Get Knotted

Another use for old coffee jars ... 

This knotted twine lantern has a nautical feel and is a great upcycle craft.

Craftberry Bush's tutorial is fantastic and I used it as a guide to create my lantern.

I did a trial run with some wool and once I got the hang of the knotting, I got out the twine. 

Rather than use a separate piece of twine around the top of the jar (as in point 1 of the tutorial), I just cut one of my 6 pieces a little longer and looped it around the top of the jar before knotting.

Once my knots had reached the bottom of the jar, I simply tied opposite strands tightly together. As most jar bottoms are concaved, these knots wouldn't impede the lantern should it be standing.

A doubled-up piece of twine tied to the top of the jar gave my lantern its handle.

Looking forward to making more and hanging them around the garden this Summer. Though they're beautiful lit indoors too.

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Love Birds

Some time ago I saw bird seed wedding favours on Etsy. They looked simple, but very effective. I thought I'd have a go at making some and created this Valentine garland for our feathered friends...

To make :

I added 2/3 cup of boiling water to two sachets of gelatine (9g each). I stirred until the gelatine had dissolved. I then added 2 cups of bird seed and mixed well, coating all of the seeds.

I packed the mixture evenly into my heart cookie cutters, finally placing a cut piece of drinking straw into each mould, to provide a hole for the twine.

After an hour or so in the freezer they had set and were ready to come out of the cookie cutters and thread with twine.

 
Happy Valentines!


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A Zing For Life

Here's Zingy...

Star of the EDF TV adverts

I love Zingy and wanted my own, so I searched the net to find a crochet pattern. I found this one on Ravelry - just search for Tor Thorpe.

It was quite easy to follow and came together quickly. The pattern suggested white felt for the eyes, but typically I have every colour BUT white! So, I crocheted some white circles and used buttons for the pupils and a bead for the nose.

Zingy gets everywhere...

I'm obsessed...

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I'm Away With The Fairies

It's March, it's officially Spring, yet it's snowing!

This time last year we were tidying up the garden ready for some chilled out evenings sat by the chimnea with fairy lights hung around the patio.

My heart fairy lights from Lights4fun have spent the winter hanging in the dining room, but hopefully they'll soon adorn the patio once again.

I've been looking for some more fairy lights for the garden and these have made it onto my wish list...

Sunflower led battery lights will give a warm glow along with the reds and oranges from the burning chimnea

Colour changing butterflies and multicoloured dragonfly lights will look great hooked up through the trees - and they're solar powered.

And my favourite ... well one of my favourites from my "heart" search ...

... Filigree Heart lights ... the way the light shines through is beautiful and would look great alongside my crocheted tealight holders

The White Stuff

We've had a day of falling snow (and a cosy day working from home), so a chance to wrap up and take some photos

Early this morning, a photo taken from my window, overlooking the field

I tweeted this to my local newspaper and it made it onto their website

The birds were very active in the garden

As the afternoon arrived, so did the sledgers on the hill

The lane at the back of our house looked magical

No work tomorrow, so us 'big kids' are planning to get out there with our sledge!

Och aye the noo

Last week we spent a few days visiting the west coast of Scotland; home of my ancestors

A cruise along Loch Lomond, just 6 people onboard (it was lunchtime, so I guess everyone else was having a nice pub lunch!)

Thankfully the rain kept away, so we could enjoy being out at the front of the boat

Altogether now... ♫

Next a trip to Largs, home to The Pencil monument

Single ice-cream nougat courtesy of Nardini's at the Moorings...

... enjoyed whilst looking over to the island of Cumbrae, as the sun began to set

Over on Cumbrae, they like to make the most of the rocks.

Millports's Crocodile Rock, long before Elton John sang about it (!) ...

and an actual rock face at Bell Bay (if you shout at it, the echo is amazing!)

Finally, several (and I mean several) trips around the island to find the 5 posts which, if you touch all 5, are said to bring you good luck

... I still haven't won the lottery though...

Hello Summer! Finally...

We're used to unpredictable weather here in England, but this summer has taken the mickey just a bit! Last time we had great weather, I blogged about it. That was 20th May 2012! This weekend, summer has finally graced us with His presence (I say 'His' because if summer was a 'She', we would have a wonderful few months every year without fail!)

We spent what seemed an age digging up weeds and pruning the hedges to reveal the view from our garden.

The recent warmth and sunshine has also enticed the roses out and I didn't realise what lovely colours we have in our garden. I am not a 'gardener', so if you know what variety of rose these are, let me know.

I type with a red glow on my body - sitting out crocheting in the sun for a little too long it seems. But I got carried away with the music playing from my ipod and a cheeky drink ;)

As the sun set, out came my crochet tea light holders and the chimnea - come on, you didn't think the warmth would last into the evening, did you??! 

Our chimnea was bought with gift vouchers from our wedding back in November 2010. It's one of the best things we've ever purchased, enabling us to sit outside 'til late, feeling snug and warm. It also gives David the opportunity to be a boy scout again...

Mr Summer, please don't leave it so long to visit again, David and Karen miss you!

Strawberry Fields Forever

When the forecast is showers, it's difficult to know where to go for a day out! This weekend we have had our nieces and nephew to stay. I figured if we were going to go out in the rain and mud, we may as well go out for something we can eat! So a trip to Gorst Hill Farm seemed the perfect destination.

Pick your own fruit!

Neither myself, David nor the kids (Ellen, Maria and Sam) had been before, so this was a brand new experience for us all.

We chose to pick strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries. I think strawberries were our favourite as we picked far more of those!

The kids couldn't wait to get the punnets weighed so we could get home to wash the fruit and introduce it to ice cream.

It may have rained a little and we may have had to tackle muddy pathways, but we had a fun time and something far more satisfying than a fridge magnet to take home as a souvenir - even if it didn't last long!