New Craft Books

I'd not bought any craft books for a while so when I saw the Mollie Makes Feathered Friends was due to come out I hopped over to Amazon and popped it in my basket as I knew that Little L would love some of the projects in it. It arrived last week and the first thing Little L was drawn to was some colourful hanging parrots which are designed by Laura Howard from Bugs And Fishes

I made two of the smallest size, one for Little L and the other for one of her friends.

Little L's is currently tied to the handle on her wardrobe door.

The next thing that Little L loved from the book was a crocheted penguin pillow. This was really quick to made and I just need a pillow to fill it and to sew the bottom up.

The other book which I was working from last week was folk art needlecraft which I was lucky enough to win in a give away from Cut Out And Keep.

The only thing I have made from the book so far is this small sewing case but there are plenty of projects in this book that I want to get around to making.

I especially like these tiny dolls

and this hedgehog bag. A free tutorial for the hedgehog bag can be found here

Summer Sewing

This week I've been using my sewing machine to make a couple of summery garments.

For this top ( made for my Mum ) I used a New Look pattern 6871 which includes four other versions of this style as well.

I also altered this dress of Little L's in to a pair of shorts. I think that she has only worn it twice and now outgrown it.

I used pink tape to cover the side seams and reused the covered buttons from the dress by sewing them on the bottom of the seam.

Knowing Little L's aversion to dresses I think that she may get more wear from a pair of shorts and she has already been looking for something suitable for chopping up and altering.

Recycling Socks

This morning was spent making Gilbert & Freda, a pair of sock monsters. Now sitting on a chair in Little L's room waiting for her to come home from school.

Chicken News

Last month all three of our hens were broody so my sister sent me four eggs for them to sit on. One hatched last week so we now have a lovely fluffy little chick. As soon as we discovered the chick we moved it along with the hen who hatched it to an empty rabbit hutch as the other hens tried to attack it as soon as they saw it. My sister had warned us that they may over mother it and kill it as they were all broody.

The chick is a sablepoot which looks like this but hopefully ours will be a hen so we can keep it. The sablepoot cockerel is the photo is Gorgeous George ( before he grew his full tail ) who lived with us for a while. Last year my niece hatched a clutch of sablepoot eggs and ended up with one hen the rest cockerels so she asked if we wanted one. I said on condition they have him back if he starts making too much noise (I live in a residential area so I don't think being woken by a cock crowing would go down to well with the neighbours). It took him quite a while to find his voice and for a little thing, he was very loud. Also he started to attack us which didn't hurt us at all because he could only reach our legs. He was becoming very protective of his girls and didn't like us hand feeding them which while we knew to keep an eye on him, he could easily get Little L in the face so we set him back to my sisters. He's settled in well and hangs about with their sablepoot hen. Our chick is from those two getting together so at least my sister knows George is fertile.

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.