bit of stitching in Italy...

I raided Joanne's material box as I was getting withdrawal symptoms .....

and twiddled away with a simple running stitch---------

OK ....so I've forgotten how to rotate...

I used the threads from the base material to stitch the dots into squares...and finished off the nest at home with some brown yarn and chiffon blouse material...just want to find a "nest"dictionary definition to go one the blue square....

ok so I have photographed it upside down and it came out the right way....I think rotate is locked or something.....b....y technology.......... having no end of trouble with the new hassle free (huh) boiler as well.....

Italian holiday

Had a lovely time with eldest son Andy and his wife Joanne at their home in Italy..Lovely food and company...They were hand rearing a kitten which had been abandoned by its young mum...beautiful grey markings on its fur...it was re homed whilst we were there.

 Our holiday was not marred by the loss of baggage on day one....My younger son Mark continued on to Rome to deliver a training session.  The only change of clothes he had with him and his other things he left in the hotel room... as he was sleeping one more night ....was THROWN out by the maid....who thought he had left...On the way back he hired a car and was routinely pulled over by the police to check his driving license and hire papers !..... My bag didn't turn up for four days so had to try and get my prescription heart tablets in the meantime... Marks bag turned up ten days late... he had it day before we left to come home...and when we retrieved our baggage at the UK airport... the large suitcase I had borrowed had a wheel snapped off..... so... unusual holiday events...I had borrowed a large suitcase because ours had had its side bashed in somewhere between USA and UK ...I do hope there's not a pattern forming.....

Every morning we were greeted by this view ..the valleys and Andy's garden obscured by cloud.....and gradually it clears and reveals multiple valleys.....

We met up with Jo's relatives and enjoyed a coffee .....this place had unusual seating !! £200 each on Not On The Highstreet......They had straight corks as well and can you see the champagne wire with table top?

Alba had a truffle event on...and a medieval fayre in a square ...all the balconies were hung with blue and white banners...

the boys were taken by the bottle game

You get a big stick with a large wooden curtain ring on a length of string....like a fishing rod...and a sand timer is set going .... you have to try and stand full wine bottles upright to win..... so when we got back home I cut a ring from a plastic bottle and tied it to a stick..... the boys tried standing water bottles upright and then I cut some cardboard fishes for them.... 

they look like a pair of gnomes !!

Matteo has set me some homework.....so I can learn Italian.... I had to ask him to repeat things quite often....and eventually I said that I have a problem with my hearing...(I wear a hearing aid) he said he had a problem too...with his intelligence !!! he is a bright little boy ! Luca is more passionate...brilliant radiating sunshine smiles that light up the place...and loud angry storms of tears.....he only has one volume....happy or sad....LOUD ! lol

the problems with being thrifty

Have just been reading a thread on thriftiness......a useful idea for those who use a personal shopping trolley/cart to transport their shopping home..... was to use a child sized rucksack strapped to the trolley to hold the purse......other ladies chipped in with they put their purse in their bra like their mother did.....and my eyes were drawn.... to my big fat purse...and I glanced down at my ample bust.....and burst out laughing..... I don't think I could wedge anything in my bra unless it was a twenty pound note or two..... but just for fun in the privacy of my own home I tried to wedge my purse in my bra....helpless with giggling... I couldn't hide it so it wasn't obvious or comfortable.....and it tipped out when I had it behind the strap....so again I collapse in a heap giggling....and read further.....one lady used to keep her purse in her bra but lost weight and her purse and all the other things she kept in her bra kept falling out....by now my mind is in frivolous overdrive.....all the other things?....all the other things ...what were they? my mind flips to the comediennes French and Saunders...(Dawn and Jennifer) and in my minds eye I can see Dawn pulling things out of her bra.....each one getting bigger and bigger like in the Morecambe and Wise sketches..... and as my giggles subside my mind flips again.....there must be a doll waiting to be made.....what  useful items would be stuffed down a bra???? Ideas please and I might just make it !
My thanks to the ladies who posted on that thread....a serious topic but one that flipped my mind ... and gave me a much needed burst of frivolity...

more chair rugs...

