Sunshine, Strawberries and Lots of Smiles

What a joy to be able to share important milestones in your children's lives.  Friday was Eve's graduation from Cambridge University.  The sun shone, the drinks flowed and the day was more magical than I ever imagined it would be.  It seems such a short time since Grace's graduation.  And here we were doing it all again.

First there was a group photo of all the graduates in the college.

Then a procession through the streets of Cambridge to the Senate House.  We even went through the shopping mall where the shoppers stood and applauded the students as they went through - my eyes were welling up at this point.

With the Master, Dame Fiona Reynolds

After the ceremony (no photos allowed), which was conducted in Latin and involved holding fingers and kneeling before the master of the college, we returned to college where we celebrated with glasses of prosecco, a delicious buffet and strawberries and cream.  And more photo opportunities.

The history graduates

The Master of Eve's college is Dame Fiona Reynolds, the former Director General of the National Trust.  She is such a lovely woman, warm and friendly.  She made an effort to sit and chat to all the families.

The history graduates with the Master and tutors

I took so many photos of the day, well over three hundred, and it will be wonderful to look back over them all in years to come.

I apologise for the number of photos, but it was a fabulous day and I'm so proud of both my girls and all they have achieved.

Llangollen With My Special Man

Thank you all so much for your warm wishes for our anniversary.  It really is joyful to receive your comments and emails.

Chris and I had a wonderful day together.  We drove down to Llangollen and had a lovely walk around.

The town is only small, but it has a river, a canal and a steam railway.

We chose to walk along the canal.  It was peaceful and picturesque.

We walked all the way to Horseshoe Falls, but we were disappointed to note that it wasn't a natural waterfall but an engineered weir, constructed by Thomas Telford when he designed and built the canal.  Even so it was a quiet spot and I always think that there's something special about sitting by a rushing river.  It's quite mesmerizing!

We had a delicious pub meal in the town before returning home.  A simple and beautiful day spent with my special man.  Looking forward to plenty more to come.

Thirty Years

What were you doing thirty years ago today?

I was getting married!

It's been a wonderful thirty years and I'm looking forward to the next thirty years.

And amazingly, and rather pleasingly, the wedding dress still fits (just).

But I'll have to keep an eye on that waistline.

I'm off to spend a lovely day with my husband.  I hope you have a great time whatever you are doing today.

Pretty Dress

It's taken a while but I have finally made the summer dress I have been wanting to make.  You may recall the trial run - the bed sheet dress.  I was so thankful that I had had that trial run because the dress went together like a dream and I felt so much more confident making it.  So here it is.

I made it exactly the same as the bed sheet dress, leaving off the sleeves.

All the darts and pleats went well and the length is perfect.

I love this pattern.  The dress is so flattering and pretty.  I have more fabric I could use, so I think another of these dresses will definitely be made soon.

It's Eve's graduation shortly, so I'm so happy I have this lovely dress to wear.

A note on the photos - I never seem to amaze myself, that in my 54 years, there are still blindingly obvious things that I'm only just learning.  I realised that I have a timer on my camera and so I don't have to wait for someone else to take photos of me!  I was experimenting for the first time with these photos, the camera was perched on a box which was on the top step of a ladder.  I think it worked reasonably well.  Isn't life wonderful when you discover something new, even if it should have been obvious before.

Have a good weekend.

Three Down, Not Many More to Go

I'm looking forward to starting some new projects shortly.  Today I can show you three more finished objects, hurray!

The first one is my socks for this month.

I just loved the colours in this sock yarn, so knitted up a pair of plain socks.

For these socks though, I tried a different heel style.  I used the Fish Kiss Lips heel which gives a lovely looking heel and a great fit.

I'll definitely be using this heel style again for my socks.  It looks so neat.

My second finished object is a little crocheted mat to sit inside my notebook basket.

It's just two-round grannies in random arrangement of colours with shell buttons sewn on.

I used join as you go for the second rounds, so it was a very quick make, but I think it adds a dash of colour to the basket.

Finally for today, I made a little doily.

It's crocheted using acrylic DK and is based on a doily I made many years ago.  I made this before I discovered Ravelry, so I have no record of where the pattern came from.  I just copied the original doily, which had been done in just one colour.  I think using the different colours brings out the details of the daisy quite nicely.

So that's it for today.  Won't be long now until I'm having another cast on party!

I Love You Sophie!

I have designated this month, the month I finish off all my outstanding works-in-progress.  There weren't that many, but I have a number of new projects I'm itching to start and I know that if I cast on for them I will start to feel somewhat overwhelmed.

I'm making excellent progress.  I have the carrot of new projects dangling in front of me, urging me on.  I'll show you what I've completed over the course of the next few posts, but rather than saving the best 'til last, I'm going with my favourite first.

The Sophie's Universe crochet-along has now sadly finished.  I have loved every minute of the journey making this blanket.  After many weeks of interesting and addictive crochet, here is the finished blanket.

Isn't she a beauty?

I started out with no definite plans for colours.  I just wanted to use up as much of my stash of acrylic double knitting weight yarn as I possibly could.  By the time I got to the end of the blanket I was running short of colours that would make it the whole way round the border.  There was no way I could do the bobble flowers in the border rows (there are 300 of them!) in one colour, so rather than start a completely new colour, I use up the odds and ends and made the bobble flowers in random colours all the way round.

I think this fits in with the general random-ness of the blanket.

You can see details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.

There are a couple of new mystery crochet-alongs starting up in the next few months that I've signed up for, but I can't believe they will be able to beat the Sophie's Universe CAL for pure pleasure.  I may just have to start another one!

Just Lovely

Thank you so much for the lovely comments I received about my last blog post.  It is wonderful to read such supportive words.

I had a beautiful day on Friday.  The celebrations were low-key but it was more about taking time to ponder and relax.

The first thing I did was wander down to the beach, take off my sandals and enjoy the feel of the (not very warm) sand on my feet.

The sea is full of little jellyfish at the moment but I had a little paddle, the first this year but hopefully not the last.

It was seven thirty in the morning and I had the beach to myself, apart from the ever-present iron men statues.

Someone had put a dress on this one (number 37), and added a seaweed wig.

All of the 100 statues have a numbered bracelet.

Back at home, I baked a cake and then put my feet up to enjoy a day of quiet reflection and knitting.

As I said, it was low-key but very enjoyable.

Life continues, there's always something to be done, but it was good to pause a while, be grateful for what I have and just enjoy being me.