My first homemade blanket

I'd been wanting to learn how to crochet for ages, and in particular I'd been wanting to make my own blanket for ages. I'm so pleased that I managed to learn how to do it! I'd been trying to teach myself for ages but never quite grasped it, then last year I worked with a girl called Sarah who crocheted and she kindly taught me.



It's not massive, just a lap blanket and it was done up until a few days ago, when I decided to add a couple more rounds to it to make it slightly bigger. But I love it and I'm excited to snugglee up under it this winter.



I've already crocheted a couple more things too - a tiny bobble hat for an egg and one baby shoe!

It's best by bus

My Dad's funeral took place on the 23rd October at 3pm. It was actually the most beautiful service I've ever been to, and so many people turned up. Not sure of the exact number, but we guessed it to be about 145 as all but five of the order of services were handed out. It actually helped to see so many people that cared about my Dad.

Uncle Gary told me that one man who came from Coca Cola said that he didn't even work with Dad, he came because he used to get changed next to him.

I know nothing will bring my Dad back, and I'm absolutely devastated and heartbroken at the fact that he's no longer here. But it really helped me to see that my Dad was so loved, and that so many people knew how wonderful he was.


We got a vintage bus to take us to the crematorium instead of going in funeral cars. It was perfect; I loved the sign on the side which read "it's best by bus" - Dad would have loved it.

Dad's friend Gary read a poem out about Dad, and I might post it here because it was really lovely. Dad wore his suit that he wore to my wedding in his coffin.

I can't believe that I no longer have my Dad. I don't know what we're supposed to do now. It was very rare that I would do something with just Mum, or Dad, or one of my sisters - it was always all of us.

Dad I love you and miss you so much but I know I'll see you again xx

Dad

On Friday 12th October 2012, between 12:30-12:35pm, my wonderful and much loved father died tragically. Our entire family is absolutely devastated and heartbroken and still very much in a state of complete shock. Dad, I already miss you and I love you so so much.

Bye Bye Bertie

On Saturday, we heartbreakingly had to put our beautiful Boston Terrier to sleep. He had a fit, which caused massive brain damage. We're devastated. He was only about 18 months old.

This is the last video I took of him, a few days before. We loved him and will miss him so much.

A Little Recap

 I've just had the best couple of days. We've been having pretty nice and mild weather lately, so I've been out in the garden for a lot of it with my two furry helpers. Yesterday I did mostly clearing but on Tuesday I was planting up a storm, I planted rhubarb, strawberries, lettuce, wheatgrass, potatoes, sunflowers, rosemary, blackberries, blueberries, and a couple of different types of flowers. I've been thinking about doing a "how to grow" series for those of you that are interested in growing your own fruits and vegetables but don't have any experience in it. I don't claim to be an expert at all, and I'm always learning new things but growing your own food is a lot of fun, and great for the environment. I read this article a couple of days ago and thought it was really interesting, although not particularly suprising! Anything that gets kids outdoors, learning and having fun is a good thing in my book.



When we bought our house, there were a few rotten sheds in the garden that we had to take down, but as we were doing so we found the most beautiful old terracotta pots. Some big ones and some small ones. What a treasure! I absolutely love them and have planted some things in them. (Oh and you can see how desperately my garden needs sorting out in the above photo - look at all the weeds!)

Do you grow anything edible in your garden? Check back on Monday for the first "how to grow" post... lettuce!

PS: You might have noticed, but I've changed my blog name! I felt like I'd outgrown the name "ecoprincess" (I started this blog when I was a lot younger! Haha) and I want to post a bit more varied stuff than just recipes so from now on I shall be... Bake, Sew, Grow!

A big project

Yesterday I was overcome with an urge. An urge to get started on my garden! Our garden needs a lot of work doing to it before it can be as lovely as I imagine it, and yesterday was the day I got to work. I hired a skip and began getting rid of all the old flags and bricks that were cluttering it up. It felt so good to get my teeth into a project, and I've already cleared quite a lot!

I dug up one of the beds which had become overrun by weeds, and imagine my delight when I dug up about a dozen of these little beauties:



Pasnips! Rather suprising too, as I haven't planted any parsnips since we first bought the house - three years ago!

I think my project to turn my garden into something beautiful is going to be hard, but it will be so worth it in the end. Mind you, it probably wouldn't be quite so hard if I didn't try to rescue every last ladybird that I saw!

Looking forward

The weather here for the past couple of days has been so light and mild; it's really making me look forward to Spring. So much so in fact that I dragged Adam to the garden centre today for a look around on the promise that I would buy him a hot chocolate and a cream scone! I'm so excited to get growing again, this year I'm actually most excited to grow flowers, which I've never really done before. I work on a community garden with children aged 8-18, and we grew some flowers on there (basically, we put some seeds in. And the flowers went wild!). It looked so pretty and made me excited to do the same in my garden this year, too.



We've acquired a load of wooden pallets from somewhere which I'm planning to take apart and build some raised beds with, so I'll be sure to post about that. I also want to grow blueberries, herbs, jalapenos, peas, potatoes, sunflowers, squash and salad. Do you enjoy spending time in the garden? Have you ever grown your own food?