Bank Holiday Weekend x

Good evening my loves, well I've been back off my holiday for a week now and feel alittle like we never went away! And what is going on with the weather it is very Wintry out there.
At least it was a sun shiny day on Saturday, here at Baggaley Cottage we decided to have a garden day. I mowed the lawn and dug out weeds and the children helped by picking up the fallen apples.
The Sun Flowers are finally out...

 

and are looking lovely. Charlie grows the Sun Flowers each year. The Cornflowers are also looking very lovely. I've been trying to grow them for a while, this is the first year they have come up. Perhaps it's because Gavin grew them this year, he's proving to have green fingers.

We have a couple of Hazel Nut trees in the garden. We have only ever had a couple of nuts off of them due to the dastardly squirrel! Well this year we got there first.........

And harvested a decent pile, Hoorah for us :)

After all our hard work we had a lovely cup of coffee in our new Army surplus tin garden mugs.

I've been after a couple of tin mugs for an age, I did see some on the Cath Kidston web site but they soon sold out. They are fab for keeping the coffee hot when you get busy with pesky garden jobs.

Monday was a great family day out to Clumber Park, it was a bit cloudy and blustery but once we got on our bikes and cycled around the lake we soon warmed up. The sun came out at lunch, we got the deck chairs out of the car and enjoyed our picnic. I also managed to buy two new Lavender plants from the garden shop, tee hee.... Gav forgot about my Lavender ban ;)

(sorry no pics).

I have also managed a couple crochet projects this week. I completed my son's name. He kept asking when I'd crochet him something. I felt so guilty after making Daisy's blanket, cardi's and her name a while ago. Here it is.....

Both he and I are pleased with it, However it has come out a little distorted on this pic!

The patterns for the letters were in the Inside Crochet magazine.

Here's Daisy's name, I did it a while ago...

and I added the Daisy flowers. I think I'm going to crochet some bugs for Charlie's.

I also completed the cardi for Daisy with the wool I bought in France..

Not sure what's happening with my pics tonight, these last few are looking very distorted!!!

It's the pattern I've used afew times before, I just used thicker yarn and a bigger hook to get Daisy's size.

I don't believe it, I almost forgot to show my wonderfully gorgeous oyster basket I bought in France at an antique market. It's a little rusty, but with a good wire wool rub down and some cream metal paint it will look fantastic.

It's just perfect to put my cushions in when I do my craft fairs, I love it and wish I'd bought two.

Back to the Hazel Nuts....

They were yummy.....once we managed to get into them. We couldn't find the nut cracker could we, what are we like!!!!  Off to Tesco tomorrow to buy a new one.

Well I'm off to finish another project I started a while back, the lovely Japanese flower blanket. My Stig pile is almost clear! 

Night night for now and happy crochet x x x

Bonjour x x

Bonjour mes ami,

I have just spent the last two wonderful weeks en francais, it has been fantastic. We go every year and love it. This year we went to Ronce Les Bain on the West coast.  I have so much that I want to share with you, I hope you don't get bored!!!!                                                                                        The weather has been delightful, last Wednesday it was 41 degrees in the shade. I love the sunshine, but that was a little unbearable!

In the first week we visited Mornac Sur Sudre a wonderfully romantic village, we visited it last year and just had to go back. The village has won an award for one of the most beautiful villages in France.

I  love the village because most of the houses have been converted into lovely craft shops, how fantastic. This one is a fab pottery shop.

These are a wooden hand crafted toy shop, hand made jewellery, hand sewn cushions, clothes and a contemporary artist.

There's also a tiny port here, my children loved watching the little fish, whilst eating crepes in a restaurant over looking the water.

I mentioned in a previous blog how much I loved the Geraniums in France, here are some in Mornac.

You know that old saying , when in Rome, do as the Romans? Well, when in France, do as the locals? and that's exactly what we did this year and have done every year. Picked free supper off the beach.

You can see my daughter Daisy centre, digging for moules and poulades. That's muscles and cockles to you and I. It is such great fun, as the tide starts to go out the locals come down to the beach with their cockle baskets and tools for the job. We use sand castle buckets and our bare hands and really do work hard for our supper. A couple of hours later and hey presto.

They were delicious, so fresh and tasty. They went down well with baguette dipped into the juice.Yum, Yum.

