Thursday 31 May 2012

Jubilee preparations

Hello everyone!

How are you all?  Hope you've been having a lovely week in the beautiful sunshine we have still been having.  I have been working unfortunately for the last two weeks which I am not used to as I have not worked for six months so it has all been a bit of a shock to the system!  Fitting in housework, being a mummy, wife and a nurse is tricky!  Anyway, I have managed it and we all survived and the house is still standing! 

This is what I have been busy with since finishing work today.  Union Jack cupcakes!


Little Budgie has jubilee celebrations at his school tomorrow and we needed to make cakes to bring along.  Now, cake decorating is definitely not my forte so I was actually quite pleased with my effort!  I am sure lots of you have come up with much more spectacular creations for your jubilee activities, but for me this is good!



They got the thumbs up from Little Budgie so that's the important thing!  Isn't it lovely to see your children really appreciate the effort you make in things like this.  It brings joy to my heart!

Another task we had for tomorrow's events is to make a royal hat for a hat parade!  Now again, give me needles, hook and wool and I'm away, but paper, sticky tape, glue and I'm a bit stuck!  But this was a joint effort from all the family and this is what we came up with!


Little Budgie has been parading around in it proudly.  Hopefully it will withstand all the excitment of tomorrow!

I hope the weather holds out for all these happenings over the weekend, but it doesn't look too promising does it!  I hope you all have a lovely weekend.  What jubilee plans do you have?  I'd love to hear about them.

Sunday 27 May 2012

A lovely weekend!

Hello everyone!

I have had a lovely weekend with my parents and my sister and brother in law.  It has been beautiful weather so we have spent most of it outdoors.  We had a bbq today and it was perfect! 

The main reason for our family gathering this weekend was the Eurovision song contest!  It is a family tradition that we all watch it together.  The contest is quite terrible and mostly full of bad singing and silly dancing but it is funny and we all enjoy it!

My sister had made Eurovision packs for us all! (I apologise for the not great photos, they were taken on my phone).



Inside was a score card, little Union Jacks and little cards to wave if we thought a song should have 'nil points' or the full '12 points'! She is a funny person!  It all added the the enjoyment of the event though!  She had also added little notes about why she loves us all!  What a sweet sister I have!



You may have noticed that on my lap is a project that I have been working on during the last week.  Here is a closer look.



I am making a cushion cover for a friend who has a birthday today actually.  The present is going to be a little late but she doesn't seem to mind.  Her lounge has a purple colour theme so I thought this would go well with it.  I have never done the bobble stitch before but it is actually very straightforward and I love the textured fabric that it is making.  I will show you it when it is finished.

I will leave you with another garden friend who visits regularly. 






This is Mrs Pheasant and she often comes with Mr Pheasant as well.  I am hoping they might bring baby pheasants one day!  They have become quite tame and sometimes come into the garden when we are out there and wander around with the chickens.  They like coming up the steps onto the decking where we have the bird feeder and they eat the seed that the birds have dropped.  I love these garden visitors and hearing their distinctive call.  I will try to get a better picture soon and one of Mr Pheasant as well.

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend in this beautiful weather we have been having.  It makes a lovely change doesn't it!  Hopefully it will last a little longer!

Thursday 24 May 2012

This week

Hello everyone!  It seems like a long time since I have posted.  This has been one of those weeks where life has been a challenge, so it has gone extra slowly I think!  I have a condition where I have unstable hips and pelvis (a problem left over from pregnancy) and it has been especially bad recently and makes normal activities very tricky.  It is a little better tonight thankfully though.  Anyway, enough of the woe and onto more cheery things!

I have been baking.  This is something Mini Budgie (my 3 yr old) loves to do.  I think it is his most favourite activity.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that it usually ends up with eating!  He loves his food!



This is an easy banana bread recipe that I got from here.  It is very straightforward and it has turned out perfectly every time I have used it.  It is a very popular family treat and extra yummy with a little butter spread on it!

Here is a knitting bag that I was given by a friend for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.


My friend knows me well!  It is pretty, pink and flowery and I love it!  Would you like to see what is inside it?


I will get it out and show you.


It has been knitted and unravelled a few times up to this point which is why it has been in my knitting bag a long time and untouched for at least two months!  I am a bit scared to pick it up again because I seem to have lost count of which row I'm on in the pattern and with all the criss crossing cables, I don't find it easy to figure out where I am!


I am showing you in hopes that it will spur me on to gather some courage, work out where I am in the pattern and carry on!  It is going to be a bag and I am quite excited with the finished bag that is in my mind!  It is lined with a pretty fabric and has nice handles.  Hopefully it will become a reality!  Anyway, now that I have showed you, I will have to update you with my progress soon!

Friday 18 May 2012

WIP

Hello!

I am going to show you a project that has been going since christmas because I am always so distracted making things for my Etsy shop.  This was christmas present wool that was given to me and I decided to make a blanket for myself!  I am always making blankets for the children or other people and I would love to have one to call my own!


As you can see it is going to be made up of four different blocks and I will probably join them together with a white wool.  These squares have had the ends threaded in and have been blocked to make them nice and flat. 


These are the others that I still have to block.  There is something very satisfying with making neat piles of blocks.  I love it!  I still have lots more blocks to make.


I am using Sirdar supersoft aran yarn and I am using this pattern that I found on Ravelry.  We have a camping trip coming up in three weeks time and I am aiming to have this blanket finished so it can warm me up in the cold evenings!

You may have caught a glimpse of a teacosy in the pictures above.


This was inspired by the Alice from Crochet with Raymond and I used this lovely pattern from her blog.  It is a simple and fun pattern to follow and I love this tea cosy.


