The one where she fills up her bookshelves...

It's taken me a little bit longer to write this post than I'd planned. Partly it's because I haven't been feeling well, but mostly it's because... well... I forgot! It's going to take a little while to get back into the swing of things as far as blogging is concerned, but I'll keep at it.

The last 2 week have mostly been about books. Both reading and buying. I get most of my books second hand. There are 2 reasons for this:

1. The cover prices are ridiculous. I rarely buy a book at full price and even more rare is the time when I'll buy a hardback. Supermarkets are a real blessing with their cut price books... but better still are charity shops. Which leads nicely to...

2. Pre-owned books. There's something a bit sad about a book no one wants anymore. I guess I have a bit of a "puppy syndrome" with books - I want to take them all home! When the pages have been softened, and the spine cracked - oh, yes please!

So this is what I've added to my collection over the last 2 weekends:

Some are new (3 of them - thank you very much to Darlington's book clearance shop!), but most are second hand. One charity shop was offering 5 books (Yes! Really! 5! F-I-V-E!!) for £1 - quite refreshing since most charity shops want you to pay an arm and a leg (relatively speaking, of course!). I think I'd rather pay the extra 50p or so and get Amazon to deliver!

I've been doing a little bit of crochet, but not much. Somehow the mood hasn't been right for it.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, J and my dad moved some paving slabs from the front garden. The previous occupants of this house had decided to make a driveway... well, with a 12 inch drop from the street to the "driveway" it was never going to happen!
I had plans for those paving slabs. Big plans... Want to see? You do? Ok then!

Ta da! My little patio. It's perfect on a hot afternoon (yes, we did actually have one or two - if you blinked, you probably missed them!), with a cup of tea and a good book. It's also surprisingly peaceful for a built up area - lots and lots of bird song with the occasional siren or lawn mower thrown in for good measure!

We bought a few plants to spruce up the front and back gardens a bit today. Lots of violas - which I love, and they seem to love the soil here... and this:

I can't remember what it's called now, and the tag fell off somewhere between the garden centre and the car! It reminds me of forsythia - though it most definitely isn't forsythia. I can't wait for it to grow a bit and develop its own personality now it's free if the pot it came in.

I'm not sure if this next photo will be good enough for you to see the hydrangea...

It's pretty small right now. Can you see it? It's tucked in on the right hand side...

I always hated hydrangeas... until we went to France. Wherever we went, every house seemed to have at least one hydrangea - often the gardens were full of them (is it some strange law in France??).
By the end of our week, both me and J agreed - hydrangeas are beautiful... especially the blue ones!

So we got this one today (yes, blue!) to remind us of France... Hard to believe that August (and a return to France) is so close now!

Ok, I think I've rambled on enough for now... I'll leave you with Mr T and Miss E having a snuggle.

Enjoy your week!

It's been too long...

... but I am finally BACK! Not just to blogland, but to life in general - and of course, that means lots of crafting!

I've been busy (amongst other things) turning this:

Into this:

As you can see, we are starting to settle in. Mr T was at home straight away... It took the others a little longer.
Sadly, Miss P had to go to a new home. We miss her and her fresh eggs, but we weren't allowed to keep her here, and at least we know she will be ok and with other chickens once again.

Miss P would have loved our new "blank canvas" back yard:

I managed to pick myself up a bit of a bargain last week:

Can you believe it was only 99p in a charity shop? I saw it, and knew I had to have it (useful for hiding some of my yarn stash, don'tcha know?!?) - I was expecting it to cost a bit more, so I was really thrilled!

Ok, on to the crafting!
I've been working on a promise I made a while ago - a little snowman and penguin:

My pastel squares blanket (my first attempt at join-as-you-go, so be gentle in your comments! Mr T and Mr R thoroughly approve though!):

It's not all been about using up my stash... I bought this:

To be turned into a blanket made out of squares like this:

Pretty, huh? I don't think the lady in the shop thought it would come out quite this good when I told her my plans and she eyed up my chosen colours. What can I say? I'm a misunderstood genius!!

I've been working on a few things for my Etsy shop too, which I'm planning to put up next week. A few pairs of earrings, another hat and scarf set, and a new bag based on this one:

Ok, that's all for now... I missed so much crafting during the move that I don't feel as if I've had my "fix" unless I squeeze in a good 12 hours!

