Weekend in Durham....

I had such a lovely weekend in Durham. Geordie wanted to go and look at a 1950's Ford Pop he wants to buy/restore so we decided to go for the weekend as it's a county we know and love very much.

He liked the car....

......we then drove to Barnard Castle and saw David Harper's Antique shop (the guy on Antique Road Trip and every other antique programme on T.V). Geordie wanted to have his photo taken with him but I get really really embarassed in situations like that so a photo of his shop had to do.

Another interesting shop......

Anyway we then went to Bowes Museum and had a walk around the grounds. It is a beautiful place and there were lots of hidden treasures amongst the trees....

We also found this, which we thought was fascinating as we've visited Bowes loads of times and never seen this before in the grounds.....



Another place we visited on our weekend was Egglestone Abbey....

This is looking up into the old spiral stairwell.....you can still see a few stone stairs remaining.

It's really wierd because it's not like any other ruins I've been too because it's just on it's own up a lane in a field next to a load of cows.....

Being a city girl, it's not often you'll see a picture of a cow on this blog!!

When I got home I decided to make my Sara Smith cleaning cloths bunting for my garden-nothing to do with the jubilee mind-I just like bunting. I paid £1.00 for 2 packs of these cloths and cut each cloth into 10 triangles and then hand stitched them onto some blue braid. The good thing about making bunting out of these cloths is I can leave them outside and they won't come to any harm as they are designed for cleaning and washing.

Outside where they will be left.....

Inside, so you can see the colours and size better. I'm really pleased with how they came out and they were so so simple to make. If I had a sewing machine they would have been made in minutes-no hemming, no pinning, just cut and sew.

I decided to have a go at Lucy's Attic 24 May Rose as well this weekend as someone at work gave me some wool in a colour and style I wouldn't normally buy and I was wondering what to do with it. I quite like how it came out......

I just crocheted the rose, two leaves and stitched a vintage button on the front and a brooch pin on the back-it was done in about half an hour. Me and my Mum are hoping to do a craft stall in the autumn so I might make some of these as brooches, I might stitch some onto hair bobbles or slides.....I'm just trying a few things out at the moment and trying to make things I would like to buy if I saw them on a stall. I'd like this pinned on a vintage tweed bag or on my furry jacket......we'll see anyway.

Hope everyone else had a lovely sun-filled, colourful, productive weekend!

xx

Morrissey, Morrissey, Morrissey.......

Oh my god!!!!! Excitement!!!! We have tickets for Morrissey!!!!!! I nearly had a heart attack trying to buy tickets, I had 2 phones and my laptop going-I looked like one of those Wall street traders shouting 'Buy,Sell,Buy'. Anyway tickets are bought now so I can relax. I have travelled all over to see Morrissey so I am soooo happy this time he will only be a 10 minute tram journey away.

After I had calmed down on friday, I noticed these on my kitchen table, Geordie found them in the 'hideous cupboard under the srairs'. I have got no idea where they came from or what they were doing in my 'hideous cupboard under the stairs'. Geordie has never seen them before either! I do like them though and squealed with delight on finding them.....

I haven't been doing much to blog about recently as no sooner did I recover from my virus (which made me feel rough for about 3 weeks) when I started to feel ill again. I actually realised I'd been ill every month since last November. I decided to really take it easy for a couple of weeks and went to bed early every night and got loads of sleep, I bought some vitamin C, zinc and echinacea drops, loads of fruit, salad and vegetables, and tried to keep my stress levels really low. Geordie is an angel when I feel low because he was making me my tea so I could eat when I came in from work, and he made me a flask of hot water, honey and lemon every morning to take to work. It seems to be working up to now anyway because fingers crossed I've started to feel a bit better and more like my old self.

Anyway speaking of Geordie, he has been working away on restoring his lovely 1978 MGB GT. He loves restoring classic cars and we have had loads of Beetles, Mini's, a VW campervan and loads of motorbikes. I am trying desperately to finish my car blanket so we can take it to the classic car shows in the summer in the MG with our lovely picnic hamper.

I know it's only an MG not an E-type jag but I always feel a bit decadent and movie star-ish when we go out in it and I think Geordie should be wearing a velvet smoking jacket and smoking a pipe.

Off for another early night now but hopefully I'll be back to my old knitting, crocheting, vintage hunting, craft loving, shopaholic, colourful self soon.

xxx