Daggers in the dirt - pottering and antique shop haul

It's been a while since I last posted and to be honest I haven't had a lot of time to do any real sewing for Red Anchor Emp., life and some much needed rest have taken priority. I did make a little stocking bag as a raffle giveaway for the wonderful Wet Spot Burlesque and Cabaret show in Leeds, where I performed the other weekend. They've had a recent overhaul of their branding by my cohort Charlotte Thomson-Morley and in keeping with this the bag was black and white polka dot, lined with cherry red satin and fastened with a very shiny black button. I hope whoever won it enjoys it!

My main adventure the past couple of weekends has been pottering in the garden, enjoying the spring sunshine. Thanks to my parents visit with a car full of plants it's looking much more lovely out there and my other half needed no excuse to break out his new power sander to sort out the neglected wooden chairs. It's amazing the smile a power tool will put on a man's face!

It's so nice to have a garden again after living in a first floor flat for a year with only a teeny, car-soot covered balcony. I got a bit over excited this morning to see that the sweet pea seeds I sowed in pots last weekend have started to sprout already. They're one of my favourite scented flowers. Hopefully the jasmine I made a little bamboo frame for will start to flower soon too.

The little plants around the edge are bizzy lizzies. They didn't like the frost we had the other night and have gone a little white around the edges but I'm hoping they'll recover as they were given to us by my other half's dad and I don't want to have killed them in less than a week!

I had another little explore around my local antiques centre on Saturday afternoon on the off chance of spotting a nice little pot or ornament (I was hoping for a couple of flamingos but wasn't holding my breath). I came away with a huge terracotta chimney pot, a tall blue ceramic plantar and a half barrel planter which will look amazing full of tulips.

A very lovely gent who happened to be nearby helped me load the car up too which was nice (that chimney pot is bloody heavy). Who said chivalry was dead.

I'll leave you for now with a picture of the clematis "Nelly Moser" which has flowered like crazy on our trellis in the last week.

TTFN  x