Duke Of Lancaster

On the way back home from Prestatyn we stopped off at Mostyn to take a  look at the permanently beached ship, Duke of Lancaster. I've been past it many times but never taken a closer look. From the road there are two tracks either side of a stream which you can walk along to get close to the ship. The track on the left side takes you nearer to the ship and there is also more art work on this side. It is not possible to go right up to the ship as it is surrounded by razor wire and there was also a security guard and guard dog present. 
These photos are all taken from the left track.

These were taken from the right.

The street art being painted on the ship is still an on going project. More information about the art work and artists can be found here here. It certainly seems a popular place to take snaps as we bumped in to four groups of people armed with camera's while we were there.

Out And About In Wales - Pt 2

On Saturday Little L took to walking about the house with her little metal detector, pretending to look for pirates treasure. This was a Christmas present which someone had bought for her and it had been left untouched on top of her wardrobe until now. We decided to head for a beach the next day so she could try it out and find a treasure chest or even a pirates sword, which she was convinced she would find. 

The weather was fabulous on Sunday, warm and very sunny. Caleb joined us but my eldest boy could not be talked in to coming ( I think it's his age ). The first beach that we tried, we couldn't even get near to so we went to the next one long the coast which was Prestatyn. This one was very busy with lots of sand castle building, rock pool exploring and paddling taking place.

Well Little L's metal detector did quite a bit of beeping but we didn't find anything, not one thing. 

The thing which she enjoyed the most was looking through the rock pools, she loved it. I don't think that she had ever seen a starfish before. 

Even though Little L didn't manage to find any pirates treasure, she was more excited with the shells that she had collected and called those her treasures.

Out And About In Wales - Pt 1

On Friday my husband and I had the rare opportunity to go gallivanting child free. As soon as the children were in school we set off on our travels. We headed towards Llangollen via what my husband called a scenic route to cut out stretches of by passes. The scenic route involved us going down Horseshoe Pass ( a very high, long winding road, no fences, )where I discovered my fear of heights has definitely got much worse with age. Most of the time I had my eyes shut and I did debate whether to get out of the car and walk down. I was petrified.

When we reached Llangollen I was glad I'd put my mitts in my pocket, the wind was bitterly cold and felt like we were still in Winter. During the day we did have some quick bursts of sunshine and a few showers but the wind was the worse.

 I spotted this taxidermy shop while we were there which I thought was pretty unusual, I've certainly never come across one before.

After our wander around Llangollen we headed to Ruabon to pay my sister a quick visit. We had a nice brew and natter with Jay and my brother in law and I made friends with their dog, Bandit. He's 2 years old, weighs almost 8 stone and is as daft as a brush. Jay showed us all the incubators full of eggs, about 20,000. It's approaching a busy time of year for them work wise.

Our next stop was Ruthin . The town was quite busy and has some lovely houses and shops. I managed to find a craft shop and a wool shop which I just had to pop into for a look. There were lots of historical buildings there which we didn't have the chance to look at as many had started to shut for the day.We walked to the castle which was also in the town where I took some photos of the grounds 

and the peacocks which were wandering around. The peacocks were making a right noise and were not at all bothered when we got quite close to them. I didn't take any photos of the castle its self as there was a wedding taking place.

We also had a child free night and the plan was to grab a take away and watch a film but I had a job to keep my eyes open after nine hours of gallivanting about.

Felt Animal Brooches

This week I finally got around to finishing off these felt animal brooches. I cut them out and made a start on them a while ago but due to the tiny stitches used on them I only do the sewing in daylight. The patterns for these were purchased from Gingermelon's Etsy shop.

There is a similar free pattern for the cats and rabbits available from the Gingermelon Dolls blog.

Tim Burton Stitchalong

I've not done any embroidery for a while nor participated in a stitchalong so when I saw the Tim Burton stitchalong hosted by Follow the White Bunny, I had to join in as I love sewing embroidery from illustrations.

The illustration which I used is named Staring Girl and can be found in the book The Meloncholy Death Of Oyster Boy & Other Stories. It's only a small piece, measuring aprroximately 11cm x 10cm. I used water colours for the coloured parts and one thread of black embroidery cotton for the sewing. Having done this style of embroidery before I found out that if the fabric is fine I then end up with lots of trailing black thread showing through from the back so I doubled the fabric this time. I've not used water colours on fabric before and think that if I use them again I should made them bolder to stand out a bit more especially when I am using all black to sew with.

The flickr group for this stitchalong can be found here.

Destash Projects

I've made a bit of a start using the craft supplies given to me by my sister's friend. Firstly I made this simple summer dress for Little L. She's not really a skirt or dress wearer so I had to follow the strict terms and conditions of no pink, no frills, no flowers and no ribbon which she laid down regarding the making of the dress. 

The dress cost me nothing to make as everything I used was in the house and there is still enough fabric left to make Little L something else.

Little L chose the pattern for this jumper which has a slash neck and fastens with three buttons on one shoulder. It was a good choice for her I think as she sometimes gets a bit panicky putting clothing over her head. The pattern is for a boys jumper and I didn't think about the side it fastened on until I finished it. The jumper fastens on the left shoulder so should I have put them on the right for a girl ?. I don't suppose it matters to Little L anyway.

This slouchy hat ( very reluctantly modelled by Caleb ) was made using a pattern which I had purchased from Ravelry. The pattern is called Castiel by Woolly Wormhead.

Colourful Crochet

These are just a couple of small things which I managed to finish off over the weekend.

These little bunnies just needed sewing together which was only a small job but sewing up has to be my least favourite part of any knitting or crocheting. Very quick to make and ideal for using up any scrap wool. The tutorial can be found here.

This scarf only needed the ends sewing in. It is made up of a simple flower motif which was crocheted together as I went along. It measures approximately 70in x 4in.