A royal weekend break

Hello all of you lovelies our there, it's been great to read your blogs, to meet some new people too and of course to stay in contact with my "daily reads". I must also say a huge thank you for your comments about my bunting and bay windows, I just took great delight in reading them all.

Now, back to this past weekend. Mr. A and I had a night in London on Sunday night and we left our Alice in the capable hands of her twin friends Katie and William's parents. A little bit of "What Katie did" and "Just William" went on in 24 hours and I know Alice thrived on all the fun. Guilt trip over.... we then got ourselves on a train up to Covent Garden, a favourite place for us to stay in the city.

We decided to walk from Victoria Station via Westminster as I have to see Big Ben when I go to London (I think it's because I am not British born and bred and still feel like a tourist when I go to London) 

It was a bit grey and grim but never mind I was still excited to be there. These photo's were taken on my mobile phone camera and I must say the quality seems OK.

Now, the reason we went to London was to go here

have you guessed where it is yet....maybe this will help

Yes, it's the Royal Albert Hall which was the most magnificent experience words cannot describe, I feel so privileged to have seen this orchestra there

The Cinematic Orchestra are my gorgeous hubby's favourite at the moment and he has seen them twice before, I have heard their music um teen times as the CD's are often on the go but WOW they are even more incredible in the flesh. Have a look at the you tube video below this post to experience some of their genius. I have deep love for their spectacular spectacular right now. Hope you enjoy xox

It was great to wake up on Monday morning, potter around Covent garden shops

Mr. A walking past my favourite make of shoes' FLY London shop, ....hmmm that told me something. No shoe purchasing for Penelope! The shoes are a little pricey so I'll wait for the sales as I am sure to get a bargain (or 2!)

These were great fun, I tried them on and felt avant garde and eccentric, sadly not purchased but momentarily enjoyed.

Coffee in Covent garden whilst listening to a string quartet, admiring the christmas baubles and market stalls opening up

and then back home on a 2 hour train journey to the sea side and in time to fetch Alice from school. And, to keep me cosy on the streets of London, a super chunky new scarf knit up happened 48 hours before we went away xox

I hope you have had a lovely weekend and that the beginning of your week is going just fine and dandy xox

The Cinematic Orchestra - To Build a Home

The big C word i.e. Christmas

Hello gorgeous people, today I will not be complaining about our weather for fear of boring you to tears. Instead I bring greetings of peace, love and joy for tis the season to be jolly (well almost the season....so the window displays in shops are telling me). So I have decided to go FESTIVE and to mark this occasion some bunting / garland needed to be hooked to help me cope with that darn candy granny blanket!

My inspiration came from the very clever Penny over at Planet Penny who devised this gorgeous cotton snow white pattern herself and one which I hooked up in no time and took great delight in making. Do look at her blog for inspiration and colour fixes xox

So now for a little ta dah moment, first the blocking which I really take displeasure in doing until I realise what a difference it makes. I also sprayed some of my Dylon starch spray over these beauties to make them as stiff and crisp as possible.

Just pretty and lacey and 'christmassy' and as white as the pure snow, I love them. You can find the tutorial for these on her blog if you fancy giving them a try.

Mr. A and Alice and I decided we needed 7 for our front bay window 2 by 3 by 2 to fit these blank looking sash windows

{I have just noticed my shadow in the window whilst taking this photo, my lovely 90+ year old neighbour Nellie popped her head out the door and thought it most curious that I was taking a photo of the house. I didn't tell her it was for my blog as she would have thought that as even more bizarre!} 

I usually hang pretty homemade colourful bunting up in the spring and summer and didn't realise how much I miss it, and how boring our front room window looks in the winter.

So from boring looking to slightly more seasonal, festive looking....ta dah

Alice and I love them so far but will Mr. A notice them when he comes home in the dark tonight? Sssshhh we like tricking him and take a bet on how long it will take before he notices them (it's a girly conspiracy thing, hee hee).

As the festivities start an exponential rise here from about December the 1st, I am sure a few more tasteful beauties will be placed in our bay window which I will reveal in the next few weeks.

Until them, have a great weekend, I will look forward to perusing your blogs later tonight, but for now I'm late, I'm late for an important date i.e. tea and cake with a new friend xox

Ggggrrrrrrrrrrr

Dearest lovely fellow bloggers, where oh where is this?

I NEED some sunshine to take photographs of my latest crochet finished project and my camera is saying no way to photography in weather like this

To say I feel a little frustrated would be under estimating my emotional radar this late afternoon. How do you cope trying to take photos indoors and stop creating a shadow every time you lean over ? I think I need to take a leaf out of Alice and Raymond's book and take my pretties on a location tour to get the right light ;0)

Once my daughter Alice and I made a papier mache sunflower after 3 weeks of solid grey and pretended it was the real deal ... anything to keep the blues away. Right now it's lots of colour and cake in our house, and maybe just maybe I might be able to squeeze a photo or 2 in tomorrow!

Hope your days are filled with sunshine, rainbows, butterflies and little flowers , see you all soon xox

Aint no sunshine

Well, if that was Monday we have had it ... today for those of you not in the UK was exceptionally windy, wet and grey but somehow I didn't mind, gosh I must be feeling better. Today I filled my day with more colours and being cosy with my WIP's (I only have 3 on at the moment !!)

So this post is about colours and two of my WIP's, I hope the beginning of your week has been colourful too and thanks for popping by and sharing my world for a little while xox

Haribo sweeties, I can't help being a big kid sometimes.

Red red roses from my love, popped into an old vintage tin coffee pot and decorated with Alice's blue tit and robin drawings.

