Attic24

Summer Plodding

✿ a walk to the farm shop on my own one morning last week, just because I didn't feel like going home. I bought a bar of my favourite chocolate and a take away milky coffee, then walked back through the park to my favourite bench to sit in the sun and consume the aforementioned refreshments.  It was a small window of relaxation in my busy week that I would probably have forgotten about if I hadn't just come across the above photo of my bench view. These are the same cherry trees that I photographed in this post back in May - in fact if you look at the 2nd to last photo in that post you'll see my favourite bench right there under the trees.

✿ pegging out the laundry and having a little tussle with the clematis. It's flowering beautifully this year whilst attempting to grow it's way along my washing line. I've decided to leave it be and peg around it as best as I can.

✿ A Sunday morning walk along the river - this is Linton Falls looking incredibly dry and depleted (you can see this same spot in my November post when the river was in full flow). 

✿ the heatwave continues here in he UK, with temperatures reaching 29°C (this is around 84°F which I know isn't at all hot for many of you in other parts of the world, but it is for us Brits!). I love the hot weather (love love love it) but it sure looks like hard work for those wearing a woolly fleece.

✿ plodding along the riverside, listening to the banter going back and forth between J and Little B. It was just the three of us on this Sunday morning as the two Teens were both off doing other things.

✿ a little bit wowed by this enormous tree fungus, it was as big as a stack of dinner plates. Somehow I always associate fungus with the Autumn season, but this summer-loving one was seriously impressive.

✿ love love loving a continuous succession of summer posies in various jugs and bottles on my table. Sweet peas, cosmos, lavender and lady's mantle looking unbelievably pretty. I've got sweet peas growing at the allotment and in a large pot in the back yard too - I can't say they are really producing an abundance of flowers just yet, but there are enough for me to pick small posies every week. I've got a little bottle of flowers beside my bed at the moment too, which makes me so happy.

✿ a family jaunt out on Saturday to the RHS gardens near Harrogate where it was all very beautiful, sunshiny and refined. In complete contrast to the calm, serene surroundings our youngest child decided to behave like a wild thing.  

✿ luckily there are parts of the gardens that are very suitable for wild-child behaviour, thank goodness for the open grassy slopes (roly-polys galore) and the woodland play areas (cue much wild running). I think all that restrained behaviour on the terrace at Betty's tearoom (not to mention the sugary drink and cookie that was consumed on said terrace) simply needed an outlet. It was simultaneously worrying and inspiring watching that child deal with his excess energy.

✿ the last time we came to HC was many years ago when I was carrying Little B inside my tummy and it was Autumn time then. The gardens are an absolute delight in the height of summer, I was on visual overload for a while.

✿ I adored this wild flower meadow planted next to the kitchen garden, it was humming with bees and was such a feast for the eyes and the soul.

✿ there was so much about the gardens that I enjoyed - the alpine house, the kitchen garden, the ginomrous terracota pots overflowing with summer flowers, the willow sculptures....it was all very, very lovely. I wish I'd taken more photos, especially of the kitchen garden which was totally inspirational and made me wish for more time and energy to give to our allotment plot.

✿ J and I have been walking in the countryside every chance we get and I have so enjoyed being out and about making the most of the weather and the summer season. On Sunday all three of our offspring happened to be busy with friends so we took ourselves off to Bolton Abbey and walked the whole length and breadth of the estate. From Barden Bridge at one end down to the Abbey at the other end, crossing back and forth over the three river bridges in a big loop. I think it was around 7 or 8 miles in total and was such a lovely walk.

✿ at the start of this week we had our first proper downpour of rain in almost two months. A muggy grey day of low cloud and light drizzle, followed by heavy rainfall in the evening. The air smelt amazing and was the very definition of the word petrichor. It was just the most calming and relaxing thing to be sat quietly in bed with the window wide open, listening to the sound of the rain falling.

✿ keeping up the watering regime at the allotment has been a struggle in this dry hot weather but we are plodding on with it. Our small number of crops are hanging on in there, some doing better than others. The spinach gave up early on and bolted, but we have high hopes for cucumbers and tomatoes which are looking very promising growing in the shelter of a small plastic tenty-type greenhouse thingy. I planted a row of dwarf beans and they are the smallest bean plants I have ever seen, barely reaching above my ankles. However, they are producing flowers and beans..........and yesterday I harvested the grand total of nine beans which was very exciting in a rather small, modest way. We ate them for dinner, sharing them out two each which was a bit of a joke but the Little People made the appropriate enthusiastic noises to keep me happy. Bless 'em. In case you were wondering, I added shop-bought sugar snap peas to the 2-bean offering so it wasn't quite as desperate as it sounds. 

✿ been playing with sweet peas this week, arranging them, faffing with them, photographing them and just plain enjoying their colourful beauty, like you do. 

✿ I really want to have a go at designing a crochet sweet pea flower so that I can make some to twine around a Summer wreath.  They are very three-dimensional flowers so I've found it hard in the past to look at photos of them and work out how the petal construction might work. But having the real thing to look at makes it very much easier, and the colours are really inspiring me and my summer loving heart. 

✿ not homegrown potatoes, but the mint is growing exuberantly in one of my many back yard pots. Yesterday's dinner offering was the nine allotment green beans (with added sugar snap peas), salmon filet marinated in olive oil/lemon/honey/garlic then pan fried, and baby new potatoes tossed in butter and fresh mint. It was light, tasty and utterly summery. I hope the Little People look back on their childhood family meals and remember how blinkin' good they were. I cook from scratch with fresh ingredients most nights, and having the five of us all sit down at the table to eat our evening meal together is one of the true highlights of my day. I may be totally rubbish at housework in general, but I do always try my bestest to do a good job with the food thing.

✿ a little bit of after dinner hooky in the back yard, crocheting the last run of ripples on this gorgeous summer cotton blanket. I think I've only got around 6 stripes left to make, then it's onto the border. I'm so looking forward to telling you more about the yarn (which I've totally fallen in love with) and the two summer blankets that I've been steadily plodding away with since February. Not long to wait now.....I'm really pretty flipping excited to share, it drives me a bit bonkers to keep things under wraps for any length of time. I'll be feeling a whole load better once this is all out there, I can't wait!!!

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The Heat of Summer

In the heat of the Summer, J and I are making time to walk up and down the hot, dry hills and dales. It takes a certain amount of determination to take on a 7 mile hike in hot summer temperatures, climbing dusty tracks up steep, steep hills for the pleasure of a sweeping view. But we have absolutely loved the walks we've done in recent weeks - the weather has been stunning and I've so enjoyed spending this time outdoors stretching my muscles and soaking in all this sunshine we are being blessed with.

The above photo was taken a couple weeks ago as we climbed high above the picturesque village of Kettlewell. Gosh, it was a long steep climb and it was hot, hot, hot on this gorgeous summer morning.

We stopped beside the river to eat a picnic lunch and rest our weary feet and I was so glad to sit down for a while. When we walk in the Dales we are usually following  a circular route - sometimes we manage to complete the walk before we flop down and have something to eat, but often we like to pack a simple picnic and eat along the way. I do love the actual walking bit of a hike, but I enjoy our picnics with a scenic view the most. When I say our picnics are simple, they really are just that, but I love them so much! We buy individual pork pies from a local shop (either the farm shop or the butcher, so they are very, very good and freshly made pork pies), then take along a punnet of cherry tomatoes to go with the pie. Some fresh fruit (on this walk it was a bag of cherries from the farm shop) and some good dark chocolate. In winter we have a flask of coffee too, but summer walking just requires bottles of cold water. You may not know, but Skipton is rather famous for it's quality pork pies and we even have an award winning "celebrated pork pie establishment" in town (Stanforths) which has used the same recipe for more than 80 years. There - true local pie facts from the Attic!!

