September Mini Adventures

I decided to do a ‘mini-adventure’ every day in September.  It’s a bit like Shimelle’s Learn Something New Every Day class, which she hosts every September and which I have participated in from time to time.  My aim was to do something a bit different and out of routine each day.  I also got inspiration from Psychologies magazine which ran an article about mini adventures in August.  They chose things like ‘go home from work a different way’ or ‘try a salsa class’.   So I drew up a list and included things like:

Try a new fruit – I tried fresh figs

Wear a different colour.  I painted my toenails this pretty pastel green

I picked a few crafty adventures too, such as Paint!  I copied a technique from Alisa Burke’s blog and used these pastel colours to stamp with a feather.

Walk in my neighbourhood.  This is a little twitten/alleyway where I used to walk the dog regularly.  I hadn’t been there for quite a while.

Some adventures were really simple and didn’t take much time, like take a selfie, others were more involved, such as take a bus ride, or take a train ride.

My reasons for doing this project was to take me out of my hundrum routine and take my mind off my health difficulties (I am now injecting insulin for my diabetes, as it looks like it is a late onset type 1 diabetes.  I am waiting to see the consultant to find out.  Meanwhile I am having to stab myself numerous times per day to test my blood glucose levels and watch how many carbs I eat!).  I also wanted to kick start my photography again, so included ‘photograph a flower’, and took my camera on my walks.  And including different crafts, such as painting, drawing and doodling I was hoping to rekindle my love of paper crafting.

Of course, I have documented my adventures!  I wrote everyday on Facebook, and shared them with non-crafty friends who don’t read my blog.  Some of my friends were really interested and commented every day!  I really liked that.  I also made a book.  I bought a ‘Junk Journal’ pack from Julie Kirk and used it to make a mini book.  I am really pleased with the result!

Julie’s kit included 2 covers which I painted and doodled.  I bought myself a new white Posca pen, which is fabulous! 

The kit also includes papers you can include as pages.  I added in some postcards I had bought from Charleston, an old pack of children’s playing cards, and a piece of junk mail from an estate agent which was perfect for documenting helping Nicholas with his new flat/apartment.

 

I am really happy with the way the project went.  I only missed 1 day, the 29th, right at the end!  I had 1 disaster when I tried to bake scones.  I don’t bake very often, and have a new oven, so I am afraid to say they went straight in the bin!  But as my friend Cynthia said, to have an adventure you have to take yourself out of your comfort zone!  I did try another scone recipe a few days later which was successful. 

Since the end of September I have repeated some of the adventures, such as try a new recipe and try a new fruit (I bought a pomegranate).  Maurice has had the last couple of weeks off work as holiday but we haven’t been away.  He is keen to  spend time at Nicholas’s flat decorating – so my routine has not been much different to normal.  To try and shake things up a bit for me, I have thought of small things we could do, based on my mini adventures like go out for breakfast, and go to the cinema (we went to see ‘Gone Girl’ – I definitely recommend it!)

To sum up – it’s the little things that make me happy!

September Month in Numbers

It has been a lovely warm sunny month, just about 30 days of sunshine and 0 inches of rain!  Plenty of opportunities to wear my newly made  shorts and walk along the beach.

Rather than do Shimelle’s ‘Learn Something New Everyday’ class again, I made up 30 mini adventures to do in September.  I missed only 1 day.  More about my mini adventures in another blog post, but I did write 4 letters….

… and switched my radio over to BBC Radio 3 from my usual BBC Radio 2

I finished up with my Scavenger Hunt photos with a photo of 18 bird houses (you liked it so much I am going to show you t again!)

We made 1 trip to London to go to a concert in Hyde Park, at which 8 acts played: Chrissie Hynde, Bellowhead, Gregory Porter, Kacey Musgraves, Paloma Faith, Billy Ocean, Blondie and Jeff Lynne’s ELO:

It was a great day, Jeff Lynne played a fabulous set including all the classic ELO songs.  This was the first time he had played live for 26 years!

We made 1 trip to Birmingham to see some of my mum’s family; 2 uncles and 3 cousins plus their families.  There were 12 of us for lunch:

Nicholas got the keys to his apartment this month.  It needs lots of work, so we stripped the wallpaper in 4 rooms:

Finally, I know you have seen it before, but I finished the last of my 100 crotchet squares to make my lovely colourful, cosy blanket:

 

I am linking up with Julie for Month in Numbers.  Pop over and see what everyone else has done numerically in September.

Ta-dah!

Remember this wool:

 

Well, this is what it has turned into, ta-dah!

 

During the course of this year Burnice, Tash and I have crotcheted our way through this book.

 

We chose squares to crotchet each month.  So most evenings this year you could find me crotcheting in front of the tv!  A great way to spend an evening.  We have ended up with 100 squares, all different (well actually there are 2 that are the same, can you spot them?).  Because they are all different they ended up slightly different sizes, so the finished blanket is a bit lumpy.   I crotcheted mine together with cream wool, and did a simple double crotchet border in cream and then green.  My idea was to have green as the dominant colour and to make it look like a garden.   I am so happy with this colourful blanket and am looking forward to the cooler weather so I can snuggle under it.  It is very warm!

