Devine

Hello, it's me again, not day-dreaming for a change! It was/is so lovely to read all your comments. Thank you so much for them, I do so enjoy hearing from you and sharing our little worlds with each other.


I've been meaning to post about the Fun and Funky designs of Tatty Devine. Have you seen their cool perspex handmade jewellery yet? I first spotted some of their makes in a rather lovely off the cuff jewellery shop in Hastings Old town called the charming name of Pearl and Queenie. 


They stock such unique pieces of jewellery, including their vintage previously loved and adorned collection of sparkly jewels. The lovely lady who owns this shop told me she had a vision of posh Victorian ladies who used to come down to the Seaside who may well have had the names of Pearl and Queenie and hence the name of her shop was born. I like stories like that.


Anyway... back to Tatty Devine, here are some of their creations for you to savour {just click on the images for a close up look}

I could go on and on and on but I won't, I'll let you go and check out their website for yourself. 

Oh, just one more, I couldn't resist...

I will own one of your perspex handmade creations, I will, ha!

I can day-dream a little

I've become a wee bit excited about Pinterest {here} ever since I enabled the pin "button" onto my laptop (it only seems to work in google chrome for me) and have whiled away many an hour looking at all the eye candy out there. Wow, so much to pin, too much to absorb and heady inspiration to make you dizzy with excitement.


It surely cannot be healthy for me to become obsessed with so much inspiration!?


Please can I have a cup of tea in these great utility china cups with their pretty doily and tea bag decorations?

Do go and be prepared to be inspired and feel a little dizzy with the delights of Pinterest if you have some time  a good few hours/days on your hands and have nothing better to do ;0)


I'm having a BUSY week to-ing and fro-ing with Alice and all her theatrical, dance and musical antics. She is doing a week of theatre, dance, art and singing and thoroughly enjoying it... I know this as a sign of having had a good day, when she sings herself to sleep. It makes my heart swell when I hear her little voice buzzing away into dream land. 


I'm feeling a little frustrated at not having been able to knit or crochet much these past few days for dog tiredness in amongst other daily stuff, oh yes and working too! Sometimes I feel like Jekyll and Hyde, I have my analytical scientific medical hat on for work and as soon as I come home I'm transformed into mum and homely stuff and then when I get to put my feet up I can think, reflect and create. Do you sometimes feel like this? I do dream a little too, in amongst the stresses and throbbing beat of my day I dream a little ...

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It helps me remain true to myself as life screeches down the highway.

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Sometimes I just need to reminisce 

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And day-dream of our future pursuits when we've paid the mortgage off...

It keeps my days interesting and free spirited in amongst the debris. 

Do you day-dream a little? Escape into your thoughts perhaps? Please say you do or I shall feel a little lonely out there.

Wishing you dreamy days and nebula nights till next time xox

  

Seeing the beauty

Aaahh it's good to be home again, sat in comfy couches, sipping tea and catching up with all your blogs. We've been happy campers this week and despite the odd shower of rain we have been relatively well blessed with sunshine and cosy nights in playing cards and various other board games. Camping is often a "love/hate" thing, I know it's not everyone's choice of a holiday but we like all the plus things about it and tolerate all the weird and wonderful things about it like having to accept that you have a piece of canvas between you and the elements and other people's lives which can either prove to be fascinating or darn right irritating!

It's all about seeing the beauty

Someone once asked me if we camp or glamp (ie.glamarous camping)?

I suppose we do a bit of both if you look at our luxurious bed clothes versus the good old faithful sleeping bag. I NEED candy strip sheets wherever I go. I had them in my childhood and believe they are essential in Alice's {call me crazy mama but that's just me}

Of course we all need a granny blanket or two to keep the midnight chills at bay

Pick some flowers on a countryside walk

Carry on knitting this beautiful pattern here before the sun sets

Not to forget the English hedgerows and the potential for blackberry and apple crumble making when we get home

Tin cups of tea

And visits to pretty places

All in all I think it's about seeing the beauty in all of the small things that make life worth living xox

Happy week-ending and see you soon xox

Bunnies and Blankies

Oh hello, it's me squeezing in a post on my blog before we go camping next week. Looking forward to the joy of breaking routine again, feeling free spirited, getting fresh country air and good quality family time. Yay! I manically finished off letters, phone calls and faxes this afternoon and despite having been out on home visits to patients the whole morning I managed to leave work reasonably well on time. Hooray I can now take a deep breath, STOP and chill for a while.

