Seeking O in the Frost

It's still lockdown so it's been another quiet week in the household. Lots of cuddles on the sofa, listening to books or podcasts whilst sewing away the dark evenings. It's gotten pretty cold too, but thankfully some frost never stopped Missy from enjoying herself. 

Todays #leadthewayatoz was the letter O. It's a hard letter at the best of times, and being unable to leave the council area, we ended up coping out and going with Orange leaves:

Perhaps they're more accurately described as copper, but needs must! 

All these quiet evenings have allowed me to really tank through some of the big projects on the to-do list, including (but not limited to):

A super king quilt for the in laws. The wings were originally flappy, but I had a panic about Ruby chewing them off, so went back and tacked them down so they are less tempting to a 1 year old vizla pup! 

Something super tempting for my pup was the peanut butter and popcorn flapjacks for this weeks #greatdoggybakeoff. I'm resigned to the fact that we won't win, but it's all about participation for us, and Missy loves it regardless of how it looks!

Christmas plans are afoot and I'm starting to feel a bit less stressed about it - I suffer from chronic over-organisation, so having to wing things gets me very anxious. Needless to say, that sums up this year for me, but we're getting somewhere, so I'm starting to look forward to the festive season. 

R for aRt

We finally got a sunny day at Jupiter Artland! 

We've been using our passes a fair bit for Jupiter Artland as, once we saw the whole place and got the layout down, its provided us with an interesting place for a dog walk. Because whilst Missy likes forest, it's nice to go somewhere different once in a while!

This week our letter for the #leadthewayatoz was R, and it really added a fun element to the walk about Jupiter Artland as we looked for obvious R words, and tried to find unusual ones too. The above photo captures many rhomboids, which was my hubbies find, and he's still very smug about it! 

With the nicer weather, it was much busier today, but once we were past the cells there wasn't much human traffic and we had free reign to continue our R quest.

In other news, I've officially finished in the labs and go back to my normal role tomorrow - the thought of an 8 hour day seems delightful after months of 11 hour slogs. I've really missed those few hours in the evening where I could fit in some sewing, or play a game, and I'm looking forward to getting that time back. Hopefully I'll be more productive! 

Speaking of productive, that's my first Christmas present out the way. This fabulous Mickey Mouse quilt for my older sister who is Disney mad but wants to look more put together and mature. 

Basically she was singing the praises of the quilts I had made my eldest neice and nephew, so I felt it was a safe bet to make one for her. Her bed is a super king, so this is officially the largest quilt I've made at a whopping 90 inches square. The hand stitching on the border was enough to drive me demented, but it's worth it for the overall look. 

Now onto the next Xmas pressie! 

Roses and the Wall

Its been a really quick week - both in and out of work. My trainee is on holiday so I've been running the station myself, which makes the day go by much faster bringing my working part of the week to a close. For my weekend, which is 4 days, I spent the first day having a quiet one to recharge and then went out to see my mum on my day two.

After the success of the last visit to the Saughton Rose Gardens I decided to give it another go and my mum was very impressed at the changes they had made since I was little. We both lamented the loss of the greenhouse and fish pond, but agreed that in general, it was looking far prettier than it ever had a decade ago. She was particularly taken by the physicians garden, and we spent a lot of time reading all the little signs and discussing how this was a lost art, most of the plants being toxic in the wrong doses or preparation.

And that was that. Yesterday was the start of a actual weekend off with the hubby, so yesterday we decided to walk Missy around Beecraigs and stop in at Dobbies on the way home. Beecraigs was heaving. I've never seen it so busy. We had to park in a different car park from usual and then we went in the opposite direction of the crowds to find a quit place to walk.

Ice creams in hand, we met some lovely collies who were of the mild mannered sort and we briefly traded dogs with their owners, cooing over the fluffy dogs whilst they cooed over Missy. All was set to right when we went our separate ways again and Missy spent the rest of the walk seeking small furry things.

