My late holiday post

Hello there!

I've already been back home for a while after spending a very enjoyable two weeks in the UK. We travelled around a bit and did lots of things, caught up with family and friends and made some exciting purchases.

We went for a couple of days to the seaside because we hadn't seen the sea for ages and ages. It was wonderful. The school holidays hadn't yet begun, so the beach was empty and even though it was too cold to swim we did enjoy spending time on the beach.

The pebbles on the top part of the beach looked good enough to eat.

We also took a rather wonky-looking cable car to the top of the hill. It was a bit windy up there but in that part of the world they call it "bracing".

There were some spectacular views on the way up.

We were lucky with the weather and had blue sky during most of our seaside trip.

We went to another nearby town where there is a lovely castle and also the smallest house in Great Britain, together with a charming lady in the traditional Welsh costume.

From the castle itself we had a lovely view of the harbour.

We visited Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, and saw the house he was born in. We ate a delicious cream tea - two huge scones each with a pot of jam and clotted cream, and a teapot of tea which contained three cups of tea. All for £4.95 each. Not bad, especially in a tourist town.

We also visited the butterfly centre in Stratford-upon-Avon where butterflies fly around in semi-liberty - there is a roof so they can't escape!

Over the following days we visited Alton Towers and Cadbury's chocolate world too, but I think I've said enough about our travels for now.

To be honest, with all that travelling and eating fish and chips, I didn't really have much time for a lot of hooky business, but I did do a bit:

Lime and beige flower coasters for M, made with this pattern:

Multi-coloured flower coasters for L, using the same pattern.

Pretty bunting to decorate P's bedroom.

And a little monster toy for A.

I also bought a crochet magazine and a couple of very good finds in the charity shop, but I'll save those for a future post.

It's nice to be back! I look forward to hearing about what you've been doing during the summer.