What to do on a Sunday night?

I always find that a Sunday is a good day for some sort of craft activity. This Sunday has been bright but cold, we went out for a family bike ride this morning and then popped into town. E had her first Starbucks red cup of the season, which was very welcome after the bike ride. 

So where is the craft? Well it is now, Sunday evening. We are sat by the fire & I am going to try & teach myself to knit. My lovely husband bought me a book, 

Wish me luck, as I think I am going to need it ;)

What's on Dolly

So my sewing journey is continuing.

So this week at home I have been trying to finish my Mathilde Blouse. The pattern can be found at www.tillyandthebuttons.com 

Tilly was on the Great British Sewing Bee and I now follow her blog. I love that we can now download patterns off the Internet and my Sunday afternoons are spent putting the patterns together like a glorious jigsaw puzzle while my lovely husband cooks our roast dinner.

I did a practice run of the blouse in very thin cheap material. I loved how it turned out but unfortunately I put large buttons on the back and the material can not handle the heaviness of them. So I found a lovely material that I am hoping can handle the weight of the gorgeous red buttons that I have found.

So here is Dolly wearing my Mathilde Blouse, I think she is looking rather good, just need to attach the buttons and it will be finished, hooray!

Every little helps

Long time no post, I know, I need to get back into the habit. My world seems full of planning and scheming at the moment, none of which I can really share at the moment. So onto the stuff I can share.

How often do you get to do something crafty that raises money for charity? For me, never. That was until I came across the Innocent Smoothie Big Knit 2013. For the last ten years Innocent have worked with Age UK to help keep older people across the UK warm and healthy during the winter months. How they do this is by asking people to knit/crochet hats to put on their smoothie bottles, each one sold raises 25p for Age UK.

So here are my hats, I managed to make thirty in time for the deadline which is the 31 October.

It is a great way of using up scraps of yarn. I can't wait to see the bottles with their hats in shops soon.

A new adventure

If you read my last post you will know that I like my holidays. I like to be spoilt and I like it to be hot. So two years ago when we bought a tent on a whim, there was some giggles from those who love us dearly (understandable really). Life got in the way and the tent stayed in the garage.

At some point earlier this year we must of had a crazy five minutes as we booked a campsite, not two nights as we first thought (just in case it really isn't us), but for five nights! As the departure date drew closer we got more nervous, more supplies were bought and DH mumbled something like it "we had better like this as it is costing me a small fortune". DH also became obsessed with watching the weather. For a couple of hairy days it looked like we were going to have rain and lots of it. There was no way that we were going to setup a tent in the rain, we struggled enough in the sunshine on our practice run.

So on a Thursday morning we pack the car

As you can see we barely had room for DD. Off we went fingers crossed that we would make it without any rain, looking at the huge clouds that seem to follow us all the way. But I guess the camp gods were watching us, as that rain stayed away and we managed to get our tent up in record time.

Here we are with our tent, this photo was taken during our practice run.

For our first camping adventure we stayed at a site called Kelling Heath in Norfolk and I would happily recommend it to any newbie campers. The site was huge and so well organised and importantly for us it had lovely clean toilets and showers and electricity hook up! There were plenty of playgrounds for the children, these proved to be a hit with DD, she revelled in the freedom.

So am I painting a rosy enough picture? Good for the only downside was the cold nights, but DH has been on the Internet researching better sleeping bags, as yes we are going to go camping again!

Who knew what a great adventure it would be, how DD loved being able to wander round on her own making new friends. How camping can show you what a great team you and your other half are. Spending time as a family, visting gorgeous National Trust houses, such as Blickling Estate below.

Reliving many happy childhood memories crabbing in Blakeney.

Just hanging out together was a joy. Yes I did get to do some crochet, let's be honest I don't go very far these days without some in my bag. So our first camping adventure was a success and yes we plan to repeat it. Who knows where our next adventure will lead us.

Inspiration

Recently I have been very inspired, unfortunately I have not got my act together to blog about it, but that is going to change now.

I was spoilt this year with our family holiday, my gorgeous husband decided that he was going to take us to Thailand, a place that I have wanted to visit for many years. The excitement in our house was on a very large scale and flicking through the guide book and holiday brochure made it bloom even further.

