December in Pictures: Frosty Leaves, Festive Fun & a New Home

It was rather quiet on my blog this December because I was a) busy getting ready to move, then b) moving house, and then c) doing lots of DIY in my new flat... but I also got up to some fun stuff and shared pictures! Wanna see?

I started the month in true Instagrammer / blogger style, by almost missing my train because I'd stopped to take photos of some frosty leaves. Totally worth it.

I got some gorgeous post from one of my (then) blog sponsors, in thanks for hosting their ad. How sweet is that? The adorable bunny brooch is by illustrator Emma Evans. 

I spent most of the start of December packing ready to move house, and ticking lots of other things off my "stuff that needs to get done before I can move" checklist. That bunny brooch got packed within hours of me taking that photo!

Of course, I couldn't resist squeezing in a couple more local Nice Days Out before moving away from the South-East. I spent a busy day in London, doing some Christmas shopping and oohing over all the festive loveliness (the lights, the shop windows and all the sparkly things for sale).

This is the swoonworthy flower stall in one of Harrods' food halls. It was such fun picking out delicious gifts for friends and family, umming and ahhing over all the loveliness.

 
I can never resist popping into the haberdashery department when I'm in Liberty. Not least because they're still selling my book! So thrilling.

My second last-Nice-Day-Out-before-I-move-away was a trip to Windsor. They had a gorgeous Christmas tree this year - a gift from the German town where Queen Victoria's husband Albert was born. Victoria and Albert popularised the idea of Christmas trees in Britain, and apparently Albert had his first tree at Windsor shipped in from his home town!

Windsor Castle is always a wonderful place to visit, but especially so at Christmas. It's quieter in the off-season, and the Castle is decorated with wreaths and garlands and Christmas trees, including a huge tree in the main hall.

 

I had a marvelous bit of luck, as it turned out that the only day I could manage to get away to Windsor for the day was not only wonderfully sunny (yay!) but it was also part of a special festive weekend of events at the Castle (hurrah!). There were choirs singing carols, ornament-making workshops, and a very funny "pop-up Panto". So much fun!

I also really enjoyed Fashioning a Reign, an exhibition of some of the Queen's outfits. Some of the embroidery and beading was quite incredible.

Back at home, I wrapped all my Christmas gifts super early so I could leave them at my parents house (to save carting them back and forth as I moved house then headed "home" for a family Christmas). Isn't the gift wrap gorgeous? It's not technically Christmas wrap, but who cares!

I totally dropped the ball on Christmas cards this year (I didn't send a single one! and I love sending Christmas cards!) but at least I managed this.

Before my unplanned blogging break I finished blogging about my trip to Leeds (so much great architecture!) and my day in Oxford with Polly. This is one of my favourite photos from that Oxford trip: a quiet corner of All Souls College.

 
I also blogged about the felt Christmas baubles tutorial I'd designed for the Village Haberdashery's blog. It feels a teeny bit pointless linking to a Christmas tutorial in January, but maybe you could bookmark it (or Pin it!) and make some felt baubles for Christmas 2017?

Then in the middle of December I moved to the seaside! Into my very own flat!

I'm really happy to be living in the South-West again (I love it here and had missed it a lot), and it's very exciting having my own place.

I shared this photo a few days after moving in: I might not have had a cooker or a fridge yet (or much proper furniture!) but I did have all the important stuff, like piles of colourful handmade blankets.

Seriously though, it has been such a joy finally using these blankets in my new home.

There's my Happy Rainbow Blanket (which I still need to take "finished" photos of!), a Giant Granny Square blanket (the first and only thing I have ever crocheted), my Sky Blanket, and my Random Squares blanket (which includes squares I knitted as a teenager). Each of these blankets contain so much meaning and so many memories, and they're all so wonderfully colourful. I love them.

It's also been really nice rediscovering some of the things I've had in storage for the past few years. I missed these plates rather a lot - isn't the pattern lush?

