Sail Away Crochet Progress

Hello Lovelies, It's been a drippy wet day today. Not good when you have to venture outside but actually rather lovely crafting weather. I've been sat in my conservatory listening to the sound of rain on the roof and playing with all my favorite making bits and bobs.
Last week I was on Flickr when I saw THIS cute make by the lovely Sue. Isn't it great. A sweet little sailing boat.Oooooh.... I immediately wanted to have a go at  making my own version. A seasidey , crochet decoration how lovely :0)
 I picked up my sketch pad first and sketched some ideas. How did I want my version to look ? ummm , maybe I could add a shiny sun, yes that's something I always like to see at the seaside!
What else? I sketched away , trying out ideas as they popped into my mind.Maybe a lighthouse, or a life ring?

Well, as you can see in the end I decided to go with three differently coloured boats and a shiny sun ( I'm particularly pleased with how that turned out ) .........

Ooooh , I couldn't resist making several boats in different colours. It's a very simple pattern and I've taken lots of photos  to make a detailed step by step tutorial for you lovelies in case you too would like a crochet boat or two :0)

Mine are going to hang one above another under the sun. Today I've been doing the really fun bit....adding embellishments. I though they would benefit from just a little more detail so I added buttons to the hull...they are supposed to look like portholes .........

These are buttons salvaged from worn out school shirts. They also appeared here.

Ummmm, looking better I thought but possibly  still a bit plain. I know, felt......I've combined crochet and felt on may occasions . I love working with this fabric , it's so user friendly. On this occasion I simply cut out some hearts and attached them with a running stitch to the sails of my little flotilla........

I did venture out in the rain this afternoon , to get important supplies like this............

Ooooooh , I've really enjoyed playing with these simple plastic beads, mixing them with ones from my stash to add even more prettiness........

 And I have now finished my decoration . I immediately got out a hammer and popped a nail in the wall for it to hang on , I couldn't wait to see what it looked like hanging up . I'm really pleased with this how this  crochet make turned out. It was such fun to design but the light isn't great for a ta- dah so I'll leave that till the tutorial is ready and I can get some better shots ....sorry about that.

Instead would you like a tour of a rather damp garden ? When the rain eased I grabbed my camera and got up close to some of the plants which look even better when wet.........


Here's one that appeared on my blog last year.....what an amazing colour..........

sweet tiny saxifrage

Another bright pink , I only bought this old favourite recently.......hope it thrives.........

Elephant's ears....Bergina

These are also tiny , I love the way the droplets are sitting in this  interesting foliage.......

Oxalis Leaves

This plant continues to thrive . I love its mixed pink and purple blooms that flower for months......

Lungwort....Pulmonaria

Stunning zingy green brightens a shady spot.........

Euphorbia

So glad to see this beauty return..........

Bleeding Heart....Dicentra

Gorgeous raindrops.....

Allium Leaves

Flowers filled with water..........

Euphorbia Fireglow

Another bright green so welcome on a rainy day.........

Oops, can't think at the moment 

Lets hope all this rain helps a bit with the drought we have in most parts of the U.K. at the moment.
Hope the rest of your week goes well.
Jacquie x

Beginning Running

Hello Lovelies,
I've been thinking about blogging about my other hobby for some time now. I realise it's not going to be that interesting to a lot of you but I've decided I want to share my love of running this year
It's partly to inspire myself and record my feelings and maybe it could inspire a few of you too.

I will understand if you want to leave now ........... but do pop back soon for my latest crochet project...I'm writing a tutorial to go with it :0)

As you know I love lots of pictures in my posts so I did a little experiment when I was out running on a lovely sunny day  back in January . Would I be able to take pictures as I ran along ?  Amazingly the answer was yes :0)  I took loads and it was great fun. I see lots of great things when I go out and often wish I could share them with you or just take a picture for my own record.
So here are the least blurry .....along with some words ( maybe lots ) about my running journey so far.

Right, where to begin? Well, as a child I was in no way sporty, I hated P.E. with a passion and was a virtual non swimmer.I still hate competitive sports as I always get stressed out about letting the team down or making a fool of myself. That's not to say I hate exercise though.

Two years ago when  I started my little  blog  I was enjoying walking and wrote about it in posts like this.
The other fitness I did was the occasional aerobics class...step was my favourite...I enjoyed getting sweaty to some fun music .

Then in July 2010 I was talking to my friend who is a runner , saying I enjoyed walking but could not run...... I had tried a couple of times and quickly given it up as too strenuous and generally unpleasant . Her reply was " There is no reason why you can't run Jacquie...except in your head."
That really made me think . I am fortunate to be in good general health and my friend is a few years older than me, she only started running in her late forties. Maybe I should try again ?

So I started very gently. Just adding little jogs into my walks. Gradually , oh so gradually , increasing the time spent running.It was hard . Everything wobbled and I would be bright red and gasping for breath within a very short distance.But with reassurance/guidance from my friend I kept going.

