Rocking Your World 2016; Week 11

I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again, but "Don't these weeks just fly by?" I can't believe it is Friday again, but Friday means one thing - time to look back at all the positives of the week, and share them with you.

My big smile for this week was delivered by the post-lady yesterday morning. I came home from my sewing group to find what looked like two fat, plastic cushions waiting for me. And inside them were two organza bags filled with big balls of wool, in lots of yummy colours. Yes it was my latest order from Wool Warehouse. I have to say they are a super company to deal with. I love the way they pack their wool, and their service is excellent. I ordered on Tuesday 3rd at bedtime, and woke up to find a message to say my order had been dispatched. And one week later, it has arrived here in Spain, which is pretty good going by anyone's standards.

You probably think I am making quite a fuss about some fairly ordinary wool, but out here wool is not so good. It is mainly very thick, or very thin, and there is nothing that is equivalent to the Double Knitting yarn I am used to. Also the colours are very limited. And as I love colour, and enjoy  making my bright crocheted blankets etc, this little lot has set me up nicely for the next few months.

When I get a delivery of this type, I start by making myself a colour chart, because the colour names are written on the paper band around each ball, so once you have started using it, you have lost its name.

Some of these are more balls of the colours used in my sunny log cabin blanket that I finished last month, but I have added several new ones as well.

I have started on a new project which is to make a square called Sophie's Universe. Some of you may have seen it on the internet. A few years ago the designer, Dedri Ulys, released the pattern for a small circular motif called Sophie's mandala. Later she expanded it to make a large mandala called Sophie's Garden, and then she turned it into a square called Sophie's Universe, and that is what I am attempting to make. Her pattern gives good, clear instructions, supported by lots of photos, and I am managing to follow it so far. The wool in the box above is the colour selection for this project.

Here I have just started round 14, and now I have finished round 15, (which is somewhere between the mandala and the garden!), but looking on through the pattern, the later rounds are much more complicated. I am just hoping they will make sense when I come to do them. There are 36 rounds in the completed square, so it is hard to tell what size it will be, which means I have no idea how many I will have to make to form a blanket, but I am excited to be trying it, as the pattern has sat in my files for ages, waiting for me to be inspired to give it a go.

The week started with lots of smiles as I had long messages and skype chats with all our boys for Mother's Day. As one of them said, "It is not the same as being able to pop in to see you" but it is the next best thing.

We have had some very positive moments and the good feeling that comes from finally getting something done. This week, that included us both passing medicals so we can change our British driving licenses to Spanish ones. We also sent off the applications for new passports as ours expire in June. Today Chris had his visit to the hospital to see the anesthetist who confirmed he will get his long awaited hernia operation within the next couple of months. And at my Wednesday sewing group, three of the ladies I have been teaching to crochet, each made a granny square. They were so pleased with themselves, and next week they want to try ripple stitch and learn to read a pattern. There's no stopping them now!

It has been another grey and very windy week, and it is colder too because the wind has changed direction and is now coming from the north. So, it was good weather to stay indoors and crochet, but I have been out and about too, and some days the sun came out with me. On Sunday I went to church in the morning as usual, and it was a nice service as we celebrated Mothering Sunday. While we were enjoying a cup of tea/coffee afterwards, I slipped away to take a photo of a special plant that a friend had spotted growing by the wayside, just down the road from the church. It is a strange plant that I read about when I first came here, and have seen occasionally but always in a place where I can't just stop the car to take a picture. So I couldn't miss the opportunity to walk to some on Sunday.

I think they are really pretty. They grow in the most barren looking places, shooting up in bud rather like a long thin pine cone. Then these lovely yellow flowers open. The ground can't be as barren as it looks though, because these plants are parasitic, and draw their nutrients by draining them from the roots of other plants that run along under the ground. It's family name is Orobanchaceae but it goes by the common name of Broom rape.

I looked around the campo where I saw these, and there were several other flowers managing to thrive on what looks like really poor soil. I love these flowers that grow as weeds all along the roadside here. They are so delicate and they blow around on long thin stems, seemingly much stronger than they look. They remind me of a plant that I used to pay quite a lot of money for in UK as a garden plant. I have forgotten its name though.

But in fact, most of the wild flowers in bloom at the moment are yellow. One of my first blog posts after we moved to this house, was titled "March is yellow", and that seems to be the case every year. I love these hardy yellow daisies with their dark brown centres.

And there are fields and fields that are covered with the wild yellow chrysanthemums. I often pick a few of these to brighten up a corner of the house, and they last in water for ages if you pick them fresh enough.

It was another blowy and chilly day on Sunday, but the sun was shining and there were some pretty cloud formations breaking up the blue of the sky, and I stood a while to enjoy the view, and think how very lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place.

A week or two ago we received an invitation to our friends' Golden wedding anniversary. The party was on Tuesday afternoon, so I arranged for our home group to meet at my house in the morning, so that as soon as we had finished, I just had to change into a "posh frock" and walk up the road. Fortunately I am not one of those ladies who needs hours to get ready for an outing, and by 1.00 we were enjoying some fun time with a lovely bunch of people. Someone had made a cake for John and Eileen.

And here they are cutting it and looking very much as though they were enjoying their special day.

Of course I made them a card which was this one, but I haven't written a blog post about it as it is very similar to a birthday card I made sometime last year.

I cut the sentiment from gold vinyl, using my Silhouette Cameo machine, and I was very pleased at how well it cut.

I have only made one other card this week; a birthday card needed for a family member, but I have managed a few more scrapbook layouts. I am still trying to make a scrapbook of the holiday we had in Ireland in 2012! We had such a lovely time there, and I took so many photos that have to be sifted through. It is hard to know which ones to use. But I really must crack on with it as we are intending to go back to one town - Clonakilty - where Chris' mother was born, in October to celebrate Chris' 70th birthday. All five of our boys and their partners are hoping to join us there, so there will be lots more photos and more layouts to make then. So here are three I have made this week about our visit to Clonakilty in 2012. I also did two about the local beach there - Inchydoney - which I posted on here back in September.

As you can see, my layouts tend to be 'busy', but hopefully you can click on them to get a larger view, so you can make some sense of them. I have one more to do before I move on to our next stop - Cork city, so I hope I can get that one done tonight. (It's better than watching football on TV all night anyway!).

So that just leaves me with two lovely sky photos. As you can see, the storm clouds were never far away, but they have their own beauty, and silver linings if you look for them.

So do a bit of positive thinking and join us over at Celtic House, to tell us what positives have Rocked Your World this week.

I am also linking with Annie's Friday Smiles, and there are lots happy people there who would love you to visit them.