After a couple of busy weeks of moving boxes and doing DIY it was time to head to my parents house for Christmas. These are a choir of singing trees from the Christmas at Kew light trail I visited with my mum back in November; the trees lit up as they "sang". Delightful!

We had a lovely quiet Christmas - just how we like it. We watched lots of films and some Christmas telly and ate far too much food.

These are the excellent gifts I got for Christmas: the Ghostbusters remake on DVD (which I made my family watch immediately; such a great film!) and a Chocolate Orange (yum!).  

Aaaand that's it for another month!

I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me. You'll also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

A Walk along the Jubilee River

Today is one of those gloomy winter days when you go to put the light on, only to find that it's already on. Rather depressing!

So, I thought today would be a great day to share some photos from a very sunny walk I took a couple of months ago. Sadly you can't get a Vitamin D fix from just looking at pictures, but I hope you'll enjoy these sunshine-filled pics anyway...

Back in the middle of November, we had a day of such unexpectedly gorgeous weather that it seemed totally wrong to sit indoors. So, I took advantage of my flexible schedule (definitely one of the perks of being self-employed!) and took a few hours off work to go for a walk with my dad.

As it was such a bright, clear day we expected it to be chilly and wrapped up warm, but actually the day was so mild we didn't even need our gloves. No fumbling with camera buttons with frozen fingers, hurrah!

We went for a walk along the Jubilee River, which flows through the countryside near where my parents live. It's actually not a river at all but a man-made flood relief channel connecting to the Thames. It's been planted and managed to encourage wildlife, and is now a lovely place for a walk or to go bird spotting. 

It was so peaceful, and so beautiful - and so blue!

We walked along the path down one side of the water, then crossed one of the bridges - stopping in the middle to admire the views, of course. 

 

Everywhere we looked there was something interesting to see: flocks of birds, vibrant autumn colours, long grasses, bushes full of red berries. 

And that light. So gorgeous.

On the other side of the river we passed some grazing cattle, who also seemed to be enjoying their afternoon.

 Can you see the silhouette of Windsor Castle off in the distance? 

Eventually we reached another bridge, crossed over the glorious blue again and headed back towards the car with our hearts full of gladness.

 

 

 

Not the fanciest of Nice Days Out - just a simple walk, chatting with my dad - but a special one all the same.

July in Pictures: Lots of Flowers, Infinite Pumpkins, a Giant Ice Cream and a Very Long Walk

July was pretty busy! Let's take a look at what I got up to...

At the start of the month I went to Windsor and walked all the way along the Long Walk and back. It was a rather long way (and, I'm not gonna lie, I kinda regretted the decision two thirds of the way along) but 100% worth it for this fabulous view back to the Castle.

I wrote some letters and cards to my friends and penpals and shared a pic of some of the lovely snail mail I'd recently received (is there anything nicer than getting a bit of happy mail?). 

I went to London for the day and came back with treats: a gorgeous mini tray from Liberty (in my all time fave Liberty print) and a book from Daunt Books. I was supposed to be sticking to a tight budget in July (and mostly succeeded!) but couldn't resist these lovelies, both of which I've had my eye on for simply ages.

In the evenings, I was working on a couple of personal projects including a tiny scarf for a polar bear! The bear is one of Alicia Paulson's charming felt ornament patterns. I've been slooooowly making these since buying a bundle of her kits a few years ago (too many projects, too little time!) and have re-started them in the hope that I will actually have some finished in time for Christmas this year.

Those super skinny knitting needles belonged to my late grandmother. It's always quite moving using her old tools to make stuff - I actually wrote about this a couple of years ago.

I also started something new: an embroidery project inspired by the late great website The Toast. I have a friend who loved the site, so I decided to stitch her something inspired by one of its unofficial mottoes. I had so much fun stitching this and posted lots of in-progress pics... I'll be blogging about it in more detail soon :)

In the middle of the month I went to see the incredible Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery. The mirror rooms were particularly amazing. You only got about 30 seconds in each room but it was totally worth it (and I was lucky to visit when the exhibition was quiet - I heard people were queuing for over two hours in the final week!).

