Earthquake excitement 
We awoke on Monday morning to hear that there had been an earthquake in the Straits of Gibraltar in the early hours of the morning. It turned out that there were several in actual fact (last I heard there had been 160 aftershocks!). Despite being up several times in the night to tend to a poorly 4 year old the whole drama passed me and the rest of the Postcard household by! Friends described their beds shaking and the rush to make sure their kids were moved away from windows, social media in Gib was humming with the excitement of it all, we didn’t notice a thing!!
Whoops spoke too soon
Last week I crocheted the last row of my Cosy stripe blanket and then began sewing my ends in. On Tuesday I had a few quiet moments out on the balcony and thought I’d begin my border… I looked on the Attic 24 blog for the instructions only to discover that when I’d transcribed the order of the coloured rows into my notebook (way back in 2014 – I’m not a fast worker ;-)!) I’d missed off the last 15 colours – that means another 30, yes 30, rows!!! It’ll be a while before I get to crack on with that border after all!!
#7000 challenge
One of my Instagram friends @bonnies_little_crafts has set herself the rather grand goal of making and collecting 7000 little crocheted hearts in time for the Yarndale yarn festival in September. Her intention is to give visitors to the festival a heart each as a welcome gift to her home town of Skipton. In previous years I have sent woolly offerings to Lucy at Attic 24 (one of the founders of the festival) for exhibition displays, so although I have failed to attend myself, a little bit of me has made it over to the Yorkshire based festival of woolliness in past years. One day I would love to go, as I have seen all the lovely pictures posted by crafty bloggers who have been already, and it looks amazing. As I have spent a large chunk of this week sitting on the sofa with poorly children I thought I’d hook up a few to send off to Skipton. If you want to have a go at making some little hearts to support the #7000 challenge, look up @bonnies_little_crafts on Instagram for more details.
Instagram photo challenge
I have really enjoyed taking part in the #30daysofcraftiness photo challenge this month. It has forced me to think a bit more about the photos I take and encouraged me to take photos I wouldn’t ordinarily capture. The photo above is for day 28 and the title is ‘quote’. I didn’t want to just use a Google image of an inspirational quote or cat picture (ref: The Lego Movie) so had a go at making my own. And it’s true – I get grumpy when I haven’t been near a crochet hook or needle or paintbrush for a while, to me crafts truly are my therapy!
Stormy night
On Friday night we had a belter of a thunderstorm. The rain and thunder had been forecast, so it wasn’t a surprise but the intensity and noise was really quite unsettling. Living in an old building with original wooden sash windows which are a little past their best, we almost felt like the roof was coming in on us. The windows and floors were rattling with the noise and the brightness of the lightening was off the scale. Thankfully it was late in the evening so our two youngest were tucked up in bed and oblivious to the storm. As the storm had taken out our TV signal, No 1 son sat up with me colouring. It was a nice way to spend quite a dramatic hour or so!
Calm after the storm
Looking at this, it seems hard to believe that less than 12 hours before the lightening was splitting the sky and the thunder was rattling the chimney pots! What a beautiful way to start the weekend – hello Saturday!
Med Steps in the sunshine!
After 6 days of poorly children, we are all healthy again (touch wood) and I managed to escape to do the Med Steps yesterday afternoon. It was hard work because it had been over a week since my last trip up AND it was warm. The sun made it absolutely glorious though, the butterflies were out, the gorse bushes were flowering and just look at the colour of that sea! I also had a first – I saw a Barbary Partridge for the first time. He was too quick for me to photograph though so you’ll just have to make do with this picture 🙂 .
Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series which was created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins.
Good to hear the earthquake bypassed you – best for the kids that way.
Yes it would have been frightening for them!
Thought our weather was bad at the moment !! Your’s is something else! Glad you are all ok. Hope the little ones are on the mend.
Sue xx
P.s I’ve been in the attic and found my watercolours xx Not sure when I will find the time to paint. Crochet is a bit of an addiction at the moment 💜💙💜
Thanks Sue, they are a lot better now :-). Finding the time to be creative is hard, there always seems to be so many other things which get in the way, like washing, cooking and cleaning! I understand the crochet addiction, I usually get fixated with one thing for a while and forget the rest! I’m incredibly lucky that I have my watercolour and sewing lessons to go to each week as it forces me to find the time to do them as well. Have a great week 🙂
Living in NZ I’m no stranger to earthquakes, and always happy not to have felt one! You seem to have had quite a dramatic week elements wise – but my the ‘after the storm’ photos show such a stunning place! The crochet hearts are lovely – I looked at them and immediately thought of a half curtain for the kitchen window 🙂
Thank you, we are very lucky to live in a really beautiful place, especially when the sun shines which is fortunately pretty often! 🙂 If you make your curtain, be sure to let us all see it 🙂
Happy to hear you were not affected by the earthquake, they can be terrifying! I love the “calm after the storm” picture….it doesn’t seem possible, does it, for such a drastic change so quickly. And the photos from the Med steps always amaze me. Simply gorgeous! (Glad all the little ones feeling well.)
Thank you! Yes what a change a few hours can make to the weather! Glad you’re enjoying the pictures of the Med steps. The beauty of the place is that every time you go up you see another view or aspect that you hadn’t noticed before. There are quite a few flowers out at the moment which is lovely. Have a great week 🙂
You’ll forgive me if I don’t feel TOO sorry for your finding the Med steps walk a bit hard – sunshine AND warmth? And blue skies after the storms? Sounds like heaven to me……!
Hehe! I forgive you 😉
I did think of you when I heard about the earthquake last week…we saw quite a few photos of the damage in Malaga! Glad to hear it didn’t bother you! Also happy to hear that you are all better now, illness really does wipe you out doesn’t it! Love the idea of storm colouring 😀
Thanks Natalie, we were fortunate as there was no damage in Gibraltar at all as far as I’m aware. Yes it was a nasty cold bug which really wiped our youngest out but they are both back to normal now thank goodness:-)