Hello there, how are we at 14th July already? Almost at the midpoint of the month! I hope it’s been a good one for you – it’s been a decidedly warm one for us, with temperatures in the 30s (which for those of you in hotter climes probably doesn’t sound too hot but we felt it was!).
Last month was a rather special one for me in my blogging life, this little blog celebrated its 10th birthday. Never in all my imagination did I think, it would still be going after all this time when I first started out. I can vividly remember going out for a walk one evening (about a decade ago) along the winding streets and passages of Gibraltar taking photos of bougainvillea to illustrate one of my earlier blog posts and thinking, ‘is there anyone out there who will want to read this?’. I’m thrilled to say there was, and I’m still here knocking out posts (a little less frequently these days due to work commitments) and you’re still out there reading them! Thank you!
That bougainvillea from 10 years ago!
Anyway, here’s a quick look back at June in my world:
International Stitch Day
What a way to kick off the month, and what an amazingly on-brand event for Making Stitches! I was thrilled to be able to attend International Stitch Day on 1st June at the opening of Woven in Kirklees Festival in West Yorkshire. It was a brilliant day hosted at Oakwell Hall in Birstall. There were stalls, workshops (including one I had a play at), lots of interesting things to look at, and the most amazing thing I have experienced this year so far, the Red Dress was on display in the old hall itself.
I have been aware of the Red Dress for quite a while now through social media and blog posts I have read, but to be able to witness it myself in real life was quite something. As I arrived early at the start of the event, I was able to go and have a look once the initial flurry of visitors had been in and at one brief point, I was the only person in the room (apart from the staff standing discretely at the back). The atmosphere was amazing and I felt truly privileged to witness it for myself.
To see the intricate stitching and the countless hours of work by 380 different embroiderers, both professional and amateur, and to learn about some of the stories of the people who have stitched onto the dress was just amazing. After seeing it for myself, I was able to go and hear the ‘creator’ of the dress, Kirstie Macleod, give a talk about how the project had come about and a snapshot of some of her adventures as she has traveled around the world with it. It’s just mindblowing how big this project was and the complexity of the logistics involved.
I was delighted to be able to sit down briefly with Kirstie after her talk to record a short chat for a future episode of Making Stitches Podcast and I’m thrilled to say that she agreed to a longer chat with me for a special ‘Red Dress’ episode which will be out in autumn.
A weekend away
Unfortunately one of us had to take the picture – but there were 5 of us!
I was so lucky in June to experience not one, but two brilliant weekends – first came Woven and next came a weekend away with four very special ladies who I have known since University days (one even since primary school!)
One of them lives in the Lake District and we have been trying to arrange for us all to spend a weekend together at her house for years. Each time we thought we had a date in the diary, something would come up and we were determined to do it with us all there. Persistence paid off and we had the most amazing couple of days reconnecting, walking, eating and drinking.
True old friends are just the best. They hold you up in the worst of times, share the best of times and, no matter how long passes between your meetings, when you are back together it’s as if you were never apart.
I feel truly blessed to have them in my life.
10 years of this blog
Back in June 2015, after years of reading other people’s blogs, I decided to have a go myself. I thought the chances of anyone reading it were slim, but I thought I could use it as a kind of diary to record our life as a family living in Gibraltar. In its first iteration as Postcard from Gibraltar, it really surprised me – I found people around the world all reading it and sending me lovely messages.
In the intervening years, our family has changed, has moved back to the UK, I’ve gone from being a full-time stay at home Mum to a working Mum Postcard from Gibraltar morphed into Making Stitches and the Making Stitches Podcast was born too! If you missed my post about the anniversary, you can find it here.
First strawb of the year!
I don’t know what happened to my strawberry plants over the winter – but I went from having about six containers full last year to just having three weedy looking specimens. My parents felt sorry for me and sent me over a new container filled with healthy plants and this was my first strawb. I am giving the new pot a lot of attention – especially during this very hot and dry weather so that it survives beyond the first month in my possession!
