So much fresh air!

I mentioned a few days ago that my DS3 got me into geocaching. I am so glad he did, all that fresh sea air is doing me a world of good. We have been doing this for a week now, not every day, and not many caches ( we are up to 37 ), and it has been quite invigorating and at times rather bracing. Icy cold sea winds, drizzle, occasionally some very welcome sunshine......... we didn't really care what the weather was like. I did say that I would show you some pics of our outings, but when I looked at the pics I took, I realised that I didn't take anywhere near as many as I thought I had. LOL, guess the excitement of the hunt was just too much for me, I forgot all about photos.

I do have a few though, and I promise, one of these days I will take a womble through the beautiful Old Town of Hastings and take some proper pics without any distractions.

The great think about geocaching is seeing things in and about your town which you have never seen before or haven't really taken any notice of. For example, there is a whole series of church caches. We have only done 1 so far, but as I love church architecture, I am sure there will be more. This was it -


On one search for a cache in the Old Town, we came across these little mosaics on old walls, which I had never seen before -



These steps in the Old Town are steep!!! Seen from near the top -


and looking up from the bottom -


I don't have a very good head for heights, I freak out on a stepladder, so these steps were a challenge. I hung on to the rails for dear life, lol.

These fabulous sea creatures also live in the Old Town -

Octopus -

Seahorse -

Conger eel -

I loved this faded and peeling advertisement on a house wall, in a different part of the Old Town. This is the area where the television series "Foyle's War" was filmed. I must go back there and take some more photos, that area is so pretty.


This was one of our failures, we spent ages searching for a cache here right on the sea front, under the cliffs, but it looks like this cache has been lost, possibly under rock falls -


The seagulls are happy though, lol -


Away from the Old Town, along Hastings seafront, another cache location. And, you can see our favourite Oriental Buffet Restaurant, " Cosmo" in the distance. You probably remember that I have mentioned once or twice that I had to bribe Nick with lunch at Cosmo for helping me out with something or other.


We got quite carried away one day and it got dark much quicker than we thought it would. We were high above Hastings and the sky above the sea looked too interesting to be ignored -


A few photos taken in Alexandra Park ( seems quite a few caches are located here ). The Park really is quite lovely and stretches for miles right through the town -


All the animals in it are so tame -





This is a small cache we found in another leisure area, White Rock Gardens, silly little things, but so much fun -


Nick, about to sign the log book -


Today we had a couple of multi caches on our to-do list. That means you have to find a number of small caches with clues and part co-ordinates, in order to find the Bonus Cache at the end. We didn't have a very good start, it was a horrendously muddy location -


Interesting mushrooms along the way though -


But FIVE caches later, we had a very good end, we found the big Bonus Cache, woohooooooo! We spent a very happy few minutes looking through a whole bunch of little treasures before deciding which ones we should swap. Just look at the size of that cache -


Ok, and now prepare yourself for a rare pic of me, yikes. NO make up, wet, very windswept, muddy, frozen, but with the biggest grin on my face, holding that huge Bonus Cache in the Firehills, Hastings cliff top country park -


Aaahhh, happy end to the day.

Oh, see how big that cache is? And you saw the somewhat smaller earlier with the goodies in it? Right, compare those to this one, a nano pod, and then try and imagine how difficult it is to find one of those -


We found a few of them, with either clues for a bonus cache or the tinest little logs. Sweet.

Thats it, all that fresh air has wiped me out, I can feel an early night coming on. Back to crafting tomorrow, we are having a geocaching free day.

Toodlepip xxx

Inchie Monday, Tag Tuesday, Geocaching Wednesday and catching up Thursday, lol

I won't bore you with geocaching again today, I got so carried away in yesterday's post, lol, I'll do that tomorrow instead ;-). But whilst we were out treasure hunting, we took a few pics of the general cache areas, and I'll share those with you tomorrow as they show parts of the town where I live here in England.

INCHIE MONDAY

Right, well, I am only a few days late this week. The theme for this week was "Caring", and as a mother of 3 sons, my immediate thought was of course that a mother never stops caring, even when her sons are grown men.

I used a bit of left over card which had a little copper stamping on it for the background. A tiny bit of trimmed down lace, two little rhinestones to pick out the blue in the mother's hairband, a blue flower, a little bit of aging round the edges, and of course the all important words, and there you have it, this week's inchie -



TAG TUESDAY

I really enjoy the tag challenges. This week the theme was "winter". I used a white tag and a lovely blue ink to colour it. Added a sweet image of a very pretty young girl in the snow and outlined it with silver German glass glitter. I used a piece of torn muslin at the top to simulate snow and icicles hanging down over the pic. Added a few shimmery snowflakes, and I also drew a few with white and silver pens. Printed out the words, and then tackled the most difficult part, lol, giving the girl glowing cheeks ever so gently to make it look like the hand colouring in old photographs -





Ok, time for a cup of tea now, and then it is clear up time, crafting is such a messy business, lol.

Toodlepip xxx

I've caught a bug!

Yep, I have caught a bug.

It is very persistent.

Quite frankly, I blame my youngest son for it.