The rivers and reservoirs are very very low at the moment here in North Yorkshire as we've had very little rain during the past couple of months. But despite the lack of water the countryside is still looking green and beautiful which I'm grateful for. 

As well as the hill walking, the hot summer weather has drawn us to the riverside on a few occasions just recently. We've parked the car at Bolton Abbey and settled ourselves into some comfy camping chairs in the dappled shade of a tree for a few hours. When we are out and about during a school day we are constantly aware of the clock, so these peaceful riverside visits do have a time limit imposed on them. They give us just a couple of slow afternoon hours to sit, relax, daydream, read, crochet, ponder and chat before the school run calls us back into our parental routine. But oh, these hours do feel precious!

I'm working hard on my summer ripple blankets at the moment (yes, that's blanketS - there are two of them). I'm hoping that all being well with the good folks that produce the yarny balls, there will be new Summery yarn packs coming at the end of this month. Working on two blankets at once has meant a lot of crochet time over the past few months, but you will not in any way hear me complaining about that. I fall more deeply in love with crochet every day, and it's ability to be portable, sociable and all round fit-in-able makes it the perfect hand made package in my opinion. Add to that the fact that it has grade A therapeutic properties and you get a beautiful handmade blanket at the end of all that creative feel-good, well, it's just all-round amazing.

In total contrast to quiet riverside moments and parental routine, on Friday I hopped on a train and took myself off to Manchester for twenty four hours of not being a parent. It was an absolutely brilliant trip and I loved every minute of it. Manchester was my student city and I lived, studied and worked there for eight years in the late 80's and early 90's. It's where J and I met, and although it's changed a lot over the years, it's still a very exciting, vibrant and energetic city to experience for a short while. My Friday jaunt consisted of a fabulous lunch here, brilliant browsing here and here and afternoon tea and cake in a beautiful little cafe whose name I can't remember. The highlight of the day was an early evening ride in a lift up to the 23rd floor where we were treated to a window seat and bubbles in Cloud23 bar. I felt so far removed from my normal everyday self as I sat laughing and chatting in this luxurious setting, it was completely fabulous! The whole trip was made extra special by the  gorgeous friends I was spending time with - Christine and Emma, you are both wonderful, and I loved every second of our Manchester jaunt.

Back home from the city on Saturday, and this hot summer weather shows no signs of slowing down. I am love love loving it, honestly, I was made for weather like this. The sunshine, heat and blue skies energise me and make me happy in a way that cloudy grey just cannot do. I'm such a happy summer-loving bunny at the moment! I continue to tend to my back yard pots, watering them every day and enjoying the flowers and greenery very very much. I'm waiting patiently for my sweet peas and jasmine to flower, and my weeny yellow courgette babies to grow to an edible size. All is well in my little outdoor space (currently draped with laundry blowing in the breeze), and I am so grateful for the ease of it.

Back to the business of summer crochet, and here we have a small rainbow circle of pure happiness. This is all Little B's work, and I shall resist the temptation to squeal loudly in a fit of motherly pride. He doesn't crochet a lot, but every so often he seems to hit a period of complete and utter boredom, then sees me happily content with my hook and wants a slice of yarny pleasure for himself. He's a fast learner with a mathematical brain, so once we'd established the general idea of using  increases to create a circle, he was away with the idea and needed very little assistance from me. He is currently asking to be taught the ripple, so we shall see what that brings forth.  

I am enjoying the almost daily pleasure of pegging, un-pegging, folding and stacking sun-dried laundry from my back yard washing lines. The pile of whites always feels especially pleasing somehow after a stint of direct sunshine noticeably brightens up their whiteness. The Little People aren't so fond of the crispness of their air-dried clothes (they prefer the softness brought about by the tumble drier), but me? I'm super-happy with it all. Nothing beats the smell of sun dried cotton and if I had the inclination (and maybe a maid) I would wash my bedding every single day just so I could experience the joy of sleeping in freshly laundered, sun-kissed egyptian cotton every night.

It's so often the little things that make me happy, and these days I am full of gratitude for the simple fact of being able to turn on a tap and have great tasting, clean fresh cold water to drink on these hot days. I have to tell you that growing up in Dorset I really disliked the taste of the tap water (it's very, very chalky), and that Yorkshire tap water honestly tastes delicious to me. I've taken to using a 700ml drinking vessel which I love cos it's so easy to add handfuls of ice and slices of stuff without trying to squidge it all through the top of a bottle. My current favourite water additions are cucumber and lime slices with a few sprigs of fresh mint. Lots of ice. Give it a good shake so the mint bruises and releases it's cooling flavour and drink, drink, drink. I figure that if I drink at least two of these a day then I'm doing OK at staying reasonably hydrated.

Yesterday was a slow, delicious kind of a day, a day for pootling and pottering and leaving the car parked at the curb. After dropping Little B at school, J and I walked a few miles around the neighbourhood and through the woodland, taking the high paths through the trees that we wouldn't usually walk with the Little People. We stopped off in town for a quick coffee (outdoor seating, it felt just like being on the continent) before heading to the market, baker and supermarket. We've stopped taking the car for a weekly supermarket shopping trip, trying out the idea of shopping locally on foot as part of our daily routine. We've been trying to use the market more (a whole paper bag of cherries for £1!), the butcher, baker and of course the farm shop. 

We decided on the spur of the moment to take our lunch up to the park to eat, and afterwards to spend a few hours relaxing there. I had my crochet ripples (of course) and J was reading some news articles on his phone. We chatted about this and that, and after a while I found myself almost powerless to keep my eyes open. So I gave in and lay down on the blanket, drifting gently into the most delicious and unexpected afternoon snooze imaginable. It was so utterly peaceful and just what I didn't know I desperately needed. I didn't sleep for long, maybe 20 minutes or so, but I woke up feeling refreshed and full of summer joy. I've been fighting off a light summer cold as well as hayfever the past week or so, and I think I just needed that extra bit of shut eye. Later on, I was thinking back to the afternoon and the extra sleep I'd had, and I felt so grateful for the freedom of my days. I appreciate my freedom more than I'm able to put into words.

On the whole, these hot summer days have been pretty cloudless, but occasionally there is a gathering of wispy, feathery-light cirrus clouds overhead. These are definitely warm weather clouds and I just love the way they look against the blue of the summer sky.

Although we've passed the Summer Solstice and our days are now getting shorter (sob), they still feel pretty long and gloriously light-filled. We head to the allotment in the evenings to water the plants, when the sun is slanting low and everything is warm and mellow. 

I picked my first sweet pea flowers from the plot at the weekend, yipppeeeee!!!! It was a modest little bunch but I know that the more you pick, the more will grow so I'm hopeful for more sweet bunches as the summer goes on. The scent of them blew me away, they smell absolutely incredible. Even J was impressed and he normally can't stand smelly flowers. I've got them in a jug on my table with some lavender and cosmos and they look so pretty and full of summer vibes. 

I wonder if this post seems rather long and rambly to you, I feel as if I've waffled quite a bit haha! Needless to say, this hasn't been a planned post by any means, it's simply a collection of photos that capture the way my days are slowly unfolding at this time of year, and the rather random train of thoughts that surface as I look at them. I hope you've enjoyed your visit, I do so love chatting to you all!

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Making the Seasons :: June

As you have no doubt gathered by now I absolutely love having fresh flowers in the house and always try to have a jug of something pretty and floral on my dining table. Mostly the flowers I have indoors are cheap and cheerful seasonal market flowers, but at this time of year I prefer to have small home-grown posies in a jug, or even just a few tiny stems in an old glass ink bottle. Being able to go into my back yard and snip blooms to bring to the table is one of my all time favourite pleasures, gosh it makes me almost delirious with happiness to be able to do this simple thing.

