Joy for life

Hello, it's me again, it's me feeling a real JOY FOR LIFE this sunny sunday afternoon. Sometimes I want to burst with joy, a joy for my very privledged and blessed life, a life full of grace and gifts bestowed on me. Do you sometimes get like that? Feel as though your heart were going to burst into colour to express a feeling that no human could describe?



Rico cotton blankie hooked up last summer, now covering Alice's sewing chair in the attic.

I am no stranger to feeling low low low down but it's these experiences which have made me enjoy the small, little things that life brings and so I can fortunately see the other sunnier side and appreciate and embrace each moment in my life. Tis a beautiful thing indeed.

I've been a-sewing girl this past week, getting real pleasure out of playing with my over locker and my Elna my mum and dad bought for me for my 20th birthday (I hauled this all the way over from South Africa many years ago and am really getting good use of it of late). I store it in our attic space and only tend to sew in the summer months in view of it not being sealed and heated up there during the winter. It's a kind of creative space for me and Alice where she can also chill out with her friends when they visit. {Note the dual function of "dumping ground"/storage space too]

I've been sewing a couple more Barcelona skirts (found here) and have been experimeting with free embroidery on my Elna.

Cutting up vintage tray cloths ad sewing with some gorgeous embroidery thread...

Such fun to swirl around these pretties

Once I had washed the finished skirt (as in above pic) Alice was concerned that the vintage fabric had frayed but I explained that this was supposed to happen so as to create extra texture to the flowers. I'm please with my first effort at free embroidery on my sewing machine and no doubt will be experimenting more as time goes by.

My JOY for life this weekend extends into my gift of having a child and husband whom I adore and love more and more. Love is a many splendid thing.

And then there is also the joy of doing nothing but drinking cups of tea

Sorting out bookshelves and giving excessive purchases to charity

Reading mags in the sunshine

Considering what to knit next

Despite a number of WIP's (both on the hook and needles)on the go

Ho hum ... let me start another one!

Deep Joy xox

Wishing You All a JOY for your life xox

Hey hey it's Friday, time for some trivia and a little ta dah moment

Alice at her school summer fete painting her intials on a  plate (note the fab initals she has... all by default of course :0)

Hello there, so nice to read your comments and hi to some new followers, sorry if I haven't popped into your blogs yet but I do plan to when I have a mo.

Sunset this week over te De la Warr Pavilion

This week has been a loooooong one for me, not sure why time can feel like it's being stretched and then condensed and whizzing by. How incredible the human brain is to perceive and interpret time in such a way. I love the human brain by the way, one of my favourite internal organ's studied in medicine, next the gastr-intestinal tract and then the kidney's fascinate me. Oh dear I better not gross anyone out... sorry! Back to this post's reveal. 

I made a little collage of the Boneyard shawl I mentioned a couple of posts ago. I have simply loved knitting this shawl and despite not being 100% sure of King Cole Riot yarn I am quite pleased with the way it has come out. Not bad for an amateur!

So here goes...

Ok, so you might be asking why such crappy photo's Penelope? Well, his nibs (aka Andy) has take the blessed camera to work again today and I feel a little frustrated  irritated that I have had to use my phone camera again which ain't that great! Hey ho, gotta love him! So what do you think? I could have gone on and on and on with this shawl in fact there are no rules and you can just knit away to whatever size you fancy. I stopped after using up a 100g ball of Riot DK yarn and as soon as I stopped I wanted to start up another one! Really therapeutic and rather addictive pattern I must say. Have a read on Ravelry and see what you think.

I was also fortunate enough to be given some fun machine knitted cotton square samples from a friend of mine who has a lovely vintage clothes and accessories shop. She thought I could recycle them into something useful...

So last night I got out a crochet hook and some white cotton and hooked away to create a border around these squares. I got excited thinking I could make a large blanket for when we go camping in a couple of weeks time but unfortunately soon realised that they are not the same size, so these 4 will make nice stocking fillers at Christmas time. A colourful cotton face cloth for all those on my list to make something for xox

Thank you all for your lovely congrats on Alice being voted onto school council and for my EverythingAlice  book I won, it arrived in the post on Wednesday and is a true delight. I've also been sewing some more A-line skirts for myself and am loving being friends with my sewing machine again. Blessings of the biggest kind this weekend to you and yours. Have fun and see you soon xox

Oh frabjous day!

A very happy hello to those of you who pop into my blog, nice to meet new followers and new commenter's, I really love reading your comments, makes blogging much more fun and interactive.

