30/08/2014

Work in progress – a knitted dinosaur

Or a knitted stegosaur to be precise.

Either way, this little knitted dinosaur toy is a present for my friend’s baby boy (due any day now eeek). I’m really enjoying this pattern so far, it’s from ravelry and is knitted in the round using the magic loop method (tutorial on magic loop here).

Don’t you just love that stage when the pattern starts to make sense and reveal itself?! You can now see his head and half his body. It’s a little bigger than I was expecting, slightly concerned it might end up bigger than the baby, but I guess dinosaurs are giant compared to humans so perhaps I’ll just claim it’s to scale...

I’ve not decided what colour to do his stegosaurus spikes yet, but I've named him Dino.




25/08/2014

Recently I’ve been...

Trying not to kill this gorgeous chilli plant given to me by a friend. I have a mixed track record with indoor plants, but love the idea of free chillies so I am doing my best. It's the orange wonder variety and is fairly hot when eaten raw, as the boyfriend discovered!


Crocheting my second granny square cushion for a friend's birthday. I finished it the morning of, oops. But she loved it, phew! And I was amazed how many other compliments it received, even from the boys!


Running... okay well this one has actually tailed off in the last week thanks to my summer cold, which is truly hideous. However I have just taken advantage of an M&S discount for a new sports bar so hopefully that help get me back on (the) track next week.


Collecting mini jam jars, what started as a joke on our holiday back in June has turned into a slight obsession. After collecting the miniature Bonne Maman jars at breakfast in our B&B each morning I'm now seeing them everywhere and feel compelled to take them home! I'm having fun deciding what to do with them though, button storage, condiment jars, candle holders... what do you think?

20/08/2014

florals and feathers: the August edit

florals


Leaping Hares Pouch / Peonie Cole Textiles

Peonie Cole designs the most gorgeous flower and nature inspired prints, which she turns into fabrics, cushions and home accessories. I’m not usually one for full on pink but I can’t resist the cute hare and rose on this pouch. After discovering her on twitter only the other week, I’ve also added several of her cushions to my ‘new home’ wish list!


Floral kimono / Laura Jane Fashion / Etsy

The kimono has taken summer by storm this year and this chiffon, floral print with pastel colours is the perfect summer cover up. Extra points as it’s handmade too.

feathers


Stained glass feather necklace / Here & now / Etsy

A necklace with a real feather! I love the oval shape, which gives it a really vintage feel.



Glitter dipped feathers / DIY / Pinterest

My favourite kind of DIY simple, but effective (and a little bit messy). These glitter dipped feathers would look great as a garland, on a wreath, in a jar on the mantel...  grab some feathers, glitter and glue and get creative.

Which is your favourite?

15/08/2014

Borde Hill Garden – a visit

This was a slightly more special visit than our usual Sunday wanderings as Borde Hill Garden jumped straight to the top of my ‘to visit’ list when I figured out that it was one of the places my grandparents took my brother, cousin and I in the school holidays. I’ve always had this memory of a great day out – sunshine, playing hid and seek, wide open fields, getting stung by a nettle (!) but couldn’t figure out where it was until Borde Hill came up in conversation and that was it – I had to go back!

The garden has all the usual features; rose garden, Italian garden, Victorian greenhouses, Mediterranean garden... all covering 17 acres. The highlights for me were the rose garden (always) and Victorian greenhouses, some of which were beautifully dilapidated and overgrown. Sadly, it was just too humid (one of those really warm days a couple of weeks ago) for us to face a long walk around the adjoining parkland, so instead we made it down to the lake and back before going for a final look in the gardens and playing ‘guess the price’ on their sculpture trail, my favourite was easily the owl pictured below, although he was predictably out of my price range.








09/08/2014

The Vintage Girl - a book review



The Vintage Girl by Hester Browne.

