My Week...

This week has flown by in a whirlwind of crochet, tea and spending nice bits of time with friends. I found a delightful pattern for making little fingerless gloves, perfect for my newly-acquired sheepy-wool which was crying out to be cosy mitts, so I settled in on Saturday evening and crocheted away. I worked my way around my blanket a couple of times on Sunday, and I'm sure that one day soon it will make a very warm little bed cover.

I am utterly thrilled with the progress of my windowsill garden, now flowering away nicely with pretty little white Gypsophilia. The next one that looks ready to bloom is the Delphinium, and I have high hopes for my tiny greenhouse plants. 

I found some lovely charity shop treasures this week, with the thrifty luck on my side for more fabulous sheepy-wool, some pretty coral 4-ply, and crafty books (Amy Butler and Applique). The yarn was put to good use quick-fast, and during an afternoon of excessive amounts of tea I made another pair of cutesy mitts, using strands of both coral yarns together to make a rather splendid blend. This afternoon I enjoyed a rare catch-up with some of my dear friends, and taught their sweet little girl how to crochet, and we made friendship bracelets, because we are best friends - As always my week has been full of tiny moments to treasure, but none more so than a seven-year old telling me that I have a special place in her heart. Such sweetness. 

My Week...

Another splendid week has passed, and there have been many delightful moments to look back on and smile a little happy smile. I spent a jolly evening at a birthday gathering for a friend in the Welsh hills, where I had a bit of time watching the world go by with some of the local livestock who were happily mooching around, and had a little chit-chat with the farm cat, Puss. Sunday was a perfect Sunday of crochet, cats, and mid-morning macarons made in one of my favourite little tea shops and enjoyed at home with a big cup of tea. 

On Monday I ventured to the big city, for theatrical Japanese food preparation at Miyako Teppanyaki followed by Gruff Rhys at the Glee Club. Wednesday was a day of chatting with friends that visited my little shop, talking about crafty adventures, swapping fabric and yarn and crochet tips. I also discovered to my amazement that some tiny seeds that I had planted had actually grown and grown and made little delicate white flowers. As a somewhat unsuccessful gardener I was thrilled and amazed, and am overjoyed to see more and more little flowers unfurling daily. 

Today has been a knitting day. And a knitting day is never a bad day. 

Makings and Ponderings...

When I'm off on my adventures, I always carry a book and some knitting, for those 'just-in-case' moments that tend to pop up unexpectedly. Several of my adventures have started with train journeys in the last week, so I have had an abundance of knitting opportunities. 

 I rather like knitting in public, there is a pleasantness about it, a higher likelihood that nice people will start up a conversation with me. I've been pondering on the sociability of knitting, after having a nice old chitchat with a sweet little lady on the train last week. It was one of those "what are you making? It's nice to see a young person knitting" kind of chitchats, and I must confess that it warmed my heart a wee bit to be in the company of a kindred-spirit. 

I had a happy-cast-off moment on Sunday, finishing a warm and cosy scarf and enjoying the ever-so-slightly-smug-feeling of being ahead with my Christmas gift making. It's a lovely little feeling. 

I was really quite the busy-bee on Sunday and added another strand of crocheted-joy in our hall, this time it's sweet little line of Sunburst-circles all in pretty pastels. I do so enjoy being busy and making delightful little bits and bobs.

My Week...

It has been a funny old week, one full of thinking, and quietly making things and spending time with family and friends. I've been thinking about how I spend my time, and who I spend it with, and about loyalty and making better choices - as I say, it's been a funny week. So I've been cocooned in our cosy little home, with my serious "thinking-about-things" hat on, and trying to come to useful conclusions. I'm not sure if I'm quite there yet... But aside from all the thoughts and the thinking, there have been some useful bits to my week... I spent Sunday with my lovely husband, and we baked a blackberry pie and spent time in the garden, picking apples and tidying up ready for the long winter ahead. We had a little bit of excitement on Monday, in the shape of a new arrival - a bunny called Clarence, who needed a forever home and has settled into our funny little family quite nicely indeed. He rather likes apples. 

I spent Thursday with a dear sweet friend, catching up, after months apart, over tea and cake, buying nail polish, swapping crafty ideas and swooning in vintage shops. It was a very splendid day, and a reminder to make the time to enjoy good company and be happy. 

Makings...

As the Summer is drawing to a close and the Autumnal chill in the air seems to be a more regular visitor, I feel the need to spend as much time as possible cosy at home and crafting. Knitting socks is my comfort-craft of choice (along with making granny squares of course) and no matter how many other crafty projects are happening there is always at least one pair of socks on the needles. 

