Sunday 27 October 2013

A quiet ordinary weekend

 Yep, it's almost Christmas and preparations have started! This is a holly leaf sample for a Christmas class I hope to teach in November as well as out own Christmas wreath for this year, if I can make enough of them!
I used a holly leaf pattern from the book:      and tweaked it slightly in using simple picots for the prickles.
 I have been weeks and weeks hunting for the ''perfect'' holly-green! Would you believe almost NONE of the mainstream yarn producers have thought to produce a real dark pine or holly green this year?
I did see one: Debbie Bliss Rialto DK comes in a dark green but at £5.50 for a small ball, is that what we need for a wreath? Then I struck lucky this Tuesday on the market!! 50 p a ball now that's more like it?
The perfect shade but a 2-3 ply so I'm using it doubled.
 It was a joy to see my ''ignored'' bulbs from last Spring are coming up with green shoots!
 I've spent most of the weekend, procrastinating and avoiding my studies by tidying storage and cleaning...
 I don't know if we're ''as everyone'' or ''unusual'' but it seems even though we have a lovely LOT of cupboards in our kitchen, they are filled with rarely used ''rubbish'' or once a year items whilst the daily use items lurk on all the surfaces or in boxes, baskets, shelves and buckets, cluttering the place up?
So I'm sorting out the ''must haves'' from the ''occasionallies'' and the latter are being banned to the garage!
I did also do a wee sample of aran crochet, from Robyn Chachulas BLUE PRINT CROCHET book.
And got distracted by old crochet magazines, flicking through and discovering patterns that maybe I have grown into? I.E. I did not like them years ago, but I DO now?
Anyhow it was also lovely mucking about in the house with two laid back relaxing giggly girls who are starting their half term holiday week. I wish I had the week off too, I feel like a mellow week of tidying and cleaning, watching old movies and daytime tv WITH them !
 Miss E brought out her foxy phone cover which I must have hidden in my subconscious and then replicated without realising it! They are remarkably similar?!
I picked up this leaflet last week and thought we'd all go see this art exhibition in the half term- I DO have 2 of the 5 days off! BUT then when I looked closely it FINISHED TODAY! Oh no?

 So I googled ANNA DILLON instead and found her MARVELLOUS pictures online!
 Boy, I' d be buying some of these when my lotto ticket comes up trumps!
 They are wonderfully abstract yet REAL landscapes with gorgeous colours and shapes, BOLD and brave.
 I had a BLISSFUL hour or so browsing about, isn't the internet wonderful?
I didn't have to brave the rain and wind or drive and use petrol to get to Oxford?
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=anna+dillon&espv=210&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=spttUuSXAcXP0QXg24D4CA&ved=0CFcQsAQ&biw=1143&bih=753
 WOW these are just BRILLIANT aren't they????
 Oh I am in love with these blue mountains?
 And these rocks are almost scary somehow, they look reptilian?
They reminded me of snakes and salamanders?
 AND I know this view! You can see it when you walk the coastal path from Dwygyfylchi in North Wales to Conwy. Hills, rocks and the sea on your left...with moorland and headlands stretching ahead in the distance..
 Miss E was quite the baker this weekend when she made her first ever Crumble: with plums no less and delicious it was too. Miss A made us a steak dinner and Miss E used up some rather brown bananas and made banana and custard muffins from this book:
 There were 12, but not for long! Delicious! It made a refreshing and yummy change from banana cake or banana loaf- both also WW recipes.
 And when the rain stopped for a wee while I walked the dogs at the Prebendal:
 We are lucky to be allowed on this wide open piece of private land?

 the river was high and looked  muddy..

 Pippa loved being there and ran about sniffing and geting excited about rabbits and squirrels, water- voles and ducks..
 And Lucy and Pippa are behaving weirdly with each other again, tails up and quite growly with each other.

 Lucy and I admiring the view, Pippa straining and pulling to go home.
 Bye river, best get home to cook dinner?Lots of thinking and planning got done today.

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