WOYWW 688

 OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN....

It's going to be a super speedy whizz through my desk today - after not seeing Lynne and hubby for three years, they're back for the second time in a month (for a family funeral) closely followed by my nephew and his tribe. I had to buy more bedding!!

Lynne brought me boxes of fabric from a friend who’d been in fashion design, all silk and crepe de chine, I shall be having a good sort through!

I may be some time, lol!

This is how the desk was a couple of days ago, I've used up all the FQs I was given.

Some finished, some partway through. 

I received a Wool Warehouse order from my birthday gift voucher (thanks Rhys!)

I love these colours, they're going to be a blanket for me to snuggle under for later in the year - it's Aran weight on 5mm hooks so should work up quite quickly!

And some nautical FQs might have fallen into my basket on eBay the other day...

These should go ok in the cafe down the harbour!

That's it I'm afraid, I probably won't be visiting desks until the weekend so take care and have a crafty good week!

WOYWW 687

 LET'S LIVE IT UP!

Well, I have had the loveliest week, full of friendship, music and thankfulness!

It was my birthday on Monday, I had some gorgeous cards from deskers, thank you!

My menfolk always do good birthdays and this was no different, flowers, craft vouchers from Doughty's Fabric and Wool Warehouse and the most amazing paper marbling kit from G:

I was thrilled to get this and can't wait to get stuck in!

Lynne gave me a beautiful Japanese embroidery kit with two Sashiko samplers:

Look at those gorgeous colours!

And just in case you were worried that I wasn't hydrated enough.....

Thanks Kim!!

Laura, the owner of the cafe where I stock my RNLI sewing, bought me some FQs when she was holiday:

Fun huh? They're already cut out - I don't hang around, lol!

On Saturday, my band competed at the National Eisteddod in Tregaron, it's always an exciting thing to be part of and this time was no different.

It's a thrill to be on the big pavilion stage, we played really well and came third. The one thing I love about Crwbin band though is that no matter what happens, whether we come first or last, it's still a fab team of which it's good to be a part. 

The celebrations are always fun!!

Have a great week everyone, keep crafting xxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 686

 WE'RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER...

What a great week we've had at LLJ Towers! My brother, sister-in-law and their Ukrainian hosted family came to stay for a few days and it was truly wonderful. We learned a lot about Ukraine and some useful words and they enjoyed the beaches, castles, table tennis and some Welsh phrases!

The weather was good enough for a beach and castle day, but last Sunday it was very wet. So I got out all my card crafting stuff and we had fun!

Jill, Natalie and Anastasia! We did watercolour, mixed media and collage - I wasn't allowed to see a couple of things so suspect they might be birthday cards for me next week xx

Natalie enjoyed herself cutting out papers for collage and Anastasia found the Stickles glue...

She has such a good eye and is a very accomplished artist. I may have to steal this idea!

David, age 10, drew me this fantastic version of the Welsh dragon for my birthday (another artist in the making for sure) and Natalie painted the daffodils with highlights of metallic gel pens. I did the mosaic and dragonflies - I think the only thing that wasn't brought out were the acrylic paints!!

I've made inroads into the yarn that Lynne brought for me as well:

Bright enough for you?! A good start to the next lot of 84 squares needed for a charity blanket, thanks Lynne, your yarn donation is fab xx

Hope you all have a good week - think of me and my band on Saturday, we're competing at the Eisteddfod. If you can get S4C, we're on stage from 11.25 ish onwards. I'll be hiding at the back as usual *grin*

xxxxxxx

WOYWW 685

 THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND!

    I haven't been coping well with the heat and it's been a few degrees cooler here than those in the South and East - I sincerely hope that everyone has managed to get through ok by whatever means. I'm hoping that the fall in temps for the rest of the week will help matters.

Before the crazy temps, I did do some crafting in the JanCave!

I'm sorting through odds and ends of fabric here to cut out pieces in order to make some more mastectomy drain bags.

It's good to use up the last bits!

The cotton twill tape for the handles is new though, it's very cheap on eBay and saves time! Attaching them with the box method was a pain in the derriere, so I worked out a way of attaching them when stitching the top of the bag.

Do one line of stitching, flip the handles up, do another line of stitching to fix them in. Then you fold the bag in half and do one side and bottom seam. Much much quicker!! There's a pile ready to be collected.

The weather was fab last week but not too warm which was perfect for Lynne and Brian coming to stay:

Yay, lovely pic of my gorgeous mate! We've known each other for nearly 40 years but hadn't met up for nearly three, so there was lots to catch up on. Lynne was a star and brought me all this yarn from her stash, all DK so perfect for crochet squares. Isn't it a lovely colourful mix?

