Thank you

This is a quick post to say THANK YOU to Penny of Planet Penny for this blog award

and to Elaine of Northern Hi-lights for this blog award

Thank you both so much for your kindness in choosing me, I feel really touched.

I think I now need to reveal seven interesting facts about myself, well here goes...

• In the early 1990's I did some naked modelling for a local art school - it was a chance to liberate and celebrate my naked self in my early 20's
• I once met the rainbow people in the Negev desert in Israel at a hippie festival whilst hitch hiking my way around Israel
• I love eating home made popcorn
• I never thought I'd be a mama but now I am so privileged to be one
• I often wear odd socks (by default!)
• My favourite thing is managing to see a shooting star
• I know how I need to be but often fall short of this

So now i need to nominate some lovely blogs for these awards ....

1. Alice of Crochet with Raymond

2. Joyce of Joyce lives here

3. Victoria of Yarn around hook

4. Lyndsey of The darling loft

5. Jane of Hook and yarn

6. Little Blue Mouse

7. Julie of Peacock Blue

Have a peek into their blogs if you haven't already done so, some amazing inspiration and happiness being spread throughout the land of blog xox

I'll leave you with a little mosaic which I had fun making

Keep happy xox

The art of doing nothing (and loving it)

Hi, thank you for all your very generous comments on my flower power brooches, I certainly had fun making them and now wearing them xox

I don't know about you, but as I work 32 hours a week sometimes I just don't like having plans on the weekends, I like to leave room for no commitment and allow the wind to blow us in whatever direction we are meant to go.

One of the most irritating questions that anyone can ask me is "Are you doing anything for the weekend?". Now that can make me sound like a real grump and miserable old thing but I like love the ART of DOING NOTHING! This is something I learnt from one of my dear friends called Rose who I only speak to once every 2 years or so now (we shared a flat in Brighton together for 2 years in the late 1990'S). She consequently went on to study to become an Occupational Therapist and is now thriving in her work in Mental Health.

Nothing is never nothing despite being defined as the concept that describes the abscence of anything: no thing. I am blessed with all my senses and sometimes being still and planning / doing nothing is a very valuable thing to me. While being still I can see, hear, smell, feel and taste :0)  So when someone who has the best intentions (I know! Don't be a nasty person Penelope!!!)) asks me what I'm doing over the weekend I always have a slight panic or "sense of duty" to come up with some amazing outing / activity that's going to be a thrill or adventure BUT then I come to my senses and say NOTHING .... that freaks em out!

NOTHING = SPONTANEITY

and that is exactly what happened yesterday, I took Alice and her friend Katie to the Brighton Festival children's parade and we had a grand day out!

You know you are in Brighton when...

You can lie on the grass of the Pavilion gardens and listen to a Sitar being played

Watch a man playing a violin whilst walking on a tightrope

Watch a flying lady attached to a giant bubble ball

Being in the throngs of the children's parade

Going for a compulsory ride on the carousel

Stopping for a bite to eat and a drink at The Dorset in the heart ofthe bohemian North Lanes and listen to some street jazz

Followed by a mummy compulsary stop at my all time favourite shop : Blackout a shop filled to the brim with kitsh, folkart and natural fibre clothes ( I bought all my maternity dresses here, the softest, raw cotton clothes in the world :0)

Where I couldn't come away with no purchases.... a lot of my jewelry is from this shop which is originally from India and I have a collection of different silver earings and beads which I wear and so these became mine much to my delight and thanks to some birthday money

The stainless silver heart will also join my little Mexican collection, don't get me started on how much  I adore mexican design!

And so you know you are in Brighton when you won't be stared at when knitting in public (this is sock #2)

And so we come to the end of part of my weekend. I hope you managed to do nothing too this weekend :0)

See you all soon xxx

Little flower power

Hello! Hope all is fine and dandy?

Can I indulge you in what derives out of feeling the need for hooky inspiration and staring at these pretty pink petal on the mantle piece?
Some little form of petal power?