After a few weeks I found this  and worked to the 5k training plan you can down load.
I went out every other day , just doing short jog/walks. I still couldn't attempt even a small hill but I was gradually getting better at running on the flat or downhill :0)

Eventually I felt ready to take part in a 3k fun run. Of course you don't need to take part in organised events at all but they are wonderful motivators. Knowing you have to be fit enough to cover a certain distance by a certain date really focuses you and the atmosphere on the day is great. They may be races but just enjoying the atmosphere is my main aim. I don't really care how long it takes me ...O.K. I would like improve in the future but it's not that important . I'm never going to be really fast , but I can still enjoy taking part.

So far I've completed two 10k  events ( that's 6.2 miles in case you were wondering). My highlight so far was my first half marathon ( that's 13 miles ) last Autumn . Thirteen miles ...THIRTEEN MILES ...it's a flippin long way to run don't you think ? But managing it gave me such a wonderful sense of achievement. I was on cloud nine . All those events were with my running friend for support.
I'm certain I would not have attempted such a big distance without her encouragement.
I don't tend to take risks or challenge myself very much so being able to run that far is a very positive thing for me.

How do I feel when I'm running these days.....well, sometimes really shattered !! sometimes bored to death ( I often plan blog posts in my head to distract myself ) but overall I really enjoy being able to finally do it ....the best bit for me is when you round a corner and see a beautiful view after miles of slog and get a wonderful elated feeling, you suddenly have loads of energy and feel like you are speeding along , well , relatively speeding :0)

This year I my running firsts will  ( hopefully) be completing a 10k then half marathon without my friend for support. My first solo 10k is coming up soon and I'm a bit concerned I will get my pace all wrong ....I don't want to get swept along with faster runners and then collapse before the end !

I'm also conscious I'm lucky to be healthy enough to enjoy running . So another big part of my motivation will be raising money for charity.Loosing my friend to cancer earlier this year gave me even more incentive to run for a cancer charity.

Well done if you stuck with this post .....I'm happy I recorded all this for my own reference in years to come. I do hope some of you found it interesting .
Jacquie x

Crochet Calling

Hello Lovelies,
on Good Friday I bought some Daffodils with my shopping. They were twenty stems for £1 ....what a bargain. They were tightly closed when I bought them but I felt sure they would open quickly.Wrong...by Easter Sunday they had hardly changed and I wondered if they would ever open .
Happily they did eventually open up and what a nice suprise ...they were dainty daffs with bright orange centres :0)...........

I've just been checking and this is my seventh post with Daffodils in it this year !! A little bit obssesed ,me?
Well, you all know of my crochet obsession.
A couple of days ago I showed you these yummy circles , my latest little project.......

What was I making ? Well ,a recent addition to my ever growing blog list is the lovely Signed With an Owl.There I spotted these pretty Doilies Kate made.
Ooooh, I wanted one. Luckily there was a link to her tutorial for the "Little circle square" that she used. So I picked some colours from my favourite vase and got started. I used Patons smoothie yarn. I'ts acrylic but has a similar look to cotton.........

After I had made my four squares and sewn them together I looked at Kate's pictures and guessed how she had done her border. Mine is a row of single crochet (u.s.) in red . Then a row of half double crochet in white . Then a row of alternating s.c. and spike stitch , which in this case, is just a single crochet worked into the base of the h.d.c .
I then did a final round of single crochet. Remember you will need extra stitches at the corners..........

It doesn't look exactly the same as Kate's but never mind.
This was such a fun,quick project and I love how it turned out . It goes so well with my little vase.........

I've decided to follow some other bloggers I read and answer any questions I get in my comments section using the "reply" option . So if you ask me a question please check back in a day or so and hopefully you will find an answer from me there .

Another change I've decided to make is to blog a bit about my running. There may be running only posts occasionally but I think mostly I will just add a bit of running to my regular ramblings.
It is becoming an other obsession of mine , along with crochet and Daffodils :0).
I hope some of you may be interested ...otherwise you can easily skip the running bits.

Thank you so much for your lovely chatty comments on my last post....I really enjoyed reading them .
Jacquie x

Easter Outdoors

Hello Lovelies,
I have some outdoor images to share today. They are quite unusual for my little blog as there is no sun in any of them. I did not set out to blog only sunny images but lately I'm conscious that I only tend to get my camera out when the sun shines. I think I just like my  blog to look pretty and happy ....not grey and drab.

Well unfortunately yesterday was a very grey sort of day ....but we braved the elements , and terrible weather forecast, and made our first trip to the seaside this year. Encouraged by family who were also keen to make the trip.
I thought it was a bit mad...so will you when you see the pictures but actually we had a great time .That is why I'm keen to record it here.

The journey was relaxed , no rush or motorway driving. We chatted about daft things and had a laugh. I noticed how , now the boys are getting older, they can remember landmarks on the journey and they enjoy seeing odd things we have noticed on previous trips along this route.

It's true the landscape would have looked prettier in the sunshine but every where there were signs of spring. I loved this yellow field....not rapeseed but Daffodils...yay.....

In Norfolk lots of the villages have these interesting signs that are fun to spot........

We were heading for Hunstanton ,where the seafront gardens had pretty primulas...thankfully they were withstanding the wind ........