I've got something really good to share with you next time... I just know you will love it as much as I do... But, I've said enough! You'll have to wait and be surprised!

Lesson learned: Always make time for crafting... If you don't, madness is only a very short step away!

New arrivals...

On the 7th of this month, we were lucky enough to extend our family by two new members. Please welcome Mr T (left) and Mr R (right):

They are about 5 months old. Their mother is a stray who has been living in a local composting site, and she is now pregnant again. The owners of the composting site have done a wondeful job caring for the mother and her kittens, and are getting prepared for the new litter - starting with finding homes for the first litter. Hopefully, now that they have gained the mother's trust, her new litter will be born inside, so that mother can be taken to the vet before she gets pregnant again.
The boys went to the vet today for their first injections and a general health check. Unfortunately, Mr T's temperature was a little bit high, so he couldn't have his injections... back we go tomorrow, in the hope that Mr T's temeperature is where it should be. As you can see, they are both flaked out by the experience of their first vet visit:

Mr R is still very shy. The vet said he tried to bite her when she examined his mouth... I tried to examine his mouth when we got home and he was fine! Maybe Mr R just doesn't like vets!

This week, I have sold a pair of the earrings I made... and made a custom Kindle cover:

I'm just finishing off an iPad cover, that one of my friends is going to test for me. I'll show you the finished project when Chrissy has received it.

Earlier in the month, we had the storm of the century here! Please remember that I live in England, so my "extreme" weather is probably very normal to those living in the USA for example!
The thunder and lightning we were treated to was like nothing I have heard or seen before... For a long time, I'm sure the storm was directly over our house... And the rain... WOW! The photo doesn't really do it justice, but we had a little river flowing outside of our house for most of the day... at least 4 or 5 inches deep at times:

Well, now to the really exciting part! I'm teaming up with a fellow Etsy seller for a give-away soon - I don't know what the prize will be yet, but this lady's work is beautiful (you're sure to want it!) and you really would be crazy not to enter, so make sure you keep tuning in!! I'll give you all the details for the Etsy shop too... Just in case you can't wait to find out if you have won!

Lesson learned: Friends hide in the most unexpected places!

Juggling...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post... I feel like I'm juggling a million different things right now!
I am making progress though, and actually enjoying the harassed feeling!!

First of all, I'd like to apologise to the people who were expecting this blog post to include a step by step Yorkshire Pudding tutorial... The truth is, my muffin tin is in an awful state that I really wouldn't want anyone but family to see, and I forgot to buy a new one for the tutorial... I'll try to remember this week and get the tutorial done soon!

I noticed recently that my views on Etsy go up a lot whenever I add a new item. I put some thought into what this possibly means, and discussed ideas with J and K. We all came to the conclusion that I need to be adding a new item as often as possible...
So, today begins a year of adding listings to Etsy on a daily basis:

This lovely hat and scarf set was added today. Yes, I know it's July - but I live in England! We had our few days of sunshine and warmth a while back, so my thoughts are turning to winter now!
I have 5 more sets similar to this already made up. They will be added over the next few days.

The hat and scarf were made to use up some of the yarn I bought for a custom order - yes, really, a custom order! The customer wanted a small bag in a deep purple colour... I only needed 100g for the bag, but I couldn't find any suitable yarn in the right colour and ended up buying a massive 400g ball!

Here's the bag:

I also tried out a new bag design. I had an idea of how I wanted it to look, so I sat down with notepad and pen, hook and yarn, and made the bag. It's not often an idea works straight away, so I'm really pleased with it!

Do you remember this from my last post?

This preserve jar cover is on its way to Canada, where it will be appearing on a market helping to display the wonderful flowers made by Stephanie! Please  have a look at Stephanie's Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/berryisland

It's been so wet here, that I haven't been taking many photos of scenery. I did test out my photographic skills by taking some photos from the car:

I'm really quite surprised at how well this turned out - especially considering we were going about 50mph at the time!

Lately, I've been wondering what to do with my yarn trimmings. I was planning to stuff a small pillow with them when I had enough, but decided that washing said pillow could be pretty troublesome as they are various materials, weights, etc.
I was looking at my bag of trimmings when Miss E came along and gave me an idea:

Purr-fect! All of the trimmings are now back in the bag and waiting for our next play session!

