Sunny Sunday

Hello lovelies,
almost exactly four years ago HERE, my second ever blog post had this title.
 525 posts later I still love bloging and I'm not thinking of stopping any time soon.

I love this time of year when when the weather is kind, and it was especially kind yesterday.
I hung out the washing for the first time this year and was shocked by the size of my eldest boys school shirts....they looked man-sized on the line..........

 much laundry sniffing occurred in the evening as I put this lot away........it smelt wonderful.

Mr BM and the boys cut the grass for the first time and they sweetly picked a few daisies for me before the mower could chop them up..........

I was also summoned to admire this fine frog ( or is it a toad )  in our pond.........wonder if we will have frog spawn soon.........

Indoors the rooms were flooded with sunlight and yet more daffodils were opening up. They are 3 bunches for £1 right now so how could I resist............

In the afternoon we all headed out for a bike ride. I'm a very fair weather cyclist so my bike usually doesn't get used till about May, but yesterday it really felt like May ( 19 degrees Celsius in our garden ).

Those boys who wear the big shirts now badly  need bigger bikes...........

Some of us, including me, were wearing shorts, it was glorious............

The snowdrops around the pond had finished flowering but it still looked lovely...........

I think this year my bike will be treated to some crochet. Maybe some of Kate's sweet bunting. The pattern's  HERE ..........

We rode for a couple of miles along a quiet single track lane, then stopped to admire the view........

Before turning around and pedalling back home...........

I love feeling the breeze in my face and watching those pretty cycle shadows............

and I love this view..........

In four years of blogging I've shown you this favourite cycle route before , but I hope you enjoyed a repeat visit.......I did.
Thank you for all you kind comments over the years , I know I've said it before, but they really do mean a lot.
Have a great week.
Jacquie x

Winners, Flowers and Spring Shelves

Hello lovelies,

Thank you so much for all your comments and entries to my give-away.

The lucky winners are Marjbrit and Clare

 congratulations !  I've already sent you a message via e. mail :0)

When I walked into the kitchen on Saturday morning the Daffodils I picked up as tightly closed buds on Thursday were looking at their peak of perfection.........they took my breath away..........

The sun was shining so I took some pictures of my spring shelves for you lovelies.

Ta-dah...........

It was Thursday morning that I decided that they must be done at once.
 I removed all the dusty ornaments and polished the shelves before unwrapping the thrifted plates and bits and bobs I've been collecting for this display throughout the winter.

It was this sweet blossom plate that planted the seed of this idea and I tried to hunt out nice things with these pink, green and creamy yellow colours................


I really like the idea of changing the things on my dresser shelves to suit the seasons.
 Otherwise after a while I simply stop noticing it at all.

And it's been such great fun to plan and make things too. My crochet primroses look right at home with the mixture of old things I've  recently thrifted  and old things I've had since childhood...............

As do my crochet Snowdrops.............

I had a lot of fun playing around arranging and rearranging stuff till I was really happy with how it all looked.
I was going to stick with the pink/green/cream colours, but in the end I felt it needed a pop or two of red as well..............

The cute pink tea pot was something Mum spotted in the charity shop and I love it.

The  precious blue and white china is now stored in the basket you can see on top of my dresser and you can just about see my new  pink doily under the fruit bowl........

The pattern for the crochet triangles  used to make the bunting is HERE and I used good old Stylecraft Special Acrylic yarn.

It was a charity shop find on Saturday morning , I love this pattern............

 I  am pleased with how my Welsh dresser looks. It's so me, if you know what I mean.
 It's crochet, flowers, nature illustrations and cute creatures..........I LOVE it and I'm feeling inspired to do something similar for Summer :0)

Later on Saturday we had a little outing to a magnificent country house.....but that deserves it's own post....

I hope you lovelies have had a good weekend. And those of you that are in the U.K. have enjoyed the exceptionally mild and sunny weather today.........it's been such a wonderful treat.

