September Sunshine

We have had the most amazing September Sunshine here in Ireland.

I only took these photos a few days ago of my sunflowers.

Check out that blue sky!!

Amazing!

Hard to believe that this was taken in September in Ireland!  See .. it's not always raining here as some would believe.

As you can tell I got a bit carried away. Between the glorious sunshine, the blue skies and my gargantuan sunflowers, which I've grown very fond of.

I planted approximately 100 sunflower seeds earlier in the year but these are the only ones that survived my pesky slugs!!

I transplanted them from their pots to here, which is just outside my kitchen window.  Not ideal as it's very exposed and they needed strong stakes but worth it as they are just lovely to look out at everyday.  Little bursts of sunshine looking in at me.  

While I was out with my camera I took a few more of the garden. 

Hard to believe that we are in Autumn and that winter is on the way.

I will miss hanging my washing on the line ... one of my favourite things of summer.

I will also miss all the flowers I have sewn from seed this year.

  and the scent of my sweet peas.

However.  I do love Autumn.  For me it's like a mini New Year.  I am always bursting with ideas and enthusiasm ... possibly a little to do with the fact that Christmas is nearly here.  Those of you that follow my blog will know that I am a HUGE Christmas fan.

Do you like Autumn?  What is it you love about Autumn?
I have another post already written about this and will wait to share later in the week.

In the meantime enjoy the last day of September!

Michelle x

Easter Bunnies

Sorry for the bloggy gaps - the sun has lured me out to the garden. 

I'm a little anxious today with the grey skies, I may just have been a tad too early in planting a few hundred cottage garden flower seeds!  Luckily half are indoors, the other half outside but under cover.  

Fingers crossed they will be ok!

Meanwhile back inside the cottage ...

there have been lots of bunnies being made for Easter. 

The one above, and the one below are bunny brooches, quite fiddly to make but I think they're rather cute.

Then there's my Bunny family

Daddy Bunny, Mummy Bunny and Baby Bunny 

Don't you just love bunnies !

My favourite of all have to be Julies over at Little Cotton Rabbits - adorable !

If you've seen any cuties make sure and leave a comment - I feel a bunny pin board starting :O) 

Speaking of which I've been absent from Pinterest for a few days.  I daren't log on or I'll never get anything done :O) 

Have a lovely weekend everyone x

Thrifty gardening

Like many of us I'm watching the pennies not only with shopping and crafting but in the garden too.

As you seen in my last post I've been using alternative pots for some of my plants and I found some more today.

I found this kettle out in the yard and thought "I have something that will look perfect in that" and ta dah!  I think it works.

The polka dot cushion in the background was made from a pair of pyjamas I bought in Penneys :O) (details on how I made it here) and the magazine on the chair is Prudence, an Irish magazine for 'prudent' readers.  Full of lots of articles about being prudent and savvy shopping.  It's bi-monthly and a real good read at a real good price.

Then I found an old cattle feeder (which I'm hoping my Dad hasn't noticed is missing!) and thought it would look great out the front of the cottage.

So I filled it with lobelia, geraniums and some of my stock, dahlia and cornflower seedlings.  It may not look so good now but in a few days I know it will be blooming.

I've got a few other items lined up which I'll share with you later. 

What thrifty things have you been doing in the garden?  I've invested in some root powder and am taking lots of clippings too.  Some successful, some not so much.

Happy gardening!

Alternative pots

These boots were made for walking

and that's just what they did

but after all the walking

they just started to give!

I filled them up with soil

and some pretty plants too

I think they're just lovely

How about you?

No guessing what I've been at today? 

I have the dirty finger nails to prove it. 

Apparently if you dig your nails into a bar of soap 'before' you start gardening it keeps them clean.  (Note to self, buy a bar of soap!) 

What's your plans for the weekend? 

Whatever it is have a good one :O)

Everything's rosey

This is my all time favourite flower in my garden. 

Actually it's not really in my garden. 

It grows along the boreen (aka driveway) down to my cottage.  

