Hola!

Well, hello everyone.  I have been on a wonderful break with DH - yes, we returned to the achingly beautiful area of Spain known as Al Andalus.

There will be quite a few photo-heavy posts in the coming days (so better get a big supply of biscuits in to munch on whilst you look through them ;) )

but, in the meantime, a couple of tasters of what was the most amazing five days.  Five days together, away from all the stresses of the day jobs.

Cordoba - our first ever visit, hopefully we will return - such a lovely place, with friendly people and so many amazing things to see.

And, Granada - oh, how I have totally fallen in love with this place.  The atmosphere of this city is just indescribable.

Back to work today, but at least the weather is warmer - I could really feel today that Spring is just around the corner.

Helenxx

Send a Little Love blog swap

Good morning everyone, hope you all had an enjoyable day yesterday, whether or not you celebrate Valentines Day.  I have to say that as far as DH and I were concerned, it went by somewhat unnoticed, but we did have our Wedding Anniversary last week, and those celebrations are set to continue next week as we are both on holiday from work.

But there was some bloggy love going on here in Moonstruck Towers as during the Christmas Hols I had signed up to the lovely Tracey's Send a Little Love Blog Swap.  My super partner was Karen, and her parcel to me arrived this week.  Would you like to see what she sent to me?

What a lovely bundle of parcels met my eye when I opened the envelope...

First up, this lovely card.  Karen is a very talented photographer, this is one of her photos...

A lovely range of things to make my baking sessions even more fun...

Some lovely ribbon...

This smells super...

Lovely felt pieces and a yummy Lindor egg (now sadly departed!)

And a very pretty heart....

Such a lot of lovely and thoughtful surprises...

Here is the bundle of little bits and pieces I sent to Karen....

but cant reveal any more just in case the post is being a bit slow!!

Just watching a bit of the Winter Olympics at the moment, I love to watch winter sports.  Didn't our British Skeleton athlete, Lizzie Yarnold do us in the UK proud yesterday?  And I loved her interview afterwards, where she encouraged all girls everywhere to really follow their dreams and to be the best they can be, whether in sport, the arts, music, whatever.

Hope you have a great weekend and that the weather will improve.  Have just noticed a bit of fence damage in the back garden, oh dear, how ever will I break that to DH?  He and my brother spent ages putting new fencing up a couple of years ago.  Oh well, could be a lot worse.

Helenxx

Anniversary Rose (and Crochet Blanket Challenge week 6)

Good morning everyone, hope you are all well and enjoying the start of the weekend.

It has been a funny week here, feeling a bit under the weather (to such an extent I couldn't make my weekly craft night meet up with Sue) and generally tired.

But this week (on Wednesday to be precise) it was my 26th Wedding Anniversary.  DH was working away.  I arrived home from work to find the kids looking extremely furtive and giggly.  A very large gift bag was given to me by eldest son - what's this?  It has the Interflora logo on it...and a card from DH...

After some wrangling with the bag this beautiful object emerged....

Such utter perfection in this rose - do you like the little heart gem that had been so carefully added to the petals...

All presented in a lovely vase, which will, of course be used again and again...

I love the little gold heart attached to the vase.  So even after the rose has faded I will have a permanent reminder of our 26th Anniversary.

We are hoping to have a belated celebration the week after next when we are both on holiday from work.  But in the meantime this fabulous rose is filling the living room with a gentle, subtle perfume.  I am feeling very spoiled!

And, whilst I am here, I thought I had better update re. my crochet squares and progress this week - just two again, but still ahead of my "one-a-week" target :)

36 squares in total.

Have a great weekend, DH is having to do some work at home this weekend (due to the afore-mentioned planned week off ) so I think I will take some time to relax, read and craft.

Helenxx

"Memories..."

."..light the corners of my mind...misty water coloured memories, of the way we were..."

time for some nostalgia - this time a year ago my DH and I were flying off to Spain, to see the amazing sights of Granada.  We were celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary, and we had always dreamed of going to see the Alhambra.  Oh my goodness, how we fell in love with Granada, the Alhambra, and Spain itself.  We enthused so much about it that my dearest friend went over last April, and felt the same.

She has just returned from another trip to Spain, this time she visited the beautiful city of Cordoba - somewhere DH and I are hoping to visit fairly soon.  And, being the wonderful friend that she is, she bought me this:

it is a lovingly hand made tealight holder

decorated with crescent moon and stars, so evocative of the Islamic architecture in Spain that we love so much.

I love the way the candle light glows from the cut out shapes, and love the colour of the glaze.

She also bought this back for me, will help a lot with our planning, a big full colour map of Cordoba

Thank you so, so much Sue for these lovely treats, very much appreciated!

So, for now, I will have to make do with gazing at the photo on my desktop....

"if we had the chance to do it all again, tell me - would we?  Could we?"*  Oh most certainly, yes!!

Helenxx

* Songwriters: Hamlisch, Marvin, "The Way We Were" sung by Barbara Streisand

Crochet Blanket Challenge - week 5

Good morning everyone.

Well, the first day of February has arrived - where did January go?  It was a very busy month, with birthdays, the return to work, thesis writing, GCSE coursework deadlines, University offers, etc etc - I feel as if the whole month flew by without me catching my breath.  And of course for most of the month the weather was frightful.

But this morning, on this first day of February the sun is finally shining....

Thesis and coursework have been submitted (some fingernail nibbling going on whilst results are awaited), university offers have been accepted, work is back in full swing, birthdays have been celebrated.  And somehow, in and among all this, I have managed to keep going with my granny squares.  And even more incredibly, this week I have managed to complete six new squares:

so now there are 34 squares in total...

when I see them all together like this I can really see the blanket taking shape.  The squares are big, seven granny rows then an edging of double crochet (sc for my American friends).  I am already beginning to think about possible colour combinations for the blanket edging.  Possibly varying degrees of grey I think....(no sniggering please!) And I think each square will need another row of the colour I finally decide upon for the joining up process.  I think about 80 squares in all should make a pretty big blanket, when including all the edgings.  

To be honest I cant believe how much progress has been made, it makes me feel strangely and unbelievably contented arranging the squares, counting them up, and thinking about the colour combinations.  The colours are somewhat more restrained than how they appear in the photos.  

I am having a lazy morning for the first time in weeks, and looking forward to going up to Manchester later to have an evening out with relatives.  Will be getting the crochet hook out shortly for a while though first.

Hope you all have a lovely Saturday, and that the sun is shining wherever you are!

Helenxx