A little break

It's time for me to face facts and take a break from blogging for the foreseeable future. I have realised that working 40 plus hours a week and juggling home life together with the other responsibilities I have, that I cannot blog for the moment. We are also in the throws of buying and selling homes and that has it's own stresses too.

It won't stop me creating though as I find this helps me to relax and reflect and think. There is therapy in those needles :o) I crocheted these toadstools and flowers for a yarn bombing project to take place in August at a children's hospice with the theme being Enid Blytons "The Faraway Tree" which sounds like it's going to be a magical experience for all the children.

I will be back to blog when the time permits and part of me feels sad, but a little relieved to say this temporary goodbye. I wanted to say a very big thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your comments and conversations we have had. They have meant a lot to me and I have felt really connected by our love of making and being creative together. I hope to have time to pop into some of your blogs and say hi and see what you have been up to.

 

Thank you to all of you who wished me well in my very first crochet a granny square class last Saturday, it went really well and all my nerves were calmed when each of the clever ladies finally produced a granny square! I think they were all chuffed with their achievements and happy to have learnt a brand new skill. Below are the results from their efforts x I love that they all came out differently despite all having a 4mm hook and DK yarn :o)

So, I shall bid you farewell until I return, you can always catch me over on Instagram where I will be sharing some of my life and makes xox

Take gentle care and enjoy the rest of the Spring and Summer to come

xox

 

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Day tripping and some almost edible crochet

Happy Easter to you all! We had a glorious celebrations of Jesus's resurrection at church this morning and once again it humbled me to know how much he has blessed my life.

I have had quite a few relaxing days doing bits and bobs and thinking about charity shop sort outs and our potential packing if all goes well with our house buying. It's such a funny thing buying and selling a home, just like the buses nothing happens and then all of a sudden it's a flurry of bank appointments and lawyers and signing this and that, then it goes all quiet again before the next lot arrives :o)

We went to Rye on Good Friday and it was just the perfect elixir our little family needed, pottering in old antiquity shops, fish and chips and tea and cake!

The air was nippy and fresh and we wrapped up warm despite the sun peaking out from behind the clouds. We love going to see "the glass man" from the antiques roadshow, Andy McConnell in his shop, where there is always a warm welcome from him and his wife with a cup of tea as you browse around. His wife sells gorgeous mid-century and vintage goods which I love. Alice was very chuffed when she spotted these Manhattan 1950's plates and bowls.

After a little negotiating, they were ours! I love the design, sorry this photo doesn't do them much justice, but they are all wrapped up now waiting for our move.

I loved this folk art tea caddy but it was a tad to expensive the justify me purchasing it.

There is also a fabulous shop that sells kitchenalia goodies called Crock and Cosy, I could spend all day drooling in there at all the utility crockery and old scales and cutlery and stunning handmade tea cosies like these.

I would love to knit something like this one day.

Fancy having high tea with this crockery set!

I also discovered a new to me shop which sells local hand spun yarn, it was divine....more on that some other time.

I wanted to share with you what I have been making over the last week or so, crochet wise. My little niece turned 2 the other day and we gave her a little book like we always do and the promise of a treat to come. I had it in my head to make her some fruit and veggies of the crochet kind for her new little persons kitchen. So I googled up as many images as I could and got cracking. I didn't use any patterns as I could find any easily and soon realised that as long as you can do, htr and inc and dec in crochet you can make any shape you desire.

I have been popping them on Instagram this past week and have had such lovely comments and sweet support, thank you dearly for this.

So here they are...

I secretly love the Aubergine and peas in their pod... And then came the others...

I think the radishes are up their with my secret love too x

Musical mushrooms to add to the pot.

And last, but not least all of them in a basket that I found in Tunbridge Wells last Monday. It's perfect for my fruit and veg and I plan to line it with some ditsy floral fabric to make it super sweet for Connie. I made some cherries last night to add to the basket and could not resist doing a little fry up for her to cook too.

Veggie bacon anyone?

I have LOVED making these, such instant fun and gratification from crochet, sorry about the quality off the photos some are a bit hazy, not sure why iPads have such poor quality cameras?

hope you all enjoy the rest of this special weekend and see you all soon

xox

 

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Happenings

Thank you all for visiting and your comments on us trying to sell our home. Well you won't believe it but our second viewer put in an offer which we accepted and our offer was accepted on the 1930's home we wanted and voila....the deal was done!

