Craft, the seaside and the house renovation project….

Firstly, this blog at the moment seems like a monthly catch up of what I have been doing - and to some extent it is. My blog is a reminder to me about things that I have done and places I have been, and its lovely that so many people pop by to see what I have been up to. Over the last few months a lot of my time has been taken up with the house renovation project, which has meant that I have not had so much time for other things, but once we have moved (in a few months time) hopefully things will get back to a more even keel.

The playmat I have been making for my nephew and his partner for their new baby, became a rush job, as their little girl was born three weeks early!! I have seen lovely photos of the baby, and we will go and visit over the Easter holidays.

Once the centre blocks were made and a border added, I had to cut 80 smaller squares for the outside border! More about this quilt will be in another post and the grand ta-dah!

During the last month J and I also went to look after his mum for a while, whilst his sister and her husband were on holiday. They live close to the sea near Seaham on the NE coast of England, so each evening I was able to take Beanie for a walk along the beach. 

me and my dog!

Seaham, amongst other things, is famous for its glass making history. In 1853 the Cavendish Bottleworks and glass foundry was built on the cliffs at Seaham. It made all sorts of coloured glass for vases, homeware, medicine and poison bottles! as well as everyday drinks and milk bottles. At the end of each day any excess molten glass and any broken glass was thrown over the cliffs into the sea. 

The glass in the sea was then tumbled and smoothed by the waves, creating smooth frosted pebbles of glass which wash up on the coast. The Bottleworks closed in 1921 and was later demolished in the 1950's - so any glass found has quite a history.

It can get very addictive, walking along the beach looking at the sand and picking up small pieces of glass! Poor Beanie, I think he got a little bored as I wasn't really giving him much attention. Above is my little haul of glass pebbles and some interesting stones! below are the most interesting glass pebbles made from blue and green glass…...

……. especially the multi coloured piece with the different shades of green!

My niece bought her children around to see us while we were there. I made some cakes and had a little helper to decorate the cakes for us. Mmmmm, yummy!

The house project is going well! The windows and doors are on order, and now building work is moving from the new extension to the old part of the house. I'm trying to finalise our ideas on some of the interior fittings - so many decisions to make!!!!

Hope you had a lovely Easter break

More old glass bottles found

We were up at the house renovation project again over these past few days, making the most of the lovely weather. We are mainly working in the garden at the moment before the building work begins. J has been digging a trench along the back of the garden so that we can build a little retaining wall - I have been shifting all the rubble that has come out of the trench! Anyway, this area at the bottom of the garden has obviously been a dumping ground for all sorts of things and we have found several more old bottles. 

You may remember me talking about a find last year - a small bottle with 'Crosby's Balsamic Cough Elixir' on the side

Now we have added a few new ones to the collection - I'm still trying to get the dirt and stains out of the bottles. We had to throw away quite a few that were cracked or broken, but a couple of the ones below are quite interesting.

This is a beer bottle that came from Iredale's High Brewery in Carlisle. The Brewery started in 1876 and was in existence for 50 years and produced a Pale Ale. The Brewery was beside the railway and apparently had its own sidings for bringing in coal and hops. I found this out by reading a review of a book called 'Carlisle Breweries and Public Houses1894 - 1916' written by Steven Davidson. I may investigate this bottle further when I have more time.

The next bottle is tiny, only 5cm high and 2cm across and has 'Roger and Gallet Paris' on the side. It looks as if it is a little bottle for perfume and may have been one of a sample pack with different scents. I found a little about the company here and  here

This bottle, I suppose is a medicine bottle of some sort as it has table spoon markings along the side - I wonder what was inside???

I can't find out much about this one, but it has me intrigued. 

 I wonder if we will find any more as we still have a way to dig along the fence?

Renovation projects

There are two projects going on in my life at the moment - both connected I guess. The first is that I am finally getting my head around crochet - with inspiration and help from Lucy I have overcome my fear and now have the confidence to have a go. I started with a basic granny square and am now able to add different colour yarns and have even tried a bit of a circular centre before making a square. 

The main reason for wanting to get my head around crochet is connected to our other big project - the house renovation - I need some crafty 'thing' that I can pick up and put down again quite easily. Something that is easy to transport and needs no specialist equipment, so that when I have spare time I can make a square or two. 

At the moment I'm just experimenting and playing with the yarn and really enjoying myself. I will move on to trying out different patterns - but eventually I will be making a blanket for our new house. Quite exciting really!!

Now, the renovation project is in a different league! We are extending and renovating a two bedroom red sandstone house with flat roof extensions into …..

a three bedroom house with a lovely new kitchen and family room extension :-)

The internal work has begun with J doing all the work and me helping where I can. He is stripping out the old house and all the plaster from the walls, and 'we' have found quite a few blocked up doors, windows and fireplaces and are now beginning to be able to read the history of the house.

It is very hard and dirty work, but it will be much easier for the builder to see the skeleton of the house rather than wonder what might be lurking!

J recently celebrated his birthday and I just couldn't resist this card - I just changed the names on the card before I gave it to him - he thought it was so funny!!!

I will give updates every now and then with both the house and the crochet. If you have any easy crochet patterns for me to try please let me know.

Have a happy weekend