La D Da ...ta da! Happy Halloween!

I've finished or almost finished just to make some cord to hang it but otherwise it's done!

Phew! My first ornament finish, which I managed thanks to several online tutorials. I did it yeah with just a little bit of chaos along the way ;0)

One person was brave enough to take on the orange linen challenge so the linen is on its way over to Annette of California Sticher as we speak. Hope you have your sunglasses ready Annette!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Wales part two

Goodness I had hoped to post this earlier but it has been rather hectic round here this week. Hoping things settle a bit over the weekend, I just don't do hectic very well.
I promise this will be the last post on my welsh holiday for those who are thinking 'oh no not more holiday snaps' *grin*
One of the holiday highlights was visiting the National Wool Museum of Wales in Llandysul Carmarthenshire.

These fun guys were waiting for us at the car park.

The museum is housed in the old Cambrian Mills which used to produce blankets and shirts. The old mill machinery has been restored and is run at certain times during the day unfortunately we missed them running but I can imagine the noise when the machines are all running! I didn't get any pics of the wool exhibits as I left my phone with hubby wahhhh!  There was an amazing array of blanket styles, clothing and exhibits of art and design students work from local colleges.

I did manage to snap this on the way out, isn't it amazing! a map of the surrounding area all done in wool by a local group.

I fell in love with the Welsh wool blankets they come in an amazing array of colours and patterns but sadly they were a little out of my budget. 

But not to be thwarted I treated myself to these gorgeous lavender bags made from Welsh wool blanket scraps. I can't tell you how soft and snuggle and gorgeously scented they are! 

I just love that spotty pattern. I will have to save up and go back one day to get the whole blanket. 

While we were in the area we also visited New Quay Honey Farm.

This amazing contraption allowed you to open up a hive and see the bees busy at work. Soo glad they were behind glass though.

My little bee keeper!

 We of course visited a lot of castles and stately homes while we were away but I have to say that Manorbier Castle was by far our favourite.

This was the view from the car park and there was a steep climb up to the castle itself. 

 Manorbier is not a big castle but beautifully proportioned.

Hubby took these photos for me as I was too much of a scardey cat to climb up onto the remains of the battlements. I got up the stairs where you can then walk out on the remains of the wall and there is a small metal barrier but it just didn't look substantial enough for my liking lol. Hubby and son scoffed at us girlies and walked out while we girlies walked back down to terra firma. 

The weather was amazing look at that blue sky. 

This was the walk back down to the car park, do you see the sea over there? 

Well there was also a beach! The kids and I had great fun down here while hubby read a book in the car. 

We did some rock pooling. 

Building dams to hold back the sea. 

Not too successfully. 

Not to be thwarted, another try! 

Time to go home.

X

As promised I also have a couple of progress pics to share.

I've still to add a name but otherwise done.

I started this using two strands of thread over two however it looked very loose and chunky if that makes sense and frankly it was going to end up enormous. Soooo I ripped it out and started again using one over one only problem is that some of the colours were made by mixing two different coloured strands so I am having to make some executive decisions about colours. Oh well it will be unique. Thank you for stopping by.

West Wales Wool Show

I was very lucky to be visiting Narberth, Pembrokeshire in Wales during the school Autumn holidays and by pure chance, as I only discovered this the day before the event, there was going to be a wool show on the day after we arrived! Oh my! What an amazing stroke of luck I've never been to a wool show before so had no idea what to expect and I was rather excited. We decided to visit as a family and for various reasons didn't make it to the show till very late on in the day so some of the stalls were looking a bit sparse by the time we got round to them but still plenty of goodies to see!
On arriving we could see Narberth had been yarn bombed. It was very busy so I could only snap pics of a few pieces but take it from me those yarn bombers had struck everywhere.

The show was split over two vennues and due to an oversight on the expedition leaders part (i.e. me) we very nearly missed the second one. Both venues were small and very busy with lots of people so I didn't get a chance to take pics to share with you. You will just have to take my word for it there was some amazing stalls selling all sorts of wool and woolly accessories some produced locally. The first hall we visited was selling mostly fibre art stuff and clothing which was lovely to look at but not really my cup of tea although I did rather fall for some yarn bowls made by Ebbsworth pots which can even be personalised how cool is that?
The other venue was more up my street as there was wool galore and lots of buttons.

I bought these from Glynn-Coch Studios and I fell in love with all the gorgeous wares from this lady Stone Hens Ceramics. Oh my I could have spent a fortune here I just loved all her wares but restrained myself to a few buttons these are embossed with lace and are so pretty!

and the most gorgeous brooch.

I think I may have been inspired by my shawlette which I took with me.

Amazingly I didn't buy any yarn however I was sorely tempted by the yarn from Sue Ullrich I loved the grey yarn in particular.
All in a good hours wander round and a few yummy purchases made.
We had a great time in Wales and visited lots of castles, there are so many of them all within a stones throw of each other it seems. The weather was lovely it didn't rain once on our holiday which is always a bonus when holidaying in the uk.
We stayed Saundersfoot and I took this snap on the very steep walk down to the town from the car park. We did a lot of walking down and then back up hills on this holiday!

And this was the same headland from the cove round the corner in Tenby.

Tenby is much bigger than Saundersfoot and I just loved these colourful houses round the harbour.

While in Tenby we visited the Tudor Merchants House which is owned by the National Trust. It is half way up the hill.

My cheeky monkeys sniggering at their dad doing things behind my back *sheesh* families!

I was so glad there was an explanation about what these were used for  they look rather like some sort of torture implement. 

I know this is a modern piece of needlwork but I loved the frame. 

I love seeing how the building has hardly changed over the years that 30's perambulator had me smiling. 

This was hanging on the wall in the bedchamber and was stitched by a group in the 90's 

The view from the bedchamber window we were 3 floors up at this point. 

I thought the  mix of old windows was intersting.  

The house had a tiny herb garden out the back and it really was tiny.

Oh course I couldn't go on holiday without taking some form of needlwork to occupy my evenings and these were the chosen projects.

This was where I had got to on my nieces birth sampler before we went on holiday. The design is Sweet and Sugar by the Snowflower Diaries. 

This is the House sampler by the Historical Sampler Company, it's been in my sash for a good few years now and as it was already to go I thought it was time to crack on with it.

If you have made it this far well done and thank you, I will share the progress pics in the next post but right now I need a cup of tea. 

A little Sunshine and progress

I have been continuing my morning walks which last week had been in glorious sunshine....sorry this is going to be photo heavy.

 At the start of the woods

Walking alongside the railway line.

The old disused railway buildings.

The Lomond Hills in the background.

Swans in a water filled disused quarry.

I just loved the look of these brambles against the lichen encrusted wall.

Common Elder berries they just looked so pretty against the green.

This is the river Eden that runs through my village I have to cross this little bridge on my walk.

Doesn't the red of these geraniums look great in the sun?

Looking across the fields nearly home now. 

I love how these wild flowers are growing against the wall of this cottage. 

This is how my morning walks have been looking, lovely sunshine, most unlike weather for this time of year here. I've even been venturing out in t-shirts *gasp* it's October and Scotland for goodness sake...unheard of lol. Sorry to bore you all with these snaps but I wanted a wee reminder for the grey days ahead.

I do have some stitchy stuff to share with you. I ordered this gorgeous bit of Halloween fabric to back my La D Da piece I love the fun characters and I also ordered a piece of this black velvet ric rac it is soo tactile I can't stop feeling it!

I've also finally got round to blocking my settlers shawl just waiting for it to dry now.