Weekend outdooring

Good afternoon one and all! We have been having some long overdue outdoorsy time in the toolbox household.  We went to see the last of the bluebells in Cann Woods which were really quite lovely.  It reminds me of the beginning of the first Lord of The Rings films where you see Frodo reading sat amongst bluebells.  I think they really do have that mystical magical quality - you can see why people always paint fairies sitting on bluebells.  It's not just that they're pretty - there's almost a luminescence to them, and I love that you can that unbroken blue haze from some angles but no from others

See? You can see the layer of flowers in the meadow above...

My mental labradoodle who cannot be trusted off his recall lead.  Totally brilliant and obedient 95% of the time, an utter and complete turdmonkey for the rest. He gets into this massively overexcited hyper state (a bit like that cartoon Tasmanian devil) and runs around us, other dogs, sheep, children, bins, big sticks, shadows, bits of interesting grass etc barking and trying to make them play.  And he's impossible to catch.  He once ran away for 2 miles over Dartmoor in this state before coming back with that big soppy happy-dog grin whilst husband and I had gone a bit frantic calling him and getting (justifiably) bollocked by a local farmer.  So we had our revenge by never letting him off the lead, and getting VERY STRICT about recall, although he's still not perfect...we're putting lots of effort training him and he is improving but he's at that awkward 18 month stage.  And also a doodle, which from my observation of other doodles includes being certifiably nuts.

Pretty woods!

We hacked our jungle garden back today as well. Oh my. It really teaches you not to leave the garden for nigh on eighteen months before doing any gardening when you have to cut down whole saplings that have mistaken your garden for an area of unspoilt woodland doesn't it? We also have a long rambly hedge which was waaaay overdue a trim.  It's made up of privet bushes, some random shrubs, a buddleia, brambles, a couple of fir trees, a jasmine bush, a full on unidentified tree and a rose bush and is, as you can probably imagine, a bit of a nightmare to cut. Behold the pile of hedgey doom:

It is probably becoming obvious that I'm a well-intentioned gardener but somewhat lacking in any ability to garden whatsoever.  I love the idea of it and frequently get herbs and veggies to grow but unfortunately seem to have a habit of killing things...

Just planted my poor mint plant after a year in a pot, and now it has leaves!! Real leaves!!

Rhubarb that was ignored in a weeny pot for a while. I planted it out recently, but it seemsto have developed a hole in the remaining leaf.  Oops.

Seed potatoes with shoots! Growing success!! Hurrah! There are also some lovely poppies which have just started to burst open.  I love how unashamedly bright they are.  These ones are huge as well.  We have some sweet little yellow poppies that have self seeded everywhere too.

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaawww! A teeny snail!

He looks like he's going off in a huff doesn't he?

And finally my daughter overseeing proceedings during her afternoon nap. I can't get enough of her squidgy cheeks. Naaw.

That's all for now! More crafty stuff next time...

Chocolate shortbread, wildflowers and needlepoint tablecloths

               

It's been a nice couple of days here in the tangerine toolbox household.  We spent the weekend with baby and pre-baby friends which was lovely.  Although babydom is marvelous is many ways (dribbly baby kisses are my current favorite) sometimes it's good to be reminded that there was a time before mummyhood, when I used to do very little in the afternoons but crochet and watch films (I worked a lot of nights, so this wasn't really that lazy), drink wine and wear pretty bras without clips. Sigh.  I really miss non nursing bras. I even feel a little bit nostalgic looking at the picture of my first cuddle with baby partially for the correct reason of meeting my daughter, but also because it was the last time I wore a pretty bra. Thing is though, breastfeeding has turned out to be the mother of all excuses (haha! pun intended!) to have a bit of a baby cuddle, sit down and a bunch of extra cake and the months seem to be flying past like particularly determined seagulls at chips, so it's not all bad :)

The little cheeky face is worth it all

On the note of pretty stuff, do you remember the post where I found a lovely shabby chic charity shop in Plymouth? Well, I found a fab needlepoint tablecloth. Oh my, it's so pretty. I read a really inspiring book a little while ago called Granny Chic which had loads of ideas about using  using these old fashioned needlepoint linens for new purposes, such as making them into aprons or kitchen organisers or for decorating bags. I think there might be a bit of a granny related theme emerging regarding my taste in soft furnishings... Ever since I have had a bit of a magpie obsession with them dreaming up all the lovely things I could make. This tablecloth though....aaah, it's just too darn pretty to cut up. I'll admit I'm not a terribly brave crafter when it comes to sewing and I feel a bit nervous cutting up stuff that is already beautiful. And I really do need a tablecloth. No, really.

