Plant prints

We got some nice botanical prints from my parents for Christmas. They even had them framed for us!
But we still haven't found anywhere to put them.

For them time being they look nice on our mantelpiece. We might even fix them there. Not sure yet.

Snow sowing

It was snowing this morning, so obviously this is the right time to start growing for the summer. I may be risking it a bit but I just couldn't resist some speculative sowing. Some research on last year, shows that it's this time I can wait no longer.

Stuff is also growing out in the garden, including this. Any ideas what it is? Should I be pulling it out or seeing what happens?

Sitting room windows are finished!

Well I did have a productive Monday off. I finished our sitting room curtains. The material is all from Walthamstow market and I made them all by myself. Unfortunately I have only been able to take the most rubbish of photos to show you. You'll have to come round for a cup of tea to see them properly.

Bonus Day

At the end of last week I decided to take today off last minute. How exciting! And I've spent most of the day working on our sitting room curtains They're nearly ready so make sure you keep an eye on the blog for when they go up! I don't even want to admit how long it's been since we had the windows done (4 months), or how long the bare curtain pole has been up (over a month).

How useful it is to have a room set aside for sewing. It makes it so much easier!

Il gatto domestico

Hannah won't let me have a house cat yet, so we bought this hand-printed charmer to stalk the house in the mean time.

He's from Florence, but mounted by the E17 Art House.

Saucy

Well, not really very saucy. It's a rather weak pun for a post all about saucers! Jon just bought me 4 lovely new saucers from Oxfam so I can start making my house plants look a bit more pretty and I can start to get rid of all the plastic pots and pot holders about the house. 

I've decided I want more houseplants so trying to make the ones I have look better is a good start!

One of them is even called 'Broadhust' which is my Mum's maiden name - how perfect!

Spring has sprung and don't you dare tell me otherwise

Looking back at our garden this time last year, I am so proud of all we've done in it. And we're able to celebrate our second Spring in the House of Love with some proper first signs of spring.

These were a Christmas present from surrogate Grandma Kay that we got for Christmas 2011 and planted in Jan last year.  Don't they look lovely?! They're nestled under some purple sprouting broccoli that I hope will diversify our kale diet over the next month.

Daffodils! That are in my garden! Can't wait to see this lovely little thing open. (Ok they're actually narcissus but I don't care!)

And we're STILL getting food out of the garden. Admittedly Jon is a little sick of kale and chard but I think our recent trip to Tuscany will have convinced him of the supreme tastiness of cavolo nero* and the numerous possibilities of making yummy food with it. 

* that's Italian for the kale I grow right but it sounds posher, ok?!