Cards and Garden

Finally some time for blogging!  I have been so busy in the garden (I think early spring is always a struggle to keep up with rampant growth!)  Although I have managed to do a little crochet from time to time.  I want to make cards using crochet motifs, so have been trying out a few ideas.  This flower is I think quite successful.  I used no 10 cotton and a 1.5m hook.  I think any bigger than that will make the cards too chunky for posting as letter post.  I might try some using no 20 cotton and 1m hook, maybe a mini lacy doily to stick on the card?

I am very pleased with this camellia I brought it last year and it displayed three flowers this year but as you can see it is rather showy.  Er lost the label and can’t remember the name!  But I love it and can’t wait till it get bigger it is only 40cm at the moment.

Here is evidence of my labours in the vegetable patch.  I decided to keep the two front beds for vegetables as they get more sunlight, the ones behind will be the cottage flower beds.  There are still leeks and fennel from my winter garden which I hope to use up very shortly.

This year I have decided to plant more soft fruit , especially blueberries.  However yesterday I managed to get some pots of raspberry canes from the car boot market.  

Peggy Sue always has to inspect any new item brought onto the property!

Today the weather is damp and dismal, so no gardening, a chance to do some blog reading catch up and do some crochet.  Or maybe I should chill out like my three furry friends!

Have a happy day and see you soon.

Mandala Love - in the pink!

Woohoo, I have created a mandala entirely of my own design.  I have been toying with the idea of making a mandala wall-hanging and thought that a sculptural effect would be great.

So I leaved through a book on classical motifs and thought I would try one, I made a mess of it as I didn't really understand the instructions. 

However I thought I would go with it and decided to make the petals stand out.

I used the idea of the African flower and made a short chain between the spokes I had to do the chain in front of the petal and then push it through so that the chain was at the back.

That worked so then I used the chain to do 2 rounds of trebles.

At this stage I toyed with turning it into a square but in the end decided to carry on.  So I did a row of double V's and a cluster in the V.  Then I did a scalloped round and gave it the treatment used for the African flower.

However it was getting very full and I needed to undo and do less stitches, but being lazy I learnt the lesson of the central flower and decided to try and tighten the last few rounds by using a chain to pull it all together.

Yay It worked.

I think I might do a few more rounds and turn it in to a cushion cover as I have some lovely textured linen.  I don’t really want a lot of pink in my wall-hanging.  I have a few areas where it needs refining which I will do for one in the wall hanging.  Maybe I will post my first tutorial!!!

This week I have been playing a lot with circles and have made heaps of coasters in different cottons.

This one is my favourite so far.

The weather this week has been dry but windy and grey, but we had a bit of sun and Ambrose took advantage to watch me mow the lawns.

It has been very mild this winter and usually all lawn mowing has stopped some of the trees still have their leaves, such as this tree I saw on a walk earlier in the week.

Beautiful!

Well that’s it for now have a wonderful week every body and thank you for visiting.

Linking to Annemaries Link Your Stuff

Pretty As

Finally! I have finished this bag; it was inspired by the Big Fat Bottom Bag on Winks A Creative Being.  I didn't want a big bag, just a bag that I could carry small works in progress when I am on the go.  I loved the flowers which came from Eclectic Gypsy tutorial.  These are what slowed me down.  I could not get them right so gave up and the project went into the UFO Bag!!

This week I dragged it out and was determined to get on top of these puff flowers.  I changed the method slightly and there is a definite knack in pulling tight and getting the loops right.  By the end I could do them with my eyes shut. The old motto - if you fail, try and try again.

I got lucky and found the lining and old lace in a local op (charity) shop.  The handles came from an old bag I brought at the car boot sale a month or so back.  And the beads from an old necklace.  So, all in all a good frugal project.  The wool was from my stash as well.

I am very pleased with it and it is sitting waiting to be fill with yarn yumminess.

We are in the middle of a nasty storm that is creating havoc around the country.  Wind gusts up to 140 km in our area.

I took these earlier before the wind and rain took hold.

