Nonnie

'If you can't go sailing, go to Cornwall'

So we were happily pottering up Chichester Harbour on the second day of our holiday when George realised the tiller had broken. Quite difficult to steer with a broken tiller. Then we realised that part of the guard rail was quite seriously broken. Quite dangerous to go to sea with broken guard rails!

So what do you do when your boat is broken and you have a planned weeks holiday ahead of you? You call the in-laws and say "hello, would you like to see us? Like tonight? For like, a week?" Luckily, George's Mum and Dad were very happy with this suggestion so said yes, see you later! Hooray! Our holiday wasn't ruined.

So we jumped in the car and headed off through gorgeous Dorset and Devon countryside to the loveliness that is Cornwall. I had to ask George to stop so I could take this view of the Dorset coastline looking west towards Devon. Despite a few clouds, it was fantastically clear.

We stopped at a little roadside cafe and a couple of these chaps came to say hello. They were very brave, but then I think they were tempted by the delicious bacon sandwiches we were enjoying.

We had a lovely day in St Ives while we were there, although I did think George was going to explode as we sat on the very overcrowded train from Penzance to St Ives. We chose to take the train as it saves looking for a parking space, and the view as it winds it's way along the coast line is quite stunning. But the train was packed with holiday makers and after the lady behind us had bashed her elbow into George's head for the second time, my lovely boyfriend was not such a happy person! Hopefully the fantastic light of St Ives cheered him, and the huge bowls of delicious Moules washed down with a bottle of very chilled white in a peaceful little restaurant away from the crowds definitely helped! Here are some views of the day. The light was unbelievable and I'm not sure the camera has fully captured it.

We've been many times to Penzance now and have often walked past this pub but have never spotted what is is on the roof!

We were reasonably lucky with the weather while we were there but on one very dull morning we drove over to Falmouth to visit the Maritime Museum. It was the nearest thing to sailing that poor George got during the week. I know he enjoyed the week but did spend a lot of the time wishing we were on our little 'Merit'. He did get to admire some though.

The view from the viewing tower at the museum. I loved the terraced hillside of Falmouth. Would probably have been prettier in the sun!

Our week was truely relaxing and although it wasn't exactly what we had planned, it was a lovely holiday nevertheless. How could it not have been when we had such a lovely little companion to share our time there.

Alfie is George's Mum and Dads new dog. He may not be the prettiest dog in the World but he is the cutest. So funny, and very difficult to leave behind.

Our journey home was via George's Sisters in Looe for the night, then accross on the chain ferry to Plymouth, just for fun, before a little trip down memory lane for George, showing me the village he used to live in in Devon as a child after they left Cornwall. Here are a couple of images of Plymouth Hoe and looking out towards Plymouth Sound.

Finally, here is a very unusual weir that feeds a water mill in Ottery St Mary, which is close to where George used to live. We took a peaceful walk along the millstream to see this and had the most wonderful experience, when not one, but two kingfishers swooped down to the water then flew right past us along the length of the stream! We both just stood there open mouthed in amazement. I wish I could have captured it on film but they were far too quick. It finished off the holiday a treat. We may not have had our planned adventure to the Isle of Wight, but I know we will have chance to do that at some point, and our week in Cornwall was lovely. Cornwall is a place that makes me feel utterly relaxed and I feel lucky to have met my gorgeous Cornish man and be able to share his gorgeous birthplace with him. Thank you my love for a very lovely holiday x

********************

I've just realised this is my 100th post!!!!!! I can't believe I've made it to 100!!! No give away today I'm afraid as this has rather crept up on me, but I have a mini give away next post which involves a little involvement from all of you, and as it is my one year blogiversary some time this month, I will get my act together for a proper treat for you all so keep watching over the next week or two. xx

Brighton

I know it's a bit of an obvious picture when you've had a day out at in Brighton, but I couldn't resist snapping this row of deckchairs flapping around in the (strong) breeze. There's something so lovely and old fashioned about stripey beach deckchairs isn't there?

Well I had a lovely day on Saturday. I decided to take the train rather than drive which was a relaxing start. Friend Becky met me at the station and we had a lovely morning wandering the lovely shops around the lanes. Ooh I could have spent a lot! Good job for my band balance that I wasn't in the car so had to think about what I could carry. Did manage to pick up this little stash though. Some delicious lavender biscuits and 'Cheeseboard Chutney', both made in Sussex, a rather jolly washing up brush (which George asked for permission to use last night :-)), a pretty glass bottle which I will fill with pretty bubble bath, and a cute new ring.

