When Your Garden is put to bed. Get creative.

Another month has flown by and Christmas will soon be upon us. Just where has this year flown to?  They say time flies by when you are having fun, well, it’s certainly flown. And I have been having fun creating. 

In my last months post I shared my finished knitted cardigan with you, Well I have since been knitting some more.. I knitted a cardigan for my granddaughter and she wanted a pair of finger-less gloves. 

Then using the wool which was left over I knitted a snood, and another pair of gloves.  a I started a scarf last year which had sat in the knitting bag for ages unfinished. So I decided to make that into a snood too. The results of these below.

Then you may remember in January of this year I started model making a greenhouse, which was so intricate, you just had to be in the mood to concentrate with all the tiny fiddly pieces you cut out and pasted.. The flowers were made out of tissue paper and fine wire. 

 

  Its vases were beads, the flowers I cut and pasted and well, you will see when I add the photo’s just what went into it. The flower pots and watering can and little seed bags each made individually out of paper.

Watering can pieces out of paper

leaves and watering can made

The furniture I made and glued together. including making the tiny pencil and paintbrush, to teasing out the frill on the cover on the box with a pin in the pieces of cotton. Even the handles on the draws I shaped out of metal were glued in place. 

Furniture, plants, bird box and seed packets including the cloth on the box which had the fringe teased out in the cotton fabric

Model furniture

What was my proudest achievement was my own bit of electrical work in the form of making a bulb terminal and light fitting, So minute.. I had to wire the bulb, and do the fiddly connections. And the bulb works  😊.. Yes, that put an even bigger smile upon my face.

Diagram of how to wire and fit the light inside the greenhouse.

Here you can see the stages that were required and I included the plan so you can see what was involved.. The bulb came separate with two prongs which I had to wire and cut to size and insulate. 

All the furniture was then glued onto the base and the items glued and put onto the shelves.  

Next I had to create the plastic casing for the greenhouse. Glue and fold it into its shape.

Now I know you Male readers out there may think this is simple, it was once I knew what I was doing.. But it was like me presenting you with a knitting pattern and expecting you to understand it at first glance.. 🙂 lol.  

All the sages now ready for assembly. This required LOTS of Patience..

 

Door frame and wooden base struts were added. If you look closely there is also a tap I made out of copper and eyelet and hose pipe out of tubing and thin metal I bent for the hose.

It still had a few more bits to add and the roof of the greenhouse needs black card strips yet to stick in place to cover the joints. 

Covering the joins with black card which was glued in place,

In the gallery below I will put more pictures of the Greenhouse making stages with LIGHT on.. 🙂  I glued some greenery around the edges for climbers. 

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to comment and like my post.. Many thanks to all who follow here, I wish you all a wonderful Festive Holiday Season of Fun with your family and friends..

But most of all I wish each and every one of your Peace, Love and Joy along with Good Health that takes you into 2019 and Beyond..

I am taking a blogging break, so comments may be pending for a short while..

~ Love ~Sue~

🎄Happy Christmas🎄

and 

✨A Happy New Year✨  

 

Snow, Art, Sparrows and Hawks.

Hello again, and where did February go to? I can not believe I only posted once here in the whole of February. But then I have been focusing upon other things.

We did not have half as much snow as in the South and further North of us had We have been lucky, yet there was still enough snow fall to close roads and schools  were closed down for three days. 

While the Winter weather has caused disruptions and chaos on our UK roads, and for some bringing tragedy, for others its been a time to enjoy snow in parts of the UK where snow has been a rarity for many years, So for many youngsters this was the first real snow they had seen in a while.

Sledging. over a bridge on a local walk we take. My Granddaughter aged 7.  Having Fun in the snow. 

The last heavy snow fall we had been in 2010 the year my granddaughter was born.  So while we have had snow,  for many this was the first significant fall they had seen in years.

Making sure the birds do not go hungry. We moved their feeders under the bushes for protection from the sparrow hawk.

Its been important to keep feeding the wild life, who have also been suffering, we moved their feeders around a bit to help shelter them. For where they were, they were more exposed.  And Since January our garden has also had a visitor looking for food.. A Sparrow Hawk.

Sparrow Hawk in January. Now he knows where sparrows feed, he’s been trying his luck at catching them in our garden and came on two consecutive days last week in the snow. So he/she is also feeling hungry. But as far as we know he flew away empty-handed.

While winter here in the UK last week got its teeth into us with freezing temperatures and snow storms, I was huddled warm indoors painting and doodling, while I continued putting my collection of poems together and managed to write my third chapter on something I am working on.

The parts of the green house model making took a back seat for a time.  though I did spend several hours creating these flowers. They were fiddly, but absorbing.

Roses, made by winding folded paper around and around and gluing onto wire.

Here you can see a collection of flowers I made

But my main concentration has been on creating two paintings, they are already hung in my home as I swap my artwork around every now and again.  I paint purely for pleasure . So this was the first I painted, a Leopard. The second painting a Lion. Both of these Animal totems spoke to me in different ways.  And I wrote more about that on my main blog.

My Leopard painting in Acrylic.

My Lion painting in Acrylics

I hope if you have been affected by the Winter weather and storms, you have kept safe and warm where ever you are. 

