3 flowers growing...

So I seem to be juggling 3 different floral projects at the moment, not that that should come as much surprise!

Firstly, the rustic lace flower scarf, still set aside waiting patiently for its ends to be sewn and to be blocked.

Secondly, the orange bloom scarf. I have still pain stakingly been pinning and steaming these blooms, and have only one flower left to add, so the end is near. I did try it for size to make sure the length was right, and thankfully I made the right amount. But i'm not too happy with how the petals lay, although not as curly as when first off the hook, they're not staying as open as I'd like, so I may actually wash it and pin it in place to dry, once its complete.

My third project was unplanned, and very spur of the moment! I've been struggling to get to sleep the last few nights, one of those nights, rather than laying there frustrated, I went in the front room and picked up my hook, and these little flowers were the outcome.

I did a simple circular edging, which I have since frogged. It worked well to join just 2-3 flowers together, but wont work for more, as you end up back at the same finishing point. I like how these look, but it's on the drawing board, whilst my mind tries to conjour up a join as you go method!

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These are of course on top of the mood blanket, which is a continuous year-long project that I pick up as and when I'm able.

We finally booked out summer holiday this week, which we're in need of, as i'm feeling so exhausted, only 3 weeks till we venture to the Costa del Sol!

This week, with an extra day off we're hoping to take a trip to London Zoo, so next weeks post could be full of animal pictures instead of flowers, for a change!

Hot Hot Hot...

This week in the U.K it has been hot, damn hot!

I love summer, and warm sunny days, but this has been too much! Maybe i'm being a woosy Brit or maybe this country isn't set up for these conditions, as we get them so rarely. But it's been hard to move, function or sleep! 

Needless to say that not much crochet has taken place!

Its only the last couple of days, that the temperature has dipped slightly to allow me to pick up my hook

I'm still working on my Sweet Williams, rustic lace flowers

First a little colourful pile of centre circles

And then the second round shaping

And of course a touch of hookin in front of the tennis at Wimbledon

Although I don't complete a flower daily, I'm still continuing with my floral mood blanket, completing a batch at a time. Sadly i'm getting a bit slack with the ends though!

With the hot weather and Wimbledon what better excuse was there to have some strawberries and ice cream.....

Sunny South Coast...

This week we spent a lovely few days down on the South Coast, and the weather was glorious. We stayed with family in Lancing, and on arrival, after refreshments, we set off down to the town and headed straight towards the beach. After a little tour, the left us to wander, and we headed towards Brooklands park for some lunch.

We couldn't help ourselves, we had to indulge in a bit of geocaching whilst there, and found two by the seafront.

The sun was gleaming, and the waves were lapping, an instantly relaxing sound to me. 

The tide was going out, revealing squidgy sand, leaving its ripple marks, and little pools.

My face was positively glowing on return.

The following day we took a trip to Worthing. The sun was still beating down, and after our morning coffee we took a stroll around town, which had a great mix of high street and independent stores. I found a lovely little craft makers store, the Craft Tea gift shop, where I spotted Made with my very own hands, whom i follow on Facebook, its a small world. 

We ventured down to the seafront, and walked along the pier, where we always like to have a little play on the 2p machines! At the end of the pier, was a cafe decorated in 1930's style, which had been recommended to us, so we stopped for afternoon tea. I can assure you it is well worth a visit, I can imagine it must be a great atmosphere when a pianist is performing.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day and felt very at home there. Again we relaxed watching the tide go out.

For our last full day we planned a trip to Brighton. Firstly, we stopped at Shoreham-by-sea, as we'd been told about some house boats that were well worth a nosy at! They were much larger than I was expecting, and a variety of styles from quirky to modern.

We took the bus to Brighton, and after a panic that hubby may of lost his phone and the time consuming issue of getting family phone numbers to find out, and me getting hassle from work, we were eventually able to kick back and enjoy our day. We strolled around North Laine, taking in the atmosphere and stopped for some lunch.

We again ventured towards the sea and had our fun on the pier, the wind picked up by late afternoon so we took the train back and enjoyed another lovely evening meal.

We had a leisurely morning, after packing up our belongings, we took a stroll around the garden.

And went for a drive along Worthing coastline and stopped at the infamous Sea lane cafe, where we were treated to lunch.

