Halloween Night

Hello everyone - I hope you are enjoying your evening.  We had a real treat tonight - my dearest friend Sue and her family came to visit us for a Halloween evening of food, treats and lots of conversation and laughter!  It was lovely to have her visit us, we had a great time.  My DH cooked up his legendary soup,  and there was lots of sweet things to eat too.  My kids helped me to decorate the house - would you like to see?

There were pumpkins of every size and shape...

A Halloween mantel...

Yummy treats...

and even a witches cat...

All in all a magical evening!  Thanks so much Sue for visiting us, hope to see you again very soon!

Helenxx

Autumnal day trip to Derbyshire

Hello again everyone.  I finally managed to pack away my work for the rest of this half-term week and yesterday took off with DD to Derbyshire for a girls day out.

We set off bright and early from home, and, before we knew it, arrived at Darley Dale at this lovely little shop...

don't you just love the yarn-bombed bicycle?  Not sure if this one had had a guest appearance at Yarndale or if it was used as part of the Tour de France Grande Depart celebrations but we both thought it was a lot of fun!  Inside the store is a fantastic array of all things embroidery, and the young girl who served us was so friendly and helpful.  We love coming here to buy supplies. 

Next up we went to Rowsley to visit another favourite stopping-off place for us, Cauldwell's Mill.  We love to mooch around the old out buildings...

Quite a bit of autumn colour in evidence...

On a distant hill, a farmer was sorting out a tree that had probably been blown down the day before when we had a lot of high winds and stormy weather...

Back at the mill is a lovely gift shop...

...this little fellow was waiting patiently for his owner..

The sky was absolutely stunning...

We then jumped back in the car and drove another ten minutes up the A6 to the beautiful town of Bakewell, where we had a good rummage around the charity shops and found some super bargains, including a brand new handbag for me and a brand new hat for DD.  We went in some other shops and bought a few gifts for Christmas, but these will have to remain a secret for now!

It then started to spot with rain, and, as our tummies were rumbling we went to the Thorntons Coffee shop for a lovely lunch...

The service and the food in this little café is second to none, do try it if you are ever in Bakewell.  The cakes looked very tempting, so we decided on these two, we cut them up and had half each...

It was such a treat to be sitting having a lovely chat with DD, we have spent a lot of time together this week which has been absolutely fantastic.  We both have very similar tastes, we are both heavily into the Scandinavian vibe at the moment!  She also shares my love of autumn, and is doing an autumnal themed project for her Art Textiles A Level at the moment.  As we sat chatting I couldn't resist taking a photo through the café window as we watched the world go by...

 With our tummies full, we had another wander around the town and came upon this superb display at the little greengrocers shop...

 



This is probably the nearest we will get to a pumpkin patch (DD and I would LOVE to go to a proper pumpkin patch in New England...)  and we loved this funny little face...

DD took a lot of time to pick an ideal pumpkin for us.  Hopefully I will be able to do it justice on the 31st!!

On the way home we popped in to see my Darling Mum, whose health is still very up and down, but it was lovely to have a chat with her and tell her what we had been up to.  Three girls together!!  I can't wait for her to be up and about again so that she can come to my house for dinner, we always have such a good time.

Back home, we found that the vegetable soup I had put on in the slow cooker before going out had cooked nicely.  After dinner, by means of a "thank you" DD made me a lovely hot chocolate...

can you spot the little gingerbread men she made? 

Hope you are all having a lovely week, thanks again so much for all your recent kind comments, very much appreciated.

Helenxx

Colourful October

This week has been quite trying.  My Darling Mum has been poorly, which has been a big worry, but thankfully she is slowly improving.  Usual stresses at work.  But trying to find little glimmers of colour along the way - after all, this is quite possibly my favourite month of the year.

A couple of weeks ago I finished this crochet cushion in October Oranges -

I always associate October with these shades of orange.  Here is the completed article lounging on my armchair...

it is so squishy and comfy!  Just the thing to cosy up to on these darker evenings.  I am almost finished making another Autumnal cushion, same yarn but different shades - this time rusty reds.  All to be revealed soon I hope!

On with the October Orange theme, I have decorated my mantel with lots of suitable candle holders. 

Cue a few close-ups of my collection...

Rocking the pumpkin loveliness!!

And just to show that there are sometimes colours other than orange in October, here is a sunset from last week...

The whole neighbourhood was lit up with pink for about 5 minutes, then it was gone. 

Hope you have a lovely, and colour-filled Sunday!

Helenxx