Love is...

Hello again ! 

Mr. A has gone away on business to Cornwall for 2 nights yesterday, soooooo Alice and I are having 2 girlie nights in, eating delicious veggie food and pizza! double portions of pudding and watching DVD's xox Sometimes I like time on my own and so I am just sharing a slice of me wallowing in it while Mr. A is away. This is what Love is/was last night...

Sewing Allypops a little skirt with the fabric she chose, I think a line of ric rac would look fab but she is not convinced

Picking flowers from the potted garden and just enjoying them before the rain came

Reading my new book club book (I read this about 15 years ago when I went through a bit of a feminist period and am excited to re-read it again, I adore Margaret Atwood's novels)

Siping on this, don't you just love the Clipper packaging ? I love this purple, delish.

Making dinner from this new recipe book, Rose you are a Veggie Goddess ;o)

Not worrying too much about this...

Appreciating another one of our purchases from Marrakesh 

and a stunning piece sent to me by my most favourite friend in South Africa which she made with her fine hands

and last but not least absolutely loving writing a good old fashioned letter with my new and super stunning ink cartridge pen which is the best I have ever come across.

I had one of these years ago that a fine art student friend gave to me and oh boy did I love it but then some nasty little person nicked it. It's been years since I have had the joy of using one of these Rotring pens, sheer velvet when you write and I am an old fashioned kind of gal and just LOVE ink on paper. This little baby cost me £14.60 ! from our local art shop. Lets hope no-one decides to nick it again. If you love ink pens like me, you simply must give this variety a twirl, you won't look back xox

and tonight I will be indulging in a bit more of this business of hooky which I started last night as I needed a break from knitting my cardigan (using once colour was freakng me out a bit!) and this materialised thanks to the very clever and inspiring Alice  who has a fabulous blog of all things hooky which is full of patterns of sheer delight, this is her latest called a "Grandala"

A little bit closer

Watch this space for my completed cushion. Thanks for popping over xox

A room of one's own

Hello to all my lovely blog land friends, it's good to be feeling human again after a rather horrid head cold and chest. Thank you for all your kind words and well wishes. I think I slept most of saturday and sunday away and found myself feeling better by yesterday evening and managed to make it into work today feeling ready for the week ahead.

I am not sure about you but sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with all there is to do and my creative head space is constantly buzzing all the time. There are times when I lie in bed tossing and turning, planning and bursting with ideas and inspiration that it can seriously drive me silly at times.

Well, I decided to be sensible and to start keeping a note book of these ideas and it's helped, thank goodness as I can now plan and prioritise what, how and when I am going to knit, crochet, sew and make IN AMONGST being mum, working 30 hours a week and spending time with my beloved. And having a little "me" time with my girlie friends.... oooohh it's a crazy but very happy juggling act of a life as I am sure you will agree about yours.

Now, enough of me bumbling on, the purpose of this post is to say that the lounge felt rather overwhelmed with my yarn, needles, WIP's and other bits and bobs this weekend ... it was under the coffee table

on a chair...

In amongst some of Andy's records...

On the coffee table...

And another...

Oh dear...

and so feeling better yesterday evening I felt like doing something about it , a kind of autumn "sort out" , which is what I did and was kindly and ever so gently reminded by Mr. A that he did make me a "room of my own" last year which Alice and I call the snug which is a snuggly partially converted loft space where I do all my sewing and storing of vintage and contemporary fabrics as well as a place to chill out in on soft cushions and patchwork blankets where reading, knitting/crochet, chatting and drinking tea and listening to records happens. Alice has her own space in the snug where she paints, doodles and creates allsorts.

It truly is a fab place which I think we kind of forgot about for a couple of reasons; it's been hot in May/june/july here and so the loft can be a bit of a sauna and I have to admit I kind of forgot about (don't tell Mr.A !) as it's so novel and pleasurable to have a creative room of my own that it's almost too good to be true.

Virginia Woolfe said that all women need a room of their own and oh my goodness, she is a woman after my own heart xox What do you think ? Do your creative bits and bobs infest all corners ? Let's see how long I can prevent mine creeping down at night times ;o)

Finally I will leave you with a joy from my potted garden ( the scent from these flowers was remarkable)

and a picture of my finished blankie with shell stitching...

