No photos today...

my battery needs charging, and I should be studying, so off I am going to study :-(
never mind, keep thinking of the end result :-)

I did manage to score some "seconds" Liberty fabric today for £6 a metre, and the 3.9m I bought (it was all they had left) has got nothing wrong with it. It will back my quilt, so look forward to getting to that stage soon. Piccies will follow.
x

What a busy day!

My first weekend day off since about the middle of December, so we were up and out early. We dropped DD off at work, and DH went to get his back done, so with half an hour to myself, I wandered into town for a coffee and a read of the newspaper....how civilised. I wandered past Shakespeare's Birthplace - look! No tourists!!!!! I said it was early, I certainly couldn't have got this photo half an hour later.

 Opposite the Birthplace is the Christmas Shop, it looks so pretty so worthy of a photo.
As you can see, the weather continues to go crap, horrible light, very chilly and a light layer of mist but not enough to see if you get what I mean, it was just grey and miserable.

 So, with that in mind I had to buy Daddy Aardvaak, mummy and baby still have their christmas ribbons on, but perhaps it was in celebration of becoming a family of three. Anyway, these are DHs aardvaaks, he is very happy to have the full collection. They are a warmer orange than this, but again it is the crappy light.

 I got a cat bowl at my local CS for a fab 79p, and they are all very happy with it, and I got this bowl (below) for the Featheries.

 They seem to like it but couldn't see their grapes, and I got a look as if question my absolute stupidity at giving them an empty bowl, but then suddenly they saw the grapes - happy Chooks!

 I went and rescued my fabulous tin. I first saw this before Christmas, and mentioned it to DH. He decided just before Christmas to go get it for me....on the day it started to snow. A journey that normally takes about 10 mins took him one and half hours, and when he got there, it was closed!! So we popped back today, and I thought it had gone, but it was hiding in a corner. It is now sitting very proudly in the kitchen with this in it - see below!

 A portuguese Bolo Rei! Mum sent me one on 9th of December and it arrived on 12th of January and was flatter than an envelope, so she very kindly me sent me another. This was posted on the 19th of January!! Amazing! I shall enjoy some of this tonight :-)

 Such a lovely day, and thoroughly spoiled! Dh bought me 2 more trolly things for my bracelet. The red one is for Valentine's Day, and the silver one is for getting a distinction for my last course. It is called Love Lies Within, because the bumpy bits you can just see on the inside are hearts. It can be engraved, but we couldn't think what to put on it, so for now it is plain.

And finally, the epitome of a harmonious day! Archie and Topsey are sharing the cat blanket in front of the fire. Archie (ginger) is 19, blind and deaf but copes very well, and Topsey is one of our rescue cats, she doesn't normally tolerate anyone, but I guess today she was desperate for the heat - she can normally be found lie full length against a radiator....sweating!!! She is lovely, but has a few disgusting habits!
Anyway, off to enjoy a glass of wine, some cheese and bread and a quiet evening in front of the telly. Back to work tomorrow.
x

You only borrow them for a short space of time....

Freezing fog, and VERY cold temperatures. UGH!

BUT very good news...DD has had conditional offers for her 2 top choice Uni courses, so now the pressure is on to get the points she needs. But it also means that my baby could be leaving home in 8 months time!!

Where have the last 17 years gone?

x



It's cold....

...and I am back at work, and tonight I must study....I would far rather be here

only 7 months to go lol
x

hmmmm another day off......

 The sun came out today, and cast some beautiful shadows, so I took this photo.

Then after having a look through some blogs, I decided to bake, I love these rock cakes in Jane Brockett's book The Art of Gentle Domesticity. I turned the oven on, got the baking tray out, and went to the drawer to get the baking parchment.....and I hadn't got any. OMG, no rock cakes today!!!

But as consolation we got 2 deliveries of post today (makes a change from the days over Christmas when we got nothing - Christmas cards are still arriving!) and in the second one I got my Spring Sarah Raven catalogue, with 15% discount - I am so happy, there are some wicker hurdles in there I will be ordering to try and keep the girls off my flowers - I know, I know it won't work, but at least it will look pretty.

 I added some more fabric to my quilt, which is growing beautifully.......followed by....

tea cakes with my daughter. What a lovely day.

x

Working today...so cat photo post

A photo of YY. Has to be done, she was a gymnast in a previous life.

We only have classy cats in our house ;-)
x

You know when you are looking for a book......

but you don't really know what book you are looking for! I just fancied something "lovely", I had the need for a new book, and the local book shop kept calling to me. After several visits, not finding quite what I was looking for, today I went in and this book was right at the front, and in the sale - yay! I love a bargain! It is the history of the rose from Roman times to the present day. The cover is beautiful, and the plates inside are lovely, even if I never read it, it is a beautiful book to flick through, and has filled my need for a "lovely" book. 

Another recent purchase - which was an absolute bargain - is my fab 4 in 1 rice cooker. I originally bought a Cusinart one, which decided to leak water all over the worksurface, as you can imagine I wasn't too impressed. So after reading reviews on Amazon (which did warn about the leaking!) I decided to try this Tefal...IT IS FAB!

DH is currently working very late nights, last night he got home at 1.30am, so this little beauty has been a boon. DD and I had rice which was cooked perfectly in 15 mins, and the machine stayed on "warm" until he got back, and 1.5 hours later his rice was just as good.

Today I am trying out its slowcooking function, and it also makes porridge and can be used as a steamer. Can't recommend it highly enough - I think I am in love :-)

x

Memories...