Not a bad mornings shopping! We both agreed, that for once it was quite nice not to have 'the boys' with us as we could shop properly without bored faces behind us.

After shopping we went to a lovely place for lunch called 'Food for Friends'. Very well named for a long lunch with an old friend you haven't seen in a while. We were so busy chatting the waitress had to come back a fair few times before we were ready to order. Not quite sure why, but we both ended up with curry. I had a delicious Green Thai Curry and Becky had Korma. Both vegetarian which made a change for me but it was really lovely.

A gorgeous Brighton Garden.

We walked off our huge lunch with a stroll along the beach back towards hove and Becky's gorgeous flat. Tea and lavender shortbread were consumed along with lots more chatting before I popped myself back on the train to London.

As George was away all weekend racing to Weymouth, I had Sunday to myself and started on the new ideas that have been bubbling in my head over the last month. No pictures to show as yet, but there is a steadily growing pile of cushions ready to be sewn together and I am experimenting with a knitted project that I'm rather excited about.

Holiday photos next post. I promise. xx

Missing you already!

We're going on holiday for a week on Saturday and I've decided to take the opportunity to take a little blogging break. So I'm taking the rest of July off blogging and hope to come back very refreshed at the beginning of August, by which time I hope we might actually have a summer! If not then I think I'll be starting to think Autumnal inspiration!

Although I won't be posting myself, I'll still be checking up on all of you once we're back from our holiday and look forward to hearing what everyone has been up to for the week.

I think the break is just what I need as I feel a little lacking in inspiration just lately so I'll be taking lots of photos and adding to my inspiration and sketch books!

The shop will remain open while I'm away with the sale continuing for a couple more weeks, but please bear in mind that if you send me an order any time during next week, I won't be able to process it until we return from the Isle of Wight so you won't hear anything from me regarding the order until Monday 16th July. Those who have ordered from me this week, I will be posting out your orders before we go away.

Have a lovely, and hopefully sunny, July and I'll see you all on the 1st August. xxx

Saturday

Inspired by Tracey's post I thought I'd share with you the perfect Saturday night we had over the weekend.

Standing on the bank of the Harbour looking out over glistening water towards the setting sun. Watching two hot air balloons peacefully take off into the sunset and knowing that shortly you're going to head to a cosy pub for dinner, followed by snuggling into your new sleeping bag to fall asleep peering out through the open hatch towards to a huge sky full of stars. Getting back into work today is very difficult!

Our first adventure(but hopefully not too much of an adventure!)

The collar bone is pretty much fixed so we're going on our first expedition at the weekend! I think George is slightly amused with me that I am likening it to Swallows and Amazons. I told him last night that really I want to find a little island and set up a tent between two trees and light a fire and have adventures, rather than stay in the marina we've booked. Actually though in reality, I don't think there are any tiny islands in Chichester Harbour and to be honest the idea of a marina with toilets and shower is probably more appealing!

So we're all organised. The route is planned. Actually it's not far at all. We're just going further up the harbour to a place called Emsworth, staying there the night, then leaving with the tide at the crack of dawn to hopefully see the sunrise over the harbour on Sunday morning, then back to our mooring mid afternoon, after a morning of pottering and bird watching. Provisions have been partly purchased and George has just been shopping for new sleeping bags, torches, a wind up radio so we can listen to the shipping forcast while tucked up in bed, and a set of plastic plates, bowls and glasses. He's even purchased plastic champagne flutes so we can be really extravagant and sit sipping champagne in our little boat.

I've been out to buy a new note book so I can create a kind of diary of our trips. I plan on doing a bit of sketching and also using it to stick in photos of the trip and make notes on what we've seen. Hopefully this will develop as the season goes on.

So with all this adventuring at the weekend I'm not going to get a whole lot of crafting done. I'm going to have to get started again soon though as I've signed up to a craft fair in the Cotswolds in May and potentially another near Bath in July. I have quite a bit of stock to sell but I need a little more variety so I need to get busy again. I did make a couple of things last week while I was off which I will try to photograph tonight to show you all tomorrow.

With all this talk of Swallows and Amazons and sailing, this blog is in danger of turning into something other than a crafty/homemaking blog and that will never do. Having said that, I'm off now to make a cup of chai and daydream about a perfect sunny weekend onboard a little yellow boat but I can tell you that while I'm on that little yellow boat I will be daydreaming about summer sewing projects and getting homemaking inspirations from the nautical surroundings. x

Hello!

