There has been a li'l bit of magic.........

....happening around the environs of our humble abode this week. Something terribly quizzical is afoot. The naked, wintry branches of the trees have begun to dress themselves with the prettiest of blossoms. Blossoms of fabric, resplendent in bejewelled colours and prints in the shape of a hexagon! How curious. I wonder, could this be a new cultivar of the hexagonus splendifora variety??

Hexagon after hexagon, gently swinging in the breeze. Don't they look pretty with the daffodils gracing the background.

Even Maisie is a little perplexed.

Amazingly, I only wished the other day that my hexagon quilt could grow a li'l more quickly. So..........I snippety snipped the hexies from the tree; after all doesn't pruning maketh many more 'flowers'??

Then..........my day just got curiouser and curiouser.

In amongst the forget-me-nots, I followed a Hansel and Gretel-like hexagon path to the sweetest little house. Hiding in the pretty, blue flowers was a teapot, like no other I had ever seen.

Fancy that, a garden path blooming with pretty hexagons!

Now, any house with a hexagonal path leading to its quaint, front door has to be filled with wonderful wonderment, right??

I tip-toed up the path and had a little peek as to whom the inhabitants of this quirky li'l teapot house could be. It was whitewashed with the prettiest blue trim. There was a morning glory vine winding it's way prettily around the walls. I must say the morning glories looked a dream among the forget-me-nots on which the little teapot was sitting. The tiny, shuttered windows, which if one was to peek in, revealed the cosiest of interiors. There were cobblestone floors with beautiful rag rugs to keep tippy toes warm. A delectable meal was gurgling away on top of one of those enormous, fire-belching wood stoves. Indeed, the quaint kitchen did look to be the soul of this little home. A winding staircase climbed up to the attic where beds covered with pretty, patchwork quilts waited for weary workers at day's end. In my mind's eye I could visualise  many a wee occupant having oodles of fun sliding down the bannister. There was a bendy chimney peeking from the spout, blissfully coughing up swirling spirals of smoke. Truly, this was the most magical of  teapots.

I could faintly hear the swish-swooshing of a broom and the sweet singing of "Oh what a beautiful morning" in the most mellifluous voice. To my amazement there was an itty bitty mouse dressed in a pretty frock with a pink bow tied around her tiny head.

"Hello," the sweet li'l mouse squealed with delight. " 'Tis lovely to meet you. I am just sweeping the wintry cobwebs away. Spring has sprung and our little teapot is in need of a little freshening up. I hope you don't mind, but as your garden has a feeling of magical delight about it, we decided to set up residence for a bit.

"Oh.....please excuse me for my rudeness........let me introduce myself. My name is Esmeralda. Spring in your garden is a wonderful time of year, is it not? I am so happy you happened upon our little home.  Your garden is such an enchanting place........soooooo many pretty blossoms to drink in!" I had an inkling you would be skipping along the pretty hexagon path, sooner rather than later."

"There's Josiah up the ladder, clipping the morning glory vine. He loves to garden......actually it is his favourite place to be."

"Doris is spinning away on her spinning wheel. She weaves the silkiest thread, magically transforming it into the finest, gossamer-like filament, in readiness for a little bit of knitting and stitching. A little birdy told her you were in need of some pretty hexagons for your hexagon quilt, so she thought how lovely it would be if she could whip up some pretties for you. She has been hanging hexagons on the ancient, chestnut tree in your garden. Don't they bedeck the landscape beautifully? It is a magical spinning wheel. Indeed, Doris can fabricate the prettiest of pretties on her wheel."

"Tabatha is in her kitchen busily cooking up a storm. Tabatha cooks the most delicious of pies. Actually, everything our Tabitha cooks makes our mouths water. Indeed, Tabatha always wins prize after prize at the local fair. 'Meeces' come from miles around to taste our Tabatha's gastronomical delights."

"Way, way up the rickety staircase in the attic, is Jimmy. Perhaps you can see him peeking from under the lid. Jimmy is a mischievous scamp. He loves to play peek-a-boo with whoever passes by. Living here in your garden, we meet the friendliest of critters. Though I must say, we have to be careful of your Maisie.....our little house sometimes teeter totters when she pads by."

"Your Maisie is big, isn't she?" I'm ever so happy she likes 'meeces'. I was a bit perturbed there for a while."

