Serenity

I had an amazing day on Wednesday! We drove up to Seahouses and took a tour around the Farne Islands by boat - it was a truly incredible experience!

I'll show you some photos in a minute, but first, I want to direct you to this website (just incase you fancy taking a trip yourself):

http://www.farneislandstours.co.uk/

This is the company we went with, and from what I have heard, you get so much more out of a tour with these guys! They really know their stuff, and clearly have a deep rooted appreciation and love for the islands and the wildlife surrounding it. If you do go on a Farne Island tour, try to get a seat on Serenity II - you won't regret it.

Ok, on to some pictures! Here's some seaweed in Seahouses harbour - I thought it was pretty!

Here is a view of the harbour:

It didn't take long before the islands became clear enough to take a decent photo of:

And then clearer still:

Messing around with my zoom actaully paid off this time:

It was just about at this point that I stopped taking photos for about 10 minutes. Why? A puffin flew right in front of us, and I spent the time acting like an over-excited 5 year old!
The camera soon came out again, when I realised I couldn't miss this shot:

Aren't they just gorgeous?
We noticed a few jellyfish in the waters surrounding the islands - can anyone tell what kind of jellyfish they are?

As if the puffins weren't gorgeous enough, I fell in love with this beauty:

There were many, many seals on the islands, either soaking up the sun or playing hide and seek in the water. Honestly, the ones in the water would dive under just as I clicked to take a photo of them!

What really amazed me about the seals, is the way they make eye contact - there is an air of intelligence about them, something almost human.

I was really pleased to get this picture of the lighthouse where Grace Darling lived:

This bird is called a "Shag". There were so many different birds on the islands, a lot of them stayed too far back, or moved to fast, for me to get photos of them:

Here is the view from Inner Farne, looking back towards the mainland:

Inner Farne is a bird santuary, and we were lucky enough to spend an hour on the island. There is a roped off path that you follow all the way around the island - although the terns didn't take much notice of the "our part, your part", and why should they?? It's their island!
We were warned that we should cover our heads when we arrived on the island, as the terns like nothing better than to "attack" during the breeding season. I did see a few people being swooped on, but there were no serious attempts!

Really, if you ever get the chance to do this tour, you should! We're hoping to go back this summer, maybe for the 4 hour tour (which includes a tour of the Northumberland coast), and again sometime in October for the birdwatching tour... Can't wait!!

Lesson learned: It's ok to act like an over-excited 5 year old sometimes!!

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!!

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!!



Busy, busy, busy...

I've been so busy lately - spending around 7 hours every day working on new projects to put up for sale on my Etsy shop...
Today, I decided I needed something for ME! I came up with this:

Believe it or not, these poor flowers had been sitting for several days in an old, unadorned coffee jar! They look so much better now!

The mini flowers are from this blog:

http://daisycottagedesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/tiny-little-flower-crochet-pattern.html

Lauren is kind enough to offer this pattern on her blog for free! I'm not the fastest crocheter in the world, but even I made 10 in no time!
Lauren's instructions are very easy to follow too!

So, I said in my last post that I would probably show you some unfinished projects... Here's a few to give you an idea of what I get up to!

This is going to be the perfect ripple afghan for me... Spice, green, brown, mustard... heavenly!

I'm working on this crocheted sweater... I have been for quite some time, on and off...

But the back is complete:

As is the front:

I'm also working on knitting this:

Again, I've done the back and the front. They are pretty rumpled and will need some serious blocking once the sleeves are done... So here's a close up of the cable detail which is on both the front and the back (you'll get an idea of the colour too):

  And do you remember this:

Well, it now looks like this:

Hope you can see the difference!

Ok, blogger has gone a little crazy, so I'm going to have to publish this and come back later...

Everything went all blurry on me, just as I was about to end. Oh well! Here's the end bit:

I managed to get several items finished for Etsy this week (visit my Etsy shop to see what's new!), despite several mishaps and near disasters.

Lesson learned: If at first you don't succeed - go away and think about it a bit before trying again!

A little wander...

Every so often, the whole family needs to get out, have some fresh air and look at some different views. Yesterday, we all took our cameras on a little wander and ended up here:

I've no idea where "here" is, although J could probably tell you!
It was so cool and green and damp and peaceful...

I managed to sneak a picture of K standing on the bridge:

Then I joined him to capture the view he was looking at:

I spotted a man hiding in the woods with a camera... Ok, it's J getting closer to the stream for some nice watery shots!

I haven't been doing as much crafting as I would like, so there aren't any photos of finished projects... or even unfinished projects since I don't like showing things I haven't completed...
I've been thinking about crochet a lot though, and searching for inspiration:

How lovely those pink flowers (weeds??) look nestled amongst the cow parsley. How can I recreate that in crochet? Or will I have to resort to cross stitch?

And these little blue flowers are just stunning! They look like forget-me-nots but grow on higher stems than I have ever seen... They got me thinking about crochet on a tiny scale... Maybe that's something to try when I'm feeling braver!

I love dry-stone walls. The older the better. The more falling down and covered with moss they are, the more I love them! If only someone (me!) could make an afghan that looks like this:

This week, I'm planning to try and perfect my photo-taking skills and finish off a couple of items for my shop... If I do well with the photography I may even include an unfinished project or two in my next post!

Lesson learned: It's ok to be me.

Until the next time we meet in Blogland!

Hugs,
Dawn.
-X-