Attic24

New Hooky Stuff!

I have been quite over excited with myself and my crochet these past few days, ever since Sunday in fact. Cos on Sunday I decided that I wanted some some hooky action, and I wanted it so badly that no-one was going to stand in my way. Not noooooo-one. Not even that cheeky crawly Little Bundle who usually scuppers all my best laid plans.

And so it came to pass that shortly after breakfast on Sunday morning I gathered all my bits and pieces together, installed myself at the dining table and slowly but surely began to get myself all worked up over some New Things.

It's been quite some time since I did New Things. As you know, the past ?? months I've been oh so slowly working on my blanket, slowly slowly, plod plod plod. And as much as I'm still enjoying that project, I've really missed the thrill of having a brand new sparkling design idea and getting all insanely giddy over trying it out and making it work.

You can probably tell by todays pictures what I've been up to eh? Yup, I've been designing and making some Christmas decorations. Ahhhh it's been hugely exciting, it really has!

The above picture was taken this morning, and as you can see I was trying really, really, really hard to multi task, to carry on the creative momentum that I found on Sunday whilst also looking after Little B. Hmmmmm. It was kind of successful...I did manage to sew on a few buttons, and string on a few beads and bells, but Little B did not make  it easy for me. You can just see him to the side of my Big Chair look, crawling round, getting into all sorts of mischief. . He did his level best to interfere with me, he really did. Just as I was trying really, really, really hard to be creative, he was trying even harder to stop me. Of course he won out, and I stopped. Went back to the business of building towers from stacking cups so that he could knock them down. The usual mummy-baby stuff that we do around here.

Anyhow, I have to tell you I am completely thrilled with my hooky decs, and I can't wait to show you properly what I've made so far. The light here at the moment is very weird because of the snow outside and it's quite hard to take photographs. But I promise you I will try tomorrow, I am really desperate to show you.

I'm also going to write up a picture-pattern for these little decorations (light/time permitting) cos I think every Christmas tree deserves a bit of a Hooky Treat.

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Snowy Snow Time

A snowy view from the Attic this morning...

...the day has been bright and sunny and absolutely breathtaking.

I walked the long way to school this afternoon, just for the sheer pleasure of wearing my wellies and walking through the soft powdery snow.

I turned right at the end of my street and walked briskly up to the top of the park. The sun was very low in the sky and the light was absolutely magical. One or two mums sledging with Littlies, much quieter than at Christmas last year.

Along the canal towards school, looking forward to collecting my Little People and bringing them home so they could try out their brand new sledges. Lots of excitement as you can imagine.

It's been a special kind of day, the first snow of the season is always a little magical don't you think?

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Boy Baking

Little Man has been baking a lot of late, completely of his own accord and without any assistance from me other than the in-and-out of the oven bit.

He decided to make chocolate shortbread biscuits at the weekend.

He looked through all my cookie cutters and chose the mini gingerbread man one.

When they were cool he was very excited about decorating them.

We went to the shops to purchase silver balls and white icing especially for this purpose.

I was expecting that the silver balls would be used to make buttons.

But no.

Not buttons.

The silver balls were used to make ....eh-hem....balls!

Boy baking.

Boy biscuits.

Brilliant.

x

 

All is Bright (well kind of)

Hello hello hello! Its been quite a weeny while hasn't it? I've missed being here and I've missed you all, truly I have. It feels good to be back.

All is reasonably OK here in the attic, and life continues to be full-on and busy, bright and colourful, creative and homely. Sadly we also have some nasty and unwelcome Germs in residence. Uch. Little Lady was first to fall with a snotty cold and nasty cough, and now Little B is having a bash at it. He also has a chest infection and believe me when I tell you it does not suit him to be poorly. He is the worst patient ever. Grumpy as hell. We've been enduring a lot of crying accompanied by the most eye popping temper tantrums. I had no idea that a 10.5 month old was even capable of  Temper Tantrums, but he is certainly giving it a bloody good go. Poor wee mite, I think he is simply exhausted by it all. Poor Mummy too, she is most definitely exhausted by it all.

So my days this week have been very demanding, and I've found that spending more time at home than we're used to has had it's ups and downs.  Staying warm and cosy as the cold weather sets in has been good. Sofa-time snuggles have been good. Attempting to do everything one-handed with a grizzly baby on my hip hasn't been quite so good (note to self :: in future don't try and make risotto with an ill baby to contend with, it's more trouble than it's worth).

But hey-ho, he is slowly, slowly on the mend and life will get back to normal at some point I guess. I'm looking forward to getting more sleep that's for sure.

The days feel very loooong and tiring to me at the moment, yet somehow time continues to whizz by. My hyacinth bulbs are growing away beautifully on the mantel and remind me amidst the difficult times to stop and be thankful for life's simple pleasures. On the whole I am pretty adept at doing this, but occasionally when life gets tough it's easy to lose sight of all that is good. 

Winter is beginning to well and truly set in here in my patch, brrrrrr it's freeezing here today! In fact, we are forecast snow and oh my lord, it is being eagerly awaited by my two Littln's. They are desperate for it to arrive. Me, I'm thinking that life will get very much harder with snow on the ground, I'll be happy for it to not arrive.

