WOYWW 894

 SUMMERTIME BLUES....

Hi everyone, hope you've had a good week - lovely to see you all on the desks again. What have you been getting up to? I'm still picking and choosing my crafting according to what the temperatures are like, The JanCave gets pretty toasty in the afternoons so it's a no go zone!

I've been cutting out and ironing ready for some bags, decided to do the two lots of fishy fabrics:

Bags sides, pockets and straps - I used up two lots of blue spotty so that was pleasing.

I found a watercolour artist Kaye Parmenter on YouTube and had a splashy time:

Two different colourways, they were drying so quickly they weren't as abstract as the original....

So I did my own thing! The green one isn't finished yet, I'll get round to it sometime.

G and I swapped our car recently (for another electric Kia) and we decided to go on a road trip yesterday to put it through its paces. We went over the Western Black Mountains, part of the Brecon Beacons National Park, and my goodness, it was a very parched view of Carmarthenshire from the top...

It's usually lush and verdant greeny green!  We stopped for a quick break at Aberglasney, that was showing signs of wear and tear too:

There was more colour close up and humongous amounts of butterflies, we even spotted a Red Admiral, you don't often see them. 

The veg garden was colour coordinated! This quadrant was yellow and purple, others were red, orange and blues. It was really fun, even the chard stalks are yellow to tie in with the colour scheme.

We've been walking in the evenings when it's cooler and the main point of interest for the residents of our town has been this:

The harbour had got very silted up recently so it's being dug out - if those guys are entering the Great Sandcastle Contest 2026 then they're cheating lol!!

Hope you're keeping well and happy, have a great week and may your crafting be trouble free xxxxx

WOYWW 893

 RED AND YELLOW AND PINK AND GREEN...

Hi everyone, welcome to another week of desky snooping! I hope you're all keeping well and are coping with the high temperatures. I do really feel for folk who have to work outdoors, it must have been so hard, I've been keeping indoors a lot of the time.  Fingers crossed for a drop in temps this weekend!

The JanCave is quite nice in the early mornings so that's when I've been doing most of my sewing:

I found some squares I'd forgotten about and put them together with some pink and grey spotty from my stash...

It's backed with pale pink cotton and I'm just attaching the grey border here. I forgot to take a pic of the completed thing, doh!

A friend has a love affair with leopardskin (she's young and not at all like Bet Lynch!!) and asked if I'd do her a peg bag. I had to order some more fabric and oops, others just fell into my basket as well:

These were on sale, I thought they were a bit different!

The pegbag came out quite well, not too tarty! I ordered two metres and am using the rest up for my usual folding bags etc etc.

I did a craft stall yesterday after being invited by the RNLI Water Safety team who were giving a talk to a local group/captive audience! I'd have been pleased to make £50 but they were a generous bunch and £238 was raised! And I've got commissions for that leopardskin fabric above - it was a nice afternoon if very hot, the shower when I got home was marvellous!

I've also been commissioned to do wedding bunting and favours for the daughter of an old friend - it's not going to be a quiet affair and these are their mood board colour choices:

I love it! I'm researching fabrics for the bunting and have found mini disco balls to attach to the pennants, it's going to be so much fun! The wedding isn't until next year so I'll wait until choices have been finalised and then get cracking - it's certainly going to be different!

Have a great week everyone, keep cool and enjoy your crafting xxxxxxx

WOYWW 892

 MIND IF I SAY YOU'RE CUTE?

Hi there, hope you're all doing ok today - looks like we're ramping up for another week of heat so you'll find me mostly sitting in a cold tub lol!

It's been a busy old week. socially and crafting wise:

I've been quilting the squares of both projects, just simple stitch in the ditch - I've put the border on this one as well:

..and have cut the navy border for the second so this one should be completed by tomorrow. I've got a stall next Monday at a local group and am thinking about doing one this Saturday morning but we'll see...the last RNLI collecting box from the Harbour Lights Tearoom yielded £405 so that's taken me over the £15k mark, woohoo!!

My prickle of hedgehogs is growing! They're so easy and quick to do, very pleasing indeed, I've got three more balls of tinsel yarn to work through so that should be enough to be going on with for the moment.

I have some friends with significant birthdays and saw this fun card tutorial on Youtube, just for the basic chick design:

So the paints came out again and I did a few pinky/lilac splodges....

...and then gussied them up a bit, they're all slightly different!

I really had fun doing these, minimum input, max effect, just my sort of crafting lol!!

Have a great week and hope the heat doesn't get you down too much xxxxxxx

WOYWW 891

 IT'S HIP TO BE SQUARE...

Hi everyone, the first of July is here and where has the year gone, that's what I'd like to know! Whoosh, that's where... It's still good to meet up on a Wednesday and see how all my friends are doing, the week would seem wrong without it lol!

I've had square eyes this week (all doing ok after the op and the use of soothing drops has really helped my dry eye in all the heat/dust/pollen etc etc) because of this:

I was told that I couldn't bend over until the four weeks were over so the usual method of laying out the quilt squares wasn't going to happen. So I put them in a pile and thought I'd do random. Hah, like THAT was going to happen.... As each square was put next to the row I'd do it one way first:

...and then invert it (the square on the right is the one in question)

...and see which way I liked it best. So it was nearly random but not quite!! *grin*  Anyway it was a quick method of sewing them up and I put them together with the backing on my dining table for my most disliked part of the process, the pinning together of all the layers...like pulling teeth...

