The Birthday Girl

Last Sunday was Bonnie's 1st birthday.

Joanne made Bonnie's In The Night Garden cake herself

I think she made a really good job too :-)

She is so happy and funny, she is a joy and makes us laugh with her funny little ways.

She loves little Arthur

And isn't afraid to show it lol

And she melts my heart when she comes crawling to me saying "Nanna, Nanna"

Before we had grandchildren I used to imagine them running in shouting Nanna, and how good that would be.

But no amount of imagining could have prepared me for that feeling when it actually happens, no words can describe it, it's simply the best thing in the world.

-X-

Bonnie's Day

Last Sunday was Bonnie's Christening day.

It was a wonderful day, the ceremony was at the same Chapel that all our family have been Christened at and where I used to go to Sunday School as a child.

Bonnie certainly lives up to her name :-)

Proud Mum and Dad

Oh dear, I think someone was getting tried 

Joanne's friend made a brilliant job of the cake

Oliver's Daddy came home the week before after nearly 3 months working in Cyprus,

as you can imagine this was one happy little boy and he was very reluctant to leave his daddy's side.

We were very lucky with the weather last weekend, although it was a little chilly the sun shone lovely for us all day, such a change from the weather we have had this past week.  I couldn't get out of the front door on Friday morning the snow had drifted about 2 feet high!  We had more snow last night and as Mark is away this weekend my Son In Law came round this morning and cleared the snow from around the door and garage and dug my car out!  

I now have a huge mound of snow in the middle of the drive, lol. but at least I can get to the house without having to go through snow up to my knees!

It's supposed to change next week, I have to say though that I much prefer this cold and snow to the rain that is predicted next week.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'm going to make the most of a quiet house tomorrow with a sofa day :-)

See you soon

-X-

Pillow and Project Bags

While my pillow making workshop was fresh in my mind I decided to make another one.

I bought this material some time ago thinking it would make a nice cushion, it was only an off cut, but it turned out to be just the right size for the pattern from the workshop, and, I remembered how it was all done!

This was my first sewing project a few weeks ago.  I wanted a bag for my knitting and after trawling through you tube for tutorials I came across one I thought I would be able to follow.

It came out alright for a first attempt.  It' wouldn't win any prizes in a show, I did make a mistake on the bottom, but you can't really notice it when it's 'sat' with the yarn in, and it's for me, so it's ok :-)

I used Vonna's cross stitch project bag tutorial for the next two.

This is the first one I made last week 

And this one, a little bigger, I made this afternoon.

This one has just a plain lining 

I'm really happy with how these turned out, the tutorial was really clear and easy to follow.

I'm never going to be a sewist but I have enjoyed making these and will definitely make some more pillows but I think that's about the limit of my sewing ability, lol.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over size pom pom alert!

Joanne and Gavin came around on Friday with Bonnie, Jo had ordered her this hat, it is still too warm for it but and we just had to try it on :-)

(The little blanket is the corner to corner garter stitch one I was working on a few weeks ago)

Today was this little one's due date, and she is already 15 days old!

Time fly's too quickly!!

I hope you all have a lovely week, and enjoy the Bank Holiday sunshine :-)

-X-

An adventure in cushion making

Thank you for all the lovely comments welcoming my granddaughter to the world.  Mum and baby are doing fine, they came home on the Sunday.  I think they have had a few sleepless nights, which is to be expected but I think it still comes as a shock to the system doesn't it.

I managed to get a couple more photos on my phone this week when I popped round, I loved this one showing her chubby cheeks :-)

They have named her Bonnie.  

Mmmmm, I must confess that her name is going to take some getting used to, she IS bonnie, there's no doubt about that, but as a name?  I'm not sure.  But as Mark has pointed out to me, it's not up to me.

I've had a lovely few days off work this week, it's been nice to have a lie-in and potter about the house in the mornings.  On Monday I went to Willow Brook garden centre, we had passed it on the way to Stratford a week or so ago and I made a mental note then to pay a visit.  I went early enough to treat myself to breakfast, I had eggs benedict, which went down a treat with a pot of Earl Grey before having a wander round to see what was on offer.

