New Year ~ New Yarn

Is it really the 6th of January already? Where on earth does the time go to? As usual, I am a lot later than most of you in making an appearance in blogland this year ~ but none the less I'm here now to wish you all a very Happy New Year ~ I hope that 2011 is a good one for you :O)

I don't usually tend to make myself New Year resolutions because being the terribly unorganised person that I am I never, ever stick to them ~ so really there is no point! However, I have been looking back over my little bloggy space for last year and noticed a distinct lack of posts!! Only 24 posts in a whole year!! How rubbish is that?? It really is a wonder that I have any of you lovely readers left!! So ...........what I am actually trying to say is that I WILL try harder to post a bit more often this year, and more importantly, I WILL try harder to finish some lovely crafty things so that I actually have something to post about!!


A New Year just has to have some New Yarn ~ or so I told myself!! And isn't this lovely lot absolutely gorgeous? I decided to buy myself a little yarny present and opted for this collection of Rico creative cotton and to tell you the truth I can't wait to get started with it. I love the brightness of the colours ~ they are just begging to made into something bright and cheery ~ I'm not quite sure what that something is yet, but I will let you know as soon as I have decided.

Right..........I think I can hear the kettle calling to me, so it must be time for a cup of tea and perhaps a little bit of pondering over some Rico creativity.

See you all soon :O)xxx

The night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.


The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads...................

by Clement Clarke Moore.


Don't you just love this poem? It is one of my absolute favorites and I have very fond childhood memories of it being read to me and my sisters every Christmas Eve when we were small. It was a tradition that I really wanted to carry on with my own little family too.

We always settle down to watch The Polar Express with the children on Christmas Eve and then after the stockings have been hung up and the glass of milk and mince pies have been left out for Santa. Oh....... and not forgetting the carrot for Rudolph! It is time for that magical part of the evening to begin. Once we eventually get the children tucked up in their bed my husband reads it to them.......... I love watching their little faces ~ all the excitement and anticipation of going to bed knowing that when they wake up in the morning Santa will have hopefully left them lots of presents.

I hope that Santa leaves you lots of lovely presents too and that you all have a very Happy Christmas and have all your Christmas wishes come true ~ whatever they may be!:O) xx

Seasidey Stuff

A few weeks ago ~ when the sun was a little bit shinier that it is now ~ we headed out for the day to the Seaside on the East Coast of Scotland. Our first stop was at St Abb's Head which is a National Nature Reserve looked after by the National Trust for Scotland. We had never visited this lovely place before and were very glad that we decided to stop for a look. There are some fantastic cliff top walks and the sea views are beautiful. Definitely well worth a visit if you are ever in the area and as an added bonus there is also a little craft type village there with a little tea shop, an art gallery and a wool shop too.


After all that lovely fresh sea air we were feeling a little bit hungry so we decided to drive to Eyemouth for a traditional fish tea. Freshly caught battered fish, chips, mushy peas and bread and butter all washed down with a lovely hot cup of tea. Not very healthy, but very tasty indeed!


Still keeping with all things seasidey......... I just have to show you the picture that I treated myself to a few weeks ago. I absolutely love this seasidey picture which is a print by the very talented artist and fellow blogger Julia Crossland. You will also see on my mantle that there is another little picture there too ~ that one was made for me by daughter and I love it just as much!


Lastly, but by no means least, I'd like you to meet my very new helper ~ Ollie the Socktopus as I like to call him. This fantastic little chap came from Ikea for the grand sum of £4 ~ a bargain in my mind! He will be extremely useful in the wet and windy wintery weather for helping me to dry little bits of laundry ~ mostly socks (hence his name) and small peoples pants......... I'm not quite sure that his little peggy legs would be up to carrying pants any bigger than this!!

I hope that you enjoyed my seasidey trip. I'm off on another watery trip now ~ the school run in the pouring rain! See you all soon :O) xx

Halloween Happenings

We spent last weekend in the beautiful village of Alton in Staffordshire, attending the wedding of my younger brother and my very lovely new sister-in-law. The ceremony itself was in the registry office in Burton on Trent and then it was back to my Dad's pub ~ The Royal Oak ~ for the wedding reception. The weather actually decided to behave itself for once and was absolutely glorious and the sun came out to shine on a very perfect wedding day.


On Sunday ~ which was Halloween ~ we ventured off to Scarefest at Alton Towers which was fabulous! The spooky atmosphere and the special effects were amazing ~ the Towers were all lit up in their very spooky splendour and ghostly images were projected eerily across the night sky.


