cake

I am so proud of my daughter......I am of course proud of all my kids...my eldest daughter lives in South Africa doing missionary work.  Their house is basic to say the least, she does have an oven now thankfully, she was cooking on an open fire outside for some time, they don't have running hot water and they don't have a washing machine. BUT she does make amazing cakes.

I posted about Jesse's birthday, well today is her husband Martins birthday, next month is Joseph's birthday....I'm looking forward to seeing the cakes that she makes for him.

Jesse's cupcakes

Martin's Chocolate Mud Cake

little bag

I made another little draw sting bag from my fabric stash, using a heavy calico on the outside and lining with a fine calico. The gingham around the top is also a heavier fabric. This is such an easy pattern and these little bags are so useful. 

                                                                                   

The baby quilt is finished ready for the baby to arrive next month. All very simple,  I joined squares, backed with white cotton from lovely up-cycled cotton sheet from my mothers house, machine quilted then washed and tumbled to make it crinkled and snugly :)

ponchos

I've been busy making items for my re branded etsy shop, these little ponchos are so easy to make and I would love to sell them but I'm not sure this will happen. 

I am sure I should be spending more time on my shop some how getting it 'out there' but although my viewings have gone up a little I don't think they have gone up enough.

Maybe I don't have the time to spend and need to be satisfied with just making a few sales now and again. 

My pottery etsy shop has sold a few items but again I probably don't spend enough time on that either.

So I think I will continue to make the items I enjoy and wait and see what happens. If anyone out there has any tips I would live to hear them :)

Jesse

This is our grandson Jesse and today he is 7... I can hardly believe his has been in our family for nearly 7 years.

You may wonder why Jesse is holding a sign saying 'happy birthday Miles'? Well Miles is the son of their friends who are missionaries in Burundi. They did live in SA and when Miles was first born they used to visit the orphanage where Jesse had been placed when he was first found abandoned on the day of his birth. Miles' parents and older brother used to go to the orphanage and spend time with the babies, because Jesse had been born on the same day as Miles they took a special interest I him and prayed each visit that Jesse would be adopted by Christian parents. 

Well skip a couple of years and our daughter and son in law, Vashti & Martin, began to attend a new church in Durban where they met Miles and his family. It wasn't until a while later that they discovered that link and that Miles' parents had already met Jesse before he had been adopted by Vashti & Martin. 

This is a story of Gods faithfulness and also how He places a bond between His people which cannot be broken even when they move miles away. 

We are so thankful to God for placing Joseph and Jesse in our family.....He is good indeed!

This is the first picture that we saw of Jesse, Vashti is on the phone telling me that they have brought him home while Martin took and emailed this photo to us

Jesse and his big brother Joseph

draw string bags

I had planned on getting on with the baby quilt today but decided to use this beautiful Sevenberry Japanese linen that I bought in a lovely little fabric shop that has recently opened in a small town near where we live. I was so glad to find this shop and to top it all, it is right next to a wonderful tea shop!

I have been wanting to make some draw string bags for my etsy shop so used this fabric and they turned out well. I had bought and downloaded a patter for this bag from   http://incolororder.bigcartel.com/product/lined-drawstring-bag-pdf-pattern 

The pattern is great and fairly easy to follow although I did have a problem to begin with. I hadn't read the measurements fully and went by the diagrams which aren't drawn to scale and had to email Jeni to find out where I was going wrong. Anyway all in all I am pleased with the outcome.

 The sections of the bag, both outer and inner pieces, are all joined in one strip and then sewn together, no seams can be seen inside which gives a really neat finish. The boxed base means the bag can stand up rather than hung, if desired.

                                    

    

                                    

baby quilt

I love it when our kids and our friends kids start their families because I get to make a baby quilt and I love making baby quilts!

This is my friend Jacqui, her son is one of my sons best friends and he and his wife attend church with our son and his wife. Sean and Rachel are expecting their first child in October and this will be Jacqui's first grandchild...I know just how excited she is.

We know that their baby is expected to be a little boy so I went to my fabric stash to gather suitable pieces and got cutting this morning.

I still don't know how to centre my photo's when I blog on.y ipad

Jacqui

Our son Dominic was Sean's best man at his wedding.

We have just returned from a weeks holiday in Cornwall, for those who don't know, this is the beautiful county on the south west tip of the UK. It is where I moved at the age of sixteen with my family, where I met and married my husband and where three of our four children were born. 

We rented a little cabin situated in someone's garden, it had its own little garden and was perfectly peaceful. We spent our days walking, eating and sightseeing, we had our family visit us on one day and we spent that day with them at the beautiful Trebah Gardens. http://www.trebahgarden.co.uk/ which has its own little private beach where the children took a dip.

We visited little fishing harbours and villages and enjoyed discovering potteries which we hadn't been to before. The weather was perfect which is a little unusual for Cornwall and we even managed to hire a kayak and paddle around the shore line from our favourite little beach.

Marazion 

St Michaels Mount

Mousehole

Lobster pots

Kayaks at Maenporth Beach

Gilby at Trebah Gardens

Twins on the beach at Trebah

Hubby at the preaching pit at St Newlyn East.  http://www.newquay.oldcornwall.org.uk/monuments/preaching_pits.shtml

Our daughter and Maggie Trebah 

Coverak

Where's Hubby? Hiding in the grasses on the bank of the Helford River

I hope you have enjoyed my little tour of Cornwall