Random snippets...

I have such a headache and cant quite put words together this evening so I'm opting out and giving you a rather random post full of bits and pieces, nothing of importance, just a bit of this and a bit of that. I like it when other bloggers have a 'random post' kind of update so I'm hoping you wont mind :-)

Snippet 1 : We have put a mirror in our garden to reflect some sunlight into our living room. It works, and the bonus is that we get rainbows too!

The rainbows move across the walls and ceiling rather quickly, check out the times on the clock.

Snippet 2 : My husband gets the worst hayfever Ive ever seen. He treats it with aloe vera juice and last year it worked brilliantly. This year has only just kicked in so we'll see. When D has accidentally snapped off flowers in the garden, i did put them on the kitchen windowsill.

At the start of the month that was fine, but once his hayfever kicked in we had to ban flowers from the house. Rather than chuck them on the compost heap, i put them in a plant pot on the kitchen windowsill outside so that i can still see them, without sending my hub into sneezing fits and tissue frenzies. 

Snippet 3 : Me and D are rather silly together. He was reading in his bedroom whilst i was putting green clay mask onto my face, when i popped my head around his bedroom door he was fascinated and had no idea what was going on! I let him have a go too.

Snippet 4 : I love patchwork, and i love our patchwork of rugs by the front door. Even when we trip over them or D flings them around into a messy heap.

Snippet 5 : I often have to buy fresh herbs for the multitude of new recipes i try out. So that none go to waste, i chop the whole bunch up and freeze it in ice cube trays. Just add a little bit of water to each section to hold them together so that you can pop them out easily. Its such an easy way to use them once your cooking, just pop the cube into the meal and it defrosts within a minute.

Snippet 6 : We love porridge and eat it for breakfast perhaps 4 days a week. Our all time favourite is porridge, milk, raisins, sultanas, orange peel (all in a dried fruit hot cross bun mix), fresh banana and honey. Absolutely delicious. We did try pink porridge, made with rose syrup. Nice, but more D's thing than mine. 

Snippet 7 : Our first month of Chlomide treatment didn't work. But although i 100% wanted it to work first time, i 100% don't mind that it didn't. God knows best and is the best of planners. Here's a sleeping 7 week old D for you.

Well, my head is still aching so i shall be signing out now, i hope you didn't mind my randomness, goodbye for now friends...

Homemade stained glass window...sort of...

On Monday morning me and D got out a few craft supplies and enjoyed an hour or two of gluing, cutting, drawing and sticking.

D concentrated on this chicken picture and a pig picture before wandering off to get books to sit reading in the armchair. I focused on a project Ive had in my head since Christmas.

We had a tin of Roses chocolates over the Christmas holidays and i saved as many wrappers as i could as i find their jewel bright tones to be perfect for craft projects. A friend bought D a board game gift and we had to pop the cards out of these cardboard frames, and i kept the frames and added them to our crafting bag too. I'm always trying to reuse or repurpose old packaging!

I cut off the transparent edges of the wrappers and put the foil pieces back in the craft bag for another project.

I then had lots of transparent strips in bright colours.

I cut out pieces of sticky backed plastic to the size of those cardboard frames, peeled off the backing paper, and lay the sticky backed plastic on the table, sticky side up. Then i added a random mix of the cellophane strips, leaving a border of s-b-p all around.

Next i pressed the frames down onto the s-b-p and rubbed all around the outside to make sure it was stuck down well.

I filled in the gaps with tiny bits of the coloured cellophane. I wasn't too fussed about neatness or missing patches.

I made three altogether and then sellotaped them together in a strip. I then sellotaped it to our bare window on the landing upstairs.

Its like a homemade piece of stained glass and i love it for its simplicity. It was a very easy and quick project perfect for kids. You could also use tissue paper, coloured in baking paper or plastic bags for this, and make your own frame from cardboard - an old cereal packet will do!

In the garden right now {March}...

We all know that in March in England, beautiful things start happening in the garden. People say that the garden comes awake in Spring (truthfully there is beauty to be found even in the coldest winters but in Spring time there certainly are lots of new beginnings). Here is a look at my garden right now...

The apple trees have buds and the lichen is more noticeable now that the bright Springtime sun is adding plenty more light to the garden.

The damson trees excited me with their full buds last week, and a couple of flowers already with petals unfurled.

This week they are covered from stem to stem in the prettiest little white flowers of blossom.

There are at least 4 different kinds of daffodil throughout the garden. Half of them were here when we moved into this house, and along with a very small patch of aquilegia and the wildflowers they were the only flowers in the whole garden. The other half are from bulbs that i have planted in the two years that we've lived here.

There are muscari (grape hyacinth) planted about the garden, i had never seen these before until we moved here (they line our driveway) but i think they are lovely little flowers so i planted these bulbs out this Winter.

The tulips have grown in the pots, last week they hadn't fully opened up.

But this week they are wide open attracting the bugs with their pollen covered anthers.

The weeds are growing again but i don't mind, to be honest, i rather like them for bringing more bugs and variety to the garden. Dandelions, buttercups, clover and daisies are perhaps some of my favourite flowers, its their humility that charms me.

Seeds and bulbs have been planted - calendula, poppies, larkspur, candytuft, cornflowers, sunflowers, gladioli, lilies, freesia, allium, anemone's, sweet peas, peas, cauliflowers, sweetcorn, peppers, nasturtiums, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Perhaps i missed some!? I think i still have another 10 or more packets of seeds left to plant out but i need to dig more compost into the ground first.

 D has been enjoying the garden too, hunting for snail shells, catching creepy crawlies, and riding his bicycle or ride on cars.

This garden of ours is filling up with memories, i love the way writing this blog inspires me to keep bringing my camera outside so that i can capture and keep the beauty and hard work going on in this small piece of land. Some people are blessed with acres whilst others have a small paved yard, but we all have the ability to make it a place of memories and to make it a place of ibadah - meaning devotion, dedication, submission - growing Gods plants, feeding Gods creature's, for me, its all in worship and devotion of our creator. I couldn't imagine not doing any of this, and not making this a normal part of life for D. I know my garden could be taken from me at any moment, God knows what he has planned for me, but right now, i think this garden of ours was given to me to bring me closer to him, and to encourage my appreciation of him. And i do believe its working!