Thank you so much for visiting me in the Attic, it's lovely to see you. My name is Lucy and I'm a happily married Mum with three children. We live in a cosy terraced house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in England which we are slowly renovating and making home. I have a passion for crochet and colour and love to share my creative journey. I hope you enjoy your peek into my colourful little world x
We are enjoying the slow pace of these days spent at home, the Little People are happy pottering about spending time with friends and neighbours. We are great friends with the family at number 18 and during the holidays our back and front doors are open and troops of little feet run in and out pretty much all day, switching between indoors and outdoors, dividing their imaginative games between our two houses, with occasional breaks for food and rest.
This afternoon, the air felt warm and muggy and there was a slight tetchiness setting in amongst the Little Peeps. So on the spur of the moment we decided to grab a picnic rug, some drinks, snacks, ball and frisby and head up to the park. It was the first time in ages that we have done this simple thing, and it was unexpectedly lovely to sit on the grass, kick off my flip flops and crochet a little while the Little People played. They spent some time on the swings, but mostly they just enjoyed the open space and the slightly damp, lush grass. Roly poly's down the hill, chasing games, football and frisby, followed by some quiet concentration making daisy chains.
After a while, I took them to explore the meadow that sits right next to the park. I had noticed the bright yellow shining through the trees and couldn't resist the lure of those beautiful flowers. Wow, it was quite a sight, sooo much glorious, golden yellow! This meadow is protected and it is not a place to go trampling through, there is a cut grass pathway running around the perimeter for people like us who wish to wander a little and take it all in. I confess I was very tempted to go haring right into the midst of it just for the hell of it, but I managed to control my urges.
It's been a good day, I do so love May. We are teetering on the cusp of Spring and Summer and it's my most favourite time of year without a doubt.
ps random fact :: I just noticed that this is post number 929...wondering if i will make it to 1000 by the end of the year? Three posts a week should do it. I'm going to plan something juicy to celebrate when I get there :)
I can't tell you how good it feels to be on holiday this week, such a welcome breather and a much needed change of pace after a busy half term. We've been having some lengthy family debate (and uncertain weather) of late, and as a result we've decided to stay home instead of heading off with Connievan. My heart is a little sad but there is still plenty of time yet for Connie adventures in the Summer months.
The past couple of days have been very gloomy and wet, but today we woke to blue skies and fluffy white clouds, yippee!! After a hasty breakfast I rounded everyone up and off we went for a short walk around the reservoir in the next village. It was glorious, so much greenery and such stunning light and reflections. There was much activity at the little boating centre today which made for great watching. This walk suits our needs for mild exercise and scenery very well, and I love how these snaps have become the "outing" equivalent of my Attic view! Look how brown it all is in these pictures! You can see how it looks in Late Summer and Late Winter too.
Beautiful whatever the weather, and whatever the season.
Back in March I was thinking about the monthly column I write for Simply Crochet magazine, wondering what would be a good subject to write about for early summer. I was thinking summery thoughts, dreaming of the sea, salty sea breezes and that joyful feeling of freedom that comes with being on holiday. And then I thought of bunting. I thought of how the streets of my home town in Dorset are always strung with bunting during the summer to welcome visitors, and how the same thing also happens here in my Yorkshire home town. It is such a cheerful and nostalgic sight, and a string of homemade bunting carries those same feelings of happy cheer and childhood nostalgia for me.
So I happily wrote about crochet bunting and garlands for the magazine, and then thought how much fun it would be to make up a little bit of summer bunting in my favourite shades of coastal blues. Perhaps I might even share it with the readers of Simply Crochet magazine, inspire them to hook up a little bit of fluttery summery decoration for themselves?
To keep things simple, I chose just four colours to work with, using my favourite Stylecraft Special DK :: Petrol :: Turquoise :: Denim :: Cloud Blue
I came up with a neat little triangle worked in four quick rounds, the last round being a simple edging to pretty it up a bit. I made 12 triangles, then strung them together with three rows of crochet to make quite a thick decorative band running along the top.
To finish it off nicely, I stitched on some spotty buttons
Ta-dah!!!!! I love the simplicity of this decoration, it is unusual for me to be so minimal with my colour palette (!) but I really enjoyed immersing myself in these summer blues.
Now then, I debated long and hard about sharing this next bit with you, it is not that pretty! You have to first understand that a string of bunting is a devilishly difficult thing to photograph. It is long, and floppy, and the backdrop takes a lot of consideration. I confess that I failed miserably. Would you like to see my pitiful attempts?
