Socks in progress...

Since I have such little space for creating at the moment, I have been mostly knitting the last few weeks. It started with a blanket I will no doubt never ever finish, partly because I so rarely have the foresight to buy yarn in bulk and for that reason I found myself back in store to purchase more, but was quickly distracted by a large sale bucket that had sprung up since my last visit.

All the reduced yarn was at least 50% off and I found myself wandering around in a daze with armfulls of yarn I will no doubt ever put to good use. However I did purchase a single ball of this wonderful raspberry Rowan Calmer. I had a sock pattern knocking around that required the same yarn and had had success using last year so I thought it the perfect project.

Gardening adventures.

Despite being complete novices, not actually having a garden of our own and it being so late in the year, the weekend before last, we decided to start growing our own vegetables. To make things even more complicated we decided not to just go out and buy some ready to go plants, but instead to start the whole process from seed!! To any experienced gardeners this no doubt seems utterly ridiculous, but already we seem to have some progress.
The garden in the house we are staying in at the moment and all the gardens of the houses we've looked at so far in our hunt for a new home, are very small and courtyard style, mostly just squares of concrete or decking, so anything we do grow will need to do so in pots. I found this great and very inspiring book, which made us feel that maybe in wasn't so completely impossible.

Not ones to do things by halves, here is the extensive list of what we've planted so far...

Carrots

Beetroot

Radishes

Lettuces

Rocket

Onions

Spring Onion

Cucumber

Almost of all of the seeds have sprouted and most of them have now been repotted in larger spaces. We've also cheated a little and purchased both a tomato plant and a basil plant.

It's very exciting watching it all flourish, I don't know if it will all work out as planned, but it's been fun and we'll just be a lot more clued up and ready to get on it earlier next year.

I shall keep you updated on our progress.

Fresh starts and new beginnings...

I am really back this time, after many life changes, including 3 house moves, 2 job moves and some health problems, I'm finally (well nearly) settled again and ready to resume blogging!!

It certainly has been an eventful year, I said goodbye to the lovely Oxford, which provided a home for me since I left university 4 years ago and headed to the very beautiful Spa town of Leamington.

It was the first time in my life I had ever moved somewhere entirely alone, it was a wonderful experience and although I only spent a very brief 6 months there it taught me a lot about myself. I also discovered that there must be a lot of places in this country, alone, that I know nothing about but should probably go out and explore. When I was first offered the job in Leamington I had never even heard of it, despite it being a mere 40 mins away from Oxford on the train! It is such a beautiful town, close to...

Warwick,

Stratford-upon-Avon

and Birmingham

Also places I had never visited (I had heard of them though, I promise!), prior to my time in Leamington.

When I moved to Leamington I left in Oxford a lovely boy, although I knew being apart from him would be difficult, things got a lot more difficult when he took a new job further away still. So a few weeks ago I packed up my ridiculous amount of possessions once again and headed to my second Spa town...

Cheltenham

Despite still living in limbo until we find a house of our own (at the moment we're staying at a friends house in one room, ceiling high with our many boxes of belongings) this is my new home and somewhere I intend to stay. It is another very beautiful town with many similar characteristics to Leamington, I no longer have to miss to my boy, I have a great new job and besides, once those boxes are unpacked the thought of ever having to pack them up and haul them across the country again makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry!

Now I feel my life is back on track I've started obsessive crafting again and can't wait to share these new achievements with you. Lack of space is still proving difficult, but one of my main priorities in the search for a house is that there will be space for a craft room!!

I'm Back!!!

After such a long long absence from the world of the Internet I am finally back. So many different things occurred which caused my ever so long break but I now feel ready to face it all again!

I will be re-opening my shop at some point in the very near future (possibly even today!).

A whole lot has been happening which has left me with little time for crafting but I shall leave with you a few pictures of what I have achieved of late....

I will be back a lot more regularly from now on and I as the week passes I shall let you know more of what I'm up to and hopefully I shall have many more crafty pictures to share.

Spring Cleaning/Re-Organising

Ooooh, what a naughty absent blogger I have been the last couple of weeks, I've been keeping myself busy with seeing friends, watching bands and drinking lots. Because of these vices I have also been very slack on the crafty front I'm afraid. However I do have some little needle felted creatures to show which I made quite some time ago now.

The grey creature on the left is supposed to be a squirrel but came out more like a mouse/rat!My favourite was the little bunny but he has already found himself a new home.

Graeme finally signed his record contract last week and has since been off all over the country playing shows and has now gone to Leicester to record the album. They did play a show in Oxford on Monday though which (although I may be slightly biased) was amazing! I have some pictures here.

Since Graeme is away I've decided to rearrange the house! Starting with the lounge. When we moved in we painted everything white (it's a very old house with tiny windows!) and then went for a red theme in the lounge. I don't like it anymore and have decided I'd rather an old, quaint mish mash type feel. After all our house is old and kind of mish mashy itself! So today I have been tidying rearranging and hunting through charity shops, I still have much more to do but here are some pictures of how it's going to far.

I'm particularly pleased with the little window seat I created! I made both the quilt and the cushion myself. I plan to make lots more cushions just like this one to scatter around. Here's how I've been getting on so far.

And some other things that made me quite happy!

Some flowers from the garden.

A print from All Tomorrows Parties last year. I didn't like it at first, but after finally getting round to framing and putting it on the wall, I've become quite fond of it already! Sorry about the glare.

Happy weekends to all!

Little Gifts For Little Girls

I should have blogged about these little creations days ago, but it's been so sunny here that I've been taking advantage of it before it inevitably passes!

I've been making presents for my nieces, and I've really loved every minute, there is something ultimately rewarding about making something for someone you love.

With the beautiful fabric a purchased a few weeks ago i made a quilt for the littlest one.

I'm really getting quite addicted to quilt making now, and I think I'm getting better all the time!

I've also become quite fond of this little doll pattern that One Red Robin, very kindly, posted on her blog. It's so simple and yet so very very charming. I've already made two and I intend to make more!

As you can see I'm also making them their own little quilt to share. I'm hand quilting this one, so when it's finished I'll show you how that went!

I've also been playing with a needle felting kit I bought recently, however Graeme's taken the camera away to a gig with him so no photo's to show just yet I'm afraid.

I'll leave you with some sunshine photos, Happy Easter Weekend.

Simple Things

What a very lovely morning I have had. It was a surprise day off work for me today, which was kindly offered to me yesterday afternoon. So today was already a good one before it even begun! Then I got up to discover the UK Sale had begun to have an impact and I had sold 3 items from the shop overnight. (Yippee!)

Unfortunately, as always seems to happen on my days off, the sun is not shining, but hey ho. I've spent the time baking away whilst Graeme joined me in the kitchen painting and listening to John Coltraine.

Tarty also joined us, and tried to help with the baking, by eating anything I dropped on the floor and then going absolutely loopy for half and hour round the garden (too much sugar for such a little one me thinks!).

He wouldn't stay still for a photo, but he was covered in floor and sugar!

And here are the pictures of my delicious creations...

CUPCAKES!!!

And SUGAR COOKIES!

Both of which I can assure you are very yummy as we've just had coffee and treats! Right am off to the post office now and maybe the fabric shop.