Soccer Aid
Honestly, trips to Old Trafford are like buses, you wait for years to go and then get two trips straight after each other! After going to the last match of the season for Manchester United in May, I went back with my Dad and Youngest to watch Soccer Aid on Father’s Day.
It was a great evening’s entertainment and really quite funny at times. There was even a musical interlude at half time which included a grand piano on the centre circle!
Making Stitches 2025 CAL : June
Summer Solstice SquareBonus Birthday Square
June saw not one, but two new squares for the Making Stitches 2025 CAL. The main reason for me doing this CAL this year is because of the special anniversary, so it seemed appropriate to mark the occasion with a bonus square in addition to this month’s main square. The Summer Solstice square was launched on 1st June and the Bonus Birthday square pattern was released on my blogiversary.
There was just one episode of Making Stitches Podcast released in June as series 9 drew to a close ahead of the summer break. My guest this time was Micah Clasper-Torch a punch needle designer who has taught thousands of people the craft through her online platform. She has a new book out and is hoping to reach an even wider audience through her wearable punch needle designs. You can listen to the episode with Micah here.
Before I go…
This Postcard is almost at an end but before I head off, just a couple more things…. I have been so busy with crochet designs and recording new episodes for the next series of Making Stitches Podcast that I am well and truly ready to have a bit of a breather as life shifts down a gear and we hit the soon-to-be-upon-us school summer holidays.
Before the holidays hit though, I am looking forward to sharing a bit of lovely news with you very soon. Keep your eyes pealed for that please – because I am going to need your help with something very special and worthwhile.
Also, when my boys break up for their school summer holidays I will be launching my Summer Craft Challenge 2025 when I do something creative every day during the school summer holidays. I would love it if you would join in too! I love doing it each year and carving out a little bit of time each day to do something creative (it’s a real sanity saver amongst the chaos). As one of my boys finished for the summer on Friday this week, so I am going to be starting day one on Saturday (19th July) and posting a social media post each day to share what I have done, which will keep me focused on maintaining the challenge.
The thing about a Summer Craft Challenges is that it’s always better when you’re not the only one doing it. So… please do join in and share your makes this summer on social media with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 so I can see what other creativity is going on – just like the Making Stitches 2025 CAL – it’s better with friends and it would be great to build a Summer Craft Challenge community!
Today marks a very special day for my blog – it is 10 years old!!
Back in June of 2015, I would never have imagined that I would still be blogging a decade on. It kind of blows my mind that my blogging adventure has lasted so long. I had no idea what an impact it would have on my life, the people I would meet and the doors it would open for me. It has brought me friends – both online and in person, it has given me skills that brought me paid work, I have gone from being simply a hobby crafter to a published crochet designer and podcast award finalist and it’s been a whole lot of fun.
I am taking the liberty of using today to have a look back at the past ten years, for some of you who’ve been in my little corner of the internet for a long time, much of this won’t be ‘news’ but I think it’s worth revisiting (if only to remind me of how much fun I’ve had along the way). Back in the early days, I thought this blog would be a kind of diary, to record our life as a family and it has very much been that for me. Back at the beginning I wrote the blog anonymously, I was living in a very small community at the time and I didn’t want to stick my head above the parapet and ‘show off’ I preferred to be an observer. Since those days I’ve got a bit less self-conscious about my blogging (maybe it’s an age thing and I worry a teeny bit less about what people think of me!).
For those of you who have only found me in the past few years, you may not be aware that this blog first started life when my family lived in Gibraltar. I had long been a fan of crafting blogs and I had, for quite a while, fancied having a go at blogging myself. Whilst I have been a crafter all my life, I would never have thought of myself as accomplished enough back then to share too much about what I was making, but living in the Med, I had lots of photos of blue skies, the sea and pretty flora to share instead.
Looking north from the Med Steps in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve
After much indecision over whether anyone would actually want to read anything I had to say about my little corner of the world, I decided to have a go anyway and Postcard from Gibraltar was born. The annual Gibraltar Convent Garden open day was the perfect content for me to share in the very early days, lots of beautiful flowers and well-kept borders as well as being able to share a little bit about what it was like living on the Rock.
