A alternative 75th VE day celebration, Mindful Moments 7

Hello again I am back with my 7th Mindful Moments post.

If you did not see my first post and wonder what these are do check it out here. Thank you to everyone who has been reading them. I can see from my stats that these are getting at least twice the usual traffic of my other posts, which has really inspired me to keep trying to get them written weekly if I can. I really hope you are finding them a moment to make you smile and stay mindful during these very turbulent times.

This is a long post so grab a large cuppa or even a mug!
Today is the 75th anniversary of VE day and time for us to remember victory in Europe in 1945. I love seeing the old BBC footage of everyone celebrating back then. My dear parents and their parents were a part of that historical day. I think it is also helpful to keep in mind that we will be able to look back at this pandemic one day as another piece of history.  There will not be 1 single day we can celebrate this but a time will come when we can acknowledge that this invisible enemy has been beaten.

I have been thrilled to see how many people have thought of alternative ways of celebrating today and I decided to get into the swing too. People in our road are going to sit in their front gardens for afternoon tea later so I got cake baking and printed out some posters of my Union Jack cards I recently made and put them into my downstairs windows.
How apt are my STAMPlorations stamps I used here!

Today also made me think of one person who would have really celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE day big time. That person is Rebecca, the owner of Dotty's Teahouse in Carshalton and Tea Garden in Coulsdon in Surrey. Her vintage cafes celebrate all things 1940s and I know the bunting would be out there today if she could.
I made and sent her this card to let her know how much I miss her and the Dotty family but that one day we will be back sharing a cup of tea with friends.

Who would have known in 1945 that 75 years later we would be fighting a different and very invisible enemy ie Covid 19. So many businesses have shut that it is hard to stay positive for the future but we must be. I thought that today I would also share a "virtual" celebration for Dotty's Teahouse's 4th birthday which is next week. If you are not aware this is a family run tea house which opened in Carshalton High Street, Surrey in May 2016. I replied to an advert in the March to sell my handmade cards there and met Rebecca the owner. She loved what I made and I loved what Dotty's was to become. Well, the rest is history and during these 4 years I have sold over 1,000 cards from my shelves there.

Throughout this lock down obviously both Dotty's Teahouse and her brand new Tea Garden, which opened last September, have been shut.  I really do miss Rebecca and her lovely team. I usually walk down to the Teahouse with my latest cards to put up for sale on my shelves on a Monday and Friday.

 She is managing some home deliveries though and

this is the great sign on the door at the moment.

Rebecca,  loves all things vintage and would have had a huge VE celebration today if she was open. Instead she is delivering a VE Celebration tea...what a fab idea. 

 I thought I would have a little reminisce of the last 4 years and how things have grown at Dotty's.

She opened with a grand opening in May 2016 with the Mayor cutting the ribbon.

We celebrated her 1st and 2nd birthdays in style with 40s music and dress. 

We had fun hosting a little Christmas market 2 years ago and last year I enjoyed hosting my first Meet the Maker event in the shop. 

Here I am with Rebecca.

 We celebrated last Christmas with a staff party at the new Tea Garden in Coulsdon

This is one of her displays from her new tea garden, always such fun!

Her afternoon teas are legendary and delicious. I so hope her doors are able to open very soon. 

So inspired by all this  I decided to get baking myself. I decided that in 1945 I am sure the cake of choice would have been fairy cakes if rations allowed (and perhaps dried egg too) and found that I had just enough ingredients to bake some. The cake cases are from years ago and I thought looked very retro!

I also spotted something else vintage right in front of me as I made my cakes, my scales.

These were once used at the labs where my Dad worked many moons ago in Bermondsey, South London. The firm he worked for closed down in the 1980s and was demolished and he brought them home and gave them to me. I use them for all my weighing and they are in pounds and ounces, just as I like it.  I looked up the firm, Hunt and Co. They were founded in 1861and have long ceased trading but these scales would certainly have been around in 1945. So many things would have been weighed in these, a real piece of history.

While I was looking at the scales I had a little light bulb thought that it would be really fun to serve my fairy cakes on one of my Nan's plates which were handed down to me. I mostly use at Christmas or for family celebrations. My Nan was born in 1904 and probably was bought this as part of a dinner service as a wedding present when she married in 1928.

I love the pretty pattern on it.
Here  are my cakes, just out of the oven.

I wanted to make a retro glace icing topping with hundreds and thousands on.  Luckily I had just enough icing sugar left and found these hundreds and thousands in my cupboard.