Jacquie x

Bunny Mummy in Print and a Giveaway

Hello Lovelies, 

Yesterday issue 16 of "Simply Crochet" magazine came out in the shops.

 It was such a thrill to see it on the shelf in Morrisons.....I had to photograph it before I picked up my copy :0)

 And when the chatty checkout lady commented on it and asked if I could crochet I had to smile and share my exciting news ...." ummm, yes I can crochet, and ummmm, actually I have a project published in this magazine" I said, blushing slightly as I pointed out my cowl.
"Oh, well that's something to be proud of" she kindly replied and we got chatting about her daughters knitting.

 My cowl is in  a supplement that accompanies this months issue and I thought it would be small, but no,  it's the same size  as the main magazine............

And look what's inside the cover..........My colourful squares much larger than life............

And yet more beautiful images to accompany the pattern...........

 I'm totally thrilled  with how my little project looks here.

 As well as writing the pattern I answered some questions . I hope Simply Crochet wont mind me sharing this part with you lovelies..........

click on the photo to read it more easily.

In the bloggers supplement there are six lovely projects to crochet.The gorgeous floral clutch bag you can see inside the cover is by  Tanya who blogs HERE

And here are the other four projects

Sweet flower Brooches by Rachel who blogs HERE

A happy Shopper Bag by Jules who blogs HERE

A Chunky Scarf by Rachelle who blogs HERE

and A cute Hat Pincushion by Hannah who blogs HERE

I think they are all lovely projects and I've discovered some wonderful blogs that are new to me.

To celebrate this first ever time I've had anything printed Simply Crochet have kindly offered to send two of my lovely readers ( that's you :0)   ) a free  copy of this issue, and what a treat it is .

In the main magazine there are absolutely loads of projects. 

These are some of my favourites.......  

Sweet Butterflies, I love this photo

 I cute Bunny....I should make this :0)

 Awwwww, adorable

 Such a fun make

and, eeeeek, look at this swoon worthy riot of colour...........

I'm so tempted to start this.

As well as patterns there's wonderful inspiration. It's lovely to see Lucy's column going from strength to strength......... 

If you would like the chance to win a copy simply leave me a comment on this post,

 making sure I can contact you if you win. 

Once I have your address I'll pass it onto the lovely people at Simply Crochet who will mail out your copy directly.

At the weekend I spent  a great couple of hours with some old  friends. One of this group  makes wonderful jewellery from polymer clay. We all sat round another friends dining room table experimenting with this clever product.

While my  friends made brooches and necklaces I played around making handles for some  4mm crochet hooks. They are not perfect but I'm actually pretty pleased with how they turned out for a first attempt.

While a simple metal hook suits me I've seen a lot of these hooks around blogland  and I thought you may like the chance to try one, so I'll send one of these off to each of my winners too.

I'll draw two names out of the hat on Sunday, Good Luck!

Jacquie x

P.S. Simply crochet also have a special subscription offer HERE too if you are interested 

PLEASE NOTE This Give away is now closed....thank you to everyone who entered.

Jacquie x

A February Mosaic and March so far

Hello lovelies,

Once again I've enjoyed playing around with my many, many photos making a monthly mosaic.

Here is what February looks like.............

This first week of March we have enjoyed mild daytime temperatures and seen lots of sunshine. 

On Monday morning the rush hour was particularly bad and I passed the time spent in stationary traffic gazing out at the countryside and wishing I didn't have to go to work on such a beautiful morning. 

This footpath looked so inviting................

Happily the sun was still shining at the end of my shift and these beautiful Crocuses welcomed me home......

 This colour is my favourite. I think it's the combination of the purple and orange....stunning.

