Gwynt y Môr

Its not been a week for crafty pursuits as my sister is visiting and we've been out and about when I was not working. The other evening we did one of my favourite things and went to the beach to watch the sunset.

Unfortunately there was quite a lot of cloud about so the sky was not spectacular but we enjoyed the display nevertheless. As you can see there were very few people around - just a few dog walkers and one lone fisherman with his little terrier. He must have been wearing his thermals as the wind was very cold once the sun went down.

I wonder how long he stayed. Is it mean of me to say I hope he didn't catch anything! I really hate the thought of those nasty hooks!

There is a huge wind farm off the North Wales coast named Gwynt y Môr (sea wind in English) which is supposed to be the second largest in the world! I don't know how I feel about it really but there is no doubt it makes an impressive sight in all sorts of weather. 

But its always the minutiae of life that catches my attention - like this beautiful stranded seaweed. Unlike more popular beaches on the North Wales coast, the sand on this beach is always perfectly clean and smooth as it gets washed by the tide right up to the sea wall twice a day.

We stayed right to the very end of the sunset and got a bit chilled - so I bought a bag of oven chips on the way home to warm us up!!!

Now I really must get on with something creative to  show you next week! 

Another hexi week

Its been another week of small hexagon patchwork and I'm still really enjoying it.  Two more sewing kits and a lavender filled pincushion came together in the last few days. My next project might be even smaller as I won some lovely Liberty Tana Lawn 2 inch squares on ebay which are now waiting for attention.

And there have been a few notecards inspired by this card on Audrey's blog that really took my fancy.  I just had to order that brush stroke stamp set and inked it up as soon as it arrived.  I coloured (with Zig watercolour pens) the daisies from Friends till the End (Papertrey Ink) after stamping with Versamark Ink and white embossing powder - something I don't do very often as its rather a palaver and I never seem to get a perfect result. The daisies were die cut and glued over the stripey background.

And finally this week, I watched a family of swallows on the wires in the same spot on the farm where I took the first photo on 14th April this year - the first swallows I'd seen locally.  I like to think these are the same pair with their successfully fledged offspring - I'm sure they are!

Summery Outdoors Stitching

 

We're enjoying a rather changeable July here in the UK. Sunshiny hot days, the odd heavy thundery shower, and days when the breeze is just too cool to sit out.  But on evenings when I can I like to sit on my Mum's front porch with a bit of stitching, watching the birds and the hedgehogs gobble up the bird seed I've just scattered on the lawn.

This week I've been busy with a small patchwork project from that talented duo at A Spoonful of Sugar.  Who doesn't need a small sewing kit to take on travels - either when holidaying or crafting away from home.  The pattern is an instant PDF download here.

I'm on my third kit already - the first two being gifts for my traveling sewing sisters and the third will be for me.  Such small scale patchwork comes together very quickly and if you enjoy a bit of hand sewing the whole project can be put together without a sewing machine if you choose.  I did resort to my machine for the outside quilting and stitching on the binding but its really not needed.

And sitting out at this time of year I cannot ignore the lovely sweet scent of the Mock Orange (Philadelphus). One boundary of the garden is lined with the shrub and its in full bloom at the moment. It doesn't last very long and soon there will be a shower of confetti-like petals every time the breeze blows. So I'm making the most of it.

Stitching, Baking and Colouring

 

Thank you my lovely readers for your suggestions on fabric tray motifs (see my last post). I think I'm going to go with Anja's suggestion of a strawberry - not least because it should be quite easy to sew! I am still on the fabric tray kick and this week as a variation made this little patchwork coaster set I found in Rashida Coleman-Hale's lovely book I (HEART) Patchwork. Quite time consuming but a lovely gift idea - I'm going to give these to my sister for a house-warming gift as she is moving home (and country) soon.

This week I also tried Mary Berry's recipe for Mini Apple and Almond cakes - it looked so simple on her TV programme last month. I had to buy some baking rings though and stupidly bought the wrong size so though the recipe should make 6 cakes I only got 4. At this time of year there are no cooking apples from the garden so I bought a couple of whoppers from the supermarket - enough for about 20 cakes!!!

I didn't have any flaked almonds for the topping but found a bag of ratafias on the cupboard and crushed them over the tops instead. Yummy with Greek yoghurt or Creme Fraiche!

And it had to happen didn't it! I'm such a sucker for the latest craze in the papercrafting world and THE latest must haves are the Kuretake Clean Colour Pens. Yes, I've started a small collection. I toyed with the idea of getting them from Japan as they are cheaper over there of course but there is that long long wait for them to arrive.  However I ended up buying them from my favourite on-line pen store Cult Pens, which has a really good price with free postage if you spend over £10 - and they usually arrive the next day.

So I can build up a collection slowly by purchasing a few every couple of weeks or so.  There are plenty of reviews on line if you are curious to know what this craze is all about.  I recommend Jennifer Mcguire's blog posts and videos here  and apologise if you catch the craze watching them!!!