Some of the things that have made me very happy this week are:
1. Blue cornflowers.
Back in March, my friend Leanne sent me some seeds which she'd collected from her own garden. Zinnias, cosmos, nigella and these cornflowers. I planted them all with, ahem, mixed success and now suddenly, I have these beauties. Last week I had reedy, weedy looking plants, then they all sprouted the most stunning blue flowers, seemingly overnight! Gardening, wow. I like the blue and white - always a favourite combination of mine - with the Dala horse.
2. Sewing. I've done lots of embroidery this year, but It's been months since I did any applique or delved into my fabric stash. I'd forgotten what delights lie (crushed) in that drawer!
A mum at school ordered a t-shirt (the first I've made this year I think) and I had fun sorting and searching, looking for the right sort of fabrics to make a monkey swinging from a tree.
3. Salted liquorice from IKEA. Impossible to photograph, but oh so moreish.
4. A new mattress.
A freshly made up bed is a heavenly thing all on it's own, but when you've just taken delivery of a new mattress, and waved goodbye to the old, lumpy one...well that is very good indeed.
5. Charity shop finds. This pyrex Carnaby dish cost me all of 50p. It's a small casserole dish, missing it's clear glass lid, but very useful all the same. I love pyrex, but I particularly love this pattern as my Grandma had some of this style in her kitchen, and so it reminds me of her too.
I've never bought plants in a charity shop before, but three little succulents, for only £1? Ok then. I just need some cute little pots now.
Thank you all so much for your wonderfully warm, supportive and downright lovely comments on my last post. The generosity of spirit in the blogging community is a good, good thing, and it is to be celebrated.
I hope you all have a great weekend. The Tour De France begins in Leeds tomorrow and it is a HUGE deal up here in Yorkshire. It's not really my cup of tea, but I'll be mentally cheering on Yorkshire and the cyclists while I avoid all main roads and public spaces until it's all over. I may take the kids strawberry picking.
And happy fourth of July to my American friends!
Did I see a pink vintage sheet in your fabric drawer? I am building up a collection of vintage linens, mostly pillowcases but a few sheets. Your pyrex dish is cute, I had some patterned pyrex years ago but only have a few bits of the clear stuff now. I must remedy that as soon as, I think my kitchen could stand a few splashes of colour.
ReplyDeleteIt is sometimes the simplest things in life which makes us happy! The trick is to know it when we find it and you have!
ReplyDeleteHappy Summer,
Lovely cornflowers, I've grown some this year as well, in mixed colours, including a wonderful deep reddish purple. The pyrex and the succulents were good finds, I like pyrex too, and I'd definitely have picked up the succulents, I'm a bit obsessed with them at the moment. I hope you guys all have a lovely weekend. We'll be heading home from Cornwall tomorrow, so there'll be a little blueness I expect. How fast the holiday week flies by. But it's so good while it lasts. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteA great collection of happies, the T shirt looks great!
ReplyDeleteLovely happy things! I hope that your friend likes the t-shirt and that the recipient loves wearing it too, I bet that you had fun making it! We could do with a new mattress, but it will have to wait for now, so I know how much you are appreciating your new one!! Hope that you have a good weekend with the cycling going on and that you get to enjoy it. xx
ReplyDeleteCornflower blue is just gorgeous isn't it.
ReplyDeleteYou really are very clever to make the applause t-shirt.
I'm just sorting out which crafts (how much I can get in a case!) to take to Spain. I can't wait. Enjoy your weekend. X
I adore cornflowers and have that Mag on my list to buy this weekend. Those succulents were a real bargain too. There is nothing better than new linen and new beds, well whoop to that!
ReplyDeleteOh, I must plant some cornflower seeds in my garden as soon as we get home from our winter camping trip! Such a brilliant colour. Those pillowslips would make me pretty happy too, I think! x
ReplyDeleteI love cornflowers...such an amazing blue!
ReplyDeletePretty little succulents too....:)
I LOVE cornflowers Gillian, thank you for the beautiful pics! All your Happies are wonderful and I can imagine some child being deliriously happy with the swinging monkey - you did a great job with it. Lovely to have a new mattress and I bet you have really comfy nights on it - goodbye sore back. I want a new bedhead but harping on for years hasn't brought it to me yet - nothing wrong with the present one, I just need a change from the dark wood. Happy weekend to you and yours, xoJoy
ReplyDeleteThe blue flower are my favorite. Have a lovely weekend!
