Attic24

Blanket Planning with Yarn Pegs

I love making these blog posts to share with you all, I've had the best time faffing about with my yarn pegs and camera and uploading all the images this morning. Many of you will be very familiar with my yarn pegs and the way I use them to help me choose and arrange colours for my crochet blanket projects. I receive a lot of questions about my pegs on social media, so thought it might be helpful to share some more details.

First of all, the pegs themselves - they are cheap and cheerful wooden clothes pegs (clothespins in the US) - here in my town I can buy a pack of 24 for about £1 in the supermarket or cheap home store. You can find them easily online too {Amazon UK :: Amazon US}. Before I wrap the yarn, I write the colour name on the end of the peg (the end that you press, not the end that grips) using a fine biro type pen. To start off your yarn, secure the end with the grippy bit of the peg, leaving a small tail end sticking out (above)

Now begin wrapping the yarn around the peg - cover over the tail end and keep a tight, even tension as you wrap.

Wrap the yarn evenly and tightly up the length of the peg in a single layer, stopping when you get to the point just below the colour name.

Now keeping the yarn nice and tight, wrap it over and over back down the length of your peg so that you end up back where you started (down at the grippy end of the peg). Pull the yarn tightly up between the two grippy prongs at the bottom of the peg - pull it really as tight as you can so that the yarn lodges itself snuggly. Now snip the yarn off close to the peg.....

....and that's your yarn peg made. Pop your wrapped up pegs in a pretty bowl or a small bag and keep them handy for reference  - it's a lovely practical way to keep a track of colour names once you've taken the paper band of your yarn balls. But they really come into their own when planning and I truly wouldn't manage without mine. My yarn pegs are an essential bit of planning kit.

Usually my pegs live in my studio as I play with them almost every day when I'm there. I have them in a shallow ceramic dish on my studio table so that they are always to hand when I need a fix for my colour addiction, yeah, colour-junkie that I am ;) As I've been at home a lot more of late whilst I recover my energy levels, I decided to bring my pegs home for a bit. I found I missed my fix (can't do cold turkey I'm afraid) especially at this time of year when much of my time is spent planning and pondering. It's been fun to have them here at home, if a little distracting at times. I've found myself walking around with them, not even realising that I'd picked up the tray in the first place. It's as if my colour-seeking brain homes in on them, looking for a  solution to my over-stimulated and foggy thought processes as I try and make sense of my colour plans.

I want to try and explain a little bit about how I work when I'm planning a blanket or playing with colour ideas. So much of what I do is instinctive, but I think it might be possible to dissect the process a little and talk about it with you here.

The first thing to say is that I don't often dive into my colour pegs cold - I usually have some sort of an idea or a point of reference before I try and translate into colour. It might be an image, a photograph, a memory, a feeling even. Sometimes the reference is very clear (eg. the colours on the front of a magazine), and sometimes it is maddeningly vague. I often have strong memories/thoughts which evoke an emotion I feel like I want to translate into colour (eg that feeling when there is the first whiff of Spring in the air after a long winter) - this is quite hard to capture straight away and I often ponder on these "colour feelings" for a long time before settling.

For my blankets, I find that I naturally settle for odd numbers of colours, 15 being my favourite. Fifteen seems just right somehow, it's five groups of three and my brain likes that. Fifteen gives enough room for contrast and interest, whilst still maintaining a harmonious whole. I usually start with my favourite colours first - for me this is always the blue/green part of the colour wheel. Once my favourite blue/greens have been selected, I move out around the colour wheel and choose some purples and pinks. Then I decide how much heat I'd like in there - how much of the red/orange/yellow should I include to balance it all out? Sometimes neutrals/greys come in, sometimes they don't. Sometimes I don't have any heat at all (like my Harmony colours which are all blues/green/purples/pinks).

One thing about my colour palettes which never seems to alter - they are all very balanced without too much contrast. By that I mean I don't tend to go for very dark or very light colours in the mix. That is my "signature" I guess, the thing that defines my colour choices more than the colours themselves.

