Hand Knitted Teddies (Herberts) and Colourful Dog

I always love to knit toys. They use up scraps of left over wool and you get a result in no time. Whenever I need to find a special gift, I have great fun making a new friend for that special person.

I named these Teddies Harbert's. This one I knitted for my son. I made the clothes myself without a pattern. The over sized buttons I found in my sewing box The scarf was to keep him warm because he was made near Christmas. He was knitted in two tone brown wool with dark brown felt on his paws. His eyes ,nose and mouth were sewn on with dark thread. All his clothes are removable for washing. He was a welcomed friend in Santa's sack. I was very pleased at how cute he turned out.

This was the second Herbert I knitted. This one was for my daughter. It  was the same teddy pattern but I had fun designing my own clothes. She has a cute striped jumper which I embroidered a purple flower on. She has a elasticated skirt with a white trim which I have sewn pink sequins on to add a little bit of sparkle. The red and orange scarf  is to keep her warm.  Then for a finishing touch I put a ribbon on her ear.

I thought these teddies were so cute so I knitted one for myself.  You're never too old. Mine is knitted in the larger size pattern. He has a stripped purple jumper  with black dungaree's. With wooden toggle buttons (found in my sewing box again).To finish off I gave his dungarees a white patch.

The Teddie pattern I took out of Prima Christmas Makes 2011. I found this is a great mag with lots of clever ideas. I have enjoyed reading all the festive makes and loved all the Christmas decorations.This magazine I have kept so I can refer back to it time after time. Awaiting for 2012  magazine to arrive.

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I always attach a tag to each present I make it reads ' Hand Made With Love, Please Take Care Of Me
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Here are all three Herbert's Cuddling......

The next  toy I knitted was a colourful sausage dog. I changed the colours to ones I had. This I found very quick and easy to knit.

 

 

His such a cute dog. I love that each foot is a different stripe colour. He has very floppy ears. red on the outside blue on the inside.

 

 



I found this pattern in Women's Weekly (Living Series) Best Of...Our Knitted Toys Magazine 2011/2012. It has 39 great patterns, some are crochet too. I go back to this all the time it has some beautiful toy patterns in it.

I could not bear to give him away (Just look at that face). So he now lives on top of my piano in our snug room. 



My day at Port Eliot Festival 2012

 I have lived in Cornwall for many years now and have visited Port Eliot House  a couple of times . It  was only last year  my daughter and I found Port Eliot Festival. We thought it looked great. So we applied for tickets for the Sunday.  As I have said we have many pets so it took a bit of planning. My husband and son were not interested in going so they looked after the animals while us girls had a day out.

 

The weather up to this point had been rain ,but we were very lucky the sun had decided to be out all weekend in fact it was too hot! We had great fun deciding what to wear, it was lovely to dress up for a change . My daughter had made us beautiful floral headbands out of rosebuds. So we were set. for a great girly day out......

 





There were stalls selling everything from crafts to leather handbags. My favourite were the Vintage clothing,you were spoilt for choice.

 

Then we discovered the flower tent  with their displays and the life size figures outside. They were all expertly put together, such lovely  colours and designs, the flowers smelt lovely.



 

 



 

 We had spent a lot of the time on our feet now so it was nice to take a break and sit down and enjoy the atmosphere.

 

All around the lawns various choirs, theatre groups and musicians entertained the crowds, you never knew what would happen next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most amusing thing I found was the Pop Up 1 minute disco. A small van was driving around the grounds and would suddenly stop, open its back doors then blast out music.  Every time the van stopped a large crowd would run over and. dance for one minute . It was great fun and even more funny to watch. Small children were following the van like the Pied Piper.  It put a smile on every ones face.

 

 

We had been walking around for a few hours now and the sun was beaming down so we visited a couple of beer tents, but we only had lemonade Honest!   The grounds were really well laid out so it never felt crowded, you could always find a quite corner to relax in.It was lovely discovering various attractions around each corner.

 

 

We changed our rose headbands for some real floral headdresses. You could choose your own flowers

which were attached to a ring of ivy. Very pretty.

 



 

 

 

 

 

Wherever you walked you could hear music from the various tents, it was magical to stand for a while and listen to the musicians. 

 

 

We found the knitted tree, it had knitted balls etc hanging from its branches, very colourful.