Hello. It's been a while hasn't it? What with holidays in Cornwall, and a week spent starting the major spring clean and clearout at home, it's been a busy couple of weeks but I'm back feeling refreshed and ready to go again. So today I'm not going to say much but give you some images of our few days break in lovely Cornwall. We stayed in Penzance with George's parents then Looe with his Sister. We were very lucky to have the most gorgeous sunny and hot weather and we both totally relaxed.

Thank you to everyone for all the comments on my last post. I'm sorry that I've been incredibly bad at replying lately. I will attempt to catch up on the backlog, but if I don't quite manage it, please accept this as a group thank you! xxxxx

Well the sun is shining very brightly here again in London and I hope it is wherever you are. Have a lovely Monday. xx

A Happy Easter!

What a gorgeous day we had on Saturday. This is the view of St Pauls as you walk up Ludgate Hill. All the better when the sun is shining as brightly as it was. The Christening itself was in the Crypt which conjures up images of a rather dark place, but the Crypt at St Pauls is lovely. Walking through from the entrance to the area where the Christening was to take place we passed some rather impressive tombs, one of which was that of Lord Nelson. Never mind the Christening, I think this was what made George's day more than anything!

So the dear little girl who was being Christened was very good indeed. Just a little cry when the Vicar poured the water on her. Who could blame her?! It was really lovely to catch up with some friends I haven't seen for a while, and friends of friends I hadn't seen for even longer. We also got to see my Sister and Brother-in-law and dear little Hamish which is always a joy. He is getting so grown up! Really walking well and interested in everything. He was extremely well behaved through the service although I think that might have had something to do with the fact he munched his way through it. He loves raisins and spent much of his time shaking some out of one of those tiny boxes they often come in then popping them quickly in his mouth incase any of the rest of us tried to take them first. So funny and so cute. He's a little love.

Tomorrow night we're off down to Cornwall for the long weekend and I just can't wait! I love Cornwall. Obviously my gorgeous Cornish Man loves it even more so he is particularly excited. We're setting off straight after work tomorrow and have booked a hotel in Somerset. Normally we do it all in one go which is a lot but we share the driving so it's not so bad. But as poor George is still unable to drive it would be far too much for me to do in one go after a day at work. So we'll stop in Dorset tomorrow evening then straight down to Penzance first thing Friday morning. I've probably mentioned before that George's parents live there and own a lovely wine shop in the town. They have a beautiful Regency terraced house over looking Mounts Bay which they've been doing a lot of work on so I'm very excited to see how it looks.

So I'm looking forward to a lazy weekend. We usually have plans to go places but more often than not stay around the town taking it easy. I think that's just what we need right now. Views of the sea, the sounds of seagulls, someone else cooking dinner..... What could be more perfect.

We're stopping the night on Sunday at George's Sisters in Looe in south east Cornwall. They've only just moved there so it will be lovely to see where they live and will break up the journey home a bit.

Next week I have the week off work so I definitely hope to get back to normal service around here. I plan on doing some sewing and carrying on with the spring clean/de-clutter that started last weekend. We have a lovely new bookcase being delivered on Tuesday so I'm going to have fun re-arranging!

I hope you all have the loveliest of Easter weekends. What ever you're doing, relax and have fun. Oh, and don't eat too many easter eggs!

xxxxx

More adventures of George the Bear

As you may have noticed I've been slightly absent lately as George and I have been pretty busy. The collar bone is mending nicely but it will be up to eight weeks for it to be totally fixed. Hence I've been doing a little more around the house than usual and have become the full time driver on our various trips around the country. Last weekend saw is in Salisbury, Cardiff, back to Salisbury, down to London then back home to London! So you will forgive me for feeling rather exhausted to be crafting or blog writing.

I think we perhaps bit of more than we could chew last weekend so I'm glad to say we're staying at home in London this weekend. We have a Christening to go to at St Pauls no less on Saturday! I believe it's in the Crypt rather than the main Cathedral, but it will be interesting none the less. So Sunday will be a day for unwinding and starting to give the flat a jolly good sort out. I think it must be the Spring in the air, but we're about to embark on a major Spring clean/de-clutter. We're going to buy some new pieces of furniture for storage and basically change the way the flat is organised. It's going to be something we work on over the next couple of months but I'm really looking forward to the finised result as I think it will make life a lot simpler.

