celebrating the pom pom

The pom pom surprise for my boys is now up in their room. Yep, you guessed it, I made pom pom garlands. And had lots of fun doing it, and have many many more pom pom crafts planned. I am hooked! In fact, I may need a dedicated new board on pinterest - celebrating the pom pom!

I tried out a few methods of pom pom making - the ol' double cardboard donut method, the fork method, fingers method and the cheaty C method,

I have always found the double donut fiddly, and inevitably end up with my tongue out, though it does result in lovely, nearly perfectly round poms!

The fork method was a cute new way to make itty bitty pom poms but I did end up having to trim these a lot to get a really round shape.

I can never get the fingers method to work - I always end up with pom poms that look like they have been made in two halves :(

I will stick with the cheaty C method I think, as I was able to churn out much faster, rounder, happier looking pom poms this way. The C method is essentially the same as the donut method, but you don't have to guess how much wool/yarn you are going to use before you start, and you don't get to the point where you need to use a yarn needle. Hence the "cheaty" (read: easier) C method.

I know that there are purchase-able pom pom makers out there, but to buy one seems somewhat criminal, given I can make perfectly good ones without another piece of plastic in my life.

Here are some places to visit to get info if you would like to go a little pom pom crazy:

Ye olde cardboard double donut method: via crafted blog
Fork method: via vivid please
Fingers method: via dana made it
Cheaty C method: via craftaholics anonymous

The boys were somewhat chuffed with their new room decoration. Little Pickle told me I am a "beautiful maker", The Gherkin whispered a "wow" (the highest of compliments) and told me we needed to buy more wool to make more. Baby Pickle just laughed.

Hope you will enjoy some of my favourite inspirational pom pom moments:

Source: kidostore.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: mypoppet.bigcartel.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: blog.makezine.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: meetmeatmikes.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: bleubirdvintage.typepad.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Happy pom-pom-ing! xo

I'm in love...

Hi all

So, my sojourn back into the paid workforce is over. What was it like? Well, I really enjoyed myself, and got to exercise my brain which was fantastic.  And the crafting time on the train was wonderful. Sadly though, this was all at the expense of time with my beautiful boys. A very sad thing. So, it's now back to being fulltime stay at home mummy.

And in preparation, I have been prowling the net, looking for some activities for the boys and i to do on those days when the park is just not going to happen. And something that doesn't involve a westfield.

And what a collection of fabulous things I have found! And all of them stored neatly in the one place thanks to Pinterest

Yep, I'm in love. All of my favourite ideas from the web catalogued in the same place, into categories that make sense to me? Sounds perfect. Then to have the opportunity too to connect with some of my very favourite people there too... I'm in love.

crafty books for kids

Hi again!

The pickles clan took a wee trip to the library yesterday, and picked up a great couple of crafty books for the gherkin (and for me too).

Joseph had a Little Overcoat is a 1999 book by Simms Taback, and is all about the art of reuse and refashion. Joseph starts off with an overcoat which then becomes a vest, a tie, a hankerchief etc... and in the end turns the whole experience into a story! It is a lovely read (based on a great concept), but of course what first caught my eye was the gorgeous illustrations.

Crafty of course because of the story. And check out the back cover... buttons - yippee!

Another of the books is by Clare Beaton, whose multimedia (mostly felt applique it seems) illustrations are just gorgeous, and have been a favourite with the gherkin since I bought him one of her books as his first ever book (before he was born)

This time from the library we have picked up Mrs Moon. One of my favourite illustrations would have to be this one, although this nursery rhyme still completely freaks me out...

I love the fabric choice for the tree! A lovely read with my boys and a bit of inspiration for me, too.

Do you find yourself picking books "for your kids" which are actually for you? Or are you (as I was pre-kids) an avid childrens book collector? What are your favourites?

I'll pop back later with my fab opshop finds for the toy kitchen and just because, a bit later.

Chat soon xo

a vintage find... and brooches, brooches, brooches

What does one do with a one year old who has been told to rest? (after two weeks of resting already)

YouTube of course, searching for music & pictures to keep the gherkin occupied on mummy's lap (there are only so many times one can read I Can Fly!). And look what I found....



Oh, and when he's dozing on my lap, mummy looks at brooches on flickr....



