WIP Report...

I am so excited that after so many months of trying to get to grips with the Ganny square I have now managed it. OK it might not be perfect but it is good enough for me. As I mentioned in my last post the light bulb finally went on when I was curled up in our beach tent last week, with a beach camp fire to keep the chill away and the sound of the gentle waves on the sand. So I will always remember this and when I am still making these squares in the depths of winter this will be my memory... So this was the first one, it is in an acrylic mix wool and has that 'sparky' feel to it, but its OK for playing with, then once the ball got going there was no stopping me and I reached for my lovely Debbie Bliss yarns, all soft and tactile.
So on to sewing and obviously I did not take my machine camping with me, I would have if there had been room. I tried really hard to get my 'Linda memory' quilt finished, sadly I admitted defeat, it is all quilted now and I am really pleased with it, even the wonky bits. The binding is all ready to go on now.
As for the knitting, well its going great guns, with all the wet weather we had and the quite evenings, Ah bliss no telly when we camp!!! I got a move on with my latest project...
As you can see from the picture it was one hot and sunny day yesterday.
No gossip in this post as I am in need...organising the packing...Its Beach time again...
I can not believe the next time I post it will be September. The thought that the holidays are over and the signs of Autumn will start to show. I leave you with a picture of one of my favourite beaches, taken at that special time in the the early evening when most people have left and the sun is casting a dream like shine over the sea and the temperature just starts to cool down...OH HAPPY DAYS!!!


Sorry for the poor spelling, I am posting lately surrounded by children and running off making drinks, answering the door to yet more children etc...it makes it hard for me to concentrate with the dyslexic bit, so forgive me and I hope it is not to annoying.

At camp!!!

Well what do you know, the sun is shinning...Mmmm now it did not shine much whist we had our family camping week, so this is our camp and this was the one, yes one!!! sunny day. Now I am a bit embarrassed about the amount of Cath Kidston going on whilst camping, from the kids play tent to the chairs and even my much carried around knitting bag.
I am just squeezing in a short post or two before I go off again. So its not the usual type of crafting post, although I have to admit with the rain quite a lot of knitting did get done. Actually we had a ball and a few laughs whilst the tent quivered in the wind and every towel was wet with no hope of drying out...Seriously though when the kids are having this much fun sometimes us adults just have to go with the flow. Take a closer look at the camp, see the wet suits trying to dry out on the one sunny day, Yer we did get some Body Boarding done YIPPEE. All three of us, yep my youngest one included, he was so cool, the waves washed right over him, he would right himself up and brush his hair off his face and get right back on his board, my older one...well he would go out deeper than I was happy to do and catch a few well cool waves, as for me I was between the two of them.
Note to myself...don't Body Board in crocs they work as breaks, all these kids would surf past me and I would just STOP!!! Generally a lot of splashing in the sea was achieved, we did get to the beach every day, generally in the evening the rain had cleared so we would all go in for a paddle. An amazing amount of Beach Combing was done, already we have one necklace made and the other pebbles etc are drying in the sun after being washed awaiting the Suzie Sews art treatment!!!
Of course all this outdoor play builds up an appetite, so we got to eat in some pretty nice places with some stunning views. Not to mention picnics and sandy sandwiches and due to the chill factor we even had flasks of Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows to keep us warm from the inside out!
On the no way beach days, we did a few day outs, some really great gardens, with lots of history and kid friendly things to do, I have a whole load of 'green' pictures, I am sure you will be seeing more of in the future. When the rain came in all its glory we headed off for more water...an indoor pool with waves (to keep the kids water happy) flumes and river run.
All in all a wet and fun filled few days. In the evening when the kids slept and boy, did they sleep, my littlest who never sleeps through slept his fist ever twelve hour nights sleep!!! I would sit and knit, I worked really hard on one project and with the help of a few knitting pod casts on the ipod to keep me going I really got going with the project. The BIG news, well big in my little world...it happened whilst snuggling up in the beach tent one day whilst the children played making rivers in the sand, I sat quietly with my hook and wool and the 'teach yourself crochet' book with the gentle sound of the waves lapping a few feet away...Yep I (after many tries) made my first Granny Square...Photos will follow...sorry!!!

