Criminals, Camper Vans and Cake

Hi Folks, sorry it's been a while (again). One of the reasons for this is that I am now without a laptop. A couple of charming individuals did this to our dining room door, having slid open the half-painted sash that was without a lock.

They got a really good haul of all our electrical goods and even carted off my son's little home safe which he used to store his sweets in.

Lack of intelligence prompted them to use Mr Magpie's cards in two different cashpoints which had cameras on them and a car that was registered to their address. When the house was raided four days later our goods were long gone but other people's were found. A letter written to my son from his cousin (which had been in the safe) was also found, as was the tool that made the charming marks in our woodwork. This evidence was enough to charge a man with and he is now on bail pending a court date in the new year.

We are now waiting anxiously to see whether the insurance company will settle our claim since the window was unlocked (the lock had been removed for painting) even though the inner door was double locked.

Mr Magpie had a busy weekend after the robbery securing the house once more and adding window restricters and an alarm. I took the children up t'north to see family and we had a lovely time before coming back for our camper van adventure.

 

We have owned our old T4 Van for about six years now and although we have added (and removed, and added) seats to it it has essentially been a builders van, very useful whilst we have been renovating the house and also handy for transporting off-road motorbikes. It is also brilliant for camping since we would never fit all we take in the car. I was however very envious of my friend and her old VW in the summer when we went camping. She pulled up, hopped into the back and put the kettle on. I pulled up, had to unload all our gear and then spend at least two hours setting up camp.

 

 

Mr Magpie had been eyeing up camper vans for a while and spent much of his time at Larmer Tree sussing out the various options. We have been thinking of upgrading our T4 to a T5 so decided to hire one in half term to try it out. We weren't disappointed.  Since we didn't want to spend hours driving we had a lovely little tour of the West Country and it was just what we needed.




Glastonbury Tor
 



East Somerset Railway
 



Wookey Hole
 



I'll let you guess
 

The van was toasty warm at night thanks to the heater and it was fab for the days out too since we could provide our own hot snacks, drinks and warm seating area. This was particularly welcome at Stonehenge where the wind was whistling across Salisbury Plain.

We hired our van from here and thought the service was excellent. Although the owner is selling one of his vans, the £34,000 price tag is slightly over our budget so we will be looking for an ordinary van and 'pimping' it ourselves. I would love to hear if any of you have any camper van tales to tell or wisdom to impart.

Finally the cake you were promised. I can't show you a true 'ta-dah' since it is still in the oven and will be for at least another three hours, but it is that time of year again. I love making my own Christmas cake and in doing so I give myself the metaphorical kick up the backside needed to kick-start our annual preparations.

They are on hold for one more week though as this weekend I will be having a stall at Karen's lovely fair, so I have got a little bit of sewing to do. I am looking forward to catching up with Karen, as well as some other blog land friends like Katherine.

If you can make it to Alderholt on Saturday I'm sure you won't be disappointed, Karen did a fantastic job last time and always has a great mix of stalls and entertainment. Make sure you come and say hello!

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x


Holiday Fun (and a little bit of knitting and crochet)

The summer holidays are in full swing over here at Magpie Towers and we have been getting out and about as much as we can. Over the last week we haven't managed to get to the beach, but tomorrow's forecast is looking good so we will be getting out the buckets and spades once again.

In the last week or so we have enjoyed picnics aplenty in a variety of touristy destinations; it is great living in a seaside town, you feel you are on holiday just by popping a mile up the road. Actually, last year every time we went to the town centre, the littlest Magpie would gleefully announce 'We're at the holiday!'

As well as the picnics, we have been crabbing, swimming, walking, playing at the park (well, several parks) exploring a model town and having a few adventures.

Examining the catch, the final tally was 7!

A brave new friend.

A Model Town



The littlest Magpie wanted to take this cutie home.



That's me - I did the monkey bars!!

My Hitchhiker#2 has been living in my handbag so that it can be whipped out at any available opportunity while the boys are otherwise occupied and has been growing steadily. The missing Hitchhiker#1 got to 45 teeth and I think that the yarn ball looked slightly smaller than this one. I'm on tooth 30 now, so still a way to go but I am proud to say that there are still no mistakes in this one and I aim to keep it that way!

I have also been adding the odd new stripe to my Granny blanket when I get settled enough of an evening. This picture shows 20 more stripes than when I last blogged about the blanket here. Because we have been using the blanket so much already I have changed my mind about making this double-bed sized because I think that if I do it will get left on a bed and would be too big to be carried around by the kids or to be a useful size.

I have just completed stripe 55 and think that I will probably continue to a nice round 60 before moving on to the border.

Granny Magpie has been making her very own Granny Stripe, her first crochet project and I can't wait to see it. A good friend of mine who asked me to show her how to crochet has also been making her own blanket so hopefully soon I can show you pictures of three finished masterpieces!

