Birds and Dolls

Hello.

How has your week been so far? Good I hope.

It's been a busy week here.

The usual working and visiting my Grandad in north east Yorkshire.

It's about 4 hours away from where we live in north wales luckily my daughter has always been good on long journeys.

Always nice to get away for a few days.

 

This week crochet wise I have jumped on the Attic 24 band wagon and hooked up five bower birds.

You can find the pattern here

They hook up a treat with clear and well written instructions.

 

I really enjoyed the stitching parts where I could personalise each birdie and give it, it's own character.

 

I wanted to show you my mantel piece because its made me smile this week having not one but two vases of flowers and my new dolls.

The nesting dolls were a bit of an extravagance for me, especially when I'm supposed to be paying for a wedding.

But...

I do love them.

So you may have just seen that I mentioned the wedding eek its getting close now!

Just over 2 weeks.

So if I do go quiet you will know what I'm doing. I'm hoping to keep up with things.

I will leave you with these chirpers!

Have a lovely weekend.

xx

 

 

 

Crochet Roses and a Walk Around the Garden

Hello and happy Tuesday.

Hope that I find you all well?

 First things to show you are my wedding shoes!I used one of my favourite patterns from one of my favourite books, cute and easy crochet with flowers.

I really love hooking up these lovely roses.

Being tall I always knew my shoes would have to be flat, so I picked up these white pumps and thought they could do with some crochet related jazzing up!

I used drops cotton light it was a dream to crochet with.

I'm really pleased with the look of them and think they will fit our vintage wedding theme well.

I cant believe we only have 3 months left before the big day.

Here are some photos from our garden.

1, Clematis started flowering this week.

2, Ladybirds appearing.

3,Calendular that has made it through the winter.

4, Wild garlic growing up through the bench.

5, My new bird box.

6, Allium peeping.

7, Strawberry.

8, Drying washing outside hooray!

1, Perenial cornflower.

2, Tulips outside the house.

3, View down the garden.

4, Tulips Angelic

5, Gnome home.

6, Tulip Barcelona.

7, Lilac and a bumble bee.

8, Tulips.

9, Rhubarb.

Finally I will leave you with some photographs from our local woods...

1, My daughter running wild.

2, Stone farm building.

3, Blue Bell woods.

4, Conker Tree.

5, Another one of my little girl.

6, More Blue Bells.

7, Lambs! eek how cute.

8, Fresh leaves.

9, A carpet of Blue Bells.

I hope you've enjoyed my photos. It's always lovely to see the sun and signs that summer is on its way.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend, thank you for sticking with me and leaving me such lovely comments.

xx

CAL Winter Walking

Hello to you.

I've really enjoyed getting back into the swing of things, reading everyone's blogs and seeing what you've been up to...

My bag, I'm afraid, is not finished yet...

But it's all made up and just needs to be lined and then I will be showing the finished article off.

This week I have made some bird house bunting which I found in issue six of Simply Crochet. My daughter has snapped it up for her bedroom already!

It was a fun and quick project.

Joining again with lovely Chrissie and Marianne

On the weekend I visited my parent's house and took a few photos of signs of life in their garden.

Also this week, when the weather has been bright we have enjoyed some walks at the top of our village where we saw some amazing views...

Hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend whatever you may be doing.

Off now to see what everyone has been up to this week in the CAL.

Thank you for your lovely comments about the bag and views - sometimes I forget how lucky I am living in such a beautiful part of the world.

xx

On a Cold and Frosty Morning CAL

My crochet bag is coming along nicely and starting to look sort of bag shaped.
Lots more joining to do and some straps to make and then I will be ready to line it.

So happy to be crocheting along again with Marianne  and Chrissie.
looking forward to seeing what everyone has been up to.

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to have this view every day on our walk to school.

The school run is made easier with views like this.

The mist was hanging over the river.....

....and circling the village.

The sun began to break through.

Trying to keep myself from those January blues and appreciating the everyday lovely things I see.

Hope you've enjoyed coming along with me on my school run.

Hoping you've all had a wonderful week and enjoy a lovely weekend.

Welcome hold heatedly to my new followers lovely to have you with me.

xx  



Wishing You A Happy New Year xx

 

 

Hello to you.

My last post for this year and what a year its been...

I've been so glad to have you here with me in my first year of blogging.

I've really enjoyed posting and reading all your lovely blogs.

So loving and leaving you for this year with some photos from Christmas...

 

And what a lovely family Christmas we enjoyed, all together at my family home, the home of my childhood with Mum, Dad, my brother, my lovely fiancé and my beautiful daughter...

I was so lucky to receive a new camera for Christmas. I really enjoyed playing with it, snapping photos here and there...

Do you love my partners Christmas jumper!?

My Mum's cat enjoyed Christmas, playing in the garden with his feral mummy cat.

It's not Christmas without a silly hat and this year's hat of choice was a Fez!

And what we would we do without a nice glass of champagne with Christmas dinner?

