April Nature Notes

Hello Lovelies ,
This is my monthly post where I share some of the beautiful illustrations from this book.....

Here is Edith's April Illustration....

I think Edith must have loved this time of year as there is just so much Nature coming to life . There were loads of paintings to choose from for this month . Here are my favourites, painted over 100 years ago, I'll let you enjoy them without comment from me .....

I have certainly seen quite a few of these plants this month .
The photos I'm sharing with you today were taken last Friday...Good Friday . It was exceptionally warn and dry over Easter and on this evening we decided to take a walk long the canal with relatives .
The canal basin ,where the narrow boats used to turn around looked stunning reflecting the blue sky  and trees in their new spring coats.....

Along the tow path we saw dead nettle looking pretty....

Delicate Cow Parsley Flowers......

Sadly the canal is disused  but this does make it a great wildlife habitat with loads of Reeds and Bulrushes along the banks..........

Across on the far bank you can see the Hawthorn hedge beginning to  bloom. Here is a close up of the sweet white flowers....

The Dandelions had already made their first "Clocks".....

The green of the young Oak leaves was stunning caught in the last rays of sun.......

A folk law saying my Mum shared with me this month goes " Oak before the Ash , sure to have a splash. Ash before the Oak, sure to have a soak" . Well this is the Ash .....

Looking good for a dry Summer if you can trust this prediction :0)

 It was so warm and still as we meandered along...more like July than April Really. Cousins running ahead , adults chatting . All too soon the light began to fade and it was time to head off to the pub for a thirst quencher ...the perfect end to the  day .

Jacquie x


P.S. Wasn't the wedding FANTASTIC!!!!  I loved it all but my favourite parts had to be...... Kate's dress , It couldn't have been more perfect ..... The trees in Westminster Abbey , a brilliant idea ,the green foliage looked stunning with the red carpet....... The Lilly of the valley bouquet and button holes.......The Sun shining as the couple returned to the palace ....... Kate's "Oh Wow " as the balcony doors opened . I could go on but I better not :0)

thank you for all the sweet comments about my bunting ....I will post the pattern soon.

Royal Wedding Decorating

Hello Lovelies , if you are in the U.K. I'm sure you will be very aware of tomorrows big event.Personally  I'm looking at it as an excuse to decorate the house with a few red,white and blue pretties . This morning I picked some simple flowers from my garden . ...

Bluebells , which ,now they are indoors I've realised , have a gorgeous scent....rather like Hyacinths.....

A huge  Peony ,as it was the only red flower I could find . And some pretty white bells...

I may not have been watching the build up programmes but I do love the cover of the Radio Times this week . This gorgeous picture is the winner of a children's competition and I think the whole thing is adorable , from the Will hearts Kate sign to the wonky wheels and the red,white and blue confetti....

I think I still have the Souvenir edition of the Radio Times from when Williams Parents were Married ,it's in my loft somewhere !!  Yes I was totally hooked on that royal wedding . Being a young teenager I thought it was so romantic . Lady Di was the most Beautiful bride and I watched and read every thing I could about the wedding
1981 was the year I got my first camera and this is the picture I took of our decorations for that big day....

I'm sure Mum put them up mainly to please me :0)

So this time round I've been enjoying thinking of ways to decorate . I love red ,white and blue anyway . So  I designed a three coloured flower to add a little crochet goodness to the proceedings. Late Tuesday evening I grabbed some yarn and started playing around . This is the finished result . What do you think ??
The colour choices I made under artificial light are not perfect...I think a darker red would have been nicer but overall I'm really pleased with it ...........

It's just two rows of puff stitch and then some petals , but I think it works well......

Mine are just crocheted on to a chain by the tops of two petals . But I think they could work well individually too,and of course a change of colours would give a different look.

Here is my Royal Wedding fireplace in all it's red, white and blue glory . ......

