Attic24

New Things

Gosh it's been a rotten week here weather wise. I've found the low light levels quite oppressive at times and even during mid morning when our house is usually filled with light, it's been very gloomy and dull, dull, dull. Our days are very short now too and boy, we are really noticing how soon the twilight is creeping in after our return home from school (the above picture was taken at 4:24pm).

The dull gloom of this past week has been accompanied by continuous low cloud and wet stuff. Damp mist, drizzly rain and full blown thunderstorms have swept through our neighbourhood. But at least I've been able to pull on my brand new wellies and tramp out in style, a big grin on my face as I look down at my feet.

Over the past five years I've worn through (literally) two pairs of pretty floral wellies (you can see my last pair here) but my feelings for them (and I loved them dearly) are nothing in comparison to the way I feel about this current pair. I've developed a huge crush on them. I mean good-golly-gosh, COLOURFUL KNITTED STRIPES, could there ever be a more perfect pair of wellies for me?

Here they are along with Little Lady's new pair, we do cut a dash as we paddle to school along the canal together. Both pairs came from Next, and can be found in the Young Girls {Wellies} department. I can't tell you how much I love that "young girls" footwear often extends to include the size of my "middle age adult" feet.

If you like to scrutinise blog-pics the way I do, you may have already noticed my dotty spotty new watch. I was wearing it when I rediscovered my yarn basket. Did you spot it? This recent and spontaneous purchase came from a little old fashioned jewellers at the bottom of the High Street here in my town. One Monday morning I rushed past the shop window on my way to Musical Tots, caught a glimpse, back tracked, stood and drooled. It captured my heart completely. Two days later when I found I was totally pining for it, I did the only sensible thing and marched straight to the shop to buy it. The sight of it on my wrist makes me soooooooooooooo happy, day after day after day.

Yeah, yeah I know!!! What a terrific lot of self indulgence has been occurring of late!!! Tut tut!!!!! Very unlike me to give into the Wanties with such abandon, but there you have it. New wellies. New watch. And then a new scarf too. What complete extravagance (although I did get the scarf for Half Price). Well, I can offer you no excuses, no real reason either, other than I have felt the need for a few jazzy new accessories to brighten up my rather shabby and worn out charity-shop outfits.

My Autumn mantel is still giving me such a lot of pleasure. The Chinese Lanterns that I bought back in September have dried out completely now, and are still holding their beautiful orange colour remarkably well. I've got some new fairy lights for this mantel too, and I love how they sparkle and glow and make everything look so sweet and pretty.

I'm also thrilled that pots of hyacinths are back in the supermarkets again, yayaaayyy for Seasonal Consistancy! These blue ones are at their peek now (the scent is amazing) and I've already got a pot of pink ones waiting to take over.

Ahhhhhhhh candle lit hooky, how cosy and lovely! This is some Festive Bunting in progress which I'm going to hang in place of my heart bunting on the fireplace for the Festive Season. The idea is to string them up with little bits of crochet holly in between each pennant, and I'm also planning on adding some felt letters to spell out a suitably festive word. My first idea was to use 9 pennants to spell out the word CHRISTMAS. I also thought about possibly doing JOY♥LOVE. I was explaining all this to the curious Little People the other day and they very sweetly offered their own suggestions. PRESENTS! was one such suggestion, followed by CHESTNUTS. Hmmmmm. I told them to maybe try instead to think about feelings instead of objects. Ok, they said. How about EXCITED? Or  AWESOME? Ah well. I think maybe we need to go back to the drawing board....any suggestions???? I've just remembered that YULETIDE was suggested by a friend last night, and I like that a lot.

Oooooo, can I show you my new Felt Stash, ready and waiting to be cut into Festive Lettering??

