Lucy's Loo Roll Flowers

Hello... Just a quick little crafty post today, a make perfect for a rainy bank holiday Monday.  Yes while away last week in a very rainy Suffolk, we spent quite some time stuck in the cottage, wondering what to do, on one of these occasions the very lovely Lucy shared with us how to make these pretty loo roll flowers. 

As we were in a cottage in the middle of no where, craft supplies were some what limited but all you need for this make is the inside of a toilet roll some scissors, glue and a peg.

First up cut six pieces from the cardboard tube

Then all you do is glue them at one end and stick the pieces together, like so

then pop on a peg to hold them in place while they dry

Once dry they look like this

then all you have to do is glue the last section and pop the peg back on until it's dry.

Ta-Dah

You have a loo roll flower,

 How I wished I'd had a button with me to pop in the centre, I do love the rustic look of them, but I was also hankering for some paints, glitter, buttons and ribbons to decorate them maybe even some decoupage paper, the options are endless.

I can see them on Christmas trees all white and sparkly and also painted in pretty pastel shades with button centre made up into a pretty garland. So a big thank you to Lucy for introducing me to the loo roll flower.

As those of you who follow me on Instagram will know I had a bit of a fall on holiday and have injured my ankle, don't you just love the zimmer frame!!  Any road it's taking me ages to do anything at the moment, so it might be a while until I get around to my next post.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Summer in the Castle gardens

                 Hello.......... A couple of weeks ago I visited our local Castles gardens with some friends, we had a wonderful lunch together, before going for a pottle around the stunning gardens, we borrowed the Castles mobility scooters, I can only guess it looked quite funny, us storming out of the gatehouse on our trusty steeds I mean mobility scooters.

As we were using the scooters we got to access the garden through this wonderful old gate that had a huge metal, key, just like the secret garden, how I loved that book when I was little.  Any road are you ready to explore ? for there is lots of colour to be seeing.........

We started off in the Queen Mothers garden, isn't it pretty? The castle used to be one of her official residences

and this part of the garden was opened by her in 1997

The garden has some amazing plants in it so I make no apologies if this post is somewhat photo heavy.

We then journeyed onto the the paddock, normally at this point I love to continue on up to the woodland and wild flower meadow at the far ends of the grounds, where white squirrels and foxes can be spotted if you are lucky but it was a little too far for those members of our group who were walking.

Although we didn't have to go too far to find a little fox, this cute little cub was running around in the paddock all on his own, I say all on his own, but he wasn't really, as he was running around with the children and posing for pictures, trying to befriend the picnickers

It's a bit sad really but this little fellow was left behind when the family moved on, I guess there are worse place to be on your own than in the grounds of a  beautiful castle, at least he is safe here from busy roads and has company and food to eat, but I still feel  very sad for him/her.

Following the garden round we ended up at this formal walk, it was so pretty planted in drifts of colour,

starting with cool silvers

blues and mauve's

then onto purples

and pinks

whites to yellows

then orange to reds a real feast for the eyes. I was skippy happy I can tell you.

Turning left at the castle we came to one of my favourite parts of the garden, after the woods and wildflower meadow that is.

The kitchen gardens

aren't they pretty

they sure must keep the castles gardeners busy.

In this areas there is also a Rose garden

and the scent was divine

and last but not least  what I'm calling the cut flower garden, I loved the drifts of colour here the best.  I hope you have enjoyed this pottle around the grounds of Walmer Castle,  if so you can read a bit more in posts 'here' and 'here' of  visits to the castle in the Spring time.

I'm away from the Summerhouse again at the moment but I'll be back in about week.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork July

Hello........... Here are my July Mosaics, yes I know it's towards the end of August eek.

July was a month for Summer,  well at least it was supposed to be hot and sunny !! but never mind with holidays, crochet and a little stitchy project, there was plenty to distract from the not so great weather.  The Summerhouse was looking very pretty too with it's summer planting, I spent the month hooking away on my Cosy blanket and finally got around to a WIP from last summer.

Out in the Summerhouse garden things were blooming great, with summer bedding, Roses, giant daises, while the wonderful scent of orange blossom filled the air.

So that was July, here are the projects I plan to be getting on with in August.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

St Davids to Broad Haven

Hello. Today is the last of my holiday posts so I thought we'd head along the stunning coastline.

Starting at St Davids which is the UK smallest city, yep it's tiny with a population of about 1700, so why is it a city you ask well...........

There is this teeny tiny I mean honking great cathedral. St Davids Cathedral which is the final resting place of the patron saint of wales saint David.

It's amazes me to see these buildings, and wonder how they were ever constructed so long ago.

There has been a place of worship here since the 6th century, with links to the legends of King Arthur and Merlin.

Driving along the coast you then come to New Gale, which is a enormous 3 mile long beach, perfect for surfing and kites

Whats even more amazing about this beach is that underneath the sands are the remains of a 10,000 year old forest, in 2014 a huge storm hit the beach removing all the sand and exposing the Forest, it's hard to believe.  I put a link here if you want to read a bit more about it.

 The day before we came home a storm surge hit the coast with 5 metre high waves predicted so we couldn't resist heading back to New Gale again to enjoy the awesome power of mother nature.

Wales has the most amazing coastal path that I think pretty much goes the length of the coastline, and fortunately some of it has been made accessible for wheelchairs,  the next couple pictures were taken at

Haroldston Chins, which has a small piece of accessible coastal path.

So we've done the coastal path now to the beach, just look at all that wonderful sunshine!!! this is Broad Haven beach where we hired this fabulous beach wheelchair.  I've wanted to try one for ages and was sooo looking forward to this.  

So the sun was shining the boys were off playing in the sea, I'd settled down for a bit of crochet and then...........

This happened, I've never seen rain like it, freezing cold and straight off the Atlantic, there I was stranded on the beach, in the tipping rain no way of getting the boys back while my lovely sister 'R' was ferrying stuff back to the car, so many people kindly stopped to ask me it I was ok.  You've got to see the funny side,  Oh well you win some you loose some, tis the British summer after all.

About 30 minutes later along the coast at Little Haven still soaking wet, (not the best day to where linen trousers) the sun was back out and I was enjoying the wonderful view.

So that's about it for our trip to Wales, it was so lovely to visit family and enjoy the wonderful scenery.

The day we left it rained so hard and didn't stop until we were back over the Severn Bridge in England but I guess that's whats make the fields so very green.

Clare xx