Attic24

Dorset Summer 2014 :: Visiting

If you've been calling into the Attic for any length of time, I guess I don't need to tell you where we are visiting today as you will recognise it for yourself. Like much of our Dorset holidays, making a visit to the Subtropical Gardens at Abbotsbury has become something of a tradition for us, something we all seem happy enough to repeat time after time, year after year.

We were here at Easter and it was lovely then, but truthfully oh so much more beautiful in the height of summer.

The summer planting in these gardens is incredibly inspiring, a bold and beautiful blend of colour and texture. The deep borders are immaculately kept, but they aren't at all formal. There are lots of perennials in full flower all competing for attention, and I love the crazy, colourful riot of it.

Even the parts of the garden that are without colour (excepting for multiple shades of green) are lovely, a rest for the eyes after all that outrageous floral zing. It's another hot day when we visit but with a light breeze, perfect for meandering the easy pathways in and out of dappled shade and lush foliage. 

It's much busier here in Summer than when we visited in Spring, with coachloads of tourists as well as many families like us. So instead of hogging the Scenic Bench at the top of the hill for our picnic lunch, we decide to give it up for the many people huffing and puffing up the hill. We move off to the side and park our picnic blanket amongst the tall, swaying summer grasses instead.

I love to picnic, I really, really enjoy eating this way. I look at the above picture of grass, and it's the food that immediately springs to mind. On this day we had soft brown rolls filled with tuna/mayonnaise/cucumber, a punnet of the sweetest baby plum tomatoes, some packets of salt and vinegar crisps, sweet little clementines and some mini chocolate caramel biscuity things to finish. And some huge bottles of ice cold water to drink, it was a tad too hot for coffee, even for me. 

Sitting right amongst this sort of long grass, you are also sitting amongst a surprising amount of insect life. Most of it is wonderful, although I did get bitten by something mean and unseen which caused me to yelp and leap out of the grass like a jack in the box. We saw lots and lots of different butterflies, including my favourite Common Blue, ladybirds, many types of beetles and bugs (some amazing bright orangey-red ones, which thanks to google I've just identified as the Common Red Soldier Beetle), and of course grasshoppers. Watching all three Little People stalk grasshoppers was really funny, and it kept them (and us) fully entertained for ages. It was only Little Man who managed to perfect his Trapping Technique and he captured a few different specimens for us to marvel at.

After lunch, we wandered back down from our picnic view to continue along the winding pathways through the gardens. This is the Hydrangea Walk, and although for some unknown reason I still can't make myself really like hydrangeas, I had to admit they were looking spectacular this year.

I mean, just look at the size of them there blooms! Some of them were as big as footballs!! Impressive, but just not for me. If this were a Dahlia Walk, well now I would be hyperventilating.

One of the many things I love about visiting gardens is the change in visual scale that you can perform just by zooming out and in and out and in with your eyes, much as a camera can do. One minute you can be looking ahead and taking in the broad vista and the diverse expanse of landscape, and the next minute your eye is attracted to something close-up, something delicate and beautiful right there inches from your nose. And so in you go, setting your eyes and mind into macro mode, zooming in and taking in every little wonderful detail.

At Abbotsbury gardens, it was often the butterflies that caused me to zoom in.

The whole place was full of butterflies, most of which we recognised and could name straight away. Interestingly, Little Lady asked me how I knew the name of so many butterflies and I told her that I had always had a fascination for them since being a child. I had books about butterflies, even a jigsaw puzzle which had the various butterflies cut out as individual shaped jigsaw pieces. Gosh I loved that puzzle, I remember it so clearly! I wonder if my own Little Peeps will absorb the information I pass on to them, the names of insects, the joy in identifying and appreciating. I hope so.

Ahhh yes, here we are again, stalking around these beautiful ponds, putting our 20pences into the dispensing machine to retrieve the small handfuls of musty smelling pellets to feed the fish.....

The fish performed beautifully on this occasion. They rose to the surface with big open mouths and gobbled up every single pellet of food that the Little Peeps threw in, much to the squealing delight of Little B.

Some of the fish were ginormous, like as long as your forearm. Obviously seriously good gobblers.

Descending down from the fish ponds is pure pleasure for the senses. It is hot and fragrant and colourful and not at all English.

The planting is Mediterranean here, with lots of aromatic herbs and some stunning flowers....

I love these blue agapanthus flowers, another zoom-in moment for me here as you can see. We also tried (and failed) to zoom in to the rather large lizard scurrying through the undergrowth here, but he was just too damn fast on his lizardy legs for us to capture him on camera. But the Little People loved that they could add "lizard" to the already lengthy list of wildlife we had spotted throughout the gardens.

It was a lovely visit, this one. It ended in the usual way, with a restorative stop at the spacious tables of the outdoor Colonial Restaurant for ice cream and cold drinks, before spending a length of time in the small but very well designed children's play area. All in all, a very successful and happy trip, with only a few minor scrapes/grazes/bites/squabbles/tantrums.