It was temping just to go straight into a coffee shop to hide from the wind and rain.......

But when the rain eased a little we headed for the beach ............

It was pretty deserted , not many mad fools like us out today.........

Thankfully we soon got a text from the boys cousins to say they had arrived. I love the games this group play , especially on the beach..........

While they built a sand dam I chatted with the in laws and watched the amazing antics of the Kite boarders.......

can you see the guy in the middle , he must be twenty feet in the air.

We even had a welly booted paddle.........

It's true , it was darn wet and windy but with lots of layers, a windproof coat and a baseball cap to stop my hair blowing in my eyes it was great to be out , breathing in  the fresh, sea air after a week cooped up indoors. What's that saying , there is no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothing :0)......

After an hour or so of buffeting we finally gave up and went for some lunch, followed by a little session on the penny falls machines, trying and succeeding to win these strange things, ummm, well it was fun getting them..........

Before we went back to the car the boys had an ice-cream....brrrr....how can children eat this stuff outdoors all year round ?............

I treated my self to a very modest purchase..........

A couple of reto style postcards. I loved the nostalgic feel of this one. Makes me look forward to our summer holiday. We are going to north Devon this year, somewhere we haven't been before........

We will be staying in a caravan. Not this type but the static variety. I love this image as the caravan looks very like the one we had when I was little ...........

They are by the talented Martin Winscombe who also paints on driftwood. Maybe you have seen some of his work?
Today has been lovely and sunny...typical :0)
Back soon with a mini crochet ta-dah .
Jacquie x

Easter at Home

It's been a pretty uneventful first week of the Easter holidays here. The weather has been wet and I had to work last week . But not this week, hurray.

Yesterday was one of those really nice at home days . We invited my lovely Mum in Law for lunch ( roast beef cooked in the slow cooker ...yummy ) and before the meal I enjoyed playing around picking a few blooms from the wet garden to make the table look pretty...........

I'm really enjoying having our dining table in the conservatory it's so lovely and light with more space than our dining room. I also added a meter of floral fabric from my stash added to my rather faded tartan tablecloth . Yesterday I even loved  the mismatched table wear. Can you see our rather chaotic Easter decorations on the tumble dryer ? ....

We had good fun gathering up random cuties to display under the Easter tree..........

Another thing that was making me happy was looking forward to sitting down with the May edition of country living this week ( May, now there's a month I really love)...........

It wouldn't be Easter for the boys without a few chocolate eggs , I just managed to capture these Smarties before they disappeared :0) ........

My Easter treat ( to myself ) was this rainbow pack of textured card. I'm really looking forward to using some of this in my next collage.........

I finished my second collage on Wednesday . It's A4 size like the first but this is a print I made into a greetings card. A couple of lovely bloggers made this great suggestion and I'm planning on making more to put in my shop when I get there........

I am rather thrilled with how this one turned out. I love the spotty jug and the bold background colour. Not to mention the cute chick and I'm really pleased with how the Daffodils turned out. I was a bit afraid of trying them . They are a much trickier shape than Tulips but after a bit of experimentation I finally got to a design I was happy with.

Of course I haven't given up with my crochet . These four circles are part of  my next quick project. More about that soon........

Today we have not been at home. It's been a very outdoors sort of day . An enjoyable family trip. I'll be back to tell you lovelies all about it tomorrow :0)
Jacquie x

My Collage

Hello Lovelies,
This weekend I've been finishing my collage .Tidying away after it was all done  I loved these colourful scraps of card....the paper equivalent of yarn worms :0).....

If you didn't catch my previous post you are probably a tad confused right now........Collage ? ? If you read Lucy regularly you will probably have guessed why I've been inspired to try a different medium.

As you know I love to be creative with yarn but I'm not particularly artistic so I kept my design very simple....

I used supplies from the card making phase I was into a few years ago. That involved little more than punching out shapes and sticking on embellishments so this was similar but quite different.

Playing around trying out pretty details like patterned bunting........

Last week I had the brainwave to put our dining table in the conservatory for the summer. It's great to look at the garden whilst you eat and it also makes a lovely light work space.........

With a pretty jug of tulips on the table to inspire me .........

And a craft knife instead of a crochet hook . I had such fun planning, choosing,cutting  and sticking.


Soon bunting and tulips were attached .........

Here is my finished picture.......

ta - dah........

I can see it's not the most accomplished piece , but it makes me smile. I'm really pleased with the shape of the jug. It's totally the jug I hope to one day find on the bric a brac shelves in the charity shop. Timeless Blue and white stripes and a lovely rounded shape :0)

I wanted a gingham or polka dot paper for the tablecloth but was surprised not to be able to find any in several craft shops.

Overall it's turned out pretty well for a first attempt I think.I really enjoyed the process and  I've already started on my second collage :0)


I'll leave you with a couple of other things that made me smile this weekend . Our neighbors Magnolia tree..........

And spotting the first daisy in our lawn :0)........

Can you believe it's supposed to snow tomorrow !

Hope your week goes well, with a little creative time to relax you.
Jacquie x