ReplyDeleteLucie x
Hi Gillian :-) Cornflowers are such a delight and I love the photos of yours. Such a lovely week of happies.
ReplyDeletexxx
A lovely post Gillian - as always! I love cornflowers, too, and your monkey is fab. Have a great weekend xx
ReplyDeleteLovely happy post! I bought the magazine that your home is in the other day! Lovely big feature!! X
ReplyDeleteI agree, a freshly made bed is the best. Love the garland hanging above, did you make it? Cornflowers are so pretty. T x
ReplyDeleteSo sorry for the delay here - I thought I'd answered this ages ago!! Yes, I made it by simply threading a load of felt balls I bought on ebay onto thread. I wrote about it here:
Deletehttp://www.talesfromahappyhouse.com/2012/10/a-felt-ball-garland.html
Gillian x
Happy, happy, happy! We're not venturing out either. Harrogate is the finish of today's bit, so roads will be crammed!
ReplyDeleteJacqui xx
A new mattress - I'm sure you had a great night's sleep. I woke at 4 a.m. trying to work out a crochet pattern and couldn't get back to sleep! Why son't you crochet some covers for the succulents?
ReplyDeleteThat T shirt looks fab! And the cornflowers are sweet too. They're the national flower of Poland so I have a soft spot for them...
ReplyDeleteI like the above comment about crocheting covers for your new plants. I think it's going to be a wet weekend so maybe that would be an idea? I wish I could crochet, I really do!
Have a lovely weekend.
Sarah x
Brilliant t shirt, it will make some little person's year!
ReplyDeleteAnd the flowers look brilliant. Have a good weekend!
Love the t-shirt and the flowers are so very rpretty!
ReplyDeleteI fancy a rummage in your fabric drawer! The monkey tshirt is fabulous. The cornflowers are such a beautiful colour. Le Tour fever is a bit bonkers around here isn't it?! I am torn between feeling I should go and watch as it is local and remembering that I have no interest in cycling whatsoever! Bought the mag to read about your lovely house - gorgeous! Thought it was a great article.
ReplyDeleteI love your thrift shop find!
ReplyDeleteYears ago the prologue to the Tour was held here in Netherlands. We were there along the roadside to see it all. The weather was awful - rainy and miserably cold. Later we sat by the fire drinking hot chocolate, wondering why on earth they didn't organise these things in summer. It's pouring with rain now too. Hope you enjoy the excitement of it all.
I love cornflowers too, I love your first few photos. happy Weekend? Jo x
ReplyDeleteLovely cornflowers, mine a looking a little straggly with a few unexpected pinks ones popping through too! A charity shop with plants sounds ideal for me & your dish was a lovely find. Have a great week.
ReplyDelete5 lovelies for your 5 happies ! And your T shirt - well, wow ! You are so clever. Not sure I've ever tried the Ikea liquorice - almost feel like driving to Bristol right now just to get a bag !
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely weekend Gillian,
Kate x
I really love the t-shirt. Did you hand stitch the appliques? They look so neat and perfect.And yes, I'd be very happy too if I'd found a Pyrex dish like that and for only 50p!! What a great find! Btw, I bought a copy of Style At Home yesterday. I've enjoyed reading about your lovely home and love all the photos. You look great! Congratulations again! x
ReplyDeleteYes I did, but quite quickly. There was a lot of stitching to do! x
DeleteOh Gillian, that T-shirt is so cute! I think I see an Etsy shop opening soon!
ReplyDeleteAnother batch of great happies. Years ago I proudly brought home a blue cornflower plant and popped it in the garden. Later that day we let the pet rabbit out who made a beeline for it and nibbled it from the top downwards until alas the plant was no more.I thought of this a while back when I was planting out some seedling of white cornflowers. Sadly our pet has now passed and fortunately the cornflowers are flourishing.
ReplyDeleteBringing homegrown flowers into the house is such a delight!
Cornflowers are sop pretty, how I love that blue, some wonderful happies the T shirt is super cute
ReplyDeleteClare x
Nearly every time I visit here I end up swooning over your flowers. There are few things I enjoy more than photographs of flowers.
ReplyDeleteStrawberry picking sounds a lovely alternative to the crowds etc. Enjoy whatever you decide to do.
