Bring me Sunshine...

...not the rain!!

We're rained in today (again) - what a surprise.

So there's nothing for it but to bake a cake, drink hot chocolate, eat popcorn and watch a movie with a good old traditional roast for afters - I may even make an apple crumble!

I hope your enjoying your Sunday??

xXx

Sunshine Friday

It's not actually shining here today - still damp, still grey, still cold and still very, very wet, but I've decided to ignore that fact and brighten up my day with an array of flowers bathed in sunlight I've randomly snapped over the past couple of weeks when that cheeky little tease of a thing called the Sun has given us a sneaky peek and glimpse of the odd sun ray or two.




Close your eyes, take a deep breath and just visualise that feeling of being sun kissed................mmmmmmmmm can you feel it?

{a slight cheat - I know}

Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend and a little bit of sunshine where ever you may find it.


Even if it is a glow from the odd glass of wine or three - that will be me!

xXx

Pop Up Blocs

That should say 'blocks' but the 'K' is missing in my little shoe box of treasures I bought a wee while back.


So 'why' I hear you ask are you posting about these if you bought them a while back Mrs T?

Welllll I love them 'yes' I do.

I love the colours, I love the pictures and I love, love, love the way you squeeze them and the relevant letter pops up, like a jack in the box - well more like a letter in a box, but that's just splitting hairs really!

And..........as today is a grey and cold rainy kind of day I thought I would bring a little colour injection into my post.

So it makes perfect sense, right?

The blocks are one of my most treasured finds and I found them buried on the back of a very dusty charity shop shelf last year in the very same shoe box they are in now for a pound.


They are by Mattel and dated 1972......a little worn in a well played with kind of way and as my children adore them now I can imagine they have been well loved.

Daft, I know. Though isn't it sometimes the more simpler of things that can put a smile on your face?


Anyhoo, I spied the littlest boo playing with them in her bedroom this morning.

Well I spotted the vibrant colours first and wondered where the glow was coming from. Then I snuck my head around her door to see what she was playing with - like a fly on the wall.


Don't you just love doing that? Having a little peek into some of the jumbled thoughts and imagination going on in their heads.

So I borrowed them, just for a moment to have a little play of my own - my own little imagination process swirling around for a couple of minutes.


Well best go, no more playing for me today I still have lots to do.

I'm off to the scary bright lights of Canterbury tomorrow 'whoo hooo' - it's all go, go, go with me!

Only joking - a train ride, some cake and a good old chin wag with the loveliest of friends, what more could a girl need? Apart from some new shoes that is and..............a bag, coat, manicure, landscape gardener.........just some simple things really.


Have a fabulous day and I hope the rain (or snow) isn't getting you down too much.

xXx

Rowan Crochet Workshop

I've been 'ummming' and 'aaahhhhing' for ages now about investing in a good crochet book, but with so many on offer out there - what do you choose?


Being a beginner with a head that jumbles things up at the best of times something so simply as reading a pattern can turn my usual calm approach to most things into a head that feels like it is about to explode.

It is just all double dutch to me!!

So after spending what feels like an age on Amazon searching, reading reviews, asking fellow bloggers advice (thanks guys) I think I've found the perfect follow on book - for me anyhow.

A book I'm hoping will give me the next step up from some of the more simpler step by step (verbal) patterns I've been using on the Internet - which I have to say are an absolute invaluable source and I most definitely could not live without.


But progress I must as I do love this new found craft.

Not that I will solely be crafting just crochet these days 'oh no' I do have a head full of ideas that need sorting, categorising and filing away for a rainy day when I can actually have the time to think about each one.


Anyhow, back to the book. After much looking around I decided on this book - the Rowen Crochet Workshop

Now I wouldn't say this is a step by step verbal (wrap the yarn around the hook) kind of book, but it does have lots of illustration and a mass of ideas in a terminology that I can just about understand.


So deviating from the blanket yesterday I picked up a new hook and a bit of left over yarn and had a go at making a crochet button.


It took me four attempts to fathom out what I should (kind of) be doing and I'm still not sure if I followed the pattern correctly as even though it was a 'refer to a previous tutorial in three easy picture steps' then continue, I am not that confidant I truly understood but.......

{the ring was a present from my lovely friend Mrs Bobo Bun}

....I am happy with the end result and it only took me roughly around half an hour - which is about the maximum length of concentration time my little ones will allow me.

{view from the back of the button}

Gawd knows what I'll use it on, in, for.......but it was good fun just trying something different.


Do you have any firm favourites, easy to follow that you refer to time and again crochet books??

Have a lovely day - the mist and rain have lifted here, but it is still grey!!

xXx

Clouding Around

{Warning - Sunglasses may be required!!}

Down on the seafront at the weekend I was mucking around with my camera - as you do!!

Being a beautiful'ish' morning we thought chips on the seafront would be a jolly good old English thing to do and.........the first this year.

But of course we forgot about the blasted seagulls that descended and swooped at the first whiff of our lunch.


Not that they got a look in - sodding flying rodents!

Anyhow.......they did look rather fine diving around with the clouds puffing up and the sun peeking through and this is when I decided to try something different, throwing caution to the wind (I tend do that every now and again) - how outrageous am I?? Not!!


I turned my camera to a different setting, just to see how the pictures would turn out.

And I think (personally) they look OK - a bit weird in a psychedelic way, but OK.

Maybe it's just me?

Though maybe something to brighten your day on this dismal greyest of grey rainy days - well it is here anyway.

Have a wonderful, wonderful week and.........the last one of February!!

xXx

Early Bird

Sometimes it's 'oh so' worth it getting up early - in the morning that is! Even if you've had a disturbed nights sleep.

When you're woken for the umpteenth time and by 5.30am 'ish' you're thinking 'what's the point, I'm getting up in an hour or so anyway?!'


Being the first to tread softly down the stairs, curling up with your crochet and the Winter Olympics whooshing past you in the background - how bonkers are some of those athletes??

Way to go Amy Williams!!

I know I'm going to be dead on my feet come lunchtime, but it was definitely worth it - a little bit of me time.

Plus it's Sunday so I can have a snooze later if I like especially as the little whatsits didn't surface until just after nine this morning!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

xXx

Feeling Frosty

No snow this time *big sigh* for you guys - sorry I'm a snowaholic!!

But it is trying really really hard this morning. And 'flipping 'eck' how mighty darn chilly is it at the moment?!


Anyhow, enough of my pondering today, sorry (again).

Looking back through my pictures I came across these frosty ones I took a wee while back.

Now I wouldn't call myself a girlie girl no, that would be my girls. Though gawd knows where they inherited it from?!

No, no spangles, frou frou or frills for me, but anything that sparkles, well that is definitely OK in my book.


And these early morning frost shots bathed in sun sure look like everything has had a sprinkling of glitter.



Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend - could it be the last week of February next week, already??

ps. what do you think - so far??

xXx

Playing, Crafting, Baking, and Making

...and a parcel in the post!

{thank you Gemma xx}

Half term - so far!

Or.........the last of the (school) Winter holidays.

Playing ::

Crafting and Making ::

Baking ::

{shortbread biscuits}

And a walk on the beach...

At sunset.


But most of all (and this is the best part) - lounging around in our pj's until noon!

Back to school on Tuesday - hope you're having fun?

xXx