Suffolk Summer Sunday!

We decided to have a day out today with the prediction of a heat wave! John asked me where I wanted to go so I scratched my head and came up with a few ideas – and agreed that he could do a few caches as well, being the kind loving wifey that I am!

It didn’t even cross my mind to go looking for fabric shops – I think I’ve done enough of that kind of shopping to last me a few weeks so instead John researched some caches and drew up a circular route that would take us up the Suffolk coast and back home.

We jokingly said that we’d go out out at 7.30 and my body clock obviously took me seriously and woke me at 5.50 this morning. But we set off around 9.30 heading towards the first cache of the day in the middle of nowhere (sorry if I don’t sound enthused – I do try, just not very hard!) which was a church down a tiny lane in a small village called Theberton which I have to say I had never even heard of before today. After that we continued down very narrow lanes until we reached the perimeters of Minsmere nature reserve where he had another cache to do. After the successful discovery of the second cache of the day we headed off down the single track lane that led us to the car park and visitor centre to embark on our day out. I had no idea what to expect, we’re not into bird watching and nature particularly, but must admit to having a great time. Being close to the coast it was quite nippy with the breeze blowing off the sea and my hair decided to take a curl in the wrong direction but out of the wind it was very warm.

There are a couple of circular walks, each about a mile, around the reserve and we ambled around for a couple of hours, deafened by the sound of birds shrieking at each other birdsong, we even sat in hides like they do on Springwatch! Took loads of pics – sadly we don’t have much of an idea of what – and returned to the cafe for lunch and decided that, as we had enjoyed ourselves so much, we would have to return and actually signed up to become members of the RSPB!!

Without further ado I’ll leave you with some photos – all that fresh air and exercise has left me feeling exhausted!

A damsel fly ( I think!)

A tree(!)

 

The North Sea in it’s summer glory!

I wondered if this was a fledgling kingfisher – probably not though!

Can anybody tell me what the flower is??

And that’s your lot for this week! Oh, John took the photo’s by the way – not bad are they? If only we knew what we we were looking at…..

Raspberries & Cream

A new take on an afghan for a baby girl, I couldn’t get baby pink so opted for this slightly deeper pink instead. It will shortly be off for a new life with a friend of the friend that I call Julie – hope she likes it!

I’ve set up a Flickr page as well – although a lot of the pics will appear on here, I’ll add some of John’s creations as well! It’s here if you want to take a look! Although I think that just takes you to the Flickr home page – anyway, I’m easternsparkle on there as well!!

Scarborough

It’s been a while again I know but time just seems to disappear from my grasp these days. I’ve been up to all sorts since I last wrote but the big thing is that we had a lovely long weekend away in Scarborough. You may wonder why Scarborough. Well, call me sentimental but it was the first place that John & I went for a holiday some 28 years ago! We’d been up to stay with his parents in Northumberland and stopped off in Scarborough on the way home. Needless to say things have changed over the years and parts of the town were very run down and neglected, almost to the point of shabbiness which was rather sad. We stayed in a small, privately run hotel – The Wharncliffe which was very homely and welcoming. We had a beautiful view across the North Bay and it was lovely to watch the sun rise and set across the sea. I’m not a big breakfast eater but John loves a ‘full English’ if we’re away – you can see why they won awards for their cooked breakfast, each one fresh cooked to order and to perfection.

Using Scarborough as our base we travelled around for the three days we spent there – Whitby, Filey & Pickering (for the railway). Of course before we set off I researched casually looked for fabric supplies (you knew I would didn’t you!) and saw a tiny reference to a shop in Whitby – Judith’s. I can’t give you a link because she doesn’t have a web site. I have never seen so much fabric in such a small space in my life. It was stacked floor to ceiling. All colours. All patterns. All plains. I needed to buy some fabric to bind & back the quilt that I haven’t shown you yet and when I went to pay she didn’t take cards, only cash or cheque, so I trundled to the nearest cash point and drew out far too much to pay for what I’d already ordered so then proceeded to look for more when I got back to the shop! There was another couple in there at the same time, who believe it or not were from Felixstowe at some time and knew Quilters Haven at Wickham Market!! Small world, anyway I’m rambling, the husband commented that his wife buys fabric and never uses it!! She admitted that she is out too often to make things! I have to say that, although I buy far more than I use, that made me feel better!

So we wandered around Whitby taking photographs of the same things so that we could compare the results between the two cameras (which I have yet to do!).