As you can see, the pre-breakfast crafting has gone all seasonal and much snippety-snipping has been going on of late. We have a fair pile of paper snowflakes now, and more and more flurry onto the table each day. I've given up trying to clear it away at meal times so we just sit and eat amongst the paper snow.

I don't really do much in the way of organised craft activities with my Little People, I find they pretty much get on with it under their own steam. I bought this magazine for Little Lady last week, it's full of creative Christmas makes and she is really enjoying taking ideas from it. She asked me to please help her cut out the pieces to make this flying angel, and I was more than happy to oblige....

....she really did a  good job, don't you think? Hoping for some more to happen so that we can hang them up for Christmas.

The view from the Attic continues to look as beautiful as ever. Another three days and we'll be marking our third anniversary of living here at number 24. Three years! Can hardly believe it, three years of watching the seasons play out across these hills and I love it more and more as time goes by.

Five more days and I'll be turning my calendar page :: the above image is the November page and I'll be sad to say goodbye to it actually. But Advent will begin and I am quite ridiculously excited about that! You may remember my crochet advent stars from last year? Weeeell, they are still hanging in place a whole year on (I couldn't bring myself to take them down last year), so all I need to do is locate the little felt numbers. Hmm. That's quite a mission. I think they are squirrelled away in the Attic cupboards somewhere, will need to go and hunt them out.

Right-oh, it's been lovely catching up with you, I'm off to make myself a hot cup of tea with a little bit of something sweet to the side. Quite necessary in this cold weather to have some Sweetness to the Side don't you know.

See you soon, stay cosy ♥ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Edit to add :: Thursday 12.30pm. It's snowing. @#$e

PS.... for those of you in the UK, I got the magazine from Tesco and it's simply called "Its Christmas!" It says that the flying angels were taken from a book "The Usborne big Book of Christmas things to Make and DO"... see here.

PPS the snow never stuck (yaaay) and we have blue skies and sunshine today, although it is -2 degrees brrrrrr. xxxxxx

 

 

Weekend in Brief

Don't you love it when the weekend really starts on a Friday night? We went to a big organised bonfire night at Bolton Abbey on Friday night (seem to be at that place a lot don't we?)....

....a humungous bonfire with spectacular fireworks set to music.

Saturday morning and I wangled a teensy bit of cosy nesting in bed by myself with a hot cuppa and Christmassy inspiration.

Little Man's art work inspired by the fireworks, propped up on the mantel.

Also on the mantel, the first of this years hyacinths have arrived, yaaaayyyyy!!

Such blue blue skies we had over the weekend....

....and some wonderful and welcome sunlight streaming into the house.

I picked a few little flowers from my back yard...

...and now they are brightening up the bathroom. They make me sooo happy ♥

Loved watching Little Lady's meticulous colouring. She spent an age designing and cutting out her paper doll outfits.

And Little B learnt how to press the buttons to make his own music.

I visited a friend on the other side of town and marvelled at My Attic View as seen from her kitchen window.

Went shopping on Sunday for a spot of retail therapy and couldn't resist these beautiful baubles. They make me sooooo excited for Christmas!

Ahhhh the end of a wonderful weekend full of nothing-in-particular.

Love the fire.

Love my candles.

Love my flowers.

Love my views.

Love my home.

Love my family.

And thats all folks ♥ very brief indeed!

I am out the door now, out into the lashing rain to the pub to crochet, see you all again soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Edited to add :: the baubles came from Sainsburys, along with some fabulous giant-sequined garland in same colours (will have to show you that too). Fabulous.

And for those of you who've been admiring my handpainted glass tealight holders with the little beady wire hangers, they were summer purchases from Morrisons, a bargain at only 50p each.

x

 

 

Autumn Light

We've been experiencing some amazing October weather here in my little patch.

Walking to school along the canal has been an absolute pleasure.

Some days the water has been so incredibly still and reflective, it has made me want to hold my breath.

Such beautiful, crisp, clear light.

I've been out walking in the afternoons too, pushing a sleeping Little B around town in his pushchair. Up and down the hilly streets....

....through the dappled woodland....

....round the bottom of the Castle....

....and back along the canalside home again.

Ahhhhhhhhh! WOW!!!!!!!! Hello! Do you know what, I just this minute found this post in my Drafts folder, I had completely forgotten about it! I wrote it exactly four weeks ago on 8th October and for some unknown reason it never made it out into Blogland. How forgetful and ditsy I am these days.

Looking at these images has just made me gasp with delight, I had completely forgotten how beautiful it all was a month ago. November, by contrast has been quite disgusting so far :: we've had a hellish week here weatherwise, extremely windy and sooo much rain. I got wet through yesterday and the canal had flooded over the towpath in places, it's been horrid.

It's made me really happy to see these pictures again so I felt it was worth sharing them,  even though they are a month late!

Wishing you a wonderful and happy day, whatever your weather.