I tried outside first. However, my backyard is currently looking very sad and scruffy, and not that great for a photo shoot. Plus my neighbours cat Bert insisted on coming in for a nosey and would not leave even when I asked him nicely.
I had a bit of better luck inside, hanging it across my mantel. The finished string measures 135cm, and it was actually a pretty good fit across my old fireplace, but of course it ended up right at the bottom of the picture.
Luckily, I was able to send my bunting to the lovely peeps at Simply Crochet who do things the Professional Way. I asked Tanya if she could take some "behind the scenes" pictures to show me, as I was reaaaaaaally curious to see how it would be styled. I had imagined my bunting hanging in a beautiful little white washed summer house, or maybe a cute retro beach hut? Or how about a wonderful light-filled little boys room, with blue gingham bedding and vintage wooden boats? Oh yes, my creative mind overflowed with all sorts of ideas!!!
When the pictures came back, I laughed and laughed. How fanciful I had been!
Of course, these things simply take place in a carefully staged, professionally lit photographic studio. No summer houses or beach huts or gorgeous houses.
There is also a fair amount of technical computer wizardry involved too, something else that I would fail miserably with no doubt. But the finished result? Well..................
............just gorgeous!
This is how it will appear on the printed page, and I think the team at Simply Crochet did a terrific job. My Summer Blues Bunting pattern will appear in issue 19, which will be in the UK shops on Thursday 29th May.
So. What next? Well.....when I originally designed the bunting in shades of blue, I had been thinking of the sea. But part way through making it, I realised that it would make a terrific decoration for a little boy's bedroom don't you think? It would make a great gift to welcome a new baby boy into the world, or to decorate a toddlers bedroom. I then got curious about how this pattern would turn out if it was worked up shades of pink? We can't have the boys taking over, now can we?!
Oh so pretty! They took me instantly to a summer garden full of roses and clematis and raspberries and sweet peas.......
These colours were a joy to work....
... and as with the blue bunting, I finished the string off with some pretty spotty buttons.
Love how it turned out. Super pretty, and perfect for little girls (or big girls, come to think of it)
I am continuing to work with the lovely peeps at Wool Warehouse which is giving me a great deal of pleasure I have to say. The team there are so friendly and enthusiastic about all that they do, it's bloomin' marvellous to chat and plan and get all giddy with folks who love colours and yarn *almost* as much as I do! You can find all the Attic24 colour packs and buttons and things HERE on their website, it's looking very cheerful on that page I have to say!
As you know, any excuse to play with colour and yarn and I am right there in a jiffy. This week I've been in my element, faffing about with my yarn balls, planning and playing and scheming in full, glorious colour.
I wanted to have a play with other colour combinations for my bunting, to see how I could bring different sets together. I know that choosing successful colour combinations can seem like an impossible task to some, and yes it can be very hard to get it right especially if you are doing it via a computer screen. So, just for the pure pleasure of doing it, here is what I have come up with......
:: pomegranate :: spice :: petrol :: meadow ::
This is quite a feisty combo, kind of hot and spicy and rich.
:: pomegranate :: spice :: gold :: meadow ::
Taking out the deep petrol colour and replacing it with rich gold gives a lighter feel, but still full of rich, warm tones.
And here's how those two triangles came out.
Next I went for some prettier, more mellow tones..
:: pale rose :: grape :: gold :: camel ::
These colours remind me of sunshine and fragrant summer flowers.
Now taking out the gold and adding in the richness of the pomegranate..
:: pomegranate :: camel :: pale rose :: grape ::
And here's how the triangles turned out. I love these colours, they are soft and warm and mellow.
Ooooooooo! Now there's a lovely palette! I can picture a cushion coming together in those pretty summer colours :)
Some rich, earthy colours coming into play now ::
:: copper :: magenta :: mocha :: raspberry ::
Then changing out the earth colours to add some water!
:: denim :: raspberry :: petrol :: grape ::
Oh yes, I really love these ones too. The one on the right (with the blues) is maybe a touch too dark, perhaps I would lift out the petrol and put a lighter blue in there instead.
Do you like these colours all together? I think they are absolutely WoNdErFuL and the instant I looked at this photograph I wanted to go grab my hook and start making granny squares with them. I can see a big granny blanket right there in those colours, it would be so beautiful! All sort of rich and mellow and warm and spicy! Can you see it? Can you imagine it? Oh the possibilities!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aaaanyyyyyhow.....maybe there is a new blanket idea germinating there, but for now, back to the bunting. I really adore these colours, they aren't my usual palette of clear brights, but there is still a brightness there. I'd say "rich" is a more appropriate word.