One of the reasons we visit Abbotsbury Gardens so regularly is that we have an annual family season ticket, making it very good value for us, a family of five. We bought the ticket last August and so this was our third time using it, and even better it also includes free entry to the Children's Farm and the Swannery. If we had to pay to go to the children's farm, I don't think we would go actually as it would cost us £25 each time. But having the season ticket enables us to bob in for a few hours and allow the Little People to play, play, play whilst J and I sit and drink coffee and try not to be bothered by the noise of so many children (with their hot and bothered parents) all in one place.

Our favourite-most-favourite bit of the children's farm is the guinea pig barn...it is ace! I wish I had taken a picture to show you the whole set up, there are literally dozens and dozens of guinea pigs free-roaming around the floor, piggies of all shapes, sizes, colours and hairyness.

Oh my goodness, this photo makes me laugh so much!!! This was Little Lady's mop of a pig, a real adorable little scruffy fluff ball.

The other thing that I wished I had photographed was the Bug Show that was happening in the big barn, my goodness it was really great. I just didn't have the wherewithal to actually get my camera out, was too busy trying not to hang my mouth open in slightly frightened awe. We got to hold giant African Land Snails and the huuuuuuugest giant millipede with a million bristly little feet. We got up close and personal with some amazing snakes (they were enormous, and we stroked them!) And the scorpions (so deadly!) And the Spider! There was a massive bird eating spider that only the Big Boss was allowed to hold, but we got right up close to marvel at it's massiveness. It was possibly the best bit about the whole farm visit this time, the Little People enjoyed it very much.

Weirdly, even though we were in Abbsotsbury for two visits we didn't make it up to St Catherine's Chapel this time and I kind of missed that. But we did something else this holiday that we've not been able to do before......we walked. And by walking, I mean proper miles of up and down, climbing, hiking type of coastal walking that I so love......it was WONDERFUL. Oh those views!!!!!!!! Will you join me tomorrow as we stride out over the clifftops? See you then..........

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❣...more little snippets from the Attic...❣

Dorset Summer 2013 :: part 3

Dorset Summer 2012 :: days 1&2

Dorset Summer 2014 :: Pootling

I think it is fair to say that Pootling is something I'm rather good at and is a skill I have in abundance. Are you all familiar with this word? This is what the online dictionary says....

"pootle" : verb : UK informal : to move somewhere slowly and with no real purpose.

 

Yes, just as I thought, that describes my perfect kind of holiday pastime very well, and this first installment of Dorset Tales is filled to the brim with all sorts of pootling activity. Gentle meandering along the beach, strolling around the harbour, sauntering out along the pier and along the promenade, then back around the harbour again. Pootling also necessitates plenty of stops for scenery appreciation and thirst quenching, with the odd little sweet treat thrown in for good measure. Then there is the homely sort of pootling that involves mild activity in the garden, reacquainting with familiar surroundings and reconnecting with family members. It's all rather slow, relaxed and easy, a tad lazy even. Perfect holidayish activity.

You need to sit comfy and relax your shoulders now....I'm going to take you for a gentle stroll.......

 

 

Oh, wait a minute. This was the first day of our holiday last week, and so before we do any sort of real meandering, we need to eat breakfast. It's the Rule of the Dorset Holiday that we always go to the beach for breakfast on our first day. That's the café there look, it's called The Watchhouse. Isn't the location stunning? We like to sit outside on the decked area so that the Little People can be evicted straight onto the beach to play once they've eaten their nosh.

The coffee is always first class, and my cappuccino on that sunny Monday morning last week was asbolutely wonderful. My tummy was full of poached egg and bacon and buttery granary toast too, the perfect start to the day.

It's pretty great to be sat in a café that is situated slap bang on the beach itself. The seagulls swoop and cry overhead and occasionally stop by for a nosey, just to really reassure you that yes, you are indeed right on the beach, sat on their patch in fact. 

After a perfectly perfect breakfast experience, we can now get down to some serious pootling. 

We have shuffled across the shingle beach, jumped down over the low wall and are now strolling around the east side of the harbour.

West Bay does accommodate a thriving tourist industry with plenty of holidaymakers descending in the summer season, but essentially it is still a working harbour. Various fishes are hauled in from the boats on a daily basis, but also crabs, lobster and scallops are the catch here. There is a fishmonger just around the corner which boasts a huge tank in it's window housing live lobsters. It is both fascinating and awful to see those (very large) sea creatures and know that they are destined for someone's plate very soon. The Little People were absolutely fascinated with the still-living lobsters and we had to go back to the shop window several times to see them and wonder at how people could possibly purchase them in order to sling them into boiling water.

Moving on from the lobster thing, lets take a wander further around the harbour...