Our Dobbies stop was successful as we picked up two reduced price black current bushes. I was given a garden voucher for Christmas and finally got the opportunity to spend it. The bushes are looking much happier today having been repotted, and I plan to relocate them at the end of the season into the planter the leeks are currently growing in. My neighbour (who calls us The Good Life) was laughing as we explained the plan with them and we spent a while complimenting one another's gardens. Whilst we are officially drowning in kale and I had a moment of sheer joy at finding a pair of teeny tiny courgettes, my neighbours garden is awash in colour and flowers. We both lament that we'd love to have a garden more like the other, but at the same time, like our own too much!

Today was another revisit, this time to the Antonine Wall. We wanted to go somewhere we hadn't done in a while and, I'll be honest, it was a shock when I checked and realised it was November 2016 when we were last in the area! Needless to say, they've done a lot of improvements to the area about the Falkirk Wheel, and the advertised "Selfie Trail" to the Kelpies has us planing to return another day. As it would have been an 8 mile circular, we stuck to our original plan and managed a lovely picnic in the sunshine.

On the sewing front, I completed my second quarantine quilt. Missy approves, as you can see! It's a scrap buster as well, and I have officially made a debt in the scraps. They no longer overflow from their bag in a messy tangle, they are neatly packaged up in size and look lost in the bag. 

I'm sure it won't be long until its overflowing again! 

Four Seasons in One Week

Well, not exactly four seasons.

Wait, very wet with a high of 10...thats a Scottish summer! So yes, all four seasons in one week!

It started with snow:

And then rain:

And lastly, in a brief respite from storm Dennis, spring is arriving:

So we haven't managed much in the way of adventures, but after last week, we all needed a bit of a holiday from the holiday! 

In the down time between going out for what is supposed to be considered a walk, but this week has resembled either an Antarctic exploration or swimming the channel, I have managed some sewing. After coming in soaked so often, I figured Missy could do with a quilt that had some water resistance to it:

Bonus points, it's completely upcycled. The main fabric is some old jumpers that were too well worn to donate and then the batting is actually an old waterproof mattress protector. We bought one thinking it a great idea and then, because they don't breathe, my husbands excema completely broke out and its never gone back on the bed...

So a win win! 

Just a short post this week since we're all still recovering from our bumper week down south!

An blast of a weekend

It's been a crazy weekend, but a good one, so I'll keep the post short! Basically, my Manchester based sister, brother in law and two of their random mates snuck up to Scotland for a Britcit nerf event. They went to a skatepark event on Friday and on the Saturday we all did iCombat.

It was a great day. Our team won the day overall and the 'rescue the Bob' game was a definite favourite! Good day all round. And plans are already being spun for next year! My sister posted a full summary here.

Missy was very much the centre of attention amongst our visitors. My sister had hammed up just how lovely she is and clearly expectations were met. The little tart (Missy that is) clearly enjoyed the non stop petting and endless supply of treats!

On the sewing front, I've started the mammoth task of the Christmas gift sewing. First on the completed list:

A quilt-come-sleeping bag for my eldest neice. At 14 it's hard to balance cute and grown up, so I hope it goes down well! 

Things come in threes

What a week of disasters this has been! I am hoping it stays true to the fact these things come in threes:

Firstly, after the Kelpies, the brakes started making a horrendous noise. Turns out that the brake pad had "degloved" and it was metal-on-metal. Two new brake pads, a brake disc and two new calipers required, literally before payday. 

Secondly, I noticed a puddle under the fish tank. Any type of water found free roaming near the tank puts me in a panic. After some investigations, it was discovered that the sump has a tiny slow leak in the connector. New one ordered and it arrived today (thanks Amazon!).

Then the icing on the cake. Went to run a well deserved bath last night, waters cold. Heating wont switch on. Boilers just clicking and not igniting. Call up and organise for the boiler to get checked and they came today.

Anxious hovering.

Its not the boiler. Boilers in perfect nick. You've got no gas.

