The hurrier I go, the behinder I get

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

Lewis Carroll

 This quote from Lewis Carroll pretty well sums up how I've been coping with daily life this last week.  I've multi-tasked and multi-tasked and still feel behinder!

Finishing my squares for the Bloggy Blanket Chain-August 12

BLOGGY BLANKET CHAIN

These are the first squares that start another Bloggy Blanket Chain that is being hosted by Mum  at Mum's Simple Living blog When the blanket is complete it will be donated to a good cause.

I can't speak for the rest of the bloggers who are participating or who I hope will participate but I feel that although my few squares are but a drop in the ocean where helping people are concerned at least I feel I am doing something, so much more than just dropping a coin into a tin.
If anyone would like to help keep this chain going and crochet a square for a good cause (it need only be one) please pop into Mum's Simple Living blog here. 
I am convinced that the other participants will agree with me when I say I believe these squares are saying "you are not alone,WE care!"
Further more I'll echo what Arwedd so rightly said "I hope the end recipient feels all the love we bloggers sent along its journey"

The following squares are my contribution to the blanket and following on from the theme in a previous post ,I have designed these two squares myself for this purpose.
Both these squares are pretty straight forward and not too intricate, they are in fact, when you consider the multiple variations of motifs out there in the crochet world and new ones popping up continuously from creative crocheters,similar to others but not the same nor created by tweaking another design!

Double peak square

Six ring flower square

I have never written patterns before as I rely on samples for my patterns. However I am going to give it a bash and I'll be making up patterns for some of my designs in the near future.


Postal services has had me a bit stressed out these last few days as I waited for the bloggy blanket to get to me. However I finally received the parcel from Arwedd yesterday, safe and sound.
and there it was our bloggy blanket.

 I rather like the idea that I am actually going to add my squares to the blanket myself and I get to see and hold the blanket too and not just send a few squares to someone.  However that is not all folks I had one of the most thrilling surprises and Arwedd may be thinking what's all the fuss about but I consider it absolutely wonderful that a person I hardly know who hardly knows me has altruistically thought about me sufficiently to pop into the bloggy blanket parcel a few goodies for me too!!!!!

 I LOVE BLOGGING!!!!!

and here you have the surprise GOODIES:

A lovely little handmade notebook ,a butterfly biscuit cutter,ribbons,shortbread (gone into hiding now) and ......... I must highlight these because I've never seen any like these before:

four of the most unusual wooden buttons....I just love them and already know where I am going to use them.             Wait and see!!!! :-)

THANK YOU SO MUCH ARWEDD!!!!

At present the bloggers participating in this bloggy blanket chain are as follow:

• Kate at Granny taught me to crochet
• Arwedd at Stepping Out in Faith
• Amanda at Crafty in the Med
• MummyHen at Thrifty Mummy Hen
•    ?????????????   this could be you

 If anyone would like to help keep this chain going and crochet a square for a good cause (it need only be one) please pop into Mum's Simple Living blog here.

Hello and welcome to all my new followers, Tracy at if I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake, Stitch of Love, Thrifty Mummy Hen,Vintage Sheet addict and Fading Grace,thank you so much for joining me here ,it does mean a lot to me. :-)

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone....I'm off to soak in the pool ,we're up in the 40s and its TOO much!

Amanda :-)

Giveaway winner and into the cool blue

MY FIRST GIVEAWAY WINNER

I feel a bit meanie that its only one winner but next time I win the National Lottery,the BIG one,

 then I'll send something to everyone :-)


As explained in my last post I finally decided to use the RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR
and not

THE BOWL 

as originally planned. I assigned each of the participants a number which I indicated in a reply message to each participants' comments posted on the giveaway post, yesterday evening
and here you have the results:

NO. 9 IS THE WINNER

and Nº 9 is.........

 

CONGRATULATIONS CHERYL AT MY LITTLE PIECE OF ENGLAND YOU ARE THE WINNER!!!!

Cheryl please send me your address by email so I can send you your goodies. :-)

*********************************

"INTO THE COOL BLUE"

Browsing through blogs I've noticed that the UK bloggers are frequently posting about beaches,holidays and fun things that they are doing in the sun. Previously I felt rather reluctant to post photos of Alicante or our frequent trips to the beach or the swimming pool as I felt it was rather lile "rubbing it in". However I believe weather conditions have improved over there in blighty so I now don't feel so guilty about posting my own beach pics.

We never go to the beach at the weekend during July and August there are just too many tourists and the beaches are heaving with crowds.... and there are always long traffic jams to get there we prefer to stay at home and soak in the swimming pool when the heat gets to you. However we are beach lovers and much prefer the beach and swimming in the sea than a pool so we do during the week. Mainly just Sr P and myself but sometimes my grand-daughter accompanies us,as you will see in these photos.

