I sold my lovely narrowboat recently, after 10 years or so of living afloat and longer as a boater.  Most of the furniture was built-in so there was little to bring away to the house with me apart from ornaments and rugs.  Here’s the stool from my daughter’s room which acted both as a step, a seat and also storage (things on a boat should always have more than one use!).  It was actually the old bathroom stool I’d salvaged from my father’s house which I sanded down and wreaked my “roses and castles” passion on.  The doors and side hatch panels on the boat were all painted like this.  I obviously couldn’t bring them away with me but this stool I could.

The spring is coming and flowers are starting to appear, so I’m thinking why not try and incorporate florals into the leatherworking?

This is the first of the canal style rose corsages.  The centre is a vintage leather golf-ball button and the flower is fastened with a good sized brooch pin so it doesn’t droop when you pin it on your lapel, hat or whatever.

I think I’ll be making some more of these for sale in my shops at Tiddleyworks on Etsy and Folksy, so as they say, watch this space!

Whilst I’m missing my boat I am very happy that she’s gone to a super person who I know will look after her, and that’s really all that matters.  Now I have space to have a workroom which I never had before!  So I can sit in my “castle”, paint roses and watch the boats sail past my window.  Not bad eh?