Monday 26 February 2018

Making me Smile ...

Hi there everyone

Well, it’s Monday and Martin is working this week, so I am back flying solo for the next seven days ... hopefully I will catch up on lots of boring householdy stuff ... I wouldn’t bet my life on it though, after all I am very easily distracted πŸ˜‰

I carried on jotting things down in my ‘gratitude journal’ last week and its so nice looking back at the end of the week and seeing just how much there is in just seven days to be grateful for.

So here goes with the things that made me smile last week ..


Getting my craft on ...
I love all kinds of crafting and since I finished work back in 2014 I have really enjoyed making all kinds of stuff.

It got to the point where I was making too much to be able to use all my makes as gifts for friends and family ... so in 2015 I set up my Hand Made at Number 27 Facebook page and started making things to sell, which was pretty scary and exciting all at the same time.

I’m not looking to make a fortune, just really hoping that I can sell enough bits and pieces to be able to cover the cost of my materials. It goes in fits and starts, there are times when it is really busy, mainly in the run up to Christmas, and then times when it is really quiet, sometimes totally by design, like last summer when we were having a lot of house and garden work done and I was really short on time for anything other than keeping straight.

Since Christmas, in my lethargic and lacklustre state, I’ve not really done much crafting but last week I really seem to have been struck down with the crafting bug.

I’ve been making a few different bits and pieces, some for actual customer orders and some for craft fairs that we are planning on attending through the summer.

Over the last week I have finished the 2nd of a crocheted sloth family that I have been asked to make, just two more to go ...
I have also had a play at appliquΓ©, something I have wanted to have a go at for a while. Inspired by something I saw on Tales from a Happy House, I ordered some pre-made bags, scoured Pinterest
for ideas and got cracking.

With the wonder of Bondaweb, which is absolutely brilliant stuff, I have decorated a batch of small bags which I am chuffed to bits with. Whilst I haven’t sold any as yet, I’ve had lots of comments on my Facebook page and they will be a fabulous bright and colourful addition to the craft stall in the Summer.
I have a few more ready for stitching ...
... and have also made a start on some larger ones ...I’ve also been busy with button art heart frames, one ordered as a christening present and the rest ready as craft stall stock. I just love turning a pile of bits and pieces like this ...
... into something really pretty like this ...
We also had a trip to Ikea this week and they sell fabric ... Who knew? And it is gorgeous, completely different to anything else I have in my stash. Anyway, I couldn’t resist this lovely lot and am hoping to be able to have a go at some matching tote bags, purses and make up bags, so I see a few busy weeks coming up.
As if that wasn’t enough I have a crochet blanket on the go, which I started last Summer. It’s for the garden, for snuggling under at the end of BBQ evenings. whether or not it will be ready for this summer I don’t know, there is still a long old way to go.


Food ... again ...
We are definitely not really doing that well on the Slimming World front at the moment, we both just love our food too much.

We are normally pretty good with our main meals, cooking from scratch, the SW way, but we are useless when we go out, which seems to happen fairly often ... neither of us feel like we’ve really been out unless we’ve stopped in a cafe for a treat.

We are rubbish for eating naughty stuff in between meals too, we seriously need to get back in the groove ...

Last week we had a fab roast dinner, which is always a treat and, if you disregard the Yorkies it was not too naughty.
We managed to use the leftover roast chicken for a new chicken mole recipe, which will definitely be added to the favourites list.

While we were at Ikea we couldn’t resist the meatballs, or the Daim cake ...
We also bought some Ryevita pizza bases, I know, random ...
Anyway, we’ve tried them and they were pretty good. We had them with duck, spring onion, cucumber and hoi sin sauce ...

We just need to work out if they are really any better for us than our normal pizza base recipe.

As if that wasn’t enough ... we were still at it on Sunday, with a lovely breakfast meet up with good friends at a place we haven’t tried before, the strawberry cabin, just up the road. It was just lovely. Toasty warm and cosy, chilled out, a real good catch up and breakfast went down very nicely too. Good byes were said with reminders of our next catch up for afternoon tea in a couple of weeks time ... we really are useless.

Hygge and getting Hyggley
So, I can hear some of you asking ... what on Earth is Hygge? Well ... it's a Danish thing and can be a difficult one to define but ...
As a complete aside, the image above is my first attempt at using Quotescover.com, a site that allows you to select one of your own photos and combine with a quote. You can really play around with it and I have saved the site to my favourites already.

Now I can’t quite recall when I first started reading about Hygge but recently I’ve discovered another new blog "How to Hygge the British Way" and I’ve been trawling through the back posts finding more out about it.
The more I read the more it resonates with me as it really fits with the way that I like to live my life. Martin ... not so much, he thinks anything like this is just a bit of a fad.

When I’m at home I always want to feel safe, secure, chilled and snuggly and there are lots of touches around that really give me that feeling ... candles, soft fabrics, fairy lights, cushions and throws and cosy corners where I love to sit with a book or a magazine or my crochet and just generally enjoy ... well, just being ...
Oh, and cake fits in really well with a hygge lifestyle too.

Booking holidays
Whilst martin and I are now both lucky enough to have a life that we love enough not to need holidays for escape purposes, we do both love exploring this country we are lucky enough to call home.

If you have been following my blog for a while you will know that we love to get away for a cottage holiday, preferably in the middle of nowhere, either by the sea or in the depths of the countryside, as often as we can and we love exploring new places.

This year we have a week right at the top of the Lake District already planned and another week just South of Whitby, not far from the very lovely Robin Hoods Bay.

Well, we both love the North Cornwall coast and haven’t holidayed there since we last camped about 10 years ago.

We are both now a bit too creaky for camping and we have been looking for ages for a cottage that we like that is in a good spot.

This week we’ve finally managed to find one in Widemouth Bay, so we are really looking forward to getting back down to Bude, Crackington Haven, Boscastle, Tintagel, Port Isaac and Padstow. The last time we went was pre Blog so I am sure there will be plenty of posts to share. It will be a good excuse to take all of the same photos and visit the same places again.

I was going to try and keep my list of things that made me smile last week to four but I’m just going to drop this one here to finish off for this week ...

Brown paper packages tied up with string...


So that’s it for this week, I’m hoping this might become a regular feature on the blog, maybe not every week, but it is a good way of just capturing the everyday ordinary stuff that just happens day in day out.

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I’ve got a fab chicken soup recipe for you for later this week and, following on from my Steephill Cove post at the weekend I am hoping to bring you the delights of Ventnor Botanical Gardens on Saturday. We also managed to get out into the garden for a couple of hours over the weekend, so there is still plenty to come.

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It’s been lovely over the last couple of weeks finding out how many of you out there are following my ramblings, from as far away as the USA. Thank you so much for reading and for commenting, either on here or on my Facebook links, it really means a lot 😁😁😁

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2 comments:

  1. I like your blog style, your crafts.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Elena and for being a regular follower. I am enjoying this new style of writing, it feels a bit more personal. I certainly seem to be spending a lot of time crafting at the re isn’t much housework getting done though πŸ˜ƒ

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