Faery Tales

Nirvana - Lithium

2011-02-08T11:12:00.000Z

It's all about me, me, me

2011-02-08T11:07:00.003Z

I'm not great at the moment, generally I am happy but there are some things I am struggling with. I'll get through/past/over it, I always do.

I'm becoming more confident, independent, feisty, whatever you want to call it and it is not being welcomed by some. I don't believe I am changing. Just remembering how I used to enjoy life and living in the sun rather than the shade

Music is playing a huge part in my life again, I always always had music on but haven't for ages. With the help of my beloved iPod and iTunes I am rediscovering the music that makes me happy. This song was very apt when I listened to it this morning - Lithium by Nirvana, the youtube video is above this post. The mix of emotions described in the lyrics explains how I am feeling much better than I can.

I'm not down or low, just a bit something at the moment and only I can sort it out.

Moving on

2011-01-30T14:20:00.002Z

We said goodbye to Nanny Lin on Friday. It was a beautiful service as far as funerals go and the vicar said some very poignant words. Chris, my father in law, read Badger's parting gifts by Susan Varley which brought even more tears to my eyes. He also did another reading as well as Lin's sister and myself. Basingstoke Crematorium seats about 100, yet there were at least another 30 people standing. Lin touched a lot of people in her life and I know she will continue to do so even now.

The vicar suggested that instead of being sad for the past, it is time to look forward to the future and that is definitely how I am going to live my life. Possibly I am changing but I see myself finding the confident, independent, happy Ali I used to be rather than changing into someone different. This seems to be causing concern to some people, but I am not going to live in my shadow any more.

Today I...

2011-01-18T20:45:00.002Z

...did some work on my list...I went to Voodoo Body Piercing in Barnstaple and had my nose pierced. I love it although I keep going cross eyed because I am always catching sight of something on my nose lol! The wonderful Dawn and Lee came with me, I think they were hoping to hear me scream but I was good and just winced a bit...although he did give me a tissue to 'wipe my tears away'!

Still thinking about a tattoo - possibly something like the fairy above. On my hip I think.

I was in fits of laughter when Dawn took this photo, I kept making her take different ones because I wasn't happy. A girl has got to look her best you know!

Starting as I mean to go on

2011-01-17T21:08:00.004Z

Did some spinning last night, my first for ages. Really enjoyed the soothing rhythmic action of it, very therapeutic! The fibre is mum's Luscious superwash merino and it spins like a dream. Will try to find time to finish it up this week. It's going to be aran weight singles to make another Coquille from Knitty.com

Still feeling very raw although I have some great friends helping me through. It's extremely hard for everyone but DH is obviously finding it the worst. I'm here for when he needs me which I hope will be soon.

Did you read yesterdays list? I forgot to add 'Taking more risks' to it. I made the appointment for my nose piercing, tomorrow at 10am...please send me a virtual handsqueeze at that time as you know I'm no good with pain lol! I've also started spening more time with friends as I invited myself and Sullivan round to hers after group today, nice coffee Lee :)

Going to book my tattoo tomorrow, hopefully for sometime around my birthday so I can save up for it. Definitely a fairy theme, not sure where though...

The year of no regrets

2011-01-16T22:12:00.003Z

Losing my much loved Mother in Law has got me thinking about life in general over the past couple of days. She is missed so much but I am determined not to be brought down by this tragic event but to live my life as though each day is my last.

I'm going to write a list of all the things I would like to achieve, learn, experience and be in 2011 and that list starts here!

Spend more time with my family
Get my nose pierced
Have a fairy (I think) tattoo
Pay off our loan
Reduce the mortgage
Get a permanent job, hopefully at M&S
Do more spinning, and teach myself to spin finer
Lose 1st
Get fit enough to run 5k in 20 minutes or less
Reacquaint myself with my abs
Become more organised
See/contact my dear friends more often
Be more adventurous
Do more sewing
Learn to make sushi and chocolates
Look after my skin/eat properly/drink my water!
Finish my training and open a La Leche League group with the support of the BBB's
Do some climbing again
Above all else I'm going to HAVE FUN!!!

They will be more things added to the list as the year goes on but I hope to tick them all off. Why don't you join me in making 2011 the year you live your life?

A sad day

2011-01-13T22:15:00.002Z

We had sad news yesterday. My husbands mum passed away very suddenly. She was 67 and in relatively good health. My father in law came home from work yesterday and found her. It was her heart, not a heart attack but heart failure. We'll know more in a couple of weeks when the coroners report is finalised.

She is going to be missed so much, she was a very kind, caring lady who loved to love. She came and stayed with us this Christmas so that I could work and not have to pay for childcare. We had a wonderful time, Lin and Chris found a fabulous holiday home to stay in near Umberleigh where they could bring their dog Mayzee. It meant they could still have a holiday on their own as well as spending time with us. She loved her three grandchildren who loved her straight back - even when she told the girls that they had too many toys and had to give some away!

She was so excited with the digital camera we gave her for Christmas, it was a joint present from us and Jo and Andy. Chris agreed to buy a laptop which Jez helped them choose. Their broadband was only connected yesterday, she didn't even have a chance to send an email.

Linda rediscovered her love of knitting through me, making the children some sweet little things. They will be even more special now. She loved her garden and her dogs, good food and sudoku puzzles. I can't believe I was walking around town with her just 12 days ago. She was so proud of her family, couldn't stop hugging us. She always told me how much she loved my cuddles.

It's so unfair. I didn't even take any photographs of her with us over Christmas.

We miss you Nanny Linda and hope that you are happy and peaceful wherever you may be now. xxx

I'll leave you with these words that Maddie wrote yesterday evening.

I loved my nanny lots and lots, it should be a happy feeling she's with her mum and dad.

I loved her very much.

Elderflower Cordial

2010-06-20T13:34:00.004Z

It's that time of year again, the sky is blue, the birds are singing and plants are bursting into flower...and I'm sneezing, rubbing my eyes and cursing nature!
I love elderflower cordial, there is nothing more refreshing than a glass of this mixed with fizzy water, ice and a slice of lemon. I also enjoyed it with a dash of gin last year...hic! I am sure that Mum won't mind me posting her recipe here for you all to enjoy. It's so simple and makes a great present too.

Elderflower Cordial

20 heads of Elderflowers

2 pints boiling water

2 kg sugar

2 lemons, zested then sliced

80g citric acid (available from brewing shops and some chemists...I got the third degree last year when trying to buy it from a chemist)

Boil the water (I use the kettle for speed and efficiency) and pour over the sugar which you've already put in a large pan, heat until it comes back to the boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat and add the lemon zest, sliced lemons and citric acid. Pour this mixture over the elderflowers - shake them first to get rid of any lingering insects, there's usually a small spider or two! - and cover. Leave for at least 12 hours to infuse. It's such a delicate floral flavour that you really need to let it develop for as long as you can.

Sieve the cordial and then strain through muslin. Store in clean bottles in a cool dark place.

Serve diluted with fizzy water and/or a splash of gin, ice and a slice.

Got gooseberrys? Make an elderflower and gooseberry crumble using the cordial. Yum!

Enjoy your summer, Ali x

RHS Rosemoor

2010-06-19T06:46:00.005Z

I went to RHS Rosemoor with Maddie's class on Thursday. It was a lovely trip and the children were really well behaved, a credit to their school.

The children had a treasure hunt to do and we looked at leaves and flowers, talking about what they feel like, what they look like, the colours and shapes etc. Maddie loves the Lamb's Ears above, she says they feel like blankets and another girl in my group said they felt like donkey ears.

Rosemoor is stunning, I miust go back in the summer holidays and spend the day there. Although we had about 4 hours there last week, we were on a schedule and had 'educational' things to do. The children would have been happy playing in the new play area called The Brash - and I did let them for a while as it was a hot day and the play area was lovely and shady.

We watched the bees on this Helianthemum for ages, I hadn't realise they had been talking about bees in class the day before so I was pleased we had spent the time observing them. One boy even noticed that the bee was storing the pollen and nectar on his legs.

I have finished some sewing - this cute little needlecase from SewHip! You can find the pattern designer here .

It was really easy, only took me about 45 minutes!

I've been trialling different designs of ipod/phone cases. Not found the perfect one yet but my quest continues!

I leave you with some chocolate meringues....enjoy!

I went to RHS Rosemoor with Maddie's class on Thursday. It was a lovely trip and the children were really well behaved, a credit to their school.

When you hit rock bottom...

2010-06-18T12:47:00.005Z

...the tiniest of things can throw you over the edge.

Still trying to get a Dr's appointment. Hopefully I'll be able to see one next week.

I need to laugh, giggle, feel happy about things. Fed up of only seeing the negative and not being able to find the positive. Fed up of being so tired all the time. Absolutely fed up of hay fever!!!

Blah. I'll get better again soon, I know what I need to do. I would love to know why I get low like this. Any ideas?

I'll try to get out for a run tonight, that always makes me feel better and will get me some brownie points when I eventually get to the dr :o)

Thank you for listening.

I'm eating this chocolate pudding for the stodgy, sugary, chocolately very short term happy hit!

Birdie, birdie, tweet tweet

2010-05-03T15:02:00.003Z

I love sewing, I love the way you take a two dimensional piece of fabric and a few carefully placed stitches transforms it into a 3D work of art. (Usually.....)

This is a project from Cath Kidston's latest book Sew! It worked up quickly once I had figured that speed was not of the essence for this project. I really must learn to take more time over my projects, I'm sure I'll be less disappointed with the results then. It also made use of my favourite tool - The Mighty Glue Gun!

I hope the recipient likes it!

We've had a busy day at the park today. Devon County Council organised a Cycling Fun Day and although the girls scootered to the park instead of using their bikes we had a great day. Best of all was the smoothie bike - a bike attached to blender which created a yummy smoothie as you pedalled! The sun shone and the children were happy! All I need to be able to get on my bike is for Jez to give me back my front wheel and a seat on the back for Sullivan.

How does my garden grow, week 2

2010-05-02T20:40:00.003Z

Sullivan. He's a great little boy. Great fun, always wanting kisses and cuddles yet very good at entertaining himself. He's playing 'This Little Piggy' in this picture.

I took these photos last Tuesday, things have changed since then. In the small yogurt pots are tomatoes and french beans. The larger yogurt pots have got butternut squash and courgettes. In the middle you can see my chillis, dwarf french beans and two herb pots. I'm really enjoying gardening this year. Nurturing these tiny seedlings is becoming an important part of my day, satisfying and rewarding as well calming and soothing.

Below you can see the children's beans and the newspaper pots I made. These pots are great, cheap, recycled and totally biodegradable (although I'm not sure about the chemicals in the printing ink). You just have to be careful not to rip them once they are damp...don't ask!

This is my little wall mounted basket, usually it has some sort of trailing flower in it but this year we have salad leaves. I thought it would be great on wet, grey days to be able to open the front door and harvest myself a sunny summer salad. The seedlings seem to like the warmth reflected from the bricks and are growing well.

I've been shown into the dark side. I've experimented with dyeing yarn using plants. Today I did my first ever dye job using dandelions, Thanks Helen. Photos to follow, along with a knitting and spinning update.

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My big girl, Emilia went on her first Brownie holiday this weekend. She was so worried that school told me to take her home after she ran out of school after I had left her in her classroom. Luckily someone we know found her looking for me and kept her until I came out of Maddie's class!

She had some tears getting on the minibus, but Maddie cried more! I didn't cry, but wanted to. She had a great time abseiling, climbing, fencing, singing around a camp fire and watching fireworks. The weekend was organised to celebrate 100 years of Girl Guiding in the UK and was attended by Brownies from all over Devon. I am so proud of her, I don't think I'd have been able to get on the bus!

Off to bed now, had too many late nights recently....

Oh, one last thing. Don't forget to vote next Thursday. It really is important to have your say.

Our Garden

2010-04-20T18:39:00.009Z

The Back Garden

We are in the process of updating/rejigging/sorting out our back garden. Jez built the raised beds last summer and we have been slowly filling them with top soil. We got a load from freecycle last year which filled one of the beds but the one on the side remained empty.

Last week I decided that the children's playmats (recycled car tyre mats for use in playgrounds) needed a proper home so I chose the location and we started digging. It took most of Saturday but we did it - well Jez did it! The soil that came out of the hole for the mats has filled in most of the long bed on the left of the garden. The next job is to fill the hole with hardcore, sand and cement to make a stable base for the mats. They are going to have a deckboard edge so the children are going to end up with about 2 square metres of all weather play area.

Photos taken from the top of the steps.

The big wall at the end of the garden is a flood defence wall, the River Taw flows behind it and it is a tidal river which often has 8-9 metre tides.

The photo above shows where we could site the chickens if the council allows us to keep them. I don't hold out much hope so it'll probably get filled with more soil eventually. The henhouse would go where you can see the shed and the square bed would become their run.

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The Front Garden

The front garden/yard is a hotbed of activity at the moment. I bought the plastic greenhouse today from Wilkinson for £12. A bargain!

In the greenhouse we have:

Sugarsnap peas

Mange Tout

Broad beans

Dwarf french beans

French beans

Courgettes

Butternut squash

Beetroot

Lollo Rossa

Chillies

Sweet peppers

Sage

Flat leaf parsley

Basil

Beefsteak tomatoes

Gardeners Delight tomatoes

Sunflowers

Rosemary

Fingers crossed for a bumper harvest! I still want some rocket and sweetcorn.

In the drainpipes we have carrots for our annual longest carrot competition. There's also chives, parsley, more rosemary, strawberries, salad leaves and a cranberry bush in pots.

Exochorda x macrantha 'The Bride'
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Emilia had her 9th birthday during the Easter holidays. She requested the usual stack of gooey chocolate brownies for her cake. Ooh yum!

She wanted a Roman theme for her party as that has been her topic at school. It was a fun theme and I enjoyed making their costumes. All the children who came had made such an effort too.

My little Roman Soldier.
and my army!

Emilia asked for a sewing kit for her birthday and choose this skirt from Clothkits.com. She was brilliant with the sewing machine and did loads of it herself. I can see Clothkits making me broke!

2010-03-31T17:16:00.003Z

I finished these little trousers for my friends new baby boy. The pattern is Blu

and a very easy knit. I really didn't get on with the seaming though and opted to sew the up regular fashion using mattress stitch. I wasn't very good at the embroidery either...

We have poorly babies at the moment. Emilia and Madeleine are recovering from a bout of Norovirus but Sullivan has been hit hard. I keep thinking he is better and then he is sick again.

I hope we are all better by Friday because Mum, Barry and Maisie are coming to stay for Easter :)

Make sure you visit Barry's blog - he hasn't posted since last August and writes such lovely things.

Happy Easter!

Bold floral fabric

2010-03-29T21:23:00.000Z

Bold floral fabric

Whoops!

2010-03-28T13:14:00.006Z

I've not shown you these socks yet have I? They are Spring Forward from Knitty summer 2008. Really easy lace pattern. I made mine in The Natural Dye Studio's Mirage - Merino and Tencel yarn.

I always, always, always hand wash my hand made socks. ALWAYS.....

Apart from this time. Oh blast I said. But I've cut the cuffs off and will crochet around the cut edges to make sure they don't fray too much. Maddie has a brand new pair of slippers!
This is Eddy, he's from Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. Made using 2 lots of my very beginner handspun yarn. I think he is ugly but Maddie loves him :)

I've made this BSJ (Baby Surprise Jacket) for a friends new baby. Hope it still fits as he is growing very well!

On the needles at the moment is a Milo tank top for Sullivan using Rowan Classic Luxury Cotton in a yummy bitter/milk chocolate colourway. Photos soon...

