Rag Rugging and Snowdrops

Morning all. Well, here we are in half term and, for once, the weather isn't half bad - more winter sun and frosts than the usual dismal grey skies. Unfortunately, E is bogged down with English Literature coursework and has A2 mocks looming as well, so there won't be much gadding about for us this week. 

There have been a few highlights though. Our local library is currently holding a 'Library Fest' with various exciting and, more importantly, free workshops. Saturday saw me doing a rag rugging one, held by textile artist Kath Hutchings. It was brilliant - easy, fun and green. Never again will I throw away old T shirts; they'll all be cut up into 1cm strips and rugged!

Here are a few photos of Kath's work: 

Fun aren't they? For the workshop, we were making pennants spelling out 'Library Fun'. I was put in charge of the letter 'F'. The tool and method were familiar as they were similar to those I used  for my heart picture last year. We were a little limited in terms of time, so the aim was to just do the letter and a border.

Here are the finished pennants. Someone still needs to do the 'b':

On Valentine's Day, we did our annual visit to Welford Park  to see their snowdrops. You may be familiar with the setting as it's where they've held The Great British Bake Off competition for the past couple of years. Every spring they open the gardens to the public for charity.

 There is a short walk to get to the woods. Over a wooden bridge:

Getting closer:

Spotting a few:

   ..... and there we are. Stunning isn't it?

It was a lovely, dry cold day and we sat in the estate garden enjoying a flask of hot tea and some cookies that the girls had made.

Then it was back home to light the stove and watch the rugby:

It was a Valentine's Day well spent. 

Other happies so far this week:

My new charity shop find. There are some lovely projects that I have my eye on:

Spotting a green woodpecker in the garden - please try to avert your eyes from all the weeds and focus on the bird!

Enjoying my current favourite lunch - avocado and poached egg on toast:

Starting knitting  my first ever sock:

 My Valentine's roses from R. He knows I'm not keen on red roses, so plumped for a rainbow bunch:

 ... and finally, catching Hamish sat on the coffee table 'helping' E with her homework!

Anyway, that's all for this week. If it's your half term too, I hope you have a good one.
Toodle Pip for now. x

Dorset Blanket Ta-Dah!

Greetings! I hope everyone has weathered the recent storm okay. It was very wet and windy around here but, fortunately, no damage. I finally finished E's Dorset Blankie this weekend. It has taken me ages - I started it on our post-AS exam trip to Dorset in June, rippling a row on every beach we visited and dragging it along in the car to do a bit on every uni open day (R was driving!). I had a bit of a lull over the summer when it was too hot to work on it, but happily picked it up again in the autumn. The plan is that she will (hopefully!) take it with her to uni next year, just in case her room is a bit nippy. I also think that a bit of homemade loveliness can sometimes add some much needed character. 

Anyway, here are the obligatory photos:

Ta-Dah! The 'me standing on the coffee table shot':

The 'draped on the sofa' shot:

Along the ripples:

Folded on the arm of the sofa:

...... and finally, with its blankety buddies:

The pattern is, as always, thanks to the lovely Lucy at attic24 and the yarn was a pack from Wool Warehouse. I think I'll have a bit of a break from blanket making now and maybe try my hand at a pair of socks. I bought some sock yarn and needles from a shop in Oxford last year and it has been waiting patiently for me to find the time and courage!

Other happies this week:

Seeing Fergus enjoying some left over vegetable biryani:

 Listening to an audio CD whilst darning in ends:

 My new hyacinth bulbs - I really must try and find a prettier pot:

On a visit to the pound shop to buy some more fat balls for the birds, I impulse bought some tubers. I planted a Dahlia last year and it impressed me with its lovely colour and the fact that it flowered for ages, so I thought a few more would be a good plan. Just a little survey: how do you pronounce the word 'Dahlia'? I've always said it like 'Daylia' but I've heard a few people recently saying it 'Darlia' (like the lentil curry). So I'm wondering if I'm embarrassing myself saying it wrong and people are being too polite to correct me!

 Enjoying this months CH&I and my rosy 'chores notebook'.  I don't know about anyone else but I'm always better if I make a list of things to be done that day. It stops me forgetting stuff and it's immensely satisfying to tick things off as I go. 

 Loving my bedside posy:

 February's garden photo - it was windy and pouring down. That also accounts for the poor light levels in the other photos. 

 Hamish sitting on his mat and enjoying the storm. He's also moulting at the moment and there are fur bunnies everywhere!

 Finally, Penny and Brenda coming inside to watch the rugby at the weekend!

Anyway, that's all for this week. Keep warm and cosy and remember, spring is just around the corner.
Toodle Pip for now. x

Decopatch

Hello there! Thank you for dropping by, it's so lovely to see you. Can you believe we're in February already? Where on Earth did January disappear to? After a week of stormy weather - with both Gertrude and Henry making their presence felt around these parts - I popped into town the other day and just had to stop and take a photo of the blue sky behind our town hall. It made such a pleasant change from the grey that we've been having. I don't know about you but a bit of sun and blue sky makes all the difference to how I'm feeling and cheers me up no end. 

