Jubilee Celebrations

It's Jubilee time again in the UK this weekend and I for one am a little sad not to be there.  I remember the Silver Jubilee in 1977, we had street parties and a big party at school on a wonderful sunny day.  The queen gave us all ice cream and a commemorative coin.  I wore my party dress which was also my bridesmaids dress, (you really dressed up for a party in those days hehe) and I still have a found place in my heart for Swiss Roll (ice cream wrapped in jam and sponge, delicious).

Street parties 1977 style.

London ready for all the celebrations.

Hopefully the weather will hold out but it is England, so I am sure they are prepared.  This Diamond Jubilee celebrates 60 years on the throne and that is well worth a party or two.

There are tea parties popping up all over the land and more bunting than ever.  I love any event in which bunting is involved, I must make some for home, just because.

So I hope you all have an amazing weekend with whatever you have planned and I will raise a nice cup of tea to you all.

Long live the Queen!  ax

Blogging Mojo...

...I seem to have lost mine a bit my friends.  BUT I have a plan!  I am taking part in Blogging Your Way 2.0 e-course run by Holly Becker of Decor8.  I took part in the first course when I first started blogging and learnt all I needed to get started (as I had no clue) and now I am hoping this second course will jump start my creative slump.  The course starts tomorrow so I am going over the old notes and have my new note books ready to go.

Sadly I didn't make it to this years Hive Conference, which was a roaring success and those classes looked so fun, I am so proud of all my friends for making it happen and I will be first in line for the one next year.  So I am looking forward to learning some new things at BYW 2.0.

My new camera is finally winging it's way to me (I am sooo excited) and my tripod has at last made the trip from the UK, so I am all ready to go.  So expect lots of original content from sunny Palma.

So my darlings I will be busy, with the Captain popping home for a bit and then family coming to stay.  I think doing my homework on the beach will be a lot more fun.  I will be popping in and out and the blog may get some changes and updating.  I also have a new series planned of Easy Summer Sewing and I am just working out the best way to do this, but if you can sew a straight (ish) line you can make these pieces.

Well that's if from me today, I am going to catch some sun on the balcony with a cool drink now, but if your doing the course, say "Hello" it would be lovely to share the fun with you.

I hope your all having fun and enjoying some sunshine, how do you get your creativity going, I would love to hear.   ax

Guest Post - I'm With Leia

Hello my darlings, I hope your Mondays are off to a good start.  Today we have our first guest post from the lovely Heidi at I'm With Leia, which I am excited to share with you.  Heidi leads a great home made life and is a big knitter, I may need to set up some Skype time for knitting tips. Ooh a Skype Knitting Circle, I like that idea!  Over to Heidi...

Hi and greetings from Copenhagen, I'm Heidi from I'm With Leia .
We are crazy about knitting here in Scandinavia so I'm so happy that Amber wanted me to write a little bit about the knitting trends here right now; Scandinavian modern faire isle and simple knitting.

Scandinavian modern faire isle

Image from Gudrun & Gudrun

Let's start up with something I guess most people has noticed: the famous The Killing jumper, you know the one that the female detective runs around in the Danish hit Tv show. Actually this jumper is made by the Faroese design duo Gudrun & Gudrun. This jumper is a perfect example of the current trend that takes elements from classic old design and make it work in modern life. You can also see the same thing in Norwegian knitting:

This Norwegian/Swedish couple Arne and Carlos, has really made knitting super trendy here in Scandinavia. They started of mixing in traditional patterns in a modern style (don't you just love the traditional faire isle with space invaders?). But it was with their knitted Christmas balls this really took off. It's taking elements of traditional patterns and making them into unbreakable ornaments. My mum knits them all the time. By the way the recipes is available in 8 countries - and yes even the UK and the US. (Christmas balls picture from Yarn Jungle

And other trend is so called easy knitting. It's basically taking simple knit patterns where the usefulness is more important than showing off multicolored patterns. I'm very much into this as you can see on my Left-over blanket. Danish design company Ferm Living has many good examples of using basic knit in their design.

Photo from Ferm Living

Before I sum up here is an example of simple useful and reusable knit by Strikk & tøys. She has made dish cloths and reusable cotton pads for sale in her Epla shop - very elegant don't you think?

Personally I love the trend at the moment, so fun to see so much knitting both in interior like Norwegian Fargeriket's knitted wallpaper and on new inspirational knitting pattern website such as Pickles. Can't wait to see what more people come up with, perhaps more yarn bombing or other clever ways of using knit.
If you would like to see some of my things you can go to my blog or check out I'm with Leia on Ravelry.

Thank you Amber for letting me ramble on about knit, you know I can go on for more don't you?

Hehe thank you so much Heidi, if I start now I may have something to show and share come Christmas time, knitting on the beach, sounds good to me!

See you all soon.  ax
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New In At Zara.

Well wedding season is just around the corner if not started already, and I have just spotted the perfect cover up for unpredictable weather or a drafty church.  These stunning lace coats from good old Zara are just what you need and come in at under a hundred or sixty euros.  Brilliant.

Add these bright and summer ready sandals and you are good to party the night away.  

I hope your weekends are going well, I have just got the good news that the Capitan will be home for a visit in five more sleeps!  Very happy girls in this house today.  See you soon.  ax

Massimo Dutti - May Look Book

Massimo Dutti has just released their May Look Book and the cool and mostly white looks are just what I love about early summer.  I may have to pop in for a trying on session.

The warm weather has arrived here at last and I am loving it, I just need to find all my summer clothes again...  I hope your weeks are going well my darlings.  ax

Images fashion gone rogue for massimo dutti

Loving This Week...

Here's a round up of my pins and tumblr loves this week...

Warm weather pastels with a jaunty headscarf.

Easy breezy dresses.

Interesting areas, with piles of books.

I have finally decided on which new camera to buy, the Olympus PEN E-P3 in white, I am so excited about this!  I will bore you will all my pictures haha.

Bright nails.

Wishing you all a sun shiny weekend.  ax

Happy May Day.

Happy May Day my darlings, did you dance round the May Pole?  I know I did and I had to hold a boys hand, yuck!  Although wearing a pretty dress with flowers in my hair, helped.  

I have also found this great skirt from You and Mie for the little girl in your life, perfect for now as it's the April showers bring forth May flowers reversible skirt, what a wonderful idea.

Enjoy your day all.  ax

Image you and mie