I caught this bug off him.

A few days ago.

Been suffering with the symptoms for the last 5 days.

My cheeks have a rosy glow.

My eyes have a strange sparkle.

What the heck is this bug???

I caught the GEOCACHING bug, aaarggghhhh!

I know, I need yet another hobby like a hole in the head, but this is great! For those of you who have never heard of it, it is like a worldwide treasure hunt, using GPS co-ordinates. I had heard of this quite a while ago but didn't pay much attention. Until my son mentioned it a few days ago, and told me that there were sooooooooo many caches in our local area. Hmm, that sounded like a challenge, lol. We don't have a handheld GPS, just an old Satnav, but we were determined to give it a go. DARN, I tell ya, this is so addictive! It is also really healthy, all that fresh air, walking around for a few hours, no wonder I have rosy cheeks and sparkly eyes. It really was the best thing I could have gotten into after that horrible bout of flu and cold. I noticed that I don't cough nearly as much outdoors as I do inside.

So, basically, thats what I have been doing on and off for the last few days, making lists for new caches to find, wombling off with my DS Nick and we have now found 26 caches, woohoooo! Not quite up to the standard of something serious geocachers, who have thousands under their belt, but one has to start somewhere, right? If it sounds like something you might want to give a try, have a look at this website , the official geocaching site.

Fortunately, today and tomorrow Nick is working as the weather has improved ( tree surgeon ), so I had time to catch up on my blog reading, and it was also bright enough to take some photos.

I had gone for a little walk on Saturday morning and there were a couple of market stalls in front of a shop. I found a really sweet Victorian beaded pouch and a couple of old photographs. And in a little charity shop I found some pretty fabric flowers. Nothing really special, but I can take them apart and use them in collages.

This beaded pouch is such a delightful colour. The silk lining has perished and there are a few beads missing, but on the whole the condition is really good -

The two old photos, I'll try and find some time to scan them in for you gals tomorrow -

These little flowers are quite a nice colour, I am sure they will come in handy for some collages or tags -



Yikes, I had better get on with preparing dinner now, and then I have an inchie to make for the weekly inchie challenge here and a tag to make for the weekly challenge here.

Toodlepip xxx

What a Surprise!!!

There I was, moping around on a dank, dark miserable grey day, feeling sorry for myself because of the horrid cough and a horrid headache, and the door bell rang. The postman handed me a big envelope, and all of a sudden, bad weather and bad health was forgotten......... it was a package from Debra of Manitoba Stitches!!!

She had told me that she was sending " a little something ", but this, this wasn't just a little something. I looked at the envelope, and the customs label, and sat down. Speechless. Couldn't believe what I was seeing. And then behaved like a 5 year old at Christmas, lol, and just tore the envelope to bits. Inside, amongst other things, where two little packages, beautifully wrapped. Want to see pics of the wrapped pressies? LOL, too bad, there aren't any. I couldn't help myself, I am afraid I tore these open as well, because inside were...............

TWO OF DEBRA'S ABSOLUTELY STUNNING CREATIONS, A PINCUSHION AND A GLASSES CASE!

Want to see pics of those??? Now that I can do, lol, because after I had oohed and aahhed over them, and fondled them, and tried my glasses out in the case, and fondled them some more, and oohed and aahed a bit more, I finally remembered to take some photos -


Isn't this pincushion adorable?


This spectacle case fits my glasses perfectly -


She also sent me my very first Somerset Life Magazine, woohoo! I was really strange going through the magazine and seeing that so many of the contributors were people whose blogs I read. Quite exciting.


It is a really brilliant magazine, one I will certainly pick up again and again and read through. Yep, even the ads, lol.

And this, this is such a great present for anybody who loves vintage images, a calendar full of them! A whole year's worth of pure pleasure -


And all this was accompanied by this beautiful card, which is so precious, because Debra wrote so much about herself inside.


There is nothing like the kindness of bloggers to lift you up when you are feeling down. Huge thank you to you, Debra, for giving me such a fabulous surprise.

And if you gals out there haven't come across Debra's blog, Manitoba Stitches, yet, go and have a look for yourself, you will be just as amazed as I was how talented this woman is. Her beautiful work sells in galleries and art centers all over the place, and I am so honoured to own two of her creations, woohoo!

Toodlepip, xxx

Tag Tuesday - A bit of Fabric

This week we had to use fabric on our tag. Great, I always have snippets of all kinds of fabric lying about. I covered a tag in a morceau of a hand loomed antique French linen, which was left over from another project. I printed this sweet little image of a girl and her dolly onto cotton fabric, made two tiny little lace flowers for the top of the tag and a larger one for the bottom, as well as two little fabric fans. all that was left to do was embellish the tag a little further with some German glass glitter and attach some seam binding and ribbon. All done.

Toodlepip xxx


Wow, that was a short one, lol

Tag Tuesday (1 week late) and the second Inchie Challenge

I am only just catching up with everything after being forcefully kept away from my computer for so long, but I do want to keep up with the challenges I so enjoy. So ok, this tag is a for LAST tuesday's challenge, lol, with the theme MOSAIC. Perhaps I can just squeeze it in before the new challenge today.

