Happy New Year!

Serious winding down has been taking place over the past few days, hence the lack of blog posts. Will be back in 2012 with lots to update - wedding, Xmas, crochet... I bet you can't wait!! Back to normal service shortly. Toodle pip! xxx

Dashing through the preparations...

 Yes, I'm still alive and my finger hasn't fallen off!! Typing was extremely uncomfortable for quite a while there and there was so much else I needed to get done that I fell off the blogging radar temporarily. But I'm back, with lots to tell. I have of course been thrifting at the charity shops recently. I bought some vintage baubles on Friday, just in time for the tree going up. We don't normally put the tree up so early but we had some friends round for a pre Xmas get together on Saturday so we had to push the boat out and decorate the house to its full potential. Will try to get some decent photos (so far I have failed miserably).

I just about managed to feed our friends, even though I had no working hob. This proved fairly interesting when I went to buy the food for the evening - was I to grab lots of party food and do a buffet? No, I did a full on roast dinner, I don't do things by halves. My lovely husband set up the camping stove on top of the defunct hob so I could make the gravy and we had foil trays full of potatoes in goose fat and winter roasted vegetables ready to bung in the oven (good old Waitrose). A couple of roasted chickens and some cocktail sausages and we were ready to feed the troops. We had a great evening, lovely to catch up with old friends but we were so shattered yesterday. My youngest was on a sleepover that night too so it was a day of lounging around doing nothing yesterday, that's for sure. Still feeling exhausted today, must drink more tea.

The reason I had no hob was because we had some new worktop fitted last weekend and the new hob is yet to be connected. The ancient hob and yucky brown plastic sink have vanished - hooray! Will provide photos of kitchen progress soon. A fair few tiles fell off the wall whilst the old worktop was removed so we have a tiling session planned for the New Year. I think the kitchen project may be a slow burner as there is so much still left to do and so little time to do it all in. In the meantime, I am making the most of stroking the beautiful new worktop and admiring the clean and shiny new sink and tap. Yes, I am a sad person!

As you may have noticed, I have acquired a new cabinet, the before photo being above. It was sat outside my favourite charity shop with a very reasonable £5 price tag on it. I snapped it up and just about managed to squeeze it into the car boot. Having pondered what to do with it (other than give it a good old clean) I decided to use my paperchase wrapping paper, bought for a mere 9 pence per sheet in the sales a couple of months ago. I've literally just cut it to size and blu tacked it onto the back of the cabinet. I've got plenty more of this wrapping paper, which I have squirrelled away for another project. I think this simple 5 minute job has really given this cabinet a new lease of life.

I have also been trying to take some festive shots, but as I said earlier, I have failed miserably. Really must try harder:

In case you can't tell, it's a pot full of holly cut from the garden to decorate the table on Saturday night. I did try. Honest.

Eldest daughter and I had a competition to see who could build the best structure out of mini marshmallows and cocktail sticks (thanks to Miriam of Make it give it let it shine for the idea). Needless to say, E won with her very accurate structure below. Let's just say mine was a lot more organic and... wibbly! Great fun, will definitely be doing this again over the Xmas hols.

 And here is a photo of my cabinet in use and in Xmas mode.

So that's what I've been up to over the past few weeks, other than my car getting a flat tyre last week. I pulled over and got my mobile out, discovered that my sim card had packed up, so I had to hike along muddy grass verges all the way to school to collect the kids and then return later in the dark, wind and rain to recover the car with my OH who very kindly changed the tyre for me. Let's just say it was an interesting day and as I trudged through the muddy verges getting increasingly cold, I counted my blessings. At least it wasn't raining and we were very lucky to get a lift home from one of the Mums at school.

Before I go, I also must mention that I was the extremely lucky winner of a giveaway over at nomoredisco. The lovely Amy was so generous in offering a choice of one of 3 books, one of which was a copy of 200 crochet blocks, which I chose. I have had a good old flick through this book several times and I'm really looking forward to having a go at a few of these blocks over the Xmas holidays. Thanks again Amy, much appreciated. If you get a chance, do pop over to her blog.

So, just one more week of school (youngest is performing in a strings orchestra this afternoon, eldest has a speaking part in the Christmas play, which is being performed 3 times this week), one more week until my gorgeous sister gets married, one more week to get all last minute preps for the wedding done (eeek!) and one more week until we can all collapse on the sofa and enjoy some down time. So much to look forward to over the next few days but I think we will all be flying by the seat of our pants! Until next time... xxxx

Can't put my finger on it

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. A week last Friday I managed to rather foolishly shut the car door on the tip of my index finger. Needless to say, it was rather sore and swollen for a few days and typing has been on the extremely slow side, hence a complete lack of posts. I thought I would just give you a little taster of my Mollie Makes inspired blanket to keep you going until my finger gets well enough for full speed typing. I couldn't crochet for a couple of days either but now back on track and making great progress with joining all those squares. I have joined two rows together now and I am loving this blanket more and more each day.

