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 a long, long time...

... Since I posted. I'm feeling guilty because I don't have one particular reason why I fell out of the "Blogosphere".

To start with, I think I spent a long time getting over the shock of losing my home, and learning to adapt to life surrounded by neighbours and all the accompanying noises - rather than having near silence all day and night, and the freedom to sit outside in my pyjamas if that's what I wanted to do!

I've also been suffering several crises of confidence. The first being the lack of views this blog has had. It took me until last night to realise that I haven't been tagging any of my posts... DUH!
After I've filled you in on events, I'm going to toddle off and correct that...

My lack of views/sales in my Etsy shop has caused me problems too.
I followed advice and worked hard on my photos, tags, titles and descriptions. My views rose and my sales started to look promising. Then a few months back, it all came crashing down. I'm lucky to get 10 views a day... and I think most of them come to me by accident!

At the weekend, I paid for a stall at a local village's annual Summer Fayre. I hadn't realised it's far more of a classic car show these days. I had lots of people looking, but few buyers. I did manage to recover the cost of the stall, and make a little extra on top, but it was no where near as good as I had hoped.

Saturday evening, I was dotting between strategies for increasing views and feeling like I should just stop right now.

Yesterday was spent feeling angry... mostly with myself.

So, I'm back. I have a new out-look and a new determination! I love what I do, the creativity of knitting and crocheting, and I'm not going to stop just because not many people are seeing my work.
I need to make changes, that much is clear, but I don't yet know what those changes need to be. I'll face them and tackle them as and when I work out what those changes need to be.

One of the things I can do right off is get back to communicating with the world at large. Even if I am just talking to myself right now!

I'm planning to write a blog post at least once a week. News of what I'm doing, what I'm planning... and photos!!

Talk to you soon.

xx

What I'd really like for Christmas...

... Is a few more hours in the day. A working week that runs from Saturday to Sunday, with a weekend that lasts from Monday to Friday. Think Santa will fit that under my tree??

I've been very bad lately at letting you know what's been going on here. I'm planning on making a change with that and blogging a little more frequently!

The most "exciting" thing happened a few weeks ago. It rained and rained and rained. I found my way to work blocked - not just by water, but by the fire brigade trying to rescue people's homes:

You can just see J there on the left of the picture. He's going down the road to talk to the "Incident Commander" about a row of 6 houses that are about to be flooded. There was a poor old guy, at least 70 years old, walking backwards and forwards with a wheelbarrow, desperate for someone to bring him some sandbags. We did what we could, then went home to dry off and contact K's school to find out what the travel arrangements would be for getting the kids home.

My major achievement has been finally finishing the knitted blanket I started about 5 or 6 years ago. There are 90 individually knitted blocks. I finished those about 3 years ago, and they've been sitting waiting for some attention ever since!
This is was 60+ hours of sewing up will get you:

Not bad, huh?

I've been working on some things for my shop too.

I added a selection of crocheted brooches last week:

And decided to try my hand at making mug cosies (which caused great guffaws of laughter from my father!):

And today I added some baby booties:

I'm pleased with them, but not as pleased as I was with the booties I finished today. These are for a friend of mine at work. I'll be handing them over tomorrow - I hope she's pleased with them!

I also made a Christmassy penguin and snowman for a friend's daughter:

Then I started thinking "Well, they'll be packed away for most of the year", so I added an extra hat and scarf each!

I think they look cute!

Right then, time to dash and get some more things done - my "To Do" list is slowly getting smaller, so I want to keep going while I have the energy!!

I hope everything is going well for those of you who keep an eye on my blog? Do let me know how you are - I'd love it!

Until later, hugs to you!

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!

Branching out

Ah, can you believe it is August already? We should be outside basking in warm sunshine, sipping cool drinks and eating ice cream... Instead we are inside huddled in blankets, gulping hot tea, and crafting! Well, maybe it's not quite that extreme... and I can't really complain about the crafting and hot tea parts!!

As you've probably guessed from the title of this post, Teesdale Treasures (ok, me!) has given some thought to new items to sell in my shop... and I came up with these:

8 pairs of earrings made with glass beads and antique bronze wires. The photo only shows 1 earring from each pair - otherwise they wouldn't have fitted on the wine glass!
I also made a pair just for me. These are a gorgeous brown colour that I would have regretted selling!

Also being added to my Etsy shop (over a few days - remember, I'm trying to add one item a day!) are these budget preserve jar covers. They are made to the same design as the more expensive ones, but use 100% acrylic yarn (to keep the cost down).

I took this picture from my living room window a week or so ago... The light was so inviting, and my camera was close by... Please ignore the dirty windows!

Lesson learned: It's always good to try something new!

All going to plan...

It seems like I finally found a balance between making things for my Etsy shop, and making things for myself!
I have a 4 day "working week" (Monday to Thursday), and 3 days for ME, ME, ME!!
It's working well so far... It means I can fill my shop with basics like these iPod-compact camera-phone covers:

While giving me time to work on larger items, and of course, to design new items.

The weekends are mostly devoted to crafting for me... although I do tend to add items to my shop at the weekends and try to write here too! This is what I've been up to today:

It's my shawl - and it's now too big to get a decent photo of! I'm hoping to have it completed by the end of next weekend, and then I'll get J to take a photo of me holding it.

I need to decide what to complete for me next - the knitted sweater, the crocheted sweater, or one of the throws... Hmm, decisions, decisions!

It's been so windy here. I'm spending a lot of time looking out of the window, watching the clouds scudding across the sky, and I thought it was time I shared with you what I can see.
This is the view from my bedroom window:

Nice, huh??

If you lean out of the window a bit, and turn to the left, you get this:

And if you look to the right, but don't lean out quite so far, you get this:

It's really worth clicking on this picture to make it bigger - you can really see the wind blowing!

I decided that these pictures didn't do justice to the colours in our village... so I took my life in my hands and leaned as far out of the window as I dared without asking J or K to hold my ankles... and took these "aerial" shots of the flower patch in front of our house:

As you can see, it's mostly orange and yellow with a bit of white and red thrown in.

In the photo below, you can just about see my California Poppy patch, on the far side of the steps - they are my pride and joy! I almost lost them due to neighbours complaining they were too bright... Thankfully, they moved and our new neighbours love them!

I'll be sad to leave them when we move (the flowers and the neighbours!), but I intend to plant again and keep in touch with neighbours who have become friends.

Lesson learned: Set targets and try to stick to them!





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!!