Afternoon Drive

I can't wait for tomorrow to arrive as I haven't seen our beautiful little Zackary for over a week and I'm missing him terribly. We didn't look after him last week as I wasn't well, but back to normal tomorrow so I hope his prepared for an extra smothering of kisses and cuddles!

Last time we had him for the day, we took the little man out for a drive in the country in his new big boy car seat. So nice that he can look forward now and see what's going on, much better than his baby seat that he was fast outgrowing.

We went to have lunch, but all Zack is interested in is what everyone else is doing, fascinated by other people

I must comment on his little cup. I really wanted Zackary to have a cup to use at our house and was thrilled when I discovered this one, (those of you with young children or grandchildren will probably know all about these cups) it's virtually spill proof! Zack holds it upside down and I carry it in my bag all without any leaking... wish these were around when my children were babies.

I think I'll have that

On the way home we came along the coastal route, slow and meandering along so Zack would have time for a decent sleep

We knew he'd wake up as soon as we arrived home and he needs about an hour or so.

Andy's been busy working on his jigsaw from the charity shop. It's a Wasgij one where he had to make up the picture as if it were 10 minutes in the future. Here's the box

and the completed puzzle (minus the couple of pieces that were missing).

We'd found 2 when we were charity shopping. Andy's started on the next one which is even harder, he has the picture on the box, but the actual jigsaw is meant to be a picture of what the people on the box can see... quite hard, but he really does enjoy a challenge. We always look to see if we can find any more of these puzzles, but no luck yet.

It's been a big week for Imogen, she had her school prom at the end of last week. I do think she looked absolutely gorgeous, she has grown into such a lovely young lady, brought a tear or two to my eyes.

I haven't spent too much time in the garden the last few days, just far too hot. We are so desperate for some rain, really we need a good down pour. Here's one of the small roses from the patio rose, pretty and perfectly formed.

Take care
xxx

A Little Bit of Everything

 It feels like this past week has zipped past in a flash. We had a very successful parents evening at Imogen's school at the beginning of the week, it's a big year for her this school year as her GCSEs are at the end of it.

I had my first mammogram on Wednesday and will hopefully get the results in a couple of weeks. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the 2 mamographers (I believe that's what they call them) were lovely ladies and made me feel completely at ease (there really is no dignity in being a woman is there, but worth it to have regular check ups to keep you safe) and as an added bonus we didn't really have to wait long so the whole thing was over with in around 20 minutes.


I didn't really get anything done the week before so I really wanted to make some cakes this week. I've made these a couple of times and we all really love them, lemon cupcakes. I use equal amounts of self raising flour, caster sugar and butter (4oz of each), a pinch of baking powder and about a teaspoon of lemon essence and a couple of eggs. The whole lot goes in one bowl and is whisked until lovely and smooth

Distribute the mixture between 12 cupcake cases and I have the oven on Gas 5 for about 20 minutes (our oven isn't the best in the world, so you may not need as long).

The scrummy buttercream topping is made with butter and icing sugar with a tablespoon of lemon essence this time. They really don't last long once they've been made.

I've also done some knitting this week. Little Zack has already outgrown the cardigans I made him and Holly said she needed some the next size up. I found this pattern in a local charity shop and quite liked the diamond pattern on the blue cardigan.

 I found some lovely, soft white yarn in my stash and knitted it up for my gorgeous grandson.

The tricky part was finding some cute buttons. I have loads of buttons, but many of the sweet little wooden ones are more 'girly' in nature. I thought these little bunnies were quite unisex for him.

A bit more progress on the cross stitching. The top picture is from last time, the bottom half is now. It was good to use a bit of colour though I'm still just working on the snowman's hat, I am enjoying doing it even though progress appears slow.

Holly wanted to have a day back at work on Friday so asked if we'd have Zackary for the day. Obviously I didn't even hesitate and was all ready when she dropped my little firecracker off at 8am. He came in his little Ninja Turtle babygrow and was oh so gorgeous.

I'd bought a cheap baby bouncer chair second hand during the week so Zack would have somewhere to sit. He loved the rocking motion.

Mummy came to pick him up at 5.30 and he was tucked up fast asleep and exhausted after a day of playing and nanny singing lots of nursery rhymes. I'm pleased to report that he didn't wake up at all last night until it was time to get up this morning, so we did well tiring the little dot out. We're doing a babysitting stint this afternoon so mummy and daddy can go to Ikea, he may not be as tired out after todays visit as Imogen has him tucked up in his pram walking around the park, lots of fresh air, but also sleeping.

What's everyone else up to, I can't help but feel Christmas is slowly creeping up on us now...


Take care
xxx

Sunny Afternoon, Good Books and some Good Food.

Hasn't the weather taken a wonderful change for the better. After those biting north easterly winds and buckets full of rain, we now have calm beautiful blue skies and bright sunshine. We've been very busy the last few days so it was good to escape into the garden for a few hours of sunshine this afternoon. I had a good book to finish reading and took some crochet out with me too.

