By The Sea....

Hello my lovely ladies!! How've you been?

Much of this week has been quiet and a lot of knitting (and frogging) has gone on but yesterday I ventured out to meet up with some of my good friends that I have met through the power of the www.

I went via Ashley's from Country Rose to collect her & Rose and then we headed across to Gem's (of Treasures From The Cherry Tree fame) new house.

We were given a warm welcome with tea and homemade cake and I was finally able to give Gem the housewarming gift I had made:

One of my free motion embroidery pictures of her house.

I have these for sale in my Etsy shop - I can do custom embroideries of your house or a friend or relatives, they would make great gifts!!

After the grand tour of Gem's new home (which is EXACTLY like the kind of house I would love, complete with Downton Abbeyesque doorbell!!) we pottered along to a lovely cafe on the seafront to meet Sarah from Annaboo's House and her little daughter for lunch.

Naturally, having already had cake I fell completely off the wagon:

Mmmmm, I could just eat it again!!

After lunch we went for a wander on the beach and Rose entertained us no end by splashing in the rock pools and more than once sitting down fully clothed in them!! Luckily, Ashley had a change of clothes so it was decided to let Rose get on with it and she and little A had a whale of a time:

We posed for silly group portraits:

Could I look anymore like Lisa Riley?!!

I prefer this one which we took whilst Ashley was fishing Rose out of another rock pool (sorry, Ashley, how rubbish are we? She was sooooo funny and cute though!!):

All too soon (after more tea and cake at Gem's) it was time to come home. We had such a lovely day and promises were made to meet up again soon.

I must add that it was one of those days where one truly marvels at the power of a blog - without which I would have never met these lovely ladies that I have so much in common with....

Hugs,

S x

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The Instagrannies Big Day Out....

Last Saturday the lovely Ashley from Country Rose and I set out on a road trip to Alexandra Palace for The Knitting and Stitching Show and to meet up with some of the lovely ladies we have met online via our blogs and Instagram.

Ashley is now glowingly pregnant and so naturally we had to stop en route which suited me as there was a Starbucks and I got to have a huge Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Dear Ashley looking radiant....

It took a couple of hours to get to Ally Pally and then a while to find a parking space, we thought for a moment we were going to have no luck, but we eventually managed to find a spot in a side street.

We hiked up the hill, and I was glad Ashley was preggers as it meant I could have a rest now and again too - I am soooooo unfit!!

The view over London from the top is spectacular:

You could see the Gherkin and the Shard....

We all met in the foyer and there were hugs all round before we headed into the show - it was huge, really busy and hot!! I didn't take many pics inside as we kept getting split up and there was a huge urge to just stand about and natter.

We did all manage to get together at lunchtime:

And afterwards, we nabbed a passerby to take a group photo of us all:

Please ignore my Johnny Vegas-esque chin(s)....

Kate from Adventures From A City Girl Country Girl; Ashley from Country Rose; Nicki from Homebird; LissyLou from Lissy Lou & The Two Little Boys; Gemma from Little Gem's Diary; Gemma from Musings Of A Gem; Gemma from Gem's Country Life Dream; Julie from Pretty Little Jewels; Cuckoo from Tales From Cuckoo Land; Kmmms from Things Learnt The Hard Way

I couldn't miss the opportunity to join Cuckoo in one of her trademark silly face photos:

What do we look like?!!

In actual fact Cuckoo is every bit as gorgeous IRL as I knew she would be:

I, however, am not....lol....

We all parted feeling even more like old friends with plans afoot to meet up again soon for a whole day of crafting and nattering.

Naturally a few purchases were made, which I must show you:

Sock yarn and Alpaca DK that was going to be for a shawl - indeed since Saturday I have crocheted 3/4 of it, and realised that:

a. I thought it was a bit prickly (I detest prickly wool/garments as my Mum used to make us wear horrid itchy jumpers in the '70's).

b. I didn't have enough yarn.

So it's been frogged.

I also got some pretty ribbons and trimmings:

I also got some cute stitch markers:

It was a really, really good day - some of the ladies had felt a bit nervous about meeting up with people they had met over the Internet but I can honestly say it was very successful indeed - we truly all got along as though we had known each other for years - and not one of us turned out to be a 50 year old fella, eh Cuckoo?!!....

Hugs,

S x

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Monday Musings....

Hello all!! Have you had a nice weekend?

On Thursday, just after the engineer delivered his verdict on our fridge freezer (more about that in a mo) I got a surprise package in the post:

Isn't it wrapped beautifully?

Inside was this:

It's from the lovely Cuckoo over at Tales From Cuckoo Land (I've tried to do a linky but Blogsy is being a pain, Google it, it's a lovely blog, written by a lovely lady) - she had seen the book and remembered how I was excited to be getting a meerkat from Compare The Meerkat. How thoughtful is that? I was so chuffed, it really made my day.

