August...ing

 Hello everyone, we are just back from another get away in the van and I am pleased to say we another rain free week.  It was a bit cloudy most days but the sun came out here and there so I can't complain at that.  We visited Somerset and a lovely little CL site called Moorlands Farm, it had a lake on either side with ducks and our caravan and all the caravans (all five of them) overlooked the water so it really was a beautiful spot.  Be prepared holiday shots coming up...

Travelling We always try to see a bit of the area when we are away so we go to a different place each day, the local village was called Banwell.

We had a visit to Cheddar Gorge...

These are street views as all the scenic images are on my husbands camera.

A trip to Bath...

As we have dogs and are always outside on holiday we don't actually go in any of the tourist locations we just look from the street. It probably saves us a ton of money actually. 

This next place is Clevedon and a very windy day...

Then Axbridge where I had the best piece of vegan cheese cake...

I enjoy having a look around old churches.

Also on the list was Western supermare but I have no pictures for some reason.  In all a lovely week and a great caravan site.

Sewing I have done a few more recycling projects on charity shop £1 finds and videos to go with both.  The first was a dress that I made into a playsuit, it was not quite warm enough to wear on holiday this time but if the sun comes out this week I am wearing it.  I used Burda magazine from July last year for the pattern and had to do a bit of creative joining of pieces to make it work.

I love the look but does anyone else agree that jumpsuits and playsuits are not at all practical.

Here is the video link https://youtu.be/OjTYzgs6sXA

Then I had another dress that I bought weeks ago again off the £1 rail and once more used a bUrda magazine pattern.  This time it was from the August magazine and a top.

Here is the video link https://youtu.be/QxbOFw-SQvg

My Minerva make for this month is this skirt I love the pattern on this one...

Reading quite a few good books this month so I will do a separate post on that later, are books just better when you have more time do you think?

Baking a new york cheesecake a vegan version, quite expensive to make but I am so pleased with it.

Watching Gone for Good  a french drama and I am loving it.

Practising my Spanish but feeling I will never be a speaker as I only practise alone.

Loving the long summer days and feeling sad they will soon draw in.

Reminding myself to love all the seasons in relation to my last comment!

Feeling grateful.

Have a lovely week everyone. Take care. 

Summer Days

 Hello everyone I hope you are all having a good summer, we have just had a week in Angeles a week ago and the weather was very good.  We stayed on a lovely CL caravan site that has just six caravans and each pitch had a little garden of its own with a picnic table and an umbrella.  It really is one of the nicest sites we have stayed on and we enjoyed it so much that we have booked to return next year.  There is no guarantee that we will have the same weather but you can never know in the UK can you, you just have to book and hope for the best!   I am sharing a few places below, there  are not too many photos as I think my husband took more than me on the proper camera and I have not transferred those yet.

Here are the dogs waiting patiently for the awning to be put up ;)

A bit of the sea, a bit  choppy on this day but we did find a beautiful coastal walk.  This was at Benllach.

It was quite primitive feeling on parts of this walk and ferns everywhere, really beautiful and these pictures do not do it justice.

Here we are at Beaumaris...

This is a pub beer garden around the back, my husband nearly walked past because he said oh there is no outdoor seating in these pubs on the main street.  I said no lets look through some have court yards and how about this beauty!  It felt like we were somewhere Mediterranean.

This is  Bangor Pier...

As I mentioned the weather really held up for us, it had just started to turn on the Thursday and we came back then.  We could have had another night but a storm was coming and as any campers any know we wanted to pack away the awning while it was dry and avoid travelling back in bad weather.

Red Wharf Bay and this little one looking sheepish after trying to wolf down a jelly fish and then being sick!  Had me in a right panic he did.  He was fine, it was dead and it came out instantly, there were dead ones everywhere so we came off the beach, with three dogs it was too stressful watching what they were trying to sniff. 

Below is Moelfre where the lifeboat is, this was another beautiful coastal walk...

I was trying to get an artistic shot of the wild flowers here.

Finally a picture of the dogs having a paddle, we don't ever let them off on beaches unless it is out of season and very deserted and we only go on where allowed.  After the jelly fish incident I am  very wary too.  We were at Treadurr here...

We are off on another adventure soon, I hope you are all managing to get a bit of a break this summer.  I have caught up with  a few friends and I am off to do that again now.  I do love the summer break, take care everyone and I'll be back soon. 

 

Easy Burda Dress

 Hello everyone, I am having a busy week here getting various bits of sewing completed and altering things that have kept annoying me.  A little bit of filming for my self to just get used to doing it a bit quicker and a dress for minerva.  So I will show you the dress first, it is yellow and that is only a colour I have added this last year as I have always been cautious as to whether it would suit.  I did try mustard earlier this year so now this brighter shade.  It is Art Gallery Fabrics cotton poplin...

Now the colour looks different again in this image as you will see on the indoor photo on the mannequin.

This pattern was from Burda magazine April and it is style 104 if any of you have that copy, it is a very basic pattern and is quite roomy when made up.  It is the belt that gives it the shape I feel.  I did take the front seam in quite a bit as the the v was very low on me.  Anyway if you want a very quick forgiving make this is the one, I did add bands to the bottom of the sleeve as a bit of detail and also because my fabric was not quite wide enough for the pieces.  This is because they are grown on sleeves so your pieces take up more space and are harder to reposition on fabric. 

Next up  I have two sets of shorts pyjamas that have camisole tops, well every time I wear them I think they are too big across the front as they end up twisting around me.  So first they needed taking in, tick that off my list.  Then was a pair of jeans shorts I cut down years ago, they have been worn a l lot and got a stain on a few years ago and I did a design with fabric pens back then.  My husband has never really like the back of them as they have not pockets and they are a bit plain. As I have been wearing them more in the warm weather I thought I would add pockets.  For the denim I used the wrong side of a scrap I had as it was closer to the faded colour, then made the pockets and stitched them on.  They do look better with a bit of detail to the back. 

Probably not the clearest of images but you get the idea.

Out in the garden I have been collecting seed pods again, and yes some things are making seeds already and I find it very exciting to go and collect them.  I label them all up in little packets ready for next year and give a few to friends.  It is quite funny that the image below looks like there a re seeds all over the worktop, the aren't ,it is just my worktop.

Any plants that I am not sure of I photograph with the app Plant Net and it gives you names, this came in very useful as we were on holiday and there was this shrub in the public garden next to the railway that had a couple of seed pods about to drop on the path.  I collected them and brought them home, a bit of digging states it can be grown from seed so we will see. 

In other random news I have started the muse by Jessie Burton and I am enjoying it, I seem to recall I started this before and got fed up which just goes to show that maybe it all depends on my state of being or the free time I have whether or not I enjoy a book.  Also on this subject there are books I read years ago that I loved and now think how ever did I think they were good?? We are changing all the time I suppose so of course our tastes will change.

What are you all up to? Enjoying the sun here in the UK or elsewhere, or staying indoors? Where ever you are I hope you have a good time, back soon.