A Touch of Pink and a Pansy Winner

My favourite colour is blue but lately I've been feeling the need for a bit of pink. Maybe it's because of all this cold, wet weather here in England. I'm desperate for a bit of warmth, so I've turned to the colour pink in my miniatures.

I've made some pink roses and I've also been painting some pink furniture for Mermaid's Cottage. I will show you more of this soon.

I've also made some pretty little primulas in pink from a Pascale Garnier kit. I really love primulas and I have lots more to make but they are so, so tiny and require lots of patience!!

Next, I've been given two awards from two very lovely blog friends.

Firstly I would like to say thank you to Amary for this lovely award. Thank you so much for thinking of me Amary, it is an honour and you have made me very happy. Thank you for your lovely friendship xxxxx

And I also want to thank another lovely friend for giving me this award. Thank you so much Carmen, it means so much to me to have you as a friend and I really appreciate you thinking of me with this award.

This is a special award and with it I need to choose a phrase and an image and share it with you here on my blog. So here is what I chose.

My little hand sewn bunny and bluebird

As you know Twinkle and The Blue Bird of Happiness are the very best of friends!! They are inseparable and the love between them is infinite. So I thought this was the perfect image to go with the phrase I chose.

Since I started blogging my heart is definitely twinkling more with all the love I have received from so many beautiful friends. So thank you to all my new blog friends for leaving such lovely comments on my blog and for twinkling in my heart.
As always I dedicate my awards to everyone.

And Finally here is the little set of pansies I've made for one of you to win

I had a little help choosing the winner from Audrey and her very best friend Alice, who live on the sofa in my living room :)

And my mum picked out a winner

Congratulations Julie!!
Please email me with your address and I will send these little pansies on their way to you :)

Hugs and thank you so much for visiting 

Vicky

xxxx

Mermaid's Cottage Garden and My Real Garden

I've started on the side garden for Mermaids Cottage. I've constructed it using three pieces of ply wood and I took advantage of a rare sunny day at the weekend to paint the wall white. I've also made a tiny corner wall, ready for planting lots of lovely flowers. My head is now full of mini gardening ideas :) and I'm making lots more birds.
Things inside Mermaid's Cottage are also progressing very nicely. I've decided to wait until I've finished it before I show you :)

I'm very inspired by my real garden, it's looking so beautiful and I thought it would be nice to share a few photos of it with you.

If you step through the archway it leads onto the terrace garden. When we moved into this home two and a half years ago the terrace was just concrete but now there's an abundance of flowers and a small area to sit, enjoy the view and watch the birds.
Here's a picture of the abundance of flowers now growing on the terrace.

Foxgloves abound in the garden, we can't get enough of them. The bees adore them and the fairies love them too :)

 

More beautiful flowers

 

And the vegetable garden. Just a few things this year, but it's so wonderful to pick fresh salad straight from the garden.

I really love making pansies, they're my absolute favourite flowers, they make me feel so happy!!!

So I am going to make some like these to give to a random commenter on this post. I will make a little set of three pansies in my colourful hand painted pots and will announce the winner in my next post.

This is just a little gift to say thank you to the lovely people who support me and my blog and leave such wonderful comments. Like pansies you make me happy :)

Hugs
Vicky
xxxxx

More beautiful Gifts From Special Friends

Firstly Apologies to everyone. On Monday I accidentally published a draft post which wasn't ready. I then had to delete the draft post and re-publish my post about Jennifer's gifts. I'm really sorry if I confused you all when it came up on your blog lists twice!!!

I want to share with you some gifts I've received from two very special friends.

Firstly my lovely friend Blanca sent me some of her beautiful peonies in a gorgeous handmade blue jug. Blanca's generosity never ceases to amaze me, she is such a kind, loving and special person, and a true friend whom I treasure with all my heart. How lucky I am to have special people like this in my life, thank you so much Blanca, you are wonderful and your friendship is precious!!!
 I've photographed them in Mermaid's cottage kitchen so you can all have a tiny sneak peek into my progress here.

Blanca also sent me some planted peonies in a lovely white pot and a gorgeous pink Hyacinth. If you don't already know Blanca's work you can visit her blog here http://quepequenoeselmundo.blogspot.com

She's had some trouble with her blog recently but it's all fixed now,and if you feel like having a try at flower making you'll find some fantastic tutorials, including ones for peonies and hyacinths.

Next I am sharing some photos of gifts that have been lovingly made by my friend Maria, a very wonderful, open hearted friend who enriches the blog world with her kindness and her beautiful blog.

It was sunny in the UK today so I took them outside in my garden for a photo shoot.

Maria has made me a gorgeous duvet with matching pillows. It's trimmed with lace and silk roses and it's so beautiful!!!

She's also made some little hand sewn baskets, and some gorgeous soaps, perfume bottles and a lovely little vintage style picture.

And I absolutely adore this little satchel Maria's made for me, it's too cute for words and she's also made a lovely little footstool which will go in Mermaid's Cottage, I love it!!

All this came with a beautiful thank you card which gave me so much happiness. Thank you so much Maria your gifts are wonderful, I will treasure them and your frienship is also a very wonderful gift!!!!

If you don't already know of Maria's beautiful blog you can visit her here www.prettythingsireland.blogspot.com

Hugs

Vicky

xxxxxxx

Wonderful Gifts From Jennifer

I feel very blessed to have made so many lovely friends here in Blogland. It's wonderful to connect with lots of  positive, creative people and being part of blogland is such a fantastic way of focusing on all that's good in the world!!

 

To thank Jennifer for her friendship I recently asked if she would like me to make her a gift for Cupcake Cottage (her latest project). I was very happy when she said she would also love to make a gift for me and we both got busy creating special gifts for each other with love and care.

Visit Jennifer's blog to look at the gifts I sent her.

Yesterday my gifts arrived and I'm sharing some photos of the beautiful things Jennifer has made especially for me.

Beautiful hand covered books, towels in adorable fabrics, a gorgeous mini flask, handmade valentine's cards in a beautiful box and exquisite handmade perfume bottles,

Gorgeous hand sewn corsets and a parasol for my Mermaid,

And Jennifer sent me some of her adorable cards.

 

Thank you so much Jennifer for your lovingly made gifts, I love them all.

 

Hugs

Vicky xxxxxxx