Jean's Birthday Card

Finally Jean received her card so I can now post pictures of it. Physically getting this card to Jean turned into a nightmare, but we got there in the end LOL!

Plot 36B Unknown Plant

OK I took these photos of this plant as I didn't know what it was?


I now know that it is Horse Radish, there is loads of it.

Plot 14B More Digging

More digging and you will just have to take my word that I am not using Alfie as child labour LOL! Perhaps I should give him the camera. We made our first compost bin today as well.

Plot 14B All Strimmed

Here is the plot all cut down and you can see Alfie setting to work. As you can see we have started digging too.

Only one photo too busy digging!

Plot 14B Weed Lane Work Commences

Well we was meant to be going down the caravan but we changed our plans and hired a strimmer and started work, as you can see some strimming down a lot to go.


We was then offered another plot 36B here it is before any work has been commenced. There are 3 cherry trees on it and we need to speak to the man who owns them. We must be mad like 14B isn't enough work already!


Alfie found a little friend at 14B

So in one day we made a hell of a lot of progress and an update on the little dog from the last post, his name is Toby and he is lovely.

Plot 14B Weed Lane

Here are some photos of our plot before any work has been undertaken.

Here you have our plot with Neill standing on a mound of dirt at the back, so it goes from him to the post you can see at the bottom of the picture.


It also goes from the post at the bottom of the picture up to the overturned dirt at the top.


As you saw in the above photo we seemed to have acquired a little dog, it just followed us but obviously belonged to someone on the Allotments, he was really sweet.


We also have these weeds growing I think they are Dock but they are huge and I would imagine have very long roots - lots of digging I think.


and a close up of said weed.

Allotment Found

I know I am impatient, but when I get an idea I have to run with it. I am really eager to get an allotment and it has been getting me down as I keep being told all over Barking and Dagenham that there are huge waiting lists and I might not get anything until next year.

Well yesterday we decided to look further a field and phoned up Redbridge Council and guess what they have vacant plots - WHAOOOOOOOO!

Our nearest site with a vacant plot is Barley Lane and it has parking, toilets etc - sounds great.

Well today we went and signed up for a 5 rod plot over at Barley Lane, it is well overgrown and needs a lot of work but needs must. We can start as soon as we like, so we will hire a petrol strimmer for the weekend.

Applying for Allotments

OK so this is harder than I thought. There are quite a few allotments nearby, but they all have huge waiting lists, it seems to be the in thing at the moment. I have visited a number of sites and even though I see overgrown and un-worked plots, they are apparently occupied and the site still has a huge waiting list. It seems to be like this all over Barking and Dagenham.

Growing Your Own

Ok another veggie installment - sorry if this gets boring!

Bed No1 Empty now as we dug up our new potatoes and they were lovely. I think I planted to many as we didn't get much for the amount of plants we had, so I don't think they had enough room to grow.


Bed No2 now holding courgettes


Bed No3 starting from the back we have dwarf French Beans, Pak Choi, Beetroot, Rocket, Spring onions and there was a row of radishes but they were pulled up last week.


Bed No4 Runner Beans, unfortunately these have been plagued with blackfly, but I got some advice and hopefully I can rescue them. As you can see they are just over 6foot high (that is the height of the fence).



Bed No4 Sweetcorn, I haven't been very successful with this, this year as I brought the plants rather than starting them from seed and I was too late to sow any seed.


Bed No4 Tomatoes, these seem to be doing fine and we have some flowers so hopefully should get some fruit of them.


Bed No5 holds only one cauliflower now as one died plus some herbs.


Lambs Lettuce


Carrots in a dustbin


Mint


Strawberries - I haven't actually had any strawberries as yet, not sure why!


More Strawberries and Courgettes


More updates to follow when it has all grown a bit more.

Allotments

OK both myself and Neill have decided to put our name down for an allotment. We have run out of room in the garden and we are also limited on what we can grow depending on the size of the veg/fruit.
I never considered an allotment before because of when I am down the caravan I didn't know who would look after it, but Neill has really taken to growing our own and suggested that we put our name down.

I will keep you informed of progress LOL.

Ruby Wedding Anniversary Card

Here is a card for a Ruby Wedding Anniversary.


A close up

Metal Work Card

Here is a card for my nephew's 19th birthday - I have used metal work, alcohol inks, sharpie and a glaze pen to do faux stitching.

a close up of the metal work

a close up of stitching

Tim-spiration Workshop at Imagine That in Upminster

I done a workshop at Imagine That called Tim-spiration. It is a wall hanging where we played with sticky backed metal and alcohol inks.
Here is the result

Top

Middle

Bottom

In a different light

Savannah

Savannah is a Bengal cat which we rescued a couple of months back. She has come such a long way it is quite amazing. She now goes out and loves it, I managed to get some photos of her today in the garden, here is one for now as I need to reformat the others.

