Ten

At the end of last week my blog turned 10, which seems quite unbelievable to me. And while the voracity of my posts have slowed somewhat since I first started out (and some of the very early posts are no longer viewable having moved platforms) it’s still quite a remarkable achievement, and one that I’m grateful that many of you are still here for.

Photo by Timo Müller on Unsplash

It’s another tradition of mine to mark my blog birthdays, and it seems also a tradition to deliberate about a theme for the post. I am clearly a creature of habit, so this year is no different on both counts. So I’ve decided to share ten posts from over the years which are memorable to me, whether that’s because they were great achievements, great opportunities or just because they were special to me.

I know I have been incredibly fortunate to have had (and hopefully to continue to have) some great opportunities come my way just by posting here, and I’ve met some fantastic people through this online space over the years too. This is, and I hope will continue to be, a space for me to share many things from our home and garden projects, our garden visits, my many works in progress and hopefully much, much more.

Thank you for being here, and for being part of my online space and community.

Ten for ten

Having decided to choose ten posts, I soon realised just how hard a task I’d nonchalantly set myself. So with a brief explanation the ten are:

1. Please ring the bell - our visit to Hunte’s Garden in Barbados which is I think the most inspirational and moving gardens I’ve ever visited, and it wasn’t just because of the rum! Even looking back over these photos, and the many more that I haven’t shared here, gives me all the feels.

2. My cross stitch marathon - I have many work in progress projects as you know, and this one is one that’s likely to be around for a while yet. MOH still asks what it’s going to be, and I still say ‘hopefully finished one day!’ I know I should focus on fewer projects, but where’s the fun in that, hey?

3. More bubbles in my sourdough - this one’s on the list because I regularly refer to it to make sure my brain fogged brain has remembered the recipe correctly. And yes, I make sourdough almost every week sometimes more than once a week, but I still find myself checking to make sure.

4. The one with the redecorated loo - many of you will have at some point wondered what my fascination with the decor in loos is all about. Quite honestly, I don’t know but I knew there had to be one from The Loo Series on this list, so what better than this one.

5. A map on my wall - this is one of the collaborative posts I’m sharing here, and it’s the one that really still does give the wow factor. Having a map on a curved wall was absolutely inspired, even though I wasn’t totally aware of just how well it would turn out back at the planning stage, though I’m claiming all of the credit!

6. Highlights of my Chelsea (part 2) - I’ve been fortunate to have been invited to many events and shows such as Grand Designs and Gardener’s World Live over the years, and they’ve all been brilliant. The real highlight though was when I went along to the Chelsea Flower Show on Press Day. Totally awesome, and something I hope I’m able to repeat.

7. Highlights of my Chelsea (part 1) - this is a bit of a cheat really, but I couldn’t choose between the two posts from the day, so they’re both here.

8. Circles and slate - this is one of my great achievements posts where we transformed our garden ourselves. In the end it turned out we were up against a bit of a deadline after arranging our 110th party for that summer, so we put in many hours hard work, but it was definitely worth it.

9. More than ‘just’ a lawnmower - I never knew there was so much to know about lawnmowers, but I’m glad I got the opportunity to find out on this press trip to the Viking factory in Kufstein, a town in Austria which we travelled to by coach from Munich airport. I will never forget the warmth and hospitality of the Viking and Stihl teams and the relationship which resulted in a series of posts, and I remain impressed by the knowledge and passion which goes into each of their products, which are just brilliant too.

10. 52 Cookbooks: 52 new recipes in 2014 - this series of posts was a great challenge taking place over the whole year, using a different cookbook every week. And yes, I had more than I needed to choose from so I’m minded to redo this challenge at some point, who knows maybe next year as its decennial - watch this space!

Watercolour heart doodles

We have a fairly relaxed take on Valentines here, and though we mark the occasion each year, usually with a card and a small gift, it’s not just about the one day. This year was more relaxed than normal and we ate a lovely home cooked meal. I’d been contemplating the style of card I’d make this year, but right up until the day before I didn’t know exactly what form it would take.

I’d seen, and thought I’d saved but hadn’t as it turned out, an idea on Instagram using heart shaped cookie cutters to stamp an outline using watercolours and then using water to flood the shape. That appealed, and so I dug out an appropriately sized cookie cutter and my watercolours, and started to look for the reel I thought I’d saved.

I couldn’t find it, but thought the idea was simple enough, and started thinking what’s the worst that could happen. It didn’t work exactly as my memory thought it should, but you know what, that didn’t matter and so I spent the afternoon doodling some watercolour hearts, with no plan other than to use them somehow on a card for MOH.

The plan was to mix some watercolours, dunk in the cookie cutter and stamp that onto the paper. My plastic heart didn’t really pick up the paint that way, and so I soon adapted my approach to paint the colours directly onto the edge. This left a pretty melee of colours on the white plastic, which almost looks as if it belongs to someone who knows what they’re doing!

And don’t worry, this cookie cutter has been retired from the kitchen and is now labelled a permanent addition to my craft kit!

With my new approach working pretty well there was no stopping me, and hearts of many colours quickly decorated my page. I even managed to wait for it to dry before adding colour for depth and interest. I soon realised that I much preferred the bolder colours once more layers were added, but also realised I probably should have started with a background rather than diving straight in with the hearts.

I didn’t want to risk adding a watercolour background and disturbing what was already there, the bleeding heart look wasn’t quite what I was going for. So instead I used some more pastel-shaded pencils to doodle in a background, and deeper complementary colours to add further depth to the hearts. Then I finally worked out how I would use this and out came my die cutter.

As experiments go, it was quite an enjoyable afternoon and productive too as MOH was once again the recipient of a truly unique card made with love.

Eight cards to brighten a wintery day

I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this has been a long, long winter and so it was good receive the most recent Card Boys box through the post. Once again there’s eight cards, and once again its hard to choose a single favourite.

All of them though brought a pop of much welcomed colour to my morning, and yes, even those on with dark backgrounds - they just make the colours pop even more.

ARTIST: CAROLINE SPELMAN

Couldn’t you just dive into those leaves and smell the freshness right now? Or maybe a birthday party is just what we need…

ARTIST: GRACE CHILTON

ARTIST: CATARINA MORALS

There’s plants in vases and plenty of yellow and orange flowers - I’ve been trying to work out what they are and are settling on cone flowers for the yellow, and perhaps dahlias or gerberas for the orange ones. But they could be any number of other flowers either, and that’s ok.

ARTIST: HANNAH GRACE

ARTIST: RUTH MARTIN

Abstract shapes, perhaps for when you’re not sure what to say or friendly turtles swimming in an unrealistic bubblegum pink pond. Both made me smile though.

ARTIST: LAURA BARNES

ARTIST: LAURA MCLEISH

We all need to hear that we’re fantastic at times, and what better way than by post? I’m between these two for my favourites this month, but then again it really could be any of them.

ARTIST: LAURA BARNES

Which would you choose?