Life is a BEACH!!!

Its that time of year when I get the need to feel the sand between my toes, the warmth of the sun on my skin, the salty taste of the sea air and the relaxed feel of beach life. Due to our incredibly wet summer we have not had much of a chance to get to the beach this year. This time last year I think I was on the beach at every opportunity from long days followed by long drives home with sleepy children, weekends away in the camper and just under two glorious week away at the sea side in the van...you open up the doors of the van and the beach is your front garden...Oh Bless. Sadly not so much this year.
I have some great memories of last year, We entered a sand castle competition and actually won, well we came joint third, I think they must have been very indecisive or exceptionally nice judges. We had a ball making our croc! As you can see the children managed to say out of the sea long enough. We won a cream tea at a local beach restaurant...Yum Yum!!!
So here is our Bongo, Oh this was another special memory, this was the previous summer. A beach I spent many of my childhood holidays on. Infact I remember going as a blossoming teenager with all the teenage worries, to think many years later I am on it with my own children. Sadly the hotel I stayed in with my family is no longer there, how things change!!! Its a beach you can drive on to, it was early evening and within an hour the other cars had gone, it was just us with this wonderful beach to ourselves. We pulled out the BBQ and wrapped ourselves up in blankets and watched the sun go down, I remember knitting until the light faded...Magical.
So the reason for this rather sentimental post is it is holiday time, I am in the throws of organising and cleaning the camper van, packing the first aid kit and trying to finish my holiday quilt in time to take with me. The house needs to be cleaned for the house sitter, someone has to look after the rest of the family, Archie Bunny, Charlie and Lola the GPs.
Then I will be taking my summer blog break. I will be to and throw so I might squeeze a post in now and then, but I will be back to the daily blogging early September, I have a giveaway in mind, I need to free my house of the little mice I have been knitting and the buttons I am addicted to producing!!!
Talking of knitting I have my summer projects to take with me, plus some threads, hoop and linen a couple of good books and of course my camera. Before I say farewell I wanted to thank the ever lovely Little Cotton Rabbits for the Rockin' Girl Blog award. I will pass it on when I am back on the blog, in the mean time, I am a little blown away by this, I am not really a winner of sorts so to have won two awards in one week is amazing. Me a Rockin' Girl, who would have thought. Thanks. Enjoy the rest of the summer holidays assuming you mark your days by the school year!!! I think a lot of blogs are quite at the moment due to the great weather and the kids being at home, think how much inspiration we will all have in September when we read all the wonderful news and creative activities that have been done over the summer...Good Health everyone...

WIP...Nearly finished my Linda quilt, just on the binding, the knitted tank top has only one sleeve edge to finish, my big quilt is in the process of all being joined together with sashes and boarders, various bits of embroidery being experimented with. I am also still trying to teach myself to crochet!!!

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Children's summer learning project of Linen and cotton...well is slow and steady, we have visited a mill about cotton production and how children used to work in the trade, we have frayed, chopped, ripped cotton, the sewing machine is still of interest to my oldest, The big success of this project was tie dying Tee's using cold water dye and elastic bands. The post man provided us with the bands..reduce reuse and recycle

lazy days...

The summer rhythm is just tapping along at a gentle and peaceful pace. Half way through the holiday break and we are at our happiest. The weather at the moment, dare I say it, has been fantastic, we have had four days in a row of glorious sunshine. We are all awake early, thanks to the littlest one in the family, usually by 7 or 8.00am we are in the garden doing some kind of craft activity. Keeping this blog has made me smile this summer, I feel very proud of the fact that my kids really do a good amount of crafting and they love it. So an example of our day this week, we start with the early morning craft fun, not even out of our PJ's and in fact we usually stay in them till lunch time. A little crafting from Mommy too, a small selections of the button/badges I am addicted to making at the moment...
Then of course keeping with tradition we all stop for morning and afternoon tea. My knitting is always close at hand for those peaceful moments when the children are absorbed in some play time, so far this week that has centred around water...paddling pool and water slide. Please note my lovely vintage Laura Ashley cushions picked up from the local charity shop this week...
The water slide really does nothing to help the garden, it leaves a lovely muddy patch...Mmmm not in the children's imagination, just another opportunity to play...
Then its time for the clean up operation, no wait lets do it the easy way...One Two Three and JUMP!!!

