{quilt} while you're ahead

* 78 * ** Tranquil **

My friend K and I agreed a swap a few months back.  She would knit me a jumper and I would crochet a cardigan.

She chose 'Tranquil' by Marie Wallin, in Rowan No 47

 

Yarn: Rowan Summer Tweed, hook mm

It's a really interesting pattern.  Three equal frilly doily pieces joined at the end (although I'm sure that with a little bit of thinking they could have been joined 'on the go' so to speak.

 

K opted for the same shade as the one in the book and it was good choice... 

Such a light an airy garment, perfect for layering and adding texture to an outfit.

 

I might have to crochet another one for myself!

* 56 *

I'm going to start by apologising for the 'randomness' I'm going to dump on you, but I need to 'clear' my head otherwise things will get ugly 'round here.

Our friends have gone back home and I seem to struggle to find my drumbeat again.  There seem to be too many things to do, to clean, to sort out, to tidy... to make.

So you, my friends, will help me and if my posts in the next couple of days won't make much sense... this is the reason why.

To start off: I received flowers in a box!  From S. as a thank you.  

 

The boys were really impressed with the packaging arrangements and speculated for ages about what kind of things you could potentially send in a box (I tried to explain that the flowers didn't actually come all the way from San Diego... but no... they know best.  As always)

 

I also discovered today that I was the runner up on Silverpebble's 100th post give-away... 

 

... I'm so 'out of it' at the moment I didn't even know I'd won!!

So it was a double surprise when this goodness popped through the letter box this morning

 

the sweetest earrings! gorgeous buttons! and the most wonderful lace doily!!

Thank you soooo sooo much Emma! 

One day I'll get it together enough to catch up with you all, in the meantime, amongst trips to the recycling centre, doctors, supermarket, in between sorting out summer clothes and summer uniforms, 3980344 loads of washing and walking the dog I managed a little bit of this 

 

(to keep me sane, you understand, don't you?)
 
 
 
 

 

* 55 *

Our American friends are still with us.  They had a week in London whilst we were in Italy and were meant to fly back 7 days ago... needless to say the 'ash' in the sky had them grounded for a while so we have the chance to spend more days together.

S and I put the world to right on a few occasion and engaged in a spot (or two) of retail therapy... the good thing is, whilst we both love doing the same things when it comes to clothes/bags/shoes we have totally different taste so we never argue about things (men, too.  Except Matthew McConaughey... for him it's a case of everything's fair in love and war... may the best woman win etc. etc., but since the likelihood of Mr Gorgeous ever coming into our lives is fairly slim, our friendship is safe).

Yesterday we went to Sudeley Castle, where they were holding a 'Spring Grand Sale'; in layman's terms a big tent full of interesting stalls... Castles can be dangerous places even in this day an age!

So of course we supported the local economy

 

and sampled the local cuisine...

 

yum.

But then we visited the Castle too

and the ruins

 

and the knot garden

 

and the pond

 

And I realised that every cloud (of ash...) has its silver lining and I was very happy to have my friend with me for a little longer.

* 50 *

Our friends have gone.

The house feels a bit empty and a bit sad.

They left us with great memories, promises of future meetings and...

 

very nice gifts!

We're off to Italy tomorrow to visit my parents... speak to you from there.
 

* 49 *

Sometimes it's easy to forget how many beautiful sights we have around us

 

and then somebody comes over from afar with a long list of places to visit

 

and you realise how lucky you really are to be surrounded by so much history

and beauty

 

and that being a tourist in your own country can be just as fun as being abroad.

* 38 *

I was tidying up my study - we have somebody viewing the house tomorrow, fingers crossed - and came across some old old pictures.  Don't you just love their colours? how the years have changed their textures and colours... how the focus is never quite right and the lenses never clean...

They make me feel nostalgic.

I must ask mum where they come from, who was behind the camera... where were they going, the one above looks like it was taken from a train window.

The lovely coincidence is that I went on a little train journey too this past weekend. Spooky, eh?

And I also had coffee (and ehm... pastry) with a dear friend.

I like coincidences like this.  I mean I could have taken these photos... really who knew this shop had been 'round for so long...

or that whoever took these pictures had shoes and tights like mine!