Across the road from me, I love rainbows, you can see the bad weather coming

A lovely bit of colour  by my back door on grey days.

I can’t get over this Rhododendron flowering in Autumn!  We even have jonquils flowering, the weather seasons are all to pot, poor plants don't know if they are Arthur or Martha!  Back inside and I see that Lucy has the right idea!

Oops sorry Lucy, didn't mean to disturb you!

I think I will follow her example and hunker down and let the storm ride over.

Have a great creative week and thanks for visiting.

Linking to Linda's May Stash Party.

http://lindacraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/stash-buster-link-party.html

Sunshine at last!

Yay!

Sunshine Today!

We have had a dull damp week here in Kiwiland.  

Grey on grey.

I have craved colour, so last Monday pulled out an UFO – little birdies, a variation of Bunny Mummies and Attics 24 birds.  They were originally going to decorate my plum tree, but looking out the window and seeing the ugly grey washing line that the birds loved to poop over, I just had to yarn bomb it!

You can see own murky it has been.

I intend to add more birds and flowers and maybe even some butterflies!

Also I noticed that the birds are no longer sitting and pooping on it, no need to wash it down every time I use it, win, win all around.

This week I also have been toning down the colour bursts with a new project or two.

A few weeks back I talked about doing a white and red and green cotton bedspread, abandoning my lifelong desire for a crochet white one.  I have decided the materials and pattern would make it too heavy, so I gone down a size in cotton to No 3.  I am trying to make up my mind whether to do all white or ivory and ecru.  Or maybe both!!!!!  I love both so much.

Anyways, I had an idea; the popcorn stitch squares are designs that I have cobbled together myself.  (No doubt you will find these somewhere on the net, as crochet has been around for so long and so many people practice it I am sure someone has thought of these variations also.)  I thought that I could make it a CAL project and I could make a page with the patterns to the squares as I go. I found that Jules of Little Woollie did that for her CAL blanket and it was so much easier to go to the page than trawl through her posts.  What do you think?

I am so pleased that our weather has improved and looks set to stay way till next week.  There is still heaps of work to do in the garden before winter sets in for real.

See I will be able to view clearly these cute birdies from the house on horrible grey days.

Here are a few pics of my little slice of paradise.

I got a surprise when I saw this, it is a miniature rose that has forced its way up through the ferns.

Ambrose got stir crazy with the rain and took quick little strolls between showers, definitely a fair weather cat.

I can’t believe this one, I was tidying up by the greenhouse and amongst the weeds this orchid was in flower!  It usually flowers in spring.

Have a great week every one  and thanks for visiting.

Forgotten Treasures

First of all I want to welcome new followers Joy, Sue and Anna.

This week has been a wash out as far as weather goes.  One fine day on Tuesday, the rest we suffered the tail end of a cyclone!  Rain and more rain.  Perfect for lots of hooky stuff.

It was also a perfect opportunity to get into the cupboards and sort through stuff that has been in boxes and suitcases for years.  Four years ago I downsized and I am guilty of stuffing things away – out of sight out of mind!  Well anyway I found some treasures and I will share two of them today.

First was some chunky wool left over from a jumper I knitted about 15 years ago.  I don’t know what happened to the jumper, there was a whole skein of the wool, umm great for a chunky beanie a friend wants me to crochet for her. 

This afternoon after mowing the lawns, at last it was fine.  I set to and crocheted this lovely.

Only took an hour, the embellishment I had lying around. It was a trial I did from Karen’s P.S.I Crochet, the flower was for her almond blossom bag, which is on my want to do list.  However for the hat I did the final round as picot edging( 1 double crochet in one stitch, and then a half treble, a treble and a half treble all in the next stitch then a double in the next stitch, all the way round- eng. terms) instead of making it into an hexagon shape.  I quite like this look and I am thinking of making a small bag in the same wool with the same embellishment on it.  (I think I have enough wool!)

