Morris' House

William Morris appears to be the theme for our outings of recent. On Good Friday we headed as a family down to Standen, an Arts and Crafts house near East Grinstead, designed by Philip Webb, a friend of Morris. The interiors are a wealth of fabrics and wallpapers by Morris & Co. and had a real warmth and a feeling of being lived in. I’m starting to get an idea of what my favourites are, and seeing materials that have so many memories for me, such as Nanna’s sofas.; I didn’t realise they were a Morris creation. The architectural design of the house seemed to me like a collection of parts, and perhaps one day I can emulated the greenhouse and seating alcove in designs of my own.

Baby Blanket

When I was growing up, my bed always had a hand crocheted blanket on it that my Nanna Eileen made and they are still used to this day. I certainly inherited her love of wool crafts and a while back I started making a crochet blanket of my own. When we found out there would be a new little person in the family I thought a traditional crochet blanket would be perfect for a cot or pram. Crochet squares are one of the best ways to start learning to crochet. Once I'd laid out the squares selecting the more ladylike colours, I found this tutorial on how to join them together. There are a number of techniques to do it, but this one continues the pattern of the squares and does so subtly. After a border around the edges of all the joined squares, the baby blanket was complete! 

A week later Penelope arrived, and I gave her the blanket when we went to meet her at 8 days old. Hopefully it'll keep her warm over the cold months, and when she gets older she might want to wrap her dolls up in it to keep them toasty!

PS. This is my 500th post since I started this blog in June 2009!!

Road Trip

Today my "little" brother Alex turns twenty-two (the secret's out!!) As I write he's somewhere in the United States enjoying the last few weeks of a three and half month road trip which has taken him on a figure of 8 shaped route around the country. Aside from the odd Skype call from all manner of destinations, we have been keeping up on his progress via his online journal, seeing landscape changing from east to west and north to south and reading anecdotes of the adventure. Envious is an understatement, but I look forward to a catch up on his return to see all the photos and hear all the tales of this once in a lifetime experience. Happy Birthday Al!

Images by Alex Dowle

Beautiful Bristol

On Friday I jumped on a (very packed) train and headed out of London west towards Bristol to visit cousin Lynsey. We spent Saturday exploring the city centre, having lunch at the Watershed, which is very like Manchester's Cornerhouse, and going on the hunt for the 80 Gromits that are in certain spots all over the city. So cute!! On Sunday we wandered into Clifton Village to have brunch at The Primrose Cafe and walk over the suspension bridge. It's such a gorgeous part of the city with fantastic townhouses and quiet little mews. What a lovely weekend!

Merry Christmas

Ho ho ho! Merrrrryyyy Christmas! The season is upon us but the big day itself has come and gone. It was a lovely day with my family; eating, drinking, playing games and watching the Downton Abbey Christmas special. I was treated to a wondrous selection of kind gifts - Santa delivered in the night without me even noticing! My favourite of these I hope to post about soon. 

I am ashamed to realise that this is my first post in December - what has happened? Life, well no, work. University work. I aim to update with what has gone on over this over the next few days...

The Cam

I fell in love with Cambridge a little bit more this weekend. It was my brother's 21st birthday celebrations so we descended on the city for a few days. We had a late lunch at The Free Press, walking past some gorgeous terraced houses to get to it from college, and then had a delicious three course meal for 40 in an upstairs dining room in Emma for A's birthday. Today we had a later breakfast of tea, coffee, orange juice and sausage rolls at Fitzbillies, a Cambridge and Stephen Fry favourite. We wandered around the city, through and past spectacular college buildings and seeing punters punt and cows graze by the canal. Idyllic!

Polesden Lacey

On Monday we visited Polesden Lacey and met up with family. It's a National Trust property, where the Queen Mother had her honeymoon no less, and I have visited it since I was a little girl with my grandparents. We explored the gardens and found the colourful hens and cartwheeled over the grass (no me!)

Diamond Jubilee

Last weekend for The Queen's Diamond Jubilee we had a street party. There were so many familiar faces there young and old and the whole of the day before I spent baking, watching the boat pageant on TV. We also went asparagus picking (the strawberries weren't ready yet!) and so I made some snacks out of them too!

Love Letters

Whilst I was back down south over Easter, I spotted my great grandmother's autograph book. In it are written beautiful poems and letters from friends, and this is my favourite.

Even though the university summer has begun, poor old blog is being neglected! This will change!!

In Pictures

Quinoa, chicken and veg . Sandbar workspace . Card collage . Monoprinting . Double chocolate cupcakes . Family lunch . Flowers in a book . Sunday morning in London . My workspace