Thursday 30 January 2014

Helping


R 'helping' me with a little gardening - it's been so grey lately that we needed something to cheer the garden up. We just haven't had the chance to do much with a little one, and so much needing doing indoors. Two primulas make quite a difference to the pots out the front!


Both of us with muddy fingernails. I hope I can pass on some of my love for the outdoors and wild things to her. Judging by how she tries to go outside at every opportunity, no matter what the weather or what she's wearing, it shouldn't be too hard!

Friday 24 January 2014

I can see the sea!


On Wednesday my Mum came down for a visit, and we went to the sea-side!


We had a lovely lunch at a cafe looking out over the sea and then went and explored the beach. The littlest one sat and played with the rocks, and the bigger ones did the same! She tried to eat a few, while we looked for fossils and sea glass. She found that the pebbles are hard to bum-shuffle over, and we found the noise of her shuffling over them to be just so cute.


The light was fantastic, bright on the beach one moment, then lighting up the sea the next.


You could see the rain sweeping down over Wales but it didn't reach us.

 

We spent a while on the beach, drinking in the sea air...


... and admiring the views. And when we started to get a little chilly, there was a wool shop to investigate. 


Mum got the habby bits, two round balls of Rowan and the snowflake (to make two rabbits and a lamb I believe), and treated me to the rest of the wool (my Mum's wonderful!). I'll let you know in due course about their destination. R got to wander the shop and met a cute little dog that had a disproportionate amount of lick to share.


We wandered back to the beach ...



... admiring the pier ...


... watching the sun set.


Bye bye beautiful beach.

Monday 20 January 2014

Handsome chaps




Some of the dragons I mostly made a while ago, but finally finished and photographed. Funny that they're all male, even the pink one.


How a dragon is born... or at least that's the new experiment, a mixture of wet and needle felting.


What do you call a group of dragons?

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Risky walking

What a beautiful morning! Glorious sunshine and a hard frost is a lovely combination: the frost highlighting everything and showing off their shapes, and the sunlight glittering off the frost. Just a shame about the black ice. A good excuse to slow down and take some photos though...








The last photos are of one of the old almshouses in the town, the 17th century chapel in the courtyard, and looking back at the bell over the entrance. They're still in use, providing homes for elderly, and you're welcome to have a look around the courtyard and chapel. I couldn't resist how beautiful it was.


Home after my very slippery walk, to a welcome from my tulips. I couldn't help it after yesterday was so miserable, and Lucy and Heather always show such lovely pictures of their flowers, leading me into temptation.

Monday 13 January 2014

A busy weekend

We were busy little things this weekend. A first birthday party for all the babies born to my antenatal class, with lots of noise, creating mess with salt dough and cereal, and lots of cake. A dreaded trip to a large DIY store (what a shame I had to stay in the car with a sleeping baby, much preferable to trawling the isles for plumbing paraphernalia). And then lots of this:


Two coats, on top of the one we did last weekend, to get the walls to something approaching a blank canvas. The walls were such a bright purple even three coats didn't quite manage it.

Then some test patches, and deciding that the barely visible peachy colour (English muffin apparently) would probably work the best. It's a pretty small room with a dark carpet that's not worth replacing, so a light colour is a must. As it's going to be baby R's room, there will be lots of other things there to lend colour and brighten it all up. Here's hoping she doesn't decide that crayon would be a lovely splash of colour. One careful coat of paint later and the room's looking lovely.

After all that, I had a well deserved soak in a hot bubbly bath, listening to my husband playing guitar and my baby giggling with joy at the music. Bliss.

Monday 6 January 2014

Old and new project

The run up to Christmas was as busy as it always is. This year most of that busyness came from doing everything with our little bum-shuffler in tow: it's all that much slower as she has demands that must be met right now. I tried to help myself out as much as possible; I didn't cook as many snacky bits, I didn't make as many decorations, I did some internet shopping (which I don't normally do as I like to be able to see and touch what I'm buying, and I'm not always sure what I'm going to buy someone until I see it) and I just expected everything to take longer. I did, however, start a project. A handmade present. And I just just finished it in time, sewing in the ends on Christmas eve. And I love it!


It's so difficult to take a photo of her. She either wants to see (and reach out for and grab and chew) the camera, or she's practicing moving along the sofa, or shimmying with excitement at her activity table. 

But the dress... I'm so pleased with how it turned out! I've had the pattern on pinterest for ages, and bought the wool to make it last year, but the knowledge that winter is only so long, and that next year she'll be that much more active and more likely to wreck a crochet dress (not to mention she'll be that much bigger and so the dress would be more work) spurred me into action. Thank you so much Jannette at the Green Dragonfly! I did a few mods and bodges - I started with 10 ripple repeats and decreased alternate rows to end up with 6 and a bit repeats. I thought I'd used a thinner wool, but looking back it seems I didn't - does this mean it should fit her for years? It would be lovely if so!

So now I need a new project... enter the next round of bodging, I just hope it turns out as well.

A very bad photo, but it gets the colours fairly close if a little washed out. Hopefully this will be a pair of socks from Sonja, but as my German is pretty limited, we'll see. She includes a chart with an English key, but I've never read a cable chart either... 

Fingers crossed!

Friday 3 January 2014

Taking the plunge...

Today's the day... after faffing around for a while, I've finally got around to starting the blog. It's probably going to be a lot of waffling about me and what I get up to, which is mainly looking after my 10 month old daughter and trying to fit in various bits of crafting. I'm fairly eclectic in what I craft, but at the moment I knit, crochet and create felted dragons, hence the name! 

I live in a Cotswold town, and have a slightly obscured but beautiful view of the local hill. Today was pretty miserable with lots of gusting wind and driving rain, though much nicer than some parts of the UK, as it was interspersed by some brief moments of sunshine. I love it when the sun streams through and lights up the buildings and trees with black clouds behind showing fantastic contrast. The raindrops on the window and a baby keeping me inside prevented me getting a good picture though. 


Obligatory complain about the weather over, here is a small selection of the dragons I've made. The blues are what I'd normally make for myself while the pink was a commission for a friend's daughter. 




Here's hoping my next blog post is a bit more me, rather than starting nerves (daft I know, but that's me; daft, but hopefully in a good way).