Not a perfect post!

You are always seeing these amazing lifestyle posts on other people's blogs, full of idyllic photographs and fabulous photographs. Well this post is about a real family!
Earlier in the year Pickle-Lily went to St Ives with her school for an art trip. She came back full of enthusiasm for the the place, the golden sand, the blue sea, the museums and please can we go back. So, together, we planned a family holiday camping there this August. Big brother said he would come with us so he could go surfing, and I was (sadly) aware this was probably our last family holiday together.
I found a lovely campsite - Hellesveor Farm and booked us in. The farm is a lovely friendly little camp site, with a brand new shower block, clean and stylish you could say. An enclosed washing up area, no washing up in the rain for us and a beautiful tumble dryer - thank goodness. Mel and Andrew only took over last September and have worked so hard to make it like this.
Because, boy did it rain!

The view from our tent

We put up the tent in the rain, dried the inner with some old towels Mr P-L had put in the car and lit a stove in the porch to warm us up. All our clothes had to go in the tumble dryer that afternoon, we were soaked.

Look at those meringues!

Pickle-Lily and I explored St Ives in the wet - shopping in some of our favourite dry stores who all had thoughtfully provided umbrella buckets.

Poppy Treffry

 We visited the Tate St Ives - clean and dry, with a lovely dry cafe.

Fish and chips at the Tate St Ives

 I did enjoy the art as well!

My favourite

The Barbara Hepworth museum was also dry indoors, and the sculpture garden was amazing, and so well packed with plants and trees kept us relatively sheltered!

Barbara Hepworth

The local bus service that kindly stops at the farm entrance (parking in St Ives is a nightmare) broke down on us on the way back to the camp site, in the rain, but Mr P-L came to our rescue.
Big brother enjoyed surfing - Mr P-L watched in the rain!

Pickle-Lily

What became our final night was torrential - I lay in my sleeping bag listening to the hammering rain, and decided that I am really too old (and scared) for this, so in the morning I made the executive decision we were going home. As we packed up our trusty tent - thank you Mr Vango for making great tents - in the rain, I was sad to be going home but so looking forward to a quiet, dry house.
We drove home - in the rain - and now the very wet tent is spread all over the garage drying, but will it be used again? Sadly not, I think :(  

The shower block

I would like to say ..
Thank-you to my brother for my wellies ( a great Christmas present) I lived in them.
A BIG thank-you and I love you you to Mr P-L for everything.
I highly recommend Hellesveor Farm if you want a lovely, simple campsite - we will be back, but in a caravan next time!

The view from the camp site

Pussy cat, pussy cat ...

Cat notebook, key ring and needle book

At school we have a very friendly cat called Boris who has adopted us! He belongs to one of the teaching assistants, but spends more time in school with us than at home. He has his own special box in the office, but will often join me in Forest School.

Boris in his bed

As the Pickle-Lily logo is a cat, and in honour of Boris, I have revamped my cat 'range'. We have notebooks, key rings and cat badges, as well as a needle book design.

needle book

There is also some cat mini-bunting to come, but my sewing machine is being treated to a service so it is in the ever growing sewing pile. I love the fuchsia and grey colour combination, and I am hoping the cat range will be popular!

Cat badges

Mermaids Ahoy!

Mermaids ahoy!

As a change from knitting owls and bunnies I was recently asked to knit some mermaids. These lovely ladies are made from Rowan pure wool and I make the tail colours from blending two different shades. Although I am looking forward to my wool delivery, as Rowan are now doing some heather shades and one of those looks like a lovely mermaidy colour!

I can't do a thing with my hair!

Pickle-Lily and I also belong to The Lucky Dip Club - a present through the post once a month - and this months delivery was all about mermaids, so my two merladies are modelling all our goodies! Although they may be discussing who gets what!!

Which do you like the best?

 This month we got a funky shell necklace, a Mindful Mermaid note book and a shell charm for the charm bracelet. There was a very cute jellyfish crochet kit and a cheeky sea horse brooch (don't you think he looks cheeky!!!) which I'm allowed to have, her royal Pness is keeping the rest!!