Swap goodies

Yey, the postman has arrived !!
Well actually he came on Saturday, so this post is a few days late. The lateness is not entirely my fault, I was all set to post Monday evening, even got as far as sitting down in front of the screen, that's when it all went pear shaped. I knew as soon as I looked at the screen that no post was going to get done, there were zig zaggy lines, letters missing off words and some sentences missing all together, a technical problem I hear you cry ..... no the start of a major migraine, I knew within half an hour it would hit and I would be rendered useless for the next 12hrs. What did I do with my magic half hour ?   Ate a great big bowl of Strawberries and cream and then went to bed.
Felt much better yesterday but didn't want to risk spending ages looking at a screen, so I'm doing my post today.

I suppose you would like to see what the postman brought...

My summer swap prezzie !! Hooray..

I was very lucky and received some fantastic goodies from the wonderful Gem at Dreams of a life in the country.
Let me show you.....a fab funky pink union jack teapot tea towel,
Some groovy tent socks, how cool are they ? 
A packet of polka dot pink tissues, Isla -Rose has fallen in love with these because they are pink and involve her favourite past time, nose picking, she has even gone as far as to force stuff out of her nose, so she can use mummy's special pink tissues.
A gorgeous cake card with a little handwritten note inside.

A beautiful rose frame, with enough spaces for each of my kiddies, sorry Mr Dudley you don't count. This will hang in my bedroom, as I keep trying to make the room a bit more floral, if I keep sneaking bits in, Scott might not notice.

I absolutely love these !!! Battery powered paper lanterns. They are going to look great hanging in my tent in Cornwall, so pretty.

A pretty pink windmill for the garden, something else that Isla- Rose has claimed as hers, because it's pink.
There was also a very funky fly swat, which is a must for camping, but Dylan is having his fussy out of it at the moment, smacking bums !!!!

Thank you so much Gem, I love them all.

I'm off now to sew ribbons on Lucie's tutu for the weekend, she is performing at the Nottingham playhouse with her ballet school,  hopefully I'll get some photo's of her in the tutu before Saturday, she's not being very cooperative though and keeps complaining about it being itchy, I don't think she'll be making a career out of ballet unless it suddenly becomes acceptable to perform on stage in jeans.

Speak soon xx

Hooray.... a new crochet book

Hello there !

At last it has arrived, the book I have been waiting 2 weeks for, Little Crochet by Linda Permann.

It has some very cute patterns in it, and even though I had several other projects on the go, I had to try something out of my new book.

I was instantly drawn to this cute cardigan....



Isla-Rose has plenty of plain cardigans, so I thought I would experiment with a purple, pink and green yarn. ( King Cole Riot )

I love it !!  I am so pleased with it.
I started it Thursday evening and stayed up until 1 'o clock , then got up Friday at 6.30 and finished it mid morning.
It was so enjoyable to make, I loved watching the colour change.

Also this week, I made a newborn hat, bootie and mitten set for a friend at my knit and natter group.

So cute !!

Well I'm off now, as I want to watch 'Camelot' a new series on channel 4.  I have a bottle of red wine and some chocolate muffins ( reduced at Tesco ), a perfect Saturday evening.

Speak soon xxx

Bunting, Birthday, books and a badge !!

Hello all,

I realise it's been two weeks since my last post, but I do have a valid excuse for being a bad blogger, we have been away camping in Derbyshire.

Oh how I would love to share with you beautiful pictures of the rolling hills, streams, sheep in the fields and the children enjoying the outdoor life, but in all the excitement of trying to squeeze everything into the car, the camera was forgotten.

So all I have to show is a very grainy picture of the bunting that was strung between mine and my friends tent, I must admit it did look very pretty flapping about in the sunshine, my terrible picture does it no justice. My friend loved it so much that when we were packing up to go home, I gave it to her to hang in her conservatory, much to her husbands delight !!

Dylan decided to try is hand at sign language whilst we were away, as my friends daughter Kristin is disabled and uses this form of communication most of the time. We were having great fun learning and trying to remember the signs, until Kristin's dad decided to show Dylan the sign for BULLS**T, from then on every grainy mobile photo that was taken of Dylan he showed us his new found skill....

....typical boy !!!

It was also my 35th birthday whilst we were camping, and I received some fantastic gifts from the hubby and my best friend.

Now my hubby is not usually that great at gift buying and doesn't always get it right, this year I'd give him 8/10 for effort.

He's obviously jumped on the Cath Kidston bandwagon and tried to play it safe....

....He's done well hasn't he ? Some pretty cake tins, a gorgeous phone case and a much needed pair of scissors.  Then I got to my last gift, something small, jewelry perhaps ? No it was this......

...a dog badge !!!!
I must admit it is cute and I did wear it all day of my birthday.

I also got some great gifts off my friend including these books..

..

......dogs again !!

Such a funny book, not sure I will make anything out of it, but great to look at, this is my favourite picture...

How scary are that mans eyes ?

I have one birthday gift that still has not arrived, and it's driving me mad waiting for it, as Amazon has marked it dispatched, any day now I shall have this..

Hopefully on my next post I will have some crochet to show you, maybe from this book.

Nearly forgot a big thank you to Ashley from the beautiful blog Country Rose  for my award. 

I promise to pass this on to some other deserving blogs in my next rambling post.

Speak soon xx

Coolest dog in town

Hello all,

I thought I'd share a few pics of Mr Dudley in his weekend attire, he he !!



I never thought I would be one of these people who post pictures of their pets, but I can't help myself, he is one of the family and so incredibly cute in his neckerchief.