So while we've been busy mending broken bones, George the Bear has been left in charge of the boat. As you can see he's doing an excellent job. Here he is just finishing off mooring the boat. He's a very clever little bear. We both feel totally confident knowing the boat is in his capable little paws for the next few weeks.

Hopefully I'll be back to normal service in a week or two. In the mean time I'll write a quick post when I can. I am reading you all but am struggling to find time to comment but I'll be back again soon. I also wanted to say thank you all for the comments on Milly Molly Mandy. It was lovely to hear that so many of you thought so fondly of MMM as I did. I'm sorry I haven't replied to any of your comments but I will slowly get round to it I hope.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend dear blogging friends. xxx

Salisbury(and the South Coast) - part 2

So I guess you're wanting to see what I bought on my trip to Salisbury? Sorry not to have shown you yesterday. I now feel like it's going to be a bit of a let down to those of you who have expressed feelings of excitement at seeing the Salisbury shops and what I bought! Unfortunately, beautiful City though it is, it doesn't really live up to expections with regards to shopping. But talking of shops, I must first say a big big thank you to Emma and Kelly who both took the time to email me with suggestions of places to visit. I think I went to most of the places they suggested.

So where was I? Ah yes, shopping. I was really hoping for some good vintage shops to explore but unless I missed something, I came across just one Antique shop(well more of a centre really) and a few charity(thrift) shops. The Antique Centre was very nice and lovely for a wander round, but it didn't throw up anything exciting for me unfortunately.

But I'm pleased to say that I did find some fabric and buttons all of which were at bargain prices. In particular I found a couple of lovely Cath Kidston napkins in a beautiful soft green which are going to be turned into cushion fronts. They were supposed to be £2 each which I think was already more than half price, but when I got to the till, I was charged only £2 altogether! I like bargains like that.

I also found some cute little buttons in my favourite colours. Not vintage unfortunately, just from a great fabric shop, but useful none the less. I already have plans for them.

And some lovely large scale red gingham. I can't resist gingham and am now wishing I bought more as it was a lot more reasonably priced than I've ever seen it here in London.

Finally, I found lovely felt in moss green, fusia pink and soft baby blue. The picture above really doesn't do justice to the colours I'm afraid. Actually, none of the pictures are great because I had to take them at about 9 o'clock last night. It was either that or wait for daylight next weekend to take them and that's just silly. (Can't wait for light evenings again!) I've got a few potential ideas for the felt. Just need time to sit down and try them out.

After we finished in Salisbury, we drove down to the coast to stay with George's Brother and his girlfriend again as we were doing boat work with them again on Sunday. Sam is as enthusiastic about the boat as George is. I just hope that Becky is not getting fed up of us or spending her Sundays hanging around our little boat? Hopefully not! We really had a fun time with them going to their local pub on Saturday night where there's always live music on. We did a lot of dancing which I love. Don't get to do it so often these days. I even managed to drag Geoge on to the dance floor for a slow dance! Poor thing! I think he secretly enjoyed it.

We got the mast up on the boat on Sunday so George was pleased. It's now looking like a proper boat. An apology to those of you not at all interested in boats, but here's a little pic. I thought it was about time I showed you where I go to most weekends lately! She is rather cute don't you think. She's going in the water this week so then the fun can really start, although I won't be sailing until I know George is totally confident with everything.(and the weather warms up a bit!)

So that was my weekend. Yet another busy one. This week I really do need to set time aside for creating as very little was done at the weekend other than buying materials. I'll post pictures as soon as I have some things done.

Salisbury - part 1

I have so many lovely pictures to show of my weekend that I thought I'd split it into two posts so more tomorrow. What a lovely weekend we had! Saturday's weather didn't start off with much promise and I feared I would be walking around Salisbury in the rain, and that I would have an extremely muddy boyfriend by the end of the afternoon spent on a soggy rugby pitch. But the rain did hold off and I had a lovely time wandering around the streets and shops of such a lovely town.

Above are a couple of shots of a particularly lovely street that was within the Cathedral grounds. I walked down here on my way to look around the Cathedral and when I got to the end of the street, I came across this lovely view.

And in the oppersite direction, this one.

I also saw the Cathedral properly for the first time, having caught site of the spire numerous times while driving into the City. Unfortunately there is some scaffolding around a bit of it at the moment but it's still stunning. I really loved the stonework details, especially some of the funny gargoyles.

The Cloisters are particularly beautiful at Salisbury.

So with all this site seeing you're probably wondering if I managed to find any shops. Of course I did! More tomorrow.
x