There is no rose of such virtue

I know these photos aren't anything to do with sewing or embroidery, or even crafts, but I couldn't resist sharing our beautiful roses with you!

Handel (we think!)

Handel again - this was in the garden when we moved in

Cariad (Welsh for love) - a gift from MIL

I'm cheating here - this is a sneaky peak over the fence to our neighbours' lovely apricot beauty

Neat and tidy

On my long list of jobs to do I've had one item for ages, namely making a replacement pouch for my manicure set.  I bought a handy little set at Superdrug to keep in my handbag a while ago and although it is very useful, it came in a rather boring black pouch.  Whilst it is quite a sturdy pouch in many ways, the binding around the edge has started to come away, so it was a good excuse to make a prettier one for myself.
Now, being an expert procrastinator, I've had this on hand-written 'to-do' lists week after week and on reminders on my mobile phone and computer and have continued to skip it.
Until the Friday before last that is.

We were going away for the weekend and I had a pretty long list of stuff to do to prepare, but I thought that I just had to get on with it and make this thing.  So, I did!

I'd used the 'old' one as a template for a pattern and had rummaged through my supplies to see what I fancied using.  Years ago I'd bought some Liberty print bias binding for something or other, but never used it, so I quite fancied having some of that for my pouch, but I didn't really have any fabric that was suitable that matched.  Then I had some lovely red Liberty print fabric that was big enough, but the bias binding I had that matched was too wide (and I didn't really fancy trying to cut it down).  In the end I went with a slightly impractical colour scheme of white and blue.  It will probably get filthy pretty quickly, but at least it is 100% cotton so it can go in the washing machine.  It is far from perfect, but will do as a 'prototype' for now and is actually big enough to hold my lipstick too!

Curtain up

One of my (many) crafting projects this year will be new curtains for our bedroom and living room.  We've chosen the fabric for both rooms, but are just waiting to get new windows organised before we put up the curtain poles and then make the curtains.  It is a long drawn-out process, but I'm sure it will be lovely when it's done.

However, last year finished with my first 'make' for the house (we've been living here for almost 2 years now) - kitchen blinds. It was a fairly simple decision to make choosing what sort of window covering I wanted in the kitchen - plain, simple Roman blinds.  Then I'd got it in my head that I wanted stripes.  Friends of ours have some lovely stripey Roman blinds in their kitchen - totally the wrong colour for ours, but I'd got their fabric in my head and started looking for something similar in red and green (the accent colours we'd chosen for the otherwise plain, cream kitchen).

Who would have thought that finding stipes in red and green would have been sooooo difficult.  Red and blue - easy.  Pink and green - plenty.  But Green and Red - forget it!  We'd already started getting 'accent pieces' in a nice bright, pillar-box red and had some green bits too (not all the same type of green really, but it all seemed to work reasonably together), so that sort of tied us.

Thankfully, after trawling online fabric shops and fabric manufacturers, we finally found something suitable in good old John Lewis.  Not quite the pillar-box red I'd imagined, but lovely all the same.

After ordering the fabric and buying all the odds and ends to make the blinds work, it took me about 3-4 weekends to make them.  It was my first attempt at Roman blinds, and to be honest, I'm not sure I'll be making any more in a hurry (and I hadn't realised how difficult it was to sew in a straight line before).  But we are pleased with them (well, I will be once I've got over the critical-of-my-own-work stage).  The kitchen sounds so different now that they are up and it does brighten the place up a bit (it is fairly dark and north-facing).

So, here they are ....

Setting the table

I've been perusing some other crafty people's blogs recently (I'm being presumptious now and assuming that I'm crafty too!), and one of them reminded me of some napkins that I've half hemmed, but never finished (what's new?!).
Here they are:

So, that lovely blog inspired me to finally get my act together and finish them all some off.
Et voila!

So thank you Domestic Novice and may you (and I?) continue to inspire fellow crafters everywhere!