The tide was perfect too, 8.9m at 8pm so lovely for mooching down the harbour when the heat of the day had gone:

We have various pics of us like this over the years - we're a little bit older and greyer but still mates for life xx

Have a great week everyone xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 684

 BREAK OUT THE FOOD AND THE DRINKS,

IT'S GONNA BE A PARTY...

I have  had such a great time this past week catching up with friends and family that I'd not seen for a couple of years - in fact it was such a great time that I didn't take any pics, just forgot and concentrated on enjoying the moment! I know my niece Clare reads my blog - it was amazing to see your beautiful little family and have a cwtch with my newest great nephew, you and Darren are fantastic parents! We also called in on Julia and she did let me get a word in occasionally *grin*, again no pics but a great time was had by all.

This is a desk from a couple of weeks back:

I was making some bunting for Clare's little boy and didn't want her to see it before we met up!

I enjoyed putting this together and used up the very last of the seaside fabric.

There may have been another fabric delivery this week, just a couple of metres of a fun doggy print...

Everything just got dumped on the desk.

I also cut into the sheep print to make some bags, there's black and white cotton twill tapes for some more mastectomy drain bags and the gauze bag contains yarn that Julia passed onto me.

Fun huh? I know the dog stuff will go but wasn't sure about the sheep so only got 1.5m, it's all an experiment!

Lynne (Lynnecrafts) and her hubby will be arriving later to stay for a couple of days, we've been friends for 39 years but haven't seen each other for a long time so it's going to be fab catching up! I'll see if I can remember to take a photo this time, lol!!

Have a great week xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 683

 I'M THINKING OF THE DAYS,

I WON'T FORGET A SINGLE DAY BELIEVE ME.

Thank you for all the well wishes and lovely comments last week, I was properly poorly but am much better now. 

Consequently very little crafting was done but I do have a couple of things to share.

I did a bit of scrap yarn crochet, using up the odds and ends left over from blanket squares, all while watching the Tour De France (which started in Denmark!)

It's like virtual travelling! I loved the Danish countryside and couldn't get over how like England it was.

I started to cut out some bunting for a present as well...

and started out some bags/cases with the Scrabble fabric:

They're going to look good with the grey handles. But when it came to the glasses cases, well, let's just say some of the letter placements were errm, a bit unfortunate?

I can't unsee it now and honestly don't think I can put them in the cafe - but if any of you would like them for a present, let me know, lol!!! Maybe the fabric designer was having a bad day...

The highlight of the week was yesterday when I attended a small ceremony for the unveiling of a monument to the local Campaigning groups SOS (Save Our Sands)  Back in the 60s, there was a land grab by the government to put a gunnery range in the area. Locals, headed up by my father Frank Williams, waged a huge campaign at some personal cost and they won! The first and only time ordinary people have beaten the Government in a Public Enquiry. I am hugely proud of this. 

Seven stones to represent the seven committees around the bay, the second pic shows surviving campaigners or family. The lady to the immediate left of the stone was in the Public Gallery at Westminster when the result of the Enquiry was announced, she had to rush to the phone box (this was late 60s) to ring my Dad and soon the whole community was celebrating.

So now the million visitors that visit the Country Park and Cefn Sidan beach will know the back story and it just goes to show that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things!

Have a great week and enjoy your crafting! xxxxx

WOYWW 682

 WORD UP.....

It's a swift one today, I haven't been at all well the past couple of days - I don't know how much visiting I'll be doing either. Maybe it'll happen at the weekend.

I had been doing some sewing over the weekend, here's some tutti frutti with green handles etc.

The new poppy has turned out rather well, better than I'd thought. I've used all the fabric up.

A new delivery from Doughty's, replacing the fox and Koi carp and trying something a bit different with the sheep and the 'Scrabble'. It'll be fun to see how they turn out as well!

Down in our little town, there was an unappealing alley down the side of a pub, the landlord paid out of his own pocket to have two murals painted by Jenks, a local street artist. It's great fun!

This features our lighthouse, the RNLI, Amelia Earhart's historic plane flight (which landed here in the 20s, the crew thought it was Ireland!) and you can just see the yellow car bottom right of frame which is the landlord's pride and joy!

There's another further down the lane:

With a view of the harbour looking over to Gower. It has really cheered up a tatty back lane, well done to Mal, the landlord of the Portobello, whose idea it was.

Have a good week, I'm hoping I'll be on the mend soon. xx