This piece is called "All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins". "Chandelier of Grief" was also amazing.  

Later that week I went on a photo-taking-tour of London with Kate and friends. We visited lots of Art Deco stations on the Piccadilly Line oohing over architectural details, taking lots and lots of photos, and generally having a lovely, happy, nerdy day out.

This is my favourite station of the day, the gorgeous seven-sided ticket hall at Hounslow West. The staff were most perplexed by us all showing up with our cameras, so it's clearly a hidden gem

Back at home, the garden was looking lovely in the sunshine. How amazing are these hydrangeas?? Like the hydrangeas, I wilt a little in the heat and neither of us was especially happy in the mini heatwave we had in late July. I spent a lot of time in the shadiest place I could find and ate a lot of ice cream!

The new issue of Mollie Makes came out, which was exciting because it includes three projects designed by me (yay!). Click here to read more about my makes for this issue.

I spent a lot of July working on felt flower patterns for my shop. I will, of course, be blogging about the patterns when they're ready for sale... in the meantime there's lots of felt to cut out and sew, photographs to take and edit, instructions to type up and proofread, templates to draw and label, etc etc etc.

Cutting out lots of flower pieces means a big pile of colourful felt scraps! I love the sculptural look of these.

In between working on my new patterns, I took a day off and went to Cookham to visit the Stanley Spencer Gallery (click here to see a snippet from my train journey through the countryside!).

I spent a very relaxing couple of hours exploring the village (expect a blog post as soon as I've got my photos edited!) and discovered that (contrary to my previous belief) you CAN have too much ice cream when I accidentally ordered the world's largest Mr Whippy (oops). I tried to finish it but, sadly, it defeated me.

At the end of long days of crafty work you might think the last thing I'd want to do is more crafting, but you'd be wrong. In the last week of July I kept myself entertained in the evenings by adding some more stitches to my ongoing "using up my scrappy leftover bits of embroidery thread" cross stitch project...

... and sewing together some of the white squares for my mini patchwork squares blanket. I've got lots more squares to knit (then sew together) - I must remember to buy some more white yarn!

I finished the month working on more flowers. These are just some of the samples I'm stitching for my new patterns. I want to make my tutorials as useful as possible so I'm including lots of variations and project ideas along with the basic pattern... which means lots of pieces to cut and sew.

I'm really pleased with how these patterns are coming together, I can't wait until they're finished so I can do the big reveal and finally get them listed in my shop (and get started on the other ideas I've got in my sketchbook!).

Knitting, sewing, cross stitch... art, walks, architecture... flowers, nice post and tasty ice cream. All in all, July turned out to be a pretty good month :)

I'll share another Instagram round-up next month. I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me.

May in Pictures: Secret Sewing, a Vintage Funfair, Mini Blanket Squares, and Royal Ice Cream

Time for another round-up of pics from my Instagram feed. What did I get up to in May?

At the start of the month it was straight back to work after my trip to Northumberland, as I had a couple of looming deadlines. These are some of the leftovers from a few hours hard stitching. One pair of scissors is for cutting paper, another for fabric and another for threads and small pieces of felt.

It can be frustrating not being able to share what I'm making, but at least I can show you some of the yummy supplies I've been using! Working on a couple of embroidered pieces means choosing just the right shades of thread (floss) - luckily I have lots to choose from:

 

One project involved this cheerful rainbow of felt, floss and thread.

 

After meeting one deadline, I got to stretch my legs and blow out the cobwebs with a happy morning spent exploring Bristol (one of my very favourite places). There's always interesting street art to see in Bristol!

I also went to see an exhibition at the city museum, and visited a really gorgeous little church: St John the Baptist, which is known locally as St John on the Wall because it's built into the old city walls. I lived in Bristol for years but had never been inside this church before - it's no longer used for services but it's opened by volunteers so visitors can look round. I loved this fading rose on one of the outer walls:
 

 
That weekend Carters Steam Fair was in town, which proved a perfect post-deadline treat. Carters is a vintage travelling funfair - all the equipment they use (the rides, caravans, lorries, etc) has been lovingly restored and beautifully hand-painted. It's a really magical experience! Click here to see where the fair will be visiting this summer.