Yesterday, after a very busy day at work and dropping Alice off at her after school art class I felt a little itchy to do something different and simple and quick with my crochet hook. So I popped up into our attic where I keep my sewing machine and store my stash of vintage fabrics and my yarns (well out of sight from Andy!) and came down with a little supply of bits that i have bought over time with the intention of doing bits and bobs with them. As far as I am concerned one can never be allowed to run out of materials / stashes of fabric, yarn, buttons, cottons, beads, cardboard, glue, bias binding, ric rac, etc.... you get the picture. All these items NEED to be collected wherever I find myself, the older the better and the cheaper the better :0)

This is what I came down with

I think the wire lengths are meant to be for making earings but yesterday I had different ideas

Hook two and twist together... then wrap up in a glory of green embroidery cotton and add some sewing machine dark green cotton for effect

Find some cotton yarn and chain a bow

Admire it for a bit (he he)

After some admiration (get a grip Penelope!) whip your hook out and commence in the creating of some petal power

Simple: Chain 4, join with slip stitch, dc (UK) 5 or 6 (your choice) into centre of first chained row, *chain 3 and slip stitch into next dc stitch of previous row*, repeat this ** and complete your little cotton / yarn flower pulling the yarn/ cotton through the last slip stitch. (I hope this makes some kind of sense... I am not very good at translating what goes on inside my grey matter!!)

Sew a button / bead into the centre of your little flower and sew onto the top of the "stem"

Weave in the ends and continue as above in the colours of your choice to the finished ta-dah!

I do love a little flower power I do

(photographed on my new Cath Kidston catalogue that came through the post today)

Do you like it ? Maybe you've been inspired to have a play with this simple design, it's meant to be a brooch and I will sew the clasp bit on later, like I did with this one I also made.

Would you like to see them together?

In life one needs love

freedom

and little flowers xox

See you all soon

May day happiness

Hello, thanks for visiting and for commenting on my ramblings of some of my thoughts and life moments. It's a gorgeously but slightly blustery bank Monday morning here on the South East coast of England. I feel a little confused about what day it is and where I belong on bank holidays... each day feels like a Saturday to me! Have you had a great break this May day weekend? Wasn't the royal wedding simply elegant and beautiful? We had a right royal time with a street party and some house decorating for fun xox

Alice made a scrabble poster and I made a heart poster to put in our bay window but only once I had put it up did I spot the obvious "toilet" sign !!!!!!!

Ooops silly me! Sorry William and Catherine!

This was a poster in one of my neighbour's front window.

The street party was fun and Alice enjoyed having her face painted, watching tug-of-war and the band and Morris dancers.

If you watched the wedding and had your own party / celebrations I hope you had a lovely, memorable time. It was great to see a lot of people's spirits lifted by a happy day here in Britain.

The rest of the weekend brought moments of real happiness and special times with my family and a little celebration of my birthday. I loved speaking to my mum and dad in South Africa and reading all the texts, cards and well wishes and phone messages I received. Here are some snap shots of my spoilt yesterday...

Nothing like a wild posie of flowers xox

Some exquisite self seeded poppies on the way to Litlington tea rooms for a delightful cream tea

Litlington is a tiny village in the Sussex downs just past Wilmington which is famous for the Longman of Wilmington one of the two main hillside human figures in England.

The temptation was too high to resist, Alice in amongst that rapeseed field xox

Another temptation impossible to resist, mmmmmmm yummy!

Sussex trugs - love 'em

Pretty twine and scissors

Home again... what a lovely time, blessed with my life and so much to be grateful for xox

Tickety boo

Hello my dear readers, hope all is tickety boo with you and yours as we embrace yet another bank holiday weekend here in Britain. Some of us have been fortunate enough to get the day off work tomorrow to watch the Royal Wedding.

Being South African I am rather ambivalent about the wedding, I do remember having a telly at school in 1981 (I was 11 years old) when Charles and Diana got married which I got very excited about and my sister making a scrap book of their wedding. Now that I live in Britain and have my very own 10 and 1/2 year old she is very keen on celebrating and taking part in our local street party tomorrow (I hope the sun shines!). So, I too have got into the local community spirit of things and bought some balloons, sewed some simple red, blue and white bunting and will be stringing hearts together with Alice tonight to hang over our front door tomorrow (all her sweet idea).

Apparently there will be a band playing music, BBQ's, Morris dancers, competitions, cream teas and cakes for all to enjoy. I think Alice will have a lovely memory of this when she is older. We need a little "pick me up" and community spirit in these difficult financial times. So if you are watching / celebrating the Royal Wedding tomorrow I hope you have a marvelous time xox and if not I hope you get to enjoy whatever tickles your fancy xox

This has been a short but intense week at work and I have hardly had a moment to knit or hook away as much as my heart would have desired to, but now that we have 4 days ahead of us I plan to get on with making a little crochet and fabric something which I hope to show you all next week. Here's a sneak peek...

Made with the glorious Debbie Bliss 100% cotton ice-cream coloured yarn

To top this bit of pleasurable making I am hoping to have a fun day on Sunday when I turn 41! Eeeeeeekkkk ! Oh well, can't stop time moving on, need to enjoy each and every blessed moment and make sure you remain ....

Love and Hugs xox