Category: outdoors

Catching up

Wow, it’s been a long time! I’m not really sure why I ended up having such a long break from my blog but I suppose life just got in the way for a while and the longer the break went on, the harder it seemed to write that first post again. It’s been about 7 months since I last posted and i feel I should catch you up a little on what’s been happening in that time. Nothing major that should have stopped me from posting really but as i look back at the photos I’ve packed quite a lot in to this year, so it’s no wonder if not found the time to post!

If I was to tell you about everything that I’d done in the last 7 months I’d be here all night, so here is the condensed version with pictures.

There has been a lot of gardening. Our garden produced so much for us this Summer, I really am thankful! We had a huge amount of courgettes and green beans. We tried to use them as we went along but there were so many, our freezer is now full of zucchini soup and green beans. We also had plentiful tomatoes, raspberries and so many beautiful sunflowers.

There has been lots of running, including 3 half marathons and of course the all important bling!

There have been plentiful family times including a wonderful caravan holiday in the Summer where we were able to catch up with family and dear friends who we hadn’t seen for a while. Special memories were made and shall be cherished for a long time to come!

Alongside all the other goings on there has, of course been a lot of crafting. Never quite as much as I’d like but when I look back on the last 7 months I do wonder where on earth I’ve fit it all in. Over the Summer months I did a lot of embroidery for gifts as a number of friends sadly moved away. I forgot to take photos of all the finished embroidery but here’s a snapshot of what was made:

I have also done a fair bit of crochet but I haven’t got a lot to show for it as yet as it’s been for a couple of long term projects that still aren’t quite finished. I did however finish 3 children’s poncho’s recently (1 for little miss and 2 ready for Christmas gifts) and earlier in the year I made a baby blanket

I have a few ongoing wipes and lots of projects just waiting to be started.

current wips:

1. A bright squares rainbow 🌈 blanket for Little Miss:

I’m onto joining the rows and hopefully will have it finished in time for her birthday in a couple of weeks.

2. I have a stash of purple grey and white squares just waiting to be joined and made into a blanket. I plan to start joining them as soon as I’ve finished the blanket for Little Miss.

3. As if I needed another big project I felt the need a couple of weeks ago to start making large granny squares out of left over yarn and so a ‘happy scrappy’ blanket is now underway too.

Waiting in the wings to be started I have a bag full of  chunky yarn which I just couldn’t resist a few weeks ago. Im pretty sure that’s going to become a blanket in the near future too but hopefully this one won’t take to long to do as it’s super chunky yarn with a 20mm hook!

At the same time I found the chunky wool, I also found a beautiful bright variegated yarn which I also failed to resist (just when streamlining had been going so well!). I quite fancy making some sort of funky shrug with that but we’ll see.

Just in case all those projects weren’t enough I’ve also got 3 more zenbroidery pictures ready to start and the Autumn Box from craftpod which  hasn’t yet been touched, plus a hundred more ideas floating around in my brain, waiting to come to the forefront. If only there were more hours in the day…

Hopefully I’ll have some more finished projects to show you soon…watch this space!

Karen x x

 

 

Easter weekend

This years Easter weekend was truly blissful and already seems like an age ago. The sun shone the whole weekend and all was very good in my world. Friday was spent cleaning the barbecue, and planting and tidying in the garden but I didn’t mind it one bit. On Saturday I had a very proud Mummy moment as little Miss took part in her first ever race with me (1.2km) and was super proud of her medal. Rich also took part in the 5km race and of course I was proud of him too! In the afternoon we made the most of the weather and had friends round for a barbecue. Sunday started with the obligatory Easter egg hunt. Little Miss was so excited that the Easter bunny had left clues around the house for her. I just love her excitement and enthusiasm, just this morning she said to me ‘Mummy, I just cant stop thinking about the Easter bunny still. Bless her heart. Sunday afternoon was another barbecue but this time with my stepson and stepdaughter. It was lovely to have us all together as its not something that happens very often. I don’t have many photos to show of the weekend as they all have people in and I don’t like to put other peoples faces on my blog without their permission. I do however have lots of photos to show in the next few days of this weeks finished projects…I’m so excited to share them.

Anyway,  back to Easter weekend. Monday brought yet more beautiful weather, so after I went out for an early run we set off to bad Wunnenberg, which is about 30 minutes drive away from us. There are a lot of walks around the area, one of them being a 1km ish barefoot trail. I really didn’t know how Little Miss would react to it but I have to say, she amazed me. Its not easy in parts as some of the stones are very prickly and the water was cold enough to make our feet ache. LM did the whole thing without complaining and even went around again with me later. The playground there is fabulous and she spent a good 2 hours playing on the apparatus, paddling in the stream and digging in the sand. Rich and I took turns to watch her whilst the other relaxed in the sunshine. The day was topped off with tea out on the way home, sat in the sunshine. Just perfect!

Even though it was a busy weekend, there was plenty of time for crafting for both LM and I. LM made this chick from a kit, I did me me giggle very childishly!

Her explanation was that the circles are there to hold the wings on, she’s wearing a crown (albeit in a rather strange place) and the egg is on her head because she’s thinking of when her Mummy laid an egg. I just love how little children think!

Together, we also decorated this beautiful jewellery box (one of the many kits left from her birthday last year).

 

I also finished my zenbroidery mandala but so many hours of work went into it, I feel it deserves its own post so, watch this space…

Karen x x

Enjoying the simple things

With all the lovely weather we’ve had here in April, there has been a lot of outdoor time here at Chez Oakley and a lot of pottering in the garden. Mr O has given the shed a fresh coat of paint, I have been planting flowers and weeding and little Miss has helped me plant A LOT of seeds. We planted pumpkins, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and courgettes which will all go into the vegetable patch once it has been weeded and prepared. We also planted sunflower seeds which I’m planning to put at the back of the vegetable patch to cover an unsightly wall.

 

 

I’m so looking forward to seeing the flowers grow and fill out the hanging baskets and the geraniums and lavender open up in the flowerbeds. Hopefully in just a few weeks the garden should be transformed by colour!

Of course as well as all the gardening, there has been time for relaxing outside too

We’ve also had a couple of really lovely days out at a local park. The first time we went with my friend Lou and her boys. Little Miss and the boys were absolutely fascinated by the tadpoles and water snails and spent a good couple of hours pond dipping. We made sure that all creatures were put back in the water they were taken from. I got a chance to have a play with my camera and try out some different settings and am really pleased with the result.

My favourite photo from the day out though has to be this one of Little Miss taken by my talented friend Louise Mackenzie with her super duper lens!

I’m planning on having  this one printed out onto canvas.

Last weekend, a week after visiting the park with Lou and her boys, Mr O and I took Little Miss back to see if the tadpoles had changed at all. There was very little change to see but once again she was fascinated and spent a long time ‘collecting’ water snails and trying to spot the biggest tadpole (again all creatures were returned to the water). At one point one of the bigger tadpoles come to the surface to eat some algae and we actually saw it open its mouth, which for a little tiny tadpole is not something you can visibly see very often. Again, I had a play with my camera, trying out some manual settings (until the battery died, which wasn’t very long into our trip unfortunately).

We didn’t stay for as long this time and there was no crocheting done as the weather wasn’t so good and it had started to rain. As the weather is supposed to be lovely this weekend, I have promised  another visit to the park so we can continue to follow the tadpoles progress. We’ll hopefully cycle there, take a picnic and make a full day of it  and of course I shall be taking my crochet with the aim of squeezing a couple of squares  whilst little miss plays. Happy happy days!

Karen x