How to have a great birthday

Well it's getting on for a month since my actual birthday but I just realised that I didn't really share what a lovely day I had. My family were staying so we went to the beach for the day.

Paddling in the sea with my nephews

Messages in the sand

There was lots of ice cream eating of course

And fun playing the amusements on the pier

There was an air show on the day we went too.

Of course the great British summer threw some rain our way

And the day ended with chocolate cake and candles.  Could any day be better than that? 

Why I love blogging

There are a million and one reasons to love blogging, the blogging experience is probably different for each and every one of us.  I started five years and nine months ago.  My Mum had just passed away and I needed some distraction, something new to make me forget the pain of loss.  Little did I know at the time what a huge part of my life it would become and what a lifeline.  I can say without a hint of exaggeration that stitching and blogging have seen me through some of the toughest times of my life.

The number one reason that I love blogging is the connections I've made, the friendships that have been built with people all over the world.  Without blogging I wouldn't have had an amazing day in Bath on Monday.  I got to meet up with Vicki - if you don't know her blog you really must check it out here.

Here we are at the end of our day in Bath, looking rather windswept, but I think, happy!  We had a brilliant day exploring some of the sites of Bath, but I think my favourite bit of the day was sitting in the sunshine in the park at the end of the day just chatting and getting to know Vicki better, she really is an amazing person and I'm so happy that we got to meet for real.

Vicki also presented me with some lovely gifts a roll of some of her hand dyed fabrics - these really are beautiful, and such great quality too.  Vicki sells her fabric on etsy here if you'd like to get your hands on some for yourself.

The lovely card and the other bundle of fabric were handed to me by Vicki from another blogging friend Kim.  Kim sent them over with Vicki when she found out we were going to be able to meet.  Wow, well I'm sure you can imagine how blown away I was to receive such generous gifts.  But by far the greatest gift of all from these ladies is the wonderful gift of friendship. 

Black and White Abbey

I made it through a very long week at work ... just about. And am now looking forward to a nice relaxed weekend. I have plenty of housework to catch up on but you'll also find me watching the rugby world cup and of course stitching. I'm looking forward to picking up needle and thread again as I haven't had time to do anything creative this week.

Just so this post isn't just a whole load of waffle about not a lot here are a few pictures I took in Malmesbury Abbey a couple of weeks ago.  As you can see I was in a black and white mood, the beautiful lighting you often get in churches makes for such good contrast it seems rude not to shoot a few pictures like this.


Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.  X

A whirl wind week

I had my lovely sister and two nephews staying with me last week, what madness! The usual quiet peacefulness of Angelcat Manor was replaced by the sounds of raucous children and of course much laughter.

Last Wednesday was my birthday, so we took ourselves off to the beach for the day. The weather was very changeable. We went from eating ice cream .....(me, Dave and the nephews)

..... to playing crazy golf in the rain(my sis)

And of course there was lots of birthday cake when we got home.The cake wasn't big enough for all the candles I'd need these days, I think they loaded it up with a representation of the age I act most days instead ;)

I'm way behind with my blog reading, but I'm sure I'll catch up eventually. Hope you all had a great week! X

Today I fell in love with an Alpaca

... ok if I'm being totally honest it's not just one but a whole herd that stole my heart today when I went on a visit to Latton Alpacas. I mean seriously look at this and then try and tell me you don't think they're adorable too.I was made to feel so welcome during my visit. These animals are obviously well loved and cared for and the owners, Mym and Adrian were so generous with their time and their knowledge as I bombarded them with questions.I was lucky enough to be allowed in with the alpacas for a while and got to feed a few from my hands, honestly you wouldn't believe how soft their fleeces are. If you haven't already passed out from cuteness overload check out this adorable little girl.If I'm remembering correctly she is about 10 days old and her name was Keira, but there were so many names to take in I might be wrong!

