Catching the Travel Bug- Dingle-Ireland

Things have been crazy busy the last few months which is why this entry is sooo late....
So last October I went to Dingle with my best friend. We stayed at Fiona's B+B  The room reminded me of an old boarding school, but it was clean and comfortable. There was a lock on the door and the owner told us the hotel was actually run by her daughter! Our journey to the hotel was longer than the actual plane ride. There is one airport in the area and everywhere else is out in the sticks!
Dingle is in one big circle and is often referred to as the Dingle Peninsula   We walked around town as we arrived in the afternoon and found most shops were actually closed and no real music starts until after 10pm!! We found an amazing Chinese restaurant to eat in.... Disclaimer- *We must have been tired as the second time we went there the food wasn't as amazing*

We found the coolest music shop that held concerts on most evenings so planned to go there the tickets were 15Euros They played traditional Irish songs and did one in Gaelic as well The shop is called Siopa Ceoil An Daingin They even had Cooney and Begley playing one night which we went to see. My phone was being poo so the pictures didn't come out too well :( . We went back in the day and the shop has the cutest assortment of trinkets and gifts all around it. Some you could by and others weren't for sale...

We met a solo traveller who took us around Dingle and we all had a fun day out checking out the Peninsular. We saw the Beehive Huts, Went to the beach... Found some hidden coves as we explored the mountains.

You know how I love my food and in Ireland they sure do make sure you get your money's worth! The portions were huge, but we found ourselves finishing the meal...One day we had 5 meals.... We had no idea how or why we ended up eating so much.... The cup featured in the larger picture. I ended up buying two as the cafe was also a pottery shop.... 

Dingle is a very peaceful little town and is out in the countryside if you enjoy long walks and beautiful scenery. I would definately go again to check out more concerts and enjoy some good food! 

Another holiday down and another great place to go back and visit even if just for a long weekend. 

Watch this space for the next installment....this one won't take 4 months to add...(she says)

IBeCheraldine =]

Catching the Travel Bug-Scotland-Edinburgh!

Hello it's me again with another instalment to the travel bug adventures!
This holiday was to Edinburgh, I went with Mother dearest as a treat for her Birthday and Mother's day present rolled into one. September 2015

We stayed in the Holiday Inn-Waterfront hotel, which the bus ride there was actually longer than the plane journey! It was a good thing there was a lot of nice scenery on the way. There was another couple on the bus going to our hotel as well. The room was spacious the beds were comfortable. The breakfast was complimentary which is one thing I always look out for when booking a hotel as it saves time in the morning having to look for a cafe. The hotel was in a very peaceful part of the town with a good parade of restaurants a stone's throw away from us.

On our first day we discovered we were right by a shopping mall! We went around it and found there were some restaurants on the top floor of which we obtained some menus to take back to the hotel and a few late open shops we mooched around. After going through the menus we decided to go back out and eat at WagaMama  The food was a little disappointing as I was expecting it to have a little more flavour.

We had already booked tickets for the bus tours which was handy as the queue was quite long to buy them! It enabled us to go on 3 different buses which took you to different sites and attractions. All tours began at Waverley Bridge which reminded us of Piccadilly Square in london as it is full of high street shops, restaurants and there was a large park as well.

On our trip we went to

The Scott Monument-All 287 steps up the monument and 287 steps back down! We don't know what inspired us to go up it, but hey You Only Live Once right?! Our legs felt like jelly after we came out and we made the mistake of sitting down! If you can walk it off people! Walk it off!!

The Museum of Childhood-We were both quite disappointed with this museum as we were expecting perhaps a few more toys and games and even some interactive things, but alas it was not to be. Most items were behind glass cases and there was a rather scary room filled with Porcelain dolls!

Our Dynamic Earth- This had a tour of the past present and possible future of the earth in different interactive levels the tour lasted a little under an hour then there was a show on space and possible alien life on planets yet to be discovered.

The Botanical Gardens- Not the best idea when you suffer from hayfever, but it's worth a wander round if you love plants and flowers. They had some beautiful sculptures in hidden places around the garden.

The Royal Yacht Britannia-  We purchased the tickets before the trip as they were at a discounted price and Mother had been raving about it for ages! This was a rather interesting tour where you had a giant mobile phone to listen to the different points of interest around the Yacht

The Leith Mill/James Pringle Shopping Outlet

-Rather Underwhelming unless you want to purchase various pieces of Scottish clothing, food or souvenirs. We were not here for long...