Once I've made my yarn peg colour wheel and everything is looking balanced and harmonious, I jumble the colours up and see how they start to play with each other. This gives me a chance to fine-tune the selection, to see if any colours are standing out too much or not playing nicely with the rest. Usually by this stage I'm really happy with my choices, often I'm positively jumping off the walls with excitement. The final test comes now.....

.....I have a go at ordering the colours as if I was planning a random stripe. I try hard to resist the urge to rainbowify them, and instead look for some unlikely but lively juxtapositions as well as some harmonious runs. This is a lot of fun, and I do spend a long time messing about here.

I photograph much of this process so that I have a record of my colour-thoughts. Often these playtime sessions will result in the whole lot being thrown back into the bowl without much of a second thought, but it's very useful to be able to revisit the images at a later date. The yarn pegs I showed you yesterday (inspired by Mollie Makes magazine and a greetings card) were made a year ago in January 2015 - I had pretty much forgotten them, but when I look at the photos I can remember exactly why I was pondering on those colours at that time, there are strong memories attached for sure.

At the weekend, I thought it would be interesting to present my yarn pegs to the Little People and see what they might come up with. Children generally have a terrific, natural instinct for colours which is based purely on the colours they "like", so it's fun to watch them make their selection and talk about their choices. I told them they had to choose fifteen shades, and that they should start by choosing their favourites first.

The above yarn wheel was Little Lady's choice - she started out with purples (her favourite colours), then moved into the browns. She balanced these with a selection of soft bluey-greens, and then popped in the Citron because she said it was warm and sunny and she liked it, and the Apricot because she said it was too pretty to leave out. I loved her brown/purple/soft blue choices, but really couldn't handle the Citron and the Petrol was jumping out at me as it didn't seem to want to play with the other colours at all. So I swapped those out............................

..............I took out Citron and replaced with Lemon. Took out Petrol and replaced with Sage. So basically these are the same colours, but softer versions, and Little Lady thoroughly approved.

The above yarn wheel was Little Lady's second go - again she started out with the purple/pinks, then balanced them out with blues and greens. I was surprised she chose the very dark shades (Burgundy and Emperor) but they look terrific here, and the whole colour balance is really great. Interestingly, no yellow this time!

So this is Little Man's yarn wheel, and I absolutely love it. He started with greys and the dark shades of blue (typical choice for a teen boy), then moved through the colour wheel and added in the deep greens. I expected him to perhaps put in some dark reds next (I offered up Claret and Burgundy, but he didn't like them one bit). He finally settled on some spicy heat to balance out the cool of all those blues, and wow, those hot colours really transformed the palette. Just put your hands on the screen and cover up the gold, spice and tomato and see how it dramatically alters? I felt really excited by this yarn wheel and could instantly see a bold, stripy blanket. I asked him if he would like me to make him a blanket in these colours, and truthfully he looked at me as if I was absolutely insane. Oh, that look. It was withering in the extreme. So that'll be a no then. Ohhhhh-kay, lets step away from the pegs then.

If you are wondering about my little six year old, he could not be persuaded to play with my pegs at all. No, no, no. He just didn't want to concentrate and apply himself, which is completely fair enough. I couldn't even tell you what his favourite colour is, he is a child that will not be pinned down to anything, quite the strong spirit that one.

Do you know what your favourite colour is? Do you have colours that you are instinctively drawn to? Are you there with the cool blues and greens, or do the fiery reds and oranges float your boat? Maybe you're a pink and purple kind of a girl? Do you like rainbows? Brights? Pastels? Vintage tones? Earthy colours?

Isn't it just the most amazing thing to be able to feel colour???!!!!! Love love love love love, times a gazillion.

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ps. the yarn on my pegs is all Stylecraft Special DK.

pps. this is not a sponsored post, just me being a colour-junkie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blanket Planning

Today in the Attic we are going to have ourselves a bit of a....

....c o l o u r ~ f e s t....

