Honey moon

Guisbrough Hall in North Yorkshire

A fantastic place to stay.

This is the amazing Hotel my lovely husband brought me to for our late honey-moon.

I have always wanted to stay here since I was a little girl.

Poor hubby, I told him I don't want to stay any where less comfortable than this !!!

Saturday

On Saturday we went over to Whitby. This is one of my favorite places. I love the smells and sounds and sights of the place. I just want to bottle it and carry it with me. I feel so at home here. Every few year I need to get my Whitby fix and have a visit.

Sights and smalls of Whitby.

Of course it wouldn't be a trip to Whitby if you didn't climb the 199 steps. 

It's just these days I need to stop and admire the view a few more times on the way up than I used to.!!

If you have visited and climbed the steps, have you ever noticed there are never the same number of steps on the way up as there are on the way down ?

Yay, made it to the top !!

In the after noon we gate-crashed my Aunty Julia's 80th Birthday party. 

It was so nice to see the family.

For me family is so important.

I am very proud of my family, all of them, and would move heaven and earth to help any of them.

Sunday

Roseberry Topping

On Sunday, we climbed Roseberry Topping. It used to be Mount Roseberry but there was mining in the area and the mountain shrank !! It didn't feel like it had shunk by much mind. It took us two hours just to get to the bottom of it. Every time we thought we were almost there, there seemed to be another field to walk through or mini forest to navigate. We lost the darn thing several times, and the map made no sense.

Almost there.

I canna remember it being this steep last time I climbed it, but then again I was 17 at the time !!

Finally made it.

These were perhaps not the best shoes to climb a mountain in !!

On the way down we saw these trees .....cuddling.

How sweet is this ?

Then in the afternoon, my favorite time.

Pimm's O'clock.

Pimm's on the terrace with my patchwork.

Seriously, could life get any better ?

When I got back to Shetland it was lovely to see my girls again. 

There house was immaculate and Grace made these.

Perhaps I should go away more often. 

I hope you have had a good week

I have done some sewing .. honest.

Alice drew this. 

I love it when the veiw is slightly hazy.

 I can't remember what day it was, but our Alice and I took a drive down to the Knab in Lerwick. I sat and listened to radio 3 and did some more on my crochet. Alice sat and drew this view. Just like that with pen and paper. I should have taken a photo for you all to see.

The rest of the week was a bit of a struggle at times. My slipped discs in my neck have been playing up, Granny has been in and outta hospital and my best friend is having a tough time, which made me sad. Then at work two of my reps have let me down with orders and samples. Ugh. Any way that's enough of yucky stuff.

Sewing; I have made bunting, mended trousers, fixed the laundry basket, designed and made a prototype for a skirt ..... but forgot to take any photos. Oops !!

Another crazy lazy Sunday

This is the easiest way for me  to work out what every one wants for lunch.

 After a lazy start to the day, it was lunch then out into the garden to enjoy the sun shine. Fresh rhubarb was picked and made into another yummy pudding. Not sure what it's called but I put the rhubarb in a dish. Our Grace made up a cake mix which we put on the top and then baked in the oven for about half an hour. This was served with lashings of custard.

Fresh from the garden.

Emi and I went round the garden looking for what's growing and what's gonna grow. We found these red current babies, lovely tulips.....

.. blue bells and funny fuzzy things.

Slowly but surely I am trimming the hedge. I'm taking it down by about 5 feet and in by about 6 feet. I can only manage one fence width at a time, but I'm getting there.

The lasses were roaming around the garden, giggling, fighting, running, building dens, mixing perfume, bouncing on the trampoline and generally being bairns. At one stage they did disappear on their bikes, but in the main they were rummaging around the doors. A fresh hole seems to have been dug in the drive and this unusual sculpture appeared in the sunken garden.

I finally got some of my raspberries moved, under the watchful gaze of Ginger.

... and in what will be the raised veggie beds, the toadstools are doing well.