Oh, I'm feeling a bit sad because there is a man on his way up from Weymouth to collect Bluey. I think I'll commiserate with crispy chilli beef and ginger prawns for tea....

Let me update you...

2010-03-17T11:32:00.006Z

I've been spending too much time on facebook and neglecting my poor old blog!

Sullivan and I fed the baby ducks this morning, so sweet. Last year there were loads but only 7 today, hopefully it is because it is early in the year and not many have hatched yet. I hope it is nothing to do with the tractor and digger from the Environment Agency that were in the duck field this morning...

I'm actually writing this through tears at the moment as I have just listed my lovely bus on eBay. It has been decided that we need to sell him in order to save money and I am so so sad. Unfortunately there is no going back now as my Dad lent us the money to get Bluey fixed so we have to sell him in order to pay Dad back.

One of the reasons I agreed to move here was because I could drive and had my own car. Luckily I've made some great friends now but I am dreading the isolation that will possibly come with not being able to jump in the car and go places. I know it's only a lump of metal and there are worse things that could be happening but I am still so very very sad. :(

Let's hope we get a good price for him at least.

Happy post next time.

Oink.

2009-11-02T21:32:00.003Z

It was half term last week and we spent most of it looking after Madeleine and Sullivan who both ended up very poorly with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. They were both given the antiviral medication which has done a fantastic job of getting them well again. Poor Emilia spent most of the holiday being sent to friends houses to play...I bet she'd like Madeleine to be poorly again! She was very worried about her and kept asking if she'd have to go to hospital, it took a lot of reassurance to put her mind at rest.

Both girls were in their dance schools production this time round, Emilia had three dances - Ballet, Cowgirls dancing The Deadwood Stage from Calamity Jane, Tap - Penguins from Happy Feet and Modern - Catch a wave by The Beach Boys. Maddie had 2 dances - Ballet - We're off to see the Wizard and Tap - Penguins again. They were wonderful, I'm so proud of our girls having the confidence and stamina to perform on a professional stage in front of a full house. Well Done Girls! xxx

Jez is working hard, very busy with work and the gig club. He's training loads and is just about back to the weight and build he was at university.

Me? I'm okay. Not quite myself at the moment but on the advice of my Dr I have cut back the amount of hours I do at the Children's Centre. It's all voluntary so I can't be signed off and I feel like I am letting a lot of people down but maybe I should start pleasing myself a bit more and doing less to please others? Maybe, but I don't like it!

We went back to Hampshire this weekend. It was my brother Edward's 30th and my father-in-law's 65th. Crazy busy weekend, but fun. It was great to surprise Edd and to see Dad, Maisie, Laurie and Michelle too. Laurie was going to come back with us for a while but changed his mind :( I've made him promise to come down soon. We also got to meet my sister in law's new man, and a lovely man he is too. I think she has found someone who'll look after her.

We went round to see my dear friend Sharon for lunch on saturday. I wish her daughter would stop growing up, it's making me feel old! Such a lovely family, wish we saw more of each other.

The girls were back to school today, Maddie's class are already talking about the Christmas play - I'm so excited!

I'll leave you with a photo of Sullivan and I, taken at Mum and Barry's Wedding 18/04/08.

More photos soon, and hopefully a short video or two! Have a great week - I'm off to bed ready for a busy day tomorrow.

A busy time

2009-10-04T12:06:00.005Z

Sullivan is Thomas mad at the moment. He has tantrums if he has to wear anything other than his Thomas Tshirts (although he seems to be happy with Mr Men this weekend, saying Bum Bum and pointing to his tshirt with Mr Bump on it). I bought him these jimjams from Sainsbury's yesterday - it was so busy, they even tannoyed that they had every till

open and would serve us as quickly as possible. It's not even that busy at Christmas! - He didn't want to get ready for bed but when I told him he had new jimjams he was up the stairs faster than a supersonic rocket. He loves them and has been carrying them around all day today. At least we know what to get him for his birthday...

On wednesday I attended an event hosted by NiftyThrifty at Lillico's here in Barnstaple. It was a great event featuring a diverse range of Devon based designer makers. I did really well, having only 4 bags left at the end of the evening. It was the first time I had sold my felted bags down here and it was great to know that people like the things I produce. I'm surprised that this bag didn't go though, but Halloween isn't such a big even over here as it is in the States, yet!

I'm next selling at the Barnstaple Children's Centres Christmas shopping evening on 13th November at St Johns Hall by Tesco and then on 22nd November in Barnstaple Pannier Market. Drop by and have a look!

Anybody getting Christmas excited yet...?

Ilfracombe Pilot Gig Club Regatta, Fibrefest and P/hop...

2009-08-30T16:13:00.008Z

Yesterday Ilfracombe Pilot Gig Club held their first regatta. Despite strong winds and a very lumpy sea everyone had a great time. The course was shortened due to the sea conditions so the races were about 1 mile in length compared to the norm of around 1.5 - 2 miles. The rowers had to work very hard to fight against the waves, and they definitely won the battle!

The Ilfracombe Men's A didn't do too well but the Men's B won their first ever race! It was Ilfracombes' first ever race win in a regatta and much celebration followed! Well done boys! The mixed team came a close fifth after Weymouth, the team really worked hard to try and edge past. It was practically a photo finish!
Daddy didn't win :o(

I loved this seagull, he (or she) posed quite happily for me before fighting against the wind to soar in the thermals. Not his thermals, it was quite warm yesterday!

Here you can see all the boats lining up for the first race. These crews are the Ladies B teams, Weymouth - the 2 green boats - came first and third, Paignton - yellow and blue - came second.

Overall, Weymouth were the outright winners. They have extremely strong crews who work with good coxswains to ensure the whole crew pull together well.

Emilia had a great day, she spent almost all day in the food tent helping to sell the cakes. She was brilliant with the money, adding it up, giving correct change and always being polite, confident and happy. It has done wonders for her confidence. In fact our Millie was back, the one who was so happy and confident before she started junior school last year. Let's just say that I will be watching the school closely this year and if her confidence even takes the slightest dive I will want to know why!

All in all it was a wonderful day. The Ilfracombe crews, committee and friends worked so hard to make the day as brilliant as it was. I hope that they are all proud of themselves - I know I am!

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Last weekend Mum, Barry and Maisie came to stay. It just happened to be the same weekend as Fibrefest at ColdHarbour Mill. Oh what a wonderful day I had. I was totally overwhelmed and overawed by the talent, beauty, squooshiness and total loveliness of the day. I bought a fair bit, some jute to make shopping bags with for £1 a skein, Araucania Patagonia Cotton to make Liesl (which I have started), some blue and red merino tops to spin into something for Sullivan and a few knitpro harmony tips. Barry disappeared when we got into the main tent and then reappeared with an Ashford Niddy Noddy for me. What a great stepdad! xxx

Mum let me 'shoplift' her wonderful fibre that she had brought down with her I've got so much lovely stuff that needs spinning but not until after wednesday when the girls go back to school :o(

This chimney is at Coldharbour Mill, it gave me reverse vertigo to look up to it!

One of the lovely outdoor stands, Sullivan adored all the animals and was answering the sheep back when they baa-ed at him!

I'm sure he wanted to get in with the sheep....

I've just realised that I haven't any photos of my newly enhanced fibre and yarn stash, maybe tomorrow.

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This a square I've knitted for a P/Hop blanket to be auctioned for Medecins Sans Frontiers. Mum has been helping knit and sew up these blankets and needed just a few more squares to finish the last one. I'm not sure what the yarn is, but I didn't have quite enough for it and the final 3 rows are knit in Fleece Artist merino sock yarn. I'll be adding a P/Hop donation thingy to my blog, please help if you can as it is such a wonderful cause.

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Tomorrow is my 5 year blogiversary. Amazing. How should I celebrate I wonder? Cake.....

Tomten

2009-08-22T13:35:00.003Z

This is the gorgeous jacket from Knitting Without Tears and The Opinionated Knitter, both by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I haven't enjoyed making something so much for ages. The chatty nature of her pattern directions make you feel that you a knitting alongside your best friend with a good cup of tea and warm chatter to keep you smiling.

The yarn is Katia Mexico which I was sent in a swap sometime last year and the icord edging is King Cole Merino. I did spin some green yarn for the edging but I learnt a lesson doing this. Don't bring your wheel downstairs to watch television whilst spinning, don't spin in a hurry and always let your singles settle overnight on the bobbin before plying. I made rope rather than yarn...

Maddie got a bit fed up with posing so the photo's aren't that great.

Mum, Barry and Maisie are down this weekend. Today Mum, Barry and Millie have gone to Fibrefest, Jez is competing in the Clovelly Gig Boat Regatta and I'm at home with Sullivan, Maddie and Maisie.

Maddie and Maisie are currently making felt beads and cardboard sandals from a lovely book called Green Crafts for Children that Mum brought down for the girls. I'll show the results later as they are enjoying being in a crafty, happy mess at the moment.

Tomorrow Mum, Sullivan and I are going to Fibrefest, I am so excited. I'm looking forward to meeting my friend Sarah whom I used to knit with a couple of years ago in Boston Tea Party and I can't wait to squidge lots of yummy fibre.

I'll blog again tomorrow to show you all my purchases!

Happy Birthday Mum!

2009-08-12T09:22:00.005Z

My lovely Mum celebrates her birthday today. Those of you who have met her or know her as Picperfic will know how wonderful she is. Without her I doubt I would knit, sew, crochet, bake, etc etc! She taught me so much and continues to inspire me. I am very proud of how she has turned her life around and made it the life that she wants and deserves. Love you Mum xxx

This is my current project. A Tomten jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Katia Mexico. This is a lovely knit and the yarn is great too. It's my first EZ project although I have read her books from cover to cover numerous times. I love the way she writes, so easily and calmly. I'm going to edge the jacket with an applied i-cord using some green handspun.

We had some sunshine yesterday and were planning to go to RHS Rosemoor but the central locking on my van has gone loopy and gives you a split second to open the doors and then locks you in. I don't feel happy driving long distances in it so we picnicked in the garden instead. The above photo is Sullivan just before he launched himself on top of Emilia and Madeleine's Barbie game. Boys!

The girls were wearing their Amy Butler Sun Surf Halters, this is a lovely pattern. I made one for myself but the fabric was too stiff and just looked yuk! I love the girls in theirs and they were them as often as possible.

I hope you are enjoying your summer!

Custard Pies!

2009-08-01T19:55:00.005Z

If you ever want to get rid of pent up aggression in a safe(ish!) environment then organise a custard pie fight!

This event was organised to help Childrens Hospice Southwest here in Barnstaple. They'd also had a sponsored 24 hour space hopper-thon going on since the previous evening. Can you imagine how hard that would have been? Hope lots of money has been raised!

Before they got too mucky!

Emilia's school organised two sports days this year but unfortunately the weather wasn't playing fair and they only managed one. Emilia loves sports, she puts 100% into everything she tries and always enjoys herself. The teacher who was running the event below was brilliant, really good at keeping the childrens' attention as well as making them laugh. I hope he's still teaching when Emilia is in year 6.

Giggking away because of the way she threw the ball :o)

Cheering on the team 'Go Reds!'

On Saturday 18th July, Pilton held its yearly street festival. I love this day, it's how I imagine Glastonbury to have been in the early days. (In fact isn't Glastonbury held in a village called Pilton?). Mum and I were meant to have been spinning in the Rotary Gardens but I was told Sullivan had Swine Flu on the thursday before the festival and couldn't let Mum come down. Sullivan then sprouted two new teeth - little monkey!

It turned out fine though as I met a friend who had a gazebo in the gardens, she was making felt and her friend was making beautiful hand embroidered owl cushions. They let me join them and I had a fun afternoon answering all sorts of questions about spinning including whether I had spun cat fur as this couple had been keeping the combings from their cat...

We were in the parade for the third year, Sullivan slept through most of it, even the loud drumming couldn't keep him awake!

My next post may include some knitting or even some spinning!

Rubbish Blogger

2009-07-14T12:59:00.005Z

Facebook appears to have ruined my blogging, as well as my housework and creative time. I'm going to limit myself to 15 minutes a day from now on and hopefully I'll get more done. I'm feeling quite unproductive at the moment.

Maddie had her sports day last wednesday, they all did really well. As well as the team events they have a few running races. Maddie came 2nd in hers which is way better than I could ever have hoped to have done even though I was 'a natural athlete'! fnar fnar!
On thursday we drove down to Weymouth for a camping trip and the Weymouth Gig club Regatta on the saturday. This trip was fated from the start! The van did us proud until we got to the camp site and then the gears/clutch packed up so we decided to camp where we had to stop lol! We unpacked the van, found the tent and then started to pitch it.

My darling husband looked a bit purplexed when unpacking the tent. He'd forgotten that when we packed the tent away last time he'd decided not to pack the tent poles in with the tent...

Luckily the campsite had a whole load of tent poles that had been left behind which they let us borrow and we managed to cobble something together!

This is the reason for the camping trip - Gig Rowing . Jez is a member of the Ilfracombe team and we have had a great year so far travelling around the west coast of England for different Regattas. The children and I don't go to all of the regattas but the ones we have been to are great fun for all ages, the social-ness of them is wonderful!

Whilst Jez was rowing my dear friend S and her lovely family drove up to see us. It was wonderful to see them again if a little wet! (A LOT WET!) I can't believe how much her sweet daughter is growing up and I love how our 3 girls all get along so well :o)

Here's Dion and Sullivan, Dion is another member of the Ilfracombe along with his gorgeous girlfriend Jules. They camped with us at Osmington Mills, having recommended it to us.

When we got back on Saturday evening a couple of our sleeping bags had got wet so we decided to pack up and come home. Dion and Jules stayed on and said they had to move their tent at 2am because of the howling wind. Blooming weather!

On Sunday we went to the Big Sheep in Bideford, they've got these new trampolines called Pillows which are huge inflatable, erm, well, pillows! Great fun!

I have been knitting, and sewing too but I have no photo's of that.

This is Emilia's Adipose. Jez printed the pattern before Mazzmatazz had to take it off her site. Lovely pattern, cute little critter. Made in Rowan Soft Lux.

Sullivan adores In the Night Garden and Makka Pakka is his favourite. This is crocheted from an online free pattern. I can't remember from where but it is in my Ravelry list so I will credit her when I get back from school. I adjusted the head a little as it didn't quite look right and used buttons for the eyes as my embroidery skills are quite rubbish!

This is Sullivan (again) in his Humbug Hoody. This has become a summer staple and will probably fit him next year! Rowan Luxury cotton (I think), from RYC Mother and Baby.

Well, I have to get the girls home from school now. I hope it doesn't rain again! No promises to blog again soon as I'll only break my promise and then you'll hate me! HA!

Why I haven't been blogging

2009-04-29T10:56:00.003Z

'nuff said!

Mum, Barry, Jez, Millie, Maddie and Sullivan have given me Mum's Ashford Traditional for my birthday. I am in love! No time to blog as I HAVE to spin!

Very quickly - Amy Butler baby dress

2009-03-25T12:43:00.003Z

The Back

And the front with knickers.

I've just finished this super cute baby dress and knickers for my friends little girl who is 1 tomorrow.

The pattern is from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones and was a complete joy to make. I did modify the pattern slightly - I couldn't work out what to do with the 'V' in the front of the bodice so I ignored it and I ignored the front band too. I was tired and it was late!

I hope she loves it as much as I do :o)

More tomorrow including photos of our Mother's Day walk around Baggy Point and Croyde.

Ali xxx

Ravelry 'a few of my favourite things' swap

2009-03-18T11:27:00.004Z

Ravelry is a wonderful place. You can find all sorts of wonderful, unusual and downright cool patterns on there. I've also made some good virtual friends!