The next treasure was a Kaffe Kassett needlepoint canvas I did 10 years ago when I was in hospital after a car crash; I was there for 9 weeks and managed to complete it.  I didn't have the right size canvas and it went to the edges and it was terribly distorted, so it got shoved in a case and forgotten. 

 Looking at it I thought it is too beautiful to be hidden away, I wonder… Yes it is more or less the same size as the chair seats that I want to recover as the calico that is on them has got grubby.  Also as it will be stapled on to the chair so it can be pulled back into shape.  Er... that means I got to do 3 more, well never mind I have heaps of tapestry wool and a couple of Kaffe’s books for ideas.  I will stick to the floral designs of course.  Thank goodness winter is coming!  Just have to buy the canvas it was done on Penelope canvas which I think is 10 holes to the inch.

Now for one of my other treasures, not forgotten of course!  One of my fur babies Ambrose is fascinated with wool and loves to watch and snug down,  These photos tell the story!

I am being good Mum!

I am just helping!

Haw heck, do you really expect me to not tame this ball!

I am tired after helping think I will take a nap!

Well that is it for today; I have visitors for the rest of the Easter holidays so I imagine I won’t get much hooky stuff done.  But I shall enjoy their company.

Best Wishes to you all and a wonderful Easter what’s left of it if you celebrate it!

Linking to Annemaries Haakblog Link Your Stuff

and Natasha's in Oz  Say G'Day

Garden catch up and a bit of cooking.

Autumn is in full force here down under!  The trees are changing colour with the colder nights and the nights are starting to draw in.  Almost time to cosy up in front of the fire.  But first there is the garden to put to bed!  I normally have a winter garden, but this winter I decided to let it rest as the vegetable patch has been cropping constantly for 2 years.  I will keep the silver beet (Chard) and sorrel, and will plant some kale and purple sprouting broccoli to tide me over.

I decided to take a leaf out of the permaculture circles and put down layers of leaf litter, grass clippings and compost so that the rain doesn't leach away what goodness is left in the soil and by next spring hopefully it will have rotted down to create a rich soil.  So over the last two weeks I have been out there beavering away.  It is now ready to layer from the collected piles of garden waste.  I have a big trailer load of mushroom compost being delivered next week from the local mushroom farm.

Nice and tidy!

While I have been hard at it my cats have watched intently, probably thinking oh she has made us a giant litter box!  Can you see Ambrose peeping out in  the above photo.

Mostly they have been taking great naps; all my activity makes them tired!

Enough Mum!  Ambrose and Peggy Sue take over the garden refuse sack.

Lucy prefers to rest indoors, near the fridge in case I might throw her a snack whenever I go to it!

With all this gardening I haven’t had much time for baking.  However yesterday I made some Welsh scones, they were a family favourite along with pikelets when I was growing up.  Don’t you find sometimes you hanker for the things of your childhood?  Must be a sign of advancing years!

These are quick to make and you don’t need to use the oven.  Traditionally they were done on a griddle or hotplate.  I used a fry pan and decided to add some chocolate chips along with the currants. The blog  Little Welsh House      suggested that you can do so and the idea appealed, so finally I got around to it.  However I used my family’s recipe.

Welsh Scones

8oz (225 g) flour

2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

½ tsp ground nutmeg

2oz (50g) butter or margarine

2oz (50g) sugar

2oz (50 g) currants

Chocolate chips (I used a handful)

1 beaten egg

Milk to mix

Preheat girdle or heavy based fry pan.  Sift  flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.  Rub in fat till it resemble breadcrumbs, Stir in sugar, fruit and chocolate chips.  Mix with the egg and milk to form a firm dough but not too dry, like normal scone mix.  Roll out to 1 cm or ½ thick and cut into rounds or triangles.  Cook on a moderate hot surface till brown on both sides.  About ten minutes.

That is it they were delicious both hot and cold.  I like the chocolate in them, but I think it would be too much if they were just chocolate and no fruit.

That’s it for today, the forecast is for rain for the nest few days so I will be able get lots of crochet done!

Have a great day.