Emergency Crocheting.

This weekend has mostly been taken up with animal husbandry. That sounds very grand doesn't it? In other word...trying to keep the chickens from escaping! Yes those little Houdinis have been doing their best to get into the back garden and scrabble about in our beds and borders.

There has been much fence building and gate making, not by me you understand. No I just did some over viewing and picture taking. All on your behalf you understand, I'd much rather have been knocking fence posts in but someone has to record everything for posterity and blog posting. Here are the girls looking a bit miffed. You see they'd discovered that the wire meshing on the gate had larger holes than the rest of the fence and with a little hop and a wiggle they could pop through quite easily. Cheeky little chickens! They cleverly noticed this on the day that Wonderful Man was at work 120 miles away, but no panic I sprang into action with my trusty crochet hook and a ball of garden twine! HA! That put pay to their little game! I crocheted across their little escape route and stopped them in their tracks!

Hope you're feeling better soon Mum. x

Till next time

love Fi x

Just a little catch up.

I was going to say the weather has been lovely here in the hills recently and it has but we've also had some extremely heavy rain! Any how on this particular day the weather was pleasant enough for me to do a spot of gardening with the hinderance...er...I mean help of the 'girls'.

From left to right we have Margery, Cluck, Lady Gaga, Fudge and Pepper. Paxo it just out of shot on the right. How they're not headless or missing a leg I don't know! They practically sit on the spade as you dig, waiting for the best worms!

Now some pretties for you. Lets zoom in a bit...

Mothers day gifts from my lovely family. A new Cath mug and a gorgeous big batter bowl! A whole 5 litres worth of batter bowl! It's from M&S before you ask, lol.

And not forgetting a huge thank you to you all for the lovely comments you left on my last post. I really appreciate your encouragement. I always read every single comment and I know I'm pants at finding time to reply to you all so I'm sending you all a big hug and super cheesy grin!

Love you all.

Fi x

The Old Sweet Shop

For a long time now I've been wanting to be a bit more creative with my crafting. Cupcakes and bunnies are fine but there are only so many you can make without needing a change. Needing to explore your own creativity and crafting skills.

Above is The Old Sweet Shop.

A lovely little shop run by lovely people.

I knew you'd want to go inside so here it is!

Old, quirky, quaint and utterly gorgeous.


This is a page from my sketch book.

As you can see I don't do a lot of drawing these days, but it was enough to inspire me to do something I've been wanting to do for well over a year now.


The Old Sweet Shop.

I snipped and trimmed...

and stitched...

to my hearts content.

Look at the little sweety jars in the window!

I would like to do a whole series of pretty places and have already built up quite a collection of
photos.

Who knows maybe one day I could have an exhibition.

Just need to get the old arse into gear now!

love fi x

Apron Love.

The above is the result of waking up to kiss Wonderful Man goodbye when he left at 4.30am for work!

Well to be precise, it's the result of me not being able to get back to sleep after he left for work at 4:30am!

Luckily he only has to do this once a week. Get up at 4:30 I mean, not go to work once a week! lol.

I've got a bit of bread thing going on at the moment which is quite nice only I wish it would go away as I'm piling the weight on...mmmmm...homemade bread and jam....mmmmmm!

Recent crafting activity...more heart brooches.

These seem to be quite popular so I've tweaked them a little, as you do when you've made quite a few of the same thing. I'm rather pleased with these as I printed the script onto the fabric myself and I have to say I'm quite taken with it.

More hearts, one to be precise, appliqued onto...

this little utility apron.

I'm hoping this will be just right for keeping my essentials in when I'm running my next craft stall. If it's not it doesn't matter as I've found it rather useful at home already for carrying my mobile phone (which usually lives in my bra when I have no pockets) my camera ready for crafty blog photos at any given opportunity, pens, tissues the coiled up USB lead for the camera. (It's always downs stairs when I'm up and upstairs when I'm down, I should be as thin as Kate Moss really!)
The apron wasn't my idea I found it here if you fancy having a go.

More apron luuurve!

Some vintage Sanderson curtain fabric, a bit of ricrac and HeY preSTO!

Modelled beautifully by Ethel Maud.

