Here comes the sun...

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.

In the past month or so, Beau and I have been to Amsterdam, I've traveled for a week to Brussels with work and we've got a date to talk little acorns with the professionals. Wish us luck. Of course I'm needing to lose weight before the appointment, and I've been relatively successful, with the exception of the half of easter egg I've just scoffed!

Amsterdam was beautiful and just the pick me up I needed. I didn't realise I'd been in a fog since we had been stuck in dark and dreary winter with not even the joy of snow to get excited about. The sun is just the best anti-depressant for me.

Crochet is going marvelously. I follow the lovely Coco Rose Diaries and she had completed the most gorgeous shawl. I am now in the process of copying it. The rows and rows of grey were soul destroying but now I'm on colour rows it's nothing but joy. I can't wait to finish this part and then get on to the lace rows. I frankly can't wait to finish it and then get to wear it. It might be a little warm for summer as it's aran weight (I had some gorgeous natural blue faced Leicester that I wanted a special project for), but it won't stop me carting it around I'm sure! I'll post pictures when done.

and that was February

Oh time seems to be flying by. February seemed to be so much busier than planned! What did we achieve in February? A weekend away, a decision to buy a house (and we put in bids, but no joy as yet), Beau's birthday, a decision on producing our own little acorns, and a bit of a crochet block - but this comes and goes.

So first I'll start on our weekend away, such loveliness.

On Valentines day, we travelled to the lake district. Beau had bought us a weekend away for my birthday. Lowthwaite B&B where we like to stay is just lovely and Tine who runs the b&b makes the most amazing food. I was so excited to visit. Our drive was relatively uneventful but foggy and I spent a lot of the journey with my eyes shut. Needless to say, I wasn't driving!

On that first evening, Tine made us delicious venison stew, and followed it up with something that I can only say was divine. Almond meringue with blueberries and blackberries. (I attempted to make a version for Beau's birthday but I think we can safely say it was a disaster) Tine bought out the entire meringue, plate sized, and beau and I proceeded to polish it off while chatting over the space of an hour. We rolled to bed that night.

Saturday was a bit of a wash out, and although we went out to Ambleside for a gorgeous meal that night (and mistakingly parked by phone for 180 hours), not much else of interest happened - just a lot of relaxing, chocolate eating (courtesy of Valentine's day) and watching of the Olympics.

On Sunday, we travelled back to Ambleside, and after a small amount of shopping - to top up Beau's wardrobe after he's lost so much weight recently - we proceeded to walk from Ambleside to Grassmere. The weather was lovely and some of the views were breathtaking.

You forget how wonderful the lakes can be. In Grasmere, we had a while to wait a for the bus back to Ambleside and hence a found a yarn shop (oh it just appeared out of nowhere!) called Herdy. Beautiful bright colours in chunky wool. Have no idea what to do with the yarn as yet but I'm sure I'll come up with something!

The journey home on Monday was bittersweet. It was such a lovely time, I can't wait for us to go back. 

Beau's birthday was last week. For his birthday I took him to a new restaurant in Newcastle. Kenny Atkinson who I first saw on TV in Great British Menu has opened House of Tides and I was so excited to go. The meal was truly outstanding, expensive, but gorgeous. I've also organised for us to have a weekend away in September in a yurt in Northumberland. Oh joyousness!

As for crochet, oh I'm so behind with crochetmoodblanket2014! I should have made notes but I think I'll get back on it this week as long as mad march doesn't turn out like February! 

This week - a visit with my mother, a meal out with friends, and another visit from the financial advisor!

back to happy

Oh don't you just hate being ill? It was only a cold but having spent numerous nights coughing and not much sleeping, this weekend could not have come soon enough for me! At least during the weekend I get to see the sun! Oh please come back summer all is forgiven.
So, last week was my birthday (woo hoo!). I am now the grand old age of 36. I have to be honest, my birthday didn't start the best. I know I'm 36, but I still take my birthdays seriously! I want joy, I want fun! Not everyone feels the same way, and I felt quite woeful towards the end of the day. Bless Beau, he was amazing as usual. He's bought me a weekend away to my favourite B&B in the Lake District next weekend. This place is beautiful and probably just what I need for some respite (plus the owner makes the best cakes!). And on top of that joy awaiting me, he also organised a gorgeous meal at Vallum Farm in Northumberland. Upon arrival I notice our best friends waiting for us at the table. Oh bless I had such a good night (too good, by the distinct lack of alcohol left in bottles by the end of the night!). And my love was able to restore my faith in life again.

And without further ado, here are my latest squares for the crochet mood blanket. I think I may have finished one row!

love

I'm starting to love my very home made crochet mood blanket. My latest offering (below) just leapt out at me as an idea and though I pretty much made up the entire pattern, I think it still looks pretty good!