History repeating itself.  The circle of life.

(or maybe just the coolest app on my phone - Hipstamatic - gotta try it!)

A huge thank you to Ali, Karen, Tracy and Val for the wonderful day.

* 18 *

My 'seven days of specialness' parcel arrived this morning and I realised you can never be too old for presents.  The excitement!

Now I'm not a morning person.  At all.  Ask Mr M... I think the main reason he likes to go to work early is so he doesn't have to deal with me.  But today I was positively happy and even the prospect of going for a jog in the cold (my friend is a bully and has already decided that we ARE doing another 'Race for Life' this year, and the training starts 'NOW') didn't dampen my mood... because I had a parcel to open on my return!!!

Ta dah...

How beautiful are all those parcels?  They all have different themes... and spotty fabric! and grosgrain ribbons!

I opened the first one ... 'cleanse'... (after the gruelling run I needed it...)

 

cute eh?  Inside, a beautiful soap... perfect.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Aoife!  It's perfect!

* 13 *

I had a date with Ali this morning.  We have these 'breakfast' pow-wow quite regularly, you know, when we need to sort out the mess the world got itself in, put people in their right place and so on.

Today I almost didn't make it... 'google map' thoroughly let me down and I got lost in the thousands of little lanes that zig zag the English countryside... the one-car-wide lanes with huge hedges either side that lead you to beautiful remote villages 'Brigadoon style' that lead you to more lanes, over ran by horses with nowhere to pass them and then you turn off trying for a shortcut but find yourself face to face with the same horse you were previously following and then you realised you're in deep trouble and you consider stopping the car and calling the AA, but you can't even do that because the hedges are so high your mobile phone doesn't work and so you go on and on and then you're almost ran off the road (lane) by a local lady in a pristine 4-wheel drive car, with her Barbour Jacket and a hat with feathers and probably a gun in the back seat and you start wondering if you'll ever see you children... and what the police will say when the visit your house for clues and find the beds unmade and the breakfast dishes still on the table...

But I did made it.  Phew.

 

And it was worth it.

We had coffee and did a little shopping

(a new white little jug for the collection)

mixed seed sour-dough bread

and some strange green tea with 'popcorn' rice Ali introduced me to.

Delicious by the way, just the thing after the enourmous lunch we subsequently had...

pumpkin and spinach cannelloni (followed by a sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce so rich and delicious and about which the less said the better and because I didn't photograph it, it never happened)... with 'leaves'... so it was healthy, see? salad.

I can hardly move right now, but sadly it's time to go and relieve the school of my three angels... so till the next time....

be good, and don't eat too much. I did, and it doesn't feel good.

yesterday...

  all my troubles seemed so far away...

- take an early start, and a fabulous friend.

- take some Christmas decorations to get you in the mood

- take a bear with paper fur

- and a wise old hare

- take a deer with huge antler tangled in yarn

- take a skirt of broken blue china (... Alice? are you there? this is for you...)

- a chandelier of recycled plastic

 

-  take a divine crochet blanket

and then another one (not too mention the chunky knit one... sigh)

- take a stuffed cloth tree

- and an amazing yo-yo blanket

- take a gorgeous chair

- and a beautiful lampshade

- take lots of laughters, great food, an obscene amount of shopping...

Shake it all up and pour it onto an ordinary Saturday and you get the most fantastic day.  You should try it.  It's a good recipe.

Thank you, Ali.

the best of times...

aka as the recharging power of friendship.

(and good food.  and good shopping)

Some of you already know of my day out last Tuesday.  It was a really fab day.  Even if the weather tried to spoil it.  Even if I was so tired at the end of it I barely remember being picked up at the train station by Mr M and Lilli the dog.

London held up to its reputation too, I mean, where else would you find a car like this?

it was for hire too. 

Maybe I should re-upholster the interior of mine? or maybe not.

Ali mentioned the gorgeous food we had, I'll just mentioned the shopping... I'm obviously shallower than her. 

Fabric:

And the most gorgeous of skirts:

 

Divine, eh?

Oh yes, I needed a day like that.  Thank you my friends.