"To thank you for your hospitality in letting us stay a while in your beautiful garden, I would like to gift you some more hexagons. Doris tied them up with a pretty ribbon......she said you adore pretty ribbons. Besides, a gift is more the lovelier when cinched with a pretty bow, is it not? They should help make your quilt grow. When you need some more hexie delight, just pop by and I will make you a cup of tea that we can enjoy with a slice of Martha's pie."

"I really have had the most marvellous time chatting to you. Now don't forget, the next time you visit, bring along that pretty hexie quilt of yours, so I can have a little bo peep."

" 'Twas a pleasure to have met you......oh and thank you once again for allowing us to stay a while in your li'l bit of paradise! Bye now, I must get back to my cleaning."

With the help of the new botanical specimen in our garden and those sweet, sweet little meeces nestled among the forget-me-nots, my hexagon quilt has grown just a little bit more, albeit a little slowly. I fear my finished hexie quilt is a ways off yet. Not to worry though, I will just have to visit Esmeralda and have a cuppa with her......perhaps Doris will magically transform her lovely thread into some more beautiful hexies.

That day really did get curiouser and curiouser!! Don't you just love those days filled with a little bit of magic......a little bit of enchantment?? Those days filled with wonderful wonderment??

Wishing you all a little magic this weekend!

Linking up with lovely Stephanie's 'Roses of Inspiration'.

The best-laid plans oft go awry......

Thank you all for your lovely comments from my last post. Those moments when life is all just a little too much are made a little easier when I think of all those lovely comments you have each lovingly expressed. Just a little setback down here at the bottom of the world. My husband's operation was postponed for a couple of weeks at the very last minute. Life.......always throwing a spanner into the works.

The best-laid schemes or plans oft go awry, don't they. So many plans that were put in place have to be reorganised for a couple of weeks. A few weeks more of finding some calm, some measure of peace in my days; of keeping myself busy, trying to keep thoughts down the slippery slide at bay. I might say that my husband has been terribly philosophic about the delay. As it turned out he wouldn't have been able to undergo the operation anyway, as he developed a bad bout of the flu. He just says "it gives me more time to garden"!!!!!

Our daughter and son-in-law came from Queensland 'to hold my hand' for the operation and to stay the following week. Can you believe just as they arrived we had a call from the hospital to inform of the change of plans. So instead of us all sitting around at home we thought we might as well enjoy a little holiday, that we might escape for  a weekend in Hobart and spend some fun time together.......and I must say we all had a lovely time. Both our daughters live quite a distance away; one in Queensland at the other end of Australia and one in San Fransisco, the other side of the world. It is times such as the ones we find ourselves in when I miss them dreadfully.

The night before we were to meet our daughter and son-in-law, my husband and I stayed in a beautiful bed & breakfast called Riverside Cottage which is situated in a lovely little town called Franklin, south of Hobart.

It was such a sweet place where everything was blue and white; my favourite colour combination.

There was pretty toile de jouy in the bedroom. Alas we arrived late so I wasn't able to take any happy snaps.......I pinched one from the lovely Marie's pamphlet. Scary thoughts that lay hidden in the depths of one couldn't help but dissipate in this lovely place.

The beautiful dining room where we ate breakfast, bathed in sunshine. Isn't blue and white the most relaxing and soothing of colour palettes. I did say to Marie, the proprietor, that she might have to frisk me on the way out. I thought that perhaps this dining suite would look perfect in my humble abode.

And.......just across the road was this glorious view. Imagine waking up to this every day.

And.......just down the road from River Cottage there happened to be a vintage shop!!

Of course I had to, had to have a lookity look. After all one never knows if there is a treasure or two one should take home.

I did find a few treasures, but you knew that, right.

This really cool apron with the most gorgeous embroidered, geisha girl. I have never seen one such as this. These aprons usually have a crinoline lady or southern belle embroidered on them.

Isn't she beautiful. I love the lantern pocket......so sweet.

This cute little storage container from the sixties, some funky 1960's/1970's fabrics and some pretty embroideries. I love the blue Irises!

And this really cool hem tape measure. So many times in the past, when a gal has come aknocking at my door asking me to take up the hem  of their wedding dress or their formal dress I have wished for one of these. Of course, now that I am the proud owner of one, I don't suppose they will come aknocking. Isn't it cool.

