France Post 2 - A little bit of crochet

I had hoped to get more crocheting done, really. I had prepared so well, taking a few new yummy yarns with me, as well some yarns left over from previous project. And then of course there was the garden lankie which I had started ages ago. In crazy bright colours, lol, very unlike me. But, you know the saying about the best laid plans, lol. Because my darling husband had broken a couple of ribs just a few days before our trip, it fell to me to do all the stuff he would normally do in the garden. Like cutting the VERY high grass, trimming the bushes, digging the veggie patch etc etc. I was way too pooped in the evenings to do any crocheting for the first couple of weeks. But as Andy improved and did more and more of the hard slog, I got more and more time to crochet. In the evenings, of course, a few granny squares at a time, and during the odd hour or two snatched during the day in the garden, in the beautiful sunshine. That proved not such a good idea, lol, and not just because I frequently stopped to admire the beautiful views. The main reason was...........


Yep, my darling Hector. Needing to be close to his mummy. VERY close. He is such a nosy little soandso as well, and seems to rather enjoy climbing around on things. I can't tell you how many times I had to pick up balls of wool, or how many times I had to untangle Hector. Or how many times I tried to arrange the squares while Hec was around before I learned my lesson and gave up?



But despite all that, I managed to finish the two cushions I had planned. This African Flower Hexagon pattern is soooo pretty and ever so easy to do as well. I prefer the squared version though, so much easier to sew together. I made one cushion approx 18" square and one approx 25" square -

The small one-

The large one-

I had the smaller one in the cottage for a while -

but then it joined the large one in our dinky little caravan-

The gorgeous pink blanket you can see in the above pic was a fabulous charity shop find, 100% mohair, new, huuuuge, the prettiest shades of pink and it was............... 5Euros. I love it.

In between making the granny squares for the cushions, I carried on with my stripey garden lankie. Bright colours, randomly picked out of the basket when I first started, inexpensive acrylic yarns, this was a very different project for me. A bit of colourful fun. But I have to say I am pleased with the way it turned out, its charmingly cheerful in the garden.

You'll probably remember from previous posts that the doggies always just had to make themselves comfy on the work in progress, often snuggling right down on the lankie when I was working on it. Nothing much has changed, lol, as you will see in a minute. First, let me show you the finished lankie-

keeping my darling husband snug after a hard day's work-

Hmm, he wasn't too keen on modelling the lankie, perhaps he would be happier modelling it outside? Two nosy dogs just had to get into the shot, didn't they, sigh-

So I decided that I would drape it over the lounger, surely that would display it properly-

As soon as it was spread out on the lounger, Poppy came over to investigate -" Mum, I arranged it for you, you may take a pic now", then promptly lost interest and wombled off

Not so my darling Hector, sigh. Hector loves the lounger. Hector loves lounger with lankie LOTS, lol -

It took me a good long while to get him off there!

And that is it, 2 months in France and that is all the crocheting I have to show for it. Perhaps during the winter visits I'll be a bit more productive.

I'll leave you with a little pic of a crochet cushion I got from a vide greniers or charity shop last year, I love that 3dimensional pattern -


Toodlepip xxx

Yep, I am back in Blogland!

And I have to say it feels really good, albeit a little strange, writing a blog again after two months of enforced bloglessness. Where to start??? Gosh, there are so many things to write about and so many photos to show, I really don't know where to start. Hmm. Really the first thing to do is to thank you all for the lovely comments on the couple of mimiscule posts I managed during the two months in France. I have just read them, thank you all so very much! It was really heartwarming to see that I hadn't been forgotten and some even missed me. Tehehehe, some of you, naming no names, J and S, might change their minds again pretty soon. I have two months worth of nagging stored up!!!

I am so looking forward to working my way through all of my favourite blogs, ahem, of which there are quite a few, and to catch up with everybody's posts, projects, news, lovely finds etc etc. Might get through by the end of the month, lol!

I have just transferred all the photos from France from camera to computer, geez, digital cameras make it way too easy to go completely nuts. I mean, how on earth did I end up with hundreds and hundreds of photographs??? So where do I start, come on, girls, tell me, please! What sort of photographs should I show first? Piccies of the cottage, of the dogs, of the garden ( well ok, can't really call it garden, lol, a kind word would be meadow, although field is probably more appropriate ), pretty flowers, wildlife, of sunrises and sunsets, of adventurous cows, of gettogethers with friends, of games of boules, pretty little towns, vide greniers finds ( ahem again, I haven't actually photographed many finds yet, so perhaps that will have to wait a wee bit ), of hard working tree surgeons ( my darling son and his colleague ), a couple of finished crochet projects..............