It has four of these big motifs, one in each corner

Just look at that detail! Proper old style needlework.  It's just fab.  I think I'm too impatient to be able to do fine work like this.  I prefer making big colourful, chunky practical stuff.  Probably a reflection of character...

So pretty!! I love this sweet little seven petal daisy.  These little ones are scatted all over the edges..

 

I might have a little think about what I could make.  Perhaps cutting out the little flowers singly and applique-ing onto a a knitting needles/crochet hook case made with a pastelly-flowery cotton? maybe making a nice big apron with a beautifully embroidered pocket on the skirt? Or maybe an impossibly nice hanging nursery tidy with the embroidered corners as the pockets on a pale pistachio green background, like the flowers are on a field of green.  Actually, that would go quite well with baby girl's nursery.  We've done a very pale blue on the top half of the walls with a soft green bottom with a rolling border to look like hills. It sounds horrendous but is actually quite sweet looking.  The idea is that we'll get visiting family and friends to add a little painting of their own, like putting trees and flowers on the hills (my husband wants to paint a 1980 Volvo 240 and a car rally in the corner which I can assure you is DEFINITELY NOT HAPPENING.  I will compromise to a little mini or beetle but no car rallies.  Honestly.) It's not quite finished yet, but I'll do a little nursery tour once it's ship shape.

Now we've been (trying) to eat healthily recently as I have got into the rather embarrassing position on being in less good shape than when I had just given birth (shame! shaaaammee!!!)  We have had many many many vegetables and lots and lots of salads and countless fruits but frankly, I am a Sugar Addict and cold turkey is not just impossible but dangerous. Look at alcohol and drugs. Exactly.  So in the spirit of my personal health and safety I decided to make chocolate shortbread.   When you haven't eaten sugar for a while oh my GOODNESS is it good. I can't imagine any actual real life drug could feel any better.

I used high cocoa dark chocolate and gluten free flour so it was practically a health food.  I find they're a bit more crumbly with the gluten free stuff, but if you don't try and roll it out and just tip the crumbly mixture in and press it down seems to work pretty well. 

Biscuits, pretty pottery and crochet: what more could you wish for?

Baby blanket squares all tied up and organised for the journey home from our weekend away.  Unfortunately, the dog decided to spend the whole journey trying to rest his head on my right arm and sit on my crochet (left him at the in-laws for the weekend, seemed to be needing all the cuddles) so I eventually gave up after totally messing up about 8 times, so after a fab weekend of progress baby blanket has been going a at much more 'relaxed' pace.... about halfway now, so will be getting photos up soon. I hope you can enjoy this late spring sunshine in the next few days :) Speak soon crafty people!

xx

Crochet Progress!!

Hello!

I hope you have enjoyed the lovely bank holiday weekend, how brilliant actually having sunshine for it! I normally work shifts which take no account of whether it is day or night or weekend or bank holiday, and I can confirm as an impartial observer of bank holiday weather (as I am generally at work) that it is indeed always totally rubbish.  So hurrah for sun! Hurrah!

I have had a lovely time this weekend being sat on my bum doing lots and lots of happy, easy colourful crochet.  It's the first time since the bambino popped out that I've had that oooh-I'm-really-making-progress feeling and it's wonderful.  Each little milestone inspires you to carry on and you get that addictive oh, just one more square, just one more row and before you know it, it's three in the morning and there is an unadulterated masterpiece sat in front of you.  Or a slightly wonky tea cosy.  But either way it's the sense of achievement I love, the 'I made that!' pride. I think this is common to all crafters, why you can chat with a patchworker or embroiderer or furniture unholsterer about their craft and there's this unspoken understanding and enthusiasm for making beautiful, cheerful, happy bits and bobs that make home feel a bit more homely. When baby was still teeny tiny with a record unbroken sleeping record of approximately 29 minutes I tried making a hat - normally a fairly achievable project: I have been known to make one of this pattern in an afternoon  - and 3 months later it STILL wasn't done.  I got totally fed up with doing all the little single crochet stitches about 8 at a time and put it away in a bit of a humph.  But the other day I re-found it at the bottom of my yarn bag, and finished it during one film (does anyone else measure projects in films? As in 'that one took about three films'?) and I feel like I've finally got my post-baby crochet mojo back.  Which sounds silly but it's the little things that make you feel like you and enjoying your hobby again is such a joy.

Anyhoo enough philosophising and more pictures of the FINISHED BABY BLANKET SQUARES!!
Oh yes! (I told you there may have been a lot of bottom sitting and late nights...)

Ta Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!

Cue many many happy minutes of arranging and rearranging to seek out the most pleasing layout.  I think this may be the best bit of crochet projects, I really do. Like you've done all the hard work and then get to look at how much you've done and decide the fun bits about what goes with what. So I have the three best contenders for your delectation (cue X factor choosing music):

The Diagonal Stripe Blanket

With stripes going downwards from top left to bottom right with green in the centre, then red, blues, pinks going upwards and blues, yellows, reds and greeny/purples going downwards...