So here are my cakes all ready for my Hb and I to enjoy at our afternoon tea in our front garden at 4pm.

If my Nan was still alive she would have been so thrilled to see this and the wonderful memories evoked as I made my fairy cakes

There is surely only one quote I could share today as we remember all those who gave their lives for our freedom, it has to be these immortal words

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” » Winston Churchill

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you have taken the time to leave me, they are so appreciated.

Please keep safe, keep mindful, keep washing those hands.

For those of you in the UK enjoy all the VE day celebrations. Us Brits have a habit of making do and keeping up our spirits whatever is going on around us. We may well be hearing of some gentle easing of Lockdown on Sunday..fingers crossed we may be over the worst.  I hope so.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

With love, Jane x

Sewing the seeds of hope, Mindful Moments 7

Hello again I am back with my 7th Mindful Moments post. I am a day early this week as tomorrow is May 1st and I will have 2 design team posts going up so I thought I would post today. 

If you did not see my first post and wonder what these are do check it out here. Thank you to everyone who has been reading them. I can see from my stats that these are getting at least twice the usual traffic of my other posts, which has really inspired me to keep trying to get them written weekly if I can. I really hope you are finding them a moment to make you smile and stay mindful during these very turbulent times.

The rain finally arrived on Monday and I must admit here in the south east of England it is much needed. The whole of April has been virtually dry and my garden had a good drink.

Today I thought I would share my seeds project which I have been growing since Lockdown.

When I was tidying up at the beginning of Lockdown, I found a whole bunch of seed packets which were free last year with Gardener's World Magazine and with the usual busyness of life I never got round to planting them. I was even (whispers) going to throw them out as I could never see myself getting the time to do this as I tend to buy my few annual plants from our local nursery. Although I am hoping to still get my plants from them this year (they are trying to set up a delivery service while they are shut) I thought that watching some annuals grow from seed would they make for an interesting process. I could add them to my rather empty raised beds this year that by the time they flowered life might have moved on from where we were. I decided to try planting the cosmos and rudbeckia seeds.

The instructions said to use seed compost but all I have is multi purpose left over from my spring bulb planting. I decided that Mother Nature does not have seed compost and still manages just fine so I would make do with what I had. I found in the garage a tiny seed propagator, I must have used this years ago, perfect for covering them until they germinated.

 In my crafting stash I have coloured lolly sticks so they served as my markers

The lid went on and I put them on the kitchen side

 Unbelievably after just 5 days as it was so warm and sunny they started to sprout, first the cosmos

and then the rudbeckia

 After 2 weeks the cosmos were big enough to prick out

So I put 7 of them into pots again found in my garage

and here they are today.
My cosmos

 and rudbekkia

I don't have a green house so this is very much a make do and mend project but I am hoping that in a few more weeks I can harden them off and put them outside.

I also hope to get some plants delivered in mid May from my local nursery and it would be great fun if I can add my own grown to my pots too!

Something else to make you smile today is a bag I was sent by my son in law's parents. They saw this and thought of me when they were on a cruise last year and sent it as a belated birthday present.

 Isn't it hilarious...it's A4 size so I keep my current crafting project in it. I smile every time I look at it.

 Out on my walks I have seen lovely bluebells growing. I will miss not seeing the spectacle in Banstead woods this year but never mind, there is always next year.

and there is wisteria in plenty on local houses.  

The dinos are doing well with their babies

and we spotted these fluffy Canada geese babies yesterday

plus lots of sweet ducklings

 who are already growing quickly.

My Mindful Moment project today uses a really fun ancient set of pig stamps I found in my stash when I was spring cleaning last month. As many of you know I have a "thing" for pigs and they feature in my house a lot. The company , Little Claire's, are sadly no longer trading.

I used an old Wendy Vecchi stamp for the very apt sentiment. The background I made using distress inks.

with a close up

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Addicted to stamps and More 1/3 make your mark

The house that stamps built 3/3 anything goes

Simon says stamp Wednesday  Anything goes

Crafty Creations 1/3 anything goes
Through the craft room door 1/3 anything goes

I would like to end with a little quote which I think is so very true, particularly in these very troubled times when it is so hard not living our normal lives;

The most important seed you can plant is kindness; the most important crop it yields is joy.”

― Matshona Dhliwayo

Let's keep planting those seeds of kindness and we can look forward to the joy it will eventually bring us. 

Please keep safe, keep mindful, keep washing those hands and looking around at the beauty and inspiration from Mother Nature.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you have taken the time to leave me, they are so appreciated.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

With love, Jane x