My new bike had lot's of use, we cycled into the next town, into our town to the local market, to the various beaches and down the path of lizards, which is the most fabulous path that takes you to the many beaches and another town 16 km away. One day it was abit cloudy so we went on a 3hr cycle ride, the children did extremely well. We rewarded them with ice-cream and orangina.

This is a house I cycled past most days on the way to the market, the flowers are amazing and so well kept. They left me wondering whether my mum had been watering my garden!!!!!!

As soon as we arrived in France I mentioned to Gavin that I'd like to visit Royan, we visited last year and I remembered there was a fabulous yarn shop there. Unfortunately the shop was closed for 3 hrs for lunch and we couldn't wait around. This time we arrived in Royan at 10am and after a walk around the market the shop was found. The Blue Raspberry.

It was so sunny I couldn't get a decent picture! But the owner happened to speak good English and let me take a picture of the fab buttons.

There were millions, every kind you could imagine and yes, of course I bought some. (Will show you later).

There was also floor to ceiling yarn, fabric, ribbon, felt. I was in heaven, as you can imagine. Charlie helped me choose buttons and Daisy chose beads with help from her Daddy.

I bet your wondering if I managed any projects whilst we were away.............. of course I did, after action packed days with the children and Gav, over bottles of wine I created......

the lovely Lucy Blooming Flower cushion and I made a start on the shrug. I finally finished it on the 7hr Ferry journey home.

One more row to go!!!

I'll show a pic of the finished shrug next time.

Before I go off to bed I must just show you some of the items I picked up from a local french Brocant Market. (Antiques).

3 gorgeous bone crochet hooks, a huge leather needle, the buttons on the cards and the lovely metal needle holder. The loose buttons were from Le Bleu Fromboise.

I also picked up four balls of brightly coloured chunky wool for a cardi for daisy at our local market.

And lastly a picture of me and my babies coming into port at Portsmouth armed with duty free.

Another Fab holiday over, where does the time go. The worrying thought I'm left with is that Christmas is only around the corner!!!!!!!! oh dear.

Well au revoir for now, night night and happy crocheting x x

Ta Daaa x

Bonjour mon Petit Pois, hasn't it been a lovely day. I started the morning by dropping off my children at their Nana's house for a couple hours whilst I popped over to knit 'n' natter. I just can't possibly miss it! And the children love spending time with Nana. So I crocheted and natted and enjoyed seeing what the ladies were making, I even gained a lovely pattern for a shrug, thank you Marilyn ;)

The children decided to stay at Nana's for a couple more hours,so I made the most of the time I had, I got a few jobs done and then went into the garden to crochet and enjoy the sunshine and await their return.

We bought a new arbour a month or so ago and a lovely Wisteria to grow up it, the wisteria was tiny when we bought it and just look at it now.

I can't wait for it to flower next year.

Anyway my loves, I have a couple of ta daa moments for you this evening, firstly my gorgeous new bike. In my last post I said it was very French looking, apparently I was wrong and it's Dutch stylee!

How super duper is that!!! The children finally got their bike ride on Sunday, we went out for over 3 hours and loved every minute. I really think we need to see another picture of it,

I am over the moon with it, it is so light and easy to cycle. I forgot to tell you what it's called, it's a Trek Navigator sit up and beg bike and I think I'll call her Beryl!!!! (It's been a long day and yes maybe I am going round the twist!!).

I did continue with the blanket for my daughter Daisy you will be pleased to hear. The lovely shrug project will be taken on my hols. Here's the blanket.

I sat and crocheted away in the sun this afternoon, as you can imagine it was rather hot under the blanket. Here's another pic. I often take two pics and it seems a shame to waste them!

I've got about six more colour changes and then it's finished, hoorah, hoorah, hoorah. And then I will start a new project.

I bet you've all heard of Attic 24 and the lovely Lucy if not you really need to check out her blog, she is truly fabulous with her crochet. Well, I popped into the Attic last week and saw the wonderful blooming flower cushion Lucy had completed and the overwhelming feeling of having to buy more yarn for this project over took me. I did manage to wait a week for my new purchase and today was the day, I chose.......

Rico baby, it comes in the most fab colours and goes such along way, you get 165 metres, wow wee x
I did the purple tulip sleeved baby cardi in the Rico baby, the pattern asked for 5 balls of Rico based on metres and I ended up taking 2 balls back, it's such value for money.

I must stop nattering now and try and finish Daisy's blanket.

Night night for now and happy crochet x x x x