 

Thanks for visiting x

Sniffles

I have been so well over the summer, managed to enjoy all my holiday's and break from work and now find myself lumped with a "seasonal change" head cold, which is horrid to say the least. I am the world's worst patient and do not appreciate having to slow down!

Anyway, being forced to lye in bed with radio 4, lemsip and anti-inflammatory pills, my knitting and the net isn't too much of a hard life....

I found this fab pic on google images which cheered me up :o) as I love the 1940's and am REALLY into my knitting at the moment.

I have been reading  a little about the history of knitting and came across this quote:

"The word is derived from knot, thought to originate from the Dutch verb knutten, which is similar to the Old English cnyttan, to knot. Its origins lie in the basic human need for clothing for protection against the elements."

and during the 2nd World War:

"Make do and mend was the title of a booklet produced by the British wartime government department, the Ministry of Information. Wool was in very short supply, and the booklet encouraged women to unpick old unwearable woollen items in order to re-use the wool"

A lovely friend of mine bought me a re-published version of the Make do and mend book last Christmas and I am really enjoying reading it in bed today.

Sometimes one gets sick for a reason!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone xox 

And now for some knitting

Hello everyone! Today is the last day of my annual leave for the summer and it's back to work for me and school for Alice. Still can't believe our baby will soon be 10 and in year 5 at school, where on earth have these years gone? The scary thing is that I tend to concentrate on her so much that I forget that I too am aging !!!

Having Alice is like reliving my childhood again, all her imagination, thoughts and finding out what matters in life, it truly is a miracle and amazing to be part of. Can you tell that I am missing her? She slept over at a friend's last night and is due back very soon, sometimes it's nice to have the "free" time but usually I feel a little bare/naked almost without her near, that first snuggle up and kiss in the morning has no price attached to it.

Anyway, while my little girl has been away I have been down to my LYS, Wa wa wool and discovered a super summer sale. I went with no purpose but came away with one. Does that ever happen to you? A sense of excited frenzy and not knowing where to start in the shop, all that yarn, colours and temptation and then a groaning purse looking rather empty as you leave?

Well my purpose evloved with the help of Lelsley who works in the shop occasionally, she helped me FOCUS on the purpose of knitting myself a cardigan for the autumn.

Thank you Lesley, I am so pleased to not come away with a rainbow of colours and no real project in mind. So I am putting down 1 needle for 2 for the time being and hey ho it's ADDICTIVE ...  and exciting to knit again. This is most defnitely not to say no hooky time, oh no, it just means that when I need a slight change from knitting my cardy, I can hook up a quick and easy something for that finished satisfaction feeling, something that crocheting does for me. Knitting as you know takes that much more longer and PATIENCE, something my creative crazy mind can severly lack at times.

Well enough chatter, here are some pics of my pleasures...

Here is the book from Wa wa wools library with the cardy pattern, it's well written with a list of abbrevaitions, and what I would say is a beginner pattern for the likes of me as a newby to the world of knitting.

Here is the cardy I plan to knit

I like the pretty dull pink of this cardy but think it will make me look washed out, so I found myself magnetising towards one of my favourites, a deep blue. Wa wa wool sells lots of Debbie Bliss yarns which are super scrumptious to feel and knit with but can be a bit on the pricey side, so a summer sale was the best time ot indulge in 11 balls of this...

So silky with the cashmere in it, it simply slips off the needles when knitting with it, making the addiction more intense!

I decided to start on the front left panel , I am not sure why, I think I decided the back was just tooooooooo many stitches to cast on and it would take aaaaaaaaages to see beyond the border of moss stitch. Oh dear am I revealing my lack of patience again? Do you see the gorgeous plate with 2 lemons on? One more of our many purchases in Marrakech, a fruit plate or big enough for salads and couscous maybe?

Want to have a closer look ? Andy sure did good with all that haggling!

