Unpacking the garden

It really did feel like I was unpacking the garden this week - getting the garden furniture out, raking up the remainder of the Autumn leaves and weeding, weeding, weeding. The lawn has been mown a couple of times, we have had four BBQs (yes 4, in March, like that's ever going to happen again!) and the kids have been out on the swings and playing games until dark. The blossom is out on all the trees (this one is our neighbours - it's beautiful), such a lovely view.

We bought a stainless steel kitchen trolley from Ikea last year which we are using as extra worktop space for the BBQ. I still haven't made the cushion covers for these chairs yet. Ho hum.

Some grape hyacinths which are nestled in amongst the many bluebells which are due to flower within the next few weeks.  I think the previous owners loved blue flowers.

Luckily, I haven't managed to kill the rhubarb. I hope I get a bit more than last year, there was only enough for one crumble! The gooseberry bushs are covered in leaves and flowers, I am hoping for a better gooseberry crop too.

I weeded the weed border. Yes, you read that right. There were some weeds growing that the tortoises can't eat so I weeded all of those ones out, just leaving the weeds they are allowed and the vast array of bluebells (which they aren't allowed but I don't want to dig up as they are so pretty). It just means that picking the weeds is a bit easier now and there is more space for further weeds that I have growing in other untended parts of the garden - believe me, there are many weeds in our garden.

This is how the new lawn is looking. So glad we planted it last year and not this year as we have a hosepipe ban coming into force in April. I weeded the border along the fence in manageable 30-60 minute sessions. It was mainly pulling up ivy as opposed to weeding but it is nice and clear now, all ready for the tayberries and blackcurrants to do their thing.

There are lots of bluebells in this border too.

Whilst I have been mooching around the garden finding more and more jobs to keep me occupied, Gerard has been playing a spot of Swingball.
 

He loves sitting under the slide, waiting to pounce on the next person to walk past.

We are off on holiday soon, going to visit my sister and brother in law in Hong Kong. Really really really excited, can't wait to see them and can't wait to explore Hong Kong. Blogging will be a bit quiet over the next couple of weeks but I am sure there will be plenty to talk about when we get back. Hope you all have a wonderful Easter. xxx

A perfect weekend

Remember I told you about a crochet/sewing project last week which had to be completed for the weekend? I have been planning this project for quite a while, it took time to find the right yarn (good old charity shop came up trumps with some just off white yarn - it had to be off white, not white or cream which proved quite difficult to find). I used my knitted and crocheted flowers book and tested out a few different flowers to see which would be the right one. Above is the flower I chose and I crocheted 38 of them using a 1.5mm crochet hook. Lots of ends to sew in!

Then I sewed 6 tiny glass beads on each one - that took the best part of a day to do. Next I had to make a waistband and sew the flowers on - another day taken doing this. Definitely a labour of love. And the project was almost complete - just the final finishing touches, sewing on buttons and attaching to the dress (made by the lovely lady who made my wedding dress).

This dress was worn by my eldest two years ago with a pearl waistband but my youngest wanted it to be slightly different for her special day.

Her First Holy Communion day. She really did look beautiful and had the best time with 40 of her school friends all taking their first communion at the local church. A party tea in the church hall then back to our house for champagne, nibbles and cake...

Chocolate cake, as requested by the special girl.

We had a fantastic day but boy were we all exhausted come Monday!

So that's another crochet project completed. Still working on and off on the chevron garden blanket, I wonder if it will be finished before the summer is over. I have really lost interest in it but I will try hard to get back on track as really, there is only a little bit left to go before it's done.

I've been out in the garden again over the past couple of days, digging up yet more mandrakes. Can't wait til it's all cleared and ready to turf. The kids are getting quite excited too as it means they will have double the amount of lawn to play on. Roll on summer.

NOT SURE WHY THESE TWO POSTS ARE HERE - I WAS MESSING AROUND WITH LABELS AND THEY MOVED. CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO MOVE THEM BACK SO HERE THEY WILL STAY.

Mollie Makes Blanket pattern

I've had a couple of requests for the pattern for these squares. I looked very carefully at the Mollie Makes blanket and worked out roughly how to do them. I didn't bother looking for a pattern online as the blanket looked very vintage and I wasn't certain there would be anyone out there with the pattern written up.

