Soaking up the sun

I've just come back from my hols in Tenerife.  
It was a very last minute affair because we were so fed up with the prolonged winter over here (and it's no better now - just had a hailstorm!)
We had a great time with temperatures in the late 20s and even early 30s, which is a bit too hot for me, but there were plenty of parasols and palm trees round the hotel pool so I was quite happy.

Now I need to catch up on all my favourite blogs!

Puppy love

We visited some friends yesterday who'd just had two litters of Beagle pups.
There were five in this litter and are a week old.  It was hard getting a good photo because they were moving about so much

Their wagging tails are just a blurr

This one is fair tuckered out from all the rough and tumble

Another litter were a day old and looked very peculiar with their pink snouts and closed eyes (you can just see another one in the basket at the bottom)

They also had a week old foal.  It was in the stable with his mum so the lighting wasn't very good for photos

March 2013 Photo Scavenger Hunt

Here are my photos for this month's scavenger hunt, organised by Greenthumb at Made with love

Green

Three

Bubbles

Shoes

Toys
My old dolls

A person in uniform
I hadn't got a photo for this until I was digging out my old toys and found a Beryl the Peril annual.  She was always getting into trouble, so policemen featured in a few of the stories.

A gate

Eggs

Dessert

Water

Empty
Living out in the sticks we don't have many buses, and this one was our last one of the day into town at 5pm and turns round to make the last one home at 5.30pm which explains why I was the only person on it!

A bridge

Where did the time go?

I didn't realise it's been so long since my last post.

One week passed by when I had a cold and didn't feel like doing anything, but I don't know what happened to the rest of the time!   

Winter seems to be dragging on forever with snow forecast again for tomorrow, although today we've actually had the sun shining!

There are a few hints of Spring about.  

This pussy willow is so bright and shines like silver

 

The willow is grown as a crop in some fields round here

 

A few violets are coming into flower in our little woodland

This green hellebore has petals edged in red

Remember the blouse I altered and used the belt  from another blouse to embellish it?  Well, from the leftover sleeve, I made another 'belt' and used it to decorate the back as well. 

I was also thinking of changing the buttons over with the other blouse.  This is what it would look like - only smoother, because for the photo I've just buttoned the other blouse to it and the buttons aren't spaced the same.

What do you think, should I change them or leave the blue buttons on?

Hopefully there won't be such a long gap to my next post.

February 2013 Photo Scavenger Hunt

I forgot February was such a short month and have been scrabbling round at the last minute to get some of these


Red
There's a combine 'graveyard' on a local farm where there are scores of old combines.   Here's a few red ones that were grouped together

14

A Kiss

Something Heart Shaped

A 'walking the way to health' figure on a public footpath sign

Something Found Nowhere Else

Every gravestone is going to be unique by it's very nature

Frozen

I played my trump card last month with the frozen milk which would have been ideal for this, so I'm using these icicles instead

Park Bench

Glass

I thought a stained glass window would be nice, but the church was never open when I passed, so decided to take a photo of the leaded glass window instead.  Imagine my surprise when I got up close, and could see through the window to the stained glass one on the other side of the building with the sun shining through (you'll probably have to click on this to see it properly)

Shopping Trolley

I'm clutching at straws a bit here, but before my daughter started to drive she thought this road sign was warning about runaway shopping trolleys (in fact she still insists it looks like that, but I can't see it myself)

A Shadow

Breakfast

A Bus

Parked outside Gainsborough Old Hall

Thanks to Greenthumb from Made with Love for organising the scavenger hunt.  You can see more entries here

Hawk eye and two refashions

Last year at the local ploughing festival, my husband and our neighbour were talking to someone there who had a display of birds of prey.  As they were chatting it emerged that they use them for rabbiting, and as we're snided out with rabbits, it was arranged for them to come and see if they could thin them out a bit.
They came last week but the rain was so bad, they didn't stop long.  It's a beautiful day today, so much nicer for the birds.  Here's one of them which is a Harris Hawk

They have ferrets to flush the rabbits out but I don't know how they got on because I had to go out.

~~~~~

This is one of two identical blouses I got from the charity shop for £1 each.  Well identical in all but colour, the other one is in pinks (more about that another day).
I don't think they have ever been worn and as you can see it's quite big - I think it might even be maternity wear because it's supposed to be my size.

Most of the fullness comes from beneath rows of pin tucks at the top of the front.  This wasn't just where the pin tucks ended though, the pin tucks were a sort of bib and there was a separate piece of fabric gathered onto it.  This made it very easy to unpick the gathered bit, flatten it out and restitch it on, whilst also making a vertical seam  to accommodate the spare fabric.  It then only needed a couple of darts in the back.
I didn't like the three quarter length sleeves so I shortened them and also the bottom.

I toyed with the idea of taking a collar off a plain blue blouse I haven't worn for years and attaching it to this, but then decided against it.
Apart from the bit I cut off the bottom and the sleeves, I had some other bits and bobs left over.  There was a narrow tie belt and a couple of those tabs for when the sleeves were rolled up.  It was when I took the tabs off, that I had what I thought was a brilliant idea, and it concerned the aforementioned blue blouse.
Here is said blouse (the collar's turned up because I only remembered to take a photo after I'd started on it)

It doesn't button all the way to the top and my ground breaking idea was to sew the sleeve tabs to the inside of the stand up part of the collar like so

I didn't like the sleeves because the cuffs were fastened like they do with cufflinks, but using two buttons.  This made them stick out and it was hard to get a cardi over them.  So I shortened them and used the cuffs off the other blouse to finish them off like so

I then sewed the tie belt onto the blouse in a random design 

 and the finished article looks like this

I was really pleased with it and the colour suits me, but when I showed my husband he said I looked like a nurse or I worked in a care home!

The thing is, now he's said it I can see where he's coming from.  I think it's the blue colour and maybe the cuffs, but surely not the swirly bits?

What do you think, does it look like I've just come home from a 10 hour shift on the ward?
If it does can you suggest anything to rectify it?  I've still got the sleeves left to play with.

Be honest, I don't mind if you agree with him!