Crochet goodness

I've been getting back into learning to crochet. So far, I've made 3 scarves, a few flowers, and some granny squares.

As spring was coming, I wanted to make something in springy, zesty colours, so I purchased some Debbie Bliss cotton and learnt how to make granny squares. I've made 9, just enough for the front of a cushion cover.



And I'm doing stripes for the back.


I've got a plan for the flowers that includes pipe cleaners!

My husband is mad!

So, I finally got to a car boot sale. Yay! Unfortunately, I didn't find any goodies. Not yay.

Hubby and I made our way to our favourite one, hoping that it had started for this year. It had, although it wasn't as busy as it normally is. Hubby found a couple of bits and then we decided to head off to Cardiff to go to another boot fair.

When we parked up and started walking to the next one, we bumped into Samantha with her boys and the gorgeous Arthur who is such a sweet little thing.
I noticed Samantha was empty handed, so didn't hold out much hope of finding anything, as we seem to go after similar things, and my hunch was right. However, again, hubby found some bits, including a copy of a flight helmet. He asked how much it was and the guy said he wanted £20 for it. Hubby walked away.
After we'd been around the rest of the stalls, and people were starting to pack away, he went back, told the guy that he only had £5 and would he take that for the helmet. Score!
And here it is:


So, hubby spent the rest of the afternoon when we got home, sitting on the sofa wearing his new helmet! Yes. The. Whole. Afternoon!(He is a bit mad, that's one of the reasons I love him!)

It now fits rather neatly in our new TV unit, along with all the consoles and other geeky nic-nacs.



We spent the bank holiday monday getting some garden things and demolishing the old playhouse that was in the garden. It was too rotten to salvage, so we're getting a proper shed to take its place. Then I'll be able to get all the tools and DIY stuff out of the house. At the moment, they're cluttering up the hall, bedroom, dining room and kitchen as we don't have anywhere else to put them (no understairs cupboard and the loft hatch is too small to even climb through-that's another project planned).

On the crafty front, I haven't got around to doing any more of my crocheted scarf, but I have taken a picture of it.



I'm really rather pleased with my first attempt at crochet. I'm finding it really enjoyable and a lot easier than knitting.

I've got an hour long train journey on Friday,(more about that in another post) so I'll take my crochet with me to pass the time.

Gosh, it's been a long time.

I hadn't intended to leave the blog for so long. Actually, I hadn't intended to leave it at all, but my pc started playing up and I was offline for about a month, then life got busy and I got out of the habit of blogging.

So, I'll just jump right back in with both feet and tell you what I've been doing lately.

Like, learning to crochet. I bought just 3 balls of Debbie Bliss' cashmerino wool a few months ago, and finally got around to sitting down with wool, hook and instructions just over a week ago.
The resulting scarf is almost finished, I'm just adding a picot edging. I've been really enjoying doing this. It's great to have something I can do whilst sitting watching TV with hubby.

Of course, now I've almost finished that, I have another project planned. With a few ebay wins of some more wool (cotton angora this time) I have enough to make a ripple blanket. Can't wait to get started on that!

Another first for me was making marmalade. One of the books that hubby got me for Christmas had an easy recipe for marmalade, so when seville oranges were in season, I had a go. And it was a success! Yummy homemade marmalade! The original recipe said it made about 23lbs but that the amounts could be halved. I didn't think that I would be able to get through that much marmalade, so I halved the recipe. Should have made the full amount because I'm now down to my last two jars!
I'll have a go at jam next-strawberry season is nearly here.


This weekend (weather permitting, which of course with it being a bank holiday weekend, the weather will probably be wet and windy!) I'm hoping to go to my favourite car boot fair. There is an indoor all year round one near us, but it seems to be mostly people selling their baby stuff and kids toys, so we don't go there very often. Our favourite one is in a great location with views across the Bristol Channel to Somerset and Devon, and there are loads and loads of stalls selling all kinds of wonderful items. It was where I got those bolts of fabric and the old sewing box amongst other things.
Oh, I hope the weather is good!

Anyway, it's good to be back. I'll get some photos to upload tomorrow when it's not dark.

Ooh Pictures!

Yep, at long last, my camera has a charged battery and another spare charged battery
for when the first one runs out!
So, be warned, this post is going to be picture heavy! (You can click on the pics to make them bigger)

New Books.



Japanese Craft Books.


New Mary Englebreit Magazine, and the bag that I made.




See the table and chairs? That's the bargain set I got from Tescos.

Some new fabric. I love the print with the cats. It's an Alexander Henry fabric.


While I was in the bedroom taking the pic of the fabric, I thought you might like to see the view from the window.


Here's Nibbler in his favourite place. I have to keep pushing him off my keyboard. I often come back to the pc to see he's brought up the *Find* window, and typed in something like "xxxxxxxxxxfkdsfepgorgk"! Or otherwise I find a box asking if I want to turn caret browsing on. Whatever caret browsing is.



And Pixel, caught as he was about to annoy the fish, hence the guilty look on his face!



Well, that'll do for now. Next post, I'll show you some of my latest thrifted finds.

New book and a poorly pet

Meet Sheba. This photo was taken when she was feeling happy. At the moment she's feeling a little sorry for herself as she's just come back from the vets after an overnight stay. She'd managed to dislocate her knee and torn her ligaments, so she had to have an operation and now sports a natty blue dressing. We think she did it on our laminate floor as she finds it very slippery to walk on, so we've now got some rugs down to avoid it happening again.
She was very happy to be back home, and is now having a nap.


