Autumness

Autumn, it is my favourite, the Season comes in slowly and i just find the colours of Autumn beautiful. A real delight of deep blends and ever changing into something new and crisp. 

When lying in bed we look out onto trees and it makes my heart skip to watch them change, delighting in them over every Season, the growing of Spring, the joy of Summer burst, the leaving of Autumn and the frost of Winter. It's ever changing just like the month of Autumn.

With that brings clarity, Autumn is a time when i begin to retreat, this year has felt a 'retreated' year, however a lot is happening in the Austin household right now and it feels fitting with the Autumnal season. With that i have been getting my Autumn on and doing lots of enjoyable seasonal embracing. 

We got back from our holidays and instantly chutney and jam making was on the cards. Our neighbour had given us a Rhubarb crown when we first moved in, this had been down the bottom of the garden but it wasn't doing much, so i moved it into a pot and placed it at the top of the garden, it went wild and lovely red rhubarb stalks began sprouting everywhere, every time i went out i eeked with smiles at the tasty jam it was going to turn into. 

I had made rhubarb jam last year and failed miserably so i waited for Sam's Auntie to come and stay and she helped me. Finding my faithful Marguerite Patten book from the pantry we delved in. This book is great and was a Christmas gift from my Mum and Ron a few years ago, it's basically the main book i use and there are so many variations of simple jams and chutneys, it's an old trusty. Strangely when Sam's Auntie showed me her book she used it was an older version of this one, coincidence? that just proved how trusty it was. 

We threw all the ingredients in and watched it bubble up nicely, waiting for it to get to the correct temperature then doing some special test on a plate to see if it had set. I havent took any pictures of the making of it as our kitchen is not the dream (next year, eek) but for now it's about the descriptions. My thermometer doesn't reach the exact temp and i think this is what happened last year, i over boiled it. woops! Anyway this year i didn't and i got a nice haul of jam, i have already given some out, smashed one, doh and enjoying the tastes myself, toast and rhubarb jam with a steamy cup of tea, yes please.

I also made some chutneys, i do this every year them give them out at Christmas for gifts to friends and family for cheese and nibbles over the festive period. This year i made apple and elderberry, both hauled from the garden and blackberry bramble, hauled from our local golf course, i also made some spicy apple, my favourite, it has mixed spice in and is so Christmassy, sadly i cheated with this and used some left over apples bought from the shop. 

I have been crafting also, i decided my mantel needed a new garland as the Spring one went into Summer. I had decided i wanted to make an Autumnal leaf garland so started looking through my many craft books and found some lovely little ideas in this one. 

It has a number of gorgeous crochet and knit leaves and flowers in and the designs are simple and easy to follow. I have lots of acorns dotted around the house so made the decision i wasn't going to have acorns in the garland, however i knew i wanted oak leaves in and maple leaves, then some normal leaves. The garland has been up and down and taken on a number of different designs. Firstly i just made the leaves as they were, however then decided they were too dark and didn't give me the excited heart beat i wanted. I then decided to outline them...

However when i outline them, they kind of lost their shape, so down they came again and i decided to attempt to make the stem/veins of the leaf, aha, this is when i started to smile and feel that burst of yes, this is what i wanted. 

I have to admit it's not exactly what i wanted and some of the leafs don't look how i hoped however it will do and it's been complimented lots so i think i maybe need to stop being my worst critic and enjoy this bit of Autumn. 

Up or down, i am still deciding if it should just hang or be pulled up in the middle, hmm. 

I also made a little pumpkin hat for a friend at work who left to have her little girl this week. I forgot to take a photo but have stolen this of her blog 2mermaidz where Sarah writes about the lifes and adventures of her and her girl gang. 

Pumpkin season came upon us and we decided to rummage the pumkin piles in the supermarket for the best green one's, as they have the most flavour i am told. We found two good sizes and decided to put one in the porch for Halloween and eat up the 2nd.

My favourite curry is pumpkin curry, i remember days in Burma and Sri Lanka when i ate it at every possible opportunity and just knew i needed those tastes in my mouth again. Sam set himself away and boy he didn't disappoint. We looked through our many cook books and found a recipe however the ingredients were too wild so he looked online and found this one http://www.mysrilankanrecipe.com/roasted-coconut-pumpkin-curry/ ~ we enjoyed it so much we had it again on the Saturday. 

We were so happy to have pumpkin in our mouths again we have decided to build a patch in the garden to attempt to grow some for next year. This excites me muchly. 

We have been out as much as possible, enjoying some of our favourite spots - mostly the woods in Autumn, the light and colour is gorgeous and there are so many good smells for Socksy. 

I follow two blogs which i love and have been inspired to embrace the seasons more through the crafts and creations on their posts - go enjoy Lucy at Attic24 and Gillian at Tales from a happy house and marvel in their wonders and delights. 

Project Van Life pt3

We had a really good weekend in the van this weekend, Sam has been working like a trooper as i haven't been well enough to be in there, however this weekend i found the energy to get outside and really help out and it felt great. Sam has been working on the electrics, he seem's to read about it day and night and this weekend we started to wire everything up (i will do another blog about electrics). I got on with insulating using the loft roll as mentioned in Van Life pt2 ~  https http://claire-yvonne.blogspot.com/2017/02/project-van-life-pt2.html and started to make templates for the ply that will cover the insulation. 

