A Grand Day Out..

Not to the moon, unfortunately. And there was very little cheese involved.

We went to Arlington Court, near Barnstaple in Devon. It's a regency house, also housing the National Carriage Collection.

Can you see the Michaelmas daisies in the above picture? Aren't they pretty?

At least, I think they're Michaelmas daisies.. not entirely sure! They were covered in beebugs and flutterbugs. There's only one bee in there, and you can't really see him, but there's a fuzzy bumble-bum in there somewhere.

Next model for my photographic attentions was a beautiful Red Admiral. He did a lovely job of holding still for me, and didn't fly off even when I got very close indeed.

I was very impressed by the Walled Kitchen Garden - just about the best one I've seen at a National Trust garden, helped (I'm sure) by the Hedgehog Houses.

I was rather envious of their pumpkin patch.

I was coveting the hydrangeas as well.. Someone described hydrangea flowers as having a 'vintage phase' .. I love that, it fits so well!

Finally, my photographs of our afternoon tea yielded some interesting results. You can see me and my daddy reflected in the tea pots. Was good tea as well, I had three cups!

The day was rounded off very nicely by a beautiful sunset, which didn't photograph too well from inside the car, but I did try!

Did I mention this a while back? I bought myself a crysanthemum plant a week or two back.. I love the colour, and it looks so nice in my metal bucket, by the back door. I might take the occasional cut flower from it.. actually, I might do that this afternoon. They'd look really pretty by the bed.

My Fabulous Parcel.

I've got a parcel. It's a very beautiful and welcome parcel.

For starters, I am very fond of brown paper, and the handwriting is beautiful. I'm afraid I've blanked that.. don't really want my name and address (or that of my sender) out there on the World Wide Web!

It's a blog give-away winners parcel, no less!

I won a givaway over at Surfer Rosa on Tuesday, and my parcel arrived today. It brought much excitement with it, when my parents bought it with them to pick me up from work. The above picture was taken in the car, as I very first saw it! BTW, do you like the dress? Is one of my favourite Charity Shop finds.

I got my parcel home, and tore into it with abandon.

Beautiful wrapping paper, and a generally exciting mystery. I knew one parcel contained a crocheted cake (a cherry bakewell) but the rest was a surprise! A very welcome one.

My cake is in the middle, looking very cute. I also have some pins, to complement it, some sewing needles - how did you know I needed some? Some cake cases, which are the same as some I have previously oggled, a bar of Green & Blacks (never wrong) and, possibly my favourite, a litle stitched heart in what looks like a Cath Kidston fabric. I'm going to put some lavender oil on this and hang it by my bed.

I must confess, the chocolate was gone within an hour or two. I did share it! But not much..

The pins now decorate my cake, and look very very fetching! Like hundreds & thousands.

I LOVE my parcel. I'm going to make fairy cakes tomorrow to celebrate the loveliness. Thank you SO much Louise.. it's made my weekend, if not my week. Far better than any retail therapy. It's all so perfectly ME.

Moving on, I finished a very good book today, and I would reccomend it to all. Life Of Pi is a thought provoking novel that's well worth the thought. I picked my copy up at my fave charity shop. If you see it, grab it.

Thats all for tonight, is past my bedtime. TTFN. x

My First Wool

I've been shopping. (again)

Would you like to see what I've bought? There's always something so promising about a plain brown paper bag. Who knows what it contains, could be absolutely anything, but it's likely to be a little classy!

Yes, it's wool! Proper wool yarn as well, I've only ever worked with acrylic before. It's going to be for my first proper project, once I'm feeling ready for it.. a Granny Square Blanket, of course! I'm going to have a few more practice runs with my acrylic yarns first.. the proper stuff is far too nice for me to muck it up!

