Birthday celebrations

So I can't let the month go without mentioning the birthday celebrations for my darling Prince. It was a quiet night of the Princes favourites. That is gluten free stuffed roast chicken! Salad & chocolate coated strawberries for afters.

Declared nom worthy!

Loving what I do. Can't imagine doing it without my Prince.

Lush x

Sussex Bread Company

So not one to do things sparingly, my partner & I have decided to go into business with 2 friends & open a gluten & wheat free bakery.

This is currently running out of our home kitchen but we have every intention of having premises soon. Well we were planning on it at around 12 to 18 months into the business.

We may be looking much much sooner than that. Like in week 10. We are in week 7. 

We have become very popular very quickly. It is like trying to ride an eel. (not that any of us would do that eeeww!!)

We are intending to offer a box scheme but in the mean time we have been selling at my cafe & did the town markets last weekend. We can barely keep up with demand.

We're gonna need a bigger oven!!! LOL It is a great "problem" to have.

Here is our first bread order heading out to Wales.

As you can tell from photos, we are a bit excited & proud. If you or anyone you know needs gluten free bread, pasta, cakes or biscuits, get in touch. SussexBreadCo 

We can sort you out :)

Loving what we do

Lush x

Off to Londinium!!

It's that time again, time to submit more paper so I can stay in this adopted country of mine. So that means more trips to the Big Smoke. More opportunities to have burgers for lunch.

If you ever get a chance to eat at Byron, I can heartily recommend them. This is this months special the "B Rex, Byronosaurus". Declared nom worthy by me.

I had the conversation with the cab driver that I have with sooooo many people here. It always goes the same way. Them: "Are you Australian?" Me: "Yes I am." Them: "Why are you living HERE?" Me: "I love the weather". Them: "You are crazy!"

While its true, I do love the weather & yes, I am a little crazy, it is a million other little things that I love about here. Small things can thrill me. In the train today, too warm to leave my gillet on, (and who doesn't love a gillet in this weather??) no problem, I will just hang it on the conveniently placed hook next to my seat with the conveniently included little hanging loop inside said gillet. Bliss!

Loving all the little things

Lush x

It's a quilting miracle!

Another finish, the second for the year. This is the quilt that I made for the nephew of The Prince. I started ages ago some months back & it is finally winging it's way to London today so the kid has it before he turns 5.

Scrappy back with the HST leftover from the Churn Dash blocks. Crowns on the label as a nod that "other birth" that happened last year. I fell in love with this backing fabric & bought it with no particular thought in mind. Perfect for the backing I think :)

Baby is English born, Swedish Mum, Australian Dad and I really tried to find fabrics that reflected his multi national heritage. The large red heart fabric in the border is Swedish, there are pears on the bottom left block (for the time of his birth), sail boats for Oz, snowflakes for Sweden & England, London buses, teapots & all things British in the border. The yellow border represents the sunshine of Australia. I am really pleased with the end result. 

Not the best shots in the world but all that was possible before The Prince had to dash off on the train. I really like the 2 coloured binding on this quilt. 

MUST. USE. ALL. THE. FABRICS! Still ended up with gingham scraps LOL.

This quilt took so long because it insisted on being 54 inches square. In the end I am glad though as it will see him through for many years to come. I hope he gets years of warmth & feels the love with which it was made.

Loving what I do

Lush x

Oh my what a week!

So I started on the new seafront pitch last week & let me tell you, it is so different to last year that it is like chalk & cheese. Weekdays are a little slower but on the weekend especially Saturday, we were slammed!!

I am really looking forward to the Summer :)  I am really looking forward to catching back up on the finances side of life. The sad thing is that I now have no time to spare at all so no sewing being done here unless you count the frogging I am doing on some quilting that went horribly wrong. Mind you, the insomnia seems to have been instantly cured. Too damn tired not to sleep.

In the meantime, heres a picture from my office window. Not bad huh?

Loving what I do & especially where I get to do it.

Lush x

Day out in Chi Darling!!

Apparently the locals call Chichester, "Chi" as in Chai. Seems a little chi chi to me but we went along to see what was on offer. As we are not massive shoppers we were kind of expecting to be bored but I have to say there were more than enough really old buildings to keep us entertained for ages.

 This is the butter market hall. Who knew there needed to be a dedicated market hall just for butter?? This is my kind of town!!

 This is an amazing 11th century church. Crammed in cheek by jowl between a phone shop & a bakery cafe. It has been turned into a book shop. How modern.

 I bet St Olaf is rolling in his grave. But I guess it is good to see old buildings having life & not rotting into ruin.

 This was the Assembly Hall. Hysterical. Swallow your bonnet!!

This is a not very good detail shot of the amazing bank building. (one of many). This is built in the traditional flint stone style but with napped flint in the gaps. Very sharp! I wonder if it was done on purpose to keep the robbers out or if just done for design.

Here is a better picture after the link. Flintstone

Still didn't get to visit the fabric store. I have been to Chi twice now & still can't find the shop! Will need to do a detailed Google search next time. We will go back as we ran out of time to visit the cathedral & several other sights. A good day spent wandering marvelling at the architecture & a good lunch. 

Loving what we do

Lush x

A year in fabric

The last year has seen me tied to the desk doing more than my fair share of this & trying so very hard to get my cafe off the ground & running as a viable form of income. As income has been incredibly tight so has my disposable income had to be. I have allowed myself £20 of silly spending money a month.

Unsurprisingly, most of that has gone on fabric. I have had some rules though. I have mostly bought on sale, stuck to backgrounds & low volume moderns. Let's see how I did.

OK, yes I might have strayed from the path here but they were scrap bags!! I love scrap bags, means I don't have to pick just 1 or 2 fabrics :)

 I think those little foxes may be my favourite purchase for the year. So cute!

Loving the wee little ants in their maze.

So not a bad effort. Have also committed to using ALL the fabric I currently have on hand, even scraps, no matter how small.

May have taken the last rule a little too far.

Loving what I do

Lush x