Saturday evening after an afternoon of gardening

What is nicer than a BBQ after a heavy stint of gardening??

 

DH had been very busy when I was out this morning at my sewing group.. he went out and bought this BBQ so of course he had to try it out?

Did I stop him ??? Oh no, I say and waited to be waited on!

 

We had a very delicious meal of steak, baked potato and salad.. I ate olives and drank home made wine while he played with the new BBQ!
Happy Days!

It must be love!! LOL

Chris xx

Anniversaries of the Heart and Cup cake.

Voila! I have finished another one of my Blackbird Anniversaries of the Heart.

This one has my eldest son's date of birth and his initials.

 

 

I am very pleased with it especially as some of the floss wasn't the set colours but I just matched up the colours.. this because I have a lot of Cresent Colours and Weeks Dye Works that I bought ages ago.

So I now have all three sons completed and next one will be with my daughter's name and dates.

I am doing these in family groups, so this one will be my four children.

 

And this is my cup cake pin cushion. I used some pretty pink colours and bows.

I have seen them with beads dangling but I thought enough is enough!

 

 

I finished it off with a Suffolk puff  ( yoyo ) and a pearly button.

 

It was a very pleasent afternoon sewing.

Hope you too have had enjoyment from some nice things to make.

My next project is going to be some crochet work.

             Chris xx

A super weekend

We have had a super weekend as my DS and DIL have stayed here as they were picking up her son from Heathrow this morning. This is his first trip home from Australia where he went to a new job three months ago.

We have thoroughly enjoyed their company. DH and DS chatted about 'men' things which my hubby loved.

We all sat out in the garden and my DIL was very impressed and has taken some ideas home for their garden.

Aren't these double tulips beautiful?  When they first flowered they were a lime cream colour and as they have grown they have developed into this lovely cream colour.

 

And this auricular was just one or two flowers last year but this year with some tender care and feeding they have burgeon into this beautiful clump!

Today we are relaxing and enjoying sitting around, maybe a walk later in the meadow, which is just up the way for us, to see the bluebells.

Hope your day is a good one too.

Chris xx

Now why did I make these? ( +Some cross stitch progress)

 

 

I don't

need them and probably won't use them but I so loved making them!

Knitted cotton face cloths.

I often get make up on my face cloths, so these are too pretty to spoil with black streaks, but they are lovely and soft.

The mauve one was knitted from the corner.

Here is the pattern I did.

Cast on 4 stitches

Row 1. k 2, yon, k2 (5 sts)

Row 2. K

Row 3. K2, yon, K1, yon, k2 (7sts)

Row 4. K

Row 5 K2.yon,k3, yon,k2 (9sts)

Row 6 K

Carry on like this increasing 2 sts on each row until you have knitted as much as you want.

Then reverse the process.

Knit 2 yon sl 1, k1. p sl s o, k to last 4 stitches cast off 2 and yon k2

next row k3 cast off 1 (by slipping a st and passing it over the next k st) k to last 5 sts,

cast off 2 and knit 3

Till you only have 4 stitches left.

Cast off

I did a row of  hd crochet and then a picot stitch in two colours

 

The other two are knitted in waffle stitch

Cast on 53

K first 3 rows in seed stitch

Pattern

Row 1 seed stitch 3, then k to last three seed st 3

Row 2. Seed stitch 3, p to last 3 stitches, seed stitch 3

Row 3. Seed stitch 3, p2, k1, repeat to last 3, seed stitch 3

Row 4. Seed st 3, k2, p1, repeat to last 3, seed stitch 3

These 4 rows form the pattern.

Knit in pattern  as much as you want then finish with 3 rows of seed stitch.

A pretty and easy pattern

I used Dk cotton and size 8 needles (Old measurement I don't know the new)

( Seed st is k1, p1, k1, p1 across row, then next row p1, k1, p1 and so on)

 

 

And some cross stitch progress.

My Welcome Cat.

I have got to the cat and all the colour changes are not proving easy, but I like this so shall carry on

And some progress on my Chatelaine.

Convent's Herbal Garden

I will finish this altho' some of the speciality stitches needed a practice before I attempted them on the fabric, but I thought this is mine so what I do will be fine!

I have decided this is a more winter stitching project so it will be put in the bottom of my basket till the summer is over!

Happy Days, the sun has been glorious here the last few days and we have sat in the garden for breakfast. This morning we were serenaded by a wren, such a tiny little bird but such a sweet song.
We watched the blue tits flying to and fro so we guess the eggs have hatched and the little ones are keeping them busy. They can lay between 7 and 15 eggs!! Cor!! Fancy having 15 kids all at a time !!LOL

Keep calm and keep crafting, and pop a prayer in between those stitches!

