Schools Out

Our schools finished up on Friday for the summer holidays, so today is the first day of a nice long seven and a half weeks of doing lots of lovely things ~ we have nothing planned for the first three weeks and will be pretty much taking each day as it comes! My children are quite happy playing in the garden with their friends, visiting Granny who lives very near to the beach, having lots of yummy picnics and going to play in the park. I am really looking forward to spending lots of days outside hopefully enjoying some nice sunny weather.

Just in case we have some rainy days (well this is Scotland!) we have visited the library to join in with the annual Reading Quest. The idea is that the children have to read six books during the summer holidays and they get little prizes along the way for each book they read. We had a good old browse and stocked up on some lovely things to read.


Doggy Stories ~ for a small boy who loves dogs.

Edinburgh Stories ~ this is a child’s book, which is set in and around the Old Town of Edinburgh and I may be trying to get my hands on it before my daughter does!


And of course some Crafty Stitchy type books for me.

Making progress!

I have been busy with my little crochet Granny squares and have now managed to join them together fairly easily using this very good tutorial from Attic 24. I decided to make them the centre piece and started to crochet around them, not really giving it much thought to what I was actually going to make. I’m still not one hundred percent sure what the finished object will be, but I think that it may eventually become a colourful little cushion cover.




I have also, at long last, decided on what I am going to make for my Seaside Swap and if you look very carefully at one of these photographs you might get a little clue! This will be my very first attempt at making this particular item, so I only hope that it turns out the way that I expect it to, otherwise I will have to get my thinking cap on very quickly and come up with another idea. It’s probably just as well that I still have a month to go until the posting deadline!

I hope that everyone has a very lovely weekend and look forward to seeing all your bloggy weekend news next week :O)

Desafio ~ Game of 7 Things

A few weeks ago Floss involved me in a game called Desafio which is a Spanish word that means challenge in English. This game is all about getting to know each other better and to play it I must let you know 7 things about me ~ so here goes, here are my 7 things:~

1. My husband and I got married and our daughter was christened all on her first birthday! A little bit unconventional, but it makes her birthday and our wedding anniversary extra special. We got married in this beautiful little church in the very picturesque village of Dirleton.

2. I do a lot of voluntary work for Simpson's Special Care Babies which is a small charity linked to the Neo Natal Unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. My daughter was cared for in the Special Care Baby Unit for 3 weeks due to developing complications after her birth. I am so grateful for the level of care that she received in the unit and like to try and give something back.

3. I lived in Surrey until I was ten and then moved up to East Lothian in Scotland where I have been ever since. I love the fact that you have the beach and the countryside and a big city within a short driving distance. My favourite beach is this one in North Berwick.


4. I am passionate about reading and am completely lost if I don't have anything to read. I am also extremely lucky that I work in a library so have lots and lots of books to choose from all for free.

5. I am very much a jeans and tee shirts kind of girl, with either flip flops, trainers or flat boots. I dress to be comfy and I never wear heels.

6. I love Chinese food and only wish I could have it more often.

7. One of my very favourite places to be is Glencoe, which is a glen in the Highlands of Scotland. I try to go there once a year~usually with my best friend and we do a little walking and a lot of chatting and just take in the spectacular scenery.

Granny Squares

These are the four little Granny Squares that I have managed to make from the lovely new wool that I bought last weekend. They are by no means perfect, but I don't think that they are too bad for a first attempt ~ what do you think? I have still got to sew in all the ends and then I am going to attempt to sew them together. I'm not sure whether or not they will need to be blocked at this stage, but I'm sure time will tell!

There's not much planned for this weekend as I have a coughing child at home and she is feeling rather sorry for herself ~ we will probably all just stay in and keep cosy under blankets on the sofa, drinking tea, eating yummy snacks and watching DVD's. We could all do with a bit of a rest as we have got a very busy time ahead at school next week as we break up on Friday for our Summer Holidays.

I hope that everyone has a lovely weekend :O)

Saturday Shopping

I had a lovely day out on Saturday, shopping with my friend in Edinburgh. Our first stop was John Lewis for the haberdashery Dept ~ where else! I bought some lovely Rowan double knitting wool and a new crochet hook. My theory is that is if I have the same lovely wool as Lucy then maybe I’ll be able to crochet as well as her too! I live in hope ~ even half as well would be a big achievement.


