Finishing my teal granny holiday project

Increasingly part of my packing list is which crochet project I’m taking away with us, and for our August trip to Lincolnshire that was no different. Holiday crochet is best served by something that requires little thought and attention and after the success of my mustard campfire granny, I was keen to try another. And one that MOH would use at home if the stars ever align again for us to use our fire pit again!

Along the way I acquired some wool from my mum, and with no real plan - other to keep the indigo and green alternating as constants - I welcomed the additions. As it turned out above every 10 alternate rows or so I used a bolder colour, whether that was yellow, pink or purple - and that worked out well too I think.

Apart from when I ran out of purple about 10 trebles from the final corner, which is where the black made an impromptu substitution and bagged itself a place in the border for continuity. This one is about five rows bigger than the mustard one, and again that’s a conscious decision to make it more useable.

As it turned out, it’s also a really good match for the colours we have in our main living room - which was completely unintentional, but welcome. And it also gave me a great place to take some photos, as well the weather’s not very fire-pit like at the moment. I’m hopeful though…

It turned out pretty well, I think - and I don’t think it’ll be my last great granny!

The lodge with a gateway to the garden

Much earlier in the year while looking for a place to holiday in the UK during school holidays we stumbled across The Gatehouse Lodge at Easton Walled Gardens, and it looked idyllic. It was also very reasonably priced, and available on dates that suited us, so we snapped it up. Lincolnshire may not be on everyone’s holiday list, but it’s a beautiful county. The walled gardens are close to Grantham which has great transport links, and also less than quarter of an hour from my brother’s house as it turned out.

One of the attractions for me was the private entrance to the walled gardens, which holiday cottage guests could make use of when the gardens were closed. That meant we often had the beautiful gardens to ourselves and could pretend they were our own - the garden to holiday cottage was heavily skewed to the garden side here!

The homely and yet quirky interior was also a plus - not many holiday cottages come with their own chandelier and library, but this one did.

And this was how close to the gardens we were - I’ll share pictures from the garden another day.

Back in the living room we spent the evenings enjoying the view out towards the garden, and of the interior decor. Unfortunately the August weather meant we didn’t get a chance to make use of the small patio area, which was a shame.

It was great that the kitchen was well equipped, and the welcome package was very much welcomed by us. We now have a rule of checking out what holiday cottages have in the way of utensils and such before deciding what we might cook while we’re there - we didn’t need to here. In fact the only thing that was probably missing was some espresso cups - and you can live without them (or I can anyway!).

There were some great additions to the decor, this clock was one.

And I am rather partial to a fish shaped plate - we carried one around Dublin when we visited many years ago, and just about got it home safely.

It was a compact and bijou lodge, which we knew and were perfectly fine with. The bathroom was larger than ours, and tranquil - with some great tiles.

And the bedding, I could quite happily have taken this home - I didn’t of course.

I fell in love with these coasters, and I’m still on the lookout for some - a good holiday momento - but I think eBay is going to be my best chance!

So a great place to stay, and you haven’t even seen the garden yet - you will soon.

Repurposing an empty or two

For a while now we’ve been members of the Craft Gin Club, a subscription service which provides a bottle of gin, mixers and nibbles every month. It means we have a fair few bottles of gin, with several on the go at once. But here’s the thing, they’re all generally really pretty bottles and so I was keen to find a way to repurpose them.

I’d seen lights in bottles, and how pretty they were and I bought a box or two much earlier in the summer. They’re easy to fit and use, but that wasn’t my concern. My concern was the slugs and snails slithering over the labels and leaving a trail of destruction. And so, I’ve tried a layer of PVA Glue over them and I’m hoping that will protect the labels for at least a little while.

It’s only now though, that the warmer weather is making a brief return that I’ve been able to try them out. And I’m really pleased with how they’ve worked out, and how much light they give out. Don’t they look great?

I’ve used them in groups of three, some on the table but also on the edge of the grass and on the patio. I never expected them to turn out quite so well.

What do you think?