If only this was my life - surrounded by vintage trinkets and antique furniture, staying in a Scottish castle and the owner of an invite to a Scottish ball. But it’s not mine, it’s Evie Nicholson’s - who leaves her uptight boss and normal life working in an antiques shop in London to go on a valuation trip to a Scottish castle, where she finds herself surrounded not only by antiques and romantic stories of the castle’s past, but by two love interests.

It took just three days to read this book, (possibly a new record for me) proof that I really enjoyed it! However, it was while we were on holiday so I did have the luxury of lots of reading time. Sitting in the wingback armchairs under a painting of a Victorian lady by a piano, in the sitting room at our B&B probably added to the ‘romance’ of the book. So I’ll try not to get too carried away. I will just say that this one is staying firmly on my bookshelf, rather than going to the charity shop, as it’s definitely one I will read again. 

Right, I’m off to google holidays in Scotland...

04/08/2014

Blog hop

Something a little different today in the form of my first blog hop! I was thrilled when the lovely Leanne of Knit me a cake asked me to take part in this one - the questions have been really fun to answer and hopefully it’s a chance for you to learn more about me (for instance, yes that is a kitten sticker on my laptop and it makes me very happy!). Another great thing about a blog hop is the opportunity to discover new blogs, so read on, take a look at Leanne’s blog and see who I’ve nominated to carry on the hop at the bottom.


Why do I write?
Because I enjoy it! But I suppose I started writing again after university (about four years ago), during and before that I'd been so busy with exams, new friends, a new city, that most of my hobbies had been forgotten about including writing, crafts and photography. While looking for a full time job I discovered and started blogging, by the time I then got a full time job I was enjoying blogging too much to give it up. It inspires me to create and craft more, which in turn inspires me to write about my creations and inspirations, which then makes me want to create more – a nice circle.


What am I working on?
In blogland I’m busy planning some tweaks to the design of floral and feather, nothing radical just some tidying up and refreshing, which I’ll admit I have been putting off for a while, but all of a sudden the time feels right. I’m also considering a new header and playing with designs for this, but I’m not certain that I want to change it just yet.

In other news, something that’s been keeping me very busy and excited (and rather stressed out) is the news that we have had an offer accepted on a house! I’ve kept this news pretty quiet but now things are progressing with solicitors it’s starting to feel more real and I’m starting to relax... slightly...


How does it differ from others of its genre?
In the obvious way floral and feather is different as it's my unique perspective and daily life. Something I love about reading other blogs is the insight into someone else’s perspective, ideas and inspirations. Features like the monthly floral and feather edit and regular picture postcard posts hopefully add a little something different too.

In terms of differing from a genre I'm never really sure which genre I fit into in the first place, a mix of lifestyle and craft I guess. I try not to worry too much about either fitting in or being different, just about making my blog the best I can make it, we spend too much time comparing ourselves.


How does my writing process work?
Working full time, I write in the evenings and weekends (although sometimes on my lunch break) and while I often decide ahead and set aside time for writing, that’s usually the time that I get struck with bloggers block. Oh, the irony. This means I usually just write when I'm feeling inspired. Recently I've got into a nice habit of writing posts on a Sunday morning in my pjs, I suppose because that's usually when I feel most relaxed.

When it comes to the actual writing I'll normally make some notes first and organise these into a structure before starting to write, and finally adding in links etc. when I'm happy. Of course sometimes it doesn't happen like that but that's all part of the fun.

I try to plan and schedule posts ahead of time and be at least one draft post ahead of myself, I did vow to create a proper written down schedule and plan (as opposed to the one which currently exists in my head) although I haven’t managed this yet!

So, while I go stationary shopping (in order to create this schedule and plan) check out the two fabulous bloggers who will be carrying on the blog hop baton – look out for their posts next Monday.

Katie from Hook, Line and Sink Her writes about life, crafts and dinosaurs and her posts regularly make me laugh out loud! She lives in a house full of her makes, which has the most beautiful bathroom tiles I’ve ever seen.

You’ll find lots of vintage carnivals, days out and some delicious looking food on Louisa’s blog -  Duck in a dress. I particularly love her photo an hour posts, she has such interesting weekends!

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