 ...which is looking as jaunty and gorgeous as it does in my memory. I always take far too many photos of the boats when I'm here, over and over, year after year, it's just one of the things that Mum Does. This year for the first time I had Little Lady shadowing me with her own camera, taking her own set of Pootling holiday pictures. Although I refused to let her lean out over the harbour wall to get this sort of shot, that's foolish and only for weirdos like me who are fascinated with daisy flowers growing out of walls. How DO they do that?! So impossibly pretty!

OH LooK!!!!!!!! This is new!!!!! In all the years I've been bumbling around this little place there have never been flowery boats.......

,....and oh look, another one, oh so pretty!!!!!! I just loved these boats so much, everything about them made me happy!

We are round the harbour now and at the beginning of the promenade (gotta love that word), and there is another beautiful flower boat. Happy happy!

We always walk out along the pier when we visit West Bay as the views west along the coast are spectacular from here. 

I love it in all weather's, but especially on a beautiful warm, clear-blue sunny day like this one.

I think we need some refreshment now, don't you? We'll walk back around the harbour then, and call at one of the dinky little kiosks to buy some ice cream.....

Oh mmmm, this is "cookies and cream" flavour (Little Man's choice), Little B (messy creature that he is) chooses messy chocolate and Little Lady settles for traditional vanilla. We sit on the sun warmed wall next to the green and wait for the whole lot to disappear, excepting Little B who ends up wearing quite a bit of his down the front of his t-shirt.

This was such a fabulous start to our holiday, I couldn't have wished for better. Happy times.

I have many favourite holiday bits, little rituals and traditions that we carry out year after year. One of my best favourite things is waking up in the early morning, opening the curtains and taking in the view of my childhood. Not only the view, but the scent of the air which is a hugely nostalgic thing for me. I don't know how to describe it, but it's so very different from the air of North Yorkshire. It's a mixture of sea and country, an infusion of salt and ozone and sea breeze and freshly cut grass, with a whiff of fragrant jasmine thrown in for good measure. To me, the air smells utterly delicious and I love to hang my head out of the window each morning when I first wake up and again at night before I climb into bead and inhale the fresh scent right down to my toes. Fill my whole body with that fresh smell.

Last week we ate every single meal outside. Every. Single. One. I would start my day with a mug of fresh coffee and some sort of hot, buttered toasted something or another, wearing my pyjamas, sat on the weathered wooden decking right outside the back door. I was often up before the Little People, and the peace and quiet of those early mornings were blissful.

Lunch each day was a picnic, usually eaten somewhere scenic and preferably with a sea view. Dinner was sometimes eaten in the garden and sometimes on the beach. Al fresco eating is high up on my list of feel-good things to do in the summertime.

We often spent the first part of the morning simply pootling in and out of the house and garden, easing gently into each day. We don't tend to make schedules or plans when we holiday in Dorset (which I know my parents find hard to deal with, sorry 'bout that folks). There is a certain luxury in waking up with a whole day stretching ahead and not having any real idea how you are going to fill the hours. Excepting that you know it will be fun and leisurely and sunny, and will involve good food prepared/cooked and eaten simply, and happy times spent with family gazing at beautiful scenery. That's it. That's the extent of the planning. Snail racing on this morning, as you can see. Aren't Dorset snails lovely? We don't find those stripy suckers here in Yorkshire, they are residents of southern chalky lands I think. 

We also made this amazing discovery one morning in the garden, a newly hatched moth drying it's still-rumpled wings in the warmth of the early morning sun. Wow, isn't it fantastic looking?! By the powers of the internet, we think this beautiful specimen is a Jersey Tiger Moth. The Little People weren't all that impressed, but I really was.

One thing we notice when we visit Dorset just twice a year is how it opens our eyes to the rapid growth and development of the Little People. We notice how much taller they are each time we visit, how much more energy they have, how their games change, and how the older ones sweetly accommodate their rapidly growing Little Brother. Little B is such a life force, honestly, that kid is quite the character. He isn't always easy to be with, he is demanding, and although he is only four he pretty much acts like he is ten. And yet he is only still four. Still falling over and grazing his knees, still crying when he loses his ball, still cross as hell when he can't get his own way. But this year for the first time we were able to open the front door and let all three Little Peeps run out and play without adult supervision. It was liberating for J and I. All we had to do was listen for any tell tale yelling/crying (which with Little B is hard to miss, always at full volume). They played ball, they played hide and seek, they scootered. Sometimes they just fooled about, playing the most ridiculous sounding character games (Little B often barking like a dog, Little Man often wailing like a baby etc etc). But it was wonderful to have all three of our offspring playing together last week which doesn't happen often at home any more (Little Man has outgrown his siblings of late, choosing his own company and seeking out his school friends).