On Sunday morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day, blue skies, no clouds. We decided to explore Scarborough and set of to walk round to the South Bay where John had identified a couple of caches (I like to play fair and let him have his chance to play as well ) but sadly the blue didn’t last. By midday the clouds blew in in and the temperature dropped, we bought rolls for lunch and sat out on a bench outside the hotel to eat them and nearly got blown away! As the weather had changed we set off to Filey in the car but by the time we got there it was absolutely pouring down and we parked up and sat in the car watching  the waves crash in. I crocheted and John snoozed – a real Darby and Joan moment! It stopped raining long enough for John to take some photos of brave souls paragliding (I think that’s what it’s called – they had parachute things on boards in the sea – or is it parasurfing?) We rounded the day off with delicious Fish & Chips in the sort of restaurant that your parents took you to when you were a child and that you vowed never to go to yourself.

Monday promised better weather and we headed off to Pickering to go for a ride on the North Yorks Moors Railway. We‘re not train people generally but took the opportunity for more photography along the way – John ended up with loads of tiny flecks of coal in in his hair from hanging out of the windows to take the photos! There wasn’t much to see and nowhere to buy fabric on this trip but as part of my research I had found this shop before I went. Well, Judith’s was amazing but this place was something else. On line the fabric is £6 per metre – in the shop it was £4.80!! £4.80. I know. Cheap. The only problem I had was that there was too much choice. I only spent £30 in there, they only sold full metres which is OK – after all it will get used, won’t it? I bought some lovely mauve-y fabrics for a bag – I reckon there’s enough for at least two plus some smaller bags, I won’t bore you with the other stuff just yet – there’s plenty of time for that!

So home on Tuesday via York – and the Cath Kidston shop and Betty’s tearoom (you should have seen the queue outside ‘big’ Betty’s but fortunately we’d spotted a smaller version around the corner and went there) where we had coffee and sandwiches. We were expecting something special but you should have seen John’s face when the sandwiches arrived – they were tiny little triangles with the crust cut off.

So we headed home, exhausted after our relaxing break and ready to re-join the fray of everyday life. John went back to work on Wednesday but I’ve had the rest of the week off, spent all day Wednesday baking and all day yesterday feeling bleurgh and tired  - it’s early today but I hope it’s better than yesterday!

The one where…

…I tell you about phones, glasses and my first big bag! I’ve stolen the title for this from that wonderful TV series Friends which seems to constantly on air on the satellite channels.

First up the phone. I got an early upgrade offer for my mobile phone. I was that excited. I-phone here I come, I thought, but it was not to be . Much as I coveted the I-phone  i was not prepared, nor could I afford, the £250 quoted by Vodafone for the initial purchase price. Instead, with support from the on line team via Twitter, I settled for a gorgeous purple HTC Wildfire S. It looks amazing, all the functionality really of an I-phone for zero outlay and the same monthly cost. I was happy. Forget that I couldn’t use the touch screen to type ‘cos I managed to hit the keys either side of the one I meant to. Forget that I sent messages and rung people who I didn't intend to. I loved it. Until that is, the screen started to freeze on me. I couldn’t open it. When I did manage to open it I ended up in all sorts of strange places and, the best of all, I couldn’t hang up on any calls!! The friend that I call Julie had a lovely silent voicemail message from on Saturday. Anyway, cut to the chase, I went into the Vodafone store in town today and, thank heavens, the guy there saw the problem for itself. You need an exchange he said. OK, said I. You’ll have to do it online – can’t do it in the shop, says he. Oh, OK said I and off I went to phone the magic number – which surprisingly I managed OK, until it came to entering my PIN!! Not a chance. Select an option 1-5. No chance. So I just held out in the hope that somebody would speak to me which they did. After me spelling it out that I needed an exchange, they agreed to just that, shame is I can’t get another purple one, had to settle for grey, not that that matters too much. Then, haha, they sent me a text about the exchange which, you guessed it, I couldn’t open. Facepalm is the word I think the kids would use!!

And then there’s the glasses. Way overdue for a check-up, I went a couple of weeks ago to that store that gives you an extra pair for nothing, the one who’s prices start at £85 – you know the one, right? Well, of course I don’t meet the criteria for the cheap option as I have varifocals, so £250 later and an order placed for a regular pair and a light-sensitive pair I awaited with baited breath their delivery. The light-sensitive pair are the very latest Gok Wan design, oooh, get me – I just loved the idea of them as sun glasses, not that I planned to wear them for everyday stuff. You know what’s coming, don’t you? Yep. Couldn’t see through either pair – the Goks meant that I couldn’t see distance and the other pair completely blurred my vision in the middle distance . Every time I buy glasses I have these problems. However a very nice young man (very young man) fiddled a little with both pairs and I left the store this morning promising to persevere for a couple of weeks.