This is my latest swap package, the 'a few of my favourite things wunderknauel' swap. I don't know who my partner is but I think it may be Gladcat?

Yarn and material to make this great project bag from 'Through the loops'. This is next on my list of things to do.

This is my 'wunderknauel'. I've started knitting dashing from Knitty and so far I have found a packet of Maoams which the girls have enjoyed! The yarn is Araucania Aysen and is so soft and silky. I really love it :)

My partner made me this beautiful bowl but I can't keep anything in it. The moment I put something in it Sullivan tips it out and puts the bowl on his head!!!

This is all the parcels and goodies before I opened them. Wasn't I spoilt! Emilia has her eyes on 'Pub Knitting', I think she could manage something from the book as they aren't difficult patterns. Maybe an Ipod cosy as she has asked for an Ipod for her birthday.

Right, must go and do some housework. This sunshine is wonderful but it really shows up the muck on my windows!

Ali x

A truly wonderful weekend!

2009-03-16T12:10:00.005Z

The weather this weekend was glorious, it was so wonderful not to wear a coat! On Saturday we did the normal dancing lessons and food shopping. I did some sewing during the day too, finishing a tricornu and a landry bag to keep Sullivan's cloth nappies in.

On Sunday we all went to Ilfracombe and Jez went out in the gig boat (they had a race last week and came third! My photo's of last weeks events are here) for a training session. Emilia, Madeleine, Sullivan and I wandered around the harbour watching the men rowing and then we went to Ilfracombe Aquarium. It's a great attraction, not expensive. Small but really interesting. The girls love it there, I think we might get a season ticket this year.

I apologise for the order of the photos...

This character is on a boat on the river Lyn. Can you guess who he is meant to be?

This cheeky robin came to greet us as we finished the walk from The Valley of The Rocks down to Lynmouth. He actually posed for photos! If I's had any food with me I'm sure he would have taken it from my hand. We always say 'Hello Grandad' when we see a robin, Mum knows why xxx

We all really enjoyed our walk, I think we walked about 2 miles up and down hill. I plan to get fit this year and yesterday was day one! The girls hardly moaned at all, I think we need to get them some walking boots and then we can do more.

The Valley of the Rocks is populated by wild goats. They are very cheeky and funny to watch. These two were on a ledge above us as we walked down the coast path. They regarded us as if we were intruding on their patch! (I suppose we were...)

This is at Ilfracombe Harbour, Emilia was racing down to meet Daddy as the gig boat came back in. Both the girls helped push the gig back up to the lock up.

Here they are, my beautiful girls. We were watching the men row out to sea as we sat at the very end of the harbour wall, these steps actually lead into the sea, needless to say I didn't let Sullivan out of the back pack!

Here's my recent FO, a knitted boob! I'm going to make 1 for each of us in our La Leche Peer counselling team, the pattern is here. Before I sewed it up it looked like a little hat - I can just see a newborn wearing a booby hat! Haha! The yarn is Rowan Calmer and Wool cotton, it hardly took any yarn at all. I knit the boob in the round so I didn't have to sew it up.

I received my Ravelry £10 swap parcel today, I'll upload photo's tomorrow but I'll leave you knowing that I am overwhelmed by the kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity of my swap partner.

I hope you are able to enjoy the glorious spring sunshine,

Ali xxx

Flickr

2009-03-07T21:19:00.001Z

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

A quicky...

2009-02-23T20:41:00.003Z

I haven't heard about the job yet, I'm feeling so sick about it! I'll let you know as soon as I do!

Mum (Picperfic) has opened a shop on Misi called Fluff n Stuff, you can find delicious squishy batts of hand dyed (by her) exquisite fibre ready for spinning or hand felting in her store. Go and see, I especially love Fruit Salad and Silky Denim. If only I had a spinning wheel...!

2009-02-20T20:01:00.004Z

We had a fantastic day today. The sun was shining, we didn't need coats and the girls weren't being too bickerish... :0)

Emilia and Madeleine had painted a pony at the local 'paint a pot' place last weekend and we needed to collect the fired ponies. So we piled into the van and went to Braunton to pick them up, had fish and chips and then fed the ducks. The carpark was so empty that the girls were safe to scoot around it.

Sullivan loved the freedom! We got his shoes on monday and today was the first time he was 'released'! He only fell over when the girls wanted to hold his hand. There's a video of him walking at the bottom of this post. The tank top he is wearing is from Louisa Harding's Miss Bea's Seaside. It's called Target and is made from a mixture of Rowan and Sirdar denim yarns. A lovely knit but next time I'd split the back neck and add a button as it is a little snug going over his head!

I've just cast on a hoody for Sullivan from Martin Storey's Mother and Baby in RYC Natural Silk Aran. I really should finish Emilia's Linnet but I want to get this jumper made before he grows out of the amount of yarn I bought!

Back to school monday :o( and :o)

Don't forget my yarn sale in the previous post. Great prices, luxury yarns!

Oh - the interviw went well. I was with them for over an hour, I'll find out tomorrow or Monday...keep your fingers crossed for me!

Yarn for sale

2009-02-19T09:41:00.006Z

Hello again, I finally found the lead for my camera so I have been able to upload my photos :) This is a hat I made for one of Jez's colleagues and rowing buddies. It was his 40th birthday on Valentines day. It's my own pattern, I'm going to make it again in Rowan Cork and then I'll publish the pattern. I've had these 5 flags sitting unfinished in my work basket since October and finally got round to finishing them this morning. They are made with Anchor Magicline cotton and the pattern is from a Zoe Mellor book - Nursery Knits I think?

I've got a pair of felted slippers and a circular felted purse drying at the moment - I'll blog them when they are dry and finished.

I've got an interview this afternoon, it's for 8 hours a week at my favourite clothes shop Fat Face. I'm quite nervous but excited too. I've sorted out child care for Sullivan, I may just need extra help during the holidays. I really hope I get the job, I love Fat Face and the hours are perfect. I've also got an Avon area rep coming to see me tomorrow morning to talk about settng myself up as an Avon lady. The initial outlay is £15 plus £2.90 for 5 books, not too bad I thought. I'm determined to get through the recession unscathed!

*************************************************************************************
All this yarn is for sale. Post free in the UK, email me if you are outside of the UK and I'll find out how much postage would be. If you are interested in any of the yarn, leave a comment and I'll send you a paypal invoice :)

2x 50g skeins Koigu sock yarn £12.

2x 50g skeins Knitpicks shimmer laceweight yarn £6.00

4x50g Rowan cotton rope, £10.00

2x50g Patons pixie £4.00

1x200g Banana Silk £8.00

9x 50g Silkwood yarns from NZ, a merino, alpaca, mohair blend. 4.5mm needles. £17.00

Hipknits Sock yarn £5.00

2x50g Koigu sock yarn £12.00

3x50g Rowan Summer Tweed. £9.00

3 x 50g Debbie Bliss wool cotton £7.00

1x100g Colinette Giotto £4.50

1x100g Colinette Firecracker £4.50

2 x 50g Mohair blend. £5.00

Handpainted Touch Yarns NZ superfine Merino Laceweight. £14.00 100g/875m

1x100g/170m Touch boucle yarn. £8.00

These are all quality yarns at bargain prices. Remember that postage is free in the UK. Help me thrash the recession!!!

Chat again next week, Ali x

Join me on a stash only 2009?

2009-02-11T10:11:00.004Z

We had some great snow last week. It was very exciting as North Devon doesn't often get hit by snow. It confused the schools however, they didn't decide whether or not to shut until about 9:30 in the morning! Emilia spent 2 hours playing in the back garden building Mr Snow.

Maddie made a baby snowman.

This is what we walked to school in! It was great fun and the girls thought it was a great adventure.

Jez wanted to play in the snow before he went to work so he rigged up his Halogen decorators lamp in the back garden and we all went out at 6:30am! Sullivan wasn't too sure, those boots are at least 3 sizes too big so he wasn't really able to walk. He is walking so well now, he barely crawls. I suppose I ought to get him measured for some proper shoes but I love the fat baby boots Mum made him for Christmas and he doesn't really walk outside...yet!

I've been doing a lot of knitting, see me on ravelry (faerynuff). I've made a hat from Mum's Handspun for me - Verity by Ysolda, a neck warmer for Maddie, a hat for Jez - Half pipe from Son of Stitch and Bitch, I just need to stitch in the brim. oh, and I've made two tank tops for Sullivan. Still struggling with Emilia's Linnet - I don't enjoy Kidsilk Haze. I'll do a slideshow of my knits for my next post as this one is getting long and rambly!

Is the credit crunch getting you down too? I'm permanently feeling sick about money, it's a horrid feeling. I'm on a self imposed yarn diet now, I'm having a lot of fun using only yarn from my stash.

We've had to pay £285 (about US$415) for the girls dancing this term. It's more than usual as Emilia has been put in for her primary tap exam and they are also in a show at the end of October so costumes have to be paid for. Emilia is doing so well, she passed her primary ballet exam with a merit in November :o) Maddie has started Tap this term, so between them the girls take 5 dancing classes. Phew.

I'm going to put a load of my yarn on ebay tonight - I've got so much and I know that I will never use it all - especially the lace weight! I'm also going to ebay some of Sullivan's clothes that he has outgrown as well as some of mine...I think worrying about money is making me eat. That and my new freecycled bread machine!

Happy Wednesday xxx

2009-01-15T10:19:00.004Z

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We travelled up to Cambridgeshire to spend the holidays with Mum and Barry. On the way up and the way home we stayed at our friends in Bicester which was great, their children are of a similar age to ours and get on very well. It also helped to break up the 5-6 hour journey from Mum’s to ours .

Can anyone tell me why this paragraph is underlined and in blue? I did all the text on word and copied it over.
It was lovely to see my beautiful sister Maisie, she is such a darling and so good with the girls. Sullivan was very happy to snuggle down to sleep with her. She’s magic with babies .

Mum and Barry more than looked after us, their new home is beautiful. Mum is desperate to redecorate but is waiting until they have bought it in the hope that will keep the price down a bit! One room she mustn’t decorate however is the downstairs loo. It is resplendent in black floral wall paper and earthenware floor tiles. I think it may have a turquoise ceiling too…

We were all very spoilt at Christmas as you can see from this picture! They weren’t all for us though!

I did some spinning at Mum’s. It’s wonderful, frustrating and amazing all at the same time! I can’t wait to do more.

I have been knitting. I’ve finished Solace in Rowan Colourscape chunky, a hat for Jez in King Cole something or other and just about finished a fairisle hat and jacket set in Dream in Color Classy for Sullivan. Just need to do some swiss darning and sew on the buttons. Photos to follow.

I’ve just started a Rowan Denim tank top for Sullivan. It’s Target from Louisa Harding’s Book ‘Miss Bea’s Seaside’. I love denim yarn, it’s the way it changes from hard string to soft, worn cotton fabric after being washed. I have a jumper that Mum made for me about 16 years ago and is just gets better and better. I must take a photo of it – perhaps someone would know which pattern book it came from?

Sullivan is walking! He’s been taking a few steps since Christmas and is now spending half the time crawling and the other half walking. He’s getting very steady on his feet now but I’m not getting him any proper shoes yet, he doesn’t walk outside and he’d probably only take them off any way!

Emilia got herself into a bit of a state about going back to school after Christmas. She was so worried that she ended up being sick. I rang the school and told them she wouldn’t be there as she was petrified about school, that she isn’t the same little girl that left the infants school and that she isn’t even enjoying reading any more. The deputy head rang me that evening and said that she had spoken to all of Emilia’s teachers who say she is happy in class and were very concerned that she was unhappy. In fact her class teacher was ‘distraught’ that she was unhappy. Since that phone call Emilia seems a lot happier at school, coming out with a smile on her face instead of a scowl and we seem to have a lots less arguments over homework too! Her teacher seems to be showing her caring side too which I know Emilia needs. She needs her cuddles! I like her teacher now, she seems to have found her feet and the whole class is happier.

Maddie is doing well, she loves school and has made lots of friends. She is very tired by Thursday afternoon though and could do with a three day weekend. Couldn’t we all!

I’m off to do a little bit of knitting whilst Sullivan sleeps. Happy New Year everyone!

2009-01-14T16:35:00.001Z

I've been trying to upload a video and photo for a few days now but it seems blogger won't let me :o(

I'll try again tomorrow. In the meantime I'd like to wish you all a happy new year!

Christmas plays 2 and 3!

2008-12-19T14:04:00.004Z

I've been making some presents...YUM!

We made star biscuits for the girls teachers, fairy cakes for Millie's friends and frangipane mince pies for breastfeeding group. Mum said that Barry took frangipane mince pies to work today - must be on the same Christmas wavelength! I've got two stockings to make tonight and then I think I am ready...maybe? I'm not sure!

Millie's school play was called ' Christmas around the World' and was very very good!

Maddie was an angel in the school church nativity.

Last day of school today, Hooray. I'm going to put my silver deely-boppers on and go to the girls now. Happy Happy Christmas!

Christmas Play number 1!

2008-12-10T11:32:00.005Z

Maddie was in her first school Christmas play today, the majority of the production is carried out by years 1 and 2 but reception took to the stage to sing and sign Jingle Bells. I didn't know she was doing this so I was very glad I took my camera! She was very tearful before and afterwards although she thoroughly enjoyed herself during the play. I think Christmas excitement is starting to take its toll :)

Sorry for the red eye in the above photo, forgot to edit before I uploaded it. You can see how tired she is looking in the video below.

Emilia has her Christingle Service this afternoon, not sure if she has a role or is just singing with the rest of the school. I love all these school things in the run up to Christmas, they are so special.

We've had another issue with Emilia's school. Bearing in mind that she is only 7, she brought home a reading book last week that was dealing with kissing, ending up pregnant and going to the family planning clinic at age 12. I was not happy. The school have apologised and the book has been reclassified both by the school library and the town library. Poor Emilia was really enjoying the book because it was written in diary form and was set in December. She's back to Clarice Bean and Malory Towers now. We want to keep our children as innocent as we can for as long as possible!

HELLO!

2008-12-09T12:22:00.003Z

Above - Maddie and her friend had a rainbow birthday party, all the children dressed in their favourite colours and had a wonderful time.

It's been so busy here, Sullivan has turned one, Maddie has turned 5. Emilia has been slowly settling into her new school and I've been trying (and failing!) to keep a tidy home.

Christmas is almost here and we are so excited this year as we are travelling up to stay with Mum and Barry in their new home. We haven't had Christmas day with mum for years so this year is extra special :)

Oh Blimey, young Sullivan has just woken up so I had better go and sort him out.

Lactation Cookies....

2008-09-28T15:36:00.004Z

Now, the name doesn't really sound appetising does it? Be honest. I'm thinking more along the lines of Boobie Biscuits or Milky Munchers :) These are cookies made and eaten to help along your supply of breastmilk, I find mine often lessens aound the time of the month and Sullivan compensates by feeding more often. Which does its job of increasing supply :) Breastfeeding is a circular thing.

These biscuits are yummy - everyone likes them, not just me. I'm going to add chopped dried apricots to my next batch which I am making to take to the PCP on monday afternoon. I plan to research more about how these ingredients help boost your supply and I'll post anything I find here. I find anything to with breastfeeding amazing...:)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Lactation Cookies -by Noel Trujillo

yields 4.5 dozen

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup backed brown sugar
4 TBSP water
2 TBSP ground flax seed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour 1
tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips (or 1 cup of any thing..nuts, or other chips..or a combo adding up to 1 cup) 2-4 TBSP brewer’s yeast

Preheat oven to 350 f /190c

Mix the flax seed and water, let sit for 3-5 mins

Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well

Add eggs and mix well

Add flax and water mix and vanilla, beat well

Sift in flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, salt, and mix.

