Lately...

I have been working non-stop and trying to squeeze in as much time as possible to sit down at my sewing machine and to finish off the second project that I started more than a week ago.

Last night, I finally managed to do that and am happy to announce that I'm pleased with the end result. Again, it isn't perfect but it was a great and fun learning experience, while I had the opportunity to explore and to discovery more and more the capacity of my lovely sewing machine.

Now what could it be?

The reason I included this picture is although it makes no sense as to revealing what it is, I really love the contrast of the two fabrics.

Is it becoming clearer now? They are not brilliant pictures I'm afraid because they are snapped with the basic camera that came with my mobile.

There, you can finally see what it is. It's a rolled up pouch for my knitting and crochet needles, plus my circular needles for knitting, scissors and a ruler as well with space for more. Although it looks simple, it was actually quite time consuming, trying to get the lines straight and the column width equal and if you click on the picture you'll see the decorative stitch which is in the shape of tiny stars and I'm pleased as punch with that (simple mind, I know). I didn't follow any particular pattern for this. I looked at a few different sample projects online and then decided on what I wanted for myself and proceeded to create this from Steve's old pair of jeans and some fat quarter fabric when I first bought fabric for the sewing machine three weeks back.  The top flap is so secure that I don't think I'll ever lose any needles from this pouch :)

And more shopping for me, trying to get my sewing corner more and more equipped! Coincidentally John Lewis was having a clearance sale so I managed to get some really good bargain with all these half price !

Right! Totally unrelated... Now that it's OFFICIALLY summertime (woohoo) Steve and I have been swimming in the sea a few times and it was absolutely refreshing !! We would finish work at 6pm and we'd drive straight down to the beach (5 minutes) and within seconds, we were splashing water at each other in the sea. Of course, each time there is always the initial shock to the body when you first get into the slightly cool water, but once your body gets used to it, it's amazing! That's why I'm finding it extra hard to find time to sit down at my sewing machine because we're really making the most of Summer. And not only that, we have taken to parking the car at the car park overlooking Studland while enjoying a spot of dinner and appreciating the sunset after our swim. I took a picture from the car during one of those evenings.

That's the chain ferry that takes passengers and vehicles from Sandbanks across to Studland and back.  And of course there are sailboats and luxury mini yacht and kayaks and jet skis and people fishing too. Lots and lots to see and we always enjoy these evenings.

Okay, it is now 1am and if I don't go to bed now it will be so difficult waking up tomorrow morning.

Thanks for stopping by and I really can't wait to start on my next project !!

Picnic

After two weeks of miserable weather, summer is finally back so we decided to have an impromptu picnic on Evening Hill overlooking Poole Harbour.



If I had known I would use the camera on my mobile so much, I would have opted for a Blackberry Curve with a 3.2megapixel camera instead of a Bold with 2megapixel because this picture just doesn't do the view any justice at all.

Poole Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in the world (Sydney being the first) and it's a famous spot for watersporting activities like wind-surfing, sailing, kite-surfing, jet-skiing and kayaking. And Sandbanks beach which is located along Poole Harbour, is famous for its high property value. Being the world's fourth most expensive place to live in the world, you can imagine that some of the property there is owned by very rich and famous people. Everytime Steve and I drive past Sandbanks we always try and have a peek inside the grand and beautiful houses and point to a random house and say, "Oh, there's our future home !!" Haha, in our wildest dreams. One can dream, can't they?!

So we threw together some bits and pieces like cooked king prawns in a sweet chillie dip, bread, crisps and a huge box of fruit salad each (with nectarine, pineapple, watermelon and strawberry) which I thoroughly enjoyed.



So after the snack, it was time for a snooze and while I was lying down on the bench I saw this plate and took a picture.



I just think it's extremely sweet to be remembered of so fondly by someone. I wonder if 100 years from now, that bench will still be there with the reminder of how John Herriman used to love Evening Hill.

Then I suddenly noticed that there's a blackberry bush nearby and some of the fruits are ready for picking (me and fruit-picking always go together).



So with the empty container that we had our fruit salad in I started picking the fruits but only ended up with a miserable handful of the fruits which didn't even warrant a picture with the Blackberry.

Hopefully tomorrow the weather is nice again and we can go cycling.

Runner beans

Apart from the beautiful and sunny weather (which means shorts and t-shirts) with long, golden light evenings well into 10pm, another thing to look forward to during the summer time is runner beans. I think we are very fortunate that at the age of 80, Steve's dad still religiously tended his garden back in early Spring and now all his hard work is paying off. This evening, I came home from work at the uni and because I didn't have my evening shift at M&S, I went out to the garden with a basket and started picking runner beans for dinner tonight. Nothing beats the feeling of being able to pick your dinner from your garden. I know it all sounds very cliche, but honestly as I was going round picking all the runner beans that were ready, I had this sense of pride and joy (eventhough I didn't really plant them, hehe)



This picture shows the runner beans still on the vine wrapped round the structure that Steve's dad built with bamboo. There are two of these structures in the garden with runnerbean vines, one put later than the other so that they don't all come up too much at the same time.

While making my way back to the house, I noticed sadly that this year we didn't get any rasberry at all from the bush. I was so looking forward to having loads and loads of rasberries like last year to make jam with but for some mysteriously unknown reason, the rasberry bush grew but did not bear a single fruit.



So as you can see, the bush just looks sad and unhealthy!! It's really puzzling because others have had their rasberry harvest and are continuously doing so and ours is just leaves with no berries.

Anyway I took my 'harvest' of runner beans into the kitchen and I also found a courgette which went into the basket as well, although not to be eaten together.



Before boiling the runner beans they have to be stringed and oddly there was something therapeutic about stringing the runner beans and I just couldn't get enough of stringing them. It took me no time at all and I had the whole basket of runner beans stringed and ready for boiling. Mind you, there weren't much to pick tonight because we normally get a lot more than that.



So there you go, one of the joys of summer, runner beans and they taste absolutely d-d-d-deeelicious !!