The Royal Mile-Central hub of most of the souvenir shops hiding a few attractions and museums along the way. We went here a few times through the trip to pick up souvenirs, we also go to watch fudge being made

Other than the breakfast in the mornings we didn't really get to sample any proper Scottish food. Mother and I weren't too keen on trying Haggis! We did get our Chinese Takeaway which delivered to the hotel! We ate out at an Italian Restaurant Giuliano's!

We missed out on going to a few museums, which we said when we go back we would visit as they did look rather interesting and it is a lovely place to visit. Where we stayed was perfect as a bus tour when by our hotel so we could catch it into town!

So that was Edinburgh keep watching out for the next holiday breakdown.

IBeCheraldine =]

Out with the old.....

Today I decided to take a sewing break and catch up on some much needed clothes shopping. I happen to have an oddly long torso with just as wide shoulders to match. Which means when buying clothes I often have to get tops a size bigger than the one I need, as well as look out for ones that go well past my hips without being dresses. Clothes tend to shrink a lot in the wash, so if I buy them longer they have shrink room.
The shoulder area is a big issue though, some clothes fit my shoulders, but then don't stretch down long enough to cover my arms. I seem to also be cursed with long arms which most shirts don't accommodate. Some stop a good 5" from my wrist, which is a pain in the butt!

I really actually hate shopping for the reason above, it's so hard to find decent clothes in the length I need them to be, without feat they will shrink to nothing in the wash. As well as the hustle and bustle in the shops. I like catching them when they just open and there are only a few shoppers about. That way I can see what I'm buying without elbowing someone to get there first!

So today after going shopping and finding a few awesome jumpers (of which I plan to buy a few more of as well as some others I noticed when leaving the store!) as well as some other essential clothes. I emptied my wardrobe and drawers, grabbed all my clothes from the washed pile and sorted through them all with the help of Mother.

There were way more clothes than that, I forgot to take a proper before shot, this was a more during the process.

The white bag is the clothes to go to the charity shop and the black bag is ones to sell to a shop that buys clothes and random accessories. We've never actually been in the shop to know for sure what they buy, but we'll find out.....

This is the bag of clothes to throw out.

This is part of the hanger collection I seem to have accumulated. There were TWO other bags full, as well as some still in my wardrobe! (never again shall I ask for the hangers when buying clothes!)

The bags of my new clothes....

All that's left to do is organise my wardrobe as Mother just placed everything in....Then I plan to cut up some fabric into large squares to make some table items...I'm thinking placemats....table runners and coasters.......

Siya'll tomorrow =D

Charmed I'm sure!

This morning I had the intentions of getting some sewing done. However today turned out differently.

In the mail I got my parcel from Karen thanks to the RATZ Swap. This months item was magnets

 How cute is that apple!!! She also sent a cool badge, which can join the ones on my bag.

 I was then called by Father to go shopping for ingredients to make his family famous (and my most favourite dessert in the world!) Sweet potato pudding!!
We went full circle around the aisles as he forgot to pick some things up, or saw he need some more..Men! My job was to peel the potatoes, grater the nutmeg..grease the tins/dishes help him check them as we have to wedge our cooker so the gas stays on! (They are coming to look at is next Tuesday..we have had this problem many times before...me thinks we should just get a new one!!)

After that I went to cut my stack of fabrics. Just a 5" strip off each piece...some I left to one side as the pattern wasn't for charm cutting! A good 40+ fabrics in the stack. Whilst making dinner I got them cut and ironed.

These are ones I have cut already in a box....Oddly I have no purple fabrics save the solid print. Very few pinks, reds and oranges...I may have to break my fabric ban to get some....you can't make a rainbow quilt with 3 out of 7 colours......

I'm think fabric bundles...if anyone knows any good sites for colour based bundles please post a link with your comment. Thanks!

A slow, but long day! I still have those strips to cut into charms..*_*

Siya'll tomorrow

Official 150th Post! Giveaway!

Hello all lovely readers, followers, bloggers...you know who you are!
In spirit of today I have decided to open my GIVEAWAY to all bloggers out there...ones I follow and comment on your blogs often....those that I email all the time...(You also know who you are)
The same rules apply only now more of you can enter. So click the link..answer the questions and good luck!
Please remember its one comment 3 answers. If you leave separate comments you will still only be entered once!

 Today I decided to make a prototype of the pouch for the GIVEAWAY.
I grabbed prints in my favourite colours and set to work. The pouch is loosely based on the Keyka Lou-Pixie Handbag, only I tweaked it a lot to fit in with being a pouch.
I added wadding instead of interfacing, no flap-instead a zip.
This will be staying with me as the zipper is messed up. I will make a brand new one for the winner as well as the other goodies.
Make note this is the second zippered pouch I've ever made so the prototype was necessary.