Of course, our twice-a-year trips to Dorset mean more to me than just us taking a family holiday. It allows me to spend time with my parents, and for them to spend time with us. It is super-precious time, because it is so very short. Two weeks out of fifty two isn't a lot really, is it? But we make the most of it, and it's always good to reconnect with family, to clink glasses and celebrate the turning of another good year.

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ps will you come Visiting with me tomorrow? See you then...

 

♥...more little snippets from the attic...♥

Dorset Summer 2012 :: days 1&2

Dorset Summer 2013 :: part 1

Summer at Arnside :: part 1

Whitby in Winter

Home from Home

We were away on holiday last week, a delicious Summer week spent with my family beside the sea. Now that I am back home in Yorkshire, I'm experiencing that familiar heavy-hearted melancholy that always descends on me following a week spent in Dorset. I am naturally very attached to my childhood Dorset home, to the countryside and coastline that I grew up in that holds so many layers of memories and emotions. When I am there, I feel the tendrils of nostalgia creeping into my soul and wrapping themselves around my heart. It always feels like a physical thing to me, I feel my heart squeeze with the pure pleasure of being back where I belong, and I feel  a very strong pull to stay there and never ever leave.

But of course I have to leave, I have to come home from home. I have to travel the 300 miles north and ease myself back into the present, into the gentle familiarity of this life I am living here in Yorkshire. I feel the ache of the separation, but from experience I know it won't last long. The longing to be beside the sea will gradually subside and really I am glad to be back.

 The last photo above is the view out of my bedroom window in Dorset. It's the bedroom I slept in as a child, and the bedroom that J and I sleep in when we stay in Dorset. The house I grew up in was a small three-bedroomed semi on a 1970's housing estate. The houses were purpose built by a local housing association and known as "social housing", being rented out to low income families and retired pensioners. The Low Income thing gave them a bit of a stigma locally, but as a child I don't remember being overly bothered by the fact that we were seen as being poor for living there. I loved my bedroom! I loved living there with that view and being only 2 miles from the sea which I loved more than anything.

We had an amazing holiday last week, day after day of hot summer weather, glorious countryside, scenic views and fun family times. I took a LOT of pictures (almost 600 I think!) and I'm really going to enjoy stringing them into some sort of a holiday story to share here on my blog. A story of long summer days, happy times and simple pleasures......

 

♥...more litytle snippets from the Attic...♥

Autumn Wreath :: Ta-dah!

A Coat Story

Bower Bird PDF

Hello hooky friends....this is just a super-quick post to let you know that I have been working with my Technical Consultant (also known as J the Husband) and we have created a rather nifty PDF version of the pattern which can now be downloaded. I've written it as a standard pattern rather than the full blown tutorial, so it is six pages long and easily printable. 

I hope it's of help.......

Download bowerbirdpattern.pdf

I've also had a lot of questions about the type of yarn to use for the Bower Bird....really any yarn can be used, but I think a fine, smooth yarn works best for this project. I've used a mixture of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and Rico Essentials Merino DK worked on a 3.5mm hook. Obviously, if you use a standard DK weight yarn on a 4mm hook, your bird will be born bigger!

Happy hooking!

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...more little snippets from the Attic...

About the Bower Bird

French Bower Bird :: Ta-dah!

The Bower Bird has Landed!

♥ Three Things ♥

Mini Ripples

The End & The Beginning

Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

That's the gentle sound of me exhaling after an extremely hectic and emotional week. Yes, we have arrived at the end of the school year and the beginning of the six week summer holidays, and I for one am more than ready for it all to unfold.

This past week has been oh-so-busy, but I have tried to keep grounded in the present moment, to keep a check on my surprisingly wayward emotions, and to continue listening to my body when it starts shouting at me for rest. I have kept my eyes wide open for the Little Pleasures, drinking them in and savouring these delicious, warm, light-filled summer days. Our morning walks to school have been especially lovely, both on a scenic level, and on a chit-chat level. I absolutely love the ten minutes of continuous chatter that emerges from Little Lady as soon as we set foot out of the door each morning, it's always so varied and often very funny. However, she has been sad this week, saying goodbye to some close friends who are moving on to secondary school while she still has another year to go. Being left behind is tough and I have felt for her, mopping the tears and giving big hugs.

Little B has enjoyed his very last week at nursery, and I faced my very last week as a pre-school Mum. It is such a bitter-sweet time, so happy (he seems so happy about starting school!) and yet very sad also. I have cried today, tears of gratitude and just a general cascade of tired, worn out emotion. So much change, and yet not so much really, just another stage beginning. I have love love loved my Little B's sweet company during these summer afternoons when it has just been the two of us, and now it has come to an end. I shall miss it.

We baked lemon shortbread this week (this recipe, it's very good) and ate it outside whilst still a little warm with some beautifully sweet strawberries.

We have pottered about outside, in and out, front and back, doors wide open in the heat of these hot afternoons. We have watered our plants and carried out our daily search for wildlife. My roses are looking fantastic this year and are giving me so much pleasure.