It may have only been a few days, but being away from home and everyday routine did us the world of good, and the bonus of warm sunshine and sea air.

Back home, and the following day we were adjusting to being back so decided to go for a walk and do a spot of geocaching. We found a couple, but our intention of staying local ended up being a 5 mile hike across the other side of town, and having to give up on 2 others.

But there was plenty of pretty Spring blooms and blossoms to see along the way, and an area of large houses ( the size of 3), always good to see how the other half live!

Crafting wise I caught up with my mood flowers

and I've started another Chrysanthemum cushion front in a different colourway, and this time I will write the pattern down as I go!

It's going to be a shock to the system to go back to work, and i'm sure we will be counting the time down till we can go away again!

Blooming Love...

Short and sweet this week, as another season came upon us, so work became the main focus.

The floral blooms have slowly but surely been growing off the hook,

I have a great little bundle of pink flowers now but still a few more to make to be able to fill the edges of the cushion...

The mood flowers are still continuing. I delve into my huge bin bag of mixed yarns and pick out what takes my fancy or epitomises my mood that day.

I'm getting quite used to mixing up three different colours that I wouldn't normally put together, or picking colours that I don't really like, because the overall effect of a complete mixture of colours is just a beautiful sea of tones that blend together with no one colour that jumps out, nothing seems to clash, just colours fusing together...

I'm a little bit behind but hoping to catch up this week.

Didn't get much time to celebrate Valentines, but grabbed a couple of hours together in the evening. We ordered a take away,

and hubby completely spoilt me by getting tickets to see Cats in London. So excited. It's not really his cup of tea, which makes his efforts even more special...

Love him to bits....

Blanket Glory...

So. as promised this week its time for my Crochet Mood blanket 2014, to have its moment of glory...

55 weeks of colourful squares

plus mini squares that filled out the irregular lengths

At 47" x 23", its not the biggest. But will be a great little lap blanket whilst snuggled on the sofa

Or to keep the tootsies warm in bed

It's certainly the biggest item i've made

from January 

through to December

This will certainly be a blanket to treasure for many years

As a little teaser, I have been working on the new corner to corner cushion

The two squares are complete and i've started the edging, so i'm hoping to get started on the decorative flowers this week. But more on this little one next week...

Of course the flowers have been growing each day

The first month of the year is through already

Thankfully its not been too bad a start.....

Moods new and old...

So we've slipped in to a New Year, and as seems to be the way I'm with a positive frame of mind, and this years mantra word is DETERMINED...
Determined to:- better my way of life
                          get more active
                          declutter the flat
                          manage my time better
                          finish more crochet makes
Not a list of resolutions as such, but tackling things in a positive frame of mind and renewed energy, here's hoping it lasts.
So far I've been persevering with my mood blanket from last year, sewing ends, and joining, ive given it my full attention as I want to get it completed as soon as I can.

I've been pleased how quickly its been growing and how it's coming together, and it's really starting to look like a blanket now.

The only mistake I've made, which has made myself more work before completing it, is some of my strips of squares are too long!

As the year went on my squares got more ambitious and grew in size! So I'll have to adapt it, I think by adding some mini squares in the gaps,  before doing the edging. I'm determined to get this finished by the end of the month...

I have started a new mood blanket...
I've enjoyed the process, pleased ive managed to stick with something long-term, learnt new patterns and techniques and feel proud of the end result.
I'm doing it different this time as I don't want it to be quite so time consuming!
I spotted a beautiful crochet flower on @crochetgirl99's Instagram pages, which she had turned into a shawl, and it's this image that ive chosen to use.

It's small enough to be able to make quickly, but pretty enough to look effective, and the best thing is I can join them as I go, so no borders, ends and joining to plough through at the end of the year!

This means I can get more than one done a week, but without pressurising myself to having to do it everyday...

New Year was as quiet and as cosy as Christmas.

We treated ourselves to a new flavour of Sourz, Toffee apple, for us to try, and after a few shots

we also had a cocktail, Mexican Ruin...

After a lovely cosy week at home, I started back at work this weekend, which takes some adjustment.
We've worked doggedly on our time off, to try to work through the huge piles of boxes of belongings, and have painstakingly researched and listed quite a bit on eBay so far! You never know this time next year we might have a useable garage.

Well I am determined!!!