"Summer is a'comin' in....."

Well maybe it is! The sun is shining and the temperature is rising at last, so lets hope! Whatever the weather I am so enjoying the lush greenness of England again, the trees are breathtaking at the moment, the blossom last month was gorgeous and now there are lilacs and clematis blooming, such a treat!
Apologies for the long absence from blog land, I moved back to blighty in January and have had several stressful months of finding a home and settling into it. My family have so supportive and helpful and I am at last happily settled
I am now living in a lovely little flat in a sheltered housing complex in Croydon, near where I grew up. I have joined a lively Anglican church in South Croydon and belong to a homegroup locally where I am making friends and feeling part of a community again. I've also joined a local fun choir and started a knit and natter here in the flats and joined a Craft club.
Here are the first splash of colour at my window sill when I first moved in....

                                                 

Needless to say I have been crafting where ever and whenever I can! Firstly for my new granddaughter born on the 16th March. Here is the sleeping bag I knitted for her while in transit

and some little bunny bootees....

And a little crochet amigurumi bunny

A begonia that is flowering continously on my windowsill...

The gorgeous blossom in the park right next door to me...

One of the greatest joys of being home is spending lots of time with my gorgeous grandchildren, here is Noah using Nannie's stamps and loving it!

A little Olive chuckling on my sofa!

A birthday card for a little girl I know, made from the Angelina CD by Crafters Companion

Another joy of being on the outskirts of London is being able to go to shows etc, I visited the Kaffe Fassett exhibition in at the Fashion and Textile Museum near London Bridge, fabulous colours and textures in knitting and crochet, patchwork, tapestry and mosaics, would recommend a visit to anyone,

Cup caking making for a visit to friends (rhubarb and custard flavour) with new silicone moulds to make the flowers and leaves, so easy and  very pretty. Needless to say not a crumb left!

My latest creations from a CD called Fabulous Fashion by Katy Sue Designs.

My crafty skills were soon discovered at church and I was invited to help at Rendezvous, an outreach activity day for elderly and disabled people. I decided to do shaving foam marbling and it was a great hit, several people made book marks or cards from there inky creations and were very proud of their achievements. It was a very happy and satisfying day for all, to be repeated in the Summer.

I still have lots of WIP's (works in progress) around the place, but the priority is a little pinafore dress for little Olive, pics soon!

I hope to write much more regularly now, please send your comments and questions, I love to read them!

Bye for now and enjoy the weather!

and the heat is on....

Yep Summer has arrived with a capital S! Too hot to do anything in the afternoons and I need a fan on in the evening to be able to knit. Thank goodness for air-con or sleep would be impossible In June we had July weather early, wished we could have done a swap with the UK, I would have loved some rain and cold winds (then and now!) and they would love some sun! Oh well, there are some benefits, freshly made lemonade from home grown lemons, swimming in the pool, eating every meal outside, gorgeous produce in the market.... no I won't make my UK friends any more jealous...but I think you have had some Summer now?
Did you see all the fuss about a lady knitting at Andy Murray's tennis match at Wimbledon? I was totally with her, I was knitting furiously all through it to help the nerves! Such a shame her lost the final, but this afternoon he has just got a gold medal to make up for it.

On to the flowers around the house right now, hibiscus

Gorgeous rose called ' Parade'

 Pink verbena I think and white petunia

Yep, lots of pink, but there are other colours coming along too.
I started this entry in June would you believe, life has just been too busy and I haven't been able to gather my thoughts into any sort of order for weeks! The heat has been really knocking me out, I had a tummy bug two weeks ago and I have now developed shingles, so I'm hiding in the aircon and being very lazy until the pain and itching subsides.
I haven't been totally idle though, here are some of the projects I've completed recently

Crocodile stitch bag

close up

I am absolutely delighted  at how this has turned out, it was from a free pattern from the Bernat website called Mermaid tears purse. I used 4ply 100% wool from Kauni in rainbow colourway and used a 3mm hook, so the bag is smaller than the original pattern, but the colours are gorgeous! I wasn't sure about the flower, but it has grown on me!

Next up cards..

A wedding card using Chloe's heart stamp on vellum and glittered and embellished with pearls. 

another from Chloe's stamps, the dandylion stamp, again on vellum, its very glittery but you can't see that in this pic

Playing with my peg stamps from Cardi-o this time and a Clarity stamp greeting, love doing these, will be doing more samples for Craft club ideas for next term,

Pretty poppy stamp from Hobby Art this time, coloured with Promarkers, lovely to do.

and finally my little pickle was 2 in July so this was what I did for him. He loves London buses so it was a very patriotic theme this time!

I finally finished my rug hooked cushion, the delay was finding the right backing fabric and i hate doing piping, but I got down to it eventually.

On the knitting front I have been making a denim jacket for Noah and a matching outfit for his teddy Barney

Cute eh? Just love doing tiny things, such fun and he really loves his teddy so its not a waste of time and effort. There are more scapbooking pages on the way, but will not be revealed until I've taken them over in September.

I'll leave you a picture of my Datura in full bloom, spectacular, I promise I won't leave it so long next time!

PS, here is one of my WIP's a scarf from the lovely alapaca yarn my daughter brought me all the way from Peru....