Snow, snow and more snow

I have been house bound with all the snow and ice we had over the last week and a nasty dose of sinus.  This has not been all bad though, it has meant that I have had quiet a lot of time on my hands.  When I woke up to snow

 

 I spent about 20 minutes wondering what to do with an entire day at home.  I decided to do some of the more practical things like sorting some stuff in the storage cupboard that has been in bags since we moved here.  I got out the first bag and found a few a lot of yarn (I have a bit of a yarn obsession)  I also discovered three coat hangers that I had  crocheted covers for, but not finished.  

Gathered up some supplies threw all the other stuff back into the bag, put it back in the cupboard, nice and neatly J and have spent the last few days in crochet heaven, sheer bliss.  I have finished a bunch of coat hangers 

crocheted roses by the dozen. 

Crocheting roses is a very, satisfying .  I originally found a picture of a rose and wanted to make one so badly so I sat for hours with the picture enlarged by about 400% and crocheted and pulled out till I had a reasonable looking rose, but since then

 I have found loads of patterns for roses and have used them with my own interpretation, till I have a rose that I like to make.  

 Here is a pattern that is very much like mine and I like this pattern here for a smaller flatter rose.

I love Pinterest when the light is going and my hands are aching from too much crocheting, I like nothing more than to make a cup of nice tea and browse Pinterest.  I saw a picture of a lovely crocheted heart on Pinterest and it turned out to be on

  Attic 24’s blog – love her work so much - found the heart pattern here.  I just had to make one, immediately, it was so easy and so pretty I ended up making three. 

I filled the hearts with beautiful smelling Lavender 

 Had to quickly make  three more covers for hangers to hang the hearts on. 

Hope you are all making the most of whatever weather you are having!

Hugs

Cheryl

xxx

More South African Trip ....

On the way to Warmbaths in Limpopo, just outside of Pretoria, we found a Rose Farm .... 

Ludwig's Rose Farm. 

We had to stop...

As we got out of the car the smell of roses nearly bowled us over.

I suppose it was more potent in the midday sun and 35 degrees  Celsius (96 degrees Fahrenheit) heat  and with the sprinklers on them the smell was everywhere, so beautiful. 

Wow it was amazing there were hundreds and thousands of rose species. 

The roses were all in their specific categories - Hybrid Tea Roses,

Colourscape Roses,

Climbers

 Ramblers,

Miniature Roses

  Fairy Tale Roses with names like Pooh Bear and Princess Rose Blossom

 and of course some more famous names such as

Madiba ( Nelson Mandela),



Madiba's Rose

Very fitting for Madiba!

Super Bowl and Pride of England! 

There was a tea room ....

Serving cream scones and cakes.

  Also on sale were Rose Jams (delicious wish I could have brought some home!)

Rose Turkish delight and rose bushes and cut roses ....
 Ahh it was soooo beautiful!
 Only  when we drove out on the highway did we realise how large the farm is!

  It was such a great  day!

Back on the Great North road to Warmbaths to spend a couple of days near Warmsbath's at a  hotel called the Carousel. 

The Great North Road to Warmbaths

Open bushveld all the way to the Carousel

 It was really a treat my Sister-in-Love had arranged for a bit of a break and a bit of Luxury. The Carousel is a large hotel complex

The  Carousel Hotel

  with a  very large casino attached

Gates to the Hotel

The sign at at the gates of the casino promise all sorts

The sign at the entrance of the casino

 We were given a complimentary R200 each to gamble. 
I am not a gambler at all - I just can't get my head around putting,  good money, that could buy some beads or such stuff into a machine to have it swallowed up in an instantly .

I did however find a machine that had lots of lights and free games and cost a whole 20c to play. 
I  won until I had R1 900 then  lost, then won and then lost, but still came away with my R200 in tact so it was fun. 


BUT the Rose Farm was the highlight of my weekend!

Hugs
Cxxx