Random Round Rup

Yes I know it is meant to be 'UP' but I liked the three 'R's.

Here is a tiny bit of our Summer so far. Not much to report since we are taking it easy and having lots of pyjama days and "just us" time. "Just us" time is our very favourite but only if it is interspersed with the occasional socialising with friends.

Happy flowers on the Breakfast Terrace table. (AKA back yard table)

Beautiful smelling climbing rose next to the Breakfast Terrace Table. It starts off cream and slowly fades to peach and then finally pink. It is gorgeous.

The Red Arrows were doing a show at Weston Super Mare pier and were regrouping over our house. So exciting. I love the Red Arrows. They make me skip about.

I worked out how to do simple cables when we were at a picnic in the park next to the surgery. Little has a persistent outer ear infection so we have been to the Doctors a few times. Man, his ear STINKS!

Here is a "Just Us' pyjama day in action.

Here is Mini getting into mischief which I believe is his default setting. He is almost 18 months old now and is wild!

Here is my Bee. My friend since we were 12. Here we are playing our "Pull a Face" game. Her little family came to stay for the weekend. Her husband is one of the Cool Boys from my youth. The unobtainable. Sometimes I look at him in my kitchen helping himself to a cuppa and I think to myself "OMG! I can't believe DB is in my kitchen!" Such a funny feeling. It transports me back to being 14. I had an enormous crush on his brother. Now his brother and I are godparents to their son. Funny how life turns out!

We went on a lush bike ride, Us lot and Bee's family. It was so great to get out on Lou Lou. I filled her basket with essentials. Nappies, phone, plasters etc... 

There's me looking like I'm wearing a White Witch's Wig and doing my best to set off without falling off. It's hard work trying to get going with Mini's chariot on the back.

That little blessing in the chariot makes me want to sing! I just adore seeing him running about with his brothers all day long. It's so nice having them home all the time. Talk to me in a few weeks and I may have changed my tune

I have been making a ginormous effort in the garden this year and as a result I have had fresh flowers in the house constantly. My nightly read is limited to gardening guide books and I have subscribed to Gardeners World. I do not like gardening but i am finally seeing some good results and so I feel spurred on. I'm going to try to maintain momentum so that the garden starts to looks good in the spring.

This is a rose that I thought I had made a pruning mistake with. I have been seeing roses like this all through blog land and instagram through out June yet mine didn't flower till just a couple of weeks ago. So worth the wait.

Hurrah! The garden is beginning to look how I hoped. 

That's our view from the snug, I planted those Nicotiana thingies there because they smell nice at night. I thought we would open the window and sniff in the fragrance. I forgot Mr T gets hay fever. Also it has been a bit on the chilly side here in England.

Garden pickings. I could just hop on the spot! These came from my garden. I grew these flowers. I cannot believe it! I cannot believe my dahlias didn't get killed off through the winter.

I finally finished a dress I started sewing last year. It fits like a.......sack! It's bad bad bad, But I have a plan and I hope to get it just right at some point.

So there we go! A Random Round Rup.

xxx

ps. I have finally made it into the realms of a Bonafide Blogger, not only do I get about 20 spam emails a day (I'm resisting Word Verification), I got a Troll commenter on my last post! Can you Adam and Eve it!! Ha! I think they are called trolls anyway. You don't get very many in the crafting community so I'm not sure of the correct terminology. Anyway a person, I assume a woman, left an unkind comment on my last post. She was an anonymous commenter of course, aren't they always? I felt quite upset to begin with. Yes Madam Anonymous, you succeeded in your mission, you hurt a person you don't know who has never done anything unpleasant to you aside from write in a way you don't like. Anyway, I'd like to thank those of you who saw the comment and either posted a response or contacted me directly or reassured me on instagram. So despite the best efforts of that person I am still in love with blogging and most importantly I have had a personal Epiphany. Some of you may recall my post last October where I revealed all about my experience with depression, well his commenter has made me realise just how far I have come. How well my head is these days. Yes, I know I am still medicated but my head handled this little upset very, very well. Maybe a year ago I would have broken down over it. Not the case now. I'm thankful of the timing actually. So I guess I owe Madam Anonymous a huge heartfelt THANK YOU! Thank you for making me realise I am finally really quite well.