We usually go to Urbanova beach or Las Arenales del Sol which is about a 10 minutes drive from our place. We particularly like these beaches because they are very natural. They have been disturbed but minimally to cater for the sun and sea lovers and keep their natural beauty but do have the necessary facilities. Some people do not like these beaches because there are areas where you can come across underwater rocks but this is something that has never bothered us, in fact we prefer this as we like snorkel diving too. These beaches are lovely and clean,the tractor goes across early every morning and they have been awarded the  International blue eco-label flags which is a guarantee that you are on a healthy beach.

keep well!!!

Amanda :-)

Will an asteroid be named after me?

Recognition

Lucky him! Adam Douglas the famous science fiction writer has had an asteroid named after him; Asteroid Douglasadams.  

from Google images

 It has dawned on me recently, at my ripe old age, that it is highly unlikely that I'll ever be famous enough to get a rose,street ,planet or asteroid named after me!  

However in the world of crochet and like so many other crocheters out there I can grab a tiny weeny snippet of recognition through my own designs as sparse as they maybe. As mentioned in my profile I have been crocheting for well over 40 years, and over that time I've occasionally made up my own patterns,some I have forgotten,nothing remains,no sample was kept,but some I do still have.

As is the case of this square and which I made up a new square into the cushion cover included in my giveaway. 

This square has a tale to tell:

 I've called it THE CANARIAN SQUARE

 Crochet taught me Spanish. Crochet breaks the language barrier.

Having been married for just one year we moved to the Canary Island in 1973 to live, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to be exact. 

There's me with a six month old baby,no Spanish except, Hola, Adios and Gracias and Sr P away every day working. So I was on my own then...left to explore and being a very active,inquisitive bod and having never been one to loll around at home I did...little T in tow in her beach buggie pushchair ( I loved that buggie it lasted for ages). 

One of the places I found was Parque Santa Catalina which was a bustling plaza near the beach where the locals went late afternoon to chat,sip cool drinks and watch the children play.

and also do this:

taken from Google images

or very similar to this in fact it was a circle of elderly ladies some with their grandchildren with them,some dressed in black like this, but all of them doing crochet. 

Need I go on??    

The very next day I took my crochet with me to the plaza and sitting nearish to them, my daughter just beginning to walk (the Spanish are crazy about kiddies) and tutting over my crochet I somehow got involved. 

Over the four years I lived in Las Palmas I learnt a lot from these ladies, to speak Spanish being one thing and a lot of lace crochet the other...they pinched my patterns and I pinched theirs.

 It was here where new designs were created and where I created this one in particular. 

So you could say crochet was the great communicator in this case as not one of these elderly ladies spoke English.

I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoons there at the plaza but they always seemed to be a little distant,nice but distant which I couldn't understand that is until my husband met me at the plaza after he had finished work and I introduced him to the ladies. The air seemed to clear after that and I was invited to their houses when the weather made it impossible to sit in the plaza. 

Later on discussing it with my husband he suggested it might have been because they thought I was a single mother and that was frowned on considerably in the 70s. 

That was approx 36 years ago so I imagine my Canarian square may very well have got caught up in the crochet network and have been copied by other people, which is just fine by me. 

I shall be making up a pattern for it when I get down to making another one from my old sample. I am sure though many crocheters can make it up by just looking at this picture.

Having noticed the same on many other blogs I have today posted a copyright notice on my blog to protect my patterns and designs which I will eventually post about on my blog. However its mostly the same as what everyone else has indicated. I am happy for other people to use my designs/patterns as long as I am cited as the source likewise I am learning to do the same on my blog when using other people's patterns. 

**************************

THE BOWL

AND THE BOWL

where I'll put all the names of the entries for the giveaway
however there is still some time left to enter if you haven't done so already (here )and it is open to everyone.

 ALL IS NOT IDYLLIC IN THIS LAND OF SUN SOAKED BEACHES, SR P IS GOING THROUGH A GRUMPY PATCH AND THINKS THE GIVEAWAY IS SILLY (no comment)!
 SO I SHALL BE USING THE RECENT DISCOVERED RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR TO SELECT THE WINNER TOMORROW. 

 Pls see that you have a number or numbers assigned to you under each comment on the giveaway post. 
A xx

My goal was 80 followers and I'm there 

so I happily present to you my very First Giveaway

WHY DO WE PREFER CERTAIN COLOURS?

*******************************

Please contact me these bloggers who are now followers and who have entered the giveaway. I regret but I cannot link to your blogs and nor have I an email address to contact you.

Cate,Victoria & Gill.    Thanks

This photo was taken by a friend of mine in the Uk. Thanks SG :-) 

I've posted this photo here for no particular reason except that I think its a fantastic snapshot of London today.

Add caption

Amanda :-