Get Away!

I have spent the afternoon gathering and cutting things for Get Away!.  Get Away is a holiday club for the elderly and the not so elderly too!!  We spend three days together having fun, no FUN!!  Chattering and drinking coffee while everyone arrives; watching flower demonstrations; playing the hilarious game of Beetle (and I bet you thought children were competitive!); being entertained;  eating 4 Star meals and then getting messy, which is where I come in.  So I have gathered..

beads, templates and examples of Hama pretties..

lots and lots of card and paper..

and shapes..

and stamps and pads..

for greetings cards and bookmarks.

Circles and yet more circles, which will be really messy!  Last year it was grout and mosaics.  This year it is paper and glue.  But more of that another day!

Content!

We have been away this weekend to Staffordshire.  It blew a gale.  It poured with rain.  Then the sun came out!  Yeah!  Then the sun went in and it hailed!  Boo!!    But then, wait for it……. we woke up to a very sharp frost and snow!!!!  So you may ask where are all the photos to entice us into reading more?   I forgot my camera!!!!!  I ask you therefore to imagine green hills rolling away in the distance; grey clouds scudding across the sky; trees with rime frost on their branches; and the car, covered in beads of hail and collecting as snow.  Got it?  Scene set.

Saturday we trundled off to Stafford the county town, to the Ancient High House.  We like old houses and castles, but we like their history too.  We hate it when the history is frozen at a time.  When a house is taken back to a certain era and often hundreds of years of the house’s history is wiped away.  A house is a record of all the people who have lived there.  To take it back to an era is to say that the people who lived in it after that time did not matter.  They cease to exist.  Who has the right to wipe it all away?  Yes you have gathered by now, I am on my soap box!!!  For this reason we do not belong to the National Trust.  Some of the things, they look after in an understanding way, like the Workhouse in Southwell, or Mr. Straw’s House in Worksop, or even the canal side at Guildford, and I thank them for the care of a lot of the coastal walks and countryside.  For these things I am quite happy to pay.  But some of their historic houses leave me cold.  So much history has vanished.  Well the Ancient High House has managed to reclaim some of its history.  It is a Tudor house, the largest remaining timber framed house in England.  It has been used mainly as a private residence, but also as shops and the rooms tell that story.  You can see the Civil war room where Charles 1st stayed; visit the Stuart room with its magnificent four poster bed; admire the elegant Georgian room with the fragments of wallpaper discovered under layers of other paper (a history in itself); and then visit the shop of Edwardian Mr. Marson.  The Victorian parlour is bedecked with crazy patchwork and samplers.  Then there is the display gallery which this weekend looked at Pugin, so over the top in his designs but fascinating!

Many things caught my eye, but I think it was the embroidery that won the day. The four poster bed has curtains around it and on the bed, cushions with doodle stitching!  I now have an image of the way my own doodle stitching could work.   The crewel work was very rich and impressive, far beyond my capabilities but I will try.  One day!  This weekend I had to be content with my hooking.

My ripple came with me and it grew..

And when we got back I made headway with this month’s tea cosy.

Traditional and very purple!!!

Purple patches.

I was stood looking out of the window yesterday when I got the call!  The flowers in the garden are really coming together now and a lot of them are purple!!  Now you know how I love purple and these little beauties were shouting ‘take me, take me!’  Not literally but pictorially.  So I gave in and with my camera in my hand I ventured out into the cold stiff breeze.  If anyone saw me they would think I was mad.  It was really blowing a gale, but between the gusts these pictures emerged.  I hope you like them!

I love the way the grape hyacinth poke their heads between the dense foliage.

These little clumps are everywhere.  Completely wild but oh so pretty!

This photo doesn’t do  this little polyanthus justice.  The flower is a really deep purple.

All the flowers on this hyacinth have not come out, but I rather like the fact that it looks like blue bells.

The aubretia deorates the edge of the rockery.  I love the way it cascades like little rivulets between the rocks.