On Wednesday afternoon it rained, a short, sweet summer shower. We have had very little rain during the past month and mostly I've been extremely happy about the day-after-day of warm, dry summer. I get to paint my toenails turquoise blue and wear flip flops every day! But on Wednesday I just loved the rain very much, I loved the sound of it falling and most of all I loved the smell of it.

I had my back door open and kept popping out into the back yard, stupidly pretending I needed to actually go and do something Very Essential, but really just wanting to go and look at the wet plants, sniffing them and feeling the cool rain pattering hard on my back and head.

Little B and I often call at the market on our way home from nursery to re-stock with fresh fruit. I have learnt to refuse the watermelon pleas, but pretty much let him choose whatever he fancies. He actually loves tomatoes more than anything else, so often we come home with a bag of those which he eats like fruit. But strawberries are wonderful at this time of year and very cheap too, so those nearly always come home in our bag. One afternoon this week we stopped by the side of the canal to sit and eat some straight from the punnet, such a precious little memory of this pre-school summertime.

We've been to the park too this week, yesterday I think it was, although it really was a bit too hot to be honest. All the metal play equipment was burning hot, so we ended up sitting in the shade together beneath the climbing frame, pretending we were in a café. Little B has the most beautiful eyes, beginning to change now from blue to green just the same as his big brother, and just the same as me. I remember having blue eyes for the longest time as a child, and then being stunned one day when I looked in the mirror and discovered actually my eyes had changed to green and I hadn't even noticed it happening.

And finally, we have a seedling!!! Oh, we are such proud gardeners here at number 24!! Little B's Pumpkin seedling is in fine fettle and we are nuturing it to the very best of our ability. Grow little pumpkin, grow. But maybe not as big as a Mammoth.

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ps Thank you all SO MUCH for the terrific response to the Bower Bird pattern, I am thrilled to see bower birds hatching already, and have found myself smiling often at the thought of that. We are making fantastic progress with the PDF thingy, J is very skilled with this sort of thingy and is helping me produce a rather swish looking set of pages....it'll be 5 or 6 pages long and written as a standard pattern, so not the full tutorial but I have included some photos to help along the way. I will of course let you know as soon as it's ready, should be in the next day or two. Have a terrific weekend, whatever you get up to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Summer at Arnside :: part 1

Summer Days

The Bower Bird has Landed!

Ooooooooooooooo this is more than a weeny bit exciting, don't you think???!!!!

More than a year and a half has passed since I first created and shared this design.

So many of you have waited extremely patiently for me to arrive at pattern-sharing time, and there have been a few hitches and delays along the way. Your patience and understanding has been very, very much appreciated.

I've been working very, very hard this week taking lots of additional photographs, re-working some elements of the finished design, trying to remember long forgotten details (how did I make that sunshine?!).

And while I have grafted, I have thought a lot about the process of designing, creating, sharing and  inspiring. Putting it all out there into the Big Wide World so that these little crochet birds become very much more than the written lines of a pattern.

They turn into a wonderful, joy-filled Global Connection, something that I hope will bring creative happiness to many hundreds of you all over the world.

I like to think about you making your very own Bower Bird, selecting colours, working those stitches, creating a piece of decorative crochet that will make you smile broadly.

I want you to have as much fun as I have! I want you to jump up and down with excitement when your first bird hatches!!

So......I have spent countless hours writing up a full-blown tutorial for this project. I warn you now that it is very, very long. No detail has been left unexplained. There are ninety nine pictures. And over five thousand words. I want you to feel like I am sat right next to you, chatting through the pattern to you, helping you every step of the way. I am with you in spirit, I am right there in your hooky hand. Enjoy.....I really hope you enjoy every single minute.

The pattern is HERE. Yaaayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the original Bower Bird ta-dah post is HERE, in case you feel like you wish to revisit.

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ps I thought you might like to see ALL the Bower Birds that have been made in my studio workshops this year. Thank you SO MUCH to all of my lovely workshop ladies for working my pattern so beautifully and encouraging me to share it here on my blog. Your flock of birdies will provide a lasting visual inspiration here on Attic24............

Oh, and one last thing.....I've not yet had time to create a printer friendly version of the pattern, but my lovely hubby tells me it's possible to make a PDF pattern file which printers approve of, he says he'll help me do it. I hope you can be patient a little longer for that technical jiggery pokery to happen. At the moment the tutorial is in no way printable I'm afraid, unless you wish to make a Bower Bird Book, it is waaaay too long. But I promise I will do the PDF thingy as soon as I can.

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

About the Bower Bird

French Bower Bird :: Ta-dah!

Working Saturday

Yesterday started early, I can't tell you what time exactly but I can tell you that there was a number 5 on my digital clock. Little B was up and ready to start his day so I knew that like it or not I had to get up too.

