Like a circle in a spiral....

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Whilst pottering in the garden this afternoon grey stormy skies threatened to unleash yet another torrential downpour so I retreated to the conservatory with an armful of freshly cut flowers.
I reached for the radio and Dusty began singing 'The windmills of your mind' so, I placed a flower within a flower.............





Click Photos to Enlarge
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No Dramas, Only Llamas!

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On the edge of the Ashdown forest in 32 acres of rolling English parkland, overlooking a neo-Gothic Victorian manor house, one hundred Llamas and Alpacas quietly munch their way through lush green delicious pastures avoiding buttercups as they go.

Please Click Photos To Enlarge
We arrived at Ashdown Forest Llama Park last weekend for a morning of trekking across the hills of East Sussex. This was to be my first encounter with a Llama since seeing them in a zoo as a child so it was great to see them sauntering around in large fields, the wind blowing their long tresses and lots of space to roam.


Llamas have a prominent set of banana shaped ears to aid their superior hearing and present themselves with a spectacular array of carefree eyebrows and monobrows.


Alpacas are half the size of a Llama, (more lamb-y and a little less camel-y!) with long lean necks and have a much finer coat than their chunkier cousins. Our visit happened to coincide with a parade of newly shorn Alpacas sporting some very groovy bangs.


The ancestors of domesticated Llamas and Alpacas still live wild in South America. The Guanaco wears a cashmere style coat and wanders widespread mountainous regions. The smaller and now endangered Vicuna whose fleece is said to be the finest in the world skips gracefully through the Alpine areas of the Andes munching on its favourite grasses.


Upon being approached by one of these inquisitive creatures the first thing that sprung to mind was that she was limbering up to drool or slobber over me and goo was not the look I was going for.
I was surprised to find that she was just giving me the once over in quite a chilled out fashion, obviously to see what ensemble I had put together that morning. I knew we were instantly friends when she fluttered her long eyelashes at me. Now what was her name again? Oh yes,......... Lionel !


After spending a very pleasant morning in the Sussex countryside with the charming company of our very well behaved new found furry friends, we waved goodbye to Tom, Lionel, Abigail, Leroy, Edna, Florence and Patricia who at this point had completely lost interest in us anyway!


 www.magicalchristmaswreaths.co.uk

London Undercover Umbrella Giveaway

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Rain has been the dominating weather feature here in the UK so far this summer. I think most of us have given up waiting for it to pass and thrown ourselves headfirst into the wet stuff to continue with our daily lives even with frizzy hair.
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So, in honour of the rain, to brighten the grey skies and to protect your 'barnets' we have the fabulous Umbrella below to giveaway from our favourite luxury umbrella company London Undercover who have recently taken the humble brolly to new heights.

The London Undercover Pigeon Umbrella has a premium double layer with a smart black exterior and a witty London pigeon monogram on it's interior. With a traditional wooden shaft and handle made from beech which features a plate engraved with the London Undercover logo.
Combining both functionality with style, it has us begging for the heavens to open.  
The London Undercover Pigeon Umbrella usually retails at  £120 / $195



It's very simple to enter our gorgeous free giveaway.
All welcome, new and existing followers. Join up and join in. One entry per person.
To be in with a chance of winning just......A. Follow (Worldwide) The Magical Christmas Wreath Company Blog 
B. Leave a comment below. 

If you do link our giveaway on your blog it is very much appreciated.
One lucky winner will be picked at random from the comments below on 7th August 2012. Good luck!
Visit us at The Magical Christmas Wreath Company Shop

Stand by your beds!

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Inspection time! A quick scout round the garden today to see who was looking purdy.
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The Alliums are behind schedule but their blooms have fallen into line with a spectacular display of  Jasmine which is filling the garden with it's heady scent. Foxgloves have always been a firm favourite here. We grow a particularly elegant and fine variety which I adore. Digitalis 'Pink Chapel' arrives just that little bit later than Digitalis Purpurea and is great for cutting.

