Springtime Smiles

Hello Lovelies,

thank you so much for all your super comments on my crochet saddle cover....I'm so pleased you liked it :0)

Yesterday the weather was lovely...........time to open the windows and let some fresh spring air waft through the house. 

I picked some flowers from the garden and popped them into my latest charity shop finds..........

 The French Marigolds have bloomed all winter....how mild this winter was.

In the afternoon the  sunshine was calling to me and it seemed like the perfect weather to go for a little cycle ride. The rest of the family were busy so I headed out alone, along roads and then onto this rough track.......

The sky was the palest of blues and the  fields faded into the distance............

The gentle spring sunlight illuminated this lovely pony's mane and tail.......

Lots of horses and kept in the fields along this bridleway, and there was plenty of activity on such a gorgeous afternoon...........

Further along the fields are used for crops and the Rapeseed is just beginning to flower, it does seem early this year...........

 I stopped to admire the view and listened to the song of this cute Robin.......

It really was perfect cycling weather and I love to cycle through the countryside, with no other traffic to worry about...........



Ahead of me was a hill.........O.K. what counts as a hill in these parts......... I've lived here for so many years I sort of forget what proper hills look like sometimes ( but I still miss them )

This hill was steep enough and long enough to make my legs ache and my heart pound, and that made me happy, I do like to feel like I've had a bit of exercise when I go out on my bike.

I was relieved when I reached this strange "horse stile"  at the top........

Then it was out onto local roads again, I smiled as I passed sunlit Daffodils........

And loved the sight of them looking so natural in this little coppice...........

All the fresh air had made me hungry and I turned on the oven to do a little baking. I tried a new recipe for some very simple biscuits that everybody loved........

I'll share the recipe next time lovelies.

And today I got to see what the rest of the family were so busy with yesterday afternoon.
 My old bird table had seen better days, and last week it looked like this............

After many hours of work revamping it yesterday I now looks like this.........

How I LOVE this mothers day gift. A gift that is hand made with love and so thoughtful. It really made my heart sing.

This land of gentle rolling hills and hedgerows may not have the dramatic views that I grew up with, but if I hadn't come here in my early twenties, who knows if I would have ended up with a family. Especially one that is happy to put up with my dizziness and disorganisation. I'm feeling very sentimental and truly blessed this mothers day.
Jacquie x

Mystery Crochet Ta-Dah

Hello Lovelies,

yippee, I've got come colourful crochet to share with you today..... and if you can resist the temptation to scroll down and find out what I've been making we can play a little guessing game :0)

This project has been such a joy to do...it's always nice to gaze into a bag of colourful yarn and plan a new project. The thing I had planned needed to be hard wearing, so Stylecraft Acrylic yarn it was..........

I needed a patten with as little stretch as possible...I know crochet will always stretch a bit, but some designs are more elastic than others.

 Luckily I found an excellent tutorial for these cute mini hexagons HERE :0)

They are quite solid and would be easy to arrange into the shape I needed...........

 I used a 3.5mm hook to make them as solid as possible

They literally flew off my hook and I took a photo of the lovely "yarn worms" I had left over....just because....

Next it was time to sew them securely together. I chose Aster Blue as it matched my colour scheme.....

This is the shape I was making.......... not quite a heart and not quite a triangle...........

any ideas yet ?

Next it was time to add a border. I evened up the edges of my mini hexagons with some stitches of various heights...........

 My shape still had a rather wavy edge, but I wasn't worried.

Then I had fun adding a simple border of colourful half double (us) half treble (uk) stitches.........

 I do love this neat stitch and it always looks great in rows

To finish off I added a row of double crochet (us) trebles (uk)

 This colourful, lumpy bumpy thing really made me laugh

Finally all I had to do was  add was a drawstring........

 it was easy to weave it through the more open stitches of the final row.

Have you guessed what this is yet lovelies ?

This should give it away...........

It's a saddle cover for my bicycle :0)...........

Here's the back view.........

 Loving those stripes.