This past week I've been enjoying a beautiful bunch of flowers bought very cheaply from the supermarket, although these aren't your typical supermarket offerings. I was thrilled (like almost peeing my pants excited) when I spotted a bucket of flower bunches labelled "Summer Growers Choice", or something like that (I knew I should have written it down, I just can't remember if these were the exact words, but you get the drift I hope?!). Each bunch was slightly different and contained a mixture of single stems, a real English cottage-style mixture which made me giddy with delight. I mean, just LOOOK at that delicious stem of pink snapdragons, isn't it ravishing?!!! 

But it was the daisy-like stems of Feverfew which really captured my heart. My Mum used to grow these all over the place, in the garden and at her allotment plot and I loved that she would have them in her cottage, spilling out of jugs and vases. Some people think that Feverfew is a weed as it freely self seeds and grows in the most unlikely of places. But it's actually a herb and has medicinal properties, although neither of those things matter much to me to be honest. Weed or herb, I don't particularly mind, I just love the old fashioned simplicity of this flower and the fact that it reminds me of Dorset and childhood.

Last week I'd been pondering on what I might like to make for the June edition of Making the Seasons, and knew it had to be something floral. Summer months are just overwhelmingly flowery in my mind, they really are. Inspired by the flowers on my table, I thought I might like to try stitching some daisies. Not just any old stitching, but that irresistible placement of weeny little crosses that has me so in it's grips at the moment.

I wanted my cross stitch to be small and simple - 2 shades of green, plus white and yellow.

A little square of pale grey 14 count aida and a dinky little 3 inch embroidery hoop.

Creating a design for such a small hoop is harder than it seems, and it feels like every single cross has to be very carefully considered and placed. However, I happen to LOVE this kind of design challenge and it didn't take me all that long to create a daisy design on my laptop that pleased me.

So do you see my lovely printed cross stitch chart??? I made that chart All By Myself!!!!!!!! Yes, I did indeed!!!! Well, with  a little bit of help from my other half. 

You see, my very, very, very talented and clever husbundo can write computer programs to do pretty much anything that tickles your fancy. So a few months ago when I casually told him that I might like to have a go at designing some cross stitch patterns, he offered to whip me up an app for my laptop. See how casual I made that sound?! In truth it took us a couple weeks to work on it together, and through trial and error with me figuring out what I needed as we went along we came up with a really fantastic and very workable cross stitch design app for me to play with.

I can select my thread colours to create a colour palette on my screen, then I'm able to click away on the little grid to fill each square with colour. It's soooooooo good!! 

Once I had my chart printed out I couldn't wait to get started on the stitching. As you can see, this is cross stitch on a very small scale so it didn't take long at all to stitch the stem and leaves.....

....and then start work on the flowers. As I stitched, I realised that I wanted to change one of the flowers (the little one on the right in the above photo, as it has no yellow centre showing and looked a bit forlorn). So I took my very sharp little scissors and hacked out the flower stitches completely (far harder to remove crosses than it is to frog crochet let me tell you), then went back to my computer, altered the chart and re-stitched...

.....ahhhhh, that's better!! So so so sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how proud I am of this dinky little design, it just pleases me so so much!

J's app also allows me to save these nifty stitch charts to my computer, so that I can then share them here on my blog if I want to.

I don't know if anyone is remotely interested in stitching themselves a tiny little daisy cross stitch, but if the idea grabs you then please feel free to use my chart :) If you want to print it out, you'll need to right click on the image, select copy image, then paste it into a word document to print.

You need 2 shades of green, plus white and a rich mustardy yellow. I used 3 strands of DMC embroidery thread when I made my cross stitches. And 14 count aida fabric, but I think I already said that.

The actual design (stitched on Aida 14) measures 5cm / 2 inches square. Find the centre of your fabric and start stitching from the centre of the design (which is marked on the chart). I think that's about it - cross stitch is pretty straight forward really.

This whole thing has been beyond exciting for me, and has opened up a delicious new part of my very greedy Creative Mind which is always on the look out for new things. Oh, the possibilities!!

Endless, exciting, thrilling possibilities for creating pretty seasonal designs to stitch with joy.

I can hardly contain myself.

The small scale of this 3 inch hoop is just delightful, and I really want to make more. More and more and more. For Summer, for Autumn, for every season throughout the year and everything nature inspired that makes me happy. I am thinking of little cross stitch strawberries now, or maybe some wispy summer grasses.........oh my heart!

I've popped my hoop on my mantel along with the feverfew daisies which found their way into my old glass ink bottle. I might eventually create a little bit of a display on the wall somewhere, if the stitched hoops start to grow and multiply and happen to become a collection.

So that's June for you, all joyful and stitchy and making my summer loving heart sing. I'm already wondering what July might be about, I never quite know what little seasonal thing will take a hold of my heart and bring forth a surge of creative inspiration. 

I hope you enjoy sharing in my seasonal inspirations and creative makes - you can find all previous months tagged in the {Making the Seasons} category. I love sharing my monthly making adventure with my bloggy friend Gillian - I've not seen her June project yet but I do know what it is and I am squeeeeeing with excitement waiting for her big reveal. We chat back and forth about our ideas and thoughts for each month, and it amazes me how different our individual styles are, but how similar our projects often turn out to be. This month we are especially in tune with each other......do go and see over on her blog Tales from a Happy House.

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Making the Seasons :: May

Hello, and welcome to the May edition of my "Making the Seasons" series of posts - this month is entirely inspired by wild flowers and a bit of botanical going's on, as that seems to be my current fixation. In case you were wondering about my Making The Seasons projects, there is absolutely no forward planning whatsoever for the things that I choose to do for these monthly posts that I'm creating with my friend Gillian. I'm not sure if Gill plans her projects in advance, but I can tell you that I don't seem to be able to. I just trust that  a seed of creative inspiration will germinate and flower at the right time for me to execute it, photograph it and then show it all to you before the month comes to an end. Gillian and I do chat back and forth via email about what's bubbling inside our creative minds and what sort of inspirations we are enjoying for the month we are currently in, but it generally feels rather abstract as I digest my seasonal feelings and try and decide on a creative direction for them. 

During the past few weeks I've felt really uplifted by the abundance of growth happening all around where I live, it's been really inspirational and therapeutic on so many levels. I've loved walking in the woods, strolling beside the river and jaunting through the meadow, observing and photographing all the flowers, grasses and trees that are bursting back into life after our long winter season. Usually I am content to just use my camera to capture what I see on my walks, but last week I felt compelled to gather a few stems to bring home with me.

Meadow flowers and grasses are so dainty and pretty, and it's easy to overlook the perfect details when you are walking past great swathes of them. Much better to have a stem or two to be able to appreciate all that delicate beauty up close. I spent a while just observing the arrangement of these teeny tiny cow parsley flowers, and thinking how fabulous nature is at design work. I know that these sweet little flowers have provided botanical inspiration for many designers - did you know that you can buy Cow Parsley wallpaper? Or how about some Cow Parsley fabric? Maybe you'd rather like a Cow Parsley jug instead? Ahh, I know just the thing - what do you think about a crochet Cow Parsley Garland?!!

It might surprise you to know that I didn't automatically reach for my yarn and crochet hook to capture all this wild flower beauty.

And I didn't gather fabric and threads to stitch with either.

What actually popped into my head were.......................

.......................pebbles!

Bet you didn't see that coming, did ya?!

As you might expect from a self confessed sea addict, I have a fair collection of beach finds here in the Attic which include a smooth pebble or two. Having pebbles sitting in the house comes in rather handy when a sudden urge to try some botanical pebble art springs out of nowhere. I decided that I wanted to try and translate my May walks into a lovely decorative reminder of the season, partly inspired by these...................

photo credit : Natasha Newton

.......oh will you just cast your eyes over the beauty of these painted pebbles! Aren't they gorgeous?

