This day

I just wanted to record this day on my blog, this is the day that Alice runs her first Run for Life 5km run with her two friends Poppy and Millie. They have done so well to raise money for this very worthy cause.

Unfortunately, I am unable to run it with them as I have another commitment this morning, but I'll be thinking of them all the way to victory! I couldn't resist buying this super perfect pink nail varnish for the girls to paint their nails with, they are all going out with their bright pink Cancer research t-shirts and other bits and bobs.

Alice wasn't too keen for me to pop a photo of her on my blog in her running gear, but she was happy for me to show you her painting she did for Andy this Father's day. She gave me strict instructions on what beer to buy for him too and requested a bunch of hedgerow flowers for him on my cycle yesterday afternoon. Andy works on Saturday nights and this morning he came home to some flowers and a boiling kettle for a cup of tea and some Alice made breakfast.

So on this day I am wishing my Dad a very happy Father's Day in South Africa and to all the wonderful Dad's out there I hope you get thoroughly spoilt and appreciated on your day xox

I must dash

x

See you soon

24/52

This week's small moments of happies came from me very quickly knitting these two Pixie hats for two babies arriving this Autumn (not mine, my colleagues). I got a little excited when I learnt to knit an i-cord for the hats, it's so simple, I thought it might involve a whole lot of dpn's, but you only use two. Once I've knitted the i-cords, I plan to make teeny pom poms to put on each of their ends for baby fun. I'm sure I'll show you once complete.

 I managed to find two sweet vintage embroidered cloths in a charity shop which I have plans for. I love to think about who made these and all the time and patience and love put into each pretty stitch. I really would like to learn how to embroider beautifully.

Picking daisies

Loving the perfect retro vase I found for Andy at £2 in a local charity shop. I knew he would be pleased when I brought it home, he is not one to collect bits and bobs like me but he is a big retro fan so this had to come home with me. I wasn't too sure at first, but now it's growing on me, especially if I fill it with cow parsley and buttercups. 

Loving my local library, the knitting section seems to get bigger and better every time I go in there :o)

Last, but not least trying to make the best of an evening stroll along the seaside despite the wind and rain this week. Such a pity that I had to haul out my Winter coat for this!

Hope your week end brings some sweet joy to your worlds

xox

See you soon

{Almost} Edible crochet book

When it's cold outside, which it has been these past few days despite some sunshine on Saturday and late Sunday, there is nothing else to do but get busy making. I treated myself to this Erica Knight book from a cheap higgldy piggldy book shop in Lewes a while back. It retails at £16.99 and I got it for £8.95 which thrilled me as I have had my eye on it for a while. I love all the colours and feel of it's pages, a truly delicious {almost edible} crochet book if ever there was one.

There are lots of fabulous projects to choose from, but this one appealed the most to me. I have wanted to make slippers for a while now and just haven't found the right pattern. I used  chunky Rowan Shetland Mooritt yarn with a 7mm hook. Thanks to the ladies at my Thursday Knit and Natter group I realised that I was going wrong after the first 6 rows when I started making these in the round instead of accommodating for the instep!

Anyway, it took me most of my Friday night movie watching and chit chatting moments on Saturday to make these, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite having to work out how to make them bigger for my size 6, reasonably wide feet (Erica does give you a little master class in how to do this thank goodness, I really need my hand to be held when attempting something new!)So here they are....

Not anywhere as neat and gorgeous as the ones in the book, but a good enough first attempt I think. I'm not used to doing dc stitch with a 7mm hook!

It's a bit like going to the hairdressers with a picture of how you want your new hair style to look and it not quite turning out how you expected :o)

Or maybe it's the fact that I have weird shaped feet in comparison to Ms.Knight? I'm not sure? (what on earth is going on with the width of my right foot??)

I'm not bothered either way, I am just happy that she wrote this fabulous pattern out for the likes of me to give it a go. As you may have noticed,I didn't have any spare leather pieces to sew on the bottom, never mind, I'm happy to skid around the house whilst keeping my feet super toasty on these chilly summer eves! 

