Holidays

The summer holidays are coming to an end.   The last few weeks have whizzed by and the only sad thing about it is that I haven’t had a moment to do much in the way of crafting but I plan to make up for that once we get back into a more normal routine when the children return to school.

 

We were lucky enough to get a week away in Woolacombe, Devon, which just happened to fall during the week that we had the hottest week of the year, so we couldn't have planned that better if we had tried!     I took this picture early one evening when we were heading back to the car after a day of body boarding and playing beach volleyball and badminton and thought I would share it with you.  As my nan used to say "what a lovely view".

 

We also managed to get 10 days away in Exmouth, which was very nice and relaxing.    My brother, Greg, and his girlfriend joined us for a couple of days and Greg came armed with several fishing rods to set about teaching our son to sea fish.  There was a very successful catch at 10.20pm one evening ... a sea bass.  It was very exciting but after the squeals of delight from us 3 girls who had been sitting waiting for a little bit of action there was probably little doubt that any fish in the water for a five mile radius would have now disappeared, so after a few photos the fish was returned safely to the sea and we headed back for a few celebratory drinks.

 

 

Once Greg left despite the lack of the fishing rods we felt inspired.  There were definitely  fish and crabs to be caught so off we went again.  The boys were armed with crab lines and bate and us girls went armed with two chairs and a couple of good books.      Imagine the delight when our son caught his first fish on a crab line!   Not quite how we imagined his first catch but we had a very happy son.  

Son and husband posed for a photo of Joss's first catch.    A memorable photo... but then today we discovered  that what he had actually caught was a Weaver fish!!!  Not a fish to be messed with!!!  Whoops -  think us girls should have been reading up on types of fish!!! 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

A Summer Wreath Part 1

Hi,

What a fabulous summer I have had this year!  We have had no end of visits here and there and I still have many of these to share with you.  I had mentioned our visit to Yorkshire earlier this month and one of the highlights of this was a day spent at the magnificent Castle Howard.

The gardens were amazing and we spent a long time wandering through these in particular the Walled Garden which was originally laid out as a Kitchen Garden in the 18th Century.  Today it is part Rose Garden and part Fruit and Vegetable garden. 

My husband was particularly keen to see the fruit and vegetables that were growing as he is a keen fruit and vegetable gardener himself.  My daughter and myself spent a long time exploring the many flowers within the garden and we kept ourselves busy photographing these.

These have most certainly been my inspiration for my Summer Wreath creation.  I am going to create my wreath by attaching it to a wire frame.  I have made a start by creating a base for the wreath in the form of leaves.  I began by creating a paper leaf template then pinning and cutting out leaves from a lovely spotty fabric I had found.  You will need enough as a base for the wreath.  I made 12 but you may need to judge yourself according to the size you would like your wreath to be.

 

I then cut corresponding leaves from green felt fabric.

 

I pinned a spotty fabric leaf to a felt leaf and then used blanket stitch to join them.



 

Following this I left a small gap to stuff them and continued using blanket stitch to join the gap.

 

 

I have put these to one side for now and the next job is to look at making some flowers to add to the wreath.  I love the pink rose in the photo above so may look at creating a crochet rose next.

 

Bye For Now

 

Von x

 

 

Blanket Crochet Along!

Hi,

Zelna (Zooty Owl's Crafty Blog) has set up a Blanket Crochet Along and so I decided I would join in!  I am a bit late to the party there but am working hard to catch up with her. 

You can never have enough blankets, especially with two dogs in our household.  Here is the link for the first step in the blanket a long:- 
Zooty Owl's Crafty Blog: Happy Days CAL (1): Hakuna Matata Mandala Square

The first step is to make 4 of the Hakuna Matata Mandala squares so I selected my eight colours included 6 brights and 2 neutrals as suggested by Zelna. 

Then I set about making my squares.  Here is my first completed one. 

I have managed to complete all four large squares now so ready to get busy with the next step.  Watch this space to see how I get on as I follow Zelna's blog and the blanket a long.

Bye for now

Von x

Crochet Socks

Hi,

I was bought this lovely little booklet last Christmas for creating my own crochet socks called "Learn to Crochet Socks the Toe-Way Up!" 

I bought some more of the Women's Institute wool from Hobbycraft. You will need 2 balls for this pattern.

I opted for the sock pattern "River Moss" on page 6 of the book and decided to give it a go.  It took me a bit of a working out because I had a first try and found the 'small' size were still huge for my feet so I had to adapt the pattern somewhat.  It was quite straight forward but you need to keep an even tension as I did find that one sock was slightly larger than the other from not maintaining the appropriate tension. 

The finished result was pretty good and the socks are very warm.  I'm thinking now that I have got the gist of how to go about it I could definitely develop my own style sock design and I would like to have a go with some chunkier and more colourful designs.  Have you had any successes with crocheting socks?  Can anyone recommend a particularly good pattern?

Bye For Now

Von x

Spotty Nail Design

This is a design I came up with when doing my nails the other day:

I started by painting a layer of the colour duck egg blue and I used the number 7 brand as shown below.

I then used my Nails Supreme pens to add a spotty effect to the nails after the base coat was dry. I added a small blob of each colour on my nails, using different colours to make the spotty effect multi-coloured.

To finish, I then added a clear coat to give a more shiny effect after the nails were dry. This also helps to add some strength to the nails, making the design last longer. 

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial, bye for now, 

Heather :)