boxes

new years day

from little acorns...

A seed catalogue landed on the mat today. And I've been looking through it slowly, page by page, at the pictures of flowers and vegetables, the fruit bushes, trees. So many colours and shapes of flower and leaf, tempting me, though it's dark outside, turning my mind to summer, to spring...


I know I shouldn't be letting myself imagine the garden in the house we are buying. And I say buying, not bought, because it's not ours yet. Not yet. So I shouldn't be thinking of the little pink and white flowers that could tumble down the wall at the front, or the lavender bushes I could plant at the side of the path. I shouldn't be picking out perennials, annuals, shrubs for the patio. The bird table by the kitchen window, the bird box. And I certainly shouldn't be planning the raised beds at the sunny end of the garden, by the gate into the woods; the potatoes in buckets, tomatoes, aubergines, peas, beans, blueberries, rhubarb, cabbage...

And me in the sun. Digging and weeding and planting, dirt under my nails (maybe even a robin sat on my spade, maybe I could tame him and we could be friends? He could sing to me)


Oh seed catalogue, your full colour spreads and descriptions full of promise, look what you've done...


Patience.

Lots of things have been made recently, but there are no pictures (because there's barely been time to make them, never mind find the camera) and the gifts have gone to their recipients now. But items included a pencil case, a flex frame pouch with flowers embroidered on it, 2 rounded spine books with etchings on the covers, a paper bird mobile, some fingerless mittens and 2 felt beards. And there's still more to make...

I am feeling a bit more Christmassy now though. We had a big Christamas dinner yesterday with friends, and swapped presents before we go our seperate ways for Christmas, and it was lovely. Plates of delicious food, and mulled wine, candle light and apple crumble. Good company. I'm so lucky.

Have a good one :)

I've been quiet. I feel like I've been very busy, but when I try to think of what I've been doing, I can't seem to come up with anything solid. Working mostly, reading, talking, waiting for busses. And I'm fighting the battle to hibernate, which hasn't been helped by the fact my boiler was broken for a week last week and it was very cold indeed around here. Breath in clouds. But it's fixed now so I'm all thawed out. I've also been trying to suppress panic about my lack of Christmas present buying and making. I can't seem to get into the swing of it at all. A short burst in November then... nothing, and suddenly its the week before Christmas! I need to get going I think.


I've had a lovely weekend this weekend though. On Friday we got one step closer to owning the house we've been trying to buy for a while, so that's exciting! And I spent the rest of the time with 3 of my bestest friends who I don't get to see nearly enough. Catching up, talking, eating chocolate croissants. Then swimming this afternoon, floating on floats. It's all good.


But now its work again on Monday, and I definitely could do with another few days off. Couldn't we all I suppose.

Slowly but surely my tree quilt is coming together, half an hour here, half an hour there...


I've had so much fun just picking colours randomly, cutting out triangles without measuring, with scissors and no ruler; generally just making it up as I go along and not worrying too much about tree size or colour schemes or it all fitting together...

I decided to tackle the layout of the trees pieces in exactly the same way. I separated them out into big and small trees, mixed them up and then layed them out in a line with my eyes closed. I swapped a few round when two colours the same were next to each other, but I just tried not to think about it too much. I should work like this more often I think, because I think I over plan things far to much, sometimes to the extent that I never even get started.


Anyway, I sewed some extra bits onto the trees that were smaller, then sewed them into strips, then sewed the strips together. Done! Now I just need to decide on a colour for a border, and a colour for the back of the quilt. Green, brown or blue? Or perhaps just a random combination of all three?!

ps. I did take more pictures of the whole thing, but they just came out so awful I couldn't bear to post them, but when the daylight returns for longer than 1o minutes I be ready with my camera :)