Author Archives: pennygj

Let the Dog See the Rabbit…

…as my father used to say. I don’t know about rabbits, it’s been possible for a small herd of hippos to find hiding places around here over the past few weeks such is the amount of stuff I have been moving from place to place and box to box. Last week it all seemed to reach a crescendo of chaos and, despite my inability to be tidy, I am debilitated by mess.

However, I think I am now on the verge of normal service being resumed. The studio is more or less fit for purpose and the bogeyman now has room to fit back under my bed (even the the dust bunnies have gone thanks to Kryton)

I’ve managed to keep up my Twenty Minuter pledge with little, in-front-of-the-telly sized projects, but between the box shifting and the vegetable plot not a lot of creativity has happened.

Outside though, Mother Nature has been as creative as only she can be, and the camera has been an essential part of Higgins walking equipment. One of the joys of blogging is the discipline it imposes on recording things to write about so this year I have far more images of the fleeting loveliness of the English Spring to keep the memories fresh.

I love the lush, multi shaded green-ness of May, with the sprinkling of bright spring flowers from Bluebells and Stitchwort, Speedwell and Queen Anne’s Lace, wild Plum and Apple blossom right down to the humble Dandelion and Dead Nettle.

The tulips have been lovely this year, and on a visit to Kit’s garden I found one which had obviously been wired up to the National Grid!

I do have a few of my own, but I think I will have to take a leaf out of Jane Brocket’s book for a more spectacular show next year.

The beautiful red tulips at the end of the garden are Higgins favourite. Unfortunately he thinks they are delicious and I caught him tearing round the lawn with one hanging out of the side of his mouth like Carmen Miranda! No picture alas, I couldn’t catch up…

I shall have to dash now and get a little parcel all packed up. I’ve been taking part in a bloggy swap organised by Emma of Em’s Shabby Shack and have a little pile of goodies ready to send off to my partner, Kelly of Kelly’s Recipe’s for Life. I shan’t show them to you just yet or I will spoil the surprise so watch out later in the week.

And don’t forget there is still another week to run on the 100 Post Giveaway so if you haven’t done so already don’t forget to enter the draw,

Back soon…!

Guest Post: Higgins and the Seal

Hello All, Higgins here! Being helpful again! Mum’s been busy in the garden all week. She says I’m not helpful there. At All…Grrrrmph….those green things are growing aren’t they? Why do they have to be in rows?

So I’m on the tappy thing. Do you want to hear about me going to the beach? I went with Auntie Aimee And Auntie Charlotte. Mum didn’t come. She can’t do long walks like we can. I had to wear my seat belt, it’s boring.

I like the beach but they said I had to wear my jumper.

That’s boring too…but it’s warm…I s’pose…

There’s a big bath at the beach, it’s called the sea. It’s very cold…not like my bath at home…and there was a thing, having a bath…

I thought it was dog, and we could play, but it didn’t have any EARS!! I’ve got lovely ears. Auntie Charlotte said it was a seal…

I think it wanted to play too…

…but it didn’t have any LEGS! I’ve got legs even though they’re only little … AND he didn’t have a towel…

My legs got a bit tired so I had to have a carry back to the car…

I had to have my jumper taken off…

… AND wear my seat belt…AGAIN!

…but I had a lovely day…THANK YOU!

P S. A big thank you to Charlotte for the great photos…

Post One Hundred

Happy May Day! Did anyone rise at day to wash their face in the May Day dew? It was apparently once considered a foolproof beauty treatment. Personally I decided it was far too late!

And it’s a special day too because it’s my bloggy 100th birthday. It’s hard to remember the first tentative post I wrote. I do know that I was so convinced I had nothing to write about that that was what happened for the first few months, nothing! But it’s proved a life saver. I had to make things happen, I had to make things.

So now I’m inviting you to celebrate with a present from me to you as a thank you for allowing me to ramble on.

It’s a little knitted cotton bag lined with Cath Kidsonesque fabric and I’m popping inside a knitted and felted rose corsage and a notebook, all made here on Planet Penny. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to be entered into the draw which I will do on the 22nd of this month using the Amazing Random Number Generator and I’m happy to post anywhere which has a reasonably reliable postal service.

So, don’t be shy…I know there are lots of you who pop in and pop out quietly. This time stop and say hello, I’d love to hear from you all.

Have a lovely weekend…

How To Look Good…

…but NOT naked!

One of the best pieces of advice I gave my daughter when she was growing up was knowing when to stop. And she did, she stopped at a nice, manageable 5′ 6″ with size 7 feet. Clever girl! I on the other hand grew like a weed, reaching 5’9 (and a half) at 14 and I have never, ever had any confidence in how I look. This was compounded when shopping for clothes. Anything which would fit over my coathanger shoulders billowed out round my skinny lanky body like a bell tent. The sales girls in shoe shops would pale and recoil when their careful measurement of my feet revealed I was a size 8 and a half AA fitting. Norfolk in those days was not ready for a skinny giant, which was how I came to regard myself.

