January Scavenger Hunt

We have a new Scavenger Hunt for the New Year, hosted by Greenthumb at Made With Love, so here are my January offerings.

1) Cold, a nice gin and tonic, with ice.

2) Warm, log fire at our local.

3) Sign, outside the new coffee shop in town

4) Food, spilled from the bird feeder by the pesky starlings

5) 12, I had photographed this hand for another photo challenge, as 13, but when I counted the cards there were only 12!

6) Produce, baby tomato plants, which will eventually produce lots of tomatoes for our consumption

7) Blue, water-colour kingfisher

8) Mailbox, outside of the Old Post Office, Warminster

9) A view, slightly misty, taken on our walk around Fonthill Park

10) Reflection(s)

11) A statue (or the closest thing I could get to one), in the cornmarket

12) Door, the inside of our front door from upstairs

Once a month for a year, month 6, February

Normally I take these photos towards the end of each preceding month, i.e. January's photos were taken on roughly 29th December, but this month I've jumped the gun a bit - these photos were taken on 18th January, and I make no apology for that, my excuse being this was probably the only time during the year that my views will look like this:

View 1, the garden

View 2, the park

January's views for comparison below

Taffy

John Eurig Davies

b. 29th April 1936

d. 31st January 2013

A real gentle man

Rest in Peace Taffy

Springtime/Easter swap

Sorry ladies, I really meant to compose a "button" (a little illustration for your blog) to go with this swap, but time hasn't been on my side.

Anyway, today's the day to find out who your swap partner is, if you click on their name it should take you to their website, so you can stalk them, find out who they are and what they like. I suggest you swap email addresses too, as you'll need their home address for posting your gift. I know that lots of us are struggling in the current economic climate, so if you and your partner would prefer to work to a budget I suggest you set that at the start.

Lets see if we can get our swaps in the post by Friday 15th March, and blog about them just before the Easter weekend, shall we?

So,  without further ado, here are the pairings:

Sue and Sara

Dawn and Simply Vintage

Kat and Lizzy

Hannah and MBags

Tracy and Kimberley

Ellie and Jean

Debi and Crafty in the Med

Jille and Joy

If, for any reason, you are unable to get in touch with your partner, or you no longer wish to participate, please contact me.

Good luck and Happy Swapping.

A month of starts . . .

. . . but as yet, nothing finished.

Eight seat covers

Ten placemats for the dining room, four for the kitchen

Something for the new baby grandchild, due in May

Some crochet motifs

although one of them was finished and used on a birthday card

Also started : some tomato seedlings

some lobelia seedlings

some sweet pea seedlings

and some garlic

This happy chappy was a visitor to the park last week

and this is how he looked yesterday, shattered.

Curtains

I had this set of curtains which I was intending to use in the new dining room

but unfortunately the wallpaper that we have chosen doesn't match, so I've bought some new fabric for that room instead

which left me with a nice pair of full-length (unfinished) curtains going spare. After a chat with GM, we decided to use one of them across the front door, which, although it's double glazed and entirely weather- and draft-proof, still looks a bit like a black hole at night. As he's in charge of curtain rails, hanging etc, I left the problem of how and where to put it to him, and this is what he came up with . . .

. . . not bad, eh?

I don't know if anyone else out there makes their own curtains, but if you do, how do you finish your bottom hems? I like to hand-stitch mine (except for the lining, which I'm quite happy to do by machine), but pinning the length is quite difficult, I used the bedroom floor.

 (yes, that's my foot on the left).

So that's one of the pair used, now where on earth can I put the other one?

New door

Just in case you didn't see, or cant remember, this is the old door from our soon-to-be dining room into the conservatory/greenhouse

Yesterday two chaps came, took out the old door and windows, and did a bit of wall demolishing

Here's what they ended up with . . .

. . . . a much larger aperture, into which they fitted

Its wonderful and we are delighted. Plasterers due in sometime next week, watch this space.