These ones are lovely Drops Fabel "Pink Dream" yarn, and I think they're pretty splendid if I do say so myself. The moment they were finished I immediately cast on a new pair, these ones are super-thrifty "Frankensocks". They are made from leftover bits of yarn from other pairs of socks, and since I have rather teeny feet there is always quite an abundance of leftover yarn. So these ones are going to be a fancy-pants pair with pinky/greeny stripes. 

 My other thrifty project is to make use of a big bag of vintage quilty hexagons that came to me as an appreciator of vintage floral goodness. I am having a delightful time picking out and putting together patterns and colours and making squishy little puffs. Progress will no doubt be slow on this project, I think it might be a labour of love but eventually it might become a quilt. 

My Week...

As with all good weeks, this one has been full of lovely crafty opportunities and spending time with wonderful friends. On Sunday I discovered some long forgotten goodies at the bottom of my yarn stash, including some delightful Colinette chunky pure wool, which I started whipping-up into a very cosy scarf ready to be gifted at Christmas. I also absolutely had to try out a very pretty crochet heart pattern that I found, it's one of the most spiffy ones that I've made so far, from many, many attempts at hearts! Monday was a "work in a cafe" day, followed by a "tea with little sister date" and it was just splendid. On Tuesday there was vintage and charity shopping accompanied by lots of tea (and possibly a very large piece of cake...) with a dear friend, where the adoption of yet another lost-looking little bird may have occurred. There was also the acquisition of mustard beads and a book on the collections of Victorian folk, which promises to be a very good read. After the shopping portion of the day there was an extended hound-hugging session with my two favourite Greyhounds, Freya and Chester. They are wonderful cuddle-buddies. 

Thursday started off perfectly with gorgeous mail. There is something so exciting about letters, and the tales that are shared. The afternoon was spent on one of my favourite seasonal adventures -  Brambling! It was a real family outing with my sister, my dad and his fluffy little dog. We found lots of Blackberries, and there are big plans for baking this weekend. Friday was a special, really rather important day - it was the nine year anniversary of the arrival of our special little companion Honey, who despite being a grumpy-pants, is the friendliest cat I've ever known. She was a skinny-miss when we found her, and she was very pleased to have a new home after seven months in RSPCA accommodation, her little life being saved by a member of staff who fought for her. I like to think Miss Honey was just waiting for us to come along so she could adopt us, I hope she is pleased with her choice every day. 

On My Mantle

I like to take quiet moments to have a little wander around the many nook-and-cranny-like spaces of the internet, and I stumbled across a lovely intagrammer called Ada who also has a very pretty blog called Vintage Sheet Addict. Inspired by her post called "On My Mantle" I thought I would share a little peep of my fireplace, and some of the bits-and-bobs and happy critters that live there...

I try to fill our little home with thrifted knick-knacks and handmade loveliness - a lesson I learned at a very young age from visiting my beautiful gran, who had something on every surface, and more books than an average library. I learned about thriftiness and craftiness and the love of reading from her. I hope she would be proud of my crafty adventures.

My Happy Handmade Hallway

There are often little plans and schemes and plots in my brain, that tick and percolate and quite often drive me to distraction. There is usually some kind of crafty-making at the root of this, and the result is almost always the immediate need to make the thing that is causing such overtaking of my thought process.

 As it happens, the latest make to cause this started innocently enough with my plans for stash-busting good behaviour. As I made little squares and pompoms, without a real plan but as a way of using up the tiniest of bits-and-bobs, it occurred to me that this would be a way of adding extra fanciness to my lovely yellow hallway.

And so, with my super-tall husband playing the part of helper, we started to install some rather delightful (if I do say so myself..) strings of pompoms and mini granny squares. My hope is that they will bring some cheer and sunshine during the winter months, and they already bring a smile to my face every time I come through the front door!

My Readings - August

If there's one thing that I like particularly about the summer - and I must admit there are lots of things to like - it's the opportunity to have days out, and how that can often lead to reading in a cafe or a park, or just making the most of sitting outside in the the garden. I have spent lots of time grabbing those opportunities, and that means I have read lots of books in August. I generally like to read lots of books, so I am rather pleased.

So in August I read - 

• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• Out of the Ordinary and What I Do by Jon Ronson
• Secret Britain - the Hidden Bits of Our History by Justin Pollard
• Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds