miss marie's miscellany

Roses

Today there are roses outside

and in

More of the indoor ones very soon........tomorrow, hopefully!!

Kind of blue

More poppy discoveries today, although I remember planting this one!!

This is the blue poppy or Meconopsis to give it its proper horticultural name.

I love the sky blue colour, it's so unusual for a flower, very eye-catching and beautiful with its delicate feathery petals .

 

 This definitely achieves full marks on the smileometer!

What's making you smile today?

 

Going, going, almost gone

The last tulips are hanging on in the gardem despite being battered by stormy weather of late. They've have been brilliant and beautiful this year, an absolute delight of colour and frilly gorgeousness. So take a last, longing look, they'll be gone all too soon.

 

Cherry blossom inspired - part 2

Just in time for the cherry trees to be in full bloom, I have finished my African flowers with a Japanese twist cushion cover.

I really loved this pattern, it has a nice relaxing rhythm to it, and I enjoyed all the different variations of the colour combinations.......very pretty, in my opinion.

I made one side of African flowers, 18 hexagons in total and 4 half hexagons (very useful pattern to be found here, and a big thank you to Anne at Andamento for providing me with the link to this) and the other side is a large granny square in the same colours.

I couldn't find any buttons to match the colours, so I decided to try a tie fastening, just 2 colours chained together and crocheted onto the hexagon edging.

I think the little bows look pretty and they seem more secure than a button fastening, so after a great deal of hesitation and procrastination on my part, I think it was the right way to go.

Now I am hooked on these, so I've started making some more in a different colour scheme.

I hope your Easter weekend has been fantastic!

 

 

 

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In the garden yesterday

Ah, yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day, just perfect for some alfresco dining

Some tulip admiration

My cat friend who often pops by for a visit!

My new boots, oh how I love these; they rock!

Cherry tree covered in beautiful blossom, just breath-taking this year

More tulip love

And of course there was a some hooky goings-on, always very lovely to do this whilst sitting in the sun. I've just about finished this and  I'll be able to show you the finished article very soon

More of the same tomorrow, as the forecast is for a scorcher!

Tantalising tulips

It's time for my favourite flower of all, the tulip, to burst forth in the garden.......I know in warmer climes you will have been enjoying them for a couple of weeks (head over to Jane Brocket's blog for some floral eye candy, she is the Queen of Tulips!) but we have to wait a bit longer in Scotland. Today I spied a couple of lovely flowers already starting to show their gorgeous silky petals.

This lovely deep pink tulip is looking so good - I planted this a couple of years ago but it didn't appear last year, so I thought it had been a casualty of the freezing winter weather. But it must have just been having a year off!

I love this tulip so much; it really looks like it's on fire, with its glowing orange petals. I happily spend quite a few long moments just gazing at this beauty, it is completely mesmerising.

There are lots more ready to burst forth, some old  and some new; something really special to look forward to.

Wishing you a happy weekend!

Snapshot from this week

I whizzed down to London on Monday; travel delays meant it was a whistle stop trip; just enought time to catch up with my lovely friends G&G for dinner, wine and gossip, then it was time to set my head on the pillow for some much needed sleep before Tuesday dawned. Business matters took up the morning, and before I caught the train back, I made sure I had time to pop into here.

I struggle a bit with London's crazy busyness, all those people, all that traffic, it can be overwhelming. So I really do love this wonderful shop, it's a haven of calm and elegance, with lots of gorgeous stuff to smell and touch and wow at. I had a peaceful and de-stressing wander around, and felt much better!  I must say a special thank you to the lovely kind lady in the bath department who was so friendly and helpful, and who chatted to me for ages!

I did make a small purchase, it required huge restraint not to go completely bonkers and buy, buy buy! Do you want to see inside the bag?

Something pretty to put my face in!

 

March

Photographic pickings were slim this month; I seem to be saying I'm busy a lot, it's becoming my mantra but I have been, very much so! In the end I chose this photo on the beach by the sea, because I like the sky and the sun light breaking through the clouds.  A hint at the spring weather on the way soon after this was taken:-)

I will try harder to take more photos in April!!

Sunday crochet links

I love hunting the internet for all kinds of interesting stuff, particularly of the crochet kind. I found a few great sites, some new and some old and much loved favourites, which I thought you may want to have a look at.

10 for 10 - Sarah London is having a pattern sale, 10 patterns for $10; there are some fab things, including a wonderful Granny Square Sweater, which I'm loving. I think it may go in my queue of things to make!

Sarah is also still hosting the Crochet a Rainbow appeal, originally set up to help the victims of the terrible flooding in Australia and which is now also making blankets for Japan;  if you have time to make even a few sqaures and send them, it will make a big difference to people whose lives have been shattered.

A new find which I'm very happy to have discovered is Tangled,  a fantastic online magazine for knitters and crocheters, with loads of very lovely patterns, with many of them in both a knit and crochet version. Another garment to go in my must-make list is this cardigan, which I'm very taken with, it's beautiful!

The 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week starts tomorrow! Everyone who signs up for it must post daily about a specific topic for each day, it makes for diverse and entertaining reading. I took part last year, but sadly,  I'm just too busy at the moment for this year. But I'm looking forward to catching up with some of this year's posts :-)

Crochet Spot is a great site with lots of stitches and techniques explained with lots of photos and clear written instructions. I've learned a lot of new stitches from here  and I like its friendly vibe.  This week it features how to make chainless foundation rows which sounds like a dream come true to me.

Today has been lovely here in Glasgow, sunny and warm. Perfect for garden crochet!

I hope your weekend has been fab!

 

 

 

Green is the colour on my hook

I know I've been have a purple love affair recently, but I am also very fond of green. After I happily sold my multi-coloured big granny square blanket recently, I decided to make another. When looking through my stash, I found so many balls of wool of just about every shade of green possible, and so the colour scheme of green and white suggested itself to me. I think it's something to do with spring coming :-)  After about 3 weeks of hooking when time has allowed, I have finished.

As you can see there really is a plethora of greenness; mint, leaf, apple, grass, moss, spruce, teal, bottle, lime. There's even a yarn called Highland Burn in there. By my count, there are 14 different shades of green! I like the way the white makes the greens look so vivid, and yet when it's lying on the bed it exudes serenity.

It really struck me how the different tones come out with changes in the light; the 2 photos above, taken yesterday(Saturday) have a blueish green tinge: whereas in the photo below, taken last Thursday, on a sunnier day, the mossy green colours come to the fore.

I finished it off with some rows of half treble in greens and a row of white treble stitches folowed by a final lime green scalloped shell edging

The edging's frilliness wasn't deliberate but I like how it has turned out

This has been a great stash buster; I obviously had a huge splurge on green wool at some point in the past and had a lot of it. Now it's down to a sensible amount! The yarns I used are all DK  and a mixed bag of wool and wool and acrylic mixture. I wanted the blanket to be machine washable, I can't imagine what a horrendous chore it would be to hand wash something of this size!

So there you have my latest finished project.

 Staying with the green theme, a friend has asked me to crochet him a cardigan. He presented me with a big bag of this gorgeous wool, we chose this pattern which I found in a vintage book

and I am happily hooking away. The wool is beautifully soft, a joy to work with and crochets up well. I think the finished garment will be very cosy and smart.

It's quite a responsibility making something for someone you know and like, so I'm pulling all the stops out to make it look the biz!