I look back at old photos and wish I’d realised then that I was absolutely fine, not bad at all, and enjoyed it. Even though these days being tall is more and more common, outside London (and Long Tall Sally shops) it’s still really hard to find clothes that are long enough in the leg, the sleeves and waist. Although I left the beanpole stage behind after the first baby I latterly ballooned after developing M.E. so there has never been a time when clothes shopping hasn’t been a nightmare.

But, it’s never too late to change. I’ve been tackling the weight problem for a while now with Weightwatchers and it’s plain to see that the whole weight/M.E. thing is a vicious circle of tiredness, lethargy,depression, comfort eating, weight gain causing the tiredness, lethargy etc, etc… Not carting around three and half stone of extra weight means I’m more active and so burning off more calories and the spiral starts to go up not down. Years ago I used to make my own clothes, and now I’ve slimmed back down to the size of my dressmakers dummy!

(Admittedly it’s at it’s largest setting at the moment but THIS WILL CHANGE!) I’m getting my confidence back by tackling the shirt in this month’s SEW magazine, and have spent the afternoon cutting out a toile in calico so I can add the inches in the length I need.

Also, I’ve signed the Handmade Pledge so I’ve got to do it now, I can’t afford anyone else to make my clothes…!

Off to the Fair…

…the Norwich Bead and Textile Fair that is. A lovely Sunday morning treat. Having said that, I ALWAYS get a headache when I go to these things, I get so overwhelmed with colour, and texture, and wanting to try new things and talking myself out of it … Anyway, we did our usual circuit to check out what was on offer, a coffee to calm down and then spent some money.
I couldn’t resist this fabric…

I seem to have a ‘tea’ thing in my head at the moment,because there was also this button…

(which is much much smaller than that!)

I’ve been wanting to try printing some fabric for a project for ages so I was very happy to find Crafty Notions stand, a range of textile paints called Colourful Thoughts and a nice lady demonstrating exactly how they work so I bought these…

And then, to keep myself occupied in odd moments with a ball of wool, I HAD to have this…

Natural Dye Studio ‘Angel’ baby Alpaca, Cashmere and Silk lace weight. It is SO soft, and came with a free scarf pattern…

It was nice to meet up with old friends, and make new ones. Fellow students from courses at Broadland Art Centre, a bloggy friend, Teena of Kitschen Pink, and Bridget of feltbybridget.com with her lovely felty, woolly stall. Bridget even went home and started her own blog!

Outside in the fresh and rather damp air, were some lovely pieces of floral inspiration. Don’t you just love the colour of these pansies?

I feel a patchwork quilt coming on…

…and in the strange rather stormy overcast light, the euphorbia was almost Dayglo green…

And we found a little bed where the planting was straight off a nineteen thirties printed cotton frock…

And now it’s time to get some work done. I’m still working my way through sorting stuff out of boxes, but I now have a work surface and lots of things to get on with…

Back soon!

P.S. My 100th post is coming up very soon, watch out for another giveaway…!

It’s been…

…a funny old week. Hard to settle to anything while worrying about ash, and aeroplanes, and far flung friends and relations. They have variously been stuck in South Africa, Florida, Las Vegas, Dubai and the middle of the North Sea. So far, Tim is home only twenty four hours late from the gas platform. My newly married nephew and niece-in-law have arrived home from Las Vegas and, no, they didn’t have an Elvis wedding…As far as I can make out the rest are sunning themselves, in a bored fashion, whilst worrying about their undies and waiting for planes. What a palaver…

However, despite the background fretting, life has continued. For Higgins fans, the shock news is he’s a porky little sausage. Sally at the vets has confirmed Tim’s verdict on returning home about his slight rotundity. He has to lose half a kilo, about a pound! Oh that Weightwatchers would tell me that would answer my own problems! For a little dog who LOVES his food, it’s going to be hard. And grapes are toxic! We have to tell granny that in the morning …he goes there every day and shouts at the fruit bowl.

I have been wielding my crochet hook. Penny at Violet White had a tutorial for some lovely teeny tiny flowers and I got completely ‘hooked ‘ on making them. I had so many I had to dream up a home for them, and I really needed a teacosy.

So the tea cosy has grown, without the problems suffered by the vegetable garden, and has been adding a little happiness to tea time…

…and my felt teapot has found a new home in Norwich. A friend has opened a fabulous new coffee shop in St Giles Street also serving Teapig teas (and extremely scrummy and wicked homemade cakes)

So it seemed a pretty good place to put the ‘Tea Time’ teapot on display…

As The Cherryleaf is on the way from the city centre to that wonderful shop, ‘Verandah’ in Upper St Giles Street, it makes a good destination when you’re out for an indulgent day’s shopping.

And then from cherryleaves to cherry blossom. I have three cherry trees in my garden, a source of much delight. At this time of the year there is the anticipation of the froth of white blossom, and then, as the year wears on, the bliss of lying on the hammock slung beneath gazing up into green shade speckled with red bunches of cherries. I couldn’t wait this year and brought in some small branches in order to enjoy their loveliness at close quarters…

There’s lots more to say, and it’s taken me all week to say this much! Must try harder… Enjoy the rest of the weekend…