All of the adult alpacas have recently been shorn, they have a little craft shop which is open over the weekends where they sell all manor of alpaca goodies. Including some fleeces and yarn made from the boys and girls in the herd.Of course I wasn't able to resist coming away with a few goodies myself! I ended up with this beautifully presented kit to make some wrist warmers.And also this little drop spindle spinning kit, and the most adorable hedgehog pincushion.I've not tried spinning before so it will be interesting to see if I can get the hang of it.

If you live anywhere near Cricklade/Swindon/Malmesbury I would so encourage you to go along and make a visit yourself. You can find out more info on the website here or facebook here. They do have mail order if you want to buy any of the goodies yourself just have a look round on the website :)

Laughing in London

There is not much stitching going on here at the moment, Jemimah went in to the repairs shop on Friday so now it's a waiting game to see how long she'll take to be patched up.

It's a bank holiday weekend here, three whole days off work :) We started ours off with a trip to London on Saturday. We ate lunch on the ThamesAnd there was time to raise a pint to being Britishmessing around in front of the Houses of Parliament
And a trip to Tate Britain.Wandering back to the tube took us closer to the Houses and Big Ben with the London Eye in the background.
There were a whole lot of protesters who'd set up camp opposite the houses, in aid of President Obama's visit I guess.
Our day finished with a wonderful gig at The Bush Hall. A really small, beautiful and atmospheric place, full of big mirrors and chandeliers which I totally failed to capture through the camera.
We were there to spend An Intimate Evening with Melissa Auf der Maur. An awesome end to an awesome day.

Down on the Farm

It's been a while since I did an out and about post. It's not that I don't have anything to tell you about I still have photos from Amsterdam, walks on the beach in Cornwall, messing around by the river and strolls in woods that I haven't told you about I just haven't had the time.

I will get to all that stuff but first here are a few snaps from a trip to the farm yesterday.Curious piggiesFriendly goats (these were adorable they were trying to eat everything including shoelaces and our backpacks!)Chickens galore including this fancy fellowAnd this portly fellow. Honestly these chickens were huge I've never seen the like....To give you an idea here he is stood up next to a duck. Giant, he was :)A trip to the farm is not all about the animals though plenty of beautiful ramshackle buildings to see too, if you like that sort of thing, which I do :)
The main attraction though were the beautiful herds of Bison. What magnificent animals, and they had babies too.I mean how cute is this little sleepy fellow. Hard to imagine that one day he'll grow up to look like this.It struck me as quite funny to see this huge and powerful beasts among the buttercups!After the trip to the farm we went for a wonderful 6 mile ramble through the countryside. Due to a bit of bad planning on my part though I only have this one shot of the countryside to share as my camera battery went flat.
Never mind lesson learned for next time!

A day at the Beach

I have a day off work today but things aren't quite going as planned and I'm feeling pretty grumpy. So in an attempt to chase away the blues thought I'd share yesterday's happy memories of a walk by the sea.Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful blue skies and sunshine day so what better place to spend it than at the beach.Although Weston-Super-Mare is less than an hour away I haven't been there in ages, and certainly not since the pier has been rebuilt (it got burnt down in a fire a couple of years ago).I have to say that I really like the nice new clean bright white building, may be it was just the fact that the lovely blue skies and sunshine made it all bright and shiney, lol.The amusement arcade is now a two floor affair and you can get out onto the balcony on the second floor and look back along the covered walk way that has been constructed down the middle of the pier, perfect for sheltering from those sea breezes.Of course we couldn't resist playing a silly game or two while we were there. I won this one :)
I really quite liked this simple shot of railings and shadows in the bright sunshine.and I love this shot of Dave standing on the beach by the pier enjoying the sunshine.Lots of lovely blue and white in these shots. We were so lucky to have a beautiful day like this is January. After all the walking and energy exerted hitting sharks on the head, the only thing left to do was eat a lovely fish and chip lunch.Very naughty but very nice.