"Pimp" your...

...phone.

There are so many different mobile phones around these days and you do see a wide variety of phone cases. Some folk even decorate their phones with gems & stickers.

How about a quick & easy way to "Pimp" your phone that isn't permanent but can still make it "yours"...knit a Phone Sock.

If you are not sure where to start, Search Press have one of their "20 to Make" books (£4.99) with patterns in a variety of styles & yarns...

...I picked a basic pattern for Double Knit yarn that I could have a play around with...

...and came up with this sparkly little sock. I crocheted the two flowers for the front and layered them up to give a fun bit of decoration.

I've knitted a couple of these 'socks' for the fundraising. If you've got Autumn sales on the horizon for Brownies/Guides/Schools, why not get knitting and make a few of these. They can be decorated in so many ways and just think of those bits of yarn you can use up from your stash................................

Unfortunately...

...the trees have got to go.

When we first moved into the house there was a privet hedge across the garden that acted as a screen. The garage & cars were the other side of the hedge so the view from the house was of a lovely green wall. However, at over 10ft tall the privet was a major task to keep trimmed so after a lot of umming & arring it went.

There was a small tree between the hedge and the garage and we left it as it provided a bit of screening so we weren't gazing at the rendered wall of the garage. Over the years it has grown...

 ...and is in fact two trees. They create a lovely canopy in the corner...

 ...and help to hide the garage...

 ...they are also beautiful to look up through...

 ...especially as that direction is where the sun sets...

 

...you can see the glow through the leaves.

 I love trees and hate to see them cut down...

 ...but the trunks have increased in girth and are now pressing on the garage wall...

 ...so a hard decision has had to be taken...

...and the trees have got to come down...

...and they will leave such a gap when they are gone. So I had to get out and take as many photos as I could.

 

I know they have to go as they are damaging the garage (there is already a very big crack in the wall) but the garden will seem so empty without them.

I will have to think of something that is fairly low maintenance that can safely be used as a 'growing' screen of some sort...............................................................

I promised...

...so here we go.

This was the huge great parcel that was hidden behind my planters...

 ...isn't it ma-hoo-sive!!! Inside was a whole treasury of goodies...

...beautiful fabric totes, knitted crazy birds (all soft & squishy). Fabric tissue cases...

...a fold-up shopper and some glasses/phone cases. Can I say at this point, this is not the full quantity that arrived - I had colleagues grabbing bits as I was un-packing so not everything got photographed.
A lovely child's knitted jumper...

...which someone has already measured so that they can check whether it will fit their grandson and these sweet baby knits...

...what a fabulous addition to the sale table.

Thank you so much Jan, I'm just sorry my photos do not do your lovely makes justice.

So there you go folks, as promised............................................................

WOWZA...

...what a fabulous surprise to come home to.

Normally, my tubs look like this...

...sited either side of my front door but Thursday evening they were all higgle-de-piggle-de. The reason being that the postman had used them to hide a rather large parcel.

When the lovely LLJ (Lunch Lady Jan) offered to send some goodies to help towards my fund raising, I didn't expect the fabulous array of goodies that arrived (I will photo everything later when there is some decent light).

I had another amazing surprise on the fundraising front this week.

A colleague sadly lost his Mother recently and the family wishes were for charity donations rather than flowers - I was presented with £360 to add to the collection...

...and as you can see, this has taken the total over the £600 mark.

When I set a target of £150, I was quite happy to meet or possibly just go over that but everyone has been so generous. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be announcing a figure like this.

What is even more fabulous is the fact that folk at work are still interested and supporting the fund raising.

Jan will probably not see this post as she is now in full "house moving" mode but I had to post and say a very BIG thank you for all the lovely things she sent (especially at a time when she is so busy) so if Julia (Stamping Ground) happens to drop by...please do let her know that I am over the moon - and I will post some photos ASAP.  I promise..................................................

Knit and...

...natter.

If there is one thing that my current fundraising for the RNLI has highlighted, it is that we have a lot of skilled folk in our office.

I wondered if anyone would be interested in joining a "Knit & Natter" club and the response has been fabulous. I have had interest from folk who are very skilled with a pair of needles to those who would like to learn. Some folk have also expressed an interest in trying other crafts so there is scope for this to expand.

I have said that folk can bring along whatever they are currently making or they can knit some squares...

 ...this would give us the opportunity to make some blankets...

 ...after all, garter stitch is fairly quick and easy and even the newbies would be able to contribute...

...I have also had offers from some of the more experienced knitters who have said they are willing to teach anyone who wants to learn.

So it looks like it is all systems go.

I'll let you know how things go once we've had our first get together. Now I'd better go sort out a date, time and a venue......................................................................

Having a...

...bit of a play.

I found some stamped sheets that I'd done last year when I bought some of the "Betty Boots" stamps at Pinnacle Crafts. So I grabbed my ZIG 'Clean Color' pens and headed out to Barleylands on Sunday morning to make the most of the sunshine.

The pens are water-based and I haven't had much of a chance to play with them.

Here are the two colour versions that I completed...

...I think the "hair" on the second one needed more highlights but I picked a slightly darker base colour than I had intended.

I do love the very fine brush nib on these pens as you can really get into the detail of an image but I still struggle with skin-tones using water-based pens. Give me my alcohol-based Copics and I'm away but with the water-based pens I never feel that it is quite right.

Oh well, they say practice makes perfect so that is the perfect excuse to spend more time colouring LOL..........................................................

Sunshine...

...and Showers.

This was the post I wanted to do yesterday but Mr Blogger had other ideas.

We get a lot of foxes around here as there is quite a bit of open farmland where they can roam. They also like to rummage through bins for food and as the park is just across the road, they are often lucky with burger boxes and the like that still hold a variety of treats. Unfortunately, they seem to like my back garden for their "picnics" and Monday morning the view from the bedroom was of a lovely plastic mess in the middle of the lawn. I was in the middle of clearing it up when the rain started.