1. brooch - miss h, 2. felt bird brooch, 3. PLAYFUL fabric brooch corsage pin 31 Jul 2008, 4. fabric flower with beads #1, 5. happy brooch, 6. shades of pink, 7. Fabric Corsage - side view, 8. Some new work, 9. flower pod?

Chat soon xo

to teatowel, with love xo

new boardies!, originally uploaded by summer pickles.

Come with me. Transport yourself back to a time when all things "Oz" were great. When the height of fashion was a Jenny Kee jumper, a fimo koala and cockatoo necklace, a white Ken Done tracksuit. Once there, you will find one of these - a gorgeous teatowel, celebrating all things Gold Coast - gaudy parrots, beaches lined with highrises, tiny bikinis...

Now, come on back to the present day and here I am, stumbling across that same teatowel at a local garage sale. Buying it for just fifty cents. And madly hurrying home to start sewing these fantastic boardshorts (modelled by our very own, very gorgeous gherkin).

These were easy! And I reckon they're pretty fab.

Thankyou to tinyhappy for convincing me pants would be easy (i have had this post favourited for a looong time, waiting for babies and courage), Kath for this post with the how tos and for Miss Cinti for the inspiration provided by her lovely tea towel dresses.

Hooray for blogland, the eighties, the gold coast and all things vintage! (And of course for very gorgeous baby models!) Now, to the opshops!

xo

magazine madness... and a little bit of cushion love

Hi again!

For those of you who thought i had perhaps fallen off the face of the earth and blogland... nope, still here, just extremely BUSY. Thanks to those of you who offered advice and support about Little Man's feeding. He is still finding this very hard, so I am still expressing every feed... feeling totally exhausted at this point, seven and a half weeks down the track, but am hoping that we have him on the breast by end Sept. Fingers and toes crossed.

As a result, I'm afraid that crafting has taken a bit of a backseat! As a result, this blog is probably now going to include a bit more baby stuff... So for those of you who checked in only for crafting, melbourne, and other creative bits and pieces... sorry... baby has landed!

now that Little Man has arrived we are desperately trying to clear clutter from our home... which takes me to the topic of this post - magazines. I am hopeless when it comes to magazines - I find that home and food magazines always stay in my house, once they arrive, never to see the recycling bin. Which means I end up with cupboards on cupboards of very gorgeous magazines that I very rarely read...

So! This week, in the spirit of the declutter, I am going through the magazines and ripping out all of the pages that inspire me right now, in the hope that they are the same pages that will inspire me in the future... The photos on this post are just a few snippets, with a focus on cushions, from magazines such as Vogue living, Belle, Home beautiful, House & garden, Inside out... favourite bits and pieces I didn't want to give up. Hopefully soon I will be able to photograph our home looking as stunning as the source(s) of inspiration...

Have a gorgeous week everyone,
xo

some of my favourite things... inspiration for baby pickles

As usual, have been hanging out on flickr (one of the advantages of being wide awake from 4am!), and have found these new favourite things which are not all designed for kids, but which provide me with some inspiration for things to do for baby pickles!
Enjoy xo

1. Finally., 2. apple tree kimono, 3. pedro pig, 4. Green jacket w red flower, 5. Lillydew's Twin Sister Lola-Mae, 6. rabbits, 7. kinchi kitschy kitten dress, size 1, 8. Até à lua... / to the moon, 9. Full Circle Top

decorating 101

Help! I am not a decorator...

I have a whole house in the early stages of renovations (we still have some way to go!), and am feeling the urge to NEST. One major part of this nesting is to plan out, and design our nursery.

This is the nursery as it is right now... isn't it beautiful?!? (don't feel that you need to answer that!)

Floorboards are yet to be sanded and polished, but are likely to come out much darker than this. Skirting boards (arriving in 2 weeks) will be quite deep (high) and painted white, we have gorgeous detailed cornices which you can't see in this photo - these plus ceiling will also be white. But to do with the rest of the space? We have a dark timber cot for bub, still waiting for us to pick up at the shop...

At the moment, this room is such a joy to behold! (ha ha) As this is also our spare room for any visitors at the moment, we have kept up the gorgeous gold curtains left behind by the previous owner, which I think adds a little something special...

If you had this room, what would you do with it? The view out the window is the brick wall of the other semi-detached terrace next door... I thought I would throw at you various ideas/rooms that I LOVE, and will look forward to hearing your thoughts back... as always your ideas are welcomed and encouraged!!