Tadah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to the amazing Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate at the weekend, and I found this felt there. I have to tell you this is awesome-exciting felt, it's called Kunin EcoFi and is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles!!! Felt made from PLaStic BoTTleS, how cool is that??!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I also found this string of red glass beads at the show which are destined to become holly berries. I gave up trying to work out how to crochet small berries (the leaves were enough of a struggle) so I'm hoping these beads will do the job nicely. Speaking of holly, I've actually managed to lose all the holly leaves I made last week, I cannot find them anywhere. I'm hoping they've not become part of the Shelves of Doom. I'll try (promise, promise) to hook up some more during this week and get the tutorial made for you. Hooky Holly is incredibly essential at this time of year I'd say.

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Creative Christmas Inspiration

I like Christmas time. I'm not madly in love with it for I am a Summer Girl at heart, but since having the Little People it has most certainly grown on me. I think it's true to say that it's actually the pre-Christmas period that I like bestest of all. As from about now (a week or so before Advent) I start to feel pretty ants-in-the-pants excited about all the Decorative and Creative possibilities that surround Christmas. Yyyaaaayyyyy it's late November and we can go forth and start making Festive Things! We can do colourful, creative, happy, joyful decorative Christmassy things in abundance!! We can do glitter and sparkly bits and buttons and bells and baubles!!!

I was shopping with Heather a few weeks ago and we went to a charity shop in our town that had just put out it's christmas things. Boxes of baubles for 10p each, oh yes perrrrlease, let me at 'em. You can see my dear little £1.20 haul up above there :: four sweet red vintage glass baubles, and some long shaped baubles to go with my rather sizable collection of round shaped baubles.

Ahhhhh baubles, I do so so so LOVE to see a good collection of baubles. The above ones are also a recent purchase, again aided and abetted by the kind and helpful Heather. These ones came to me (via Heather) from The City after I spotted them on t'internet and nearly melted with desire.

They must be MINE, I said.

I am going to The City, do you want me to see if I can find them for you? she said.

Why that would be FanTAStic, I said.

And sure enough, here they now sit in the Attic and I gaze at them adoringly every single day. They are teeny tiny, about the size of a small cherry tomato, and I have Big Plans for using them in a creative twiggy combo. You know how I like to do twiggy things every so often.

I bought this wonderful Christmas magazine way back last month, it was an extremely good find and has provided me with oooodles of ideas and a huge amount of visual pleasure. I've not seen it in the shops in recent weeks, but you can still purchase it online (go here to see), it really is lovely and well worth the three pounds ninety nine.

The styling (and I am a sucker for good styling) is beautiful, very, very beautiful. The emphasis is on creativity, and there is lots of colour and inspiration in these pages.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, very swoony indeed.

There are some awesome shopping pages........

.....but it's the creative projects that really make this publication special. I've become completely smitten with these sweet little mice, I just love them. They are the work of designer Clare Youngs, and her style and talent is just incredible. I found out that many of the creative projects in the Prima magazine were in fact Clare's work, and that more importantly they can all be found in a book. Well now. Say no more. Whizz to Amazon, search it out, pop it in my shopping basket and b-boom, it's mine.

The book's called "Christmas Crafting In No Time" ** and is absolutely blooming wonderful.

There's a wide mixture of crafts combining a variety of mixed media materials. I love almost all of the paper craft ideas, they are simple but oh-so-appealing.

This pretty little paper Rosette Garland is right up there on my To Do list.

Oh yeah, I definitely have to make me some little Birdy Pegs too, although mine will be multi coloured of course. You knew that without me saying I suspect.

And the owls, oh, so sweet! Yup, on my list. Must makey some Festive Owls with tufty ears.

And horses too? Yes, why not, lets give it a go. I love that these are made from aluminium food containers, how ingenious is that?

Towards the back of the book are some beautifully detailed templates and patterns. I love that they are full size and full of detail.

Ah, I'm off in a creative spin now after writing this, I've got that buzz buzz buzz thing going on. So much fun to be had with Making Things!

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ps ** here is the US link for the book, for those of you across the pond **

pps will be bringing you my crochet holly pattern in the next few days.