I think I will make six more and string them together to add some rich, spicy colour to a little corner of my home.
I am really enjoying working with Wool Warehouse on various yarny projects and am thrilled to be earning a small commission on each sale of the blue and pink yarn packs mentioned earlier in this post. There is 400g of yarn in each of these packs, so you could make shed loads of bunting, or maybe even a small baby blanket or cushion with the leftovers!
...and how about a ripple-stripe cushion with the blue pack? Perfect for making and gifting a little handmade goodness, or creating a little something for yourself to remind you of summer days.
I am also loving the designing and writing work that I'm currently doing for Simply Crochet magazine, but I would like to reassure you that the magazine doesn't in any way ask me (or pay me) to promote it here on my blog. I write about it every so often cos I love chatting about my creative journey and thought it would be fun to share some colour-love with you. I hope you might feel inspired to go grab some balls and hook yourself a little string of summer colour!
:: Sharing the arrival on the canal of the first cygnets of the season, we were lucky enough to meet this cute family on our way to school. We will be able to watch them grow as the weeks pass ::
:: Visiting the market and allowing Little B to choose his own fruit snack. We took home two punnets of gorgeously sweet strawberries and a brown paper bag full of juicy cherries ::
:: Watching with delight as the Little Peeps fold a fleet of paper aeroplanes and engage in day after day of excited flying. This is J's own childhood method which he has taught the LP and it is bloomin' good! I'll share it with you sometime ::
:: Happiness as Little Man rediscovers the joy of his long forgotten colouring books. We sat for a short while one morning after breakfast and coloured together, just as we did when he was much smaller ::
:: Passing on my own love of nature, I encourage the Little People to run their fingers through this hedge of newly unfurled beech leaves as we walk to and from school each day. It is such a simple, tactile pleasure, delighting in the fluttery softness of the leaves on our fingertips ::
:: Stopping at the bakers to treat Little B on our way home from nursery one lunchtime. He chose this chocolate crispie which was too crumbly to eat as we walked along, prompting us to detour to a bench beside the canal. He ended up sharing his crumbs with the local pigeons, which he loved ::
:: Talking to this bold pigeon who hopped up on the bench beside us, I love the way that children talk to animals as if they are good friends ::
:: Lots of outside play at the moment as the weather is warm and the days long. I spent half an hour after dinner this evening preparing an arsenal of water balloons for a street water fight. I loved hearing the shrieks of half a dozen children happily playing ::
:: Encouraging the children to pick up after themselves and look after our environment. I felt instantly inspired by that little basket of pure colour! ::
♥
There is often a collection of rather random photos that sit on my camera after a week of living life. Many of them are Lucy-focused (lots of crochet, blue skies, cups of coffee, bowls of salad, jugs of flowers etc etc) but this past week I noticed I had captured quite a lot of moments which relate to my three wonderful Little People. Images which describe the various activities they choose to busy themselves with, images which merge with my own interests. I teach them to be creative, to look up at the sky, to appreciate the beauty of colour and nature, to respect each other and to have fun. I love to watch them play, I love to watch them explore and learn. I often feel the weight of the responsibility we have as parents to shape these childhood minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years as best we can, to give as much as we can, as often as we can. It is a full time job and then some! I love to observe their games, to try and laugh as paper aeroplanes land in the breakfast, as water balloons burst over the floor. Our house is often chaotic, noisy, boisterous. Back and front doors both wide open, a gang of children racing through, chasing, laughing. I am in the middle of it all trying to cook dinner, answering the phone, chatting to neighbours, picking random objects up off the floor, mopping up water, changing wet clothes, drying tears, keeping the peace. I am blessed to be sharing these childhood years, life is so full!
We are having a bit of a healthy eating thing here in the Attic at the moment. Various reasons, one of which is directly related to the worrying tightness of my trousers, but also we are experimenting with the idea of eating a mainly vegetarian diet for the summer months. We have a very excellent butcher here in our town and still eat meat roughly once a week but there is something satisfyingly wholesome about tasty, home cooked vegetarian food.
