Vacation Crafting - I'm Back......

Hi everyone, I'm now back home in Cornwall after having a fantastic trip to Florida.  We were so fortunate to be able to use our friends' home in Orlando for our month-long stay,  and the trip was made even more special by having our Son join us for the last two weeks.

My regular readers will be aware that it has been my habit in recent years to either knit or crochet a blankie whilst I am away.  This means I am able to fit a little crafting in whilst I'm away from home to prevent me getting craft-starved and also I have my own warm blankie to snuggle under during the flight home.  I received the pattern in a FaveCrafts newsletter a while ago and thought it would be a great project to work on during my vacation as each leaf shape is knitted separately then stitched together.  I took the pic in the Florida Room of the home we stayed in which overlooks a small lake (complete with it's own pair of alligators ! although they are still fairly small at the moment).  We saw one or other of them 'slinking' along in the water most days and it was fascinating to watch them and the other wildlife in and around the lake.  I wasn't too keen to get very close to the waters' edge though as I wasn't exactly sure how big the 'gators actually were and didn't wish to find out !

There were some really fabulous highlights of our trip - one of which was to be standing in the Kennedy Space Centre whilst the latest SpaceX Dragon 9 Rocket was launched on it's way to the SkyLab Spacecentre. 

It gave me goosebumps of excitement standing there in the dark (launch was at 8.35pm) listening to the launch countdown over the tannoy.  It was so fabulous to see the dark night sky turn as bright as daylight as the full force of the rocket engines fired for lift off, feeling the deep rumble through the ground and up into my body and hearing the roar of the engines, even though we were 4 miles away from the launch pad.  The red light from the burning fuel was almost too painful to watch with the naked eye as the rocket made it's fairly slow progress directly up and up until it was so high it passed from sight.  A really amazing experience which I feel so priviledged to have witnessed. 

Another breathtaking experience was watching a fabulous sunset from Key West.  The second pic was taken a short while after the first, the sky was changing colour and the cloud pattern changing for around half an hour - it was magical to see.

I am happy to be home again now though and reunited with my craft stash - plus I have all the new goodies I acquired in Florida to play with of course !  I'm also looking forward to meeting up with my crafting pals after such a long time, although it was fun crafting along with my pal Kathy (Purple Princess Diaries) whilst I was in Florida - thanks for sharing your table of craftiness with me Matey. 

Hoping to have some cards to share with you in the next few days.  Thanks for dropping by today.