Half Term

Hello Lovelies,

we have enjoyed a few days without the school routine ruling our days....always a lovely treat.

I worked on Monday but the rest of the week has been free time for my boys and I, it's been very pleasant.

In Tuesday we stayed indoors for most of the day, just venturing out on a little bike ride in the morning as I feel too guilty if we don't get a bit of exercise each day........... 

It's still relatively mild here but the countryside does look drab...........

I still need spring flowers indoors to cheer these late winter days.........

I loved waking up naturally to daylight this week . The alarm going off when it's still dark outside is one of things I find hardest to cope with in winter. It's been nice to enjoy leisurely breakfasts too..........

On Wednesday we went with my sister in law and nieces to our local "Family Theme park".
 We have been coming here since the boys were tiny. It's one of those places with lots of simple, self propelled, activities like pedal cars and zip wires. It does have a few bigger rides too.....but this log flume is about as scary as it gets.
I waited ages to photograph my nieces whizzing down it...........

And this is the photo I got :0)

Oooops , a second too late!

It was really busy at this popular place, but there's plenty of space so it didn't feel too crowded.
I loved the drifts of Snowdrops..........

And there were loads of these tiny Irises............

It always seems easier to photograph birds in this sort of place. I guess they are more used to people.............

It's the first time I've seen Peacocks displaying like this and it was quite impressive. Here this male was trying to assert his superiority over another male...........

And here he was doing a dance to impress the ladies............

They didn't look interested though :0)

Sadly I think it may have been out final visit to this place as the boys are a little old for most of the activities these days.

Thursday and Friday were very quiet and this gave youngest plenty of time to finally master the pogo stick he got for Christmas. It was lovely so see how thrilled he was with his new skill............

I've enjoyed pottering indoors, doing homely things and then getting out for some fresh air at sunset.........

A thank you card arrived. It's for the crochet hats I sent to  innocent smoothies back in October ..............

You can see the hats I made HERE, scroll down. I didn't expect a thank you so this was a lovely surprise.........

Sunshine on Friday made the first crocuses in my front garden glow..........

And the second stem on my Amaryllis is now flowering. It's a bit wonky so it has to rest against the wall in the porch, but isn't it stunning............

Thank you so much for the really wonderful comments you left me about my latest drawing....I was thrilled.

This half term has been just what we needed and today we managed a whole family trip to somewhere new....that deserves it's own post..........I'll be back soon.
Jacquie x

A Drawing of My Walk

Hello Lovelies,
thank you so much for all the sweet comments on my crochet primroses.
As 2014 progresses I'm continuing to enjoy two main forms of creativity....Crochet and Drawing.

I bought a new A4 sketchbook a few weeks ago and I've been slightly intimidated by it. I just love it's purple  cover.........

but all that was inside it till a few days ago were some cute pigs.........

I really like these sketchbooks and being from Yorkshire originally, this makes me smile.

But what should I draw?

It's  a year since my first tentative attempt at drawing. It was the beauty of nature around me which inspired that snowy picture......it's the first picture in THIS post if you havn't seen it before.

This year we haven't seen any snow so  it's the little signs that spring is approaching that have inspired me. My walk last week .....which I wrote about  HERE .......provided lots of images that I wanted to include in my drawing .

But first a little about my inspirations for this picture.........

My regular readers will know how much I've been enjoying Susan Branch's book and  blog....her beautiful handwriting and the sweet little paintings dotted throughout her work are things I love.




Then there is my love of Edith Holden's style, beautiful illustrations of nature throughout the year with hand written notes and poems



There is also the interesting concept of Journalling. A sort of mixture of diary and sketchbook. I particularly like the beautiful and interesting work Diane creates in her various Journals HERE

Am I going on a bit....get to the picture Jacquie! O.K.

Here is my initial sketch .........this was done in a cheap A4 sketchbook.........

And here is  the finished drawing.....

I'm so pleased with how it turned out :0)

There's a lot going on...as there usually is in my pictures, but this is the first time I've attempted anything like this.

 I loved being able to include all the sweet images I wanted to capture.
 There had to be Snowdrops. They were the first thing I drew............

And I also had to include the Aconites I spotted for the first time this year...........

The Catkins are wonderful at the moment too, so I popped them into the top corner..........



I had fun with the little details like the "Weather Report" and the muddy wellies..........

Infact the wellies ended up as a border decoration......they were a bit of a pain to do and some of them look rather odd, but they make me smile...........

If you look back at my walk POST you can see the photo I copied these figures from...........

I'm very happy how they came out.

In fact I loved the mixture of accurate drawing and whimsical illustrative bits...........