Eeeek, I am rather thrilled with how this speedy little project has turned out. I've pulled it tight as I didn't want it to slide around and my hexagons still look in good shape............

My beloved old bike, that I've owed since it was brand new in 1989 is just about perfect in my eyes.
 She only has three gears, but for my gentle fair weather cycling, she is perfect.
I love her metallic blue paint and two years ago I replaced her black wire mesh basket with a wicker basket ( a birthday prezzie from Mum )

She still has her original white wall tires.........

Her saddle is white too, but I've added a gel seat pad for extra comfort. It really worked a treat but I never liked it blackness.

And now I've finally done something about it. I think the old girl looks great..............

Adding some crochet to your bike is quite a thing at the moment and  THIS pin board is very inspiring.

I'm a bit wary of ending up with some very soggy yarn when I get caught in the rain, so a saddle cover seemed like a safer bet. But some basket decoration also appeals....watch this space .
Jacquie x

p.s. to make the shape I needed I simply made a paper pattern by placing a sheet of paper on my saddle and drawing round it..........you can just see a glimpse of it in the fifth photo.

Weekend Views

Hello Lovelies,

on Saturday morning I headed out on my bike, a scrap of my skirt fabric in my pocket, hoping to find some ric-rac in our local yarn store.......

The sun was in and out, with pretty scudding clouds and a fresh breeze...........

I stopped to gaze at the countryside through a gap in the hedge, and noticed all the little green buds ready to burst open..........

There was lots of activity at the allotments.........

It's a fairly level ride to the shops, but with a strong head wind it was quite an effort, I was out of breath when I got there. The florists shop looked lovely in the sunshine............

The LYS didn't have the sort of trim I was hoping for, so I just made a small purchase. I do appreciate having a source of yarn and haberdashery within cycling distance and try and support it when I can.

I was really enjoying being out and about on such a lovely spring day, noticing a favourite garden you can see from the footpath...........

And blossom looking gorgeous in the sunshine.........

This hedge is usually full of birds and there were plenty around on Saturday..........

There are 4 in in this photo

Such sweet, brave little things that don't all disappear the minute they see a person.

 They were hopping about and chirping away..............

I didn't know what this small brown bird was.........

So once home, I got out my trusty bird identification book...........

 There is a link HERE were you can listen to their noisy chatter.

A trip into  town that afternoon provided the giant ric-rac and some new clothes for eldest (those boys will keep growing!)

On Sunday morning the weather was again sunny and I felt inspired to start a new crochet project. Loving the yummy Stylecraft colours in my big yarn bag...........

Mid afternoon my lovely sister-in-law, neice, eldest any myself set off on a walk.  As we headed along a footpath I've never explored before the weather was still sunny, but the sky looked menacing.......

we came out on a quiet road and I liked the light flooding through this crumbling estate gateway......

It was still windy and the weather was changing by the minute. Here we were getting wet in sleety rain, but we could see sunshine on the distant hills...........

Soon the clouds blew over and the sun reappeared...........

It was so nice wandering along quiet lanes with pleasant company...........

Peeking through gateways and spying quaint old red brick buildings bathed in sunlight..........

My Niece spotted these tiny wild violets in the grass verge...........

The sky kept grabbing our attention.......... you could clearly see it raining in the distance.........

I wonder what this dilapidated old carriage has been used for in the past........now it just looked unused and unloved..........

Where as this old bench looked lovely with the addition of colourful lichen.........

We had been walking for a couple of hours by this time and this brooding sky, coupled with a meal needing to be cooked, prompted us to cheat a little....we called Mr BM for a lift home :0)

I've saved the best photo from this walk till last.

My niece was keen to see some lambs up close  and we lucked out with this friendly group :0)

 Awwwwwwwwwww

And I'll finish this post with a glimpse of the progress I've already made on my quirky crochet project. It's making me happy and I expect it will make you smile when you find out what it is ..........

Right, I'm off to carry on with this........ hopefully there will be a little ta-dah very soon :0)
Thank you for all your wonderful comments on my sewing posts.
Jacquie x