Wild and Sunny

Isn't this beautiful? A wild flower meadow.

Wonderful mans parents came to stay at the weekend. It's the first time since we moved here. They may never want to visit again after we walked them for miles and climbed millions of steps. Ok so the millions of steps is a slight exaggeration, but that must be what it felt like to a retired couple who live in a bungalow in uber flat East Yorkshire!

We started by taking them to see the Buttertubs on the Buttertubs Pass. My photos don't do them justice, they're really deep limestone potholes. I'm a big scaredy cat, and cringe when ever anyone peers over the edge, as you can see by my photo, I'm way over behind the fencing taking the pics while wonderful man and his parents impersonate mountain goats!

The weather here on Sunday was wonderful, just how June should be, gloriously sunny and warm, with blue skies and fluffy white clouds with flat bottoms. No coats needed today, no jumpers, no cardigans, just t-shirts and sunglasses. Our first port of call was Aysgarth. This photo is taken from the car park looking down over Saint Andrews church. We walked down through the churches grave yard, complete with rabbits and sheep,

and down lots of steps to...


the high falls, apparently this is the waterfall where Robin Hood Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner was filmed, well the fight scene with Robin and Little John anyway. We carried on through a woodland walk

and down more steps to the middle falls

and then back up these steps

and on to the lower falls...down more steps.

where we find the lower falls. Here you can walk along side the river over the rocks stopping to peer in hundreds of small round rock pools.

Now here's a very important picture...

my lunch! It was delicious, that salad bowl must have contained my 'five a day' for a week!
Then on to Bolton Castle, where there are lots more steps, and yes, we climbed them all!

Right to the top, out on to the roof!

I love this picture, all the stonework, all the little nooks and crannies. The windows of blue sky and the green ferns growing out of the walls.

Back down at the bottom we took a walk through the village, viewing some 'open gardens', along the way

At this point I must apologise to my inlaws for walking their little legs off! I'm sure they'll think twice before visiting again. I just wanted to share all this loveliness with them.

A Bank Holiday Weekend in the Yorkshire Dales.

This weekend we, (this is not the royal we you understand, just myself and my husband, and on the occasion that we could prise them out of the house, our teenage children), enjoyed a scarecrow festival, a lovely walk, some crafting time at home, a visit to a table top sale, and a village fair!

And here are the photos, enjoy!

Compo and Nora Batty!

Spring Watch!

Sundays walk.

to...

the waterfall.

Back this way

and over the bridge.

Made another Lola.

Monday.

Pretty white washed houses.

Look at all these tapestry kneelers. They were all different.

This is a handmade rag rug in the church

Back outside into the sunshine to admire the view.

and here's my treasure from the tabletop sale, a 50p mirror and some gift boxes!

The village fair, too many people (honest! They're all behind me watching the falconry demo), too many cars, so we bimbled down to the waterfall for a bit of peace and quiet.

that's more like it!

Another Year Older, part two!

Now then, where did we get up to?

Oh, yes! The table top sale at the market hall...As I was saying, after I finished my marathon present opening session, we all wandered off down to the table top sale in our local market hall. I wasn't really expecting to buy anything as I presumed most of the stuff would be the same as last months. But how wrong I was! I shuffled around the hall as you do, and then on the last stall I spotted theses beautiful tins.

This is the back of the Ginger Wafers tin.

And then on the same stall, down on the floor I saw these two lovely pictures,

so I snaffled them up too! They're going to go side by side above my bed, when I find the hammer!(Mr Nobody seems to have had it!)

And I couldn't resist this spotty address book.

So laden down with my 'treasures', we all headed back home for lunch and a quiet afternoon snoozing, before we went out for a birthday tea at a local pub.

As you can see I had a lovely birthday weekend, topped off by walking into work on Monday morning to find a rather impressive birthday cake waiting for me. Hand made by my boss, it must have taken her ages, I was really touched.

Thank you everyone for wishing me a happy birthday!

Love Fi x

Another Year Older!

Yes I'm another year older. It was my birthday at the weekend, and what a lovely weekend I had, all thanks to my wonderful man and my family.
On Friday my mum and dad came over from East Yorkshire for the weekend. Its like show and tell when they arrive, as we all craft in some way and always have lots to tell each other and our latest projects to show off!