Stir in oats and chips.

Drop spoonfulls onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake for 12 mins.

I have been knitting, I'm making Emilia 'Linnet' from The Rowan Storybook of Little Knits. She chose the pattern and I am enjoying making it. I'm starting a love affair with Rowan's Kid Silk Haze, oh help!

Fancy joining me for the 10,000 step weight loss challenge? Apparently if you walk 10,000 steps a day you burn off 1lb of body fat a week! Get yourself a pedometer and join me :) I'll log today's steps tomorrow.

Have a great evening and I'll see you all again tomorrow

Ali x

*edit*

My total steps yesterday was 8558, which equates to 2.553 miles. I've already done 6679 steps today and it is only 10 O'clock! I have been for a walk around the park for about 1/2 hour, really enjoyable looking at the cyan blue sky and the burnished gold leaves of the Horse Chestnut trees. I feel energised :)

Blimey, almost 2 months!

2008-09-25T10:16:00.005Z

Mr Nuff and the girls made a car out of a cardboard box, Sullivan attempted and succeeded to pull the wheels off!

I took the kiddlywinks to Stonehenge on our way back from escaping kitchen mess! Can you tell it was slap bang in the middle of our glorious summer? ;-)
I'm not sure Sullivan saw much but his bunny got a good chewing!

I've made some socks (still need to finish the second Spring Forward - Knitty.com summer 08), the yarn is Natural Dye Studio Merino Tencel, gorgeous, simply gorgeous!

The ones below are my 'learn to knit two socks at a time' pair. They'll fit Mr S soon - especially as he is crawling like a dynamo and managed to climb the stairs yesterday...! He's 10 months now.

Gosh, I didn't realise it had been so long since I blogged. I bet you've all given up on me! Life chez Faerynuff has been very busy. Mr Nuff has been creating a wonderful new kitchen for me all summer, I now have duck egg blue units and bright red gloss worktops! As well as fantastic double oven which actually cooks and a 5 ring hob with wok ring (still waiting for my new wok though darling Mr Nuff...)

Emilia and Madeleine have both settled well into their new schools, unfortunately it appears that Emilia has managed to get another dopey teacher. Poor girl, it's so unfair. No school photos yet, the pics are on my phone and I've lost my baby card reader.

I'm doing well, just started training to be a La Leche League Peer Supporter, I'm really looking forward to helping other mums have a good and rewarding time breastfeeding their children.

I started Slimming world last night, I'm 11st 4lbs and am looking to be 9st 13lbs as that is what I was when I got married - I need your support as chocolate keeps calling me!

Well, off to get Maddie from school now, I'll update again soon and I'll post the photos that have been requested :)

Wow, what a response!

2008-07-29T11:24:00.003Z

I don't think I have ever had so many comments for a single post before! Random photos have certainly captured your interest :)

Here are the most recent 5 requests.

Mum (Picperfic) chose 274, how did she know it was a photo of her? Who took this picture Mum?

Barry (Razmabaz) chose 173. Emilia and Nanny (my MIL) at Rosemoor Gardens, looking at courgette plants I think.
Tutleymutley chose 303. I'm not sure how this photo was taken, perhaps through glass but it shows next doors porch along with our hanging basket of tomato plants and DH's saw horses.

Thimbleanna chose 275, Mrs Bellamy - Emilia's head teacher - and Mrs Marshall - her classroom assistant - dressed up as The Weather Girls and singing It's Raining Men at the school fair in June.
Peri chose 41. Maddie sat eating sweets before going to bed in the tent with daddy. They camped at Lobb Fields in Saunton in May. It's a lot cheaper there than staying in Croyde. I think it's about time he took them camping again!

This has been fun, I like not having to choose which pics to show you. You can still choose a pic...anything from 1-304.

I'm enjoying the coolness today after yesterdays very hot day, The girls are being better behaved today too.

Lunchtime now, see you all soon x

Random Pictures

2008-07-25T20:50:00.006Z

My darling Grandma gave Emilia a Nikon S200 for her birthday this year. Both girls love to use it and we end up with a lot of random pictures. I've just uploaded all the pictures from the camera, all 304 of them!

So, a little bit of fun, give me a number between 1 and 304. I'll find the picture and upload it on to here.

DH chose 2, which appears to be Emilia's messy unmade bed!

I choose 67....

Maddie waking up after a night camping with Daddy x

Go on, pick a number...I wonder what it'll be?

************************************************************************************

Anonymous chose #13 which is Emilia running up the sand dunes at Croyde Bay, North Devon. Just a few miles from our house.

Trillian chose 42 (of course! Don't Panic!) This picture shows Emilia and a friend she made when camping in Croyde with Daddy.

Any more requests?

A busy fun weekend

2008-07-14T13:07:00.009Z

We've been busy this weekend. The girls had their usual swimming and dance lessons which I took them to this week as Jez was busy attacking the kitchen. Whilst we were at ballet the school was having its summer fair (the school where dance classes are held, not Emilia's school) so we had fun there in between classes.

On Sunday we took the girls to the circus, Billy Smart's Circus which was fantastic. Even Sullivan was enthralled. Every single act was amazing, the trapeze artistes were stunning, the fireman was hilarious and breathtaking at the same time. I couldn't choose between any of them to be my favourite.

It was Emilia's sports day today, we all enjoyed ourselves. Emilia worked really hard, she loves being active. Here's a selection of photos from this morning.
Upside down Maddie
Wheeee!
She's got my legs!
Concentrate Emilia!

Maddie in the preschoolers race.

Walking home from school on friday afternoon. They are the best of friends although they argue...a lot!

Maddie had her preschool leavers show on friday afternoon, all the children were dressed up as nursery rhyme characters. It was great fun and very sweet. Maddie was Little Bo Peep.

Hopefully the video works!

Have a great day xxx

2008-07-10T09:08:00.004Z

I found this meme on TutleyMutley's blog, it took a while to do but it was really interesting to do ;)

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.b. Using only the first page, pick an image.c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name? Alison

2. What is your favorite food? Chocolate

3. What high school did you go to? Glamorgan Uni

4. What is your favorite color? Pink

5. Who is your celebrity crush? David Tennant

6. Favorite drink? Diet Coke

7. Dream vacation? Nelson, New Zealand

8. Favorite dessert? Pavlova

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Confident

10. What do you love most in life? my family

11. One word to describe you. Messy

12. Your Flickr name. the_webb_site

I'm really sorry but blogger has eaten all the above photo credits, I'll try and find them all again on flickr. Sorry to all the photographers who's work is featured above.

Got a headache today...possibly something to do with the large amount of mini toblerones I have been eating. Well, if they are going to be reduced in Woollies you wouldn't ignore them either...would you?

Wet wet wet

2008-07-09T15:18:00.003Z

Here's Elspeth from Rowan, designed by Laura Long. It's a gorgeous knit and fits beautifully. I had a little trouble keeping the pattern correct when shaping the fronts, in fact I frogged the first one 3 times but I was determined to keep going as I loved the finished cardigan.

Here's Bluey Louie - my VW van. He's great! As you can see the weather has been less than great today and Bluey is desperate to go to the beach! There are hundreds of VW T4's in North Devon but I'm yet to see another the same as mine. He is in need of some curtains and seat covers and some TLC on the bodywork, especially as some idle piece of work scratched him on the sliding door last week. GRRR!

I bought the girls their summer clobber today. Wellies and Macs! Blooming rain. It's good for my courgettes though, they are flowering nicely and we should have some good ones in time for sunday lunch. The snails have decimated my runner beans but my tomatoes and sunflowers are growing well this year. I treated myself as well today, I had to throw away all my eye makeup because of the eye infection I had last week so I went to the Clinique counter this morning as spent over an hour having different eye makeup put on. I settled for a lovely colourway called Victorian Pink as well as a few other bits...just a few *wink wink*. It's been a long time since I have used Clinique, silly really as it really suits my skin and lasts for ages so it is good value for money when you cost it all out.

You can see the remains of my kitchen in the garden in the picture of Bluey Louie, hopefully before next weeked I'll have a usable kitchen again, complete with new oven - I've been missing my baking!

I'm making myself some kind of felted hairpiece for the Pilton Green Man Day (Market and Festival). We are all in the parade through town in the morning, Maddie, Jez, Sullivan and me are wearing green man costumes (I need to make something for Sullivan, probably just a hat) and Emilia will be doing her cheerleading with the rest of their group. The cheerleading group also have a time to do their proper routines in the Rotary Gardens during the afternoon. The festival is happening on Saturday 19th June from 10am - late. There are always loads of things happening for children and adults, most things are free including the live music on the 3 stages along Pilton Street. See last years post for pictures of the day.

Hope the weather improves....

Boo..............................!

2008-07-07T10:32:00.005Z

Well, what a month June was. I made up my just after I wrote my last post to cheer myself and stop being so bloody miserable and bleagh. It wasn't fair on my family, my husband or myself. This was a decision that I had to make myself and I wouldn't have been able to make it 2 months ago as I just wasn't in the place to do it. Being positive is hardwork, but it becomes easier each day. Post Natal Depression (Post partum depression) is a horrid illness, as is depression in any shape or form. The road to recovery isn't just medication, you need support and lots of it. I am so lucky that I have my wonderful husband, gorgeous children, fantastic Mum, wonderful Barry, a brilliant health visitor (although she hasn't been in touch for about a month, I'd better phone her soon) and all the great girls I have met through going to Victoria House Childrens Centre breastfeeding group. I am still taking my tablets, 40mg of Citalopram and I am in no hurry to stop. I'm not going to fall into the trap of thinking that I am better, stop taking my tablets abruptly and then spiral down again! Thanks for all your kind and positive comments, they really do make a difference. I know I have let down a couple of people from the online knitting community and I promise to make it up to them. It's a horrid feeling.

Mum and Barry came down recently, we had a wonderful weekend - it goes so quickly. Have a look at her blog for some wonderful photo's of the weekend ;) http://www.picperfics.blogspot.com/

I'm going to do an update for each of my angels so that I don't miss anything out!

Emilia

She is off to junior school in September and is getting very excited about it. As all parents say - I can't believe how fast she has grown up! - It was watch day at her dance school this saturday and we sat through a very enjoyable 1 and 3/4 hours of ballet, tap and modern. She is definitely going to be something artistic when she is older.

She has spent a day in hospital as she banged her head during a swimming lesson and gave herself concussion, she was okay but the Dr wanted to keep her in for a while as the headache and sickness lasted longer than 24 hours. I've lost the little camera so I don't have a photo of her for you today :(

Oh - look at Mum's blog for a video of her doing a cheerleading routine in her school summer fair :)

Madeleine

Maddie has been her usual jumping, hopping, skipping, bouncing self. She is off to Infant school in September and can't wait. She has really enjoyed the four visits she has been on and keeps wanting to wear her school uniform.

She was delicious when we watched her doing ballet this weekend, she has very 'good' toes!

Sullivan

He's now almost 8 months old, he is sitting up but thankfully he is not on the move yet! I breastfed him exclusively until he was 6 months old. He's now on 3 meals a day plus puddings and breastfeeds. He is so active during the day I think he needs all the food he can get. He loves finger foods and things such as lentil soup and cheesy mashed potato. His favourite is pasta stars with a creamy tomato sauce.

He was poorly last week and has had a course of antibiotics for a perforated ear drum. He's absolutely fine now though, back to being our little happy chap who wakes us up in the morning by blowing raspberries!

I finished this jumper for him last night., It is Jake from Rowan Babies by Kim Hargreaves. Knit in patons Washed Haze Aran, size 6-12 months. I love it, perfect for this wet summer we are 'enjoying'!

I have finished Elspeth - yet to take a photo and put it on ravelry. It's the first thing for me that I have loved. I think I am going to make 'A cardigan for Arwen' next, just have to find the perfect yarn....suggestions?

Well, Maddie is off to preschool in a minute and needs to take lunch with her that I haven't made yet and then I will be trying to find space to move in the house. We are doing the kitchen and most of the kitchen is now in the dining room and most of the dining room is now in the front room! Arrgghh!

Just to let you know

2008-06-04T06:52:00.002Z

I'm still around. So so tired and living in a fog at the moment. Hoping to see Dr today as I think I need different tablets.

I've been knitting and sewing, making Elspeth (my mum www.picperfics.blogspot.com has made one) as well as a sewn a few things for Sullivan and some friends.

Maddie is fighting me every step of the way at the moment. Hard work.

Hope to be functioning near normally soon.

Ali x

Oh...I've got a print out of the Adipose pattern (little fat aliens from Dr Who.) I understand the BBC has asked the designer to stop promoting her Dr Who designs. What a shame.

Oh my!

2008-05-04T18:44:00.001Z

We live in a relatively 'nice' area, not much happens here. But, we do have a druggy house at the end of the road which gets raided about twice a year. The bloke who owns it is the head honcho and rents out rooms to his stooges. The house was raided by the drug squad this morning which I ignored as it is par for the course.

However I was just about to put Sullivan to bed when I looked out of the window and there was 5 police cars, 1 paddy wagon and what I thought was an incident support van. There was also a couple of blokes in white overalls and a white tent.

That was it....I called Emilia (who was watching Dr Who on BBCi) and got her to get her shoes on, Sullivan was put in the buggy and we went for a walk to the garage to get some milk that we didn't need [whistle]. As we got closer we saw that the incident van was in fact the Royal Navy Bomb Squad...and there was a bomb disposal robot in the car park of the furniture shop.

We went to the garage and chatted to another person who had gone out for an unnecessary pint (of milk) and apparently someone from the house has blown his hands up trying to make a bomb to scare someone....How clever.

I'll post links to news items about this if I find any.

So much to tell you!

2008-04-29T10:52:00.003Z

I've have got so much to catch up on, but this is the main thing that has happened over the last few weeks!

Congratulations Mum and Barry, a wonderful couple who created a beautiful for all their family and friends to enjoy. They are currently enjoying their honeymoon in Italy :) Thank you xx

I've just signed up for the Race For Life, on sunday 15th June at 11am. I'd really appreciate it if you could sponsor me. My MIL has beaten bowel cancer in the last year so running the race means a lot to me this time. I'm planning on running with Sullivan in his jogger buggy - he'll be keeping me upright! There's a link in my sidebar as well as one here -

Thank you!

oh, Kozmic...are you all moved in yet? I want to send you your parcel :)

And the winner is...

2008-03-27T14:28:00.002Z

Chosen by Emilia this morning, out of a breakfast bowl in lieu of a hat....

KOZMIC!

Well done :) Email me your address or pm me on knittyboard and I'll send you some goodies.

Questions and Answers

2008-03-26T10:48:00.003Z

Picperfic asked - do you have time to read again now that Sullivan is sleeping through the night so beautifully?

Yes, I read while he's having his last feed at about 6pm, I'm reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult at the moment.

Thimbleanna asked - what's it like to have such a fabulous mum??? ;-)

It's amazing, she's my mum, my best friend, my inspiration. I wouldn't be me without her.

Queen of the Froggers asked - How much knitting time do you manage now with baby around!?

Sullivan sleeps a lot day and night so I always try to fit in at least an hour of knitting time in the day and then again in the evening once all the children are in bed.

Sade asked - Bunny?

As a yarn yes! As a food, no and as a pet...I prefer Guinea Pigs.

Batty asked - How in the world do you get your kids to get along like this?

Oh they fight like any other siblings, luckily it's not hitting and biting fighting, more bickering and tale telling at the moment. But they do love each other and are always having cuddles and playing together. We don't tolerate the fighting and praise the playing - maybe that works?

Kozmic asked - how on earth do you find enough time to knit in your busy life?