Quinces from a friend's tree and apples made into a steaming hot crumble for pudding this evening.

A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down .... look at those green gate colours !!!

One beautiful girl threading a bobbin on her wee little singer sewing machine (notice the sticker decorations!! I didn't mind as we bought this in the summer from a car boot sale for £5 and we have a more advanced one 'waiting in the wings' when she is old enough for it bought from a colleague of mine)

One Debbie Bliss cashmerino man beanie coming up. Hopefully this will be finished before the end of the winter!

(has anyone noticed it's the DB yarn I purchased for this cardy .... oops, I can see myself writing out a 100 times 'I must not buy yarn, start a project and not finish it, I must not....' etc etc. tee hee)

And last but not least my candy grannies are still plodding along, I am getting tres bored of this project but HAVE to finish it by 26th Nov for my friends birthday, all I want to do is hook up flowers to sew onto the blanket. I am getting no pleasure at the moment from going round and round and round in trebles... it seems my desire for slightly more challenging crochet is trying to prove a point here. Oh well, I'll be sure to share the FO with you before the 26th. The colours are pleasing me, so that's all that matters x

And finally my suggestion to the weather man tomorrow is... rain rain go away, come back another day, for we all want to play

Have a superb week wherever you are xox

The power of PINK

I am feeling better day by day and in times like this cliche's like 'light at the end of the tunnel' really make sense, funny that, how a cliche becomes so meaningful as one grows older. Thank you all for your gentle comments of kindness and encouragement. You guys are the best!

Not sure if you agree but I feel that these grey autumn days are not conducive to heart skipping delight and today seems to be especially bleak... perfect for a dickens novel really. But while it's grey outside, it's pink inside chez L is for Love.

I have had a roller coaster ride with pink throughout my 40 years, it never really featured in my dictionary of colours when I was a little girl (so my childhood photo's tell me) and it totally grossed me out when I was a young teenager, late teens and early 20's black featured mostly and moving to the UK when I was 25 re-enforced this with all the Londoner's running about in black and grey (I arrived in winter!) 

But then,I fell pregnant with Alice in 2000 and something changed... I discovered the power of pink and I was in for the ride xox

I just like saying P.I.N.K. it just makes me happy to say it... sorry small things please me at the moment.

Over the last couple of days I have been re-igniting my love for pink again and took some photo's to share this with all you lovelies.

Firstly, a cushion I have just finished sewing for Alice's bed, I used a lovely cotton pink and white polka dot fabric bought from here and 'upcycled' a vintage cloth for the centre circle and added little birdies made from some of my vintage fabric stash, she is very happy with it indeed xox

Then came the joy of wondering what wall in Alice's room we would put these 3 beauties my exquisite fine artist friend Bronwen made. Do browse through her website if you would like to see her fine, fine art.

We all need to play, wish and dream a little more don't you think?

Then came a little yarn goodness, mirasol spun in Peru is just a pleasure to knit or crochet with. It's soft cotton and merino touch make it so silky and somehow encourage you to the point where you can't put it down. Very good for someone like me who gets distracted so easily!



And so from the above skein a ball was rolled and a heart was hooked.

I feel awful, as it was about a month ago that I found this pattern and printed it out and cannot for the life of me remember where I found it. All I can remember is that it had a Swedish connection, so if you are out there please forgive me for not acknowledging who you are and thank you for the joy of this beautiful pattern.

Edit: Oh frabulous day, Victoria from Yarn around hook blog is the very clever lady who translated the heart pattern from swedish into english...I knew there was a swedish connection and am soooo pleased to acknowledge Victoria now that she has let me know it was her beauty. Do look at her blog it's ever so inspiring xox

It's for Alice's new book shelf and storage cabinet and she is best pleased with it.

Well, that's me at the moment, I'm off to curl up this afternoon with my Country Living magazine which is focusing on 'the revival of wool' this month ...what bliss  

and I shall leave you with a parting shot of one of my favourite things I like to do.... collect old bottles, decorate them and pop a flower or two in them around the house.

Have a wonderful, colourful weekend xox

My many coloured days

Hello everyone. How is your week been so far? I hope it's been full of autumnal goodness for the north and spring surprise for the south.

Today I am going to use photos more than words as I am a little lost for words at the moment, unlike me really but I haven't been myself these last few days and am having a little time off work for respite and recovery. The good thing is that I am on the mend and will soon be my colourful self.

Alice has this amazing book a wonderful friend of mine bought for her when she was wee and it arrived via USA amazon so the word colour is written as color, something Alice and I have had numerous discussions about when she has her spelling tests! The point of this post is that it discribes me beautifully at the moment. Not sure if you agree but I think there is nothing like Dr. Seuss for times like these.

Children's books are gloriously clever and I buy them for myself at various intervals. Now for some of the pages...

Sorry, hope this is not getting you down ... there are of course stunning bright coloured days...

And my favourite ...

It's a great book and says it all. I already feel better for just looking at it ;0)

I find my yarn, crochet and knitting love such therapy at times like these and so I will share my pompom stripy purple hat that I have just knitted for Alice which she loves xox

I must say I took great joy in making a pom pom, simple pleasure.

knitting in progress

and here it is....ta-dah

Sorry about the poor light but it's getting dark ever so quickly here now that the clocks have changed. It's super snuggly and made from the alpaca and merino yarn I bought on saturday (see my last post)

Well, thats all folks, keep well and healthy. I'll leave you with a pretty rose that I found blooming in one of my potted roses last week. So delicate and perfect and fragile xox