I had sorted out the squares into a cooler group..

..and a brighter one. There are places where I could have changed things up but hey, that's life!

As the weather's been cooler, I've continued expanding my prickle of hedgehogs:

I've run out of black for the features so am waiting for a parcel to arrive today. These are quite sparkly and fun but I still prefer the browny coloured ones. Worth an experiment for the £2 it cost for the yarn!

Hope you have a great week and enjoy your crafting xxxx

WOYWW 890

 MAN IT'S A HOT ONE....

Wow, there's not much we can say about these temperatures is it? Absolute madness, I'm not enjoying it at all and we have a bit of sea breeze here to take the temps down a couple of degrees or two - it must be sweltering to the south and east. I hope you're managing to cope as best you can.

Crafting is continuing but in fits and starts at the beginning and end of the day as the JanCave is on the warm side of the house. I'm working my way through the strips...

I have the ironing board set up in the guest bedroom which is a bit cooler...

They are going down even if it doesn't look like it!

I'm stacking them up in piles of ten...it's pretty mindless sewing tbh but just what is comfortable at the moment.

Unlike knitting, it's just too hot to be handling yarn. I made these over the weekend. While I like the silver ones, the Foxy coloured yarn is definitely my favourite!

I thought I'd drag my paints out and look for some YouTube tutorials:

This is as far as I've got lol! I will have a go this afternoon when it's going to be too hot to do anything at all.

Thanks for all the lovely messages about my eye op, I had to visit the optician yesterday as I had irritation in my left eye. She wasn't too concerned and gave me soothing drops to use in between the steroid ones, G is doing sterling work putting them in for me and they have helped. The high temps aren't helping as my eyes are drying out so I'm ultra careful about going out, just can't risk anything.

Hope you are get through the next couple of days ok, I'm off for an ice bath...... xxxxxxxx

WOYWW 889

 I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW.....

Sorry, couldn't resist that title today! I'm doing really well after the cataract surgery last Thursday, in fact I have to keep touching wood as I can't quite believe that it's worked so quickly and well. I'm typing this on the PC without any reading glasses, everything is sharp whereas before it was all one big blur. The team at the hospital were wonderful and I was seeing ok after a few hours. I've been very very careful about following the after care rules and had a treat yesterday of going to my hairdresser for a wash and quick blow dry...all with the aid of my new favourite bit of kit:

My 3M safety glasses, £2.99 off Amazon - they have been invaluable for keeping my eyes protected. My friend reckons I need to bling them up with a bit of diamante lol!

As it's been very windy I've not been out much but I have felt like crafting so I have been in the JanCave:

My plan is to work my way through all the strips and make loads of quilt squares. I have everything in reach so I don't have to bend over (a big no no) - it's mindless crafting really but that, together with listening to audio books, is helping me a lot. I'm not very good at sitting still.....

I do ten blocks at a time and just chain piece them through the machine...

And then trim them up which is the magic process as far as I'm concerned!

I have been knitting too, I found this pattern for a chocolate Orange cover and gave it a go:

Cute huh?! It's King Cole tinsel yarn which has the odd fleck of sparkly in it and it's so easy to make, all in one piece. The pattern has two ears but I prefer it without. I think this might be popular, I'm trying it in a white and silver too.

Hope you've had a great week, thanks to everyone who has messaged wishing me well and especially Twiglet and Wipso for the beautiful flowers, they're gorgeous xxxxx

Have a good week!

WOYWW 888

 WATCH THE FLOWERS GROW...

Happy 888th WOYWW everyone, a pleasing number indeed - it's brilliant to think that this weekly dose of desky shenanigans has been going for so long - may it continue for many more!

I've been keeping myself busy this week ticking off the days to my cataract op (which is tomorrow)  We've been out for lots of walks, visiting some lovely places and the JanCave has seen some action as well.

I cut up all the roses fabric and paired it with a lovely warm grey - I really like this combo a lot! I did the check fabric too but forgot to take any pics...doh...

The crochet waves blanket is slowly growing:

This is a slightly smaller one (large baby blanket size) so it's not too hot on the lap when I'm doing a few rows.

But mostly we've been getting out and about in this perfect (for me!) weather.

The lake in the nearby country park is full of water birds and water lilies...

Beautiful! We also returned to Aberglasney as we're making good use out of our membership:

It was a riot of pinks, purples, yellow and white - the nepeta (bottom right) was crawling with bees and pollinators, you couldn't hear yourself think cos of all the buzzing!

It's a garden that isn't overly manicured, I rather like the blowsy borders spilling over.

There were a lot of peony varieties too, this was my fav and I took a pic for Lynne and Julia who love them xx

I love these, very architectural!

We stopped at the cafe for some lunch and sat outdoors under a parasol. When I looked up I couldn't stop laughing...

Lololol!! I know the view was just as good the other way!

I'll try and visit/comment today but may not get round everyone. Hope to see you all next week....in sharper focus, hooray!  Love and hugs from Lunch Lady Jan xxxxx