I have to knit, it keeps me sane. I was knitting at my mother in laws on Easter Sunday and my sister in law asked if it was relaxing, I said yes and she replied that it looked like I was going into a trance! I use knitting as a means to switch my racing mind off.

Thanks for all your questions, I've enjoyed answering them all. I'll get Emilia to draw the prize winner after school today.

************************************************************************************
Knittyboard Spring Forward swap questionnaire :0)

Tell us a little about yourself. Are you a Bright Young Thing? An Aging Hipster with Kids? Discovering that 40 is the new 25? Or 60 is the new 40? Do you share real estate with a partner, kids, llamas, geckos, handsome pups, or an embarrassing number of cats?

At almost 33 I'd say I was a bright young thing with kids who is a little bit hippy. live in a 3 bed terrace house with DH, the 3 children, 2 guinea pigs and 1 goldfish

What is spring like where you live? The first tentative slackening of winter's iron fist, the last brief bearable time before the sauna of summer, or do you live in the Midwest, where it's both? Do you celebrate April Fool's Day (or Jour du Poisson) or any of the other spring holidays?

Spring here is beautiful, crisp cool days, daffodils, snowdrops, crocuses and tulips brightening the garden and the promise of summer to come. We celebrate Easter and usually forget about April Fool's Day.

The beginning of gardening season, the return of open-toed shoes, the last precious days before the kids are home all summer long - tell us what is important to you about spring.

Being able to wear my flip flops again, not having to worry about wearing a heavy winter coat, seeing the sun past 6pm

If this is the start of gardening season, tell us about your garden - a half-acre of veg, two perfect geraniums, plants for dyeing? How does your garden grow?

My garden is not up to scratch, it needs a lot of work. Our front garden is full of spring flowers in tubs and pots which will later be filled with herbs and summer bulbs.

Marshmallow Peeps: Greatest seasonal treat evah? Not quite perfect until they've been out of the package a couple of days to harden up? Nasty, gritty, sticky things only fit for Peep Jousting?

I quite like them, we don't get them over here. I'm a Jelly Belly girl through choice though.

We assume that you knit. Are you an intrepid beginner, a longtime knitter, a knitting maestra with mad skills? (okay, nobody ever admits that they have mad skills, but we bet you do) Do you knit lace? Dishcloths? Socks? Do you secretly (well, not so secretly anymore) wish someone would nudge you to learn entrelac? Magic Loop?

I'll try anything, I can do magic loop - my mum taught me. I like lace but lose my place if I put it down for a second! I've been knitting for years.

Of everything you've made, what's your favorite FO? The one you actually use most? The one you can't believe you ever thought was a good idea?

I've loved all the things I've made for Sullivan, Emilia and Madeleine, the one I use most for me is a pair of lace fingerless gloves that I designed myself. The thing I hate the most is a pure silk clapotis. It just sheds everywhere I plan to make another one in a different yarn.

What's your number one fantasy gift yarn? Fleece artist sea wool, dream in colour anything!

Your more realistic favorites? Bamboo, soft merino, soy silk, No allergies but mohair makes me itch.

What about colors? Your go-to, always-makes-you smile best? Any that you just can't bear? Any colours to be honest, since having a boy I've realised that I have a distinct lack of boy colours in my stash. I like jewel tones and am having green phase at the moment. Yellow isn't a favourite.

Don't be shy - what would you like to find when you open your package? Books you've been meaning to get? Are there any particular needles or knitting gadgets you wish you had? Anybody out there who doesn't already have a cute sheepy tape measure? Have fun, and remember - the more you tell us, the more we'll know. Erm, I don't feel comfortable asking for things. This is my amazon wishlist so you can get idea of the books I'd like http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/2WXL7W2FCWUBN
I love Interweave and Vogue knitting. I don't have the spring issues of either.
I don't have a sheepy tape measure. I don't need any stitch markers. I'd love some knit picks harmony needle tips.
************************************************************************************

Sorry for the lack of pictures :) Had a lovely easter weekend and I'll update you on that in my next post. I've finished the cabled booties for Sullivan and I have just started a jumper for him from Rowan Junior called Jake.

Enjoy eating your Easter chocolate! Ali xxx

Is it posh enough?

2008-03-14T20:53:00.002Z

I've made this for Sullivan to wear at Mum and Barry's wedding but I'm not sure it is posh enough. The pattern is from Sirdar Bamboo Baby Knits and is made in Sirdar Baby Bamboo. The cables were fun, I managed to teach myself to do cables without a cable needle. I've added a button band on one of the shoulders as this yarn tends to tighten up a little after washing and I didn't want to struggle putting it over my boy's head :) I'll get a better photo of it tomorrow in daylight.

I'm going to make some booties to match but I'm still not sure whether it is good enough for such a special day.

The competition is still running, I'll answer all questions left on the tuesday after Easter and I'll do the draw for winners then as well :)

Just watched Mark Ramprakash and Kara Tointon dance on Sports Relief...didn't they do well! He's got a lovely wiggle!

Want to buy a Renault Scenic? And a competition!

2008-03-11T11:41:00.003Z

This is my car, it's up for sale as we have found a VW T4 caravelle for sale in the street opposite us. It's metallic aqua, about 16 years old and gorgeous. The girls have already asked me if I am going to make curtains for it and Maddie wants to put flower stickers on the outside. She's named the van 'Louie' because it is blue :)
MaryAnnLucy - remember this blanket? Sullivan loves it and snuggles it up to his face when he is going to sleep :)
Here he is in his Peace Baby jumper. I really enjoyed making this set (I've left the hat at a friends house) and plan to use the crochet embroidery technique on lots of other things. Pattern from http://www.jujubeandlolo.com/ I used Brown Sheep cotton fleece for the green and Mirasol Cotonani for the white.
Maddie giving Sullivan his first pc lesson!
I love my bath! This is a tummy tub bath which Mum and Barry bought for Sullivan, he really loves it and has great fun trying to drink the water! He is such a good boy, he sleeps from 6:30pm to 6:30am every night and has at least 5 hours sleep in the day too. When he is awake he plays and gurgles and chats for ages.

I'm feeling loads better, I go to the children's centre 2-3 times a week which is wonderful. The breastfeeding group on friday mornings is a life saver. I've also started a therapy called Human Givens. It's really quite amazing and I'll be having my next session next week. It takes a lot out of me and I couldn't have a session every week as I'd be too exhausted to function!

* edit *

What else can I tell you? What do you want to know? How about you leave me a question to answer about myself in the comments? I'll answer them (if I get any questions!) in my next post. Everyone who leaves me a question will be entered into a draw to win a mystery prize from my stash as well as a few other goodies. Come on...they may be more than one prize....

* end edit *

I shall leave with a joke my dear friend Sharon sent me....

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway.Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind thewheel was knitting. Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lightsand siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn andyelled, "PULL OVER!"

"NO!" the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!"

Have a happy day xxx

3 months old

2008-02-20T16:10:00.007Z

Can you believe that three whole months have gone since Sullivan was born? He is such a sunny little chap, always smiling and chatting :) The girls are both still besotted with him and can't stop kissing and cuddling him. I'm really very lucky.

I'm gradually feeling better about myself, I have a lot of support from health professionals here. My health visitor is lovely, she visits me every week just for a chat to see how I am doing. Next week I am having a session of what is called 'Human Givings'. It's been described as a cross between psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. I'm a bit cautious about it but it is free so I'm going to give it a go.

I plan to start Slimming World on monday, my eating has become out of control and weight is creeping back on instead of off...grr. Thank goodness Mum and Barry are getting married soon, it's a good incentive to slim down!

Mum came to stay for a week a couple of weeks ago. It was wonderful to see her and Barry. Mum made the girls their bridesmaids dresses. They are so pretty but you will have to wait for the wedding photos to see them :-p. If you go to her blog you can see the wonderful pictures she took whilst she was here.

Went to Lyme Regis on sunday and met up with Dh's parents. Had a lovely day walking on the harbour in the very warm winter sunshine. Sullivan even had his first sand experience. I took his socks off and let him wriggle his toes in the sand, he seemed to like it. No photo to show you unfortunately as I look like a beached whale and I am not going to subject you to that!

Emilia enjoyed herself in the sand :)

On the knitting front I have almost finished Sullivan's Peace Baby sweater and then I have a pair of socks to make. I'm starting to enjoy knitting again which must mean that I am getting better!

Enjoy this video of Sullivan, It's the first on I've put on the blog and I hope it works!

A while away

2008-02-15T13:06:00.004Z

Here's the beginnings of Anny Purls Peace Baby. Mum treated me to the yarn for this, I'm using Brown Sheep cotton fleece and it is knitting up a treat :)
Mum also bought me the Sea Baby kit from PerlGrey.com. It's so gorgeous though a little smaller than the 3-6 months size the pattern states. I made the jacket about an inch longer and the front sections 6 stitches wider.

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted. I've been busy, we've had visitors, taken loads of photos and just generally been doing stuff.

I've got a migraine at the moment so sorry for the useless post.

A couple of hats

2008-02-01T17:49:00.000Z

Not for Sullivan but for two friends who have recently had baby boys. The first one is knit in patons Diploma Gold and the pattern comes from Zoe Mellor's Nursery Knits. The second is in Sirdar baby bamboo and is from Debbie Bliss' Kids' Knits for heads hands and toes.

More updates to come soon :)

Christopher's Angels

2008-01-17T09:51:00.000Z

A dear Knittyboard friend has been through a very traumatic time recently, I won't go in to the details here but you can visit her blog

To help her recovery, and perhaps gain some meaning from the death of her son Cbear and MaryAnnLucy from the Knittyboard have set up a collection of donations for the hospital Christopher was born at. See here for more details. If you are able to make something for the SCBU it will be more than gratefully received.

I've read this post a hundred times and can't make my words sound eloquent. I know what I want to say, but simply can't get it out.

*********************

I'm not too great today. Sullivan slept well last night, from 8:30pm to 5am, and I managed to sleep too. I'm still catching up though, usually he wakes between 2 and 3am for a feed and then I am unable to go back to sleep so I'm needing lots of catch up rest! DH wants me to take Sullivan in to work today to show him off, I'm dreading it but need to get it over with before he's a toddler! He's 8 weeks old now.

Just made some rock cakes with Maddie, Yum!

Sullivan's boots and hat

2008-01-11T12:58:00.000Z

Mum and Barry spoilt us this Christmas, I received amongst other things the full set of knitpicks options and small size circs and EZ's Opinionated Knitter. These little boots are from this book and I used the wool cotton Mum sent to lengthen the sleeves of his BSJ she made him. (I lengthened the sleeves first!). The next pair I'll make on larger needles to make them a little bit bigger.
Mum sent me the link for this cute little dino hat on monday night - I finished it last night after 3 false starts. The pattern asks for the hat to be made top down on 6.5mm needles. I made it bottom up using 4.5mm needles and cascase 220. I cast on 72 sts, worked in moss stitch for 1 " then stocking stitch until it measured 4.5" and then I worked the decreases. The dino spikes are made in the same way as the pattern. It's so cute :)
Here's Emilia and Sullivan last Sunday. He was being fussy and wouldn't sleep in his pram or crib. Emilia was feeling poorly so had gone to bed. Jez gave Sullivan to her and she kept him asleep for 2 hours. Poor girl was desperate for the loo after all that time! We managed to pack away all the Christmas decorations in that time, thank goodness as I was sick of the sight of them!
I'm fighting post natal depression at the moment, I'm being really well looked after by the health service here, Jez and Mum. I've had a good week this week but if I have a rant, rave and moan on here occasionally please indulge me, it won't last long :)

Sullivan 20/11/2007

2008-01-04T20:13:00.000Z

In hospital with proud big sister!
(The photo's have got all muddled up, the one below is from today and the rest were taken on his Birth Day)

This is Sullivan today, at 6 weeks +2 days - I managed to capture his smile!

Our son Sullivan arrived at 8:39am on tuesday 2oth November 2007. He weighed 8lbs 10oz, had dark blue eyes and pale auburn hair. Here's his birth story.

On sunday 11th November I had period like pains all evening, got excited that something was happening, went to bed and woke up on monday morning with no signs of labour at all and was quite disappointed.

My due date of 13th November came and went but all that week I had dull aching pains low down in my abdomen and lower back ache. On Saturday 19th Emilia was going to Paignton Zoo with a friend for his birthday, this is about 1.5hrs away from here so I was quite worried about letting her go but knew she would be alright. I also had a feeling that this baby wasn't arriving until my first baby was home and safe. She got home Saturday evening but baby didn't show any signs of arriving so we had a quiet family sunday.

Monday 19th November. Walked Emilia to school, and Maddie to preschool. Went home to await the arrival of my community midwife who was going to do a sweep. I wasn't too enamoured about this and didn't really want her to do it.

Well, she arrived and reluctantly I agreed as I was ready to have this baby. She told me I was 4cm dilated and that I had probably been in early labour since the previous sunday. Great news :)

DH went back to work after picking up Maddie from preschool and we cuddled on the sofa watching Cbeebies expecting to pick Emilia up from school at 3:30pm. 10 minutes later I had a twinge, quite painful so I heated up my heat pad and settled back down with Madeleine for another snuggle. These twinges kept happening roughly every 20 minutes so I presumed I was actually in labour. Jez kept phoning to make sure that I was okay and asked whether or not he should come home, I just grinned and said no.

At 2:30 I decided I couldn't walk to school so asked a friend to pick Emilia up for me. At 4 Mum arrived after a day long journey on trains from Cambridge to stay for a week. The pains kept coming but didn't get any stronger or faster.

At 8pm Mum (thanks Mum xxx) decided that Jez and I should go to Sainsburys as we had no food and the walking might get labour moving. We walked round Sainsburys in a bit of a daze, with Jez writing down each contraction on his PDA, giving each one a star rating for pain.

The food shopping didn't bring labour forward but at least Mum could eat! We went to bed and I was fully expecting to take Emilia to school in the morning as normal.

3am, Madeleine came into bed with us. 3:15am I got up to take her back to her own bed. Ouch. The contractions started coming thick and fast then. From 3:15 to 4am they went from every 15 minutes to every 6 so Jez rang the hospital to let them know we were on our way. I kissed Emilia and told her what was happened, she smiled, told me she loved me and went back to sleep. We let Mum know and then went to the North Devon District Hospital, Ladywell Unit.

4:30am, booked in and was told that all the pools were in use so I wasn't able to use one this time.

5am, I asked for pain relief and had half a dose of pethidine. I'm not sure it did much, but at one point I almost fell off the bed in between contractions as I was falling asleep! I started using gas and air which worked well and didn't make me feel sick at all.

7am ish I started pushing, the Midwife broke my waters to speed things up and I started to get tired....Jez had been doing a brilliant job rubbing my back with essential oils which really helped. I then got into a comfy position semi reclining and nothing and I mean nothing was going to move me! Not even the pain in my hips due to SPD. I made Jez squeeze my hand with each contraction as it helped take my mind off the pain.

8:15 am They had to put a monitor on me as I had been pushing for an hour, I remember being really irritated about it. I managed to allow myself to 'let go' and once I did the pushes became much more effective and his head moved down.

8:37 His head crowned and I was told to stop pushing - an instruction I didn't really hear and kept pushing. I'd got over my fear of 'letting go' at that point!

8:39 One more push and Sullivan George was born. They put him straight onto my tummy for a cuddle and Jez cut the cord. The midwives let me find out whether he was a boy or a girl and I wasn't shocked to find out he was a boy. I had a feeling as my bump was a completely different shape to when I was pregnant with the girls.

I had to have quite a few stitches as I had a second degree tear again. I asked the midwife doing them whether perineal massage would have helped prevent the tear and she was dubious.

