the first blackberries

we are so lucky to have churchtown farm reserve right on our doorstep. most evenings rain or shine, these days mostly rain, francisco and i go walking. today i had the pleasure of not only sunshine, but also my dear friend chloe and her family for company.


we chased butterflies.


picked blackberries.


and just really enjoyed the rare moments of sunshine.


rr

moopy love

it seems like everyone i know is turning one at the moment. well, i guess it's the crowd i hang around with these days! i bought this pattern from moopy & me ages ago and decided to have a go at making my first soft toy since my attempts as a child all those centuries ago.


as i suspected the mini moopies are a really sweet gift idea. and it's such a great pattern. i got a little production line going, managed to make 7 of the little chappies and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.


my new secret weapon and invaluable sewing tool (which i'm sure you all already know about), is the humble chop stick. brilliant for turning tricky bits of fabric the right way round, and stuffing thin leg bits. i also made little drawstring bags for each of them, and on the ears, i added felt hearts embroidered with each birthday babies first initial. i am definitely going to make some more of these. it's pretty addictive!


sw

chicken nuggets

all in all it has been a poultry inspired weekend.


on saturday afternoon i found myself in that rare position of having a few child free hours. unfortunately, due to my lack of organisation, i spent it all stitching up this poultry effort for a very important forthcoming birthday party. it took several layers of persuasion to get the young man to dress up.

we have been planning on getting a couple of birds for ages now, but every time we started looking at chicken coop requirements, confusion hit in and we never actually begun. so we visited some friends who keep chickens. franc loved the two girls colonel and zinger, and this was the first step in persuading him to wear the outfit. we left our friends, very happy with a couple of books, some homemade pickle, two eggs and the drive to get going. many thanks.


chocolate cake bribary, although i like to think of it more as barganing, was an absolute necessity to get this beautiful picture. it was a great party. happy birthday cai.


we have now cleared a space in the garden for the chickens new home, so watch this space to meet our new egg laying family soon.

rr