Carrots, Fireplaces & Contrary Cats

Greetings lovely friends & readers

It has been another busy week but Oh I am loving these March Autumn days with the chilly mornings & evenings ... I just adore them 💖

I came across this Carrot Treat Bag tutorial free on the Internet & thought what a wonderful idea they would be to make for my Grandchildren & pop a few Easter goodies in.  I was able to get 3 made up using orange & green fabrics already in my stash & thought they looked wonderful with the Easter tags I made in my last post.

 The only thing I needed to buy - besides the choccy - was 1 metre each of green & orange ribbon. 

(The Bunnie tag is to pop away for a rabbit I hope to sew one day)

Then yesterday an Order arrived in the post from Love from Seventeen.  I often buy their seasonal tags to attach to gifts so the wee rabbits will be perfect tied around my Carrot treat bags. 

We have had Tradesmen here most days this past week as we had our old fireplace removed & a new one fitted.  

This is what the cavity looked like once the old one was removed - I did paint around the edges before the new                                                                       one went in.

While I was doing this I observed all the colours the fireplace had been.  When we first moved in 20 + years ago I had thought it was a muddy cream colour but looking at this now I see it was more a dirty pink.  I remember when everyone had gone to bed late one night I found a tin of British Racing Green paint in The Mr's shed & painted it green.  I could not get the pink colour clean no matter now much I scrubbed it.  Then it was a dark burgundy for awhile before I lightened it in this Post * here *

It is a process now to change a fireplace.  Once the old one is removed you cannot fit the new one until a Building Inspector has checked the cavity first.  Here is Blackie checking out the new firebox & telling me there is no need to send a Building Inspector out - he can do just as good a job at checking everything 😉!!

Here is our lovely new firebox.  We have a fan fitted in the bottom grill so this had to be wired in by an Electrician. Tomorrow at 8 am the Slate man is coming as the Hearth needs to be an inch wider to get our building consent.  As you can imagine Miss Pip is beside herself with all these Tradies here every single day & not impressed at all !!

I went to pick up a presciption last week & noticed a new Op Shop in the old Bank building - an SPCA one.  So I went for a look & a purchase as it would be incredibly rude of me not to support them 😉

I came away with the plant stand for $10 - the lovely vintage fabric above left was $2 & $3, & the plaster cherubs were $4 each.  

While the men were fitting the fireplace & I was keeping out of their way, I painted the plant stand with 2 coats of chalk paint - Antique White.  I will show you in my next post what I have used it for.

Some self seeded tomatoes have gone wild in my veggie garden & this is what I am picking every 2nd day.  The cherry ones are especially sweet & delicious. 

I took Sid to our little local Park last Tuesday & he wanted me to take a photo of the clouds - they were so fluffy & wonderful that day & the sky was Oh so blue 💙

Whilst I was still keeping-out-of-tradies-way I made up another batch of miracle spray. You can find the recipe * here *  This is all I use for my cleaning - it is wonderful & a batch lasts me a very long time.

Lastly dear friends -  I had left my (undies!!) drawer open while rushing out the door to an early appointment.  Upon arriving home I found a certain ginger being curled up sound asleep in it.  I posted this photo on Instagram & it got so many lovely comments.  The next day I was contacted by a PetModels Inc. Company telling me they were interested in pets like this & would I be willing to work with them??

And Yes there were ginger hairs all through my "smalls" 😐

Thank You Very much but No Thank You!!  This little ginger friend is already HIGH MAINTENANCE ENOUGH without the thought of modelling going to her tiny fluffy head!!  And she is so contrary I could imagine the whole thing being a complete nightmare!!   So not a word has been mentioned to her about it 😉

Thank You So Very Much for your visits here today dear friends,

I hope the coming week treats you well - remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you All,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x