Endings before Beginnings

In the blink of an eye our short break was over and the Bun's and I descended on Mr Bun with tales to tell late on Friday. I've been fiddle faddling getting our cottage just how I like it ever since.

On Saturday's food hunt I visited a wonderful roadside hut where you can buy the most spectacular dahlias ever. Can you believe I filled two jugs with these fat beauties for only 80p.

After we played Piggy in the Middle, we tickled the greengages and decided they needed plucking. They taste gorgeous, I need to find a few things to do with them before they go all squishy.

See that bright splodgy green and blue flower print underneath my plums? Well I spied that in a very high up cupboard that I don't normally go in at my parents. I got all excited about the look of that lovely fabric and wondered out loud if it could be mine for chopping up and sewing with. Well it turns out it was my bedspread in the house we lived in until I was seven. I can't remember it at all, but I really like the idea of using it to make a quilt to cover up the grown-up me's bed. 

My mum also bought this wonderful book to help get more making ideas going in my head.

I'm totally passionate about colour, so much so that sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the choices and then I just can't decide which to use when I start any new thing. What I loved about this book more than anything are the projects in it and the tips on knitting with different textures, playing with colour to achieve different effects. Like working cables in a different colour to the background. Stuff I wouldn't have thought of at all. 

Somehow my food finding trip ended up at the yarn shop. I had no choice really as I found that however big my stash I just didn't have any magenta. I love this colour mix and thought it would be a perfect start for the ripple effect bag I'd started first thing.

I also want to get my head around fairisle and the book gives some really quick helpful tips rather than go on and on which bores the pants off me. The bottom wavy one is called entrelac and for that reason alone sounds something good to try.

Starting all back to front - I've finally got to where this week all started. 

All my flowery knick knacks laid out in my childhood bedroom and now we're ready to go off for some girlie fun. On the way to our tacky seaside evening we visited my mum's friends restaurant. It's on the Norfolk Broads and has a repro Edwardian launch that we went on. All calm on a hot summers evening.

Next stop crazy pirate golf, deep fried doughnuts, candyfloss and glitz.

I managed to get the Bun's to ride the snails at the fair. I adored them when I was little. They slowly trundle along and roll down gentle hills and through tunnels. I've tried sitting clamped to a fast scary ride with my eyeballs turned inside out and have come to the realisation that the snail ride through nursery rhyme land hits the spot for me for thrills and spills.

We managed to fit in a day at the beach on the day that the whole world seemed to end up on it. After two hours I couldn't take it any more as the next load of people plopped down beside us so we trundled back to the little train to go into the town.

Icecream and cockles on the harbour wall before a wander and then scones in a calm walled garden. Mum and I felt better already.

Rainy days were spent lunching, shopping and playing games. It was pretty darned good to be looked after by my lovely mum who made sure we had a wonderful few days with her.

Now I'm off to start catching up with blogland again. See you soon.