Hurray For The Summer Holidays!!!

We have finally made it to the Summer Holidays here in the UK and thank goodness for that too.
We are now treated to 6 weeks of Summer fun. Having been fortunate already in that June and July have been remarkably hot with temperatures reaching 25c degrees regularly and occasionally nearer to 30c here in Suffolk.

 It has been quite along time since my last blog post and this is really just because everything else has taken priority. It has been such a busy time with end of term stuff for me and I have needed to be there for all the other people in my life. It has been exhausting as well which doesn't leave much room for creative thoughts or ideas for blogging.

 

However, I have been working on a stress buster. I started this little lovely during a particularly stressful week a few weeks ago. I think I blogged about it last time. The pattern is Sophie's Garden by Dedri Uys and it can be found here on Ravelry. I whizzed through part 1 to 3 and although very eager to get going on part 4 I got stuck. The stitches just didn't add up and so on went the undoing and redoing and counting again and again until other things started taking over again and now perhaps I will have more time for this little lovely. 

You cannot beat a crocheted mandala for stress busting. Crochet in general, in fact, really occupies the mind. Before crochet I used to clean to de-stress, when things were particularly bad as sometimes they are when you are a teacher with a big work load. A whole house affair would happen as an avoidance tactic, particularly during report time, that would shake out the cobwebs and reveal corners of the house long forgotten about. Really should probably return to that method of de-stressing as a house with tiny tots, in my world anyway, equals a house with mess. Nowadays it's all about crochet for stress relief and any moments of free time. Besides we love the sticky fingers and mucky faces in our house! They're only having a childhood after all!

We are off on a little adventure very soon but hopefully I will return to Blogsville with much more regularity now we are on the Summer break.

 xx Wishing you all wonderful Summer holidays!! xx

Sarah

 x

Feeling Thrifty

Feeling a little bit chuffed today, all is going well so far. Aside from the fact I managed a perfect transfer of a sleeping toddler from car to house giving me an hour of free time... Yay! I am feeling really rather thrifty at the moment......

Thrifty moment #1:

Today, on the way home from the school run, I picked up these lovely peonies, half price at the supermarket, as well as these rather tasty raspberries, also a tiny bit reduced. We grow all manner of fruit on our allotment but no raspberries so far this year, so this is a bit of a treat. The verdict from the little people was... very yummy!

Thrifty moment #2:

Right now, as I write this, I'm enjoying a cold glass of homemade elderflower cordial. Also yummy!!

This was our first time making elderflower cordial and it is delicious. A big hit with Little Lady, although Little Man refers to it as 'pond water!' Apart from the sugar, citric acid and lemons it's almost free....

Thrifty moment #3:

Last night I started to make this little beauty! It's called Sophie's Garden by Dedri Uys, a free pattern that can be found here on Ravelry. I am using a 4.5mm hook and Drops Love You 5 100% cotton yarn that's currently selling at Wool Warehouse for only 80p a ball. Bargainous! 

Thrifty moment #4: 

We have also just about finished doing up the front garden...

All the materials used to make the planters, bar the paint, were recycled from our back garden when we took out the decking to lay turf. We even filled them with free top soil found on freecycle. We reused the Scottish cobbles from the back yard too.  The olive tree was also transplanted from the back garden, although the jury's out as to whether or not it will survive. It's looking a bit bare. 

Thrifty moment #5 

The plants are from various places including some transplanted from the allotment, car boot sales, donations from relatives and a recent Sunday afternoon outing to a local fair where you could purchase a large tray of near on 40 plants for only £5! Beyond bargainous!!

I am feeling very chuffed with my little front yard. It has given me lots of pleasure so far, watering  not so much, but I do enjoy the pottering about, dead heading, adding in something new, getting excited about a new flower popping open and generally admiring.

Thank you for coming by. I do hope you have enjoyed your visit and feel inspired to enjoy something thrifty too.  

Sarah

x

Dolly Blanket Ta-Dah

 

 

There is one happy Little Lady in our house. We have been having fun playing with our dollies this week. I finished the little dolly blanket the other night and since then there has been a hive of activity around the wooden goose pram Little Lady got for her birthday all those months ago. She is very much a girly girl and loves her dollies dearly. Spending hours looking after baby is her favourite thing to do.

You might also have noticed the Rabbit I made Little Lady a while back features in a few of the pics today. Rabbit has now got all his limbs and ears firmly secured with chunky buttons and is a happy little chap. He still needs something to wear though...

I used leftovers of Stylecraft Special DK in meadow, plum, pomegranate, turquoise, saffron, lavender, fondant, sherbert, with cream as the main colour and using a 4mm hook. It measures 49cm by 31cm with 35 little squares each with only 3 rounds measuring 6cm square each. It was quite a quick project only taking a few evenings in front of the box but lots of fun to make too. A nice break from some of my other bigger projects. 

The pattern was from this book, Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly as I wanted my little squares to be quite tight and I made the edging up as I went along using one round of dc first followed by two rounds in htr stitches. 