Lesson learned: One woman's trash, is one cat's treasure!

What a week!

It feels like it's been a crazy week - really, it's been the last 24 hours that have been flat out - hectic - insane! - so I'll deal with that first and then tell you the news from the rest of the week!

Do you remember this?:

Well, it's now on it's way to Missouri in the USA! YES!! My first Etsy sale!! I got the order last night, but didn't see it until I got up this morning... So, I got everything organised as fast as I could, and off I went to the post office :-).

This rather stunning desk now belongs to me... Picked up for the bargain price of £65... It's a little battered, but I think I love it even more because of that!

I've always wanted a desk like this... and now it's mine, all mine... cackle, cackle :-). Although Miss E is a little wary of it for now! Can you see her sneaking into the bottom of the photo?

We threw in a quick trip into town to get some more plastic storage tubs... My yarn collection is expanding very rapidly, and I think I might have to get a larger sofa to hide the storage boxes behind!

I got these jar covers all finished off and added to my shop. I was planning on using two different styles of flower, but for some reason, I couldn't get the second design to curl up right (they looked like pressed flowers!). I'm still happy with the results though:

Anyway, on to the rest of the week.

K had exams recently. In all of his exams he came either first or second in his year! His lowest result was 84% - all other results were above 90%! Truly amazing! I am so very, very proud of what he is achieving!

On Thursday, I went into work wearing this lovely cardigan I found on a charity shop's £1 rail:

There was a brief conversation about how lucky I was to find this cardigan so cheaply... and then the cook stated she would dearly love one... but longer... and in an oatmeal colour. I proudly assured her there were bound to be numerous patterns around that would be very similar...

I spent most of the afternoon and evening searching and searching and searching. I think everyone has hidden them! So, I had to find a pattern that I could try to adapt... The best one I found was this, which I already own!

My faith in my abilities to adapt a pocketed cardigan into one with a cable panel on each side, and a floppy collar isn't great. As I'd already told J that morning that I wanted to knit a similar one for myself, I took the plunge and ordered the yarn for my cardigan... which will be the guinea pig for the cook! Once it's done, I'll take it in, let her try it on, and then she can have her oatmeal, cabled, floppy collared cardigan! Mine's being done in this colour - Velvet Plum:

What do you think? Like the colour? Reckon I can make it work?? We'll all have to wait and see!!

Lesson learned: Be patient, but don't stop trying... and I really need to clean my desk more often!!

Stocks and shares.

Why, oh why, have I never had stocks in my home before:

The scent is astonishing - and at 2 bunches for £5 makes a lot more sense to me than one of those plug-in air fresheners! Gorgeous!

Now for the shares... My new yarn that arrived this morning - 49% acrylic and 51% recylcled cotton:

The double knit is shown above, and the aran weight is below:

I'm planning to make something like these:

This is the look Miss E gave me when I told her the yarn was not for her:

And, of course, I'm not allowed to take a picture of Miss E and not take one of Miss D too!

Here she is - she's proudly caught Miss E's latest toy!

Really, it's not been a very good week... a lot of things just seem to be going wrong (mostly it's my fault for not writing things down properly, and trying to do too much at once!).

Lesson learned: Slow down and make proper notes!!



A little sneaky and a lot busy!

I snuck and sneaked and sneaked and snuck... A quick click and I was done!
Here's the no-longer-quite-so-missing iPod sock:

I actually managed to get the pincushion from my last post added to Etsy. I couldn't think of a photo that was totally different, so I just stuck pins it it - that's what it's meant for after all!

For my second Etsy addition this week, a lovely mid blue mini-bag. I like these bags a lot. Especially in summer when very few clothes seem to have pockets. These bags are like having a removable pocket! Here is is:

So, you've seen the sneaking and some busy... I haven't taken photos of the rest of my "busy", as it's just a pile of iPod socks in various colours waiting to be stitched up... and I don't really like taking photos of my "work-in-progress"!

And as Mum from "Mum's Simply Living Blog" requested -
Here is the adorable Miss E:

And Mr (thinks he is a dog) P:

We actually saw Mr P playing with a stick this morning... Strange, but very lovable cat!

Lesson learned today: Enjoy the sunshine and watching your cat act like a dog!

Until next time,

Dawn.
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