No gas?! Back on the phone again, ringing the gas and electricity all ready to point out that I've paid my bills, so wheres the gas. More than 30 minutes on hold and an engineer is coming out.

...I may have told a little white lie and said I ha some very elderly relatives coming to visit....

Meters gone. Dead. Kapoot. Turns out, when you change supplier, your old one will disconnect the smart meter whilst your new company makes you wait a month before you can install a new one. Something to be said for analogue I suppose. Engineer was very nice and put an aalogue one in as a temporary solution until I arrange my new smart meter.

Cautiously glances at the electricity smart meter.

Will be making that call first thing tomorrow, just in case.

On the back of all the bad news, there is one good element to being trapped inside (literally when the car had gone, I was terrified to drive it), I've made a dent in a big craft project:

So this year is my mums 60th (big party is planned!) and she has been hinting for a while now that she would like a quilt. Everytime she spots one of mine they are fondly stroked and well admired - I even got a perplexed look of want over the dogs many, many quilts. I think it was the log roll border on one of Missys that did it and I found myself defending the technique as practice! So, with it being a big birthday, I thought I would push the boat out and include:

Elephants! My mother's favourite animal. And in addition to the four main elephants, there's a parade of them on the larger squares. I wanted to emulate an old fashioned charm quilt, the sort of thing her grandmother might have made, hence the squares made of tiny squares. At a king size quilt, it should be plenty warm enough for the oncoming winter! 

The other thing I've managed in my time stuck inside (apart from take photos of Missy looking stupid) is making a crack at all the easily freezable (or in the case of the tablet, long lived bits for her big birthday. We decided to split the buffet across siblings, my brother is providing tubs if sweets (as prizes for best dressed as well as the buffet), one sister (who is travelling up for it) munchies like crisps, myself the cakes and my last sister the mains (which I am a touch concerned about, but I honestly can't do everything so must delegate. I think there would have been a mutiny it I had passed baking to said sibling in order to do mains!

For those interested, I've unintentionally made a rather Scottish start to the affair - tiffin, classic tray baked shortbread and super crumbly tablet. If you are unsure of what tablet is, then when you do look it up, yes, the Scottish have found a way to add more sugar to neat sugar and call it a treat!

Fingers crossed for a more successful week next week! Missy hasn't minded a quiet one, her knee had begun to bother her again and she's now walking much better after a few days on shorter walks. I mean, two short walks is still almost two hours, but compared to the walk time she does when out at castles, that's nothing! 

Expect more birthday teases next week! 

Glasgow Botanical Gardens and Muiravonside Country Park

I've finally discovered a Botanical gardens that allows dogs - and with it being in Glasgow, it's not too far away for a wee day trip out.

The Glasgow Botanical Gardens is located beside the river Kelvin and is surrounded by the city. Missy and I were out with my friend and next time I would plan to park in a nearby multi storey or something as it was sheer luck we managed to get parked on the road (pulling off a swift parallel park I may add, my most hated road manoeuvre!)

It's still barely spring, so I didn't have high hopes of there being much in bloom and was therefore surprised at the blossom on some trees alongside swathes of purple crocus flowers. We were even treated to some bumblebees enjoying the warm weather (if 7C could ever be considered truly warm!).

Missy was not allowed in the greenhouse, so we took turns popping in to be bowled over by the scents of the hyacinth and daffodils before enjoying the more traditional greenhouse offerings of cacti and ferns. The architecture and design of the greenhouses, and some of the benches, where as enjoyable to admire as the flowers were and we quickly filled a few hours bumbling about like the bees we had seen earlier.

The only word of caution I have is the number of very fat, very bold and very slow squirrels about! I hadn't spotted any on the first lap round and, on the second, realised it was late enough in the day people were taking the small kids out to feed said portly squirrels. Thankfully my arm was not ripped out of its socket as I initially feared would happen when I realised we were surrounded by squirrels being fed by small giggling children (who would have had their days truly ruined should Missy have been allowed any length of lead). I managed to coerce Missy into a rodent free direction by physically holding onto her collar and turning whilst bodily blocking the squirrels from sight.

