Just a quick line to let you all know, I am now on Pinterest @amandawheeldon
See you there :) xx 

Gingerbread house appliqué

Just had the pleasure of testing a rather sweet appliqué for a talented designer over on ravelry
Look out for it it be on sale very soon! 

I have also been making a couple of squares.... One I started on holiday, and finished when I got home... It was a busy week...

And another just I do plan on acculumalating them and hopefully one day,assemble them into a blankie !

Isn't it a gorgeous square .... You can find this pattern over on ravelry x 

I never gave up designing just don't have a suitable PDF programme for this gadget of mine.

I know it's been quite a while since I blogged also, life has been hectic,busy,trying in places.

Nothing new there.

My owl square has been popular and is still very much active over on ravelry also,

You can find it here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/its-a-hoot-2

With help from the ladies of sibol  we made a couple of blankies and donated them to sibol.

I did issue the pattern free of charge for those embarking on helping with the squares needed to make them. You can follow our journey on the various sibol pages/groups websites. 

Here was the second one we completed, hard to see the true beauty of it, but the background colour was a gorgeous sparkly pink fushia, echoed with purple tones as the border,

The woman from all over the world did a fantastic job with the square itself,

I just love receiving the squares as each one is unique to the individual making it,

Making it a unique blankie, so ladies if you're checking in, taking a peek, stumbled across this THANKYOU! 

Yesterday was my birthday, don't they sail round quickly these days..I held a dinner party for my nearest and dearest, and had a blast,I hope to share many more adventures with you very soon,

Until then thank you for popping by, much love Amanda x 

Happy camping

Another year has sailed around sooooo quickly!
Oh what fun... But oh soo wet
Trust us to go to the highest point in Cornwall, notorious for heavy rainfall :/
Good for testing & reviewing tents don't you think!
So where did we go...

Lanyon park four lanes RedRuth

A beautiful well laid out campsite, with a club room and heated swimming pool

Housed within a extended conservatory.

The pitches are separated by neat hedges, giving you that unique private separated pitch.

They are generous in size and extra tents can be added free of charge providing you can pitch on the same allotted pitch.. Totally awesome

And the tent...

We went with family and used their tent which is a Coleman's tunnel 6 man tent 

They purchased the extra extending canopy which comes in extremely handy when used as a sheltered cooking area.

 Now we have been sharing this tent for the last couple of years and in the same location so I guess

That puts us in an excellent position for reviewing this tent! 

Extremely spacious with room for standing, now we don't do the normal camping camping experience,

We you could say do glamping ( luxurious camping) with TV heating and all mod cons allowable within regulations.

The rooms consist of two doubles at the back and a double where you could if needed take away and use as an extended front porch area.. I have seen this in it's first year of use, and it's fabulous.

We fit 4 camp chairs in quite comfortably keeping in mind all the mod cons we had,

We used the front double bedroom (the bit you could remove) which is spread across the width of the tent. 

Allowing that extra foot room for storing your bags! Quite clever.

Our family used the two back doubles one for sleeping the other for bag storage etc 

(Only 4 of us went see) 

Onto the holiday itself... It rained!,

Heavy.... For almost the entire week haha 

There is one good thing about Cornwall, you can drive out and usually find a dry sunny area,

We've been doing this for years,

We find a good what we call base camp and explore the surrounding areas,

And there are some beautiful areas to explore all within driving distance of this site.

Lands end, Falmouth, Truro, Newquay, perranporth, etc etc 

Back to the tent, tents are usually designed with a certain amount of rainfall that they can withstand without leaking, and for a certain amount of seasons as they put it.

We have only used it for the summer once each year does  that count hehe 

Anyway I believe this was its 4th year of use good don't you think! We do 

unfortunately it did leak a little year... But the rain... Oh the rain... Was heavy and torrential 

Quite positively the heaviest week of rainfall for a while the locals said .... Trust us

Anyway that didn't dampen our holiday,

 it was just obvious it was probably ready for re proving as they call it, a lick of waterproof spray,

We re-pegged the storm guy ropes, mopped out the wet areas and happily avoided the same flooding for the rest of the week,

Leaving us with just minor leakage, the key is to not let anything touch the outer material...

