Sunny Sunday

  

The weather was glorious last Sunday so we decided to scoop the family up and have a day out. It’s often hard work enticing the boys away from their boy pit with the lure of the ps4. The same old questions come, how long does it take to get there? What are we actually going to do there? How long do we have to stay? No enthusiasm at all! But we managed to prise them away and all bundled into the car. Off to North Wales, Llandudno to be precise. I’d never been before and was really looking forward to going. I’d always had this image of it being a bit of a rundown seaside town. A bit tacky and full of kiss me quick hats and teeth rotting rock. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of tack! But I do love to be beside the seaside and what a beautiful seaside it is. 

  
   
   

   
       

As we walked onto the pier, I looked up and saw the bunting flapping away against the bluest of skies. Little things like that make me stop in my tracks for just a minute and usually get my phone out and take a picture too. 

  
I love taking photos. They can tell a story and revive memories from good times. We’re very lucky in this digital world to have the luxury of being able to do this at the click of a button.

   

We let baby J loose on the pier and he absolutely loved it. He’s very intrigued by things around him and paid special attention to the sea. He was mesmerised and it doesn’t surprise me. It’s a very enchanting and exhilarating place to be.

  
Back on firm land, we wandered around. There was a most gorgeous Punch and Judy show. Sadly it wasn’t on when we were there but I’d love to come back and see what Baby J makes of it. The town itself was a busy one, lots of lovely shops to browse round.

  
And we had to stop and get the kids some ice cream here…

  
There seems to be a bit of an Alice through the looking glass theme around Llandudno, will definitely look into that. Very curious!!

All in all it was a fantastic day and even the kids enjoyed themselves. Next trip will be to Conwy just up the road from here, it looked stunning but deserves a whole day for us to explore it.

Just to finish off, I wanted to show you my progress on my latest project. The blooming flower cushion is coming on a treat!

   
  

 

Only a few more rounds to do and the front will be finished. Yay!!!

See you soon xx  

Simple pleasures

I love our slow, peaceful Saturday mornings. All is quiet in the house as the big kids are still fast asleep. My hubby, Baby J and I slip some clothes on and take the short walk to that little Saturday morning bakery I told you about a while ago. Our village is very quiet first thing, before the shops open up for business, hardly any cars on the road and just a few people pootling about, usually with their  brown paper bags containing freshly baked goods. There wasn’t much left when we got there, but we still managed to get a couple of loaves of organic wholemeal.

  
It’s very tasty indeed. Especially with REAL butter…

  
There’s nothing quite like it. I went to say good morning to the chickens and see if they had any eggs for us, and sure enough they delivered! Yummy.

  
A pot of tea on the go with REAL tea leaves, as it’s Saturday. Special treat!

  
As you can probably tell by now, I have a ‘thing’ for polka dots, especially red and white ones.

  
I thought I’d use my best china too, as it’s Saturday morning.

   
 

Don’t ask me how, but it does make the tea taste better drinking it from a proper cup & saucer.

The girls did us proud, eggs were so yummy.

   
 

Along with the bread and tea it was pretty much a perfect breakfast. And just to make my morning even brighter, this popped through the letterbox..

  
Along with a big box from John Lewis containing a very well packaged pressie for my kitchen wall. I love it!!

  
Happy weekend everyone, I’m off to do a bit of hooking now with another cup of hot tea xx

The Great Outdoors

  

We’ve been lucky the past few days to have some pretty decent weather which has enabled us to get outdoors and enjoy it.

  

We ventured off to Ness Botanical Gardens on Friday as it was free entry to all. It’s beautiful there, a good way to spend a couple of hours.

   

     

Baby J loved having a good run around and especially liked the logs in the woodland area.

   

   

It was a very calming place to be. I’d like to go back in the height of the summer, I bet it’s stunning.

  

There’s been lots of progress in our garden. The two trailer loads of ivy has gone & the wall has been rebuilt. It’s such a relief, we were getting depressed every time we opened up the blinds and looked out. There’s still more to do in the garden but we still managed to find a bit of time to enjoy it too.

   

 

My step daughter did a bit of sun worshipping with Honey.

  

Baby J had fun in the tunnel with one of his brothers.

  

 

He also got stuck in helping us brush up the astro turf.

  

And this area will be his play area very soon. I’ll keep you posted on this, I can’t wait!

I really hope this warmer weather is here to stay xx

Taking shape

   

A few nights ago I embarked on my new crochet project, the blooming flower cushion. I was so excited, I had everything I needed to begin. Firstly peace and quiet in my dining room, the internet to follow the tutorial (attic 24), wool, hook, hot tea & poppets! All of this sitting in front of this roaring fire.

  

And so I began….

 

  

  

  

  

I love doing this, it’s growing so fast and it’s good to see results this early on. It is one of those projects you really have to concentrate on as you need to keep up with where you are or you’ll find yourself undoing it all and starting again.