This is the work of artist Natasha Newton and I've had a big huge smoochy crush on Natasha's pebbles for years now. They are absolutely exquisite in their detail and precision and I seriously adore the simplicity of the white designs against the natural pebbly backgrounds. Natasha uses a very fine brush with white acrylic paint to decorate her pebbles (you can get a great feel for her artistic talent on her Instagram account), but to be honest I don't think I have enough painterly skillz to try this technique for myself.

What I do have to hand though, is a very, very good paint pen which makes light work of adding a decorative touch to pretty much any surface. It's a bit like having a Magic Pen, as almost anything that comes out of it ends up looking rather good. I didn't plan my design in advance, but went straight into it, trying to capture something of the delicate nature of the Cow Parsley....

....and actually, I don't think it came out looking too shabby for a first attempt.

Now before we go any further, I have to tell you a bit more about these Posca Pens. Ohmygoodness, they are pens of wonderment! The one I'm using has an Ultra Fine nib (0.7mm), but you can get fatter ones too. They use water-based pigment ink to produce paint-like colours that can be used on almost any surface. The ink evenly flows out of the nib making them super-easy to use, and although they are water-based, the resulting designs on pebbles are pretty water resistant from what I can tell.

I bought my white pens from Amazon {Posca Ultra Fine white pens on Amazon UK :: Amazon US}

You can also get some beautiful coloured Posca pens too, although so far I've resisted this temptation. There is something very soothing about using just white, and I've enjoyed the simplicity of this approach very much.

I dug out four smooth pebbles from my collection, decorating three of them with botanical designs and the roundest one with a simple mandala design. Painted mandala stones are a BIG thing out in the world wide web, oh there are huge numbers to be found on Pinterest (go on, I know you want to see. Go take a quick peek here, but don't be long - hurry back to the Attic once you've had your fill of the visuals!)

Similar to crochet mandalas, decorated pebbles don't really have a use, but that's quite OK once you accept the fact and give in to the uselessness of them. I've had my pebbles sitting on my outside table with my gathered wild flowers, and they've made me feel content just being there and bringing forth sunny meadow memories. I love the feel of them in my hand, there is simple pleasure to be had in the feel of a smooth, sea-washed pebble passing under your fingers.

We've continued to have the most beautiful warm sunny weather here this past week, and on Sunday we took a short walk at our favourite weekend destination :: Bolton Abbey.

I enjoyed the lush, dappled woodland pathways....

....and the abundance of wild flowers growing along the river bank.

Ah see over there, on the other side of the river? That's one of our favourite river beaches, and once we cross over the bridge a bit further down, we'll be able to hop over to potter about a bit.

It's not the seaside and there aren't any waves, but there are lots of tranquil little river beaches to be enjoyed all along the River Wharfe in this part of the Yorkshire Dales.

The riverside pebbles are just as appealing and pebbly as those found at the coast...

....and instead of seagulls there are fluffy ducklings which kind of makes up for the lack of waves.

We pootled at the beach for quite a while, enjoying the morning sunshine and the peaceful atmosphere. The boys spent their time searching for suitable flat stones for skimming across the water, and I searched out a few suitable smooth stones for decorating purposes.

The following morning, I sat outside with my coffee and a couple of magazines, and was thrilled to see that natural inspiration and botanical themes were heavily featured in the pages. I must be on trend, yay, go me!!

I soon got busy with my Posca pen, taking inspiration from the images in the magazines (Country Homes and Interiors).

I picked out simple floral and leaf motifs found on prints and home textiles and translated them as simply as I could into small designs for my pebble collection.

You have to have a weeny bit of arty confidence with pebble painting - this is not a pen that you can correct, so you have to use confident, sure lines, taking care with shapes and patterns as you draw them directly onto the surface. It's a huge amount of fun I have to say, and very soon I had company outside in the early morning (I just looked at the time stamp on these pictures, and it was just after 8am)....

....enter Little B through the back door, still in his pyjamas, looking for his Mum to see what she was up to. He watched me draw just a single leaf on a pebble, and immediately asked if he could have a try. 

He thought for just a moment about his design, confident in what he wanted to do. A star and some flowers, the earth and sky.

Meanwhile, I was on a roll and more botanical designs rolled out of my head and onto the pebbles. 

I felt like I could have decorated the whole river beach!

Little B begged and begged for one more pebble, telling me he really, really wanted to try drawing a bird. I suggested he have a go at drawing it on paper first - we found a simple motif in one of the magazines and had a practice at copying it. He was nervous to take the design onto the pebble, but once I stopped holding my breath and looking over his shoulder (so so hard to back off!) he set his mind to it, and he did superbly well, adding in detail and making it his own.

My last pebble was inspired by the buttercups sitting pretty on my table, and I think this is my favourite pebble of all. It holds the memories of this time and season, and I dearly love it for that and will treasure it. I must remember to draw the date on the back.

So this is what I ended up with - a modest collection of painted pebbles which capture the essence of May, the joy of nature and wild flowers, riverside pootles, woodland walks and meadow strolls. Sunshine and dappled shade, cool water and a light breeze. Bright early mornings and radiant golden evenings. All the things that I love about this month and this time of year.

At the moment I've got my pebbles nestled into an enamel plate on the dining table and I like having them there. I'm enjoying looking at them and playing with them every day, they are so tactile and soothing. I might keep them, I might gift them, I might return them back to nature at some point. But for now, they are staying right here and bringing me joy. And that's a pretty good thing, don't you think?

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You can read my previous "Making the Seasons" posts {HERE} and have a look at Gillian's seasonal makes {HERE}. We hope you enjoy what we are making and creating each month! xx








 

 

The Buttercup Meadow

I was feeling a bit restless this afternoon, caught between feeling antsy and wanting to do ALL the things and feeling lethargic and wanting to do Sweet Fanny Adams*. So yeah......faffing about, wandering in and out of rooms, not knowing quite what to with myself. All of a sudden I just knew that I needed to be out of the house. So I grabbed my camera and took myself out the back door, up the cobbled back streets to the top of the park. Down the grassy slope and through the wooden gate into The Meadow. Just as I had hoped, the buttercups had already started flowering even though I don't usually think about them being there until early June - it was utterly spectacular. The air was full of pollen (atchooooo!) but I didn't care - the sneezing was worth it in exchange for the gloriousness of all that full-on floral beauty.

There is a cut grass pathway all around the edge of meadow (and right up the middle) so you can't go tramping about right amongst the flowers as such (the meadow is a protected site), but you still feel as if you are surrounded by it all. I picked a few stems  - nothing much really, just a few sprigs of cow parsley, buttercups, plantains and grasses. I popped them into a glass jar when I got home and sat them on my outdoor table as I can't have them indoors (they make me sneeze). I made a jug of iced water and sat a while to write a few notes in my planner, and felt so much better for being outside.

Later on after dinner, I noticed the sun was low and still beautifully golden in the sky. So I took off again just for the pure pleasure of going to see the buttercups for a second time. I had a desire to to see how the light would look skimming over the meadow in the early evening - oh, it was breathtaking! Long shadows and a golden glow over the landscape, it was really, really beautiful. I am constantly inspired by the seasonal changes in the landscape - the colours, the views, how it looks, smells, and feels. I especially like to feel the seasons somehow, to connect emotionally with where we are in the year as the months gently pass by. May is just so brim-full of emotion for me, ALLLLLLL the feels.

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*in case you were wondering, "Sweet Fanny Adams" is something that my Mum used to say and it tickles me to be able to write it in a sentence! You can look up the meaning if you like, but only if you don't mind a little bit of filthy language, be warned!

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Tuesday

So my black embroidery thread arrived in the post yesterday and my very first thought was how very, very black it looked. My instinct was to quietly pop it back in it's bag and pretend that I hadn't ordered it. No black here. But then I thought about the flowers that I'd meticulously embroidered, and how cutesome a little buzzy bee would look hovering above the petals and told myself  to stop being such a wuss and deal with the black. And I'm glad that I did because I love the bee, I really do.