And so here we have week 4 - a little dark blue melancholy, a splash of pale green/blue for patience and a sparkling white tea cup for my current favorite tea room.

And one new mitten might be a while before I finish the next one!

our day out

For Christmas, I bought beau a day's wine tasting in our beautiful city. Yesterday was that day. Of course, I couldn't expect him to go alone, so I took one for the team and tagged along! We had decided earlier in the week that we would make a proper day of it and go out for breakfast (Quilliam Brothers, where else?!), and then following our day of wine and fine food, we took a trip to our local independent cinema called the Tyneside Cinema. This place is absolutely lovely. If you get seats upstairs which are a bit more pricy, you actually get a sofa and can get wine and snacks delivered to you. Bliss. 

I started the day wandering around the city, in a bit of disbelief. I'm not a morning person, and seeing the city so early in the morning (OK, 9am) was a bit of a revelation. OK so it's January, and any city in the UK will look dull and grey, but it was so much quieter than I expected. I was practically skipping along the streets. For the first hour of the day, I took a number of photos, and then of course wine got involved and I forgot all about my camera!

This is the Quilliam Brothers. Such a gorgeous place to have good tea and lovely food. We grabbed ourselves a window seat and watched the world go by for an hour or so.

And so the day was lovely. Wine tasting was great fun, and the food at Blackfriars was divine.

Slightly worse for wear, we then head over to the cinema for 12 Years a Slave. For the record, I hated about the first half of this film, and then it started to grow on me. The arrival of Brad Pitt just made me roll my eyes. He was completely miss cast, and frankly irritating. Regardless by the end, I did enjoy the film. Quite emotional. A realistic portrayal of life at that point in time, I'm sure.

I'm back on the love of crochet again. I'm just about finishing a gorgeous cowl for a friend using stash from my cardigan that I recently finished. I've just started a cable cardigan in crochet too. I can already see this pattern is going to be challenging as I've never attempted anything like this in crochet. This is the pattern, though I'm using beautiful aran bluefaced leicester yarn which I purchased last year from Yarndale 2013. This lovely natural yarn has been calling for a special project and so something as delicate and divine below seemed to be a match made in heaven!

Very exciting. And after spending the day in the cold yesterday, I've decided I need some mittens. Found a lovely free pattern so that's another work that needs to start! 

As for #crochertmoodblanket2014, I'm on track still! I'm not sure if I like the square for week 3 and I haven't really thought about week 4! But I have started joining (something else I haven't really done in the past). It's slowly getting there. 

show me the money

The last few days have been very good. Got a pay rise from work which becomes effective next month. I read somewhere that men believe they are worth what they earn, women believe they are lucky. I always feel I'm lucky! Beau and I are still living in rented accommodation. I'd really like to buy our own house at some point (this year or next), but money is something we need to sort out, so a pay rise is very welcome at this point!

Tonight, the girls and I are out for a meal. I'm uber excited as it means I get to dress up, have drinks and good times with the girls. Beau is off to watch the football in the rain. More fool him! I've been shopping during the week, to try and find something nice to wear for this evening. It's frivolous as I'm trying to lose weight at the moment and I'd like to think anything I bought wouldn't fit me in a few weeks anyway! As it is I haven't been able to find anything I like. I do have a back up dress which is lovely in itself. So all good really. So yes, good days.

On a different note, I think I've become obsessed with weight loss programs. Frankly, anything with Jessie Pavelka  in. I find it all very  inspirational. As mentioned, I am trying to lose weight. I'm not huge (13s12 @5ft5), but I'm aware this may be having an impact on my ability to conceive. So the immediate plan is to lose a stone and a half. Watching a bit of fit Jessie is hardly difficult, especially when he talks so much sense!

On crochet. I visited my best friend last weekend and I wore the lovely crochet cardigan that I finally finished. She loved it, and more specifically loved the colour. Hence, I'm now in the process of making a cowl for her using stashed yarn from the cardigan. It's taking a lot longer than I expected. But how can you not enjoy lovely Saturday mornings with crochet on your lap?

Ahhh tea's ready... Speaking of which. Found a lovely new tea shop in town during the week. Treated myself to a white tea cocktail. Delicious. I'll be going back here again!

perhaps I have my mojo back!

So I finally have a photo of my gorgeous cardigan/shrug. I haven't actually worn it outside the house yet as I only sorted out all the yarn ends this morning. I think I may venture outside in it today as I go for lunch at a friends. The main colour is 'Haystack' from the Sirdar Supersoft Aran range. The other colours (navy, grey and burgundy) are from the same range. I followed the pattern from Issue 11 of the Simply Crochet magazine. It's called a Checkmate Shrug and is also on Ravelry I believe. The design is by Kyoko Nakayoshi, and although may look difficult, I would say someone who had been crocheting for just a few months could do it (like me!).