 

 

 

Cosy Work

 

Looks like someone stole my hills today, they completely vanished in a puff of fog. Pfffffffffff, gone. It's been such a gloomy day today weather-wise, but inside Number 24 life has felt rather sweet, cosy and homely and not at all gloomy.

A five-in-the-bed cuddly start. Tea and toast. Baking. A little laundry handling. Frothy coffee with aforementioned baking. Pottering. Playing. Reading. Fire lighting. Chatting. Mulled wine and toasted marshmallows. Oh, and some cosy hooky work too............

I managed to persuade J to hold the fort with Little B this afternoon whilst I spent time making and photographing a tutorial for the Pretty Trim. As I mentioned, we've had extremely low light levels here today so even when I positioned myself directly in the Attic window the light wasn't very good for photographing I'm afraid. I did my best though (almost gave up at one point), as I really, really want to get this done for you so that you can get busy Trimming.

There's the result of two solid hours hooking, with forty-four accompanying photographs.

Do you know that while I'm writing this post, I'm simultaneously uploading pictures to a tutorial page, cos I really want to make it happen and my time is very limited. So I write a sentence on this post, hop across, upload picture number eighteen to the tutorial page. Hop back. Brain racing at eightytwomilesanhour. Another sentence or two. Hop across, upload picture number nineteen to the tutorial.

Of course I've yet to actually write the words for the tutorial, but will try and shimmy that procedure into the next few days. Somehow. Because you are soooooooooooooo worth it. And I love that you love what I do. Soooooooooooo much. You make me very happy, you know that?

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{{{{{{   THE TUTORIAL IS DONE!!!!   }}}}}}

It's called "Pretty Crochet Trim" and can be found in my left hand sidebar down at the bottom with all my other patterns. Or click {{HERE}} to go to it. Have lots of hooky fun! xxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Yarn-o-holic

Oh dear oh dear. I never truly realised how bad it had got. It crept up on me, really it did. All this time I've been telling people that I Don't Stash Yarn. Oh no, I say, not me. No, I don't stash. I buy yarn for a particular project and use it up. I never buy yarn just for the sake of it.

This week the de-clutter and re-organisation mission has resumed here at number 24 and I have been at it full pelt in the past few days. Yesterday it was time for The Right Hand Cupboard to be dealt with, and that meant time to face the reality of The Stash.

That's it above look. Bags of yarn pulled out of everywhere, it was amazing how much of it came creeping out from all four levels of this house. Yarn in the cellar. Yarn in the cupboard. Yarn under the bed. Yarn in the Attic eaves. I assembled it all on the table, sorted it, and counted 15 (FIFTEEN!!!!!!) different types of yarn. I know. I know, I know.

Want to see more? Want me to elaborate? Course you do!

OK, this basket contains left-over yarn from projects past.

There is Debbie Bliss Aran (from the Lucy Bag), felting wool (an experiment which remains in the experimental stage), Baby Cashmerino (from the baby granny blanket and the zig-zag baby blanket), Jil Eaton merino (from the baby ripple), Rowan Cashsoft DK (from my first ripple blanket), James Brett Kool Kotton (from the stripy baby blanket and round cushion) and some Rowan Pure Wool (from BB and various cushions).

There's not an awful lot of each type so I'm not sure what exactly to do with it. I'm thinking I might donate it to school, or to a new crafty/vintage charity venture that's just started up in my town.

These are my crates of Big Stash Yarn, cripes, rather a lot of it isn't there?

Left hand crate contains Heritage DK (a wool/acrylic mix) which was gifted to me by a very generous yarn shop owner, and I'm still pondering over what sort of project to use it for.

Middle crate contains Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe (a wool/bamboo mix) which was left over from a project I worked on earlier in the year (ooooooo must show you come pics of that, remind me won't you?!)

Right hand crate is what remains of my trusty Stylecraft Special DK (acrylic) which you probably all remember from the Granny Stripe blanket, oh and the Sweet Granny blanket. I also recently made a baby ripple blanket from it for a good friend, must show you pics of that too.