I'm really hoping I will be back again later this week to update you on what's been happening round these parts.  x

Cake and Crochet

Cake and crochet, oh and a Sunday roast at the pub. That's what summed up our weekend just gone. E offered to make a cake, which F had requested - a victoria sponge to be precise. E promptly decided that the cake needed Xmas decorations on and snow, lots of snow (in the form of sugar). The cake was yummy and lasted about 36 hours!! We then proceeded to go for a gigantic roast turkey dinner at a pub down the road. One portion would easily have fed two of us but it was delicious and we'll hopefully be going back again soon.

I also finished the crochet baby blanket that I was making for a teacher at the school.

Just big enough for going over a car seat or in a pram. I really enjoyed making this blanket - very quick and little attention required. I have been meaning to wash it this week, wrap it and send it into school to wait until the teacher visits. I found out earlier that said teacher and baby visited school today. Never mind, I am sure the blanket will find its way to her and her little bundle of joy in due course.

I have almost finished knitting my scarf - well, the knitting is done but I decided the ends needed some crochet embellishment. Will let you know how I get on with it, the ends may well stay plain and simple if the crochet fanciness doesn't work out. I have also finished crocheting all the squares for the Mollie Makes inspired blanket. The yarn arrived today for the joining of said squares so the long task will soon commence. I feel the need to finish off a few WIPS as they are definitely starting to build up.

And I couldn't go without showing you a certain little man's new favourite spot to sit. He kind of blends in doesn't he?

That's all for today, will be back again soon. x

Halloween half term

Half term is almost over - it has flown by so far, lots of trips out to keep us all occupied. We made our annual visit to the local pumpkin barn to choose a pumpkin each for the kids. We haven't carved them yet - a job for the weekend. Whilst we were there, I decided to buy some gourds to make a display for the windowsill. The kids had fun rearranging them until they were happy with their efforts. Not all the Halloween decorations are out yet but I will get the rest out on Monday while the girls are back at school.  

We are planning a day out in London but the rain has arrived and I don't know whether we will get another dry day before the week is over. If the rain continues we will have to stay at home and make Hama bead Halloween decorations, chocolate chip cookies and the girls have decided to try their hand at some Kirstie Allsopp crafts from last night's episode. E wants to have a go at making an animal from newspaper and sellotape (hope we have plenty of tape as it looks like she may need a whole roll!) and F wants to attempt freestyle machine stitching onto card. Looking forward to it.

I have also been making something over the past few days. A teacher at the school had a baby boy last month so I thought it would be nice to make a small car seat sized blanket for him. Four WIP blankets at the moment, shocking! This is what it looked like yesterday morning.

It's a vintage stripe blanket and I got the pattern from Bella Dia's blog. Very quick and easy to do, so much so that I just have the edging to do and then it's finished. I think this blanket is ideal for a baby as there are lots of little holes like a cellular blanket. I did consider joining the ripple along hosted by Lucy at Attic 24 and Heather at Little Tin Bird but I only really had this week to make this blanket and I find a ripple takes quite a lot longer to make. Anyway, I will post photos of the completed blanket before it gets wrapped up and sent off to its new home.

No photos of Gerard today, he is fast asleep beside me looking cute. He has turned into a bit of a rascal recently - last week he brought home four mice, three in the space of two and a half hours! I was not happy that evening. We also have had some visits from a young ginger cat who seems to have taken a fancy to Gerard. He has come through the cat flap twice this week and was on the worktop. We are on ginger cat shooing duty now. Might have to buy a water pistol! Have a great weekend. x

Clutter busting

I spent most of yesterday sorting out piles of clutter that have collected in various places throughout the lounge over the past few months. It took a while but it was worth it in the end, the lounge now looks a whole lot tidier and is a much more relaxing place to be. Whilst squirreling away bits and pieces, I recognised certain areas that tended to accumulate lots of stuff fairly quickly. I had in mind a little ceramic pot to corral crochet hooks/pens and scissors but found this little danish stainless steel dish instead. Perfect for the task and looks great too. And at £1.50 from the new charity shop in town, very affordable.  Absolutely exhausted now though so thoroughly enjoying that glass of wine. Hope you have a fab weekend. We are looking forward to the half term break. Not much planned - best way to be! xx

M&S does it again

I think the person in charge of novelty biscuit tins at M&S is doing a mighty fine job. First the jammy dodger tin, then the custard cream tin and now... behold the bourbon tin. I didn't manage to get the other tins, but at this time of year with Xmas looming, I am in biscuit tin buying mode. The bourbons are nearly all gone, by the way. I don't think the kids really knew what they were, but they liked them. These are definitely biscuits of the 1970s - the special ones that your Mum would buy occasionally as a treat, rather than the mundane rich tea or malted milk. Pink wafers and party rings were strictly for birthday parties only.

There are quite a few other biscuit tins at M&S that I would love to buy but I seem to have rather a large selection at home and sadly no more will fit into my kitchen cupboards. Maybe I should just buy some and use them for storage elsewhere in the house. And enjoy eating the biscuits! xx