Heading for the light …
07/01/2015 § 3 Comments
Mother Duck has been on a mission to update some of the lamps and lights. There’s been lots of activity in the kitchen around the ceiling light but I don’t think it’s quite finished yet. Belle tells me that all the lamps have been moved around indoors and new lampshades seem to have appeared but knowing Mother Duck as I do, I suspect she’s been busy reworking them. Here’s a sneaky peek …
glam up the kitchen
I heard Mother Duck telling her friend about this lamp – it was brass and cost £2! Then she spray painted the lamp base and found a bargain silk shade in town. She’s added dangly, sparkly crystals and some cherry red velvet ric-rac braid to bring it all together. Looks pretty good alongside her very own Adaliza Patchwork Quilts calendar and a spray painted brass horse. Nice touch, MD!
Recovered shade – linen with horses
Now that’s a classy lampshade if ever I saw one (and I can just see it if I stand on tippy webbed feet and stretch my neck up to peek into the lounge). The old shade was a dull, cream colour and now it looks a million dollars – well done MD.
And finally …
Kaffe Fassett fabric
Well, that is stunning. What amazing fabric. I’d quite like a little lamp like that in my duck-house. I wonder whether, if I quack nicely, she’ll make me one?
Mother Duck says she might pop in to say hello over here, tomorrow. Maybe that new kitchen light fitting that she’s been working so hard on creating will be ready for photographs.
In the meantime – have a quiet, quacky Thursday.
Flora Puddleduck x
I’m not sure
03/01/2015 § Leave a comment
what’s happening indoors today, but Mother Duck appears to be on a bit of a mission. She was all about early this morning, in her wellies in the rain and flurried through giving my little duck-house it’s morning clean. I’ll have a word with Belle later to see what she’s been up to and whether we
can get some photos of her latest projects!
Flora Puddleduck x
Happy Quacky 2015
01/01/2015 § 2 Comments
I was rather jolted from my slumbers in the duck-house very late last night – it must have been just after midnight. Fireworks and rockets exploded high above my little duck-house and I could hear Belle and Misty having their say up at the back door. I rather expect they’d been awoken from their doggy dreaming in front of the fire, with Mother Duck (aka Adaliza) and Little Missus (*C*), who’d spent the evening enjoying good food and a bottle of bubbly, from what I can gather!
It’s mild and rather damp in the garden this morning, but I’ve been for my morning dip in the pond, to check on big fish who seems a bit dozy – must be the cold. Mother Duck has been out replenishing the bird feeders and making my duck-house all clean and cosy, ready for this evening.
She says she’s got a busy couple of days ahead – making curtains and doing a bit of decorating. I’m sure she’ll show me some photos that I’ll share with you, when she’s finished.
She’s asked me to wish everyone a Happy New Year – so have a good quack and flap your wings at the start of each day – that’s what I do! Happy Quacky New Year.
Flora Puddleduck x
Onwards and upwards …
30/12/2014 § 2 Comments
I’ll be pleased to see the end of the year. 2014 will be forever etched into my life, filled with warm and happy memories as well as the deepest abyss of grief. It’s sometimes like being trapped in an icy crevice deep below the earth, being able to see daylight and people going about their lives, whilst my will to survive makes me breathe and reach, dark clouds gather to block out the sunshine and warmth.
et deinceps sursum …
(onwards and upwards) is a good motto for my 2015
I’m going to be handing over my blog to a guest for a while. She’ll let you know what’s happening in my sewing room, because I’ll be telling her all about it and she’ll be giving me her opinion whenever I venture into the garden to photograph quilts in the sunshine. She’s shared our lives here in Winchester since 2011, when we first met in Cornwall. I’ll be sending her postcards to share with you, when I’m out and about and we’re both looking forward to getting the garden here into some sort of shape. She’s chief of slug-defences!
Here she is …
Flora Puddleduck – guest blogger for Adaliza 2015
We had a chat about it all this morning and she’s very excited. I hope you enjoy her stories and updates.
Happy New Year to you all and if, like me, your life has changed
then raise a glass and reach ‘onwards and upwards’
Adaliza x
When the going gets hot …
17/06/2014 § Leave a comment
Flora takes a dip in the garden pond!
ooohhh – that’s lovely and cool
making ripples
splashy ducky
like water off a duck’s back
That’s better!
Latest lace-weight shawl is finished and blocked and ready-to-wear on summer evenings …
Yet another make-it-up-as-I-go-along crescent-shaped shawl completed – yay! Knitted from end to end and finished off with a pineapple crocheted lacey border. I’m totally besotted with this yarn and am now making up another one in the Luckwells burnt orange.
Luckwells Orange from Natural Dye Studio
And on a recent jaunt to a local market town, Himself treated me to the prettiest Molly Brett print that I’d fallen in love with! It’s called ‘Going Shopping’ and all the little creatures are busily filling their shopping baskets.
buttercups & bindweed in the garden – magic in the woodland
Just look at Mrs Squirrel and Mrs Rabbit having a good ol’ gossip and Mrs Tiggywinkle’s little red purse is adorable – they all have such character
So, I hope the sun is shining on you this week. I can’t believe it’s the longest day on Saturday – where has this year gone?