I love reading and like many different genres of book, but I think my favourite has to be a good crime or thriller novel. I really enjoy reading Linwood Barclay, I like the twists and turns and that many of his books are set in Promise Falls with characters overlapping in different stories. I've just finished a trilogy, Far From True, Broken Promise and The Twenty-Three. I'm glad I didn't start them until they were all out in paperback as it meant I could go straight from reading one to the next.

The first one set the scene, introduced the characters and raised questions. The second book wasn't as exciting as the first, but helped bring many of the different strands together.

The third book was a page turner, I felt invested in the outcome and there were plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing throughout the book.

All three books have been popped in a bag with some other bits and pieces ready to take to one of the local charity shops, I hope someone else gets as much enjoyment from reading them as I have.

While I was in the garden I picked a couple of radishes to have with some side salad for our tea this evening. The vegetables planted in our vegtrugs are growing at quite a rate this year.

To go with the salad I made some chicken and pasta, it was too hot to spend too much time over the cooker today. Just stripped some chicken off some chicken thighs from the fridge.

Covered them with some passata and thickly chopped tomatoes

I tore up some mozzarella and stirred it through with some cottage cheese (I'd started stirring before I realised I hadn't taken a picture).

Sprinkled some cheese over the top and popped into the oven and left it to do it's thing for about 30 minutes (make sure the chicken is properly cooked through).

So simple, but extremely tasty with some pasta and salad on the side.

Take care
xxx

Ouch!

I've been doing quite a bit of felting recently, so it had to happen... a big ouch, well to be fair, it was more of an almost ouch!

After my first experience with felting and those very sharp and barbed needles, tissues and plasters, I learnt my lesson fast. I bought myself some leather finger protectors, one goes on my thumb and the other on my index finger. I've had them a while now so the leather is nice and comfortable. Anyway, they saved my poor finger last night

If that was in my finger, I don't think I would have let Andy take a picture!

As you can see, I've been doing a bit of felting. I wanted to use a pretty gravy jug I'd found in a charity shop. It doesn't have it's saucer anymore and needed a bit of love

A little farmhouse with the washing blowing in the wind.

 A little bush with pink flowers next to the house.

A hedge with a garden gate and a path leading to the house.

That was my bit of fun for the day (and watching Strictly of course), now back to the boxes and putting up the decorations for Christmas. It's looking a bit too chaotic for my liking at the moment, I think we may have collected too many decorations over the years, never thought I'd say that! I just want it up now so the boxes can be put away again and there are lots of twinkling lights and pretty things to look at.

Have you put up your tree and decorations yet?

Take care
xxx

2 Little Lost Girls

We are almost in December, everybody seems to be getting busier and the traffic on the roads is definitely getting heavier. I'm trying to be organised, have written a Christmas card list, as good as finished our present shopping and have dispatched hubby to the post office to send my 12 days of Christmas Swap parcel (it's on it's way Jo, should be with you soon).

Last week wasn't a good week, we had some bad news on Tuesday regarding our son, but he turned what could have been an awful situation right around. It turned from a bad week to celebrating at the weekend, life really can change so much in 24 hours!

The Christmas lights were turned on in the city centre on Thursday evening and the shops stayed open for the first evening of late night shopping. The atmosphere was lovely, Christmas was definitely in the air and children were excited to see their first sighting of the year of Father Christmas when he arrived on his sleigh (I do miss have little ones around). We took Imogen to choose a couple of charms for her Pandora bracelet, one from us and one from her grandparents. Andrew also bought me an early Christmas present, a Queen Bee with flowers. I'm very lucky, it's a beautiful Christmas present and I love bees.

Earlier this week I also found these 2 little girls in a charity shop, don't you think they have the prettiest little faces.

 As some of you may know, I have a weakness for dolls. I have some Blythe dolls and some other collectible ball jointed dolls. I picked these 2 up and ummed and arrrred over them for a while. They are apparently Dutch, I don't know anything else about them, just that they are quite old. At first I was just going to get the darker haired one as I liked her face best, and the blonde one is missing a boot, but how could I separate them?

They are so wide eyed and innocent, they looked like 2 little lost girls sitting on the shelf, I had to give them a good home to go to!

I also found a couple of jumpers. It's so hard to find jumpers or cardigans that have a high wool content, so many things nowadays are made with acrylic. I can spend ages going through the charity shops looking at all the tags in the clothes to establish the wool content, I'm sure the people there must wonder what on earth I'm doing!

I'm so pleased with the colours of these 2, dark green and 'sand' for my beach! I also slipped some marzipan in for Andrew, really don't like it myself, but he loves it.

That's about it for me, not much happening here, Imogen is late at school every night madly rehearsing for a play. I thought I'd end with a couple of pictures of our beautiful babies.

This is Sassy

Cheeky Alfie

Bit timid, but heart of a wolf, Gary

My beautiful girl, Honey

I think she knows how gorgeous she is

Take care
xxx