CHELSEA (THE FLOWER SHOW THAT IS) HERE I COME

Hi everyone

The best show of the gardening year has arrived.  I love Chelsea - even though it is always busy, you have to queue for certain things and the time you are there disappears far too quickly, it is a fantastic show.  I love to see what designers do for different sizes/shapes and styles of gardens, but I think the most beautiful section is the exhibits in the marquee.  The colours and fragrance are so gorgeous.  Last year we saw some gorgeous 'hats' designed by floristry students - stunning.  If you are going, I hope you have a great time.  My friend and I are going on Wednesday and so far the forecast is for a dry, sunny day - hope it stays that way.

My bags were 'on show' at a Plant Sale yesterday and I went along to meet up with my friend who was organising it and to buy one or two plants - well that was the plan.  I bought some dahlias, some heucheras (which I love), scented-leaved geraniums and some rock plants.  I also bought some marmalade for Richard and a raffle ticket - would you believe I won a prize of a pack of notelets.  My friend emailed me after the event to say my bags had sold well - not all of them, but I am always pleased with all sales and as they are a fairly new addition to my range, it's always nice to get positive feedback.

We went to the Harrow in Compton for a meal with a friend on Friday - it was her birthday so celebration time.  The Harrow has recently been refurbished/changed hands and is looking good.  The food was good, very large portions so next time just one course I think.  It probably wasn't helped by having a snack lunch with a friend on the same day!  I was very impressed: soup, bread and cake all home-made.  Made me feel very guilty as I can always find very good reasons for not making soups, bread, etc.

Despite having dealt with many of the problems that exist in my computer (and there are still a few) this week has still been odd in computer-land.  My midweek post disappeared completely!  It made it to the outside world, Twitter, etc on Wednesday and by Thursday it had fallen off of the planet.  Lesley mentioned on Twitter that my post appeared to have gone AWOL - thank you Lesley, as I probably wouldn't have noticed until I went to post the Friday Guest Blog post.  Then when I came to sort out the Friday post I discovered that the document had become corrupt - yet when I checked it upon first receiving it, all was OK.  It's a weird world in computer-land at times.

My makes for Handmade Monday this week are Father's Day cards.  I wanted to make several for placing on my wall at Bourne Mill, but had commissions for two as well, so they took precedence.  The customers do not read my blog, and have said it is OK to display them on my post as the recipients are not blog-followers either.  One is for a golf-mad dad and another one is for a rugby and football fan.  The third one is for Bourne Mill and I used some material left over from a previous birthday card commission, so double value.

I am in the middle of decorating a willow wreath with beautiful fuchsia-coloured hearts and ribbon.  I bought some wooden hearts from the art shop in Godalming (one of my favourite places) and discovered when I got home that the hints and tips were in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish - er, bit of a problem for me.  However, I emailed the company and they responded immediately (I was very impressed) and sent me the English translation.  I had hoped to have the wreath finished today, but as so often happens numerous other things got in the way.  My Handmade Monday post next week will include pics of the finished wreath but before then don't forget to visit the other blogs taking part in this week's 'event'.

I hope you enjoyed Eva's post on Friday about Cyprus?  We went to Cyprus many years ago and always said we would go back - nothing arranged as yet, but Eva's place looks and sounds very tempting.  If you would like to be a guest blogger on here, please do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  I am looking for a blogger to take part on 8 June - so any takers?  Just a reminder, about 600 - 800 words is fine, please include pics as well and don't forget to finish the article with your links to your website, blog, Twitter, etc.  Once posted, it also hits Twitter and Facebook, so plenty of exposure.  I also tweet about the post 2 or 3 times during the day/the following day of the post and it's nice if the person who is the guest blogger does the same.  It's a great way of showing our work to new people and also getting new followers on our blogs.

Back to card-making now as I want to get some Father's Day cards finished too.  Out to lunch in Clandon tomorrow with a couple of friends - we have been trying to arrange a get-together for about 6 weeks and something keeps happening to force us to move the date.  So far, nothing affecting tomorrow's date has occurred.   I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week post which will be about my trip to Chelsea - really looking forward to it and hope to buy some more heucheras as well as do some celebrity-gardener spotting.

I hope you have a good week.

Jill