Grow Your Own Blog

To all my regular followers it's lovely to have you back,

and to all those that are taking part in 

Grow Your Own Blog

WELCOME.

I'm Gill a.k.a. Dosie Rosie

 This blog is all about my trials, triumphs and travels

as I embrace the freedom of having to take early retirement

and having all my children move out to start their own homes.

Writing my Blog and making so many good friends

through doing that has made what could have been a 

challenging time so much easier and fun.

I will try not to make this a long post because if your blog hopping

you won't want to spend hours at each one.

I just thought I would tell you something about Dosie Rosie.

I live close to the Beautiful North Norfolk coast,

which for those of you outside the U.K  that is the bump that sticks 

out into the North Sea about half way up the UK.

I love taking photos and have a new camera

 so get ready for some arty shots,---

 when I work out how to use it 

properly!
I also do a  photographic scavenger hunt every month
which is organised by
Green Thumb at `made with Love.

I love my garden but am certainly no expert.

I just like to see lots of colour and get a great buzz

when I see something I put in as a seed growing and flowering.

I tend to leave the veggies to my other half and I do the fruit and flowers.

I like odd or quirky things and have collections of all sorts of 

vintage bits which sit around me either in the garden

or my craft room.

Now we get to my passion.

I wonder if that's an over used word but crafting

is something I spend so much time thinking about

that I think it is appropriate. 

I don't sell anything I make, certainly not
 at the moment but maybe in the future.

For me it is purely for the fun of creating.

I have tried my hand at everything from

Stonecarving to felting, From fabric Dying 

to spinning wool and enjoy them all,

 but I always come back to 

my stitching.

So that is me
and this is my give away.

 I love these packs as it lets your imagination run riot.

So just leave a comment and make sure I can contact you 

by e-mail and it is open to everyone whether a follower or not.

The draw, like all the others will be on the 15th of February.

Good Luck and Best Wishes.

Gillxxx

Old Friends and A New Toy

I have had a page on Facebook,

 under my real name not Dosie Rosie, for several years now.

My daughters set it up for me as

 It was the easiest way for me to keep in touch with my children

while they were travelling around the world.

I was more likely to get a message on Facebook from Asia

or South America than I was a phone

call and  if any of them even used Facebook 

I at least knew they were alright.

Now the children have settled down and certainly

 over the last 12 months, it has taken on 

a very different roll for both my husband and me.

When we moved from London over 20 years ago

we left behind lots of old friends and work colleagues

which, certainly for the first couple of years, I found very hard.

Then I found a group on facebook

which was affiliated to our old work and 

have found many old friends that I lost contact with 

many many years ago.

What is even stranger is that when you compare notes

you find so many coincidences and places when

we might have been in the same place at the same time.

Holidays taken just down the road from us, attending the same 

concert or in one case, also moving to Norfolk and living not far away.

We will be meeting up soon I hope.

So one of those faces I have seen and said to my husband

"they look familiar",  might indeed have been someone I went to school with

or worked with many years ago 

as it turns out it really is a small world.

  However,

seeing some of the old photos that people have put on

the site have caused great hilarity .

The new Toy? 

well I got a new camera for Christmas and the photos are

some of the pictures I have taken while trying to

get the hang of it.

Hope to see you on the 25th for my 

 Grow Your Own Blog post.

Gillxx

Drum Roll Please

Bit dramatic I know but this is what was in the parcel

I showed you in my last post.

My friend has recently learnt to crochet so 

I made her needle roll with a set of hooks.

I added a couple of pockets at the end

for scissors and tape measure which close with velcro.

Two little stitch markers finish it off.

So mystery revealed it's out to lunch with my Daughter

so enjoy the rest of your week.

Gillxx

French Labels

It's my friends birthday this week and I've made her a present

which, as she hasn't opened it yet, I will have to wait for another day.

