May 2020

HAPPY HERBING LADIES

Well look what we’ve been up to during this horrible time we all find ourselves in. You must know by now that we’re certainly not ones for sitting around doing nothing and we felt this was a perfect opportunity to share our love with others, so they could have something positive to focus on and maybe even learn something new. The idea was to give women who were struggling something fun to do SO why not try herbs? cooking with them, trying them out in teas to help aliments such as anxiety or insomnia.

We set about thinking what we had and what we’d need. We had some old pallets-paint and ideas. We needed herbs (lots of) and tins (again lots of). Our local council are giving grants to groups to help people so we got the money for the herbs TICK! We posted on Facebook asking friends/family and neighbours if they’d keep their tin cans TICK!

Everything in hand we contacted the Job Centre to ask if they had any customers who they felt would benefit from having a herb box? YES they had lots. So we ordered our herbs from an amazing company called Herbal Haven - they grow ALL herbs and are well worth a look - www.herbalhaven.com - and then we began to construct the boxes and collect tin cans.

To date we’ve constructed 25 boxes and handed them out to as many women, along with some tips on how to make herbal teas and what herbs to put in what dishes and we’ve set up a mailchimp group for the women to send in their pics of how things are going.

It’s been a fair bit of sweat and tears (no blood thankfully) at times BUT we’ve loved every minute of it and sincerely hope each and every woman enjoys their herbs x

April 2020

So take a look at this - I’m really rather impressed and shows there’s really no such thing as rubbish eh! In case you can’t work out what it is (or was) it’s the frame of an old trampoline. It was due to go to the dump but had a fantastic idea to try and make it into ‘something’. Here’s how I did it

As this frame was SO big I couldn’t have a complete circle BUT if you have a smaller frame then you can use all the poles, but you will have to make sure you secure it to the ground using the legs somehow.

Slot the poles into each other pic 2 and attach two of the legs pic 3. Once upright the structure did sit on the legs BUT it wouldn’t have stayed up so I had to drive a couple of lengths of dowling rod into the ground to slip the end poles into and that was it! No really it was that easy. Use the springs to clip into the existing holes around the frame. You can join 2 or 3 together to create a bit of variety and then hang whatever you want from them. I’ve used hanging baskets, lanterns and a bird feeder.

Really hope the baskets blossom - never been any good at hanging baskets - but if they don’t do very well then I’ll just replace with more bird feeders and anything else I have lying around.

Ta Da!

Feb 2020

Always up for trying news things we thought we’d share these little gems with you to try

Simply cut the end off an old stocking/pop sock approx 20cm - stretch over a cup and add 1-2 spoons of grass seed - add sawdust or soil - tie a knot so the contents are firm to the touch but not too tight if you want to make a nose and ears - Leave the excess as that can sit in the cup to help sock up the water - you can create a nose and even ears by pinching out a little of the stocking and twisting - Secure with some string or elastic band - do the same on either side for ears if you wish. submerge the head in some water so it’s soaked through, then place in a container of your choice - Decorate your grass head. Place on a sunny windowsill and wait for the magic to begin. You can also use chives or rye seeds instead of grass TA DA!

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No doubt like millions of others you’ve had sometime lately to have a sort through your clothes? So if you’ve got some blouses or shirts you no longer want why not try making some of these fun cushion covers

It helps if you have a sewing machine but you can hand sew instead (it will just take a bit longer) - Lay the buttoned up inside out shirt flat on the floor - using a straight edge gauge the size you want your cushion to be, you can use a pencil or pen to mark the material (we cut inside the sleeve hem to ensure a straight line) - Then pin to keep edges together. Then sew (we suggest you run the stitch line twice to make sure the seam is strong) Turn shirt out and undo the buttons - Using the excess shirt material hand sew onto the top edge of one edge of the cushion (this will help hide the cushion once the shirt is on) Push the cushion to the shirt and do the buttons up TA DA!

December 2019

After last years over subscribed wreath workshop we decided to organise two this year and again both booked up within weeks. It was so good to watch everyone grow in confidence and create bespoke wreaths to enjoy year after year. A huge thanks to our crafting queen Barbara for her expert guidance to help everyone.

ANNNNnDDDDD after going through all the feedback from the workshops we are excited to announce that we will be running crafting sessions in 2020. These sessions will cover a variety of subjects including - ‘How to use your sewing machine’ (you’d be surprised how many women have one but don’t know how to use it) - so we’re here to change that. ‘Make do and Mend’ where you’ll learn how to repair an item OR make something new from something old. So keep an eye on our Face Book page for details.

2nd May 2019

Had great fun learning all about the different power tools at Homebase today. We think we’ve got everything we need to start now BUT was SO touched when the store So a massive THANK YOU to Homebase