It's been hard to take a reasonable photo of the whole picture due to the low light levels we have at the moment, but I had to share this latest drawing/journalling project with you lovelies........

You can click on the picture to see it bigger in a light box.

I enjoyed working on this drawing so much. I do hope this isn't a "one-off" and I manage to keep recording some simple, happy things from my day in this way.

I would like to experiment a bit more and maybe include a photo or two next time...or some collage.

I suppose I could keep my whole sketchbook for Journalling......maybe.
Thanks for coming with me on my creative journey lovelies, it's so much more fun when I can share it with you.

Jacquie x

More Playful Crochet

Hello Lovelies, 

Last week I was making crochet Snowdrops HERE and this weekend I've been making more spring flowers.

This time I've gone really delicate and used embroidery thread..........

My main inspiration for these flowers was THIS  wonderful flower necklace.

I used a tiny 2 mm hook started making these little circles........

Working with such a fine, splitty thread and such a small hook was something of a challenge. I took my work to the bedroom as it gets good light, popped my glasses on and worked away. I made lots of mistakes but I loved the cute little flowers that were slowly appearing so much that I persevered.........

I used a golden yellow for the centres and all the petals were made in this gorgeous cream.........

Because I wanted to create a bunch of delicate wild Primroses, like THIS

P is for Primrose :0)

I modified Joey's sweet flower pattern slightly and I made up my own leaf pattern as I couldn't find just the right, rounded shape anywhere...........

Despite the trickiness of the tiny yarn I really enjoyed quietly hooking away on a showery winters day, dreaming of Spring..........

S is for Spring :0)

The wind blew and the rain lashed at the windows...........

But I was so happy indoors, with my sweet bunch of Primroses............

Of course I wasn't just making them to arrange on my sketchbook, though that was fun. And I wan't making a necklace either....though I would love to make one of those too.

When I picked up the tiny vase for my Snowdrops last week I also happened across this cute pottery basket on the charity shop shelves.
It caught my eye straight away as something that would look lovely filled with felt or crochet flowers..........

But how to make it work, how to arrange the flowers?
In the end the idea to treat it a bit like a pincushion popped into my head. I do love it when my creative brain solves this sort of problem for me. I think about it and think about it with no progress, then suddenly...ping, the solution is clear.

I got some stuffing, wrapped it in fabric and squeezed it in my basket............

Them I started pinning. First the leaves.............

Then , using my little green pins, the flowers............

It took only a few moments to finish my project............

Eeeek, I love it :0)

I rearranged the leaves and flowers a bit further and loved it even more!..........

This was such a quick and happy project. By Saturday afternoon I had a sweet basket of spring flowers sitting by my bedside and that made me very happy.

Both this basket and my vase of crochet Snowdrops are destined to be part of my "Spring Shelves" on my Welsh dresser.....I'm going to enjoy playing around, decorating it for my favourite season, so much.

Jacquie x

This Weeks Views

Hello Lovelies,

this week I've been enjoying the sight of a few sweet spring flowers on the bathroom window sill......

Outdoors it still looks very waterlogged and wintry..........

But I know how lucky we are to have escaped the worst of the gales and horrendous flooding that so many poor people have had to endure.
It was a grey day on Wednesday, and after I had finished  this walk the day descended into rain and gales.

It was rather gloomy but if you look closely there are some early flowers appearing out here, like these Winter Aconites

And the Daffodils and not that far from flowering too.........

We have even enjoyed some bright sunshine between the scary wind and heavy rain.

This little bird was singing away happily when I went for a walk on Thursday............

And the horses looked glad of the break in the weather too........

There are so many styles to climb over on this regular walk of mine. I look on them as a bit of added exercise...my outdoor step class :0)

Along the side of the road the Ivy berries look almost like bunches of grapes........

And this recently created pond seems to be doing a good job of draining  the field............

 I left the road and headed up another footpath.............

This is the state of many of our footpaths at the moment!...........

But it's worth squelching through the mud to find old tractors, banks of sweet Snowdrops...........

And beautiful catkins..........

Here's yet another style...........

Then it's out into the sunshine again and away from the mud...........

Through the bare trees and out onto the road.

I could hardly keep up with this elderly couple who were striding out in their walking gear.........

I hope I will be as sprightly  as this pair when I get older.

I certainly get a lot of enjoyment from the gentle exercise of walking and a sunny winters day is so perfect to get some cold air in your face and really feel alive..........

With the winter we are having at the moment  sunny interludes are not to be missed. I came home and tapped the glass on my barometer .............

It still said MUCH-RAIN.........sigh

Next week is a school holiday here and I'm just hoping the weather is not wet every day.

Jacquie x