And breathe. On to the bag. I bought the kit for this when I went to the Quilt Show at Chilford Hall. It’s from here and although it’s not in colours that I would normally choose I’m well chuffed with how it’s come out! Hyper critical me will tell you that I’m not happy with the place where the handle joins the bag because the sewing machine almost had heart failure when I tried to force coax the many layers of fabric through and I tried to tidy it up by hand, but that apart, I’m pleased with it!

You probably can’t see the lining very well but it’s a floral print from Moda on a brown background, yes I know, brown! As it’s such a spacious bag I’m going to make a small bag to go inside for my phone and stuff – I did think I’d do that today but have now changed my mind and am going to supervise John in the garden while he plants up the plants we bought this morning in anticipation of the torrential rain that’s promised!

Just before I hit the publish button, John has said we’ll plant after the football has finished if it’s not raining – fingers crossed, it’s still beautifully sunny here right now!!

It’s been a while!

This has to be the longest I’ve gone without blogging! I even missed my Blog-versary .

No reason though, just been plodding along doing all sorts of stuff and getting on with life in general whilst battling that dreaded middle-aged woman thing, you know the one I mean, don’t you? Mother nature has a very cruel sense of humour, likes life to be full of surprises so that things happen when you least expect them – if you’re there or been there you know exactly what I mean!

Anyway, let’s move on from the workings of my my body clock shall we? So what’s been going on – well, Son 2 turned 21 earlier in the month and we went out for a meal. Just the four of us because FDIL was away on her work placement. We went to a local pub which was his choice, had a lovely time and the boys even started play fighting because Son2 hid Son1’s sunglasses – happy days! Son2 has also announced that he plans to travel to Australia for a year, if you remember the debacle of his trying to get a visa to the US last year you may be pleased to know that the Australian authorities seem to love him and gave him a visa on line within two days of applying! The plan now is for him to go in October. I’m happy for him to go and gain some great life experiences, if he comes back all well and good, if he settles out there I’m happy with that too.

On the making front I’ve been quite quiet, I made this bag for my friend’s birthday – the fabric just cried out to be diamond quilted which took an age but I was really pleased with the result.

Do you remember that I admitted a few posts ago to not telling you about everything I buy? Well time for another confession. I found fabric on EBay. Yep. Remnants. All different sizes. Some big. Some not so. Some absolutely ideal for my hand pieced hexie quilt. Some that will be absolutely perfect for a baby girl quilt that I just can’t wait to start!

I intended that the hexie quilt would be a WIP for many years, with me adding random hexies as I finished a project. I’ve really enjoyed the hand work, for those interested I’m using one-and-a-half inch templates and two-and-a-half inch fabric squares, all tacked/basted and then joined – I love taking the tacking out and removing the paper pieces intact! However I have deviated into using fabric from the remnants that I bought on EBay because I was getting impatient and couldn’t wait to build up enough scraps! I’ve been really lucky with what I bought, good quality cottons including some Amy Butler pieces. In some ways I regret not piecing this in a more constructive way but as I originally intended that it would be totally random I’ll live with it.

Do you like my inventive way of keeping the pieces together?? The bigger this gets the more totally random the piecing will be – seems very blue at the moment!

In other news we are up bright and early this morning because John is awaiting the delivery of a new camera – he’s like a kid at Christmas! Trouble is, delivery will be between 7am and 3pm – hopefully it will be earlier as I wanted to have a day out today but forgot to mention it to him when I was planning it but as he didn’t ask tell me about the new camera I suppose that makes us quits!!

That’s enough for now I think. I’ll try to get back in the habit of posting every week again – if for no other reason that it gives me a personal discipline!!

VRWP!

What a weekend! It started off with that wedding on Friday and just disappeared really!

So what have I done? Friday saw me up at 6.30 to make sure I got a front row seat at the Virtual Royal Wedding Party (VRWP) I’d foolishly volunteered to host. The word ‘Virtual’ is the giveaway here – on line attendance only, but never let it be said that I don’t push the boat out for my guests. People came from far and wide, err well Lincolnshire, Kent, Ipswich & Missouri anyway! It didn’t quite attract the numbers that I’d been hoping for but we were a select gathering!!

We all sat in our respective corners of the world, linked by Twitter & Facebook, sharing our feelings on those outfits, especially the younger Royals – somebody should really have taken them somewhere else to buy their outfits and hates, sorry girls you were wide of the mark in the fashion stakes!