--- I LOVE this colour!!! Thanks to Jess from how about orange for pointing me toward this great room seen in 50 of our favourite rooms by dominomag

--- love the details in this room... gorgeous. Of course, we wouldn't expect anything less from a room by house n baby

---I also really love this nursery by Kristi and Nick .

--- think I am particularly struck by the colour combinations in this room, love those blues and greens together! This room by prairieguns .

Of course I couldn't include all of my favourites here... you can see more rooms I love at http://www.flickr.com/photos/summerpickles/favorites/

Thanks lovelies, x

what i did yesterday... stitches and craft show

Image from http://www.livingcreatively.com.au/Whats-Next.html

I happily spent all of yesterday at the Stitches and Craft Show. And what a great way to spend a day! I don't have too much time to post (am taking afternoon tea from uni study... eurgh... power in healthcare organisations), so will just present the highlights...

1. Meeting the very beautiful Fi from dear fii , who is just as lovely in real life as she is in blogland. Fi was showing and telling some of her button accessories, which include some of the most gorgeous bracelets and brooches. (Check out my very favourite brooch at this post)
2. Meeting a bundle of other gorgeous crafters - totally unplanned and delightful, including nicole, stephanie, justine, kristen, angela, bianca and many others whose names I have completely forgotten (sorry everyone else!)
3. Seeing the most gorgeous garden made by crafters on the living creatively level of the show.
4. Finding some excellent fabric (when I get my camera back from hubby I will post pics) - gorgeous bright, patterned flannel which might just make the perfect wraps for our little wintertime family addition.
5. Learning about bloglines which I have now set up
6. Catching up with the lovely and very generous diana chalk again (remember, I went to one of her workshops last year?), who kindly answered some of my questions about cloth doll fingers and upside-down dolls.
7. Shopping (and staying under-budget!) - a Bethan Short cloth doll pattern (bethan still doesn't seem to have a website), an Anne Clemens cloth doll pattern, four handbag handles (I will learn to make bags this year... maybe from nicole), an embroidery hoop and a dozen papermache eggs for decorating this easter... am thinking I might use the idea by dear fii to try to cover the eggs with fabric... will let you know how it works out!

Oh, and I have successfully toilet trained the dog in his new routine, and also been studying like crazy! Whew! Now I just have to eat something, do some washing, clean the kitchen and do the grocery shopping.

Happy Sunday everyone x

So, whaddaya think?

Hello again!

Okay, I am after your opinion, so please stop lurking and leave a comment! What do you think of the new look of this blog? And what do you think of the new summer pickles banner?

The new logo and banner were designed by my incredibly talented and gorgeous sister in law Kylie, you can visit her website here

I will be totally honest and say I love it! Kylie has managed to capture my love of colour, fun and has also given a nod to my use of buttons. I am totally thrilled! But what do you think? Drop me a line and let me know.

Chat soon x

crafters showcase: brooches by ilona

Hi all!

Introducing Ilona, who is a happy crafter and producer of some of the sweetest brooches. I spotted Ilona on flickr and am so thrilled that she was happy for me to bring her to the summer pickles blog for show and tell. Ilona has a passion for all things bright and colourful, and is based in Utrecht in the Netherlands. You can visit her etsy shop at GaudyGoods

Here are some photos of some of my favourites by Ilona, and a bit of a chat so we could all get to know her a little better... enjoy!

Can you tell us a bit about your brooches?
I have been creating my brooches since August 2006. Since I was a child, I have been creative. It is like a lifeline for me; a way to relax and express myself without using my mind or words. The brooches were just another form of my creative ideas.

The materials I use are mostly colourful fabrics, beads and lots of different trimmings. I love to look for special embellishments, beads or paper scraps to use for my brooches. It's like treasure hunting! :)

Where do you find your inspiration?
My inspiration comes from all things folklore and traditional arts and crafts, art books from the library, (thrift) markets, magazines, window shopping, supermarkets, commercial folders you get in the mail, museums and flickr.

Do you remember your first ever creation?
I don't know what my first creation was. I do have very good memories of staying often at my grandma's house, just a block away from our place, and she taught me to knit when I was ten. We used to knit and drink a cup of tea and talk about all sorts of things. I guess I was a little granny myself in those days heheh!