I won't be on line next week end as I am going on honeymoon. 

Thank you for calling by and I hope you have a lovely week.

Ginger.

Life is good...

Wednesday I spent the afternoon with my girls at my eldest daughters. It was so lovely to sit in their midst and listen to their chatter. Boy they are gonna be a force to be reckoned with when they all grow up.

This was the most sensible photo I could get !!!

Yesterday was the Euro-vision Song Contest. What a laugh. Ok so we only came 19th .... but that's not what it's about. Graham Norton's commentry was hilarious. I liked the Norway entry that won but I really wanted Greece to win. How ever I think the whole show was stolen by the wife who was hosting the show. If I knew how to add a link I would show you. She was laugh out loud funny.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/watch-eurovision-2013-presenter-petra-1897982

Someone please let me know it this works.

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon.....

 Well not so much lazing but still not a lot to show for it. Do you ever have one of those days where you drift from one job to another but don't seem to get much done ?

This fell out of the tree we trimmed. 

 We started by trimming the hedge, but after about 4' and being scratched a lot I went and trimmed a tree in the sunken  garden. This nest fell out. It's an old blackbird's nest, I think. Not in use, what ever it  is.

 Then I drifted over to the veggie garden. I'm not sure what my pal has been feeding her horses, but after spreading horse muck on the garden earlier in the year, I now have this interesting crop. I really don't think they are edible and they are really big, some are up to 4" across.

I de-weeded the ground a bit and cleared grass off the paths. I had hoped to then move some raspberries which are in the wrong place, but wondered off to another part of the garden and forgot all about the raspberries.

I wondered off to the goose garden where I am working on a pond. By now it was so hot, I was incapable of much heavy work, so I sat with a trowel and whittled away until I got to sub-soil. Lucy - the goose - was keeping an eye on us and was most disgruntled that I'd borrowed one of her tubs.

And finally .... I don't know if you remember the rhubarb patch I was working on ? Well today I picked this years first crop. I mixed it with a couple of eating apples and made a lovely crumble. the rhubarb was so tender.

There is no sewing news to speak of. Hubby has had me mending two pairs of breaks and a jumper. Not much fun but I feel very self righteous.

I hope you have had a lovely week and thank you for calling by.

Where does the time go ?

I feel I have had no time for anything or anyone lately, and yet I have precious little to show for it. Between hospital visits, work and well just stuff , I feel I have missed the important things in life. My family, friends, my home and my sewing.

I'll not go in to all the rubbish that's been happening so here's a run down of the good stuff.

Mittens!!

My boys.

Here are my lovely boys. Still as daft as brushes. I keep having to hawk them back in to the house as they are eyeing up the nesting birds. But the good thing is there is no sign of mice in the house at the moment.

 Eye Spy.

I spotted this wee chap in the tree outside my bedroom window. I think it's a blackcap, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm sure some of my birdy pals would know.

I think it's a black cap.

 The Voar Redd Up.

Last week we all headed down to the beach for the Redd Up. This is when folk all over Shetland head out armed with green bags and pick up the bruck that has been blown on to the beaches in the winter storms. There is a fairly small window of time when this can be done. It has to fit in between the last of the storms and the birds building there nests. We gathered a huge pile of rope, bags full of bottles, fishing floats, 3 left shoes and other bits and bobs. Coffee and biscuits were brought to us and the bairns enjoyed some fun and games in the back of a trailer.

The bairns at the Voar Redd Up.

At the beach.

Swans in the sea.

I have never seen swans in the sea before. They just bobbed around us the whole morning.

Other stuff.

I was given these yummy eggs by a friend. They were all different colours and sizes.

And here's Emi with here sewing. 

Nom nom nom !!

Emi sewing.

Other news with no pictures.

I had an amazing Friday-Night-Lock-In which should have been at the shop but was re-located to a friends house. What a giggle. I laughed til I cried. This was one good night. We had a pizza delivered and the most delicious -flaccid- garlic bread with mushrooms . Followed by lots of chocolate and tea.