The Governor of Gibraltar’s back garden at the Convent
So many people visit Gibraltar fleetingly, on a cruise ship stop-off or on a day trip from the Costa del Sol, but the longer we lived in Gibraltar, in spite of its size, I discovered there was so much to learn about it. When we first arrived there as a family through a work relocation, I knew precious little about it. Myself and ‘Mr Postcard’ had visited just twice in the preceding months to find somewhere to live and to get the eldest ‘Little Postcard’ into school (there were just 2 ‘Little Postcards’ in those days!).
The early days
My old Postcard from Gibraltar profile picture which I painted at watercolour class
When we first arrived in Gibraltar, I was a stay-at-home Mum full time, I had one young son in primary school and a toddler. I threw myself into life in Gib, in a bid to make friends and settle into the community and found that, unlike when we had moved towns in the UK, very quickly I made friends in Gibraltar. I think this was mainly down to the fact that within the ex-pat community, your friends very quickly become your family. Everyone of us was a long way from our actual family and when someone needed help, we would all rally round to support each other. That said though, the Gibraltarians I met outside the school gates were just as welcoming and we found ourself attending our first Gibraltar kids birthday party within a couple of weeks of arriving there.
Celebrating Gibraltar National Day
By throwing myself into the Gibraltar community I learned so much about the place and its people. It is famously a melting pot of cultures and traditions, populated by Genoese fishermen, Moroccan traders, families who straddle the land border between Gibraltar and Spain and lots of other nationalities too. There is a large south Asian population, lots of Jewish families of different denominations and from around the world, an Anglican Cathedral as well as a Catholic one (there was also a Church of Scotland when we lived there – although that has sadly now closed) and there are two mosques as well. Even the local dialect, Llanito (pronounced Yaneetoh), borrows words from Spanish, English, Genoese, Maltese, Moroccan and other languages!
In those early days of blogging, the advice was to read plenty of other blogs and get involved in the blogging community. During those days I came across another blogger who lived by the sea and had a penchant for crochet. Her name is Eleonora and you may know her! Little did I know at the time that Eleonora had just started her blog, Coastal Crochet, a couple of weeks before I launched mine, or that one day we would finally meet in person (more on that later)!
The first few rows of my Sandy Bay Seaside Stash Buster Blanket
It is safe to say that Eleonora’s blogging journey has been rather more stratospheric than mine, but despite her hitting the big time, we have stayed connected through the years. I can clearly remember the day she launched her first crochet along – the Seaside Stashbuster blanket. I loved crocheting along with many, many other crocheters around the world throughout the weeks as the patterns were released. For some reason, when I first began the blanket, I decided I would reflect Gibraltar in the colours I used. Our favourite beach on the Rock was Sandy Bay, so I thought it would be good to try to create a blanket inspired by that little corner of Gibraltar. It was such fun to make and amazingly some of the stitches Eleonora chose just worked perfectly with the stage of the pattern I wanted to reflect at that time! It was as if she knew what I needed to happen! You can read all about my Sandy Bay Blanket here.
Eventually we actually met in real life, the first time was at Yarndale in 2022, more recently we caught up at Yarndale last September.
Eleonora & I at Yarndale 2024
When we met up last year, we started talking about something special to mark our joint 10th blog anniversaries. You can find a sneak peak of that project in a little while….
Another blogger I had the privilege to meet is the person, is Lucy from Attic 24. Had it not been for me reading Lucy’s inspirational posts about her crochet, craft and beautiful home town of Skipton in North Yorkshire all those years ago, when I started my crochet adventure, I don’t think I would have started this blogging adventure myself. After several years of reading and absorbing posts all about Yarndale, I managed to get a ticket for the festival, a ticket for a plane journey back to the UK and a train ticket from Manchester to Skipton to visit Yarndale myself in 2016. It was the year they’d asked for people to crochet and knit little Yarndale sheep. I made Llanita, the Yarndale Sheep and she was posted off for the Yarndale appeal. I also took her twin sister with me and gave her to Lucy when I met her – it was a true fangirl moment!