We spent yesterday clearing the side of the house which had become a dumping ground for umpteen bikes and stuff that was waiting to go to the tip.


It needed to be done as today we had our new fridge freezer delivered - this is a really dull purchase because up until 11 days ago we had a perfectly good American style fridge freezer. Then we awoke to find it not working. It's four years old and cost a small fortune (Mr G's Mum and Dad had treated us when we had the kitchen done) so we were not best pleased.

I called Samsung and they said it had a five year guarantee on this, that and the other but naturally after waiting a week for the engineer it was none of those things that had gone and they wanted £325 to fix it. The engineer said as it also seemed "low on gas" it wasn't worth it.


So we have had to fork out £550 for a new fridge freezer and are actually worse off as this one is a basic model whereas the old one was all singing and dancing. We had to get another American style one as the wall to the side is not plastered and so had we got a (much cheaper) regular freezer the bodged up wall would have been on display.

We've just switched it on and I must confess, dull as it it, I am delighted to have a fridge again!! How people managed before they were a common household feature is beyond me. We have had to buy meals just a couple of hours before cooking them (I won't leave anything out of the fridge for more than a couple of hours due to my vomit phobia!!) and haven't had a cold drink in over a week!!

This weekend I've also been working on my sunburst blanket:

It's a pattern from "The Gentle Art Of Knitting" by Jane Brocket (though it's crochet obviously!!) in Debbie Bliss Amalfi. The little squares are soooooo therapeutic to do, in fact I think it may well be the first blanket I actually finish ( and don't just get bored with and turn into a cushion!!)

I also recently finished a machine embroidery of MIL & FIL's little bungalow for MIL's birthday:

If anyone would like an embroidery doing of their home, I am thinking of taking commissions - initially I'll just charge a nominal amount for materials as I want to practice. If you fancy one then leave a comment or click on "Contact Me" in the header bar to email.

Finally, a reminder to come and play at Shabby Chic Sarah's own forum/message board - we have 10 members and a few conversations on the go, but the more the merrier!!

The URL is: www.shabbychicsarah.forumotion.com - come and join us!!

Hugs,

S x




 

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Ladies Who Lunch (AKA Blogging Rocks!!)....

Today is one of those lovely days when you realise how much you get out of blogging. 


I spent a lovely lunch with these gorgeous ladies:

Ashley (Country Rose);  Sarah (Annaboo's House);  Me;  Gem (Treasures From The Cherry Tree)

Edited to add: Mr G has just told me I look the by far the oldest in this pic and so any brownie points earned from the fabric softener incident are now cancelled out!!

I started blogging back in Jan 2011 and to begin with it felt as though I was talking to myself, then slowly but surely my followers began to grow. 


Soon, I got to know a handful of ladies via email and then met my first Bloddie (Cuckoo's word: blog + buddy = Bloddie) in real life - the lovely Ashley (above left). 


Since last autumn Ashley & I have become firm friends helped by the fact we only live 12 miles apart. We love all the same things and get on like a house on fire despite me being (literally) old enough to be her mother!!


Recently another Bloddie has moved into the area and so today we had a "road trip" (more about that in a moment!!) to meet Gem from Treasures From The Cherry Tree and Sarah from Annaboo's House for lunch.


Ashley lives between Gem and I and so the plan was for me to go to Ashley's and she would drive on to Gem's.


Gem is renting a lovely 1926 house (why oh why did I end up in a 1970's semi?!!) in a seaside town and the weather when we arrived was glorious - the journey was not. What should have been a 25 minute journey took 2 HOURS 20 MINS!! Can you believe it? All due to a tiny area of roadworks causing miles of tailbacks that were literally at a standstill.


Luckily. Ashley's gorgeous baby daughter Rose was very well behaved or it could have been stressful as well as very annoying.


We were very pleased to be welcomed into the open arms of Gem and Sarah - meeting people for the first time can cause some nervousness, but the minute I saw Gem I knew there was going to be none of that as I felt as though I had known her for ages.


We were treated to a lovely lunch (home-baked cheese scones, yum!!) and for pudding Trifle Crawfords ;0) 

Mmmmmmmm....

After lunch we had a hilarious "photo shoot" to get piccies for our blogs - the only one I am willing to show you is the one of the four of us above - I consistently have a funny gammy looking eye and/or a Johnny Vegas chin!!

The lunch was all too short due to our delay in arriving and soon we had to leave, with promises to do it again soon Ashley and I set off home taking a detour to avoid the traffic (but still taking nearly an hour to get back!!)

Despite the traffic issues, it really was a lovely way to spend an afternoon and made me grateful once again for everything I get from Blogland....

hugs,

S x