Our first stop was Bangkok and what a truly amazing place it is, nothing prepares you for how hot and busy it is, but that is nothing to how truly vibrant and colourful it is with a mad mix of old and new. We wanted to introduce our DD to the history of Bangkok so we took some tours around some of the many temples there. The temples are truly beautiful places which are boldly decorated with gold and mosaics, hand painted walls that reach for the sky. 

I have never seen so much gold, it is a rich golden colour that spreads it warmth around.

In between the gold were mosaics decorated in rich colours. Here's my tourist pose.

 

DD was in awe of all of the beauty, she also became almost a mini celeb as many asian women came up to touch her fair skin and ask if they could have their photo taken with her. 

The roof of this temple was made of thousands of pieces of pottery that had been brought to Thailand from China. They were beautiful to look at and have inspired us to have a go at making a mosaic during the summer holidays.

We had a truly amazing holiday, that has given us lots of fabulous memories and fired me up with inspiration, but it did not stop there. While looking for something to watch while suffering from jet lag I found something else to give me lots of inspiration, The Great British Sewing Bee. A program on BB2 that was made by the same people who have given us The Great British Bake Off. What a brilliant idea, I became quickly addicted and was truly gutted that it only lasted four episodes! I am so glad that they have decided to make another one. I loved the mini history lessons that they slotted in to each episode as well as getting to see what the talented contestants would make.

I am now eagerly follow two of the contestants blogs Tilly and the buttons and Lauren's blog, guthrie-ghani. Tilly has started selling her own patterns, one of which I have purchased and made (& completed!), Lauren has opened up a haberdashery with her husband, which I would love to go and visit but unfortunately is near Birmingham, so not a trip I could manage during school hours.

So my creative rush does not end there, last week was crop week, now I must admit I have not scrapped anything since my last visit to crop, I may use my holiday as an excuse but it is not a very good one. This month's crop had a class designed by Sandie, now I have not done the last few classes at crop, it is not because they are not lovely because they are, we have very talented ladies there, I have just not been feeling the scrapping vibe. I know that I need to get back into it, if nothing else to make my DH happy that the room full of scrapping stash will be used. I just need the right inspiration and Sandie truly provided that with her class. Sandie's class was a mini album (which you can find here), now I am normally a 12x12 girl, but Sandie's album really hit the spot for me, she had really thought about all us scrappers as individuals and her album catered for all of our different needs. If you like lots of photos then there was lots of opportunity to add as many photos as you liked with clever hidden flaps. If you like to journal then instead of photos you could journal. you could add pages, make it smaller, there was so many options. 

I have not quite finished my album, but it is in the WIP pile, I am hoping that next week will give me a couple of hours free to finish it. Then I can start my next one, as Sandie has inspired me to make more mini albums.

So there you have it, inspiration a plenty at the moment, let's hope it continues and maybe even spreads.

Frustrated

I am sat in my dining room/sewing room feeling very frustrated. Last month I made my Mother in Law a knitting bag for her birthday, she saw the pattern in my Sewing World magazine. It took me two days but I was very happy with the end result (I think/hope she was too).

I am now sat here trying to recreate the bag after DH's Aunt saw the bag and asked if she could have one for her knitting. I am just not understanding the instructions, I thought it would be quicker second time round. Hope I am not the only one who struggles to recreate projects. Think I might leave it for today and try again tomorrow before I really mess up.

A note to myself

Hello again, it has been a while, my last post was back at the beginning of February, we are now half way through March. Where has the time gone?

This post should be telling you how silly I was to be worried about going to crop and how I managed to complete three, yes three layouts. Admittedly I was not so productive in March's crop but nattering will always win over productivity.

This blog post is going to be something new for me, it will have no photos and I will not be showing you what I have been up to. This blog post is going to be a note to myself, to remind me that I enjoy blogging and reading other peoples blogs and that I do not always have to have something to show. I sometimes find myself struggling with my blog, the technical side of it and also wondering why I am doing it. Well I am doing it for me firstly as a way to document all my craftiness, but does it have to be solely about the craft side of my life? well no, so from now on if I feel like blogging about the fact that it is snowing in the middle of March I am going to. This might mean that from now on that might be a few more blog posts.

Hope there is somebody out there enjoying this wintery weather because I am glad I am tucked up inside and thinking about lighting the fire. Afernoon of crochet bliss I think.

Bye for now x