Thankfully Missy took my treacherous behaviour well and didn't make any kind of scene as she was escorted back to the much quieter herb gardens. The weather had started to turn so we decided to go and find somewhere to sit and have a catch up over some tea and cake.

Not quite tea and cake, but Loop and Scoop proudly proclaimed on the building to be dog friendly and soon we were enjoying churros and ice cream with tea (a heaven sent combination, I can assure you!). Missy got the wafer off my ice cream and had a nap as my friend and I caught up on each others lives and made plans for trying to catch up again sooner. By then the rain was torrential so we all dashed to the car and headed home - not a bad wee day!

It was a double adventure weekend as the hubby and I managed to get out to Muiravonside Country Park.  Out near Falkirk/Linlithgow it was a short drive away and provided a new place to explore. First we did the sculpture trail and then we did the much longer green route which took us alongside the river and through the woodland. The sculpture and poetry trail had a few nice pieces to look at and was also a 'play trail' so there was loads of rocks and sunken in tyres and such for children to play and climb on before finishing up at the little play park. I was rather enamoured by the converted dovecot which now has bat boxes:

It was an odd weather day with a strong arctic wind but, when free of it, was warm and sunny, so we decided on the long walk to give Missy a chance to stretch her legs before we had a look about the small farm. There was sheep and cows and horses, so it ticked all the farmyard boxes! We've decided to suggest it as a picnic point for the Easter family get together, so hopefully we'll be back with plenty of cake in tow! If not with family, our friends with small kids will really enjoy the country park too, so a definite recommend!

I have managed to polish off one of my larger projects - my new charm quilt for the bed. Ironically after my celebrating playing with Spring fabrics, this is most certainly a winter piece - but that's the peril of starting a project in the correct season, inevitably its finished as soon as its no longer appropriate. I'm starting my Easter sewing right now for that exact reason!

Longings of Spring

Well, one good thing about all the snow and poor weather (because yes, we've had yet more snow) is that there's plenty of time to fit in some big craft projects and not feel like I should be out doing something. Missy is fed up with the ghastly weather too, but I suspect that has more to do with a lack of bunnies and squirrels to chase than longings of spring.

This is a bit of an off-the-cuff project as the fabric was a whim buy (on a very good deal!) when in Ramsbottom. I adore Peter Rabbit (the classic stuff, but I'll settle on the movie print since it was so reasonably priced!) and spent a lot of time playing about with ideas on this king size quilt before deciding that keeping it simple was best - the sheer scale of it was a challenge alone. I'm glad to say that I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and it's brought a touch of much needed spring into the house.

I've also been looking at ways to start using up my scraps and cobbled together these cute coasters - practical and stash busting! It almost justifies my need to keep every pretty bit of fabric more than a few inches big...

In the wings, I've been working on this years bonnet contest entry for Missy. I intend to keep hers simple and classic, but for myself I'm having to up my game and produce something truly over the top! I wont divulge details just yet, but with my sister coming up for Easter, everyone is making sure that our first full-family Easter in some years will be well remembered! I was also terribly pleased that I managed to make an Easter wreath with all the left over bits from bonnets past, so at least I can pretend spring is here!

In other sewing news I've been working on some pressies which I will reveal later and its a race against the clock to make a wizards coat for the hubby for the show that the Magic Circle are putting on this Friday - its my first shot on welted pockets so fingers crossed all the youtube videos I've watched has paid off!

Gotta Love a Bargain!

Firstly, it was farewell to the baby plecs. Our original estimate of 80-100 was wildly out, and we handed in something more in the region of 150 - 200 babies. It took almost an hour to get them out of the nursery tank and I'm already dreading the job of fishing out the next set of babies will be for the much larger, full of lots of stuff, main tank. Yep, no sooner have I handed these little guys away when a new clutch of eggs have been laid. The male has cottoned on to my idea, and this time had the female lay her eggs on the glass, so there is absolutely no way to retrieve them out.

