Colour at Home

Hello Lovelies,
with the short days we are experiencing at the moment I'm drawn towards cheerful colours to combat the gloom . My jolly gingham bunting has made a reappearance in the kitchen .It's not specifically Christmassy but has a festive feel to me......

Did you notice my crochet birdy hanging in the window. He has lived in this spot since I made him back in October 2009...inspired by this clever creation,back in the days BB ( before blogging ) . I still love him, with his ric-rac legs and wooden beady feet..........

The yarn I used was mostly patons Smoothie and I've been working some colourful stripes with the same yarn this week. This project is for a gift and it is almost finished so I will do a little Ta-dah later this week :0)......

Something else bright and colourful that's making me smile are my new Wellies......

These are actually the first pair I have owned as an adult !! I always remember having freezing feet in wellies as a child so I've resisted buying any for many ( many, many )  a year but there are occasions when wellies are ideal footwear .And I've also bought some matching wellie socks to combat the cold. Whilst I was outside today  photographing my feet I did notice how pretty our little silver birch tree is looking........

Many trees are now without leaves but this one  is  still looking gorgeous,especially against a blue sky with the sun shining through the leaves........

Around the garden , if you look closely there are still a few flowers , like these sweet little fuchsias....

And the lack of serious frost means even my geraniums are still flowering........

Such a contrast to this time last year .

Wandering around I was rather taken with the look of this moss covered stone viewed in macro, what a lovely fresh green........

Back indoors , wellies off , I remembered some rather colourful recent purchases I wanted to share with you lovelies ............Sarah Smith cloths.........

My dishwasher has died recently so anything to make the washing up more bearable has got to be a good thing :0)

And some rather lovely new oven gloves, I'm so pleased with these ....

More red , this time with polka dots.......lovely.

 I'm cheering the long evenings is with lots of candles.........

This year we have  an Advent candle for the first time ever. Here it is lit on Sunday.....seemed appropriate as several lovely blogs reminded me that last Sunday was the first Sunday in Advent .Tomorrow we can start burning down the numbers, hope we remember to keep an eye on the progress.........

My colourful   oil burner was a lucky charity shop find.........

I'm currently using it with fabulous Sparkling Cinnamon wax tarts from Yankee Candle......I adore this festive scent !!

Hope you are finding little things to cheer you .
Jacquie x

P.S. in case anybody was wondering , my wellies,cloths and oven gloves were bargains from the appropriately named " Home Bargains"

A little more colour

Hello Lovelies, Thank you all so much for your kind comments on my last post. Some crochet in white and grey is all well and good but this week I've been feeling the need for a little more colour.

On Monday I decided to make a Christmassy brooch and after a bit of pondering I settled on a poinsettia . I touch of red to contrast with my grey coat and grey cowl...........

I'm loving red at the moment but unfortunately it's the colour my camera seems unable to cope with so I struggled to get a decent picture of this pretty flower......

I made two sizes of petals in red  and three leaves in green then sewed them to a felt back . I added some pretty beads to the centre to finish it off . I've been out to a Christmas market today so I wore it to that. I think I will now save it for other Christmas events .........

It's was beautifully sunny here this morning, making the higgeldy piggeldy old buildings where the market was held look so pretty.........

I loved the sun on this rooftop.........

And indoors  there were lots of handmade goodies to see, though I did not dare take photos. On the way home we stopped at a garden centre  and I sneaked a photo of my this cutie......... my current obsession ,owls....this is a tape measure, you pull out its right wing ....eeek.....so cute :0).....

I've also taken some pictures of my Kaleidoscope blanket progress.....does any one remember this project ??
 I started it, full of enthusiasm ,way back in April. Lots of other blankets and smaller projects have been completed whist it was left untouched. I did do some work on it here, after deciding that the only way I stood a chance of finishing it was to make lots of hexagons, production line style, a round at a time.
 I now have 100 motifs at the round three stage.....

just one more round ...and 800 ends ( yikes ) then I can start joining ....still a long way to go I fear but sharing images here will hopefully spur me on :0)......

Here's a reminder of how the part I completed initially looks.......

Certainly colourful :0)

Have a great weekend .
Jacquie x

This Week..........

I've been turning this ball of chunky yarn........

Into soft snugly rows .........

I picked up this odd ball from the £1 bin outside my LYS in the summer. It didn't have a label so I don't know what the fibre is but as soon as I touched it I knew it would be lovely and cozy worn around the neck so it's now a cowl .Really quick and simple to make, just rows of U.S. double crochet. I made it quite long so you can loop it twice around your neck for added warmth and I'm really pleased with how it turned out :0)..........