With heavy wind sometimes it can't be avoided hence the minor leakage,

All in all considering it's age a blooming good tent! 

We did have a fabulous holiday even managed to get regrettably sunburnt on one day!

As you can see we had a little problem with our exhaust, (exhausts don't agree with us) lol

But what a fabulous memorable holiday! 

Testers needed

Hello and welcome back to Manda's challenges
I am looking for a few testers willing to test run a new pattern for me over on Ravelry
I hope i have improved my pattern writing skills and just need this confirming along with pics of finished objects,

Please consider thank you x Available 1st sept 

Olympic joy

Hellllllllooooooooooooooooooo,(waves)  and welcome back to manda's challenges :)
Just a general post today as it's been a wee while don't you think ~~~~der dum de dum de dum haha
Sooo what have i been up to ?? well let's see~
I participated in the Ravellenic Games whilst the Olympics was in full swing... oh yes i only managed to enter one event but it was very worthy hehe
Wrestling Wip's oooooh i hear the gasps :)
yes i chose to unearth a piece of work i should have got finished ages agoooooooooooo.
A hell of a lot of ooooh's on the go today haha adds to the suspense me thinks haha i am feeling mischievousness i guess it's seeping out in my writing haha
Pics you want a few pics ? let's do it :)

 oooh do you remember the Japanese flower shawl i started way back here takes you back a lil bot doesn't it.
You know i don't quite know why i didn't pursue it as it's gorgeous, other than i get bored easily oops
Bit of  joke in the family that crochet is the only hobby i've had so far that's lasted longer than a year!! it's true,
guess i must be enjoying stretching my capabilities and producing pretty loving things that i know somewhere will be cherished.
ooh remember that lacy waistcoat i made i still love it!! look i wore it a wedding !!

my step brother's wedding bless him well did i do it justice i hope so as i was called on for a sister brothers snap eek!
aww all fun :)
what else has been keeping me busy ooh well let's see naturally the olympic games being hosted in Great Britain was a real buzz and not living too far away from one of the venue's (sailing) meant that excitement was bound to be an all time high!! ooh yes Olympic fever had hit big time and not even the workplace let up haha

I am very fortunate that the big big boss of my workplace encourages me to go wild at special events and i didn't fail to deliver for the entire games haha a different layout each day from the ring's which caused a little stir amongst the customers who believed i was being naughty but was reassured by my bosses as i wasn't using the exact colours i was ok besides they were sponsoring a particular team ;)
so i also entranced them with a team GB theme a GB theme an Olympic medal theme etc i had fun!!!

Even more fun was had during a special congratulation's Team GB day at work and of course my highlight was having the very special privilege of attending one of the events down at Weymouth a wee drive away :)
the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic, i can't begin to explain the absolute joy every person at that event was happy and united and i was sooo proud, GB wasn't sailing the day we went but we thoughly enjoyed watching and soaking up the whole atmosphere from the countries that were participating that day, Bravo therefore to the Sailing Olympic Teams!!!
And so now trying to compose once more (unlikely the Paraolympics are just days away!! )
i thought i'd leave you with a floral pics :)

i bought a new camera so officially back enjoying my snapping away once more :)
Until next time my lovelies take good care of yourselves xx
ooh i'm on twitter now!! feel free to follow @mandawheeldon  or linky   

Pretty Lacy Waistcoat #2 :)