Scavenger Hunt–Final edition

Rinda’s Scavenger Hunt finishes in a few days, so it’s time to wrap up with my final photos:

A Painted Bus.  Here’s one of our local ‘Pulse’ buses.

A Sign welcoming you to my town.  The signs on the edge of town are really boring, so I thought I’d give you this which is near the town centre.

A Lamp post.  Love all the flowers on it!

Me wearing something that represents the season.  I give you 2 photos, one with toenails painted, a summer activity, one of me wearing shorts, sunglasses and sun hat,and one of me in my motorbike jacket.  This is definately something I only wear in the summer!

I was unable to find a juggler, so I give you bird houses!  Found these at the Sussex Prairie Gardens that I visited with Mum this week.

Dressmaking

I’ve been pretty busy sewing over the past few weeks.  When it was too hot outside, I came in and sewed!  I did a little photo shoot in the back garden with Maurice as my photographer.  Here are some of the things I have made:

First off, Prefontaine Shorts from Made by Moxie.  I got the pattern in the Perfect Pattern Parcel.  This is the second make out of that PPP.  I made these in gorgeous red and yellow quilting cotton, with yellow pockets and binding.

This blouse is from a free pattern with the magazine Love Sewing.  The pattern is by Simple Sew.   I must admit I needed some help with this one! The instructions weren’t very good!  I go to a dressmaking ‘drop-in’ on a Tuesday morning at More Sewing. I love this fabric!  The photo doesn’t really show it off to it’s best.  It was a remnant from  C&H Fabrics in Brighton.  With it’s 3/4 length sleeves, I think this will get a lot of wear in the autumn.

This blouse is probably the best thing I have ever made!  The pattern is New Look 6104.  It did need a little altering across the back, which Laura at More Sewing helped me with.  The fabric is an off white broderie anglais from Fabricland.  It will go with lots of things in my wardrobe so will get a lot of wear.

Finally – a kimono!  This is a free pattern from Sew Caroline.  I do love a free pattern!  I find patterns very expensive, and if you add the cost of the fabric, it is often not a lot cheaper to make clothes these days!  This kimono was made from a remnant from C&H fabrics which cost about £7, and the trim was about £3, which makes a total of £10, not bad!  I had to make the kimono about 1” shorter in the length and the sleeves as I did not have quite enough fabric!  But I think it looks OK.

My next project is the Lilou dress from Tillie’s book, Love at First Stitch.  I have it cut our ready to begin sewing.  After that I’ll be looking for some ideas for autumn/winter sewing.

Scavenger Hunt–The bike show

We went to a vintage motobike show at Ardingly back in July.  I was hoping to tick a few more things off my list, maybe a horn, or a person with a tattoo?

So without further ado, here’s a horn!  In fact, this was the only horn I found, as most of the bikes from the 1970s and 1980s, and don’t have such an elegant looking horn.  This was on a bike from the 1930s.

On the other hand, there were plenty of tattoos!  Look at these arms!! Quite a work of art.

How about this mascot – another work-of-art – on the petrol tank of a Honda Goldwing.  It is beautiful, and the bike is pretty splendid too!

Finally, here’s a parade of motorbikes in the car park.

I still have a few to get: a sign welcoming people into my home town, a juggler, a photo bomb, and me holding something representing the season. 

I’m linking up with Rinda for August Scavenger Hunt.

August–Month in Numbers

Welcome to my month in numbers for August.  As usual I am linking up with Julie’s blog. 

It’s been a productive Summer in the garden.  I have harvested 6 different vegetables: beans, chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, sweetcorn and beetroot.  My largest cucumber measured 13 inches long, and weighed 1lb 8oz.  My largest tomato (so far) weighed 14oz.

I picked 3 corns and we had them for lunch one Saturday.  They went straight into the pot from the garden, and boy! did they taste sweet!

I visited 2 stunning gardens this month.  Christopher Lloyd’s garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex is somewhere I had always wanted to go:

This last weekend, we visited Charleston House, country home of the Bloomsbury set in the early part of the 20th century.  It is in East Sussex too, just past Lewes.  No photos allowed inside the house, but here’s a few of the garden. 

We loved the inside of the house!  Every piece of furniture had been painted by Vanessa Bell or Duncan Grant.  Such lovely muted colours and designs!  I really want to have a go myself.

There was 1 very large wasps nest that was in our loft.  The wasps were very busy, there must have been thousands in there!  The Pest Control man from the council came to cover it in toxic powder, and now the wasps have gone.  6 wasps escaped into the house, 5 of which were killed by his spray and 1 survived to be let out of the window.

We had 2 rides out on the new bike (Triumph Bonneville). 1 to Charleston above, and 1 to Petworth, a pretty little village in West Sussex that is full of antique shops!  Within a walking distance of half a mile radius there are 24 antique and interior design shops!

 

That’s it from me this month!  Do pop over to Julies blog to have a look at what everyone else has been up to in August,numerically of course!