Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to you all, hope you have a perfectly spooky day. XX

Knitting and Charity

I've been looking for a nice cosy project to keep me company through the colder evenings that we have ahead.I found a lovely project that I want to tackle in this book. So off I trundled to the local craft supply shop. Unfortunately they do not stock the yarn that I want but instead I came back with this little lot.I bought a lovely pattern book from Sidar last year and made a couple of hats and things from it so decided that while my hunt for the blanket yarn continues I'll treat myself to a new hat.

While I was around in town I did a little bargain hunting in the local charity shops too, something I haven't done for ages - it was great fun. Here is my little collection which ended up spread over the floor when I got home.I love the Laurel Birch wooden kitty which cost me the princely sum of £1, there is also a lovely little ceramic bowl painted with bright flowers also £1 which doesn't show up too well in this picture but my favourite charity shop bargain of the day is this gorgeous wooden pot.A bit more expensive at £4 but still a brilliant bargain I think, have seem similar selling at local craft fairs for 4 or 5 times that price. It's just so smooth and has lovely patterning on the surface from the wood grain.

Wood was obviously the theme of the day as I also bought this beautiful wooden heart from a local craft shop, again I just love the wonderful textures and patterns of the wood.Am one happy shopper today. :)

Autumn Walks

We've had some spectacular days over the last few weeks, do you love Autumn as much as I do? I don't think there is anything better than walking in Autumn.I love trees at any time of year, but isn't it wonderful that they provide a carpet of colour for us to frolic in at Autumn?Look at this wonderful blue sky day we had last weekend, if it wasn't for the colour in those distant trees you would be forgiven for thinking it was summer.Of course trees aren't just for looking pretty, they also provide the perfect playground for the big kids in our lives who like to pretend they are monkeys :)Messing around isn't just for the men though, here we are being silly trying to take pictures in mirrors.What I've been loving most about Autumn this year though is that everyone seems to be getting in to the spirit of the season. Even the sheep are a very autumnal orange.

Wherever life has been taking you these last few weeks I hope you are enjoying the best of the season. XX

Making Progress

Still doesn't seem to be much time for stitching round here at the moment, but slowly things are making progress. Another letter is complete for the Noel banner. I've also started working om a couple of other things just as and when the mood takes me. I'll share those another time. It's nice to be working on bits and pieces as and when the mood takes me, no pressures, no deadlines, just me and the fabric and thread.

Milly

We're feeling devastated today. Last night we had to say goodbye to our beautiful girl Milly. She was an older cat and over the last few weeks had started to develop lots of age related problems, so we had to make the hard decision to let her go. The house isn't the same without our gentle Milly.

Mushrooms and Horses

Ok so I mentioned in my last post that I'd given myself a little photography challenge during our New Forest trip. The New Forest is famous, among other things for it's wild ponies, so they were my first self challenge.Unsurprisingly enough there were ponies everywhere, trying to get a good shot of them though was an entirely different matter. There were plenty of friendly ponies that would let you get pretty close to them but more often than not they were hanging out by roads or places with equally uninspiring back drops.I almost really like this shot above, it has nice autumn colours and pretty lighting, but it's quite a messy background and maybe a horses' butt is not the most attractive angle.I think this last one is probably my favourite of the horse shots, a zoomed out view of Mum and Foal in a forest clearing. Will definitely try harder with the horses next time.

The second part of my self challenge was to try and get some mushroom shots. I love mushrooms, well actually I love most things that mother nature has put on for us to wonder at and admire, but I digress.I was a lot happier with my mushroom pictures than the horses. This one above I like better in it's original landscape orientation but for some reason I can't get it to upload to blogger that way. I'm not sure if I could pick out a favourite fungi shot so I'll just show you a few of the ones I like and you can decide.

The New Forest

The weekend before last I made a last minute decision to get away from the stresses that had been bringing me down for a couple of week. I love to go to the coast at this time of year but figured it would be nice to do something different, so we escaped to The New Forest for a couple of days. What a fabulous weekend we had.We spent our weekend getting lost on long walks in the forest...... enjoying beautiful signs of Autumn and squelching boots along muddy paths....... and getting cosy and eating fabulous food and the pretty little Inn that we made home for the weekend.Saturday was pretty overcast but we had beautiful weather on Sunday. Here we are getting lost in the woods again, how lucky we were to get away with no coats in October.The Autumn colours were just starting to break through in the forest, I'm sure now we are a couple of weeks on they will be glorious. I love the picture above, this scattering of leaves still clinging on to their branches look like a shower of orange rain to me.

I set myself a little photography challenge while we were away, but I'll share more about that next time.

