Can I ever escape?

From that Rooster?  No sooner does Ernest leave for his next home, here (go over & visit as I know he is already wondering where he is heading next) but theres's another knock on the door.  Its the poor postie again - fortunately it was late morning & I was decent for once!!

He brought something for little son;

Meet Egbert - Ernests identical twin!! He arrived from ebay land after soppy little son decided his life was incomplete without a cuddly rooster! His pocket money - his choice ;)

Its all go this week - appointments for eye tests, haircuts, dentists, homework, scout trips not to mention fitting in seeing family & friends.  Had some time yesterday to bake towards tonights S&B group - Primrose Bakery Coffee Cupcakes with coffee buttercream - trust me they smell divine - shame blogs aren't scratch & sniff ;)

Lastly I've been fiddly around with fabric scraps - trying to make birthday pressies and craft stall stuff. I made this little russian doll yesterday & have hung her from my bag - think the same idea would work well on brooches too. Good job my sister doesn't read my blog or she might see one of her pressies ;)

xxxx Vicki xxxx

An 'eggsellent' Easter weekend & a giveaway winner :)

Sorry but that had to be done didn't it ;)

Its has been a really good weekend here despite the weathermans dire prediction - yes we're got wet (well once) and its not been bikini weather but all in all much better than promised.

Friday saw us head to Ipswich - not my favourite place but nearish & it had all the shops that the VV family needed - more brewing stuff for MrVV, books for big son & a new (to him) DS game for little son.  They all happily went off & left me to spend my birthday Next voucher which my lovely godmother sent me.  That was never going to be difficult & 2 t-shirts & a dress later I was spent out!! After stocking up on a few basics for the boys it was time to head home for lunch.

In the afternoon everyone headed off their seperate ways - the boys to read/play games, MrVV to battle with the lawnmower in the rain & me to my knitting.  Now have 49 squares knitted & sewn together (will deal with the curly edges at the end);

Saturday morning dawned quite sunny - again not what we were told. I headed with Country Girl to the Woodbridge Vintage Market.  Before we left it was time for Ernest to say goodbye to the VV household. Now him & little son had grown very fond of each other & there was a sad little face first thing;

Ernest waves goodbye to the VV household;

Its never straight forward when CG & I go out together - instead of just heading straight to the market,we detoured by shops in the town centre (as we do) and one charity shop in particular had loads of lovely bargains in it - both of us left there with a few things - here are mine;

(another pair of coloured needles, a ladybird book & a gorgous handmade patchwork pillowcase/cushion cover)

The market as ever was extremely busy with lots & lots of stalls all with very tempting wares.  Our first task was to hand Ernest over to his new Mummy.  This is the lovely Julie from Beach Bygones - she is hoping the weather is nice enough over the next few days so Ernest can accompany her & her children to the beach & to her beach hut :)

It was lovely to have a chat with Mrs Bobo Bun again  and this time  we were privilged to meet Mr Alfie Blue too - he is very gorgeous & I wish I'd have taken a photo of him :(  Naturally I had to purchase something pretty from her stall and settled upon a gorgeous crocheted brooch in a very Vicki green (I'd seen it on her blog earlier in the week & was hoping that it would be there waiting for me);

The heavens then opened so Country Girl & I sough shelter in a nearby cafe & had a quick coffee & cake & watched the world go by;

Sunday was another family day - we decided to head to Southwold as there was an exhibition I was interested in seeing;

It was very good and even the boys enjoyed it - though I'm not sure the owner was very thrilled at their occasional 'how much' comments!!

Afterwards we walked along the seafront toward the pier - as you can see from this picture despite the clouds it was fairly busy today;

We decided to walk in a different direction to normal - northwards towards Eastern Bravants - much quieter;

We got as far as were the land owner is trying to halt the cliff erosion before turning round, walking down to the harbour & then back via the canons to the carpark.

The final part of the Easter weekend has been quite quiet - this morning MrVV & I headed to a local carboot sale.  Seems lots of people had the same idea & for a cold bank holiday Monday it was very busy.  Despite my best efforts not to turn my blog into a shopping list, here's what today brought;

More Ladybird books, some buttons to cover, some that are pretty & a crochet hook (time to start learning).

