Pass me a clothespeg please!

I think I may be very rapidly putting myself off the smell of lavender. Its one of my favourite natural smells, but gee whizz, having spent a couple of hours stuffing it into poppies it's falling from favour with alarming rapidity.



Admittedly I would be getting on better if I'd made my shapes slightly bigger and stuffed them slightly less tightly. There's not a lot of room for my fingers to push the lavender into each of the petal shapes around the buttons - and sewing up the opening is proving to be a bit of a b****r. But, still, no doubt I'll learn and another batch will be a bit bigger and floppier.



I have really enjoyed making these, apart from the grumbling I've just got off my chest, as its the first time I've been anywhere close to approaching a production line system. I'm sure my methods wouldn't win any factory-line awards but its quite satisfying seeing little poppies stacking up through each of the stages. And a bit more economical with my time.



And I've laid to rest a major blind spot. I have never liked sewing on buttons - if you investigate my trouser waistbands you'll soon see ample evidence to back this up! So I was kind of dreading sewing buttons onto either side of each poppy. But, (perhaps practice does make perfect after all?) I tackled it in front of the Olympics on Thursday afternoon when I had a child-free house ......and really enjoyed myself! Mind you, my new 'mummy' mug (a Valentines Day present from John and the kids) filled with coffee, some juicy grapes (to ease my conscience) and a slice of cranberry and pecan tiffin (made using this recipe) may have helped too.



I couldn't work out an aesthetically pleasing way to sew my labels to the poppies so will use my Moo mini cards attached to the hanging ribbon. If I make more poppies I may order a batch of dark green labels which could be sewn into the seam alongside the ribbon to create a leaf-effect...not sure but may be worth a try.

Meanwhile Charlie cat has been finding even more cosy resting places to add to his repertoire. Last night he was cuddled up in the doll pushchair. And Nessie cat was a real help while I tackled the buttons!





I also wanted to show the lampshade I gave John for his birthday. Perhaps I should explain first that he is a geographer and somewhat obsessed, in classic man-like fashion this is only one of several obsessions, with maps. The shade came from here on Folksy, and there are many others that might appeal to other more normal taste, and really improves a very cheap Ikea lamp. Don't look too closely at the wallpaper behind the lamp, please, we inherited it and, along with most of the rest of the house, it desperately needs changing......sometime.