A trip to Wimborne

Yesterday we visited Wimborne  a market town in East Dorset.  I love the ‘oldness’ of the place and many of the buildings date back to the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.  Of course there is also the beautiful Wimborne Minster where the tombs of King Eitheired, the brother of Alfred the Great, as well as the tombs of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerse, and his duchess, the maternal grandparents of King Henry Vll are.  Apologies for the photo on the right - can't seem to rotate it now it's on my blog!  Beautiful architecture in this town.


Among the many little shops there is this gem of a sweet shop with all the jars of sweets neatly lined up on their shelves.  I bought some boiled sweets, chocolate honeycomb and chocolate covered turkish delight for us to eat throughout the week.

We enjoyed a walk along the river where we were fortunate to see a family of ducks and also hidden between the plants there was also a young family of swans.  Not the best photo but I wasn’t risking getting too close to the adult swans.

All this walking and exploring built up an apetite so we had lunch at the Olive Branch where they had a lovely outside seating area.  I went for the Sour Bread roll filled with falafel and halloumi cheese and fries while Ian had the beef and ale pie with mash.  Both were delicious.

There is also a shop there that sells wool and fabric and I couldn’t resist picking up these fat quarters – I think I will be making Savannah a simple small quilt out of these pretty squares.

When we got back to the cottage it was nice enough to sit outside for a while and I managed to get some stitching done.  In the evening I also finished one of the Monk books that I had brought with us - just love the stories of this OCD detective.

Tuesday Throwdown challenge

Before we went on holiday I had to make a couple of male birthday cards, something quick and simple as time was limited.  I made this card for my friends son who I find hard to believe is already 13.  I’ve used stamps from SU stamping the football out multiple times in different colours (he likes playing football) and added the two sentiments.  As it’s a male themed card it fits in with the challenge over at Tuesday Throwdown.  I also made a card for our SIL his birthday is tomorrow but maybe I’ll share that another day.

We were able to get out for a couple of walks yesterday without getting too wet – stayed local and explored the village where we are staying.  We had lunch at the Talbot Inn ( a place we had been taken once before with our friends Karen and Phillip).  We only ordered snacks but they were meals in their own right really.  Ian had the wild boar and onion baguette and I opted for the chilli nachos washed down with a nice glass of Ringwood best bitter – very nice.  It’s a very old pub built in the mid 17th century and Grade ll listed, very warm and welcoming.

Couldn’t resist taking a photo of this quote – made me smile anyway.

Our home for the week

Our weeks leave began yesterday and we are determined to make the most of it regardless of the weather!  We’ve booked a holiday cottage in a village called Berwick St John and the photos show the outside of the cottage – one of three.  They are situated on a working farm although we haven’t seen a great deal of livestock really close to the cottage – if you walk along the fields we have spotted some sheep and cows but it’s really peaceful here – ideal.  The inside of the cottage is bright, clean and airy and is going to make the perfect base for us this week.  The final picture is the view from our bedroom window.

We met up with our friends Karen and Phillip yesterday evening and enjoyed a lovely walk along one of the country lanes – it was great to catch up with them again.  This morning we have been exploring the local area – oh how I’d love to be able to live in country and I am sure Max would love it too.  The weather isn’t supposed to be that great this afternoon so once we’ve taken Max for another walk and a stop off for lunch in the local pub I think I will be settling down to watch the tennis final and put some x’s into my stitching projects that I have brought with me.

Clearly Besotted challenge

I think my Mojo is finally coming back, albeit slowly.  It has been helped by finding a new challenge blog run by Stephanie of Clearly Besotted.  It’s the first challenge so I am going to try very hard to see if I can make something for this challenge blog each time – it’s monthly so I should be able to do that.  As this is their first challenge there is the chance to win 5 sets of Clearly Besotted stamps so an added incentive to enter.  You do have to use at least one Clearly Besotted stamped image on your creation but Stephanie has kindly put up a few freebie images to help you out.  I’ve used the free rose image for my creation and printed it out in various sizes onto yellow cardstock.  Before cutting the image out I coloured it in with Copics and then layered the images for a decoupage effect.  The little butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch and I’ve also used a Martha Stewart corner punch on the white cardstock.  The scallop border is an EK Success punch (birthday present – love it) and I used up the remaining papers from the freebies from the Papercraft Essentials magazine.  The sentiment is from SU.