This weekend we will be having a visit from Grandad, who will be taking the middle-sized Magpie back up to the Midlands to spend a week with Granny Magpie. After a relatively quiet week we will be visited by the Magpie cousins and are looking forward to all the Magpies enjoying some holiday time together as Mr Magpie will be off work too.

I hope that you are enjoying your summer too,

Thanks for reading,

Beth x

Play and Work

It feels like this has been a very long week. Mr Magpie and I started early last weekend with a trip to London on Thursday. We were there to see a band in the evening but arrived early enough to do some sightseeing.

The weather was pretty miserable so we headed for the warmth of a museum. We chose the Imperial War Museum as we hadn't been before and what we saw of it was very impressive. We were there for about three hours but could easily have doubled that. It was the first time we'd been to London without the children (we left the little Magpies at home with Nanny) and it was certainly a more relaxed experience!

This was our evening's destination. Mr Magpie is a huge New Order fan, I'm more your Joy Division type of girl (if you like Editors give them a try).

Neither of us had been to Brixton Academy before and it was a great venue, I love watching bands in old theatres as opposed to sterile boxy halls such as our BIC here in Bournemouth. At first the sound engineer seemed to have his levels a little confused and we thought we were in for a big disappointment but about halfway through things improved and we had a great time. The band obliged me by doing two Joy Division tracks in the encore, finishing with 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Ace.

Anyway, my apologies, you're not really here for music news are you?

After a bank holiday weekend I would rather forget, due mainly to falling victim to the rather nasty tummy bug that seems to be doing the rounds, I have been a busy little bee. I took advantage of the coach journeys to and from the capital to start my little project with the Rowan Cotton I showed you here.

I have long been an admirer of Ripple blankets and really wanted to try one myself. There are excellent instructions on Attic 24 but Lucy's version does require you to learn how to treble two together. Although I'm sure I could work out how to do this with a little effort, I was drawn instead to the pattern in my Jane Brocket book, The Gentle Art of Knitting. In Jane's pattern, you only need to know how to do double and treble crochet. By missing stitches and adding chains, you make little holes which do the work of shaping the troughs and peaks of the ripple. Simples.

I haven't used cotton for either knitting or crochet before and it does feel a little strange but I am enjoying the pattern, which is almost as easy as my granny stripe and as I am keeping things small, this will be my portable project of choice until it is finished.

After taking my crochet roll to SnB a few weeks back, I was asked to make one as a DPN holder by another member of the group. I took it along last night and I seemed to have a happy customer, which is always a great feeling.

As well as the DPN holder, I finished off a little batch of brooches.

I have also spent a lot of time ironing this week. Not the kind that makes the Mr happy because he has a wardrobe full of shirts again, but the kind that involves fusing interfacing onto fabric. I did a big batch and then got busy with the scissors snipping out lots of fruit pieces.

I think I might finally be getting my groove back when it comes to sewing. I really enjoyed stitching this lot up.

So much so that I cut these out last night in a spare half hour and will have a little play with some buttons and trim.

Well that's the news from the nest this week. I have just looked at the calendar and realised that there are only three more weeks until half term and then only four weeks after half term until Larmer Tree. My panicky levels are rising steadily, but I keep telling myself that it will all be fine.

I wish you all a lovely weekend (will it ever stop raining though?) and hope to see you again soon.

Beth x

Getting Down to Business

It has been a bit of a strange week here at Magpie HQ. To start with I have only had to do one night shift instead of the three I had been doing of late, so I have almost felt human again. Dare I say it but there have been no accidents or illnesses either, so another nice change!

Before much crafting could happen, there were a few jobs that have been waiting patiently for me to finish. The first one involved quite a lot of this.

I am in charge of painting around these parts. Pale walls and four children mean that this is almost a full-time occupation in itself. This week I gave the hall stairs and landing a much needed freshen up. It's hard to ignore this part of the house, it's the one space that can't be shut off but at least I can now ascend the stairs without cringeing. The trouble is, some of the other rooms look grubbier in comparison now so I might be plying the brushes and rollers again sometime soon. Ish.

Next on the list was a spot of gardening. I had bought a tray of bedding plants a few (ahem) weeks ago, but between accidents, illnesses and torrential rain, they had remained in their polystyrene tray, taunting me each time I looked out of the back windows. I took advantage of a break in the downpours on Tuesday to transplant them to my pots and gave the decking a little tidy while I was out there.

Thankfully you can't see my 'herbaceous border' in this picture (it runs down the right hand side of the garden) as it too requires a little attention. You might just be able to make out our raised veg patch on the left. The green stuff you can see on it is our strawberry plants, which seem to have benefitted from the rain. We have got a few flowers on them here and there so now need some sunshine to bring on the fruit.