Who is your favourite fellow crafter?
I have many favourite crafters, especially on Etsy or Flickr. At the moment I'm smitten with the felt creations of Cynthia Soto. Her felt creations are so colourful and detailed. I think they are little works of felt art. You can visit Cynthia's flickr site and Cynthia's etsy.

If you could have only one accessory for the next five years, what would it be?
Hmmm, I guess a beautiful watch with lots of gems on it. Practical and glitzy, a perfect combination!

Thanks Ilona for the chat! Ilona’s shop can be found at GaudyGoods and Ilona's handmade brooches photoset on flickr.

Chat again soon x

great new book finds

Hi again and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Last month I was so behind with my posting that I didn't even get to show you what I bought with my birthday book vouchers and $ (thanks Mum, Dad and Auntie Mill). So, here is my show and tell of great new book finds (new to me, not necessarily new books).

At our local (beautiful) secondhand bookshop The Stray Dog Booksellers, I found this gem of a book, which some of my flickr friends have mentioned in numerous chats, The Readers Digest Complete Guide to Needlecraft. I was very excited to buy this book for only $22 (plus a couple of books I sold to the bookshop). I can't wait til all of the boxes (of fabric, beads, craft items etc) are unpacked again and I can play!

In Box Hill, I found these two beautiful books, and had to buy them from Sharon immediately! 500 Handmade Dolls is a book I get completely absorbed in, and is a real inspiration! I only hope that after many more years and many more classes I will be able to produce dolls which are half as stunning as some of these! Softies is probably a book that many of you are familiar with, as it features some of our favourite bloggers and softie makers, including Soozs, Two Little Banshees, and hop skip jump.

The Best of Handmade I found in an opshop some months ago in Dandenong (but since I am showing and telling my books, I have included it here), for the bargain price of only $5. This book was published in 1994, but to me has a strong late 80s feel about it - it is filled to the brim with Australiana. As it is an Australian book, it includes many of the classics you would expect - a folk art painted milo tin of an outback homestead scene, knitted and crocheted koalas, Australian flora cross-stitch and a brightly coloured Australian animals mobile.

Looking forward to sharing the craft that is inspired by these books, and I hope that some of you may be excited enough by this post to track these books down, in an opshop, secondhand bookstore, library or shop.

Have a fabulous week! x

bethan short... hooray! i found some pictures!

Some of you may remember that I went to a class not long ago with an inspirational doll maker Bethan Short, but couldn't find any pics of her work anywhere. Well, this morning I was going through an old Cloth Doll Showcase magazine (no date) and found these pictures. These were obviously early on in her dollmaking career, her work is so much more detailed and exquisite now. But I thought I could at least share these, in the absence of much else.

What I loved about Bethan's workshop (other than all of the amazing learning and sharing of ideas!) was her focus on keeping the patterns simple, but making the detailing beautiful. I love the beading on the doll above in the white dress. This was probably giving a bit of a hint of where Bethan was going to go with her dollmaking. Love the headgear too! Just lovely.

Happy weekend everyone xx

my favourite things...

I haven't done this for a while (way too long!) but with the sewing machine and other crafting items firmly packed away by hubby today, thought I would take this opportunity to do another set of my favourite things!

And, prompted by Martine at greenolive to reflect on my love of all things pink, I thought it may be timely to show a group of my pink favourites!


1. Más lovely necklaces!!, 2. Set of 4 "pink pretty" badges, 3. Friendly Birds, 4. Broche Muffin, 5. Midnight Garden Detail, 8. Miki's wing, 9. Blossom PINK, 10. BONBON CANDY BUTTON PIN, 11. quilted bag, 12. Girl's open knit hat with detachable flower, 13. Embroidery in progress, 14. Doll for Greta, 15. lots of buttons, 16. Hearts and hearts and little hearts...

Enjoy!
xx

still no head for the monkey... but an exciting parcel in the mail!

Photo originally posted by Julia Laing

Hello! Just received this gorgeous bag in the mail on Friday, and had to show it off. The very clever Julia Laing made this. It came all the way to sunny Melbs Australia from the UK... (again, more o/s travel in my clothing, accessories and softies than I have had!). I was extremely fortunate to have won this on Julia's blog.

