ELDERFLOWERS ARE EVERYWHERE

It has been an odd Spring this year with heatwaves in April and such cold nights in late May
that weve taken to lighting the fire in the evening. Everyone's noticed how early the flowers and fruit are and we'll have a monster crop of figs in a month or two. And there seem to be more Elderflowers than I've ever seen before. I made cordial on Monday and bottled it up yesterday but actually cannot bear to look at the trees covered with flowers without planning to make another batch. I should like it to last till next year but will be lucky if it makes July the way we're guzzling it. Free seasonal food should never be ignored.
Workwise Aveda keep me busy with lovely collaborative bag projects and the latest ones will be in Liberty's this month to celebrate the new Beauty Rooms. I'm also making another big batch of Union Jack cosmetic bags with pretty floral linings for them, so sign-up with Aveda online http://www.aveda.co.uk for newsletters and their special offers ....which may be one of my bags.
Living beside the sea, when summer looms I find Beach Bags are on my mind and this year I've been trying my hand at silk screen printing, putting big red arrows on vintage striped canvas. I love the results and by the look of it my favourite customers do too - thanks xxxx you know who you are!

Enjoy the summer & Make Elderflower Cordial & Be Happy

LOVE & PEACE

Sally
x

GENEROSITY

A very long time ago somebody who lived in Hastings left land and specified that it

was never to be built on. Instead certain rare trees were to be planted for the enjoyment of future generations. One of these is the Magnolia Grandiflora, now a familar garden feature

but when it was chosen it must have been extremely exotic and unusual.

The wonderful thing is that this tree has now grown so huge it towers over all other trees and the surrounding meadows. It stands tall, a bizarre mass of sugary pink set against bare branches, so wonderfully out of place that it makes you gasp with delight.

By next week all the buds will be open and the earliest ones will drop creating a carpet of pink beneath the tree.
Its extraordinary and wonderfully generous.
So thank you.

love & peace

this time of year

I have been in Dorset, in the heart of the countryside where I was
thrilled by the views of rolling hills, newly ploughed fields and
trees just starting to green up. The lanes were lined with snowdrops and every tree seemed to boast at least one singing bird. The green of the grass was vibrant and the sky a brilliant blue. It was pure joy.
As we drove back to Sussex today something else caught my eye.
Dirty shredded plastic bags stuck in hedges, flapping on barbed wire and woven through branches. In a week or two the new leaves will hide this evidence of people's indifference. Till Autumn.
Grrrrr! There was a car in front of me with an English Flag sticker on the back windscreen and the driver threw his chocolate bar wrapper out of the window. There he was surrounded by fields of green and I wondered what it was he loved so much about England - not the countryside I'm guessing. He's probably never noticed that.
Lately I have realised that the only way for me to deal with this is to pick up the litter that the careless ones leave behind - being angry spoils my day and their messy behavior spoils my neighbourhood and our countryside. That's my plan.

Enjoy that view..........
I took the photograph this morning
with love & peace

Sally
x

ITS FEBRUARY ALREADY

I seemed to have spent an entire month sorting through fabrics and trying to tidy up my workroom. This means business has been quiet, as it always is in the depths of winter. People turn to weatherproof bags
and let's face it without a plastic content nothing is waterproof - well, I suppose there is rubber and oiled cotton but those are not on my 'pretty vintage' radar. So, January is the time to fold and stack. Until an order comes in for something that I know I've seen somewhere....
then I start messing things up again and frankly, that's where I'm at right now. It looks as if nothing has changed but, on the bright side, I have done a mental audit of my fabulous bag potential - and there is plenty of it! Snowdrops have come up, tulips are pushing through and I've seen a couple of blue tits checking out my birdbox.
It's a way off yet but I'm definitely feeling more energetic and so looking forward to the Spring.

LOVE & PEACE & HAPPINESS

X

S A L L Y