Little Angels

The other day, on my bus journey home from work, I was happily wandering around in the land of Pinterest, when I came across this little lovely. I was totally inspired and the next day sought out suitable fabrics and felt to make one of my own.

Rooting through the remnants pile in the dress fabrics section, I found these gorgeous snowflake fabrics which would be perfect for my version of the snow queen angel!! I made up my own pattern, using a CD for the circle of the cloak as suggested and then playing with the face size and heart shaped wings.

Mine differs from the original image slightly as I have added hair to my little angels, and have decorated the wings in my own way.

The cheeks are just gently coloured in with peach felt tip and the eyes are French knots, which I went over again once the face had been stuffed with toy stuffing to make them indented slightly. I'm thinking these would make for really sweet Christmas presents?

Moving House

Last Tuesday was quite a sad day. My Grandmother moved out of August Cottage, and into her new, slightly smaller home closer to us. The weekend before we had all gone round to say goodbye to the place and have a final family lunch there.

I have always loved the garden, there is always something new to look at- colours, flowers, insects, toadstools, apples....

There are so many memories here as well; birthday parties on the patio, Christmases in the dining room, The Brother playing the piano, summer parties with all our friends and relatives, a hog roast, a wake, new furniture, extensions, sleepovers, baking, playing, laughing...

I remember when the tree above used to be tiny, the same height as me. It isn't meant to have grown this big but I don't think anyone told it that, so now it towers above everybody.

When we left for the last time on the Sunday, we drove home across the forest and paused for a moment to take in the spectacular sunset that was going down over the hills. A fitting end to over 20 years of visiting August Cottage.

So Tuesday was the big move, and today (Sunday) we went round to the new house to see how everything was settling in.

And of course, you can never go into a new house without taking a moving in present. Ours was this lovely Christmas Cactus which made it's home straightaway on the window ledge above the sink in the kitchen. I hope it will be very happy there.

There were new aquatic friends to be made, with the 'posh' fish in this diddy little pond. I'm not sure if they will be staying as my Grandmother feels that there are too many for such a tiny pond and has a friend with a lake who has offered to re-home them. They don't move around much as there isn't very far for them to go so hopefully they will be pleased to be scaling up the pond size.

Lots of things have been left behind by the previous occupants. They have moved into a flat so all of the gardening tools have been left along with the majority of the pots and plants in the garden- some quite expensive looking ones!! It seems they were quite keen gardeners, there are about two sheds, an outbuilding, three greenhouses, various garden potting tables and shelves, composters...

This Wisteria pergola should be beautiful next Spring/Summer- looking forwards to that!

Essentially there is everything here that was at August Cottage, just a lot smaller. The above photo shows the veggie patch, which has it's own personal 'proper' greenhouse, along with one of those little greenhouses that just goes along the floor like in a Victorian kitchen garden.

Strangely, the house also shares the same view that we have from our big window above the stairs (see here for a post which shows the view). Although it's a bit dark, you can see the farm slightly to the left in the background there which we also look out on. It's quite nice to think that we will all be looking at the same trees.
It seems that all in all the move has gone very well. The flowers below are from her new neighbours (after a bit of titivating from me, along with the addition of the ferns from the garden) with whom she seems to be getting along quite well. It will be interesting to see how the house changes through the seasons and what the family will do to make it their own.

Beautiful Sunshine

This morning I woke up to beautiful sunshine!! It is something of a novel rarity for me at the moment to wake up in the light- usually it is still pitch black outside, and probably raining just to top things off. In the evenings when I come home it is still pitch black, like the light of day never actually reached my house, so it's rather lovely to be able to see the house and garden in the daytime.

There are still a few tiny splashes of colour in the garden, from the few little flowers that are grimly hanging on, determined to finish their flowering before they let the frost take them. We did have the first big frost last weekend and most of the garden wilted overnight so that in the morning the garden looked liked it had been covered in overcooked green spaghetti.

It was the Pampass Grass that caught my eye this morning, walking across the landing and looking out of the big window above the stairs (top photo). They almost glisten and shine, reflecting the sun's rays around the garden.

And inside on the table we have a beautiful candy floss bouquet of Tulips and Gypsophila (or Baby's Breath). It's very springlike!

I have finished my 12 Drummers Drumming cards for the 12 Days of Christmas ATC swap!! The last one! I can hardly believe it's been over a year since my ATC group and I started this. When I get my drumming card in the post I will show you the completed collection- so exciting!