The Colour Blocking Blanket, or As Much As You Can Colour  Block Entirely Un-Colour-Blocked Blocks Blanket (I prefer the latter name)

Hot colours top right melding into cool colours bottom right

Or Finally, the Alternating Hot and Cool Colours Blanket

(Although I did run out of hot squares by the end, so purple graduated to being a hot colour halfway through...)

Any thoughts? I think I'm leaning towards the last one due to my colour-anarchy tendencies (or to be less self congratulatory, my tendency to lack the ability to make anything that could be in any way be considered 'tasteful'.  I mean muted browns. Ugh, It's beige! Call it beige.)

So answers on a postcard.  Or in the comments.  Or not at all and I will blind you with my fabulous colour choices next time!

Finally, here is a picture of my dog enjoying the BIGGEST BONE EVER MADE BY A THING. Given to me by the local butcher (for freeeee! I know!) I did get a little concerned that there may be trace elements of dinosaur in those amazing tasty sausages.  He was such a happy dog.  He was so well behaved he tried to give me both paws at the same time at faceplanted in the gravel. Bless him.

Happy monday evening all
xx

Baby blanket: progress report

I have been a very good crocheter since starting this blog last week.  It feels like if I slack off EVERYONE WILL KNOW.  This is a very Good Thing, as it means I am cracking along with my next projects.  I mentioned a few days ago that I want to do baby blankets for a couple of new babies plus one for my own (seems only reasonable!)  So, here is photographic evidence of more car crochet.  Car crochet seems to be a running theme - perhaps I should just hang out in the car in the evenings to be super productive!  Or perhaps more likely it's because the baby sleeps in the car....

I was choosing lots of different colours for the third round of some granny squares.  Turns out it's pretty difficult to do a colour change heavy project when you can't really see what colours you have all laid out in front of you (perhaps I have a very poor colour memory? Can any of you do this by memory?) Perhaps I should do myself a card thing with samples of yarn on it so I have an easy reference system, so don't  have to lay out my one billion balls of yarn every time I do a little bit of colourwork? Now that would be impressively organised.  The next step would be grown up meal planning (not on the back of envelopes) or routine cleaning rota and this simply would not do.  My lovely husband wouldn't know who I was.

A growing pile of granny squares is a very pleasing thing.  I'm afraid I'm one of those people who constantly lays out their work to see progress.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this more hinders progress than inspires it but it's one of my favourite things to do especially when you're near the end of a project and you can see it all really coming together.

Although I didn't really plan it I think there seems to be a bit of a bluey-greeny and reddy-orangey colour scheme emerging...

I the next lot of squares I might try a bit more inter-pollination between colours, the squares are all looking a little coordinating to themselves.  I really love making stuff that looks like it should clash but kind of works by the sheer weight of different colours and textures. A bit like the granny blanket I made last year to use up all the odds and ends of random bits of wool picked up from Ebay and charity shops that looks like vomit close up...

 but move back slightly ... and ta-dah!

Chaos theory in action?
Anyway...

Aha! the progress laying-out photo

I think that the baby blanket should be about  the right size at 6 squares by 7 squares, with the squares having 4 rounds of colour.  You can see here that I've laid out each length so I can see how much I have left to do ie.) quite a lot.  However! Granny squares work up beautifully quickly so it shouldn't take long.  These kind of projects always move along fairly snappily I find, it's the fiddly-fiddly counting-stitches pattern-following projects that take me fooooorrrreeeevvveeeerrrrr.  I made a rather cute little hooded cardigan for my little one when I was pregnant and Oh My Gosh it took SO LONG.  I think some people are good at following patterns and some people aren't, and unfortunately I am very much firmly in the latter group.  I just get a bit bored then distracted then find I have done a whole section totally wrong which then needs unravelling which is really quite disheartening.  Ugh. I'm much more in the school of 'how's it looking...ooh a bit tight, I'll pop a few more stitches in'.  Perhaps this explains my love of granny squares...

