I'm late I'm late for a very important date!

I can't believe it I've missed my blogs 1st birthday by nearly 3 weeks what a plonker I kind of knew it was coming up but hadn't checked the date my first post was on the 6th of March last year and had my mothers day cards on it so I was thinking it was near Mothers Day this year oh dear how wrong was I. Anyway enough of that embarrassing talk of how unorganised I truly am.

I was hoping you would join me in my own mini celebration of my blogerversary with me I put together the above mosaic especially for the occasion, some Miss Sew n Sew pics of the last year and I will be hosting a blogerversary give away when I get my act together at a very fashionable month late on the 6ths April!! I am organised with that and have started putting some lovely goodies for this just a few more makes to add so please don't miss out come back for my giveaway I do so love to read your comments and your blogs and this will be my way of saying thank you to each and every one of you who have stopped by and visited my blog. Lots more about my blogging love on the 6th!

I have a new thing in my house for spring bulbs look aren't they wonderful I have 3 hyacinths on the go at the moment there so reasonably priced and they last a lot longer than cut flowers and just smell so gorgeous. My local garden centre were selling these off at just a pound each because they were very dry but after a soaking in a bucket of water they have been fine and are giving me so much enjoyment I just love catching glimpses of fresh flowers around the house. Oh dear I must clean my kitchen window!

I've had my man at home this week and look what we've been up too! A new path is being laid down to my little house and shed. The old bricks were left from an outbuilding taken down by the previous owner so we've made use of them to edge the path.

The weathers been great this week and given us the chance to get on with it yes I've been digging and getting my hands dirty too! All day in the garden has been back braking work but I know it will be worth it and I'm really liking the results of the different materials bricks,gravel and wood.

This is our first proper garden our first house didn't really have much garden so were excited

about changing ours and making it our own. As you can see we have lot's more to do, the path will continue to our shed and then if all goes to plan we want to put a seat around tree and the messy soil area will will be filled with different shades of gravels may be a water feature and grasses and ferns planted amongst the gravel I have it all planned out in my head!

In front of my little house were going to have decking for a seating area and then also we want to make a vegetable garden out of some timber we have left over from the path so not much to do then hey!

The house is looking a tip with mummy and daddy both working our asses off in the garden Emily and Elliott have been entertaining them selves which has meant all though my attempts to tell them to take their wellies off when they go inside lot's of messy little footprints on Mummy carpet arrrgh!!

Today's game has been who can collect the most worms in their bowls, then counting their worms then running to their chalk board to draw number of worms on it!

Will be back next week with our progress thank you for all your comments about my little house I'd love top have you all round, one at a time of course for some crafting, coffee and cake! I really enjoyed reading them your all so lovely!

Hope all you mums out there have a great Mothers Day this weekend!

Painting, painting and more painting................

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my summerhouse and garden it has just reminded me of what a lucky lucky girl I am to have a space of my own and has really motivated me to crack on with the painting. We have a fab garden but to honest it really has to look after itself this year and it really is looking a bit dull and unkept. We were very lucky to inherit lot's of mature plants and trees when we moved here I do have high hopes for my garden when the children are a bit older I hope to devote more time to it.

This week I've started the painting and what a mammoth job it is! I've been painting every evening after I've put the little one's to bed and have painted until dark in all weathers sheltering under the veranda in the rain! I do enjoy painting and find it quite relaxing I love to see the end transformation but this is going on and on and some nights I've had to force myself to do it. Anyway enough of the waffle here's some pics what do you think?

Less posh shed more nice summerhouse me thinks!
I love the little veranda I'm looking forward to taking a break on here with a cuppa and a magazine!

this shows the side of the summerhouse where there is another window.There's still I reckon another weeks work of painting to get the outside completely finished. Then we can crack on with the inside. My minds been buzzing with what we are going to do with the inside. Here's what the inside looks like at the moment. It's really hard to photograph as it's quite small! Oh dear not very inviting is it there's a huge amount of work to do in here were going to insulate everywhere to make it warm and line the walls in tongue and grove. It's all going to be done on a shoestring budget so I will be searching ebay and freecycle for furniture. I've managed to pick up a heater on freecycle so far. I'd like an old comfy chair to reupholster and I'm after an old table to use as my desk, there is a handy shelf in the roof space where a plan to stack my material out of reach of little hands!

As for the decor I've decided to go out of my safe zone of pastel colours and go for bright bold colours . I've been really inspired by colour since starting blogging especially by two of my favourite blogs http://attic24.typepad.com/ and http://lavenderhouse.typepad.com/ who both use colour so beautifully in there homes. I'm hoping to inject some real fun colours into my summerhouse the tongue and groove will be white but all my accessories bright colours. Here's some pages from magazines that have inspired me.I love the chair in the above pic and have searched everywhere for something similar but nothings turned up. I've also picked up these folders I love them they were great value to from Asda. I have heaps of paperwork to sort out so these will be ideal.Hope you all had a good week the weather has been miserable hasn't it but I hear that it's going to clear up and we will see some sunshine this weekend I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Hope whatever your up to this bank holiday weekend it's a good one!
Sarahx

Weve just bought a ...................