The weather this afternoon has turned rather windy & chilly so the planned gardening has been postponed :( Instead I've been catching up on blog reading whilst MrVV has gone for a bike ride.  The boys are busy doing nothing apart from trying to eat their own body weights in chocolate ;)

Are you still with me? Gosh sorry to have waffled on so much. Here's to the important part - the winner of my Giveaway - Amy decided she'd pick out the name of her new Mummy;

It is...............

Winnibridggs @ Winnibriggshouse  :)  (yes I know my writing makes it looks like Winnibuggs!!).

Well done to her - I shall be in touch via your blog and thankyou to all who entered, follow & leave comments :)

Until next time

xxxx Vicki xxxx

Wet,windy Wednesday & the week so far

Good morning

Seems spring has sprung away & winter has returned.  Its wet & very windy out there this morning. Have a feeling that I shall have to do a mercy dash to rescue some battered & bruised daffs later :(

Thankyou to all those who wished Little Son well - he was much better on Monday but still spent the day at home. Mainly giving me a running commentary on what I was doing!! Back to school on Tuesday which he was pleased about as he really loves school.

As the cake tins were empty on Monday and as I'd received 2 new cookery books for my birthday, it was time to get baking.  After much deliberation, we chose Coffee Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery book and Oat & Raisin Cookies from the Hummingbird Bakery book;

(note the presence of Ernest standing guard ;) )

In a brief lull in the rain yesterday it was out to the garden armed with secateurs to collect some braches & budded twigs to make an Easter tree - am hoping that by the weekend, the buds will open & it should be a mix of green, pink & yellow :)

Amazingly Ernest didn't sneak into that photo - he's certainly got about this week.  Little son has taken a real shine to him and was concerned that Ernest was due another trip via Royal Mail soon. We then had a flash of inspiration - Ernest is travelling to his next home by car - he's coming with me & Country Girl to the Vintage Fair at Woodbridge on Saturday. There he (along with his travelling box & goodies) shall be handed over in person to Julie (Beach Bygones)

Ernest spent sometime yesterday in my sewing room - here he is with Amy having a gossip & wondering why there are legs all over my sewing table!!

The legs are part of a mass production of ragdolls. I've rather bravely agreed to a 1/4 share in a craft stall with my sisters at the end of May. Rather scary as I've not done anything like this before - but as they say nothing ventures nothing gained. Least its only 1/4 of a stall & I shall have plenty of company that day.

A little celebration is in order this morning - I've reached another blogging milestone - 100 lovely followers :) Thankyou to Claire (Are We Nearly There Yet) who helped me reach this last night;

One last thing before I go and enter the world of domestic bliss - don't forget to enter my giveaway (button in the sidebar). I shall be drawing the winner out on Easter Monday (5th April);

Here's hoping Spring returns soon - see you later in the week

xxxx Vicki xxxx

Weekend - part 2

Right where did I leave off?

Oh yes - waiting for a phonecall.  It never came, in fact just as I was about to call MrVV & Little Son, they arived home.  The exam had gone ok & Little Son hopes he did enough to pass. We shall find out in about 4 weeks time.

There was a quick turnaround - shower & eating - and then they headed out to LS's brass engagement.  Apparently that went well too - MrVV might have embarassed LS by tumbling across the stage when he was infact just helping to sort a rogue snare-drum out!!

It was quite late when the pair of them arrived home - in fact I was dead to the world, having gone to bed to read but I'd dozed off with the book across my face (no photos though).

Sunday morning was a bit muddly - the hour change confusing all & meaning there wasn't time to do much before we headed out to lunch.  It is FIL's 75th birthday this week so we headed out as a group of 9 to a lovely pub near Woodbridge.

Afterwards, we dropped big son at home (he'd opted out of fresh air & a walk) and the remaining 3 of us headed to Aldeburgh. Ernest had come along to so we thought we'd take him to have his picture taken on a local landmark, Maggi Hambling's Scallop;

It was lovely there yesterday - quite warm and not too busy. I suspect next weekend it will be very different as Aldeburgh fills with visitors for the Easter weekend.

When we got home it gave us time to do all the normal Sunday things - getting ready for school in the morning etc etc.

Was going ok when LS was suddenly struck down with a migraine :( - first we ever know about these is when he is sick :(  We packed him off to bed with some painkillers. Fortunately he's fine this morning if a little wobbly so he gets to spend the day at home with me. 

