Champagne and flowers

There hasn’t been an awful lot of knitting happening in the past few days I’m afraid. I have done two more repeats of my stole but it doesn’t make for very exciting photographs. I have, however, been playing around with my blog. Please could you let me know what you think of the new look and whether there are any gremlins lurking that I haven’t spotted? It took much longer than I expected to make all the changes but it was fun. The colours from the little drawing of the mermaid I did, didn’t seem to come out that well, but I’m still quite pleased with it.

I can't go to Ally Pally on Saturday anymore, as I had forgotten that we are going to a friend's wedding that evening and I hadn't realised that it would take us nearly two hours to get to Alexandra Palace, but don't worry I'm going on Friday instead as our carpets aren't being delivered this week (long and very annoying story). I'm really disappointed that I won't get to meet Dawn though.


Last weekend Monkey and I went to see my family in Devon. It was lovely. We stayed for two nights in the hotel where we had our wedding reception. We decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary a bit early as we are really busy next weekend. Monkey had ordered a bottle of champagne and a beautiful bouquet of flowers to be in the room when we arrived. My whole family came for a meal at the hotel and we had a wonderful time. The photograph above shows the amazing view we had from the window of our hotel room.


It was lovely to see my parents, my gran and my brother and his girlfriend. I miss my family so much, as I don’t really get to see them much while we are living here.


On Monday we stopped at Stourhead National Trust property on our drive back. The gardens are truly magical and I’m going to bore you with some photographs I took (click on them to see them bigger if you like). I love the first of these, it shows a golden tree shinning against the darkness of the rest of the woods, and it is hard to describe how enchanting it looked in real life.

This last photo shows what our favourite neighbours had done to the front of our house (a beautiful Arts and Crafts style building in a conservation area converted into flats) while we had been away...

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the new look! Your drawing of the knitting mermaid is very distinctive and perfect for you! I also like the wallpaper design in the background. I feel like I should know the style (Arts & Crafts? Edwardian?) but I'm drawing a blank.

Your photos of the tree and gardens are so beautiful and peaceful. I would have enjoyed sitting on a nearby bench to knit and soak up the scenery.

Anonymous said...

P.S. Happy Anniversary to you and your honey!

Sarah said...

William Morris was the big name of the Arts and Crafts movement and it was around in the late 1800s. The house is just kind of country cottagey style really but officially it is supposed to be "Arts and Crafts". I'd never heard of it but I looked it up when we bought our flat.

Frankie said...

Glad to hear you had a lovely weekend, and sorry you came back to the hole in the wall. I would be feeling very upset indeed about that. I wonder if they waited till you'd gone away?
I'm going to Ally Pally tomorrow - say hello if you spot me. I'll probably only recognise you if you are wearing one of your beautiful creations. (I'm also going to a wedding on Saturday - but unlikely to be the same one...)

dreamcatcher said...

I love the new design on your blog, the mermaid picture is great :-)

Beautiful photos from the NT garden, autumn is *just* beginning :-)

As for the neighbours - what were they thinking? Not thinking, more like it!

José said...

I love the new design, and thank you for the knitty tip. I think i'll be taking on the mission! :)

Unknown said...

OOOOHhhh...that is so disappointing!!! I was looking forward to meeting you! Oh well....I'm glad you are getting to go anyway! I'm getting so excited! The blog looks GREAT! Really impressed with those that can make wonderful pictures on their blogs! One of these days...one of these days....

Anonymous said...

How lovely and stylish your new blog is.

Beautiful photos. You must have had a lovely time - what a nice thing Monkey did!

Was there a little round window where the breezeblock is? If so, you have my permission to make them suffer (loud music at 3am every day for a week, or something).

Have a great time at AP.

Anonymous said...

if you're at Ally Pally tomorrow, drop by the Knit n Relax stand (by the fashion show run-way) and say hello!

nat said...

The new design is really pretty. I love the sea green colors. :)

Those pictures are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing them with us. :)

Brahdelt said...

Wow, what a change! I like the mermaid, and the beautiful photos!

Artis-Anne said...

Oh I love the new look and the little mermaid. Your photos are great also. Happy Anniversary to you both. I love the Arts and Craft era and William Morris is my fav.I once went down to the VA in London especialy to see his colllection there

Lara said...

I really love the new design of your blog! I can't believe that you drew that mermaid, she is so cute!

And what beautiful pictures! I read these blogs from people in the UK and they all have these gorgeous photos - I must go sometime. You are so lucky.

acrylik said...

Love the new look to your blog! The mermaid is wonderful.

Sounds like you have a wonderful time away, the pictures are beautiful. Happy anniversary to you both!

At least I'm not the only one who has neighbours who do horrible things to our house when they go away. What an awful monstrosity.

Hope you had a wonderful time at Ally Pally!

T said...

Stupid flipping neighbours :( Lovely photos of beautiful places. I see you have 'She's Come Undone' on your booklist.I love that book.

I? said...

I like the new look very much! And it sounds like you had a lovely time. It also reminds me that our wedding anniversary is approaching and we must really try and do better than last year when we both forgot all about it!