seaside treasures and mandala madness...

Very little to show you from this week.
I have worked on the mandala but I've not managed to complete even one round!!
I made a start, figuring out the very complicated section, and then I found after completing the first section I didn't have the right amount of stitches left at the end. Also I wondered why the longer stitches were pulling too much and found id worked in a row too low, so had to undo...

I've now got into the rhythm, but it takes a lot of concentration and is very slow going, and I don't think the next round will be any easier! I will persevere as am loving how this is turning out. Unfortunately it takes up and awful lot of my craft time. I've made a couple of basket bases in preparation for the next styles. And I  did get some of the ideas I have in my head down on paper

Ive managed a couple of walks down by the sea, both of which were very windy

During the week we'd had stormy weather, so the sea had gone quite frothy

And today's walk was deceivingly chilly, with moody skies

Good for the kite and wind surfers though!

The tide was on it's way out so we did some more treasure hunting

As usual hubby helped to find a great haul, and this time had a terrific find of our first blue piece

A great mix of colours found today

We now both have a week off work and tomorrow we will be swapping one coast for another as we head to Weston-Super-Mare to visit my Grandad, and also take in a trip to Cheddar Gorge

Until next week...

Basket progress...

Short and sweet this week, as work is at it's peak season, so it's all pretty hectic. I just wanted to show you an update of my crochet basket, which currently I would say is at 'Bowl' stage, but I'm loving it so far!!

I think I got the increases a little wrong, but it doesn't show too much as I've continued, and with each row I'm learning!

We did manage a little seaside walk this week, but it did get cut short after an emergency trip to Specsavers to fix one of the lenses in my glasses.

We did the 2 mile walk to Lancing, as we were invited to a family dinner, but only had the opportunity to find one Geo en route...

Until next week, fingers crossed for some more sunny days...

Seaside walks and washing lines...

We had another great Geocaching session along the seafront. It gets us out and about, and fun to do and in a great setting too!

We invited my Mum to visit our new place, on Mothers day. She enjoyed having a look around, and we had a lovely seafront stroll.

We cooked dinner, and gave her a present, but she arrived with homebaked goodies for us! A malteser cake and marmite cheese straws, yummy!

Last time I showed you my neon crochet squares, these were supposed to help get my creative flow going again, but they failed to do so. I thought by making simple squares, the ideas and passion would come back, but I ended up disliking them, so put me off doing any at all.

I had in my stash some washing line, that I found at poundland. I had bought this with the intention of having a go at making a basket. Now, I was itching to give it a go

 

No plans, no pattern, just having a play and see what happens

It's working up quite quickly, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

I know there's not much colour going on here, but don't worry this will change, as this is just the base. As i'm making this up as I go, I thought I would make it for my own use, ideally to keep whatever my latest project is. So I thought I would choose colours suitable to match our living room.

I have a rug that i'd bought in Morocco many years ago and I thought I would use this as colour inspiration

So I've chosen an oatmeal colour and various tones of red, and the black of the washing line will be seen through.

I'm looking forward to continuing with this project, and fingers crossed it will end up resembling a basket in the end!

Today was a beautiful sunny day, so of course we ventured outside to enjoy the coastal views.

We also went to find some local Geocaches. This took us inland a little, around the local streets and park, following clues and various coordinates to get to the end result.

It enabled us to have a look around the area, and spot other things

These two had a great vantage point

And we stayed out till we saw the sun go down

It was so lovely to see the sun out and to feel a touch of Spring in the air