Slán go fóill,
Giselle
I waved good bye to my old mattress this week too, I had forgotten that a bed is supposed to support you!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your weekend,
Meredith
Hope you have been having wonderfully comfortable sleeps with your new mattress!
ReplyDeleteLove the blue and white combo.
I bet your new creation will be loved for a long time, how cute is that monkey?!
Lisa x
Five very lovely happies Gillian, those cornflowers are an incredible blue and, as always, you've captured them beautifully in your photos. I love the monkey t-shirt (does it come in Age 54?), clever you. The pyrex was a good find, we have some that belonged to my mother-in-law and I think my mum still has hers, they are good for just about everything. Have a lovely weekend.
ReplyDeleteJane x
Lovely happies. I really like cornflowers and I think they're even better if they came from a friend. I'm glad you're enjoying the new mattress; we bought one two years ago as a tenth-anniversary gift to ourselves and it's been a vast improvement. Hope you're having a good weekend.
ReplyDeleteIt all looks so lovely. We watched the tour last night. Terrible timing to watch in Australia. Hubby wants to go over there and do his on tour. Oh dear. Love your monkey too.
ReplyDeleteI do love your posts, Friday Happies in particular. Thank you - they always make me smile. Love that Pyrex dish. Must remember to watch the highlights of the cycling tonight - delayed for we Aussies.
ReplyDeleteoh i need to dive back into my stash as well! it's been too long. also, love your pillow cases. they're lotta jansdotter right?
ReplyDeleteHi Gaby! Orla Kiely - but I'd happily have some Lotta Jandsotter ones too, I love her work. x
DeleteRecently, I pointed out some 60s70s pyrex similar to your dish up there to a Swiss friend who was browsing the local brocante/Brockenhaus with me, and said how popular it is with some younger creatives these days... LOL she was utterly astonished!! ;)
ReplyDeleteOh, I love the cornflowers! The color is gorgeous! A new mattress sounds wonderful. We have decided to buy a new one when we move. Ours is old, so it's definitely time for a new one. Your bed looks so pretty and inviting.
ReplyDeleteI have just read your last post and I'm happy for you. You deserve it!! Hugs :)
ReplyDeleteLovely post as always Gillian, I've been admiring your appliqué for quite some time and wondered whether you might one day considering doing a short tutorial one day? Ella x
ReplyDeleteHi Ella - I did write one, aaaaages ago, it was one of my first posts I think! The photos are terrible. The link is here if you want to read it:
Deletehttp://www.talesfromahappyhouse.com/2012/01/how-to-applique.html
Maybe I should write another. x
We ventured out to be a part of the throng on Saturday, it was a LOT of hanging about for just about one minute of WHOOSH as the bikes flew past, and yet I'm glad we went. It was amazing watching it afterwards on TV and seeing our glorious county from the air, looked so beautiful all over Yorkshire :)
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I love your blue and white dala horse
ReplyDeleteI adore corn flowers yours are beautiful!! x
ReplyDeleteLovely blues in your pictures. I went to le Tour and it was fantastic, there was a lot of waiting around (should have taken some crochet with me) but the other things that were happening in lots of places made a complete day of it. Those of us who went are quite giddy today with it all! Can understand that it isn't everyone's cup of tea tho'.
ReplyDeleteThose cornflowers are beautiful! I'm (still) waiting for ours. They're in bud but still looking rather straggly. You did well to avoid the closed roads...we attempted to watch live by the roadside but decided just to watch on the TV in the end (mostly due to the fact the girls wouldn't have been able to see!). I felt really restricted with the road closures even though it didn't really affect us at all! Love those succulents...what a good find! Once again such lovely happy moments.
ReplyDeleteLoving your happies again, particularly the pyrex dish. I read a newspaper article at the weekend which had 'Yorkshire' phrases for the uninitiated who were visiting for the cycling. One of the words was Spanish, meaning liquorice - I'd completely forgotten that us Lancashire folk used to call it that too. That made me randomly happy :)
ReplyDeleteI love how you photograph flowers...your photos are always so stunningly beautiful! The Pyrex dish is lovely...love the pattern.
ReplyDeleteOh those cornflowers are beautiful Gilliam. The colour is stunning and I love your little family of succulents. What a great find! Bee xx
ReplyDelete*Gillian* autocorrect is quite hard to convince sometimes! X
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