It's a lovely little book with lots of very vintage and retro ideas for crochet. Took me a while to get going with it but now I have mastered the basics of crochet I can whizz through these patterns easy peasy.

Best be off now for more playtime... Thank you for visiting today. Come back soon!  

Sarah xxx 

Playtime

This week is May half term... Yay!! Time has flown since Easter and it doesn't seem like five minutes since we were waving good by to the last holiday and here we are again. That doesn't mean to say that this term has been easy. Work has been hectic, we have Little Man's 4th birthday and lots going on at home as well. So this week will mostly be spent enjoying time together at home and getting a few jobs done too.

I am currently in the middle of working on lots of little projects and also starting some rather big ones.

I have been working on making a little cot blanket for my darling baby girl. The lucky little thing was given a gorgeous wooded push-along pram for her birthday months back and I was determined to make her a bit of crochet to keep her dollies warm. Far too quickly time whizzed by and the little cot blanket went on the to do list at the back of my mind. Last weekend I finally started it and here we are.

While making the little cot blanket I have given myself a short break from working on my v-stitch stripe blanket (need to think of a more exciting name for this blanket, perhaps retro blanket or rainbow blanket). Loving these colours and the fun of mixing and matching up the different colour combinations. I really love how neat it feels too. Granny square blankets are wonderful but they are high maintenance when it comes to those loose ends.

The garden is coming along too. This is our first year of living in this house and we had to make some very drastic changes to the backyard. I inherited this summerhouse and my lovely Hubby has painted it ready for me to decorate the inside now. I am really keen to push on with this now as the Spring is rapidly turning into Summer and I want to be in there making and enjoying the space soon. 

I have been working on the playhouse too this week. We bought this little lovely on ebay for just £40 when Little Man was 18 months old and it lived in our old garden before we moved it here. So far it has been used for toy storage more than play but I have always had plans for it. I am desperate to make this a lovely fun playhouse now before my Little Man becomes to old for playing house.

While we're down at the bottom of the garden I might introduce you to Dinosaur Land. Yes, you read it right! Tucked away in between the summerhouse and the playhouse we are creating at bit of a sensory-come-small world play area. Under a newly planted Maple tree we have a sandpit and an area of rough ground where we have added a collection of slate chippings, pebbles and shells with larger pieces of slate and rock to create Dinosaur land. We also have a large planter with herbs growing for the little people to feel, smell, taste, use in their play kitchen, make dens for fairies to live in, that kind of thing. We have a large blackboard and I am planning to add a secret garden window using a perspex mirror behind some trellis with a clematis or honeysuckle growing up it. I would also like to create a bug hotel if I can too. The little people are rather fond of this area of the garden. It's not huge but big enough to escape into and explore with those amazing imaginations they have for play and discovery. 

And not forgetting the other full time job I have at this time of year. The Allotment! We have had it for 4 years now. It lives near our old house which a short 15 minute drive away from us. Not ideal but it gives us so much enjoyment. It's a lovely outdoor space for our little people to get muddy in and learn so much about life, how things grow, where food comes from, how nature works to help our veg grow and so on. But it is also extremely hard work. Neither me nor my Hubby can bring ourselves to let all the hard work go. My lovely Hubby and I have a good system going at the moment where he does the digging (quicker that I can) and I do the planning and planting. We are always behind but we get good results nonetheless. Here is a pic from last year... it has changed quite a bit since this photo. Will have to take some more pics soon.

  I found this photo on my phone and I think it really sums up just how lovely it is at our allotment...

So this week has been spent working on a few of these jobs and hopefully with a trip to the seaside and a visit or two from some friends before the week is spent.

Thank you for popping by. Hope you have a lovely half term too, Sarah xxxxxxxxx

A Walk In The Woods

On Bank Holiday Monday my family and I had a trip out to see the bluebells in flower at Reydon Wood, near Southwold in Suffolk. We had such a lovely time. We followed the nature trail in a loop and along the way there was so much to see. We found beautiful wild flowers here, there and everywhere, wildlife and a carpet of bluebells that made you feel like you were in some sort of enchanted wood, magical!

A sea of bluebells, wild primroses, violets and celandines were among many of the wildflowers we saw. 

My photos don't do it justice and are not showing the colour as well as I would like so you will have to use your imagination or even better plan a visit yourself. It is a wonderful part of the Suffolk right next to the coast with lots to see and do.  We popped over to Southwold for a quick coffee and ice cream after our woodland walk. We didn't stay long as it was rather busy but plan to go back soon when we have more time. I did manage to take a few photos of this lovely traditional English seaside place... 

On the way home we popped in to Aldeburgh, another of our favourite places to be. We enjoyed a picnic dinner while watching Little Man float his little sail boat in the yacht pond. I didn't manage to get a great pic of this due to the two small people with me trying to climb in the yacht pond at every opportunity. A lovely day was had by all with lots of fun and laughter. xxx

Thanks for coming by,

Sarah xxxxx