Plecs 1 - 0 Me

Not much to talk about out-and-about-wise, the weather has been gruesome and its finally beaten us all, even Missy cant be bothered with the rain any more. She's still walking plenty, and chasing all the squirrels, but we just haven't managed anywhere new or exciting. With the hubby working this weekend, I decided today was the perfect day to get cracking on with some projects - namely a new tee-pee cover:

So this was my bargain. I found two single bed sheets at £1.20 each in Asda, which gave me enough fabric to make a spare cover for the tee-pee. I'm always on the look out for cheap sheets - generally I wouldn't make anything super-detailed out of sheets, but they are great for projects that need a big chunk of fabric (petticoats, the underside of quilts, general lining etc etc).

Whilst I prefer her white one cover, Missy has managed to shake mud all over it and it sorely needs washed. Its still far too cold to just leave her bed bare and open to the night time elements, so I had to make another cover before I could wash the old one. Whilst I loved the butterfly print, I quickly panicked that it may have been too loud for the hallway, and perhaps the purple underside would be better. The solution? Why, make it fully reversible!

Fortunately, my panic was for nothing, and the butterfly side isn't nearly as loud as I thought it was going to end up being. Making it reversible was worth the extra effort as I'm really pleased with the final finish of this one, the seams are neat and the top stitching has come out perfect. And who knows, I might fancy it fully purple another time! I had another bonus with the fabric, there was a pillowcase with each sheet, and a sizeable enough portion of scrap fabric left. What to do, what to do?

Make a matching quilt of course! So, for 3 hours work and £2.40 (I had scrap batting lying about), that's a tee-pee cover and a quilt. I kid you not - this dog of mine has a cooler, more coordinated bedroom than I do! Spoiled rotten doesn't come close enough.

Missy hasn't given it a road test yet, she's quite happily sleeping on the sofa. She takes her job of quality checking all my fabric (read that as walking over and lying on every piece I place on the floor) very seriously, and has worn herself out!

Just a short post today, hope your all having nice weekends!

Teepees and Christmas Cards

Just a short post today - knowing that this time next week it will all be over has put me in a panic. There's been lots of baking and all the little odds-and-ends jobs that are so easy to neglect have suddenly come to my attention. So this week has been spent mostly double checking presents, wrapping the last few pieces and writing out the Christmas cards.

Missy 'helping' with the cards

There's been a lot of craft work over the last few weeks - the cat re homing place we got Ziggy from for my sister were looking for some winter donations so I put together some cat quilts. And then I had to make Missy some quilts so she wouldn't feel left out! Hers are the bottom two:

I am particularly pleased with the Monster High one, I will confess! The other big project for Missy has been a tee-pee! Now, let me explain before you automatically label me a crazy dog lady, as Missy was a stray, she cannot be left alone with access to the bins, so she has her bed in the hall under the stairs (like a little Harry Potter doggy, but with way more space!). 

We do try every so often giving her the living room, but she just cant help herself and after a few days of lulling us into a false sense of security will just decimate the bins. And I mean decimate - rubbish will be strewn throughout the ground floor of the house, its like she knows she's going to get into trouble so just goes daft. The worst one was the icing sugar. Icing sugar has a magical property whereby an empty bag can make it look like its been snowing in my living room and turn a black dog completely white. That was when she broke me, it was too funny to be cross, but it took hours to clean fully...

But I digress. It basically boils down to the fact that my kitchen door is one of these silly folding doors, and as the style is no longer made, I am not buying 5 new doors just to replace it. So Missy has the hall and access to a nice sunny spot on the stairs when the weather is nice. I've always had a curtain over her 'bedroom' to keep it warm at night and, with the -12C we had last week, noticed she was actually pulling the curtains into her bed and curling up in them.

I will not have a cold doggy! So, with the aid of this tutorial and some very rusty math skills in order to scale the whole thing up to make one large enough for Missy, I present to you, her tee-pee!