Metal Work Plaque 2

Me and Jeannette enjoyed the previously mentioned workshop so much that we decided to try and recreate it, I think we done a pretty good job.

Metal Work Plaque

I attended a workshop at Imagine That in Upminster which was taught by Leandra from Paperartsy. I had never worked with the ten seconds studio metal before, when I saw the project we was going to do I panicked, but I was surprised how easy it was. It was a really fun day.

Grow your Own Veg

Well as some of you might remember I posted about this way back in March 08/03/09 when I went from herbs on the windowsill to raised vegetable beds in my garden.
Here is a little update on beds and what is growing.

Here you can see new potatoes in the first bed No.1, in No.2 is salad bowl lettuce, in the black bin is carrots and in the blue pots are strawberries.


The bed next to the salad i.e No.3 is empty, in No.4 we have runner beans, sweetcorn, Beef Tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes and normal tomatoes.


In bed No.5 we have cauliflowers and herbs, the blue pot at the very front is mint. You can also just see a grow bag on the floor which holds Lambs Lettuce.

Looks a bit different from when I started and I am quite happy with how things are growing at the moment. It is all trial and error really. I will keep posting as to how things are going.

Hand Made Twisted Macrame Choker Necklace & Bracelet

Here is my latest jewellery creation, I had the pattern for the bracelet but I thought it would be nice to have a choker necklace to go with it.

It is a purple twisted macrame choker necklace and bracelet which is for sale at £15.00.

The choker measures 17½ inches from opening to closure - the overall measurement including the tassle is 20½ inches.

The bracelet measures 8 inches from opening to closure - the overall measurement including the tassle is 9 inches.

Materials used is purple C-Lon cord with coordinating japanese seed beads plus a button for the closure.

I can post this anywhere in the UK for £1.00 it will arrive in a padded envelope with the items in a sealed cello bag inside.
If you are interested, you can contact me direct via my email at lwcreations1@googlemail.com


I have also set this up for sale over on Gumtree.com if you are interested here is the direct link - http://www.gumtree.com/london/39/36137039.html

From This to This

This morning I woke up and decided to go from this
Herbs on the Windowsill

to this
Raised Vegetable Beds

I have decided to grow my own - don't laugh!!!!!!!!!!! I am a have a go type, i.e. stick it in the ground and see what happens. In the past I have successfully grown sweetcorn and runner beans, not so successful was potatoes which I grew in a dustbin, but I didn't know I should have cut the bottom off so that they could root in the ground, so we had small potatoes. I thought I would try my hand at a lot of other stuff like, salad potatoes, tomatoes, cherry and normal, sweet peppers, beetroot, cylindra and boltardy, cucumber, radishes, spring onions, sweetcorn, runner beans, french beans, strawberries, ginger and garlic.

Wish me luck!

Elephant Necklace

I made a necklace which the main feature was a blown glass elephant for my mother-in-law for Christmas, I forgot to take a photo of that one. She liked it so much that she asked me to create the same but using an elephant charm that she had, as her niece loves elephants too.
Here it is

First Doodle Card

My first doodle card - I have to say I am quite pleased with the end result.


You will be seeing more doodling as I am doing a class on 21st March 2009 as I want to be able to master doodling properly and be completely happy with what I produce. Maybe even taking it to the digital stage - here's hoping!

Foxy Layout

Here is a digital layout of someone who visits our garden.

I have used Carrie Stephens Freebie Kit Spontaneous Delight and a journalling block but I can't remember who that was by sorry.

Check this Out

When I was having my blog problems I contacted Rhonna Farrer one of the designers at houseof3.com and like a true professional she got back to me, even when I had emailed her to say I had sorted it. She then went on to ask if it was OK to link my blog on her blog - of course I said (my brain was going OMG yes please WOW).

So go to Rhonna's blog and check it out!

Messed Up Template Again

OK seems I have sorted the problem of the template, it was how it saved in photobucket, so I just re-saved it and that seems to have done the trick.

I am well pleased with it, to check out the fab blog background templates and headers just go visit House of 3 they have some great stuff over there.

Messed Up Template

OK I thought I would try and be half clever and purchase some blog templates, it all looked really simple - but guess what I am stuck now and it looks awful. I have tried messing with sizes but I am having no luck, I have therefore emailed the company I purchased them from and am just awaiting a response. So please bear with me while I try and get this sorted.