Friday 15 January 2021

Photo Scavenger Hunt :: January 2021 #2 'New'

Hi there everyone 😀

It's time for this weeks photo scavenger hunt, linking up with Kate over on I live, I love, I craft, I am me ... this week's word is ‘new’. I’m sure this will bring an absolute myriad of interpretations ... new home, new job, new baby, new year, new shoes ... the list could go on forever.

I decided to not to raid the archive for this week's entry and opted for ‘new’ pictures .. see what I did there 😂😂😂

I’m starting with the garden ... something that brings both Martin and I plenty of joy ... though at this time every year we look out back and can't imagine it ever looking good again ... it’s wet, it’s brown, it's dull and there are jobs waiting to be done everywhere we look.

However ... experience tells us that give it a few months and we will start to recognise it again and then we will be inspired to get out there and get cracking.

The first real sign of a new year in the garden for us is the hellebores coming into flower ... always the first blooms of a new year for us and this year is no different ...

Another early ‘new’ for 2021 was my first attempt at coffee and walnut cupcakes. Now coffee and walnut is not something I would normally go for but it’s dad’s favourite and I wanted to make him a treat. These certainly went down very nicely ... even I enjoyed them ... another great recipe from Jane’s Patisserie ...

Another ‘new’ for us is this new home for our tiny cactus collection ... they have lived in the tiny pots they came in for a good few years and it was definitely time to make use of the new pot I had for Christmas ...
They certainly seem quite happy back in the bird cage ...


Another ‘new’ for me this year will be these embroidery projects ... I want to try and fit some kind of ‘art wall’ somewhere in the house and I’m hoping that these will feature ... apologies for the quality of the picture, it really doesn't do the colours justice ... I'm blaming the lighting ...

I also couldn't resist treating myself to a couple of new bits and pieces this month ... firstly this V&A William Morris fabric ... it is so beautiful. I have no idea what I will make with it. For now, I am more than happy to just enjoy looking at it ...
... and secondly a bit of totally unnecessary home decor, just bought purely for the sake of loving it and just knowing that I will be able to find somewhere for it ... I've found it a temporary home for now ...

I’m finishing off today with a ‘new’ from old ...

For a while now we have been hanging onto our burned out Yankee Candles and melting the wax down to make ‘new’ candles and we had a candle making session earlier this week. We did really well and have ended up with seven new, smaller candles ... one candy cane, two plum crumble puddings, one pomegranate and gin fizz and three of my very favourite black cherry ...

I popped the old empty Yankee candle jars on my local Facebook craft group page to see if anyone could use them and they were snapped up within half an hour ... so that's all worked out really well, with another bag of stuff saved from landfill.

Thank you everyone for reading and all of your kind comments on my recent posts ... I will be back next week with an update on how I'm doing with the '50 Things I want to do before I'm 60' and whatever I can find in the archives for next week's photo scavenger hunt ... the word for which is 'Moon' 🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘

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19 comments:

  1. Busy you! I noticed buds on my hellebore the other week but there's promise there. I love coffee and walnut cake; your cupcakes look delicious. As for your William Morris fabric, perhaps if you bought some other fabrics you could make a log cabin quilt. Plenty images etc on Google. I also think your bird cage is lovely. Here's to Moon!

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    1. Thank you ... yes I have something up my sleeve for moon ... might have to take the plunge and start a quilting project 😃

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  2. I love the idea of a life of pottering. What part of the world do you live in? Best wishes B (of 'Mad Englishwoman and Dog')

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    1. Thank you for taking the time to comment ... we are in Tamworth in Staffordshire 😃

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    2. Thank you. I know Staffordshire a little bit as I had an aunt who farmed near Rugeley. I enjoyed the post (especially the candle bit) and am envious of your monthly page view total. Do you think your Facebook page helps?

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    3. Yes Rugeley is not that far away. I used to work there and am still a Governor at one of the local primary schools. Don’t be too envious of my page views ... half of them are probably me as I never could get it to ignore my own visits and I am always in and out. I do tend to share my lists on my personal Facebook page which does remind friends to pop by and have a look so that does help a bit. I must admit that until I started doing the photo challenge I didn’t get an awful lot of comments and that has been lovely. Whilst I try and remember that really I am writing for me ... as a bit of a diary ... it is very heartening to know that others are reading 😃

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  3. Love your new fabrics and your use of that star. What a lovely bowl; the cacti look just right in there.

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    1. Ah thank you ... I have another bowl in the same design but beige and a bit bigger. I was hoping to repot my very neglected Christmas cactus ... but I think I may have neglected it just a little bit too much 😃

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  4. Funnily enough, I'm melting down old candles today too. Love the embroidery hoop and William Morris fabric. CN x

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    1. I can’t quite believe how much expensive Yankee candle wax I must have thrown away over the years ... funny how all of a sudden you hunk of something that you could have been doing for ages 😃

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  5. The hellebore is a lovely colour and I like the cactus collection in the bird cage but my favourite just has to be the coffee and walnut cakes, they look delicious :-)

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    1. I decided to move these hellebores into a pot a few years ago ... I was finding that I couldn’t really see the flowers as they blended in with the soil ... plus they hang quite low, so to photograph the, I had to get on my hands and knees in the mud 😂

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  6. Great post & so much I relate to. I've about 8 hellebores through the garden & start checking for buds around May & I had to laugh that we'd both repotted our cacti/succulent collections recently, though yours looks better than mine. Your embroidery looks interesting as does the WM fabric bundle. I've just traced a motif (from i'net) & popped it into a hoop to do some more embroidery & we need to find something simple for your fabric & get you patchworking (giggle). Love your star too & gives me an idea for next Xmas. Thanks for sharing your crafty makes, take care & stay safe. Hugs from down under.

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    1. Thank you so much ... yes definitely on the patch working front. The embroidery kits were Christmas gifts from my husband ... with guidance 😂. Hope you and your family are all safe and well in these very strange times 😃

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  7. I love the star with the bunch of foliage and the V&A William Morris fabric :D looking forward to see what you make with the fabric x

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  8. Thanks Kate ... I’m sure whatever I make will feature here at some point ... though it may be a while ... I seem to be collecting projects at the moment ... I need to get cracking on with completing some of them 😃

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  9. Oh my, so many wonderful new things! I must say, those cupcakes look delicious and I'll have to make them for our next event, thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thank you ... definitely recommend the cupcakes ... I don’t even like coffee and I enjoyed them ... I guess you always make stronger if you find them a little mild. I always find recipes from Jane’s Patisserie work out exactly as they look in her pictures ... which is always a bonus 😃

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Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog. I love to hear what people think about what Martin and I have been up to.