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