Quiet House

My children went back to school in the middle of last week and I am now trying to get back into some sort of routine. I can’t believe how quickly seven and a half weeks of school holidays have just disappeared! The house seems so very quiet now and it’s funny how you miss all the chatting and laughing and noise of lots of children generally charging around the house causing mayhem!

However, now that they are back to school, my absolute favourite time of the day is just after I have come back from doing the school run in the morning. That is when I make myself something yummy for breakfast, along with a nice cup of tea, and I settle myself down to read a few chapters of whatever book I happen to have on the go ~ Blissful........


I can also now get back to doing some serious crocheting without the constant cries of ‘MUM’ every two minutes. I have nearly finished my Colourful Crochet Cushion Cover but disaster has struck and I have run out of my lovely Pier coloured Rowan DK Wool........ with only one round to go! The only good thing about running out of wool is that it gives me an excuse to go into Edinburgh for a bit of a woolly shopping spree ~ although I don't think that many of us need an excuse for woolly shopping! Do we? :O)

Swaps are FAB!

Last week the Postie delivered my Seaside swap parcel from my swap partner Val ~ Dotty Dotty. As I have said before this was the first swap parcel that I have received and we were all so excited! The children gathered around expecting me to rip it open. But No! First of all I had to take some photographs to show you all. You should have seen their little faces!

It was wrapped in lovely colourful flowery paper and perched on top of the parcel was a lovely little windmill which is now sitting in my garden looking very pretty.

Once all the photographs had been taken it was a race to see who could get into the parcel first and we were not disappointed either! Inside the parcel was a very lovely felt bag which was embellished with a FAB ice lolly made by this lovely blogger. I have admired Lisa’s work for a long time and am now the lucky owner of this lovely bag.


Inside the bag was another of Lisa’s creations ~ a felt FAB ice lolly ~ which my children have now decided belongs to them! There was also a lovely handmade lavender pillow which smells wonderful, crochet covered seaside pebbles and a little box of sea shell chocolates.

I loved everything in my parcel ~ Thank you very much Val ~ and I am so glad that I decided to take part in the swap. Swaps are FAB! :O)

Little Flower Pot

Can you remember a few weeks ago when I was crocheting these lovely little colourful flowers from Attic 24? I wasn’t sure at the time what I was actually making them for and just carried on crocheting them as I was enjoying it. Would you like to see what I did with them?

Well ~ I decided that I would have a go at the Japanese art of Amigurumi and eventually made this little flower pot. I have to admit that it took me quite a few attempts because I didn’t realise that you had to work in spirals and not in rounds ~ if that makes any sense! It was frogged a few times and I very nearly gave it up as a very bad job. However, once I got the hang of it I found it fairly easy to do and it does work up very quickly too. Once I had made the flower pot all I had to do was attach the flowers and I ended up with this lovely little flower arrangement which I love.

Now, anybody that knows me well will be aware that I am not renowned for my green fingers ~ all the gardening is done by my lovely husband who is helped (although I’m not sure if that is the right word to use!) by one small boy. The good thing about these little flowers is that they don’t need any green fingered skills and will sit happily on my window sill looking pretty without the need for constant care and attention from me! :O)

Seaside Swap

I recently took part in my very first bloggy swap which was organised by Rachel ~ the swap had a Seaside theme and I had such fun looking for all the little Seasidey bits and pieces. I know that my swap partner has received her parcel so I can now safely show you what I sent.

It took me absolutely ages to think of what I was going to send as my handmade item, but I finally decided on this little Seaside inspired felt pin cushion. I am sure that my stitches could have been a lot neater but I was quite pleased at how it turned out. I added some sea shell shaped buttons and some pretty little pearly pins as a finishing touch.


Also inside the parcel was a little Gisella Graham lighthouse tea light holder, some shell shaped soap, a painted glass yacht wind chime, sea shell shaped wine glass charms, an ice cream shaped lip gloss, a beach hut cross stitch kit, some sea shell chocolate and finally some seaside rock. I really enjoyed this swap and am looking forward to doing another one sometime soon :O)

Back home again

We are just back from our lovely and relaxing countryside holiday, where we were staying with my Auntie and Uncle in the beautiful Durham Dale of Weardale. They stay in this beautiful little riverside cottage and it is always a pleasure to stay there. It always feels like you are stepping back in time and staying in a bit of a time warp, as everything is so old fashioned inside, with sloping floors and very low dark wood beamed ceilings ~ not good for a very tall husband who now has a few bumps on his head as holiday souvenirs! It is very cosy and very homely and always has a lovely roaring coal fire burning at the end of the day, which is just right for snuggling up on the sofa with a glass of wine and getting a bit dozy.


We went on some lovely countryside walks and admired all the beautiful scenery ~ we even managed to find a lovely little Fairy House.


Something looks very interesting here!


Here we are having a very well deserved rest after a long walk. You can see that we were very obviously dressed for the British Summer in wellies, waterproofs and walking boots ~ although we can't complain that much as the weather did stay mostly dry for us. I have all but given up hoping for hot summery days and now just hope instead each day that it doesn't rain!

We had a very lovely and relaxing holiday and also managed to find lots of little countryside tea rooms,which are very necessary for much eating and drinking of tea and cake ~ just what you need after a nice walk ~ although I think that I will need to walk for miles now to lose all the extra pounds gained from eating all that yummy cake! :O)