I hadn't made it to either Wednesday morning Knit and Natter or Thursday evening Stitch and Bitch for a while because of work, so this week I actually went to both. I rescued this little project from the bottom of my knitting bag and am now well on my way to completing it.

Unfortunately (well, not really) I was once again tempted by the shelves of goodies I was surrounded by on Wednesday and this little pile found it's way home with me. Spurred on by the success of my blanket, I have got a few other items in the queue for future crocheting and I think these colours will fit the bill perfectly.

On Wednesday evening it was my craft group that I have at home fortnightly. I used the time to start a batch of leaves and stalks that I will need for my fruit pincushions that I will be starting soon.

I also made a start on the cushion back for the crochet cushion covers.

In between all of this, I had a very long catch-up with an old friend I haven't seen for about a year over a lovely lunch, and also had a nice lunch out with my Mum. With such a busy week, progress on the brooches hasn't been as good as I'd hoped but, all in all, it has been quite a productive week and the extra sleep and a few treats have done wonders for my soul!

I know I promised you a tour of the craft room, but to be honest, all the production has messed it up a bit, so you will have to be patient a while longer.

I hope you have had a good week, and wish you all a lovely weekend.

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x

This Week in the Nest

Finally the littlest Magpie has recovered from all his mishaps and we had a great time yesterday celebrating his birthday. As you can see, cake decorating is not one of my talents, although I can confirm that it tasted delicious and was speedily devoured by the clan.

Another little one in the family is having her birthday next week. so today I have been stitching up a teddy bear sleeping bag (designed by Florence), like the one I made one for her sister in February. This time I used another Annela Hoey fabric, from her new range 'A Walk in the Woods'. I love this fabric, and treated myself to a very restrained three half-metres from Alice at Backstitch.

Since writing the last post about my blanket, I have added another half-dozen or so rows, including my rainbow section. Work on this has got to slow down now though so you won't be seeing it again for a while.

This new granny square has taken the place of the blanket. the idea is to turn it into a cushion, along with the two other fronts already made, as these can be sold at Larmer Tree. This way I get my crocheting fix without the guilt that I am not making stuff to sell. Perfect!

I know I mentioned that I went to Ikea a few weeks ago, but I didn't show you any pictures of the fabric I bought. Ikea fabric really is great value for money, especially from the children's department. These fabrics work out at £2 per metre and they are really popular with my customers.

  The idea is to turn these into more drawstring wash bags like the ones below.

I have also been busily cutting out felt shapes to turn into brooches. At last year's craft fairs I sold pretty much every one I made, the bird design in particular was a big hit so I am planning on sewing lots of these to take with me to the festival. I'm not sure that the photo does the colours justice, but please can I have your thoughts on the colour combinations?

Well, I had better be off to feed the family. I'm hoping to go to Stitch and Bitch tonight as it seems like it's been ages since I went to a knitting group and I'm really missing it. Pop back next week for some finished brooches and that look around the craft room I've been promising!

Thanks for stopping by,
Beth x

Easter Crochet

It has been a bit of a strange Easter Holiday this year. Firstly my daughter has stayed with her Dad for the whole of the break, which is the longest she has ever been away so I am really missing her. I have taken the opportunity of her absence to totally overhaul her bedroom though (with her permission) and I can't wait for her to see the result. It took two full days (including the construction of a flat pack monster) and yielded three full rubbish bags but it is now a teenage haven. For the moment.

During the first week off Mr Magpie was working and I had three night shifts. I took the two youngest boys out on a few outings during the day and we got some chores done too.

Over the Easter weekend we travelled up to Nottingham to see family. Our male teenager came too and his travel sickness relegated me to the back seat with the two younger boys. I took advantage of the journey to get some more work done on my blanket and the boys seemed to like having it draped over them as it moved left and right across my lap. Middle son in particular has taken quite a fancy to the blanket and is keen to know when it will be functional. He has also started to provide design input and due to this I have now commenced a true 'rainbow section'.

The weekend provided rather a lot of unexpected crochet time, so the blanket has grown considerably. Each colour stripe comprises two rows of trebles and takes roughly an hour if I can work steadily without mistakes. I have now completed 34 stripes and have realised that I have probably made the blanket too wide. Lucy of Attic24 crocheted 60 stripes on her granny stripe but I think that I will need nearer 100 to make the length look right against the width, which is almost six feet. A little way to go then. When the children go back to school I will be gearing up to full production mode on the sewing machine so I might have to ask Mr Magpie to hide the blanket away from me for a while to avoid temptation, it really is totally addictive!

After Easter my poor littlest Magpie whose leg is almost better caught a nasty tummy bug and has spent most of the week in a weakened state on the sofa. We have had to postpone his birthday party for a week to give him time to recover.