This morning I was all set to start making a tutorial for you (the pattern for my latest mandala hoop, which I'm naming the Positivity Mandala), but I'm afraid to say that I got completely sidetracked with essential spring time pootling activities. I set about finishing up my Hello Spring hoop as yesterday I'd sponged off the blue marker ink and dried out the fabric so it was ready for the final finishing stage. After a good press on the reverse side I trimmed the fabric into a circle leaving an extra inch all around the finished hoop size.

I took a length of embroidery thread and stitched a running stitch right around the edge, then pulled it tight to gather in the fabric.

This isn't an especially neat finish, but I like the honesty of it. I think the original embroidery instructions suggested gluing a circle of felt to the back of the ring to cover up the back completely, but I happen to really love seeing the reverse side of stitching work. It's a reminder that this is something hand made, that there were snags and knots along the way but the finished piece is all the better for it.

Today is the first day of May and here in North Yorkshire it is finally starting to feel like we can let go of our long Winter and welcome in Spring. Thank goodness, because I've been ready for many weeks! 

I haven't really faffed with my mantel all that much for the Spring season just yet, so it's still a work in progress. But I'm so happy to have my hoop on display. I think I might tie some ribbon around the hanging loop to finish it off.

It's been chilly cold still today but the sun was shining this morning and I had my flip flops on, yippeeeee!!! Mind you, as I've been sat here at my desk writing I realised that my toes are flippin' freezing so I've kicked off my flip flops pulled on a pair of my hand knit woolly socks. Oh the blissfulness of that is not to be underestimated, it feels sooooooo good! 

This morning when it was bright and sunny and feeling a weeny bit Springlike out there,  I popped outside to pick a few of these gorgeous little pansies to bring indoors. 

I only picked 5 small stems to pop in one of my favourite old glass ink bottles (I love that I found this bottle dusty and forgotten, hiding in a box under a table in the collectors centre. I paid 50p for it). Having a small posy of flowers in the house is one of my deepest joys - there is something so endearing about the simplicity and the small scale of it all. I would much rather have this than a big fancy bouquet in a posh vase, any day of the week.

Whilst we're here chatting, I'd like to gently introduce you to the amazing work of Emma Verner. She creates the sweetest little decorations out of old pencils and rulers which tweaked my heart strings the second I first came across them. They are just delightful - do go and peek in her shop on Etsy to see more of her designs. I have such a major soft spot for little houses and I've absolutely no idea why?!

The four legged residents in the Attic have been enjoying the sunshine today - the kitty took full advantage of a sunny spot in the Big Chair....

....and out little piggy Lola appeared to be rather ecstatic when I deposited her into our very overgrown, unruly patch of  grass. A lush al fresco banquet, for sure.

This afternoon was all about the blues for me, as I sat in the cafe with my yarny ladies and hooked up some more solid granny squares for an ongoing project. I'm a long way from being finished, but I'll show you a bit more of what I'm doing very soon. I keep forgetting that it's OK to show projects that are still in progress, more than OK in fact. I've always enjoyed documenting and sharing my creative journey and feel like you might like to see this particular project in it's early stages, even though it's all a bit abstract at the moment. I tell the ladies at the cafe what I'm making, and see them trying hard to understand my vision, but only I can know what I can see so clearly inside my Creative Mind. And I can see this project soooo clearly, it's as if I have a photograph of it already. I'll show you soon, I promise.

Actually, I was thinking earlier that I really, really want to be here in the Attic more, I want to make time to chat and share more of the little things that make up my days. At the weekend I was reading through some old blog entries from way back in the depths of my archives. Back then, my blog entries were often quite short and fairly insignificant in the big scheme of things - just little snippets of ordinariness, things that caught my attention, made me happy, sparked off ideas, filled up my mothering hours. But they provide an absolutely priceless view back in time, and I've found that the blogs of mine that I enjoy re-reading the most are the ones that are about nothing in particular. Just ordinary day to day life bobbing along. 

And on that note, I need to go see to the laundry and chivvy Little B away from cartoon insanity and upwards towards his bed. Ordinary life calls....xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Easter 2018

Hello!! I can't explain how happy I feel to be back here in the Attic, sharing photos of this and that and sitting down to chat with you all. Life has been slightly strange for me of late in that quite a bit of what I'm up to can't be shared just yet, and the knock-on effect is that it's made it harder for me to blog. But I've really missed being here, my weeks just don't feel right without this precious outlet to share and chat about what's going on in my life, so I really want to make time to be here more. 

Behind the scenes I'm working on Yarndale things and some exciting design commissions as well as two new blankets, so I'm busy busy but in a Secret Squirrel kind of a way which doesn't really suit me all that well to be honest. I'm so looking forward to the sharing bit of all this creativity, in fact I absolutely cannot wait to unzip myself and blurt it all out. Hmm...is blurt even a word? I think it absolutely should be, don't you? 

This week the Little People returned back to school and J took himself back to his desk after a whopping 18 days of Easter holidays. It's felt like such a long break from routine but in a deliciously good way. As we did last year, we decided to stay home for this holiday, enjoying some much needed relaxation and family time on the home front. Little Man (who is really not very little any more) will sit his GCSE exams next month so we needed to give him time, space and encouragement to focus on some revision.

For the rest of us, the focus of the past two weeks has been mostly about lazy enjoyment of home comforts, with a little bit of out-and-about thrown into the mix when the weather was right. We also made a start sorting out Little B's bedroom, which included all sorts of juggling of furniture, a mass clear out of old toys, books and clothes and the building of a new High Sleeper bed. It's a work in progress still, but it feels wonderful to have finally made a start on sorting out this rather tired, cluttered, chaotic old house of ours.

As the Little People grow into themselves, it's becoming very much easier to find guilt-free time for myself during our stay-home holidays. The two Teens are both very independent young people with very active social lives, so much of their Easter holiday revolved around going out with friends. Or sitting in their bedrooms talking to their friends. And at eight years old, Little B is more easily able to please himself for longer periods which has opened up some rather delightful little windows of opportunity for Yours Truly. I've mostly filled the resulting me-time with obsessive stitching and hooking, and honestly I have love love loved it.

Continuing my adventures in cross stitch, I sat myself peacefully and stitched little crosses endlessly into black fabric to complete my second Zodiac hoop (Pisces design by Jody Rice of Satsuma Street on Etsy). I need to photograph it properly so that I can overshare the beauty of the design and colours with you all, I'm so so pleased with it and it was an absolute joy to stitch.

On a roll with the stitchin', as soon as I'd finished the Pisces hoop I couldn't help myself and immediately prepped a piece of Fiddler's Aida (yes, it really is called that) in a 7 inch hoop ready to create this super-sweet cross stitch by Zindagi Designs on Etsy. I fell in love with this design during one of my marathon searches to fuel my new found cross stitching obsession. I really like the sentiment as I'm quite the coffee addict, but truthfully it was the flowers that I was really itching to stitch. I made good progress during the two week Easter break - I'll show you very soon how it's turning out. 

After a whole week of being pretty idle at home, we woke up one morning to blue skies and sunshine and decided it would be a good idea to head out and take in something of a watery view. I really wanted to go to the coast but I was outvoted in favour of a closer trip to inland waters. So I went with the flow and we set forth to wander around the perimeter of Grimwith Reservoir. I was relieved to see it looking pretty full of water after our visit there in August when the levels were worryingly low.

It was an interesting walk this one, mainly as it was just the three of us for a change. Oh I did miss my Little Lady very much (she was staying with friends at the time), and I think Little B did too. He was in a slightly whiny mood, deliberately dragging his feet and complaining that he was bored. Yeah - not a huge amount of fun to be honest, but we made the best of it and did what we could to cheer him along.

I love the above photo! It's hard to make out what's going on with the scale/perspective, but the gorgeous greenery in the foreground is actually the top of a wide mossy wall. I tell you, I find moss completely irresistible. 

