Tickety boo

Hello my dear readers, hope all is tickety boo with you and yours as we embrace yet another bank holiday weekend here in Britain. Some of us have been fortunate enough to get the day off work tomorrow to watch the Royal Wedding.

Being South African I am rather ambivalent about the wedding, I do remember having a telly at school in 1981 (I was 11 years old) when Charles and Diana got married which I got very excited about and my sister making a scrap book of their wedding. Now that I live in Britain and have my very own 10 and 1/2 year old she is very keen on celebrating and taking part in our local street party tomorrow (I hope the sun shines!). So, I too have got into the local community spirit of things and bought some balloons, sewed some simple red, blue and white bunting and will be stringing hearts together with Alice tonight to hang over our front door tomorrow (all her sweet idea).

Apparently there will be a band playing music, BBQ's, Morris dancers, competitions, cream teas and cakes for all to enjoy. I think Alice will have a lovely memory of this when she is older. We need a little "pick me up" and community spirit in these difficult financial times. So if you are watching / celebrating the Royal Wedding tomorrow I hope you have a marvelous time xox and if not I hope you get to enjoy whatever tickles your fancy xox

This has been a short but intense week at work and I have hardly had a moment to knit or hook away as much as my heart would have desired to, but now that we have 4 days ahead of us I plan to get on with making a little crochet and fabric something which I hope to show you all next week. Here's a sneak peek...

Made with the glorious Debbie Bliss 100% cotton ice-cream coloured yarn

To top this bit of pleasurable making I am hoping to have a fun day on Sunday when I turn 41! Eeeeeeekkkk ! Oh well, can't stop time moving on, need to enjoy each and every blessed moment and make sure you remain ....

Love and Hugs xox

A time for

Hello! Have you all had a lovely Easter weekend? has the weather not been from heaven up above? I haven't felt so light and free spirited for a while... the weather has a lot to do with this.

We've had T***I***M***E*** such a rare and precious resource in our busy bee lives. I love time, I'm fascinated by time, it's often a mystery to me and how our brains interpret and perceive time. So these past few days we have had time for.....

Family catch ups and alfresco eating under blue heavens

Time for assisting and attending at children's art workshops at our church as part of the Eastbourne arts and culture festival....

Marbling eggs

Painting acrylic on canvas and making a collage to display in the art gallery with all our talented artists in church

Admiring and smelling flowers

Going down up to the woods and soaking up the bluebell purple haze of flower diviness

Time to kick off shoes and STOP to enjoy the green green grass

Seaside time with buckets and spades, dipping into the ocean and sand castles and ice-cream and scooting along the front

A time for some reflection

And a time for knowing my identity

And some stolen moments for learning a new skill or two :0)

I have found a pattern for 1930's style socks which are knitted on two needles and not DPN's and I am so pleased with teaching myself (via the odd helpful youtube "how to" video) this lacy technique! So watch this space I may soon be wearing these little pretties (I am knitting the heel inset at the moment and am not 100% sure if I am on the right track!!!)

I also had to find a little time to pop into my LYS for some Debbie Bliss cotton as I need a hooky project to satisfy the desire for instant gratification whilst plugging away at the socks xox

Yay, so that's me for the next little while. Toodle pip and see you soon xox

Stanley gone retro

Oh, are we not just having the most amazingly warm April so far? I have simply loved the long sunny evenings and going for bike rides along the seafront with Alice and Andy. Here is a photo of last night's sunset, this photo doesn't do it much justice, the sky was covered in perfect hues of pink and orange.

It's been so warm infact that I have done very little knitting or crochet, just haven't felt particularly inspired or motivated these past few days. Work has been rather demanding and I have found myself dog tired most evenings, I dare say it might even be this sudden sore in temperature that's making me feel so tired or I might be becoming a little anaemic, must ensure I get my iron in these next few weeks.

So, back to this post.... I found myself doing a spot of sewing on sunday afternoon and completed my little gift I made for new baby Nathan (my friend Penny has just had her number 2 baby) last night. It was lovely to climb back up in the attic (we call it our snug) and potter around my stash of vintage and contemporary fabrics, ribbons,buttons etc that I store up there. I tend to sew mostly in the spring and summer months as the attic is COLD in the winter with no insulation and heating. It's partially converted with a little window and electricity and Alice and I chill out up there in these warmer months and enjoy being creative together up in the snug.

Cath Kidston created Stanley, the gorgeous terrier dog pattern which many of you are familiar with



Google images

I was fortunate enough to receive Cath Kidston's book called Make a couple of years ago as a Christmas present from a dear friend which has the template for Stanley in. I traced it and cut it out of an old retro patterned sheet I picked up ages ago at a car boot sale and so my retro Stanley was created xox

I attempted for the first time to embroider Nathan's name on the spotty cushion and know it's not perfect but I was kind of happy with it as a first attempt.

