Moving on...

My blog has now officially moved over here I do hope you will join me 

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a third princess

Yes! finally!!  this pattern (and the previous two if you want them) is available hopefully over here (thanks to a lovely reader) but as I am new to google docs this may not work so if you have a problem please email me at lili_popo@rocketmail.com

see how I hurried her along, the fabric isn't even properly ironed!  

she has a french knot neckline but you could just stitch the neckline without the french knots if you prefer

she is a very simple pattern and there are two sizes as usual which are hopefully okay as I cannot test them because my printer is definitely not returning back to life!

I am tentatively moving my blog over to typepad but am still learning all of the ropes (there are many!)  I will pop a message on this blog when I finally move over.

Hope you like the new princesses

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You see I really have been working on the third princess

I promise promise promise that she will be done this week!!

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lovely gifts

my mum left us a most lovely gift when she tootled back up north (for warmer and drier climes!), this gorgeous sofa cover/woolly blanket.  I think it's meant to share but it wraps around me just right in this wintry summer weather so I'm not sharing very much.  I'll share it when the sun comes back out!

and my lovely man brought some loot back from the golowan stalls last week (anyone would think it was my birthday!).  This was the very best of the loot, a luscious quilt book that has me thinking of making rustic quilts to keep us all warm.

I love all the reds and linens and the feeling that all these fabrics were probably worn long before they were made into quilts

my favourites are the lovely wonky dolls' quilts with uneven squares.  I wonder if this makes uneven quilting acceptable, in which case I will have much success with my quilting!

I am also thinking that a bit of tuition in the art of stitchery embellishment might come in handy for such a project and have noticed that the unbelievably talented Northern lass Karen Ruane is running another class that I would very much like to have time for....  If you love stitching you would love love love her gorgeous blog

and finally I have turned this piece of embroidery into a kindle case.  It fits a kindle wifi because I am very cheap and that is the one we bought! 

but I think she makes a good 'protector of the kindle' and may even make a few more.  This one is in my etsy shop

I hope your days are a little sunnier than ours right now or that you have a lovely warm blanket that you refuse to share with anyone!

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a festive week

This year my mum came down for Mazey Day.  I have to admit that last year we went on holiday to avoid the busyness of Mazey Day but, after that little break, this year was lovely.

unfortunately this pic of balloons was the best photo I could find as my camera battery died!  But what you could have seen was this

Penglaz, my favourite part of Golowan, after the fireworks on Mazey Eve the Golowan band bang on the big black door to bring him out.  He dances and barges crazily while we all follow him around before returning to his lair.  I'm so glad my mum got to see him this time.

On Sunday we had the Golympix and my incredible daughter (well I think so) swam and ran her first aquathlon, 200 metres round a freezing outdoor pool and then 2000 metres running all after partying all weekend!  A well deserved medal.

Oh and there was a little bit of this last week

But now the pimms is away and Golowan is over and my mum has gone back north so I think it may be time to get back to work and think about the third (oh so very late) princess pattern!!

Hope you all had a lovely week despite the weather

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a little holiday at home

my mum has been down this week so there has been no sewing or drawing or getting on with the next princess (I know I'm running very late with her!!)

we were lucky enough to have one day of summer!

so we rushed to Nanjizal

well sauntered

very slowly in the heat

clambering down rocks

to our favourite place in the whole world

and picnicked in the sun while T and A swam and made boats, climbed and messed in the stream.  What these photos sadly (for you) don't show is that we got completely burned down one side of our faces and necks in the strangest way and were therefore almost relieved when it bucketed down the next day and we had to cover up.  

They also don't show the continuous rain that caught us out on Wednesday and soaked us to the skin on our lovely walk to Marazion so much so that the lovely lady in the cafe in the car park (a cafe I thoroughly recommend) offered us hot water bottles!!  We caught the bus back, ironically it was the open top bus!

But after a rainy day shopping in Truro yesterday the sunshine is back with us, who knows for how long??  So we shall go and enjoy it while it's here.  I hope you have sunshine wherever you are too

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Birthdays and growing up

Not me!  I'm definitely not getting older or growing up.  I have officially stopped getting older.  But the strange thing is that my children just keep getting bigger...

I can't believe this tiny sleepy thing that would fit on a sofa cushion

has turned into this six foot sleepy thing who can barely fit on the whole sofa let alone a cushion.  I mean when did that happen?  It must have been while I wasn't watching.

He suddenly wants labels (Havianas) which I am assured by the surf shopkeeper who advised me that it is the only footwear a Cornwall teenager will wear, he even helped me choose the colour!  '15 years old, definitely the bright ones, no question'.  And, although I was a little dubious about his pushy selling it turns out he was right!!  So for all of you out there with fifteen year olds yellow havianas will make them happy!

He is obsessed with cycling (and would probably have liked an £800 bike for his birthday but never mind) so my sister got him the tour guide.  Of course the tour needs no explanation but I've popped a link in just in case!

But the best thing, the very best thing about birthdays in our house are the bowls of sweets, the birthday crown and the birthday throne (which I couldn't get a good photo of, but just imagine scraps of fabric tied to a chair with silvery ribbon VERY late at night!)  Even my oldest 18 year old still wants the sweets, the crown and the chair

see!  More sweets

and a trip to the zoo!  He has always loved the zoo and I suspect he always will.  I have just noticed that he has slowed my computer down with a million gazillion photographs, mainly of lemurs and monkeys but also of this rather elegant chap who reminded us all of the spirit of the forest from Princess Mononoke

and we spent a most happy half hour practically peeing our pants laughing at this little macaque who was running around with a plant pot on his head so he could use all his limbs to get away from another cute little macaque who wanted his plant pot.  It's the little things!!

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend too

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