I was about to run inside when I noticed this...

 ...so had to run and grab my camera...

...the rain wasn't very heavy...

 ...and I so wanted to get the pictures of the rainbow. This was 7am in the morning...

...and this was the view from my back garden.

The rain didn't last very long and had finished by the time I headed off to work but what a lovely moment so early in the day..............................................................

What is going on...

...with Blogger?

For some reason it isn't allowing access to any photos.

Anyone else having problems?..............................................................

A little bit of...

..Christmas stash.

I suppose I'm not the only one to have a purse full of 'loyalty cards'. I have various supermarkets, coffee shops, chemists, craft shops etc. and for those that don't have 'plastic', I have the cards that get stamped every time I spend over a certain amount.

For some folk this may seem like a bit of a faff but it is surprising how those savings can mount up.

This week I had a little spend on some Christmas stash in The Works...

...and this little lot didn't cost as much as you would think because I had £6 to spend on my loyalty card.

Loyalty cards can often entitle you to other benefits - special promotions, freebies - which all help to stretch the budget so make them work for you.

In the meantime, I'd better stop stroking this little lot and actually put it to some use........................................................

We have been having...

...a lot of hot and humid weather.

However, that doesn't stop me from having candles burning in my home to bring a cosy glow and to add a lovely fragrance.

I recently bought a wicker candle lamp from "Naked Flame" as Ian the owner was having a sale to clear some space for some ne stock items.

I also bought a pillar candle to use in the lamp...

...and it is burning beautifully. The candle is burning down without any mess and the fragrance is wonderful.

This candle is from Wax Lyrical "Mandarin & Cranberry" which is technically a Winter/Christmas smell but I love this fragrance and would happily burn it all year round...one slight problem though...it has been discontinued (although there may be something similar in this year's collection).

I love fruit & spice smells at any time of year.

If you like candles, what is your favourite scent..........................................................

The RNLI fundraising total is...

..."Moo"ving on up (sorry about the pun).

Francis who made the kiddies animal handbags brought in another couple...

 ...including this adorable cow - there was also a brown bear but it sold before I had a chance to get a photo.
The totaliser is gaining more splashes...

 ...which is what we wanted...

...I'm so pleased that we are building on our original target of £150.

We will be continuing until the end of the Summer and hope to have a nice sum to hand over to such a worthy cause..........................................................

On Saturday I couldn't resist...

...some new stamps from Pinnacle Crafts.

Here is the first one that I have played with...

 ..."Winter Wonderland" from Woodware (JGS180). I loved the 'framed' look of the stamp.

So I had a play using the same sort of layout that I've been using with my "Cosy Cottage" stamp...

...and have tried two colourways...

 ...using flesh colours within the frame gives a slightly vintage look.
The other colourway is more traditional...

 ...with blues & greys used to give a more winter frost look...

...and a good amount of Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle on both cards gives a lovely shimmer.

The stamped image on each card was coloured using ZIG "Clean Color" pens - the very fine brush tip on these pens makes them so easy to use when colouring small fiddly areas.

I've made 3 of each colourway to help boost my stock of Christmas cards a bit more...........................

Wow, Team GB...

...second on the Olympic medal table.

Way to go Team GB !!!

Back in 2012 the Royal Mail honoured our medal winners with postage stamps and post boxes painted gold, silver or bronze - I wonder if there are any plans to celebrate the medal haul this time?

On Friday it was a lovely sunny day in Stratford...

 ...and despite the traffic and all the building work, the area looked rather nice with the sunshine and blue skies.
Unfortunately, something didn't look so nice...

 ...the gold post box in The Broadway (to celebrate that Stratford was the home of 2012) is looking rather tatty...

...four years of keys rubbing on the front when the postman empties the box have taken their toll. You would think that a bit of National pride would want to keep the boxes looking good.

Let's hope that a good result in Rio with prompt some action to give these items a lick of paint............................................................

Time to...

...restock.

We have had a few visitors to our office this week and they have loved all the knitted bits & pieces so I thought I'd better start finishing off a few more bits.

This is my "travel" knitting bag...

 ...it was a freebie on a magazine so long ago that I couldn't even tell you which magazine it might have been. However, it is a perfect size for shoving in my shopping tote and taking to work.

I have a few egg cozies knitted and they just need to be stitched together.

This is a set that I knitted last night...

...all finished and ready to be packaged.

I managed to find some cheap egg cups in one of our local bargain stores. The only problem is that the colour range is quite limited but never mind, I'll just have to come up with some colour combos that look okay.

So it's back to the needles for me..............................................................

Four years ago...

...this view was very different.

If you had arrived at Stratford from the "Stratford High Street" DLR station, the yellow framed building seen here...

 ...was covered with graphics depicting various events from the Olympic games.
The tower block behind and the two to the right did not exist...

 ...where the red crane stands in this photo was a row of beautiful trees and you could see an old tower block behind them that had been wrapped in advertising by one of the sponsors of the games.
The view along the Broadway was very different too...

...there was bunting & banners everywhere and lots of flowers.

The area has certainly changed in those four years.

We now have dedicated cycle lanes all over the place - you still have to take your life in your hands as there are plenty of cyclists who still insist on ignoring traffic lights and better yet, cycle the wrong way on the cycle lanes.

The main area of growth though is tower blocks - they are springing up faster than weeds. An article in the National Press a while back revealed that there was planning permission granted for 450+ high-rise constructions in the London area with more than half of these being in East London. Developers may well be using the "fantastic views of London" statement to help sell these properties but it looks like it won't be long before that changes to "fantastic up close & personal views of the tower block next door"..............................................................