365 - this last week

Catching up on my photos.

Last Friday 20th Feb Noodles and I went to the canal basin to play with clay at Youpuckeroo which is anew craft workshop place. As we walked up he said look an echo. Canal basin, canal basin, canal basin !!! Click on the photo to get a bigger version as always.

Echo
Sataday was a first in many ways. I made waffles for the first time, gluten free of course and I ate them for the first time too as they weren't common here before I went gluten free but the boys have become fans since then. as they still eat gluten.

My first waffles - sat 21st Feb

The weekend was mostly spent moving large amounts of concrete slabs to the allotment to use for paths etc. However as always there was small child time too. Currently the two most important things in life seem to be food and books.. he's started early on being a bookworm and every opportunity he brings me a book to share with him.

Sunday 21th - books and food.Monday 22st - The final tally of slabs.round 25 barrow loads !

I will have to stop there as either the camera or the computer is sulking and they are refusing to talk. Probably just needs a reboot ! I will post the rest later.

Scored

8 balls of natural colour cotton crochet thread AND a 1.5mm hook for £1.95 at Lidl. They also have some variegated yarn, DK I think, but while the price is OK it's for acrylic and no where near as much of a steal as the cotton !

Madness and flowers

I have a confession to make. I missed a day this week, it just slipped my mind what with trying to make half term interesting for Noodles while looking after a sicky Treestump so I have more than one photo from Thursday to make up..

First 17th Feb.. "wearing his clothes" do you like the Knightly pyjamas?

So on to the 19th and a lovely day suggested a walk, and some ball play, in the park. We knew there were snowdrops there but then Noodles spotted a purple flower and he insisted I see it. Turned out to be the tiniest, most delicately shaded crocus I think I've ever seen which was a good test of the camera's macro function. It was at most 2 inches high. Most of the shots were blurred as the petals were difficult to focus on but I think this one worked reasonably well.
I also took some shots of the snowdrops which were easier to focus on but perhaps harder to get something looking interesting.

and finally just because...

Trainers and that sort of thing

I'm not really a trainer type person though I have always had a soft spot for Converses so when I spotted the anniversary leather jacket converse on someone else's blog I thought it looked very cool, though well out of my price bracket. They are modelled on a leather jacket with zips and stitching and are great.

This of course got me doing a few searches on related things and these days you can get converses in pretty much any design you want though some are very limited editions including most of the 100 year celebration editions.

I like the Who union jack ones, some how they feel less associated with the negative side of nationalism here than say the Doc Martin ones. I don't know why to be honest it's just a gut reaction.You can get ones that look like they are covered in paint !
or design your own on the Converse site.

Just to prove that I looked at other makes too here are some Nike in liberty prints.. just right for the fabricophiles among us :)

365 -update

Well I've very behind though I have been taking photos pretty much everyday. I have decided not to deluge the blog with all the ones I've missed out so instead I will post the weekly layouts when I've done them. I thought I'd start from now, or rather yesterday however and maybe post a couple of times a week from now on with a few pictures a time.

So yesterday's picture is below.. It is what the allotment looks like now after a fair amount of work building a shed. for more details see our allotment blog.

Feb 15th

Today's picture is of washing on the line, this is for two reasons. One to celebrate that it is warm enough to dry washing outside and the second somewhat less pleasant to record the fact we have had to do loads of washing as Treestump has been throwing up and indeed exploding out the other end for several days now so all his and many of our clothes have needed washing ! Please keep your fingers crossed he gets well soon I'm hoping he will as most of these bugs don't last more than about 3 days and he's been ill longer than that now.

Feb 16th

The washing line is under the edge of the car port which is very useful if the weather is marginal as even if it rains a bit the washing general is OK unless the wind blows it out into the rain. The less said about the stuff piled under the car port the better !!

My first attempts at design

Digital scrapbooking design that is.

Far too long ago I signed up to a VW camper vanswap and my first idea went wrong then we had lots of illnesses and so forth and I failed badly to forfil my commitments.. sorry Katy. Katy sent me a wonderful package ages ago ! However I was determined to do something however late and finally hit on an idea which I also thought would work as a christmas present for my brother who is also a VW fan.. so started my first attempt at design.

Now my brother is a graphic designer so doing any form of graphical work as a present for him is a little nerve racking but he seemed to like his version and I hope when Katy gets back from her holiday she will like her's too which has finally been sent.

I drew several different outline views of Camper vans then scanned them and played about with them in Gimp. I used a couple of papers from the weeds kit by June from Cen's loft and a frame or two from other places but otherwise everything was made from scratch. So what did i make?

Bragbooks, that's what which for those not in the know are 4 by 6 inch photo albums... suitable for people to carry about to show pics of grand kids etc and brag about them :)

This is the finished book for Katy, I made her a box for as well. My brother book is more substantial red leather look one from boots. This book was from Dunelm Mill who had several different colours and I though this ones was perfect to go with the pages..

Closed Box
Open box with book
a couple of pages, these ones use June's flower paper. The frame and vans I made.and some more just by me, the windows are cut out to allow photos to be inserted..

And here is the title page..
So what do you think?

A purple swap, crochet and a layout

Ok the swap is actually for purple, green and white because it is for International Women's day and those are the colours used by the suffragettes.

