What a Wonderful Day

It was my birthday on Wednesday, a milestone one, I'm half a century! I had the most wonderful day, spending it with my favourite people, my lovely family who thoroughly spoilt me.

I had breakfast in bed, some tasty kippers. I couldn't remember the last time I had them, I'm the only one who likes them so it felt like quite a treat. I stayed in bed with a nice cup of tea to open my cards and some of my presents, I even had a badge to wear!

When I was ready, the curtains to the conservatory were opened to reveal a very special present from my parents. I was absolutely blown away, a new scooter covered in balloons and banners, what an amazing start to the day. It's more than just a scooter, it's trips to the park with little Zackary, dog walks, trips to the local shops and so much more.

I had a nice cosy afternoon with Andrew and we watched Oliver so I could warble along with all the brilliant songs. Adam came in the afternoon with Zack, Holly and Izzy came later on and we all sat down to a party tea prepared by Andrew and Imogen with all my favourite party food, homemade potato salad, gammon and lots of other bits and pieces.

It was made even more special by Zack being able to join us at the table in the new highchair we had just bought him, though he was more of an observer than participant as he had just eaten his own yummy pureed vegetables and isn't quite old enough for finger food yet.

Imogen had spotted these little '50' sequins so had bought them to scatter over the table, a thoughtful little gesture, my sweet girl. I've saved some for when I do some scrapbooking.

The perfect accompaniment to my birthday tea, a lovely strong cup of tea in a bone china cup and saucer, I drank few of these.

Adam has a friend who makes the most delicious cakes, so between them, Andrew had secretly arranged for Adam's friend, Laura, to surprise me with this amazing cake. The actual cake is the most scrumptious Victoria sponge, my favourite. Even the numbers and the 'balls of wool' had sponge in them, what a clever lady Laura is (and green is my favourite colour).

The lights were turned off while everyone sang happy birthday and the cake was brought through with these amazing coloured candles, the flames were all different colours too, I haven't seen candles like this before.

More cups of tea and some cake followed by lots of special family time, what a wonderful day I had.

I had the best day ever and received so many lovely presents, I'll show you some of them another time.


Take care
xxx

Hexies and Buzzy Bees

I've had a lovely piece of post curtesy of my wonderful husband. It arrived very nicely packaged

It always makes it enjoyable when you can see how much trouble the seller has gone to to make it look so pretty, it feels so much more personal.

It was a very cute sewing box that looks like a bee hive

Little embroidered bees, honeycomb and pretty flowers.

 Andrew says I need it for storage and actually it's a bit smaller than he thought it was going to be but I love it when I 'need' things, heheh.

I've put it to very good use already. I've been wanting to do some English paper piecing for quite a long time, just never got round to it (so many crafts, so little time). I don't have a big project on the go at the moment, so it seemed a good idea to get started on one. I have done paper piecing before, but it was decades ago, so I refreshed myself with this book.

I had lots of paper hexagons that had been free gifts with magazines. Popped a small table up in the conservatory (lots of natural daylight), pinched some of Imogen's paperclips, found some white basic cotton for basting...

there's lots of pretty fabric to be used

I was ready to start. I cut lots of pieces of fabric and clipped it round my little hexies, then basted the hexie careful not to sew through the paper. I found the whole process to be very relaxing, quite therapeutic.

I'm quite pleased with my little hexie, it looks quite pretty.

I'm onto a different fabric now. I plan to make a big quilt, so envision this to be a long term project, one I can dip back in and out of while still doing my crochet and felting.

Everything fits very nicely into my new crafting box (though I don't think it will once I start putting all the hexies together) and it's easy to transport to whichever room I want to sit in.

 It's Mother'sDay tomorrow here in the UK, so happy mother's day to all the mums out there.

Take care
xxx

Thinking about Spring

Thank you for the lovely comments about my long eared bunnies in my last post, I'm glad the inside out tutorial was useful.

