Update: Where you can find me...

Hello!
Just thought I would let you know where you can find me now:

--> Instagram

--> Twitter

--> Facebook

I'm finding it easier to post on the go from these apps these days, so please hop over if you can and follow me there :-)

It's been fun blogging here - who knows, I may come back to it one day...

Big hugs!

Wishful Wednesday...

This is what my life looks like at the moment! Full of life's little lovelies - reading good books, good magazines, drinking cups of hot chocolate, and a bit of knitting...

Okay, a lot of knitting.

Which is why this isn't your usual WIP Wednesday post - I've been completing more than I've been starting! I still have this pair of socks on the needles and they haven't gotten any bigger because I've been working on other things, and I'm pretty sure knitting doesn't grow unless you work on it. (Unless someone has come up with magic knitting needles? If you know if someone has invented those yet, let me know in the comments!)

But that's all there is! I'm thinking I need to start some new projects... you know, just so I have something to blog about... and also because my head is brimming with projects that I want to make. A couple of hats, some fingerless gloves, some preemie knits, innocent smoothie hats, and I may dig out some of my quilt projects just for good measure.

Where to begin? Stay tuned :)

A Day at the Beach!

A couple of weeks ago, my whole family (aunts and uncles and all) descended upon St.Anne's, Blackpool, for my grandad's birthday celebration. Not having really spent that much time up in that part of England, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Cue mysterious and moody beach photo...

Well, I shouldn't have been that surprised because the Great British Seaside is pretty much the same everywhere you go - eating chips on the seafront, huddling up in jumpers because it's a little on the cool side and of course, despite this chilly weather, eating ice cream!

What was different about this visit though, was a fantastic display of kites! We just happened to be just in time for the St.Anne's Kite Festival, and we were in for a treat, there were so many wonderful things to see.
From these mammoth balloon kites...

...to strange but fantastic creatures...

...to fish...

...to these adorable little cows (not pictured - crabs, pigs and frogs, oh my!).

 

There was even Wallace hanging onto an airplane!

It was amazing to see - with all the lines being almost invisible, from a distance it was just a sky full of fantastical floating shapes. Lots of memories made!

I went to Canada! (Part 4)

I bet you're thinking: "What? More photos?" - I promise these are the last ones! It has been hard to narrow down all the photos, especially as my boyfriend took close to 500! There was so much to see and take in on this trip - so thankful that we got the chance to visit family and have a wonderful two weeks! :-)
These last photos are just a few snapshots of random things we saw and did :-)

Close to the start of our visit we went to see Tour La Nuit, an evening ride around the Plateau Mont Royal consisting of 15,000 cyclists. We stood at the start line and watched as all of them began the race, and seeing them ride into the sunset was really something to behold!

There were people all dressed up in costumes, and the lights on some of the bikes were incredible...

It wasn't the only wheeled race we saw - my boyfriend was super happy when we realised the F1 would be in town, and so I tagged along, and we had a great day watching the races!
(I'll admit I didn't understand a single thing I was watching, but the atmosphere was great, and there was good poutine!)

Speaking of poutine, we ate lots of it whilst in Montreal - so many different varieties that we were actually able to rank them! The best place was in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue - I was a very happy Bekah!

But it wasn't all sightseeing... there was plenty of relaxing too!

All in all, a really wonderful trip to Canada!

Hope you've enjoyed the photos, and enjoyed following my Canadian Adventure!

I went to Canada! (Part 3)

I loved visiting Quebec City for many reasons, although one in particular was the sweet details to discover as we meandered around the city.

Such as the Fleur-De-Lis on the fence around the fountain at Parliament... (Very fitting for the province!)

Historic beauty...

I loved that there were half numbers on the houses - Canada's answer to Platform 9 3/4?

Flowerboxes, reminding me of European windows... Old Quebec City really reminded me of the streets of Italy...

Last, but not least, we found these adorable sheep flowerboxes in front of a yarn store! I didn't get any as I'd already purchased plenty from Espace Tricot (Gorgeous yarn store - if you get a chance, go!), but it was still lovely to see local yarns!