Something new

Have made a start on some stitching for Christmas, not a gift but something just for me. I really wanted to get away from Cross Stitch for a while as that is all I seem to have been doing the last few months but couldn't resist a pattern for a little Noel banner I saw in a recent magazine.Hopefully it will come together pretty quickly, and more cross stitch is better than no stitch :~)

Getting Organised

I've been starting to wonder whether my lack of inspiration to sew at the moment is in part due to having bits and pieces everywhere. My stitching stuff is partly here at the new place and some is still at the old house, so I am making a concerted effort this week to get organised.Look at this nice tidy corner of the room. My threads and fabric scraps are on hand to be grabbed whenever the mood takes me now, along with some magazines and folders full of articles which will hopefully inspire me to get creative again. Sadly the rest of the room still looks like a bombsite though, sigh.I'm sure things will get sorted in the end. I'm not going to let it all get me down. To help me keep positive I've made a little collection of some things that inspire me, this is what greets me as I walk in the front door everyday.Now it might not seem like much to most people but these few little things put a smile on my face every time I walk through the front door. My little Oyster catcher ornament (just because I love those gorgeous little birds), my orange kitty money box (this is where pockets gets emptied of any and all loose change which in turn ends up in the bank as part of holiday savings for next years trip) and a beautiful book that Dave bought me as a surprise after he found out how much I love this place on our holidays this year 'a year in the life of Buttermere'. My little slice of welcome home heaven.

Family Weekend

I've been such a bad blogger, having not been around for a couple of weeks. Life has been busy though and I have lots to share so hopefully I'll make up for lost time with plenty of posts over the coming days.This last weekend I've been on babysitting duty. My sister had the chance to go away with her husband so good old Auntie was roped in for some baby sitting. Here is me and the littlest of my 2 nephews, he's only 10 months old. Do I look suitably worn out after cheeky monkey gave me a couple of sleepless nights?Actually all in all he wasn't too bad considering up until now he's not been without his Mum for more than a couple of hours.And even though he might not have slept all the way through the nights, he did take a few naps during the day so I got to use him as a model to practise on with my camera.So cute when he's asleep, I should have taken some shots when he was crying and screaming just for contrast, lol. Baby wasn't the only one to catch a few zzzzs during the day, here is a shot of baby's older brother who is doing his best impression of Great Gran asleep :)The best thing about families though is their sharing nature, my 2 nephews sent me home with a sickness bug they had earlier in the week, so I've been laid up for a couple of days, on the mend now though :-) And my sister had a lovely weekend so it was all worth it.

Autumn Queen the Finale

The Autumn Queen has had her beads and is now finished.I am pretty happy with the way she has turned out. I would never have chosen to stitch this design myself, but all of the different thread types and the beading made it an interesting project to complete.The beading took a while as I suspected it would, definitely something to be done in the daylight and with the nights drawing in I don't see too mush daylight after I get home from work anymore.I now just have to get out and find the perfect frame for her and she's complete, and in plenty of time before my sisters birthday.

So it'll be back to the Tigers again soon, but I'm not sure they will get too much time over the coming weeks as I've been reminded that it's now less than 90 days before Christmas and there are a few gifts that I want to try and make this year so I'd best get started.

Close to Home

I wanted to get out and about yesterday but have been feeling pretty tired the last few days so I knew that I wouldn't be up to ranging very far. But, in order to give my camera an outdoor workout and to enjoy some of the lovely sunshine we had I decided to set myself a little challenge. I needed a few odds and sods from the local supermarket which is only 10 minutes away on foot, I figured I'd try taken my camera on this well trodden path to see what I could come up with.The first thing I noticed were all of the beautiful spiderwebs, covered in dew, sparkling in the sun. I have always loved the sight of a web but I guess I never really thought too much about all of the different sizes and structures, from lace like creations like the above to something a bit more uniform and geometrical like this one.Both very beautiful in their own ways. I also found one web still occupied by, I assume, it's maker. I had a tough time getting a picture of the little fellow, but I managed this passable effort after a few attempts.Checking my wildlife book I think this is a Garden Cross Spider, but as my image isn't too good I can't be sure. After the spiderwebs the next thing I noticed were the signs of Autumn all around.Leaves everywhere are changing colour ......and falling to the ground......... and the hedge rows are bursting with berries. I must go back and collect some, might be fun to do some dying experiments.I also enjoyed not only how the dew drops turned the spiderwebs into jewelled ornaments but also the prettiness of these tiny droplets sitting on leaves and flowers.I thought I'd done pretty well photo wise for a short 10 minute walk with my camera, but before the camera went away I just had to take a couple of quick snaps of this cheeky local moggyshe was hiding in the grass trying to stalk the local birds but they didn't seem at all bothered and just skipped off down the path away from their sneaky feline foe.