We decided to do most of our shopping in the morning and had a leisurely stroll along George Street having a look in Lakeland Ltd, Cath Kidston and Paperchase along the way. We had a delicious lunch in our favourite restaurant and then headed up to a little shop in Castle Street called A Treasure Trove. This little shop is run by The Royal Edinburgh Repository and Self Aid Society and is an absolute delight. It sells all sorts of lovely crafts made by local people in need. I have just learnt this morning that Floss ~ was in that little shop on Saturday too. Unfortunately we didn’t bump into one another this time ~ hopefully there will be a next time!

I bought these lovely flowers this morning as I have a meeting to go to this evening at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as it is the Simpsons Special Care Babies AGM, which is the charity that I am involved with. We are having a bit of a celebration tonight as our lovely Secretary has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. This is in recognition of her work over many years for Simpsons Special Care Babies. Well Done Gill :O)

Crocheted Mess

I’ve only very recently come across the delightfully fantastic blog Attic 24. It is wonderfully written, very colourful and very inspiring.

I was taught to crochet by an old Great Aunt when I was still at school ~ which is a lot more years ago than I care to remember. I made a granny square blanket and remember that is was lovely to crochet because it used to keep me cosy at the same time. Anyway, being inspired by this lovely blog, I thought that I would try my hand at crochet again. I dug out some yucky old double knitting wool (all scratchy and nylony) and found an old crochet hook and set to work.

Do you want to see?


Not very good at all is it?

I thought that I would still be able to do the basic stitches, but it’s not as easy as I remembered it being. It took me absolutely ages to get the first row done as I couldn’t get my crochet hook into the foundation chain and then I don’t thing that I am doing the right thing when it comes to starting and finishing the rows as it seems to have gone a little wonky at the edges. I have decided that I am going to give some of the blame to the horrid wool and the tiny crochet hook – and am going to treat myself to some new supplies tomorrow.

I am having a Girly Day out in Edinburgh tomorrow with my best friend and plan on going on a bit of a Woolly Shopping Expedition ~ some lovely new wool, a better crochet hook and maybe even a little book on all the crochet basics. I have also got some ideas for my Seaside Swap project and need to pick up some bits for that too. I will hopefully let you see some lovely purchases next week. I hope that everyone has a great weekend :O)

Walking in the woods

My children had an extra day off school yesterday because the teachers were having an in-service training day. It was a lovely day so we decided to head off to a local woodland walkway for a little bit of an adventure. We went out well prepared with our wellies and our walking boots and took lots of yummy things for snacking on along the way.

We walked and explored and found lots of 'boy sticks' and plenty of streams for a certain small boy to dip his little feet into. What is it about boys and water? They just can't help themselves!


And we sat down here and had our little picnic. We all had a lovely time and went home tired and very happy. Sometimes I think that the best days out are the ones that are not planned.

Quilty Loveliness

I recently entered a giveaway on a lovely blog called Comfort Stitching that I just happened to stumble upon. The prize was unbelievably generous and I nearly didn't bother entering it because there had been so many comments left already and I really didn't think that there would be much of a chance of winning something that was very much sought after. Imagine how surprised and delighted I was when I received an e mail from Aneela telling me that I had won her beautiful lap quilt!


It is absolutely beautiful and she must of put so much work and time into making it. The centre square has been hand embroidered with a lovely flower design, and the colours used in the patchwork all work really well together.


I am sure my pictures don't really show you how lovely the quilt is ~ I have tried to take them from as many different angles as possible ~ and for those of you that know how long it has taken me to get more than one photo in a post, I hope you notice that there is a bit of progress happening now! Please also excuse the burnt and faded grass, it's Scottish and it is not used to all this gorgeous hot weather that we have been having :O)

Blue and Speckled

I have just finished making this little Blue Speckled Chicken and I just love him. He was very quick and easy to knit and even the sewing up part wasn't too bad (and I usually hate that part!). I love the way the yarn makes him look all speckled and my favourite part is his dingily dangily legs with his little knotty knees.


I can't believe that I have just managed to put in two photograph's in the same post! It has only taken me about six months to work out how to do it, and I probably will forget how I did it when I try to do it again!

I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend and made the most of the fantastic weather that we have been having - even up here in Scotland! Let's hope that it continues and we have a lovely hot and sunny summer :O)