Aren't they sweet? I especially love the pink flower that one of them is wearing! :-)

Graduation!!

Just wanted to pop in and share a photo from Tuesday with you, as it was a big day for me... I officially graduated from University!

It was a lovely day, spent with family, my wonderful boyfriend, and my coursemates. Couldn't ask for a better way to end the past 3 years of learning and growing :-)

More photos from the day HERE.
(I didn't get many photos of my own, because as you will see in Mom's post, I was having WAY too much fun swooshing and twirling!!)

I went to Canada! (Part 2)

One of our side trips whilst visiting my family in Montreal was to beautiful Quebec City. This was one of my favourite parts of our Canadian adventure, as the old part of the city was so beautiful to walk around, sometimes reminding me of some of the European cities I've visited before...

Around every corner was some new wonder to behold... I mean, look at this mural! Amazing!

Every time I look at this photo, I see more and more - the building in the workshop, the roof, the amazing blending of real bricks and painted...

The city was just as beautiful at night as well, as many of the buildings were lit up, making for a magical atmosphere...

We also explored the newer part of the city, visiting the impressive parliament building, and enjoying the surrounding gardens. Everything in Quebec City was so lovely to spend time in - much needed after many months of studying!

Quebec City wasn't just full of impressive buildings though - there were also many details which caught my attention. Stay tuned! :-)

I went to Canada! (Part 1)

At the end of May, I was lucky enough to go on my graduation trip to a city very special to me - Montreal, in Canada! Having spent my early childhood here, it had been a hope of mine for a while to get to know the city a bit better. This year seemed to be a good year for it, so my boyfriend and I hopped on a plane and made the trip!

I'm so glad we went! Being able to walk down memory lane and show Chris (the boyfriend) things I remembered, and introduce him to fun foods (poutine and maple taffy - yum!) was wonderful. In addition to remembering my own history, I was able to explore the history of the city. The dude in the photo above is Maisonneuve, one of the founders of Montreal. Apparently he was a bit of a character!!

In fact, the big cross on the top of Mount Royal? It harks back to when he made a deal with God, saying he'd put up a big cross so long as the city didn't get flooded. It didn't, obviously :-P
This is actually the third version of the cross - each one more high tech than the last. Interesting, eh?

We really did the tourist thing around Montreal - although we stayed on the West Island, most days we travelled downtown to explore the sights :-)
One particular sight which caught our attention was Notre Dame. I've seen the Parisian one, so it was really cool to be able to see its Montreal counterpart!

Isn't it pretty? They were getting ready for a graduation ceremony, and so coloured lighting made it even more spectacular. What a wonderful setting for a graduation!

Beautiful details everywhere! According to our guide, all the gold was real gold leaf - to see such attention to detail was incredible!

So many lovely things to see! Just one of many wonderful sights visited on our trip! Join me next Saturday, when I'll have some things to show you from a side trip to Quebec City!

Bekah Learns to Sew (Part 2)

And so the story continues... a girl with a dream of patchwork jeans, attempting to face the big scary sewing machine... part one to this story was pretty dramatic - brace yourselves for part two!

Aren't those colours pretty? Yesterday afternoon was declared sewing time - tunes were on, had some trusty snacks on hand (because Jelly Beans make everything better!)

Everything was pinned into place, and off I went! :-D Sewing the strips onto the foundation fabric proved to not be that difficult (remembering to iron in between seams)... especially since everything was pinned within an inch of it's life - the pile of pins after half a seam to prove it...

After sewing, pressing, and squaring up, I ended up with two rather lovely cuffs for my jeans, and ended the day very happy with what I had managed to accomplish :-)

The drama all began this morning... I woke up feeling very positive, thinking I had but 4 little seams to go, and then I would be done! Little did I know...

