I Did it!

I took Benji dog for his early morning walk today and visited one of my favourite benches just so that I could soak up the view. Here is the bench. ( and the dog )

Across Cardigan bay towards Harlech

And here is the view

Criccieth Castle

It’s wonderful to have time to stand and stare ( or sit). This place is awesome and even better on such a lovely day . The temperature actually hit 30 degrees so it is super warm.

Later in the day I went swimming in this lovely sea off Criccieth beach. This has taken a lot of courage following a bad swimming experience in St Lucia with a rip tide and bi lateral hip replacements. But I DID IT!

So the sea is now my oyster so to speak. Guess what? I’m going again tomorrow but to a different beach Yippee!

I’ve also been preparing for future cruises. This involves making all projects into kit form. Quite a challenge and taking a lot of fore thought. Today I wound 30 lots of sewing threads onto cardboard cut outs. I think I might get repetitive strain injury but it was a good sitting down activity.

Here is a “secret” ingredient for one of the projects. All will be revealed eventually!

A sewing project? Really?

Cruise prep Beads!

I’m still beavering away prepping my next craft cruise. Only ten days to go Whoo Hoo!This class is making a bracelet using beads and safety pins As with most beading it can be fiddly but great when finished.

Guess where I went wrong? Aww well! Practice makes perfect.

Hubs Benji dog and I spent a fabulous few days at our caravan on the Lynn Peninsular . Today was one for the forever memory banks.

Cruise craft prep

I’ve been working hard prepping for my next crafty cruise which is just over two weeks away. This is a four week cruise so there has been a lot of work preparing all the craft projects. I think I’ve got an interesting mix of stitching, printing, up cycling and modelling. Today’s prep project involved Lush upcycled pots and pin cushions.

I did find time to walk the dog and enjoy the autumn sunshine

Don’t Tell Anyone it’s a secret!

The weather today was gorgeous so we took Benji dog to one of the ( many ) beautiful locations in Wales.

We walked from the beach cafe through the kissing gate

I love this kissing gate with the automatic closing mechanism (stone!)

We then passed the 5th century mini church built into the sand dunes for fishermen. Apparently they used the alter rails to hang their fishing nets many centuries ago

Not far along the sand dunes we reached the river estuary. As it was low tide we walked along the beach and Benji enjoyed a dip in the sea.

All this with the backdrop of Snowdonia National Park. Bliss.

The church is Saint Tanwg’s church

The name of the little village is Llandanwg and lies just beyond Harlech beach and castle. Don’t tell too many folk as I want to keep it between you and me!

When is a weed not a weed?

Here in the beautiful Clwydian hills the hedgerows are full of colour. There are so many plants in bloom, going to seed and looking pretty. These weeds are a delight and blooming marvellous!

Weeds are just plants in the wrong place according to one definition. These weeds sorry plants are definitely in the right place.

Heat Wave

We are very lucky to own a caravan in Criccieth at the top of the Llyn Peninsula. The weather these last few weeks has been fantastic. Hot hot hot. So unlike Welsh weather. The area just keeps on giving as we explore more and more. We recently discovered Llandanwg Beach. This beach is squashed between Harlech and Shell island and is just perfect

Behind the beach and within the sand dunes is a tiny medieval church. Built, I suppose, by fishermen many hundreds of years ago. The church is still in use but sadly was locked so I couldn’t get inside.The supporting wall behind the sand dunes is constructed from ancient tomb stones from before 1600. There was a church on this site before 800 and was supposedly built to convert the Welsh to Christianity.

Rainy Day Activity

Welsh Wales weather can be very wet! However, on our recent seaside break in Llanbedrog it wasn’t too bad. We had a few nice beach days and a few variable days. To fill in a dull morning Step Grandaughter and I attempted some block printing. I’d gone well prepared with fabric paint, print blocks and linen tea towels. ( all left from my recent craft cruise)

As usual Benji dog wanted to play as well!Step Grand daughter did amazingly well. She is patient and plans carefully. We were both delighted with the result and great plans are afoot for teachers’ Christmas gifts!

Hello Boudicca

I recently enjoyed a “crafty cruise” on board Fred Olsen’s MS Boudicca. It wasn’t all crafts just that I was teaching crafts on board. I was also craft hunting at every port of call and every opportunity. I think that I might need therapy for this craft and stash obsession! Please note that two of the three suitcases were full of craft kit equipment!

Poor Benji dog couldn’t understand that he wasn’t going with me. He stayed at home and enjoyed quality time with Hubs.

Back to the ship. A small but perfectly formed ship that was able to nose her way into many of the Scottish Lochs. We were only away a week but packed a lot into the very interesting itinerary.

Itinerary 

Liverpool

Tarbert Loch Fyne

Tobermory Isle of Mull

Fort William

Ullapool

Kirkwall Orkney

Invergordon

Liverpool

It was great sailing out of Liverpool as this is not too far from home. It was a little like getting a bus! I will tell you more about the ports of call and our craftiness soon.

Always Busy!

As I mentioned in my previous post I have been very busy crafting, thinking about crafting and buying crafting items. This is because I am off on another crafty cruise in July. It’s not an exotic destination but very exciting. I am going from Liverpool, up the West coast of Scotland into the sea Lochs and round the top of Scotland to Orkney. This is very interesting and an adventure to look forward to. Because we want to do another road trip in Damnvan1 before I go I need to leave all the craft projects sorted and packed. Phew!

And there’s always Benji dog to walk.

Last night I was invited to my local WI who were having a craft taster evening, to demonstrate decoupage.

I demonstrated how to decoupage a photo frame . I chose to use a map of Scotland and a photograph of a Scottish mountain. This is just one of the projects that I will be demonstrating on my future Scottish cruise.

I’m Sorry!

I’m  so sorry not to have found the time to blog for a few weeks but I have been soooo busy. A poor excuse I know!

We have been on a road trip in Damnvan1 to the Lake District, Cumbria. It was cold, sunny, windy, clear, crisp and fun. We walked, talked, drank wine, ate too much and had fun! We struggled to take down our pop up tent ( Where Benji dog sleeps) and I’m sorry I didn’t film our hilarious efforts for YouTube. We travelled to the Yorkshire Dales which were awash with Bluebells, we had picnics, and scoured charity shops, we watched old DVDs and had fun.

I have also been having much fun crafting! More about that next time!