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Autumn Walking

The weather here in my patch is very Jekyll and Hyde at the moment, honestly it does not seem to know what it wants to be. Nice or Nasty? Gorgeously light, bright and sunny, or hideously wild, wet and windy? Who knows what's going on, I've given up trying to second guess it. Instead of trying to plan and predict, one has to really just wait patiently till the Nice Side presents itself then jump to it and take full advantage. Big mistake to dawdle, to think that bright and sunny is here to stay, cos it's gone in a flash and back to being plain old mean.

But do you know what? I often think that in England we are blessed with our very changeable weather. To me, the good weather days always seem so much better because they inevitably follow on the heels of the bad weather days. Makes one appreciate them all the more, if you get that.

On Sunday, it was a Good Day. Very Autumnal, bright and breezy. We headed out mid morning to walk through the woods at Bolton Abbey.

It was beautiful, so lovely to be out and about breathing in lung fulls of fresh, crisp Autumn air. The Little People ran, ran, ran. Little B was being carried on J's back in a really great backpack thingy that a friend had lent me. It was top notch Family Time.

We walked the high path through the woods to the Strid :: you can see in the above photo how high the path climbs above the river....

....it gives a wonderful feeling of being right in amongst the treetops. The beech leaves are particularly lovely this year, beautiful and vibrant shades of orange and gold.

After the walking we stopped off for essential refreshments in the Pavillion cafe. I don't mind admitting that the cafe bit of the whole morning was probably my favouritist part. I mean, yes I do adore a bracing, crisp leafy woodland walk, but my goodness a good coffee and a bacon roll are pretty hard to beat in my opinion.

There were pumpkins for sale in the cafe, which was incredibly fortunate as it was Halloween after all and I had completely forgotten to purchase a pumpkin. So Bolton Abbey saved the day. Phew.

Returning home, we spent the afternoon decorating the house for Halloween and carving out our pumpkin lantern....

....ready for the evening goings on. Such fun! Lots and lots of knocks on the door here at number24, so many dear Little Peoples dressed up for Halloween. My two LP dressed up and went out T-or-T-ing with their Daddy. Just round a few streets to either side of ours, but the excitement was huge. As was the resulting sweetie haul. Cripes, they've enough to last them till Christmas.

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Happy Hooky Happenings

Not been a huge lot of Hooky Happenings at Attic24 of late has there?? That's because truthfully I've not been partaking in much hooky action at all recently and progress on the Sweet Flower granny blanket is ever so painfully slow. S-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-w. The slowest blanket ever ever ever.

I am working in little itty-bitty snatches of time here and there as and when I can. Two hours on a Monday night in the pub (which is hugely enjoyable). Maybe twenty minutes in the cafe on a Thursday morning when I pop Little B in a highchair and bribe him with biscuits. An hour in bed on a weekend morning if I'm very lucky indeed. Hooky Happenings at Home (HoHaHo) are extremely rare right now :: I've found the loss of natural light in the evenings has made things very tricky with this blanket. The squares I produce at night end up with some quite odd looking colour combos. I look at them in the morning and my toes kind of curl (and not in a nice way).

I love making these sweet flower granny's but my goodness they are time consuming. Satisfying but time consuming. Pretty but time consuming. You get the idea.

But they look good though don't they? And I like that these middle bits (flower+leaves+first granny round) can be made in the evenings as the colour selections for these are quite straightforward and don't require daylight to get it right.

Ahhhh there you go :: a Progress Picture!!!!

This blanket maybe slow-slow-slow, but it is really doing it for me.

The bigger it grows, the more I swoon. Even with the odd toe-curling squares thrown in (second square up on the left edge...what the heck??!)

I took the above pictures a couple weeks ago....ok, checking files....21st October to be precise. A Thursday, I remember it well. I came home from knit and natter, had lunch, played with Little B until he was sleepy, then popped him upstairs to drift off to the Land of Nod. Came back downstairs with a double quick skip and got stuck straight in. Blissful. An hour of happy hooking, sat on the floor, heavenly.

Forward on to this very week (yesterday) and another Happy Hooky Happening. Daylight again (yippeee!) and at home too (double-yippeeeee-yippeeeeeee!). Hooky time made possible by the lovely Heather, who you may or may not know has recently relocated herself to Attic24 Land. A mere trot across my town and there she is on a rare day off work, offering to stop by and entertain Little B for me while I settle on the sofa and make squares. How completely marvelous!!  Little B is delighted. Heather has very pullable hair and is extremely attentive to his every need, what more could a baby want? All I have to do is provide soup and tea and chocolate, it's quite the perfect set up.

And so week by week we make progress, the Sweet Granny and I, and slowly but surely she grows and blooms.

Happy Hooky Happenings, you gotta love 'em.

x

Edited to add :: a few of you have been asking about my little housey things that accompany my crochet, details as follows :: The little blue purse with the three houses is made by a Yorkshire textile artist called Cathy, she sells her work under the name "Dear Emma", see here. The other little housey thing is a Cath Kidston felt needle case, see here. Essential  kit if you ask me xx