Home and away ..

♥

Its been a very normal kind of Sunday to end this week with

nothing of any great importance taking place ...

  a sunny dog walk in the fields,

discovering a little patch of my favourite flowers buried in the

overgrown hedgerows,

which now shine out happily from my kitchen table,

a little bit of ironing this afternoon,

followed by a bit of washing and tidying and generally getting sorted

for the week ahead.

Having taken this last week off work for a short break away

 they were all good tasks for getting my head back into work mode.

We didn't go far, just to Dorset in our caravan for a few days.

It was lovely.

The sun shone,

  

we went to the beach,

 

 

 I sat, 

 

he fished,

 

and a hot dog enjoyed special iced doggy treats.

♥

There was time for a bit of caravan love,

a bit of lazing about in the sun,

afternoon snoozes

and lots and lots of lovely crochet time.

Nothing complicated, simple calming rows of double crochets

to make Immi's blanket grow.

We were only away for two nights and three days but it was just what the doctor ordered.

♥

When we got home a lovely parcel of the squidgy variety was waiting for me ...

... time to start a little something that has been on my 'to do' list for a while,

two Little Woollie cushion covers for the seats in my outdoor shady crochet corner.

The pattern was featured in Simply Crochet magazine, Issue 18, a couple of months ago and once

 I'd seen it it was only a matter of time before they had to be made.

The wool that I have used is Sublime Egyptian Cotton, and it is working up beautifully. 
It is a gorgeously soft yarn that almost seems to have a bit of a sheen to it ,
and best of all it was hugely reduced at Deramores.

I have made a blanket similar to this pattern before and I remember then that it 
was such fun to do because it's so addictive.
 As each row is a different stitch you keep thinking I'll just try the next row to see 
what it looks like and before you know it it's finished !

 The cushion cover seemed to take no time at all 

and I am so pleased with how it's turned out.

 I'm just working on the back at the moment which I decided to do as one 

plain colour as I had some Stylecraft DK in a neutral shade that needed finishing off.

 

 So far I have worked two back sections that will slightly overlap to make

 an envelope style cover.

The next step is to add a burgundy edging to match the front and then I think

 I shall be pretty much be there.

Exciting stuff huh ?

Obviously more pictures will be taken and this little story will be continued .....

Have a great week everyone.

♥

Pootling away from home ....

♥

 

Having just read the title for this post back it sounds as though I've been up to all sorts

of shenanigans doesn't it ?

 But at the risk of disappointing anyone, sorry I actually haven't...

I've just been away for a few days with the other half and the dog in our caravan.

See, told you, nothing that scandalous really.

 

Its our first proper get away this year and we headed to an absolute favourite

campsite of ours in The Gower, called Nicholaston Farm.

We first went there about 5 years ago with my brother and his family, who said we absolutely had to come and see this completely magical place they had discovered.

The campsite is situated at the top of a hill overlooking the sea.

The walk down to the beach from there is through the most beautiful natural

woodland and as you walk along the path you suddenly realise you are no

longer walking on soil and bark but sand. 

 

 

 

And suddenly you break through the trees and look...

 

 this is what you see !

I always think of it as like walking through the wardrobe door in The Lion, The Witch

 and The Wardrobe.

Its completely breathtaking.

( I should probably point out here that my photo's really do not do it justice at all - I am no photographer and all pics are snapped in the moment on my iphone. )

The beach stretches for miles and more often than not you can not see one other single person.

I think its safe to say that this is pretty much Lilou's most absolute favourite place - she loves it and charges about doing Zoomies as fast as she can, tail turning a full 360degrees as she runs.

 

 

The walks you can do are amazing, full circle coming back up the sand dunes, all along the beach to stop at the pub or back along the woodland trail above the dunes.

 

Its quite a hike back up the hill but so worth it for the view from the top, and then its just a little meander along the woodland path back to the campsite.

I think we caught the bluebells at their peak, they looked and smelt heavenly.

 

 

We even managed to persuade Lilou to sit still for two seconds to have her portrait

 taken in amongst them.

 

 

♥

 

 

This was the view from our Caravan door ... unbeatable.

 

 

Also unbeatable ... one pooped pooch !

