November on the allotment: sunshine, sunflowers and our memory bench

The weather over the weekend was glorious. There was beautiful warm sunshine & a mellow stillness in the air that you only seem to get in Autumn. We thought we'd make the most of the weather & try to make a dent in the weeds on our plot. The more work we do now, the less back-breaking preparation will be needed in Spring. That's the plan anyway...

I blogged back in early September about our huge sunflowers. They are now way past their best. We wanted to clear the area so we can plant a green manure crop over the Winter. I have never seen sunflowers with such robust stalks. It was like felling trees. Our loaded wheelbarrow was destined for the communal compost heap, but a neighbouring plot holder asked if she could have the seed heads for her bird feeders. Nice to know nothing goes to waste on an allotment...
Magoo helped my Mum to dig up the last of the beetroot & load up the wheelbarrow with weeds. Magoo loves walking back & forth to the communal compost heap, she likes to look at all the other plots. She was particularly jealous of some huge pumpkins growing in a raised bed. They are on our 'to do' list for next Spring...would be great to carve our own homegrown pumpkins next Halloween.


Magoo took full advantage of the wooden bench we've recently installed on our plot. This particular bench is special to us because it came from my Granny's garden. My Gran grew up in a poor mining community in Wales & everyone was far too busy working to take pleasure from gardening. She then spent over forty years living in a first floor flat in Clifton in Bristol. So when my Gran moved to her bungalow in the early 1980s, she was overjoyed to finally have a garden. We would often sit on this bench at the end of her garden drinking tea & enjoying the sunshine. My Gran sadly passed away in late Decemeber 2014 & her bungalow has recently sold to a new owner. I was really keen to rehome the bench on our plot. So now when we want to take a break from weeding or digging, we can sit down & remember how much she loved gardening.

This week I'm linking up with:
Whatever the Weather over on monkeyandmouse.co.uk & www.lifeunexpected.co.uk
How Does Your Garden Grow #HDYGG over on mammasaurus.co.uk
Point + Shoot over on youbabymemummy.com and Snowing Indoors
Country Kids over on www.coombemill.com
Let Kids Be Kids over on letkidsbekids.co.uk

1970s nostalgia inspired fortieth birthday canvas: a handmade gift

Back in May, my friend Lisa turned 40. I wanted to make her a handmade, personalised gift, so I decided to embroider a canvas for her. This canvas features a number of the most iconic events from 1975. I think the 1970s were a heady mixture of glamour, glitz and political struggles. I wanted to try & reflect this in the canvas.

The 1970s gave us David Bowie, Disco and the birth of Punk. It was also an unsettled time politically for the United Kingdom with high inflation & industrial action by coal miners. This triggered the Conservative government to try & restrict electricity consumption with the Three Day Week.

I transferred my selection of 1975 events onto a cream calico fabric using a transfer pencil. I then used back stitch in various, bright embroidery threads to create this piece. I love hand sewing and find it relaxing, so making this canvas was really enjoyable.

I was born a year later in 1976, so may have to make a similar one for myself as the big 4-0 is looming on the horizon...

Halloween denim clutch purse and reminiscing about Etsy Street Teams

I started selling on Etsy back in early 2007. Soon after, I joined the Etsy UK Street Team. Back in 2007-2008 the Etsy UK Street Team used to set monthly creative challenges. The theme for October 2008 was 'Halloween'. I made this denim clutch purse featuring a ghost on the front and a felt applique "BOO!" on the inside. I recently found this clutch purse in a box on top of my wardrobe and thought I'd share it again in the run up to Halloween.

Not long after joining Etsy I received a conversation from Seaurchin, another Etsy seller, saying 'why don't you come into the forums and have a chat?'. From there I learnt about the Etsy UK Street Team & I met some amazing crafty people off the back of it. I have fond memories of our forum chats & crafting challenges. it's hard to believe its been nearly nine years since I first set up my Etsy shop.

Street Teams are designed to help sellers connect with other members. Sometimes there is a geographical connection, such as the team based in the United Kingdom, sometimes it's a shared skill such as crochet or ceramics.

I still keep in touch with a small group of the original Street Team members. In fact, I recently met up with Lisa from Seaurchin and Laura from Lupin Handmade in Bristol for lunch and a chat. I often see other members of the original Street Team popping up on Twitter & Facebook. I have kept in touch with Sally from Tinkering Textiles, Kirsty from Paperfish, Laura from Laura Fallulah, Lu from Summersville, Megan from Mr.PS and Christine (or Pink Christine as she was known on Etsy), she now blogs about her ex-pat life over on Pinwheels and Stories. We've witnessed many milestones together, such as marriages, arrival of babies, business successes, relationship heartaches & even a move to the United States.

I'm grateful that Etsy bought these people into my life. The UK Street Team also gave birth to the UK Handmade online magazine, which I still write for along with other Etsy Alumnae from the Street Team. Although many of us have moved onto pastures new work wise, we all still have a love of the creative community & still find time for crafting in one form or another.

The Etsy UK Street Team still exists, you can find out more here.

