WOYWW 414

OH...I....DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE....

Another 7 days has just whipped past....if I tell you that whiskey, brass and dolphins were involved (not all necessarily at the same time!!) then you get some idea of how life is panning out for me at the moment :-D

Some sewing has been done as well, in amidst the randomness! I'd offered to make some tissue holders as part of the local Knit&Natter Group's fundraising, also some felt ornaments. I thought I'd make a couple as samples for the ladies to see what I was on about...

Finding some suitable fabrics wasn't a problem with my newly sorted stash :-D

I really must sort out those embroidery flosses next.....

The brass part of my week was closely followed by whiskey when we came 3rd out of 8 bands in a tough category in a national welsh band contest but there are no pics to share which is probably just as well!

But I can show you these - Monday was a gorgeous day here in Wales and Mr LLJ and I decided to have another road trip to Cardigan Bay. We went to Newquay, what a charming little town it is, gorgeous painted Georgian houses set in rows on a steep hillside leading down to a very picturesque harbour. Just like this:

You can see what a glorious day it was! Boat trips leave from here to go out and view the marvellous wildlife, cliffs of nesting seabirds:

Seals basking in the sunshine:

...and Bottlenose Dolphins (not the clearest of pics but they weren't close)

It was so exciting to see these wonderful creatures - Cardigan Bay is renowned for them, also Minke whales, basking sharks and leatherback turtles. who come to feed on these:

Obviously this photo was taken back on land but those pinky blobs in the sea are barrel jellyfish, just like the one I showed you a couple of weeks ago. There were hundreds of them floating around and getting washed up too.

Mr LLJ and I had a really wonderful day!

We are really enjoying rediscovering our beautiful part of the world :-)
Have a great week! xxx

WOYWW 413

POUR ANOTHER GIN, LOVE

AND GO EASY ON THE TONIC...

It's been another full week here...the decorators have been in doing some wallpapering (Mr LLJ and I are pretty good at most DIY but wallpapering is not one of our skills!) and we've done lots of walking as the weather has been so glorious.

But I have been back at the sewing machine too - yay!

I made some personalised bunting for the new grand-daughter of friends in band - it's been a while since I last cut out lots of triangles and I enjoyed doing it again. While the embellishments were out I had a bit of a tidy up as they hadn't survived the move all that well...

See Shaz, almost as you left them last year :-D

I'm a bit down on the button count however...any excuse to go craft shopping eh?! Lol.

I also had a massive sort out of my yarn stash and gave quite a lot of odds and sods to my mate Helen (she of the Knitted Boob fame) I do love a good sort, it's very cathartic.

Two pics to finish off with: this one was taken over Easter, it's me and Son No 1 on our beach...we found this huge bit of driftwood and tried to stand it up. Needless to say, it stayed vertical for all of 5 seconds but it was enough time to take a pic!

And the other was taken at a place in Llandeilo called the Ginhaus, where they had a gazillion different types of gin. This little scene caught my eye:

I thought of quite a few people when I saw this!! I won't name and shame but I'd be at the top of the list :-D

Enough randomness from me for this week...honestly, you lot have the patience of a saint!

WOYWW 412

IF I HAD A HAMMER, I'D HAMMER IN THE MORNING,

I'D HAMMER IN THE EVENING, ALL OVER THIS LAND.

There has been more crafting this week - woohoo! It made my brain hurt though because I was making a pattern from scratch and had to work out in what order things had to be done.

It all started with my younger son's birthday, you see - he turned 21 and one of his wish-list presents was a replica longsword! He does medieval sword fighting and wanted a resin weapon that doesn't hurt when you get hit with it (well, not as much anyway!). But it needed a cover as it's not really sensible to walk through a town with a sword on display these days.....

If you peer closely, you can see the grey resin blade lying on the stripey fabric with the cross guard, pommel and handle dismantled - they go in a pocket on the front. The fabric is a tough canvas so hopefully should stand up to the wear and tear of use!

Rhys had done a good turn for me - a flat pack bookcase had been delivered and he put it together:

It's a good life skill being able to assemble flat pack furniture eh?! He did a really good job.

I spent a very happy hour arranging some of my stash and bits and pieces :-D

We went on a road trip on Rhys' birthday - to Pembroke Castle which is a real gem. The weather, as you can see, was perfect!

I can't believe my boy is 21...where did the time go? We had a really wonderful couple of hours pottering around the castle and found these:

Dragon eggs in their own special nest (I took this for you Shaz!!) They were about 18" long and obviously will hatch out into little Welsh dragons :-) A fun thing to come across!

Have a wonderful week everyone - I might get some fabric scraps out and muddle through something else! Steady on....

xxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 411

HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH....

LOOK!! Don't rub your eyes in disbelief.....they are not deceiving you!

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is craft on LLJ's table.

I repeat, there is craft on LLJ's.....yeah, you get the picture.

I had a good riffle through my fat quarters box to find some fabrics for Lynda's doggy bandanna that she wants for Isla, her young dog. Even more amazingly, I found the cardboard template....

It may be battered but it's seen some action, I can tell you!

And it still works! Woohoo :-D I haven't forgotten how to do it either (always a relief)  I'll show the finished bandannas when Lynda's had them.

This is the yarn on my table ready to be put away:

A belated Mother's Day prezzy from Son No 1! He had great fun in the shop picking colours that he thought would appeal. He was right, I love them all and will have fun making something with them. The little pot is full of beads and pretty things - you could buy a pot and fill it with whatever you liked apparently. I knew his early years training in how to fill a Woolworth's Pick and Mix pot to maximise the sweetie quotient would stand him in good stead :-)  We had a lovely couple of days with him and DiL-to-be before they had to return for work...Son no 2 is still here so I can spoil him for a couple more weeks!

