Happy Halloween

 

Hope everyone has a great Halloween.  The photo was taken at Woodthorpe Garden Centre last week.

 

See you soon.

Yarn Along

I am on top of everything for the Wedding and for Christmas with the exception of a few bits I am unable to show on the blog as I have daughters who follow.  So finally  I am free to catch up with some reading and crochet for myself.  I have started to crochet a throw which I intend to surround the main colour block with granny squares to match the cushions previously made.  I am not putting any pressure on myself I intend just to do a couple of rows here and there in between other projects.

The lighting is not good so it isn't showing a true colour, there are some beautiful flecks going through the main colour which I intend to highlight in the granny squares.

I am currently reading A Different Kind of Love by Sheelagh Kelly.  I have only just started to read it but already is has captured my interest it surely seems to be what it claims a  gripping saga of love, loss and hope in wartime.

 

I am once again joining in with Ginny over at Small Things for the yarn-along.gsheller.com/2014/10/yarn-along-200.

 

See you soon

Wedding Confetti

The final pieces for the wedding have been completed, with 4 whole weeks to spare.  I am thrilled with it all and so pleased that I have managed to do everything that my daughter and her future husband wanted.

The confetti cones and basket are complete and so for the big reveal, drum roll please....





 

 

They just need to be filled, she has chosen dried hydrangea which should be wonderful.

 

The menu cards, the church order of service and seating plan are at the printers so everything  is coming together perfectly.  She had her final dress fitting on Friday and all the food choices have now been made,  we are all prepared and ready for the big day...

 

See you soon.

Blogger Award

I was awarded a very inspiring blogger award recently by annasimplecrochet.blogspot.co.uk/ who makes some inspirational doilies and is a very talented woman.  Whilst I was very appreciative of the award it is also a worry as I am unable to chose who to pass the award on to.  I read and admire many blogs who are all inspirational in their own ways.  I have therefore decided to nominate all my followers for the award for you to do what you want with it.

In the spirit of the award I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself:

1.  Family is the most important things in my life.
2.  I am a loyal friend.
3.  I love to craft and create in many ways using a variety of materials.
4.  My favourite colour is green.
5.  I have 4 sisters and 1 brother.
6.  I was born in York but have lived all over the world.
7.  We are trying to fulfil our dream of moving to the Isle of Lewis.

Hope you all have a wonderful and fulfilling day.

See you soon.

Weekend fun

It has been a long birthday with many celebrations and parties with different members of the family.  My youngest sister and her family were able to join in the fun as were my brother and one of my twin nephews with his family.  My own daughters were not able to join in as the children were ill, chicken pox is doing the rounds, with the exception of Bertie so part of the celebrations were held at the soft play centre  'you can't have a party without soft play' according to Bertie!  My Mum certainly enjoyed watching him and making all the appropriate noises when he did something he thought was clever.  The saddest thing I forgot to take my camera along so no photos which was a shame.  It was lovely to see my Dad with the little ones he really enjoyed them, although he was a little over zealous with the sweet treats at times.  He is rather partial to a sweet treat himself, although you wouldn't think so looking at him.  I only have to look at a cake and I have put on a couple of pounds.   Dad does get tired easily these day so it was only a short outing for him but he loved every minute of it a great 80th Birthday with some rather unusual celebrations for a man of his age.

In other news I have been waiting for a package to arrive with some special fabric ordered to make curtains for Wilbur's new play house which is a pirates den.  It arrived on Friday so I was able to do a few hems and drum roll please the curtains are ready to be packaged up and posted first thing on Monday so that they will be hanging and ready for Halloween.  A quick and easy job but one that was really appreciated.

While I had the sewing bug I also managed to complete a couple of  Christmas cushions.  The fabric was in my stash that I bought back from America I love the colour and the Santa's on it from around the world, rather appropriate I thought.

I also made some hot pads to accompany some chutneys that I have made for neighbours and friends, a token to let them know I am thinking of them.

I am doing really well with my handmade/crafted gifts I have managed to complete most of the things I wanted to do so I think this may be the way forward for another year.  Everything was made early because of the wedding I didn't want to put myself under undue stress but I am rather enjoying all the little makes with plenty of time to spare.