Perhaps I just randomly pick a photo of all the above possibilities and stick them on here, as a kind of appetizer, how would that be? And then you can let me know what you would like to see and hear about first.

Phew, that took a while, but I have picked a few pics, I think from all the above mentioned, and I am not going to stick them in any particular order, but just as I have come across them looking through all the pics. Here goes -

The doggies -


Playing boules at the Fete de Voisins, serious business, lol -

The cottage -

Adventurous cows -

A bit of crochet -

Garden flowers -

Getogether with friends and neighbours -

Spiderweb, I love spiderwebs -

Sunrise over the valley -

Sunset behind our top field -

Men at work -

Vide greniers find, a good length of fabulous tapestry trim, its gorgeous! -

Wildflowers, always have to go and pick some as soon as we get there -

And wildlife, of sorts, a wasp nest -

That's it for now, some time over the weekend I have to try and sort out pics to post, just let me know which ones you would like to see. ok? Now I got to be off and cook dinner.

I am so happy to be back in blogland, lol, and looking forward to hearing from you all!

TOODLEPIP !!! Liz xxx

Simple pleasures, and a few images for you

When we are in France, one of the things I enjoy most is just wombling down the lane and looking at all the lovely wild flowers and critters. Actually, to see some wildflowers I don't even have to go as far as the front gate, lol, our so called garden really is more like a meadow/field. We found one corner of it covered in dandelions, a see of bright yellow!

If only they didn't all turn into this -

Now these little daisies are so sweet, and when we finally bring our granddaughters over to France, I'll be making lots of daisy chains with them -

Big patches of tiny little flowers carpet the sides of the little lane which runs past our cottage -
They are really really tiny, but so very pretty -

And these beautiful blue ones are the teeniest weeniest ones -

The wild rose in our garden/meadow/field was just about to flower. This bud was almost sparking with dew -

Finding dew covered spider webs -

Simple pleasures indeed, but they make me so happy.

This also makes me happy, seeing my DH and our doggies sitting in the grass and watching life go by in the valley below -

Or watching Hector pretending to be a little lap dog -

He doesn't always look so silly, he is really quite the most handsome dog in the whole wide world, and we are not biased at all, LOLOL -

Oh I must stop looking at the photos from last week in France, lol, otherwise I'll never get this post finished.

I have found some very pretty books recently so I thought I scan them in, in case some of you can use the images for your collages, as backgrounds perhaps -

I love this green!!!

The images are quite a good size, click on them to get the larger size, and then click on them again to get the biggest size.

I also found a wonderful book called Landscape Illustrations of the Bible. Published 1836 and full of the most beautiful engravings. You don't have to be religious to enjoy those engravings, they really are quite wonderful landscapes. I'll try and scan some of them during the week.

I hope you all have a wonderful evening/morning wherever you are. Toodlepip xxx

Booooooootiful

I just have to show you the gorgeous dinner service I bought last week in a charity shop. I spent a lot more than I usually spend in a CS, but this is so perfect for the cottage in France. I had been saying to my DH only a couple of weeks ago, that it was about time we replaced the cheap and cheerful modern crockery we bought right at the beginning, with something more suitable. And there it was, beautifully set up on a table, six place settings, meat platter, gravy boat and vegetable dish, beckoning me to come over and ooh and ahhh. And ooh and aaah I sure did. You all know by now that I love anything with roses/flowers on, so how could I possibly resist this dinner service? Isn't it just the prettiest thing?

I am only going to show one place setting, because I was in the middle of packing it all up carefully, ready to take to France soon, when I remembered to take the photos.




Sauce boat-

on the meat platter-

Vegetable dish-

Place setting -

I am so looking forward to have our friends round for dinner and using these.

My crafting seems to have suffered somewhat since coming back from France, and I did get the well deserved kick up the butt from a dear blogger friend, Diane, from Diane Knott's Musings , to get a move on! I didn't manage much, but at least I managed something, lol, a tag to go with a customer's purchase, and a couple of tiny price tags. Playing around with those, because I want to use some for my products and vintage/antique stuff. I know its very little really, but its a start and I will make some more things today. I had a town walk with a bunch of German school kids again this morning so I only have this afternoon. And I have blogs to read. And if you saw my blog list, lol, you would understand that it can take some time, lol.

Anyhoo, here are my feeble efforts -



The weather is still holding up very nicely, and the blue skies and fairly warm sunshine make me want to spend more time outside rather than inside. I even went on my DH's regular doggie walk in the Firehills with him the other day. I'll post some pics from the walk tomorrow, don't want to bore you senseless with more stuff today, but I'll leave you with one photo of my gorgeous babies. Because I love them -