I grew this!

Last year I planted Hollyhock seeds... I love hollyhocks - they are remind me of English cottage gardens.
Planting the seeds was a bit of a gamble for several reasons:
1.  I'm not know for my plant tending abilities
2.  It was a mixed bag of seeds and so I had no idea what colour the flowers would turn out to be (would be HUGELY disappointed if they turned out yellow) (not a big fan of yellow!)
3.  We were only renting the property and so my little plants would have to survive in plant pots

but I was good - I watered them - I bought a little green house and put them in them in there - I kept them warm over the winter..
...and my efforts have been rewarded....
...drum roll please....

Taaaa daaaaa:

Who said   "is that it?!"   lol

I grew this!! (ok, yes Mother Nature a bit to do with it too...) This is my hollyhock!!  & ITS NOT YELLOW!!!!! woop woop!!!  How beautiful is that colour!  I can't tell you how excited I was when that came out!!

... it even survived the freak hail downpour we had yesterday...

Its only a little plant but I'm very proud of it! and its got more buds coming...

OK, got to come back in from the garden - I've got rooms to sort out and crafting to do.

Take care

Class at The Craft Barn

O.M.Goodness! its stopped raining!! (for a while at least... lol) (& by the time you read this it'll probably be raining again! lol )  Our wonderfully unpredictable weather really has surpassed itself this year..

aaaanyhoo enough about the weather- on to more creative things like the class I'm teaching at The Craft Barn on Sunday - fabric, dies, stamping, oh-so-pretty papers, a simple mini-book and cards.. still a few places left - call the shop (01342 836398) if you like to come along...

Have a good day - brollies at the ready peeps - & pack a bottle of suntan lotion too ... just in case.. :o)

Its not that I've been overly busy... just a bit here and a bit there and lots of things going on in all areas... that why I've not been here so please excuse the absence..

So what has the 'here and there' been all about?

Well we've moved into our new house and we're still unpacking boxes - well, to be honest with you I'm not unpacking them as much as moving them about from one room to another! lol (they're currently in the 3rd bedroom where I can close the door and ignore them for a bit longer :o)  )
The house keeps throwing up interesting findings - under most of the floor coverings is a layer of newspaper (insulation 1960s stylee?) which is normal but in the bedroom was so exciting as the newspaper print had transferred onto the wood!!!! (insert excited squeal here)  I wanted to varnish over it and keep it, but sadly I was out-voted... its a snapshot of August 1960! lol  very cool!

A lovely weeked was had by all that went to the Craft Barn's extravaganza a couple of weekends ago - I really enjoy being part of these weekends.. this time I was flexing my die-cutting, bunting making, fabric cutting craftiness.. thanks to everyone who stopped by and said hello- it was nice to put faces to some of the twitter peeps I've met :o)

 I combined Sizzix dies with Spellbinder dies to create this line of bunting - these are great dies (and I can't wait to combine them with the latest PaperArtsy dies - more about those later).

The card above uses Sizzix Mover & Shapers dies - love!!

This simple calico bunny makes me smile - The Craft Barn sells plain Calico animals and shapes (by Rico Designs) and so I made a 'critter' version with it. cute.

OK, onto the newPaperArtsy stamps I mentioned - 5 fabulous haberdashery sets, here's just one of them:

I love all of them - but this one especially as that's my sewing machine! :o)  Mr PA took photos of it and turned it in to a stamp - how cool is that!  Go over to the PaperArtsy site to see the others - they are really lovely....

The Olympic Torch came through our town because Hadleigh is the venue for the Mountain Bike events(and it came through Southend because of the dive centre etc).

It was really quite exciting - the whole Torch Relay has been so well planned and organised.. great to see it (briefly! lol definitely worth standing in the drizzle.)

I think that's enough for now - I'll leave you with some more fabulous flowers - not mine - these were planted (by the council) in beds on the local cliffs - so beautiful and they were so fragrant, and the orange/pink ones were stunning...

Take care.