Old dogs and new books .....

I have been very busy this last week and a half painting signs, knitting cakes and sewing velvet strawberries.  One customer at Kempton Park on 14th June almost cleared my stall of signs, cakes, strawberries, tables, boxes and various other things.  This was, of course, wonderful and meant that packing up was easy but it does mean that everything has to be replaced before Shepton Flea Market on 17th July.  I've done all these things before so it's a bit boring for me (yes, I can hear your exasperated sighs - is this woman never happy?).  After all,  I want to have fun painting new things and designing new bird patterns to show you. 

This week's car boot finds included two vintage dogs ...

The first is, I believe, early 20th century.  It has a cardboard body covered with rabbit fur and its head comes off.  The lucky recipient would have found it filled with sweets.  Northern Man and Youngest Child both think he's ghastly but I think he has a charm all his own.

And the second is a wooden St Bernard complete with barrel ...

Many of you will remember the felt mouse pattern right back at the beginning of this blog.  Well, this felt scotty dog pattern came from the same source.  He's very simple to do and I was quite pleased with the result ....

And then there's the knitted poodle which comes from the wonderful Knit Your Own Dog by Osborne and Muir ...

Now, this morning I found myself with a spare 10 minutes and turned to browsing the latest offerings on Amazon.  I was very excited to find that Osborne and Muir have written a new book, Knit Your Own Cat,   This book is not available until September but, needless to say, I have pre-ordered it. 

There is also a new Fiona Goble (Knit Your Own Royal Wedding) book, The Twelve Knits of Christmas which looks great fun.  It includes a pattern for French hens, partridges, swans and geese and  a maid who doesn't look as though she'd have any truck with troublesome guests in hotel rooms.   This one is available in October and is also pre-ordered.  

So several ideas for your Christmas present lists and it is only June!

Hi Charlie ...

and welcome.  What took you so long? 

Readers may remember the pattern for the knitted birds I showed you some weeks ago.  This is in my note book under the title 'Charlie's Birthday Bird' as I designed and knitted them for her 18th.

In the pink ....

So I've come to the end of my second week of walking to work and I have to say that I feel good.  Not good in the I've-saved-lots-of-petrol-and-used-up-calories-good, but really healthy good.  Who'd have thought it?  Not that it's made any difference to my weight; my aft is looking a little leaner but my amidships and fo'c'sle are unchanged.  To mix my metaphors, I am still not so much apple shaped as orchard shaped.

I'm extra impressed with myself for walking because of the change in the weather.  When I was thinking about this in March and April, the weather was dry but there hasn't been a day in the last two weeks when I haven't taken my umbrella with me and quite often had to use it.  The British weather knows that Wimbledon is almost upon us!


On to crafting - pink this week.  I was interested at the response to my post with the felt daffodils which prompted a lot of traffic through google images.  There must be many of you out there who want to sew felt flowers so I thought I'd show you some more, also a pattern from my Dryad leaflet.

This pattern for freesia-type flowers is actually the one I used for the centre petals of the daffodils.

Strolling, serendipity and the seaside ...

I'm feeling very pleased with myself this week.  Many months ago, when I could just begin to see the end of the daily school run, I promised myself that when Youngest Child left school I would walk to work and back (I work a few hours three days a week on the other side of town, about 3 miles away).  So this week that is what I did.  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings I plugged in my radio headphones and, to the soothing tones of the Today programme, walked to work.  The pluses of this are obvious - more exercise, less petrol,  less wear and tear on an already failing motor car and no guilt when I have a piece of the cake that someone has brought into the office.  Can you see my halo gleaming?

Now for the serendipity.  This week I was visiting Niki's blog, as I often do, and reading her post about how the downturn in the economy is affecting her in particular and small, independent shopkeepers in general.  The post generated a huge number of comments most of them supportive.  One of the comments came from Holly  at Nicholas and Steele and, after reading it, I checked out her blog.  It is a delight.  I am constantly amazed at how clever, talented and inventive people are out there in blogland and Holly is an excellent example.  I shall be visiting her blog and shop often

Have you noticed that every summer all the magazines have a feature with a beach or nautical theme to them?  Well, I thought I'd have a go at doing my own.  Eat your heart out Country Living ...

And for all those of you who have been eagerly awaiting the next instalment in the knitted bird saga, here is my knitted seagull which, as you can see, has eaten all the fish pies.

Scotland and back ...

Last week being half term we went off for a few days on the Scottish estate where it rained so hard that it nearly made our heads bleed.  We did get one day of sunshine and just to prove it ....

This is Oldshoremore Beach which, when the rain is not coming at you horizontally, is one of the best places in the world to be.   It is a beautiful walk to the beach from the ancestral home over the machair which is designated a SSSI.   It is home to wild orchids and the most peculiar coloured snails ... 

They range from deep honey yellow to lemon and dark pink to palest blush and live in the few hundred yards between the sand dunes and the grazing land.  There are so many of them this year that it took real effort not to step on them and sink them completely into the very boggy ground.  

When we got back my ticket for Kempton Park Antiques Fair on 14th June was waiting for me so I have lots of painting to do to get ready.  In the meantime here are some things someone else has painted ....

I love this tray, particularly the white flower at the centre.  I often try to reproduce it but so far my efforts have fallen far short of the original.  

I also wanted to show you these felt flowers ..

The inspiration for these came from a Dryad leaflet 128 'Felt Flowers'.  I bought this from ebay but not on its own - it was part of a volume containing leaflets covering all sorts of things including paper mache, canework, netting, rug weaving, spinning wool and many more wholesome pursuits to fill the evenings before television reached the sitting room.  So, if you are looking for a copy of the Felt Flowers leaflet, it might be worth looking at the bound volumes rather than for a single copy.   The leaflet doesn't actually contain a pattern for daffodils, although it does have daisies, marigolds, roses, freesias, etc, etc. But, undaunted, I used the outer petals from one design and the inner petals of another and on the whole I think they were a fairly successful effort.  I'll show you more designs as I get around to doing them.