Once everything was cleaned up and sorted they left Jez and I alone with our son, Jez kept crying silent, happy tears and I kept staring at our new baby in wonder and amazement. He fed well straight away and cuddled close to my skin. After a while they came back and weighed him, Jez dressed him and gave him a cuddle before going to get Mum and the girls as well as making numerous phone calls to family and friends to share the news.

While he was gone I had tea and toast (possibly the best meal in the world!) and a shower. I felt wobbly and strangely empty but exceedingly happy. The smiles on Mum's and the girls faces were wonderful when they met their Brother and Grandson for the first time. I was home by 2pm that afternoon.

Childbirth is such an amazing experience, very empowering and proof of how strong a woman is. I can't imagine never being pregnant again so hopefully I'll get to experience it again :)

Jez is a wonderful birth partner, husband and father - I couldn't ask more from him. I love you Jez xx

My only regret is that Mum wasn't there with us. I felt comfortable that she was at home with Emilia and Madeleine but I still missed her. Next time Mum...

Sullivan has continually given us all joy and smiles, he feeds well, sleeps well and has already perfected his flirting smile!

The staff at the Ladywell unit were absolutely wonderful. They gave me all the support I needed and were amazingly strong and positive. The labour room was clean, warm and large.

Mum stayed for a week after Sullivan was born which was an amazing help for us. She helped make that first week even more special. She made sure that the girls didn't feel left out and she cherished us all. Love you Mum and Barry xx

Emilia's hat

2008-01-04T20:06:00.000Z

My first FO of 2008, a beret for Emilia. I used the pattern in Erika Knight's Simple Knits for little Cherubs. I used Rowan wool cotton for it's 'no-itch' quality, used 4mm needles instead of 3.75mm and added 2 extra increase rows, so the total number of stitches before decreasing was 144. Doesn't she look grown up!

I'm going to write up Sullivan's birth story in a minute, before I forget too much!

We had a lovely Christmas

2008-01-03T14:51:00.000Z

Normal service to resume shortly...

Meet Sullivan George...

2007-12-03T13:59:00.001Z

Sullivan George arrived at 8:39am on tuesday 20th November 2007. He weighed 8lb10oz and had golden hair and dark blue eyes.

He's 13 days old now and still being an absolute angel. His sisters are being wonderful and Daddy is amazing.

Mum came to stay for a week and we are all, but especially me, missing her now. She did so much for us and we cannot express how much she helped make that first week special. Love you Mum xxx

I'll post more later, as well as recent pics of our little man.

Ali xx

In case you were wondering edited and updated

2007-11-15T06:52:00.000Z

*Sorry about my moanish diatribe earlier!

Here's a couple of FO's from this week, a sari silk bag for keys, purse and phone and a pair of felted slipper socks for Maddie. Emilia's are otn, I've finished 1 and should get the other one done this evening.

Remember my moan about the crib? Well as the picture about shows, my clever DH did it. He made a base for the crib and we managed to put the 2 ends together to make it all dinky and cute. Come on baby, it'll be comfy!

Feeling better now :)*

Baby still hasn't arrived.

I am exceedingly fed up, incredibly achy and fed up of wobbling like a blundering elephant when I walk.

Only 2 days past due date today but it is enough.

Send me some baby eviction thoughts please. We are all in limbo here, the girls are playing up as they are unable to see past 'when the baby comes'. I can't plan anything and at this rate I can see Mum being here for a week next week with no baby to play with. Not that is a problem, but you will come back again in December won't you Mum?

I really don't want to walk to school and face all the comments this morning, I just want to hide.

Grr, trust me to be a slow cooker.

I've been doing this

2007-11-09T14:52:00.001Z

Both sides are the same length despite what the picture shows!

and this , my first EZ project and I loved every minute of it. I will get a better picture tonight but the camera battery has just died :(
and loads of this....

Saw the midwife today, baby is fine - really active but I could have told her that! However baby is engaged! I can't find my old notes from the girls but I am sure they didn't engage until I was induced. Hopefully this baby will make an appearance this weekend, preferably tomorrow afternoon after the girls have finished all their weekend classes.

Baby's heartrate has been a steady 140-150 every time I've seen the midwife, what would old wives tales say about that?

So, will I have time to blog again before baby arrives? Watch this space!

Look what I wore to school on Hallowe'en!

2007-11-02T14:05:00.000Z

Mum sent E&M a pair of the wonderful spider and web socks each. Emilia wore hers to school today, they are so beautiful and now the sun has come out she'll enjoy seeing them sparkle in the playground :) They have been invited to a Halloween tea party this afternoon so both girls will be wearing their socks later.

Mum also sent 3 pairs of yummy socks for Herbert. I can't wait to show you all pictures of them being worn!

Here are a couple of hats made over the last few days, the garter stitch one is knitted side to side and the stocking stitch one is knit bottom up. I used some koolaid dyed yarn for the garter one and Colinette prism for the purple one.
I apologise for my lack of wordage in my recent posts. My internet connection isn’t great at the moment and I am so tired too! My iron level won’t come up although I’m taking as much supplements as I can. I’m eating more iron rich food too. Guess what…only 12 days until my due date!

DH discovered a problem with our cot last night, we have a Stokke sleepi and were hoping to turn it into the mini cot (I’ve already bought the mattress). When DH got the cot down from the loft we realized that we need a mini cot kit so I tried to buy one online. No Luck. Emailed Stokke and have been told that it’s been discontinued but they can sell us one for £119. BUT, only if we have a new style Sleepi, I think we have the old style one L so what do we do? DH is going to put his creative head on and make a base for the crib…watch this space! He’s a clever man so I don’t see there being any problem.

So, this is me now, at 38 weeks. Can’t wait to be snuggling this baby!

I've been out of touch

2007-10-29T11:38:00.000Z

But today I am making an effort to blog.

First I'm going to show you some pictures of Emilia in her show costumes. She looked delicious on stage and I am looking forward to ordering the DVD. She was poorly and sent home from school the week of the show so we kept her off all week to make sure she was well enough to do it!

Please pop back later on today as I have a host of FO's to show, all small ones :)

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This is what happens when you let DH play with food colouring, glace icing and fairy cakes! Made for a Halloween party last night!

Halloween biscuits, yummy!

We can't remember what E was dancing to in this picture but she was meant to be getting ready for a party!

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I have been knitting :) This is a cardi made in sirdar baby bamboo. It is a 4ply pattern but I used dk yarn, 4mm needles and the preemie stitch counts but the 0-3 measurements to make it.

One skein baby bolero - I'll finish it as soon as the rest of the yarn arrives, it is scrummy yarn to work with :)

Baby kimono of my own design, just needs some ribbon ties. Made in 4ply cotton and matches Saartjes Booties that I made earlier in the year.

Baby booties :) Purple yarn is Lorna's Laces DK Swirl and pink yarn is Jaeger baby merino.

and finally....

A whole heap of fingerless gloves. From top, Fetching in DB cashmerino aran, My own design in Mirasol Hachu from John Lewis (I NEED more of this yarn!), Maddies simple ribby ones, Mum's Dragonscale Wristwarmers in LL DK swirl as before and Millie's in same stich pattern as mine. Just DH and we will be complete!

Tomorrow,update on me, piccies of socks and another hat....xxx

I won!!!

2007-10-03T13:46:00.000Z

The lovely Kerrie at Hipknits had a competition on her blog to name the latest yarn from Hipknits. She wanted Shakespearean womens names and I suggested Emilia, as it is a beautiful name for a beautiful yarn! I'm not biased at all :) She chose my suggestion above all the others and check out what she sent me! It is so beautiful, and the skein of silk was a totally unexpected and very welcome surprise! I have a red winter coat and thought I may make a muffler with the silk. I can't wait to make the capelet with the lilac Emilia yarn :) Thank you so much Kerrie, you've no idea how happy your gift has made me.

When I told Emilia about all this she said 'When the yarn arrives I'm going to have to keep cuddling it.' I think we have a budding yarnographer in the making!

I made these bags last night, only 8x8" but perfect for treasure. The flowery one is a gift bag and has a pair of socks and hat in for a friends baby.

This is the material for the front room blinds, It's so heavy and strokable!And finally as I really muct go to school and get Emilia, my nursing pillow. It's so squooshy and really comfortable! I wonder if I'll use it?

Can you believe it is October already?

2007-10-01T12:05:00.000Z

Darling Maisie cuddling a few hours old Madeleine on 25 November 2003.

This year has gone so fast, It only seems five minutes ago that I found out I am expecting baby #3! We seem to have been really busy but not achieved much although things are moving ahead now.

I haven't got much to say today, feeling very tired and low :( I seem to be able to have a busy day but then pay for it the next.

Off now as I don't want to slide into a woe is me post :P

Lotsa Knits!

2007-09-30T19:13:00.000Z

Here you all are, the promised pictures of my latest makes, I'm on Dh's laptop and he doesn't have any editing software so I haven't been able to crop the pictures. I've posted them as small images but please click on them so you can see them better :)
This is the Amy Butler ditty bag and I absolutely adore it. It took about 2 hours to sew and about 45 minutes to cut out. It's perfect for Emilia's Forever Best Friends and Bratz dolls. Barbie will be getting a bag too!

Here's my youngest ballerina in her new ballet clothes, she's meant to be wearing 'proper' uniform but that would cost £50!!! I think little girls of 3 should be allowed to dress like a ballerina princess if they want to :) Emilia has her show soon, it's costing a fortune! We have to pay £45 for the 2 costumes, we get £20 back but no costumes after the show which I am appalled at. Last week they told me I needed to get her some white tap shoes for the show even though I'd just bought black ones (which is the colour for her tap uniform). AAARRRGGHHH! I found some second hand ones on eBay for £1.99 which do the trick, but aarrggghhh all the same! It's a good job she loves her dancing, her teacher says she is getting on really well this term, remembering all the steps for the show etc. Well done Emilia xxx

Do you like my funky changing bag? I subscribed to my favourite baby/child magazine - Junior - earlier in the month and this bag was a gift for the first 75 subscribers, I didn't believe that I would get one so I was over the moon when it arrived yesterday. I've not had a proper changing bag before, just the free one from the Huggies club! This one is made by Pink Lining and retails between £55 and £75! I'd never buy one in a million years! Exclamation mark!

I made up the pattern for this baby hat, I put the green leaves in using fair isle and it puckers a bit, I'm going to make another one using intarsia and see if it works better.
Another pinwheel blanket, this time in King Cole Aero super chunky. It's about 29" in diameter, perfect cot, pram size. I'm putting this one on Etsy.

This is my oldest WIP, now my newest FO!. I was full of grand ideas to make the Flower Power throw from Debbie Abrahams' Blankets and Throws to Knit but got bored so I stitched the squares I had made together, did a moss stitch border and then backed it with a lovely heavy but soft checky cotton which hides my dodgy intarsia ends. It's got a wonderful weight to it and I can't wait to use it :)

This baby is still back to back no matter how much time I spend on my hands and knees. My poor tummy feels so bruised from all the kicking and pushing. I can't wait to meet this fidgety little herbert! I've been weighing myself once a fortnight just to keep track of things, I've put on 22lbs so far which seems quite good, hopefully I won't put on too much more in the next 6 weeks or so.

Well, take care everyone and I hope to hear from you soon :)

No knits!

2007-09-26T17:53:00.000Z

I have been knitting though, I've finished a chunky baby cardi in grey blue Rowan big wool fusion, a pumpkin baby hat, a bullseye red, white and blue pinwheel blanket and I have 1 sleeve and the hood to finish on the stripy cardigan for me.

I've started crocheting a Hallowe'en wreath too. Photos at another point as I am on DH's laptop and all the photos are on the pc upstairs.

Mum and Barry are coming to visit next weekend which is great, We've not seen them for a while and I do miss my mum!

Dh is decorating the front room at the moment, all cream walls apart from the one opposite the window which is a semi bitter chocolate colour that echoes the blind material which is chocolate with cream and pink velvet flowers. Looks better than it sounds! I got a bargain on Ebay, a 20m roll of blackout lining for only £47.90 which works out at about £2.40 a metre!

What else can I tell you? Hmm, I'm 33 weeks now and baby is still doing aerobics every minute, especially when I'm driving! It's still head down thank goodness but my poor ribs are suffering. I think I've come out the other side of a bad patch, everything was hurting, topped off by migraines that I couldn't take any medication for. But apart from that I'm feeling good and very positive. Especially as the pushchair and car seat have arrived!

Oh, DH bought me a slow cooker, how did I live without it!? We've had mango and pineapple upside down pudding, lamb casserole, chicken casserole, porridge and last night I cooked a gammon joint in it then glazed it in the oven - yum ! I put a little brown sugar in the cooking water, along with bay leaves, cloves, and onion and peppercorns. I glazed it with honey and chinese 5 spice powder. It is so tender and sweet, really gorgeous :)

Better be off now, take care everyone,

Ali xxx

Taking a break.

2007-09-22T08:55:00.000Z

Not from blogging, although I've not been doing much of that recently with all these migraines :( but from one of the forums I visit.

Something happened and has upset me so I will leave the forum alone for a while. I feel sad about this but I still plan to stay in touch with some. I don't need to say more.

Maybe I'll blog some photo's later.

Getting back into the swing of things

2007-09-11T10:47:00.000Z

So much knitting has been done over the last couple of weeks. I've been washed out but starting to feel better again now, my iron count was low so I'm hoping that all the iron rich food I've been eating along with the spatone I'm taking is helping boost things up. DH is fantastic, he is doing so much of the housework as well as decorating the front room.

I've got loads of pics to show you, but for now I'll just post the latest knits and a couple of the girls. Baby mitts, thumbless for easy on off ability. I'm not sure whether I should put a cord on these or not, any opinions?
Monkey socks - what a great pattern, I think I'll try to make some mini monkeys for the girls. Regia 4 colour. I love the way this yarn softens and blooms after washing.

Forest baby hat.
Camouflage baby set, so cute! I think I'd be happy with a boy if he got to wear this set! Jaeger baby merino, a wonderful yarn!
Baby hat from one skein and a pair of socks for school friend of E's who's mum has just had a baby girl.
The finished pinwheel blanket, it is the perfect size for a pram/crib/moses basket. I love it and I have plans afoot for a different one.
Tootsie baby hat using sirdar click dk. Not my favourite yarn but great colours.
And finally...I made the skirtsicle from Magknits in 2 days! I used 4 balls of Anchor Magicline cotton and the age 6 pattern for Maddie although she is not 4 yet! Lovely pattern but the sizes are a little small, perhaps I just have tall children!

Millie feeding a wallaby and holding a snake at Exmoor Zoo, she's a brave girl!
Maddie stroking a Skunk! Pooey!
Sorry for the pictures and captions post. I'm still getting tired easily and just doing this has worn me out.

Tomorrow - photos of Sock pal socks and a wonderful knitty SP parcel.

2007-08-17T10:00:00.000Z

Yes, I've been sewing again. I designed this circular needle roll last night and I am really pleased with it. I used a button and elastic fastening rather than ribbon and find it to be more secure...time to find some knitting related buttons!

I also made this little denim tote bag, I really like her and plan to make a bigger one with two pockets this afternoon...if Millie lets me!

We're off to town in a minute, the craft set I bought her on Wednesday (from M&S) doesn't work too well, the glue they supplied doesn't actually stick the mosaic pieces to the photo frame and box, it just dries and then they ping off. So, I'm putting my consumer rights hat on ans we will be finding her something else...hopefully to keep her busy whilst I am sewing!