There were also lots and lots of different Halloweeny decorations dotted around the park to add to the spooky Halloween atmosphere.


We had a fantastically spooky Halloween evening and the children are now at an age where they are getting just that little bit braver with the rides that they will actually go on! Although, it has to be said that I just can't do the rides that go spinning around and around and around! I actually can't even bear to watch the children on them without feeling very dizzy and wobbly indeed!!



I hope that your Halloween weekend was as wonderful as ours :O) xx

Happy Swap

I am a very bad blogger! x 100
I am a very lazy blogger! x100
I am a very neglectful blogger! x100

I have been such a very bad, very lazy and very neglectful blogger recently and decided that some kind of punishment was in order ~ I decided to give myself lines to write! Only, I also thought that you might not like the idea of having to read each of these statements one hundred times so I improvised ever so slightly!!

Thank you all so much for your kind Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary wishes ~ from almost a whole month ago! ~ they were all very much appreciated indeed :O)


Now, before any more time passes by I really do have to tell you about the Happy Swap that I took part in a good few months ago! Apologies to the lovely ~ and very patient ~ Louise for the very long delay in blogging about this!!

This Happy Swap was organised by Lisa and I was paired up with Louise, the idea behind the swap was that you were to send a little package to your partner with things inside to make them Happy. I sent Louise a colourful gardening book, a rosy Cath Kidston wash cloth, a flowery toast stamp and a big bar of chocolate which you can see here ~ minus the chocolate!!


Happy things that were sent to me were a very pretty wash bag, some beautifully fruity bath time treats, some lovely stationery ~ notebook, pencils and erasers ~ and some very yummy and colourful skittles which I absolutely love and didn't share at all!!


Thank you so much again Louise your parcel made me feel very Happy indeed :O) x

Family Celebrations

Hello ...........I'm back!

I haven't disappeared of the face of the earth at all!! I didn't quite mean to be away from Blogland for quite so long, but sometimes life has a habit of taking over and some things just have to take a bit of a back seat for a while! I am so glad to be back though and am looking forward to catching up with you all again.

It is a day for celebrations in our household today!

My little girl is eleven today ~ I really can't quite believe that it is eleven years since she was born and whisked away into intensive care in the Special Care Baby Unit. I didn't even dare to dream about birthdays then and just took each day as it came ~ but here we are celebrating her eleventh birthday. The time seems to go by so very, very fast once you have children. One minute they are tiny and helpless babies and the next they are nearly all grown up!

It is also our wedding anniversary today ~ I have been married to my wonderful husband for TEN whole years. We decided all those years ago that it would be a very lovely idea to get married and have our daughter christened on her first birthday. A little bit unconventional perhaps, but it makes today a very special day indeed!


Here we are looking very young indeed outside the beautiful church in Dirleton, East Lothian.

We took the children and some of their friends out yesterday for a Birthday Day Out ~ swimming and a Chinese Buffet lunch. Then it was back home for some Happy Birthday chocolate cake and a bit of a play ~ which involved much charging about the house, with lots of LOUD noise going on too!!

The celebrations today should hopefully be a much quieter affair and it will be just the four of us enjoying a civilised Birthday/Anniversary dinner. Although, at the moment I'm not quite sure what that dinner will be ~ because as usual I am Mrs Very Unorganised and have yet to go shopping for the necessary ingredients! :O) xx

Back to school

My two small people went back to school today after a what seemed to be a very quick seven week Summer Holiday ~ I'm not quite sure where the time went to, but it certainly zoomed by at a very alarming rate indeed!

We were all up bright and breezy this morning, trying very hard to get back into some sort of routine. Breakfast, teeth cleaned, little faces washed, new clothes to put on, packed lunches made and new school bags packed.


Off they both trotted, looking very happy and cheery in their brand new school uniforms and their beautifully shiny new black school shoes ~ which will no doubt be scuffed to death by the end of the first day back! Thank Goodness for Scuff Coat is all that I can say about that!!

I delivered them safely to school this morning and am now sitting with a well earned cup of tea and enjoying the peace and quiet ~ Ahhhh...........Bliss!! There's nothing quite like coming home from the school run and being able to do whatever YOU want for a couple of hours. No constant cries of MUM!, or I'M BORED!! to be heard at all. It goes without saying that I will miss them terribly ~ but I can't tell you how nice it is to have some ME time back again.

I know that most of you still have a few weeks of your Summer Holidays to go and hope that you all have a very lovely time :O) xx