Farmhouse Holiday

We had a wonderful weekend staying at this lovely Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast, which I can highly recommend if you should ever find yourself looking for a place to stay near to Alton Towers.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that great but the scenery is glorious and the children can play safely too.

We fed some goats


We played with some Farm kittens

We visited a Zoological Park where we saw some Meer cats ~ which caused much hilarity as it just reminded us of Alexander from that brilliantly funny advert for Compare the Meercat.com!

And some Flamingos.

We had a lovely, but very wet day at Alton Towers, but it didn’t stop us from having a lot of fun. We were not brave enough to go on any of the fast and scary rides, but enjoyed all the small child and parent friendly rides with the Berry Blaster being our very favourite. We went on the Sky train and later found out that one of the stations that we were in caught fire and was completely burnt down the same day!

We are off again later in the week to spend a few days with my Aunty and Uncle in Weardale, County Durham. Hopefully the weather will have dried up a bit by the end of the week, but if not then I’m sure we will still have a lovely time :O)

More Goodies

As you can see I have been buying a few more lovely goodies this week as they were just a little bit too much for me to resist!

I absolutely adore Cath Kidston’s Stanley and it is very hard to find now. However, I have managed to get my little mitts on two lovely Stanley items this week. The first one is a little Stanley fold away rain jacket, which I have persuaded a small boy to wear for his up and coming holiday by telling him that it is the thing to be seen in this summer! How I wish that they made this in adults sizes too ~ but alas, I must content myself with gazing at my small boy wearing the much desired item instead.

The second must have Stanley item is a little zip up bag which is just the right size to fit crochet hooks, darning needles and scissors into without the need to delve into the larger CK knitting bag and rummage every time I need one of those elusive items.


Lastly, I have treated myself to the latest Country Living magazine as it is essential holiday reading ~ the only thing is that now I will need to hide it from myself in order to stop it being read before we set off on Sunday.

We are heading off to the beautiful little village of Alton to visit my Dad who owns a lovely little village pub there. We will be staying just a few miles away from him at the very lovely Crowtrees Farm Bed and Breakfast ~ which I would highly recommend if you ever find yourself looking for somewhere nice to stay that is near to Alton Towers.

I hope everyone has a very nice and relaxing weekend and Happy Holidays to all those who are just finishing up for the school holidays or who are heading off on a little jaunt somewhere nice too :O)

Woolly Goodies

I had a lovely weekend and hope that you all did too!

On Saturday morning the postie arrived with a lovely little parcel of woolly goodies from this lovely web site called Rowan Up Country. They have the most brilliant woolly shade cards and I had decided to order a couple of them for future planning of more woolly projects and future purchases of more lovely woolly packages.

I also treated myself to two more balls of the Rowan Pure DK Wool in Pier to complete the back of my colourful cushion cover which I made a start on last night.

I have got a very busy week ahead as I am doing a few extra shifts in the Library to cover for holidays and I have also got to get organised as we are going away for a few days holiday next weekend. Unfortunately I can see very little time for crochet and a lot of time being spent on washing,ironing and organising :O)

Playing hooky with a cushion

We have not been out and about nearly as much this week as the weather has been a bit wet and yucky. We have been filling our time doing all the boring things such as getting summer haircuts and having the car serviced before we head off on holiday. There has also been much playing outside with friends when the weather has been nicer, leaving some time for Mummy to play inside with some wool and a metal stick ~ when she really should have been playing with an ironing board and some clothes instead!

I have been filling my time with some more lovely crochet and have managed to finish the front of my cushion cover. I have still got to sew in the rest of the pesky ends and then it will need to be blocked. I have put it on top of one of my other cushions to see how it would look and am quite pleased with the results. At the moment I think that I am going to crochet the back of the cover in just the green colour and then join the two sides together with a pretty edging.

I have also been trying out a lovely flower pattern from Attic 24 and have managed to make some little crochet flowers which may end up on the front of my cushion or as a pretty little flowery garland.

I hope that you all enjoy your weekend ~ Have Fun :O)

Seals at Eyemouth

Last Friday we visited the little seaside town of Eyemouth on the East Coast of Scotland. Swimming around in the harbour there were about 6 seals who stay there all year round for a very good reason ~ a plentiful supply of eager tourists feeding them with fish!


There is a little blue kiosk at the side of the harbour which sells yucky fishy snacks for the seals and much yummier fishy snacks for people. For a couple of pounds you can buy a bag of fishy bits to feed to the seals, fortunately they also supply you with plastic gloves so that you don’t end up all smelly and fishy!


Along the harbour railings there are fishing rods which you attach the fish to and then you lower the fishy bits on the rods down to the seals. If you lower the fish onto the orange platform then the seals will jump onto the platform and get the fish that way too. They have to be quick though as the greedy seagulls are also ready and waiting to get some free food.


The children had such fun doing this and it is lovely to get so close to the seals and to see them in their natural environment ~ although I’m sure that normally they would have to look a bit harder for their food!



After we had fed the seals we decided that we were all feeling quite hungry too. We found a lovley little award winning restaurant and treated ourselves to a very nice traditional fish tea ~ with fish and chips, mushy peas, bread and butter and a cup of tea and very yummy it was too :O)

Out and about

We have had a very busy first few days of our Summer Holidays and have been out and about on a few adventures. The weather has been typically Scottish and has been fairly temperamental, but it hasn’t stopped us having a lot of fun. We have had a picnic on the beach, surrounded by sea mist and another picnic in the park during a thunder storm. We have also ~

Looked for crabs in the rock pools.

Dug holes and built sandcastles.

Sat on some giant chairs.

Played on the Flying Fox

And had a ride on a giant bicycle.

We are planning to go to the little seaside town of Eyemouth tomorrow and are hoping to see some seals in the harbour and have fish and chips for tea too.