Our beautiful daughter Alice has been so sweet this weekend baking jam tarts and picking flowers from our garden for a little friend of hers. This term her Year 5 class is focusing on The Secret Garden in their daily work and Alice is smitten with this beautiful novel. I've been trying to read it to her for years but she hasn't been interested and all it seems to take is a teacher to convince her of the joys of this wondrous novel!

Consequently, she has been drawing and creating her very own secret garden that they have to create in a shoe box and being the mum that I am I've had to force myself to hold back and let her get on with her ideas for creating. I feel like stamping my feet and saying "It's not fair, I want to do that" which is a phrase that can appear at different intervals in this household!

Anyway, I shall sit back and enjoy watching her create and have her own ideas and stories attached to them. One thing I am so pleased by is her further interest in gardening and making little floral posies from our potted courtyard.

Do you like the sweet mini-trug?

Nothing like an antique Vaseline bottle to use as a vase. We now have a couple of posies in our house thanks to little Miss. Alice.

Do you enjoy the wonder of Alice in Wonderland? I have read this book so many times and still get confused by it. Our 10 year old Alice has a lovely illustrated version of this book and Through the Looking Glass which made it much easier for me to read to her last year ( the illustrations kept the interest levels up with such a kooky story)



Source

I'm sure some of you must have come across the amazing children's book illustrations done by Helen Oxenbury ? She is one of my all time favourite children's book illustrators and she doesn't disappoint in this version of Alice and her adventures.

So shall I get on with why this is a frabjous day well it's to celebrate two little wins you see. One is this....

I opened up my e mails yesterday to find out that I was one of the 5 fortunate winners of this book on the Make Lounge blog found here. Needless to say we did the dance of joy as I never win anything! This gorgeous book will be winging it's way over to ours in the post and contains 50 magical craft projects inspired by Lewis Carroll's famous Alice in Wonderland. No doubt I will be sharing one or two with you lovelies in the weeks to come xox

(Cue... drum roll)....And the second victory this day of July the 4th 2011 is our very own Alice herself....

  

Well done gorgeous girl for winning the School Council vote for year 6, you are a Super Star *

I think a little victory meal is in order this evening!

xox

See you soon and thanks for stopping by.



Knitting pleasure

Howdy there..Here's wishing you all a pleasurable and relaxing weekend whatever you are doing, I have a busy one lined up but somehow I know I will get stolen moments to continue knitting my Boneyard Shawl designed by Stephen West of West knits. His blog can be found here, he's pretty amazing in his shawl designs and even has a book or two with his gorgeous designs.

This is such an easy and SUCH a pleasurable shawl to knit. It grows so fast, by 4 new stitches each alternative knit row.

Such B-A-D photographs but Andy took the camera to work with him today! I've had to use my mobile to take pics, I think it's time to invest in my very own memory maker!

I'm using King Cole Riot yarn, it's cheap and DK, perfect for this free pattern.

I really am getting mad looking at those hideous  photos so here's one to cheer me and no doubt you up

Aaaah that's better instant calming lavender, I can almost smell it through the screen xox

Keep smiling Penelope!

Happiness is...

Making a fabric hexagon patchwork in the hot sunshine this last weekend and day dreaming about my childhood

Crocheting round and round to make cotton face cleansing cloths for bath time (one for Alice one for me) 

Blue skies and sunshine

Chilling on the roof of the De la Warr Pavilion whilst watching Alice playing some Indonesian drums in a workshop she attended

Stopping and smelling the roses

Meeting Higgins of Planet Penny fame xox What an absolute delight and treasure he is!

A little difficult to demand a still shot of him though, without Penny calling him for me :0) He truly is perfect in every way and I can see why he's such a hit on Penny's blog and facebook! 

A Saturday morning trip to The Owl and Sewing Cat in Eastbourne to buy a pattern for a skirt I've had my eye on for some time now and indulge in some gorgeous cotton printed fabrics. Have a look at their website it's a delight to behold and soooooo easy to spend your cash in a flash :0)

They have such great workshops from beginner's through to the  more experienced and are ever so popular. Even more exciting news is that the Owner of this gorgeous shop has taken a lease out on the shop next door and will be extending her shop into stocking a range of beautiful yarns for knitting and crochet. I can't wait !

My new Amy Butler Barcelona A-line skirt pattern I bought from the Owl and Sewing cat and used to make a skirt on Saturday from this pretty American cotton

Such a fun pattern and good quality fabric (I thought it may eve have a 1950's look about it ? or is it just me willing that?)