They look almost like they belong in a Black Adder sketch from this photo :o) 

I'm look forward to giving a few more projects from this book a go sometime soon, just busy knitting some sweet baby pixie hats from here for two of my colleagues expecting babies in the Autumn.

Thanks for visiting

xox

See you all soon

Penny

Playing

Thanks for all your lovely comments and conversation lately, I must also apologise for not always popping into your blogs, time is always crazy during the week, however I have a little more time for me over the weekends and endeavour to say hello on your lovely blogs.

Alice skipped through the door yesterday, after school much to my delight. She has been having a bit of an emotional time lately, the first year of high school is testing isn't it? So many ups and downs and learning that all teachers are not the same , that you can't like everyone and that not everyone likes you and all the on and off, then on again girly friendships in the break times and out of school. Nothing prepares you for these times and I find myself drawing on my inner resources of creating a stable and safe and secure homely , happy-go-lucky life for our girl. Andy really helps too and sometimes he can have a less emotional approach to a situation, helping to level these things out.

I try my very best not to get too emotionally involved and try to reason through different situations with her, try to feel what she might be feeling and always draw on my own experiences of being a teenager and high school beginnings. It can be so heart breaking when you desperately want to make it "all better" and yet you know this would not be real life and you have to ride the hurt with them.

A few nights ago she burst into tears and after some comforting she told me that she had been given her first detention for sucking on a mint because she had a sore throat. I lightened the situation saying that mama had had plenty of different detentions from having to weed the school gardens to writing an essay on "My life inside a ping pong ball"! She then told me how she was afraid of letting me and Andy down, I felt so sad about this and wondered if we have been overtly or even covertly putting pressure on her? I really don't think we have and she puts a lot of this on herself. This led to a chat about how far from perfect mama and papa are and how I always felt that my parents were infallible to a certain degree and only in my 20's when family things happened and I realised that my Mum and Dad could also mess up just like me. It was a shock to me at the time, looking back now I wonder why it didn't happen when I was younger, mid-20's seems quite old for this to have happened.

I don't want Alice to wait till her mid-20's when she realises that her parents are actually human and just as capable of making mistakes and falling far from perfection. I know that our children look up to and learn so much from our behaviour and how we choose to live our lives and I am not taking this away from her, rather gently introducing her to the fact that it's impossible to always do "the right thing" and that our mistakes are what make us human in many ways.

 I think Alice felt comforted and reassured by our chat and telling me that I am "The best mum in the world" is always a tell tale sign as I am sure you have all experienced this too. Just her showing her gratitude for having me listen and understand, reason about the situation and offer reassurance and guidance on the way forward.

Back to beginning of this little story, after skipping through the front door she promptly presented her pet rock called Marcus and one of her friends, Becky's pet rock called Mildred which I had made for them many moons ago. She told me that they were getting married this weekend when she was going to Becky's for a sleepover tonight. 

I promptly removed their old dirty covers after having lived in their school lockers for most of Year 7 and made a pink cover for Mildred and a mustard one for Marcus, suitable Pebble wedding attire me thinks :o)

What made me more than pleased was to see that Alice at 12, almost 13 could still "play" a little and just be free spirited without the weight of the world on her shoulders and the demands of school and friendships. Yes, she reminded me to remember to play a little, so I did and spent this morning in the sunshine drinking tea, listening to the radio and covering a couple of pebbles for my amusement (the 2 green ones above).

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share this with you lovelies, I feel better now for recording and sharing this as I am sure some of this may resonate with some of you too.

Take special care

xox

Penny

23/52....I can see a rainbow

June has been kind to us so far with fair weather and sun shining days which I almost felt would never arrive after the silly Winter we had! I hope you have had a lovely week doing what you do, this week is all about colour,sweet happy moments of bursts of rainbow colours to delight my senses.

 There has been:

Red

 

Orange

Yellow

Green

Pink (not officially in a rainbow, but I couldn't ignore all the pink around at the moment!)

  

And Blue

Violet

Indigo

Source

I hope you have enjoyed this burst of rainbow colours and that you too are having bursts of colours now that Summer seems to have arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere.

Happy week-ending to you and yours
x
See you soon