Lucy with Llanita at Yarndale 2016
Sunday Sevens
Just 4 months into my blogging adventure I read about a blog series called Sunday Sevens, which involved writing a post about your week just gone and featuring seven photos from the past seven days. The idea was conceived by Natalie from the Threads & Bobbins blog and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to share a snapshot of my life in Gibraltar without writing a long blog post about some rather mundane day-to-day things. On 11th October 2015, I published my first Sundays Sevens. Very quickly, the Little Postcards would comment, when I stopped to take a photo of a nice sunset or a pretty flower or some other thing, “is that for Sunday Sevens?” Very often the answer would be “Yes!” On 26th July 2020, I published the 230th and final Sunday Sevens. That marked the point at which we moved back to the UK from Gibraltar and seemed like the right time to wrap the series up.
That didn’t mean my round ups would stop. At the start of August 2020 I started my Sunday Postcards, which later morphed into my monthly ‘Postcard from…’ updates.
A stroll around Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a very photogenic place – especially in the sunshine. I would often be stopped in my tracks as I wandered the streets of the town centre pushing a buggy on the way back home from the school run or wandering to the shops and appreciate just how lucky I was to be able to call it home for a while.
Whenever we were away from the Rock, I would often document our travels with a little ‘Postcard from…’ post. We were very lucky that at that time we were able to travel quite a bit, both back home to the UK to visit family and friends and to a few parts of mainland Europe too. The ‘A Postcard From…’ series was one I really enjoyed writing, and is one which I really must keep going with whenever I can. In fact I have a few ‘postcards’ in my pending drafts folder from years ago, which if I get the time to work on, I will finish and add to this collection.
Summer Craft Challenges
Each summer, since 2016 (excluding 2020 & 2023), I have set myself a Summer Craft Challenge. I found, in the early days when my blog first launched and I was a full time stay-at-home Mum with 3 young boys and a 10-week-long school summer holiday, I would easily find myself rushing around doing family things all the time and my crafting took a back seat, and my sanity along with it. By carving out just 5 or 10 minutes of craft everyday throughout the long summer break, and documenting it on my blog, it worked wonders for my mood.
I’m looking forward to starting my Summer Craft Challenge 2025 when my boys break up for summer this year too! If you fancy joining in, it would be lovely to have your company! Just tag any social media posts #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and if you want to see any of the previous years just search for #SummerCraftChallenge on Instagram and some should pop up for you to see.
Big Changes
Life doesn’t always work out quite the way we’d planned. In 2020, our family of 5 became a family of 4 and I brought my 3 boys back to live in England. In the 7 months running up to our impending big move, there was a lot of adjusting to do. Not only that, we were ‘enjoying’ a lot more time indoors during the early days of the Covid pandemic. In the preceding 18 months, I had launched a podcast in Gibraltar as a way of sharing more about the stories I had learned during my time living there and sharing chats I’d had with some of the fascinating people I’d met over the previous decade.
Unfortunately, with an impending move back to the UK, that podcast wasn’t sustainable but I had really enjoyed making it, so wanted to find an alternative podcast subject I could start work on during lockdown and take back with me to the UK. Something I’ve always loved is craft and creativity, and after almost 5 years of blogging about it, I’d made quite a few connections with other crafty people who said they would be interested in joining me as guests (Bingo!). One of the (few) benefits of that time was learning how to record audio off video calls, it was no longer necessary to be in-person to record interviews and meant I could chat to people anywhere in the world for this new podcast endeavour.
Just as in the early days of Postcard from Gibraltar, I doubted whether anyone would be interested in hearing what I had to say, but rather than making me and my crafting the focus of each episode, I decided to speak to another crafter about their creative life and journey. At the time I couldn’t find any other podcasts which did that for crafting. There were plenty of podcasts featuring crafters talking about what they were making but none that I could see who exclusively spoke to other crafters. I spotted a gap in the market and Making Stitches Podcast was born.
I have to admit that Making Stitches really helped me in those days. They were grim for many reasons and it gave me something to focus on that was fun rather the other stuff (moving countries, finding somewhere to live in England, finding schools etc from overseas, recovering from a rather nasty dose of early days Covid etc.).