Do you plan and make things early or are you a last minute person?

See you soon.

Vintage Pattern

For some reason I haven't done my weekly vintage pattern post for a couple of weeks I don't know why.  This weeks vintage pattern I want to share with you is a charted needlework designs pattern featuring over 100 motifs for needlepoint-cross stitch-rugs-knitting-afghan crochet.  They were created by Laura Conley and published by Leisure Arts in 1975 in the USA.  I actually bought it from a thrift store in Winter Park Florida whilst there on holiday at a cost of 20 cents.  A real bargain.  I love the leaflet it encompasses so many things that I love.  One of these day when I am not so busy with the wedding and Christmas this leaflet will be used.  I do wonder who has used it before me and how many things have been made with love using the same pattern.

A wonderful pattern, for some reason reminds me of the season Autumn in all is glory and of course HOME what better place to be.  The pattern is flexible so that you can choose your own placement of the design or group of designs.  It suggests that the patterns can be worked into knitting that I must admit I would love to see.

 

Hope you have enjoyed this pattern as much as I have.

 

See you soon.

80 Years Old Today

My Dad was 80 years old today, so I spent a wonderful day celebrating his birthday. 

It was quite a gloomy start with the weather predicting the tail end of hurricane Gonzalo hitting sometime today, it was certainly windy.  This did mean that we needed to be indoors, so we decided on a stroll around the Garden Centre at Woodthorpe and meal in the restaurant.

He had lots of cards, gifts and telephone calls which was a nice start to the day.

The biggest surprise of all was the Christmas displays ,we had a really enjoyable hour or so wandering through them all.  They were certainly a sight for sore eyes even if they are a little early.  They are already advertising Breakfast with Santa and Christmas lunches, certainly worth thinking about for the Grandchildren at some point.  For now, the day was all about my wonderful Dad and making it a memorable day for him.

Lunch was a simple but pleasant meal just what Dad wanted and enjoyed by us all.  More of the family are coming over at the weekend so it will be quite the celebration.

 

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.

   -William Wordsworth-

 

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person; he believed in me.

   -Jim Valvano-

 

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad...

 

See you soon.

Wedding Update

The weather yesterday was quite bright so I could have gone out for a stroll or into the garden, but for some reason I felt that I wanted to tie up all the loose ends of the wedding.  I therefore spent the afternoon pottering around in the craft room putting the finishing touches to projects and packing everything up ready for the big day.

The bike needed the handles finishing off so that was job number one.

Bound with natural twine and fancied up a little to give the perfect finish.

 

The brooch pins were stitched onto the crochet buttons holes for the little boys and elastic threaded onto the bow ties which were redone as we had a change of heart with regard to the colour.

Little jobs that are now finished so that everything is ready to go.  To that end I also  started to pack things up so they could be transported to the venue easily.

The confetti cones are the only thing left to do and so there is no pressure near the time I intend to get them done this week.  We are ready....

 

How did you spend your Sunday?

 

See you soon.

Garden Update

There was a break in the weather yesterday for a short while so I was able to get out into the garden and get some jobs done.  My husband is well at the moment after an infusion for treatment for his rheumatoid arthritis so he was able to chop and stack the logs after a recent delivery.  A job well done and a lovely feeling knowing that you can light the stove at any time.  The weather is so changeable at the moment we have found we hardly need it on at all.

I have managed to harvest some of the leeks which are amazing, they have a real taste to them and of course the satisfaction of knowing we grew tem ourselves.

They are taking a little bit of a battering from the wind so I may pull them and put them in the freezer before we lose them all together.  The beetroot is still going strong but not quite ready to harvest.

The clematis has been cut back hard to enhance next seasons growth.

The fruit bushes have also been cut back well.

The hanging baskets are now filled with spring flowering bulbs ready for a beautiful show next Apr/May time.

The empty beds have been raked over ready for spring planting.

All the pots have been gathered together to shelter them from the wind, we haven't enough storage space in the sheds.  Apart from raking up the leaves which are dropping continually, all our outside jobs have now been done for the moment anyway...

 

Have you prepared your garden for the season, or do you just leave it to chance?

 

See you soon.