Little B and I have an early morning routine which doesn't take a break on weekends. We rise and come downstairs early, he busies himself with his toys or settles on the sofa to watch kids tv, and I shuffle off into the kitchen. Radio on, empty the dishwasher, heat up milk for Little B, provide banana for Little B, make fresh coffee for me, then out into my little back yard with coffee mug in hand to check on my flowers.

Yesterday was hot and sunny here, so on the spur of the moment I set about arranging my table ready for an early al fresco breakfast. Awww, that small corner looked so inviting! But before I could settle my backside down I needed to do a smidge of work at my desk to prepare for my working Saturday :: answering emails, printing out risk assessment forms and pattern sheets and filling bags with fresh Yorkshire Lavender (a gift for my Visiting Ladies). By seven o'clock I was all finished, and it was time to poncho-up and head outdoors in my pyjamas. A second mug of coffee and some toast, accompanied by the beautiful, inspirational pages of a magazine. I LOVE the summer magazines so much, and this one did not disappoint (August edition of Country Homes&Interiors). It makes me really happy to take off into those dreamy interiors and gardens, I know it's all total fantasy and escapism, but I like it all the same :)

At 7am, the table was in shade but by 7.50am we were treated to delicious shafts of soft, warm sunlight as the sun peeked above the rooftops of the neighbouring houses. J came out to join me and we chit-chatted about this and that, made plans to book a table to eat out that night (a family meal with his Mum and Dad, a real treat!), and he asked me about my day ahead. I told him I've got nine ladies coming to my studio, and that weirdly I am feeling just a teensy bit nervous.

You would think the nerves would be a thing of the past by now, wouldn't you? This was to be my seventh workshop, but I still found myself worrying about whether I would be able to make it a successful day for my Visiting Ladies. I knew that several of the ladies were travelling quite some distance for the workshop, and that this represented a precious treat for many of them. A special allowance of  Me-time, a whole day/weekend to leave the men folk (and kiddos) behind and enjoy the pleasure of self-centred sociable creativity.

I love setting the scene for these days, it's a lot of fun. Preparing my studio, switching on my beloved lights, tidying my (slightly chaotic) corner, organising the materials and the space so that it delivers maximum visual pleasure and inspiring vibes. My studio feels like it is singing the happiest song when it is all ready and waiting for visitors!

Of course, I had no need to be nervous or worried. The day breezed along in a blurr of hooky hands, yarny colour, squeals, giggles and chitter-chatter. It was both relaxed and concentrated, informal and hard working. This pattern does take a certain amount of concentrated effort to see it through to a happy conclusion, and at times during the day the room was deadly silent as my ladies counted stitches and worked that grey matter.

But by 4pm, they had created a flock of the most beautiful Birdies.....

....just look at how pretty they are! Some super embroidery emerged, which pleased me enormously! I absolutely love love love doing embroidery (did you know I actually studied a three year BA degree course in embroidery?), but understand it's not everyone's cup of tea. It is an Optional Decorative Extra where this pattern is concerned, but oh I do think the birdies look super cute with their added stitchery :)

After the ladies had all left the studio, I pottered about tidying up my table, feeling shattered (I'm still not 100% health wise), but with a deep feeling of contentment. Such a super-lovely day :)

So that's my last workshop for now as I'm going to be concentrating on Yarndale work for the next few months. I'm planning on re-starting my creative crochet workshops in the Autumn with a brand new project and I'm reaaaaaaaaaaally excited about my ideas for this new workshop. The very thought of it makes me want to jump up and down!

Now then, do you remember me making this promise??

Can you guess what'll be flying into the Attic very, very soon???

Oh yeah, get ready for some Birdie Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

The Studio Story

Open Studio :: June 2013

Workshops

Busy Days

Good Bits

♥ loving the brilliant colours of a hot summer's day ♥

♥ chatting to my little nasturtium seedlings and willing them to survive  and thrive (our one and only sunflower seedling was cruelly taken from us one damp night, and the PuMpKiN seeds have yet to put in appearance :() ♥

♥ walking home along the canal tow path one hot afternoon and deciding to treat Little B to an ice cream. His excitement and gratitude were heart warming ♥

♥ delighting in watching him devour the aforementioned ice cream, talk about total enjoyment from start to finish ♥

♥ more gorgeous, rambling roses in my neighbourhood making me smile as I walk home, love love love ♥

♥ fresh, home grown veggies, the very best kind of gift from a friend ♥

♥ enjoying the loom band craze which the Little People are fully engaged with, it's brilliant to see them so absorbed in the pleasures of choosing colours and creating their own designs ♥

♥ watching Little B come home from nursery to discover that his big brother had made him his very own paper boat, he was sooooo chuffed ♥

♥ Little B writing his big brother a tHANK yOu note and taping it to his bedroom door as a return surprise following the paper boat discovery ♥