Also waiting for me on the doormat was our National Trust membership package. It's the first time we have joined this organisation.
 I've been thinking about joining us for a while and decided to go for it this year. It's not cheap, but I hope it will lead to many memorable family days out as we try and get value for money :0)
I joined us up  on-line for the best deal HERE 

With two teenagers in the house I can see there are not many years left before my boys will choose to do their own thing at the weekend rather than go out as a family,  so I feel the need to make the most of this special time.

Today I've been at home. I've been doing a little sewing, making some binding with the last scraps of a favourite fabric..........

And attaching it to my crochet triangles.............

Here is my Spring Bunting, temporarily displayed in the conservatory and making me smile.
I love the combination of yarn and fabric. It's going to be part of the spring display I'm planning for my Welsh Dresser and I think it will fit in nicely................

I also picked up some more fabric today. I think this duvet cover will make a great tablecloth and there will still be loads left for other projects.............

I'm in the mood to do some sewing and I'm sure it's got something to do with THIS show..........

 Are you watching it too? I wouldn't normally talk about T.V. shows on my blog , but it's O.K. to mention a crafty one I think.

I'm really enjoying this second series . It's got a similar format to the hugely popular Great British Bake off. I liked that a lot too, but I do love the sewing bee. The contestants are all so interesting and the setting is a gorgeous warehouse this year..........

How I would love to have the pick of all those fabrics ( but without the pressure of a film crew! )

I love Tamaras photo screen :0)

And I think the judges are great..........

I'm feeling so inspired that I bought a new pattern :0)

Some of you may remember I bought a dress pattern last year, but it was rather complicated and I ended up making a skirt HERE

This pattern looks much simpler........

EASY, that's what I need.

I'm going to try making it in the fabric you can see here. It was another thrifted find that I've had in my stash for ages, so I wont feel too upset if everything goes pear shaped.

Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some sewing time tomorrow, I can't wait to get started.
Jacquie x

Clumber Park....more photos and a Journal Page

 Hello Lovelies,
I took so many photos on our family visit to Clumber park the other week that, even after THIS picture heavy post, I was left with many more.
I thought I would share a few more here, to get you back into the atmosphere of this wonderful spot, before I share my latest drawing.

There was such a variety of things to see on that sunny day.
The formal bits.........

 

The woody bits.........

The watery bits..........

 

The busy bits.........

The special kitchen garden bit...........

The yarny bits............

 

The Floral bits ( though there were not many of those in February ).........



The behind the scenes bits ...........

The funny bits..........

The knitted bunting............

 And the birds................

All these images have been going around in my brain over the past week or so. Ideas have been forming .
There has been plenty of "thinking time" ( a phrase my lovely Dad used to use when he was in the early stages of planning his latest project).
Little sketches have been made on scraps of paper, then bigger sketches have been made.
I decided to try including some photos for the first time.

You lovelies know the colouring is my most favourite part. All the difficult decisions  and tricky drawing is done . I can just get out my coloured pencils and make it come alive.


Here is the finished page.............

            As always you can click on the images to see them larger in a light box.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, but I do wish it was easier to take a decent photo of my drawings. I did try.


Here are some close ups....they always turn out better...........

 I did a border of bikes , they were easier to draw than the wellies. 

And I included a photo of my favourite yarny apple..........

I had fun with this map of our route around the lake...........

The photos I included were of things that I wanted to remember, but that would be too tricky for me to draw. So there's one with my little family enjoying their rest. And one of the amazing Victorian greenhouse............

Clumber is a National Trust property so I included their oak leaf logo ..........

And I also tried out my new date stamp. I've seen journal pages with this retro feature and liked this fun way to include the date in my design. It reminds me of an old Library stamp, but this clever little thing is self inking..........

Of course I have my photos and blog posts, so there is no need to do these drawings to record special times. But  I loved the whole creative process.

And the finished page makes me very happy.

Thank you so much for your congratulations on my exciting crochet news. If you have just found me via Simply Crochet magazine....Hello and Welcome.
Don't forget there will be a little give-away here later this week :0)
Jacquie x