All fabrics for this pouch came from SurlySheep, with the exception of the striped fabric which came in a scrap bundle from FabricShoppe

The fabric and the rather stiff zipper

Right sides facing 

One zipper end looks great! The other not so much!

Candy stripe fabric

Here is that other zipper end....I must have sewn too close to the tabs as it wouldn't turn out at all...hence why I'm keeping it!

Both sides of the pouch. You know I'm not a the whole thing must match person. Although the fabric looks yellow, it is a slightly darker orange tone.

After sewing up the pouch I was sat thinking of what to do next, ways to improve the pouch and what on my list didn't involve me waiting for anything to be delivered (I'm getting some stamps/ink for my Zakka Style sewing kits found these ones as well as some others)

I actually sewed down those Polaroids on my 'Scrapbook style pages'...I had to be sure the paint was fully dry. I need to add so writing to 4 of them, sash all blocks then they will be done for now. (I need to get a better fabric pen first)

I then before dinner managed to sew up the first HST block in preparation to become some circular pillows (Fathers bright idea)

The one in the photo isn't actually sewn up, I forgot to take a picture of it done, but this is essentially how it looks (only sewn together). 1 block down 3 to go.

Well that's all from me tonight (its 10.37pm!) Siya'll tomorrow =D

Quick Dial 101!!

Today for me was a slow sewing day.
Grocery shopping always seems to take a very long time. We leave after 10 and don't get back till 1 ish! I know right!
I blame my parents. They always seem to stop somewhere for ages or totally disappear and I'm left manning the basket, so someone doesn't come along and steal our bags and shopping!

Getting back home is unpacking. My Mother signed up to Shop Scan (UK only) and each time after shopping we have to scan every bar-code so she can get points and coupons for random groceries. It applies to quite a lot of shops here actually and we can all use it and get points for shops we go into.

After shopping I opened my parcel from Lisa. We talk quite a lot and we have swapped things in the past. This swap I sent her some belt/bag buckles and she sent this awesome charm pack

I then had a look in my random charm box to count out 112 for this Charm Swap. I haven't joined one before (more so been fast enough to get in on one) so this should be fun!

Then continued on my Zakka Style sewing kits. I turned everything that need to be right side out. Then grabbed some hemming web as I was too lazy to sew them up and went to the iron.
I have four more to do. I ran out of leather cord so had to order some more..
I also need to find a stamp to embellish each kit and pincushion-before I stuff them-any website suggestions would be most welcome.

I then started work on the next step of my new project...no pictures yet sorry.

I'm sure you're wondering about the title. For our country (The UK) the number to dial for the police is 101, so they can put you through some operator system to asses which direct service you actually need.
I had to call that number this evening as my next door neighbours back garden was being broken into by some random kids. The neighbours are on holiday apparently.  Earlier we got a knock at the door from another neighbour (who we've never seen before) to say she had seen the kids running from the garden and when she went to look they had broken the gate, into the shed and she couldn't close it securely without locking herself in.
Just this evening about 9 I heard them out there and actually saw them in the garden, so I called the police (not seeing why the lady earlier hadn't called them). They actually came pretty quickly and I saw them out there assessing the damage.
They then rang the doorbell to ask me a few questions and to tell me what they had done. They both seemed rather tired which made me want to laugh, their voices were just so soft and calm.

After that excitement I got on with my blog reading. =D

P.s. How rude of blogger to tell me my spelling is wrong! I'm British so I'll spell my words the British way!

The weather...the garden and 4 posts to go!

The weather this morning looked very glum! However my mood was not!

I have a short story to tell before revealing the pictures. In April I placed an order with this shop....I ordered 2 bundles of fabric which I was told would come in separate packages. A week after ordering I received one of the packages....I waited for the other to arrive....only it never did. I contacted the store owner to see what could have happened. She told me they always get separated at the customs office and she'd keep an eye out to see if it would be sent back to her.
Moving to this month. The package still hasn't come or been sent back to her. So very kindly she offered to send me the fabrics I'd ordered again. Some prints were unavailable so I chose some new ones. She sent me the tracking number, which I used to see the progress and This morning my package came!
Neither of us have any idea what happened to the last package and why it never showed up to me or back to the store.
So here is my new fabric....no more money spent so keeping to my ban!

