2012

Posted on December 31, 2012 by The Little Room of Rachell

HWB cover end

It’s my blog birthday today !

A year of crochet, a little knitting and embroidery, people, places, food and quite a lot of chat. I’ve enjoyed making bloggy contacts, having a peep at what you’re making, reading about your favourite things and getting to know your part of the world.

I look forward to maybe meeting some more of you in person next year for some social crochet-knitting-sewing-whatever get togethers. :-D

birthday cake

HaPpy NEw YEaR EvERyOnE!

A little crochet and Royal Cake

Posted on June 25, 2012 by The Little Room of Rachell

I finshed this book earlier. It’s an extremely easy read and described as a ‘cosy mystery’ in the States apparently. I’ve never sampled a knitting murder before, as gruesome as that sounds….!

Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Co-Op, Martin’s Newsagents, a little Post office/general store – no magazine joy. Superstore Sainsbury’s further afield – BINGO! I was so happy I took this photo to mark the occasion. I need to subscribe; since I really would miss making fun of some of the patterns and miss out on the good ones. I’m not about to highlight the funnier ones now. Well, apart from to ask: would you like woolly gnomes in your garden or to create woolly ice-creams? If the answer contains a yes this is definitely the buy for you this week. Grin.

Thank you for all your lovely, lovely comments about the wonky-middled Blooming Flower cushion back. It’s not that I didn’t take any notice but I can be a bit of a perfectionist. Knowing I am capable of making something much better, and giving a wonky one as a present to a little sweetheart for her 4th birthday would have made me feel rather uncomfortable. It’s all good crochet practice too. The colours are better in my second version of the cushion back too. I just need to dc it together with the front.

We’ve just had a delivery of ROYAL CAKES. Yes! Properly ROYAL CAKES.

For the Diamond Jubilee the Queen and Prince Philip are holding celebratory tea-parties around the country. People were invited to take part in a free lottery to attend. S’s parents were successful and have been to Henley upon Thames this afternoon to have tea ‘in the presence of the Queen.’ They were very close to both, about 4 feet away apparently at one point, and dropped in on the way home to give us two Royal Brownies (seems fitting to use capitals somehow) that my MiL sneaked out in a paper cup. So sweet!

Apparently the steam powered barge the Royals travelled upon down the Thames, during the main Jubilee celebratory weekend, was moored on the river and there were a number of other boats. It sounds like the tea was quite a spread too. Jealous! But sneezing and wheezing all over the Royals is pretty uncool I imagine.

Sorry folks, I can’t hang about. I have a ROYAL Brownie to consume. :-D

PS: I bet it’s calorie-free being Royal and everything too.

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

Posted on June 5, 2012 by The Little Room of Rachell

This gallery contains 15 photos.

Over the bank holiday weekend we’ve been to the south coast to enjoy some Jubilee celebrations and see the sea. I love days at the seaside; it’s one of my all-time favourite things to do (as you might already have guessed?!) Everywhere … Continue reading →

Red White & Blue

Posted on May 23, 2012 by The Little Room of Rachell

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee (60 years! What a woman!) and London 2012 Olympic Games are rushing towards us now. Currently the torch is travelling around the country, being passed from hand to hand. This morning I’ve heard that it’s in Wiltshire, and was being carried part of the way by a woman who has raised a lot of money for charity. It’s really good that non-celebs/sports-people are having a turn and are honoured for their service to the community or whose talents are recognised.

For the past while I’ve been taking a few of these types of pictures…

This is a road in Oxford in case you’re wondering.

And, the next one made me smile!

Creative display methods reflecting the times eh?

So the shops are getting well on board, selling anything and everything red, white and blue. With a fair few Jubilee biscuit tins etc. Good for them! I like to see it.

On another track, I walked (a 3.3m round trip – loving Endomondo sports tracker!) to a library on Monday and discovered they have a host of craft books on all sorts of the topics including: quilting, patchwork, jewellery, knitting, cake decorating….and crochet…a reallllly good selection of crochet books. So I grabbed five randomly and took them outside to sit in the sun (yes! we have sun now…hurrah!!!!!) in the quite beautiful library garden. Next time I go maybe I’ll take some photos, it’s full of clever planting, with benches placed at intervals in the quiet corners behind plants, trees and sculptures. The benches are painted a lovely blue, you can see the colour behind the books in the photos, which really works with the setting.

The Dudes book has some very nice jumpers in it with a variety of sizes. I ‘might’ have a try at something wearable later in the year. And no; I’m not ‘a dude’ but I did like the look of the solid, chunky clothes unlike lots of crocheted items for women which are often all holey and not really flattering to actually wear. Unless you’re a willowy model IMHO. The male models are pretty yummy too in this book – some of them – so that’s definitely a recommmeded ‘book to browse’ from me!

I made some notes on which patterns I liked in the books as I went, so I can go back and borrow a few at some point. There are even more to go and peruse some other time too.

Thanks to blogger Jill from Nice Piece of Work for commenting on my charity shop book at the weekend. She prompted me have a look for craft books when I was returning a novel (Lost Lady -Willa Cather, recommended read particularly if you like classic American fiction.)

I’m off to walk around the grounds of a Palace now, will post some pics soon.

Enjoy the sun, if you have some wherever you are. :-D