Evening Beauty......

xxx

Roses.....

The mist is burning off and it looks like another beautiful day.

I was hanging the washing out on the line just, and these roses caught my eye. A big dollop of pink. These are beautiful roses and they smell divine. They don't bloom for long though. The warm September weather has given these bushes a late blast of energy, so I am taking advantage. The last few days have been bright and fairly warm, but a little breezy, so I knew these beauties wouldn't last long outside.

Such a pretty dose of colour and scent.

xxx

When The Sun shines...

......I feel like cleaning and sorting. I'm not sure why. My friend thinks it's the worst thing to do. As soon as the sun shines, she is out and about. Cold, grey days she feels like getting all the nitty gritty done. When the sun shines, I clean and sort. I usually like to sort out my under-sink cupboard kitchen cupboards and maybe, just maybe, looking at all the cleaning utensils, makes me feel like I have achieved something.......even when I haven't really. Anyone else do that? Or the old one......spray a little furniture polish in the air and suddenly you feel like a domestic goddess without lifting a finger. 

Anyway, today was decanting my fabric softeners. I'm not sure why I do it. It just sort of makes the whole process of laundry that much nicer. Seeing as it's a daily job, I'm a sucker for making the mundane as nice an experience as possible.....just because I loathe it so. Laundry is a thankless task, just like ironing to me. It doesn't soothe me to iron like it does so many. Anything to make it more bearable.

A spot of sun is always welcome to do the daily routines. I have loved this September weather we have been having. I know it won't last long. The foggy starts to the morning, then it burning away as the sun shines. The nippier evenings conducive to blanket snuggling.


xxx

p.s I'm trying a different approach to blogging at the moment, to see if that will shift this blogging mood I have. I hope it's working, but my posts might be a bit sporadic. I'm trying not to think too much, so there might be a lot in one go then none for a while.

 

This and That......

Not very word heavy today. A post of 'this and that'. I've been away. I've come back. It was lovely. I'm overwhelmed with the mess in my house. I've tried to enjoy moments crocheting my current WIP (Oh my word, loving it, but really nervous it's going to be pants when it's put together....cue disappointment city), but the house needs my attention, so the guilt factor is 

E N O R M O U S

For summer, the weather has been utter pants, well, the few decent days, I haven't been available to enjoy. I'm still waiting. I need a few consecutive days of good weather to haul my dresser outside to sand and re-paint. Although, I see the weather report states a month's worth of rain in two days coming very shortly. I think I need to emigrate to sunnier climbs (southern UK, I'm sorry, but you're really not doing it for me this year......I'm a tad disappointed with you).

I have crocheted a little. I have baked. I have shrieked (I shamefully confess) at finding aqua pressed glass ( I mean, aqua....and pressed all together....like dreamland to me). I shrieked a little more at finding a turquoise pressed flower vase also. Seriously, I'm quite sad, but they helped take away the grey day weather blues. I bought up craft supplies for Baby Bear and I, and I shrieked (yes, I know, again, and it's getting a little embarrassing) at Yvestown's INGENIOUS CD/DVD storage idea. Because of that, I have freed up a couple of shelves in a cabinet to house more of my rubbish. Happy me.

Hopefully my little crochet WIP project will be finished by the end of this week and I can find out if it's thumbs up or thumbs down. Eeek.

 Be back soon.....

xxx

Peony Days......

Happy Flower Days......

xxx

The creative process....

I love colour. But I guess if you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that!

I LOVE looking at photos and images (I put my hands up to being a Pinterest addict)....and I love taking photos. However, I've realised that when I look at an image firstly, I actually don't look at its content. I sort of look at it through blurry eyes. It's actually colour and texture that grab me more that the actual content of an image. My love of colour, and colour together is my main focus. If you blur your eyes to an image, the colours blend in, and I find it's that that actually fires up my creative soul. I love to be inspired by colour choices. I guess it's that subconscious searching for colour combinations for creating things. 

Anyway, I'm blathering, but suffice to say, taking pictures this week of flowers and little corners of my home, it has inspired colour choices for future makes and i've found that HUGELY joyful. I know, a tad sad; but seeing colour combinations, especially natures combinations has really fired me up for Autumn makes.

Whilst I'm happily going about doing my mini hexies in pastel shades, I'm fancying my next project to be a little more vibrant.

I am loving this vibrant pink with deep green and a touch of turquoise/teal.

Oh, this has fired my soul. Teal....claret....raspberry......deep green.....vibrant green.....deep gold......mid pink. My cogs have began whirring about. I'm thinking something deep but highly colourful. I love to take a pic and see what colours come out of it.

Pale grey/blue.....vibrant green....deep green and shades of pink. Mmmmmmm always a winner with me. But I'll save it for another pastel creative day.

Deepest blues, greens, mixed with yellows and pinks......yes.....I'm loving that.