Yeah I'm so excited about it I've been wanting one for ages I don't know what it is but there's something so appealing to me about a tiny house a little hideaway to escape to. It's going to be my sewing room/office a place for all my paraphernalia all my piles of material, craft stuff, paper work that I have stuffed away in drawers and cupboards. The computer will be going in there too. I'd like to call it my studio but at what point do you call it a studio? Probably when you earn money from it that's something I would love to do in the future when I have more time on my hands. Hopefully it will be a little retreat somewhere to be quiet and be creative away from the chaos of the house and a place to blog till my hearts content!

We bought it off Ebay we were looking for a used one then stumbled across this one never been erected they were selling it as they were moving house. My poor husband begrudgingly drove all the way to Manchester a 4hr drive there and back as we got lost twice! When we got there we had to prize the top off it as it would not fit in the van don't ask!

This is what some of it looked like when we got it home-

So here's what we have done so far our old shed was on the slabs in this picture below

We have laid another base in the other corner of our garden and moved our old shed to here I did want to get rid of this shed all together as I thought it would look a eye sore but I'm really pleased it's quite hidden here and you can't see it at all, from the top of the garden. We desperately need it for all our tools and garden stuff anyway.

On Sunday Steven and my dad spent the whole day putting it up mum came to help with the kids and I made cups of tea, fed everyone and did bits to help. At the end of the day it looked like this:-

What do you think? In this picture it looks very shed like I need to transform it now into pretty summerhouse. It's quite small there's enough room for a desk, plenty of shelves and a comfy chair I really like the little veranda I'm thinking of putting a bench on there the view from the veranda looks back on our cottage:-

And from the top of our garden looking back at the summerhouse :-My job is the painting which I have started on an evening it's going to be Farrow and Ball Pigeon Green which is the same colour as our front door and gates. The paint in the picture is just an undercoat.

I'm going to bore you with a list of what's left to do! It's got to be cosy in the winter so there's lot's to do:

• Get electricity down there,
• insulate it,
• line it with tongue and grove ooh I love tongue and groove!
• put some flooring down.

I'll be back soon with an update and my ideas for the inside that's the bit I'm looking forward too.Here's what it should look like when it's finished!

Gosh I've a lot of painting to do!

Have a good week all!

Sarahx

Not a nice week

It's been a hectic week here last week and one that I was glad to see the back of. Our baby boy Elliott had an operation last Tuesday I don't want to go into to much detail on here as to what he's had done but it was a general procedure and nothing serious. We've known he had to have an operation since his 6wk check when he was born. He came home the same day and was bright as a button the nurses told me not to let him walk as he had a caudal block and it would take around 6 hrs to get all feeling back from the waist down. Try telling that to a 15mth boy! Well there was no stopping him he was off so me and my mum spent all afternoon doubled up following him round holding the back of his pjs to make sure he didn't fall and do himself an injury!

The next few days he went down hill and has been quite poorly with a fever and been quite weak. He's also had an infection on his wound so is on antibiotics which should sort that out. It is awful to see him distressed and at times all we could do is offer him lots of love and cuddles. We've done a lot of hugs on the sofa and cbeebies watching as he's not wanted to be put down. Above you can see he's thinking move out the way mummy I'm trying to watch the tv!! Emily' been really good seen as her brothers been getting all the attention she's really growing up and it touches me to think how she has this lovely bond with her brother and really cares about him. Hopefully this week he will be much better and things can start to get back to normal around here.

Last weekend I found this shelf unit in a Charity shop it was natural pine I've deleted the before shot off my camera silly me. So here's the after. I've painted it white and lined the back with some ck blue and white polka dot wrapping paper. It goes well in my bathroom trying to do a beach hut type theme in here. I did a makeover on the bathroom last year. When we moved in the walls and window frame were dark green with dark green carpet we couldn't live with it so it had to go! We ripped up the carpet and painted the floorboards white and the walls cream. The good thing about the bathroom was the panelling which we painted blue. The previous owner was a joiner and made this lovely panelling and the window in keeping with the style of the rest of the house.

I couldn't resist this little boat by East Of India when I saw it. Amazingly it has my daughters name printed on it!

No sewing has got done but here's a sneaky peek at what I've been up to and will post pictures of what they are when their finished.

Below is our magnolia tree in our garden it's a picture at this time of year this was taken a few weeks ago it's not looking so good now as it's taken a battering from the rain we've had.

Going to have a nice cuppa now and try to read my country living magazine which lasts all of about 20 seconds before Emily pulls it off me and says let me look Mummy!x