Thrifting, Holiday, Birthday & GCSE's

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I last blogged, time seems to be running away from me at the moment & I'm trying to catch up with all the blogs that I read, I suppose it will be easier now that Autumn is upon us! It was my eldest daughter's birthday on Saturday, Happy Birthday Jemma. She has recently moved out of her apartment and into a house with a garden so she had friends over for a barbecue, luckily the weather stayed dry as it has been awful for the past couple of weeks.

Mr CB had a weeks holiday and we were going to go away in our caravan but the keys have been mislaid, if they are not found we will have to change all the locks as you can't get replacement keys for the type of lock. Lily was very disappointed but we had some days out instead. We started to go to Dartmoor wildlife park, headed up the A30 towards Exeter then realised the wildlife park was over the other side nearer to Plymouth. By this time it was also raining so we ended up going into Okehampton, we looked around the town Charity Shop's and then the sun came out. So we headed over to the park and had a picnic, it's a beautiful park with a stream running alongside it and we found a really cute house in the grounds. It looks just like something out of a fairytale.

We went to Trethorne leisure farm one day, well for 2 hours! Saw some animals and Lily played in the sandpit and that was enough of that.

And we went up to Bude, it was quite sunny. We had a mooch around the town, bought some fish & chips to take to the beach for lunch, put our (my) shopping in the car and the heavens opened. So lunch was eaten in the car and this is what the beach looked like after.

If nothing else I did attack the charity shops a bit!

Some Enid Blyton.

Rowan & Patons wool at 50p a ball.

Some posies.

And plates.

And of course you need a bit of kitsch.

Of course last week held the day that we have been waiting for all summer, GCSE results day. I'm glad to say Jodie passed all her exams with 1 A*, 3 A's, 4 B's and 2 C's, well done Jodie! She has now enrolled in the sixth form to do A levels in Drama, B Tec music & performance, English language, Philosophy & Ethics as well as her gold arts award.

Crochet Hexagons, Amigurumi and Flowers.

At long last I have finished my hexagon blanket so now I really must finish the ripple.

But first I couldn't resist doing another hexagon using a different pattern this one has 3 different hexagon motifs, one has lots of clusters, one with a few less clusters and the third has fdptr so you get 6 lines from the fourth round to the first (like the blue & red one in the photo) All the hexagons will have a final & joining round in pale cream.

This is how far I've got only another 100 or so to go.

I've also made a cushion, yet to be backed, in 100% cotton for a change I usually use DK.

A little wallet to hold my store cards etc.

I haven't done any Amigurumi for a while except for Jodie's jigglypuff so had a little play making

this little jelly fish,

who spends most of his time hanging around in the bathroom.

Finally some flowers made whilst sitting outside on the few dry days that we have had, some are brooches and the smaller ones are going to be made into headbands..

I've also bought this gorgeous Kaffe Fassett wool and a circular knitting needle to make some socks. I haven't knitted for years, I think the last time was when I made a set of Jean Greenhowe scarecrows when I was pregnant with daughter no 2 who's now 19!

On Saturday I had a lovely surprise in the post, a beautiful flower brooch made by Lyn. We were swap partners for the freestyle swap in May and she sent me the brooch as she felt there wasn't enough handmade things in the swap. There really wasn't any need as I was delighted with my swap but it was wonderful to receive this one, which I put on straight away as I was on my way out wearing a taupe top, the perfect match.

Thankyou Lyn it was really kind of you.

A Flower Fest.

We haven't had a very good summer so far but the constant rain hasn't affected these.

Flowers from the Eden project August 2nd 2009.

And some from home.

I hope that's brightened your day. : )