20 things you might not know about me!

20 things you might not know about me

Thanks to being tagged by my daughter on her blog, here are some facts about me!

Question 1: How tall are you?

I am about 5.6, which is only slightly taller than my ten year old daughter!

Question 2: Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what?

I love roller-skating.

Question 3: What’s your biggest blog-related pet peeve?

Fuzzy photos and too many adverts.

Question 4: What’s your biggest non-blog related pet peeve?

People that don’t say Thank You.

Question 5: What’s your favorite song?

One of my favourite’s is Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen

Question 6: What’s your favourite Etsy shop that isn't yours?

One Little Pug. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/onelittlepug

Question 7: What’s your favourite way to spend your free time when you’re alone?

Free time?! What’s that?!

Question 8: What’s your favourite junk food?

Biscuits, I am helpless against them!

Question 9: Do you have a pet or pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?

I used to have a Labrador when I was younger and it’s a big wish of mine to get another dog SOON.

Question 10: What are your number one favorite nonfiction and fiction books?

I read a lot of crafty non-fiction books from the library, I don’t get much time for fiction but I did recently read ‘Little Women’ and loved it.

Question 11: What’s your favourite beauty product?

I don’t do beauty!

Question 12: When were you last embarrassed? What happened?

I mistakenly tried to open the wrong car door in a car park; I couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t work! In my defence they were the same car model, although ours is black and this car was dark blue!

Question 13: If you could only drink one beverage (besides water) for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Tea of course!

Question 14: What’s your favourite movie?

Too many to list, the last good film I watched was Driving Lessons.

Question 15: What were you in high school: prom queen, nerd, cheerleader, jock, valedictorian, band geek, loner, artist, prep?

I was me!

Question 16: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Canada

Question 17: PC or Mac?

Mac

Question 18: Last romantic gesture from a crush, date, boy/girlfriend, spouse?

Romance?!

Question 19: Favourite celebrity?

John Cusack

Question 20: What blogger do you secretly want to be best friends with?

Umm, maybe the Yarn Harlot?

Thank you Tall Green Giraffe!

Autumns coming...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

St Giles

September means the fair rolls into town, working in Oxford I get to enjoy the atmosphere at lunchtime and this year the weather's been fantastic.

Witney Feast

The week after, it travels to my hometown and brings a wave of nostalgia and excitement.

My ten year old went on this which brought a range of emotions from worry to pride! 

I like it as the evening darkens and the lights really pop.

Did I go on any rides? Oh course, the best one - the gallopers!

Quilting

 I'm desperately trying to keep the momentum going to finish my second quilt, it's now all pieced and I'm at the actual quilting stage and that is why it's stalled.

For my first quilt - The Hungry Caterpillar, I did mostly stitch in the ditch using the walking foot, I tried to have a go at free motion but it was terrible and I realised it's not as easy as it looks and takes lots of practice!

So for this one I really didn't want to ruin it at the quilting stage but as it has a lot of background fabric I knew it would look boring without any, so I'm trying mostly straight lines, to accent the patchwork shapes and I may have a go at hand quilting.

 This is the back that took longer than I wanted as instead of using a large piece of backing I (stupidly!) decided on piecing the back using scraps and a fabric panel that was intended to be put together as a fabric baby book. It took a lot of maths, adding seam allowances to calculate what size pieces I needed.

With the smaller scraps I hand stitched some hexies and appliquéd them on.

 I also found basting tricky, not having a large table I had to do it on the floor and on carpet, it was really hard getting the layers smooth. I'm thinking of getting a large piece of MDF and mocking up a cutting table and using that to baste in sections.

Just need to finish off the quilting and get the prairie points on and it'll be done and we can use it on the sofa in winter. Then I can get on with the next one I've already started planning!

Hand sewing

After finishing my first pair of socks and reaching a pause in my quilt I wanted to craft but wasn't sure what.

I was going to get out some hexies but couldn't decide on fabric and then as sometimes happens, I stumbled upon something by chance and my decision was made for me.
I found my Dandelion Designs wristwatch pin cushion that I'd ordered ages ago through Create and Craft.

I like to browse and see what's on Create and Craft on the telly box when it's quiet, I like when they do quilting on a Sunday morning at 8am and I follow Mandy Shaw on Twitter so I know when she's likely to do a show, as I love some of her stuff. She's usually at Festival of Quilts and I'm always tempted by her books, so when I saw that you could get the kit of the wrist pin cushion that she wears, I had to order it, even though I very rarely get sucked in by the TV selling.