I picked up some plants on sale, some perennials which will fill a couple of gaps in the boarder for next year.  They were also putting out the spring bulbs so I picked up 3 packets of Alliums because they reminded me of pompoms :-)

On Tuesday night I went on a cushion making workshop.

I was browsing the internet in the morning and somehow managed to find myself following a link and a shop called Gutheri & Ghani popped up.  Apparently the co-owner was a finalist  on The Great British Sewing Bee, (I  must confess, I never watched the programme) but what caught my eye was the Piped Cushion Workshop which was happening that night, I ummed and ahed for an hour or so and then thought, why not! so I signed up.

Now I'm not very good at sewing, I'd like to be, but I do get in such a pickle with the cutting out and seam allowances and measuring, It's all just so daunting, but nothing ventured nothing gained eh?

Everything was provided and I paid online so all I had to do was show up.  The workshop ran from 6pm - 10pm but was in Birmingham, not the best place to be heading into at rush hour, consequently I was late because the sat nav wanted to take me on the busiest stretch of road, I had an idea there was a quicker way with less traffic but not knowing for sure I had no choice but to follow it.  I eventually turned up 20 minutes late, not a good start!

There was only 4 of us and it was a  really good class, there was a choice of material and piping and a paper pattern and work-sheet provided and we were talked through everything step by step. 

Here is the finished article :-)

I'm quite chuffed with it :-) The piping's not perfect at the corners but I think it would pass unless you wanted to be really picky, but I did make a pretty good job of the concealed zip, even if I do say so myself, lol.
 It's given me the confidence to have a go at home, I already have some material I'd like to use and I've had a trip to Birmingham Rag Market this afternoon to get some other bits and pieces I needed, so watch this space :-)

I  hope you all have a lovely time until I see you again next week

-X-

Welcome Baby :-)

Well she just couldn't wait to make her grand entrance :-) arriving Saturday 12th, two weeks early and really taking us all by surprise, here is our beautiful granddaughter, 20 minutes old :-)

She weighed 7lb 6oz, a good weight for an early baby :-)

Joanne, looking a bit shell shocked.

Me and Mark had gone down to London for the day, we were doing the Royal Tour at Buckingham Palace, ( this was another one of the Christmas presents that the girls bought us).  We had planned to go last week but with one thing and another that didn't happen.  Joanne phoned me just as we had come out of the last bit of the tour, about 3.30 to tell me not to panic but her waters had broke!!!

Off they went to hospital and they said she was just in the early stages and sent her back home.

We decided that we would catch the 10 past 5 train home, expecting to be back well before she had to go back to hospital.  I called her  a few times on the way back, she was getting pains so I called daughter #1 to ask her to go up and stay with them till we got back, I'm so gad i did because before our train got into Birmingham they had to take her back to hospital.

We had another 25 minute train journey, from Birmingham to Stourbridge and we got there literally 2 seconds after she was born!!

I should have been Joanne's second birth partner and I'm gutted that I missed this little one's entrance into the world, but they are both ok and that's the main thing, and Jenny got to see her little Neice make her entrance and I think she is so proud and happy about that, she was in floods of tears by the time I got there, I think she was as shocked as Joanne at the speed of it.  She was only in labour for 4 and a half hours!!!!  

The midwives just couldn't get over it, first baby and such a quick labour, they said it hardly ever happened like that, lol

They are back home now, mum is giving breast feeding a go and so far baby, (no name decided on yet) seems to be taking to it ok.

Phew, what a weekend!  I was going to tell you all about our London visit (which was fab) but I think this news beats that hands down, don't you?

As luck would have it I'm off work all next week, I had planned on days out as Mark will be at work, but I will stay close to home just in case i'm needed, Gavin does have 2 weeks paternity leave so I will only visit if they ask me too, I think it's important that they have time to themselves.

I'm behind on blog reading so will try and catch-up this coming week.

Have a lovely time until next week

-X-