New colour blooms...

I did very little crochet whilst on holiday, but sometimes its nice to have a complete break, devoid of pressure.

Our first day back home, and we continued with the outdoor activities. It was back on our bikes, and we cycled westerly along the canal path. It was a lovely sunny day, but not too hot, and with our newly attached water bottle holders, we were refreshed along the route. We then did an about turn, this time hunting for geocaches on the return journey. We found that some of them we had tried in the past, but this time we had success finding 4 in total. And despite having to search through a horse-fly swarm and getting stung by nettles, we did have fun!

I had a night out with the girls from work, as we visited Las Iguanas, Mexican restaurant, followed by Creams for pudding! It was a fun night, with yummy food!

And Peter Andre came to town, promoting his fragrance. I do have a soft spot from him, so I was quite happy to watch at a distance!

Crafting wise I've mangaged to complete all the rustic lace flowers, and joined them along the way. So all I have left to do is finish sewing in the ends, and it will definitely need blocking!

As i've taken many flower pictures on my holidays, I now have a lovely amount of inspiration to return to.

For my next crochet piece, this flower was behind my thought process (anyone have any ideas what it is?)

I love the simple shape, the way you would draw a basic flower on paper.

I made a dark round centre, and changed to an orange colour. I made a long chain, turned and worked back down the chain, and joined at the same point on the circle, till I worked round the whole circumference.

I wanted to add a second colour to the petals, to match the two tone of the flower

So I went round each petal in a bright red, for a slight contrast

As you can see, it is in desperate need of blocking as the petals have closed and curled round

I decided to make another, only changing the centre colour (after finding the original colour I had wanted)

I had no plan when I started out, but they are lovely plump flowers, so I will see how they look joined together, as I invisage they could make a colourful cosy scarf!

Looks like its time to dig out the iron!...

Hearts and Flowers...

I continued to play and made a colour chart from my berry pictures. The problem with this is it encouraged me to put in a yarn order! Like I need more yarn! But my decent yarns are all pastel shades, which was fine throughout spring/summer, but I wanted some deeper hues for the upcoming months.

I started, on another background colour for the next flower cushion (yes I'm well aware I've not completed the last one :-/ ) This is a multi-toned yarn by King Cole, and has some berry tones about it with hints of purple, blue and red.

I came across a lovely flower pattern on once upon a pink moon blog, and it's not taken me long to make a couple of  these.

They work up nice and big, which is what I wanted, to be nice and bold in contrast to the smaller summery ones.

I made the flowers in stylecraft dk yarn, which although is acrylic is lovely and squishy! I did add a couple of extra layers to the flowers to add some more depth and colour highlights.

Once I've attached these to the front and added some stems I will then decide whether it needs a couple of simple bold leaves, or maybe add some smaller flowers.
Although I do have to admit I think the only reason that I'm considering some smaller flowers, is because of this image that I've seen on Facebook, and I really want to have a go, and trying to find somewhere I can incorporate these as an excuse to make some!!

(not my picture, image taken from The Whoot on facebook)

I did have a long train journey during the week, for work,

which enabled me to make some more of my portable squares

Me and hubby celebrated our 4th Wedding anniversary this week, well I say the term 'celebrated' rather loosely, as with his lack of mobility we aren't really venturing out much. 

We have started little walks each day, so we ventured to our local village, and stopped for coffee and cake, just to have a rest of course!

It was such a pleasure to be out of the four walls, and sit outside in the fresh air, feeling the warmth of the sun

The following day we treated ourselves to a take-out

This weeks mood square....

Ummm not quite accomplished that this week YET, i'll get right on to it...

Watch this space.........

All things bright and beautiful...

This week was a race to get the beanie completed to give to my friend in time, before she ventured overseas. I intended to re-do the edge strip as I knew it had come up too tight, but before re-doing it, I wanted her to try it on to make sure she was happy with the main body of it. She was, but as I was undoing the edge, she requested whether it was possible to add more rows to make it more slouchy. This I did, and I'm very happy with the results, and thankfully so was she. I would definitely be happy to make another, more specifically i'd love to do a rainbow one, it has been a great pattern to follow.