Saxifraga Cuscutiformis is always a welcome sight when in flower with its elongated, orchidesque petals which are very distinct and to me quite unexpected for a Saxifraga. The Basket Flower originates from a plant I grew from seed many moons ago when my interest in flowers first peaked, wherever I go a root cutting comes with me. I love watching the resident bees rolling around in it's velutinous blooms getting high on psychedelic nectar.

Roses are a new foray I have entered into and after years of resisting I have given in and I am temporarily trialling lots of varieties with the intention of selecting only the best performers for a permanent position. I have an idea that the romantic in me will decide to keep them all in the end. After all, there is nothing more permanent than the things we accept on a temporary basis!At ease, inspection over!
 www.magicalchristmaswreaths.co.uk

Happy Fall Y'all

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In between our Autumn wreath making season and running a few of the other projects that keep us occupied throughout the year, The Magical Christmas Wreath Company has been busy this week trying to get to grips with social media and finally got round to signing up to Pinterest. We also found time to snap one of our latest seasonal wreaths in situ in central London.

 We would love to invite you all to join and follow us by using any of the links in the sidebar.Don't forget to enter our Queen of the Night Giveaway until 19th October
 

Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party...Week 86

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Hello to everyone...don't the weeks just fly by? We're all so busy this time of year, but I hope not too busy to sneak in a few projects. If you've been crafting, sewing, cooking, painting or just about anything...link up your blog and share it here on Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party!!!


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If you want to add the button to your blog's side bar or your list of parties that you're in each week...Click HERE for a tutorial for adding a button



WHAT IS A LINKING PARTY...
I subscribe to a linking service, which provides the ability to link thumbnail pictures on my blog. The picture is a link that other bloggers provide to share their projects.
Two things can happen at a linking party...looking and/or linking

• you can be greatly inspired by wonderful projects, ideas or vacation pictures (looking) and/or
• you can share what you've been up to (linking)

If you want to be inspired by all the great ideas...just click on a picture and it will take you to that post from a wonderful blogger who was willing to share her thoughts and ideas.

HOW AND WHAT TO LINK TO THE PARTY...
Sew Darn Crafty is all about YOU!! Show off your projects, share a tutorial, show us your vacation pictures, share a family favorite recipe...share anything. Not only does linking inspire us all, it also brings lots of new people to your blog for a visit. Click here for past parties and lots of inspiration
Easy steps to join in on the fun...

• link up to the specific project post, not your whole blog. Makes it easier to link right to that post and not  search through all your entire blog. To find the http address to a specific post, just click on the Title of your post. Copy and paste the address that's at the top of your computer into the linky steps.
• link as many projects as you'd like...old or new
• anything goes...cooking, sewing, knitting, crafts, organizing, remodeling projects, vacations, parties etc...
• visit other links to share some blogging love! You know we all love comments!
• linking is open til Saturday night, so plenty of time to join in
• just click the blue "click here to enter" button which is at the very END...below all the other picture links that everyone has shared. Click and follow the easy steps

Have fun linking up! Don't forget to come back and take a look at all the great projects during the week~Karen~

Jumbo Fleece Blanket...2 into 1

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I'm pretty sure most of us have fleece blankets in our homes. They are warm, soft and super comfy. My 2 daughters collected them when they were little or received them as gifts...so we have a lot!!



The standard size for kid's fleece blankets is 50" x 60". Using this size blanket now, when you're laying on the couch, is pointless. The blanket is either up at your neck and then your feet are freezing or your feet are covered and then your arms are cold!!


Here's a quick fix...sew 2 together. 2 into 1

Put 2 blankets together, match the edges and sew one straight stitch. I sewed along the 60 inch side (on the right in this picture).


The finished size is now 60" x 100".


My husband is 6' 3' tall, so this is perfect to cover him up completely.


I know the color combo is crazy and not "cute", but we're not going for looks...we need warmth!! They were just stored away and not being used, so this is perfect!!