I joined each cuff in the round, and then began to pin it to the jean leg... but alas, disaster! It was too small! I knew it would be a tight fit (the rotary cutter, ruler and I were not very good friends - I had to battle them all the way through!), but not as much as this... I just knew I would end up with puckers and so many issues, that I decided that there was only one solution - add more fabric! Out came the seam ripper, and they once again reverted to how they were in the above photo... I figured out what size piece I needed (including seam allowances), and cut it out using a template I made. I was so stressed out with the rotary cutter and ruler by this point that doing it the old fashioned way seemed to be my only hope...

The additions...

I only realised after I joined them that lime green may not be the most co-ordinating of fabrics, but left them, thinking they were a quirky reminder of all the work put into these cuffs!

It was only now that I could truly enjoy the feeling of having 4 seams to go! I joined them in the round, pressed them into place, and sewed them to the jeans... 3 years after first starting to piece the cuffs, I am quite pleased with them!

And because I like to make more work for myself, I also did a bit of hand-stitching around the top of the cuffs and the pockets...

As much as this project has been stressful, and taken a few years to truly complete, I am quite pleased with the result, and have learnt a few things about myself too:

- Whereas hand-piecing makes me feel like I am in a Jane Austen novel, I feel more like something from a Stephen King novel when machine sewing!
- Never have I ever talked to myself (or my project) more than when working on this - "Please work, please work, please work!"
- I think I better leave sewing to my mom... yarn and I have a better relationship than I do with fabric!

Hope you've enjoyed reading about my sewing adventures!

What's your word?

I am now officially on the other side of January assessments, and so I should be able to get back to blogging and knitting! Yay!! :-)

How is your 2015 going so far? I can't believe that it is mid-way through January already! This month seems to have passed by in a bit of a blur - I blame being stuck under a pile of books and papers for the past few weeks...
Ah well, I am embracing the rest of January as my New Year, and with this comes New Year's resolutions right? I have decided to follow in the footsteps of Susannah and Leigh and to choose a word for 2015 - something I can keep in mind as I go about everyday life. I have seen so many good ones around the internet, but the one I've decided to go with is WELLBEING.
This year I am going to endeavor to do things which make me happy, and push me to be the very best version of myself :-)

Above you can see that I've started to try and follow this already. My timetable-in-progress - because nothing makes me happier than Washi Tape and coloured pens! I was inspired by this, this, this and this... it is so much more motivating to see tasks layed out in a pretty way :-)

If you could choose a word to focus on this year, what would it be?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you, my lovely readers! Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and encouragement in 2014!!

I hope you are all having a happy, safe and peaceful holiday season.
I will be back soon with photos of Christmas knits!

Hugs!
Bekah

Deck the Halls...

Hello! Well we're getting ready here for the festive season!
I seem to be in the mood for festive making this year - mostly decorations, but some edibles as well!

Of course the holidays wouldn't be complete without traditional paper snowflakes...

Although I did get a little carried away with the papercraft and turned our fridge into a snowman as well!

I've had some jelly stickers adorning my mirror too :-)

It was our house Christmas dinner on Thursday, and I was in charge of the cake... I chose to do my mom's traditional Buche de Noel, and was quite pleased with the results.

These are my latest decorating obsession... Knitted baubles!
 

It makes me happy to see them on the tree...

I can tell that these are going to become a bit of a thing... I want to make some like these fair isle lovelies, and like these adorable stockings as well!

What about you? Have you been making anything for the holidays?

Snapshots from November...

Wow... I can't believe it's December already! 2014 has flown by!
Things are pretty busy around here with end of term events, so I haven't had a chance to take any proper pictures of current projects... But instead I thought I would share some of my Instagram photos with you from the past month for those of you who haven't seen them already!

This November I enjoyed going out for hot chocolate and croissants for a brunch date...

I've woken up to double rainbows...

I've made paper snowflakes to decorate the house for Christmas (yes, I'm one of those people who starts decorating early!)

But there has also been some knitting too - I taught my boyfriend to knit! I think he's done quite well so far, don't you?

And lastly, I've started some simple pink socks to work on when Christmas knitting/crocheting gets too much!

How was your November? What are you looking forward to in December?