It all seems too good to be true really and it's still a long way off, but we are counting our blessings and moving forward with the lawyers and mortgage company etc (all the dead boring necessary stuff). So, I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime we have made our home messy again with just living in it and I have been absorbed in crochet craftiness. I am running a little workshop for beginners in my friends art studio where she teaches art classes. The same place I made my needle felted hen at the end of March. To prepare I have been rolling out loads of little balls of colourful mostly Stylecraft yarn so that I can teach everyone how to make a basic granny square.

I am feeling a little nervous about teaching people how to crochet, I learnt from my mum and am no expert. I am going to try and make the experience full of fun and hope to install a real passion for this craft. It has also given me the opportunity to make loads of different granny squares to use as examples. I have had a bit of an addiction going on in the past couple of weeks...

I made a granny cushion to hopefully inspire them to make one and will be taking a few of my other granny square projects and blankets along to inspire the makers to keep going. I eventually sewed the buttons on my cushion this afternoon and rather like the end product.

Here is the cushion buttonless...

And now with buttons...

I used different colours on both sides and just loved making this simple but pretty thing. I have decided that Nothing but,Nothing beats a good old granny square :o)

Other than that it's all been about getting out on the weekends and enjoying the good weather we have been having, oh and some gin and pink lemonade!

How about you lovely people? What have you been up to lately?

xox

See you soon

 

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Selling up

Hello dearest blog

I really have not been particularly attentative lately, been far too busy working and tidying and cleaning up our home with the view to putting it on the market. Stressful having to do all the paper work and having a proper spring clean and throw out to pretend that we live clutter free which is not the case! Amazing how when you are selling your home you almost have to create an illusion of not living in your home!

It was a good opportunity for me to sort out all my fabric bits in the loft where I have an old Victorian wooden chest full to the brim of fabrics and where I normally do my sewing in the Spring and Summer. It was really rewarding to give a lot away to charity shops too hoping that they will find happy homes to be recycled in.

It was also good fun finding things that I have made and have forgotten about in amongst my sewing bits and bobs.

I am quite keen to sew a few African fabric skirts this Spring, my wonderful mum packaged some beautiful navy African fabrics over to me which I received the other day. Will show you when they are made, I will have to jog my memory on how to insert a zip again.

I am actually enjoying having a rather neat and tidy home, not that we are very untidy normally, but we do live in our home it certainly ain't a museum!

I am feeling a bit nostalgic about potentially leaving our terraced Victorian home, with all it's beautiful character and original features...but am very excited about the 1930's home that we are hoping to purchase. We'll see what happens and no doubt I will log our progress here.

Hope you are well and enjoying the longer and lighter northern hemisphere days and maybe doing a little bit of spring cleaning yourself?

See you all soon

xox

 

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My Easter hen and other makes

Happy Mothers day to all you precious mums out there, I hope you get thoroughly spoilt and looked after on this celebratory day! I have found a little window in my day to post about my needle felting workshop I went on last Saturday. The aim was to make an Easter hen. I have never needle felted before and I was excited to learn a new crafting technique as I have always admired the beautiful things that can be made with this material.

It all began with a hairy, woolly ball and some very sharp barbed needles and a lot of stabbing and shaping which was a great stress release!

Then we got to admire and choose from lots of woolly colours

And learnt how to shape wings and make polka dots and flat pieces of felt to make my hens crown and tail.

And so, my Easter hen Harriet was born...

Everyone's hens turned out differently and it was wonderful to see how each one of the 5 of us made different hens from the same materials.

We got to bring out little starter kits home and I have made a polka dot heart since then. I hope this will be the beginning of a beautiful crafting relationship :o)

Lastly I thought I would show you what little pins (and an extra crochet covered pebble)I made for my blog swap with Hannapat of Cosmos and Cotton organised by the lovely Jo of Three Stories High

You can see the gorgeous gifts I received from Hannapat in my previous post of collages. I love this sweet blogging community of generous and loving people.

Have a wonderful Mothering Sunday everyone

xox

Penny