If you really want to make it look like it was done intentionally, maybe you could cut each blanket in half and then sew the four parts together in alternating strips.

Always good to find a new use for something and free is always great too!!

Have a great day,
~Karen~

Thrifty Thursday...Free Autumn Arrangement

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Hi everyone...just changing things up a bit on Thursdays. I usually have my Thoughts on Thursday, but I'm switching it to Thrifty Thursday.

I know with today's economic times, saving money any where we can is important. I thought I would try to do a weekly post with tips and projects for free or on a budget, using things we already have.

Here's my first tip...free autumn arrangement.



These are just cheap old plastic urns I had in the garage that I spray painted black a long time ago.


Go out in your yard or the woods and trim some branches. There were little leaves and buds still on the branches, so it really added to the look.

Just be careful if you have small children or animals in the house if your branches have berries on them. Maybe just use plain branches if you do.


I placed the branches in the urns...no styrofoam or anything. Cut several little twiggy branches instead of cutting one big one. Adds more depth to the arrangement.



I brought the large urns inside, because I needed something big to fill in the spaces in front of the walls on each side of the window.

I just moved some furniture around in here and didn't have any artwork or pictures for the walls. The branches fill in that space perfectly and they were FREE!!!


Bring something in from outside and see if it works in your home too.

This is great for autumn, but adding little white lights to these branches will work great for Christmas  time too!!

Happy Thrifting,
~Karen~

Truncating My Blog...I Hope You'll Stay With Me

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Hi to all my faithful readers...and I pray you will stay my faithful readers after I make a little change to my blog. I swore up and down I would NEVER truncate (or shorten) my blog posts, but something has come to my attention.

A very kind reader, Laura from the blog Now Things Are Cookin', sent me an email telling me she had found 2 sites that had stolen my posts...FULL POSTS, right down to where I even sign the bottom. They've stolen everything...they are blog scrapers.

What are Blog Scrapers? Well, in short, it is an automated computer software that trolls blogs and STEALS your blog content, then a real person puts the entire post on their FAKE blog. This fake blog has advertising on it to make money...from your work.

I love blogging. I love creating, sewing, organizing, cooking, crafting etc. I also LOVE sharing it with all of you. If you are a blogger, you know the time it takes to make all your creations, take and edit the pictures, write the posts etc. I am definitely NOT complaining about that part of it at all. As a matter of fact, the creation of each post is my favorite thing. Blogging has actually become more of my hobby than anything else.

I just love the friends I have made through blogging, the connections and the experience itself is priceless.

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Here is a wonderful blog post by "Between Naps on The Porch" on blog scraping...click HERE to read her post.

Click HERE for another description I found on Wikipedia about Blog Scraping. I have quoted one section below that scared me to death...


"Additionally, scraped content can appear on literally any type of splog or RSS-fed spam site. This means an unsuspecting individual could find their creative or copyrighted material copied onto a site promoting pornography or similar type of content that may be offensive to the original author and his/her audience. This may be damaging to the original author's reputation."
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I could easily share the links to the sites created by these horrible people who have stolen my content and many others, but I don't want them to have the satisfaction of anyone clicking on their site and then they'll make more money. Instead, I have screen printed the site so you can see what they have done.

Here are some screen shots of their site...I have added the Red Bold Type to the pictures



They copied the entire Find a Friend Friday post.


I am so MAD at this other so called blog. Not only did they steal the Find a Friend Friday post, they also have the nerve to steal more of my posts for their side bar. Look at all the arrows I added pointing to my other posts.  Thoughts on Thursday, Tool Time Tuesday, a recipe of mine, Sew Darn Crafty, Sew Sew Saturday...I could just cry!

Look at the title of their blog...X YE Z BLOG. Really?



What it comes down to is...I can't change the bad people out there. I know that the good people in the world far outweigh the bad, but boy do the bad people make it difficult. They, however, will NOT scare me away.