   

 

I’m hoping I’ll be finished with this in a couple of weeks, might have enough wool left over to make another cushion cover. I already have a design in mind just in case! 

Just wanted to finish by saying a huge thanks to you for stopping by and taking a few minutes out of your day to read my little blog. It makes my day when I find out that someone else reads it and not only that, enjoys it and perhaps even gets a little inspired to get stuck into a craft too. The world would be a happier place with more crafting going on, I’m sure! Xxx

 

 

Blanket #2 complete!

Finally, a happy, crafty, hooky post! Yay, I have finished the red & white granny square blanket. All 46 rows of it. I’m rather glad this is finished now, one, because I’ve had enough of working with those colours and two, because I’m desperate to get started on my next project. I’m going to be starting a blooming flower cushion, the pattern is from another lovely blog I follow called Attic 24. If you’re a lover of crochet then I’m sure you’ve come across it.

So here it is, lots of lovely rows of bright woollyness.

For some reason the middle looks a little skewiff, can’t quite work out why but it all adds to the handmade vibe. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway!

I decided upon a picot edging so I went around the whole edge with a dc stitch first.

 

As I was sitting there on the sofa doing this, my hubby looked over inspecting my work and said something along the lines of, ‘Well thats not very awe inspiring is it?’ Ha ha! I told him that was just the beginning of the end.

Next came the pretty bit.  It was actually very simple, these things often look far more complicated than they actually are. This is just a long foundation chain really joining to make loops.

 

 It’s nice trying new stitches and seeing it looking as it’s meant to. Means I must be doing something right!

   

 

This little project has been handed over now to its new owner, aka Lil’ D (my stepson). It was a nice easy one, very good for doing while you’re watching tv or chit-chatting away. I’m actually surprised at how quickly crochet has become a natural thing to me. 

 

Just before I go, I wanted to share a few pictures from a little trip to the seaside on easter Monday. I left my sunny garden and drove twenty minutes to the coast to find thick fog!

   

We couldn’t even see the sea. It was rather eerie watching the mist roll in from the sea right in front of us.

 

  

There were still plenty of visitors here, many to come and see the pirate ship, the grace darling. Doesn’t she look spooky? 

An ice cream for the boys and a kick about with a ball made for a nice couple of hours.

I’m off to have my dinner then make a start on crochet project #3!! Excited much x

And then there were nine

I have some sad news. We lost one of our feathered friends today. Our poor Scarlett has gone to chicken heaven. 

  

Here she is sunbathing with my step-daughter a couple of years ago. We’d had her for about four years and were very fond of her. She gave us lots of yummy eggs and was a real character. We’ll miss her lots, R.I.P. Scarlet xx

Happy Easter!

It’s been ages since I’ve posted so I thought I’d better drop in and say a happy easter to you all. It’s really crept up on me this year, Easter. I’d left it so last minute that the shops were all sold out of easter eggs today. Oops! Next year I’ll be far more organised. I was planning to decorate the house and create lots of easter crafty bits but it all seems a bit late now. If I’m honest, the past couple of weeks here have been quite rubbish really. There’s been so much illness in our family, nasty sickness bugs, troubled teeth, chest infections, and severe flu which ended up putting my mother-in-law in hospital. Not to mention the usual coughs and colds. I just can’t wait for us all to be in good health again, something I think we all take for granted far too much.
The weather has been pretty pants too, spring seemed to vanish and it was back to needing gloves and winter coats. Hurry up spring, I need some sunshine! We had really strong winds here earlier in the week which caused quite a bit of damage in our garden.

This is quite a set back as we already had quite a bit to do in the garden before we open it up in June for the Secret Gardens.  It’s surprising too how open and overlooked it now feels.  The poor chickens have become a bit crowded by bushes surrounding their enclosure and stealing their light. Talking of chickens, our poor Angel is poorly too.  We had to rush her to the vets on Friday, she has a sinus infection and her eye is really swollen. She had an injection of antibiotics and is back tomorrow for another. Poor little chick, hope she gets better soon.  You can tell she’s not right, I can catch her when I want to pick her up.  Normally she’s too quick for me!

In amongst the doom and gloom I managed to take 5 and swoon over the lovely images inside my Country Living magazine. That, combined with a cup of hot tea & toasted fruit bread, really takes you away from it all, just for a little while.  Very refreshing.

I’ve been carrying on with my red & white granny square blanket.  It’s getting really, really close to being finished now.  I always seem to cram a bit more hooky time in when I can see the end is near, hence it making it into the bathroom at bath time again. I’ll be glad when this is done, it’s getting a wee bit cumbersome to keep carrying around.  At least I don’t have to crochet a ton of squares together.

I’ve had to do a bit of repair to my living room blinds too, this was the closest I’ve gotten to sewing.  My sewing machine is just sitting there, all lonely, desperately waiting for me to show it some attention. Next week, I promise……… xxx