Hey!!!What happened to my picture. This was a cutie picture of my little one mid jump into the river...

OK I admit it was not strictly in that order, this is a mixture of two days play. We had one day just playing in the garden the other day we went to one of my favourite places, a bit of a drive away, but so worth it. A picnic by the river, a great little beach area, although we did have to move away from the beach early evening as the cows came down for a drink!!! Seriously I turned around and half a dozen cows came from no place heading toward our picnic blanket!!! All adds to the fun, good job I like them.
This was a special day, it is one of those places that you just feel peaceful at, the children love it too. So with a bag full of food and drink and some crafting activities, knitting for Mom and craft magazines for the children we ended up staying till after bedtime. I so love that time of evening when most people have gone home and the sun has dipped down and the light just seems extra special. Oh I am so much a summer girl, it did get me thinking to what kind of a season you are and more importantly why? Without a doubt its summer for me, I think better, feel better, play better and I am more reflective about things. The summer clothes suit me...Oh I shall shut up now as I could witter on about it for ages.
The children are now asleep, the garden and house are tidy(ish) my dinner is cooking and its time for a quite Gin and Tonic or maybe even a Pimms (if the rabbit has not eaten my Mint) in the garden...Cheers and Good Health!

An AWARD!!! Me, little me an award!!!

I would like to thank my very kind blogging friend Foxgloves in the Breeze for this fantastic award. The NICE MATTERS award which was introduced by the talented Bella Enchanted. This is my first award and I can not tell you how happy it makes me. Also its an award for being, well...nice, a personality trait that I admire in people and teach my children that being kind and nice are important. So I am pretty pleased to tell you the truth, look I have a big smile on my face:-)This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. I understand that I have to pass it on to 7 others who I feel are deserving of this award. This is the trickie part, first I thought, Oh that is too many, then when I started writing down web addresses, well I could easily have done so many more. So if your not mentioned pleased do not think I think any less of you. I have got some great readers out there and I value your friendship and the fact that you do take time out to leave a nice comment.

I love reading other peoples recommendations and through them have been introduced to some great bloggers. SO I am hoping that maybe a few of these will be new to you and you too will enjoy them as much as I do. In no particular order....

Small fox
French Knots
Quilting bebbs
Devliegendekoe
Scap to my Lu
Wildcraft
Little Cotton Rabbits

Mean while on the crafting front, I have made a whole heap of fabric badges inspired by the badges Small Fox sent me in our swap. I have nearly finished the tank top for one of my children and a whole load of painting with the kids.

News follow up...another farm hit by Foot and Mouth!!!

Rainy days!!!

After a week of the most amazing sunshine the weekend arrived...and with it the rain, I awoke in the morning to grey skies and that all to familiar pitter patter on the window. Of course it was the weekend, I should have known. So the plan of a weekend away in the camper was put on hold...again, as I mentioned in my last post we had hoped for it to clear and head off later that day, sadly the rain kept on coming!!! To add to this my youngest had a rather nasty virus. He had a temperature and spent the day curled up on which ever sofa was close to the action. This meant I had some one to one time with my older child, so we got the paints out. Now I have quite a few kits for the children, I buy then when I see them, usually at a cut down price and then squirrel them away until either a rainy day or I discover them and have to use them straight away! Often these are the things I put in the holiday craft box when we go away together. This is one such kit. Painting stones, they are the glass stones used in paper crafts, I remember using them in the late 90s when they first came popular, plain glass, flat bottom curved top, which gives a great magnifying effect.
Between us we made quite a few, all the time we where serenaded by the gentle snoring from the little one curled up on the sofa next to the kitchen table, man did he look sweet!!! So what to do with these little stones, well this was our solution, we made little jewel boxes, We stuck them down with gloppy clear drying glue which oozed out of the side, then sprinkled on little tiny craft beads to add to the jewel effect. Yep I am still crunching these little beads under foot they are about the same size of fine sand!!! Not a great picture, sorry guys!
A very satisfying project with a great end result, I think this always encourages children to do more when they have a practical object at the end of their playing. Although I love nothing more that paper and paint for no other reason than the 'right now'