Etsy also recently celebrated 10 Years of Etsy Teams.

Grab a bargain: I'm having a half price sale

I'm having a sale! Save 50% on all my vintage fabric peg bags, lavender sachet owls and rabbits. There are bargains galore in my online shop, head on over to see the full range. This is perfect opportunity to grab some Christmas gifts for your friends and family.

Vintage Love: mid century enamel Sellotape tin 1950s

This vintage Sellotape tin sat in my Grandmother's cabinet for many years. I love the bright, royal blue colour. The typography and fonts have a real retro feel to them. I'm not sure if it is from the mid-century or a slightly later 1970s-1980s piece. My Grandmother did tend to hold onto things for quite a while, so it may well be from the 1950s.

I seem to remember this vintage tin being in my Grandmother's home for most of my life, so it is at least 40 years old, if not older. As a child, if I was allowed to get the tin of felt tips out of her beautiful antique chiffonier, I would spy this tin. It was still there when I grew up. Everytime she wanted an envelope or her scissors, I would spot the bright blue tin nestled in with all her stationary.

She hated to part with things & we often joked that items in her house had turned vintage just because she'd had them for so long.
When she passed away in December 2014, I was keen to rescue this tin. It now sits on my desk and houses our library cards & various other bits and bobs.
I look at it everytime I sit at my computer & it always reminds me of my Grandmother and how she rarely threw anything away...

If you'd like to see more of my Vintage Finds, head on over to my Pinterest board to see more retro loveliness...
Follow Pouch's board My Vintage Finds on Pinterest.

October on the allotment: parsnips, beetroot and more weeding

I blogged a few weeks ago about looking forward to eating our first ever homegrown parsnips. I planted some tiny plug plants back in May. We've been watering our parsnips & watching the root vegetables grow bigger. I really wanted to eat them on Christmas Day, but impatient as ever, I pulled one up the other day. Well, it's not going to win any prizes in a beauty contest...but then homegrown veg is about taste over aesthetics. Or that's what I'm telling myself anyway...


Magoo has worked her socks off helping out with watering over the Summer. Her favourite thing is to harvest the veg she has been lovingly pouring water over. We have had tons of beetroot this year. One of our favourite meals is 'pink mash'. You basically boil the beetroot with the skin on for about 20-25 minutes. You also boil some potatoes. Once the beetroot has cooked & cooled, you can easily pull the skin off. Then you grate the beetroot. Finally mash the beetroot into the potatoes with loads of creme fraiche, butter & seasoning. Magoo loves 'purple mash' with sausages from our local butcher & oodles of gravy.


The Russians call beetroot 'blood builder' and it is packed with amazing nutrients. I find the 'purple mash' recipe is a great way to get Magoo to eat beetroot. I also like to mix raw grated beetroot & carrot with a little oil, seasoning & some sesame seeds to make a simple dish to have with salad. Raw beetroot packs even more of a nutritional punch.
We've had a mild Autumn this year, so we've managed to spend quite a bit of time at the allotment. But it is getting to the time when the crops have been harvested and the beds are getting empty...and that's when the weeds take over! We've got to have a major Autumn tidy-up & then cover the soil for the Winter months. We have toyed with the idea of planting a green manure crop, but we haven't been organised enough this year.
That's the good thing about gardening & allotments - there's always next year to plan for.
This week I'm linking up with:
"How Does Your Garden Grow" over on the beautiful mammasaurus.co.uk

"Whatever the Weather" over on www.lifeunexpected.co.uk and monkeyandmouse.co.uk
"Let Kids be Kids" over on letkidsbekids.co.uk
Country Kids over on the Coombemill Blog
Image of the Week over on www.trulymadlykids.co.uk

Making a shoebox jetpack: a creative, upcycling idea for kids

A couple of weeks ago Magoo asked if we could make a jetpack. I've got used to these kinds of requests since becoming a Mum. I knew we had an old shoebox waiting to go out in the recycling & thought the lid would make a good cardboard jetpack.
We grabbed our craft materials and Magoo set to work decorating the lid of the shoebox.

You can never have too many glittery stars on a rocket backpack can you?
We also covered the top of the shoebox lid with paper to create a surface for Magoo to draw her control buttons onto.

I knew we had some yellow and orange netting from a previous crafty project where were had made Easter bonnets back in April. So we reused our upcycled netting from our local Children's Scraptsore to make the jet flames


We also used the netting to make arm straps so that Magoo could wear the jetpack on her back.
So after cutting, sticking and gluing an unwanted shoebox lid, the jetpack was finished and ready to play with...

Once all the decorating had been completed Magoo was desperate to try it on. She decided that a jetpack would definitely help her to ride faster on her bike...which I think it may well have done :)

All you need to make this backpack is a shoebox lid (or maybe a cereal box), some thin netting or ribbon, glittery stars or stickers, glue, scissors and lots of imagination...
This week I am linking up with:
Whatever the Weather over on www.lifeunexpected.co.uk and Monkey and Mouse.
Country Kids over on the www.coombemill.com blog.

I'm linking up with #Trash2Treasure also on the www.coombemill.com blog.