The joy I still get from making it continues. It’s been a ride. From putting my first episode out just over 5 years ago and wondering whether anyone would ever listen to it, to becoming a finalist in the first ever Independent Podcast Awards in 2023, to hitting 100,000 worldwide downloads in the last few months, it’s been great. Thank you to everyone who’s listened, everyone who’s spoken to me for the podcast and all the support!
From Postcard from Gibraltar to Making Stitches
In 2022, two years after moving back to England to live, I decided it was time for a name change. I hadn’t been sending my blog postcards from Gibraltar for 2 years by then so decided to bring the blog under the same umbrella as the podcast. Nothing really changed other than the name. I still write monthly posts looking back at what’s been happening in my life and what I have been working on.
Crochet
Another thing which has changed has been my confidence in developing my own crochet patterns. My first (and for many years, my only one) was Mr Bumble, a bumblebee which I created for a yarn bomb I put up in the Gibraltar Botanical Gardens in 2016 -I can’t find the pattern now, but here he is along with the other bits I put up. I was so worried about getting something wrong, it took until 2021 until I tried again! Hope the Snowdrop was the first of my Up the Garden Path characters (you can see two others below). Later came some magazine commissions including some for Inside Crochet Magazine!
Oakley the Acorn Tree Sprite & Agatha the Fly Agaric Mushroom
Most recently I have been sharing my first ever crochet along: The Making Stitches 2025 CAL which, unlike most others CALS which release patterns on a weekly basis, comes out on a monthly basis instead (I simply couldn’t keep up with a weekly one these days – never mind design one!).
Each square has a design which is related to the month it’s released in. I have really enjoyed doing this so much and the thrill of seeing what someone else has made while using your pattern is real!
With this in mind, I would like to share a new pattern with you today to mark this tenth birthday of my Postcard from Gibraltar/Making Stitches blog – the Bonus Birthday Bunting Square! The pattern for this is here!
The Making Stitches 2025 CAL Bonus Birthday Bunting Square!
Talking of crochet patterns, I mentioned earlier about my collaboration with Eleonora from Coastal Crochet… Watch this space for more details on that in the coming weeks!
And that, my friends, brings me to the end of this round-up of a decade of blogging for me. Thank you for joining me for the ride, it’s been fun hasn’t it? Who knows where we will all be ten years from now? We’ll not think about that for the time being.
Thank you for being there, for reading these rambling posts and for keeping me company for the past 10 years!
Until next time, as I say at the end of my podcast episodes, take care of yourself and enjoy your crafting!
Hello there! I hope this finds you well. It’s November – eek! How did that happen??
Here’s what I’ve been up to over the past month…
Autumnal colours
October began and ended in a blaze of orange! The first photo is of one of my little Acers which took on a great colour at the beginning of the month, we also enjoyed this sky of fire at the start of October (below) – the second sunset was taken on Saturday evening before the clocks went back to put us on Winter time….. the last hurrah of the summer that was…
Changing times…
Last month, you may have noticed that there were some changes on this blog from Postcard from Gibraltar to Making Stitches Blog. I won’t go into all the reasons behind it, as you may well have already read the previous post, but if you have just landed here and are wondering why Postcard from Gibraltar is no more, you can read why here.
Yarny news
Last month I decided the time had come to finally dig out my knitting needles and have another go at knitting some socks! About a year ago, I was inspired by Christine Perry of Winwick Mum, to have a go at knitting socks for the first time. Now I learned to knit well before I learned to crochet, but apart from an odd cardigan here and there over the years I haven’t done too much so the prospect of knitting in the round, turning a heel and using double pointed needles sent me running for the hills. (It turns out you don’t need to used DPNs after all – hurrah!) After interviewing Christine for Making Stitches Podcast, we got together for a brew and with her help I actually managed to knit a pair!
