A Beautiful Swap Story....

The knitted tea cosy is a little £2.50 treat to myself, the lovely ladies at the hospital knitted it, and believe me I needed a treat whilst I was there :) and I think is such a dear little thing.


Thank you all for all your wonderful and pretty suggestions for my round windows, I love them all, and may plum for the fantastic pin board idea for Little Man's room and pretty curtains for Big sister.

Thank you so much for my lovely awards that I have received, apologies it has taken me so long to acknowledge them. I am very grateful.


Thank you April @ Cake Makes The World A Better Place


Thank You Victoria @ Vintage Tea





Thank you Marianne @ Le Temps Jadis





Thank you Victoria @ Vintage Tea





Thank you MelMel @ At Home With MelMel


Thank you Claire @ Serendipity Loves New York

Thank you Gem @ Echo Lodge





Thank you MelMel @ At Home With MelMel





I too have been tagged by the lovely Victoria Plum's Homegrown Blog and shall have a think of some random things about me.


You all have such brilliant blogs and would find it so hard to only choose a few of you and many of you have them already too. So please if you would like one of these pretty awards please do consider yourself awarded.


Here is a beautiful swap that I have received on the SC cafe from the lovely Mary also known as Mitmot, lovely Mary has no blog but she should have, she is the most brilliant and creative crafter. The theme was CK Esque, so I knew that whatever was received, I would be very grateful for, and would dearly love. And boy am I in love with my beautiful and thoughtful swap.


I thought of you and wondered if you would like to take a look :)


Gorgeous lovingly wrapped parcels.





One of Mary's delightful beautifully handmade pincushions.





A beautiful handmade flower card.





The prettiest lavender heart.





I love shopping and shall even better with Mitmot's new floraly bag on my arms.





Pretty CK covered notebook, Ohooo look it matches my wallpaper perfectly.





Gorgeous and very pretty make up case, Mmmmm is there something in there.





Gorgeous and so me bangle, delightful and pretty bath salts, a gorgeous hand embroidered glass paperweight and some lovely CK body cream.





Now here is where I become all soppy. I am always grabbing one of Big Sister's bobbles and look somewhat rather daft in hers, think glitter.


So imagine how happy I was when I unwrapped the most gorgeous hand embroidered hair accessory, now I shall look like a proper lady with it in my hair, not like a seven year old :)


So special as the buttons in it were Mary's Grandmothers.





And then the most beautiful one with a matching brooch.





What a delightful, special, beautifully handmade Heart covered note book, all the fantastic work that has gone into it, and pretty CK ribbon for the pages. It Is made even more special, as I now know from Mary, that some of the materials used in the Heart were from her childhood dresses, and hold some very special memories for her and hopefully I can do her proud, in that in years to come it shall indeed hold some very special memories for me too.





She has been kind enough to allow me to share her memories with you.


Here is her story in her own words that I have copied onto here

" For those of you who may be interested in the story behind some of the fabric I used in Mary Poppins patchwork heart i have included the story here

The story of the patchwork heart…..

I have strong memories of my Godfather ‘Uncle Les’ he was a farmer like my Father and lived on the next farm to us when I was growing up.

He and my Father would help each other at busy times on the farm, and when my father was struggling financially Les helped him out. Les was a man of few words but was a real country gentleman who treasured his friends.

For as long as I can remember he would always visit us on Easter day with the BIGGEST black magic Easter egg for me, and on Christmas morning, and with a gift for my Mum and one for me. It was so special although the presents were always the same, hand embroidered hankies for my Mum and a party dress for me, often handmade by his wife ‘Aunty Vera’. In later years I realised even more how special the dresses were as they were not able to have children of there own.

Les died 20 years ago when I was 22 and Vera passed away 4 years ago aged 96. She continued to live in the farm house they had built together in 1952 and my family rented the farm land and still do now.

I helped to clear the house after Vera had died and found her fabric stash including the scraps from making my dresses and her nephew kindly allowed me to keep them along with some other items.

The house had to be sold and the money was to be split between 9 beneficiaries, and I was surprised to learn I was one of them. What is even more special to me is that I am sat typing this in the kitchen of there farmhouse as with the support of my husband and a huge mortgage we bought it from the estate and then spent months refurbishing and modernising it. We have such a lovely home here overlooking the farmland that my brother continues to work, and I am sure that both my godfather and my father who passed away 7 years ago would have been proud that it is still ‘in the family’

So back to the patchwork heart, the central hand embroidered flower is from one of the hankies, and the arrows point to the dress fabric







Thanks to Mary Poppins for encouraging me to write this and for getting clever with the arrows "


I am not embarrassed to say I got quite emotional when I unwrapped my gorgeous swap and then knowing the moving story behind them has touched me greatly.


Thank you So much Mary, What a beautiful story, I am truly honored and I hope that you know that your precious memories are now a part of me, and I shall treasure your lovely Heart Notebook for ever :)





I hope you enjoyed seeing my lovely swap and reading Mary's story.


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