Friday 25 March 2016

Lampshade Ta-Dah!

Happy Good Friday everyone. It's a beautiful sunny one here, although I have to admit to feeling a wee bit sorry for myself as L and I are full of a cold and E sounds as if she's about to come down with it. R has had several stinkers over the course of the winter and, until this week, I had managed to avoid catching them. Then, just as I was congratulating myself on my wonderful immune system, I succumbed. 

Never mind, there have been lots of things to make me smile this week. The first was finally getting round to making a lampshade for my second hand standard lamp. The lamp base was bought recently for the princely sum of £14 from the antiques fair at the racecourse. The owner had already painted it a sage green and until I got it home, my plan was to repaint it. In situ, however, the green grew on me, so I decided to stick with it and just make a shade. The kit was bought online, there was a quick trip to Cath Kidston for fabric and I was ready to go. I'm rather pleased with the results, even though I'm sure the whole process would have been much easier without the head cold! 
What do you think?
Also this week:
 I FINALLY got around to cleaning out the greenhouse and sowing my seeds:
 My favourite were the beans - they're so pretty:
It looks a lot tidier than it did last week - I was too embarrassed to take a before shot! I had a little peek this morning and the radishes are just starting to germinate:
Having worked up an appetite, there was leftover pad thai and mexican black bean and tomato soup for lunch. Both contained large quantities of garlic but it apparently had no effect on the viruses!
Mo the moorhen has been coming to the back door to be fed recently. On any given day, we have multiple ducks, a pheasant and now a moorhen waiting somewhat impatiently for food. The girls spotted Mo with a friend this morning, so we're hoping for mini-mos before too long.
 I finished my Folk Art Stitching. Now I just need to hang it:
The girls had some little sachets in their Christmas stockings that produce coloured flames, so last weekend when it was a bit nippy, we lit the stove and threw one on. The colours lasted for ages and were quite mesmerizing:

There's been some crochet going on too - little squares to use up the tiny scraps of yarn that are too small for anything else. I have a cushion cover in mind, but I've worked out that I need 225 squares, so I've a way to go yet!
 My new supermarket flower:
Having seen a lovely stitch holder recently on Josie Kitten's wonderful blog (see here), I decided that it seemed like a great idea. I couldn't find one similar, but Amazon yielded these:
 Here they are on my Blue Tit socks:
Finally, look what I found at Oxfam this week. It looks a bit Kidstonesque don't you think? I love it and now use it as my library book bag. It hangs in the hall and I add the finished books to it as I go along.
Well, that's all for this week. There's a cup of lemon and ginger tea waiting with my name on it and I'm off to dig out another box of balm tissues!

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter.
Toodle Pip for now. x

13 comments:

  1. Happy Easter! Your new lampshade is so pretty. I love that fabric, the colors are lovely in it. I hope you're all feeling well soon. Take care of yourself.

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  2. I love your lampshade, well done! I'm usually super mummy too, and remain fit and healthy so as to look after everyone else, but I too have succumbed to a stinker of a cold. Get well soon xx

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  3. Poor you - I do hope your cold doesn't hang around for too long. The lampshade is amazing! I didn't realise you could buy a kit to make one with - I love the fabric. How lovely to have wild birds coming to visit you, and I'm about to sow some seeds too. Have a lovely Easter!
    Cathy x

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  4. Awwwww....hope you feel better soon! I love your folk art hanging and that lampshade is just gorgeous! What a find that library bag is!! Glad to hear you've started the seeds, it's always such a thrill seeing them come up, one of my favourite things. The beans are a fab colour! How lovely that you have a friendly moorhen, sounds like you have a fair few mouths to feed though, I bet they cost you a bomb!xxx

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  5. I love your lampshade, the kit sounds like a great idea. Love that needle holder, a genius idea! Hope you feel better soon, have a lovely Easter.

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  6. Goodness me you've packed rather a lot into your lurgy ridden weekend. I think the lampshade is fab. I really like that particular CK pattern. I'm afrid we are all doing a round of viral hideousness. I First Olly, then Marc and now me. Hence why I'm up at silly o'clock, shivering and aching! Oh and I like the idea of a library book bag being filled up by the door. I just pop the books onto the stairs, as I finish. They are quite often tripped over. Perhaps I should follow your lead, and find a suitable receptacle for them all.
    Have a lovely week. May the bugs vanish in a whiff od garlic fumes ;0
    Leanne xx

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  7. Love the lampshade. Think I'll have to try something similar. Sorry you're all poorly :-(. Xx

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  8. Hope you are feeling better by now, there certainly seems to be lots of bugs around at the moment. Your lampshade looks great and I love your folk art hanging. xx

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  9. I love your lampshade and would love to make a bespoke shade to sit atop my parents's old wooden standard lamp which I've half-painted Charleston Grey - a very nice warm pinky grey. It's only half-painted because the top half has a lovely patina which I left untouched whereas the bottom half was very bashed - no idea why! My library book bag is huge - you can never have too many library books. Hope you all feel better soon.

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  10. I love the lampshade. Cath Kidston rules and her spirit definitely lives in the library book bag.
    Amalia
    xo

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  11. I'm a bit late with my blog reading so hope that by now you are fully recovered from your lurgy. Your lampshade is really lovely. My stitch holder for dpns came from Atomic Knitting. x

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  12. That lampshade is a triumph! It looks gorgeous, the pattern works so well with the green of the base. I'm sorry you've been so ill and I hope you're better now. The last time I bragged to a colleague about how "I'm hardly ever ill" I came down with the mother of all colds and was poorly for about a fortnight. Serves me right! Love the look of the pad thai too - we never seem to cook that, I don't know why. I'm off to google recipes. xx

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