It's four and a half miles around this reservoir, and all I can say is I'm so glad I insisted on packing refreshments to bring with us. Thank goodness for flasks of hot beverages! Stopping at the half way point to rest a while and have a hot drink put an instant halt to Little B's whinging - I mean, cups of milky hot chocolate, what's not to like?

I've come to really like this walk - I think this might have been our fourth or fifth walk here in the past year or so and it grows on me a little more each time. 

There is a peacefulness to the open landscape/waterscape and a reassuring sense of calm that comes from walking along a very clearly defined circular route where you can see exactly where you are headed at all times. 

I really love this time of year for the absolutely gorgeous floral joy it delivers. My table hasn't been without flowers upon it since the New Year when cheap and cheerful daffodils and narcissus began appearing in supermarket buckets. Just recently I've opted to pay out a few more pennies so that I can snag the "fancy" varieties of daffies on offer, oh they are so worth it! Sometimes these will be beautiful pale, creamy white flowers, and sometimes (like the above ones) there are bright orange petals tucked up inside each flower. 

I always buy the bunches with the buds tightly closed up so there is an element of surprise when they finally unfurl and show their petals. The sight of a jug of daffodils sitting on the table makes me feel so happy, especially when I first come downstairs in the early morning. 

I've got some pots of bulbs flowering away on my mantel too, and I love to watch their daily progress as they grow, bloom and then gently fade. 

The hyacinths have grown a lot since I took the above photo and right now are in full floral swing, oh they are spectacular! Four flower stems grew and produced the most beautiful bright pink flowers. Our days are really long and light now since the clocks changed at the end of March and put us forward into British Summer Time, but I do still enjoy my fairy lights and candles in the evenings. I've got a green candle burning right now which is "bergamot & green tea" - the scent is gorgeously fresh and uplifting for this time of year.

I did a little bit of baking during the Easter holidays, partly for the pleasure of pottering in a warm kitchen and getting to inhale the aroma of cookie dough and mixed spice, and partly for the pleasure of having a sneaky homemade biscuit with my afternoon cup of tea. I love these biscuit cutters and every time I use them I think to myself that I really should make many, many more biscuits just so that I get to use them more often.

I made Easter biscuits for the first time, and they came out OK although they were a little bit on the dry/soft side. I thought they would come out a little crisper somehow, and with a bit more flavour too. Although it could well be that my jar of mixed spice was a little on the ancient side and perhaps needs to be replaced. I should maybe check the sell by date.......

We had a lot of chocolate in the house over Easter which was to be expected - the Little People certainly weren't complaining but it did make me feel like I needed to put my Mummy hat on and provide some healthy stuff to balance out all the sugar. We always have a big bowl full of fruit in the house which I'm happy for the Little People to dip into whenever they like, but there is something really extra yummy about a plate of  fresh fruit prepared and chopped up into bite sized pieces. I really need to do this more often. I mean, it's not that hard to peel and slice kiwi/mango/pineapple or chop up some strawberries but it's surprising how often I tend to feel like I just can't be bothered. Bad Mummy. 

I also made some batches of baked kale crisps last week, oh my word this stuff is blinking good! J and I devoured it fresh out of the oven - I found myself absolutely shoveling great handfuls of it into my mouth as if I'd been starved for a week, quite ridiculous behaviour really. I can highly recommend making some if you are partial to salty, savoury snacking material, it'such a good way to eat green veg, it really is.

In other green related news, the woodland is looking mighty fine right now with its carpet of wild garlic looking and smelling divine.

We took a short walk through our local woods one Sunday morning, it was quite early and we pretty much had the place to ourselves with only one or two dog walkers out and about. I do really love this time of year - the early greenery is such a welcome sight after what has felt like a very long drawn out winter.

It'll still be a while before the treetops burst into leaf - that'll happen in May and I absolutely cannot wait of for that. 

I've really, really enjoyed my hooky time during the holidays, it's been the perfect cosy thing to occupy my lazy self during the cold days we had at the start of the month. We had the fire lit for a while when it still felt very much like winter and it was all so very hygge with the flames flickering and my toes all warm inside my hand knit socks and the kitty draped across my lap as I hooked up some beautiful ripple rows. I know I haven't told you much about the blanket I'm currently making, but I was trying to wait a bit as there will be a new Summer yarn pack coming but not until late July/early August. I'm wary of peaking too soon with my blanket induced giddiness so was trying to wait until Summer felt a bit closer, but what the heck, a sneak peek just needed to happen at some point so why not now?! The colours I'm using are extremely light and full of summer freshness, I'm so enjoying the playfulness of it all.

I think one of the very, very, very bestest things that happened to me during the Easter holidays is being demonstrated in the above photo. Little B, begging me to teach him to crochet until I made space in my self indulgent day to give him my full attention. He is a very tenacious, determined and focused little boy and not one to give up easily once he sets his mind to doing something. The flip side to all this strength of mind is that he can often get very frustrated and upset if he can't manage to achieve what he has set his sights on. So with the whole crochet thing, I had a feeling it could either go brilliantly or end in an absolute melt down. In the end it was a bit of both. The meltdown happened quite swiftly when he quickly realised that crocheting was actually a lot harder than he had originally thought. However his determination won through and once he'd gathered himself together he came back to the table to try again. The second attempt went much better and it didn't take him long to master chain making. He was so happy!!

I let him choose what colours he wanted to use and he decided to make a rainbow.....

....it just made me so happy to see him sitting and crocheting, I can't tell you the depth of emotion that passed through me that day. 

He was so proud of his rainbow chains - I ended up tying them all together at the top to make a tassel that he could hang on his school bag.

We had a little go at learning double crochet rows, but I think the excitement of actually being able to crochet had worn off a bit by then! Still, I think he did remarkably well for an 8 year old.

The sequel to this story  is even sweeter - the very next morning, Little B woke me up, full of excitement, telling me that he'd taught his Dad to crochet. My poor sleepy brain didn't comprehend what he was telling me at first, but once it clicked into place and I figured out that Dad=J (J???? J is crocheting?????!!!!!) I couldn't get out of bed fast enough. I came downstairs to find that J was indeed sat in the Big Chair casually crocheting a chain, taught by Little B. Well I never. This would be the equivalent of me attempting to write some computer code, so yes, I was very impressed. I do love my sweet, crazy family.

The second bestest thing about the Easter holidays happened at the weekend, when in a fit of a spontaneity I booked us a very short holiday which required passports and sea travel. We set sail on Friday evening, returning on Sunday morning so less than 48 hours away but still, it was absolutely brilliant. BRILL-i-ant.

Holiday Tales coming soon................!

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Making the Seasons :: March

Now that the season is finally showing signs of shifting from Winter to Spring, this past week we've ventured back to our allotment. Our main tasks right now involve clearing up the winter mess (sadly, a storm damaged tree which fell right across our plot), admiring the wildlife (huuuuuuuge frogs and a mass of frogspawn in the pond), and sitting quietly on the bench at the top of the sloping site to take in the view (it's a south-facing sun trap). Behind the bench, our plot becomes a wild kind of shaded bank beneath a very large tree. It's covered in ivy and honeysuckle with bluebells that will flower in early May, but right now it looks extremely pretty with primroses, primulas and narcissus planted by the previous plot holders. There is blossom in abundance too, as the tree I told you about in last month's Making the Seasons post is flowering it's heart out. I popped up there yesterday to pick a few blooms to bring home, and it delighted me so much to do this simple thing. They are slim pickings as I wanted to leave plenty flowering at the plot - I gathered just enough to bring into the house so that I could create a little spring/Easter visual celebration.

A few years ago, I saw a photo in a magazine showing a small spring flower arrangement where the stylist had used painted eggshells as miniature vases. It was so simple, beautiful and inspiring that the image made a lasting impression in my mind, and I knew that at some point I would love to try doing this for myself. It's taken me a while to bring the idea to reality, but I can tell you that it was worth waiting for! 