Do you own a recipe file? I do. In my old house I had a drawer in the kitchen which was stuffed full of paper :: torn out pages from magazines, printouts from the computer/internet and scribbled down recipes passed to me by friends and family. But at some point (ten years ago maybe?) I decided to organise all those bits of paper into a file, and I am so, so, so glad that I did. That simple file has become one of my most treasured possessions. There is a mixture of printed recipes and hand written ones given to me by friends and family over the years (oh those are precious!), all the recipes I use most often, plus a fair few must-make-sometime recipes. Last week, I remembered a particular vegetarian recipe from the must-make-sometime category and searched it out to try. It was part of a page ripped out of a magazine and I ended up altering the ingredients slightly to make a very moist and tasty vegetarian burger. In fact it was such a success that I've made it again today, and thought you might like it too.
In the above picture are my beans :: a can of drained and rinsed borlotti beans. I don't think I've ever bought borlotti beans before, they are a type of kidney bean apparently. So...you need a small can (about 175g drained weight) of these beans which you need to squidge up, either the hard way (with a fork) or the easy way (in a mini food processor/chopper).
You also need to prepare about 70g of wholemeal breadcrumbs and a small handful of fresh parsley. I whizzed up a wholemeal bread roll with the fresh parsley in my mini chopper.
Put the mushed up beans and whizzed up breadcrumbs/parsley into a bowl along with 25g pinenuts and 4 scissor snipped sun-dried tomatoes (the sort that come in a jar of oil). Season well with salt and pepper.
In a frying pan, heat up one tablespoon of the sun-dried tomato oil from the jar and gently sauté a finely chopped red onion until soft (about 5 mins). Add in 1 crushed clove of garlic and 1 grated carrot and cook for another few mins.
Put your onion/garlic/carrot mixture in with your bean/breadcrumb mixture and mix together thoroughly. Once the onions have cooled slightly, I find it best to just dive in and use your hands...it's messy but gives the best results. Squish and squeeze it all together, using a resident child to help if you have one handy. Little B loved helping me in the kitchen this afternoon, he was curious about all the ingredients and thought his squishing job was pretty great.
This mixture makes four decent sized burgers, rolled into large balls and shaped into burgers in the palm of your hand.
I needed to make five slightly smaller burgers to feed my family, they worked out just right.
When you've made your burgers, you need to pop them on a plate or baking tray and get them in the fridge for an hour or two....they are pretty soft and squidgy at this stage and need some time to cool and firm up.
You can set your child labourer to work while you are waiting if you like, get them to clear up a bit and make themselves useful.
Once the burgers have been in the fridge for a bit, they are beautifully easy to cook. Just heat up a smidge of oil in a non stick frying pan and fry the burgers for about 3 mins each side until they turn golden and are hot right through. Tonight, I did something extra too....I added a thin slice of cheddar cheese to the top of each one then popped them under the grill for a few minutes to melt the cheese. Ooooo, that melty cheese was really a great finishing touch! You can then wap your hot melty burgers straight into a wholemeal burger bun/ciabatta roll with some salad and a dollop of tomato relish/ketchup.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....this is seriously good, healthy, delicious family fodder. Please do try it!
:: Ingredients list (makes 4 burgers) ::
small tin borlotti beans (175g drained weight)
70 g wholemeal breadcrumbs
small handful fresh parsley
25g pine nuts
4 finely chopped sun dried tomatoes (plus 1 tbs oil from the jar)
small red onion, finely chopped
1 crushed clove garlic
1 grated carrot
bread rolls/salad/cheese slices/tomato relish to serve
I took a train ride today, just me and my thoughts and twenty five minutes of passing view....
....to Salts Mill in the picturesque village of Saltaire.
It is such a quaint place that is steeped in history....
...and even the air smelt lovely this morning with the scent of cow parsley drifting on the breeze.
These streets are completely charming, they pull at my heart every time I visit...
....make me long for a brightly painted front door and pretty stained glass windows....
....make me vow to tidy up my own scruffy little patch of front garden.
Sigh. Just so picture perfect! I love terraced houses very much, the simplicity and comfort of them, the friendliness and neatness. In Saltaire, there are row upon row of these old mill workers houses as the whole village is designed on a grid (have a look here). It is a lovely place for pottering and daydreaming.
♥
This morning was such a lovely treat, a detour for a few hours away from the hustle and bustle of my everyday life. A chance to be just Me, to enjoy some thinking, gazing and pootling time followed by some super friendly chat and laughter over coffee and toasted crumpets. Gillian, thank you for a delicious morning, it was pure pleasure.
Oh my, thank you, thank you so much to those of you have have already taken up my Mandala Challenge and sent me a beautiful crochet circle. It gives me the most amazing feeling to be the Official Opener of these packages and the excitement as I open each one is almost too much to take.