....yippeeeee!!! There's nothing I enjoy more than messing about with colour and yarn, and I've got some lovely colour-filled ideas to share with you today. Colour palettes are crowding my mind day and night just now as I'm busy working on new crochet designs and projects. Playing and working with colour is an exhilarating way to be creative, I absolutely love the shivers of excitement that buzz buzz buzz when I work on colour ideas. It makes me so happy! Of course, the colour palettes I choose are just the beginning of a wonderful creative journey, but it's very important to get this part right. A bit like a map I guess - sometimes it's fun to spontaneously set out on your travels with only a vague idea of where you're going, but usually it's a good idea to use a map and plan your route.

Whenever I start planning a new crochet blanket, the choosing of colours takes top priority over the choosing of a pattern. Sometimes the colour selection is a very speedy affair and comes together within minutes. Other times I mull it over for many weeks and months before settling on a final decision. It's just such a fun, happy thing to do, I love love love love love it! I really enjoy bringing together a selection of colours that will sing in harmony and tell a particular story or evoke special memories. The above picture shows six colour palettes that I've used to make blankets during the past five years. Each one reminds me of a specific time or place, inspired by nature or relating to happy times spent with my family. 

{top row left to right : coast : cottage : cosy ♥ bottom row left to right : harmony : original : sunny}

This is the original colour selection of Stylecraft Special DK I chose way back in the Spring of 2010. I remember selecting these 17 colours in my local yarn shop, pulling the balls down from the shelf and arranging them on the floor of the shop until I fell in love with what I saw. It was so speedy, I remember that I just allowed my heart to tell my eyes which colours made me feel h-a-p-p-y. I then went on to use these colours to make a colourful Granny Stripe blanket for our caravan, and this colour palette now reminds me of all the wonderful family holidays we've had with our beloved Connievan.

 

These colours I called "Coast" and they were inspired by my childhood growing up by the sea in Dorset. It tells the story of sea and sky, of grassy cliff tops and pebble beaches. I crocheted these cool, calm colours into a ripple blanket in the Spring/Summer of 2014.

I chose these colours at the same time that I chose the coast colours, and the two blankets are a bit like brother and sister. This palette I called "Cottage" and it was inspired by my Mum's pretty cottage garden in Dorset. The story here is of warm terracotta, curvy stone paths, fragrant herbs, summer skies and the pretty colours of sweet peas, clematis, lavender and roses. The Cottage ripple blanket reminds me of Summer holidays and special family times.

Ah, here are my "Cosy" colours, how I LOVE this colour palette! These beautiful, warm, rich colours are inspired by the abundance of colour found in leaves, seeds, berries and flowers during the Autumn season. It makes me feel a teensy bit warm and fuzzy just looking at these colours and remembering the pure pleasure of this cosy blanket journey.

This colour palette is named "Harmony" and I love the calm and gentle nature of these soft blues, greens, purples and pinks. The inspiration for this blanket came from my favourite time of year (when Spring merges with Summer) and makes me think of bluebells and blossom, of babbling rivers and sun dappled woodland. The Harmony blanket was a joy to make and reminds me of riverside picnics and Sunday morning walks.

You will probably all be familiar with these "Sunny colours" as it was only last month that I completed this blanket. These colours are bright and cheery, bold and feisty, and remind me of hot summer days, big pots overflowing with bright summer flowers, lazy days, flipflops and bare arms. They are happy and carefree, and the Sunny Log Cabin blanket is one of my all time favourite makes.

My blankets do all have a very recognisable feel to them - the colours are harmonious and well balanced and very definitely "me" in a way that's hard to define in words. I love that they all have such vivid memories attached to them, and that they mean something very personal to me. Each blanket represents a bundle of personal memories and they are all very heavily inspired by colours of the seasons. I guess I have found an instinctive way to choose colours and make blankets that feels natural and genuine - I'm not influenced by what others are making or what's on-trend. This is just me making blankets for my home using colours that make me happy.

Most days I will find myself having a jolly good play around with yarn colours, it's become a bit of an addiction to tell the truth. You may remember the Stylecraft Colour competition that I helped to judge last year - I've become very familiar with this yarn during the 5+ years that I've crocheted blankets with it and know the ins and outs of the colours very well. There are now 83 (eighty three!) shades to play with in the Stylecraft Special DK, and I am very lucky to have most of those colours on my shelves here in the studio.  