Still with crochet in mind, I have also finished this weeks #crochetmoodblanket2014 granny square. I struggled this week. I guess if you do a daily square is likely easy to sum up how you feel in one day, but over the course of a week? Hmmm. As it is, I've been feeling the love from beau this week and I've really loved the bright blue skies with glittering frost, and I like feeding that into the blanket somehow too. But overall, I've been feeling a little apathetic this week. I'm sure it's just the January blues, but that is symbolised by the grey. I haven't started joining as yet, I'm thinking I may make the join look very obvious and rustic. Likely any join I do won't look perfect anyway! So anyway, without further ado, here is week two!

I just love the heart in the middle. It's makes smile. The pattern is not mine, but can be found here.

And now? I have a Darth Vader hat I need to finish, and a bobble scarf I'm going to do with left over haystack. And here I was thinking my crochet block was in full force!

red, orange and purply-pink with crochet block

I've struggled a little this week. Officially week 2 on #crochetmoodblanket2014 and I think I have crochet block. My first granny square focused on the African flower pattern, now here is a decision, do I stick to this or do I divert? I think I've decided on colours, so that's one decision down! I love the idea of a koru pattern at some point, and perhaps snow flakes, and flowers - oh the choice! I do love seeing everyone's squares on Facebook, and the stories behind the patterns and the colours make me smile.

Life this week has returned to some kind of wonderful crazy. I moved roles in my job in October. I really wasn't happy in my previous role. I only realised how much when I left. Now I'm infinitely busier but there's a schedule and needs and deadlines, and I've realized I need that sort of structure in my life. I actually look forward to work!

So beside the craziness, beau and I have had a lovely week being all cosy and full of laughing. There's not a lot going on socially for us in January, and I specifically struggle with that as I like having something to look forward to. But we have a holiday to France in summer and a weekend in Amsterdam and oh I'm very lucky really. It's just January can be so dull after the anticipation of Christmas! And also (whispers) my 36th birthday is at the end of the month. Gah I'm old! Truly, truly where does time fly!

Christmas is over, and springtime blooms

Today has been very gentle. Beau has been working most of the day, and interspersed between cleaning and cooking, I've been putting some more time into crochet! Like that's new!

After the initial flurry of excitement of #crochetmoodblanket2014, I've turned my creative juices elsewhere. Specifically towards making a spring time crochet wreath. I've been reading Lucy from Attic24 for a long time now. Pretty much as soon as I started crocheting. She has made many wreaths, mostly seasonal and I love the colourful, intricate, retro-ness (is that a word?!) of them. I'm usually quite contemporary when it comes to house decor but crochet is making me crave a more homely, cosy abode.

Lucy has some lovely tutorials on her website. This one on daffodils has especially caught my eye:

My attempts at daffodils and even leaves (courtesy of issue 8 in Simply Crochet), has been slow but I'm hopeful it will look just a smidgeon as good as Lucy's!

Oh additionally, I finished my cardigan today! Photos soon.

crochet mood blanket week 1

Voila! I'm in love...

a new year

New Year was a wondrous affair. We travelled to Guisborough in North Yorkshire to visit with friends. Just two days with these special people and I feel relaxed and full (of food as much add anything else!). We brought the new year in with bucks fizz and Jools Hollands Hootanany which was especially good this year with The Lumineers and The Proclaimers live! Pyjamas were on, relaxation in progress. Very sedate. But nothing beats good food and good company to bring in what I believe will be a fabulous new year.

The beau and I minutes before 2014. 

And here we are inside 2014... So far I've made plans with our wonderful friends to hit the Good Food Show in Harrogate in April, taught a friend to crochet and joined the Crochet Mood Project 2014. The project is something I'm especially excited about. If you don't know about this and you're here due to your love of crochet (and not my ramblings - understandable) then you should really try this out.

Thanks to mummy_Stacey on instagram an idea was born. Either crochet a granny square or a row etc everyday or every week for a year. I've gone for the 52 squares as I know I won't be able to stick to the 365! There's now a group on Facebook, on Ravelry etc that is full of like minded people, all of which hope to have their life immortalised in yarn for one year. Having joined on New Years Day, I've found all groups to be so welcoming and helpful but most of all, excited. Everyone is so happy to start this! I'm also hoping to make some new friends whose passion for crochet rivals mine! What wonderfulness to start a new year.

The colours I'm starting with for my first square of the year will be muted. Rustic, earthy tones to symbolise serenity and peace. I was inspired by the colours of the countryside while traveling back from our friends yesterday. Each time a square is done, I'll put it in a short and sweet blog post! My current favorite pattern is that of the African flower, but I'm sure that may change over time.

Happy New Year everyone.