Miniature stitching and gardening

This is a little garden of alpine plants. In the middle is a viola and to the left, a miniature aquilegia. It's only about 15 cm tall. There is a cushiony patch of moss and at the back, a tiny climber which I'm told will flower in red and black!

It's looking a bit fragile at the moment - hopefully a bit of tlc will bring it round.

Here we are a couple of weeks on. The aquilegia is flourinshing! All that this scene needs is a tiny little house, don't you think?

Yes, I am a bit obsessed with making little houses. Probably because I long for a house of my own. So here is a little house ornament, complete with embroidered flower garden.

I have plans for a series of these. Maybe even some larger freestanding houses... but first I have to finish off the hundred and one projects clamouring for attention!

Including this - the tinyland firescreen, currently about 3/4 complete.

More finished projects soon... promise!

Pretties from Tamsin Cooper

It's hard to stick to a budget when Tamsin Cooper is having a sale. Look at these pretties:


Silk and velvet and beads oh my. But at up to 50% off they are almost reasonable...

Lolly colours

Some days, you just feel like painting rocks. Usually they are the days when you should be doing ten other things like the dishes, planting out seedlings, finishing a project with a looming deadline or organising your next project with a looming deadline, but instead you pull out some nice round rocks and put some coats of paint on them.

Then you paint them with little scenes of birdies and cupcakes and houses.

When they are dry you add some finishing touches to sparkle and captivate...

Then you spray with several coats of clear varnish. Because you are hasty the spray goes on too thick, and doesn't dry properly. Then it smudges and you realise you have to repaint some details. Damn.

So you repaint, respray and this time everything is perfect.

And then you have a pile of brightly painted, lolly coloured rocks to sell at the market next month.