Janet Smith Can't Knit...

...but her sister certainly can and she has a wonderful knitting pattern book out NOW! 

It's by Suzie, you know, my buddy, I've waffled on about her before. She owns The Wool Sanctuary and runs Knit Club which is the highlight of my month.

Suzie's book is called Janet Smith Can't Knit (and you can buy it here, just scroll down a bit and you'll see where to click) because although Suzie is an ah-may-zin knitter and designer who was taught by her Mum, her sister is rubbish at knitting. Her sister is called Janet Smith. See? Well it all makes perfect sense to our Soooooooozie who is utterly bonkers in THE bestest way ever. I think I may have said that before. Yes I have.

When I first went to Knit Club, Suzie was talking about her book, talking about her designs and her excitement and all her dedicated Knit Clubbers were all a spin about the very thought of there being a book. 

This is my favourite image in the book.
Suzie being bonkers.

Then it all fell through. The deal, the negotiations all went wrong. But Suzie, being the strong wilful spirit that she is said "Huh, well, they can stuff it, I'll self publish"

I sewed the gap up on this eye. I never thought I'd ever do ophthalmic surgery,
but there we are.

So she did. She just got on with it. Rowan saw her designs knitted in their yarn and started jumping up and down saying they wanted to distribute her book.

And here we have it! Rowan are now busy flinging the book out to various stockists near you. She did it. The girl did it and although it isn't really my place to feel pride, I do feel ever so proud of the gal. I feel so very thrilled for her. It's a dream fulfilled. I get so emotional when I see people fulfilling dreams. I think that is why I am all tearful when I watch the Olympics.

The book has 12 hand knit designs from scarves and wrist warmers to cushions and soft, erm, aliens. There is nothing too advanced for the beginner to tackle. You really need very little experience or knowledge to knit these patterns. That is the beauty of this book. It isn't an instruction book on knitting. It's a book filled with patterns that a novice knitter could tackle successfully. That's not to say the patterns don't produce an interesting item. No not at all. The patterns have plenty of appeal for die hard knitters too.

Want to see more? Here you go:

What do you think? Great huh! That is until you see who is peeping out of a couple of the pages....

....ME!

Ha ha!!!

Yes that is me leaning against that great big house. It's a bean bag which is a groovy ornament when not in use. Genius. I don't really like the look of bean bags but I really do love the look of a big old knitted house.

The shoot was so much fun. It was in Suzie's friend's, Clare and Stewart's glorious house, seriously glorious. Every inch was perfect. Each detail was considered. I just kept swooning over it. I bet I was rather boring actually. "Oh my! I L:O:V:E this *insert item*" x 6 million. It was a weirdly relaxed day for me, probably because all I had to do was put on different clothes, stand in different places doing different expressions with my face in order to show off Suzie's designs. It was tiring but it was such a change of real life for me. A change is as good as a rest as they say.

Below are pics I took with my iPhone and then fiddled with on instagram (still so addicted except Mini dropped my phone down the loo today so it is drying out and I can't use it much, at least I really shouldn't). They capture a little bit of behind the scenes. The photographer was Rebecca Roundhill (Becr on IG) and her work is quite simply astonishing. Go and have a peep at her website. It was so great to spend the day with her, she made me feel really comfortable in front of the camera. I am a bit insecure about the pointy-ness of my chin, I was teased about it when I was younger. They called me Chinny Hill at school. Anyway, Becca managed to get so many wonderful photo's where magic happened and my chin looked almost dainty!  Shame they had to be cut from the final book for various reasons. Either the knitted designs weren't used in the book or the yarns of the particular item were discontinued so Suzie had to frantically re knit and re shoot, or the chosen clothes looked all wrong. But do you know what? The book is so much better for having more of Suzie and all her quirkiness in it. It's her dream, it should be full of her, so it has all worked out for the very best. I just loved having a small part in the making of it. It was a privilege  to have been asked to be involved at all. Thank you Sooooooooozie, truly.

The master at work

A wrist warmer design that got cut

Becca working her magic

So there we go! My mate is a famous author!

Now, wanna see something funny?

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WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENENED HERE?!

Woops!