Well, I hope with the next progress report I shall be showing you a nearly done baby blanket!  Have a lovely bank holiday weekend everyone

xx

Doodling around on the Barbican

I am super super lucky to live in a wonderfully Devonish market town.  It's brilliant in every way except that everyone knows you, so when you accidentally flash your boobs out of the living room window during breastfeeding you can pretty much guarantee that someone you know (and probably wouldn't flash your boobs to on purpose) will see them (I did get a comment from a lovely friend of mine that I had flashed her but that I had nicer shaped boobs than her do I shouldn't worry) (AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!). But I secretly love that "oh-are-you-Sarah-who-lives-in-*previous house owner who must have been lovely as everyone knows her*-old-house?" conversation. The very nice lady in the little bakery we go to told me I needed to cut my grass, and that I could borrow her strimmer. It's that kind of place and I love it.  Anyway, I digress. The point being that myself and hubby only rocked up here in our leaky caravan (ooh bit of a long story for another time, the living-in-a-caravan episode) about eighteen months ago and so we still have occasional little-kid excitement episodes that we get to live in a bit of a holiday destination. We're only about 40 minutes from Plymouth, and as such decided to go for a bit of a mosey to have a gander at the olde worldey bit of Plymouth as pretend tourists for the day (I do actually work in Plymouth when I'm not having babies so I feel like I can claim non-touist status!).  There may or may not have been the semi formed plan to perhaps go on a tour of the Plymouth Gin factory (one word: tastings) but like a total numpty I forgot to book it (boo!) so will have to try another day.  Fortunately the Barbican (the old bit of Plymouth the gin factory lives in) is totally ace and we had a super time bumbling about.  Thought you might like to see some pretty pictures of it...

The waterfront looked pleasingly Mediterranean like...

This bit of the country can really look like France sometimes, just A Lot Colder. And with a lot more old(er) people wearing beige on coaches.

Whilst doing a cheeky baby feed I realized I was sitting opposite the Mayflower Steps where the Pilgrim fathers stepped off England to voyage into the unknown, find a new world and build America:

Just on the left there!
Coooooooooooooool!!

Those actual steps! Imagine how much food they would have taken? Knowing you would never ever see another shop or farm or loaf of bread you didn't make yourself? Brave really. 

I don't know if you can see with the resolution but this list has the names and occupations of the people who left.  A most of them were something to do with material - linen weavers, tailors, shopkeepers and so on.  A nation of crafters! Seems a bit low on the old building/farming/survival skills though. If I were going I think I'd try and persuade Ray Mears along too...

There seemed to be a theme of Very Pretty Signs on Tasteful Stonework going on...

In fact in general tasteful stonework seemed to be a bit of a thing, as did random and really quite good street art...

                                         love the stone patchworking 

 

I think this one was pilgimmy in nature

                                   

I love old buildings like this which look like they've been added to and patched like this, it makes me think of Ron's house The Burrow in Harry Potter...

 Not so sure what this one was about, looked a bit trippy tbh...

As did this one...I like the unfinished feel though.  I like art that is a bit raw at the edges, the contrast of rough unfinishedness brings the finished painted figures alive.

Feeling like we had been sufficiently cultured I gave in to my chronic inability to walk past a juicy looking charity shop without having a good poke around.  This one was a corker.  It was a St Luke's hospice one I think and they'd gone for a shabby chic theme which I'm sure is a tad obvious I'm a bit of a sucker for.  Their linen section was ammmaaazzinggg, just LOOK ---->

There was a whole pile of those lovely hand embroidered tablecloths and napkins which you so often see going for 50p in charity shops.  I think in five or ten years these will come back into fashion and become horribly expensive.  Although to be fair, I think they should be expensive, considering the sheer amount of work that goes into making them.  I often think that old skills that were traditionally the domain of the ladyfolk are even now still pretty poorly valued: look at what you can sell hand knitted jumpers for (say about £100, at a push, with nice wrapping paper) which after buying the wool pays far far less than minimum wage when you take into account how looong it takes to make these things.  On that note, they had some lovely granny crochet small knee blankets, for about a tenner each which I also think is a bit too little (I may be just a teeny bit biased.  But I still think I'm right)

PRETTY THINGS (cue sigh from hubby and mumblings about waiting outside)

 

coffee yay! Does a pretty tea shop count as culture? I think so.

A gen-u-ine fishing boat complete with slightly intimidating fisherman (out of shot) who gave me a bit of an evil for looking like a photohappy tourist.  Which I was really all being honest.

And teeeeeny streets! So small the writing doesn't fit! So you think the road signs writer saw this and did an inward sigh?

This one makes me think of the olden days when all the Navy Sailors and fisherman would have been bustling about with all the fish selling and washing hanging out of windows and grubby kids and stray cats and the odd bout of dysentery.  Ah the olden days.  Sigh.

This last one was taken on the way home.  Lovely hubby had popped into Tesco for a couple of bits and oh-no the baby had really really needed feeding (such a shame!). So after a cheeky milkachino baby, dog and I had a spontaneous group snuggle.  Brilliant.  Makes all the various poo I have to clean up all worthwhile.

More crochet next time....

P.S. Thank you for introducing me to the Barbican Plymouth nursing people.  Sorry for being a tourist! But I wasn't wearing beige, so quits?