Snow!

Snow?

I am wondering whether this view will be all white by the end of the week. There is much talk of snowfall but I get the feeling it may just be the North of England and Scotland who will get some (or indeed already have some). Unfortunately I have been stuck at home for the past 2 days as my youngest has come down with a bad cold which has developed into a temperature and no movement from the sofa all day. She went to bed at 4.30pm after refusing dinner, and is now tucked up in our bed fast asleep. I hope she has a better nights sleep. She was supposed to be doing her Brownie Promise tonight and there is a party going on as one of the leaders is leaving, but she was too ill to care. :(

We had a lovely weekend with family and the school Xmas Fayre was very busy and made a good profit. My eldest played her guitar in the talent show and did so well - we were so proud. We were all exhausted by the time we got home. I had lots planned for this week, including the decorating but have not been able to do anything. I was hoping to get the Xmas shopping finished very shortly - not looking like it's going to happen any time soon. I have had plenty of time to snuggle on the sofa and crochet though - I have so far made an oak leaf, a giant acorn (not sure why it turned out so huge as I used the same yarn that I used for the oak leaf), mistletoe and half a bumblebee. Once they are fully constructed, I will post about them (assuming they look any good!). Right, must stop waffling and get some more crochet done.

Busy busy

 It has been a very busy week this week and there are no signs of slowing down any time soon. Monday and Tuesday found me sanding down walls and woodwork and painting all the woodwork in the hall - 9 doorways in total, however luckily I didn't have to paint the doors. Wednesday was a trip to the doctor's with my youngest, followed by lots of tidying and preparations for my Mum coming to stay the night. The reason for her visit was our much anticipated trip to London. The local school had arranged a coach trip to Harrods, which was very reasonably priced and left from a short walk away from our house. We had to be outside the school at just after 9am; it was a long day but we had the best time. Mum was her usual thrifty self and bought some stitch markers for £1.95 - that was all she purchased! I bought some wool from John Lewis (for projects from the book below), a Christmas gift and a Harrods retro bauble for my lovely friend Alison, who definitely deserves a treat at the moment. It was a fab day and I am sure we will be doing it all again this time next year.

 Anyway, this doesn't really explain the photos above. After painting the woodwork, I realised that I would not have time to start painting the walls, what with Harrods shopping and catching up with housework today (Mount Everest sized ironing pile and washing basket overflowing - to top it all, the tumble dryer decided to pack up this week) so today I ripped up the underlay and staples and cleaned the floor. It is looking very shiny and in remarkably good condition, apart from a rather large gap between blocks running almost the entire length of the hall. You can just see the last bit of carpet left under the doors to the "Tardis", our hall cupboard which seems to hold most of our belongings! I couldn't quite get this bit of carpet up so it will stay there until a certain handy person has time. Said certain handy person has also been filling in the gaps between blocks with wood filler this evening. So helpful. :)

 Anyway, onto more exciting matters - I ordered this book a couple of weeks ago and I have been so pleased with it, it is one of those books that you just want to keep flicking through. It is full to the brim with beautiful flowers and leaves to make. I have already had a go at a couple of the patterns, although it is a bit tricky following a crochet pattern for the first time. A little concentration and patience is in order, not something I usually have an abundance of unfortunately.

The flowers are truly beautiful and I can't wait to have a proper sit down and have a go at a few. I bought the wool in John Lewis to practise with. There are a few things I need to get done first though. We have relatives round for dinner tomorrow so I will be cooking for most of tomorrow. The school Xmas Fayre is on Sunday - my eldest is performing in the Talent Show (Good King Wenceslas on guitar) and I am helping on the children's craft stall. I will then be finishing the painting next week and I must get on with finishing the Xmas shopping. So much to do, so little time before Xmas. Right, I suppose I had better go cook the dinner and I believe a glass of wine may be in order... Hope you all have a fab weekend. xxx

Stars and Stripes

 Ok, only one stripe. Just thought I'd update you on some of my crochet projects, some finished and some just started. I began making the above blanket last weekend. I wanted to have a go at rippling but I had 2 large (400g each!) balls of cream aran wool which needed using up - yes you guessed it, another charity shop bargain. I thought an all-one-colour ripple blanket might work, but once I'd started I realised that it may need a little help, hence the blue stripe. I will do another blue stripe at the other end of the blanket and, depending on how I feel once it is finished, I may embellish it further. I am sort of liking this blanket but I'm not loving it as the wool is not particularly soft. Hopefully it will soften up in the wash. But I am really enjoying rippling and once I'd learned the basics (not helped by reading the instructions after a couple of glasses of wine!) it is really easy to do and very relaxing whilst watching rubbish on the TV. Such an exciting life I lead.

 This weekend I decided I would crochet some stars to make a Xmas garland (sorry, I said that word again) I used the star pattern on The Royal Sisters blog but I didn't do the last round as I didn't want the stars to be too big. I am really pleased with the colour combination - I used some wool left over from the rainbow stripe blanket.

 I just need to make a chain to hold the stars together and sew some decorations on. This will brighten up our non-fireplace this Xmas!

I finished these garlands a couple of weeks ago. Not a great photo but you may just be able to see a crocheted popcorn garland, which will adorn the Xmas tree, along with two lengths of crocheted ric-rac. Looks like there might be a theme developing this year, but hey I only learned to crochet earlier this year so everyone needs to indulge me. :)

A fireplace to call home

 Here is the inspiration photo for our new fireplace. I found it on Google but I cannot find the original source of this image, so apologies.

 This is our fireplace at the moment. We have an immediate problem, being that the fire is so high compared to the floor. I think we are going to have to get some very chunky pieces of granite/marble to fit here, unless anyone has a better idea? Would really appreciate any advice anyone could offer. We are also struggling to find some tiles in the right colour. Should have chosen the tiles first before choosing the paint colour. I really love the colour of the tiles in the inspiration shot, but the nearest colours we can find are either dirty dish water or too mustard. The search goes on, but again if anyone can offer shopping advice, please please do so. Once we have found the tiles and fitted the hearth stones, my lovely husband is going to build the wooden surround which can then be painted white. Looking forward to sitting in front of the fire on a winter's day once it is done.

Here is a reminder of what we started with. So glad that disappeared in the skip!

Almost finished

 It's a fairly sunny day so I thought I would take some shots of the lounge. Still a few things to get done.

 The blinds are up - very pleased with them. Still no blinds on the front window though.

 The DVD racks are also up - very understated and neat and tidy. Although there is a large box of DVDs behind the sofa!

 The fireplace needs some work and there is some wood block flooring missing. We are searching for the flooring on Ebay and I will post about our plans for the fireplace soon.

 This is the view from the dining area.

Hope it's sunny where you are. x