It's wet and windy here today, so after catching up with the house jobs, I think it'll be time to settle down with my book. Imogen isn't due home until 7.30 this evening as she's gone on a school trip to see Blood Brothers in Sheffield. Just a couple of baked potatoes for me and Andy tonight, Imogen has a pack up with her, though I'm sure she'll fancy a nice hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream when she gets in and tells us all about her trip.

I missed a parcel delivery yesterday so Andy went to pick it up for me this afternoon.

As you can see, I opened it straight away! I'd ordered a few little bits and bobs from Hobbycraft, a bit early for Easter, but I'm so looking forward to Spring. I've already seen so many little green shoots from bulbs poking through and it almost feels as though the anticipation for Spring is in the air. It's been a very mild winter really, so I feel I shouldn't complain, but it will be nice to say goodbye to the grey days and welcome the sunshine back.

It's always exciting to open a parcel, even if you know what's going to be inside it already. Some little eggs, I really like the speckled ones.

I'm very excited about these paper mache eggs. I have a couple of different things I'm planning to use them for

So I thought it best to get 5...

Pretty little daisies, white ones and coloured ones.

I felt a bit naughty buying the grassy bunny, I thought I should just decoupage my own, but it's just so cute I couldn't resist it and I think it'll be a lovely addition to my Spring and Easter decorations.

Can you see why I couldn't resist him, so sweet!

Take care
xxx

12 Days of Christmas Swap

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments on my last post, it's so wonderful to be able to share this special news and my excitement with you all.

Unfortunately I'm still ill and now my poor husband has caught it too. We sound like a right pair coughing and groaning, I'm expecting someone to ring a bell outside while shouting 'unclean, unclean'. I'm pleased say that our sweet daughter has recovered after bringing these germs into the house and is back at school. This is the second time that Imogen has been ill in the school holidays and passed it on. It always seems to knock me for six so I've told her I plan to wear face masks during her next illness!

I took part in Jo's (Through the Keyhole) 12 days of Christmas swap again this year. I was paired with Jo from Angel Jem's City Cottage. I already read Jo's blog so it was fun to go and look for swap presents for her and to make some too.

I made Jo a felt angel and a couple of brooches

I tried to use angels and hygge as my inspiration.

In return, Jo sent me a lovely parcel, which was put away to help me resist any temptation so I could enjoy opening a gift each evening. So many lovely things...

My daughter has claimed the Snowbites!

We love playing family games, so this card quiz was a hit

Such cute little salt and pepper dogs, I love them, some cross stitch to keep me busy and a lovely Christmas embroidery by Jo.

What a cute scrubbing brush! I love, love, love the coaster, what a thoughtful gift.

Thank you Jo for the lovely gifts, I really enjoyed opening them. Thank you to Through the Keyhole Jo for organising this brilliant swap again.

Take care
xxx

The Best News!

Here we are again, the start of a new year. I love that it's new, opens the mind to all sorts of new beginnings and possibilities. It isn't that those possibilities are not there at other times, but it puts them more to the front of my mind.

It wasn't the best of years last year, though still lots of wonderful times were had. This year, well as I sit typing this with my box of tissues next to me and a hot mug of Lemsip, feeling full of cold and high temps, is full of excitement and promise. I can't help but have an enormous grin on my face as I tell you I'M GOING TO BE A NANNY! I am so thrilled to share with you all that I am looking forward to meeting my first grandchild this summer. I know it's very early, but I have already started knitting a little sleep sack in some soft, white, baby yarn. My son and his girlfriend are so excited and he proposed to her on Christmas Day, oh what a wonderful Christmas it has been!

I shall do my best not to go on about how excited I am, I find myself at times during the day nudging my husband and whispering 'I'm going to be a nanny' while he whispers back 'and I'm going to be a granddad' and we both have big beaming smiles on our faces.

I hope everyone out there has had a good Christmas, or as good as they could, I know Christmas isn't a wonderful time for a lot of people. I hope this new year is kind to us all, I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone and sharing our lives over 2017.

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