I've also made a start with sewing together my portable squares, 

I have enough squares for the front of the bag, so I need to get cracking on the back.

I have made some progress with the 'summer flowers' cushion, and have added some foliage.

 I'm not too sure about the darker green, it may be too dark against the rest of the lighter colours?

Despite continuing with my summer cushion, there are obvious signs around us that Autumn is well and truely setting in. I can't bare the thought of Winter approaching, but I do love the ever-changing colours that happen in this season. Sadly I've not got any of the pretty trees around me, just leaves that are going straight from green to brown. What I have taken great delight in is the beautiful bright berries, such scrumptious tones.

One package that I had been searching for online, was to be able to come up with my own colour palettes. There is a sight, probably one of many, called design seeds, they have beautiful images, and they've pulled out the main colours. Sadly though, they only they only use their own images so it wasn't what I was looking for. I read plenty of blogs via bloglovin, and I was reading a passage from Moogly, on how she uses PicMonkey to plan layouts with her granny squares. She then went on to mention another post by Stitch 11, who used the same sight to produce colour palettes from her own visuals. I couldn't believe it, just what I was looking for and it was right under my nose, an editorial sight that I use every single week to edit my pictures, or produce picture collages and I was able to do so much more without realising. I followed Corina's tutorial and I'm very happy with the outcome. I can see I will have plenty of fun with this in the future.

It's been a bit of a tough week this week. I managed to break my phone, so was without it for a few days, and I know its ridiculous to be so attached to an electronic gadget, but I really did feel cut off from the world. I stay in touch with people via text, email and Instagram, plus I take a huge amount of photos wherever I go.

 On a positive note, hubby had a trip to the doctors to have his stitches cleaned and checked, all is good and he is healing well after his operation, we just need to start to build up the strength in his muscles again. so whilst many of you may take your dogs, or other pets out for walkies, I'll be taking hubby out instead, though he draws the line at getting a collar and lead, I can't see why!!?

My mood square colours have darkened a bit this week, I'm feeling a bit stressed, run down and I feel constantly tired that I struggle to keep going. I took the pattern from the simply crochet Granny app, this one is Granny Iris.

Heathers and Bluebells...

Thank you all for last weeks lovely comments...
Sadly, no I don't' have a proper pattern for my Owlie, I have a bad habit of making things up as i go, even if i have the good intentions of writing down as i go, it doesnt quite happen, see a true disorganised crafter. This though, is a habit that i really must rectify!! I even have about 6 notebooks on the go to try, where I keep attempting to be good, so i really need to come up with a proper system, so i know what yarn, colours, the pattern, and the cost of each item....
Does anyone else have system in place??

This week, when i had a good rummage in my yarn stash, I was really taken with the beautiful tones of these little balls...

They reminded me of heather...
Although i knew i didn't have enough to do a project with these yarns, i picked out some similar colours for my next cushion. I quite like the colour palette although i would have preferred some more purple hues...

This is the back of the cushion completed, just a basic granny square, where as the front will be made up of four quarters...

As I had a lovely three days off, i took the chance to visit a dear old friend, who i've known for over 20 years. Having recently lost her husband she was very low, so after lunch we picked up her dogs

to go for a long walk

Its a great walking area, with open fields and woodlands

We were so lucky on this occasion, that the bluebells were still around, a whole carpet of blue and violet as far as you could see...

Beautiful stems and individual flowers

I had some 'happy mail' in the post. I spotted a picture of some skull fabric on instagram. I had one of those "I have to have" moments. I didnt Need anything but I just couldn't say no, so I asked 'SewRayMe' for a little storage bag to be made for me with a contrast lining. Of course I have lots of lovely bits and pieces that can go in it, so it will be put to good use.

This weeks mood square:

Lilac = relaxation, Purple/Green = fields and bluebells, Pink/Cream = relaxed days off

Next Sunday, we are off on our long annual journey to Cornwall, to visit my Dad, I'm so looking forward to it, and fingers crossed we have some nice weather, but we've had a set back with hubby's knee, as its swollen up and painful again, lets hope it improves so we can enjoy some trips out...