Ok, moving on.....................

These are my blissful baskets of Small Project yarn, the yarn that I always keep in to make decorative things with.

Left basket contains Rowan Handknit Cotton DK which I continue to love for making decorative projects. I think I will always have this yarn to hand.

Middle basket contains my Favourite Yarn of The Year. It's a bamboo/cotton mix and I've used it for many projects this year (including the snake, the blooming flower cushion, the Russian dolls, the Flora rabbits, the hooky trim). I never spoke much about it at the time I was using it as I've been pondering the idea of offering it for sale as a "Lucy Pack", much in the same way as the Rico cotton and the Stylecraft acrylic have been selling through various online retailers. I'd be interested to hear if you think this would be a Good Thing?? An Attic24 yarn pack??

Right hand basket contains the Rico Creative Cotton (top) and also a sweet stash of Rico Essentials Merino DK (bottom) which was gifted to me by the kind ladies at First4Yarns...I need to find a suitably sweet project to use it for, I had kind of forgotten I had it.

Golly-gosh.

Golly-golly-gosh, just lOOk at it all!!!!!!!

Isn't the above image AMAZING???!!!!! And to think it's All Mine, lordy, I am hyperventilating a little just thinking about the Future POSSibIlitiEs for that little lot.

I am actually giggling away to myself looking at these pics, I feel like I've just been to Confession. My name is Lucy and I am a Yarn-o-holic.

:o)

As well as the yarn itself, I also stumbled over a rather substantial amount of Forgotten Hooky. Half finished projects, half worked ideas, hastily hooked samples.

I'm officially making 2012 the year when I Finish Off The UFO's. As follows......

Unfinished Flower brooches, from February 2009.

An un-assembled birdie decoration from October 2009.

One stripy messenger bag , from December 2009. It's all made, it just needs some assembly and some brain cells to address the making of a fabric lining.

I guess 2009 was the year when I started but didn't finish (it was the year I was pregnant, that's my excuse anyways)..

Un-assembled Christmas decs, from December 2010.

Now this is interesting....had forgotten all about this! It's a project I started making in the summer when I was falling head over heels in love with the bamboo/cotton yarn. I designed this little pattern myself, it's called Spot Square, or something like that. I need to get back to it at some point, these are wonderful little squares to hook up. I've even half-made a tutorial for these too. I'll add it to the list shall I?

Ahhhhhhhhhhh sweet flowers!! I found these mixed up in amongst all the other samples and half-finished bits, they've grown over the years from various cotton and wool yarns, little experiments, little snippets of idle hooky happiness. It reminds me of the cover of 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet, where a few of these flower patterns came from. I'm thinking I might just gather them all together and assemble them into some sort of exuberant wreath decoration, something like this perhaps.

Despite the obvious distractions of the yarny variety, I've actually made real good progress with the decluttering and reorganising this week. The crates of Big Stash Yarn have been nestled safe and sound in the Attic eaves, while the baskets of Small Project Yarn have been put within easy reach into the Right Hand Cupboard, along with beautifully labelled, clear plastic boxes of ribbons, buttons, beads, felt, embroidery thread and sewing kit. It's all coming together marvellously.

Next week's task :: my desk (above), along with a tentative foray onto the Shelves of Doom if I'm feeling frisky. And yes, the Hooky Trim pattern is also high on my list of Must-do's for next week. Holly too. Yup, I'm on it.

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 ps thank you SO MUCH to those of you who've voted for me this week, you have made me feel chocka full of gratitude and a little choked about the whole blogging thing.

((♥ heartfelt thanks ♥))

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ripple ♥ Ripple ♥ Ripple

I can't tell you how much I'm love love loving my current Ripple Journey. Right from when I first tussled over the colours back in September I had an inkling this blanket was going to be one big long Joy Ride, and so far that's exactly what it feels like. It really is a total JOyRiDe!!

