So sorry...

Hello everyone, hope all is well with you all.

I am sooooooo sorry not to have been around to do anything with this blog or to comment on yours but I have been off sick with the dreaded shingles - yuk, yuk, YUK.

Huge apologies to all my swap partners - your parcels will be sent to you hopefully by the start of next week.

Have gone back to work but very wobbly.

will be back asap, take care and much love, Helenxx

Day tripper

Hello everyone, hope your week is going well so far.

A couple of weekends ago, when we were enjoying glorious weather, DH and the 2 youngest Moonstruck team members and I went to visit Woolsthorpe Manor, the home of Sir Isaac Newton

This picture was taken from underneath the famous apple tree:

I have to say that it is one of the most enjoyable National Trust properties I have visited.  It had such a lovely, homely feel and the staff were very friendly and knowledgeable, but not at all stuffy or precious.  They even allowed a cat to sleep on the very rare and expensive bed in the main bedroom!  No pics of the interior as they dont allow flash photography (fair enough as the artefacts are very old and precious).  However, there is this lovely ancient orchard to walk around....

 I love ancient trees and thinking about all the things they have witnessed...

The outbuildings house a very interesting collection of interactive scientific activities

A great place to visit, my 12 and 14 year olds loved it but younger and older folks would enjoy it as well.

We have annual membership of the NT and find it an economic way to visit lots of interesting places (there are 6 of us after all!!)

What has been your favourite summer day trip so far?

Helenxx

Sugary sweetness

Morning all!

Just sneaking in a few blogging minutes before the moonstruck household cranks into full swing!  I just have to say that I love getting up before everyone else and sitting with a cuppa checking into blogland.  Ah, the things that keep me happy....

Anyway, had a visitor yesterday and thought I had better make something to give as a gift...Im (quite surprisingly for me) into ice-cream pastels at the moment (must be all that sitting out in the garden, the sun is getting to me!) so had some strawberry pink felt in my crafty-bits box.  So I made this:

It had lots and lots of lavender inside so smelt divine

Loved doing the lace yo-yo, and of course another obsession of mine is buttons so I had a lot of fun rummaging through my button jars

And on the sugary sweetness front, just look at this plate of cakes my daughter and her friend H made last week:

These were served up to refresh my dear friend Sue and I on one of regular sewing get-togethers.  If you click here you can see an amazing creation that H made for her brother - a very talented (and, following the tone of this post I have to say a very sweet) young lady.

I made short work (after due admiring of the workwomanship) of this little beauty:

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, whatever it is you get up to!

Helenxx

PS 11 days to go until the first ever moonstruckcreations giveaway!

Up, up and away....

Hello everyone - hope your weekend is off to a cracking start!

It has been a time of areonautical wonderment recently for the moonstruck crew-

Here is the lovely chinese lantern that Sue entertained us with recently

and then we caught sight of this beauty drifting above moonstruck towers*:

 It reminded me of a granny square blanket:

I love hot air balloons - althought Im scared silly of heights and flying, I still rather fancy going on a balloon ride...

Have a lovely Saturday!

Helenxx

* - this is not an allusion to a very big posh house, more a likeness to Fawlty Towers!! ;)

Busy bee! And lucky me!!

Morning all!

This week as usual I have been a busy bee at work and home.  Here is one of my latest makes:

He really is a friendly little chap

He was a lot of fun to make, but we dont know what to call him...any ideas?

Also, I  have been very lucky blogger this week and have been given this from the lovely Rae

It is for blogs with under 100 followers so fits my little blog down to a tee!  Thank you so much Rae, it is lovely of you to pay this forward to me. 

I now need to pay this forward to some of my fave blogs:

first off the starting blocks is Fruitful Fusion - lots of lovely crochet and also lots of interesting info about life in Saudi.  This is one of the first blogs I started reading long before I started mine.  And she is also my 50th follower so thank you for helping me make my half century!!

Next would have to be Bee who has a lovely blog showcasing her glasswork and jewellery among many other things.

Another blog I love to read is Dosie Rosie which is a blog full of lovely cheery photos of lovely cheery things!

And of course, although Rae has kindly passed this award on to her too, I could not end with out mentioning my bestest friend Sue!

There are so many other lovely blogs who are my followers who fit into this category - I had better stop writing here before I go into a kind of over blown Oscar Speech!  But, if I follow your blog and you have under 100 followers please feel free to accept this award with my warmest wishes!
Helenxx

new uses for crochet flowers - and a giveaway!!

Hello everyone, hope your weekend is going wonderfully!  Havent we been enjoying some lovely sunshine?  I had a great day yesterday as I hosted 2 moonstruck birthday parties (for the soon to be 13 and 15 yr olds).  I can imagine you are saying to yourself "is that woman mad???? Enjoyed hosting kids parties???? You are having a laugh!!!!")  but if I tell you that the young 13 year old ladies had a craft party

and the 15 year old lads had a PS3 tournament party (1 involved a lot of input from me but was a ball as it was great to see the girls enjoying the crafts whereas the other involved throwing a few pizzas in front of the, it has to be said, very polite young gentlemen) then you can probably see my reasoning!  And once the girls parties had finished, my daughters lovely friend stayed to carry on the crafting (mixed in with tennis and badminton) whilst I sat in the garden with my hook

Can you see the little pile of granny squares in the foreground - more info to follow soon!!

So in true crafty moonstruck style, daughter asked me to make something for the young ladies to take home - she loves my crochet flowers, so I made a few:

salmon pink and lavendar:

spring green and purple:

lavendar and blue:

But rather than making them into corsages this time I attached them to headbands:

And it turned out that the girls could also wear them as necklaces and bracelets - multi-tasking with fashion at such a young age!!!!

I loved the look of all the flowers bunched up together:

"Wouldnt they look great wired onto florists stems and made into a posy" said my lovely friend Sue.  We were also chatting about the totally amazing fact that I have now got 47 followers!!!!!!!!!!!!!  "why dont you do a giveaway for when you reach 50 followers?  And you could make a bunch of these flowers for the prize?"  Now, I have known Sue for quite a while (!) and when she has an idea like that you can bet it is spot on.  So there you have it dear bloggy friends - A GIVEAWAY!!  The small print then:

you need to be a follower!
please leave a comment saying you are interested in the giveaway
My little blog needs to have hit at least 50 followers before the deadline which is 21 July (thought I would make this quite a long deadline as I know lots of you lovely people have holidays to look forward to!)
And thats it!

Well, Im off now for another coffee and then its hanging more washing out...

Have a great Sunday!

Helenxx