Flowers and a mouse

What a glorious weekend of Spring sunshine and open windows and washing hanging on the line it has been. I absolutely LOVE it when I can hang my washing outside to dry and truly feel like this is my mark of Spring and Summer is on it's way. Nothing like the smell of sun kissed clean clothes. I do hope you have been shined on this weekend?

We went to Brighton yesterday to see my Sister in law before baby  arrives and I eventually got round to stitching these mother of pearl teeny tiny buttons on the Pebble vest I knitted a while back. 

It is the sweetest little thing, hard to believe that new born babies are so small.

Fiona and Max decided not to find out if they are having a boy or girl so I tried to accommodate for this in my colour choices. Looking at it I'm not sure anymore, is it better suited to a boy or girl? Especially with me adding this button to the top fastening?

Oh well, we will just have to wait and see, hopefully I can show you a photo of the new arrival wearing this sweet thing:0)


We visited Janie, Alice's art teacher on Saturday afternoon for a
cup of tea and cake and a potter in her beautiful English country  garden. She has the greenest fingers ever, we love seeing her garden in all the seasons but Spring is always the best. All the flower photo's in this post are from her garden, she knows all the botanical names which I am ashamed to say I know very little of, but I like to listen and learn from an enthusiastic gardener.

Oh, and take photo's of ...

all the pretties

and the kitty called Tiggy

I bet Tiggy would like what I crocheted yesterday...

One of Planet Penny's wee mice (pattern found here)

I realised this morning that his (Alice has named him Morris Mouse) eyes should have been black beads instead of blue and that his little face looks a little anxious or concerned...maybe he thinks Tiggy is going to catch him after all!

Oh, and did you notice that he is rather plumptious (fat is a swear word in this house!)? Too much stuffing can do that you know ;0)


With that thought in mind, I'm going to wish you all a jolly good Easter (mind that choccy stuffing though) as I will be taking a break from my blog to go on an exciting 2 week holiday and look forward to catching up with you all when I return. I'll love and leave you with this hand stitched bunny I saw on a home made linen cushion the other day in this local shop.

How gorgeous is that? 

Take care and

Blessings to you all this Easter

xox

10 little things right now

Pretty Mother's Day flowers and card from last Sunday

Swapping my thick winter coat for this thinner corduroy one now that Spring has Sprung 

Playing with Planet Penny's cotton club colours

Plotting a pretty Wedding Present make for a lovely friend

Finding unfinished knitting here there and everywhere

Loving my new job in Oncology despite the fact that I now knit/sew/crochet once or twice a week instead of everyday like I used to {something had to give!}

Eating scrummy food {as always}

(purple sprouting broccoli, tomato and goats cheese quiche)

Riding on trains and loving all the shape,form and shadows 

in the stations

Oh, and eating honey comb filled chocolate bunnies :0)

And last, but not least soaking in the warmth of our Spring Sunshine and seeing all the blossoms bobbing about

I have been very busy and very tiring this week and don't seem to have had much time for me, so I decided to make sure I notice and take snap shots of all the little things that are good in my week right here, right now and this has kept me cheerful despite not having the time or energy to be particularly creative in the evenings. I have an incredibly blessed and fortunate life and want to make sure I never take it for granted. I do hope you have good little things happening too? 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend 

Look for the small things,they really are there 

and see you all soon

xox

Simple makes

This past week has flown by for me at work and in my home life, but not so much that I haven't been able to stop and stare at nature re-awakening in the South of England. I've been soaking up all the colour that is bursting out here, there and everywhere and just feeling the sunlight on my face in amongst the rush has been a true, simple delight. I hope you have had time to stop and see your seasonal changes wherever you are.

I haven't had much time to be crafty other than work on completing the back of my waist coat I am attempting to knit as seen here and sneaking in a few "in-betweener's" i.e. little projects for instant joy and gratification in amongst all my other work in progress projects (umm about 6 on the go currently!!).

I've been using my pretty cotton I purchased from Planet Penny's Cotton Club here and have to agree with Penny at how lovely this mercerised cotton is to knit with. Even Alice is having good fun with it making friendship bracelets. She made this one for me and I have to say that I love her colour combination.

She has a friend over at the moment and between them I think a  little factory of twisted friendship bracelets is going on for their school summer fete!

As for me, I started a little baby wee willie winkie hat last night. 

I cast on 72 stitches (based on a 0-3 month baby 2 needle hat pattern I already have) and spread them onto my DPN's because I wanted to see what it would turn out like without having to sew the side seams up.

I have never knitted in stripes on DPN's before and I have just used my instinct with chopping off the thread and knotting the next colour onto it. I am sure there is a much neater and more sophisticated way to do this but I was being lazy and a bit experimental.

There are so many rainbow cotton colours to choose from. I'm knitting this hat for a baby yet to be born so we don't know if it's going to be a wee girl or boy and I don't want to be stereo-typical about colour choices but am yet to make up my mind about using the very bright pink. There is a more pastel pink which I might knit into the hat as I am decreasing into the wee willie  winkie element of the hat. Of course it wouldn't be complete without a pom pom which Alice has promised to help me make. 