Here are some flowers from the garden and the hyacinths are on my window sill - a present from the lovely ladies at the charity shop I volunteer at, filling the sitting room with their lovely heady scent.

 

My lovely grey kitties are getting on so well - it's so nice to see them cuddling up together.

Lego camper and lucky cats on a sunny window sill.

 

I hope you have all enjoyed a lovely bloggy year and I will see you all in

2014.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

xx

CAL and Busy Times

 

Hello to you.

Hope you're all well and wonderful?

Gosh it's been so busy here! School plays, costumes, Christmas trees, craft sales, Christmas shopping... and the list goes on...

So with everything going on here please bear with me - in January normal service should resume.

 I finished my crochet lamp shade, inspired by attic24.

Sorry the photos aren't great, the light at the moment is terrible but wanted you all to see.

Hope you can get an idea of what it looks like.



Joining again with the lovely ladies and their crochet along Marianne and Chrissie.

 

I've really enjoyed joining in and seeing what everyone else is doing.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!

I do love a Christmas tree - the smell is amazing!

I love to see the twinkling lights and shiny baubles.

Here are a couple of photos from my Christmas craft fair.

It went well and had lots of interest and comments which is lovely - always great to have feedback.

Mr Gingers were very popular! I was left with one though, which I was pleased about. He's hanging on the tree now.

Thank you to all of you who wished me luck and think it worked :)

Don't you just love a cosy fire in winter?

This was taken during a power cut last week where we were left without power for most of the day and night. It was actually quite nice relaxing in the warm glow from the fire reading. Couldn't have done without my electric for much longer though!

Finally, let me introduce you to the new addition to the family, Betty.

She was taken in from my Mum's garden where she was living feral (she wouldn't have survived the winter) She is now tame and a lovely little character - she was really worth the extra work.

 

I hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend.

Will try and post again before Christmas if time allows.

Thank you for all your lovely comments and continued kindness.

xx

 

 

 

CAL week 8 and Keeping Warm

Hello to you.

Hope you're all well and dandy.

Our house was hit by a lurgy earlier in the week causing a few days off school and a few plans changed.

My partner and I received our wedding pack this week, we now have to chose what vows to say and what will be said during the ceremony. All exciting stuff!

On Tuesday we saw our first flutter of snow that was short lived but caused a lot of excitement in our house. It is, however, still frrrreeezzzinnng! Brrrr! Snow or no snow!

I received the latest copy of simply crochet this week.
Full of great Christmassy makes!



I'm still crocheting away on my partner's chair runner. I must admit I'm getting itchy fingers...I may give it rest for a while and have a break. Hmm, we'll see...

This week I've also been crafting away making the finishing touches to my crafty makes for the Christmas sale on the 30th.

1, A beautiful brooch I bought from a local art exhibition, love it!

2, A spotty cushion I made ready for the craft sale.

3, Mr gingerbread.

4, A naughty present for me, bought by me! hehe it was silly how excited I was when it arrived.

I thought I'd leave you with some lovely simple pleasures of the week.

1, A freshly made bed all neat and clean.

2, My flowers I received nearly a month ago for my birthday, amazing how long they've lasted.

 

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on the last post, they always mean so much.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

xx

Rocky Raccoon

Hello to you.

How's your week been so far?

Mine has been fairly busy.

Volunteering at the shop and helping my Grannie after her fall (she's ok though, just taking time to rehabilitate) She broke her leg and shoulder.

I've had some "me" time too...

I picked up a Mollie makes magazine, second hand, and I enjoyed making the cover woodland friends.

If I bought all the magazines I enjoyed new, I'd be permanently skint! But I do like to look out for second hand copies. 

Here they are! Their new home is in my partner's study.

Rocky was definitely my favourite.

I spent some time yesterday wondering around the garden with my camera. It was lovely to have ten minutes to myself. I found it very relaxing.

I wasn't totally alone. Poppy was prettifying herself in the wood shed.

Not sure what this is. It came from my Mum's garden. We like to share plants.

Cyclamen - pretty in purple.

The bees are still busy buzzing around.

 

The September garden still has some colour in places...

 



The fennel must be 7ft plus now - it's grown amazingly this year.

These bees appeared to be drunk on pollen!

Verbena - usually a butterfly magnet, but they seem to have gone now.   

Green tomatoes. Come on, go red!

Hover fly enjoying an artichoke flower.

Coming in to land.

What a vivid purple.

Cosmos is one of my favourite annuals.

They're very pretty in pink.

Sweet corn.

Marsh mallow.

Here is the fennel again, towering high.

Hope you're all enjoying a nice week?

Tomorrow I plan to catch up with some jobs around the house and then maybe get an hour or so on my sewing machine.

I'm off to a music festival this weekend and we are likely to have an autumn storm - so I'm packing my wellies!

Thank you for your lovely comments on the last post. It took a lot to put myself out there, but I'm glad I did.

xx