It's great to be creating this blanket alongside Heather too as we get to watch them grow together, stripe by colourful stripe. Visually, it's very lovely indeed to witness two ripple blankets snuggled up to each other don't you think?! The above photo was taken on Saturday afternoon at our Official Ripple Along Meeting. It was a hugely enjoyable part of my weekend and involved tea and lemon drizzle cake alongside much chatter and companionable ripple action.

Ahhhhhhh I do so love making blankets. Love the lengthiness of the process, the fact that for weeks/months on end I get to hang out with this clump of woolly stripes. I can honestly say that I love every single element of making a ripple blanket.

I love the easy, clever pattern.

The soft, luxurious yarn.

The exciting, exuberant colours.

The soothing, rhythmic hooky action.

The happy, chatty social aspects.

The quiet, snuggly pyjama moments (photo taken by Little Man).

The warm, cosy evening moments.

Ripple ♥ Ripple ♥ Ripple.

This is where I'm up to at the moment, row 67. I have to say that I'm really rather pleased with how my stripes are working up with the double and single row interlocking colour thingy. It creates a lot of visual bounce and makes the colours play nicely with each other I think.

Choosing the colours at random is proving to be quite challenging actually, and not as easy as I thought it would be. At this point in the blanket I'm maybe a third of the way up and I love what I've done so far. It feels like a very happy accident that the colours are all boinging along so well together. But I have absolutely no idea where it'll go from here, hopefully it'll carry on it's merry way with the right mix of contrast and harmony. Oooooooo it's all very hugely exciting!

Talking of exciting, I am really, really enjoying seeing so many Ripple blankets coming into the world with the A24::LTB Ripple Along. More than two hundred members in our Flickr group now (yaaayyyy!!!), it makes for incredibly inspiring viewing. THANK YOU to all of you who are joining in, you are all invited round for tea and cake at our next Official Ripple Along Meeting.

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ps three quick things..........

Thing #1 :: thank you for all your sweet words re the Hooky Trim. The pattern/tutorial will be coming very soon.

Thing #2 :: I'm also working on another pattern/idea which involves crochet holly. It's taking a lot of grey matter I can tell you, but I am super pleased with how it's coming along.

Thing #3 :: fancy casting a weeny vote?

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Hooky Trim

One of the upsides of having a sort out is that I've been coming across some long-forgotten and much loved objects. Look what I found at the weekend! I found my basket! Yaaaayyyyy!! Might seem an odd thing to have misplaced, but misplace it I did, until I went a rooting through the Attic eaves looking for _________ (insert random object) and there it was. Hiding. It was still holding the balls of yarn left over from when I made my bag, and if you go here you can read about the basket makeover and see the beginnings of The Yarn Bag too. Cripes, it seems a long time ago don't you think? Well I suppose it was more than three years ago now.

I've absolutley L♥VED being reunited with my basket, I've been so happy carrying it about the place with my ripple tucked up inside. I've found that if I just keep the blanket, hook and current ball of yarn in it, it makes it very easy to do a little bit of hooky in between doing other things. Cos it's there and it's on view and I can instantly pick it up and work a few stitches whenever. I can also instantly drop it safely back into the basket mid stitch when I'm needed by the Littlies (which I frequently have to do).

Thinking about my sweet little yarn basket reminded me of the above picture, which has forever embedded itself in my memory banks. I know, isn't it just? Just SoOOOOoOooo beautiful?? I kept seeing this image in my mind since my own basket made a reappearance, and  yesterday I rooted out my Japanese crochet books to indulge in a little Visual Upliftment.

The yarny basket image comes from one of the above books, I think it's inside the one with the red and white motifs.

If you've not already come across these delicious books, you can read more about my love for them in this archive post. I bought both books from a great Etsy seller called Pomadour's Craft Café, the one with the red and white motifs on the cover can be found here, and the second volume with the red chair can be found here. In my experience, these books tend to sell out quickly but are also replenished regularly so if you bob along to Pomadour's shop and find them out of stock, give it a day or two and try again OK?

