My Creative Space - Down on the Farm!

I've always had magical dreams of some day owning a small farm! After reading one too many Enid Blyton books and skipping off on adventures with the children of Willow Farm (obligatory gingham tablecloth tied to a pole...stuffed with food!), I fear my ideal patch of earth could be just a smidgen (o.k. ... a giant dollop!) rose coloured.

I picture black and white cows mooing contentedly on Sound of Music style rolling hills who meander eagerly to the lofty dairy for daily milking. Silver pails filled with frothy white goodness. Milk for brekkie, cream for tonight's pudding and just a little left over to churn into butter.

Row upon row of neatly cultivated vegetable patches snuggled under billowy piles of sugar cane mulch. And an orchard to rival any Ms. Green Gables could conjure up filled with blossoming apple trees, plums and peaches heaving with juice.

Then there would be the flower and herb garden filled with fragrant snap dragons, sweet peas and roses and herbs to make your nostrils twitch.

A few ponds for swans and their wee babies to frolic.

And a wallowy mud patch perfect for pigs to do what pigs do best.

Sounds idyllic doesn't it? And so far removed from reality that I do wonder whether I've been inhaling too many craft glue fumes unawares! To indulge my poppet's own burgeoning desire to live on the land I whipped up a little felt farm mat. It was trés easy peasy lemon squeezy and cost next to nothing. I used a large piece of green felt for the base and then machine stitched on scraps to make the ponds and mud wallows. A few square scraps pinched in the middle and stitched by hand made the flowers and a few teeny pieces and a bit of patience made the vegie garden. Add some wooden trees and fences and some Schleich animals et voila!

(For those unitiated to the world to toy animals. These ones are soooo life like. Let's just say there's no problem distinguishing the Mumma cow from the Daddy one!)

Now gallop off and have a sticky beak at all these creative folk. Giddy up!