We're enjoying a bit of a relaxed Easter holiday here in our little corner of the world. Last week we went down by our little river and collected some twigs to make our Easter Tree. On one of my jaunts to town, I'd spied a cheap bag of coloured eggs to hang on our branches and brought them home with a box of tiny yellow chicks. The eggs are those lovely sugary colours that make you feel instantly happy when you see them, and the chicks keep falling off their perches to hang upside down in a rather amusing way. I've never decorated before at Easter, but it's definitely something we'll do again.
The arrival of Easter also saw the arrival of my sister and nephews who came to stay for a few days with my parents. And it also saw the arrival of some rather unexpected White Stuff. Brrrrrrr....
Yep, we had a fair old dumping of it and the temperatures plummeted. Hard to imagine just a few days earlier we'd been sunning ourselves on the beach, and eating our tea out the back garden; slapping on the suncream and digging out our summer tops!!
Only in England...!
Still, a few inches of snow wasn't going to scupper our plans!! We wrapped up warm and ventured out. We'd heard there were some new babies to be seen at one of the local farms, so we trussed up the Smalls and took them up to Our Cow Molly's to see the lambs and partake of some of their delicious ice-cream.
Rushing around doing lots of family things during the days, it was nice to find a few moments of quiet time come the evenings. I managed to sneak in some bed-time hooky...
The bag I'm working on is coming on a treat; only nine more squares to go and a couple of handles. I'm trying to decide what kind of fabric to line it with too. It's going to be a smashing bag for summer though. You can find the pattern in this book here by Nicky Trench.
I've also been enjoying a spot of relaxing with my birthday present ~ I was very lucky to receive a Kindle. When they first came out I wasn't too sure about these reading devices, being the Major Book Lover that I am. What could possibly take the place of a real book, that feel of paper, the very scent of a book? But you know, I soon began to realise that for someone who lives in a very Small House, and has an increasingly large book stash (much of it being housed in storage boxes as I just don't have enough shelves, I'm sure you get the picture) they could be very useful indeed.
I'm mainly using mine for fiction books, as I don't think I'd get as much pleasure from cookery and interiors style books on them, being greyscale as they are. For reading books though, Kindles are the best invention in the WORLD and for travelling what could be better than a whole stash of your favourite books in one place?! Fantabulous!!! I'm a total Kindle Junkie now!
Once I had my little Kindle, I realised it would need a little Home, somewhere to protect it from the inevitable bumps and knocks it would collect being jostled about in my shoulder bag and so on.
I knew I didn't want a run of the mill shop bought one, no no - I wanted something special, something a bit different. Something Hand Made!
So I approached Cathy who runs a beautiful business called Dear Emma, and asked her if I could commission her to make one for me.
And she did! It's so well made and I'm as pleased as punch with it. The stitch work is exquisite and the fabric is very luxurious. Cathy has a lovely website, and I believe that my Kindle cosy may be the first of many as it's inspired her to start a brand new range!
So that's about it for now. In a day or so we head off to see the other half of our family down in Wales. I hope you're enjoying your holidays, thanks so much for bobbing by to see me today!
Julia xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