I have no idea what it's called but it's been here for as long as I can remember.  It's got the most beautiful scent and is always blooming with flowers.  I've tried countless times to get something similar in the garden centre but nothing matches up to it. 

Then ... last week, for my birthday

(by the way thank you so much for all the birthday wishes)

 I got this  ...

The roses are just as pink and gorgeous

and the scent as heavenly. 

Yes I know, I'm VERY lucky :O)

Inspired by the pink roses I've been knitting some to make into corsages

and making some new cushions

currently available to buy in Future Flowers in Roscommon. 

If you fancy knitting some roses too

here's a quick pattern I've come up with ...

 I used scrap pieces of DK (double knit) wool and 4mm needles but use whatever you have got.  The chunkier the wool the bigger the rose.

Cast on 100 stitches

Row 1 - Knit

Row 2 - Purl

Row 3 - Knit

Row 4 - Purl

Row 5 - Knit

Row 6 - Purl

Row 7 - Knit two together (leaves you with 50 stitches)

Then just cast off.

To shape the rose roll it together quite loosely and try not to be too perfect with it.  Then just stitch together at the back.  I'm working on a leaf pattern so I'll come back with that soon.  Of course there are umpteen patterns available online if you do a quick search for "knitted leaves". 

Enjoy! 

Let me know how you get on and have a lovely weekend x

Spring .... at last !

It seems Spring has finally arrived.

The garden is looking a little better and there are lots of buds appearing.

This weekend I was woken up by the sun beaming in my window.

The girls and I assessed the damage in the veggie patch and they helped with a little (ok a lot) of the weeding!

The veggie patch is looking pretty grim but in amongst the weeds there's some rhubarb coming through :O)

The dafs are on their way too!

At last

the sun is shining

and the sky is blue 

and there's summer

to look forward to :O)

Wishing time away ...

So all the decs are down and packed away and up in the loft.  I've numbered all the boxes and written down what and where in the loft they are on my calendar so come next Christmas I'll know exactly where they all are. 

Most people are surprised by this but I LOVE taking down the decorations.  It might be because I put them up so early and I've kinda had enough of them but also because I love January and the whole starting on a clean page.  I'm still sorting things and having a massive tidy up in the craft room (wait until you see what I've done!) so that when it's all done I can finally sit down and complete my vision board for 2011.  It's currently a large white A1 sheet staring at me on the kitchen table.

In the meantime I'm wishing time away ... I know it's not a good thing but I wish it was Spring!

I can't wait for these hyacinths to come through and get that gorgeous smell every time I walk by them

and I can't wait to pick my own tulips from the garden but for now these ones are brightening the kitchen up.

In fact I can't wait to get out in the garden and spend time out there as opposed to running out to the chooks to feed them and run back in because it's so blinking cold!

Come on Spring, hurry up and come with some sunshine and oodles of positivity and optimism we've had enough cold and gloominess!!

My cottage garden experiment

A few months ago I started planting seeds with a view to trying out a mini cottage garden.  I've never planted flowers from seed before ... veggies yes but not flowers.  I didn't share this with you all at the time as I was a little worried that it wouldn't work, however, I'm pleased to say it has and next year I plan on having a much bigger cottage garden :o)

I started out with this rather sorry looking patch in April.  I dug it all up at the same time I did the veggie patch and kept it covered whilst pampering my seedlings indoors.

A few weeks later ... May 29th to be exact, I planted out all my seedlings and it began to take shape.

Then the sun shone, followed by lots of rain and it turned into this ...

It's mainly made up of cosmos ...

verbena

cornflowers

and a few sunflowers at the back (the only ones that survived my gargantuan slugs and snails!!)

It's all edged with lavendar but that didn't come out so great in the pics.  It's amazing what a difference a bit of sunshine and rain does.  Unfortunatley there are quite a lot of weeds too but that's the joy of a cottage garden ... there not so noticeable :o)  Next year I plan to fill a whole area with these as they were super easy to grow from seed and so much cheaper than buying plants in the garden center.  Not only that they are great for cutting too.

It's a bank holiday here in Ireland so I'm taking a few days off to catch up with friends.  Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for all the great comments about the hen keeping :o)