I've also had an itch to crochet this beautiful Bulls eye blanket made by Kate over at Foxs Lane.It's a perfect blanket for using up all your ity bity bits of left over yarn.

This by no means will be a quick blanket but it's satisfying my desire to crochet and use up all my leftovers and I'm liking mixing and matching my wools with cotton and playing with colours. It's easy crochet that doesn't involve a whole lot of concentration but gives you that buzz and colour fix. 

Simple.

Just the way I like it right now xox

Thanks for popping in and saying hi.

Happy week-ending everyone! 

Bun Bun

When I was a toddler I had a floral fabric bunny which I christened bun-bun. Apparently bun-bun went everywhere with me but, sadly I don't know what became of her. I guess she got a little frayed and shabby and might have got lost in one of our moves when I was little. We moved to three different towns/cities in South Africa when I was growing up.

My dad to this day calls me bun-bun, it's something special we have between just the two of us. He softens immediately if I call myself bun-bun when I write home. It's a lovely dad - daughter thing.

My love for bunnies continues to grow and grow, so much so that I actively seek them out and appreciate them in all places, both real and the plastic/ceramic/fabric/paper/yarn/felt/sculpted etc kind. I guess no one really knows this about me :0)


This night light bunny had to be purchased, a glowing, magical night light for sleepy heads. An early Easter present for Alice that couldn't be closed in it's box till Easter. A fresh and beautiful white light bun-bun. Hop bunny hop hop hop xox 

Shapes and colours

We have been bubbled in a surreal world of coughs, sneezes, hoarse lost voices and high temperatures this weekend and boy am I glad that we've been through the worst. All three of us have been down and out and poor Alice has had it rough with all her noctural coughing and distress. I'd say it all peaked at about 2am this morning and thank God we are spiraling upwards, out of the doldrums of bed bound misery.

These bright and beautiful daffodils were a MUST over the weekend. Their cheery petals opened more and more as the Spring afternoon sunshine came through the window. It was so comforting knowing that they were there to cheer us up every time we went into the kitchen. For £1 I cannot complain at such beauty. The epitome of Spring in England, I think, sunshine heads bobbing about.

By yesterday afternoon I needed to feel semi-normal and as per Alice's request baked some of her favourite, simple butter biscuits. Nothing like a little homemade treat to dip into afternoon cups of tea or milk to make you feel a little better.

Little miss was sitting on our bed playing with paper and beads whilst listening to Roald Dhal book CD's (a little comforting tradition she seems to have got into whenever she has been unwell is to pull out her book CD's and listen for hours on end).

I had been saving these strawberry milkshake straws for a treat and thought she's appreciate a fun thing to drink her milk with. It's all about comfort and feeling safe when you are little and mum tucking you in. Sometimes I just want to go home back to my mum and have her tuck me in and give me treats when I feel unwell. I don't think we ever forget these childhood memories.

Boredom always runs high on these sickly days and gentle play seems to be the only soothing thing to do. So we have played just about every game under the sun and of course made beady bangles and necklaces in-between dosing off.


Today, after a crazy night we had the day off work and school to completely recover and convalesce and what better than to do that at the sea side?

A bit of urban madness going on outside our house, oh and the bluest of blue sunshiny skies to lure us to the sea side.

The sea was like a mill pond, all calm and sparkly and the pebbles all warm and cosy to lie down on. It was bliss having the sunshine down on our pale faces and soak up some much needed warmth and inhale the freshest of air.

Without moving we challenged ourselves to find as many different shells and bits and bobs of sea weed, drift wood and fisherman's netting around us. Surprising, we came up with a rather decent selection of things. 

All the beautiful shapes and colours for free right on our doorstep. How fortunate we are to be able to live so close to this immense force of nature.

I've got a thing about sea shells, I collected them when I was growing up and Alice has followed in my footsteps with her own little collection which she continues to add to.

I love the shape of these ones, always reminds me of Botticelli's Birth of Venus in an oyster shell.

Pebble playing and then home again via the park.

I was surprised not to see many flowers in our local park, I was hoping to see the promise of tulips coming to bloom but I think it's a little too early for them.

I wasn't however, disappointed with these pink blossoms and their tight buds. So happy, I felt a spring in my step.

We came home with some more nature finds, some more shapes and colours. This tiny pine cone reminds me of an idea I saw here where nature meets crochet.

We also had to come home with our first Spring posy, a teeny tiny one but so happy and cheerful to put on our kitchen window sill.

It was also a perfect opportunity to wear my Tappan Zee cardy I knitted last year. Oh how good it is to feel better again. We are not very good patients in this household! Nature has charmed us again into feeling human once more xox 

Hope you are all bug free and keeping well and healthy. I'm off to finish knitting the back of my waist coat, I'm almost there! See you all soon xox