So. This crazy, fabulous, creative project has been launched and I know I am at the beginning of an amazing journey. It is truly wonderful. Thank you so much for making my vision come to life, I am pretty much incapable of putting into words what this means to me, but yes, thank you with all my heart.
The mandala wheels I've received so far are very, very beautiful as you can see above. When they sit nestled all together I can get a brief glimpse of the impact that a whole wall of them will undoubtedly have. Wow. WOW!!! It's going to be quite something.
I am trying very hard to be methodical and organised with this project. I have my "mandala hour" in the early afternoon when I open and photograph the packages that have arrived in the morning. I upload the photos to my laptop, crop them to a square, resize them, number and re-name them, then upload them to Pinterest for you all to see. Many thanks to Heather who suggested the Pinterest thing, it is a great way for me to show you what has been made and to inspire you with some glorious circular colour and pattern.
If you haven't already done so, do go and feast your eyes! I'll be uploading new images as the mandala wheels arrive.
Since I began sharing my Mandala journey here and on Facebook, I have constantly been asked the same question ::
"very pretty and all that, but what are they actually for?"
It's a fair enough question. I found an interesting website which explains the true meaning of the word mandala in the spiritual sense (see here), and it just confirms that really mandalas have no real purpose other than to make you feel good. They are joyful creations, and the making process itself is enough of a purpose as far as I'm concerned. See it as Hooky Meditation if you like.
Here in the Attic I have come to enjoy having a mandala sitting in the centre of my table with a little jug of flowers resting upon it. I've also pinned a couple up around the house and enjoy the pleasure I get just from seeing a burst of colour and pattern in an unexpected place (so far they have landed underneath the hallway mirror, and on a scrap of empty wall just outside the bathroom).
I thought it might be helpful to bring together a small collection of mandala patterns to inspire you if you've yet to succumb to their charms. If you know of any other lovely patterns, do leave me a comment with a link and I'll add them in, it's always useful to have all the info and links in one place.
Picture above is my own pattern created for this Yarndale project. Find it {here}
Picot Mandala by Marinke Slump, also known as Wink. Wink writes a beautiful blog called "A Creative Being" and has created some wonderful mandala patterns. Some are available to buy (such as the one above) and some are available for free. Her work is truly inspiring, do go have a look if you don't already know it.
Spoke Mandala, another pattern by Wink. This one is free, and there is a fab step by step tutorial to help you create those wonderful spokes.
Bobbly Flower mandala by Mad Blanketer is a beautiful free pattern available to download via Ravelry.
Flower Potholder, by Jennifer Martin. This is not strictly a mandala, but it is soooo pretty that I wanted to include it. It's available for free via Ravelry.
These gorgeous things were made by Sue Pinner who writes "the 8th Gem" blog. Sue is an amazing designer and a genius with colour, her mandala designs are hugely inspirational.
Oh, such a lot of wonderful, glorious inspiration out there my friends, I really hope you feel like joining me on my Mandala journey. All details about making mandalas for the Yarndale project (including dimensions and postal address) can be found right HERE. Have fun!
I head out into the cool morning for a leisurely stroll around my neighbourhood. Up the road and into the dappled green light of the woodland....
It's about 7.30am and the chill of the night hasn't yet left....
I can't quite believe there is frost underfoot, and I realise that it's not quite flip flop weather yet despite my optimistic magenta-painted toenails hiding inside my cosy old crocs.....
This early morning light is enchanting, there is a stillness in the air that fills me with gratitude for this fresh new day of leisure and pleasure.....
All is quiet and peaceful and the canal is still sleeping......
But there will be much hustle and bustle along here in a little while....
I have come to love this particular weekend in my town when we celebrate all that is colourful, happy and jolly about life on the waterways.....
The boats are decked with bunting, flags and flowers and the abundance of festive colour makes my heart sing.....
It is like fancy dress for the boating world, and I am struck with a momentary pang of regret at not bringing my Little People to see.....
I am a Practicer of Mindfulness and a Live-in-the-Momenter, and I experience both of these things acutely on this morning......
I take in as many details of my short thirty minute walk as I can, drinking it all in, savouring it and absorbing it into my soul.....
I give thanks as I often do for the fact that I have come to settle so well in this friendly Yorkshire town with my family. I love love love that the above scene is part of the Little People's school run, that they will take the memory of this familiar view with them into adulthood. They are very lucky, it is so different from the noisy, pollution-filled urban streets of my own early childhood school run. I am so happy for them, it really is a lovely place to call Home.
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Edit :: I took this walk ten days ago on 3rd May, sorry I'm a bit late sharing :)
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