Library Love...All Sewn Up, Cross Stitch, Catching Fire...

I have mostly been reading....

All Sewn Up - Chloe Owens
If you went inside my head it would look a lot like the pages of this book...it's full of pretty floral patterns and rabbits with trippy eyes!  I'm not sure I'd want to try some of the embroidery projects, I don't have the patience for it, but the sewing ones are nice and the pictures for everything are droolworthy.  Do I have to take this one back to the library?

Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon
My friend at work recommended me this book and when I started reading it I thought it was the most boring thing ever, but once you get past the boring first bit, that's set in the 1940s and get to the part where the lady steps through a timey-wimey portal into 1700s Scotland, meets a gorgeous outlaw and has many adventures, then it's the most brilliant thing ever.  Thankfully this is part of a series, so I shall have plenty more timey-wimey adventures to keep me going.

The Hunger Games Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
This wasn't as good as the first one, but still good enough for me to have finished it in a couple of days.  I HAVE to read the last one now, I'm on the library waiting list for it and it seems to be taking ages!

What have you been reading?

Charity Shop Treasure...Darling Dresses and Cosy Cardigan...

The charity shops have been good to my this week....

I got this orange and black flowery dress for £3!  It was a size 22, too big for me, so I took it in at the top and if I tie the belt bits tightly at the back of the waist it fits perfectly!

This dress still had it's tags on....£1.50! 

And this M&S cardigan was £3 too!  Yey!

Have you had a happy-bargain recently?

from here

Spring Garden...

It was actually a bit sunny today, so I managed to get into the garden and see what my seeds were up to...

My sweetcorn, sunflowers and courgettes have all sprung up...I had to repot them all last week, cos my mini-green house fell over in the wind and all the soil and seedlings fell out...most of them have survived though!

We have lovely flowers everywhere!

The potatoes have come up!

We picked the leeks and mum planted raspberries in their place, there's garlic and strawberries there too!

I planted broad beans, parsley and spinach in my little plot, so far the only thing to show is this solitary broad bean...will have to plant some more...

The purple sprouting broccoli is still sprouting away, I'm so glad I didn't dig it up!

Mr Next Door's apple tree is beautifully blossom-y...

And our baby apple tree isn't doing badly either!

Have your gardens survived the wet spring?

from here

from here

Having the wettest drought ever here!  Mum chose a great time to buy a new 200 litre water butt, it's full already!  At least the potatoes in the garden are enjoying it!  Hope you're not getting too wet!

Amazing April...

This month I've loved...

* payday *  ikea * shiny new books * listening to The Smiths and Eddie Reader * glue stick and felt pen sorting * new pink posters * chips and onion rings * workie-mates *  reading The Hunger Games, Cross Stitch and silly teen-girl vampire books! And A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison, which I nabbed when it came in on the new books delivery at work, reminds me of being 14 and reading the 'Angus,  Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging' series by the same author! * selling stuff * booking 2 craft fairs * making new, vintage fabric bags * Slightly tidier bedroom * new charity shop dress for £1.50! * seeds shooting and sprouting * homemade onion bhajis * baby robins in the garden - Bobby, Betty and Billy Bobbin! * 

I've been sick allll month with a cough/cold/sore throat/feel like I'm dying/temperature/chest infection thingy that just hasn't gone away and is still making it's presence felt...so mummy made me some happy cakes to cheer me up!

I love Kay and Simes blog, Just Humans Being and Kay gave my blog a cheeky mention and paid me a lovely compliment the other day, thank you! :)

Hope you've had an amazing April!? xx

World Book Night...

Happy World Book Night!!  I picked up a free book at work, The Blind Assassin, a left over from last years World Book Night and one of the only Margaret Atwood books I don't think I've read.  We held an event in the library today for a local author, aged 90+, to launch her second book (very crowded, she was a success!  What an inspiration!) and tonight the author Manda Scott is giving a talk, I didn't go because I had already spent 8 hours in the library today and I don't really read crime books, but I hope everyone else enjoyed it!

I'm going to bed now to read my vampire book!

Did you do anything exciting for World Book Night?

Handmade Birthday...

Last week was my mum's 60th birthday...I made her a special badge...

It's just a big crocheted circle, with a frilly edge and felt numbers and dots stitched on...

...and a card that would have had 60 candles on the front if I'd have done my maths properly!

Do you have any crafty projects on the go?  I've got a big pile of fabric to make into bags and a LOT of crocheting to do to get ready for a craft fair I booked a stall at in June!

Library Love...Cake Angels, The Hunger Games, Pompom Pals, One Piece of Fabric...

The library I work in moved to a new building over the last 2 weeks, the best part about this is the zillions of shiny new books we put on the shelves!

Cake Angels - Julia Thomas

 I borrowed this mainly because it has a recipe for vegan caramel to make millionaires shortbread with (I sooo miss this from my pre-vegan, pre-soya-free days!)  Of course, you first have to make (make!!) your own vegan condensed milk, which sounds a little complicated, but probably worth it.  The book contains lots of recipes for gluten and dairy free cakes, mum's friend at book club can't have gluten so she tried a couple of recipes for book club night and both were very successful too and worked even though we couldn't find any xthanthan gum to put in (nearly every recipe recommended to use this, but we just used gluten free flour and they turned out fine - my mummy is magic at cake though so perhaps that has something to do with it!) 

Pompom Pals - Michelle Tilly

I want to make an orange wave-y pompom pal like the one on the front cover, and the owl shaped one and the hippopotamus-ish one!  These are very cute, but seem to take up a lot of wool to make them and then I think about all the lovely things I could crochet with that wool instead and it seems like waste to make pompoms from it.  Maybe I could make mini pompom pals!

One Piece of Fabric - Lena Santana

I mostly like the bag on the front cover and the dress on the back cover of this book, it's a bit rubbish that the patterns aren't included, you have to draw your own or enlarge the ones at the back with a photocopier, which would be a bit tricky for something like a dress pattern.  But some of the ideas are nice and the pictures are pretty.  Mostly a pretty picture book, some of the projects are a bit weird, like a bikini and a table rosette thingy, but the bag patterns are nice.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Oh My Gosh!  Read The Hunger Games.  It is soooo good!  

Happy Easter...

I have eaten waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much chocolate!  Hope you had a good one! xxx