I was saddened to read yesterday of the death of one of my favourite authors & bloggers, Elspeth Thompson.  I am a big of fan of hers & have referred to her books on this blog on several occasions.

I shall see you later in the week & reveal where Ernest is heading next ;)

BTW who is heading to the Vintage Fair in Woodbridge next weekend??

xxx Vicki xxx

Weekend - part 1

Well weekends always start on a Friday don't they?

Had a good morning out with my friend, Country Girl, we headed over to Saxmundham, a little town that I've not been to much in recent years.  Was amazed at how much the high street has changed & the excellent mix of shops there now.

Most importantly coffee was the first stop of the morning;

(oh yes Ernest came too)

We then had a good wander round the town & shops. For once the charity shops turned up nothing for me :(  However I made up for it in the haberdashery shop, where one or two pretty buttons came home with me ;

As it was still sunny in the afternoon & I needed to buy birthday pressies for my FIL, I headed into my little town.  The call of the charity shops was great & I managed several pretty little things - 2 pieces of flowery fabric - perfect for bunting, a pretty pillowcase & an Enid Blyton book which was one of my childhood favourites - total spend £1.50!

Friday night was spent watching the start of Somewhere Over the Rainbow - looking forward to see who wins and of course singing along each week.  All this was accompanied by some birthday chocolates & some of MrVV's homebrew cider *hic*

Saturday morning dawned bright & sunny.  MrVV had a brass engagement this morning - the opening for the season of the museum in town;

(these letters were made by my grandfather who worked in this factory in its heyday).

The museum was keen to show off its latest engine - this used to work in the town 40+ years ago taking things from one factory across town to the other & also to the railway mainline.  It was brought back here about 6 years ago and needed major repairs - now almost £100,000, it looks like this;

This steam roller was made in the Garrett factory & is a familar sight around town & at steam fairs all over the place;

Ernest wanted to sit on both of these but as it was very busy it was not possible. Instead he posed in the workmans van which was also restored by the museum;

Ernest has gone on a special mission this afternoon, he accompanying little son to his grade 2 violin exam.  Little son is a tad nervous & Ernest is hoping that his presence will help him overcome his nerves.

As Mum left at home I need my own Ernest - will be glad when the call comes through to say it is all over & they are on their way home.

A quick turnaround is required as little son is off out tonight to play his baritone with the training brass band he plays with - MrVV is taking him & is picking up T (son of Country Girl) on the way.

Another busy day tomorrow - more birthday celebrations - this times its my FIL's 75th birthday & we're off out as a family for lunch :)

xxxx Vicki xxxx

A feathered houseguest ;)

As I mentioned in my last post, the VV family  has been expecting a houseguest.  Well there was a knock on the door this morning (and this time I was dressed ;) and the postie handed me a box.

Inside was this little fella;

Meet Ernest - he normally lives with Bad Penny @ The Hen House but during 2010 he is having a gap year and planning to visit as many bloggers as possible!  He arrived with his own nest box, passport & bucket in which he is collecting little items from all his stays!

He came to me after staying with Pomona & Princess Bunchy @ Little Cottage Comforts. 

So far he has been the idea houseguest. After lunch he sat & watched me add a few rows to my latest blanket square;

He was left in charge whilst I went to little sons parents evening - he even made sure that little son had his after school bun & drink;

Its been a lot cooler here in Suffolk today and this afternoon was wet & windy.  Ernest found it a little chilly in the VV house until I quickly knitted him a little scarf ;

One very happy visitor - happy then to check little sons homework;

Both boys have gone to scouts tonight so the house it quiet :)  Little son has decided that Ernest may share his room and before he left he took Ernest up to meet the rest of the bedtime gang;

Tomorrow I am off out with my friend Country Girl and I expect Ernest will come too. 

I've been wondering how to entertain my little friend over the weekend - dependant on the weather, he may be off to see some steam engines and hopefully the seaside :)

Already we need to think where Ernest can head next - though I might be naughty & let him stay here over the Easter weekend so he doesn't spend it in the sorting office. If you think you can offer him B&B next - leave a comment on this post & between Ernest & Little Son they'll decide where he fancies visiting next ;)

See you soon

xxxx Vicki xxxx