Thanks so much Julia, I love this bag, and it goes beautifully with my favourite jacket, which is a gorgeous shade of blue. This bag is what I refer to as a Mary Poppins bag - it is much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside - so when I went out with is, I was able to fit in my wallet, camera, phone and a beanie. I love this fabric, and what I really love about the design, is the handle, which always has a lovely shape, whether is is being carried or is resting on a table/chair/lap. Can't wait til it is warm enough down here to wear with a light flippy skirt... I definitely feel very feminine and lovely carrying this bag!!!

Thanks Julia - I will be keeping a very close eye on your shop for more goodies!
xx

(now, back to sealing the bathtub!)

lucky me... a gorgeous gift from greenolive!

I had the most wonderful surprise waiting for me today when I got home.... gifts from greenolive!!!

Now, for those of you who don't know greenolive, you should definitely visit her website! Greenolive is Martine Booth, a Melbourne woman who produces some amazingly beautiful crafts.

Just recently I was fortunate enough to win a prize on her blog. It arrived this afternoon, after a looong day at work, and really did brighten up my whole day, and I think will brighten up my whole week... whole month!

So, show and tell time... Here is the package as it arrived (I love this packaging... gorgeous!), and once it was unpacked.

I LOVE all of these brooches!!! I love that they are all hand-stitched (beautifully) and the fabric and colour combinations are just glorious... and thanks for all of the pink and red! Lovely!!! The summery colours and designs of the cards are also gorgeous, and will come to good use as I have recently started sending snail mail again... a lovely personal thing to do I think! (Funny that I have started this recently, now that I am spending so much time online).

(Can you tell by all of my exclamation marks that I am a little excited?!?)

Martine, I hope you don't mind that I tried one out in my hair... when I looked at the lighter pink one I realised how well it would go with my favourite racing carnival dress, and thought perhaps I could wear it as a fascinator?!? I think it looks lovely in hair, too? (Please ignore the saggy I-have-been-in-meetings-or-at-a-computer-all-day-eyes!).


(Ha! Love this look of concentration on my face as I take a self portrait... funny.)

Anyway, a very warm thankyou to Martine --- these are just so beautiful... you have motivated me now to come out to the Mt Dandenong markets and check out your stall! (For those of you not in sunny Melbs you can visit Martine online)

Have a fun week everyone, and thanks again for popping by!xx

ps.... more summer pickles cheeky monkeys in production at the moment... keep an eye open for an update very soon!

things I learnt from the cloth doll workshops - instalment no. 1

Hi there!
Okay, so I have kept you in suspense long enough... Here are a couple of the things that I learnt from the workshops mentioned in a previous post.

1. Cloth dolls made from simple patterns can be very beautiful, when the focus is on the embellishments. This was an important lesson for me - I had been getting myself into such tangles with developing up really tricky pattern pieces that were incredibly fiddly to work with, and at times, just frustrating! These dolls are made by Cindi Goodwin, who does amazing and beautiful embellishment work:

Dolls by Cindi Goodwin

2. Sometimes you need the right tools. I have included a photo of my new tools here, and will provide photos of me using them as we get through future posts. What I have is a poppa (fruit juice box) straw, a blunted wooden skewer, a pair of forceps and a tiny finger stuffing fork.

Here's me stuffing an elephant's trunk with the forceps. Now, I actually used the forceps to stuff all of the elephant, but did much of this at my lunch break at work, so no photos. One of the advantages promoted to us at the workshop of using forceps is that you can get right into corners with stuffing, as well as "the pain element", which is what happens when you try to overstuff a doll/toy (you end up with incredibly sore thumbs/fingers from the handles of the forceps if you are trying to overstuff and are exerting excess force!). As well, they have blunt ends, so won't go through your fabric!

You might notice in this pic that there is a big trail of wadding going off to the right. One o the things I learnt at the workshop was that to avoid dolls looking like "a bag of peas", you should stuff them as if you were spinning wool.... you stretch out the wadding into continuous, stretched stuff and then slowly feed it in. This has definitely impacted (positively) on the look of my toys and dolls.

I'll be back soon for some more instalments and the interesting stuff... demonstrating use of the tools and providing examples of my new work.

Oh! And here is a photo of the doll I created from a pattern by Bethan Short in my first workshop (sorry, not a great photo). This doll is just two pieces of fabric of same shape sewn together and wings added.


