Friday Thrift

It's not often that I go for a mooch around the charity shops in Rayleigh, but today I just fancied it. So Robyn and I hopped on the bus and that's where our luck started. I only had a £10 note and as the bus driver couldn't change it he let us on the bus for free!! As we got off in town I asked if he could change it and he said not to worry! How nice was that?!
We went into 5 different charity shops and I bought something in each one, that never happens!
Robyn did pretty well, one kid's craft book for a £1A couple of Disney books, for 50p each and a magnet animal book (the magnets are now stuck on my lounge radiator) that doesn't look like it's ever been used for £1I got these crochet patterns for 10p each and a teeny tiny 1.5mm crochet hook for 10p too!
I also got this lovely Readers Digest sewing book for £2
and this embroidery pattern booklet for 70p which I'm giving to my Mum!
Finally I bought 2 vases which match my kitchen/dining room really well!
This little one is just the same colour as the dark teal tiles we have on the kitchen wall, bought for £2
and this is my piece de resistance, it matches almost exactly the paint we have bought to paint the kitchen and dining room walls. Isn't it a beauty! It was the most expensive item I bought today at £8.50 but I couldn't leave without it! I doubt I'll get so lucky next time I go rummaging, fingers crossed though!

Creative Space

Another Thursday and another Creative Space. This week I'm working on making these granny squares into lap blanket using up some left over cream and pink yarn that I found in my wool bag as a gift for a friend (I'm pretty certain she doesn't read this so it's ok to share this pic!). It can only be a lap blanket as I don't have much of the cream yarn and I have no idea what it is as it had no band on it. It's DK weight and really smooth, I'm sure I only bought it to practise crocheting when I first tried to learn and I'm really sure that it was bought because it was the cheapest one in HobbyCraft!! If anyone has any suggestions as to what it may be I'd be grateful!! I suspect it's a synthetic cotton effect yarn as it's made of about 6 strands... but I could well be wrong!

I'm also very pleased to be able to share with you my finished summery mesh shawl/scarf. It was adapted from a pattern in Cute & Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench. I used a heavier weight yarn so it didn't go quite as far and it is more of a scarf than a shawl, but I am happy as larry with the finished item!

Creative Space Thursday

I'm working on this granny square lap blanket using up some left over cream and pink yarn that I found in my wool bag as a gift for a friend (I'm pretty certain she doesn't read this so it's ok to share this pic!). It can only be a lap blanket as I don't have much of the cream yarn and I have no idea what it is as it had no band on it. It's DK weight and really smooth, I'm sure I only bought it to practise crocheting when I first tried to learn and I'm really sure that it was bought because it was the cheapest one in HobbyCraft!!

I'm very pleased to be able to share with you a picture of my finished summery mesh shawl/scarf. It was adapted from a pattern in Cute & Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench. I used a heavier weight yarn so it didn't go quite as far, but I am happy as larry with the finished item!

That's all for this week - let's hope blogger isn't broken any more and this post finally gets posted and stays up, fingers crossed!!

catch up!

Well, it's been a couple of weeks and for that I apologise, I do, however, have a reason/excuse. This Wednesday Robyn came down with the dreaded Chicken Pox which would explain her general grouchiness and clinginess of the past fortnight.

So our plans for this long weekend have been completely scuppered as we're stuck at home until her gazillions of red spots clear up. I thought I'd write a wee blog post.

I realised I'd not shared this photo of a cute crochet pin cushion I'd made for my mum as a Mothers' Day gift:

So, crochet is still my number one hobby obsession at the moment, although my creative mind is turning to thoughts of a hexagon patchwork quilt... oh and gardening, well we've been spending a lot of time in the garden and for the first time in the 6 years that we've lived here I'm really happy with our outside space. It's been resplendent with tulips and I now have just a dozen or so waiting to open up and they look like they'll be corkers!

Pink fluffy tulips:

Crochet hexxy throw, it's getting bigger!:

Crochet mesh summery shawl/scarf, using Sublime Cashmere, Merino, Silk blend.. it's so soft and crocheting up really fast! I'm following a pattern from my newest crochet book, Cute & Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench. A fabulous book!

I'm now under orders from a spotty Robyn to help her draw picture of Peppa Pig and Tinker Bell in her "Scientific Fairy Journal" (a quote from her current favourite Tinker Bell film, the Great Fairy Rescue). Hopefully she'll get over the Chicken Pox soon! She watched the Royal Wedding dressed as a bridesmaid yesterday... I'll get the pictures from Colin and share soon!

Creative Space Thursday

My creative space is still about the hooked hexagons and I still love them. It's a great process, enough of a pattern to be interesting, but not too complex that I can't watch tv too!

Yesterday Robyn and I had a Creative Space Wednesday, we papier mached 4 balloons to make garden decorations with and then we baked up a batch of good old Fairy Cakes. Robyn decided that licking the icing off the nearest cake to her as fast as I was putting it on was almost as much fun as making icing sugar clouds!!

We're now just waiting for the papier maché to dry so that we can get the paint out!

For more Creative Spaces stop by Kirsty's blog!

Spring has sprung

It's amazing what a bit of Spring weather can do isn't it? Spring and Autumn are my favourite seasons, I think for the real change they bring about. My garden has now had a spring clean and shaken off it's winter weariness - it looks a whole lot better for it too! It's far from "perfect" but it's getting there. I could do with a few plants here and there to fill in some gaps and to replace plants lost to the bitingly cold winter we had, but I'm happier with it now than I have ever been in the 6 years we've lived here.

I'm really looking forward to sowing the summer flower seeds Robyn and I picked out at the weekend: giant sunflowers, sweet peas, cosmos, love in the mist, blue cornflowers and bright mixed cornflowers. We also picked out runner beans, sugar snap peas, mixed salad leaves, chard and cress - we've already planted up two egg shells and two yoghurt pots! I just need to replace my wilted rosemary and buy a couple of rhubarb plants and some osteospernum and I think I'll be happy.

I'm also planning to paint the shed and bench - I can't decide between cream or blue.. oh maybe cream AND blue stripes?! I've also got plans to get some heavy weight twill cotton to make some fun bunting. Robyn has insisted we need more rainbow windmills too! Tomorrow is forecast as wet and horrible here so I've foraged in the recycling bins for newspapers and I'm going to introduce Robyn to the wonders of papier mache! I thought I'd try and make some mini hot air balloons and lady birds to hang in the trees. Plenty of coats of varnish should make them hardwaring enough I reckon?

Anyhoo, someone is demanding her lunch so I'd best get out in the kitchen!

Crochet hexagon throw

It's a work in progress, 13 hexxies down, quite a few more to go!

So far, so good... although Robyn now wants a Daddy lion and a Robyn (baby) lion, and I think a penguin too!! Oh yes and a big squishy Lucy owl.. I think I'm going to be busy...