Knitted Bunting Challenge

Womens Weekly magazine reaches its centenary this year and are going for a world record to celebrate.  They want to make the longest knitted bunting ever!  Currently the record is 8,982ft and 0.4inches, crikey!!  All contributors will be named on their stand which they are taking to shows across the country.

So fellow knitters, are you up for the challenge.  If you click here you can download the pattern and entry instructions.  Closing date is 19th September.  I think it will be fun and I am soo much better at getting things finished if there is a deadline.  Plus it can use up all my scraps of odd coloured wool.

I know someone already who this will be perfect for, my darling nan.  She's 86 young and knits everyday to keep her from nodding off, bless.  I shall be whizzing the pattern round to her this weekend.

Would love to know if you are going to make some so please do leave me a comment and we can all share piccies of our bunting creations.

Love Lolo xx

Garden Makeover - Part Two

Look I have grass!!!!  You can see what it looked liked before here - Garden Makeover - Part One.

A certain cat of mine, Alfie, has instantly taken to it and thinks it is his giant carpet to lounge around on.

The next day was the patios turn, they dug down quite deep then all the hardcore got bedded into it.  It's amazing watching all this transform.

The paving is going down next, which luckily has arrived in time, was a bit touch and go but they got here.  And yes a certain cat has taken a liking to them.

Can't wait for the slabs to go down.  The process so far has taken 4 days for the gardener, he's been brilliant.

I still haven't persuaded him to leave me his vintage garden roller though!  Isn't it beautiful.  Reminds me of my grandad in his garden many moons ago.  Aaah you gotta love nostalgia.

Love Lolo xx

Polkadoodles Birthday Card

Hi everyone hope you are all keeping well.  I've been playing with my Sundae of Seasons CD by Polkadoodles.  A work colleague wanted a card for her grandson's 10th birthday so I thought I'd delve in and see what images I could play with.  Nikki at Polkadoodles designs such lovely things, she also has a new Magical Winter CD out which looks amazing.  It's on my wish list for my Christmas cards.

I did what she said and used good quality super white paper and the colours printed out really well I think.  Great tip Nikki.

The lady at work also wanted special words on the inside so just used a normal Word document for this and added the ladybug image to co-ordinate with the outside.  All of Nikki's images are in PDF format and can be easily copied to another programme using the Adobe Snapshot tool.

Everything apart from the background paper, which is K&Company, was printed from Nikki's CD.  I just cut them all out with scissors and layered them up for a 3D effect.   Some Glossy Accents was added to enhance his eyes, the stars and the spots on the ladybug.  I love this stuff but you have to allow plenty of time as it takes up to 4 hours to dry properly but it's worth the wait.

Hope you liked the card.  Thanks for popping by. Lolo xx

Cute Candles - John Lewis

Picked up these little cuties from Waitrose today.  They come in a pack of three and have been reduced to £3.75, and they smell divine.  Although lets be honest here, I really bought them coz of the pretty tins ;o)

Lolo xx

Garden Makeover - Part One

It's started!  The garden is slowly being turned from ugly jungle to a thing of beauty and I wanted to share the progress with you all.  This has been a long time coming and am so excited but a little nervous as well.  It's a big change and I can be a tad indecisive at times!

So, this was my view from the kitchen/diner at the weekend.  Isn't it lovely, not!  You can't really see it but the end of the garden is covered in old carpet and plastic ground sheets which was my attempt to stop the weeds but the little blighters always seemed to find their way through, particularly the darn nettles.

Couldn't resist popping home lunchtime.  The grotty concrete path and posts have gone as have all the weeds and nettles.  It's already looking heaps better and bigger.

And by the evening it was looking like this.  Such a difference.  My cats were in heaven and wasted no time in rolling around in the dry earth and charging all over the place.  They had been hidden away all day as they are not too keen on strangers especially those who come with noisy machinery.  Little do they know their mud bath won't be there for long.

Look there's a tiger in my garden!! Morgan is the laid back one but here he looks positively dangerous! He could also do with a trip to the dentist. This picture reminds of shots you get on wildlife programmes where the Tigers are basking in the sun after devouring half of a bison they have just chased and caught. 

Aaah that's better.  Back to being a cute little kitty again, phew!

In the warm evening air I just kept standing outside and staring, a gentle breeze blowing, I found it very relaxing and tranquil.  I also had to make a decision on where to plant my little apple tree.  However after lots of umming and aahing I've decided not to until next spring.  It can live on the patio until then.

I'll be back with Part Two soon.

Lolo xx

Quick Project - Chalkboard Labels

Take some chalkboard spray paint, a sheet of white labels and some tags.

Spray the sheet of labels with several coats of chalkboard paint and let dry for an hour.

Stick a label to the kraft tag, write the contents on it and tie to the jar.  Now I can keep track of use by dates etc by just wiping the label clean and updating it.  Must get myself a chalk pen though as trying to write with proper chalk is way too messy.

Inspired by another blogger but can't for the life of me remember where I saw it, but can't thank them enough as I just love how it turned out.

Lolo xx

Let's Play Dress UP

Today was my niece's birthday, we had a lovely afternoon tea with my mum and nan.  My mum got to use her new cute teaset and cake stand and we all behaved like ladies and ate lots of yummy cream cakes.  

For her pressies she mostly had money as she is going on hols and wants some pretty new swimwear and we (us oldies) can't be trusted to buy the right ones!  Well at least I could choose how to make her card.

The dress is from one of my favourite papers out of the K&Company Dollshouse range, the flowers are by Prima and the velvet words are by Anna Griffin.  Oh and so is the pretty green resin flower.   I also wanted to make her something for her newly decorated bedroom and decided to go for something to go on her wall.

I took one of my vintage picture frames and sprayed it white, covered the backing with some cream cotton canvas and secured it with strong double sided tape.  The back of a paper pad (it's almost like chipboard)  was used to cut out 3 mannequins and then they got sprayed with grey paint.  Once dry these were then stuck to the canvas using hot glue.  I made a bunch of dresses and put sticky back velcro on them and voila, this is what I ended up with.

It's interchangeable too so she gets to dress her mannequins every day if she wants to.  I think this shows up better in the picture below.  Can you see how they are raised off the mannequins, that's the velcro as it's quite thick, would have liked thinner but don't know if they make it.

I made her a whole bunch of pretty dresses, some are covered with fabric and some are just paper.  To make the fabric ones look more shabby I used fine sand paper on the edges to give the fabric a worn look.  The necklaces are interchangeable too.  I had such fun making these and am thinking I want one for myself to play with, you're never too old to play dress up are you?!

I couldn't go without a close up of the cute little flower, these colours are just too adorable aren't they.

Monday morning I've got a skip, turf and a gardener turning up to transform the wilderness at the back of my house into something I can actually use.  A bit nervous as it's a big job but excited at the same time.  I'm sure I will be boring you all to death by the time it's finished with my endless before and after shots.  

Hope you are all well and having fun this weekend.  Thanks for popping by and leaving me sweet comments, I really do love to read through them.  Hugs. Lolo xx