Rainbow Raindrops Cushion.

What a fabulous pattern, if your a crocheter make sure you check out lucys blog, its a colourful fun blog, always cheers me up, she is a great pattern designer ! Full of colour and fun. This was such a good project to choose for my holiday, now I have the pattern set up its so easy to memorise, I will be able to hook away wherever I am, and what a colour blast.

I chose to buy her pack rather than chose my own colours and I am so glad I have.For £15 I am going to get 2 gorgeous cushions for my bedroom, I just need to buy 1 more cushion pad, I have buttons already.I am already addicted..

The first colour repeat is now done and I am set to go, I have had to prise it out of my hands to pack I could quite easily carry on all day..The cushion is crocheted in stylecraft chunky, a yarn I have not used before, but am a convert, I certainly will be buying more, especially for some winter throws, I have my eye on her coast ripple blanket next !done in chunky though..I think it suits my tension better.. Cant wait to snuggle down in that..

Well I'm all packed now and ready to head off to the Cornish coast, 1 more sleep to go, ho hum, want to go now! The forecast is not looking good, so have packed lots of things for us to do, but to be honest I love wild coastal scenes, a bit of wind and rain has never stopped us !

Our last visit to Cornwall was just as the storms hit in February, we couldn't wait to get to the beach,  so stopped en-route to stretch our legs! we were a bit cold and wet by the time we got to our friends.. believe it or not there was a surfer out there!

Hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend, will update when and if I can next week!.

TTFN

Down the 'Beach' again..

I love the beach, it may not be a true beach, just resting on the mouth of the river Severn, but its a quick drive out from home, to open space and a good wind!

I managed to drag the boys out today along with little princess and our boy Max.The sun shone and thoughts turned to our holiday in Cornwall next week, got us all excited!, well it got me excited anyway!!

The dogs loved it and we had a good walk out, which is just what we all needed. Back home to the final holiday packing. Pretty much done for the essentials so it was time to prepare my holiday crochet project!

I'm hoping to get a raindrop cushion completed the week we are away, so needed to set it up and make sure I know what I am doing as wont have Internet connection for a fair chunk of the holiday..Never attempted this stitch before, but it seems pretty easy, I have to say her tutorials and patterns are so simple to follow and free!

The Pack

Starting off

Loving it so far, its an easy to follow pattern, think I'm going to love this pattern, and as a bonus there's enough to make 2..will just need to buy another cushion pad. A little bit of colour for my bedroom !

Socks and a nice cup of tea to end the day..

Feeling the need to relax and banish the grey, I picked up my socks and got me a nice cup of tea!

Add some TV and away we go, into the zone..It wasn't long before I finally got my socks finished

Its amazing what some TV knitting and a good cup of tea can do.Clears the head indeed. How can you not be cheered with a pair of socks like these.. As I was in the zone I had to cast on another pair straight away....

There is something to be said for simple knitting and some colour.

Holibobing, staycation style..

Tuesday already? where does time go when you're having fun?

I so love being at home,I love to be with my boys, I love to potter in my house, I love just being there.

The past 3 days have whooshed by, on Saturday No 1 son was volunteering at the zoo farm, hubs was sorting his dad for a trip out, BIL came up and they took FIL to an afternoon family party, made a nice change for FIL. no 2 son tagged along..I pottered at home as had to go and get no 1 son from work, a nice bit of me time..

BIL came with some freebie eggs from his ducks/chickens! yum..

Saturday night was out for a curry as planned, friend paid for hubs Birthday !! what a treat, many thanks..

Sunday saw a brisk walk down 'The Beach' blowing the cobwebs away..

followed by a lazy afternoon reading whilst the males of the house did their own thing..2 books now read since Friday !!

Monday was school shopping day and hubs b'day..

no 2 son's new school uniform & shoes bought,[budgeted for], the bits that we can buy from the local shops that is, the rest is extortionately priced school logo stuff.. that will have to be bought next payday and he can make do with last years PE kit and blazer till then.. We stopped for lunch and I treated the boys to a big mac and shopped for dad's home from work birthday high tea!!

This is hubs first birthday without his mum, so we bought him a nice frame for our favourite pic of her..this is now on our growing picture wall..Its coming on a treat !

The evening we got a takeaway,[food budget splurge, we can do a  smaller shop this week] saving our pennies for Cornwall next week, choosing to have a meal out down there instead, I have to confess I skipped weigh in last night due to hubs b'day, my scales are saying I stayed the same, indulgent weekend !

All in all a great way to start the holiday..

Rainy day weekend..

The rain came, and boy did it rain.. Sunday was a bit of a wipe out on the going out to do something front! I had hoped to go to a local car boot then walk the dog on the beach.. but it wasn't to be. Instead we had a lazy Sunday morning, tea in bed whilst watching Sunday brunch ! what a novelty, cant remember the last time I had a Sunday morning cuppa in bed!!

As usual I get restless not doing anything, so it was up and at 'em.. after watching Sunday Brunch it had to be baking.. Sunday cake baking, not for me I hasten to add ! a treat for the boys..

Chocolate cupcakes, no topping as no 1 son likes them plain.. and a hot cross bun inspired cupcake/muffin for no 2 son. 12 of each, come this morning there are only 6 muffin cakes and 1 chocolate cake left !!

Then I fancied a spot of sewing.....I ironed my quilt strips ready to sew..

But got waylaid by some sparkly fuchsia sari fabric..so the strips didn't get sewn..Nothing to show on the pink fabric front...managed to work out how to do a square neckline, thanks to you tube, then the darned machine decided to give up !!!! Nooooooooooooooo...... cant afford a new one at present, need to find somewhere to give it a service.

What else was there to do on a rainy day? watch trash tv whilst doing the weekly ironing !! one job done..

Yesterday evening I spent by joining spotify. The plan being that when I have to work in the office, I can pop my ear plugs in , listen to some music whilst typing up, and drown out/ filter out all the stuff that stresses me.. should be worth £9.99 pr month if it works..had great fun adding tracks to my playlist..haven't listened to some of them for years..

crops gathered this weekend....

fresh pesto sauce made..

very yummy, but looking at the quantity of olive oil, Parmesan  and pine nuts hubs put in ,probably not good for my calories !!

Garden progress..

I am ashamed to say I have never really been a gardener, never really saw the point of going to all that trouble when you can just pick up a bag of veg at the supermarket...Hubs on the other hand has always loved growing his own, even as a teenager he grew veg..

This year we were lucky to be given a large greenhouse, hubs was in heaven? me? not so..this was before the whole lets start getting frugal and get this mortgage paid off malarkey..Now I am a convert, we have had a glut of lovely lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, peppers, chilli's and even a melon!! there are green beans and marrow growing in the garden, not quite sure what else hubs has planted!! The benefits are I am eating much healthier, the pounds are slowing dropping..and we can have free meals, hubs and I are not vegetarians, but we are quite happy eating meals without meat..how brilliant is it to go to your garden pick the veg, cook it, eat it , all free! talk about a light bulb moment... Last night we had  ratatouille and rice, nice, healthy and free! the boys obviously wouldn't eat that!! they had lamb burgers and home made chips..I forgot to take a pick of the meal, but here's how my gardens growing...

Not a bad start..

Here's some hubs picked on Friday..please excuse the cucumber shot!!

The melon was gorgeous, we were not sure how successful it would be, but we have 2 more growing, definitely a must for next year..The cucumbers and tomatoes have been made into a gorgeous cucumber / tomato salad, a little bit of olive oil, lemon juice, basil and salt and pepper..had this for lunch yesterday with some lemon couscous.. yum..I really should start taking pics for the blog...