These are for my kitchen chairs....pieces of yarn from about 6" long have been crochet in...using up all my bits and pieces....the ends disappear in the crocheting.....for padding I have cut up a new and unused shop bought quilted bed cover with a valance...... from the 1980s.... rescued from my late mother-in-laws airing cupboard. No longer in fashion but have yards of material in them,,, I thought I would stitch a decorative side straight on to the quilted bit (and pull the quilting out after)  then turn them into pads. If I crochet in black around the yarn bum rugs like the top left and blanket stitch around the pads....I should be able to crochet the two together with black yarn....
My first thoughts for the decorative side of the pads were to crazy patchwork all my left over denim pieces .....but I am fancying using up some of my floral small pieces and applique the flowers and leaves on...but then I do have rather a lot of old shirting.....felted wool jumpers and blankets......etc etc
If some one else was doing it and asked my opinion....I would say  "go with your first thought" so why am I dithering......
The big question is.....drum roll....will I crack on and finish them....or pack them away until I decide?

ATCs left on trip of a lifetime to USA

My friends Wayne and Sandi got married in Vegas and have returned to USA on a trip of a lifetime with four friends.....Their friends at home are sharing it by their photos on facebook.
Wayne prepared a pile of ATCs before they went and has left them tucked away in various locations on their travels.
Check out his blog ileftmyartin-sanfrancisco.blogspot.com to see what they got up to.
They are literally having a holiday of a lifetime, cramming in everything they wanted to go, see, do, eat etc....lucky them !!
Hull is famous for still having an independent Telephone system whilst the rest of the Britain was on the GPO system....now of course mobiles have taken over but we still have the land lines...and Hull is still independent. The public telephone boxes in GPO territory are painted red and have a crown near the top and Hull has cream painted ones with no crown. All his ATCs depict aspects of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the landmark Humber Bridge and the cities cream telephone boxes. The other year Wayne produced a large installation of photos of the majority of the remaining telephone boxes of a certain type insitu which is quite impressive....and its fun trying to recognise the locations by the limited surroundings depicted.

Chair rugs...using up small balls of yarn.....

On the coach trip to Warwick and Chatsworth I took some small balls of yarn and a hook to keep me occupied on the coach....so I began the squares...got them all to the same size at home...when I can get at the balls of grey and black I will "frame" them firstly with the pale grey, then the mid grey if I still have it and not given it away...then the black....I think I can see in minds eye what it will look like....

 all the small ends of yarn were crocheted into chair rugs....

 they add to the hooked chair rugs

road closed for Vista festival

Princes Avenue is closed to traffic once a year for the Vista Festival organised by the local traders. There were tents and gazebos with singers, comedians, magicians and story tellers in. Lots of food stalls outside their own restaurants. Beauticians and hair stylists demonstrating outside of their shops. Scrap store was there and the resident arts worker Liz showed her "gowns"...many people had their photos taken with their heads popping out of the neckline..a bit like the seaside comedy bathers where you can pop your head through the hole and have your photo taken....the black and white one is made of aerosol lids and the blue and white angel  outfit is made of latex gloves....

found Waynes tent where some of his youth club were helping him with his elephant camera

I have removed the  original picture as I didn't ask the young lads permission....so took a photo of my screen... you can see the reflection of my top......I don't know how to edit.......crop...whatever...

Its a homemade old fashioned type of box camera....I dare say it has a type name.....it has a cloth hood at the rear where they make sure that you are in the frame....the book raises and lowers the box for focus.......on the left side is a leg off a pair of jeans.... this is to block the light whilst inserting the arm in it to manipulate the prepared photo paper into the right position ready for the front cap to come off and count one elephant two elephants three elephants ......up to thirty elephants....the equivalent of 30 seconds...

this produces the equivalent of a negative which is dunked in a developing solution and then into a stop bath. the results are then photographed and changed to a print and printed off...

There were lots of artists stalls with paintings and photographs and a tent where you could pose as a model or try your hand at drawing....

A super patchwork stall....and many more ......all of which I forgot to photograph..........

there was quite a lot of people around but because of the threat of rain...forecast for the whole afternoon the bands were moved into the church halls etc....so the sounds were missing and empty spaces where they should have been....There was an area roped off for dancing and a older generation couple lindy hopping in 1930/40s style clothing were giving a great show. At Artlink there was an opportunity for the children to  decorate a white baseball cap.....and inside a vintage fair..      Lots of charity stalls too. The shop that belonged to Ronald Gifts mother was open too. The pub car park had a BBQ and a band in a lockup at the back....so there was plenty going on but with the threat of rain and the sensible moving of the bands inside ....the atmosphere had changed

I met lots of people I hadn't seen in a long time and got plenty of hugs.......