Country life part two......

Hi there everyone.
I keep telling myself to make a list of what I need to do, like do this blog for example, but then I get swallowed up in decision making and sweeping copious amounts of dust up so it slips my mind....
However, I have now made myself a reminder and stuck it in front of my nose so shall we see if that works?

Before we get stuck into the building site you may recall that in my previous post I referred to the Brough Agricultural show.....there is a bit of a tale to be told.

Sitting with my cousin and sister one evening, we got to talking about this upcoming show (I need to add here that there may have been a fair bit of wine involved....) and my cousin informed me that she had decided to be big and brave and enter a couple of pieces of crochet for fun. It was then decreed that, now that I am a local, I should enter something too. Through the clouds of alcohol, this seemed like a good idea and after perusing the categories I found myself investing the princely sum of £2.40 and entering a number of items into said show.

Reality struck a few days later when I woke up to the fact that I had now committed myself to create a number of items in less than a week.......and having not been to the show before I had absolutely no idea of what I was up against. After a brief panic attack I decided to treat it as a little bit of fun and dove in to making

 I put the scraps of vintage wallpaper from the renovation to good use and made a notebook with them.

 Of course, I entered one of my hand made books too

 One of my pen and ink drawings

 This was my contribution to Christmas

 and, though you can't really see clearly, Konrad (who doesn't like mice) along with a felted journal went into the needlefelting section.

After a nervous wait while judging took place and we were all locked out of the tent you could have blown me over with a feather when I discovered......

 I took first in the drawing section

 Konrad took first place too

 and third place for my journal too. I was well chuffed. Janet placed too with her crochet which was pretty awesome as well.
Needless to say, planning is now well underway for next year ....... got to maintain and improve you know. This country life is serious business you know.

 All in all it was a great deal of fun and it was lovely to see how involved everyone got .
This has been a long post so I'll hold off till tomorrow before I get you back into the dust and grime of the house....
Take care

Country life

Hi there folks.
It has been a while, so I do apologise. It has been a proper topsy turvy time to be honest with nothing much happening with the house. However, things are momentarily calm so let me bring you up to date...
After the initial chaos of moving was over it soon became apparent that me being eager to crack on did not equate to my builder being ready to do the same. So I had to reign in my enthusiasm and exercise a little patience which wasn't easy.

 Fortunately I had my sister visiting which was lovely. Then it was the summer holidays which meant Susan was able to come up. So we have been enjoying some much needed family time as both daughters managed to come along to visit. I won't bore you with too many pics but here are a couple.

We went through to York for the day and came across this immersive Van Gogh experience which was such a visual treat.

 Popped over to Low Force which is such a favourite spot for us.

Walked over to High Force too.

 Spot of creative time at Wainwath Falls...

 The a walk up to The Watercut Sculpture in Mallerstang....

Just a tiny snapshot of our summer.....
Inbetween all that, we bought a car.

Entered the Brough Agricultural show just because I had a moment of madness (but more about that experience next time.) and did a lot of planning, dreaming and buying.........

It has been a busy summer and I was blessed to be able to spend the time with those I love. As always though, all holidays draw to a close; Susan has had to go back south again while she finishes working her notice and I am getting myself back and focused.  Fortunately, work on the house is beginning in earnest again now so you can look forward to some more regular updates from now on......
Until then, take care