The kit has all the fabric and notions you need, and more, and I found the instructions easy to follow.  I'm not the neatest stitcher but I do find it relaxing, so I got absorbed and finished it in a weekend. I'm really happy with it and hope to complete the matching tape measure that was included in the kit.

I also hope to start this baby ball kit from Makeve, that I've had for even longer, as it was intended for my youngest who has now out-grown such things! But as a simple hand sew, it shouldn't take much to finish it.

I won't be adding the face as I think it will be more of a decoration rather than a toy, I'll let you 
know how I get on. Would love to hear if you've been doing some hand sewing too!

I also need to thank my eldest for the main photo at the top, she's getting so good that she's set up her own blog: tallgreengiraffe.blogspot.com
She'd love to find some other kid bloggers, so do let her know if you know any!

Holiday Day Eight

 Last Day

As we had to be up and out early, we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast at the Watch House Cafe in West Bay. The plan being to go to Bridport market later.

I tried the eggs benedict, which was fantastic and the kids had toast and jam and waffles.

The breakfast selection didn't seem as large this year, there wasn't much choice for the kids and the price had increased, so I felt that the bill left a sour note on the proceedings.

It was another hot day and we spent most of the morning pottering around the antiques market in Bridport, which I enjoyed but I didn't  like anything enough to buy it, apart from a floral pinny in a charity shop and some enamels mugs (for future camping!) at the Girls Own Store.

I was allowed to pop into Bridport Yarn, where the girls flopped onto the comfy sofa while I browsed!

The lady was very nice in there, even offering to fill up the toddlers water bottle.

I settled on some Regia sock yarn in fabulous blue shades, for my future 2nd pair of socks. I'd taken the knitting with me and while I didn't do any on the beach (I'm not sure how it's possible when you have kids!) it was great in the evenings and in the car and my second sock came on a treat.

After separating from my family who were heading back home the scenic route, we headed back to West Bay for the beach.

We spent all afternoon here, all swimming in the sea, and I tried some snorkelling as the water was so clear, it was bliss and nobody wanted to go home.

It got to tea-time before we faced the thought and packed up for the long drive home, I wasn't as sad as last year this time though, as I know we WILL be coming back!

Holiday Day Seven

Duck Race, The Cobb & Fireworks

Fridays Lifeboat Week event was the Duck Race, all week they had been selling numbers for the ducks, first duck in the race down the river wins!

So we made our way up-river to the start and crossed our fingers.

For such a simple idea it was a lot of fun with a great atmosphere as all us spectators followed them down the river, trying to spot our numbers!

Sadly we didn't win! But we carried on the walk into town to do some last minute shopping, another visit to Alice's Bear Shop and a stop off at Pasty Presto for a tasty lunch and cuppa.

Still didn't get time for the museum - next time!

Late afternoon we wandered down to The Cobb, walked along and enjoyed the sea breeze and the peaceful boats.

Then after our BBQ tea and at the request of the eldest some of us changed our minds and decided to go and watch the fireworks down at the beach, which were to end Lifeboat Week. 

I was able to try out my new 'firework' setting on my camera, with strange results (!) but the display was fantastic, lots of large colourful explosions and it was almost like marking the end of our time in Lyme Regis, so I was very glad that we made the effort to go.

Holiday Day Six

The Red Arrows

Thursday on Lifeboat Week was likely to be the busiest day in Lyme as the big attraction, The Red Arrows were due for a display, so we made sure we got a good spot on the beach and set up camp for the day, even renting a parasol and a couple of deckchairs!

I got to try out new wetsuit - which was ace, seemed to keep me nice and warm and also stop me from burning and getting heat rash while swimming. The sea was cool but you soon got used to it and it was packed with people, all of us cooling off from the hot sun.

The picture above shows Alice's Ledge, a rocky outcrop that you can only see at low tide, which is good for exploring and has a few rock pools.

We spent the whole day at the beach, enjoyed another fabulous sandwich selection from the Lyme Bay Sandwich Company, played on the beach and enjoyed ice-creams while waiting for the 5 o'clock start time.

I wasn't sure what to expect, I didn't think I'd ever seen their proper display before,just fly-pasts, but it was better than I could have imagined. With the fantastic backdrop of the sea, all that expanse of sky, it was a perfect setting and the skill and excitement of their routine was just superb. There was commentary and blips of radio contact so you could understand the precision of their moves, it was amazing.

The beach was packed with people and all up in the gardens above, it was a lovely happy atmosphere.

I found it quite hard keeping up with my little camera! So I'm glad that some of them were usable, I'll just have to come back next year to try again!