I'll put the fabrics onto my fabric page at the weekend so you can have a look at the prints there. I will say I got some prints from Collections and Designers such as ; Ann Kelle. Momo. Reunion. Indian Summer. Scoot. Hoo's in the Forest. LouLouThi. Peak hour. Riley Blake. Freshcut.  Circa. Dr Seuss......

As I mentioned yesterday I got some new books and sewing items to add to my growing collections

1.How to be popular-Meg Cabot. 2.Finding Violet Park-Jenny Valentine. 3. Candyfloss-Jacqueline Wilson.  4.Air head-Meg Cabot
Sewing items...hook and loop tape....glass head needles....needles with a cool case...wide hemming web...metal bobbins and  dress maker scissors.

We went out in the garden for a few hours too. Weeding and planting. I took some breaks to get some painting done on my last 'Page'

Now all to do is sew down the Polaroid frames and some sashing...

Mother needed me to make her a badge as she is having a Jubilee thing at work tomorrow(by the time you read this it will be my early hours of the morning..) so I made this

She has since pinned it to her RWB outfit top.

I also managed to get my BOM block done before the month ended

All 3 so far. This BOM started in March. You still have time to join in too.

To end this month and begin the new one a short tutorial on how I made my HSTs

1. Sew 5" by any width divisible by 5 together down both sides Right sides together.
Mark lines on each 5" increment. Sew down each side of the marked pencil line using it as a guide to place your machine foot. Do not cut the thread.
Lift the foot and move the fabric to the next line and sew. Make sure you sew both ends too.

2. Cut down each marked pencil line to get a 5" square

3. Cut diagonally through the center.
4. Then again in the opposite direction

5. Fold out your HSTs and press
6. Trim down to a 3" square.

Done 4 HST's in half the time

I hope that makes sense. If you have any questions please ask.

Well Thanks for staying with me in May! June will be even more exciting. I have a giveaway next Monday to celebrate 150 posts and some exciting new projects.
I'll be back later with my May review =D

I'm Not a Robot?...Really.....?

Is it just me or are the word verification words/jumble of letters getting much longer? Some are actual words..some have been numbers, yet all much longer than before. I've even come across some with shaded "words" and punctuation marks. I ask If you have a blog and haven't turned it off please could you do so, by following these steps...once you have done that you can go here to get the cool button.
It is very annoying to each day have to prove I'm not a robot!


So on to today. This sunny (Grrrr) morning I received two packages in the post.
One from Sarah-FairyFace Designs
I saw these on her blog and enquired about them. The one I originally wanted had gone already so she offered to make me a custom one instead. I agreed, chose the fabrics and this little pouch was created.

The next package was from Karin for the MSM Swap. She lives over in Sweden! She sent me an awesome sewing machine cover. Perfect fit for Jano. Plus some other cute little goodies, A pouch, a mini pincushion, a spool of thread, some sweets, a retractable tape measure, a postcard and some fabric.
The colours are perfect! She must have been stalking me.

You may have read Yesterday's post. I mentioned Father had called me for something.
He went out to boot fair again and came back with this

The panel pillow was not in the bag. Today I organised the fabric into piles of what it could be best used for. Either kitchen/table wares. Pillows. Backing. Bags. Other. The other was because the fabric is mini curtains with lining! What to use them for...any suggestions?
Some fabric annoyingly had sticky tape on the back of them as I assume they were fabric samples for something. The tape was a pain to peel off. So I thought you know what I'm not dealing with this. I'll cut it off and use whatever fabric is left!
The fabric in front of his feet, he cut that into 5" strips as well as a few other pieces I could spare to give him. He claims he wants to make pillows. What he really means is. "I'll cut part of it and you can do all the rest!" Um so not helpful to me. I don't want a pile of WIPs to mount up! It wouldn't be so bad if he was actually genuinely sewing the things himself.

So I put each category into bags and labelled them. Then we went to the cake shop to see if they had any large boards we could use as templates. They did, but they were more than I was willing to pay! (£7+ for the size we wanted!)

Upon returning home I brought the bags to my room and got on with some sewing therapy. I remembered to cut the bag strap using this fabric. I wanted them longer so was glad this piece was a half yard.

Then I set to finishing the bag. I got the magnets...which I didn't realise there were two different poles in the packet, cut them wrong..glued them in wrong and found out when it was too late. So now the magnets are outside if the fabric. I had to glue them down and now they are drying.

The bag is complete! So cute and the perfect size for all of my junk  necessary bag items to fit in. Next month this will be hitting the streets. Well not so much the pavement, more like my hip as I wear it. 

Tomorrow I'll possibly be backing the D16 quilt tops. I've opted for plain fabric that matches the sashing. =D