Ahhhhhhhh I really love these books, so so much. They never fail to delight and inspire. I must've looked at these pictures dozens of times, but never tire of them.

My eyes breeze through the pages, my heart flutters and my mind begins to buzz.

Buzzzz-buzzzzz-buzzzzzz.

Ideas begin to fizzle and pop and before I know what is happening, something takes hold and I am reaching for my hook and yarn bag to try it out.........

I have this idea to crochet some sort of sweet decorative trim to add a touch of prettiness to something. It's such an unnecessary, silly little idea really, but I am incredibly excited by forcing it into reality. I am making the creative fluttering and buzzing come alive and it feels wonderful.

Heeee-heeee!!! This is what I came up with after a few hours of frantic hooking, frogging, hooking and frogging. Looks a little silly I know........

.....but I just need to start darning in all those ends.

There, that's better!!!!

Do you like it, my sweet little piece of colourful hooky trim?

I need to join it into a ring in order for it to trim the object I have in mind.

So shall I show you what this pretty trim is for?

OK...

Look..................................................................................

Ta-dah!!!!!

It's a little bit of colourful decoration for my new Home Blessing Candle.

And I'm so happy with it!!

I treated myself to a new candle on Friday, as I felt the tealight-in-the-peanut-butter-jar wasn't quite up to the job. I found this simple little glass jar candle in the supermarket (Tesco, £3), it's vanilla scented (not overly so) and now with it's hooky trim added it's beautifully at home on my table.

Hmmmm, please do try and ignore the Shelves of Doom in the background. My Decluttering Mission is going through a short hiatus, although I do really need to try harder at getting myself back on track where that's concerned.

Oh yes, that's much better, lets just zoom in and concentrate on the pretty little bits in close-up. Ignore the big messy bits in the background.

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ps I'm sure you'll let me know what you think of my potty little creative buzz and if you think it's something you'd like a pattern for? I'm thinking these would make sweet gifts. Right, off to find my basket now, it's coming upstairs with me for a little bedtime rippling xx

 

 

 

 

Balance

Boy I am so glad the weekend is here, it's felt like a terrifically long week for some reason. I really like Friday's, J calls it "Weekend Eve" and I so get that. It's like a slow burn feeling of excitement simply cos the following day is not a school/work day. 

Since September when the Little People returned to school, I've been gently building some new routines into my home life (you might remember me writing about it here and here). It's been an interesting time for me actually, quite challenging in many ways as I've attempted to alter my deep rooted and rather negative attitude towards the housework. Truthfully it's not been that hard, although it still doesn't come naturally or easily to me.  Take this morning for example. Friday morning is the time each week when I carry out my "Weekly Home Blessing Hour" as instructed by the FlyLady. I've been doing this religiously for the past 6 weeks or so, but every week without fail I find myself trying to wriggle out of doing it. I never, ever actually look forward to doing it (and I SO wish I did!) but at the same time I've learnt to conquer my extremely strong Procrastination Tendency. So when the clock hits 9.30am I force myself to put on my apron and set to. No excuses.

I start upstairs, cleaning the floors, polishing a little in the bedroom, cleaning the bathroom. I then work my way down the stairs, clean the floors, polish a little in the living/dining room and generally straighten things out. Empty bins. Put things away. Plump cushions. Tidy blankets. And I manage to do all this in one hour flat. I move fast (Little B permitting). I try and think Loving Thoughts about my home whilst I'm cleaning.

And when it's all done and the place is clean and relatively together,  I put some flowers on the (clear, clean and polished) table and light a candle for good measure. I sit for a while and allow myself to feel just a teensy bit smug. Give myself a psychological pat on the back. 

