different patterns

I used a Christmas bauble pattern from Deramores to give me an idea of the stitch increases for the pudding lower half and the brandy sauce top half.  I also used parts of the Christmas Pudding pattern from PlanetJune to make the brandy sauce "drips", along with the holly berries and leaves.  I'll be honest and say that I did struggle a little with the berries in particular, so may try to devise a method of making them myself next time.  I finished off with a hanging loop simply made from a length of about 30 chain stitches.

Ta daa!  The Christmas Gift Blanket is finished!  I'm so pleased with how this has turned out, I think the two colours look very pretty together.  As the yarn is Aran-weight the blanket is very cosy ~ it certainly kept me warm whilst I was making it LOL  So that's a little more of the stash used up.....

I'm going to make a start on the pouffe cover my Mum has asked me to make next, and my sister has asked if I could crochet an elephant for a charity event she is involved with, so watch this space for more stash-busting projects 😉

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014) 

I had a chat...

...with the lovely Jolly Molly about my dolly dilemma and as I knew she would, she came up with the ideal solution 😉  She suggested that since I was finding it so hard to decide which of the Rosebuds to let go, perhaps I should downsize the dolls in the plastic crate instead.  She reasoned that since they hadn't been out of said crate since we moved up here nearly three years ago, it would seem that I wasn't as attached to them as the Rosebuds.  See, I keep telling everyone how wise JM is.....but they just look at me as if I'm bonkers 😄   

So that's how I kept myself out of mischief yesterday afternoon.  I rearranged the Rosebuds so that my little collection of Tammy dolls can now stand on the top shelf of the dresser with Bridget and Misty; I've moved Dorelia up there too. 

Talking of Dorelia, she is an interesting little doll.  I've absolutely no idea how old she is or where she was produced.  She's about 10" tall and although she doesn't look too bad in this photo, she really could do with a session in the dolly spa.  She is made from fabric hence my prevarication, despite having had her for about 10 years!  She has been very firmly stuffed, possibly with sawdust, and her face has been given a coating of something that has made it feel rather like papier mache.

The Tammy dolls are from the early 1960s; I believe they were the inspiration for the British Sindy dolls who came out a year or two later.  These two are called Elspeth and Gwenda...

and here we have Georgina and Hester.

I think they are such pretty dolls; I'm glad that they are finally out of that plastic crate!

Of course, the Rosebuds all have names too 😉  Mabel and Agatha now spend their days in the bottom tier of the hanging basket.

On the middle shelf, starting behind the basket: Mildred (sorry, you can't actually see her in this photo LOL), Beatrice, Edith and Evelyn.  And then we have little Cora (sitting in the chair), Constance (with her pet sheep, Flump), Lillian, Gloria, Betsy, Grace and Frida.

Frida is a Violet Waters doll, part of the Gene Marshall fashion doll collection.  I have three more of these larger fashion dolls (one of which is also from the Gene Marshall line) which have, for now, gone back in the plastic crate.  I'm in two minds about whether to keep any of them or not; I'll make a final decision when I'm ready to put the other "crate" dolls on Ebay.

And finally we have Lillian, who is a Judy Littlechap doll.  At about 13 1/2" tall she is larger than the Tammys and also has a more statuesque build, hence me having to temporarily dress her in clothes actually meant for the more stockily-built male fashion dolls!  I don't think the line was as popular as the smaller, 12", fashion dolls and was apparently discontinued in 1963.  Lillian doesn't seem to have been played with that much as she is in pretty good condition.  Apart from her hair, that is!  Goodness knows what's gone on there but hopefully, when I get round to it, a little session in the dolly spa will result in a nicer coiffure 😉 

Little words of wisdom

 

Not for the dolly phobic!

I have a dilemma, namely do I keep all the Rosebuds or do I downsize my collection?  Of course, my heart says keep them all but buried deep in my head is a small sensible voice that says let some go ~ oh, decisions, decisions 😩

Downsizing my collection will be hard...

...how do I choose which babies to keep...

...and which to find new homes for 😟

What I haven't told you...

...is that I have a plastic crate in the guest bedroom...

...filled with other dolls...

...that were saved from the before-we-moved-to-Orkney downsizing operation😡

And, of course, I would really like to get them out of that plastic crate...

...and display them too 😔

Misty (note to self: the poor little mite still needs arms!)...

...and Bridget (who still needs clothes 😮) take up hardly any space, so they will be safe...

...as will Grace (in the blue dress ~confession time: she is one of my favourites!), Dorelia (at the front), and Gloria.

Jolly Molly, of course, isn't a doll and I won't be parting with her despite me being the only person I know who thinks she is lovely 😉  Perhaps I need to have a chat with JM and see what she thinks.....

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014) 

Houseplant inventory: November 2020

I thought I'd share a few more catch-up photos of my other houseplants so you can see how well ~ or otherwise! ~ they are doing.  Actually, to be fair to myself, they are mostly coming along very nicely since the mammoth repotting session.  Mind you, if they were doing any worse then quite frankly most of 'em would be dead 😮

The kalanchoe blossfeldiana cuttings are still straightening themselves up.  They've lost a few of their lower leaves but there are new shoots coming through.

I've done a little bit of research and the shape of the leaves would suggest that this is schlumbergera truncata.  They are also known as Thanksgiving Cactus which, as the name would suggest, usually sees them bloom in late autumn ~ so I'm not too sure what prompted this one to flower back in June this year!  Anyhoo, regardless of it's earlier floral display, the little chap is producing buds again now...  

...as are these cuttings!  An "arm" got knocked off the coffee table schlumbegera, so I divided it into three sections and stuffed them into a little pot of compost.

The pothos is still looking a tad worse-for wear, in fact I don't think it's looking as good as it did in the last photo I shared with you!  I'm still hoping for the best even though I'm rather expecting the worst! 

The  alworthia Black Gem seems to be doing okay if all those little "pups" are anything to go by.  I keep removing the crispy, dead, leaves but despite their appearance some of them are reluctant to be pulled off!  I don't want to damage the plant so I'll just have to put up with it looking a tad scruffy around the edges 😉

The euphorbia Madagascar Jewel has lost a few more leaves since the last photo but is nevertheless making a valiant effort to rally round. 

Sanseveria Mini is looking fine...

...as is his pal ~ who at this point still looks very much as if he too is Sanseveria Mini.  If so, I still have absolutely no idea why I would have bought two of the same plants 😄

Three of the four aeonium domesticum cuttings are thriving but the chap near the label looks a wee bit poorly.  I'll let them get a bit bigger before I think about repotting them into their own pots.

The mystery crassula (possibly Ripple Jade) is thriving since being repotted and having that radical trim.  I may take some cuttings next spring, all being well.

And finally here's my lovely variegated rubber plant (possibly ficus elastica Tineke), who has put out another couple of those gorgeous leaves since the last photo ~ and has yet another one coming through, too.  I know I really shouldn't have favourites but have to confess that this chap is most definitely in that select little group 😍