It makes me happy ....and the boys have been busy making bunting from triangles of card this evening , so we can string some  up in the front garden tomorrow morning . I expect I will indeed watch quite a bit of the wedding tomorrow , I love a good wedding and they seem so well suited , can't wait to see the dress :0)

Hope you enjoy tomorrow ,however you plan to spend it .
Jacquie x


P.S. I Just need to mention that the HUGE trophy on my mantle piece is youngests  "under eights Player of the Year" award from his Rugby club , well done son , I'm a proud Mummy :0)

Happy Easter ...with Scavenger Hunt Photos

Happy Easter Lovelies!!

I've decided to post my scavenger hunt photos today as I had finished the list and some of them have an Easter theme.

This is the first month I've given this challenge a try and the best bit about it for me was the way it opens your eyes ...making you look out for things on the list ,which then means you notice other things in your surroundings you would have normally overlooked.

The Monthly list of things to find is published at Postcards from the P.P.here. And the Flickr group where you can see every ones images is here.

This Months list was :-
1.April Showers
2.Breakfast
3.Your Camera
4.A set of keys
5.An interesting shop name
6.A cross
7.A church
8.Eggs
9.Something yellow
10.A sculpture
11.Something to do with Shakespeare
12. Something to mark Saint Georges day

A couple of my finds were not exactly as the list , but pretty close, I'm looking forward to seeing what others come up with.
So here goes with my pictures....

1.April showers

I've already posted this image but I think it's so lovely...I think it's one of the favourite photos I've taken this year. I love taking macro shots and this one captures the pretty saxifrage and tiny raindrops beautifully. The dark , blurry background makes the flower really stand out .

2.Breakfast

This picture is from last week when I did some early morning cushion making . I love breakfast and eat it as soon as I get up . Always cereal, usually Fruit and Fibre . This was Muesli and strawberries with the essential cup of tea :0)

3.Your Camera

My beloved Canon IXUS. I can't tell you how much I love this camera. I originally bought it when I started blogging and I have it set to "foliage" most of the time as this makes the colours more vivid ...more how they appear in reality to my eyes. This picture is a favourite as you get a glimpse of my mothers day flowers from the boys and my blurry crochet hexagons  also look pretty in the corner :0)

4.A set of keys

A special friend at work brought me this Australia keyring after a recent visit. I love it because it reminds me of her and also the fact that blogging has put me in touch with some amazing crafty people in Australia and around the world.

5.An interesting shop name

O.K. a bit of a cheat here. This is more of an interesting looking shop than an interesting name. It's one of those Aladdin's cave type places that are family run and have been around for decades. It's looking a little shabby these days but I hope it lasts for a few more years. I find it so depressing to visit a place where all the shops are big name chain stores.

6. A cross

I expect quite a few scavengers will have used these for a cross :0)
I do love hot cross buns and freely admit to eating them any time I can get my hands on them. Perfect when fresh with butter, or toasted with raspberry jam if a little stale. Yummy !!!!

7. A church

This picture was taken one evening when I stopped the car on the way home from work . Hence the large shadow of a tree cast by the low sun . My favourite thing in this picture is the blue sky. I have a bit of a thing about blue skys at the moment and the one is such a gorgeous , amazingly strong blue .

8. Eggs

Cadburys mini eggs in a Noddy bowl from when the boys were little . It's one of the few pieces of baby crockery we have left and I think it's so sweet with the train running around the edge . You can also see my crochet doily peeping out .Thank you for the lovely comments about this pretty I love it too and the link to the pattern is in this post.

9.Something Yellow

Rape seed is definitely the yellow of April around here , replacing the yellow daffodils of March.

10. A sculpture

Sculpture/statue . I'm not sure I know what the difference is .This chubby chappy makes me smile .He's only wearing one sock and a fig leaf :0)

11. Something to do with Shakespeare

When I asked my Mum for suggestions for a picture on this subject she offered to paint the Baird. "Oh don't worry Mun ,it's not that important " was my reply . " I don't mind , painting's  what I enjoy " she said .Of course it is Mum , and I'm really pleased you still have a passion to create. I hope I'm the same if  I get to my eighties.

