Sunday 12 January 2014

A two and a half year blogging holiday! Part 2

Here is my next instalment of the two and a half year update ;)

Craft

Do you remember the crocheted hexagon blanket that I started a few posts ago? It has been coming along very well although sadly, even after two and a half years, it is not quite finished. It is one of those projects for me that will keep ticking along in the background and I will add to it when I don't have any other significant projects on the go. Here is my progress so far:



I bought some fabulous alpaca yarn in some amazing colours on a week away in Devon. Here was the outcome, a crocheted patchwork scarf:



I also love to bake and my all time favourite cake is chocolate and Guinness! It is from a Hummingbird Bakery recipe that is widely available on the internet if you do a little Google search. Here was my first attempt:



For Christmas 2012 our family had a homemade Christmas so here were some of the things that I made:



This included a couple of crocheted baby tunics, some mug cosies, a sewn iPhone cover and several glass Christmas decorations. I enjoyed every minute of making these! I baked for the rest of the gifts.

Mince pies:



After Eight cupcakes (adapted from a Hummingbird Bakery recipe):



Chocolate orange cupcakes (also adapted from a Hummingbird Bakery recipe):



To tie in with the homemade theme for Christmas that year we had a competition for the best nativity representation in play dough. This was my team's efforts and I am happy to say that we won even though someone on our team thought they'd add a pink boa constrictor to the set... :D



Life

At the end of summer 2011 we visited a vintage funfair and penny arcade with some friends. It was a great day out and totally appealed to my love for everything vintage and retro:







Apologies for the lighting on the next picture. This was taken at The Alpaca Farm in Devon which is home to a number of alpacas and llamas. We enjoyed our trip here so much that we went twice during our stay! I would love to keep some alpacas one day. A (very) long term dream of mine :)



Early 2013 saw me flying out to Spain on a three day trip with my sister-in-law. We had a really relaxing time and enjoyed temperatures in the double figures whilst it was still freezing at home. A much needed break that I would definitely repeat in the future. We stayed in a small village just outside of Madrid. It was beautiful:



I am really enjoying going back over my old photographs and sharing some with you. There's still more to come! So until next time...

Toodlepip!

A two and a half year blogging holiday! Part 1

My blogging mojo has returned after a lovely comment on a very old post of mine. Initially I felt awful for taking such a long break from blogging but then I decided to just get back into it :) I am going to try and summarise what has been going on in the last two and a half years. I realise this is too long for one post so I am going to split it into several posts.

Craft

My love for crochet has grown exponentially and in some sort of timeline order here's what's been going on (the first instalment anyway!):

Some crocheted slippers for a friend's 30th. This was a free pattern on Ravelry and was incredibly easy. I haven't made any more as they are for small feet but I do hope to adapt the pattern in time.



This is the start of a new crocheted blanket for another friend who was expecting. This photo was taken in a cafe in the Peak District, UK.



I really enjoyed working with this yarn. It is Sirdar Calico and is a lovely cotton mix. Here is the completed blanket:



It was soon realised that my yarn stash was getting out of control and it had no order at all so one afternoon I emptied all of the yarn I could find onto the spare bed and set about organising it. Here is the before picture:



This was all bagged, labelled and boxed up. Very satisfying!



Life

Wow! Going back over two and a half years worth of photographs makes selecting key moments very challenging. My first instalment captures autumn/winter 2011 through to summer 2012.

We spent Christmas 2011 in Canada on Vancouver Island. It was a magical experience as I had never been to Canada before. I was sold with the flight in!



I have far too many pictures to share here but suffice to say it was truly beautiful:



I would love to return one day... when we've saved all of our pennies!! On returning home and a few months along we spent a weekend on Exmoor in the UK and visited the Exmoor Owl and Hawk Trust. This is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. We loved it and will most definitely return again. Here is the view we had whilst we had lunch:



And here is one of the stunning owls, a barn owl:



Summer 2012 saw us holidaying in the Peak District. We stayed on a working farm and visited many attractions, mostly wildlife based. Here are a few pictures from our visits.

A beautiful deer:



Bottoms up! From a trio of otters:



An otter who was so full of character:



A young great grey owl:



So until next time where I'll give you more crafty and general updates :)

Toodlepip!