Christmas is coming...

It is such a long time since I have written anything, but lots to show you.

The best thing I have achieved this year is to learn to crochet.  I really wanted to make the owls from Bunny Mummy Jaqui blogspot, but although simple I really didn't have enough knowledge.  So one Saturday I visited the school of YouTube and I was hooked!   I could not stop making granny squares, everywhere and anywhere.  Then I tackled the owls and as you can see I succeeded.

 I love Christmas - the making and planning and thinking.

Take a peep in my Christmas box

I also found lovely Christmas tree mice on Pinterest, here is my first mouse. 

I am planning lots more lovely things and hopefully will find time to put more pictures soon!

Happy Easter

Just a little post to wish you all a lovely Easter holiday.  Here are my latest makes, Rabbit bootees, at last ready to go.  Everything seems to take such a long time at the moment, but hopefully I will speed up a bit soon!

Click here Bluebell Walk, I hope you have a lovely Easter with lots of lovely countryside time!

Mother's Day

For some of us, it is not always straightforward to be a mother. So when finally by whatever method we manage to create a family, it is truly extra special.  I remember a very sad time when I thought I would never have a family of my own, holding my baby niece in the garden and wishing like Dorothy that the world would whirl about and I would be left standing there with my own baby.

Well, it didn't happen quite like that, but now I have a beautiful grown up daughter, a very nearly grown up young man and a beautiful baby grandson.  How lucky I am.  I hope and pray that every woman who would like to have babies, one day, some how, will get the chance.

Well now, a picture from my lovely mother's day.  A day out in the countryside, looking at beautiful things and collecting bits and pieces of nature and of course - Tea and Cake!!

Winter comforts

I have come across a lot of things about ladybird books lately, but my favourite books are definitely 'What to look for in Spring' etc.  I was sure I had a complete set, but winter is missing, so I think we are alright to have a picture from 'Spring'

This is how it looks on my way to work at the moment.  There are some water meadows surrounding the town I work in and at the moment they are completely flooded, with swans, seagulls and ducks swimming about.

When it is pouring with rain and dark and cold, you need comfort food.  In the 'olden' days (1960s and 70s) we used to have lots of comfort food.  My lovely mother-in-law used to make wonderful old fashioned puddings.   The other day my husband requested (no sniggering now!) Spotted Dick. How lovely to make one, wrapping it up in a cloth and boiling it.  I am sure it is very unhealthy for you, but here it is... and it tasted lovely!

It is soon my birthday and now having a beautiful grandson, I now have more extended family.  Oliver's other granny bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  I had been feeling under the weather that day, and my new magazine arrived (Homes and Antiques) together with the lovely flowers, making me feel a lot better.

My photos always have lots of 'junk' in the background, but can you spy what is there - an options booklet! My little baby is embarking on GCSE's - where have the years gone!!

What happened to the year?

2013 has flown by,  I can't believe I didn't write anything since March.  Therefore I will do a big catch up and share the things I have been doing this year.

The summer just flew by and I don't have many pictures and didn't do a lot of making, but then it was August and we had a lovely baby shower for Charlotte.  I loved making the cakes and am so glad I got the special sugar baby for the top of the cake.  It made me think of one that I had as a dolls house baby when I was small. My sister and I both had one, one pink and one blue.

Then my little baby who has now grown rather big, started at his new school - doesn't he look smart in his uniform. 

And then on the 10th September, one week early and within a few hours of getting to the hospital, baby Oliver appeared.  I am such a proud Nanny and very pleased to be sharing the first months of his life.

Halloween came and went.  I made a cake of which I am rather proud.  It is made by using two pudding basins and cooking two cakes.  Hollow out the middle of each and fill with sweets!  A cake pinata..

And now it is Christmas, not a lot of making this year, but I did make some little knitted pigs who will be winging their way to a foreign place very soon.

Some four legged friends who went to a happier hunting ground this year and are remembered with great fondness- Archie and Charlie.

I hope you all have a lovely 2014 and as the rain pours down and the wind howls don't forget spring is just around the corner!!

Happy Easter to Everyone

I hope you are all having a lovely Easter day, it is beautiful and sunny here but very cold.  Here are just a few pictures from my Easter day....

This is Jacob with a little chick about ten years ago, I just love this photo!

 

Look at my lovely Easter present, my family know me very well, a lovely dish of Easter cup cakes - there were six to start with....

 

 

I love making an Easter tree, I went for a dog walk early yesterday, two dogs, a carrier bag and some scissors, I did get in rather a tangle now and again but managed to get some nice branches for my tree.

 

And now my happy Easter news - I am going to be a Nanny, my big daughter is expecting a baby in September, so a lovely excuse for lots of knitting.  I have already started on a teddy blanket and the kind man in the paper shop gave me the lovely pattern Bunny Bootees.

