Love this #94 Onome Otite's three dimensional figurative collages

October 14, 2021

For me one of the best parts of the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, which I visited last Saturday, is the exhibitions. The items on display are always of such high quality, and to me, are inspirational. These collages by Onome Otite were stunning and definitely caught my eye.

In the morning I’d taken part in one of the workshops and finessed my applique and bondaweb technique - more on that another day - so it’s not surprising I was interested in these. Add in the pattern, texture and colour, and yes I was lured in - there was no way I was escaping.

The stand had the confidence to have space, and was very effective.

It was these series of large figurative collages that stole the show though - they’re as large as they look.

Find out more, and see more of Onome’s work on her website.

Finishing my teal granny holiday project

October 7, 2021

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

September 29, 2021

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.