With my younger one poorly the older one went to bed and the I had a bath with the little one, who suddenly rolled his eyes and went floppy, I managed to get him out of the bath and on to the bed. He fell asleep, whilst slightly alarmed I did not worry. UNTILL...once he had fallen in to a deep sleep his breathing was very irregular, I moved away due to his temperature and his cute little hand brushed across the bare skin of my shoulder. It was stone cold!!! I started to feel that panic feeling which I tried to over come with logic, which worked for about fifteen minutes, then I felt the need to take action. His temperature was through the roof, his hands and toes so cold. I need to point out that I very rarely take my children to the doctor and in fact when my youngest was a new born I did not take him to have his weight checked etc and have no idea what centile line he was on...he was growing and happy..I trusted my maternal instincts I am a believer that today's world actually rocks a mother confidence (I would like to say that my child did have his six week , three month and hearing tests). So this was quite serious for me to worry.

NHS help line was called, I have been a bit cynical of this help line, well I need to take it all back, how lucky we are in this country to have the NHS, they are fantastic, very calming and very thorough. After a very worrying hour, with their advise he did come through his temperature, in fact I watched it go down, I even managed to get him to drink some water. Oh boy! he looked so sad and helpless, lying there, it was like having a little tiny baby again, so vulnerable and yet as I watched his little body was fighting like made to rid itself of this nasty virus. How are amazing our children are, in the morning he awoke and got out of bed, woke up his brother and started running around. We have so much to learn from our children. I am keeping alert as I am sure he will dip at some stage through the day, the medicine is near him, but he is off enjoying the day. As for me...well I am tied and frazzled, but the important thing is we are over the worse. So we might not have got our weekend away, funny how these things go, how frantic would it have been if we had gone away and he had been so poorly.

So on that note I am off to enjoy the day, the rain has stopped and the sun is peeping through the clouds...the garden is calling...

Photos...1) the work table 2)the finished stones 3)the end result 4)my current WIP 5)making me happy, two different charity shops in two days resulting in two matching goodies, I am so loving this mug:0)

Scary thought...the latest news about foot and mouth, it is such a worry, our British country side suffered so much last time in so many ways.

Bunny love...

'Does my bum look big in this'??? said the bunny to his friends....'You BET'!!!
If you have been reading blogs for a while now you will know these little fellows, if not then I would hate you to miss out because these are cute cute cute. They are designed by the fab Wee Wonderful, you can down load her pattern for free and get sewing, its a great project to do along side the kids, although the flat circle bottom takes a bit of fiddling, maybe not one for small fingers. But so cute, my kids picked their own fabric and have given them lots of love. Well did you miss me? I think most bloggers are not getting the time to blog at the moment, especially in the UK as we are in the throws of summer holidays and at long last the SUN CAME OUT. OK today it has gone again, but for a whole week we had great weather. My friend and her three kids came up for a few days. I think we would both agree that we are little tired now. As for the children they had sooooo much fun. The paddling pool, water side and picnics outside all helped to make it a special time for them. The old saying Happy Kids make Happy Moms...well its true! Although once they had all gone to bed we sat with a glass of wine and got our knitting out and chatted till the early hours as only close friends do. Great times.
I now have some great memories to see me through the winter months. At last being outside and getting grubby toes and listening to the childrens laughter. Just the best time. I even got to knit another mouse!!!
SO you will have to forgive me for my lack of blogging, its just been so mad around here for all the best reasons. Sadly my friend and her lovely family have gone now and silence greeted me when we returned yesterday, I was rescued by an invite to a small party, which turned out to be great fun..you know the type of party when you end up in the kitchen with to many bottles of (empty) wine on the table some scrummy food and lots of chatter.
Well I actually should not be blogging now, we should be on our way to the beach for a weekend in our Bongo camper, sadly as previously mentioned the weather has changed and we are waiting to see how the day progresses, maybe tomorrow will be better and we could travel later in the early evening and just camp for one night, then again we might be rained off!!! Have a great weekend, I will reply to my emails eventually, I am sorry for being a bit slow this week...