I also started working on the ceiling, Sam had started it but it needed to be finished and it was a job i could do, (electrics i wasn't going near), the panels on the ceiling were actually going to be used on the floor, however we decided there were too femur and felt they would bring some more light and colour to the van if we put them up top. A friend of ours owns the http://welovewood.org/ wood recyling yard and we were in love with these as soon as we saw them, loaded in the car, home they came and onto the van they were drilled. 

Socks even came out and visited us, she normally looks at the van then pootles off but this time she took her time and jumped on in, we were so happy, she took a good sniff around, posed for some photos and looked out the windows. 

Next stage is more of the ply boarding going up, finish electrics then we will start building the frames for the furniture. We know the layout so it's just starting to build.

Crochet Granny Square Blanket

Well it's finally complete, it's been in the making for years and i am so pleased with the end piece, the blanket started when i learnt to crochet just before heading off travelling, i started with a granny square and managed to pick it up easier then i thought. 

When heading off on our 2014 adventure i decided i wanted to still use my hands to craft and felt knitting maybe a bit too much effort so i thought with my hook and a few balls of yarn i could crochet squares in order to make a blanket. So with that.. the blanket started, the yarn was purchased and my crochet addiction started. I crocheted a number of squares when in the Himalayan mountains, the snow capped peaks and the colder air was a perfect place and even better i managed to buy more yarn from local women knitting on the street, I sent a number of squares home, a mish mash of colours, i soon realised there was no colour scheme to this blanket but a whirlwind of tones. 

When i arrived home i looked over my squares and realised there was a number with a brown edging so felt this would work as an outline, i then purchased more yarn to match the colours already crocheted and started to build on my squares. I will admit though my knitting did take over and the squares became nestled in a bag in the corner of the living room. 

I met a new friend last year and my crochet love came back, i started to bring my squares out again and started to see them grow. With buying our van i thought the blanket would be a treat for in there, so instead of the blanket being a work in progress it became the main project and i found myself crocheting away again, my squares building up and the blanket becoming more alive. 

In total i crocheted 143 squares, i must admit they werent all the same size but when i started to join the blanket together it didn't matter, it just felt it made the journey of the blanket and my crochet learning was there in front of me, the good squares and the not so great ones. I wasnt sure on a border so asked some friends and the consensus came back as navy being a strong contender, i decided to go with this and was really pleased with the match, i crocheted the edge carrying on with the treble crochet granny square, i did three rounds and felt that was enough, i was dying for it to come to an end to enjoy it's beauty. 

I am so pleased with the end result and feel the colours work great, it's going to be an ace van blanket and i am already planning another for the house. 

Project Van Life pt2

We have been back out on the van again, Sam has taken on more of the role with me, due to a lot of work being a one man job and i feel i am just getting in the way, however as Sam stated i am crafting for the interior of the van so i am still working, this made me feel more comfortable about sitting watching grey's anatomy whilst crocheting. 

We are still insulating, it's a long and boring job and has many many layers, in my last blog post here http://claire-yvonne.blogspot.com/2016/10/project-van-life.html we started cleaning and prepping the van, if that was not boring then insulating has definitely taken over, we had to first add the outer insulation, we used thermal wrap (Wickes) which was placed on the inside of all the van, celing, walls, floor, we also placed some in the front cab and placed an old yoga mat on tap for a bit extra comfort (before we place the carpet down), we stuck it all down with high temperature adhesive (amazon), which stank and was super strong, we had to cut set lengths to fit around the wheel base (inside the van) and inside certain compartments along the edges. 

Sam then added the framing using timber, the framing will hold the ply, we then started placing space loft roll (Wickes) on top of the thermal roll to pad it out and ensure the heat is kept in good and proper for when the ply goes on top. We used a spray adhesive to start sticking the space loft roll on, however some will just be placed behind the ply walls, this weekend will be more insulating and hopefully the walls will start being placed. 

As for whats happening inside the house, i started crocheting squares a few years back, i decided when travelling in 2014 it would be a good thing to learn and allow my hands to keep crafting, the blanket has been a slow process, however i decided it would be a great van blanket so i have now started focusing more on it rather then it being a 'work in progress' ~ so here it is just a few snaps as a taster. My idea is the crochet squares with the brown outside will be the outer layer then a mad mixture of colours in the middle, there is no order to this blanket, it's been made by so many different wool's in so many different countries that it literally will be a mixture of madness, however it will be treasured as it will be my first crochet masterpiece. 

Project Van Life

So for those of you who didn't see our sneaky instagram posts a few months back, we got lucky and my cousin sold us his van, she's a beast, massive to say the least, a big tall lass. Its been a dream for some time to renovate and create our own camper and we are now in the process of being able to spend time working out where and how we begin, well we started....

Boards down, cleaning begins, design planning!

Windows are being fitted Monday then it's insulating and frame fitting...