 

 

I hope you all have a lovely Easter!

 

A virtual day in my life!

Well, I was looking at Susan Branch's Blog, a lovely wonderful place, with beautiful drawings and enchanting ideas.

Susan was extolling the virtues of our virtual world and computers and I thought, yes, I could more or less have my dream day via You Tube.

So here is my virtual dream day!!

I would like to wake up and be in Canada having maple syrup pancakes for breakfast, there were no making pancakes in the wild videos, but look at this - a wonderful Sugar Party! I daydreamed I was there with these strangers at there lovely party, having fun and making maple syrup!  (The only time I went to the US, I was so homesick I found it really hard to eat pancakes with maple syrup, and for anyone who knows my passion for eating sweet things, then I must have been sad) : (

Now, after my pancakes, I would take a lovely walk just where I live in the lovely purbeck hills and coast.
Walking with the dogs!

After that we need some lunch and a nice rest.....Lunch in France

And in the afternoon - excitement I think Seeing the world through God's eyes

I would end the day Sailing Home

And so to bed Good night, Sleep Tight, Hope the bed bugs don't bite!

Lots of cold days and long evenings means more knitting.  Although sometimes it is very tempting to just curl up and do very little.

Noah is now here and waiting for his animals, he's shown here with a little ted who is ready for a new baby.  They are sheltering under the hyacinths that I had for my birthday.

Finally after such a long time, I finished painting the kitchen just before Christmas.  The curtains have taken an even longer time to make and then a few weeks to finally get up.  Then on my birthday arrived the most beautiful lights to match my curtains.  All I have to do now is put all the pictures back up and make some bunting!

And to deserve my evening sitting down knitting and dreaming, we went for a very long chilly walk by the sea, but it was beautiful.

I've been absent for a little white and have had some complaints, but it has been very busy.

It was Christmas and we had a lovely time.  Usually I just try to make one thing, but this time I managed to finish knitting three little things for  Christmas presents.  The night before delivering I was wrapping up, finishing the little things until 2 am all with the help of a little sherry. (I don't drink very much at all, but when it gets to December then its time to break open the sherry!)

Here are some pictures of the things I made

My latest lovely books I am knitting from are Noahs Knit's and Tiny Bears to Knit and Crochet


I hope to make a whole Noah's Ark full of animals - I have always loved Noah's Arks and for a long time dreamed of making a wooden one, but that is a whole lot of new skills but knitting I can do.  I have digressed a little and made a bright green pig for Jacob and am now making a lavender one (with lavender in) for a special young lady!  Pictures of these another day.

I have also purchased reading glasses to help with sewing and embroidery and a special marking pen for embroidery, but so far no time for this.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

(also loving my Molly Makes calender and keep forgetting to buy double pointed needles to make the lovely owl wrist warmers)

A quiet week ahead

Jacob goes away with school on Monday, they are off to France for a week.  I am being a flustery mummy, packing and ironing and wondering if we've forgotten anything.

But I am very proud of this. I made a little wash bag out of some lovely fabric I was given (Thank you Dagi!)
I lined it with a strong carrier bag to keep it waterproof, a drawstring is speedier than a zip.

Even though it will be very quiet next week, I plan to do lots of crafting.  I have been looking at lots of beautiful blogs and am inspired to try to make a few things, finish my kitchen curtains and make the forgotten shelves in the kitchen more interesting.

Some flowers rescued from the rain in the garden.....

My reading list

Well its a very rainy day here (again!) and sent home from work early because the electricity went off. The house is all nice and tidy because some kind person got there first. I have tucked my guinea pigs up warm and toasty for the night, ( I tried to take a picture but all I got was a speedy blur) , so now its time to write about books. 

I have been reading a lot of very interesting books lately and some seem to naturally lead on to others, also lots of lovely picture books for inspiration and dreaming.

First some more serious books.

I read this non-fiction book by Lisa See ',On Gold Mountain' , Lisa is a descendant of Chinese immigrants and she writes about their journey to America and how the family grew and changed.  Very fascinating.


Then I found another book by Julie Otsuka 'When the Emporor was Divine'.  This is a very moving story based on fact about what happened to Japanese people living in America during the war.
Very sad and moving....

My sister and I share a great love of reading, but we have very different tastes.  Sometimes we want to share our books and give them to each other as a present.  I received one of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.  A children's novel based on the Greek myths.  I picked it up several times but never really got into it.  This must have been a year ago, but last week I started it again and couldn't put it down, now I have gone and borrowed another one from the library.  I gave my sister books by Marina Lewycka and I think she was not to keen, but when we talked the other day, she had started reading 'We are all made of Glue' and was really enjoying it.

Now the look and dream and make books:
Go Slow England by Alastair Sawday. Beautiful places to go, to eat and just to dream about, an inspiration for a slower way of life.


