Carrot-sized Radishes...!

Forget those tiny half-bite radishes, and grow some you can really get your teeth into! And if you think these are big, you should have seen those we dug up the day before!

This the German salad radish, Raphanus sativus 'Ostergruss Rosa'. Not only superb in salads, but the perfect nibble to go with your glass of beer.

We've been growing these for a couple of years now, and they really are delicious. Fast and easy to grow, they're always the first spring veg we harvest, along with early salad leaves. In a few days, we'll be sowing again for a summer crop. If you haven't grown them before, give them a try - you won't be disappointed!

Old-fashioned phones - I love them!

I love old-fashioned phones, and own a fab refurbished 60s dial-phone. So imagine my delight when I found this fabric.
I just had to make a phone case with it. How could I not? As you can see, it features a variety of phones, and phone-speak script, so it's really apt!

All my Phone Pockets are interfaced, fleece-interlined, and lined. (This particular one is lined in a yummy candyfloss pink.) They fit most phones, but custom orders are very welcome. :)

Low-Cost Kitchen Blinds for Awkward Spaces...

How to cover kitchen doors and windows is never easy, especially if you're on a tight budget. When I installed our new kitchen, the plan was to do nothing with them at all because we weren't overlooked. However, hot sun due to the west-facing aspect forced me to have a major rethink as the kitchen got so warm when we were cooking, we were cooking!

So what to do? It was particularly tricky because there was no space to pull back curtains, and using roller blinds would have left a fairly large gap between the two. So, after a lot of thought, I made two roman blinds of different lengths, one for the window, and another for the door. I fixed a wooden batten at ceiling height along the whole window/door length, painted it the same colour as the wall, screwed eyelets into the underside for the cords, and attached the blinds with stick-and-sew velcro. The door blind when down is just long enough to cover the glass plus a bit, so it easily fits the wall space between ceiling and reveal when folded up. In other words, it sits clear of the inward-opening back door. Of course, we have to pull up the blind if we need to access the back garden while it's in use, but that only takes seconds.

As you can see, I used a lightweight lining to enable light to filter through. The blinds are fully-washable (fabrics were washed before assembly) and the total cost was approximately £50.00.