 I hope Spring  starts to Stir Soon,  I can not wait to reconnect with our garden. 

Take care until next time.

 

 

A Little Time for Craft.

First thank you all of you who  have recently subscribed to my Gardening blog, I was amazed to see the numbers had jumped since January.. So thank you.. If you make yourself known, I will repay the honour of your visits as time allows.. 

Many may already know this is my second blog that I use to devote more to my Gardening and my Travels and Craft more then anything else.. And it often gets neglected when I am busy with other things which has been painting recently. The results of which are found here. https://wp.me/p16xW7-2uA 

 

So some of you may remember just after Christmas I started upon building the model Greenhouse.  Well I am still making it.. Piece by piece, It said the model could take ten or more hours to make.. Well believe me I have spent more hours than ten on it already and its still not completed.. But it is keeping me quiet when I am in the mood to concentrate upon minute bits of paper to make into individual flowers.. 

Here are some photo’s  of what I have been up to 

If you click onto the photos they should enlarge. 

Here you see a paper seed bag at the bottom. The brown card, you can see are boxes and plant pots which also have to be cut out and bent and glued together

Here you can see me making some tiny seed bags.. Each pieces is cut out and then stuck together with paper glue. in the finished bags you see

Here you see after cutting out these leaves how they were assembled on wire before gluing in tiny bead pots.

This gives you an idea of assembling paper pieces cut out from the patterns.. This is a watering Can.. the measurements are cementers

Here is the little Watering Can which was made out of the Ten pieces of separate paper In the previous photo.. Also here you can see the plants I made.. If you zoom into the photo on the instruction page you will see how the flower are each individually made from wire, yellow and pink paper I cut out.. The Banana Palm as well as all other plants made this way.. Which took time..

Here you see books each have little pages with pictures of flowers inside.. You also see a rush mat, two bird houses and a storage box with cover.. The cloth on top also has a fringe around it.. You have to tease out the threads to make the fringes I hope if you enlarge the photo you can see this.

You can see how time consuming, but absorbing this has been.. And I already made the furniture in wood which came in small pieces too,  which I posted here   on my blog

On the gardening front.. My hubby has made a start.. He planted Shallots in separate little pots along with seeds for Cabbage and Broccoli and Cauliflower seeds in trays to start off in the green house.. The English weather is Wild and Wet right now.. Not knowing whether to snow, hail or sunshine from one moment to the next.. 

What hobbies have kept you busy over Winter? 

Until Next Time..

Happy Creating!. 

 

Happy New Year!

Well I thought I must poke up my head from where it has been buried over the Holidays and put together some sort of post for the New Year. 

I wish each and everyone a very Happy New Year and I hope it holds an Abundance of Happy gardening hours along with lots of Fun, Family times ahead. 

This time of year nothing much is happening, though a  New Blogging friend over at Our Organic Veg Trials  is starting out this year on a new venture. So you may like to pay Steve a visit and see how his year progresses.. I know I will be. He also reminded me it was time to get planting our sweetpea seeds, which was a timely reminder as i was late last year, but they did catch up. 

So, just a few photos to share with you.  Back in October we put our Garden motion camera to good use, and got a few videos and shots of our regular visitor to our home garden. Our Hedgehog.  These garden friendly creatures help keep the slugs and pests our gardens do not want at bay.. 

Yet they are finding it harder and harder to access our gardens, because of the sturdy fences and gates we all have around our properties.. So as I have mentioned before, try to leave small gaps in your fences at the bottom which help them navigate via your gardens and not via the road which they often end up as road kill, as they just curl up in a ball when frightened .  ( if you click onto the photos they will enlarge )  I am hoping all hedgehogs are now hibernating and fast asleep until the Spring. 

Hedgehog in October on our back garden

Hedgehog in June

We have also lit the gypsy stove I told you about in this post. and it soon gets the home greenhouse nice and warm.. Though we have only had to light it  a few times when temperatures have really dropped below freezing.. But we are well pleased with it. 

Gypsy Stove has been lit a couple of times during the low temps in the home greenhouse.

So what have I been keeping my self busy with? Well would you believe it, but I have been model making.. Yes Making a model wait for it   a  ‘Green house’ 🙂 Smiles. 

Our Daughter bought our granddaughter her niece, a model green house thinking it would be ideal for her to play with her Barbie dolls.. However, on closer inspection, its a little more complex than a 7 year old could manage.. And to be honest, it has Grandma scratching her head at times, as I glue, mould pieces of wire in shapes as handles smaller than my little finger nail and glue and cut and stick.. 

I will give you an idea..   This is the wonderful Green house Model 

Green House model kit when it is completed Picture curtesy of Bits and Pieces  uk. co. uk.

Below you get the idea of how small these pieces are, and each piece has many pieces you cut glue and put together. This little collection took about 6 hours in total and I have loads more yet to put together.  But I am loving it, and its keeping me quiet. 

My Granddaughter was gifted a Model making kit of a greenhouse and accessories, And Grandma volunteered to put it together

Next time I hope to be sharing more photos of Scotland with you as I put together our visit to Seil Island. 

In the mean time, have a wonderful start to your New Year.. 

And Happy Gardening