Some sewing and LOTS of flowers!

It feels like I haven't had a weekend...I feel as tired today as I did Friday night. Ah well. It's a bank holiday again next weekend - hopefully I'll feel more rested afterwards.
I kept quite myself quite busy - I spent Saturday sewing another little dress. I decided to combine the patchwork idea, with the A-line style - I went through my fabrics and picked out some of the bigger pieces that I could use to make tiers. I'm not happy with the way I did the A-line hemline - I know it's wrong but it would take almost as long to correct as it took for the whole dress...
I also added some rick-rack trim and a pocket to the first dresses I made. One of the blogs I read on the subject had suggested putting the pocket in the side so there's no obvious front and back, allowing the dress to be worn either way, which is what I decided to do. What do you think??

 

I then spent the evening in the company of a good friend at Romsey Abbey, listening to a concert of classical music followed by a bottle of good wine - a winning combination!

On Sunday I paid a brief visit to Winchester's Art Market on the High St. My friend Chris was helping her daughter Laura Haines with her stall of paintings and cards and I decided to pay a visit. Laura has been working really hard recently on a new collection of paintings of local views -I bought a couple of cards but am very tempted to ask her if she has the original paintings still for sale. I must ask her if she minds if I post pictures of them but take a look at Laura's website to see her recent works.

After leaving Winchester, I went out to Hillier Gardens to see the rhododendrons and azaleas while they are in full bloom. I timed it just right for perfect blooms again - I'm either very lucky or just visit too often!! But then it was only 2 weeks since I was there last - and everything has come on so fast! Here are just a few of the 200 plus photos I took - I hope you like them.

And after all of that, I quite fancied a good old fashioned cream tea. But they'd sold out... so I had to make do with coffee and a pecan  tart. Thanks for stopping by!