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

A Happy Week......

Hello Lovelies,

this week I've been happily  making curly triangles of crochet.........

Then pinning them to my ironing board to steam block them..........

Pfffffffffffft.............

I'm making some spring  bunting for my Welsh Dresser...........

 Using a great pattern I found HERE. 

I've also been happy outdoors, walking in the sunshine and loving the views............

This winter all the birds visiting our garden have made me happy. The Squirrels take most of the peanuts but the birds get plenty too and they love the coconut suet feeders.
The squirrels are so funny to watch, zipping along the fence then up the tree, before hanging upside down to get the nuts. It's great fun to watch and my elderly neighbour tells me how much pleasure she gets from watching them too.....that makes me very happy........

Signs of spring in the garden are such joyful things...........

I don't even remember planting these wall flowers, I love this sort of surprise...........

Yesterday I finished work, walked outside  and it wasn't dark.......yipee, it's the Equinox this month, those dark winter days are over............HAPPY...........

The next happy thing that happened this week seems a bit surreal. Do you lovelies remember the crochet cowl I finished back in January HERE. 

You all said such lovely things about it and that made me very happy. 

I couple of weeks later I was contacted by a sweet lady called Tanya, from Simply Crochet magazine. She wanted to feature my Cowl in her magazine....really!

And here it is..............

Wow, such a happy, thrilling moment for this ordinary little blogger.

 Tanya sent me this beautiful image a couple of days ago but I haven't seen the actual magazine yet.

If you subscribe then your copy of issue 16 should be arriving any day. It's on sale in the shops from the 6th of March and this supplement is included with the main magazine. It features a section about their favourite blogs, which also includes Bunny Mummy.....eeek.

I'll be sure to share more pictures once I've got myself a copy, and there will be a little give-away here,  in celebration of this happy news too :0)

I do hope you have a happy weekend lovelies.

Jacquie x

p.s. thank you for all the wonderful comments you left on my previous post... I was thrilled that so many of you shared your memories here and loved reading every word.