For the last few days we are hoping to have a few more little outings and finish off the overhaul of the house. I promise to show you around my crafty space soon.

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter break, thanks for stopping by,

Beth x

Rainbow Colours

After a week of crawling and being ferried around in a borrowed buggy, I am happy to report that the leg of the littlest Magpie is now out of plaster. He hasn't broken any bones, but has damaged the soft tissue and is meant to be taking things slowly. Quite how you're supposed to stop a little bundle of energy from bouncing on the trampoline with his brother or from chucking himself around the park is obviously beyond me, but he does seem to mix his bursts of energy with a little limp or wanting to be carried so I suppose he won't hurt himself. Can you tell he's my third child?!

I was gadding about in London when the plaster came off, but Mr Magpie reliably informs me that at first the injury resembled most of the colours of my crochet.

Although I am intending the colours of my blanket to be rainbow-like, the shape similarities are not intentional. Can anyone advise me if this is normal? I am hoping that when I add the edging at the end it will sort out the problem.

I had a great day out in London with my daughter and our friends. We did a LOT of walking and sightseeing, although we didn't get to see the Hockney Exhibition after all as we got a bit lost between Brixton and Piccadilly and didn't have time to queue for the two hours needed for entry. We did find a nice old Irish pub to pass the time in until we had to collect our little goth chicks though, so not all was lost.

Although Mr Magpie soldiered on with the flat-pack construction while I was sightseeing, he did leave me my new desk to construct. I didn't have to swear once while putting it together, so can thoroughly recommend it if you are needing some storage. You get a pic of work in progress but the holidays mean some time away from craft, aside from the odd bit of crochet so you will have to wait a few weeks for a tour of the newly organised room.

After all the glorious sunshine, it is raining here in Bournemouth today so we are off out to find some indoor, leg protecting fun. Hmmm.

Thanks for stopping by,
Beth x

The Big, The Broken and the Colourful

After the lovely news we had about Larmer Tree last Friday, events took a turn for the worse on Sunday afternoon. We had been enjoying an afternoon on the beach, which we had cycled to so that we could see the giant deckchair.

Unfortunately we forgot to take our camera, so these pictures are 'borrowed' from the internet, although when we were there the deckchair was being guarded by ugly railings and two security chaps so these pictures give a better view of the colossal seat.

Anyhow, we had just started cycling back when all of a sudden my bike stopped dead and I almost flew over the handlebars. I managed to hang on, and while my brain was scrambling through what had happened my son whose seat is on my crossbar started screaming.

It appears that he had taken his foot off his footrest and put it near the wheel, whereupon his shoe got caught in the spokes and his leg got dragged through, which stopped the bike. Luckily we weren't travelling at any great speed or things may have been much worse.

As it is, I managed to free the poor lad's foot from the spokes and we quickly applied wet tissues to the ankle. It was obvious from the enormous swelling which came up instantly that he would need medical attention so we had to call an ambulance.

A few awful hours later we returned home with the little chap's leg in plaster. The hospital team couldn't be sure, but they think that he has damaged the growing plate at the end of one of his leg bones, so we were sent home and told to return on Friday for further assessment.

My brave little soldier has been coping so well and I think secretly enjoying all the fuss, and being pushed around in a buggy again.

Crafting for the festival has been put on hold until after the Easter break. Tomorrow we are off to Ikea to purchase some more flatpack joy and a dozen other things that will no doubt catch our eye. I will be buying supplies for festival crafting and finally getting the desk I have been wanting for the dining room which will help me organise everything.

On Friday I am taking my daughter and her friend to London so that they can see some hard rock/heavy metal/I'm not sure but it sounds awful band playing at Brixton Academy. I will be taking my own friend so that we can hopefully go and see the Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy while the girls are watching said awful band.

We shall be travelling to London by coach, which takes about two and a half hours, so I will be taking my crochet so that I can hopefully hook up a couple of large granny squares to act as backs for the two cushion fronts I've made.

I have also started on a granny stripe blanket, inspired by Lucy of Attic24. I'm sure all you crocheters are already aware of this fantabulous blog but if not, please do hop over and have a look, you won't be disappointed.

This is my humble effort so far. I'm hoping that we'll be travelling to Nottingham over Easter to see Granny Magpie and the rest of the clan so the journey can be spent productively for me. My plan is that by the time Larmer Tree comes around I will have a colourful stripe-fest to drape over my Magpie knees when the sun goes down.

For the first time I can remember I am actually a little bit sorry to see the back of the dark evenings. I have been so happy sitting warm by the fire with something to keep my fingers happy (and away from the biscuits). I'm not saying I don't enjoy the longer days, I love summer, but I am glad that I don't need to worry about Winter coming around again.

I hope all of you have been managing to get out in the sun, it's been gorgeous hasn't it?

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x