♥ walking into the studio one morning to find that Tracy had arranged some of her garden flowers on the table ♥

♥ despite still feeling a bit on the rubbish side, I've been gently working away on some new ideas this week, enjoying a good latté and the quiet of my studio ♥

♥ hooking up some easy, chunky rows in cheerful colours, the perfect sort of simple crochet when one is feeling Under the Weather ♥

♥ with only eleven weeks to go until Yarndale (!) I'm starting to work hard on my Yarn Bomb Masterplan. I'm off to a  good start I think ♥

♥ waking up to the sight of fresh flowers next to my bed each morning has made me feel unbelievably happy this week ♥

xx thank you xx for all your kind messages on my last post. Thank you very much. I've had a tough week and still feel as if my internal batteries are completely flat, but am trying to take it gently and rest whenever possible so that I can evict these pesky germs. Despite the low feelings, there have been plenty of Good Bits to make me smile this week.

Wishing you a weekend full of happiness, hope you find lots of good bits to make you smile...

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Under the Weather

I've not been feeling very well these past few days, decidedly under the weather in fact. I'm pretty sure I'm under attack from some sort of lurgy, although the symptoms are mild (weird ears, a bit of a silly cough, slightly wibbly legs and you know that feeling when the surface of your skin feels unwell?). Truthfully the thing that is really hampering me at the minute is the most extreme tiredness. Oh boy, soooooo tired. Take yesterday for example. I hadn't been feeling good all day, but tried to push it to one side and carry on as I have a great many things to do right now. Around about 4pm I went to sit in the sunshine in my back yard to partake in a little bit of mindful nothingness. I just needed to sit and be still and allow my body to rest before cooking dinner. The next thing I know, my neighbour is gently waking me up from the deepest sort of vertical sleep. I had fallen asleep sitting in my chair and had dreamt vividly that I was back in India. I was completely stunned to wake up in my own back yard and not actually in the streets of Delhi, as that's where I really thought I was!

Earlier in the afternoon I had summoned up enough energy to re-make my bed, with much snorting of the freshly laundered, line-dried, sun-warmed cotton bedding. The scent of clean, air dried cotton bedding is one of my most favourite household smells, I love it so much. Do you know, I actually know someone who changes her bedding every single day, even irons it too and as much as I know that is completely and utterly crazy-bonkers, a small part of me can see the appeal.

As I was slowly and laboriously making up my bed with arms that felt like limp bits of string and legs that were all wibbly, I began to formulate an early-to-bed Body Rescue Plan. I decided I would treat myself to a super-early night. I absolutely could not WAIT to get into my bed. I went outside and snipped a few stems of flowers to pop on my bedside table. I smoothed the sheets and made sure my little blue bottle of Neals Yard Remedy was there. I then photographed it because doing these simple things suddenly made me feel so happy that I wanted to remember that feeling. The simple, blissful anticipation of a loooong night of much needed sleep to help get me back on track.

I managed to make dinner, dish it up and plonk it on the table before informing my very surprised family that I was off to bed. Yes, I know it's only 5.45, but night night from me. I don't think they could believe it!

I'm so glad I listened to my body and took that extra time to rest. Feeling a tad better today, but you know what? 8.30pm and I am about to tiptoe up and put myself right there between those cool cotton sheets, with my head on those plump rosy pillows. Maybe tomorrow I might wake up feeling my usual chirpy, bouncy self, here's hoping.

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ps my wonderful Toadstool Night Light is one of my favourite bedroom accessories. It provides a soft glow, perfect for those times when the other half has gone to bed first and you come to bed much later, entering into a pitch black bedroom, stumbling around trying not to bang into things and fall over in the dark. Yes, this little toadstool deals with that tricky situation rather nicely, giving enough light to see by, but not enough to keep the other half awake and grumbling. Can highly recommend it for maintaining good Bedroom Relations.

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Summertime?

Little Wishes

This week

Dorset Summer 2012 :: days 5&6

Saturday Mornings

At The Weekend

At the weekend we were treated to brilliant blue skies and high doses of welcome warm sunshine. Perfect July weather in actual fact, and even more welcome than usual as we had Outdoor Weekend Activity planned.

On Saturday we joined the happy masses and stood (slightly precariously) on the side of a little hillock at the edge of a big roundabout on the outskirts of our town. We stood, we sat, we fidgeted, we waited, we ate sweets, we slid up and down on our bottoms (well Little B did), we huffed a bit and got impatient, we got a bit bored with waiting the one-point-five hours for The Anticipated Arrival. But finally, after all that hanging about, we watched in stunned amazement as 198 bicycles whizzed by at super-fast speed. Whoooooooooosh. And in that one minute of shouting, clapping and cheering we were most definitely a part of the great Yorkshire crowd that turned out in their thousands to welcome the Tour de France to our beloved patch of northern England.