However, I have since discovered that this lovely lady has sourced the pattern and it is on her blog. So that saves me time trying to discover where I left my little post it note with the handwritten instructions on, that only I would understand!

Have fun with whatever craft project you are working on this weekend. xx

Hexagon Fun

I spent most of last week not crocheting. It was difficult. I couldn't decide what I wanted to make with the wool that I had. I was quite out of sorts that week, it really bothered me that I couldn't crochet as I didn't want to make something that wasn't right and waste the yarn that I had bought. I had originally meant to use this yarn (the milk protein cotton) to make a ripple/chevron. But when I tried out a few different patterns, it just didn't seem to work. I have concluded that for the ripple blanket I want to make, I need a thicker yarn or to use two strands at once. That idea was therefore shelved as I have no funds to start buying more yarn.

I needed a new project and I began a meandering search on blogs, flickr and pinterest, trying to muster up some inspiration. Then I saw an image of some hexagon patterned fabric and thought I could just make some small one colour hexagons and see how it looked.

I used this pattern, which I found searching Google for crochet hexagon pattern images. I think it works perfectly as a one colour hexagon and is a lovely size - about 2.5 inches wide.

These little guys are joined as you go and only take 8 minutes a piece to make. Just perfect for the odd bit of crochet here and there. The blanket has grown to over double the above size since taking these photos on Friday. A fair bit of crochet was done over the weekend in the sunshine, cup of tea to hand, kids playing in the garden. Bliss.

I bought three 50g balls of the chocolate brown yarn to tone down the brightness of the orange and pink. I think it's just about doing the job nicely. E has claimed this blanket already, draping it over her lap during the evening whilst watching a bit of tv. I'm not entirely sure how big this blanket will get and what kind of border it will have, but I am going to wing it and see what happens. I'm just enjoying making it, it feels right for the wool I am using so I'm quite happily going with the flow. So so nice to be crocheting again. I think it's safe to say I am well and truly addicted.

We have had the most gorgeous weather over the past few days so I have spent a great deal of time in the garden, pottering about, mainly pulling out weeds and ivy and tidying the place up a bit. Big plans for this year (many left over from last year, ahem), lots to sort out in order to make the garden more manageable. Will dedicate another post to this subject as I have quite a few photos. We've done so much to the garden but there's still plenty to do before it's looking more like our kind of space.

Gerard has been having the time of his life out in the sunshine. He has managed to scare off all the local cats so he finally has his garden all to himself. I've never seen a cat rolling around in dusty dirt like a lion before but that is top of Gerard's list of favourite things to do. He's also quite partial to hiding in the undergrowth for a little nap. :) Tearing around like a maniac and getting supremely over excited when one of us goes out into the garden is also a popular pastime. Sometimes I wonder whether he thinks he's a dog.  The tortoises are also enjoying the sunshine, their appetite has improved greatly as they are spending more time wandering around in their enclosure. So much to enjoy at this time of year, it's great to be able to get out in the garden again. Hope you are enjoying your outside space too. xx

Birthday Boy and Round Crochet Blanket

Yes, this little man turned 3 years old today! We have had him now for 6 months and we couldn't imagine our lives without him. He's quite a talkative little chap and loves company. He also loves sleeping on beds. In these photos he is asleep on my eldest's bed, on top of her recently made blanket. About a year ago she decided she would like a crochet blanket - a round one. After looking for a pattern for some time, I discovered the one that Dottie Angel used by this clever lady - Mille Makes. After making the flower middle, I just kept going, trying to get the right amount of stitches per round so that the blanket would lay flat. As you can see from the photos, I didn't succeed and I wasn't happy about this at all. It also took a long time to make, what with all the petals and each time I finished a round, the blanket looked no bigger - all very disheartening as you can well imagine. Much muttering under my breath occurred and the blanket was shoved with some force into a bag and kicked under a chair and forgotten about for a few months! I eventually got it out when I was in a WIP blitzing frame of mind and managed to finish it off fairly quickly. E loves the fact that it is a bit frilly and is very pleased with the colour combo (wouldn't be my first choice, that's for sure! Colours are Stylecraft Special DK in Black, Violet and Plum, I think). It was finished off with a picot edging and draped over her bed, where the cat promptly plonked himself down, probably thinking how lucky he was that Mum had made him yet another blanket to sleep on!
   