Although my colour palettes generally come from within my own memory banks, I do also keep a kind of a visual colour journal of images which inspire me. Sometimes it might be an image on the internet (I have a colour board on Pinterest where I collect images that inspire), and sometimes it might be images in a book or magazine that have me reaching for my bowl of yarn pegs. I take photos of my pegs with the image, then file them away on my computer for future pondering. The above two images were inspired by the pages of Mollie Makes magazine which has a very distinctive colour palette, it's a sort of eclectic vintage/retro/neon brights mix which I find very appealing.

I also collect greetings cards and postcards, labels, wrapping papers, snippets from brochures, magazines, leaflets, catalogues. I keep anything that sparks a happy feeling or sets my creative colour cogs whirring, I'll have to show you my scrapbook pages sometime. I tend to live life with eyes and heart wide, wide open, seeking pleasure in my surroundings and soaking up inspiration wherever I can find it. I just love the thread of colourfulness that runs through my days, it makes me very very very happy.

Yesterday I started a new blanket, oh deep joy! I've decided to make another Cosy Stripe blanket using a palette of beautiful, soft colours which are very pretty and Spring-like. The colours were originally inspired by one of my lovely Facebook followers (thank you Sheena!) who wrote to me and asked if I could create a cupcake-inspired colour palette for her. The idea was so appealing I just couldn't resist, and so here I am at the start of another blanket making journey. There will be a yarn pack coming to my shop in April if you fancy hooking up some sweet stripes for Spring - I'll keep you updated with my progress. 

Oh yes, I even made myself a cupcake board on Pinterest  - do go and feast your eyes, it's quite the most delicious inspiration.

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Februaryish

We're having some very moody weather at the moment, the whip end of some storm with a name that I can't remember right now*. Fierce, blustery winds and rain, rain, rain, the sort of weather that tells you in no uncertain terms not to venture out unless absolutely necessary.

On Sunday morning there was a brief respite from the thrashing storm - still moody and windy, but some beautiful fleeting little shafts of golden sunlight and at long last, no rain. No rain!! Blinkin' 'eck, lets get out there..............!

We seized the opportunity to get out for a short walk, herding the little people into clothes, boots, coats and into the car pronto before they could grasp what was happening to their sleepy little Sunday morning bodies. The time stamp on these photos is 08:26, I can hardly compute that we actually managed to pull this off.

We went on a local walk we know and love only a couple miles from the Attic. It provides a short stint around the circumference of the water which is enough to persuade the Little Peeps that it's do-able in under an hour and maybe-possibly even enjoyable for goodness sakes. There was lots of mud, there was a running fall with a bumped knee and streaming tears, there were cold feet, ears and fingers. But there was also chocolate and fresh air, chatter and banter. There were scudding clouds and the most exquisite light. It was worth the effort, it really, truly was.

Amazingly, we were back home by 09:30, and the rest of a lazy, indoor Sunday stretched deliciously ahead (and laundry free, woohooo!!). We definitely saw the best of the weather in the early morning, it wasn't long before the rain came lashing down again and boy, were we all glad that we were home for the duration.

Little B discovered the joys of colouring this weekend - not any old colouring you understand, but what he sweetly calls "grown up colouring". He sits with me at the computer, scrutinising the images of Adult Colouring Pages on the screen until he settles on one that appeals. His choices are oddly endearing and despite me pleading with him to choose the owl, choose the owl! he poo-poos the animals and settles for mandalas and wordy things instead. Little B is a child who loves a challenge and he has shown amazing staying power with this colouring lark. He chooses his colours thoughtfully and uses the pens with surprising skill for a just turned six year old. He completed the above colouring over two days, and yes, yes of course I joined in, you didn't expect me to resist did you? Well actually the kidlett did ask me to join in, he asked for me to sit at the table and do some colouring with him, and it was the most delightful fun. And I promise I only took pens to about a quarter of the above, the majority is Little B's own work. He is very proud of his efforts, we dated and laminated it and everything.

Mid morning I did have to pop back outside, oooo it was so cold out there! I only nipped out into the back yard to visit my pot of rosemary.....

