6ichthusfish

Crochet and Knitting at the Art Gallery...

'Park Your Yarn' had another session of knitters and crochet folks last Saturday.  The weather was drizzley so we met inside the Wolverhampton Art Gallery... 

I was happy to chat to Rachael, one of the Artists and organisers about how we were going to cover the stone balls in the yarnstorming of St.Peter's Park next door.

She was really friendly and was happy about the flowery motifs I'd taken in.

It was a great space to sit and crochet.  The lighting was a bit dim, but being surrounded by arty-crafty exhibits was fab.  I enjoyed chatting and getting to know new friends.  Folks were walking past, asking questions, and happily sitting down to join in.  Loved it :)

T-g came with me and sat happily knitting. When she needed some help, a lovely dd of someone I met before was there to help out. I'm loving having a grown daughter to do stuff with. Her life is so jam-packed right now (College, Band, D of E, Rockclimbing, GB and learning to drive), I was so pleased when she said she was free and could come.

I handed over the camera to T-g's new friend and am happy with the natural-ish, hardly posed photos of the two of us (even if we're pulling funny faces!)...

We had the most delicious Afternoon Tea in the Gallery cafe.  I am a sucker for the retro cake stands they serve on...

It tasted as good as it looked.  Such a treat.  We were joined by two lovely new friends.  A Mother/daughter pair like us.  It was really enjoyable.

T-g took this photo of me, posing with the milk-jug...

Yep.  A fun afternoon.

I have been crocheting Granny Squares to add to the yarnstorming event.  I think I'll be able to help with the installation (hope so anyway).

After the meeting, T-g and I popped into Beaties to stroke the yarn and I purchased some bamboo knitting needles and a crochet hook.  Very colourful as a bonus.  They were recommended as being super to work with and yes, I'm totally in love with bamboo hooks now.  T-g likes the knitting needles too but she needs to get a shimmy on to finish a 30cm length before Thursday. 

Big son, Roman came home for the Easter holls.  He has been eating like a man unfed, but has slipped back into his place in the family.  He is always so willing to help out.  The huge pile of steamy laundry is slowly diminishing.  I had requested he bring home towels and sheets/duvet covers etc and they have been duly boil-washed.  We ran out of washing powder and took a trip out to Home Bargains together.  Just us. 

Happy face.

Park Your Yarn... (what!!?)...

Park Your Yarn is a Yarnstorming or Yarnbombing project happening near me.  I am super excited to be involved.  Here I am (in pink) at Saint Peter's Garden's Wolverhampton, crocheting with a lovely bunch of folks...

Needles, hooks and yarn were provided and we will be covering benches...

...and stone balls...

It's such a beautiful old-fashioned well-used outdoor space, perfect for a project like this.

Picture postcard really (can't wait to see it covered in knitted, crochety goodness!)

I met Cheryl from Art Yarn who was teaching crochet and Sara and Helen from Birmingham group Stitches and hos.  Sara taught loads of folks to knit and Helen knitted, rolled stacks of woollen balls and was the quickest person I ever saw learn to crochet.  EVER.  The folks from Wolverhampton Art Gallery were involved and seemed to be hosting the whole shebang.  I have always loved and appreciated that Art Gallery. 

We had a lovely day for it.  I crocheted a little pile of Granny squares as requested and got to help two lovely new friends learn to crochet (teaching always ticks my boxes)!!

I was really happy to meet fellow crafter and blogger, Helen, the Duchess of Fiddlefart herself, from the blog It's All Fiddlefart.  She has famous Monkeys who have their own blog.

That's 'Monkey' on the left and 'Darrell' on the right.  I was able to show them some crochet tips...

There was some serious concentrating went on...

But then some messing with the yarn...

...fiddling with my phone...

...and posing with Helen...

I chatted with a lady called Dorothy who'd come across on a coach and a local lady called Ann (and her Arty Hubby) who may want to start a local group up with me.  [Don't tell anyone but I am itching to do the yarnbombing thing where you sneak about at night covering public places with crochet and knitting..heehee] 

I've crocheted up a few motifs to help cover the stone balls...

The colours are meaningful to the project in some way.  Just not loving the acrylic yarn you have to use (been spoiled with cotton yarn for so long now).  The crochet motifs seem 'loose' but that's the hook size provided (4mm feels huge to me as my go-to hook is 2mm or less.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to hopefully meeting up again and feeling part of something 'Arty'.    :)

Check out this cool site...Knit the City

And finally, while on a yarny web surf, I came across this video and had to share it here.  I have watched it several times and always seen something new to smile about.