This morning I even got out my ripple blanket and attempted a little bit of smug, post-cleaning hooky at the clear/clean/polished table but sadly it wasn't to be. Little B had other ideas and I found myself dancing to his tune for the rest of the morning, which is exactly as it should be of course.

I've gradually come to realise that it's all about balance and patience and creating little windows of time to do everything one wants to do, balanced with everything one has to do or ought to do. Easy really.

Hmmmmm.....I have to admit I do sometimes wish (secretly to myself) that the Crochet Window was very much bigger, and the Pre-school Toddler Window was a tad smaller. One day it will be. One day it'll all balance out. 

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Edit to add :: Little B kind of bobs in and out of my Home Blessing Hour. At times he is right under my feet, right there doing it all with me (alternating feelings of delight and irritation), at other times he wanders off and does his own thing nearby. He usually has a cloth and some bit of the vacuum cleaner to do his own spot of cleaning along side me. He seems to quite enjoy it all, I do try and let him help if he wants to even if it means gritting my teeth whilst he vacuums the floor inch by inch.

 

 

 

 

Walking in the Neighbourhood

These ornamental cherry trees are just up the road from the attic and are planted in the grounds of the old Local Council offices (currently deserted and empty, waiting to be demolished and replaced with new housing). Yesterday afternoon on a completely spontaneous whim, I felt an overwhelming urge to go and look at them. So I grabbed my camera, took Little B by the hand and led him into the kitchen, out the back door, through the back gate, up the cobbled back street, up the hill and there we were. I didn't even lock the door or shut the gate. I even left our dinner simmering gently on the hob. But the urge to get out into the afternoon light was so incredibly strong, I just had to go right there and then.

I can't find the words to describe the beauty of the light that we've had here these past few days, but you can hopefully get an impression of it from my photographs. 

It's made everything look so golden and rich and glorious that I've felt myself almost swooning with the beauty of it all.

I don't think Little B noticed the Quality of the Light yesterday, but he was very happy to be taken out for an impromptu walk around the trees. He doesn't talk much yet, but he has a whole variety of sounds that he makes depending on the situation. Yesterday he was full of "oooooooooaaaaaaaahh!!!" which is his way of vocalising a kind of happy discovery. It's very sweet.

This is the view from the very end of my street. Those pine trees are very, very tall and make an impressive noise in windy conditions. I took the above picture at about 3pm yesterday when I was just setting off on the school run. Yes, I did remember to lock the door that time, and turned the dinner off too.

The canal always looks stunning when the sunlight is sweet.

By the time we were dawdling home from school it was about 3.40pm and the sun was very low in the sky.

I asked Little Lady if we could walk a little further along the canal than normal so that I could take a few more pictures, and she was happy to oblige.

I love it at this time of year when we see the smoke rising from the boat chimneys. It always makes them appear so cosy and welcoming, and the smell of woodsmoke in the air is oddly comforting and homely.

Ahh did I say how swoony yesterday afternoon felt?? I did?? It made my insides squiggle with delight just to be outdoors!

Loooooooooong shadows at this time of day look :: that's me on the left (I look large and lumpy cos the pushchair is in front of me) and Little Lady on the right. Her left arm looks incredibly long and dangly!

This morning I went straight from school via the supermarket to the cafe to meet a friend and her Little Boy who is 4 months younger than Little B. I ordered my usual Large Skinny Latte and enjoyed it enormously. Our Little People are well used to cafe life but there is only a shortish time when they can be relied upon to behave appropriately :: with Little B it's roughly 50 minutes, after which time things can go very rapidly downhill. This leaves quite a large part of the morning left to fill, so we decide to go walkabout.

From the centre of town we head to the canal side and walk past the waterfall into the woods.

We are very lucky to have this stunning woodland walk just a few minutes from the town centre. I wish I remembered this fact more often! I can't recall the last time I walked here, it was probably way back in the summer.

The Autumn colour is only just beginning to arrive in our local woodland...isn't it funny how one minute it seems so lush and green and then almost overnight it seems to change colour?