Talking about being spoilt, this arrived from my great friend Lynne - I had no idea it was coming and was completely bowled over by it. Lynne sent an explanation with it as well:

OMG, I absolutely love it! I can take things off to make up a brooch or whatever I want as all the elements have lobster claw findings. There is so much meaning to each item - I have to admit it made me cry. What a beautiful and unique way to sum up our long friendship. I know Lynne reads this blog so would like to thank her publicly for this - there will be deskers all around the world who'll admire this, not only for the contents but the reasons behind it.  I think she's onto something here, don't you?

I am a lucky girl.

Have a great week everyone and hopefully there's be a little more desk action  to share next week xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 410

YOU GOTTA GET RIGHT BACK TO WHERE YOU STARTED FROM....

Now don't faint but I have a desk to share!!! I KNOW - exciting eh?!

Admittedly there's no crafting on it...yet, but at least it's ready for action. I found the sewing machine foot pedal (in the first box I tried - woohoo!) and I sorted out the buttons, bits and bobs that had got all mixed up in the move. I even have a project to do now, so that may kick my a*%e into gear. It's a dog bandanna for the pooch of my lovely desking visitor who came for a cuppa yesterday:

Lynda B, who lives quite close to my new house - it was brilliant to catch up again!  I suspect we'll be meeting for quite a few cups of tea in the future :-D

Shaz Silverwolf - I took this for you! It's at the National Botanic Gardens (I meant to share it last week but forgot!)

I'd quite like him as a garden feature but couldn't fit him in my backpack.....shucks.....

Mr LLJ and I went for a road trip around the beautiful Welsh mountains last Saturday when the weather was stunning. By chance we came across a place where they feed red kites every day, so we called in. Mr LLJ took eleventy billion photos but I thought I'd share two:

Good huh?  There must have been 80+ kites, they gradually arrived about 30 mins before feeding time and started circling 5 mins before the bloke started chucking the meat...they're not stupid eh?!

And talking of Mr LLJ, we hired a skip in which to dump the 6 palm trees and copious bamboo canes that we cut down a couple of weeks ago. Foliage takes up such a lot of space so in he went:

and performed a stamping dance! It worked though and we got loads more in.

Gawd knows what the neighbours must think........:-D

We've got both boys and DiL-to-be coming to stay for a few days today, I can't wait to see them and give them all a massive hug.

Have a wonderful Easter everyone, see you next week xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 409

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY....

Brace yourselves...craft is featured this week. Good huh? Pity it's not mine :-D  All will be revealed in a minute.

First things first - I had a wonderful trip back to Wiltshire last week. Julia and I simply took up where we left off our conversation. We kept looking at our watches wondering just how another couple of hours had zipped past without us noticing. We went to Salisbury for a little light retail therapy...here we are outside Fabricland!

I love this pic!  I bought a few things like zips, fusible fleece and thread, nothing earth shattering but useful nevertheless! Our time went too quickly - I'm already looking forward to the return visit.  

We are entertaining our friend Kate, who is over from New Zealand. We went to the National Botanic Gardens of Wales...I wasn't expecting this....

It was like an alien had landed in the depths of the Carmarthenshire landscape!  This held the desert and temperate plants, there was a double walled garden, wonderful water features, a folly and a butterfly house. Incidentally, it may amuse you to learn that the Welsh for butterfly is Pilipala!

There were exhibits of sculpture dotted around the grounds as well. Seven massive tree stumps were arranged on the ground - they were fallen trees from the Gabon, representing the deforestation there and have been sited in Trafalgar Square, Oxford University, the Earth Summit at Copenhagen before coming to their final resting place here.  They were enormous and very poignant..

There was also a gallery featuring a textiles exhibition - here comes someone else's crafting!!

This piece was against a window and was made from layers of voile with lace and machine embroidery..gorgeous.

This water feature is in the gardens and the embroidery caught it just right..the fountain sprays were made of silvery beads.

I loved this blue felt applique work...I could live with this on my wall...

The Botanical Stitchers had created panels featuring many of the plants found in the gardens....

...and they, together with the Carmarthenshire Embroiderers Guild, made this very large piece (6 x 8 foot) about the plants of South Africa - the detail was quite stunning. 

We really enjoyed our visit there and intend to join for a year as it'll be a constantly changing environment - I can't wait to see the herbaceous borders in full glory.

Life continues to be rather busy, let's see if I manage to make anything this week, lol!

WOYWW 408

ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING REMIND ME OF YOU...

I did apologise a couple of weeks back for my random pics and lack of crafting, which is when I didn't post. Many of the folk who commented that week said they didn't care and quite enjoyed seeing what nonsense appears in this space.

So...you have been warned. This is what the past seven days has contained:

The removal of several very overgrown palm trees from our garden. Mr LLJ and my brother Steve did an amazing job and were very careful not to accidentally demolish next door's fence!

My niece (Steve's daughter) wanted some driftwood to make interesting sculptures for her wedding later this year...we got many curly pieces but this was the piece de resistance! What would YOU do with it?

She also wanted pebbles so these are a random selection!

Mother's Day saw me receive some gorgeous flowers off my boys...I love the bright Bollywood colours :-D

I did a LOT of walking - 35 miles in a week :-)  The beach is just too good to ignore, especially during the gorgeous weather we had over the weekend. The beaches in the area face straight onto the Gulf Stream coming across the Atlantic. it's always interesting to see what gets carried ashore on the tide. Today's surprise was:

A big jellyfish - 12" across, 24" long. It looks so alien, don't you think?

I hope you've enjoyed a taster of my life but honestly, I really do think I have to not post while I'm not crafting. It's not really in the spirit of WOYWW is it?  

Hope you all have fun making something while my mojo is absent!! xxx