At Yarndale this year, I picked up a ball of Yarndale sock yarn called Hope (I have admired this colourway for a while). I have done non-stop crochet for so long, I fancied a change and early in October I cast on the first sock. Determined that it wouldn’t take me months to complete this project (as happened last time) I powered on through and had my first sock finished in less than a week!! I’m very pleased to say that on Monday (31st) (with the help of Christine’s fabulous book “Super Socks“) I Kitchener Stitched the toes of my second sock and I own a second pair of hand knitted socks made by me!
Up the Garden Path friends
Two new friends joined the Up the Garden Path gang in October, Oakley the Acorn Tree Sprite and Agatha the Fly Agaric Mushroom. I had loads of fun making these – they had both been in my head since last autumn, and finally I was able to complete the patterns in time to get them out for this autumn. Oakley and Agatha should actually have a couple of other autumnal companions but I’m afraid other things got in the way of getting to the finishing line with them, so they will need to stay under wraps (or maybe that should be hibernation) until next autumn.
I took them with me to the gorgeous Dunham Massey National Trust parkland for a photo shoot a couple of weeks ago on a bright sunny morning. It was so lovely to have the perfect excuse to get out of the house and enjoy nature for a few hours. It was great fun finding suitable spots for them to pose with the gorgeous natural backdrop. The only issue is that as it is a deer park, there are lots of lovely areas you can’t go into because they are exclusively for the deer. Any parts where you are allowed to stray a little from the path are generally rather well populated so there’s a ready made audience for a crazy middle aged lady arranging crocheted little people on tree stumps or next to fungi.
I tried to keep my head down and not make too much of a spectacle of myself but I was sniffed out by a rather lovely little spaniel on a super long lead at one point, and at another, I was asked by an amateur photographer if he could photograph my little people too. Those were just the passers-by I engaged with – with many others I just ducked down behind the ferns and tree stumps and hoped for the best! I think most people were just glad to give me a wide berth as I was clearly barmy.
Downloadable PDF patterns for Agatha and Oakley are available now in my Etsy Shop if you fancy making either of them and if you would like to make both, you can buy the pair as a bundle with a bit of a saving.
As you can see below, it was a truly stunning morning at Dunham Massey when I went for my photo shoot….
The first Great Northern Textile Show
A week or so ago it was the first ever Great Northern Textile Show, just down the road from where I live in Manchester. I stumbled across the event on Instagram and reached out to the show’s organiser Tracy Fox to ask for more details. Once I’d spoken to Tracy it became apparent that not only did I have to go to the show, but that I also had to go to meet Tracy and hear more about her story. Tracy is an artist working with textiles, she dyes fabric to create art cloth for art quilts and can use anything from leaves from her back garden to rusty saw blades to create the most amazing patterns. I interviewed Tracy for Episode 52 of Making Stitches Podcast which you can listen to below. Then, on 23rd October I found myself at my second big show in a month by going to the Great Northern Textile Show. It was fab – I met some really lovely people. I shared my experience of the day in the latest episode of the podcast which went out last week – you can also listen to that below too.
Tracy Fox – my guest for Episode 52 of Making Stitches Podcast
In other podcast news, I got a rather lovely surprise at the weekend. I noticed that there had been a rather big upward surge in my listener figures so thought I’d check on the Apple Podcast charts to see if the numbers had had an impact there – and they did! I found Making Stitches Podcast at the Number 1 spot in the craft podcast charts in the UK, Canada and New Zealand, at Number 2 (then up to Number 1) in Australia and at Number 5 in the USA!! What a thrill! The podcast has made it to number 1 several times in the past but never in so many places at once or for so long. Thank you to everyone who has listened to it, recommended it to a friend or left a review – I am a very happy podcaster!
A return to ABBA Voyage!
If you read my August Postcard, you may remember that I made the trip down to London with a couple of school friends to see Abba Voyage. The trip had originally been meant to be for my parents to join me but their holiday which had been booked for 2020 and had been rearranged so many times ended up clashing with the ticket dates. I was able to return to London this month with my lovely Mum, the person responsible for introducing me to ABBA in the first place. It was super to be able to share the experience with her. (It also meant that I was able to meet up with Eldest – who is now a London based Uni student – for the briefest of times for a quick cuddle before hopping onto the train back home).