I usually buy my ordinary brown free range eggs from the local butcher, but this week I happened to have some gorgeous "Bluebell Auraucana" eggs in. I deliberated about painting them (the magazine eggs were painted in soft chalky pastel shades, perfect for an Easter display), but in the end I decided that I really loved the natural blue shade of the egg shells, and actually I was feeling far too impatient to carry out the whole painting/drying waiting game. So I simply chopped off the tops of my egg shells with a small sharp knife and emptied out the eggy innards to save them for some baking.

I went down to the cellar to dig around for a suitable vessel and found a vintage cake stand that I bought a few years ago from the local collectors centre. I wish I'd photographed it to show you before I covered it in moss as it has such a pretty floral design in the middle. Speaking of moss....................

................isn't it an absolute delight??! Also from the allotment, I seriously love this particular green colour - it's so vibrant and fresh looking and it's pleasing me on a very deep level to actually have some real live moss in the house. I L♥ve moss so much! I used some blobs of blutack to secure the eggshells on their ends, but the mossy hillocks also work to keep them nestled in place. Also, note the kitty feet in the background, she is always so curious about the things I do here in the Attic.

I really, really, really, really enjoyed arranging my little spring flowers in their eggy vases, only the process just didn't last long enough! So I took them all out and did it all over again, just for the sheer pleasure of doing it. I think possibly I overdid it in my typical more-is-more way and maybe I should have used less flowers as it all looks a bit jumbled. But honestly? I simply don't care - I love the sweet exuberance of it all.

I plucked a few beautiful deep purple violas from the hanging basket at the front of the house to add to the yellow and white.....

...... and added some little feathers from my extensive feather collection too. 

I thought it would be a nice touch to add some foil-wrapped easter chocolates which I'd bought for the Little People.  I always enjoy Easter for the opportunity it gives us to enjoy sneaky bits of chocolate whenever we feel the need - I don't think this is something I've ever grown out of actually.

Whilst I was photographing and faffing with my flower arrangement, it occurred to me that something felt like it was missing. A little crochet bird perhaps, to nestle amongst the feathers and moss?

You might remember my mini chicklets from three years ago.................

well, I found some duck egg blue yarn and started to crochet a mini chicklet to perch on my table decoration.........

except that instead of adding wings.......................

I added...................................................................

EARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup, my chicklet decided it wanted to be a Bunny instead, so who was I to argue??!!!!

I scribbled down the pattern as I made the ears, just in case you might feel a pressing need to hook up your own mini-bunny.

I used DK weight yarn (Stylecraft Special DK) and a 4mm hook.

I'm writing in UK crochet terms.

You make the body in exactly the same way as described in the Mini Chicklet pattern. 

MINI BUNNY EARS (make 2)

Using pink yarn, chain 7; work 1 dc in 2nd chain from hook; 1 dc in next stitch; 1 htr in each of the next 4 stitches. Fasten off.

Change to same colour yarn as used for body of bunny. Insert hook in beginning dc and pull through a loop; chain 1 in same stitch; 1 dc in each of the next 4 stitches; 3 dc in next stitch.

Continue working down the opposite side of the ear, putting your hook under the single loops of the foundation chain, as follows: 1 dc in each of the next 6 stitches; slip stitch into beginning chain-1 to close round. fasten off, leaving a tail end for stitching.

Stitch the bunny ears to the top of the head, then use scraps of yarn to embroider eyes and nose, plus a little flower if you fancy it.

I made a little bunny tail by creating a miniature pom pom - I wound a length of white yarn around two of my fingers, then pulled the yarn-wrap carefully off my fingers and secured it around the centre with a tight knot. I trimmed the loops with sharp scissors to form a pom pom shape, then stitched it securely to my bunny's bottom.

I think my bunny secretly wants to be a mouse actually, as her face looks suspiciously mouse-like.....

.....but with bunny ears and a fluffy white tail, I think she passes the bunny-test.

I really love my table flowers and mini bunny. And of course I adore the moss too. I'm wondering how long I could keep a plate of moss going indoors if I watered it, do you think that could be a thing? I could decorate it with daisies and butterflies in summer....little toadstools in Autumn.....

Well anyways......enough gushing over the moss. Would you like to see the rest of my Easter decorations?

I always decorate the dining room fireplace for Christmas and Easter, it's one of those little rituals that makes me insanely happy and properly in the mood for the holidays. I treated myself a few days ago to a couple of lovely little papier maché birds from a local shop, I just couldn't resist them. I'm pretty sure that I won't be packing them away in the Easter Shoebox as I'd like to be able to look at them all year round.

I bought this greetings card earlier in the month as part of my quest to have cards for every season. It's a triple fold-out card called "Nest" by Mark Hearld. I'm a big fan of Mark Hearld's prints (I'm sorry I couldn't seem to find a website to link to, but if you google his name, you'll see lots of his amazing work. )

The rest of my easter decorations are all things that I've collected over the years, things that get stored away in the Attic eaves and which I very much look forward to seeing each year. There are painted eggs, a little decorative nest, some hand stitched felt egg cosies. My jug of twigs stays on the mantel all  year, but the twigs really work especially well at Easter time.

I kept my twigs simple this year, hanging my small collection of little hand painted wooden eggs (you can find similar ones on Amazon), and my crochet blossom from 6 years ago (SIX YEARS????!!!!!!!)

I made these little cotton flowers in 2012 and if you click on the link, you'll find the pattern for them at the end of the Easter Blossom blog post.

Little Lady came in from school yesterday and squealed with delight when she saw the mantel (a happy Mum moment!), but the boys haven't batted an eyelid or made one single comment. That's OK - I feel certain that I would decorate to celebrate the seasons purely for my own delight if I lived alone, so I know deep down that I do this sort of thing for myself rather than expecting the Little Peeps to be grateful for it. But I do hope that in some small way they will absorb their creative home environment and remember it fondly, even if those memories are just hazy, nostalgic snippets of their childhood in years to come. Crazy ol' Mum and her Seasonal Mantels.....remember that?

I'd love to know if you decorate your home for Easter - do you make an Easter tree? Decorate eggs? Make an Easter display on your table?

Whilst I was searching for Eggshell vase ideas, I found a few lovely random images that I thought you might like....

Putting a weeny bit of earth into egg shells and actually growing little plants in them - I seriously love this idea (and there is moss!)

These egg heads with their cress hair made me smile, and I think would be fun to do with Little B. I also love the simple painted faces on these eggs too.

And how about using egg shells to sow seeds in? What a fabulous environmental alternative to plastic pots.

♥

I find so much happiness in seasonal creativity, even just thinking about all the possibilities makes me completely giddy with excitement. I'm all set to do some seasonal baking tomorrow - I've got speckled candy eggs to go on top of some chocolate crispy nests, and I'm going to have a go at making Easter Biscuits  too. We always had Easter biscuits when we visited my Mum at this time of year, they are a true taste of the season for me.

Hoping you have a fabulous weekend doing things that you love - please do pop over to Gillian's blog and catch up with her Making the Seasons post, it's choc full (literally!) of creative inspiration. Enjoy! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ps all my Seasonal posts are tagged in the Making the Seasons category so you can find them. Gill and I also created a #makingtheseasons hashtag on Instagram for you to tag in your creative makes for us to find - it's a visual feast!

 

 

 

 

 

Mandala Therapy

As much as I love and adore crocheting blankets and am passionate about designing and making them,  there are definitely times when a quick, creative fix is needed. Oddly enough, I mostly get hit by the urge to drop everything and make something small when I am part way through making something large - it's as if my Creative Mind craves a little bit of a detour when I'm on a long journey.

Over the past few years, mandalas have become my go-to solution when this kind of creative itch needs to be scratched - circles are quick and easy to make and a lot of fun. Plus, mandalas deliver plenty of opportunity for colour play which I find therapeutic, joyful and completely irresistible. 