We then drove on to Hobart to meet my daughter and son-in-law to continue our little weekend away. It was the most pleasant of interludes. My husband and I grabbed the moment with both hands and ran with it. Of course, as is always the way when one is having fun, the time passed much too quickly. We made the most of what little time we had before driving back to the airport for a tearful farewell. Aaah......such is life.

Upon returning home a lovely package wrapped in the warmest of hugs flew in on a prayer. Debbie from She Graces Her Home with Beauty, sent me these gorgeous pretties lovingly created by her sweet daughter, Stephanie who writes the lovely blog The Enchanting Rose. Are they not beautiful?? Stephanie makes the most beautiful little cards all sitting happily in a pretty compendium fashioned from exquisite papers. Love, love, love the pretty, softest blue, little holdall, beautifully decorated by the softest white flowers and a pretty brooch. Sigh.......

Debbie could not have known how her parcel of love was the perfect gift for this week. It is always such a joy to receive these little parcels of happiness in the mail. I am always overwhelmed at the kindnesses of the lovely ladies within blogland. Once again, I cannot but be reminded of God's grace, which is more than I deserve and greater than I ever could imagine.

So, another week ahead of us. Spring has sprung which is rather lovely. Everywhere in Tassie, as far as the eye can see daffodils are dancing in the Spring sunshine. There are signs of new life everywhere; pastoral scenes of sweet, sweet splay-legged lambs and sleepy-eyed calves dotting the soft, velour paddocks. There is a carnival of scents of the gently, unfurling flowers casting their sweet magic to the air, adding bright, happy colour to the mosaic in the gardens. Yes indeed, lovely Spring, warming the heart and soul.

Until the next time, wishing you all a lovely week!

Linking up with the lovely Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration.

There's no place like home.............

Good morning to you!! We are back home again (the royal 'we' being my husband and I), and I must say I am loving being  back in our quirky li'l ole 'Home Sweet Home'. Cliche I know, but there really is no place like home, is there. I am delighted that I have been able to unpack everything after our little city sojourn, kick off our wintry boots and just enjoy our home......though we will be back in the city next week for my husband's operation. But for now, with the Winter of our discontent behind us and just a hint that Springtime is peeking around the corner of our country road, I am enjoying being at home and just 'being'.

With the rugged radiation therapy behind him, my husband is feeling well at the moment (as well as one can be living with a cancerous tumour) and has regained his proverbial horse appetite once again. His thinness aside, one wouldn't know he is 'unwell'. There is nothing quite like being back home surrounded by God-inspired  vistas to help one begin to heal......and of course the first signs of this sweet earth waking up with pretty daffodils, helps a little as well.

It is wonderful to sink deep down in our 'oh so comfy' bed  and soak in a bath tub again (the little cottage in town only has a shower), a shower I might add, where one has to walk under for an inordinate length of time to get wet. I am a gal that luxuriates in a bath. Even as a little girl a hot bath was always my preferred form of bathing. Living here in this far rural outpost, the word bathing brings a whole new different connotation to the meaning of the word. Being situated smack in the middle of farmland means we live on irrigation water. At the point of sale of our humble abode, I didn't for one moment, think to ask  the real estate agent if there was clean, the type that overcomes one and knocks one out by the fumes of chlorinated, kinda water. Coming from Sydney, and considering clean water to be a given, my naively put question to the agent was "is there plenty of water?". At the time of leaving Sydney, Sydney was in drought mode and as my husband loves gardening, a regular drop of good ole H2O was of utmost importance. I didn't think to ask....."and is it sparkling clean?"!!!! These days, when this girl bathes, it is with never knowing what amphibious creature, in the minutiae, will gleefully escape from the faucet!! But not to worry, the water is piping hot and besides, frothy, sweet-smelling bubbles tends to lull one into a false sense of security as to what is lurking beneath!! Aaaah yes......the bathing experience is not quite what it used to be........but I digress.

Though I have stitched a few pretties, it really hasn't been my usual frenetic pace. I have for the last couple of weeks been buried deep in the environs of my sewing room, reorganising everything. I bought a new work table, and a 'little worse for wear' cupboard, which of course demanded everything in my sewing room be tipped out, sorted, stored in some new box or hat box...... and put back again in a new home, making my sewing room function a little better.

