who has the best washing line?...

 I think you'll find it's me...

☺☻☺☻☺☻☺

Nanny Taylor's Singer

I had fully intended for today to be a 'clearing up and getting on top of housework-y type stuff' day, but actually it seems that a 'doing nothing much at all' day was what was needed.
It's been an emotional week and a busy one and today feels like the first day in a while I've had a chance to stop and just be. So after some half arsed attempts at moving stuff from one place to another and washing some dishes, I found myself getting more stuff out instead of putting more stuff away and dusting off Nanny Taylor's Singer...

'Tis a thing of beauty isn't it?

Unfortunately, I don't really have anywhere suitable for it to be out all the time, so it doesn't see the light of day very often, but I would like to get more use out of it - I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to electric sewing machines and am quite frankly scared of them! Any sewing I do is by hand. Not that I have a problem particularly with that, so much of life is flooded with instant, fast, do it now, get it now type stuff that it's nice to take the slower pace, time to think and breathe option from time to time.

This is Frances Gertrude Taylor (was Maynard), known to me from photos and snippets of conversation as 'Nanny Taylor', and the sewing machine originally belonged to her.

She was my Great Grandfather's third wife, my Nan's (Dad's mum's) step mother, her own mother died when my Nan was nine.

According to Singer, the serial number puts it as being made in 1901 in their Clydebank factory.

I came very close to giving it away a few years ago to someone who would be able to get more use out of it. I'm glad I didn't now though.. I don't usually get emotionally attached to many 'things', but at the moment these connections to the past feel a little more important...

Different grandmother, but got to be said still...

...'winding the bobbin up' ;)

A host of golden daffodils (and a couple of frogs)...

I've not shared any photos-for-the-sake-of-taking-them photos here for a while. This one (above) is my new favourite photograph :)

I've been watching, and listening, to the daffodils opening on my windowsill for a few days

I'm also quite in love with watching the frogs in our pond. They come back each year and are one of my markers for Spring being here

Unfortunately we have to keep a wire grid over the pond to keep the neighbours cats from fishing in it, and it got in the way a bit on this shot, which otherwise I'm really pleased with...

...this one isn't quite so well focused, but has less of the wire in it...

I might take the grid off for an hour or so one day this week to see if I can get some better ones, but I'm pretty happy with these :-)

Melvin

Meet Melvin.

Melvin's not sure what he is, but he likes daffodils...

...seahorses and chocolate spread on toast...

When he grows up, he'd like to be a Marine Biologist...

He'd also quite like to be a dinosaur but thinks that Marine Biologist is probably more realistic...

But hey, a puppet can dream can't he?!

You can find Melvin over

>>>here<<<

Filling the gap...

Look what arrived in the post today...

 ☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺

My 'swapper' was very kind and made me two squares for my blanket...

 I've sewn one of them in to fill the February gap, and will add the other one in somewhere later in the year...

 Love it!

Thanks Jill :-)

Work in Progress Wednesday - Leap Year Blanket

Appropriately for the 29th of February, I thought I'd share my progress on my Leap Year Blanket - one of my long term works-in-progress...

...these are my blocks for February...

...and sewn together with January's squares...

The gap in the February block is for a Leap Day swapped square from someone else to go in :-)

...and for my part of the swap...

...really pleased with how it turned out...might have to make one for me too ;-)

*check out some more WIP Wednesdays over >>> here <<<

crochet flower bunting...

...finished and photographed...

...and in the shop

What do you think?

...I love it...

☺☻☺☻☺