And one with her just chilling out inside:

It did take a small bit of bribery to try it out, but once she realised her bed was there and that this was her new 'room', Missy has taken to it really well. She seems to have figured out how to open the flaps herself to cool it down during the warmer nights and also how to close it up herself and, when she's had enough of all the cheesy Christmas songs, has been putting going there of her own free will to chill out.

I have also realised its plenty big enough to be a photo prop for my smallest niece and nephew - I'm thinking of having them as Tiger Lilly and one of the lost boys, and for Missy, well, she'll have to be Peter Pan! Perhaps if they visit in the summer...

I'm hoping to get another post in before Christmas, but if not, have an awesome day however you chose to celebrate it!

I love it when a plan comes together...

A break from our regular programming!

So, my sister is the big knitter in the family - she has the patience to just churn out vast swathes of knitting that become blankets, baby clothes and toys. I, on the other hand, whilst a very competent knitter, always preferred putting the final creation together which is why I ended up moving into sewing as a dominant hobby. But I do still dabble with wool, as you can see!

Anyhow, with the Inkling (my newest nephew-to-be) due to arrive within the next 6 weeks or so, I decided to send down a variety of blankets. Whilst they may not look the best, the knitted blankets are the perfect size for in the car, and the pair allows for one to always be washed. I previously made a set for my niece Felix (all cats, no surprises there!) and my sister used them so much that she actually asked for these. Felix now has both of hers sewn together (which was always the intention, which is why there is no border) and it fits a single bed perfectly.

A nautical theme was picked as, firstly, I personally love the theme. I'd have my whole house decked out to look like a beach house if my husband allowed me. And perhaps if Scotland had slightly less than ten months of winter. Secondly, as the nickname applies, Inkling has been given an affinity to sea creatures - his early scans had his hand at his mouth, so he had Cthulhu-esque tentacles (my sister is a massive Lovecraft fan and she made the association!) and it kinda all came from that. I love the song 'Wave over Wave' (there are many versions, but Great Big Sea have probably done the most famous one) so I went with that for filling in the middle of each blanket. Once linked, it will read the first two lines of the chorus.

Lastly, is my proper sewn quilt! Gotta admit, this is possibly the best quilt I have ever made. Its on a diagonal and everything! The bulk of the fabric was from a fat quarter set, and I got the fishes material separately to just make it a bit more my own.

Here's a close up

And that's about it! I posted these off earlier in the week and got confirmation it had arrived today - I'd have shown them off sooner but didn't want to spoil the surprise! 

Back to regular programming next time!

Adopt-iversary

Well, I'd hoped to get posting sooner, but nonetheless, better late than never!

Yesterday marked three years since we got Missy and she has gone from this nervous and unsure little thing:

To this completely spoiled rotten little thing!:

I'm not normally a fan of these mashed-up expressions, but I do like adoptiversary. As Missy was a stray, we'll never know her birthday or even an exact age (her estimate was 11 months to a year when we got her, so for documents we just use the first of March, meaning next month she will be approximately 4 years old), so its nice to have a day that's for her. We took her for some of her favourite local walks and I made her some cookies.

I found this recipe and it ticked all of Missys favourites: peanut butter, banana (I opted for 1 banana instead of the apple sauce) and chicken stock. Cant say they appeal to me, but she loves them! Whilst Eating Bird Food doesn't have much in the way of dog recipes, after the success of these, I have earmarked their pumpkin and peanut butter cookies for Halloween!

In other news, I've been sewing away quite the thing. I made myself a SpiderGwen costume and the hubby an Agent Venom one for a 30th party we had been invited to (I'm waiting on the photos from the official photographer before posting any) and its now time to get started on all the baby quilts for my soon-to-be niece and nephew.

My step sister (who is about to have a girl) lives over in the states, so us 'Scottish Aunts' are putting together a care package (the quilt being my contribution). I'm also tempted to put in some Irn Bru and other Scottish goodies for the mother to be!

What do you guys think? I imagine it'll go down well!