Hello and welcome back to Manda's Challenge's :)
Well i'm rather proud of myself peep's ~yes i am
following the giving away of the beautiful lacy waistcoat i knew i would'nt be happy
until i'd made one for myself.
So upon searching through my stash i came across a bag of white cotton blend yarn called Kon-Tiki
now this is now discontinued the best to my knowledge so there really was no room for short measures eek
i had 7 balls of 50g and given my guesstimate of 250g i believed i might just have enough........
(you guessed it, it's not the g of the ball but the yardage that truely counts whoops)
Never had i ever given any thought to the above quote,
Still believing with 7 balls i had plenty, i set about at record speed with my waistcoat :)
I was also reading a particular trilogy hot in the UK right now and just had to get back to it hehe ;) 
Day 1 i had reached and done the first couple of rows on the fan pattern! 
told you i was working at record speed (besides i'd made it once and it was lovely and fresh in my mind !)
Anyway without further ado i got back from work the following day and finished of to a level i was with given the yarn i had left and declared finished!!!!! 
Something was niggling me the fit was perfect! but the length was not quite what i wanted, i've put a few pounds on from an 8-10, to a 14-16 now so conscious self was kicking in slightly, i try to banish conscious thoughts as i know at a size 8-10 i looked ill and had done for several years so call it a battle with one's own mind, but i just wanted a tad longer you understand don't you :)
This morning on scouring through my stash box i came across some remnants of the white kon-tiki i had used on previous projects and was confident there was plenty to do just a couple more rows :) 
so i give you another tadahhh My lacy waistcoat :)

  
hubby took a few pics bless him it is hard trying to get a pic on your own lol and even harder when hubby's got the phone (i do miss my camera)
So there we have it finally my own finished garment!! yay!!!!!! 


Now i am really really pleased, and i do have a couple of buttons in the shape of rosebuds to adorn it with but ....... its very white and summery don't you think
Summer in the UK this year has so far been non existent  so now i'm looking for something in preparation for the autumn winter months haha 
(no i'm not joking or holding much hope for sunny days,)
so any suggestions are welcomed (remembering of course i'm new to this garment malarkey haha
and i like pretty not much of a challenge hey!! hehe 


moving swiftly on i just have to show you my new picture for the lounge :)

typically England don't you thing i love it it goes brilliantly with my union jack cushions and keep calm accessories :)

and hanging on the washing line today we have camping granny!! do you remember me making that!!
ooh happy memories such a joy to see it blowing in the breeze.

Ahhh until next time time my lovelies take good care of yourselves xxxxxx

Tadahhhh clothing!!

Can you believe it........ i can't!   welcome back my lovelies :)
For a while now i've been pondering on the thought of working a garment, an actual wearable piece of crochet.
O.k i'd made a poncho before and i was very proud of that indeed but it was always niggling at the back of my mind of one day making a cardigan.
 Family members would comment on my yarn saying how it would look nice as a cardi and   I would always respond with ooh no i can't make clothing sorry.


Well the weekend i decided that i would have a good try with maybe a  sleeveless version first hehe 
I scoured through the many patterns available on Ravelry and selected the most gorgeous lacy waistcoat! 
Garnstudio~Drops waistcoat
I loved it! now all i had to do was decipher the pattern haha
Not that easy when you've never followed a garment pattern before. i read it over and over and i thought i would never be able to work it out,
I went back to the projects pages that other people had completed on ravelry and practically read all the informative notes people had wrote.
I picked up the pattern once more and this time decided to just go for it !
Coloured pencil at hand i grabbed the tape measure did the necessary bust measurement and deciphered from the many numbers where i should be hi lighting, did the swatch gauge thing  enough times that i dropped from a 3.5mm recommended hook down to a 2.5mm.
Surely i had all the ammunition i needed haha
hook in hand, numbers hi-lighted i set off , i won't deny these instruction's to a complete beginner to clothing were a little confuddling!
but before long  i was winning here see :

i'll be the first to admit that reading over & over  became very much a necessity there was a part in the instruction's where i thought i was going out my mind trying to muster grrrr any way i did and it did work quite quickly considering hehe

this is where it said to random increases along your work never said where just add 32 sts evenly haha so this is what i come up i used yarn as st markers :) increased when i got to a piece and removed it moving onto the next :)
The pattern rows were very simple and easy to remember, i just had to remember to stop at a certain length and move up to treble crochet sts

Excuse the pj's haha but it was just a side angle pic hehe it turned out too big for me by a good 6 " so i took it into work for my sister in law to try and it was too small for her but fit my friend perfectly so she's having it :) which means i have to still do a garment for me hahahahahahahaha

Until next time my lovelies, take good care of yourselves xxxxx

just for fun a pic from the race  for life hehe you just got to guess which one is me hehe

big clue
bum bag hahaha enjoy xxxx