I don't think I've introduced you to Ethel Maud before. She gets in the way a bit but I do love her so. She's very quiet and never answers back and best of all she's very obliging when you need to hang things off her instead of dropping them on the floor.
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And lastly.

A sneak preview.

I'm sooooo excited about this, I'm almost beside myself!

Gosh! I hope you won't be disappointed after this build up. I'm just so pleased with how this turned out... but that's for next time.

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Thanks for keeping me company, you keep me going.

love fi x

Time Travel

As many of you already know I live in the middle of rural Yorkshire.

Right there in the centre of the picture.

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A very special place to be and indeed I feel very, very lucky and privileged to live here (thank you Wonderful Man). I try to never ever take it for granted and as you know, try to share it with as many of you as I can (or some might say, foist it upon you left, right and centre, lol)

WM and I often remark that living here is like stepping back in time and to be honest with you it was one of its attractions when deciding to relocate here.

Many of our local villages have car parking with honesty boxes for payment (quite a novelty when you come from the city). Baskets of eggs are left for sale on walls with a little tin for the money. Bikes, tools, wellies, toys etc are safely left outside peoples homes. Pushchairs and cars can be parked outside the local shop without worry. Your bill from the coal man can often take a good six months to arrive, no rush.

Best of all, folk smile and stop to say hello.

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Every day I see little snapshots of local history, times gone by.

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Often taken for granted by the locals.

(we're 'in-comers', and I'm not sure how many decades you have to live here to be classed as local, lol)

but special to me and worthy of a little click of the camera.

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Fungus and moss will only grow on trees where the air is unpolluted by cars.

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Wild flowers surprise you on the road side.

Market day, flat cap, wool coat and wicker basket obligatory.

No longer the chosen mode of transport.

The village green, complete with Maypole.

Stepping further back in time, lead mines and quarries.

We truly love getting out and about and still have much to see and discover.

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This is our latest discovery.

Found at the side of the road, on a quite ordinary shopping trip.

Pendragon Castle.

. A 12th century Norman Keep.

With a 14th century garderobe turret.

I've never used the words dragon and castle in the same post before.

I feel quite excited and giddy.

Must be time for a good old fashioned cup of tea.

till next time,

love fi x

We all need keeping warm.

You may have noticed on your recent visits to my blog, a pretty rainbow up there at the top of my sidebar on the right saying Crochet a rainbow.This is a link to Sarah Londons lovely yarny blog asking for help for the victims of the recent Australian floods.

For a few weeks now I've wanted to help in some tiny way but didn't quite know what to do. I'd see other blogs asking for quilt blocks to be made and another asking for a sewing kits for the women who had lost theirs in the flood waters but I knew as much as wanted to help, realisticly I would never get around to making these items.

There were lots of good intentions but you know what it's like.

Then I discovered 'Crochet a Rainbow'.

Perfect!

All Sarah was asking for was to crochet some granny squares no bigger than 5 rounds. You don't even have to sew them together, just post them to Sarah and she would do the rest.

I knew I could fit this in here and there. A granny here and a granny there and HeyPresto a lovely bundle of grannies ready to be posted off to Sarah ready to be made in to blankets.
Why not snatch a few minutes here and there and do a bit of grannying yourself.

It feels soooooo good to granny for the good of others.

Go on...you could have completed the first round whilst reading this!

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Staying on the same thread. I've been doing a spot of knitting. I must admit that's not something you'll hear me say very often as I'm not a very keen knitter, but I couldn't resist these little sandels.


And as there is a baby due a next-door-but-one how could I not give them a go. These little shoes are to fit 3 month upwards, so I decided a practical denim blue colour might be best,
but what if it's a girl?

Then I'll add some little crochet primroses.

Pleeeeeeeaaase let it be a GIRL!
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love fi x

Guest Post from MarmaladeRoses Mum

Fiona's Dad would just like to say a big THANK-YOU to all her lovely bloggie friends for all the lovely comments and words of encouragement.

If only you all knew how much that meant to him, as he doesn't think he is very clever at all!! He has only just started doing cross stitch late last year, prior to that it was Hardanger that had taken over his spare time.

To Anne the lady at made-and-found your comments in particular really were very touching. We were sorry about your loss at such a young age, but pleased that you have some special memories, thank-you, you touched a soft spot!

Love from MarmaladeRose's Mum