....a few sprigs to bring in for J who was busy wearing his very own pinny and making a jolly fine mess in the kitchen. Cripes, that man uses about 37 little dishes and bowls and pans and spoons of various size to make one single meal. I mean, is it really necessary to measure out herbs and spices and place them in a little dish in advance of them going into the pan? But listen, I am not complaining, that man of mine does enjoy cooking and Winter cooking is his fave. Warming stews and fiery curries are his speciality, which makes for a perfectly great Februaryish meal.

On Sunday he rustled up a most delicious Beef Hotpot in the slow cooker and we were treated to seven hours of mouth watering cooking smells before tucking in to the meal itself. It was yummy, even more so because it was cooked by someone other than me.

Slow cooker cooking is just perfect for Winter weekends, there is nothing better than sitting in front of the fire crocheting all afternoon, knowing that the evening meal is merrily cooking itself. I can highly recommend it.

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* I just did a little flit through google to find out the name of the current storm ("Imogen") - absolutely fascinating reading. So it'll be Storm  Jake next then, I bloody love possessing weather related knowledge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baked Kale Crisps

In my quest to fortify my low iron stores, I've found myself loitering in the veggie aisle in the supermarket checking out all the green stuff on offer (tender stem broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli, cavelo nero, spinach etc). Although I can't say I've been totally inspired but the thought of cooking and eating so much green stuff, I've still been buying bits of it and feeding it to the fam. I've been adding handfuls of baby spinach to anything I'm cooking that has a bit of sauce to accommodate a leafy addition (eg meatballs in a home made tomato sauce with a big handful of added spinach). And today I baked up some kale crisps. Eating green leafy stuff as an appetising mid morning snack is kind of weird but wonderful you know.

The supermarkets sell bags of ready prepared kale that's been shredded and most of the tough stalky bits removed already. I would normally buy a bag of this to feed to Pip and Lola (our guinea pigs adore kale), but today it was mine, all mine.

Kale crisps are very easy to make. The trick to making your kale lovely and crispy (as opposed to shrivelled and limp) is in the open arrangement of it on a baking tray, and a longer cooking at a lower temperature than most online recipes tell you.

The only other ingredients you need are a drizzle of olive oil and a generous seasoning of sea salt.

Pop your kale into a bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil (about half a tablespoon is all), add a liberal sprinkling of salt, then get in there with your hands. You need to massage those green leaves until they are completely coated with oil and looking all shiny.

Tip your oiled up kale onto a baking sheet or large oven tray and make sure it's spread out in a single layer with a bit of breathing space. Use two trays if necessary. It must be spread out thinly or else it will steam cook and lead to limp disappointment.

Now bake at a fairly low temperature {300 F / 150 C} for 20-25 minutes. You will begin to smell it cooking, keep an eye on it in the last five minutes or so as you really don't want it to burn. Burnt kale is destined for the bin, let me tell you, it is horrid. You need to take it out when it feels crisp and brittle and is very lightly browned around the edges - leave it on the tray for a further few mins to cool and crisp up some more.....

....then tip it into a bowl and tuck in.

If you've ever eaten crispy seaweed in a Chinese restaurant, this is very, very similar. It's really rather yummy, and incredibly moreish.

You will not want to share. You will resent anyone coming anywhere close, you will guard your bowl of crispy kale and fight off intruders with surprising force. You will have your mouth completely full of kale and you will think to yourself that you really ought to feed this to the children as it's such a healthy snack and so much better for them than a packet of normal crisps.....

......but suddenly the bowl is empty. Oh. Oh! Did I really just eat 200g of kale? All by myself? In one sitting? Cripes. Well it's medicinal and all that, my body obviously needed it. Can feel it doing me good already.

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ps top tip - if you've eaten kale crisps, do check your teeth in the mirror before you head out the front door and into public. Yeah, that.

 

 

 

 

 

Snowdrop Appreciation

On Monday morning I woke up feeling just a smidgeon brighter that I have done in quite a while. So after the school drop off I decided to try and manage a short walk, just a gentle stroll up the high street, past the castle.......

