This way to the beach...

So, tomorrow we're off to the beach. Woohoo! The bags will be packed, the car will be loaded, and we''l be heading south - to Cornwall. I can't wait. Tomorrow, whatever the weather, I will be on the beach, feet on the sand, gazing at the sea, looking for sea glass and other treasures and dreaming... one day, I could live here.

Meanwhile, back in the real world. I finally finished Phoebe's knitted rabbit.


I say finally, there's quite a tale behind this rabbit. I started his sibling just fourteen years (yes, I did say fourteen YEARS) ago. You can see the date on the magazine.

He was to sit in the top of toddler Louise's Christmas stocking. He was enthusiastically started, then we moved house, so his various parts were placed in a Miss Selfridge bag (wonder if I could sell that on Ebay?) and he languished in the loft. Occasionally thought of, occasionally wondering if he was still actually there? So, last autumn, during a sort out of the loft, I found him! So, he was brought down, and finally completed. He now sits (un-photographed, I'm afraid) on Lou's (teenage) shelves. In a dress. Which I had to also knit. With no pattern. And he's still a he, even in his dress. So, with one rabbit under my belt. I swiftly moved on to knit one for Phoebe. He was completed in mere weeks. Then it took months to get around to sewing him up.


I was waiting for a bright day, you see. Last Sunday was such a day. So rabbit number two was completed, and put into his jumper. But, apparently the jumper is not quite right, according to Miss P. So I have been asked to knit an alternative jumper. Again without a pattern. So, it takes me ages to knit - but I still have to make up my own patterns for these little outfits! I'll show you the results. Shall we make a date, say, next Easter?

Then, yesterday, Helen and I went to another crop, no pics as yet. We had another fabby day, and will definitely be going again.



Sarah x

Playing Catch-up

Crikey, Where does the time go?

Had a lovely day out on Monday with my sister, for her birthday. She's catching me up, for a few weeks. Every year in the few weeks between our birthdays, she's only a year younger than me, then my birthday arrives, and I'm back to being the oldest by two years. We drove out into Worcestershire, to a craft shop near Evesham - nice place, we'll probably go again. Then we had lunch at a cafe near there, nice food and a fab cafe. It was run by two sisters, with help from their mom, and was full of a real mix of thrifted furniture, mis-matched tables and chairs, and the most fabulous wall of contemporary silver-grey wallpaper, with silver framed mirrors and white painted brick pillars.

Birthday card made for Helen

Tuesday was a day out with my mom and dad, we went out to Northamptonshire, to a fabric shop mom wanted to go to. Fabulous fabrics, some bought for my niece's birthday, she is nine today, and has had a sewing machine - and the family have all bought her something sewing-y. Mom also bought me some fabric to make a cushion cover - eek! Not another hobby on the horizon? Think so, still need to do my post about the other things from Hobbycraft earlier in the month...

The rest of the week has mostly been work - so a pic from the car park(again) but with the sun out this time...


The box frame at the top I put together quickly one evening. I've had the frame for about a year, but the Amy Butler background paper is new, as are the Prima flowers. Pretty, I think.

Sarah x

Shoots...

The first shoots from our newly planted seeds...


A shot (ahem) through the windscreen of my car in the car park at work...

I actually took my camera out with me today, but couldn't quite bring myself to take photos when I was supposed to be going to the bank... And I know I missed some good ones, the buildings were beautiful in the spring sunshine. Ah well, I'll try to be braver and take some of the lovely places I get to see when I go on my travels.

Sarah x

Journalling and a Day Out

So, I finally got round to doing some journalling. It's taken a while to get my head around doing it. What? My actual handwriting, on a scrapbook page? Hmmn...

As my friend Lisa put it to me - it's about telling your stories. And finally it (sort of) clicked. When I look at the old photos my parent's have, I always wonder who they are? what are they doing? where are they? what are they thinking? So, I'm trying to put some of that on my pages. I started with the pages that I did at the Bellaboo crop last month. "Beach" is just one of them. I showed the un-journalled pages before. And also using the kit that I got that day, here's another one.

I love this kit - I'm going to miss it when it's all gone. But hopefully by then, I'll be brave enough to do my own thing... The picture on this one is my Mom and her sister on the beach. It's probably Weymouth, and I guess sometime in the early Fifties - I'll check, and add it to my journalling, hidden in it's pocket behind the photo. What do you think of those knitted costumes? And their ringlets?


In the pursuit of scrapbooking - my sister, mom and myself spent the day at the NEC on Saturday, at the Hobbycrafts Show. Now, we didn't think it was as good as it has been before. But, we did manage a little bit of shopping.

The Amy Butler Scrapbooking Tool Caddy came home with me, an early Birthday pressie from my sister. Especially kind of her, as she wants the other pattern, but nobody had it there, but we did stop off at another craft shop on the way home, and it has been ordered. The goodies inside are mostly treats for myself - apart from my trusted paper cutter. Don't you think I'll look the part at the next crop?

Some more about Hobbycrafts next time, I think.

Sarah x

Poetry and Planting

This is the copy of a post from Miss P's (private) blog...

..........................................

this is a poem i wrote:

what happens to your sunflower
as soon as it is dead.
here she comes
swooping down,
the sunflower fairy of course .
she waves her wand
woosh!!!
in a second it's gone.

she leaves behind
for you to find ,
a single wilted
petal.

I wrote this poem in the car after i bought some sun flower seeds. it came to mind what happens to a sunflower when it is dead.

.........................................

She asked that I put it here. I think it's lovely; but, quite rightly, I am very biased.


We went to the garden centre yesterday for some veggie seeds. A couple of packets of flower seeds crept in, some sunflowers, hence the poem, and also some daisy like flowers that Miss P chose. Anything daisy-like is just about my favourite flower.

We're going to have a good go at growing some veg this year. At the moment we're planning on courgettes, french beans, tomatoes, and probably some rocket will sneak in as well.

Oh, and a gratuitous picture of what's on my mantlepiece ( as seen on many other blogs) but bizarre light here today, so picture played about with...

Sarah x

A Bit of the Blue Stuff

Been a bit of a blue week. Not too much to say, my little niece ended up in hospital again, with her "wheeze", and everything got a bit too much for me. Far too much happening, and most of it out of my control. Mark cheered me up with a bottle of my favourite, in it's gorgeous blue bottle.

Bear

For my niece... She knows why.

I was out and about with Helen today, and saw this fellow sat on top of a roadside take away. As we were stuck in traffic, and I had my camera with me... I'm trying to be a blogger, but this is the only pic I managed to take.

Can't say too much about our trip today, people read this, you know. But it's one to go down in our history of trips out - maybe I should scrap it, hmmn?

Sarah x