Wonderful Soggy Walk

On Wednesday Stu and I had the joy of a child free few hours together, and headed of to Keswick for the day.  Stu picked a scenic route from Keswick Lakeside to Castlerigg stone circle. We set out after enjoying a scrummy breakfast at Pumkin bistro, the rain had eased and the sky had bits of blue in it. 

However it soon clouded again, and out scenic route took a soggy meander through a steep woodland track, across a field, a road, another field, another wood, farm(where a bloke stuck his head out of a caravan to say we were going the wrong way) 

  another steep woodland path, over a bridge, through several fields full of lambs over another road, down a tiny road over a wall and finally....we found the stone circle. However by this point the rain was torrential, we were aching and cold and couldn't rise taking out the fancy camera for photographs.  

 We headed back to Keswick a much less scenic but more direct route, to warm us up we stopped by the lovely Temporary Measure. It's a shop that needs sought out, I've long seen followed Emma through craft fairs, then on twitter, then her blog and was so inspired in her shop...oh one day, one day.

 She's a lover of liberty, rabbits, yarn, buttons, bears and tea this girl can do no wrong. She was gracious even when a hasty bag turn resulted in taking half her canvases from the wall, thankful Stu has a stealth catching style, probably from being married to such a clutz as me.

 Every available wall space, nook crany and shelf was filled with beautifully designed bags, books and canvases. I couldn't resist buying Maisie a copy of Once Upon A Time When I Was A Rabbit. 

 The drawings are vintage beauty, something you don't see these days in modern children's books.  I already have my eye on Once Upon A Time When I Was A Bear for Lucas' birthday. 

 Bunting and bunnies everywhere, it certainly cheered me up on such a grim day. 

I love these old suitcases for stock, the yarn arranged so perfectly and baby booties to make your heart melt.  I'm surprised Stu got me out the shop without bags full. 

All in all, although soggy, and with muscles aching I had a wonderful day out with Stu just having time to chat about nothing, hold hands and be still for awhile in a hectic world.  I can't wait for out next adventure.

Love Amanda.x.

Make Do & Mend

 Now with our house sold I'm having to get used to fully living in a rented property until we can save enough to again buy our own bricks and mortar. Living in rented can be a little difficult when it comes to decorating, when you need to give your surrounding a lift you have to work with what you have. 

Our dining room needs a bit of loving especially our table, the table itself was borrowed from my sister-in-law so I can't really do as I'd like and paint it.

 However I can recover it in something that's removable, with a little help from Lucas; some vinyl fabric; and a staple gun, the transformation is complete.

 

 We did the chair covers to as they get quite messy with 2 young children spilling on them. 

Much better now but I'd still like to paint it white.

The next thing I re-made wasn't something I needed but a want, my friend has a blackboard with a gold vintage frame which she got from Heals. This is my cheapo version.

Take one ugly tobacco stained yellow oil painting bought for £2 from local charity shop.  Sand the painting down as the oil could be quite bumpy.

Add as many coats of blackboard paint(£2.85 from Wilkcos) as necessary to cover picture, opps still looks a bit bumpy. Another sanding and some more coats of paint.

It still is a bit rough but does the job and I think looks impressive.

For the love of Granny

Some time away as I lost my camera charger but now I'm now back.

 And with some WIP to show, these are 4 of the Granny Square Blankets I'm working on, and they're growing well.  When I first started to crochet as a child my Nana had blankets like these, she'd start you crocheting round and after a while she'd start on the next colour and chase your loops as you went.

 

 As I crochet these and feel the yarn through my fingers I'm reminded of my Nana, her smell (Lavender perfume and Parma violets) and watching her hands wrinkled and soft working their way round behind me.

 I've used arcylic yarn to make these, which some people will barf at I know, there's a few reasons behind this decision. 

First is I'm not made of money or sponsored by a yarn company, to get the huge array of colours I like I need a reasonable priced yarn. 

Second is I'd been approached by vegans about things I make, and was told there was not alot of vegan friendly items made from lovely colourful materials.

Third is washability, I hopeing that people will buy these to be used not just for decoration, so it helps to have an easily washable yarn. 

 I love the colours of the top 3 blankets, but I'm not sure of this one, I wanted it to be bolder than usual blankets but I think I like the effect of single lines of colour.

Which colour do you like best?

Have a lovely Friday,

Amanda.x.

Ready for my close up...

I've been doing very badly at my photographic diary lately, and although taking photos mostly every day have been very slow to get them uploaded. Hopefully May will be a less hurried,
less stressful and more creative month.

 Until then, I've had fun in April taking pictures close up.  I'd like to say they're amazing but I have quite a basic digital camera and limited knowledge, but some are good are others just fun. 

 If you want to see more you can look at all my pictures on Flickr by clicking the widget at the right hand side.

Sometimes the beauty is found close up.

Amanda.x.