Onto the new book, Simple Crochet by Erika Knight. It was kindly sent to me by Ruthanne/Kittythimble after I'd posted a comment on her blog about it. She'd bought a few copies from The Book People when they were selling it for just £1, and I'd missed the offer. It's an inspiring book with some lovely projects in it and the *how to crochet* photography is nice and clear. Ruth's a lovely lady, so pop on over and say hi. Thank you Ruth, the book's great!

Oh yes, the postman also brought me some bamboo crochet hooks that I got from ebay, so I now have a range of sizes to play with! Now I've got my eye on some Debbie Bliss yarn. I can see I'll end up with a yarn stash to go along with my fabric stash!

Another wet miserable day

But I've been cheered up by a delivery from Tescos and the postman brought my latest ebay win.

Last week I was browsing the Tesco Direct site and saw a cast iron table and chairs set that I'd had my eye on, had been reduced. Twice. From £64 to £32 to £16! I ordered it straight away and it was delivered today. Now, I just hope that we have some nice weather for me to use it (along with my swing seat).

Then the postman came with my ebay win. A pyrex *Gaiety* lidded dish complete with a warming stand, still in it's original box. And it's pink, so it will match my kitchen perfectly! I love it already, and I think I will keep this one out on display instead of hidden away in a cupboard.

We didn't do any thrifting at the weekend, so I decided to learn how to crochet. My nan showed me how to make (appropriately enough) a granny square when I was a child, but I never remembered how to do it. I've been wanting to have something to do whilst I'm sitting with the family while they watch tv, and thought that it was about time I tried to learn to crochet. I'm not very good at knitting, the only stitches I know are garter stitch and, with a reminder of how to purl, stocking stitch, and I'm always either dropping stitches or somehow, adding stitches. Over the years I've tried many times, but I just can't seem to get in the groove, so maybe just having one hook instead of two needles will be easier.

I first tried learning from a book, but found it awkward to hold the yarn the way it said, and also found that there were a couple of bits that I felt weren't shown or explained very clearly, so then I had a look at the tutorials over at Crafty Daisies and found the videos were more helpful and I started to *get* it.
I've had a few goes at the various stitches, and then discovered another video tutorial on youtube that shows how to ripple, so I've had a go at that too, and it worked! So now I'm on the hunt for some nice yarn!

In other craftyness, I whipped up a new cover for my ironing board out of that thrifted curtain, so now it has a pretty pink flowery cover instead of the horrible blue abstract cover that it came with (that was also a pain to get on and off).

Now I'm planning on making a couple of cushion covers with a mix of vintage and new fabrics.

Still no photos I'm afraid, the camera charger still hasn't been found and it looks like I might have to buy a new charger. It's all hubby's fault, he was the last one to use it and he's really bad for losing things. He can pay for the new charger!

Nice Weekend

We had a lovely day Saturday. It started off quite lazily. I read a few blogs, did some window shopping on ebay and a couple of loads of washing, while hubby played Command and Conquer. Then we decided to go out to St Fagans again, as there was a craft fair on this weekend and I knew that Samantha had a stall there and had told her I'd try to pop by to see her.

I was a bit disappointed by the number of stalls there. When I lived in London I always went to the craft fairs organised by Four Seasons at Morden Hall and Hampton Court, which were massive themed fairs, usually medieval with falconry displays, wandering minstrels and the like and 4 or 5 large marquees packed full of stalls, so the fairs I go to now are always a disappointment to me! But what wasn't a disappointment was meeting Samantha. She's as lovely as she sounds in her blog and I could have chatted for ages. I didn't want to come away empty handed and could have bought loads of things from her, but wanted to conserve my pennies so I bought a pinny for my washing up liquid bottle!



After St Fagans, we went on to Penarth to browse the charity shops, and I picked up a lovely Boden top and a skirt and hubby got a couple more books.

On the way home we stopped off at the chinese to pick up a take away as hubby had a craving for chinese food!

On Sunday I got my sewing machine out. We'd bought our nieces a mug and chocolate bunny for Easter, but I felt they looked a bit boring in their cellophane wrapping, so decided to make the girls little tote bags to put the Easter gifts in. I've never made bags before, and totally winged it, not using a pattern or even measuring out the fabric, but just going by eye! I'm really pleased with the way they turned out and love the fabrics I used. Pretty aren't they?

First Post

Welcome to The Cottage on the Hill.

Here I will write about my crafty endeavours, latest thrifted finds, cooking, and life in general in the Welsh hillside cottage I share with my husband, 15 year old son, a dog, 2 kittens and a goldfish.

Today is Sunday, and that usually means I will be cooking a roast for dinner, but J, my son, defrosted some pork chops by mistake a couple of days ago, (he thought it was bacon, and was very disappointed to find he wouldn't be having bacon sarnies that evening) so I need to use those.

I will be making spicy orange pork chops for the boys, and a quorn fillet version for me (I don't eat meat). The recipe is a big hit with everyone. I serve it with sweet potato wedges and steamed carrots.

As I won't be spending hours cooking a roast, I might also make some cakes. I got a new vibrant pink silicon bun pan yesterday, so I want to try it out. I also got a new pink mixing bowl with a handle and a pouring lip. It matches my other pink mixing bowls perfectly. I seem to have a bit of a thing for pink.


The coffee pot in the picture is one of my charity shop finds. It cost £2.75. I'm going to make a cosy for it, but I'm not sure which fabric to use. I just got some lovely fabrics from ebay and they're all so nice, I'm having trouble deciding, but I think I might go with this one.


and use this binding which I bought in Oxfam yesterday. 9 yards for 99p!


While in Oxfam, my husband saw this:


he knows I love pretty china!