Family Fun

My sister and her family are moving abroad next week so I've been spending a few more weekends than usual with them these last couple of months before they go.  We have been having so much fun.

There has been hugs with my nephews

tree climbing

lots of pulling funny faces and laughing

doing my best Lorax impression

making bubbles

feeding the ducks

walking the dog

feeling the breeze in our hair

eating icecream

And lots and lots of smiles

I will miss them all so much, but hope that the new adventure they are about to embark on brings them happiness and their own little slice of heaven.

Starburst Progressing

I've been busy hooking so the starburst blanket is making good progress. All the centres are done and I'm starting on the second rounds.  I wonder how long it will take to get all these to finished blocks?

I don't think I mentioned that the directions I'm following for this can be found back in Mollie Makes Issue 2

Mans Best Friend

If you have been kind enough to have been reading for a while you might remember that I have recently been walking my friend's dog. It's something that I'm still doing and loving. What a great excuse to get out in the countryside everyday.

I more or less take Naz along the same route everyday with a few minor variations, but what a beautiful walk it is.  I get to enjoy views of the beautiful English countryside

My faithful friend leads me along quiet country lanes.

We get to enjoy fields of beautiful wildflowers.

look how these fabulous views make Naz smile :)

More than anything i want my friend to make a full recovery soon, but I have to admit I will be more than a little sad when my dog walking skills are no longer required!

Starburst Begins

A new crochet project has begun.

I'm using these lovely yarns.  An aran weight by Tissa.  There were cheaper opinions in the yarn shop but these are so soft and beautiful to work with.  It was my birthday last week so I figured what the hell, I'd treat myself :)

I made a test block just to make sure I could get through the pattern ...... now I'm good to go.  Let's hope this throw comes together quicker than the waterlilies cushion :)

The dragon has spoken

It's been a while since I made a gift for someone who responded to my 'self' blog post earlier this year.  The months are ticking by fast now so I'm going to have to make sure I pick up the speed a bit to get everyone a little something made before the end of 2012.

The dragon has spoken once again, the next name has been drawn and as you can see from the picture above, stitching has begun :)

Okehampton

My little car is off the road at the moment so I'm limited as to the places I can get to explore at the moment.  Luckily I have lots of happy memories to relive from trips earlier this year which will keep me going for the time being.

Earlier this year I took myself off to Devon for the weekend to spend some time in the great outdoors doing a bit of walking. I took a wonderful walk around the Teign Valley but unfortunately I managed to delete all the photos I took from that walk off my camera ..... first time I've ever done something that silly!!

Never mind, no use crying over spilt milk as the saying goes. I did manage to save the photos I took from a lovely short wander round the town of Okehampton.

Waterliles Finished

I can hardly believe that I am finally writing this post. My first crochet cushion is finished.  It's been about two years in the making as other things distracted me from working on it constantly.

It was a big learning curve and it's far from perfect but it's done and I made it :)  I am happy happy.

I got the measurement wrong on the back panel and it finished up being a round or two too big, but luckily crochet is pretty forgiving and I managed to fudge it when I joined the two layers together so no unravelling had to be done.

I'm so pleased with how this turned out, and I think it looks lovely on my bed.

Even more exciting ... I've been itching to start on a nice colourful blanket and had already gone out and bought the yarn I needed but was determined not to begin until this one was finished. Now I can pick up hook again and get started.

Zennor

Just a few shots that I found and realised that I hadn't posted from my few days away in Cornwall earlier this year. Looking at these makes me want to go back right now, lol.

These were all taken on a fabulous walk round the South West Coast Path from St Ives to Zennor.

In Zennor church there is a chair with a beautiful carving of a mermaid.  This is not a great picture but it's the best one I managed to get.

I absolutely loved seeing this beautiful art work.  It's something that I've wanted to see for many years, it was pretty much a life changing experience for me, which I know might sound a bit strange it's only a chair after all!!

I've visited Cornwall many times over the years and this has always been on my list of things that I wanted to see, but I never got round to it, mostly because I always gave in to doing the things that the person I was with wanted to do in lieu of my own preferences.  So this trip when I visited on my own I got to do what I wanted and when I wanted to do it, it was nice to feel independent and empowered and somehow I have felt like a better version of me since then.