family camp

a perfect weekend for the last camp of the year - it was our village beaver/cub/scout family camp weekend, the sun shone, the children had so many fun activities to try out & we were in beautiful field less than five minutes from home, little O & i actually cheated a little & came home for the sleeping bit, mainly as i hadn't wanted to get the large tent up for only 24hours {but also as i'm feeling rather exhausted from the whole back to work / school routine} it was some lovely 'time out' i even had a great time making a wooden pendant, some knotted key rings, brushing up on my juggling skills and den building - all good clean fun

the peaks

i feel i've just about recovered for our recent camping trip, the drive up to the peaks was not the best start, what should have been a four hour drive took us eight hours!!! not much fun, then unfortunately we had to pitch our tent in rain, which meant quite a bit of water got in, thank goodness our friends were already pitched up & were able to offer the kids a dry place to shelter & some sausage sarnies to tuck into, the weather did improve, although it was rather a mixed bag, with good company & some breathtaking countryside we still all had a great time,  the hubs was very pleased to have his cosy new cardi to keep out the chills, this was another project that took far longer than it should have done, but was worth all that hard work, as it fits & he's really happy with it

the pattern details can be found over on my ravelry page

camping in the cold

last weekend we went camping in the new forest, this is the second year we have gone camping at this time of year & i imagine it will be the last, having pitched the tent in pouring rain, we spent the rest of the weekend avoiding the showers or wrapping up from the cold {i packed plenty of woollies & hot water bottles!}

it wasn't really all that bad, the kids had a great time & so did barney, who was very well behaved on his first camping trip, we picked a nice quite pitch, in what was very big & busy camp-site, we did a lovely lovely long walk {with the reward of  pub lunch at the end} spent time with good friends & did get to see some sunshine  - so not really a washout! 

what a wash out

third time unlucky in the case of our last camping trip of the summer, i won't bore you all with the details but let's just say that waking at 2am to find our tent was floating in a rather large puddle of water was not part of the plan! 

in fact there was just so much water (& it was still raining) that we loaded up the car, woke the sleeping children, abandoned the tent & drove home at 3am, 

still driving there & back the following day to collect the soggy (& very muddy) tent gave me plenty of car knitting time, in which to finish off my 'summer' cotton cardigan (yes just in time for autumns arrival)

still i love it & am so very happy with how it turned out, the pattern & yarn details can be found over on ravelry

i have of course cast on straight away for another project (determined that this one will become a Christmas present) & have also been at the sewing machine today & am feeling ever so proud of myself - details of which i will share as soon as i can get some pictures of said project

*i promise i have not forgotten about the previously mentioned giveaway i'm planning, it will be coming soon*