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Sharing a good thing…

Published on June 12, 2016June 12, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin5 Comments

How Kind!

Thank you to Eleanor over at Harebells crochet for the nomination.

I love playing a very tiny part in such a BIG community of bloggers and am always amazed and humbled that even one person bothers to read what I type. So to be nominated for such makes me both smile and blush! The award comes with a few guidelines and in the true spirit of

‘Love is something if you give it away’

‘sharing a good thing’

‘pass the blessing on’ etc, etc…

The rules for the Creative Blogger Award are:

Thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog….. (tick)

Share five facts about yourself…..(tick)

Nominate other bloggers and add their links…..(tick)

Notify the bloggers you included…..(tick)Keep the rules in your post….(tick)

So, my 5 facts are:

1.

just had to stop the car the other day for this cheeky chappy!

These are my absolute favourite animals…Alpaca’s! The yarn is divine and when my middle little Robin was very, very little he called them ‘naccapaccas’. We still use that word for them now.

2.

100 patch granny

I am addicted to coffee, I just love to have a cup close at all points of the morning.

3.

I rely on hope, at all times and in all circumstances it is hope that drives my soul.

4.

already a firm favourite!

I love a lazy afternoon, I don’t get many, but they are perhaps my most favourite thing… a lovely cosy blanket, snuggled up with my family, a cup of coffee, a hook and some yarn…bliss!

5.

According to the internet, my bakery name is ‘Sweet Brownie Patisserie’

Nominations

So time to share this good thing… My nominations for ‘creative blogger’ are:

Stefanie over at Wooly cakes and wooden spoons

(because I love her attitude and more recently her awesome podcasts)

Lundy Girl over at Could do worse

(because I love her posts about her allotment and wordless Wednesday’s also)

and Anna over at Boys and Chickens

(because I love the honesty of her writing about the everyday)

These are really great reads.

xxxxx

Feeling Chuft!

Published on June 4, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin7 Comments

Wow! Another whirlwind week, which marks the start of the final Semester of my Health Visiting course. Feeling a little daunted about moving teams and having my own caseload of 100 children; in true ‘yarnyrobin’ fashion I created my fellow student Health Visitees a little crafty survival pack for their Semester 3 journey!

WP_20160602_20_31_48_Pro — The list of contents needed for Semester 3 survival!

WP_20160602_20_31_19_Pro — All packaged in a pretty little box

perfect to keep on an office desk

I think the girls liked them!

A special shout out to them here is also needed as yesterday we all passed our nurse prescribing exam (feeling chuft!).

I also need to thank Eleanor over at Harebells crochet for nominating me for the creative bloggers award. Thank you for the nomination, I will get round to posting about that later in the week….promise.

xxxxx

South African yarniness…

Published on May 30, 2016May 30, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin8 Comments

I am soooo super excited to share this post with you. I love reading other blogs some crochet related, some not. Exploring new blogs within the community is never dull, but I also have my firm favourites which are always a good read and I look forward to their posts and what they have to say.

One of those firm favourites is written by Joey over at littleblackdogsa who recently celebrated her 4th fantastic year of blogging with a give-a-way. Here comes the exciting bit…

I WON! Yes….. I won!

I received an email a few weeks ago from Joey letting me know I had won, right in the middle of a ‘research and specialist inquiry’ lecture. Which incidentally was soooo tediously uninteresting, that when I read the email congratulating me on my win, I was so surprised that a rather loud gasp escaped into the classroom….ooops! Needless to say I did not listen to the rest of the lecture, but instead ruminated what I may hook with the yarn I had won.

I have waited very patiently since, and then just yesterday I came home to a wonderful parcel which had made it’s way from South Africa…Isn’t this yarn simply stunning.

simply gorgeous

it is super soft

I can’t wait to hook with this yarn and create a beautiful something or other….I’m still undecided as to what to hook, but I will be blogging about whatever it is for sure.

So if you have a spare couple of moments and want a really good read, pop over to South Africa and visit Joey.

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH JOEY!

xxxxx

Down but not out….

Published on May 21, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin11 Comments

You lovelies who read my blog regularly will probably have noticed that I am not producing so much hookiness of late. You will also know that I am up to my eyes in assignments, exams, placements and juggling the family.

InstagramCapture_b1e1474d-aadc-4596-9ef3-9d5bcd71e7d0 — I’m still working on this… but it is a slow burn…

Phototastic-09_04_2016_a56ef296-d285-45bd-980f-48a6872e825b — This has been relegated into the ‘ I will start it again in Autumn’ pile

It has really bothered me lately that my hook is not frantically producing crochet lovliness at the rate I was before and if I’m honest it has got me feeling a bit blue. Admiring other hookers (you know what I mean!) being so efficiently productive caused me to ponder if I should continue my blog… after all this space is predominantly for such hooky show offing and if I haven’t got it to show off…. then what should I do? And then I came across this

I love this little space that I get to write in.

I love this little space because it links me to communities and wonderful people…just like you all across the world.

I love this little space even if no one visits or presses like because it’s mine, because this space celebrates my journey.