Have a gorgeous week everyone,
xx


Oh! and can anyone help me by telling me why my line spacing changes mid-post when I include photos, and what to do about this??? drives me bonkers! Thanks! xx

inspiration plus plus plus! a cloth doll adventure....

Okay, so I love making cloth dolls, even though they take me extraordinarily long periods of time to make (Nell took me several months of picking her up, putting her down, picking her up... etc). So, when the Melbourne Craft & Quilt Fair was in town, there was no way that I was going to miss the cloth doll classes! And, needless to say, they changed my life.

My first class was with Diana Chalk, who introduced me to a number of her favourite tools - the wooden skewer, the fruit juice straw and the forceps. She showed us amazing and sneaky ways to turn those fine parts of dolls that have in the past driven me bonkers. I will try to take a photo of me demonstrating the techniques and insert it here later....

Second class was completely fantastic, and this was with Bethan Short.

AMAZING woman... I am not exaggerating when I say that this class changed my life. She shared with us a number of her art dolls which were just divine, and all very simple patterns with beautiful embellishments. I am going to trial out the techniques I listed as favourites from this workshop and post them a bit at a time... it was an amazing learning experience for me, and I really hope to be able to share some of my new found skills in the next little while!

I tried to google Bethan but couldn't find much, and then remembered her telling us in the workshop that she is IT-phobic, so I should not have been surprised! I will try to find some real photos of her work (on paper) and then upload some pics here so you can see what I am making all this noise about... she is AMAZING.

About to head off for a wee break, so nothing from me now until mid-August (unless I get incredibly brave and decide to try mum and dad's dial up!).

Take care, and have a gorgeous beginning of August,
xx

etsy catch up! and 500 visitors!!!

The Melbs ETSY catch up yesterday was lovely - got to meet loads of beautiful, talented women, all with a common interest. The show and tell session was fun and encouraged loads of shopping on Melbourne ETSY stores.... there are some amazing crafters/designers/artists in Melbourne!!!

I will be trying to feature one of these stores per fortnight on this blog... so keep watching this space!

Little Rebel in Fitzroy was a terrific host for the event, too.

Here are some pics of the crowd that attended...

I also had to share my excitement and thanks that this blog has now had 500+ visitors! Thanks so much for dropping in, I am hoping to continue to provide something that is interesting to keep in touch with, so remember to pop back in when you get a chance!

Have a gorgeous weekend! xx

(shhhh.....) secret squirrel baby gift & a wee bit nervous...

(Shhhh.....) I am on a secret squirrel mission at the moment, to make my girlfriend something special for her new baby, who is very soon to arrive to the outside world!

As I am not sure if she will be whiling away these last few days on the net, I won't put too much detail in here (and certainly won't include my sketches of the hoped-for-finished product!), but did want to show you some of the amazing bird crafts that are out there. My heartfelt thanks to all of these brilliant people who have been completely inspiring!!!

1. 9 birds, 2. Bird bag and coin purses from one of my Japanese Crafts books, 3. Carved Folky Birds, 4. Flock Together, 5. another birdie, 6. Bird, 7. Erin, 8. peaky beaky bird, 9. Botanical bird, 10. ♥ bird, 11. Berri, 12. 03/08/07, 13. passaropapel, 14. Bird ornament, 15. in progress, 16. FINALLY!!!!, 17. One of my little bird mobiles, 18. 1_bird with paper flowered, 19. Egbert, 20. birdmobile_31, 21. Easter Tree Hangers, 22. birds on a string, 23. felt bird ornament, 24. bird quilt patch, 25. gift for enya, 26. crib mobile, 27. Handmade bird mobile, 28. Friendly Birds, 29. flock of birds closeup, 30. 9 birds

Keep an eye open for the finished product.... think this will be a big weekend project, so I hope to have photos up early next week....

Am also doing something quite exciting/terrifying today, which is going to a Melb Etsy catch up in Fitzroy. I do feel very much like a beginner at all of this, so don't know that I can exactly go along feeling like I belong, which immediately makes me feel terrified! But I am counting on those in the craft world being lovely and generous.... I guess I can always pop in for a coffee and leave if I am not comfortable, but it is still incredibly nerve wracking!!! I will let you know how it all goes...

Happy Saturday!
xx