Somehow tea always tastes much better when it has come from a teapot with a tea cosy on it!  Another tea cosy is definitely on the cards I think.  You can never have too many!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.  Anything nice planned?

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Garden friend

Hello everyone!

This is a quick post to show you a little friend that we have in our garden at the moment. 



Isn't she beautiful?  I say she because she seems to be feeding chicks, but I suppose that could be a he as well!  She goes in and out of a hedge in our garden often and always comes back to this post on our decking with something in her mouth.  It looks like she might have a few flies in this mouthful!  I would love to see the little babies she is feeding.  I've always thought thrushes are beautiful birds, but you don't seem them too often so I feel very fortunate that this one has taken residence in our garden for the time being.  

Yesterday I made these which have gone into my Etsy shop.  Some more little booties which I love making!


Thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting and hello to my new followers!  It is so exciting to know that people are looking and I appreciate the time you take to read and comment so thank you!






Sunday 13 May 2012

Simple pleasures



I have been busy making a little something for a friend who had a birthday this week.  She is due to move house soon and I thought this would be nice for her new home.



It is a simple little pillow of double crochet rows and stuffed with some hollowfibre filling.  The border is the bobble shell edging from Lucy of Attic 24.  I made an i cord strap and a little flower (from no particular pattern).  I have done a little bit of embroidering on crochet and knitting before, but have oftened wondered about embroidering words.  I thought I would give it a try and was pleased with how it turned out! 


Here are some pictures from my garden which is starting to look a little better now that the flowers are beginning to bloom and I have been spending some time nurturing it!  The lovely rhododendrons are looking wonderful and the bees love them.


I love seeing these big buds opening up a little more each day!  The suspense of seeing them bloom is building!  It's amazing how the simple things like this can really brighten a day!


The rhubarb is doing really well and ready for harvesting!   Mmmm rhubarb and custard!  Unfortunately, I am the only one in my family who likes rhubarb at the moment, so any ideas of what I could do with it would be gratefully recieved!


We are very fortunate to have this beautiful big oak tree in our garden and I love it so much.  I grew up as a child with an oak tree in the garden and spent many happy hours climbing it and watching the birds and squirrels that lived in it.  When we discovered this house a year and a half ago, it was the oak tree in the garden that sealed the deal for me!


I love this time of year when the leaves appear and they are so fresh and green and new looking!  Two weeks ago the tree had no leaves at all and now it is covered!


I'll leave you with a picture of a familiar fluffy dandelion head that are so plentiful at this time of year!  I love these and my youngest son does as well!  We have lots in the area outside our garden and at the moment he can't go outside without picking one and blowing it to watch the seeds float away!  He makes joyful squeals everytime!  It is very sweet!  

 

The simple pleasures are often the best!   Hope you all have a lovely week everyone!

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Bluebell walk

I love bluebells and so every year on my birthday it has become something of a tradition to go for a walk in a bluebell wood.  So on Sunday we went to the woods very close to our house and walked!  The bluebells seemed to be over their best (a little earlier than last year) but they still provided a beautiful blue carpet.






 I love to be surrounded by the singing birds, floaty leaves.........



 The pretty wild flowers..........


and seeing the lovely colour contrast of the grey brown tree bark and the fresh green moss and ivy growing on it........



It made me incredibly happy!  An hour of peaceful bliss (apart from the boys making their usual boyish noise!)

I will leave you with another scene that I love.  Directly outside my son's school is this beautiful field.  Unfortunately I did not capture it on a blue sky day, but I still think it is beautiful.  Everyday I think how grateful I am to have such a pleasurable school run.  A five minute drive of no traffic, sheep and the little lambs, pheasants crossing the road and beautiful yellow fields!  I am very blessed!



Sunday 6 May 2012

Birthday fun!

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes!  I have had a lovely birthday weekend and feel thoroughly spoilt and very thankful for my wonderful friends and family. On Saturday we went for our high tea at a posh hotel and tried our hardest to be sophisticated ladies!  I think the way we kept taking pictures of everything and dancing in the luxurious toilets gave us away a little though!


(I'm the one with the dark hair!)  My friend had made party bags with lovely treats including a pink keyring that said 'keep calm and carry on knitting'!  Perfect for me!


As you can see, we feasted on delicious sandwiches and scones and beautiful cakes!  It was a perfect afternoon!

Today my lovely sister came to visit with a pretty pink butterfly birthday cake and insisted on it having thirty candles (which took five breathes for me to breathe out!)


What a happy weekend it has been!  Now it's time for me to recover from all the excitment with some quiet knitting!

Thursday 3 May 2012

Birthday plans!

Hello!

Rain, rain, rain!  We have had a lot today!  My oldest son's school was closed this morning due to overflowing drains and floods!  He didn't get the whole day off school though, much to his disappointment!

I have been making more pincushions!  I can't stop now that I have started! 





These are destined for my little shop as well. 

It is my birthday (30th, but I'm pretending it's my 29th!) tomorrow and I have an exciting weekend ahead!  My lovely friends have organised a birthday high tea at a posh hotel and I am super duper excited!  It is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but never had the opportunity to (or a hubby who is not very good at taking hints!).  It was apparently arranged a long time ago, but I was told of the plans about three weeks ago because they know I don't like surprises!  I have never been one to appreciate surprises very much!  I much prefer the enjoyment and anticipation of looking forward to something!  Hopefully I will have some lovely pictures of the experience to share with you soon!

I need to get better at taking pictures of life, now I am in the bloggy world!  I keep wishing I had my camera with me or that I had thought earlier to take pictures!  I will get better!  I know pictures make a blog and I love to see snippets of people's lives in pictures. 

Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and I am very touched that people are taking the time to comment!  Thank you!