....and on past the small sheep field. All of a sudden the sun broke through the clouds and I was so happy to see those shafts of soft light making their way to me through the trees, oh so welcome on this rather cold, gloomy February morning. I carried on walking, slowly, slowly, only a gentle hill but my body doesn't really allow me to do hills at the moment. Shuffle, shuffle, not too much further.....

....destination Snowdrop!

I love visiting this little patch every Winter, it's a small wild area where the very edge of the woods meets the road into the top of town.

Snowdrops are such unusual little flowers when you stop to look closely at them, and the effect of them carpeting the leafy ground in the depths of winter is stunning.

Truthfully, I would loved to have picked a few little sweet flowers to bring home with me. I could picture them all dainty in a teeny tiny little glass jar, nodding their sweet white heads and bringing me oodles of pleasure. But I know these are naughty thoughts and so I made myself content with capturing them on my camera.

I loitered around the wild patch at the side of the road, at the edge of the woods for quite a while, walking this way and that, pointing my camera, trying to capture the beauty of snowdrops-in-the-sunshine. I leaned over the fence, crouched down and stuck my arms through the fence. And then I straightened up and stood very still for a while, working out how my body was feeling, trying to decide what to do. Turn around and head back down into town? Or walk onwards and follow the pathway into the woodland?

I turned my back on the pavement and chose the muddy pathway, following this gloriously mossy stone wall which forms the top boundary of the woodland.

I am completely, crushingly in love with moss, and when I see it growing so joyfully over every standing-still brown thing, my heart honestly feels like it might implode with gladness. These vibrant green mounds take the edge off the pervading brown-ness of the winter woodland, they are just so full of life! I love it when moss shoots up these ultra-cute little things (what are they? Moss flowers? Moss seedheads? I want to know all about mossy goings on!), well I love those little shooty-up things most of all.

Ahh, here is the waterfall in the middle of the woodland - please note that I appear to be up above it rather than down beside it on the path there like I normally am. That would be because I managed to get myself completely lost following the mossy path, neglecting to turn at the point where I should have turned. I walked on and on and on, and it was raining, and my beloved red boots became caked in mud. I do not possess any sense of direction, the place in my brain where there should be a logical compass is just an empty space. I think I walked around the edge of the soggy woodland for about an hour until eventually, I ended up at a point that I recognised. It was waaaaay off the pathway that I should have been on, but at least it was familiar and I was able to descend  down the steep bank and pretend that I was never, ever lost at all. Just taking the scenic route.

I was very, very tired by this point, my legs had decided to mimic the tree trunks and turn themselves into lumps of wood.

But it had been such a lovely little unplanned walk, and the memories of the snowdrop carpet and mossy walls and tumbling water stayed with  me as I made my way slowly home.

The homeward route from the woods conveniently goes right past the local Bakery which has a brass door handle in he shape of a croissant. I decided that the only treatment for Wooden Leg Syndrome is a soft iced bun popped into a paper bag, and carried carefully home so that it can accompany a mug of steaming hot coffee. It worked a treat. Whilst I was sipping my coffee and scoffing my bun, I thought about the snowdrops all over again, and it reminded me about the calendar that hangs next to my desk....

....this lovely calendar was a free gift last year with one of my favourite magazines - Country Home and Interiors. I've been a subscriber to this magazine for almost a decade, and I can tell you that in recent years it has consistently provided me with a huge amount of inspirational, seasonal visual pleasure. The free annual calendar has also given me a lot of pleasure over the years - those of you who've been visiting me here for a while may remember my years of "Calendar Posts" where each month I would share seasonal images from my various calendars? The Country Homes calendar was always known as the Bossy Calendar, as each image was usually accompanied by a command to do something or other. It did used to make me laugh.

This year, the theme is country flowers, and I thoroughly approve of charting the months in this way. How lovely! The photos are beautiful, and the text for each month is as charmingly bossy as ever.

So here we have January, which features the humble snowdrop and the following command >

"At the start of the year, bring bunches of velvety white snowdrops inside from the garden to display alongside glowing candlelight."

Oh, ok then! Excepting that I don't have  bunches of snowdrops growing in my garden. I don't have a garden which grows bunches of anything really. And I couldn't bring myself to steal even one single stem of a snowdrop from the wild patch at the edge of the woods. I shall just have to make do with pictures instead.....