Homespun Style by Selina Lake- Just makes me want to head to the sewing machine and paintbrush!


And dinosaurs.....  I have been busy knitting dinosaurs over the last few months, some in vivid colours ( I will post a picture when the latest one is completed)
So take a look at 'Knitted Dinosaurs' by Tina Barrett


Hungry humans need my attention, then dinosaur making tonight. There are advantages to having a very wet summer (especially if you are a slug or a snail, but thats another story!)

I have had complaints that I haven't been here since my birthday, what have I been doing?

I am not entirely sure, there has been a lot of boring work, but I have also had some time to do a little bit of sewing and knitting.

We did have good weather in early spring, but since then it seems to have been a lot of rain, rain and more rain, however that is not entirely a bad thing.  I had one lovely rainy sunday where I fixed an old patchwork quilt that I had made many years ago.  In the early 1980s I had been given a huge box of shirt material samples from the 70s, lovely retro fabrics.  Back then I stitched them into a small quilt and appliqued animals on them.  With the help of small dogs and large children, the quilt was now looking very tatty, so I put patches on the patches (more lovely fabric, a gift from my friend in America) and it now looks much more presentable.

The shirt samples are perfect for patchwork, I am going to be cheeky and see if I can manage to obtain more from a local shop


And here is a lovely cushion I made last night, I bought a little bag of patches at a school sale, and with some bits I already had I constructed this....

I have also been doing quite a bit of dinosaur knitting and also lots of lovely books to tell you about, but that is for another post.  Now I have to mow the lawn, and then put together a knitted rabbit for a new baby I know!!

Half a Century

Last week I reached the grand age of half a century.  It is a good time to reflect on your life - and I decided all in all that I was quite content and happy with what had happened.  Some of your life you are able to control and decide to take it this way or that, but other times there are things that you just have no control over and have to 'go with the flow'.  But I decided that I really had very few regrets and no urgent need to get things done that had not been done, and I am very much looking foward to the next years... more travelling in this country and others as a pillion passenger on my husbands motorbike, more walks in the beautiful countryside where I live, more projects that may or may not get finished and lots more books to read and maybe just maybe a more flowersome and vegetablesome garden and of course more lovely cakes to be made!

Now my treat for my birthday was to be taken away for the weekend to Weston-Super-Mare...., now you may think this is a strange place to go, but both sets of grandparents lived there and I spent so many happy holidays of my childhood there, but that is for another post with lots to remember.

This weekend we went by car not motorbike and just as well, because it snowed quite a lot and was so, so cold.  But how lovely to walk about and see all the old places and some that I didn't remember seeing before. No donkeys on the sands on this day just lots of snow.

It is hard to find a nice place to eat when you really don't know what they are like, but we found somewhere just so perfect. Everyone who ever goes to Weston should try it - it is called the Lounge Cafe Bar on the sea front, close to Marine Lake. The food was lovely, the setting was lovely and we were so spoiled. Outside it was now raining and so cold and windy, but we were cosy and content and being treated like royalty - but we didn't need the royal mint to pay for it!!

And now all is back to normal, birthday cakes (two of) devoured, chocolates eaten, but very happy and content with my lovely life and family.

Christmas Stockings

I think we have quite unusual Christmas stockings in our family.  My Mum made them on our first Christmas, she had seen them made by a  Canadian lady who lived in the upstairs flat (although my sister remembers it as a German lady).

The stockings are traditional red with some kind of fur at the top, but the nice idea is that each year a different charm is added.  Each year the children eagerly await receiving their stockings on Christmas Eve to see the new charm. The charms can be any kind of thing, mine includes an old ear ring that once belonged to my Mum, a pretty wooden badge that my aunty brought back from Austria.  They have such lovely memories for me.  Sadly now that my mum is no longer here,I don't get new charms, but it is lovely to search for new ones each year for my children.  I started off their stockings with a charm taken from mine.

My sister in Greece has made her children's stockings in more elf like shapes rather than Santa's boot shape, and she has green velvet at the top.

The photo also shows her stocking that my mum made when she was a baby.  Naomi was born about a month before Christmas, and myself and my other sister were aged about 11 and 10.  I still remember Naomi's first Christmas and nearly everything she had in her stocking including talcum powder and a wooden tortoise!

The first Christmas of your children is the most magical time of all.

While I am getting sentimental, I shall put in a photo of my favourite Christmas story.  I have had this one since I was tiny, I know that nearly everyone knows the story, but I just love the illustrations in this particular book and was so pleased when I had children to read it to.

I would love to know if they really have stockings like ours anywhere else, although I have read quite a lot of foreign magazines, I have never seen anything quite like our Christmas stockings.