Due to the terrible weather today, Gerard has done a lot of sleeping on his birthday. He got up briefly to have some cat treats before retiring to F's bed for an afternoon nap, on top of her crochet blanket, using a cuddly toy as a pillow. Oh to be a cat. xx

First Gardening of 2012

The tortoise enclosure needed a bit of attention in the weeding department. Didn't take long. From this..

..to this. Neat and tidy and all ready for the tortoises to have a little explore.

And after they had mooched around for a while, a bit of upright sunbathing was in order. It's sunny again today so they will be pleased to be out and about again.

We even had the patio doors open. My new wellies - Matalan, £9.

This is the view from where I am right now. Loving the sunshine, Gerard is loving it too. He was in the pet rescue for the whole of last summer so missed out on wandering around in the sunshine. He's making up for it now though, we hardly saw him yesterday! Hope it's sunny where you are. x

Man Blanket

Hello, I promised I would be back to show you this blanket, which you saw a sneek peak of a little while ago. Do you remember this blanket that I made a long time ago? Well, I put this blanket on the back of the grey sofa and never really loved it but my Mother in Law kept commenting on it so off it went to her house. My Father in Law has been unwell over the last few months and he was using the blanket a lot during the day to keep him warm. I had some of the cream wool left over in my stash and was wanting a project to use it up. I also had this UFO from a very long time ago that my Mum brought over a couple of months ago when she was having a clear out.

Way back in the 1980s when I was probably about fifteen, I started making a knitted skirt. Yes. A knitted skirt. They must have been trendy back then (or maybe not, I wasn't a cool teenager!) but I had got over two thirds of the way into this project before discarding it through boredom - who could blame me? I decided that it was such a shame to waste good quality aran wool and ripped it back until I had eight balls of lovely wool. Added to the remainder of the cream aran wool (about 150g) I decided I had enough for a lap blanket. This was going to be a chunky blanket, a Man Blanket.

I reckoned that if it was going to be a Man Blanket, it would not be needing any fancy patterns so I started off with 2 rounds of cream and finished off each square with navy. I then realised that I had a bit more of the cream wool than I originally thought and in order to use it all up, I had better make some squares with larger cream middles. Once I had joined 16 squares together, I used the rest of the wool to make stripes at each end - I wanted a rectangular blanket which could be folded in half and still be big enough to drape over the knee. Just a simple border of double crochet and shell edging at each end and it was complete.

The edges are a bit wonky but Man Blankets are allowed to be a bit wonky sometimes. Honest.

Very small amounts of wool were left over so I am pleased I made such a huge dent in the yarn stash. And my Father in Law is very pleased he has another blanket to keep him warm in the evening. Here endeth the story of the Man Blanket. Hope you enjoyed it and it inspires you to make a Man Blanket too!

Last week I was extremely pleased to find I had won a blog giveaway. The lovely Emma from Oooh Betty sent me a parcel full of treats.

A Staffordshire jar in my favourite colours. It's gorgeous, I love it.

Inside the jar was a whole range of goodies.

The hankie has made its way into my youngest daughter's hanky stash, the doily, buttons and beautiful ribbon on vintage spool have been squirrelled away into my sewing cabinet for future use. And the love birds are now key rings - one for the patio doors in the lounge and one for the back door in the kitchen. I see them every day and they make me smile. As for the jar, it is on the new worktop next to the kettle. I will get some more shots of it once the kitchen is complete. We were looking at wall tiles at the weekend although we didn't see anything suitable. We only have about 2.5 square metres to cover, what with the kitchen window and the splashback behind the hob there are only small bits to tile here and there. Large wall tiles are in fashion at the moment and so many of the tiles are too big for the area we have. Only one or two tiles would remain uncut if we used anything bigger than about 20x25cm. We will keep looking but I think we have come to the conclusion that metro brick tiles are the way to go.

I have a free day tomorrow so I am going to see if I can sort out what my next crochet project is. I have messed around so much with the milk cotton and not come up with anything that takes my fancy. It may well be put to one side until a good idea pops into my head. Hope you all have a fab day tomorrow. xxx