....these beautiful pages are from last months Country Living magazine (Feb).

Oh just look at those delightful mossy pots! I really wish I had some mossy posts and pretty snowdrops of my own.

These sweet little flowers fill me with delight, and even though the colours on these pages are very pale and muted, they are just so right for this time of year. I do love a spot of seasonal colour.

I was inspired to have a little play with my yarn pegs and channel some inner winter snowdrop vibes. Mmmm...very restful and calming, wouldn't you say? A pretty Winter palette for January.

Mind you, seeing as we are now into February, I'll have to think up something floral and Februaryish to share with you now. You never know, I might even obey the Bossy Calendar this month, there is an instruction to go and look for paperwhite narcissus.......

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Winter Sunday

I've got some gorgeous tulips blooming away merrily on my table right now, they are really unbelievably lovely. They seem to be have an extra layer of petals which makes them sort of semi-ruffled and quite flouncy. I keep stopping in my tracks to gaze at them, looking right in to the depth of the blooms and drinking in the saturated colour. Delicious.

Early yesterday morning we prized our two youngest offspring out of the pyjamas and away from their screens and encouraged their protesting bodies into clothes, boots and coats. A short walk up the road and into the muddy woodland, for some fresh air and exercise. I tried my hardest to ignore the persistent drizzle and overwhelmingly drab brown-ness of it all. Squelchy brown mud, rainy brown puddles, soggy brown leaves, damp brown bark and bare, brown branches.

Thank goodness for moss and ivy adding some welcome, verdant green to the brown proceedings.

I noticed down in the squelchy mud, amongst the soggy brown leaves, that the wild garlic is already beginning to sprout. The sight of those brave little green shoots made me grin and whoop out loud. Good job the woods were deserted excepting for my family who understand and accommodate my strange ways. Yay for new green shoots, double yay for signs of Spring springing forth!!

We got home just after 10am, pleased to shed wet coats and kick off muddy boots and be home and dry again. I made mugs of hot chocolate with a full compliment of squirty cream on top for the Little People, much to their delight. It's what Brown Winter Sunday's are made of.

I've recently changed something of my weekend routine which has made a huge difference to my Sundays. It's just a small change, but it's amazing the way that Sunday now feels so different to me. Would you care to know what it is? Well, I've declared Sunday to be a Laundry Free Zone. My Sundays had begun to feel seriously dragged down by the drudge of getting clothes clean and ironed for the week ahead. I would get to 6pm on a Sunday evening with a heavy heart, hating that I had to spend the last precious hours of the weekend folding and sorting a huge mound of clothes and ironing all the school uniform. So a few weeks ago, I made sure that I got the first laundry load in and out of the washing machine on a Friday evening instead of waiting until Saturday. Then on Saturday I worked hard to get through the rest, inviting Little B to help me fold and sort it all on Saturday afternoon. He is a very willing helper, not always the speediest, but not a bad little sock pairer and clothes folder. Although he does rather approach the clothes folding like origami, so many intricate folds this way and that!. Early Saturday evening and I ploughed through the ironing of the shirts whilst listening to the radio. Take that, Tedious Laundry Chore.

When I woke up the following morning, I had the double pleasure of a) thinking it was Monday morning before realising that joy-of-joys it was still Sunday, and b) no laundry to deal with!! It was like a heavy grey rain cloud had been blown away and my day was declared free for leisurely pursuits and the seeking of pleasurable activity. Be gone, Sunday Laundry Cloud!!

So now the flavour and feel of my Sundays are very different and I am very glad. I LOVE waking up on Sunday mornings and thinking about what pleasures will fill my daylight hours. Yesterday, it was new books to browse through - such beauty, style and inspiration in those pages, I'm really looking forward to reading them properly and trying some of the projects. I can feel a few new mandalas coming on.......flowers too..........and maybe a cushion or two......

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ps thank you so much for all your kind thoughts and helpful advice on my last post. I'm still struggling, but I am determined that February will be a month full of positive thinking. Bring it on x