 

Thanks to Glittyknittykitty's blog where I got that fab video.

Right then. Onward and upward. x

P.S. no appologies for all the yarn gushiness... it's my blog and I'll gush if I want to!!

 

Glam Style Fancy Dress...(with prop)...What I'm up to...

 Last Saturday, Husb, dd and I went to a fundraiser.  It was optional fancy dress....

 

Since the band were called Glambuster you can guess the theme was GLAM!!!

Husb was a brilliant sport wearing this get-up and wig and I thought dd looked gorgeous!! 

 Below, we are at the venue, in front of the Charity information board...

 I wore purple contact lenses and fake funky eyelashes (yep it was tricky to see anything!! and dd was pretending to bash me with the blow up guitar prop!! like you do)...

Below we were drawing the raffle in the band's break between sets...

A while ago, in the post 'New Beginnings' I explained all about what the children were doing now (ie University, College and school) and at the end I mentioned that I was starting something new aswell.  I have been helping an old friend with her African Charity, called 'Free 2 Be'.  We've been fundraising since last Summer and we are leaving today for a month's trip to Kenya.  I went in 2005 and never thought I'd ever get to go back.  Well, it's been a lot of work preparing for this trip and now it's finaly here.  Folks have given generously... clothing, toys, educational equipment, sewing and knitting supplies and cameras and mobile phones.  Below I will include some photos taken in Kenya.  Mainly I am super excited to be visiting lots of schools, helping the orphans and helping Kate run a 5 day business course to set up 60 individuals with micro-businesses.

Here is the school in Webuye...

Key stage One classroom...

Key stage Two classroom...

Many of the children are orphans.  We plan to buy land and build a brick built school.  At present this little school is bursting at the seams so we will add another room as a short term fix, but it has no electricity or water or proper toilets.  And no equipment at all.  we are taking books, pencils, learning resources etc.

Below is another member of the team going out to Kenya for the month.  She visited a rubbish dump on her previous trip to Kenya and we will be visiting the school near there too...

The local school at Nakuru...

Dinnertime in the Nakuru school...

I leave in about half an hour so just time to post this and grab all my stuff.  It's not easy sharing about Kenya.  Many times I tried to blog and it just wouldn't flow.  I feel so privileged to be able to go to Kenya and make a difference in people's lives.  So very privileged.

He's been here...

 
Wow... seriously... Roman was here ^ doing a diving course.  He saw a giant turtle among other things and did a night dive and a wreck dive too.  He'll finish up with a basic and advanced diving qualification.  He sent through a few photos...

 

 

 

Certainly looks like they're having fun.  Still in Thailand as far as I know, but moving on today to a new place.  I'm sketchy on the details.  Here's an excerpt from his last e-mail...

 "We're moving on tomorrow to Koh Samui. Should be interesting.

Finished the advanced course as well now. Last night we went for a night dive. That was very interesting and disorientating, with just a torch, we went down to about 14m. You have to be so aware at night, it's easy to lose the group.

Next dive was the deep dive, that was this morning, it was quite scary at 30m, as you can't see the sea bed or the surface in the middle. Quite impressive as the maximum no decompression limit for recreational divers is only 40m!

Last dive this afternoon was the wreck dive. That was really good, it was a pretty impressive warship. It a boat that was bought from the americans by the thais after the war, and recently decommissioned and deliberately sunk. It was probably the most exiting dive.. and there are some underwater photos on facebook that I could probably dredge up.

I also bought the DVD of our final open water dive, which was recorded, it was the one with the turtle in it and it is a really spectacular dvd.  I'm glad I bought it because it really was good. That's something for you to look forward to seeing.

Love you loads."

The A' level results came out too.  He got an A  in PHYSICS, and A  in CHEMISTRY and a B  in Biology. He got into Uni so that's good.  So proud.  Missing him a lot at the moment :(

More Birthday antics... canoeing in Wales...

After a full day on the Saturday we got up Sunday to go canoeing in honour of Smurf's Birthday.  All 7 children paddled as well as Uncle Foghorn and myself.  Husb took all the photos and I am grateful to capture the activity.  Here's the Birthday boy...

Such a beautiful part of the country.  It was overcast but not raining.

 

Not sure why Roman, (below far right ) is sitting back not doing anything...?!

 

 

 

That's me below, having a blast. I used to canoe before I was married on white water rivers in Germany (long story) and I loved it. Being 4' 11" has no effect when you're sat in a canoe. It was just like riding a bike (although obviously canoeing is nothing like riding a bike)... it all came back to me.

Here's a close up of Chef who was really enjoying himself...