Now, I must say that while Andy has been away on business the past 3 days Alice and I have been doing some girly plotting. Two against one, that's fair isn't it? We or should I say more Alice than me desperately wants a bunny. She wants a baby bunny from our friend Beth who has about 9 to give to lovely homes. She wants a bunny so she can call it Pencil and love it dearly. I'm convinced, but I'm not sure about Daddy! We will work on him next week and sew seeds gently and hopefully win him over :0)


Speaking of bunny rabbits do you like bunnikins, did you have a bowl or cup or plate or statue when you were little? I was fortunate to have a plate and a set of children'r cutlery. Unfortunately these got lost/broken along the way and I don't have them any more but that hasn't stopped me from loving them. Some are very collectable indeed but I just like them from a childhood nostalgia point of view.

The other day I discovered another junk / antique type shop in my town and was most pleased to have a rummage and had to smile when I came across this sweet mug for 50p. I had to buy it despite not having a baby/toddler anymore simply because of the sweet bunnykins scene.

How sweet is that? I'll probably use it to pop my vintage knitting needle collection in, so it will be functional and sweet.

It was a Royal Doulton mug to celebrate the marriage of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in 1986 as is in scripted on the inside of the mug. Not worth much but I don't care, I'm just delighted to have knitting bunnies xox


I am planning to take larger pebbles camping with me next week (weird eh?) so I can master my crochet pebble covers. I think they would look nice in a mossy part of the garden and also to allow them to go green and get weathered. Thanks for all your comments on my sleep-less-ness, I am feeling well rested now and hope to regain my natural rhythm next week.


I am also taking my new hooky joyful blanket that I am making with me, here is a sneak peek

I started this a few days ago and have ummmed and ahhhed over my colour choices of lime, plum, pink and grey and have decided they do kind of work. I have never gone for lime before but it just seemed right and I was itching to get stuck into making a blanket again and did my usual irrational, don't think about it too much thing and bought these colours.

Trust me to buy my first knitting book,  The gentle art of knitting and chose to do one of the two Jane Brocket crochet patterns! This book is stunning by the way and being sold el-cheapo on Amazon at the moment!

Jane Brocket's colour choices are beautiful but somehow I wanted a uniform blanket his time. Who know's why...


I am being very disciplined and weaving in my ends as I go and sewing the squares together too. Not sure what's got into me, maybe it's a little bit of influence from the lovely Alice at Crochet with Raymond's blog where she did just this whilst making her labour of love Gypsy Caravan Blanket here. 


Before I go I must share my great excitement about a day trip we have planned next week. We are going to the lovely town of Chichester which is hosting an exhibition of Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera's masterpieces in the Pallant House Gallery. Ooohhh I can hardly contain my excitement. I was first introduced to Frida Khalo's work by my beautiful friend Bronwen who is a fine artist living in Durban, South Africa {do go and have a look at her incredible art here and her fab blog, Hey Cherry she shares with Sam here}. For this I am eternally grateful and was very fortunate to see Frida Khalo's work when I was on holiday in Paris in 1998 for the first time. It's going to be a huge privilege to see her paintings again. I'll be blogging about it no doubt. 

Hope you all have a marvellous and frivolous weekend and see you all soon xox

Sleep-less-ness

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I can't seem to sleep very well at the moment and I think it's due to going into creative overload. My body is dog tired but my mind is ticking away like the clappers... full of colour, shapes, patterns, ideas, words, crazy thoughts. I had to get up and write some of it down last night so as to help calm my thought processes down {does this ever happen to you?} It felt better and I could eventually lull myself into a state of slumber. Sweet sweet slumber, such bliss.


One of the more prominent "I need to make one of those" thoughts was of the crochet kind {surprise surprise}. All inspired by a blog I discovered over a year ago, the all beautiful Resurrection Fern. Have you seen her photography? and all her amazing handmade creations? If not, do have a browse around her blog, you won't be disappointed.

Anyway, I promptly attempted to start my own pebble crochet cover which I have been desperate to try and I had some 4ply organic off- white cotton lurking in my stash. However, looking at Ressurection fern's creations seen here I think I need a much finer cotton to make a more delicate, spider web like design on a pebble from my local beach.


I think these covered pebbles she has made are so inspiring for a novice crocheter like myself, there is just something so enchanting about them

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I aspire to make pretty crochet covered pebbles / stones like hers and get confident in using a smaller hook and finer thread.


Right, now I can cross that off my list from last night:

• Resurrection Fern's crochet pebble to trial TICK = hopfully a restful sleep tonight ;0)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy the links above xox

A Hooked Recipe

Morning (she says with a yawn) everyone, my lovely husband woke me up at 5.30am to ask if I knew where his wallet and keys were! Not only do I have 108 arms and 29 eyes but I also have a woman's intuition and hence they were found within 2 minutes of me sleep walking through the dining room. How would they cope without us?!? Hence, this early bird post, 'cause what's a girl to do in the quiet of the house with not an iota of disturbance or demanding around ;0)

We've had a busy, happy weekend and I do feel well and truly rested despite going to Brighton for the night on Friday and spending a lovely day pootling around the lanes and having tea and cake... it's a hard life. My mother-in-law and I walked up to her local car boot sale early on Saturday morning and I found a few treasures and serious bargains leaving some change from a fiver in my pocket. Wooohooo who doesn't like a bargain or two. I collect interesting old bottles and was pleased to find a lovely brown one with cafe vierge imprinted on it and a beautiful Midwinter jug. Both for he princely sum of 50p. 