I haven't managed to start any exciting crochet projects this week, as Isla-Rose has been poorly. She spent most of the week on the sofa watching Peppa Pig over and over and over again. This wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't insisted that I too became a permanent fixture on the sofa.

Whilst sat on the sofa I did manage to do a few of these....

....I have done that many of these that I can now get a pair done in under an hour, the pattern is imprinted on my tiny brain, an ideal project to do whilst watching Peppa.

These green ones are my favourite.

Will hopefully have a more interesting post next time.

Speak soon xx

Summer Shawl / Scarf

Hello all,
Thanks for popping over and having a peek at what I've been up to.
I decided to challenge myself this week and try something completely different, it dawned on me the other day that I had never used a 4ply yarn, to be honest it scared me a little, I was worried that it would be too delicate and fiddly and above all time consuming ( I do get bored quite easily) .
I love wearing scarves though and have seen some really pretty ones on Ravelry, so I took the plunge and found a beautiful pattern , you can find it here.

I can't believe how easy, enjoyable and quick it was to make. After the first 6 rows it was just a case of repeating 2 rows over and over again until I reached the desired length. I'm itching to do another in a different colour, but will have to wait as I have a few hat and bootie orders to do.

I was delighted to find this weekend that things were beginning to grow in the garden....

...... some yummy strawberries. I will be keeping a close eye on these, as last year a certain little girl picked them all whilst they were still green and ate the lot.

Ooh whats this hiding amongst the leaves.......

......he he he, it's a tiny courgette!!!

I've also noticed this morning that I have some blossom growing on the tomato plants, how exciting !


WARNING !!! If a child's play slide clearly states for over 5's only there is a reason why.

Oops , bad parent, thought she would be o.k with Lucie.

Well caught Lucie !! I will add she didn't go down the whole slide like this, she only fell off Lucie's knee on the last turn, and guess what she wanted to go "wheeeee, again, again" .

Just to prove she wasn't hurt in any way, these  photo's were taken later on in the day....

....still the most adorable perfect face, not a slide burn in sight.

Speak soon xx



Cardi for me.

Hello all, hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.

I was going to dedicate this week to finishing my bunting, but have had to put this on hold as the LYS has run out of the green cotton.
I know I should have used the opportunity of having no projects on the go and caught up with other jobs, such as, finish painting the garden bench, digging the front garden, clean out the playhouse, re pot the tomato plants, clean the whole house, blah blah blah ........ but I had spotted a cute pattern in one of my Japanese crochet books, I definitely needed a new cardi more than the tomato's needed a bigger pot.
So whilst at knit and natter on Thursday I purchased 2 balls of King Cole Bamboo, in what I would call a mustard colour, I was a bit unsure of the colour at first but had seen something similar in a shop in town, so I went with it and I'm so glad I did as I love it now it's done.

I really wanted to wear this today, so with half an hour to go before we went out I sat in the garden and tidied up all the ends, and sewed the button on whilst the kids were putting on their shoes and I'm pleased to say I made it in time and got to wear my new cardi, yippee !!

I've mentioned in previous posts about my love and addiction to home magazines, such as Country living, Ideal home.....and how I'm supposed to be cutting down , I had been managing quite well, and when ever I felt myself being drawn to them in the supermarket, I thought about what I could be buying in the wool shop instead with the money saved. Today though I will admit to buying the latest issue of Ideal Home, as it had a feature on log cabins and summer houses, so you can see I really needed it to help with the planning of my log cabin, which is still not here as we (Scott) haven't managed to finish clearing the space in the garden yet. Whilst flicking through and looking at all the lovely pictures, I found this .......

..... a crocheted garden chair, I love it and want it. Unfortunately its beyond my price range ( £200, HomeSense ) and my crocheting capabilities, so I will keep telling myself that its probably really uncomfortable, yeah right !.

Speak soon xx

1st Camping Trip This Year.

Hello all, hope you all had a fantastic Easter.
We were lucky enough to squeeze in a camping trip to Derbyshire, to try out our new tent.
The weather was beautiful in the day, but I will admit to being a little chilly at night, must invest in some warmer sleeping bags.

The campsite was great for the kids, plenty of room to play and kick the ball about.

We didn't do anything too exerting, a few small walks...



......relaxing and reading,.......

Lunch in the local pub.....

and most important of all , time for a little hooky, whilst sitting in the sun and a nice cold beer.

I managed to get a few triangles of bunting done.

In my last post I was torn between 2 patterns for my bunting, but have settled on good old granny for this set.

All in all it was a successful camping trip, until we had to get the tent back into its teeny tiny bag, why do they make the bags so small ??

Speak soon xx

A moment of weakness

Hello all,
Last Thursday I was overcome by a moment of weakness when Cath Kidston announced a special offer day, it would have been rude to not have a little peek , there's no harm in looking is there ?
I couldn't help but click " BUY " when I saw these enamel tin mugs, perfect for camping and they match perfectly with my picnic bag.

I have never been so excited about mugs before, sad I know !

I'm hoping to make a start on some bunting this weekend, to adorn my tent and then my log cabin. I have decided to use colours from the CK mug that the children bought me for Christmas, such pretty colours.

I can't wait to get started, just need to make a decision on what pattern to use. I am torn between the wonderful bunting by Bunny mummy or the equally gorgeous pattern by Crochet with Raymond . Decisions, decisions....

As well as spending far too much time on the Internet shopping for tin mugs, I have been working on some boys booties. I had been asked to make some booties similar to my Mary Janes but for a boy and came up with these....

I've also made a little newborn hat using front post double crochet stitch, as I love the way it looks.

I'll leave with you a few piccies of Dudley who has had his first big boy hair cut this week.

Speak soon xx