A perfect Saturday afternoon project for a hot and humid weekend (note the un-ironed skirt! I don't know about you but when I make myself something to wear i have zero patience to wait to wash, dry and iron it, it needs to be worn as soon as :) 

When i was at University I sewed most of my own clothes as I always wanted to be a little different and have original fabrics. It was such fun sewing this easy peasy A-line skirt especially with the new over locker my mum very generously contributed to for my 40th birthday last year. What a blessed life I have.

Last but not least some of the rest of my weekend photographs.

Here's wishing you sunshine and happy days for the rest of the week ahead xox

Now where was I?

Helloooo, now where was I since I was so rudely interrupted by blogger misbehaving yesterday? Oh yes I wanted to show you this Madeline Tosh vintage merino yarn I totally overspent on when I went to Loop in London a couple of weeks ago.

Doesn't the colour just want to make you go ZZZZZZiiiiiiinnnnggg?

Like an electric eel from the deepest depths of tropical ocean. I was drawn to it straight away and ummed and ahhed about spending £20 on it, but  felt the fear and did it anyway!

As you can see I did roll the 100g skein into a ball and that in itself is a work of art just to stare at, roll around in your hands .... feed the senses..... OK I'm getting carried away now mad yarn woman. It's amazing how far I've come in my yarn appreciation journey and my self taught knitting and crochet knowledge which is still in it's infancy but continues to grow each day. There is nothing like going to Knit ad Natter at my LYS and instead of just politely smiling or nodding I can now join in the conversation on a certain level. On Monday night I even showed a lovely lady how to knit with the yarn forward. Yay KNIT factor keeps growing :0)

So what does one do with 1 skein of precious expensive yarn? I looked throught 2 One skein wonders books at my LYS and still couldn't decide, I only knew that I needed to have this yarn close to my skin. I eventually decided to make a single loop honey cowl like I made in this post (I made a double loop longer cowl here) and as you can see from the above photo's it creates this lovely honey comb effect on one side which is such a wind proof form of knitting and oh so cosy, but and yes it's a big BUT I don't know if I like it! What do you think should I froggit or nottit? Initially I thought it would bring out my blue eyes more (my eyes like it when I wear blue) and so would be good to have near my face but I'm thinking it's maybe a little too electric.

Help is needed please xox

Quick interval photo before the next topic for discussion. I saw this the other day when I was out cycling and remembered how much I liked the idea of post people cycling about in the countryside delivering post on their cheery way and so I felt a photo was necessary. Talking of postal deliveries I received a lovely little surprise from my friend in Zurich in the post yesterday.

Oooohh I like a little surprise parcel I do

Inside the parcel a funky little bag jumped out at me, such fun colours thanks so much Mandy you are a honey bee to me xox I almost feel inspired to do a crochet blankie in these retro colours :0)

Sunday, here in the UK was Father's day and so Papa got a cricket inspired card from his girly which I wanted to log here for memories sake. We had a lovely meal with Andy's Dad and although my Dad is not near we toasted to all the dad's of the world.

Last but not least, little 6 pound Faith was born yesterday morning, one of my good work mates' daughter gave birth to this l sweet little girl and so I rapidly completed this simple crochet bunting for her which I started a couple of weeks or so ago.

{Eeeek don't look to hard at the dust on those blinds!}

simple granny goodiness

and a couple of flowers too

I plan to buy her a little jelly cat mouse too

New life, New joy!

I best be off before I start prattling on about babies and broodiness!

Happy days to you all, thanks for popping in and see you all soon

Penelope xox

Colourless

Ten minutes ago I was getting ready to settle down to writing a really colourful post about my Madeline Tosh {1 and only at £20.00!} skein I bought in Loop, London a couple of weeks ago and CRASH-BOOM-BANG, Blogger has decided that I am not worthy of uploading a photo or two. It also seems that Blogger has been causing hastle with lovely people trying to comment on some of my posts, so sorry about that and I really appreciate your efforts at trying :0)If you do want to contact me feel free to e- mail me at violetsandvelvet@gmail.com

So, needless to say I am feeling a little irate, let alone frustrated as Wednesday late afternoon is my guaranteed time on the computer. Alice is in an after school club and Andy is not home from work yet, so there are no queues for the laptop!

Ho hum, I guess I'm going to have to go for that cycle I was umming and ahhhing about and release my frustrations in my pedals and the blustery day we are having today.

I hope your world is not colourless today and hope to be back as soon as blogger behaves. Take a deep breath Penelope....


ed. Oh my goodiness I've found another way to upload my photo's but I have run out of time to tell you about it! I'll just have to keep you waiting with this sneak peak :o)