Nature's Bounty

It is half term and I am so lucky to be living where I do.  Lovely country walks even in blustery and wet weather.  We went to Durlston on Tuesday and were so lucky to see the dolphins, we have been looking for them ever since we moved here.  We were just watching a fishing boat rocking along in the stormy sea and there they were, we watched them for about five minutes and then they disappeared. I tried to take a photograph but they just looked like black specks in the distance - so here is another picture from this holiday.

Keeping cheerful

It has been a bit stressful on and off for the last few months. Nothing major or life-threatening but just a bit full on.  I wondered what I could write about because you don't really want to hear about me sobbing in my tea cup or hollering at the dog, or the keeping the house clean efforts, so I thought about what I have around that makes me laugh.

Just inside my kitchen door I have pinned on the wall this cutting from a newspaper.  He is such a cheerful soul and always makes me smile!!

My other thing is my Mary Engelbreit calender.  I first came across this artist when a friend gave a small book her quotations 'Life is just a chair of bowlies'.  Now I have a calender every year, it is a treat and I keep all the illustrations, which one day I will make into a little book. I have jumped ahead to November and the quotation is by Leonard Cohen (another all time favourite person) and it says something like  'When your heart is broken, then there is a crack where the light can come in'.  Someone very dear to me has had a tempestuous time of late, but it is true a lot of light has been shed on the matter in question.

Well, this is all rather heavy, and of course when the going gets very tough, the tough eat chocolate (or cake!!!) There is nothing better for the soul (but not the waist) than making a big cake and then munching it!!

Little Sparrows

My wee boy (!!) had a week away at his auntys.  This is the present he bought back, a litte flower bird feeder.  Now I can watch beautiful birds in the morning as I make the tea and pack the lunches for the day........

Mint Jelly reflections

I have been gone such a long time, it just seems to have been so busy and very little inclination to write.  But now it suddenly seems very autumny, wind and rain, so I can get back to writing and back to making things.  We had a very blustery day on Monday, lots of things blew down including a big branch on a very old apple tree along the road. While I was out with the dogs, I collected a bag of apples and some blackberries.  I made an apple and blackberry crumble (with shop apples) and chopped up the fallen apples and cooked them up to make apple jelly.  I haven't made this for at least four years, when I lived out in the countryside.  Now I live in a tiny town with the countryside on my doorstep.  It was good to do this again, finding a cloth and straining them into my big pink bowl, then tonight boiling them up with the sugar.  The pan I have is too small and it kept boiling over and left my cooker in a sticky mess, but the result...... four lovely jars of mint jelly.

We have been thinking very hard about moving house to a smaller one, that will leave us more time for projects, travelling and relaxing.  But first we have to tidy up, decorate and sort out.  This is not the appealing part, I wish a magic wand could be waved and into the new, little house we would suddenly land.  We have one in mind, and if its meant to be, it will happen.  One room is almost finished being painted, maybe our bedroom next.  'The Man' from the estate agents is coming to look next week........

Butterflys

I have been reading a wonderful book by Patrick Barkham, The Butterfly Isles.  He tries to find every British butterfly (59) in one year.  It is a lovely book and really readable, not at all 'heavy'.  It made me want to start hunting butterflies even though it is only March and this is just about when they start to appear.  Given that the beginning of the week was quite cold and frosty, I don't think I had much chance of just seeing one if I was not actively hunting one!  However, it did make me get off the bus one stop early.  That way I can walk past my lovely patch of wild violets, they are so beautiful.  I did feel a bit silly taking a picture of them, and made sure there were no people close by before snapping, but I was really pleased how the picture came out, with them all frosty.

As usual this got me thinking about my childhood.  My sister and I were born in London, but we were really lucky in that when we were about 1 and 2 our parents decided to move us to the countryside to a small market town in Wiltshire.  We had a wonderful early childhood, with lots of nature, always in the garden and fields, a long walk through a different part of the countryside on Easter Monday (we had no car, so everything was done by leg or bus).  We would catch minnows and sticklebacks in the brook, dam it up and make stepping stones. Sometimes we would go to the Westonbirt Arboretum, one of my most favourite places.  We would go on the bus and get off and then all of us hop over the big wall into the beautiful glades of trees and rhododendrons.  Both sets of grannys lived by the seaside at Weston-Super-Mare so every holiday would be spent there.  We used to walk to the top of Uphill where there were lots of grasshoppers and spend a long time catching them.  Dad also gave me a long time scare of spiders by catching them in matchboxes before releasing them, but the horrid thing was that he would hold them by our ear and we would hear them scrawling inside!!!  Here where I live now, in the Isle of Purbeck is a very active branch of the RSPB, which looks after all wildlife, not just birds.  There is a lovely man who is absolutely passionate about spiders, so one day I will go on a Spider walk with him and learn to love them a little bit more.