Half term football fun
Last week was half term week for the two youngest Little Postcards. Youngest is back in love with football after breaking his thumb and really enjoyed being able to take part in the local soccer school for the week. There was some rain, but they were really very lucky with the weather. The pitches, despite appearances, were rather muddy so I spent a week with the washing machine going almost constantly!
Pumpkin season
After a busy half term week and a weekend grass roots football match, it was rather nice to have some time at home on Sunday. Sunday afternoon meant there was time for a session of pumpkin carving and pumpkin soup making with the innards. I may have been a little heavy handed with the chilli flakes – the soup is in need of yogurt to make it palatable but never mind. It was fun to do.
And that, is that. October ticked off. It’s been a pretty good month all in all and the icing on my cake was the arrival of Eldest home late on Halloween night for a reading week break from Uni. It was so lovely to be able to get him back home again and look after him. He has been very sorely missed these last six weeks.
That’s all from me for this time, thanks so much for stopping by and reading my October ramble!
Well then, that was quite a week on all sorts of levels. I shall refrain from mentioning anything political in this post as it makes references to mundane everyday stuff, well err mundane and perhaps a little irrelevant. So here goes, it feels like a lot longer than seven days since my last Sunday Sevens, but it’s not. Who knew this time last week what was about to happen?
Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series devised by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins. If you fancy joining in, pop over to her blog and find out how to have a go.
A crafty paradise
Last Sunday was Father’s Day in the UK and I spent it in England with my lovely Dad for the first time in years. My little Postcards took good care of their Dad when I was away and I think they really enjoyed their time with just Daddy. My Sunday was completely different from the usual routine. I wasn’t woken early with the pitter patter of small feet coming into the bedroom to ask for a cuddle/juice/breakfast/the TV remote. I had a lie-in (bliss) and after breakfast we jumped into the car and headed out into the Cheshire countryside to the fabulous Black Sheep Wools at Culcheth in Warrington.
It was wonderful to be surrounded with all this wool of every colour imaginable, there were fantastic books, fabric, sewing kits and all sorts of crafty delights. I was in heaven. We stopped for a tasty lunch in the cafe there aptly named ‘Tea Bags Full’ and before heading to our next destination I made use of the facilities.
On the way to the loo, I spotted these cute pompom sheep (above) and a fascinating series of maps on the wall. The maps were of the British Isles and also the world. People had written their names and where they were visiting from on tags. It was such a good idea as it showed how far their customers had travelled from. In the scheme of things Gibraltar wasn’t that far. South Africa and New Zealand featured tags from customers as well as many other exotic destinations. There were no spare tags for me to write on and say I was visiting from Gibraltar so this is my tag. Hello Black Sheep Wools, my crafty stash grew quite a bit thanks to you. I hope to be back again one day!
Back home
Monday meant time to head back home to Gibraltar. I had a really great time with my parents and was also able to see my little brother and his lovely fiancee. My weekend away flew by so quickly that I was on my way back to the airport before I knew it. On the flight I was blessed with a window seat on the right hand side which gave me a wonderful view as we circled the Rock. As we approached along the Spanish Mediterranean coast from Malaga, Gibraltar was shrouded in cloud caused by the levanter winds. Moments later, after we came around the southern tip of Europa Point I got this great view of the Rock with it’s cloudy hat on. It’s amazing to think that these two pictures were taken just moments apart.
Dressmaking class
I’m growing to love this fabric. After buying it I was worried it was a bit too Hawaiian shirt-esque but it’s so bright and summery it’s really growing on me. This week the side seams of my final skirt project were stitched, the lining was attached to the skirt and front pleats stitched into place. In theory there’s just a waistband and hem standing between me and a finished garment. It doesn’t sound a lot if you just say it quickly but I have a feeling it may not be straightforward…
Another dinosaur gets a new home
Meet Wonkysaurus. He’s my fourth dinosaur crocheted from a pattern in Simply Crochet magazine. I do rather like him, he’s got slightly wonky spikes, hence the name. This week he went to his new home to meet his new owner. I’m not sure what his new owner makes of him yet (he’s just 4 weeks old) but his Mummy approves.