The above photo shows the Peloton racing up through the centre of my town (are you impressed with my newly acquired cycling lingo?). I'm very sorry I would love to credit this photo but I found it on t'internet and now can't trace the origin. It was taken from the top of the church tower, and is a great view of the town.

This photo was taken by a police helicopter, I really do love aerial photos so much, they give such a unique and fascinating perspective of familiar places. When we came home from the hillock beside the roundabout, we watched a recording of the Tour de France on TV so that we could see our local landscape unfold on the screen. I have to say, it made my heart lurch a little at the sight of all that lush green, the Yorkshire Dales are looking spectacular and I really appreciate the beauty of this place I now call home.

I was happy that we gave the Little People a chance to be a part of the Tour de France, I think they enjoyed the atmosphere even if the wait for the cycles was a tad too long. But gosh, being amongst all those thousands of people, well, I was glad to come home and sit for a little while in my peaceful, quiet back yard. Just me (and Bert the cat who stopped by for a visit), with my face turned up to the sunshine, alone with my own thoughts.

Sometimes, I think it can be incredibly hard to grant ourselves permission to just sit still and be. I know I don't do it often in my days, am very rarely sat still with nothing doing. But it feels soooo good sometimes to do that very simple thing, to sit, listen to the sounds of the immediate surroundings (jackdaws caw-cawing), feel the air touching your face (it was breezy), close your eyes (warm, sunny) and just drift in and out of thoughts and memories. I think this might be described as a kind of Mindfulness (do go read about it, fascinating stuff), do any of you practice this?

On Sunday morning I opened up the back door, put my apron on over my pyjamas and baked a cake. I buy my eggs from the local butcher and the colour of the yolks never fails to surprise me. I always expect them to be yellow, but they are always, always orange. I made lemon drizzle cake, such an easy, never-fail recipe (right here, if you fancy making it, you can impress your friends and family with it's light, moist zestiness).

Warm, freshly baked lemon drizzle cake is just divine and goes exceptionally well with a morning coffee. I took some time yesterday to catch up with a bit of reading while I was inhaling my cake, I have a magazine backlog which I'm working on eliminating.

Later in the afternoon, I felt the need to do some work. I say "work" in the loosest sense, as this is actually yarn bombing crochet work in progress for Yarndale. I set up my work station outside in the back yard, it was a bit like working in a laundry, but I didn't mind that so much.

LOOK!!!!!!!!!!!! What do you think of my YARN letters??! I am pretty impressed with them, they were great fun to make using a super-duper set of free Alphabet crochet patterns found on Moogly blog. The patterns are very well written, and when I had a little trouble with the "A" I used the fab video tutorial provided.

I made eight letters in total to spell out the word YARNDALE (I'm making woolly direction signs, like you do). It was really lovely to go back to the Stylecraft Chunky yarn on a satisfyingly chunky 6mm hook, that yarn is just so crazily SqUiDgY and produced the most beautiful, soft, squidgy letters!!! Once they're off the hook they do need to be given the Steam Spa treatment, they stop curling then and sit nice and neat and behave beautifully.

Worked in this yarn on a 6mm hook, the letters measured 12cm tall. I had Double Assistance yesterday afternoon with my photo shoot (oh I have some hilarious photos of Little B here, working the letters). Here is Little Lady telling me I need to have some wool going along the bottom Mum, like this look, see?

Oh, ok, yes, good job Little Lady, you have won me over with that line of red.

I've already made a second YARNDALE word and have started to crochet a striped background to accommodate the words in banner form (I need an arrow too, mustn't forget to do that). I realise that this vital hooky yarn bomb activity is truthfully an avoidance tactic re the 200+ mandalas waiting to be opened, stacked, photographed, uploaded, re-sized and Pinterested, but it was Sunday yesterday and back yard crochet yarn bombing work seemed to be an OK type of work to do on a day of rest. Mandalas tomorrow I think. I'll get some strong coffee on the go, a small slab of lemon drizzle cake and set to.

I just want to mention a little something re the Chunky Yarn, do you remember the Raindrops cushion I made with it, and the Jolly Chunky bag?

Well, you can buy this colourful pack of squidgey soft yarn from my very own Attic24 shop, nestled inside the rather wonderful Wool Warehouse. That's 800g of soft, chunky, bouncy yarn, it's such a joy to work with and I'm going to be doing much of my yarn bombing work with it (treble crochet rows grow deliciously fast on a 6mm hook!). I'll be adding more colour packs to my shop, including the pack for my latest Coastal Ripple blanket which is now finished and awaiting it's Ta-dah moment..................

You can expect a cool, coastal reveal very soon my friends, this is one seriously lovely summer blanket, loaded with seaside memories. Can't wait to show you!

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Mandala Wheels for Yarndale

Water and Sky

Outdoor Living

Riverside Pleasure

Yarndale 2013 :: The Yarn Bombing