What I CAN do is make it a little more difficult for them to steal my content. When a post is truncated the real "human" reader sees a portion of the post and then has to "click" over to read the rest. Computer Scrapers can't "click" over to the whole post as they are trolling the internet, so that makes it a little harder for them to steal the "entire" post and my work.

My hope is that the extra click is not going to be too much of a pain for you. I don't want to lose even one of my followers because of these evil thieves.

Thank you for letting me vent on this. By the way,  I will not be truncating this particular post...I dare them to steal this one!!

Your forever blogging friend,
~Karen~

How To Truncate Your Blog...and a Big Thank You

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First off, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your comments and kind words about my stolen posts. Your thoughtfulness means the world to me. If you missed my post earlier this morning, you can click here to read it. I know the world is 99% good...it's the other 1% that needs a kick in the rump. Lol

Several of you have asked how to truncate a post, so what better time than now, since it's all fresh in our minds. I know how to truncate and will show you below, but I am experimenting with this post to see what actually shows up on a feed or blog reader in reference to the pictures I add and where I chose to truncate it. This is my first time doing this, so we'll see what it looks like !!

I am randomly adding my blog button as a picture before the truncate, just to see what it looks like.





Now here's how to truncate your blog...

Write your post as you would have before, but with truncating (or shortening) you will start with an opening paragraph then your post will "break" into 2 parts and the human reader will have to "click" over to the second half.

This motion of clicking to the second part is what the trolling automated computer program can't do. It's similar to the word verification that some blogs have for commenting. Spamming computers can't "read" that word verification and type it in, therefore that can't leave you a message or comment spamming your blog.

Once you have written the opening paragraph for your post..

• put the cursor where you want the post to "Break" or "Truncate"
• go to the top tool bar and click on the icon that looks like a ripped piece of paper
• click on that and it will truncate right where your cursor was.
• after you have clicked on that break button, a gray dotted line will appear
• begin typing the rest of your post below that gray line and that's the section that the "Human" readers will see when the click the link below the post.
• when you preview you post you will not see the truncated version. 

Here are 2 screen shots to show you...

After you click the "jump break" icon, the gray dotted lines will show. Type the rest of the post below that.




I hope this helps some of you who are contemplating changing your blog post to a truncated version. This is my first time publishing one, so I hope it works!!

I also wanted to show you how to change the words for "read more here", but Blogger is having issues with saving any changes to your layout, so I'll show you another time.

By the way...you have my permission to link to this post and the other post to spread the word about this!!

Thanks again for your thoughtfulness and your kind comments,
~Karen~

Chasing Welsh Dragons

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We embarked on an adventurously short trip last week combining outdoor pursuits, some much needed peace, tranquility and a little dragon hunting in the mountains and valleys of Wales.

Lake Vyrnwy, no internet connection, no moblie phone signals, no texts, nobody knew we were here, the only sounds were distant birdsong amid the rumble of incoming clouds. The magical fairytale view from Lake Vyrnwy Hotel & Spa I had seen online only days before and I knew instantly that it was where I needed to be, just for few days to shake off my urban alien and get in touch with a more bucolic being.......but there were no dragons here!
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I can't stay still for too long, mind relaxed and chakras realigned I was ready to face some action. With Snowdonia National Park just around some incredibly ginormous bends, we squeezed our way through the green capillaries of welsh country lanes with barely enough room either side of the road for randomly-roaming, long-tailed sheep to pass whilst making their perilous ascents.....but there were no dragons here!





Wild weather moved in, billowing clouds quickly consuming summits to satisfy their mountainous appetites. Up Mount Snowdon, briefly touching the summit before racing down past thundering waterfalls, roaring waterways and desolate hillsides.......but there were no dragons here!


  
I did stop to share my lunch for a while with this delightful chap to whom I explained my quest and he pointed me in the right direction.........there were no dragons here!

  
We followed rivers which tumbled dramatically into the sea......




As the sun went down we came to the conclusion that on this particular day, in this beautiful corner of magical Wales.........

www.magicalchristmaswreaths.co.uk