I've also been doing some baking with the boys. Last year I made my own mincemeat for the first time, and it was so easy I decided to make some  this year. I used this recipe again.
I think I love the smells that fill your house when you make this as much as the finished product. Orange,Nutmeg, Apple, Cinnamon, Lemon , mixed spice .....together they are so Christmassy and gorgeous .
 I'm sure it won't last long as the whole family love mince pies and homemade ones, still warm from the oven, are divine..........

Fresh indoor flowers have also made a very welcome comeback this week.  At this time of year when the garden is looking dull and the days can be dark I feel the need for some indoor floral goodness and some candles to cheer me up.......

I LOVE these simple white  chrysanths with yellow and green centres............

The days are getting so short on our side of the world..........this picture was taken at three thirty ....is wasn't quite as dark as this photo taken into the sun suggests but you can see how low the hazy sun is. By four thirty it is dark.

So to cheer up the long evenings I've been making this......

To use with this.........

I also added these..........

Inspired by this post I decided I needed some crochet and candle cozyness of my own. This is what I ended up with..........

Yay, another quick make that made me smile this week ...........

You can find a tutorial for a similar cover HERE.

Have a great weekend

Jacquie x

A quick crochet gift

Hello Lovelies,
At work we have enjoyed having a sweet young lady's company over the last few weeks. A visiting colleague from the other side of the world who will be missed by myself and quite a few others due to her lovely , friendly , generous nature.
On Wednesday evening it suddenly dawned on me that the next day would the last time we would meet and I wanted to give her a little gift  . No time to go shopping meant it would have to be something handmade. Something quick to make ...but what ?
I hit upon a crochet bowl ( like the one in my side bar ) and dug out my assorted cotton yarns. I was looking for the right colours when I spotted a little forgotten W.I.P. in the bottom of the bag, some pretty stripes....

I think this was started from a library book a couple of years ago.....possibly to make a child's handbag. With time short I decided to turn it into a little pouch. Luckily I still had the same yarns so I just added a few more rows. It was about half this deep when I found it........

I didn't even sew in the ends...just trimmed them a bit so they were not quite so bulky........

The next morning I  hand sewed a lining from some thrifted fabric. These days sewing dark fabric requires daylight and some help with vision :0).........

I then added a zip...not so hard to do with small hand stitches .....

Pin and then sew the first side between the lining and the pouch ,then unzip the zipper and pin and sew the second side .............

As you can see this zip was a little small and not really matching in colour but I think it looks OKish and It was all I had. It was a 6 inch zip , to give you an idea of size......

The whole project took a couple of hours .If these photos look a bit hurried , they were ........

I popped a little tin heart on some gingham ribbon that I had bought as a Christmas decoration inside , wrapped it up and gave it . Phew , just in time !
I hope she likes it ...I think it could have lots of uses, like make up or gadgets........

Soon it will be another well traveled bit of Bunny Mummy crochet so it's nice to have a record here :0)
Have a great rest of the weekend .
Jacquie x

October Nature Notes

Hello Lovelies,
Finally I'm managing a little computer time to write my monthly nature notes post. It's rather late, but better late than never as they say .

I'll start in the usual way by sharing the illustrations from the book " Nature Notes of an Edwardian lady".......

There are many lovely paintings this month , but I think this one is my favourite .....

Here are the saints days and folklaw rhymes from the book.......

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know this book was written in 1905 and I love Edith Holden's beautiful paintings that capture the English seasons so wonderfully. I'm no artist but, luckily for me, I live in an age where you just have to point your camera and click to be able to capture the beauty you see around you .

So here are my images for October .......

The above photo was taken in mid October and you can see these beech leaves begining to turn. Many trees were still  green at this stage..........

This photo still  looks almost summery doesn't it.

The Hawthorne hedgerows were still green but laden with berries.......

Living in a flatish area it's never easy to get a good , far reaching ,view  but I was pleased with the way this image caputred the October countryside scene.....

This year October has been generally warm and dry in these parts. No real frosts to speak of but by the last week of the month we did see some more classically Autumnal misty mornings. This day was particulaly pretty as the sun could be seen through the mist.........

And as it faded, just a faint haze and a dew on the grass made the fields look quite magical ,when glimpsed through a gap in the hedge.........

I love the brown grasses and varied colour in the trees in this shot taken right at the end of the month........

The hedgerows were also a mass of oranges and yellows...........

I've posted a picture of this view before ...back in my June nature notes post. Its different now without the poppies but still pretty with the distant church...........

I was inspired to get a closer look at that church..........

Wow, I love it's setting ...dwarfed by that beautiful mature tree. Can you see that interesting old building to the left and the fence ,which has definitely seen better days....

I think the cows must be happy in this timeless spot..........

I've loved getting out and about this October ...hope you enjoyed it too :0)
Jacquie x