12. Something to mark Saint Georges Day

O.K. this is another cheat . I didn't see any saint Georges flags this year as the  impending  Royal Wedding has rather taken over . I loved this patriotic  window in a craft shop . The blue and white patchwork on the left is stunning and of course the bunting caught my eye. Even the red white and blue yarn tucked into the sewing machine makes me smile :0)

I hope you enjoyed these images , I managed to squeeze a little crochet into five of them , maybe I'll manage more next month .

Hope you are having a relaxing Easter break

Jacquie x

Today I'm Loving.....

 :: Finishing work at five thirty and walking out into the warm, sunny evening air knowing I've got a week off to enjoy with the boys :0) 

:: Stopping the car at the side of the road on the way home to capture the yellow fields...

So much Rape seed here these days . I think it looks stunning ......

:: Getting home a seeing my yellow and red tulips, purchased quite closed up yesterday, looking gorgeous in my blue and white crochet "Cornish wear" vase.....

:: Finding that after making the evening meal ( simple pasta and garlic bread ) it was still warm enough to take my crochet in to the garden......

It was lovely to escape the action movie the males were enjoying indoors ...and just listen to the birdsong whilst I did a little crochet . I even managed to take the pictures for the first four rounds of the hexagon tutorial......

So lovelies ,the tutorial will be coming sometime . I'm now thinking it will probably be after school returns ( the first week in May ) as all five of us are at home next week and there will  too much fun / chaos happening :0)
I'm sure you lovelies will understand ...tutorials seem to take me ages to get right.
Hope your holidays are going well ..... if you are lucky enough to have any .
 I'm bushed now ,  think an early night sounds mighty fine .
Jacquie x

Crochet Inspiration

Hello Lovelies,
I'm constantly impressed with the crochet inspiration out there in cyberspace. In fact sometimes it's rather overwhelming, all the gorgeous possibilities.
It's totally great to me ,to be able to see all the stunning makes other crafty people are producing . Plus I get to find out a bit about their inspiration and tell them how much I love their creations .
It was not a blog or Flickr that got me making this week however.....it was actually a picture in my Country living magazine...

Oooh simple granny squares. I know they have been around forever but something about them is eternally attractive to me . Seeing this image reminded me I had some granny squares started in the gorgeous recycled yarn I used to make my last cushion. ....

So the hexagons have been neglected this week , in favour of  a little square project :0)

Not having much of this yarn left I had to use some rowan hand knit cotton I found in a charity shop(in this post)for the final round of each square .

I was up at six am ( yes 6 ayy emm !! ) on Saturday to finish this off . It was bliss , the boys were up early too , making the most of two whole weeks of holiday stretching out in front of them. The sun was shining and I sat in my warm (at last... Hooray ) conservatory making the fleece part in the same way I did for my last cushion.
  I really like this method of making an envelope style cushion cover and adding a little crochet trim and some pretty buttons....

What do you think ? I've done a tutorial for you lovelies in case anyone else fancies giving this method a try. It's the previous post , and I'm adding it to my side bar as usual .


So here's this weeks make, along side the other cushion I made from the poncho I pulled down to reuse the yarn......

I love these colours and the yarn. There was just a little left over to make myself a cute crochet mini cushion too ....

It's a new pincushion for me..

This little make is definitely inspired by these lovelies. Here is the back ....

Yes I've had a great time creating this crochet, and whilst I was enjoying myself yesterday morning the second Master BM took one look at the state of my sewing box .....

Yikes ! Bless him ,he set about sorting it all out for me . Actually he got a bit fed up after a while and I finished it off......

Thanks for the start though son , I need a bit of a push sometimes and it looks so much better now....

Hope you're feeling inspired , whether it's to create something or to tidy up your craft supplies :0)

Or is it just me that lets things get messy in the first place ?
Jacquie x