 

 

With those deadlines met, I had a bit more spare time for crafting in the evenings and devoted some time to working on my happy rainbow blanket. 

Having nearly finished the blanket I was itching to start something new. I have approximately a gazillion projects already in progress, you understand, but I cannot resist the siren song of a new project! This vintage pattern (from a 1950s craft magazine) was originally designed for use with tapestry wool, but I'm thinking about using a mix of felt and embroidery to make something really colourful. I just need to pick a colour palette... decisions, decisions...

Now that I'd finished knitting the rainbow blanket squares, I also needed a new go-to easy project to pick up at the end of a long day when I want something simple and relaxing to work on. So, I've started knitting the many, many white squares I'll need to complete my mini patchwork blanket. Someone on Instagram commented that this looks like a T-Rex and you know, I totally see it!



My resolution to send more Proper Post is going well. I couldn't resist this sheet of cute postage stamps to cheer up my letters. These animal shapes are designed to fold over the edge of an envelope so they look like they're clinging on. Super cute, huh? These will be so much fun to send (and, I hope, to receive!).

 

In the middle of the month I had a super busy Nice Day Out in London with a friend. We went to so many places! And saw so much cool stuff! I'll be blogging about all the awesomeness we saw another time (sooooo much awesomeness) but I couldn't resist sharing a few snaps. London is filled with so much amazing stuff.

 

I also took an impromptu trip to nearby Windsor to visit Windsor Castle with my dad. As local(ish) residents we get into the Castle for free, but my dad hadn't been for years and years. Windsor is always a gorgeous place to visit, and we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard ceremony (complete with bagpipes!). Before heading home, we treated ourselves to some ice cream and I was delighted by how fancy the tub was (just look at that gold! plus: ice cream from royal cows!).

My dad laughed at me a lot for taking this photo :)

 
In the evenings I continued to work on finishing my happy rainbow blanket, and I finally finished sewing in all the yarn ends! Hurrah! I am beyond thrilled with the finished blanket and really need to try and get it photographed asap so I can share some pics with you all. Blankets are such a pain to photograph - I am used to making and photographing much smaller things! - but I will get it sorted soon, I swear.

Now that my rainbow blanket is finished my go-to relaxing project is my mini squares blanket (the one with the colourful chart, above). I have a LOT of white squares to knit before this baby is finished but - luckily - the joy of this project is the process. Simple, repetitive knitting (and then sewing, when the squares get joined together and all those ends get woven in) is just the ticket at the end of a long, busy day. I switch my brain off and let my hands get making!

 

Instagram - and blogging, and all the other places we share our crafty photos online - is so often about the carefully curated photograph. Take the mess out of shot, artfully arrange things, crop and edit carefully. So it was lovely to see the #DSCandid hashtag pop up in my feed - a challenge from Grace Bonney of Design Sponge to share an unedited, honest photo from your creative life.

So, I took a photo of the view from my desk of my slightly overcrowded studio/office. Lately my space has been serving as a bedroom, laundry room, TV room and storage space for DIY supplies, packing materials and lots of kids toys rescued from our attic. It's also where my niece sleeps when we're babysitting. I still have space to work and make stuff, just a lot less than usual! :)

Right at the end of the month my making was focused on flowers, specifically poppies:

If you're a long-term reader of my blog you'll recognise this design as one I used to sell in my shops. I've been meaning to get the pattern written up for simply ages, and have finally made a start on doing so...

 

... with a furry fellow keeping me company while I work!

Then BAM it was June!* 2016 is going by so fast it is slightly scary.

Wanna follow me on Instagram? I'm lauralupinhoward over there!

*I also took part in a "Day in the Life" challenge at the end of May... but I'll blog about that another time because, frankly, this post is long enough already :)

UPDATE: My poppy design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns