WOYWW 516

I'VE STILL GOT THE BLUES FOR YOU....

Hello everyone, hope you had a great Easter weekend - the weather was quite unbelievable! 

I haven't been in the JanCave much but pottered for half an hour here and there:

I thought I'd use all those strips I cut out a couple of weeks ago and do some patchwork - all cool blues together, it looks quite nautical!

I've made about 12 blocks of four strips and am unsure what they're going to be used for, a quilt perhaps or some cushion covers? Inspiration has yet to strike!

I've been doing a fair bit of gardening - it's not looking too bad considering the garden is less than 10 months old:
Quite a bit of colour, the perennial wallflowers in the background are a magnet for bees and other pollinators - I don't have any F1 hybrid plants if I can help it, as they're sterile and our bees need all the help they can get! 

The tides have been exceptionally high this week, the maximum being 9.4 metres and they've been evening tides too so the harbour and beaches have been really busy.
Not that you can see the crowds in this pic! Unfortunately, the RNLI have been out about 9 times in three days to people getting cut off on the outer beaches and sand banks. The tide comes in so quickly and visitors are unaware, even though there's loads of signs warning about the dangers.  The evenings have been just gorgeous though and we enjoyed strolling around.

We took Rhys out for breakfast on Sat morning (an early birthday celebration) and we went to the Ginhaus. I had cockles and laverbread (a Welsh delicacy made from seaweed, it looks like a cowpat but is delicious!!). This was by our table and made us laugh:


Jam made FOR the Ginhaus and not featuring gin in it (we think) but you never know!!

Have a great crafty week! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 515

EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES...

Another whizzy week has whizzed by and here we are again on Whizzday, sharing our desks and general shenanigans!

There hasn't been much crafting this week:
The desk is bare apart from the newly cleared out/sorted scraps basket and some sunglasses cases that are ready to go down to the cafe.

Bit boring isn't it?!

I cut this Cath Kidston fabric incredibly carefully so as to maximise the output - the two cases on the right have linen backs as there was only enough left for two fronts. It seems to work ok colourwise.

And the other goings on having been in the garden, tidying up and getting some seeds sown. As I don't have a greenhouse here, the dining room table has been commandeered.

G and I were taken to Cardiff by friends at the weekend - the RHS Show was on by the castle. It was a lovely, if chilly day - there was lots to see as usual, here are a few things that caught our eye:

We were welcomed by Bill and Ben, the Flowerpot men at the entrance..

Then by these lovely flower people later on!

There were no show gardens but lots of flowers and plants on display...I fell in love with these tulips...

...and peonies.....

..and alliums with busy bees....

Bonsai trees fascinate me - this acer was perfect and about 40cms tall....

..and this specimen was 144 years old! I can't even keep a house plant going for 6 months....

The show was lovely but G and I escaped and strolled into town for some lunch and a mooch:

Cardiff has some really lovely old arcades - this is the Castle Arcade and reminds me of a Tudor street - or being inside a ship.

G took an arty farty shot of the lamps reflected in the arched mirror - he's got a photography competition on the theme of Repetition and can't decide between the above pic 

or this:


It was a lovely day all round!  Hopefully I'll have a bit more crafting to share next week but as it's Easter, Rhys' birthday and my first shift in the new RNLI shop, I don't know how much will get done!!

Hope you have a lovely Easter weekend in the promised glorious weather xxxxxxxx


WOYWW 514

YOU GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS...

It's been a week full of returning sons and friends, whizzing around, gardening and general shenanigans!

After a rather random conversation with a banding friend about her favourite animal (giraffe), I thought I'd make her a specs case and found this fabric on ebay:

Fun huh? It's made a really good case with a black spotty lining.

I also got this Cath Kidston fabric - blooming pricey though, I won't be doing that again...
I'm sure it'll sell well down at the Harbour Cafe.

The main event this week has been Julia coming to stay - hooray!! We've had a lovely time catching up with each other's news. I took her to Narbeth, a small town in Pembrokeshire which has reinvented itself over the past few years and now features lovely shops and a very nice Spanish deli/cafe, which is where we hooked up with Ali Wade for lunch and a chat.  I forgot to take any pics, so rest assured we had a lovely meal and a mooch around a couple of very chichi shops!  I did take this earlier on though:

Some people are just too clever for their own good! The best knitted cakes I've seen yet.

The WI Craft Club was scheduled at my place yesterday - needle felting was this month's try-out and of course Julia joined in too!

All that stabbing is strangely therapeutic! 

I like this pic a lot - my besties from farthest back (Helen on right has known me since we were 11), Julia needs no explanation (9 years of friendship) and Mary (who has become a firm friend since we met at WI)

Helen really enjoyed needle felting (just don't mention beading in her presence...long story!) and was making a sheep which sort of morphed into a dog!

She's yet to felt the legs, a WiP indeed!

Julia went for bright and bold colours and was embellishing her brooch.

This photo is on its side! I'm in the middle of making a brooch too.

Evelyn is an accomplished and knowledgeable gardener, who is still running her own veg allotment in her 80s - she made an apple that looked very realistic.

And Mary made this bird - what a character!! I found a bit of kindling out of the box which she used as a base. I love it!!

But I shall leave you with this pic - all I'll say is that Helen made them to go on her sheep/dog and they never got used. I wonder why......

Hmmmmm.......... ;-)

We had a grand time!  It's a busy week ahead with training on the electronic tills in the new RNLI shop amongst other things pencilled in the diary. Dunno how much crafting is going to get done. Ah well......

Have a great week everyone!


WOYWW 513


GONNA USE IT UP, GONNA WEAR IT OUT....

I liked Julia's new terminology for Wednesdays - it really has been a blur leading up to another Whizzday this week!  

I'd supplied a few more items to sell in the Cafe and when I got back, was thinking about what to do next. And I couldn't see the woods for the trees.... or should that be fabric for the scraps?! And it annoyed me...so everything was tipped out of my scraps box and rather than simply folding it all and putting it back in, I sat and cut out what shapes I could for future use.


I've made a start here and have amassed various piles of outers/inners for specs cases, little purses and strips for a quilt. The scraps are going into a big paper carrier bag that will go into recycling.

It's very pleasing to see what shape can be cut out of different sized scraps! I've got through nearly the whole lot now....

... and these strips are building up nicely for when I do a very basic quilt - you know me and quilting, it's a love-hate relationship!

In other news, I played in the National Botanic Gardens of Wales with the Llanelli Community Wind Band on Mothers Day:
Not the best pic (G didn't take it!) but we had a good time playing, the gardens were incredibly busy and I enjoyed all the little birds whizzing past as we were playing!

But the most exciting thing this week has been the arrival of this:

My new table tennis table! We actually painted the walls of the garage and sealed the floor as well as having a clear out. So there's lots of space for a game of ping pong now! My WI buddies were over on Monday and we had a lot of fun. It gets you out of puff if you play properly, all good exercise when you're trying to lose weight :-)

I've got four bats and lots of ping pong balls if you fancy a game - just give me the heads-up that you're on your way, lol!!

Have a good week xxxx

WOYWW 769

 WE'LL MEET AGAIN.... I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while - please don't worry, all is ok! - think I just need a...