 

Chris xx

I love my garden!

We have widened my south facing herbacious border and I am happily filling it with plants. The tulips are just coming into flower while the daffodils are just fading.

The blossom is my damson tree which is always loaded with fruit.

The flowering  tree furtherest away is an amelanchier, very pretty in spring.

My little slate corner

The north side full of wild primroses, cowslips and the red camelia given to me by a friend for my 60th Birthday

And some patio pots, the tulips are my DH's a present from his GD whose name is Tulip!

And there is a pink camelia there, a present from my daughter for my 70th birthday.

And a closer pic of my alpine pots.

I made these up new this year as my others had became over grown.

The gravel and pebbles I already had but all the plants are new.

The shells are from a friend who lives in Portugal and there is  a small one there from Australia.

I love this garden, it keeps us both busy.. not shown is our small veg plot, dug over ready for the plants that I have grown in the green house and conservatory. As soon as the threat of frost has past it will be full of beans, courgettes, sweet corn, squash, beetroot and potatoes. I will have tomatoes grown in pots, carrots, and lettuce.. once the beans are finished there will be room for the cabbage.
We are very fortunate that we have several super garden centres near to us, so lots of choice and tea and cake in the afternoons!!LOL

Chris x

A knitted summer cardigan

I seem to have been so busy I haven't posted for weeks, most unlike me.. but the warmer weather has drawn me to the garden.

 

In the evenings I have knitted this from the yarn I bought in Porthcawl

It had so many stitches a because of my larger size!!

So I must get back to my diet if only to be able to knit with less stitches

 

 

It was a nice pattern to follow just 4 rows with a purl inbetween. I enjoyed knitting it, knitting is so relaxing.

Now that spring has truly arrived, it's wonderful!

Hope your weather is good too

 

Chris xx

 

Putting on my dancing shoes!!!

 

I came back from Australia and had a spurt on this LHN design called

 

'Nature's Beauty.'

An easy design to do and pretty as well. I have several LHN designs and like to stitch these as well as some of my larger projects.

Just watch this space!

 

I see my followers have topped 200 wow,

I shall be doing a Givaway to mark this occasion!

Thank you all for your lovely comments and encouragement, especially for my Chatelaine design which I am still stitching.

 

Chris xx
 

 

Easter Day

Happy Blessed Easter everyone.. hope you're enjoying a lovely day with family or friends.

 

These cow slips are a little pressie from my DH..

For those of you not from UK they are a wild flower and used to grow where I played as a little girl.  I used to pick some to take home, but this is not allowed these days. You can buy them from specialist growers.

A non calorific present!

But I did have some little chocolate bunnies from my step daughter, five, which I have eaten!

 

We are having a family day with the tradition Easter lamb dinner.. here is Nell on the stairs wating for hers!

Happy days!

Chris xx

Back to my home town

Our B&B overlooked this beautiful beach, however it wasn't calm like this.. the waves were high and the wind wipped up the sand on our legs. It was bitterly cold, but we still enjoyed our long weekend in my home town of  Porthcawl.

This last weekend was my annual visit to put flowers on the graves.

One afternoon, we sat in the car drinking foul coffee from a burger van and watched several surfers and felt the cold for them!

How could they stand the cold sea?

The coffee was scalding hot so kept us warm!

We had some lovely days just enjoying the sea air, listening the the calls of the sea gulls and eaing ice-cream.

This is the light house on a rough evening.

 

The town is different to when I was young and living there,  but there is still the same haberdashery shop there after all these years. I spent quite a while in there and bought a some pretty scissors and yarn to knit myself a jumper.

Once again we looked at the price of houses there, when I have visited there,  the pull to go back is so strong, although I think of where I live now as home. The town where I was born will always be my first love!

 

Chris xx

All part of our holiday.

My DH had to see penguins. This was taken on a reserve during the day because you are not allowed to take any photos when they all arrive from the sea at night and waddle up to where they have their burrows. DH had paid extra for us to be in a small group with an individual person telling us about the penguins. We had front row seats when they emerged from the sea. They looked so funny, all waddling along at quite a pace and some a far way to go up the sand hills. It was late at night but there was low lighing along the wooden walk ways so you could see them quite clearly.

 

All the birds were beautiful.

This a rainbow lorrikeet, so pretty as are nearly all Australian birds but what a noise they make, unlike our UK birds that sing,  these squawk! Don't those figs look yummy!

This was in Hanhdorf, it was a super place where we stayed more like an apartment than a B&B

And I went back because I wanted to see my friend Jenny again. This is us in her garden.

Gosh I really do need to lose weight! My greatest failing is butter so I am going cold turkey and giving it up!

Chris xx