Some floral decoration for Stanley

And voila! a little cushion for the new baby boy xox

I did enjoy picking and choosing the different bits of felt, ric-rac, fabric and buttons for this little cushion and found it rather good fun and relaxing to make. My favourite bit was buying and sewing the bobbly edging on

This bobbly edging gives the little cushion a groovy finish which I hope Penny and Carl like :0)

I am so looking forward to some good quality family time this Easter and hope you have some relaxing times planned for this coming bank holiday weekend. I am looking forward to helping out at art workshops on Saturday that we are holding at out church in Eastbourne as part of the Eastbourne Arts and Culture Festival, so that should be a fun day for the kids taking part.

Wishing you all a blessed and happy Easter xox

I will leave you with a pretty picture of one of my absolute all time favourite flowers that a friend picks for me from her garden at this time of the year, Lily of the Valley.

I adore these delicate and so beautifully fragrant flowers which always bloom around my birthday.

Freebies

Where oh where does time go? I have had a great first half of the week off with Alice and then went back to work yesterday having booked her into an art workshop yesterday and holiday club for today. We have done some cycling and picnic-ing, went to see the Smuggler's caves in Hastings Old Town which were really interesting and have done a lot of arty crafty things together with some charity shop browsing! Needless to say the above jam jar hugged by my knitted "mug hug" knit is starting to fill up with more old/vintage colourful needles like these beauties I found for 50p a pair

Oh sweet joy! I love knitting with these older/vintage needles, find them so much more comfortable to click click away on .... all pretty in a row.

I've just realised that if you have just arrived on my blog for the first time, that it may seem that I have a rather sad disposition in life, finding joy in old grannies knitting needles. Well the truth of the matter is that YES I do find great joy in the finding a bargain, recycling things, giving to charity, being an old romantic at heart and thinking of the past ... yet to mention what my hands can produce from such beauties :0) So welcome to my kooky little world and I hope you stay a while xox

Now... the charity shop I bought these needles from was my local hospice charity shop and as I was leaving I spotted a box full of coat hangers "going for free" to passers by and much to my great delight, out of the corner of my eye I spotted these 2

Ooooh the thrill of an old wooden coat hanger just waiting for some hooky charm! So out came a hook and some leftover DK cotton from my stash

I've been dying to get my hands on some old fashioned coat hangers and knew the moment would arrive sooner or later. So I chained 10 (2 to count as a htr) and zoomed up and down in htr to make a cover for the first hanger

 And decorated with some pretty simple flowers

The second, thinner hanger still needs decorating with a blossom or two. Really simple, quick and easy to make and celebrate!

Hoooooray for freebies xox  I was also the very happy recipient of some old curtain fabric this week from one of my friends' from work, she saw this at a jumble sale and thought of me...

I love love love it, all soft and romantic and gorgeous. Thank you so much Yvonne xox Kerching another freebie! How blessed am I ?

So, before I go today I'll leave you some pictures of our Easter tree we arrange each year. The twigs are from a friend's allotment and I use them at Easter and Christmas, last Christmas Alice and I decided to spray some silver and gold on part of the branches, not appropriate for Easter I know but I think we can just about get away with using them xox It was of course an opportunity to hook up some little flowers  for the branches and for Alice to blow out the inside of eggs and decorate. This year she decided to do her own form of decoupage on 2 eggs.

Thank you all so much for popping in.

Wishing you all a peaceful and gentle weekend xox

A little cardigan for Bethan

Hello all you lovelies, thank you for stopping and having a read of my musings. I do so enjoy all your comments and positive encouragement.

Do you like the look of the above pink lemonade? As you've probably gathered it's from France and absolutely delicious with ice and a slice of lime. We discovered it in Bills cafe in the lovely market town of Lewes when we visited last Friday. Perfect for having a rest on a sunny day and watching the world go by :0)  

Today a short post about my little accomplishment over the past few days. I have loved loved loved knitting this sweet cardigan for nearly 1 year old Baby Bethan, one of my friend's children. The original post about it can be found here, just scroll down and you will see where my inspiration came from and the link to the easy peasy weasy pattern. I don't consider myself a particularly good knitter, it's all quite new to me reading patterns and teaching myself new skills in knitting but I promise this pattern is a definite for beginners like me xox If you look closely you will see some obvious mistakes but hey ho that's me.... learning still and perfection is one of lesser talents :0) will must work on that !

So here it is, all pretty and pink and warm and chunky feeling ....

Decisions decisions about what button to choose

Oh I can't help it, it's all hearts and girly like

Such a candy floss colour

I really heart you little cardigan

I wish wish wish I loved yarn when my Alice was little, she would definitely have had one of these knitted up for her

Thank you for tolerating my joy this afternoon xox

Ending off with a little more pink, my apple tree blossom making it's way into the world. I rescued this tree 3 years ago from being thrown out in B&Q and it ( aka Murial) now grows in a large ceramic pot in my courtyard garden, she never lets me down by flowering each year and last year Murial produced 3 wee apples, I was over the moon.

I guess talking to and praising her beauty does pay off in the long run Please tell me you talk to your plants !!!!! ;0) One day I will set you free Murial xox