 

The instructor, Katy, was great (white helmet).  She demo'd the skills she wanted us to practise, then off we went to have a go. 

 

We played games too, like 'Sharks and Minnows' ... a variation of 'tag'. Lots of fun. So too was throwing a ball to each other.  No photos as Husb had gone for a coffee at that time.  Below is my niece, Sweetie.  She did really well, everyone did.
  

 Yep... this boy loved his Birthday activity (we all did)...

 

Once we'd put the canoes to bed, hung up our wet stuff and got dry and changed, we had a picnic in the courtyard.  No Birthday celebration is complete without a Nanny made cake.  Smurf loved the canoe dude on his cake...

 

If you're wondering... Uncle Foghorn was kindly sheltering the cake from the wind so's the candles didn't blow out prematurely.  There was a gathering for a group shot...

 

Here's the cake (minus the candles, just before it's cut up)...

 

There were a few rude comments about the canoe dude looking like he was straining to do something smelly and were it not for the canoe, he'd look right at home on a potty. heehee.

Thanks Nanny for a great weekend :()

Birthday weekend...

Smurf is now 14. They're all even numbers in this house (till Roman turns 19 in November).  My teens, as of August 11, 2011 = 14, 16 (x2) and 18.   heehee.... Looks like weird algebra when you put it like that!!

We went across to Wales to celebrate with Nanny and Grandad and spend time with the cousins.  On the Saturday we had a very early start to make sure we arrived in their Welsh village in time to submit some entries into the Village Garden Show/fete.  I love these really oldfashioned, traditional village events that they hold in the Village Hall.  It really is the hub of the community.  So many beautiful flower entries, amazing veg and home-made goodies from cake to crochet.  The twins had picked fruit and made jam.  They got a 1st in the plum jam section.  T-g was super happy...

 

Smurf entered two photographs.  One was for the 'macro' section and the other was 'digitally altered' (which for some strange reason he kept calling 'genetically modified'!)  He took photos of bees on flowers in our garden.  Here's what he ended up with... we printed them out A4...

 

 

The digitally altered/genetically modified ladybird photo won 1st prize.  So did Nanny's drawing...

 

T-g did a watercolour for the prompt 'Storm' and so did Nanny.  They came 2nd and 3rd...

 

My niece, Sweetie, had been staying with Nanny for the week and had made several wonderful entries into the Garden Show.  She painted a dolphin and decorated the frame with shells and next to her on the table is a minature garden in a brown terracotta dish.  She won 1st for both entries.  I think she also entered a veg bunny. 

 

My other niece made flapjacks...look at that happy face...

 

Sadly, my nephew, Davinci, didn't place for his veggie frog, but the competition was very high.  Love the tiny 'fly' on the frog's tongue...

 

The children lined-up with some of their entries...

 

There was a Newspaper Photographer about who took some photos...

 
Hoping they'll be in the paper :)

Sweetie won a cup for the under 12's overall winner.  This year Nanny is the President, so was handing out the cups and saying all the thank-yous to relevant people.

 

Afterwards we had a walk along the beach and returned home for home-made lasagne.  The children all chilled out and the adults chatted and caught up.  I'll do another post about the Sunday, which was canoeing! 

He's off on his travels...

Roman is going to Uni in September and decided to spend some time traveling over the Summer.  He waited to celebrate Smurf's Birthday weekend then set off and will be back in 6 weeks.  Here he is minutes before setting off with Husb and I to a farewell party, where we left him to be driven to Heathrow by the other boy's parent...

 

He wanted to wear trainers for the flights and has proper walking boots and walking sandals in his backpack.  There were goodbye hugs for his brothers and sister...

 

Earlier he had gutted cleaned out his room and brought all his travel stuff down to the Craft room to make a final check and pack up...

 

 
The farewell party was hosted by my friend, the other boy's Mum.  She'd made chili and pizza and there were yummy desserts.  They were leaving after Midnight that same evening.  We will be picking up from Heathrow in September.  Before we left I snapped a couple of photos the three travelling friends... love their happy excitement...

 
Roman is the youngest of the group and the other boy has travelled before.  Such a brilliant opportunity for him. I love to travel and am excited for him and all the new experiences he'll have, including a week of diving.  They will have arrived by now in Bangkok and plan to travel around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.  I was thinking about him all day yesterday, then in the evening I got an e-mail from him from Doha Airport where they had an overnight wait to fly to Bangkok.  This is what it said...

 

 

Hi mum just a very quick email from doha airport internet cafe. Its funny because the keys type in backwards!

Doha airport is literally in the middle of a desert and it was extreemly hot when we just got off the plane

No photos yet because i don't have an upload cable.