And so to the big question, did I take any yarny bits and bobs with me ?

Most certainly !

Three different projects infact.

 

 

But the one that took my fancy was the latest patchwork blanket I am making.

So crochet sorted for the evening it was time to snuggle down, put the Beach Hut fairy lights on

 

 

and stick the DVD in.
 

 

 

 

If you haven't seen it already this is a definite must see movie.

 Classic Richard Curtis from start to finish. I loved every minute.

♥

 

Despite the forecast having predicted rain, rain and more rain we were so lucky with the weather and so decided to walk along the coastal path to Three Cliffs Bay.

 

 

This looked like the perfect place to stop for a cuppa ...

 

so out came our faithful Kelly Kettle

 

and within a few minutes steam was up and



tea was served.

 

 

Yup, that'll be a pooped pooch again, well till the next morning at least ...

 



 

 

We had time for one last early morning walk on the beach before heading home

 

and a much needed wash down for the dog.

 

 

We shall be back.

♥

 

Back home the squares have been finished off, I am loving these little blankets, they are so quick to do and they use up all those odd left over balls of wool.

And yet more sun.

 

 

All sewn up, and with the second part of the border now complete

 

 

I would now like to very proudly reveal

 

one completely random blanket !

 



 

  Look , no particular patterns, no particular placing of squares

AND two different types of squares, some knitted, some crocheted.

 

I know !

Would you get me with my randomness !

♥

 

Have a lovely week everyone.

Whoosh - where did that weekend go ?

♥ 

There was quite a lot going on this weekend all in all, starting with the arrival of the hired digger on Friday = one happy husband.

We have a beautiful little church in our village and a group of us take it in turns to do the flowers each week.This weekend it was my turn and whilst this is a little scary, as I am not a natural flower arranger, it is also a really peaceful way to spend an hour.

 The church looked really beautiful with the sun streaming in through the windows and it was just me there, quietly doing my thing. ( Certainly a lot quieter here than in our garden right now.. )

I'd bought a few flowers, adding to it with bits from the garden and the churchyard. I didn't really have any plans or colour scheme in mind, just kind of winging it and going with what I liked !

Thankfully there's always a few things that you can keep from the week before -because frankly starting from scratch really would be beyond me.
So, taking out all the things that were past their best this is what I was left with... actually, the pedestal one looked pretty good even without adding anything else ! Lots of teasels , greenery and a few autumn berries.There's two little wall boxes in the porch to be done and a large pedestal arrangement up by the altar - this being the most scary one.

I'd love to be really clever here and tell you what the flowers were that I put in - but I truly have no idea and I forgot to read the label! But basically they were red and white.

The porch boxes are fun to do because they're quite small and pretty much anything goes !

                  ♥ 

After a quick sweep up I headed home to this ....

 ....so I didn't really look too closely at the chaos, just quickly headed inside ....

Time for a quick bit of Ebay packing, a trip to Wickes ( far too dull to photograph ), more cups of coffee made and delivered to the garden work party ...

 and a dog walk.

Garden now looking like this on my return ....

Back inside to changing the beds and I can't tell you how much I would have loved to just crawl under the covers for a quick 40 winks...

and I'm sure there used to be a garden path here ..

  ♥ 

Sunday was pretty much more of the same.. starting with another trip to WICKES because I bought the wrong *!**!ing plumbing bits yesterday, grrrrr

and yes, that is said husband actually in the hole now !

Interesting dog walks this weekend ... what with Lilou deciding to roll in badger poo on Saturday and eat cow poo on Sunday. This did make me quite mad and in the ensuing grabbing of the dog my phone must have fallen out of my pocket *!***!!!

Now, ideally I would have noticed this at the time - but no.... it wasn't until I'd walked all the way back home that I realised my pocket was a lot emptier than when I'd started the walk...

...so after leaving one disgraced dog at home back off I went ...

 .... and there it was hiding in among the brambles and ivy. Could have been worse I guess, could have been in the cow poo ... always look for the silver lining !

 

More Ebay packaging , more coffee and sandwiches to the handyman...

who was definitely there somewhere, 

and finally finally

breathe and relax !

   ♥