Busy Happy Times

Hello to you all and thank you for popping in and leaving me lovely messages; I love reading them and responding to them. If you are a newcomer to my place then please feel welcome and do let me know you've been here - it's so nice to hear from all of you!

I hadn't realised how busy it's been around here until I began to upload my pics! Last week it seemed like I didn't have much to report, so didn't, but time has caught up with me now so I'll get into my sharing without further ado!

First off let me show you the progress on my 'round the colour wheel' blanket, as well as the little one with the central flower - which is now finished.

I really needed a change after all the blanketing and decided to make something completely different this time, so out came the sewing machine after quite a long break - it's a wonder it wanted to speak to me after such neglect! 

I came across a magazine that is new to me (Inspiring Country Threads, Stitchery - published in Australia), and this is Vol 14 No 1 - so obviously not new to other folks. Something on the front cover  looked like the sort of pattern I'd been searching for off and on for quite some time so I jumped into it!

My lovely husband thought she should be called 'Annie' so Annie she is.  I made some changes to the original pattern just to personalise her - mainly the hair and the shoes, and I'm quite fond of her. I do remember my Mum making lots of toys and dolls, and teddy bears; she did such a great job of everything she tackled! I'm pretty sure she would like Annie, but sadly she's not around to see her!

I also decided to try my hand at a pair of socks - it's been years since I knit with four needles - and even longer since using 4 ply yarn which was a bit of a challenge to begin with but I'm getting there!

This is King Cole's Zig Zag yarn and I do like the way the colourways have worked out. It's always a bit risky with multi-coloured yarns isn't it, but also exciting to watch how it 'pans out'. In this pic you can see a little bit of progress where I've turned the heel.

It was my birthday yesterday (Sunday) and family and friends really spoiled me with lovely gifts and attention - and I soaked it all up of course. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. We've been having a run of cold nights but lovely sunny days just recently so on Saturday J and I took a short drive up Mount Shadforth Road to 'The Lookout', just so I could get some sunny pics to show you a bit more of our beautiful countryside .

The cows have the best view in the area, overlooking the inlet and ocean!

So back to Sunday: we took a drive to the other side of Albany - probably about 70 kms all together - to the lovely Goode Beach, where we took a nice stroll along the sand then had a cuppa at one of the picnic benches provided there. The sand is squeaky clean at this beach and as you can see from the pics, there is also a gorgeous residential area built up around it. We find it is rather reminiscent of Robin Hood Bay (those of you from the UK) but the houses are completely different here of course. RHB is a favourite spot of ours - we just love the old fishermen's cottages and the twisty turny little pathways there!

Afterwards we drove into Albany and took a couple more pics, this time of Princess Royal Harbour, before having a quick look at a particular car yard that presently is housing the most gorgeous new release VW Beetle. I love it and especially it's retro dashboard - but the lotto didn't come up for us this weekend YET!

Now then, I think it's time to let you have a look at a couple of my lovely gifts:

That beautiful cup and saucer is Wedgwood - Deco Bloom - and although my lovely parcel postie delivered it on Thursday, I managed to not open the box until Sunday morning - did I do well, or did I do well! My elder daughter chose it for me and I absolutely love it! And do you see that beautiful Kaffe Fassett book there? Well I had only mentioned Kaffe's first name to my younger daughter recently and she went off and found (among his many titles) the very book that I had on my wish list. My daughters are wonderful and I so appreciate and love them!

I've been sitting at this computer for quite a while today - do you find it takes a long time to sort out and prepare pics? And that's only the start isn't it! But I am so happy to be sharing with you some of the happenings in my life and I also very much enjoy following your lovely blogs too. Thank you for visiting and please do leave me a message if you would like to.

Happy week to you and keep well and smiling.

❤Joy xxx