And lastly the peirwinkle.  The gust caught me out with this one!!

“And so I tell you not to worry….. Look at the birds flying around: they do not sow seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them!  Aren’t you worth much more than birds?  Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?

And why worry about clothes?  Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes for themselves.  But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers.”  Matthew 6. v26 – 29

Yes,  God is good!

Surprises!

On Saturday I had three things drop through the letter box, well two packages to be precise containing three delights!  The first was a card from my son – I recognised his handwriting, and the other was a package from Amazon.  The first went on the mantel piece for Sunday but the second I couldn’t wait to open.  Inside was ….

I have been trying to find the ripple book at my local library, but they couldn’t help.  They are usually very good at getting me lots of craft books and I have been introduced to most of Jan Eaton’s books in this way.  It was partly the cover that made me decide to buy it and also the fact that I love my ripple blanket which is still growing.  Look at the cover.  It is blue and purple with a hint of green!  So me!!  But the other cover is also me.  Flowers!  I love flowers and I saw this book on Lucy Attic 24.  She had made the most beautiful pansy in yes you’ve guessed it – PURPLE!!  I just had to have the book to make my own.  Oh what joy.  Flowers and flowers and flowers.  Simple ones, intricate ones in all shapes and colours!  But it wasn’t the pansy I made first.  The card for Mother’s day had a beautiful daisy drawn on it and so, thanks to my son, I made a daisy!

The flower head I made straight from the book, and developed my own leaves and stalk.  I added a pin so I can wear it…

and be reminded of those special thanks!!

I was going to put the balls of wool away and get out my ripple, but I couldn’t resist one more peek into my flower heaven.  I just had to make this daffodil to make me smile!

Again I have added my own stalk and leaf.

It brought a lot of joy in the making and I hope it brings a lot of joy in the wearing!

Ready to go!

I have finished it, and yesterday I packed it up with goodies, for both Mum’s, ready for our round trip to wish them a Happy Mother’s Day!

I decided to go for a flower in between each shell, with a pearlised bead in differing colours for their centres.  Perhaps a little fussy but , hey, it is a fun bag!!

The strap worked well with just the one stripe and I really quite like my bag.  So what were the ‘goodies’?

Two bunches of daffodils to make them smile!  Can you see the birds?  A Blue Tit and a Blackbird to make them grin!  Aren’t they sweet?  They are wooden and can be popped into a plant pot,  which MIL did, or used as a paperclip, which my Mum did.  She didn’t want to dirty it!!

Then there were two cards with oodles of love and sentiment!! And finally two presents done up with pretty paper and ribbon for that added surprise.

Oh yes, I received a beautiful card from my son, but that is another post!!

Between or Under?!

Last night I tracked on with my hooking and was rewarded with the complete main piece.  So what is it?  It is another of Lucy’s (Attic 24) bags.  This one is for me to use out and about, so I have adjusted it slightly.

It is taller than my project bag and I have worked a pattern of sorts in the banding.  Can you see the really thin band around the top?  That is a row of double crochet.  I wanted a thin row for my flowers to sit on.  I thought about stitching a chain around the top, but decided against it.  I thought about trebles, but decided against that too!  Then I thought about making the shells in the rainbow wool, but thought that would fight with the flowers.  So the double crochet was given the go ahead and I think it works quite well!!

Now to the flowers…

Sixteen of the little things!  But now I am in a quandary!  Do I put them underneath the shells?

Or do I put them between the shells?

Or do I make some more and put them between each shell?

I am going to find some little pearl buttons to put as their centres.  Something not too heavy.  Finally it will be just the handles to make.  Navy with a thin row of rainbow wool down the middle.  So that is tonight’s crafting sorted, unless I leave the housework and do it now!  Hmmmmmm…!

Memories!

After posting yesterday I went on the rummage.  Searching high and low for my old story books that I used to take into school.  I wanted to share with you the story of Mr. Rabbit.  It is such a gentle story. A story for kiddiewinks to put in  their thumbs and twiddle their hair.   An ideal one for bedtime.