When I was a little girl, I used to spend my afternoons after school with an elderly next door neighbour called Mrs Lodge. She used to make me sugar sandwiches on wholemeal bread with Stork. After tea we would play a card game, and this was something I had forgotten until I came across a pack of Lexicon cards recently.

We haven't played it yet, as I have forgotten how, but I intend to get the instructions out tomorrow and remind myself. Wouldn't it be funny if we never played the game properly, just a version that she made up!! It was always very serious, and turned into marathon sessions.

At the same time I picked up Lexicon, I also picked up Lotto which we played on Christmas afternoon. It is complete, and the numbers are all on little pieces of wood. We had a lovely time, especially as we were making up our bingo calls - two fat ladies, 22!

Jack Straws was a game I played when I was little too, at a friends house, so I couldn't resist treating myself when I saw it last year.

These boxes give me so much pleasure. Just looking at them, the quality of the boxes, the typeface and general design, but more especially the history of them. Who played them? Who won? How much joy did they bring to families?

So much social history.
x

Night away....

we are so tired! It is that time of the year for everyone. We don't have the time to pop down to St Ives, as much as I would love to......sigh!
So I am going to book a night away in Hay-on-Wye.
DH has never been and I have only been for a girly weekend - well when I say girly, it was a yoga retreat at the local Youth Hostel, which was fabulous. So I think it is about time we visited those books!

Must dash, I am being entranced by Indiana Jones whilst waiting for Tesco
x

Crafting

Today, I have had my sewing machine out for the first time in ages. I had the house to myself, and no urgent need (or desire) to attempt any house, and I certainly wasn't going to do any studying. I didn't know whether to do some more to my quilt or some knitting, but the sewing machine won out.
After wrestling with it for half an hour, we spent a happy afternoon together.
I started this back in July, after I bought a couple of packs of fabric from Salssnippets when I visited the Fashion and Textile Fair last July, and started sewing them together in a random fashion with the idea of making a patchwork quilt for our bed.

DH asked what I wanted for Christmas so I asked for more fabric so I could carry on. After tracking her down and sending an email, she confirmed that she would be at the Christmas Fair, so it was arranged that DH would pick up some fabric when we were there, so after receiving it on Christmas Day, today was the first day I have had the chance to add some more.

I'm afraid the photos aren't great as they were taken late afternoon, but it will be good to have a record of how it grew. Between days off, housework and studying it won't grow as quickly as I would like it to, but as we are having our bedroom redone in February I am hoping to get a dressing table to double up as a work space so I won't have to keep putting things away. When it is put away it is difficult to do a quick 5 minutes, but with it all set up I could even just do a square a night.

And hopefully Furry Helpers might not be so "helpful"

I have put it all away for now, and can't do any tomorrow as I am doing a training session at work tomorrow evening until 8pm, and I really should do some housework on my next day off, Friday, but maybe I could pick the needles back up and finish my cardigan.

I am hoping to continue my studies with a view to working towards a degree. This is a challenging thought as I can see the next 6 years (or so) will be given over to that and my crafting will take a back seat (and so does blogging as has been proved already), but it will be worth it. I am enjoying the challenge of learning, and utilising my new knowledge both at work and at home, and I am very lucky that the company I work for are happy to sponsor me threw it (that spelling of threw looks so wrong!!)

Anyway, have a lovely evening.

x

I need to go back to work for a rest!

Sadly, I haven't managed to get any knitting done, but I have no work due until next week, so I am hoping to get my needles out tomorrow.

DD spent all day yesterday in bed, but made it into school today and seems brighter. And I have got the house sorted:
- all of the christmas decs are down and packed away
- a weeks worth of food has been cooked, and is in the fridge and/or freezer
- lunches for work have been made
- house has been vaccuumed, so why does Topsey insist on pulling her fur out - ggrrrrrrr, bloody cat!
- chickens have been fed porridge, and we have had another egg, one a day for the new year - good girls.

What I really wanted to do today was add to my patchwork quilt I started last year. DH bought me some more fabric from salsnippets when we went to the Vintage Fair last year, and I finally got my hands on it for Christmas but have had no time to do anything with it. Today was planned to be that day! but as my first job was to unblock the dishwasher and I discovered I had to buy a special screwdriver (who knew!) to take the pump out, so that wasn't done, the rest of the day kind of went to pot.

Anyway, DD took some lovely photos of Christmas bits which I will pop on here starting off with our Christmas Icicles, in lieu of photos of my 4 headed amaryliss (which has already had 2 heads on it) and my beautiful hyacinths. (eta I forgot to link to her blog - god, am I in trouble!!!!!)

Off to watch Indiana Jones - how fab is that on a Wednesday evening, thank you BBC1 x

Happy New Year

We had a lovely, quiet start to 2011.

DD is ill with a bad cold which may result in a fight with the Dr receptionist tomorrow to get her an appt - let's see.

I have been fighting with my second assignment for this current course. I had a light bulb moment earlier today, and then have worked on it since 1pm, so now it is complete I have sent it! I really can't see me wanting to reread it, so good luck, marking tutor, you may need it with this one!

We have had 2 eggs so far this year too, which after a drought of about 4 months is lovely. We have fattened the girls up with porridge, which they love and has helped keep them warm in the cold, cold weather, but now they are looking rather plump. I must get some photos.

Anyway, off now for a well deserved glass of red, then off to bed and 2 more days off work (one on my own!! no assignment either, can't wait - I haven't knitted for weeks and am desperate). I will take the rest of the decs down tomorrow, the tree came down today and it is all looking very sad. I usually like it when the tree comes down as the room looks fresh and bright, but this year it all feels like it has been too quick.

Oh well, I bought my first bunch of daffs today x