Local time here is 1937, and we didn't go into doha city because it is $45 for a 1 day visa.

Off to Bangkok early tomorrow, got an overnight airport wait.

You can tell robin i got some interesting arabic money.

Lots of love moog, email when i next have a chance.

 

 

Was very pleased to hear from him so soon and know he was on his way.  Last weekend we celebrated Smurf's 14th Birthday, more on that in another post. Also we had a lovely week with my folks visiting and I'll post about that too. I'm hoping to pick up with the Explore class again asap.

They are 16!

Our twins are 16. They are so grown up.  I couldn't be prouder of them. 

 

 We had a meal with Nanny, Grandad and the three cousins.  Nanny brought out her speciality Birthday cakes and we sang Happy Birthday.

 

For their Birthday they had lovely gifts and money from family far and wide and some days out are planned later in the year, but the most special moment was when Chef gave T-g a phone that he'd got with his own money.  It's got Android and can go on the internet and can do allsorts of whizzy things (except make tea).  It's the white version of his own phone that he got himself in black.  He was more excited to give her this present than about anything else.   This is so typical of him. 

They are a close pair, especially around their birthday when they refer to each other as 'my twin'.  Just lovely to capture a Birthday 'twins' moment as he showed her all the features of her phone.

 

Here's an old photo taken in 2000, when they had a Fancy Dress 5th Birthday party.  Tg was a Fairy Princess and Chef a Policeman.  Big bro Roman (7) was a clown and Smurf (3) was a ladybird (with a homemade costume I made from one leg of a pair of my black leggings and some fluffy red fabric and black felt dots) he was very cute. 

 

They all had a big, special party when they turned 5.  Seems like 5 minutes ago.  Love these old memories (because the reality was pretty hectic and busy with only 4 years between all four of them).

Flashback to Christmas...

 
It's been tricky to get time to sit down and put together a photo packed Christmas post.  It doesn't help that I have to resize each and every photo in PSE before I post.  Yikes.   Also, once the decorations have been put back in the attic, the Christmas flavour seems to be a thing of the past.  Anyway... here goes... a coupla days before Christmas T-g and I had a lovely day with my sis-in-law and 2 nieces.  They had a 'Build-a-Bear' experience from us as a pressie.  So lovely to watch their excitement and joy at bringing their very own cuddly to life then accessorizing...

 

 

 
What could be lovelier than a doggy on skates and a personalised 'Hello Kitty'?

 

Also before Christmas Chef had his first 'gig'.  It was amazing to see him on stage and he played really well...

 

Then the big day itself began with pressie opening and chillin out together.  Smurf, plugged-in to his i-pod touch, wearing a new T-shirt...

 

T-g looking so beautiful in her new clothes from Auntie S and Uncle Foghorn, holding her new (pink) e-reader...

 

Chef in his smart new leather jacket with Husb...

 

We went to stay with my folks after Christmas and the family met their new baby cousin...

 

The most happy and sweetest baby you ever met.  yes he was totally adored from the start...

 

 
My folks had worked hard and prepared a lovely three course meal.  Below we're waiting to start and my Dad looks like he's entertaining the troops and standing by to be the waiter/bouncer!

 

You know it's Christmas when you've got a paper hat on your head!

 

After the meal there was some serious gaming for some folks...

 

... and this little chap played happily in his big new toy...

 

Here he is getting some grandparent love...

 

We came home for a few days and Husb & big son worked, then went to stay over on New Year's Eve with Husb's sister and family, and Nanny & Grandad.  We played lots of games wore silly ties then saw the New Year in with champagne, Big Ben on the TV and a paper lantern...

 
Yep, family is what it's all about.

So thankful.

 

Making Christmas Decorations & Bird boxes...

We went to the same place we've been going to for 'Paddle Power' to make Christmas decorations with natural materials.  There was a variety of foliage like ivy, holly, pine branches and other greenery, with baubles and pipe cleaners too.

 

For the table decorations the children covered half a potato with foil and gouged out a hole to hold the candle.  They then spiked the potato with a bradawl and stuck their choice of foliage into the pierced holes...

 

 Smurf made a very bushy table decoration!

 

They also made hanging decorations by threading the foliage through some thick string.  I have one in the hallway and two in the lounge.  After this activity we went outside for a brisk frosty walk...

 

After lunch we made bird boxes and an insect home. 

 

 

Smurf made an insect home...

 

 

T-g made a blue-tit bird box...

 

The children really enjoyed the woodwork and I'd like to organise some more learning in that area if I can.  An action packed day for sure!