The actual mosaic is an illustration from a little booklet of Roman mosaics, which I bought many years ago, errm, probably early 80s. Mosaics have always fascinated me, all those tiny little pieces making up such fantastic designs. I know, its cheating really, lol, but I had so little time to try and get this in. Anyhoo, here it is -


Yesterday was the second Inchie Monday. You just got to love those tiny little things, I am having so much fun with this challenge. The word for this week's challenge is "powerful", and the very first thing which came to mind was Love. There were loads of other ideas I considered, but I always came back to the very first one. I stuck with it. The inchie is made with pink background paper sprayed with Cosmic shimmer mist, German glass glitter border, a tiny music paper heart, a vintage couple, a fragment of lace and a couple of teeny pink crystals -


Incredible, how much mess you can make, creating something that tiny!

Toodlepip xxx

I am back! Cosy warm and (almost) well again

You gals are just the best! You have been the sweetest friends through all this, and I can't thank you enough. GROUP HUG, tehehehe !!! So, here is a quick update. The long and short of it is, after 4 weeks of living in an icebox with just a couple of halogen heaters, we now have a new gas boiler installed, since Friday, and I am luxuriating in warmth in all the rooms, woohoo. The Christmas/New Year period is NOT the time for things to go wrong, lol. I am also over the flu and the rotten cold I got straight after, I am just stuck with a very persistent cough, but hey, I am up and about and I even went out shopping one day last week!

And, best of all, my work room is lovely and warm again now, I can sit at the computer ( desk top, I dont have a laptop ) without freezing my bits off, and I even got a little bit of crafting done on the weekend. Wanna see? Lol, tough if you don't, because I am going to show you anyway in a bit. I spent most of my time since Friday looking at all the blog posts I had missed since before Christmas, that was a mammoth task, I can tell ya. I couldn't leave comments on them, I just didn't have the time, but please know that I really thoroughly enjoyed all your beautiful Christmas homes, the gorgeous images you posted over New Year, and all your news. I am almost up to date again now, so should be back to normal as from today.

Crafting, sigh, I really missed my workroom when I couldn't use it, so you can imagine how I felt when I finally got back into it again. On my travels through the blogs, I saw this on my lovely friend Dorthe's blog -

INCHIES!?! Fascinating little things, but I had never really thought about giving them a go. Can I resist a challenge? Lol, not when it sound as fascinating as this one did. One teeny weeny little thing per week sounded immensely doable. A year and 52 inchies later, I should end up with a sweet wall hanging to display somewhere. So I decided to have a go. My very first inchie -


And while I was at it rooting through all the little bits and pieces, I also made a little tag -


What else could I do while the glue bottles were on the desk? Ah yes, I still had to make one more MEMORY/CONCENTRATION game for a little pressie for someone -


The backs of the 2x2 pieces are just stamped


I love this game, we used to play this type of game a lot when the boys were little.


I haven't made a box for it yet, but I am planning to do that today.

I know that we are well past Christmas and all that, but I just have to show you a couple more things. I received the sweetest little package all the way from New Zealand from my dear friend Sarah a few days ago. It had been held up by the rotten weather. It was such a lovely surprise, I had no idea it was being sent. Inside were a couple of Christmas decorations, perfect for our tree in the drawing room, which has been decorated with white and silver ornaments for the last 25 years or so.

This gorgeous little bird became part of the flock already at home on the branches -


And this beautiful snowflake fits in perfectly as well -


A gorgeous white Christmas card -


A doily in the loveliest shade of blue, perfect for the blue bedroom in our cottage in France -


And this fabulous fabric cottage! Isn't it just gorgeous?


That is almost it, but there is one more rather important thing I want to do, and that is to welcome all the new followers who have joined me here over the last few weeks. I hope that my long absence hasn't put you off already, lol. Let me give you a big welcome hug, and I hope you enjoy popping in every now and then.

I am off to think about the box for the Concentration game. Have a great day wherever you are,
toodlepip xxx

Oh boy, did it get me!

Just a short one to let you know that I am still alive, just, lol, and to thank you all for your concerned emails and messages. Day after Boxing Day I came down with a proper flu, which knocked me for six, and just when I thought I was on the road to recovery, I got this streaming cold a couple of days ago. So I am out of bed but still snuggled up on the settee most of the time, especially as we are still without central heating. Seems like forever since the boiler gave up on us, and the heating engineer has been 4 or 5 times now and still hasn't been able to find the fault. Of course over Christmas and New Year nobody was working, so he will be back again tomorrow, touch wood, to have yet another go at fixing the darned thing. The house is like an icebox, we are just heating a couple of rooms with halogen heaters, and my workroom ( where the computer is ) isn't one of them, lol. So off I go again, back to my snuggly settee and my doggies, who keep me warm also.

I'll be back soon, hopefully with cheerier ( and warmer ) news!

Toodlepip, xxx

Darn, I totally forgot to say, I hope you all had a great stress free Holiday Season and started the New Year well. Hugs all round!