The pathways are pretty good for pushchairs, although it's a little bit muddy at this time of year. But we don't wheel our Littlies the whole way. No, we unstrap them and let them loose for a bit, let them toddle and run and kick through the fallen leaves, let them get muddy and dirty and at-one-with-nature. They are quite precarious actually, Little B and his buddy OJ. They stumble and totter all over the place. Little B bizarrely chooses to walk much of the way backwards which adds to the precariousness. But isn't it so good for their Little Bodies to get such grade-A fresh air and exercise? 

We end up at this pool of water, not sure if you would call this a pond or a pool? It's incredibly tranquil. We scoop up our muddy Little Boys and pop them back in their pushchairs ready for the return walk home. Little B's eyes are already drooping.

I think for the umpteenth time how much I love living here in this sweet, friendly town. How wonderful it is to be able to walk round the local neighbourhood and see such beauty all around. Just got to go and clean the mud off our footwear now.

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October 2011

Isn't this October calendar page sooo atmospheric and Autumnal? Little B (who LoVeS ducks) has enjoyed this month's picture and has regularly been found quacking at the calendar. 

So...October has been and gone, it's felt like a long month! I've been looking back through my photo archives to remind myself what I've been up to during the past 31 days. Honestly, my memory is seriously shot through, I can hardly remember yesterday let alone weeks ago. I just realised that I've slipped out of the habit of making my monthly mosaics, no reason for it mind you, it's somehow just not happened. However, I felt inspired to create a visual summary of October, so here it is.......

...doesn't seem quite as colourful as usual, but it does perfectly sum up the month for me, most especially the change of seasons. September still felt very much like it had it's feet rooted in Summer, whereas October most definitely swung itself into Autumn.

We've had some incredible skies throughout October, with some awesome bright and clear sunshiney Autumn days.....

.....some incredible early morning sunrise colours.....

....and some magical early evening sunsets.

It makes me smile to notice how many of my photos each month are taken with the camera pointed sky-wards! I never tire of observing the weather, the light, the clouds, I'm continously enchanted by the rhythm of the seasons played out in the skies.

Last week as I think I mentioned, the family was roosting at home for half term hols and during this time I tried to take a few pics of the way we spent our at-home days. One of the things I adore about blog writing (more so the longer I stick at it) is the way it allows me to capture a tiny bit of the Little People's childhood. I look back at my blog writing over the years and I am incredibly grateful to myself (!!) for taking the time and effort to photograph and write about our Ordinary Life. It allows me to peek back through a small window into the past if you like. Posts like this, this and this. Just plain ol' family life at home, but oh so precious for their Ordinariness.
So in no particular order, here are some visual snips from last week's activities....

:: chalking pictures on the road outside the house ::

:: Little Lady, bubble blowing for her wee brother ::

:: Little Lady's Knitty Suitcase after a knitting spell on the sofa ::

:: den-building. The sofa was pulled forward and a long, thin hideaway was created behind ::

:: Little B loving the Brio train track, inherited from his big brother ::

:: Little Man, hanging on the street with four of his buddies, all on their wheels ::

:: helping Little Man to master simple origami boat building (instructions here) ::

:: me, working on some ideas for new Christmas decs (tweaking still needed) ::

Sigh. They grow sooo fast don't they? Heart warming to see that some simple things are remaining constant across the years (bubble blowing, chalking, den building with blankets).

Cripes, I am sighing a lot writing this post, I'm glad you can't hear me!! I'm feeling quite reflective I guess. It's good though, to look back and view the patterns of one's life. Good in a sighing sort of a way.

Right, lets view some Views shall we?? A selection of October vistas from the Attic window then....

Lovely.

Last week we finally felt the cold creep in and lit the fire for the first time, more than a month later than last year. It was absolutely wonderful I have to say. Makes the Autumn season Official somehow, when the first frost has been and the first fire's been lit.

Only sixty one days left of this year you know.

*Sigh*

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