It is only a small room so organisation is of importance. I find it annoyingly bothersome searching for yonks, for some pretty or some paraphernalia needed for the job on hand, that I know is somewhere but can't get to it quickly.

So, I arranged fabrics to happily cohabitate beside each other, in all their glorious colour and pattern behind glass doors. Eeeks.......perhaps it would be wise not to purchase any fabric for a while.....there is simply no room left. Note to self.......under no circumstance whatsoever must I acquire any more fabric!! But then......I don't really ever listen to myself.  I do confess, this 'armoire' is not the only one stored with textiles.......I fear there are several throughout our abode wholly devoted to this purpose. I am doing my darndest to lessen the high rise pile of pretty cloth.

I arranged pretty trims, ribbons; a little bit of this and a little bit of that in fun polka dotted, lidded jars. Ten glass jars sitting on a wonderfully aged shelf......if one glass jar should accidentally fall...............oh dear, perish the thought!

My new work desk. Love, love, love this trestle table!! Love the shelves below for extra storage.

I unearthed this really cool, rusty plant stand from the garden and found a new purpose for it. Love how it creates so much storage for more crap.......stuff of paramount importance!!

My cute as cute Bernina looks perfectly at home.

I added a new light to join my light that I tarted up and wrote about here. One can never have too much lighting in a sewing room,  can one!!

My 'new' cupboard that I happened upon in an op shop. Of course I gave it a lick of paint and roughed it up a bit. I have a propensity for peeling paint, scuffed furniture and the odd bit of rust. I don't know why I subsist happier surrounded by pieces of furniture that have seen better days.....I can only put it down to a deviant gene. My darling mum didn't possess the 'it's gotta be old and scruffy look'.......the lovely vintage look, gene.....no, no, no....she would always roll her eyes heavenwards when I dragged a relic with a previous life home with me. The shelves are great for storing boxes and of course one can store hat boxes, beauty cases etc etc. I love the clean lines and behind the sliding glass doors is more pretty fabric.......and of course behind the wooden doors, more fabrics sit.

There is oodles of space on the shelves to store pretty boxes all individually labelled with little serviettes just in case my muddly brainpan forgets where everything is.

I gave the door of this cupboard a coat of blackboard paint. It is great for writing notes to myself, writing a quote or making a list of what project the kiddos are stitching. My brain pan is a wee bit muddly of late and I never seem to be able  to remember which kiddo is what making what pretty.

I also finished stitching my patchwork curtains that I made from the gob smackingly beautiful, Trish Guild fabric samples that a  friend gifted me a li'l while ago. I wrote about these too die for fabrics eons ago here. I had stitched curtains for one window but now the other window is dressed with some new pretty coverings.

Another task ticked off my list. I must say I am rather partial to the random prints and colours. Somehow they just all go together like Gable and Lombard, Bogey and Bacall, Rogers and Astaire.........or peculiarly, for those of you who live in the USofA......peanut butter and jelly.

The new curtains.

A new comfy sewing chair was needed..........a lovely white one, of course.

I love this beautiful rug. It's lovely and soft with the funkiest of designs. I spend a lot of time on the floor of my sewing room these days. More time than I probably should as I just can't seem to get up again....'dem poor ole knees'!!

Reorganising my sewing room has been fun. If for no other reason than discovering some pretty that I had forgotten about and delighting in it's loveliness all over again. 'Tis rather akin to finding lost treasure. I love the new spacious look. I love there is a big space in the middle of the room for me to make more creative mess!! And......it is much more spacious when sewing lessons commence with my kiddos again. I am always on the lookout for some lovely suitcases in which to store more pretties, but for now my little sewing room will just have to do....not that I am complaining.

For now though, I will enjoy my home a little more before we return to town for the 'big day'. I might even lock myself up in my sewing room never to enter the real world again. My sewing room is such a happy place.

I feel it has been rather a long time since I last wrote. Paradoxically there has been much to say, but then.......nothing at all to say. My words seem to have been lying dormant of late, hiding within the depths of me, with no rhythm, with no periodicity. Perhaps they will come gurgling out in the not too distant future. But enough of deep ponderous thoughts. For those of you who have sent me lovely emails to inquire as to what has been happening in my li'l neck of the woods....thank you.

Until the next time...........

Enjoy the little things in life.

Linking up with the lovely Stephanie's 'Roses of Inspiration' at The Enchanting Rose.