I'm back! Did you miss me?

I haven't been posting for the last month or so because I've been working! Only a short contract though, and I'm now back to being a housewife again. Last week I went to Derby for a few days, as I'd promised Max that I'd go to Drayton Manor with them, but then I started working as soon as their school holidays began! I had an excellent time though - I went to art class with Mum on Wednesday and leart to paint flowers, then on Thursday we went to the Museum of Childhood at Sudbury Hall (after spending several hours playing on the Wii with Max - it's a hard life!). Then on Friday we went to Drayton Manor. I've put some photos on Facebook here.

We finally got some ripe tomatoes:

They were very nice too - we had them with fresh basil and mozarella for a starter! There are a few more ripening up now, plus we had a couple of the beef ones with our steak on Saturday.

Here be Dragons!

Weymouth, tomatoes and knitting

Last week, we went down to Weymouth to visit Ade's family, as his auntie and uncle were over from Australia. I've put photos on facebook, you can see them here.

I've also put some photos on facebook that cousin Paul sent to Mum. These can be seen here.

The garden has been doing well whilst we've been away. We've got some tomatoes on the tomato plants:

The carrots, spring onions and lettuce are doing well too:

The strawberry plants were a bit limp when we got back, but after a bit of water they seem to have perked up a bit. I've also pulled up all the radishes, as they all went to seed, so I might plant some more in their place.

This week, I've been mostly doing housework, but this afternoon I finished off some knitting projects that I've been meaning to do for ages!

Firstly York, knitted in Noro Silk Garden, with a zip-up front:

Then Elizabeth, knitted in Rowan Summer Tweed, with shell buttons:

Finally, Butterfly, knitted in Rowan Kidsilk Haze:

Asylum, Oasis and Southwold

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, but it's been quite hectic! First off, a lovely weekend was spent with JK and Gareth (or as we now call them, GayKay), which included much drinking, eating, and a visit to a very strange convention called Asylum. It was about some show that I'd never even heard about (Supernatural) and was 95% women attendees! It was good fun though, especially once the vodka kicked in, plus Karl played Metallica and Pantera in the disco, although it left us both with a sore neck for a few days.

Oasis played Heaton Park last Thursday, and it was a lovely day, nice and warm and sunny, plus we ended up with a refund, as there were power issues whilst Oasis were playing. Not that I really noticed, as I was rather drunk by then! Amazingly we managed to find Becca after the gig, although it was rather a trek, and my toenails were rubbing on the inside of my shoes, and have been rather painful since.

We were rather hung-over on Friday when we got up, but managed to pack the car up and head over to Mum's by about lunchtime. After transferring all the stuff in to her car, she then drove us the rest of the way to Southwold. It was a great weekend, although we didn't catch any fish. Hopefully we'll have better luck in Weymouth.

The Southwold photos are here.

I also took some photos last week of the garden. First, here are the tomato plants. They're coming along great, and have got quite a lot of flowers on them. Hopefully we'll get a bumper crop!


Mint and parsley. There are quite a few plants behind them too that I'm going to hack back once the weather gets a bit nicer:

Carrots, spring onions, lettuce and radishes. Plus there's a Busy Lizzy in there too!

Strawberry plants:

There are actually strawberries on there!

Radishes:

Strawberries. Hopefully we'll have some more ripe ones soon, as these were delicious!

Bank Holiday Weekend.

The bank holiday weekend was lovely - Mum came up on Friday, and we went to Ikea to get some more bookcases for the library. On Saturday, we went to the Trafford Centre, and Ade got himself loads of t-shirts, plus a new Tassimo coffee machine. I just got a top, but it was nice to look round.

On Sunday morning, me and Mum went in to Stockport to get some wellies for our camping trip next week, plus I also got some Acrylic paints, paper and brushes, as I fancy trying some painting!

Sunday night was the Bennion BBQ - and the weather was fantastic! There are some photos on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96655&id=682076020&l=afc4b335aa

On Monday we went for a walk round a reservoir, and had an ice cream too.

Yesterday, me and Mum went over to Abakhan and I got lots of fabric, so I'm going to be busy! We also went to John Lewis and I got some fabric there too, then Tescos to get a lantern and camping chair for Mum. We went to the quiz last night and didn't do very well, but at least we beat Lumbered.

I also picked our first radish yesterday:

It was yummy! Hopefully there'll be more soon, plus I might pick some lettuce too, as that's getting quite big. And we've got loads of strawberries on the strawberry plants, but they're all still green.

I finished my hemp jacket over the weekend too. It needs to be washed to soften up the hemp a bit, but here are a couple of photos anyway:

I'm not sure what I'll be doing for the rest of the week, but I need to get some housework done, as we're off to Birmingham this weekend to see JK and Gareth, and then next Friday we're off camping in Southwold.

Another shirt.

I've finished another shirt - this one is from some fabric I got from Ikea for £1.56 a metre, and I used less than 2 metres! It's exactly the same pattern as the orange one, and I really like it.

I've got to do some housework now, as Mum is coming to stay tomorrow. We're going to Ikea tomorrow afternoon to get another bookcase and CD rack for the library, so I might have a look at the fabric. I've found a really lovely pattern for a summer dress, so if it's going to be as hot as Ade keeps saying this summer, I might make myself one or two. Or else I'll just have to persuade him to take me away from it all to somewhere hot that I've never been before (and not just the kitchen!)

Orange shirt

I've finished my shirt! Most of the work was done on Friday, although I did the collar on Saturday afternoon whilst Ade was playing on the Wii, and I put the sleeves in this afternoon. I'm really pleased with this shirt, as I took the pattern in quite a lot around the waist, and put extra darts in the back so that it fits me a lot better than the last one.


A close-up of the collar:

It actually looks a lot better on me, as I'm quite a bit more curvy than Diana*, but I couldn't get a very good photo of myself.

* Diana is my dressmaking dummy :-)