Brighton - The Grand Hotel

It was the bank holiday weekend at the end of May and we were off on a trip with our friends to visit that well known resort on the English coastline, Brighton.  True to England the weather changed drastically that week from 8 weeks of sunshine to gale force winds and dark clouds.  Resulting in a rather larger than normal luggage load for a two night stay!

We arrived at our new home for the next few days, that lovely old lady, The Grand Hotel.  Greeted by porters dressed in their traditional uniforms, I’m sure they thought we were there for a month when they unloaded all our bags! 

It's hard to believe that nearly 27 years ago this tragedy happened.

When you walk into the lobby of this hotel the history and grandour take your breath away.  Yes she is a little tired around the edges but hey she’s been here a very long time!!

The staircase is rather impressive too!  Can't you just imagine elegant ladies making their entrance down these back in the 1920s.  Meeting with their friends for a cocktail or two in the elegant bar.

We stayed in one of their apartments up on the top floor, the Josephine Suite and we looked directly over the sea where that other old friend of Brighton, the original pier lies eerily out in the waters.  You can tell how grey it was that day as it is almost impossible to see where the water ends and the sky begins.

 Look how stunning it was in it's heyday, circ. 1929.

That evening we went out for a lovely meal and then onto the casino at the New Marina.  I myself was getting excited about the next day as we were off to the Lanes and a lady called Cath has a shop there that I just have to visit!  Lolo xx

My kind of travel!

 

Isn't it just fabaroony!  This car is just too cute for words, the suitcases are luscious.  I kind of feel at home with this piccie as my little old car is constantly being filled up with old furniture and bits and bobs I find, it just aint as darn lovely as this one though, sigh!

Lolo xxx

Cath Kidston Fabric

Hello readers, hope you are all doing well and having lots of sunshine where you are.  We've had sun and blustery winds today which is my favourite weather combination.  At the weekend my mum and I took a trip over to the Cath Kidston Factory Outlet in St Neots for a little retail therapy and boy was it busy.  I didn't realise that they had 25% off of their clothing and accessories, wowza.  We searched through the rails and found a couple of frocks to try on, one I really liked but it needed to be a size smaller.  After much deliberation and working out if I could alter it I was very good and placed it gently back on the rail with all the other frocks.  It wasn't to be this time around.

I then turned my attention to the back of the store as this is where they keep all their fabrics on rolls and from a distance I could see that there was a new kid on the block.  When I got up to it I knew straight away I would have to buy some, it was the most gorgeous colours and print.

I've no idea what the name of this print is but I am in lurrve!  It retails at £23 per metre and in the outlet it was £15 per metre and I purchased two.  Looking at it here in my home I am wishing I had more, hmmm shall I/shan't I go back?

Here it is in close up, although it is a vivid pattern it has an almost slightly faded old look to it if you know what I mean.  Am thinking top to go with cut off jeans, maybe a cushion cover or two.

Did you spot (excuse the pun!) the stone spot fabric peaking out in the first picture?  I hadn't this in there since they first opened, this is a very popular print.  Apparently they have one customer who collects all things stone spot and they call her whenever they get anything in the store.  Now that is customer service.  I purchased one metre at £12 and it is destined for my freecycled deck chair which currently is the most hideous yellow you have ever seen.  I kid you not, it is verging on flourescent!

Oh and this little beauty fell into my basket too, little cherry red dot oil cloth tape measure.  Now I won't mind pulling a tape measure out of my handbag in public.

Thank you for popping by and do love to read all of your comments. xx

Extreme Knitting - I'm hooked

Afternoon, another glorious sunny one here, great day to take some photos of my latest addiction, knitting.  Not the normal kind mind, I've being doing that for years.  That's not for me anymore now I do things by the extreme!  

I first stumbled across Rachel John a couple of years ago over on you tube with her video of her knitting with 1000 strands of wool challenge.  It is absolutely amazing, should go check it out.  Just sorting the wool was a mammoth task in itself.  Anyway the idea was always lurking in the back of my mind and then I saw that she had a show over on Create and Craft.  I watched it and it inspired me to have a go myself.

The beauty of this type of knitting is you can use up all of your wool stash, we all have it don't we girls.  I picked out some odd balls of wool that I thought my work together.  Using 13mm needles and 5 strands of wool I cast on 25 stitches and started knitting.  That instant I knew this was for me, boy does this grow fast.  3 hours later, yes I did say 3 hours, it was finished!  Knitting it in one piece I just sewed up 2 sides turned it inside out and put my cushion pad in and sewed up the remaining side.  I liked it but it wasn't extreme enough, I wanted to go bigger!

In my needle basket I had a pair of 20mm wooden needles that orignally purchased for display purposes, I just liked to look at them.  I dusted them down and using the same 5 strands of wool I cast on 17 stitches.  These were big needles but surprisingly easy to use.  This time I knitted in stocking stitch.

I have to say I much preferred this look and the needle size made the resulting fabric very soft and drapey.  Would be perfect for a throw.  I've taken some close ups of the stitches so you can get an idea what it looks like.

First one shows what I call the reverse side of the stocking stitch.  Even though this is meant to be the back am quite liking it.

This is what I call the right side of the fabric and is going to be the side that will show on my rectangle cushion pad.  Again I've knitted it all in once piece.

To give you an idea of size, using these 20mm needles and with 16 stitches cast on I ended up with the width of my knitting measuring approx 14 inches.  Basically each stitch knitted gives you a good 3/4" square of fabric.

 

On the left you can see the amount I knitted last night whilst watching TV for a couple of hours.

My needles are only 30cm long but on Rachel's website you can get ones that are 50cm long and would enable me to do a throw.  She also does super large cable needles, giant cable stitches, now that does appeal to me.