I've got six colours, of Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply. I've got navy blue, a bright mustard yellow, a rich holly berry red, Granny Smith Green, a maroony burgundy (almost exactly the colour of my primary school uniform!) and a mid blue, which is almost exactly the same as Joules Ensign Blue, from A/W 08! I can tell because I'm sat here in an Ensign Blue Polo! That in itself is quite exciting to me. The colours are all pretty true, except the green. It's really washed out in this picture. I love the combination of colours, it's really autumnal but rich and bright. I've only got these six balls, because I'm not vastly well endowed with cash, and I'm not overly worried about dye batches for a blanket.. clothing would be different. I'm very excited about my first proper project! I'm going to do some practice squares now. :)

The Morning After.

Morning.. Just about!

It's the morning after the show, Mayors Musical Extravaganza, and I am hungover. Oopsie. It was a great show, went brilliantly well.. That's me, in the red dress and black cardi. This is the final position of the first number, probably my favourite from the show (Nicest Kids In Town - Hairspray)

Aren't we a fabulous bunch?

Other than that, yesterday I went shopping, thinking of spending about £50, I wanted a book that I read about here, Sublime Stitching and I fancied popping into the big habadery shop for a little inspiration, maybe some small clothing item.. The budgeting failed, miserably. I spent £150ish, but I made some lovely purchases. I had to order the stitching book, as Waterstones didn't have it, but I also found a copy of How To Eat by Nigella Lawson, which I've wanted for ages. The thing that really tipped the budget over the edge was my fabulous boots.. more of them later, once I can overcome my cider induced lethargy and move...

I Wanted To Share.

It's a very silly thing, but I wanted to share this video of me with you. Was taken back in about.. May, I think, at Killerton House. It was a cold, miserable day. But we had fun. This was the day of The Great Floral Clash of 2009. I was wearing several different florals, and they didn't really work. Oh well.

Button-y Joy!

I just got home from town. I's had fun.

Got something to go with the veggies for tea, but that's rather less exciting (I chose little stuffed chicken parcels from the butcher, if you're wondering)

I also had a quick foray into my favourite charity shop (we have many). I found a crochet hook, size 6, a pair of nice knitting needles, size unknown, a crochet pattern book, a novel-ly book and bestest of all, buttons. Would you like to see my buttons? That's not a question I ask everyone, I can assure you!

I especially like the gold military style ones, the way the gold is wearing off looks very shabby-chic. Not a clue what I'm going to do with them, but they make a lovely addition to my button jar. I have a bit of a love affair with my button jar at the moment. I keep adding random buttons to it. Which is exactly the way it should be. But I am finding it very strange when I go shopping and am more excited by buttons than by actual clothes. I'm a confirmed shopaholic, and clothing addict, so it's just plain weird to feel this way. These here are my most recent additions. The gold one came from todays haul, the others are from last week, and were bought from the habadashery shop. Oh well, the small joys are the easiest to come by!

Flowers and Veggies

Do you remember I showed you that sunflower in the council flowerbed the other day? Well, it's flowered in spectacular fashion.. beautiful. It makes me smile every time I walk past it. The other flowers are largely over now, so it adds a lot of colour to the road.

I got my vegbox today. I Love getting these boxes.. the veggies are so fresh.. look, the mud is still damp on the carrots!

Other than carrots I've got a bag of rainbow chard (so pretty) french beans, calabrese, two leeks, red peppers, onions and salad spuddies. What shall I cook for tea tonight? I dunno. Shall update you later.

Just a quickie..

I will come back, and do a proper post as soon as I get some free time. I'm so tied up at the moment with work and the show.. we're on next Saturday (12th) and are rehearsing all the time.

I havn't done any crochet or baking in the last few days, so have had very little to share anyway.

Do you like the leaf? It's technically Mums. It fell on her head while she was eating lunch in the park the other day. She saved it, because the colours were beautiful, and I took the photo several hours later in Sainsburys. It's on Mums coat lining, and you can just see a tiny bit of my pink Cath Kidston bag.

As soon as life returns to a more normal pace, I'll be back to posting regularly.