We go away on sunday for a week, DH has a course in Southampton and his company have agreed to pay for a bigger hotel room so we can all go. It will be great to be able to see old friends and family as well as being able to go shopping in a city again! I'm really looking forward to the journey down as we are planning to go via Ikea in Bristol and have a hot dog/chips/icecream lunch...followed by copious amounts of Dime cake! (Almondy)

Take care
Ali x

More sewing

2007-08-15T09:43:00.000Z

Last night my sewing machine was singing to me. I'd already been up in the loft and found oodles of curtain fabric which was pleading to be sewn into something useful, rather than languishing in brown cardboard boxes. And so, the needle roll was born. I made 2 small ones for DPN's and crochet hooks and 1 large one for longer straights. I'm going to get my thinking cap on and make on for circs tonight.

I've been to the physio this morning. I'm basically doing all the right things to prevent the SPD getting too bad, but as baby grows I don't really have any control over how my body reacts. I'm now wearing a rather sexy support belt which is keeping me tied together and I have to go back in 2 weeks to see how I am doing. I hate having to take painkillers whilst pregnant.

Off into town in a while, going to treat the girls to a craft kit each from the Early Learning Centre. We'll have fun this afternoon!

Take care
Ali xxx

Just a little post

2007-08-14T10:10:00.000Z

Firstly -

Congratulations Mum and Barry!!!

Go and read the story over on mum's blog

Secondly, I've updated my Etsy shop and it is now live and stuffed with lovely things you know you need! Sock project bags....you need one, you know you do! Please take a look using the link on the right and let me know what you think.

Have a great day, Ali xxx

Knitting blahs

2007-08-13T11:29:00.000Z

Ever had the knitting blahs? I've got too much on the needles at the moment and don't want to finish any of it. Some of it I must finish, but some of it can wait. Time to prioritise I think, and put the fun back into knitting. I just want to be sewing at the moment!
I took E to Arlington court again on friday, they had a free dance workshop happening and she enjoyed every minute of it. She puts everything she has into dance and it is so wonderful to watch.
Here I am, looking dour and yuk! I've got a headache and my pelvis is playing me up no end today. I'm 27 weeks tomorrow, not looking too fat yet...The pinwheel blanket - I've been working on it for months now, it is my car knitting and I really enjoy it. I'm using odds and ends of acrylic/wool mix for it and it is growing nicely. I plan on using a garter stitch picot cast off.This is what I have been sewing! I have also made 2 more Miffy bags but I let the girls have them as washbags. There are also 6 more that I have made in the same curtain fabric as E's blind...hopefully to help her keep all the little things that 6 year olds collect together!I'm selling on etsy again, my username is Faerynuff - funny that!

edited to add - I will be selling on etsy again soon, once I can upload photos again.

Sunshine, Sewing and Sknitting....I wanted another S word!

2007-08-09T10:07:00.000Z

I've been busy again the past week or so, we've been doing lots of playing and I've been doing lots of crafting and baking :) I hope this intense hunger passes soon or I'll end up the size of a house before baby arrives!

Also have been in quite a lot of pain with my pelvis, walking is getting increasingly painful but nothing I can't cope with. I've got a physio appointment next week and the Health Visitor is meant to be contacting me about joining a prenatal depression group...watch this space!

I'm 26 weeks now and we still haven't bought anything, I'm being ever so relaxed about this baby, it's quite refreshing!

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Maddie's nursery told us last thursday that they were having a Circus day today, and all the children were to dress up. Everything was put on hold whilst I made her this dress. From Zoe Mellor's Adorable Knits, the bodice is knit in Knitpicks Shine sport and the skirt made from net. In total this dress cost £3.20! Bargain!

I finally got round to making a little bag yesterday, I'm really pleased with it and will be making more tomorrow. Do you want to do a swap for one? Let me know :)

************************************************************************************ My latest way of getting the girls to stop arguing is to throw out the front with an assortment of paints, pens, glue and sparkly bits to make as much mess as they like...they are creating some wonderful things!Yesterday we went to Arlington court for a Victorian Garden Party. It was fun playing on the coconut shy, throwing horseshoes around a pole, splatting a rat and table skittles. The girls enjoyed rolling down a hill the most though!

It was a beautiful day yesterday...look at this lonely cloud! Unfortunately it is not so sunny and warm today but it is still dry :)

Jackie - the slate fire surround didn't sell this time, but the cast iron fireplace did. The auction will hold on to the surround until it does sell.

That's all for now folks! I need to make lunch and get Maddie to nursery.

Ali xxx

Chalk + 2 girls = ?

2007-07-30T15:19:00.000Z

Just to prove we are starting to have summer now...a sunflower that the snails didn't eat!

As the weather has been wonderful today I shooed the girls into the garden while I had 'some' peace and quiet. What do two little girls do with jumbo chalks in the garden? Not colouring stones and rocks it seems....

It was too funny for me to be cross with them, my little punk rockers!
I made these 2 bags over the weekend, the green/brown is made using scarps of Kureyon, Silk garden,Texere Jamaica and Cascade 220. I have enough pinky/red/orange scraps for a larger one.

The purple pink one is made from yarn I bought in New Zealand, JJ's handpainted 8 ply which is a slightly heavy DK, light worsted I suppose?

This is what else I've been working on, but I can't say what as it is a secret...

Look what Mr. Postie brought me this morning, 4 balls of the most delicious bamboo yarn. I don't know what to use it for, any ideas? I love it! Thank you Faerlywell!

Sports day....We had a summer's day!

2007-07-25T09:36:00.000Z

Just look at the concentration in these faces! Emilia only dropped her egg once :)

Yesterday was the last day of term for Emilia, the sun shone and the school managed an impromptu sports day. Each class did one race each - Emilia's was the egg and spoon race - then the pre-school children had a race although Madeleine was rather disgruntled that they had sellotaped the eggs to the spoons! After the races everyone, including parents were treated to Ice lollies. A wonderful morning :)

Emilia had an afternoon playing Tag Rugby which she loves and when I picked her up she had rosy cheeks and rosier shoulders. Bad Mummy wasn't expecting it to be so warm and sunny and hadn't put any sun cream or even a hat on her. *slaps wrist*

These are Emilia's socks, made in Regia cotton given to me by the wonderful MaryAnnLucy in the last knitty sp round. She's a sweety. I've still got 60g of yarn left so I plan on making a pair of ankle socks for Maddie and then using the remainder with another colour of Regia Cotton to make myself some funky socks. The pattern I used was from Vogue knitting on the go - Socks 2 and is the girls lace ankle socks. I love this book and plan on collecting more VK on the go books.

Better go, I've let Emilia play Make-up shops with Madeleine unsupervised....

Ali xxx

Oh yes, first day of the school holidays, dh away overnight and guess what time they woke me up...6am! Grrr! I sent them away to play Polly Pocket but couldn't settle.

Green Man Festival and a spider

2007-07-23T12:10:00.000Z

PICTURE HEAVY POST

Saturday was the Pilton Green Man Festival.
Emilia was invited to take part along with some other children from her school. It was a great day and it didn't rain until late afternoon!She made some wings out of willow and decorated them herself

The Green Man himself - so many children were scared of him! He wears stilts and is about 12 feet tall!
A view of Pilton Street from the top, it is very popular day :) We heard some great music, not least from The Liquidators . One Dh's work colleagues is the bass player.

Emilia and her friends ready for the parade through the centre of Barnstaple to Pilton.
Enjoying the parade!

Another of the Green Man Characters.
And finally! Maddie on the merry go round. Next year we are all going to get involved as we had such a wonderful day :)

We had a busy day yesterday. We tidied out the glasses and sweets cupboards in the kitchen. Look what DH found in the sweets cupboard - needless to say almost everything went in the bin

I've never seen a spider like this before so took a photo before dh had a chance to set him free. It is a Woodlouse spider (great because woodlice give me the willies more than spiders!) and causes a nettle like rash if it bites you. This is what the Natural History Museum in London says about them.

Body size
Female to 15 mm; male to 10 mm.

Appearance
Distinctive, with prominent jaws, an absence of hairs, and a reddish carapace and legs, contrasting with a cream or grey-coloured abdomen.

Habitat, range and season
In and around buildings and under debris. Emerges from hiding places on nocturnal hunting excursions; woodlice are its main prey. Originally a native of southern Europe; now introduced to Japan, N & S America, S Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Adults throughout the year.

Web
None.

First recorded in the UK
1861.

Bite reports
'Held on to top of finger, had to be knocked off; the bite was like that of a bee sting, leaving a white spot on finger.'
'Similar to a nettle sting. The pain subsided after an hour, leaving a red mark and two tiny puncture marks which persisted for a couple of days.'
'Suffered papular urticaria.'

At least it doesn't make webs for me to tidy up! I suspect it was drawn upstairs due to the water in the cellar below.

DH also removed the huge Georgian fireplace from our front room ready for auction next week. It upsets me to remove an original feature from this house, but it was so big and so black It just depressed me to look at it. We still have the original fireplaces upstairs and we'll eventually put another, smaller cast iron georgian fireplace back in.

It's a slate fire surround, with a handpainted marble effect. The fireplace itself is damaged and is cast iron with original tiles. Don't make me feel bad about removing this piece of history from our home, it just wasn't right for us and I hope that by sending it to auction we will be able to decorate the front room and that whoever buys it appreciates it more than we did.

Try again!

2007-07-18T09:42:00.000Z

I tried to post the album again, but it just didn't work so here are a few photo's from our holiday and Josie and Mark's wedding.

Bunny Maddie - free face painting in Inverness, they were celebrating the diversity of the Highlands.
Butterfly Millie
Maddie built this tower all by herself, it was taller than her!
Beautiful Josie looking so excited and happy, walking down the aisle with her Dad.
The boys in kilts. Scottish Weddings are wonderful!

This weeks knitting. The back of the stripey hoddie from Erika Knight's Baby Bloom/Knitting for two. It's going quite fast but all the colour changes slow me down! The girls keep asking if it is for the baby, I suppose it's because of the pastel colours. I started it on sunday. The yarn is mainly Patons Washed Haze aran, but there is some all seasons cotton and Ice yarns something in there too.

I'm sending out a huge 'HI' to all my new visitors/commentors. It's great to see you and hope that you enjoy my blog!

Marianne, thank you for the heads up on the Cleomes, They will feature in my garden next year hopefully!

Saartje's Booties

2007-07-16T09:14:00.000Z

I saw these made by one the girls at the knitty coffeeshop on saturday morning, and finished this pair on sunday morning. I thought I had better make something in boy colours...just in case!

It's a free pattern, from Saartje

These socks are for Maddie, made in lana grossa Elastico. I'm not a huge fan of this yarn, it doesn't seem to have enough elastic in it for socks, but it is great to knit with. I think it would make a lovely summer top. The pattern is from Vogue Knitting on the go - Socks two.

I still can't work out how to put a slideshow on my blog, so please click on the album below for some photo's of our trip to Scotland.

Okay, picasa and blogger are not working together at all so I'll try again another time. ARRGGHH!

A bear, a bunny and co.

2007-07-13T14:02:00.000Z

We've been away and I have lots of lovely pictures to show you, but for now I'll just let you see

my finished knits. Above is myself and the girlies at the wedding we went to last weekend. I'm wearing the Debbie Bliss pure silk ribbed wrap top which I am pretty pleased with, Millie and Maddie have their dresses and cardigans on which look gorgeous. Emilia's dress shrunk slightly in the wash and the lining shows now. I'm going to put a row of lace on the bottom of the lining so it looks like a pretty layered dress.

The bunny is for my MIL who has had a coronary artery bypass graft and is still in hospital as the wound is weeping and she is still in a lot of pain. The operation went well though and she should be home this weekend. Another Debbie Bliss pattern, from Toy Knits, knit in stash acrylic and cotton.

The bear is for Maddie as she fell in love with the shop display one and MADE me buy the hateful King Cole sprinkles yarn to make her one. I love the finished teddy and I know she will but I will NEVER, NOT EVER buy this splitty, bobbly, squeaky yukky yarn again! (snob!)

This little cardi was gifted to me by Leslie, who we stayed with when we were away. A gorgeous little crochet matinee coat. I'd downloaded a very similar pattern myself!

Please click on the pictures for larger images, especially the one of the 3 of us, you'll be able to see the cardigan's much clearer.

PRINCESS!! text me, I'd love to meet up before you go :)

Bump....and Maddie

2007-06-27T11:13:00.000Z

Here's Maddie for you Mum, she was saying 'See you soon Grandma' when I took this xxx We're really looking forward to the weekend :)

Me and My Bump...20 weeks and growing well, I've only put on 8lbs so far and I'm really pleased with that.

Thanks for all your comments on my previous posts, I really do appreciate them even if I don't reply. Right, lunch and then tiny tumblers for Maddie.

Baby pics

2007-06-26T14:49:00.000Z

I've just had my 20 week scan and everything was fine. I'd worked myself up into a panic about it earlier today. Not sure why, maybe it is because I am older? These sonographers are so clever, they can even tell if baby has a hare lip...but they are not allowed to call it that anymore!

Baby looking at me

Elbow resting on knee

Baby is still measuring a week ahead of my dates, I'm still not changing them though, If baby arrives at the beginning of November rather than the middle then that will be brilliant!

Enjoy the pics, I'll take one of myself tomorrow as I have gained a bigger belly since the last one I took!

Sick of all this rain.

2007-06-26T09:15:00.000Z

Emilia and Madeleine went to a birthday party this weekend and had their faces painted, some sort of oriental princess I think. Don't they look serious?
This is my big girl last friday on non uniform day. She looked so grown up and beautiful xxx

This is the little set I made for my friend Marion who had her 4th child 2 weeks ago. Eleanor Karen is a little darling, I'll be getting some photos of her soon! The Kimono is from Erica Knights Little Cherubs Book, the bib from One Skein, the shoes based on a pattern in an RYC book and the purse is from a Jaeger book and is for Holly who is now a big sister!

It's been raining for about 2 weeks now. I'm fed up with it, some gentle sunshine would be good :)

Baby knits

The image above is a web album, click on it for more photos. I had so many photos to share with you that I thought I'd tru something different. I wanted to do a slideshow but couldn't work that one out... Mum? These are all my recent baby knits, a couple of hats from Itty Bitty Hats, some of my own design, and some of my socks. The cream and lilac hat and socks are made from Sirdar Baby Bamboo, my new favourite baby yarn. The pink socks are made from RYC Cashsoft Baby. The stripy hat and scarf are a mix of allsorts of odds and ends :)

I've got my 20 week scan this afternoon, I'll post the pic tomorrow. Must go now as Maddie is raiding the kitchen...again!

Goodness me...she blogs!

2007-06-04T09:40:00.000Z

Hi!

I'm still around, I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost a month. Life really gets in the way sometimes.

I had a lovely birthday, DH and the girls found me some wonderful presents, and even made me a bottle of homemade lemonade concentrate as I crave lemonade constantly at the moment. Mum made me a beautiful bolero from RYC Mother and Baby, it's really pretty in shades of blue/grey/cream and looks great with jeans. Amongst other treasures she gave me One Skein by Leigh Radford which I have been devouring!

Baby is growing nicely, at my dating scan they put me 6 days ahead than my dates. I'm not changing my dates though. They calculate the baby's age (should that be babies or babys') byt measuring the head and my babies tend to have quite big heads! Here's the scan photo taken about 3 weeks ago... I'll get a tummy photo later as my camera batteries have gone flat.

MaryAnnLucy tagged me with the 7 random things about me meme so here they are...

1 - Even just thinking about my nose being touched makes it tingle and hurt.

2- I can't get to sleep if DH falls asleep before me...he makes too much noise!

3- My favourite icecream is pistachio but it's really hard to find nowadays.

4- I live in a chaotic mess, but can usually find important things. Apart from my driving license when I had a speeding fine.

5- I love to bake, cakes, scones, biscuits and bread all make me feel good.

6- My children always hover around me when I am trying to concentrate....Yep, Emilia is here right now!