Aqua, yellow, raspberry and natural. I think that would be a great base for a ripple.....

Off white, turquoise, crimson, pink, green and a touch of brown. I'm thinking mitts.

I love how nature and the everyday can send you down a whole new creative path colour wise.

I love getting that buzz from a moment captured with my eyes. Nature is simply wonderful.

Happy Weekend

xxx

This and That.....

Life has been busy. It really seems to have been flying by lately, and I don't seem to have a lot to show for it. I've really only had time to do the everyday stuff which needs doing, so not a huge amount of crafting has been going on.

I made a cushion for a friend. I made a blue/grey one for myself and thought she might like one as her birthday was coming up. I can show it now as she has received it. After making half of it in a colour that I wasn't happy about, I frogged it all and made it this shade, a green/grey. Much better. It's from the Woman's Weekly Vintage patterns which came out in a magazine a while back, but you can get it online from the Woman's Weekly pattern site. They were doing maintenance work on the online site so I'm not sure if you can buy it at the moment.

My hexagons are slowly increasing. I have been trying to fit in a couple here and there when I can. I still haven't started joining them together yet. I've worked out that I need about 900 of these little beauties to make a throw of a reasonable bed size. This equates to approx 90 of each colour that I have. I think I haven't started joining (even though I am very tempted) as I am not sure if I want to add another colour. I quite like the pastel shades I have and wonder if another would be too much. The tones are all the same too, which I don't want to spoil. I am also still undecided as to how I want to join them together. I was thinking needle and thread, rather than hook and yarn. I have been using Vanessa's weave in method for each hexagon (still very much missing her here in blogland), which I am liking very much, but the fact that each hexagon is not being knotted off which I normally do, is making me feel that thread and tighter binding of each hexagon is the better way to go to avoid any un-ravelling. With having such small hexagons, there is not a lot of room for sewing in of ends. I am still really loving this though, and think having really small hexagons will pay off in the long run.

Doing little bits here and there though, is really making my crafty fingers itch. I am on the look out for a project that I can knock up in an evening. The cosy for the mad hatter's watering can is still floating in my head, but I need to put a lot of thought into its making. Something that takes deep thought is not high on my list at the moment. At the end of a long day I want simple, quick and satisfying. I caught a glimpse of a sight this week that set the cogs rolling.......

Mint/Aqua with naturals and beiges. Hummmmm I like that combo. It is stored now for future project making.

Whilst running around like the white rabbit, muttering 'I'm late...........I'm late', I have had brief moments to stop and look at the wonder of nature. I made it my mission to see if I could have flowers in my house all year round this year. That meant, trying to get what I could out of my poor pathetic garden, and buying cheap and cheerful blooms.

My poppies have opened up now, and the giant ones and frilly ones are so pretty. It's just a shame they don't last longer. 

I was on a mission to keep my hydrageas blue this year. My soil turns them pink. The main one hasn't flowered yet, but the tub has got the deepest blue mop heads on it which I count as an achievement with my poor gardening skills.

I have loved that I have managed to have flowers in my house all year so far without breaking the bank. Hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, garden posies......now roses and peonies. I have a peony bush in the garden, which sadly is only offering a few buds (rubbish soil me thinks), but, what buds have opened, have given me blousy delight. In your face brightest pink and yellow, shouting LOOK AT ME.

I got some shop bought ones, which I always look forward to seeing open, as I'm never sure how they will be. I bought some buds that were deepest burgundy. They opened burgundy.....then went pale red......then went peach.......then went the palest yellow when they were in full bloom. GOSH, I've never been so fascinated. Each bloom opened out to about 30cm each. They looked so beautiful but SO fake! I was actually excited to come into the room each morning and see how they had changed. 

 Don't they look lovely here....well they got even bigger and opened out even more. Just completely awesome.

I was talking to a florist once, and asked her what was her secret to having lovely big vases of blooms in her house without it costing a complete fortune. Her answer was this......invest in good fake blooms! I was a bit aghast that a florist would have fake flowers dotted all around her house, but actually it all made sense once she had explained. Sometimes, there is a disappointment when you buy a cheap and cheerful bunch of flowers at the supermarket. They look all lovely wrapped in their paper, but when you get them home and put them in a vase, they look a little thin on the ground. This florist said that if you invest in a few good fake blooms, especially foliage too, then you just use those to bulk out your vase. That way, you get fresh flowers that you can get pleasure from, but you also get a lovely big array to dress a table every time. You do, of course, have to offset the cost of buying the fake blooms, and the real looking fake ones are not the cheapest, but I thought it was actually a nifty idea. So i'm on the look out for good quality fake blooms to mix and match in with cheap real supermarket blooms. 

Well, that's my tip of the week passed on!

I have discovered a chocolate coffee for my lattes when time is short. Oh, such a sucker for packaging, but really rather pleasant.

Right, must dash.....the list today is endless.....

....have a super weekend all.

xxx