So I’m not out…I’m just slower!

xxxxx

Crowning glory

Published on May 15, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin4 Comments

It seems that I am busier than ever before which makes any spare time very precious. So as the sun has chosen to shine for a brief couple of days (Seriously…this could be the sum total of the British summer time!!!) I have chosen to spend my time outdoors and make the most of it.

WP_20160505_17_10_01_Pro — Dining al fresco in the garden

The warmth of the sunshine has caused an explosion of foliage and weeds! So I cleared a patch of rogue nettles in the growing garden and rediscovered a little hosta…

WP_20160508_17_47_48_Pro — Can you see it at the back…it is tiny!

Mr. R dug up the blackberry and raspberry bushes which quite frankly were looking very ugly. I have pondered their removal for some time, but sometimes you just have to cut your losses. Their fruit bearing has been lousy and that’s a polite way of putting it!

WP_20160508_17_48_04_Pro — So we have a blank canvas of a flower bed which is going to include Jasmine

Talking of losses, we lost our last chicken this week…sad news! We have decided not to replace them, so the chicken run has been dismantled and we are deciding what to do with this space.

I also made a return to bluebell wood, and was met with this utter spectacle…

And I just had to stop the car to photograph the present crowning glory of the British countryside…

Fields of just WOW!!

All this colour led me to the garden centre

in pursuit of summer annuals for my kitchen window box

a sweet pea tipee

and a little bit of something yummy…

lettuce and spring onions

so not much crochet time, but I did get half an hour in this morning

Have a great week.

xxxxx

Bluebells, bulldog and crochet…

Published on May 2, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin3 Comments

Well lets start with the bluebells shall we! It is fair to say that the weather around these parts has been bizarre. We have literally had four seasons in a few hours. Rain, followed by blue spring skies and then a few moments later hail or snow and thunder. This is what fell from the sky during little ones football training

It was absolutely freezing needless to say, and totally out of the blue, as the start of the training session had been sunny. Any way, I promised you bluebells, which the crazy weather does not seem to have hindered. Here they are…

These little delicate flowers make my heart very happy and I just love climbing to the top of the hill, where the tall trees stand grandly, graciously carpeted beneath with this blue hue of lovliness.

starting the climb to bluebell wood

the grand trees — the grand trees leading to bluebell wood

emerging out of bluebell wood

Once through the wood and out the other side, the boys played and climbed and we took the long path back to the van. Stopping only to watch a kestrel hunt and to watch miss Jess and a rather handsome springer run rings around each other….oh and to play a game of bulldog. Of which I do not have any photos as in the first instance I was too mesmerised, in the second instance miss Jess was way to fast for me to photograph and lastly an out of breath me isn’t for photographing!

So to the crochet…

mostly hooked at the skate park, whilst the not so little Robin practised ‘jumping the box’ and ‘airs’ on his bmx.

xxxxx

Linen cherry baby bar blanket

Published on April 30, 2016April 30, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin9 Comments

I have had such a lovely slow Saturday; a stark contrast from recent weekends which have been so hectic with essays and research.

I’ve played with colour ways finally deciding upon this colour way I’ve called ‘cherry stripe’. The yarn being Drops Paris 100% cotton in:

green

rusty red

light old pink

dark beige

off white and

moss green

Then I hit you tube to learn a new stitch and opted for ‘linen stitch’. It is actually a very simple double crochet (single crochet), chain stitch combo. I like it because it hooks quickly, is economical with yardage, gives a lovely solid reversible fabric and is just perfect for my new baby blanket design…’Linen cherry baby bar blanket’.

So, that’s a sneeky peek, I’m off to hook some more.

xxxxx

Looking for the lovliness…

Published on April 24, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin7 Comments

Well, I’m sorry for my noted absence, there are just two weeks left until exam and essay deadlines and to be truthful I’m worried that one of the boys might fall into the laundry pile and never be seen again!

I’m shattered and busy, busy, busy… my mind has many yarny creations whizzing around and I really need some colour therapy, but I feel overwhelmed and hence my hook has fallen silent (temporarily). So to keep my creative mind sane I have been looking for the lovliness that surrounds me daily… and taking photo’s…this is April.

A birthday breakfast

WP_20160412_10_53_31_Pro — elevenses with my Mom and Dad.

A heart from Mr R

A coffee made with a whistle always reminds me of Gran

A lovely present from a friend

Alf in his favourite puddle... — Alf in his favourite puddle…

Rhubarb sprouting

hellebore raising its head

WP_20160423_14_10_19_Pro — clematis budding

WP_20160423_14_07_32_Pro — climbing clematis well…climbing!

Spring is here sort of... — Spring is here sort of…

It was warm enough yesterday for the first cuppa out in the garden

but today it has been cold, so these tulips brought the spring inside

But mostly these lovelies have been the loveliest…

the Robins xx

xxxxx

Contagious creativity…

Published on April 11, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin2 Comments

Where did that week go!

Published on April 10, 2016 by Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin5 Comments

Well where did that last week go to?

With only about 8 waking hours left of the spring break, to cram in as much fun as possible…I will leave you with some photo’s which capture my week.

Hope you a had a good week

xxxxx