Around the middle of January, on an ordinary sort of a Wednesday afternoon, I suddenly felt compelled to make a fresh mandala for my dining table. At the start of the year I began buying small bunches of daffodils and narcissus from the supermarket, and I fancied that my jugs of bright blooms needed something super-pretty and a little bit Spring-like to perch upon. I dived into to my bag of Stylecraft Classique Cotton and pulled out the following six colours ::

✤ Sunflower ✤ Shrimp ✤ Shell Pink ✤ Wisteria ✤ Sky Blue ✤ Soft Lime ✤

Ooooooo...........so pretty!

As I was doing this on a complete whim and I needed my fix to be instant, I didn't waste time searching for a pattern. All I had to do was go to my own list of tutorials and find the pattern I wrote back in 2014 and get hooking. Instant gratification!

I designed the Attic24 Mandala Wheel  to be a quick and simple make, something decorative that could be pinned to the wall or laid on the table to bring a flash of colour to the room. There are 12 rounds in total, so there are twelve colour decisions that need to be made when making this mandala. You could plan it all out in advance, or you could make each choice as you go along (which is what I do) - either way, the colour play is an important part of mandala making and I absolutely love it for that.

Mandalas can look quite complicated as they often use a whole combination of different stitches to create the rings of pattern. But I promise you that it's possible to take a very simple pattern (which mine is) and make something very beautiful and inspiring. Complete satisfaction right there in those stitches!

I have a whole collection of small jugs which I use purely for flowers, collected over many years. The one I'm using here was bought more than twenty five years ago from a craft fair, at a time in my life when I had very little money and £12.50 seemed like a huge amount to spend on a hand made jug.  But I have used it and loved it dearly for over a quarter of a century and it brings me such a lot of pleasure, so I'm very glad I gave into my heart and made this jug mine all those years ago. 

Do you like the idea of having a little bit of crochet on your table, or do you think it's a bit pointless? I'd love to know what you think of mandalas - they are such therapeutic, mindful, satisfying things to create even if you don't necessarily know what to do with them afterwards. 

If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know about my involvement with Yarndale, and you may well know about the large Mandala Hoops I've made which get displayed outside under the trees at the festival. You can read all about the making of these big mandalas (including pattern links) in the following posts :

✤ Starflower Mandalas

✤ Mandala Hoops

✤ More Mandala Hoops

This year I want to make a collection of smaller hoops to join the big ones at Yarndale, and after I  stumbled upon a beautiful pattern a few days ago I just had to give it a go.

I'm using Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK (my go-to yarn for mandalas), in the following colours  (from the outside of the mandala inwards ::

✤ Soft Lime ✤ Peppermint ✤ Sky Blue ✤ Wisteria ✤ Plum ✤Busy Lizzie ✤ Mauve ✤ Shrimp ✤ Fondant ✤

These thin metal rings are perfect for making mandala hoops - you can find them easily on Amazon and they come in all different sizes. The ones I'm using at the moment are 30 cm diameter which is the size of a large dinner plate. 

This pattern is called the "Spirit Mandala" designed by Tatsiana who writes a crochet blog called Lilla Björn Crochet. It was was gorgeous to make and I enjoyed the challenge of working some different stitches (hello popcorns!)

I used Tatiana's video tutorial to learn how she crochets her mandala to the hoop (which is a very neat method I have to say) and I am thrilled with the result.

 

One thing to remember when making mandala hoops - the finished crochet will need to be quite a bit smaller than the hoop you are using as you will need to stretch the mandala to open out the stitches and make it nice and taut. I find that the easiest way to do this is to use locking stitch markers (like these little plastic ones) to attach the mandala to your ring before you try and crochet that final round. 

The end result is so pleasing to look at, I just love the way the stitches open out and breathe once the crochet is stretched out into it's hoop. I can highly recommend a spot of Mandala Therapy, it's a perfect, colourful quick-fix project for a dreary Winter's afternoon. Tempted????? Go on........you know you want to!!

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Autumn Moments {three}

🍁 Loving our morning walks to school, even on days like today when the temperature dropped to a chilly one degree above freezing. We chat to the ducks and swans, and take in the ever-changing boats that come and go along this stretch of canal, it's a peaceful way to start the day.

🍁 The scent of wood smoke in the air is such a marker of the Autumn season here in my town and I really love it. As we walk along the canal, the sight of the little boat chimneys releasing their plumes of blue-grey smoke into the cold air makes me feel very cosy and content somehow. 

🍁 We've been lucky in the weather of late and it's been pretty dry for the most part. It makes for a satisfying scrunchy walk through the pavement drifts of crispy dry leaves. You are never too old to take pleasure from kicking through dry leaves. Never.

🍁 Our first frost was early this year, falling at the very end of October. I was on yet another leaf-gathering mission for yet more Autumnal photographs (obsessed with this autumn thing? Me???) which led me up into the park on my way home from school. The grass was damp and icy, with frozen dew drops clinging to every blade, and I was glad to return to the warmth of home for a mug of hot coffee and a gentle sift through my leaves.

🍁 There are still a few flowers to pick in November, some from my own front garden and back yard and some...errm....pilfered from my neighbours front gardens. I'd like to point out that I do know the aforementioned neighbours and feel confident that they wouldn't mind me snagging a small bloom every now and again. I do so love having a pretty hand picked posy on the table, most especially when Summer is no longer with us.

🍁 I absolutely adore the taste of mushrooms, and they seem very Autumnal somehow. Right now (well not right this minute, obvs) I am indulging in regular mushroom lunches, they are so yummy. I go for firm, earthy chestnut mushrooms quickly sautéd in a little butter, heavily seasoned with sea salt and black pepper and a sprinkling of fresh thyme, then deposited onto some toast. Quick, simple, and very, very good. 

🍁 Low slanting golden light is a lovely sight at this time of year as the sun makes its way down towards the horizon in the late afternoon. So far I'm coping pretty well with the shortening of the days (just over five weeks until Solstice), and enjoying my time spent cosied up indoors with the fire lit and the fairy lights twinkling.

🍁 I'm a bit late with this, but belated Happy Halloween!!  I carved a slightly wonky owl this year, using a pattern I stumbled across here. It was a fiddlesome challenge, to say the least. I should have splashed out and got one of those giant "Rambo" pumpkins which were on sale in the supermarket so that I could have up-scaled my design and cut out bigger bits. 

🍁 It was the usual happy Halloween mayhem here this year and although I do get caught up in the excitement of the Little People, I'm always mighty glad when it's all over. Little B dressed as a ghost and came home with a bucket full of sweets after a mere thirty minutes of door-to-door visiting in our neighbouring streets. On the home front, we had that many callers that our bowl containing 50 packets of sweets was gone within an hour and we had to hunker down and blow out all the candles early.

🍁 We enjoyed a fantastic Bonfire Night celebration at the start of November, de-camping to J's brothers house as he is the only person we know who actually has a garden as opposed to a small back yard. It was the kind of old fashioned affair that I remember from my own childhood - sparklers and rockets and a Family Selection Box of fireworks which were bizarrely awful and fabulous all at the same time. Very nostalgic, the smell of it all in the dark and the general feeling of happiness in the air. 

🍁 Autumn to me right now is so much about the seasonal colours and the creativity - I feel intoxicated by it all and brimming over with inspiration. My crochet mojo has been on overdrive as I've spent hours and hours designing, sampling and photographing for my new Woodland blanket which I'll be able to show you on Wednesday.  The colours in this yarn palette are just so beautiful, I am ridiculously in love with it all. I absolutely cannot WAIT to introduce you to the Woodland CAL which will start in early January - Wednesday is the day for a little leafy show and tell!! Eeeeeeeeppp!!!!!!

Hoping you'll join me to see what is totally floating my crochet boat right now, I'm really looking forward to showing you.

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