A day at the beach

Today was the day for our annual Sunday school trip. The last few years we’ve visited the beach at Exmouth, but this year decided to go to Charmouth which is a little closer. Leaving home I was very pesimistic – there were big grey clouds and very little blue sky. But the closer I got to the beach the sunnier it got – hurrah!

I love these houses stacked up on the hill (although I was glad I was driving rather than walking up these hills on my way home!)

We had only been there about 2 minutes before the kids were digging holes and racing the waves. We had a picnic and then some of the kids (with some adult supervision) went fossil hunting. I decided to stay where I was, on my patchwork picnic blanket…

…reading a lovely mag.

I made the picnic blanket a couple of years ago entirely from charity shop finds. The backing is made from a tablecloth, the pink squares are from a shirt and the white and yellow squares are from skirts. And of course, it is topped off with some of my favourite buttons 🙂

The best bit of the day – enjoying time with fantastic friends, and lots of cuddles with a gorgeous Baby Girl. The worst bit of the day – sunburn! I remembered my suncream, but I’m still looking pretty rosy!

Granny’s birthday

Today was Granny’s birthday, so Mum and I spent the day with her. We opened cards and presents (it was my job to peel of the sellotape when she couldn’t get in to the wrapping!) then went out for lunch to Sidmouth Garden Centre. We had a lovely lunch and a little potter around the flowers and gifts before heading out for a drive along the sea front. I’m still playing with my camera, and wondered if I could get any good pictures on ‘sport mode’ as we were driving along (don’t worry, it wasn’t me driving!). The sport mode takes lots of pictures really fast, and some actually came out ok. It’s just a shame the weather wasn’t a little nicer…

This sums up the last couple of weeks really! There were one or two brave people out for a bracing walk along the front, but many more were simply rushing from one place of shelter to the next.

We headed back to Granny’s for more cards and presents and a game of scrabble. Not my favourite game (especially with Mum and Granny who are much better than me!) but it was one of my birthday promises. You see, I was really not inspired for presents this year. I’ve been asking Granny for ages what she’d like, but hadn’t got anywhere. In the end I decided that I’d make some gift certificates for things that I would do with/for her…

These included 2 games of scrabble, a sinkful of washing up, a load of ironing, jobs in the garden and 3 chores of her choice. She loved them, and put me to work straight away dusting the mantlepiece and putting up birthday cards! Here’s the card I made her (obviously including a button!)

This morning I also paid a quick visit to my friends with their new baby. She is just so cute! All little and snuggly and gorgeous. I was so glad they had a girl, as it meant that I found the perfect home for my Baby Granny Blanket.

I had a lovely chat with Little Girl – I asked if Mummy had a boy baby or a girl baby. She replied that it was a girl. So I asked what Baby Girl was called. She replied ‘Moses’! It turns out that Baby Girl is sleeping in a Moses basket, and Little Girl was obviously a little confused! Bless 🙂

Pit stop

Hello! This is a super quick pit stop kind of post as I’m supposed to be planning! Thanks for all the lovely comments on my giveaway (if you’ve not left a comment yet you still have a few days left – just leave a comment at the bottom of this post)

I also wanted to let you know about a giveaway I’ve just entered. The lovely Jenny of Jenny Arnott Textiles has made a beautiful picture of a jug of flowers on a spotty table – it’s just yummy!

Just click on the link above to pop over to Jenny’s blog (it’s well worth a look even if you don’t want to enter the giveaway – although why someone wouldn’t want the chance to win such a beautiful picture I just can’t imagine!)

I’m also really excited as a friend of mine (Little Girl’s Mum) has just had a baby, another girl. I’m so happy for them and my head is now buzzing with ideas of things I can make for their new arrival. I can see that the craft may well take over the planning…

Pretty shoes all in a row

Guess what – I’ve just had my 3000th visitor to my blog! Well, probably not my 3000th visitor, but there have been 3000 viewings – how exciting! Without this sounding too much like an awards ceremony, I’d just like to take a moment to say thanks to you for stopping by to read my ramblings (or at least look at the pictures). It still kind of amazes me that people actually take time out of their day to read about what I’ve been doing. So, thanks for spending some of your precious time here rather than doing something actually useful.

And especially thanks to those of you who comment on my posts. I love to hear from you and you’re very kind to me 🙂 Please continue to let me know what you think of my little projects.

I’ve just been catching up on a little blog reading and came across this great phrase on noelleodesigns…

“the greatest part of being a girl is all the other girls around you and the collective support we can give to each other in every way.”

Your feedback makes me feel like I’m part of a creative group rather than working away alone, giving me feedback about my work and offering some inspiring ideas along the way.

I have to say I just love crafting with others, even more so in actual real life. I had so much fun knitting with the girls last night. Both were brilliant pupils and made great progress (and I’m really quite jealous of I’s wool – it’s just beautiful!) H has been round again today when something went a little funny with her work and she ended up with 3 extra stitches (who hasn’t been there?!) but she’s doing really well. Sadly I didn’t take any photos as we were concentrating so hard on the actual knitting process. But I’ll show you what I managed to finish in between straightening out stitches…

A woolly pot cover! I’ve been seeing these all over blogland recently and was feeling quite left out. So I washed out a veg pot (which still smells slightly oniony, but it’ll pass – I hope) and got crocheting. I love the result, those blue and white stripes make me think of the beach, which therefore makes me think of summer. Good times. It still needs a few flowers but it’s nearly there.

And now to the bit that is actually linked to the title. New shoes!

Just after I posted here a friend contacted me to ask if I actually made the slippers. When I said I did she asked if I’d make a 3-6 month pair for the baby girl she’s expecting. So, after a little googling to find out what size that should be, I came up with these little beauties 🙂 The best part of this story is that baby’s name (for the time being) is Button! How cute is that?