Take care
Adaliza x
PS :: If you haven’t seen Flora Puddleduck before, here’s how I rescued her as a tiny, tiny chick in 2011 with some updates here and here.
Quilts – January 2014
05/02/2014 § Leave a comment
January’s quilts
January was dismal, weatherwise. I did a lot of quilting whilst listening to weather reports, flood warnings and hearing stories about the dreadful flooding just a county or so to the west of us. February has started in a similar vein with gales and storms crashing through every couple of days or so. One day in every 4 or 5 seems to be calmer with sunny spells – yesterday was just such a day. I nipped outside with my camera, accompanied by my garden companion – Flora Puddleduck!
Flora Puddleduck
Flora was very impressed by the stack of quilts and I fancy, she would rather like to have one of her own, in her little house. “No such luck Flora – your nest is lovely and warm with meadow hay and a deep bed of shavings!”
Back to the quilts …
Here are a few, in no particular order …
Chickadee Quilt …
with fat hens, baby chicks and lots of daisies
Lullaby Quilt …
with glorious butterflies, luscious flowers and bright pastels (you know what I mean)
Barndance Quilt …
with cowboys, waggons and bright primary colours
That’s all for the moment. The others are over here if you’d like to see all of them, but there are some pressing matters to deal with atm – another storm is howling outside and there have been a few crashes whilst I’ve been tapping away. Time to go and investigate …
Good luck in the midst of all these storms.
Adaliza
Postcard from Devon …
02/09/2013 § 2 Comments
Dear Flora – my darling little puddleduck …
I’ve brought you back a postcard from Devon where Mother Duck and Daddy Duck went a-jaunting (we were there a week or so ago and I’ve only just had time to sort through the photos). I heard all about you every day when we were away, with regular messages letting me know that you were being well looked after by your Auntie, who lives down the road.
You’d have been hyper-quack excited to stay at one campsite with us – look at the sign that greeted us as we drove in …
and there was your cousin with all her friends
I was excited and the collies were sitting up, thinking that we were back home already when they heard all that quacking. Imagine my heart-gulping moment when we turned a well-kept corner and saw this …
Shepherd’s Hut at Harford Farm
with it’s own little garden too and ducks painted on the side
We were staying in our Dolly-van so pitched up for the night and then discovered a treat for the girls …
just on the edge of the campsite, a little river beach under Harford Bridge
cool paddling for the girls
Oh, that was a fun place to stay. We love to tour around in Dolly, staying at picturesque sites for a night and having picnics out and about during the day as we tootle along to our next destination.
Dartmoor – just up the road from Tavistock
rural landscapes
and one morning, at Wood Farm, Dorset turned out to be absolutely magical …
Misty Morning
the sun just coming up
This time of year always reminds me of my journey to school, in Wales. On the bus, we rattled – reluctantly at the beginning of term – into Llandysul. From the lofty heights of the bus, we’d be able to see over hedges and across the valleys draped in layers of morning mist.
My Misty Morning blanket was inspired by those soft mornings and we needed Ripple, Carnival and Misty Morning to keep us warm during the chilly Dolly-van nights. I love chilly nights and weighty, snuggly blankets – bliss.
So, Flora – even though you can’t come with us and are happier tucked up in your warm nest of meadow hay in your little house each night, you can share our trips in photos and know that Mother Duck is secretly ‘wishing you were here’!
Adaliza x
Latest furniture restoration and apple blossom time …
21/05/2013 § 14 Comments
I’ve been busy revamping tables. Firstly, a nest of fairly nondescript but very useful tables that we use every day …
before – boring, but useful
after – duck egg blue and still very useful
then, my wool cupboard in the studio …
before – cheap & cheerful pine
after – old white with romantic vintage panels
The cupboard is now back in the studio and brimming over with wools. At the weekend I bought a very tired little oak drop-leaf table. I uummmm’ed and arghhhhhh’ed over what to do with it. The lines are clearly 1930’s and it’s extremely well made. I had a hunch that beneath all that dark staining and old polish was lurking some beautiful oak …
before – tired oak drop-leaf table
some investigation was needed on one leaf
This wood was much too good to cover up with any paint treatment. I painstakingly worked to remove all the layers of gunk and my arm was really aching by the time I’d finished the treatment last night …
1930’s drop-leaf oak table
just look at the grain in that wood
I’m SOOoooooo pleased with this piece. That’s my grandmother’s Chinese biscuit barrel on top – full of her buttons – and from the same era! That’s the one my grandfather used to empty out to teach me how to count. It makes me feel quite – well, something indescrible – whenever I touch it. I haven’t known quite where to keep it, but now it has a proper home on this special little table.
“I’ll be with you in apple blossom time …”
That song fills my head whenever our apple trees are in full and glorious blossom. I hope you can imagine the delicate scent and the magical feeling of confetti petals falling whenever there’s a breath of a breeze as you sit on the bench with a morning cuppa …
apple blossom
busy bee gathering pollen
my constant garden companion
Flora Puddleduck
What have you been up to? It’s a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK this weekend so we’re hoping for some more lovely warm sunshine, just like the holiday a few weeks ago. Fingers crossed?
Adaliza x