Saturday brought a trip to Embsay Craft Mill, near Skipton. It was my mum and dads first visit, although we nearly didn't get there as dads car decided it didn't want to move off the drive! My wonderful man stepped into the breach and offered to take us all, which I thought was very selfless of him, as he has no interest in fabric and yarns and must have known we'd be there for hours! We had a lovely bimble around all the fabrics and paper crafts, touching and stroking, ooing and aahing! Generally acting like kids in a sweet shop.

I bought these lovely fat quarters to make skirts for my Lola dolls. (well that's the plan!)

Sunday started with a lovely cup of tea in bed and a pile of birthday cards to open, followed by a leisurely shower. Then a quick dash to hang the washing out (school uniforms) before opening all my lovely birthday presents with the family. I got so many beautiful cards and I would just like to say thank you to everyone. Here are two very special handmade cards.
This was made by my mum and must have taken her hours! Its pergamano, which is special translucent paper, pricked and embossed!

And this one was made by child #2, with the sweetest sentiments handwritten inside. She always makes me cry!

Here are some gorgeous hardanger shelf trims made by my dad, he secretly phoned my wonderful man while I was out and got him to measure the shelves at either side of my cooker!

Yes. There is a tile missing behind the cooker. It's a long story! Hopefully it will be with us soon!

Isn't it beautiful, I hope he enjoyed making it because I've asked him for another piece to edge my dresser shelf! Then as if that wasn't enough, he'd made me a matching photo frame with my children's last school photo inside. I blubbed uncontrollably!
The embroidered box was also made by my dad and contained my shelf edging. Here's a close up.

I wish I'd taken photos of my mums gifts before I'd opened them. They're always so beautifully wrapped with ribbons and trims. This one was a box of scrummy fabric and ribbon bits and pieces, I'll be dipping into this for weeks to come!

The key ring is from my lovely friend Sam, we both used to work a very long shift together and I miss her 'shed loads!'

And lastly the very generous gift from my wonderful man. My very own laptop, so now I have no excuses for not posting regularly. No more queueing up for the family computer, or waiting for the children to finish their homework!

I'll save the rest of my birthday post for next time, as after this marathon gift opening session I headed off to our local market hall for a table top sale!... Well it was in aid of the local school!!!

So from my little corner, cheerybye for now. Fi x

I hope you've all had a lovely bank holiday weekend. I did (Hooray!) even though it was short. I was at work on Monday (Boo!).

Jude's blue bunny was finished and parcelled up all safe and cosy ready for his journey over to Katherines Dream. Here he is ready to be loved, he didn't like the idea of travelling on his own, so I made him a little bunny buddy.Oops! The wrong way around, he's shy!

That's better.

On the way down to the post office I popped into our local market hall, where a flea market was being held. Straight away I spotted 5 Masons, blue and white dinner plates. Oh, the excitement! I gave them a cursory once over checking for chips, and then straight over to the counter to pay! I have to explain here that I only own 2 large bowls, and 9 little fruit bowls in this make and design. They were bought for me by my mum, and I absolutely love them to bits. They were made by Masons for Crabtree and Evelyn.

I don't have a one particular dinner service, as I am the kiss of death to any dinner set! As soon as I start collecting it, it's discontinued!!! So after the second time this happened to me, I decided I would have anything blue and white and traditional looking. Mix and match. So my dinner service is made up of a bit of Spode, Masons, Churchills, Royal Doulton and several other makes. It seem to work quite well though!

Anyway, in my excitement at finding the plates, I hadn't noticed that every table in the whole room was covered in crockery and glassware. As I turned around I spotted this...

I've been wanting one of these for while now. It doesn't match my blue and white, but I just fell in love with it and before the lady had even started to wrap my Masons plates, I had it in my sweaty little hands, grinning like a Cheshire cat and saying, "Oo! and this please!"

On Sunday the weather here in the Yorkshire was wet and miserable, which was good in a way, because I got on with some sewing.

I made myself and peg bag to wear over my shoulder to save all that bending up and down to the peg basket. So now my pegs are always at my side, ready for me to just dip my hand in and get one.

My next little project was Lola.

she has little green shoes

Fi x

Quickie

Oooo! A parcel for me? Yes a big one! A big, soft, squishy one!

It was my order of merino wool for felting. Not a very exciting pic I grant you, but you had to be there. The smell of the wool and soft silkiness, aaaah! Not very exciting colours either, but then it depends what you do with them.

This is what I do with them.

And the tiny teddies finally have faces.

That's all for now, I have a blue bunny to finish for a special little man, there are some lovely pics of him over at Katherines Dream, but be warned, they will melt your heart and make you cry!