So I am off to knit my way into the afternoon in the sunshine with Alice on the beach and will not be thinking of all the organising and packed lunches I need to do for tomorrow. Oh yes, I forgot I have my monthly bookclub to go to tonight where we will be discussing this book:-

It's something I would never have chosen for myself , a bit of a sci-fi novel, but I guess that's the joy of our "out of the hat" bookclub where we all put names of books we would like to read and one gets pulled out the hat each month.  Hope one of my books pops up soon.

So cheerio for now, I'll leave you with a couple of images which Alice took over the last few days

Happy days to all xox

xox

Marrakesh I heart you

We are back from our exotic, hot hot hot (fried egg on the pavement hot!) week in the wonderful Marrakesh. Our trip exceeded over and above our expectations and we just feel so blessed and fortunate to be able to visit such a diverse culture which was a thrill for all my senses. Yes, I have been truly "sensed out" ! I could write a novel about our experiences but will try and keep it short and sweet.

Anyway, here are some of my pics... first the divine hotel and oasis of a pool to cool off in, I'm loving the palm trees. At night we sat around the pool and felt the balmy african warm night sky with a million stars above us and could here all the crickets and grasshoppers making their african night sounds...such bliss.

One of the riads we visited, these are unbelievably beautiful with hand carved ceilings, pillars and mosaic walls, also a lovely cooling off chill out zone from the busy, hot souqs/markets. This is just 1 of many stunning riads in the old town.

Then there were the souqs where much haggling was had, we spent more than we usually would on holiday and came away with 2 stunning Berber/ancient Moroccan styled carpets, some beautiful ceramic bowls, leather sandals and slippers and some beautiful jewelry-my personal weakness!

Amazing hand woven fabrics...we were lucky enough to see some artisans at work with their weaving and making leather goods.

Andy bought a basic terracotta tagine to bring back home so we could continue the Moroccan spirit of our holiday a little longer. The food was heavenly, lots of tender lamb and chicken tagines for those of you who eat meat, for myself as a vegetarian I had feasts of veggie tagines, couscous, chickpeas and yummy moroccan omelette's, not to mention the Arabic breads ...YUM x

The sweet treats were SUPER sweet and loaded with nuts, honey and pastries. Something for everyone to chose from. Can you see a little of the lanterns on the right hand side of this photo? I didn't take half as many photos as I should of, but the lantern shops were so ornate and beautiful, words cannot describe them.

They don't call it the pink city for nothing....

Getting lost in all the souqs and then into the medina where the locals live is such an adventure...and all roads generally lead you back to the main square Jemma-el-fna which is full of snake charmers, fabulous food stalls, traders and henna tattoo artists. We liked sitting up on the terrace of one of the restaurants and watching the square come alive at night from this during the day...

to this at night...

my photo's don't really do it justice but hopefully you get a feeling of what I mean

my two precious people xox

and finally an Arabic STOP sign to bring what could be an extremely long "me rambling on" post to an end!

Oooops I nearly forgot to add this in... some wool dyed with vegetable dye drying out in the sunshine :o)

what heavenly colours

Two nights before we left I did me some hooky time and made some granny square fingerless gloves , the colours of the wool above reminds me of them. I just made the pattern up as I went along, what do you think? they are by no means perfect, maybe you would like me to attempt to write a pattern out...(eek that will take some patience on my behalf) or maybe you can figure out a pattern fro yourself. Let me know what you think.

now for a slightly naff one of me wearing one...

if you are wondering what I'm holding it's a papier mache world made by a very clever friend of mine in South Africa, I thought it was appropriate with us flying to north africa for our holiday.

Well that's all from me for now, glad to be back in a way but also day dreaming of when we might go back xox

In 48 hours I will be in ...

We are leaving on a jet plane in 48 hours to a destination that has been a life long desire of mine, my heart and stomach can't take the excitement any more. Here is a little hint of where we are off too.

Have you guessed yet? may be another little hint...

Oh yes it's....

Oh my goodness Andy, Alice and I can hardly contain ourselves and look at these images that I found, oh heaven ...

Heeee haaaa a yarn shopping we will go! Speak to you all when we are back in 10 days time xox