7- I want to train as a primary school teacher.

I'm not going to tag anybody but if you haven't been tagged yet, then consider yourself well and truly it!

Take care, Ali x

Birthdays

2007-05-08T12:40:00.003Z

I'm 32 tomorrow. I don't know how that happened...

I've finished Maddie's dress, as well as a little playtime skirt for both them in the same material. No photo's yet, later maybe.

Here's a photo of me on my 30th birthday. DH arranged a wonderful party for me. Lainch from the knitty coffeeshop even came! I've got an excuse for having a belly now! My posture needs sorting out though.

Right, more tidying to do. BORING!

Birthdays

2007-05-08T12:40:00.000Z

I'm 32 tomorrow. I don't know how that happened...

I've finished Maddie's dress, as well as a little playtime skirt for both them in the same material. No photo's yet, later maybe.

Right, more tidying to do. BORING!

I'm not sure if I'm back...

2007-05-02T10:33:00.000Z

But here are some photo's for you :)

This is Emilia's dress for the Christening and Wedding we are going to in May and July. I love it! It just needs a hook and eye above the zip and it is finished. I love the old fashioned design but funky fabric mix. Madeleine is having a dress in the same fabric but a different style.
Look what arrived in the post this morning. No, Not Madeleine! Mum has made her and Emilia a beautiful summer dress each. She looks so cute and is over the moon to have pockets! I'll get a photo of Emilia in hers after school. Thank you Mum. I love you x

Look what else Mum has made. Don't you just adore Emilia's skirt. It is a Knitpicks pattern, made in shine sport and just looks beautiful. Her fairisle skills are amazing. Even though it is cotton, it will wear well in the winter too. Maddie can't wait until Millie grows out of it!

12 weeks and 1 day today. Still waiting for my appointment for the 12 week scan. My midwife only works on thursday so I have to wait until tomorrow to find out what has happened to the appointment. It should have come through last week. I just want to see this baby so I can relax and start enjoying growing!

I've had an amazing round of Secret Pal from knitty this time. MaryAnnLucy was my pal and she has been amazing. I'll post photo's of my haul tomorrow hopefully, along with the beautiful Hoover Blanket she made for me.

I've finished a cardigan for Emilia, from the RYC Mother and Baby book. It was meant to be for Maddie but after washing it fits E perfectly! I've started a different one for Madeleine. Photo's soon.

Thanks for sticking by me and waiting for a post, I know it has been a long time. I'll try to keep up again.

Normal service will resume shortly...

2007-04-17T16:17:00.000Z

I am abso-doodle-lutely worm out at the moment. I apologise to all those who have emailed me, I just don't have the energy to reply at the moment. I think baby3 is having a bit of growth spurt as I am finding it hard just to get up in the morning, let alone be perky!

Can't wait until I have a proper belly, I just look fat at the moment and that is getting me down. I'm going to get myself a couple of pairs of leggings and funky dresses on friday, hopefully that will perk me up. Retail therapy works wonders (if you're not on a budget.)

Penelope Pitstop - thanks so much for your easter parcel, it really cheered Easter up!

Have you visited Mum's blog recently? You can see the wonderful birthday cake she made for Emilia although she was/is really poorly. Love you Mum xxx

Easter Bonnet Parade Day

2007-04-04T09:55:00.000Z

It's Easter Bonnet day at Emilia's school today. She has worked really hard on her bonnet this year, doing most of the cutting, sticking and decorating herself. She wanted to be a daisy, last year she was a daffodil! Here's a link to her wearing her bonnet last year, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Maddie and I will be making some Bunny ears for her to wear later, when we walk to school this afternoon for the Parade and cakes! I made some raspberry muffins this morning, but I'd rather have a cadbury's Easter cake!

This me today, I'm 8+1 weeks and having trouble fastening my clothes! These pink trousers are the only ones that are comfortable apart from my tracksuit bottoms and I don't wear those in public! It's not a blurry photo really...it's soft focus! :P

I haven't been idle

2007-03-30T20:09:00.000Z

See! I've made a pair of baby trews! From Last Minute Knitted gifts, knitted in Rowan Denim. I think I will give these to a friend who has recently had a baby and make some more for me to keep later on. This is Emilia's surprise fairy dress for her birthday. I went through loads of boxes in the loft, got all my material out and had enough to make her this. It's not finished yet but I have a couple of weeks yet.
Something else for Emilia...The Boho Blocks jumper from www.interweavecrochet.com. I'm making the smallest size but adding a row of dc/sc around the edge to make each block slightly bigger. I may have to make a few extra for her long arms!

I googled this jumper to see if anyone else had made one, the only useful link I found was this !!!

This is the beginnings of Maddie's surprise fairy dress for Emilia's birthday. Knitpicks shine sport worsted, this is a glorious yarn, so soft and comfortable in the hands. I'm going to make her a skirt of taffeta, with an over skirt of tulle and net to wear with this top.
Time for bed now - I promise to be more chatty next week. Have a great weekend xxx

2007-03-23T12:52:00.000Z

I think most people in internet-land have guessed or been told that I am growing baby #3. He or she is due to make an arrival on 13th November, but we'll see, I'm expecting it to be around the 21st.

I'm really excited, and so is DH. Unfortunately I am so tired that I'm finding it hard to show my excitement. Give me another couple of weeks and I'll have some energy back :)

Walking around sainsburys this morning I felt that tell tale dull ache matched with a sharp

jabbing pain every so often in my pubic area which shouts out SPD to me. I was hoping not to get it this time, so I'll dig out my old physio exercise sheet and find my oh so attractive support belt. Bugger.

Also whilst I was doing the food shop, I felt as though I wasn't there. I was walking around but it was like I was watching myself do the shopping. I actually felt like crying the whole way round. I must have looked like a moron.

Anyway, I'm too tired to take a photo today so here's one of my darling Emilia in December last year. She had been to a Royal Academy Ballet workshop and then Mum and Barry took them to Pizza Hut (DH and I were in Amsterdam). I have to say that she is beautiful! Love you Emilia xxx

Red Nose Day updated

2007-03-16T10:21:00.000Z

Both girlies had to wear red to school and nursery today - They looked really cute with their red noses on. It was hard trying to get a photo without them being cross eyed, staring at the big red glob on the end of their noses! I enjoy Red Nose Day, I love the way to whole country gets involved to raise money for those less fortunate and lets face it, so many people are less fortunate than you or me. Today I saw many children from infants to teenagers wearing red on the way to school, and I'm sure there are plenty of silly things planned for them to get up to! Emilia's school is singing the 'Red Nose Song' to all the parents at 3pm today. She's been practising the song all week and I'm looking forward to hearing it sung by the whole school. I didn't buy the red hair spray that they were after though, last time they had colour in their hair it stayed for a month!

Todays Yarny goodness comes courtesy of Minmo mohair. This is a hand dyed blend of Mohair and Blue Faced Leicester. Aran weight, 214g in this skein. It's up for swap as mohair seems to irritate me at the moment so if you'd like it, make me an offer :)

I've got some shortbread in the oven at the moment, I'll be having fun with some condensed milk later, making millionaires shortbread. Emilia thinks it is fantastic :)

Just got back from E's school. I nearly cried, they all looked so sweet and they sang their little hearts out. I really wanted someone to share the moment with, so I thought I'd blog it and share the moment with the world! Click on the photo for a larger picture, E is slap bang in the middle, about to clap. They were filmed by a camera man from Spotlight (SouthWest BBC news programme) so could possibly be on the television tonight too :)

Off to pick M up from nursery now, then back to school to pick E up after her football training. She loves it but this will be her last one this term as they have changed the day to tuesday and she has swimming lessons on tuesdays. Never mind.

The millionaires shortbread is lovely!

Phew, I'm tired.

2007-03-13T09:45:00.000Z

Did you all have a good weekend? I hope so.

Saturday was the usual busy day except DH gave the hallway the first coat of white paint to cover the hideous orange paint that was hiding beneath the equally hideous blue and yellow striped wallpaper. I took Millie to the knitting group in the afternoon and then collapsed in a heap at home!

On sunday I spent the morning tidying up Millie's bedroom and then we went to Woolacombe for a walk, well Dh and the girls went for a walk. I stayed in the car knitting, listening to Radio 2. I can't remember being this tired when I was growing E and M. Hope it goes soon.

Knitting, oh yes knitting. I have got severe startitis and I can't stick at anything! So far I've started Sahara, Ester, a crochet bunny and a pair of socks for DH. Today is being devoted to Sahara.

Yesterday I dyed yarn, 2.5 balls of Patons Diploma Gold DK and 1 ball of Patons Rembrandt. The diploma gold is for socks for DH as he keeps moaning that he never gets made anything. It's not my fault he's 6'3 with size 12 feet is it!

I'm about to upload a few photo's to my photobucket account. These will be of yarn I have to swap or sell. Ideally I'm looking to swap within Europe to keep the postage costs down. I'm after 3 balls of 8 different shades of Rowan All Seasons Cotton, the latest interweave knits, or any of the Rowan RYC range apart from the Silk Aran. The link is now in the sidebar.

Happy Days

2007-03-08T13:45:00.000Z

I received my 3rd wonderful parcel from my Knitty Secret Pal on tuesday - look she even got the post office to print SP on the label ;) Absolutely beautiful packaging, Her DD chose the tissue paper and I just love it! Look what was inside, the complete kit to make a Maud bag from Get Knitted including pattern , yarn - brown sheep Lamb's Pride, 2 pairs of Addi Premiums and the metal handles you felt the yarn over, 2 fantastic wartime Woman's Weekly magazines - these are beautiful and give you such a sense of history and pride in being a woman, butterfly notecards, more fabtastic stickers, sweets - sherbert pips, millions and toffees, Jelly Bellies for DH, a hedgehog for Maddie and a squirrel (still wrapped in this photo) for Millie. We all feel super cherished, thank you so much Penelope Pitstop xxx

I've just started working on Ester from the new Knitty which came out last night. I'm using yarn I bought in New Zealand, JJ's 10ply montage. It's knitting up well but is a little bit scratchy so I'm hoping it'll soften up with a conditioner rinse.

Here are my recent FO's. Fetching from Knitty summer 06 for my Sister-in-Law's birthday. Made in Debbie Bliss Alpaca silk - not quite thick enough for winter gloves but lovely for spring ones. Maddie is modelling her new Polly cardigan from Classic Bambino, made in Debbie Bliss wool cotton. I love it! And for me we have Short and Sweet from The Happy Hooker in Adrienne Vitadini Julia cotton. Busy,busy, busy!

And finally, a little funny from Maddie....

Maddie - "Mummy, there aren't any heights in here are there?"

Me - "Heights? No."

Maddie - "That's good cos Millie is scared of heights."

She must have thought "heights" was a new name for monsters or something!

oh, I'm not sure what happened to my photo of fetching. Mum, can you help?

New Socks

2007-03-06T16:17:00.000Z

Oh, the joy of handmade socks. Especially if they are made by your Grandma. Both my girls now have a special pair of socks made for them by my mum. I believe she used Regia 6ply for them but if you visit her blog you can find the low down on them as well as some other wonderful things!

I've got a lot to blog as I've not been able to for a while now but I'll save it for tomorrow as my little 'devils' need their tea!

Homo Sapiens Non Urinat In Ventum

2007-02-22T10:03:00.000Z

Well, I've not really got much to say. No photos either so I've dug out our Amsterdam pics from last December, I must put them into an online album.

Half term has been hard work this week, I'm still full of cold, sore throat and a cough and to top that off I've been waking up with a sticky eye. Nice. So because of that I'm tired and grumpy, and not being the happy mummy I should be! We had a good day yesterday, even managed a bit of gardening in the front sorting out all the tubs and getting rid of slugs, snails and juicy green caterpillars!

We went to Marks and Spencer for a drink yesterday, both girls love it in their Cafe Revive. I had my usual toffee tart, which is basically banoffee pie without the banana and cream, yum! Millie had the most darling babycino drink. Steamed frothy milk served with marshmallows and a little shortbread biscuit in an espresso cup, she loved it :)

Off to Winchester on saturday to see MIL, she's home now and is feeling much better. Very tired though and I hope she isn;t pushing herself as I know she is prone to doing. I've said that I'll take tea down with us so they don't need to worry about feeding us.

When we get back home, Mum and Barry should be at our house making it smell good with one of their delicious curries :) I'm going to get Mum to highlight my hair for me too, it's awful at the moment and unfortunately I haven;t got £70 lying around to pay a hairdresser!

I'm not dressed yet, nor are the girls but I have done the kitchen, middle room and hallway this morning so I don't feel guilty for not having showered yet!

I am having real trouble with lace at the moment, I just can't seem to get it right. I've started 2 stoles and have mucked them both up. Maybe it is fates way of telling me that I'll never wear them so why make them? Sarakate on knitty has a wonderful blog with a lace handout, (I must put a link to her site) and I am going to follow her instructions to the letter and make some lace dishcloths before I try anything big again.

What a ramble! I said I didn't have anything to say and I've gone on and on, shall I prod you with a knitting needle to wake you up?

Oh, there's more! Maddie has been making me laugh. On tuesday she came upstairs crying, when asked what was wrong she said she had hurt her nose. I kissed it better (after wiping away the snot of course) and asked how she did it. 'I was kissing the television, Mumma'. I couldn't help but laugh! Yesterday I went into my bedroom to find Maddie wearing a pair of DH's socks pulled up to bum and the silk thong from the previous post aroung her neck. She did look a picture but I didn't get one as she took it all off before I found the camera. She's a fruitcake!

Happy Thursday
Ali x

Okay, blogger is being an arse so you won't get to see any photo's today. I'll try again tomorrow :) The title of this post relates to one of the photo's I can't show you today. grr

Faery Tales

Nirvana - Lithium

It's all about me, me, me

Moving on

Today I...

Starting as I mean to go on

The year of no regrets

A sad day

Elderflower Cordial

RHS Rosemoor

When you hit rock bottom...

Birdie, birdie, tweet tweet

How does my garden grow, week 2

Our Garden

Bold floral fabric

Whoops!

Let me update you...

Oink.

A busy time

Ilfracombe Pilot Gig Club Regatta, Fibrefest and P/hop...

Tomten

Happy Birthday Mum!

Custard Pies!

Rubbish Blogger

Why I haven't been blogging

Very quickly - Amy Butler baby dress

Ravelry 'a few of my favourite things' swap

A truly wonderful weekend!

Flickr

A quicky...

Yarn for sale

Join me on a stash only 2009?

Christmas plays 2 and 3!

Christmas Play number 1!

HELLO!

Lactation Cookies....

Blimey, almost 2 months!

Wow, what a response!

Random Pictures

A busy fun weekend

Wet wet wet

Boo..............................!

Just to let you know

Oh my!

So much to tell you!

And the winner is...

Questions and Answers

Is it posh enough?

Want to buy a Renault Scenic? And a competition!

3 months old

A while away

A couple of hats

Christopher's Angels

Sullivan's boots and hat

Sullivan 20/11/2007

Emilia's hat

We had a lovely Christmas

Meet Sullivan George...

In case you were wondering *edited and updated*

I've been doing this

Look what I wore to school on Hallowe'en!

I've been out of touch

I won!!!

Can you believe it is October already?

Lotsa Knits!

No knits!

Taking a break.

Getting back into the swing of things

More sewing

Just a little post

Knitting blahs

Sunshine, Sewing and Sknitting....I wanted another S word!

Chalk + 2 girls = ?

Sports day....We had a summer's day!

Green Man Festival and a spider

Try again!

Saartje's Booties

A bear, a bunny and co.

Bump....and Maddie

Baby pics

In case you were wondering edited and updated

Red Nose Day updated