Not to everyone's taste I know, but Andy and I love to collect mid-century furniture and household goods and these colours are some of our favourites. {the 1970's is Andy's favourite decade, hence the orange and brown, I tend to go for brighter colours}

Not only did I come away with a great tin which I have since discovered is c1910 and worth about £20 {I paid £1.00 for it}, but it has a South African twist to it which is more significant than any money to me. I am planning to attach wings to this tin and send it to my beautiful friend Bronwen in South Africa whom I know will also appreciate it's beauty and historical significance.{I've not photographed it as I don't want to spoil the surprise}  

Now, the moral of this car boot story is that I picked up 2 grossly covered old wooden hangers for 25p and my Mother-in-law was horrified, which made me smile even more. Little could she see what lay beneath. I had a little vision of beauty in mind, a vision of the hooky kind. 

Recipe:

• Take two old wooden hangers, strip them of any old velvet covers in this case, sand down a little if necessary till smooth
• Admire the wire hooks and wonder whose wardrobes these hangers have been in in the past
• Choose some yarn, in this case I chose a tweedy green and brown as I wanted these to look like branches for a keen English country cottage rose garden friend of mine
• Chain 10 stitches + 2 for first htr and crochet away up and down till you've reached your desired hanger length.
• Pop the wire hook through mid length and sew up the crocheted cover till nice and snug around the hanger.
• Knit some pretty coloured roses {cast on 20-40 stitches depending on how big you want your rose to be) Garter stitch a few rows. Snip yarn and pull through all stitches with a crochet hook. As you pull the yarn through the rose will curl. Stitch it into place.If you would like a much better explanation of this process, check out the lovely Alice's blog link here for a fabulous tutorial {she is much more clever than me at explaining 'how to' in her tutorials}

• Crochet as many leaves as you like. I just did mine freestyle but there are hundreds of leaf patterns out there {check out Sara's blog Tangled happy if you haven't already for great crochet pattern links or of course there is Ravelry for a free pattern or two}

• Decorate as you please as you sew them onto your hanger cover and Voila, a rose garden for your wardrobe.

• When/If you reach "crocheter's or is that hooker's block", stop have a cup of tea and page through a pretty book. In this case it was one Andy bought for me last week from a gallery he visited in his lunch hour in Chichester.

• If you have enough energy, continue to finish your 2nd/3rd/4th etc coat hanger recipe. If not, leave for another day or the hour before you go to her surprise birthday party!

ps. Whilst in the process of admiring the first completed hanger might as well use it to model what you might wear ;0)

Oops, got to go, time for work xox 

ps. Thanks so much for all your gorgeous comments about my knitted cardigan, you are all ever so lovely x

Coordinated knots

Alice is a very keen Summer Diary girl and has kept one for school each summer. I squirrel them away with all her special school work we've kept and its great to see her progression throughout the last 6 years.

It's hot hot hot here on the South East Coast of the UK and we are just about to go for a dip in the ocean, but before I go I'd like to show you my little triumph that I completed last night despite the heat!


It is a triumph of the woollen kind, pink mind you. Not my favourite shade of pink but when you are teaching yourself new skills and pattern mastery(or maybe not!)and allowing yourself to make mistakes first time round, I don't really think it matters what yarn or colour you use. 

I know that in this throw-away society it's rather decadent and probably in some people's minds wasteful of me to have done this, but you see it's a confidence thing with me. I need to practice new skills with patterns if I want to start knitting more complicated garments. The yarn I got at a super bargain price (I would never have spent a lot on "practice" yarn) and the way I see it when I knit this again in round two it will not only be done accurately but will also make me confident to knit garments once, and only once. I certainly don't have the time and patience to be knitting two rounds each time for sure...


So here goes... 

Ta dahh, what do you think?

Don't look too closely as you will spot numerous mistakes but all-in-all I feel a little triumph on my knitting notch - is there such a thing?

 I will wear this little cardigan around the house this autumn and winter as it is super snug and soft and will bring comfort on a chilly evening. After taking 3 weeks on and off knitting it I wouldn't dream of not using it.

 The pattern is very well written and can be found here on  ravelry. It's free to download and would take much quicker than my 3 weeks if you had more time and are an experienced knitter.

Yay, I really have got a serious thrill out of making myself a garment from a series of reasonably well coordinated knots xox 


Thanks for popping by, I'm off for that dip in the ocean ~ P