The problem was as she was coming over for coffee I had to wrap it quickly.

and I had no wrapping paper or even

brown paper left after Christmas and no time to buy any.

What I have got is loads of old french magazines so decided to 

use one of these to

make a paper bag,  which l really liked the look of.

Now I just needed a label  to complete the look.

So I raided my drawers and found

some luggage labels which was a bit boring and didn't quite

go with the look.

Back to the magazine and pick a picture.

Pick a luggage label and take off the string.

Stick it to the back of the magazine and smooth down

so no creases or bubbles

Cut it out with a sharp craft knife and 

re -attach the string

 and voila--as the french say.

I got a bit carried away.

 But my friend was thrilled with her present, lets hope she likes the 

contents as much.

Enjoy your day, I'm off to Lowestoft for Sunday lunch.

See you soon.

Gillxx

Blog Hopping

Would you believe  I have come down with a cold so soon in

the New Year , so I am curled up on the sofa with

some hot lemon and doing a bit of blog hopping.

I like to do this sometimes as you find some great new blogs

to have a browse through and todays one is called

"2 bags Full" and she has come up with this great idea

of having an online blog party.

 For us blog hoppers I think it's a fantastic way of 

finding new blogs to read and to get new followers to your own blog.

So watch this space on the 25th when I will be writing a special post

especially for the party.

Gill x

P.S. Sorry folks I should have said click on the 
Grow your blog button in my side bar for the link.

The Grass is Always Greener.

"I know it's not mine but it's so comfy Mum"

Gillx

Storms, Dips and Hopes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I can't believe how long it is since I've written anything

on here, I've even missed the last two scavenger Hunts although I'm determined to 

complete this months.

 It was so long ago that  I still had summer flowers in the garden

whereas now my winter Clematis are in full bloom and look lovely

on the rare occasion it is nice enough to wander around the garden.

A lot has happened since we last met and I will show you some of the things 

I've been up to in my next post which I promise won't be far away.

The Norfolk coast, along with so many other places around the country,

has suffered at the hands of the weather and my heart goes out to 

all those people who have had their lives and homes destroyed.

I haven't seen the damage anywhere other than at Cromer but that 

was shocking enough with huge chunks of concrete ripped from the sea wall

and thrown around like drift wood along the promenade.

Great gaping holes left in the pier, beach huts reduced to 

match wood and tons of mud having slipped down the cliffs.

But the British are a resilient lot aren't they.

Within a few days the pier was patched up and the 

theatre was open for business again even if you had to have a head for heights

to walk out to it past the fenced off holes.

By Boxing day it was business as usual with the 

BOXING DIP pulling thousands of spectators to watch

hundreds of those mad enough to run into the sea, not just once but twice,

wearing swimsuits or flimsy fancy dress as no wet suits are permitted.

My Son and Youngest daughter were amongst those crazy people

even after my son said last year that he would never do it again.

All my family have now returned to their own homes

and I have returned to my sewing room after it's temporary

use as a bedroom.

Now I don't make resolutions as I don't keep them, year after year I tried to give

up smoking in January and finally managing it (many years ago now) in September.

So I thought this year I would set out a couple of things I hope to achieve this year.

Firstly--I want to do more hand embroidery.

This has been brought on by finding this fabulous 

embroidery stand in a local charity shop for £3.75!--can you believe it.

I had this old linen table cloth among my boxes of old linen

which is printed and ready to embroider 

and even if I don't manage to finish it, it still looks good

in my room.

Then on my sewing table, other than one of my new mugs,

is something else I'm going to add some embroidered embellishments to.

It started with a little foundation piecing

and will end up as a book cover.

The pattern is by Anja Townrow

which I bought when I did a workshop with her a few weeks ago.

Now to just add some stitching. 

My second hope for 2014 is to be more organised 

so that it isn't 2 months before you hear from me again.

So with that in mind I wish you all a very Happy New Year

and will see you again soon.

Gillxxx