I found the Purple Paisley Patch blog recently which is run by a lass called Kelly and I already know it will be a blog I keep reading and not just because we both love purple ! Kelly is running the International Women's Day swap and the plan is to swap four Fat quarters of fabric in the aforementioned colours and then it has been suggested make a bag from it thought you can obviously do what you like with it. So if it sounds fun pop over there before the 20th and sign up.. Parcels will need to be posted on the 23rd/24th so them have time to get to their recipients.So on to crochet.. This is the finished mystery square from the Mystery Crochet a long group on Ravelry . I really like it. You make the flower first then crochet into the back of it to make the square so the flower stands out form the square. Made it in te same colours as the previous ones. If I keep this up I by the end of the year I will have 36 sqs which will probably make more than one blanket but i also know me and so hopefully even if I get bored in a couple of months I will still have enough to make one blanket !!
The layout is of Treestump and his friend.. They both think grabbing heads and vigorous patting of them is a sign of affection, that or eating you.. though Treestump does give real hugs too ! Poor old Treestump has some sort of sickness bug today and his little friend had it yesterday.. the kit is another great Miracle gro kit from Ladybug at Digital Scrap Garden.

Giveaway for you to check out.

Kylie over at Kylie's stitch and sew is having not one giveaway but a whole week of them to celebrate her 100th post.

So you might want to pop over there and check them out.

Each day she asks you comment and tell her something specific but don't worry it isn't anything hard. Judging by the first two days I think there will be something you like one day this week if not more than one.

The changing face of the park

Well we scaled the bank we sledged down last week on the way to school and this was the sight that presented itself to us ! The park has turned into an icy lake.
We are half convinced that seagulls are the winter coat for our crows as in the summer the place is full of crows !

Crochet meme

Nabbed from Needles of steel cos I though ti was fun and a good way of thinking about things I haven't tried.


Bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing. This could end up with everything in italic of course !

Afghan/Blanket
Crochet with metal wire
Shawl
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up (well slippers but it's the same sort of thing just thicker.)
Crochet with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Crochet with silk
Irish crochet
Moebius band crochet
Participating in a CAL
Sweater
Spike stitch patterns
Crochet with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch crochet
Crochet with banana fiber yarn
Domino crochet (modular crochet)
Twisted stitch patterns
Crochet with bamboo yarn
Charity crochet
Crochet with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Crochet with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti crochet (crochet items on, or to be left on the street)
Tunisian crochet
Designing crocheted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a crochet book
Scarf
Teaching a child to crochet
Crochet to make money
Button holes
Crochet with alpaca
Fair Isle crochet (stranding)
Dying with plant colors
Crochet items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Olympic crochet
Crochet with someone else's handspun yarn
Holiday related crochet
Teaching a male how to crochet
Bobbles
Crochet for a living
Crochet with cotton
Dying yarn
Steeks (cut and sew)
Bosnian crochet
Crochet art
Fulling/felting
Crochet with wool
Textured crochet
Purses/bags
Crochet with beads
Front post/back post crochet
Swatching
Slingshot crochet cast on
Entrelac
Crocheting backwards
Crochet with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Foundation crochet (no starting chain)
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Crochet with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Crochet with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Two-colour crochet
Intarsia crochet
Crochet with linen
Crochet for preemies
Tubular crochet
Freeform crochet
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Crochet a pattern from an online crochet magazine
Rug
Crochet a gift
Crochet for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Crochet with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Crochet in public
Filet crochet
Motif crochet
Thread crochet
Spiral crochet
Tunisian entrelac
Tunisian entrelac in the round
Crochenit or cro-hooking

snow pics.

A bunch of photos.. There is a landscaped bank in one of the nearby parks, mostly there to stop travellers and so on camping on it I suspect but it is high enough to sled down and as a big flat open area behind it so no danger of running into anything.

The sky was very grey and it was only a hour or so after sun rise as you can see but I think the camera's snow setting worked well. The new waterproof clothes turned up just in time from muddle puddles too!

walking over.Our lollypop man on duty even though there is no school.
First run down the hill
heading back up again.
Friends come to join in.
snowballsEveryone who built the snowman (no I'm not in there someone had to take the picture)even Treestump gets a ride.

Snow !

Finally we've got the snow everyone else has been getting as earlier in the week we only got an inch at most. Today the school is closed but we were out at the time we would normally go to school anyway but this time with the sleds.. photos to come later but a great time was had. We don't get sledding weather often so we made the most of it and invited two other families to join us plus a third we didn't know joined in to.. the more the merrier.

The funny thing was watching the number of people who obviously hadn't bothered listening to the local radio before setting out to school even though the teachers have been stressing that is what you need to do to check if they are opening. Still all this closing cos it snowed does seem a little overkill my old school was proud of it's record of never closing even though on occations about the only kids that got there were the deputy headmasters bunch (he had about 10). I remember walking three or four miles in deep drifts to primary school once cos the buses couldn't get though with my mum because as she was a teacher she had to go to the closest school if she couldn't get to hers to help and that was ours so we went too.

Mandala

How did I not notice that the Ravelry square of the month was called Mandala.. the umbrella name that Mark and co use for props, set building, costume and anything else that might get made which I am hoping to join them in at some point small people willing.
Feels like the squares were being picked to sucker me in :)

Anyway here is how mine turned out though the colours are a bit off due to bad lighting.

Today's photo is the snow at 7 am this morning unlike London it didn't get much worse than this though walking home from school was unpleasant as it was blowing in our faces.. We have to listen to the radio on the morning to see if the school is open but I think it's past us now so Noodles isn't going to get his wish to go sledding this time.