I only popped in to return some library books but then decided to do a quick trawl of the charity shops whilst I was there. I came away with 3 children's books. I love the stories and illustrations of the Little Grey Rabbit books and despite the fact that my girls are now FAR, FAR too old for them, I couldn't resist buying them. I returned home and settled down with a cup of tea for a quiet little read.  It was lovely but it did make me long for the days when I would have had 2 little girls sitting beside me as I read. L made a comment this week to the effect of 'one day you put your child down and you will never pick it up again'. Well, that thought had me sobbing all night and I can feel myself getting a little teary again just typing this. Those of you with children small enough, go and pick them up and hug them right now!

My second trip into town was to do a decopatch workshop at our local craft shop. I had meant to put this down on my 50 list but never got around to it. Basically, it's just ripping and glueing for grown ups and it was so easy and fun. The decopatch glue has a sort of varnish added, so it dries hard and shiny. As a little bonus, any that you get on your skin you can spend a merry 10 minutes doing that 'skin peely offy' thing with!
I took a few photos of the shop.

Actually, this was the little 'Flowerpot Cafe' just outside. It's very cute and the food is apparently lovely, although I didn't try it out on this occasion. Note that we're back to that grey sky!

 Here, tucked in the corner, is Rainbows where the workshop was held. The models outside were a bit of a give away: 

A quick shot of the inside of the shop. It was quite small but packed to the brim with various craft materials:

 Just a small selection of the paper available. The paper itself was very thin like tissue, but the dye penetrated very deep so that when you ripped it, you weren't left with a white edge.

 As it was my first time, I chose a small cardboard rabbit. Apparently though, you can decopatch just about anything. They even had a pair of shoes that someone had done! Here's my bunny in progress:

 And the finished article. The glue is quite quick drying, so I was able to take him home immediately. I'm not sure what Hamish will make of it but I'm sure it will come in useful for Easter!

Just one more thing this week: sadly, E failed her driving test! She stopped briefly on a hill and then had difficulty getting going again. She didn't roll backwards or anything horrific and she only paused for about 5 seconds, but some impatient person saw the L plate and overtook her so it was an automatic fail for 'holding someone up'. We've re-booked for during the Easter holidays but hope to get an earlier cancellation. Fingers crossed that we do - these lessons are blooming expensive!

Anyway, that's all for this week. 

Toodle Pip for now. x

Displacement Activity!

E is currently out having her practical driving test and so, in an attempt to distract myself, I thought I'd upload some of the photos from this last week. 

Remember the little duck with the damaged beak? Well, when I phoned the vet for an update the following day, the receptionist informed me that they had decided that the kindest thing was to put her down - kindest for whom?! As I'd spent the evening before googling ducks with damaged bills and learning that they can indeed be repaired with the resin that dentists use, it came as a bit of a shock. E and I were very upset but R was downright livid. She was so sweet and he felt that she had trusted us to care for her and that we had let her down badly. The last thing that we said as we dropped her off was 'please don't put her down'! She didn't seem to be in any pain and was capable of eating from a cup so we would have been happy to hand feed her until something more permanent could have been be arranged. Sadly, she never had that chance. At least we now know who not to call  if there is a next time. 

There have been a few happier moments this week:

Patchwork stars and a coffee in front of a lit stove:

 Making more of Deliciously Ella's energy balls - L and I can get through these at a fair old rate!

 Flowering tete-a-tetes:

 Sunshine and frost:

 Finally getting around to backing my seasonal primitive stitching. Now I just have to decide where to hang them!

A trip to Oxford. Now that L has graduated, I don't get here very often and found that I was missing it. It's only 25 minutes away, so Thursday saw me beetling up the A34 for a day trip.

The famous Radcliffe Camera - they manage to walk round this several times in each episode of Lewis!

 A view from Magdalen Bridge:

Annie Sloan's shop on the Cowley Road. I went in for a nosy round and nearly bought some paint before deciding that I didn't fancy carrying it round for the rest of the day. I can always get some from the stockist in Hungerford instead.

 Smiling at the sign outside G&D's:

 My little haul for the day. The books were a pound each from the Gloucester Green open market and the green papaya and black cardamoms (which I've searched for for ages) were from an Indian supermarket on  Cowley Road. It's the place in Oxford for ethnic ingredients and charity shops and I love it!

 More daffs of the bigger kind:

 Making a cushion with some of the fabric that E bought me for my birthday:

Here's the finished article in situ:

I'm still debating over whether or not to paint that rocking chair. I think it would look much better as I dislike that orange pine, however the only thing that's stopping me is the smell. Either the wood itself or the varnish has a pleasant, very characteristic smell which transports me straight back to when the girls were babies and being rocked there. I'd hate to lose it by covering it with paint so, for the time being, I'm sticking with the orange.

That's all for this week. E should be back anytime soon and, to be honest, it could have gone either way. I'm keeping everything crossed!

Have a happy week.
Toodle Pip for now. x