The non-chihuahua......

We ran away from the housework and chores yesterday.

It was a gorgeous day so we decided to visit Hinton Ampner - a National Trust property not far from here.

The house was gutted by fire in 1960 and subsequently renovated by it's owner. Few of the rooms are open to view but those that are are full of beautiful and very ornate furnishings, ornaments and pictures.

The gardens are stunning and a real tribute to the last owner who made it his life's work to relandscape them.

There's also a very lovely little church within the grounds, with some beautiful stained glass windows.


Moogsdad is rather partial to a bit of topiary so this was right up his street.


The roses were in full bloom and the scent from them was heavenly.


We will be going there again. It will be a lovely place to take a picnic in the summer holidays according to Monster and Minx :)

Onto something crafty then.

More amigurumi.

A very cute chihuahua pattern from here. I couldn't resist him with his little chihuahua nose and his cute little bandana.

It was lovely to crochet.

However, things went awry in the making up and he made a bit of an ass of himself.

Not a chihuahua as it turns out.

No - most definately not.

Baby donkey it is then!!!!




I'm not quite sure what went wrong but once his ears and eyes were on and his head was attached I felt that he still wouldn't be a chihuahua even if I gave him a doggy mouth!

A more donkey-like visage was thus created.

Still, he does make a cute little ass :)

xxxxx

A Heart Hug :)

Apart from an 'accidental' fabric purchase and an 'oops just clicked the add to my cart button' book purchase (neither of which arrived!) I was not expecting anything in the post today.

Therefore, this came as a lovely surprise!



Inside were some gorgeous goodies from my lovely bloggy friend Julie.

A great card featuring one of her husband's photos - isn't that a fab picture?

Julie had written me a very lovely message inside and I have to say I got a tear in my eye at her beautiful words of friendship.

Julie sent me a 'Heart Hug' and I absolutely love it. My photo does not do it justice as the colours and textures really sing - beautiful! I will be framing this :)

As I said to Julie when I emailed her just now, one of the reasons I love crafty bloggers so much is that they are such genuinely kind and thoughtful people - something that seems at times to be sadly lacking in 'real life'!

Thank you so much Julie! Your beautiful gesture of friendship really did make my day :)

As I've been working today I have not been up to crafty stuff.

I did do a little something last night though.....


This is the large Matryoshka doll from here. She turned out middle sized as the wool I used was finer than that stated on the pattern. She may end up without her two smaller friends as I'm not sure I could crochet anything so teeny!

The children have now finished school for the half-term holiday. They have the next 11 days off. Minx is already planning some crafty projects with her Mum!

Her teacher's birthday is on 2nd June and Minx (who adores her teacher!) has designed a stitchery, which she has already started. Apparently I am required to turn it into a cushion at some point!!!


As the children are now on holiday and so am I - about time too! I've had to work for five whole weeks y'know!! - I have decided to take a blog break. I want to spend time with them and just chill out.

I plan to be back in a week or so refreshed and full of crafty inspiration.

Have fun - but not too much or I'll feel left out!!!



If only - I never get left alone to find out just how long I can sleep for any more!


Hugs to all you lovely bloggers xxxxxxxx

Huh - part timers.....

My new job has been going really well and I'm really enjoying it. I was finding, however, that I was doing much more than the 22.5 hours a week that I'm paid for - one of the penalties of working from home. That's not so bad in itself but I felt that home life and maybe more importantly crafty time was suffering!

I realised last week that I had an option.

When I took the job we agreed that I'd start off by working 4.5 hours every day. In reality this soon became 6+ a day. We also agreed that this was open to review once my initial training was over.

Today I took the bull by the horns and asked if I could change my working week.

So, from now on I'll be working four days instead of five and having a whole day off during the week - and it's all mine!!!!! My poor neglected sewing machine may see the light of day once more!

Although it's not a drastic change it will make such a difference to how I feel about going back to work :)


The naughty Sausage Monster was full of cold this weekend, with a very sore little nose :( To make him feel a bit better I sat and crocheted him a friend while he sat and sniffed.

This is a great free pattern from here. His feet were sort of cobbled together as I lost my way with the pattern - he still stands unaided though!

Sausage did give him a name but I can't for the life of me remember what it is!


I've also joined in with The Toadstool Swap at Lucykate Crafts which I'm really looking forward to. I need a little handsewing project to do as we're going camping very soon and I need something crafty to keep me sane while we're sheltering from the rain!!

Big hi to my swap partner Dyan - all the way from Jamaica :)


I'm off now for a bit of a lurk and then it's beddy byes for me.....



xxxxx

A new obsession...

I ordered myself a new book a week or two back and it arrived today :

I've been wanting to try amigurumi crochet for ages now.

I love these little guys :)

Lucy has been doing some too after a real life tutorial from Clare recently.

Lucy sent me a link to this great etsy shop - where I purchased a couple of patterns for a baby seal and some gorgeous Matryoshka dolls.

Last night the boys went to watch some old timers play football and once Minx was in bed I got cracking.

By the time the boys got back , Sammy the Seal was ready to meet them. Minx found him waiting next to her bed this morning :)

Lucy has been nagging constantly asking for a photo of him - so here he is...

Wait a minute.....someone's lurking.....

....trying to get into the picture.......

.......shamelessly trying to hog the limelight.....

.....trying out the cute baby seal pose......

Awww - quite a good attempt at cute Ruby :)

(If you fancy having a go at amigurumi there are loads of links to free patterns here)

In other crafty news I've needlefelted another tortoise (as you do!!).

This little guy is for my sister-in-law's birthday....his friend from a few posts ago accidentally jumped into a parcel that got sent to the Locket woman!

.....oh maaaaan - here she goes again!

What the......


Ok.... I give in.....hello Ruby.....

......euwwww Ruby, you manky monkee, where on Earth has your eye been? What is that?

Don't worry folks. Further investigation revealed it is in fact some chocolate she was saving for later!

Here's a little something for the weekend:

Thanks to my friend Helen for sending me a load of these in an email today - lots of blog fodder!!

I have a meeting at work on Monday, after which I hope to have some good news about a little change that could give me more time for crafting....and blogging of course!

Got a rather nice crisp white chilling in the emergency wine chiller freezer to celebrate the fact that it's Friday :)

Happy hooking!

xxxxxx