And then we saw her. Catherine Middleton. She looked, in my opinion, absolutely amazing! I think William felt the same judging by my limited lip reading skills. As they left the Abbey as the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge I couldn’t help recall that my late father-in-law always referred to my late mother-in-law as Queenie – because she was his Queen! It got me thinking would William refer to Catherine as Duchess – a good old London term? I guess we’ll never know!

So Friday spent glued to the TV (apart from the two hours of champagne induced slumber during the afternoon!!) watching the wedding, the highlights, the news bulletins and looking on line for images. I was productive as well though, following Son 2’s request for garden cushions last week, I decided to convert nine squares that I’d already crocheted into a cushion cover – but I needed to make up the back. It’s still a WIP so you’ll have to wait a few days to see it!

Saturday was the last home game of the football season – I’m not sorry to see the end of this season and, probably against our better judgment, we have renewed our season tickets. Next year will be the last though if it’s anything like the previous three years – where have I heard that before!

Which brings me to Sunday. Sew day. John went out really early to geo cache so I had the morning to myself. i have to say I love time home alone to do ‘me’ things. I made a cake (wanted to test the new oven) but forgot to grease the pans (I used my new silicone pans and it just didn’t occur to me to grease them) so first attempt at getting them out meant that the tops cracked, I decided to leave them in the pans to cool down then turned the pans inside out and scraped the cake out with a spatula. Thank goodness for butter icing to stick it all back together – it tasted delicious though!

So back to sewing. I had a pattern I had downloaded and was eager to try for the first time. I knew just what I wanted to do and who I wanted to make it for. I can’t say it was easy but that was possibly because I decided to adapt it – note to self never adapt a pattern the first time you try to make it – and used iron on wadding instead of a sew in interface – it was too much I think and the zip didn’t sit as nicely as it would have otherwise. Still, never mind, lesson learnt and here it is!

I made it specifically for Janet, in her colours, in exchange for some plants that she had grown for me in her little ‘greenhouse’. We exchanged yesterday over coffee and scones – she has even blogged about it here!I think her photos are probably better than mine as well!!

So that just about sums up the weekend – when’s the next long weekend? Oh yes – next week for me, so if it’s not the same for you!!

Busy, busy, busy!!

What a busy few days, I hardly know where to begin!!

I’ll start with Friday, I think. I went off to Nicola’s for the day for more sewing practice – it seems that you can’t have too much practice!! I had prepared a couple of bits as I hinted at in my last post and I think I’m safe to reveal them now!

The pink one I made all by myself – it’s not quite the same as the purple one but I didn’t do too bad considering it was from memory and by almost deconstructing the one I made with her help a couple of months ago!

These have now been given as pressies to the friend that I call Julie and her lovely daughter, my goddaughter.

And then, after a quick trip to Quilters Haven (if it’s possible to have a quick trip, that is!) where we met up with a friend that Nicola had made through blogging (she can be found right here) and her friend (who can be found right here) and I bought just a little more fabric and a book – oh and we had a cup of tea – we returned to Nicola’s and I made this bag, which will probably go to my FDIL as she seemed quite attracted to it!

So after a long day sewing on Friday, I woke up on Saturday morning knowing that it would be another busy day. It was Julie’s birthday and a joint party was being held for her and her daughter in the evening. But I had nothing to wear , sure I’ve got dresses and shoes but absolutely nothing that I could wear on Saturday night. So, while I’m in the hairdressers, having had the magic worked on my head and during the next most important part the manicure, the idea was put in my head that I needed to buy a maxi dress and then I could wear flat shoes!

So suitably attired we all set off down to Colchester for a night out – the boys and FDIL came along as well! And what a party – great mix of music, the guests were of all ages and I have to say that I haven’t seen Julie looking so happy for ages!

Sadly no photos are suitable to publish exist of me from the evening but here are the birthday girls in full ‘row’ to ‘Ooops upside your head’ and no I didn’t join in as I would never have got up again!!

After a very late night for us we had a lazy morning yesterday, Son2 came for Sunday lunch and we settled into the garden for the afternoon – and then FDIL phoned and asked if we’d eaten. They had bought a turkey and when she went to put it in the oven it had gone off! Fortunately I had a lot of meat left over  so was able to feed them when Son1 finished work – they bought their own vegetables!!

And today, after a quick trip to Sainsbury’s I decided to have a lazy day, apart from making a cushion after Son2 asked yesterday if there were any cushions for the garden. I’ve been very lazy with this and just sewn some strips from a jelly roll together – my excuse is that I wanted to keep it simple!!

So that’s my weekend – just as well we only have to work three says this week – I’m exhausted!!