Ripple Picnic Blanket - Ta Da!

Yay - my ripple picnic blanket is all finished! I've been bursting to take it on our family fish and chip outing this week but the weather has just not been great. Warm and sunny - but unbelievably windy so not ideal. So when the sun came out today and the wind was minimal the small folk and I thought we should rush out and set up our pretend picnic in the back yard. I was allowed to use their flashest plastic tea set and we had to have flowers. Adorable.

It's a good size for the four of us to plonk down on when we're at the beach or at a picnic - 145cm x 125cm. It's going to look beyond cute folded up on the back seat of my wee car! I used acrylic to make this knowing full well that it was going to take a bit of a hammering with food spills and tomato sauce splodges. It can be thrown in the washing machine without too much fuss - hopefully.

Why not throw in another shot!

Oh look who turned up!! Good old Bella, always in amongst the photo session. My furry girl turned 13 this week so I now have a teenager in the house. This photo looks so strange because of the angle, Bella looks positively enormous!!! She is large, but not this large.

I am really keen to make another ripple in the future - it was such a relaxing pattern to work with. But in the meantime ...

Remember that Stylecraft yarn I treated myself to from the UK? It has been sitting, waiting to be used - so the other night I got it out and started my next project. Wow - I love working with this yarn! This is the first time I've worked on a join-as-you-go project and I'm loving it. More on this next time!

Did you see the lovely curry recipe over at Lucy's recently? I read it then had to dash to the supermarket immediately for one or two ingredients so I could make it for dinner. Delicious - I highly recommend it. I also made some gorgeous naan bread which was very hard to stop eating! I'm surprised any of it made it to the dinner table actually. Between me and the small folk having 'taste tests' - we got through quite a bit of it!!

Note to self - do not use brand new pastry brush to butter the frying pan! What a blonde. I wrecked the last brush doing the exact same thing. How did I forget that!! I'm thinking silicone is required in my next brush.

I couldn't pass up a sale at my local wool shop yesterday and treated myself to some lovely bright new wool. The tomato red colour hasn't been available for ages so I was so excited to see it again. I love using this colour in anything stripey - it goes to well with the pinks. And I had a $10 voucher to use so this little lot only cost $16 - that's less than $1.50 for pure wool - fabulous.

And when I was walking out of the shop I spotted these little sweeties. My oven glove had mysteriously disappeared so it was a good excuse to buy something pretty. Flowers and spots - what's not to like?

It is still the school holidays here until early February so we have been discovering lots of new playgrounds around town. I think hands down this has to be the most stunning view I've ever seen from a playground. It's our new favourite hangout and it's not too far from home. I can't believe we've never been here before - it's amazing.

There was an extra long slide which Miss 4 was a bit scared of but she managed it and then there was no stopping her. Mr 7 loved it because while he was playing, he could also see all the planes coming in over the harbour on their way to the airport nearby.

Now I have to apologise, I was meant to thank Barbina and Aurora Blythe for their lovely awards. But with all the Christmas/New Year things going on I completely left it off my last post. Thank you ladies - I was absolutely chuffed!!

Have a fabulous week - see you again soon.
Leah
xxxx