Here are all 3 pairs together…

And just one more…

Pretty!

Anyway, I have to go as H is on her way again for some more knitting fun!

A family weekend

This weekend has been full of family. My Grandad’s brother and sister in law live in Florida and only make a visit every few years, so it’s always special when they visit. Usually their visits are marked with a family get together and this time was no exception. We had a great time together, eating great food, playing football with the kids (they were much better than me, but I loved it anyway!) and generally catching up with everyone. A big topic of discussion was how we were all related to each other – Grandad and his brother were part of a group of 7 cousins, some of whom were there yesterday along with various offspring. So working out cousins (and second cousins and third cousins, and cousins once or twice removed) was a little complicated. Thankfully we had a family tree to help us figure it out. We also had several family photo albums dating back a few generations which were alotof fun to look at!

As I wasn’t driving I managed to get a few rows of my stripy blanket done in the car. I also took it in with me and worked on it while we were chatting. Which prompted two of my aunts to get their work out too! We had a chunky knit jumper and some crochet being worked on. We had a little crochet lesson part way through the afternoon, discussing the ins and outs of starting from a foundation chain and working rows of half trebles – just as I’m doing for my blanket.

The blanket is a great portable project – it doesn’t take up too much space in my bag (at the moment) and doesn’t require a pattern. This weekend it’s been to the family gathering, to my friend’s house while we watched dvds and ate pizza, and to Granny’s house to be worked on after a big roast. The only downside to getting to work on it so often is that I’m running low on some of the colours! Anyway, here it is so far…

I have to say, I wasn’t entirely convinced about the colours when I started, but the more I work on it the more I love it!

After seeing a whole lot of people this weekend I’m now home alone and loving it 🙂 And becuase I have the space to concentrate I’ve got round to finishing the slippers I started the other day. They’re bigger than the ones in the original pattern, and would probably fit a toddler (but I need to try this out, so don’t take my word for it!)

These ones measure approx. 12cm long (the green cotton pair are about 8cm) and are made from Stylecraft Special DK.

I also made a teeny tiny flower to go on the side. Cute, huh?!

My next challenge is to work out how to make them big enough for my feet 🙂

Cotton slippers

Last week I bought a couple of bins. Not for rubbish, but to keep all my yarns in! They had got to the stage of just being everywhere, strewn about the room or in various carrier bags. I really should have got 3 bins, but I have managed to (just about) squeeze most of my stash into 2 – as long as a I have a selection in my stripy work bag it’s all fine. Until I go shopping again.

Anyway, as I was sorting through everything I came across my lovely cottons. I have had some of these for absolutely ages, and get them out to look at every now and again, but usually put them back without doing anything with them. But this time I was determined to actually make something. So I had a little browse through Ravelry.

So many beautiful patterns! I had a look for baby patterns, as I only have small amounts of my cotton yarns, and came across a pattern for a crocheted hat and sock monkey! The link is here, but I’m not sure if you’ll be able to view the page without signing in. If you can’t see the page, sign in to Ravelry and search ‘Sock monkey and baby hat’. I decided to make the hat without ears and added a little flower. Cute!

It looks a slightly odd shape here, but it looks better in real life – honest!

Anyway, after the hat I found some gorgeous patterns for baby slippers. Again, the link is here but if you can’t view the page search ‘Dainty Mary Janes’. They are just beautiful!

 

I’m not sure if I didn’t follow the pattern or something, but as I was taking pictures (and had them next to each other for the first time) I realised that the straps are in different places! So I’m hoping that I’ll have enough yarn to make another ‘pair’ to match up with the 2 I’ve already made. They’re really very tiny – only about 8cm long. Here is one on my hand to give you an idea of the size…

The flowers are actually in place of buttons. The strap has a loop on the end as a button hole.

I wanted to see if I could make similar but bigger, so I’m playing around with different yarns and numbers of stitches in an attempt to see if I can make it work. I’ll hopefully show you the results soon 🙂

Spring has sprung

As much as I love the school I’ve been working in this week, it was wonderful not to have to get up so early this morning! But my body clock is still set to ‘early’ so was up and about and ready to leave for the beach before the weather warmed up.

Not only was it not warm, it was crazyily foggy. On the journey over there was a brief sunny spell at the very top of a tall hill, but mostly couldn’t see 100 yards ahead of me. But I actually don’t mind fog and mist – I think it makes everything look quite magical.

By the time I arrived in Seaton the mist was starting to clear ever so slightly, but the cliffs were still shrouded in mist and looked just lovely.

Anyway, after a lovely walk and a journal update over a cup of tea, I headed to the fabric shop. It was a rather more rushed visit than I would have liked, but my time was nearly up in the car park. But I did managed to grab a few bargains and came home with some beautiful fabrics:

These were £1 each in the bargain basket – bargain indeed! The spotty one is a waterproof fabric (like the sort of thing you would use to cover a table if you have children!) and not entirely sure what I’ll do with it, but perhaps a purse? Will ponder on that.

 

This lovely, springy green was the end of a roll and reduced to half price 🙂

And as I was getting ready to pay, I spied a whole lot of other rolls under the counter, and couldn’t resist these three – so lovely!

Edit to add: I was in a rush when I published this – I’d written it earlier in the afternoon but couldn’t get the photos to load. Then only remembered about it 10 minutes before I left the house! So didn’t show you my final photo of the afternoon.

I made this bunting probably about a year ago, but Mum wanted to give bunting as a gift for a new baby, and this seemed to be great colours for a boy. So I used magic transfer paper to print ‘Joshua’, ironed it on to the flags and ta-dah – personalised baby bunting!