We are going on holiday for a week tomorrow – we’ve booked a cottage in the country and we are hoping to get out for lots of nice walks, weather permitting.  We’re also going to be meeting up with our wonderful friends Karen and Phillip and Max’s friend Barney (their dog).  Hopefully we will be able to share some crafting time together and a few walks which is including a trip to a gorgeous fabric shop in Sturminster Newton.  The cottage has wi-fi so I’m taking the laptop so I can still keep up with blogland.  I’ll also be taking some stitching to work on and a few books to read – if we get the time.  I had hoped to finish another book this month but I’d lost my work locker key and my book is inside.  Thankfully I have been told that the key has been handed in but the man I need to see to get it back wasn’t in yesterday so it will have to wait until I’m back fleave.  Soooo looking forward to this break.

WOYWW # 210

There’s quite a mess on my workspace this week.  Yesterday evening I decided to make some cards using the stamps and papers that came free with one of the crafting magazines.  Mojo has been absent over the past few weeks so I have literally just copied the designs that came with the magazine.  I managed to get four cards completed and another couple of cards ready for when I’ve coloured in some more of the stamped images.  I hope to use up the rest of the free papers today and have a nice little stash to go in my card box.

On Sunday we had the pleasure of enjoying Logan and Savannah’s company.  Colette and the children came down for the day and we made the most of the sunshine and enjoyed a picnic in the garden.  Logan also enjoyed playing in the sandpit and Savannah was happy to play with the picnic plates.  Logan also ‘helped’ me out with a bit of weeding of the borders and we also enjoyed some time in the park which is just across the road from our house.

Today we have some gravel being delivered for a small section of our garden so this evening will be spent transferring that from the drive to the back garden.  I’m also going round Moya’s house to craft with friends and we will be finishing the advent box which we started on Friday.

I haven’t done much stitching lately – no stocking SAL last Friday but hopefully I can make up for that this week.  I have put some more stitches into the Mother-in-law project and have completed one side of the border, hopefully I will get the other side completed this week which will only leave the bottom border.  We are on holiday next week and hoping to get lots of walking done – the weather is looking a little unsettled but hopefully it won’t stop us from doing what we want.

A wonderful weekend

 Three whole days of sunshine - it's been wonderful.  Friday we went and laid flowers in the Garden of Remembrance for FIL's birthday.  Colette and Bryan came with MIL and myself and it was nice to share a few moments together.

In the late afternoon I was able to put some more stitches into the stocking SAL - there is now another reindeer emerging - Rudolf - although I haven't stitched his red nose yet.

I also made a card for our friends who have recently had their first baby.  The papers came from an Artful Delights kit that I used to subscribe to.  I've used the new border punch that my friend Moya recently bought me for my birthday - really pretty.  The stamp is from an old SU hostess stamp set, finished off with some stitched ribbon.

DH was at a model railway exhibition all weekend so Bryan and myself got busy in the garden again.  I can finally say the garden is beginning to look a bit more respectable now.  Still lots to do out the back but it does at least look tidy again.  We also went and bought some cube units for the landing and the pile of boxes filled with books are now empty but the cube units are now full.  I didn't realise just how many books were in those boxes.

Sunday we spent some time out in the front garden, mother had brought across one of her Hebes to go in there and I put a rose plant that we had been given out there too.  I also had some geraniums and begonias to go in which will hopefully add some colour to the garden.

The rest of the weekend was taken up with walking Max and then making a start on my new stitching project.  This is a design from a Stoney Creek magazine which I saw a while ago and thought would be a perfect gift for MIL.  I've always been very lucky and had a wonderful relationship with my in-laws and the verse was very apt.  It shouldn't take too long to complete as it is mainly back stitching with just a few crossed stitched elements and some beads for decoration.  I've almost completed the verse so just the border to work on then.  Hoping to get this almost finished before we go away for our cottage holiday in a couple of weeks.  I do hope the weather stays nice for us.

May Sugar Block

 Well it's the last Friday in the month so it's time to share this month's Sugar Block with you.  I think this has been my favourite block so far.  I used five different fabrics for this block - I did have a minor hiccup and stitched one of the corners around the wrong way and didn't actually notice until I went to press the complete block out LOL!  I was able to just take the one small block out and reassemble rather than the two strips so it wasn't too bad rectifying my goof.

I'm also showing this cute Advent calendar that Lisa and I made a couple of weekends ago when she came down to 'play'.  I found the instructions on Brenda's blog - what an amazing lady, lots and lots of inspiration and tutorials can be found there.  Now I've made one I have lots more to make - this is the mass production project I said I would be doing a few weeks ago.  I'd like to make one for all my work colleagues in pharmacy and I guess if I can get one done each week I should get there in plenty of time.

It's the Exeter crop tomorrow - I have some photos printed just need to decide what I need to take with me to embellish the pages I am hoping to create.  It's sure to be fun regardless of how much or how little I get done.