Time for another one…
No sooner had one dinosaur left me and I received a request for another one. This one’s for a baby not yet born so I have a little while yet to make him, however as the little Postcards are on summer hours at school (i.e. they finish at lunchtime) my crafting time is vastly reduced so I’m making hay while the sun shines, or should that be making heads while the sun shines? (Sorry – couldn’t resist that one 😉 )
Convent Garden Open Day
Saturday saw the annual Convent Garden Open Day in Gibraltar. It’s a regular event on the Gibraltar social calendar and gives us mere mortals the chance to wander round the Govenor’s back garden. The planting is gorgeous and a riot of colour beneath the lovely shade giving trees – many of which were planted by visiting Royals in years gone by. It was hot hot hot so that shade was very welcome. I’ll share a few more photos of this soon.
Postcard birthday
I’m amazed to be saying this but yesterday Postcard from Gibraltar had it’s first birthday. I can’t believe a whole year has gone by since I made my first post. It’s been such fun. I have come into contact with so many lovely, encouraging people during the past 12 months both online and in person. Thank you to all of my new friends as well as my old friends and family who have supported my fledgling blogging adventure so far. Here’s to the next 12 months! Now it’s time for cake don’t you think?
2015 was the year I took the plunge and decided to have a go at blogging. For several years I have followed blogs including Attic24, The Patchwork Heart, Bunny Mummy and Just Pootling and I have admired the beautiful photography, their ways with words and their beautiful crafts. A couple of years ago I decided I had a long way to go before attempting my own blog but set myself the challenge of taking a photo each day and writing a bit about it. Obviously on some days (like holidays, trips out & special occasions) it’s incredibly easy to snap away and you’re spoiled for choice, on others you are forced to think hard and be a bit creative about what the daily photo might be. This turned out to be good practice for my blog posts, especially Sunday Sevens.
Convent Garden, Gibraltar June 2015
Since I gave up (paid) work on the arrival of my first child, I have struggled to find something to entertain my brain, I’ve dabbled in crafts & craft fairs, done a bit of voluntary work and tried and failed to get a job which can work around my main job as a Mum.
July 2015 (Manchester, Cheshire, Berkshire)
Recently, I guess my friends have picked up on my need to stimulate my brain and a few have independently suggested I try blogging (I hadn’t told them that I had previously considered and discounted it). I guess the planets came into alignment as when the most recent suggestion was made, I thought ‘why not?’ and set off on my Postcard from Gibraltar journey. In order to protect my boys from future ridicule, I decided to keep my blog anonymous for now.
August 2015 (Algarve & Gibraltar)
And so my Postcard from Gibraltar adventure began in June, hence the review of only half a year! We are very fortunate to live in a vibrant and interesting place, so there is never a shortage of things for me to write about, I also now have an outlet to talk about my various crafty fascinations of crochet, watercolour and sewing (friends and family heave a huge sigh of relief).
September 2015 (Gibraltar)
I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far, I am thrilled when I look back at my old posts and see photos of things we have done and seen as a family, it’s almost like an online journal or photo album (both are things I have started many times but failed to complete).
October 2015 (Gibraltar)
I have met some really supportive and kind people through the magic of the blogosphere and found inspiration for future projects and positive criticism for my own crafty endeavours. I used to think I was just a frustrated crafter who never had the time to create the things I want. While I admit I still get a bit frustrated at times as there are so many ideas in my head of what I want to do, but looking back at the makes I have documented I can see that I do churn out quite a bit as it is!
November 2015 (crafts)
Away from the world of the internet, blogging has also helped me build some networks in real life here in Gibraltar. There are some very talented people residing on this great Rock and I am pleased to have met some more of them during the past six months.
November 2015 (Gibraltar & Marbella)
I won’t ramble on any more, but will leave you with my thanks for taking the time to stop by and read my blog, I’ve had a great time with it so far and very much look forward to what 2016 holds. Happy New Year!
