A busy- ish week

My Mum has been to stay with us this week and it has been lovely. I have just been to the train station to drop her off, she's always a bit torn about going home. She's happy to get home to see my Dad, but always a bit sad to be leaving us. Hopefully she had a good time while she was here.
We started off her visit with a trip to London to the Country Living Christmas Fair. Mum hasn't been to that fair before and she really enjoyed herself. We managed to look at all the stalls in relative ease before it got too crowded. I made a bee-line to see the lovely Julia from Red hen originals who makes fantastic bird and animal pictures by using potatoes! - yes you read correctly. This owl is my recent purchase, how fantastic is he? ( ignore the dates on the photos it's my sons camera and I don't know how to turn the date off  And it's three years out, I don't know what he does to it)

You would never guess her painting medium would you? I bought my first two paintings from her in March at the spring fair and I have just fallen in love with her work. These are my original pictures.

I must apologise for my terrible photos they really don't do the paintings justice, but I'm hoping Santa is going to bring me a better camera for christmas, if they are still terrible then it will be the fault of the operator. I need to get my owl framed and then I think I will hang him in the bedroom.

I also had my eye on this bag from Susie Watson, it's supposed to be a toybag but I'm going to use it as a bag to carry my laundry out to the washing line, I've been meaning to get a new one for ages and I think this will do perfectly, it will certainly brighten up the washing chore, what do you think? It's very jaunty isn't it? 

So we had a great time in London and even managed to squeeze in a visit to Loop where I bought another skein of Madeline Tosh sock wool, but I haven't got a photo to show you, maybe next time.

The rest of the weekend was spent chilling, I carried on with my ripple blanket , Mum played with Little T and on her DS and Hubby painted his teeny tiny soldiers. I will take a photo one day of our Sunday afternoon crafting sessions. 

Yesterday we went for a jaunt to beautiful Southwell in Nottinghamshire, mainly to visit the wool shop as I had run out of a colour I needed for my ripple blanket, only to find that it was closed. Never mind we had a nice time anyway even though it seemed to be monday closing for most of the other shops as well ! So today I decided after dropping Mum off at Newark I would whizz back to the wool shop for a second attempt, guess what ? it was shut today as well . Hmmph. 

New project

I have been trying to do this post for a while but the computer wouldn't let me upload my photos for some inexplicable reason. Anyway, I want to show you my latest crochet project, I'm joining in with Attic 24's ripple along. These are the colours that I've chosen, they are a mix of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino and Millamia merino. 

The colours are beautiful and the wool is a dream to work with, I am loving this blanket so much. It took me a few goes to get it right. I spent many hours doing the foundation row only to end up with more stitches at the end of the row. The next attempt saw the foundation row going well but then I realised at the end of the second row I had made a pattern error right at the beginning of the first row! That was a very frustrating weekend. Once I'd cracked it though the pattern was really straightforward and the blanket is now steadily growing. 

Hope you like it, I'm already planning what to do with the leftover wool, maybe another cushion. I haven't given up on the knitting completely, I've also been making another pair of socks as it's that time of year when I want to pad around the house in cosy socks.

The yarn I have used is Regia and it forms a nice stripey pattern as you go along. I've got two more balls of sock wool to use up so I'm going to be pretty busy. 

I have got some other finished things to show you but I will do that next time as my hubby is out and I need him to show me how to rotate my photos. I knew he would be useful for something.