The Gift Shed's Blog

Project 365 – Day 53

The Gift Shed — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:37:50 +0000

One of the lovely things about working as a gardener is being surrounded by wildlife, birds in particular. Today I was working in a garden which seems to have lots of regular visitors. At one point there were two male blackbirds, a female, and three robins all feeding within the same small area (about 3m x 3m) – very impressive, and I wish I had got a photograph of the two male blackbirds having a fight! Sadly I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to capture that, but here’s the victor looking smug.

23rd February 2012 – “Victorious”

Stitch & Craft 2012

The Gift Shed — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:29:58 +0000

I’ve been a busy bee doing lots of gardening work this week, so I’ve barely had time to think about crafting but I did treat myself to a ticket to Stitch & Craft 2012. You can blame Mollie Makes (again), I saw an advert in the latest issue and was tempted by the discount for subscribers.

Yes, I’m a sucker, but £6 for a ticket is very reasonable!

I’ve never been to a big craft show before so I’m looking forward to it. It runs from 15th – 18th March and is being held at Kensington Olympia, London. If you’re going then give me a heads up and perhaps we can meet!

Project 365 – Day 52

The Gift Shed — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:36:01 +0000

Random grafitti at a rural bus stop.

22nd February – “Black cat”

Wednesday Wishlist

The Gift Shed — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:58:35 +0000

It’s very late in the day to be posting my wishlist, but I think the list itself will explain why!

1. To get more than four hours sleep tonight.

2. To not have pricked pretty much all my fingers with rose thorns.

3. Ibuprofen.

See you next Wednesday, hopefully with a more cheerful list!

Project 365 – Day 51

The Gift Shed — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:32:36 +0000

This evening I went out for dinner at my favourite restaurant. If you’re in London even for a day then try and get to The Little Bay (my local is the Kilburn one) for a meal, you won’t regret it.

21st February 2012 – “Dining by candlelight”

A pretty game

The Gift Shed — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:31:43 +0000

I stumbled across this old board game on eBay by sheer happenstance last week, and couldn’t resist bidding on it. Luckily I was the only bidder so it didn’t cost much, yay!

What attracted me were the illustrations on the board:

It’s so pretty, you can see why I had to buy it. The game is actually in pretty good condition, the only thing wrong with it is that the head has come off the Peter Pan game piece (nothing that can’t be remedied with a bit of glue). Which leaves me in a bit of a dilemma… do I turn it into notebooks (as I did with the other vintage games I’ve bought in the past), or do I keep it?…

Project 365 – Day 50

The Gift Shed — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:49:30 +0000

20th February 2012 – “The Rules”

In the bag

The Gift Shed — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:28:38 +0000

At the start of January I bought these books (got to love the Amazon Marketplace, especially when the books qualify for free delivery – two books for the grand total of £4.88!). I genuinely can’t remember why, which is a bit annoying, but I suspect it’s because I saw them mentioned somewhere and thought they were pretty…

Moving swiftly onwards… I had a quick flick through the first book (The Goddess Guide) and this page caught my eye:

It’s a section about Miss Lecroc, a woman who paints portraits of handbags and their contents. Click here to view an article about Miss Lecroc.

This attracted me a lot, not least because it’s the sort of thing I like to do. I did make a start on the contents of my handbag a few years ago, sketching just the bare essentials (click here to have a peek) and seeing that someone out there is actually making a living doing this has inspired me to have another go (I would never have thought that the contents of a handbag were of interest to anyone except the owner, but apparently I was wrong!). I’ll report back during the next Sunday Sketchblog.

This week’s Weekword is…

The Gift Shed — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:00:24 +0000

… journey. I actually asked my boyfriend to pick a word and his first choice was ‘seismic’ … and after I looked at him askance he changed his mind and chose journey instead!

You should know the drill, but if you’re new to Weekword then here’s how it works. If you’d like to play along then post a comment here and let me know (also make sure I have the address of your blog). You’ve then got until Friday to post something inspired by the Weekword. It can be a photograph, painting, poem, prose – absolutely anything, just as long as it’s inspired by the chosen word. On Friday I will post my own interpretation of the word together with a list of all the people taking part (and links to their blogs).

Happy Weekwording!

Project 365 – Day 49

The Gift Shed — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:26:42 +0000

I know some people think they’re cheap and cheerful (as though that’s a bad thing), but I do like carnations (especially the scent). These were very cheap (from a supermarket) but they’re definitely cheering me up!

19th February 2012 – “Carnations”