Woodland Friends

I was very excited to win a giveaway over at Sew Sweet Violet's blog by the lovely Jooles.
The book from Mollie Makes arrived this morning and I can tell I'm going to have fun browsing through it and picking a cute project to make.

Jooles has had a project published in the book- beautiful his 'n' hers hot water bottle covers.

Pop over to Jooles' blog - it's always full of gorgeousness and inspiration!

Have a good weekend xx

Rings and Things

There is a definite chill in the air, time is ticking by and I'm navigating a path through good moments and sad ones. I'm taking comfort (and warmth) from simple things like French knitting- not too much thinking, just doing!

(Blurry photo, but I wanted to show you I'm back to my favourite hair colour)

Finished simply with a cluster of 8 metal washers from a well-known DIY store, ( I have since reduced it to 3 washers as the weight kept pulling the scarf around so it didn't hang straight and I can't stand clothes that have to be fiddled with!)

Ideas are swirling around my mind and gradually I'm becoming productive, relishing the timeless motions of pinning, tacking and stitching into fabric and paper, taking shape between my fingers. I love English patchwork, making hexagons, the simple repetitive rhythm unchanged for centuries.

I have a plan, to tack together the old and the new. Vintage technology revisited, allowing me to print my Nan's letter onto fabric, words from the past whispering inspiration for the days to come.

Some of our good moments were spent at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair at Spinningfields in Manchester at the weekend- so many talented crafts people. Mr Dotty and I had a wonderful time and spent thousands of pounds in our heads! Actual pound were spent too! I bought this beautiful ring from Helen Shere.

Natural

Simple

Beautiful

Hope your week has lots of good moments too.xx

Look Back at London

I promised a while ago to show a few more pictures from our trip to London at the beginning of summer- boy that seems a long time ago.
The light wasn't great for some of the graffiti shots, (though I also think I don't have such a steady hand these days) so I apologise for the blurriness!

It feels decidedly Autumnal at the moment and I'm trying to readjust to the new term and everyone being back at school, college and work. I'm also trying to get fitter and move forward towards what I want to be doing with my life. I'm walking more with the dog again- he's not a fan of hot weather- and learning to swim better. It's a slow process though because having chronic pain means I really have to pace myself and when I do too much I am flattened by a flare-up, which is frustrating as there is always so much that needs doing.
Anyway, I'm not going to be negative. I have lots of projects in the pipeline so I'll share some progress soon.
Have a good weekend xx

18 Years On

My beautiful baby girl will turn 18 this week. How did THAT happen?

I am immensely proud of how she has grown into a sensible, caring, funny, hard-working and gorgeous young woman.

Happy Birthday Lovely:)xxxxx

Highs and Lows of Summer

There is a break in the heatwave for now and we seem to be galloping through the summer holidays.
Recently I have had a lot of bother with technical equipment and the computer is giving me endless frustration. Some time ago my portable hard-drive broke and I lost most of my photos. I managed to retrieve some from various places, but I had to come to terms with losing the majority.
We bought  a new hard-drive and I've been merrily saving my photos there, thinking about backing them up on Mr Dotty's much larger storage and waiting for him to have time off work so we could tick that job off our "to-do" list. He took his holiday, we all went to London for a few days, came home, plugged in my hard -drive to download my pictures of the Big Smoke and the damned thing decided it had corrupted!!! One IT expert later and I'm having to come to terms with the fact that my photos are again irretrievable :(

Anyway, this morning I have managed to sort out my London pictures which are among the very few I still have (I'm quite tempted to go back to film and having them printed onto paper- old fashioned, but reliable!).

We had an amazing, colourful time and it was so hot! We must have drunk gallons of water. The boys loved hanging out at the skate park at South bank. I have to admit I could have sat all day watching the guys perform tricks- they are so determined! (Plus it was shady!)

I got plenty of graffiti shots for future inspiration. Sorry for the blurriness- it was very dark down the Leake Street tunnel.

We had some retail therapy at Spitalfields Market, which I loved. I bought a satchel and a crocheted collar. I even found some gold DM shoes in the in the Doc Marten shop. (I didn't buy them, but I wish I'd taken a photo).

Our youngest child was getting a bit tired of the heat and all the people, but we didn't want to miss Brick Lane market, so we refreshed ourselves with iced drinks and fresh fruit.

Just the thing for the sizzling temperatures!

Brick Lane is fabulous- I loved it!! It is really vibrant... 

 full of interesting, cool people

                      and shops and stalls filled with curiosities

We came across a fashion photo

shoot, which I think sums up the brightness and fun of the whole area.

 More to follow.....

Have a great week.xx

Strawberry Theft

Those strawberries might not be ripe, but they do smell good!

 

YUM!!

 

 

It's ok- there are plenty more where that came from.

 

           Hope you're having a happy, sunny Friday. xx

 

 

Teenage Market

We had a busy weekend as my middle child had a stall at the Teenage Market in Stockport. Often young people get bad press, but the market was full of creative, talented and lovely young people.

We were very proud of our boy. He worked hard to create his products and his stall looked clean and professional, don't you think?

 

Younger brother helping (briefly!)

 

We needed to be around all day as he is still under 16, so we passed the hours minding the stall while he had lunch, wandering around Stockport and finding various places to sit to drink coffee and cold drinks- it got very hot!

 

Mr Dotty turned into one of "The Borrowers" in a well-known coffee establishment, drinking oversized cappuccino and eating the biggest marshmallow teacake I've ever seen!

I took some photos of the Stockport skyline, which might come in useful for my son's next set of drawings.

He made some sales and I think he learnt a lot in the process and we all enjoyed the day and are looking forward to the next market.

How did you spend your weekend (did it involve a little tennis?)