 

 

This door took us two hours to find, then we heard music from the other side of the hedge.They were getting ready  for the evening.

 

 

We watched the karaoke Hip Hop. The acts were so good. Children performed in groups and the audience appreciated how brave they were. I could never go on stage.

 

 

 







 

The house had a display of dolls dressed by famous designers. We loved the paper dresses. 

 

 

 

The make up tent was very popular it was appointment only. They were all gone, so we watched instead.

 

 

                                 The house looked beautiful as the sun shone. 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed ourselves and have now decided we would like to go for the whole weekend. So we have now purchased a retro caravan, So see you all at the next Festival.. 



Vintage cake stands

                                   
                                       WELCOME TO MY COLLECTION OF CAKE STANDS

I love all Vintage China, but I could not resist this modern Laura Ashley three tier cake stand. It matches perfectly the ice cream colours in my kitchen, and is sturdy enough for everyday use. Anyway Laura Ashley had their sale on so I had to treat myself.....

This is my favourite  Vintage two tier cake stand. I love the simplicity of the flowers and the large expanse of a beautiful blue border. This one I picked up from a car boot sale many years ago.

This Vintage beauty is cream  with very delicate flowers and two shades of blue.

I purchased this three tier cake stand of ebay. It is made up of Vintage plates which compliment each other. It is a very delicate stand, and I think you will agree makes good use of vintage plates and makes them really special.

Anyone for tea?   Three tier cake stand made up from three matching modern plates. Unusual because all plates the same size.

I brought this plate stand back from France with two  matching smaller ones. They have been very well used and look very old. They are all marked  Fleur des Champs underneath.

My collection is fairly Small. But because of the height of the plate stands they are hard to store, unless you want to take them apart. So I have told myself that unless I love them and can't walk away, no more purchases.
                                        Wish me luck !.      

Our beloved pets.

CUTE CHARLIE

I thought you would like to meet some of our pets. When we lived back in London we only had 1 dog,but since moving to Cornwall we have gone mad. There must be something in the water.!. Our first dog is a rescue dog who is about 12 years now Kermit. So he is an old man but very lively for his age. He is a cross breed not sure what,. but he looks like Pippin in an old children's t.v .programme....... People of a certain age will remember Aunt Mabel with Pippin  and her aeroplane in her garden ready to fly off. Next we have Theo a black Labrador he is 6 years now but still acts like a baby,likes lots of belly rubs and is obsessed with his ball.Then we have Bertie and Charlie .They are my children's dogs.They are really cute so we all spoil them.
                 
                                                               CUTE BERTIE
                                          

OUR BEAUTIFUL KERMIT

THEO PLAYING IN THE GARDEN

  

 As you can see we have our hands full. They all have very different personalities and likes and dislikes,but one thing they give us is unconditional love. We would not be without them.

The other pets we have at home are 19 chickens, these are various types and live in two houses in a field at the back of our garden, So have lots and lots of free range eggs. They are really friendly ..

Whenever we go up to the field our girls follow us and when we clap they will follow us into their run. Most of them are tame and allow us to pick them up, which is needed when they go over the farmers field for a wonder. Who said chickens are stupid is mad.

The last of our pets at home are our three rabbits, Tommy, Teddy and Flop. They live in two hutches in our front garden. Tommy was our first rabbit and is quite old now about 7 years. Teddy and Flop are brothers, they have just turned two. They like nothing more than going in their runs. Teddy is always trying to tunnel out, so we have to keep filling in his holes.  When Bertie and Charlie are playing in the garden, Charlie ignores the rabbits and is more interested in anyone or anything passing the house. While Bertie jumps straight into their run and puts his nose up to their hutches until we tell him to leave. The rabbits do not care and just carry on eating and just looked amused.

FLOP

                                              

TEDDY

TOMMY

                                           

I hope you have enjoyed  meeting our pets they are all very lovely as you can see from the photos, but don't under estimate the amount of time and effort to look after them. The worst jobs are cleaning out the chicken houses and the hutches , this is something my husband always finds a way of getting out of, but clean houses equal happy pets......and  lots of nice eggs.

You would think this is enough animals, but as I said before when you live in the countryside you just seem to go mad. As well as the animals which live with us at home we have two ponies and one Shetland they live not far from us at the other end of the village. But that is another story!!!!!!!!