Picnic in the Woods

The weather was so wonderful yesterday that Belle and I met up with friends and went for a picnic in the woods. We used a proper picnic hamper and rug and baked quiches and fairy cakes and picked tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber from the garden. We had a lovely time. This is the hamper once we had eaten almost everything!

Holiday Project

Went on holiday recently to France. Getting ready and packing was all a bit of a rush and I ended up not taking any projects - no matter I thought - we will be playing on the beach all day or in the garden so no time for projects.......it rained and was overcast a lot so I popped into a local Cross Stitch shop and bought the attached to keep me going through the cloudy days and evenings. Have only done about a quarter of it so far and then when I got back my sis in Law has sent me some rather good projects to get stuck into so once again I have started but who knows when I will finish them all!!

ENORMOUS needles

I knitted this hat for my mother-in-law in about 2 hours (and that included playing with Belle and giving her tea!). The needles are enormous - 15mm so it is really, really quick. I'm not much of a hat person but I have to say that this even looks reasonable on me - so I may knit one for myself later in the autumn.

Alan Dart & Simply Knitting

Bought a magazine the other day which I had not seen before - Simply Knitting. I thought that it may be a bit of a waste of money as there are loads and loads of 'craft' magazines on sale at the moment and when you look through them you wouldn't bother to make half of the stuff that they show as it is so awful. So, I was very pleasently surprised at how good the mag was. Full of great stuff, nothing too naff, and lots of info and links out to other shops / web sites etc. One of the featured patterns was by Alan Dart. Being a big fan of Jean Greenhowe (although I have to confess that I haven't actually made anything yet - I just like looking!), it seems that Alan's designs are very similar. I visited Alan's web-site and liked the stuff so much that I have ordered his 'bookazine' Irresistible Gifts to Knit and, as knitting is so much more fun when you can discuss with someone, have also ordered one for Lizyloo. Here are some pics of his stuff (not necessarily in the book) - also opposite are web links to his site and also to Simply Knitting.

Gorgeous leather shoes

Aren't these gorgeous little leather shoes? They go with so many of Belle's outfits and are a lovely summery pattern. I think that Belle may develop her mummy's (and nanny's) love of shoes!

Playing in the paddling pool

Gorgeous weather yesterday so we had a mess about in the paddling pool with plastic ducks (excellent chewing material!). Bought Belle an 'all-in-one' for our holiday but was so hot that she got to wear it, and the matching French Foreign Legion hat, a bit early! I think it just about covers her!!!

I love I scream!

Saw this cute hat and just had to buy it for Belle. It's been lovely weather recently so she has had lots of use already