The Fairies are Staying, Birthdays and Burglaries

 It's been a quiet week for us, Imogen was away for the week in the Peak District having fun with the NCS (national citizen service), which I heartily recommend for any teenagers who are 15 to 17. Adam and his family were also on holiday for the week near Great Yarmouth, so no babysitting duties for us either.

We had a lovely day out during the week, went for a drive to Scarborough. We visited the most enormous fabric shop, which left me feeling very spoilt and went for a lovely stroll to breath in all that good for you salty sea air. The views are amazing in both directions.

We passed this rather large gentleman on a bench looking out to sea.

Andy posing for scale

I tried to take a photo of the information next to him, but you have to enlarge it to read it. It tells you a little of who Freddie was, born in a mining village, went to war and how he went into Belsen concentration camp on his 21st birthday and saw horrors that we can't even imagine, how every year he cried on his birthday as he remembered those poor souls and grieved for their dreadful suffering.

It's also been a big week for our little grandson, not only on his first holiday, but he also celebrated his first birthday... gosh that went quickly! I embroidered a bib for him to wear while eating his birthday meals, but we saved his presents for when he came home so parents wouldn't have to take them all the way there and back in the already packed car.

Little Zack had no idea of course that it was his birthday, but had a wonderful day playing with mummy, daddy and his big sister and was exhausted by bed time.

Unfortunately on Friday morning before leaving to come home, my son had a phone call to say they'd been burgled during the night. We're so upset for them, they came home to the whole house being upside down from all the cupboards and drawers being emptied out. All their electrical goods were stolen, but the worse thing was Holly's jewellery. It's probably worthless as it's mainly costume jewellery, but it's priceless to Holly as it belonged to her beloved nana who sadly died last year. What an awful end to their lovely family break, but they're going to remember it as the holiday that Zack turned 1 rather than the holiday when they were burgled.

I've had time to spend in my craft room and made a little toadstool house for the fairies to come and stay in when they visit. After baking the clay, I glued it on a large stone from the beach. I did enjoy making it and definitely want to experiment and make more.

Also a little seahorse (I do love seahorses), just need to thread some of my gorgeous velvet blue ribbon through it so it can be worn as a pendant.

 I'm so glad the weather has cooled down a bit and we've even had some rain which we badly needed. It's been a funny summer, but a good one.


Take care
xxx

Hexies and Buzzy Bees

I've had a lovely piece of post curtesy of my wonderful husband. It arrived very nicely packaged

It always makes it enjoyable when you can see how much trouble the seller has gone to to make it look so pretty, it feels so much more personal.

It was a very cute sewing box that looks like a bee hive

Little embroidered bees, honeycomb and pretty flowers.

 Andrew says I need it for storage and actually it's a bit smaller than he thought it was going to be but I love it when I 'need' things, heheh.

I've put it to very good use already. I've been wanting to do some English paper piecing for quite a long time, just never got round to it (so many crafts, so little time). I don't have a big project on the go at the moment, so it seemed a good idea to get started on one. I have done paper piecing before, but it was decades ago, so I refreshed myself with this book.

I had lots of paper hexagons that had been free gifts with magazines. Popped a small table up in the conservatory (lots of natural daylight), pinched some of Imogen's paperclips, found some white basic cotton for basting...

there's lots of pretty fabric to be used

I was ready to start. I cut lots of pieces of fabric and clipped it round my little hexies, then basted the hexie careful not to sew through the paper. I found the whole process to be very relaxing, quite therapeutic.

I'm quite pleased with my little hexie, it looks quite pretty.

I'm onto a different fabric now. I plan to make a big quilt, so envision this to be a long term project, one I can dip back in and out of while still doing my crochet and felting.

Everything fits very nicely into my new crafting box (though I don't think it will once I start putting all the hexies together) and it's easy to transport to whichever room I want to sit in.

 It's Mother'sDay tomorrow here in the UK, so happy mother's day to all the mums out there.

Take care
xxx

12 Days of Christmas Swap

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments on my last post, it's so wonderful to be able to share this special news and my excitement with you all.

Unfortunately I'm still ill and now my poor husband has caught it too. We sound like a right pair coughing and groaning, I'm expecting someone to ring a bell outside while shouting 'unclean, unclean'. I'm pleased say that our sweet daughter has recovered after bringing these germs into the house and is back at school. This is the second time that Imogen has been ill in the school holidays and passed it on. It always seems to knock me for six so I've told her I plan to wear face masks during her next illness!

I took part in Jo's (Through the Keyhole) 12 days of Christmas swap again this year. I was paired with Jo from Angel Jem's City Cottage. I already read Jo's blog so it was fun to go and look for swap presents for her and to make some too.

I made Jo a felt angel and a couple of brooches

I tried to use angels and hygge as my inspiration.

In return, Jo sent me a lovely parcel, which was put away to help me resist any temptation so I could enjoy opening a gift each evening. So many lovely things...

My daughter has claimed the Snowbites!

We love playing family games, so this card quiz was a hit

Such cute little salt and pepper dogs, I love them, some cross stitch to keep me busy and a lovely Christmas embroidery by Jo.

What a cute scrubbing brush! I love, love, love the coaster, what a thoughtful gift.

Thank you Jo for the lovely gifts, I really enjoyed opening them. Thank you to Through the Keyhole Jo for organising this brilliant swap again.

Take care
xxx

Rainy Days and Caterpillars

Oh my goodness, I don't think it's stopped raining all day. It hasn't been the best August weather wise, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the lack of sunshine as it draws to a close.

 Absolutely teeming down as you can see in the photo above. Not a day for venturing out, more of a curl up with some magazines or a good book kind of day. Perhaps time to open my new notebook and fill it with my plans, wishes, hopes and dreams...

I really didn't think I could justify buying a new notebook (I love stationery), but look how beautiful it is, the embroidered birds and flowers, almost too good to open and start writing in!

A new notebook should surely have a new pen too. See the owls, so cute.

 Maybe one of the things I write in my notebook could be some plans for the garden next year after our disaster this summer. We planted some Sprouts and Broccoli in our raised bed

 We just forgot the hordes of butterflies who would visit us

Next year... netting, lots of netting

I think there're so many caterpillars that they may run out of leaf to eat!

Take care
xxx

British Wool Show

Still enjoying the school summer holidays, we seem to have packed quite a bit in. After going out every day for a couple of weeks it left me feeling a strong need to spend time at home and in the garden (my favourite places really).

One of the places we visited was the British Wool Show in York.

It's held every year over 2 days to celebrate British wool. They had everything, knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, felting, cross stitch, embroidery... workshops were held throughout the day too so new skills could be learnt.

So much talent and skill, so much to look at. The felt art was absolutely amazing and would not have looked out of place in any art gallery.

These hats were amazing

The artist busy making them

I managed to to do a bit of felting in one of the workshops - we made a felted chicken (though mine may have been more pigeon looking)

While I was busy trying not to stab myself with those barbed felting needles (there were plasters on the table), my very patient husband wondered round with the camera...

I thought these seasonal scenes were stunning and treated myself to a kit

Knowing my love of dolls and all things crafty, Andrew surprised me with one of these hand crafted Waldorf dolls. She now sits in my old Victorian dolls pram.

I thought this felted fox was wonderful.

So many gorgeous hand dyed skeins of wool... you could easy spend a small fortune at this show. I manage to keep myself in check due to the lack of space to put it once it gets home, all my storage is already full to bursting!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, which I'd definitely recommend for next year, perhaps I'll see you there!

Take care
xxx