Monday 15 February 2016

Valentines Weekend & Crochet

Hi All, hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a belated Happy Valentines to you all! I know lots of people differ with their views on Valentines Day; we met up with our friends at the local garden centre café for a catch up and they're completely against it, whereas Jack and I have always celebrated it, mainly because I'm a hopeless romantic! Always have been and always will be - love a happy ending, love a chick flick, love a good Jane Austen book, I just love LOVE!

Jack and I went to Bristol for a trip out on Saturday; it was our first visit here and we had a wander around but mainly kept near the shops as the weather was abysmal. We had a nice lunch out though at Brasserie Blanc before heading home again. It was a nice day anyway and nice to spend time together and the first weekend Jack's not had to work in a long long time. I surprised Jack with a weekend away that I've booked in a lovely B&B pub in the Wye Valley. We go in April, take Barry with us and can't wait to explore somewhere new! I'll tell you more about it nearer to the time.

I did manage to make some time for some crochet this weekend and had fun having a go at some crochet flowers. I successfully managed to make a daffodil and a rose, photos of the daffodil below. I also made a cute 3D red heart following Just Pootling's instructions, which can be found on her lovely blog here. I'm quite impressed at my first attempt, there were no tears or tantrums and other than the fact one side of the heart looks bigger than the other it's turned out quite well for a first attempt!

 
I'm now going to try and make a whole series of daffodils in different yellow/white shades if I can, watch this space!
 
I also bought some lovely coloured threads from eBay a while ago as I wanted to have a go at thread crochet; I made a few initial attempts and did huff and tut a lot because it's mighty fiddly! Oh well, practice makes perfect yes? I hope to have some photos to show you soon...
 
 

I was a busy girl yesterday giving the house a tidy and spruce up. I made Jack a tasty lunch for work this week; Italian style beef meatballs in a red pepper and Bolognese sauce, with fusilli pasta, which should keep him going on these long days he's working at the moment. I made some soft white bread rolls; the dough of which went crazy in our warm kitchen while I was cooking our roast dinner. I dusted them with semolina before they went into the oven; I like the slight crunch it gives the bread.


The weather was beautiful here yesterday so we went for a lovely Valentines walk up the gallops and onto The Ridgeway. It was so nice walking along in the sunshine and Barry enjoyed chasing crows and running along at 100 mph!

 
A short while after returning from our walk a delivery driver knocked on our door with a beautiful bunch of red roses for me and Jack stood behind me with a proud grin on his face for managing to surprise me. They're beautiful and came with a lovely jug too and are now sitting on the living room windowsill next to my Gerbera which is beginning to flower again. I'm a lucky girl :-)
 
 
 
We also managed to collect my glazed pottery first thing on Sunday morning and I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out. It looks slightly like a child has painted it and proved to me that I must take more care next time but I'm happy nonetheless and Barry loves his new water bowl... not that he's told me that, I'm just assuming he does!
 
Excuse my spotty socks in the photo! Barry's Water Bowl
 
Pencil Pot for my craft room
 
Flower Pot
 
 
Lastly, while waiting for above mentioned bread to rise and while catching up on some paperwork I came across a bag of plant labels, so I decided to decorate a few in anticipation of getting started on some seed planting in the coming weeks. I'm determined to be organised this year and see how successful we can be at growing some of our dinners. The flowers I grew last year were mostly successful too so I hope the ones I plan on planting this year will be. I love Gaillardia and they come up every year full of beautiful orange/red/yellow flowers. I plan to put them in the front border below our kitchen window to add some contrast to the cream colour of our house walls.
 

 

It's my last week at work this week, it's certainly come around fast. Lots to try and get done before I leave, but we've planned a nice lunch out on my final day with my work colleagues so I'm looking forward to that. Then I've got a long weekend before starting my new job. I'm excited about getting started at my new job but I'm also super nervous about it :( I hope it goes ok...

Have a lovely week everyone, wrap up warm!

Em x

1 comment:

  1. Oh you've had a lovely happy time! Me too, no roses but lunch & lots of goodies but I'm old and married so only celebrate valentines if it falls on a Sunday!! The colours have really come out well on your painted pottery, I've spotted some bowls in the local pet shop that look like they have a knitted pattern - I've yet to buy them xx

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