I even managed to get a bit of sewing done. I had forgotten/lost my silver thimble, so Sarah lent me her leather one. Oh my goodness, it is amazing. I have ordered some more for the shop.

So that's about it. I have another appointment tomorrow in Aberdeen. I am under strict instructions to have plenty of me and my time and come off committees and rotas. I guess I just have to learn to say No. 

I hope you all have a fabby week doing the thinks you love with the folk you love best. Do let me know what you're up to and thanks for taking the time to pop by.

"Inspiration from the North"

This is a class Sarah and I went to yesterday in Lerwick. Out teacher, Rosalind Johanson, had traveled up from England. The idea was to be inspired by what's around you, sea, sky, the beautiful knitting that's produced up here ...... alsorts of things. Of course I forgot to take my pictures in with me so I was working from memory. I had set out to do an applique picture of a puffin but this is what came off the sewing machine !!. The picture on the left is what I have so far but I'm not too sure about it. I think there's too much pale fabric. I have taken another couple of pictures with the pale folded out and I may slash the picture to cut out the lighter bits. Let me know what you think I should do ?  



     

Once I have decided on how much of the lighter strips to keep, I'll applique on a small house with a chimney and embroider on some subtle smoke swirls. I have also started this chevron boarder which will go outside the pencil border. I will then quilt in swirls around the smoke to represent the wind. I also had the idea of cutting the edge of the quilt kind of wavy and making some bias binding to edge it .... but that was yesterdays idea and I may have chosen something different by tomorrow.

I'm now in the process of cutting out the border strips. (No I'm not cutting straight on to the table, I had removed the board for the sake of the photo as it was scruffy looking).

So there we go. On Friday we had a lock-in at the shop and quilted for 4 hours straight and yesterday I was at a quilting class. Can life get any better ?

Today's to do list .....

A lot of my blogging friends have been showing their to do lists. This isn't exactly a to do list more a "this is what's laying on top of my sewing machine at the moment" list.

1.Linus quilt. 

This wasn't made by me, nor did I quilt it. I'm just sewing the binding on. Not my favorite job in the world but needs doing. Almost there. Half way round.

2. Linus Quilt.

This quilt top was made by my Mam. I laid it up and have straight line quilted it. Just finished quilting it today. Tomorrow I'm hoping to cut out the binding in the blue and then yah sew the binding on. I quite like machine sewing the binding on, but it makes my hands ache hand sewing it down on the wrong side.

3. Another Linus Quilt.

This is a quilt top made for a Linus quilt, but at 19" it's just not big enough, so I am going to add borders and binding in the top colours to bring it up to a better size. The crazy pieced top is lovely and well made, it just needs to be bigger.

4. The mystery.

I cut this out and started to sew it together, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was supposed to be.

5. Linus.

These lovely fabrics are for a simple Linus quilt.

6. Linus.

Gonna do some thing fairly simple like a 9 patch.

7. Felt owls.

I'm really enjoying making this little candle mat.A blue bird will go in the gap. I still need to sew on the felt leaves and eyes then I'll embroider the details on.

8. Anne's quilt.

I have drawn on stems and I'm planning to embroider these. Still a shed load of applique to do here.

9. Check and hearts.

I had forgotten about this one. The hearts are to be bond-a-webbed down. Not really my thing. Then top stitch over the hearts. This one's for the kids.

10. Nana's shawl.

This is a pattern my Nana used over and over again. I have made it a few times now. This one is being made in lace weight variegated wool.

11. Grace's Twilight quilt.

This is a quilt our Grace is making with me. It got put on hold whilst we chose some border fabrics. It's very simple but we are kind of making it up as we go along.

So that's my list. Massive compared to some short compared to others. Am I in a hurry to finish these ? Not really. I'm just enjoying myself. I hope you are enjoying your to do list too.