The little girl is looking for a birthday present and Mr. Rabbit helps her to find one.   A colourful one!  They find something green…

something red….

something blue….

and something yellow.  In between finding all these things they find alot more colourful objects which don’t quite fit the bill!

Yellow?  Well yellowy green!!!

Mr. Rabbit then helps to put them altogether.

So if it is your birthday today, or your unbirthday today, have a very nice time and this is..

..just for you!

Sorry!!

Sorry about the loss of Flickr.  I have been trying to make a mosaic badge and have lost the link!!  Technology!

Rainbow Days!

It looks as if   it is another dull day here, so what better way to brighten a day than to look at rainbows!  Richard Of York Gained Battle In Vain!  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet!!  That was the saying my Mum taught me, when I was tiny, to remember the order of the colours of the rainbow, and it is the one that I passed on to the children in my classes when teaching!  I used to love teaching the 4 and 5 year olds their colours.  We would have colour days when everyone went dressed in the same colour.  Yes we were all in the same colour but oh so many different hues!  We would paint, stick, and generally get messy in the colour and then eat food of that colour.  (Yes we did wash our hands in between!)  Blue food always made us think.  We didn’t have blue Smarties in those days!!!  Then at the end of term we had a rainbow day, wearing every single colour in the brightest possible hues!  Oh to be teaching in the good old days again!  Haaaaaaaa…….!

But what of the rainbow today?  Well yesterday I bought this to cheer me up after failing to get a quilting foot for my sewing machine.

Fat lines, thin lines, and oh so crisp!

A new book makes you want to smooth it, hug it, write in it in your best possible hand writing.  It sits there on my bedside table waiting for me, but not yet.  I want to show you these.

Aren’t they tiny?  My ‘Bright’ rainbow wool flowers.

Sitting in a row!

Or a group!

With centres sorted from old buttons!

But these are only the first of many.  I shall need many more before I stitch them onto this.

It is growing.  I am about half way there now.

This is where this particular rainbow stops and the deep navy takes over.  When that is done, my little flowers will come into play!

So have a very happy rainbow day!!

Inside, outside.

We have had a beautiful weekend with the sun shining and the garden really blossoming.  It has been a weekend for being inside and outside.  We have decided to grow some fruit this year.  The rhubarb is well accustomed to our garden and grows a good crop.  The first sticks are nearly ready to pull

and the new sticks are budding underneath the leaves.

I love the crinkles on the brand new leaves!  Look how shiny the stalk is!

Something else that is shiny in the garden are our brand new strawberry pots.  ’A’ carefully set the plants around the holes and we wait for the plants to fill out.  We are told that the first lot of flowers need to be taken off so there will probably be no fruit this year!  But we can dreammmmmmm!

It was good to work together in the garden. ‘ A’ gave the lawn its first cut, while I hoed the boarders, which brings me to our last fruit – blackberries.  I have planted one cane but the area for the other one needs digging out, so that will be a nice job for ‘A’ perhaps next weekend!

Inside, the house plants and flowers needed some tender loving care.  The tulips are now at the stage when I need to decide, ‘does it stay or does it go?’  The yellow ones are open fully and at that papery stage, but I can’t take them out yet.  I just love the shapes they make with the pointed leaves.

The conservatory plants are beginning to spring into life.    The room faces north east so gets the early morning sunshine and it is a place I like to take my coffee and relax.

Can you see the tiny new leaves coming?

Phew!  The time came to sit down and relax with a film and my hook and wool.

Oh this was a beautiful flim.  It made me laugh.  It made me cry.  I just love Morgan Freeman.  I love his voice.  I love his stature .  I love the underplay of his lines.  He has a presence that is both elegant and imposing, but truely calming.  And while I watched  I hooked.

It grew and grew,

and then grew some more!

What is it?  Well that would be telling, but I do love this bit!!