So what do you think, is it your style of knitting?  Have you heard of it before, have you knitted anything extreme.  Would love to hear your comments.

Thanks for popping by. xx

Bigz Flower Card

Bit dull and showery here today so taking the opportunity to catch up on line and share another card with you all.

The die I used for this is the Sizzix Bigz Clear Flower die.  These dies can cut upto 6 layers of fabric with ease.

Quite a simple card and so quick to do.  Next time I think I might try stitching the material to the cardstock.

Thanks for popping by. xx

A Room Outdoors

I'm about to embark on having my whole garden landscaped as currently my only piece of patio is a weathered old piece of plywood that is about to crumble beneath my feet.  Of course this has meant a frenzy of surfing through sites for inspiration and a wish list as long as my garden!

There's a sunny spot at the end of my garden, as I am east facing it stays there until around 7pm in the height of summer.  Just perfect for one of these.

Hammock

I love this garden, it conjures up images of happy families together, kids fighting over who gets the hammock!  Sadly I have no trees in my garden to hook one up to, never mind.

Bed in a Garden

I could always have a bed out there instead lol!

Potting Away

There's going to be space for my vegetables to grow at the back in proper raised beds, presently I have pop up planters all over the gaff, practical but not pretty.

Garden Party

Hope we have a long enough summer so I get to do this when it's all done.

Pale Pink

I want plenty of flowers out there too.  Something I've been missing since moving here.  The colours will be pale and delicate just like the ones above.

Cool Poster

Says it all!

Thinks that enough piccies for a while, don't want to bore you all silly with my wish list.  Of course I will be posting the real thing when it gets going, hoping that will be sometime in mid May.  In the meantime I shall keep filling up my hardrive with images, much quicker and cheaper, than the old days of  getting magazines and tearing out bits of paper.  Although I have to say I do miss the feel of a piece of paper covered in tatty old photos stuck down with pritt stick.  

Thanks for popping by. xx

Not Just a Teacup

Some interesting uses for teacups.  I think the wall clock is just stunning and the perfect use for all those poor little odd cups and saucers that find their way into charity shops, separated from their sibblings a long time ago.  Now they have a new place in life, ta da!

Teacup Clock

Tea Cup Lamp

Teacup Cake Stands

Teacup Light

So which one was your favourite then?

Mother's Day Card

This week I got the chance to play with some new dies for my Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine.  I've been wanting some of the Bigz dies for a while as these cut up to 5 layers of fabric at a time.  One of the dies I ordered was Tim Holtz's sewing collection, it has a mannequin, cotton reel and button and I used this one to make a mother's day card.

 

 I'm in love with this die already.  It cut through the fabric really well and I also cut some old beer mats with it, two buttons and one of the reels.  My prop is a well used wooden step ladder which I received from a kind Freecyler, just look at all that lovely splattered paint, very shabby chic.

The Kraft card is by Stampin Up and this was run through my Xcut paper crimper, another new fave toy in my craft world, I'm crimping everything in site at the moment.  It also reminds me of my hairstyle in the 80s, crimped hair was all the rage then, scary I know!

 

My sister I and spent a lovely afternoon with my mum.  She loved her pressie which was the new Babyliss Big Hair Hot air brush, the one that spins.  We all had a go and have to say first impressions of it are rather good.  Think she may have to hide it from her two daughters.

Happy Mothers' Day to all you mummies out there and hope you are having a fab day.  xx

Sunday Shopping

I've decided I need to organise my blogging, it's become very erratic of late. So I'm going to try having a couple of themed days (inspired by other lovely blogs) that will hopefully focus me a bit more. I quite often can be found on a Sunday morning nipping to the high street or in the warmer weather a car boot or two. For me Sunday morning shopping is nice, not the madness that it can be on it's sister day Saturday. There may be a few retailers who don't open their doors but that's fine with me and a small price to pay for the peacefulness as I browse amongst the rails. Blimey I think I may be turning into one of those 'grumpy old women'. Well it was bound to happen some time ;O)   So would you like to see what I lugged back with me today then.

After seeing these all over blogland of course it would be rude not to get myself a couple of bracelets.  I also saw these cute polka dot tins, love, love anything with spots on (not my face though) and these tins were even better as they have candles in them.  £1.50 each and they smell like fresh washing.

One of the things that instantly makes me think of summer is the sound of women flipping their flip flops as they walk, it just warms my heart.  These little pink and green ones are very summery don't you think.

And these ones are perfect for evenings in the garden with the twinkle lights on and chilled glass of wine.  Both pairs are a mere £1.50 each, amazing!

As someone who lives in their jim jams at every opportunity I get through a fair few pairs.  Some lighter weight ones were needed and these were in the sale and the top has polka dots on the back.  £4.00 for the set and they are super soft and light.  Primark really does come in handy when you are on a budget.

 

To finish off here's a random purchase I made the other day at my local charity store.  It's a little big on me and needs to be shorter I think so will have to put my thinking cap on and get the old chine whirring.  Any of you lovely ladies got any tips for me or have you altered a dress like this before.  Would really love some ideas to help me along.

I'm planning to have two regular posts a week, not sure what the other topic will be yet but watch this space.  Thanks for popping by and hope you are all having a lovely Sunday. xx

Cat in a box

Spring is in the air and that sends me into a decluttering frenzy and always involves new storage items.  Said new storage item from Ikea was taken out of it's plastic and built.  I literally turned around to pick up some punches to pop in it and this is what I saw when I turned back!

That'll do nicely thanks mum!  Buy him a nice sized cat bed, doesn't wanna know.  Buy a tiny box half his size and he's getting in no matter what.  Yup that's cats for ya!