2014 ~ Looking Back

It's that wonderful time of the blogging year that allows you to go through your archives and have a look back at all the lovely everyday things that might be otherwise might be forgotten if they hadn't been blogged about. Here is my yearly roundup for 2014.

January 2014 ~ I started the year by trying to get out and about a bit more in the fresh air and took some very nice, but bracing walks along one of our beautiful beaches.

January 2014 ~ Taking inspiration from my walks along our beautiful local coastline, I had a play about with some neutral, blue and green yarn and made some seaside coloured Granny Squares. These squares are destined to eventually become a seasidey blanket.

February 2014 ~ My birthday month :: My daughter made me a wonderful birthday cake ~ a lemon Victoria sponge with a lemony mousse filling and decorated with my favourite green and yellow jelly sweeties.

March 2014 ~ I enjoyed some more lovely springtime walks along the beach. Our town has two beaches and this one is the West Bay looking towards the harbour. 

April 2014 ~ we spent a week in Disneyland in Paris to celebrate my small boys birthday and had an absolutely fantastic time doing all the wonderful Disney rides and attractions.

May 2014 ~ whilst we were so close to the centre of Paris we spent one of the days seeing all the sights. We tried to cram in as many as we could and saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the beautiful Louvre Pyramid, Notre Dame Cathedral and The Sacre Coeur to name but a few!  I absolutely love Paris ~ it's one of my very favourite cities ~ there is so much to see and definitely not enough time to see it all.

June 2014 ~ I added some more stripes to my Little Boy Blue Granny Stripe Blanket :: I am happy to report that I am now working on the edge of this blanket and will be doing a "Ta Dah" post later in the month. It's taken me a while but I'm nearly there!

July 2014 ~ We spent a very lovely week in the summer in the Weardale countryside visiting relatives who live in this beautiful old cottage which is right on the banks of the river Wear.

August 2014 ~ Every Wednesday in the Summertime my boy plays his bagpipes with the local pipe band for all the tourists visiting our seaside town. I never ever get tired of listening to the sound of the pipes and feel so proud of him when I watch him play.

September 2014 ~ September is a month of celebration in the Button Tree household as we got married on my daughter's first birthday ~ so her birthday is our anniversary too! I always get a beautiful bunch of pink lillies from my hubby to celebrate the special day. The smell of them always takes me straight back to the maternity ward. 

October 2014 ~ We made some very simple Halloween decorations from black card ~ this little mouse was one of my favourites.

November 2015 ~ More walking around our beautiful town ~ this time through the park on a very dreich wintery day.

December 2014 ~ my very first attempt at writing a crochet pattern. I made these pretty Flowery Coasters for my hyacinths to make their life on the window sill a little bit more comfortable. The pattern can be found on my blog and on Ravelry.

I hope that you enjoyed this little look back over my year ~ I will be back later on in the week with a little look forward.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Healthy 2015 ~ hope it's a good year for you all :O)x

Friendship Bracelets

My daughter has been going to a lunch time craft club at school for the last few months ~ where she has been learning how to make Friendship Bracelets. I am always amazed at how lovely her creations are and how intricate ~ and complicated ~ some of these braided bracelets look.

Anyway, as we had a few spare hours during the half term holidays, I asked her if she would mind showing me how to make them. We gathered together a few skeins of embroidery thread and a bracelet making wheel and started braiding. It wasn't as difficult as I had imagined it would be and soon after tying a few simple knots in some embroidery thread I had something that resembled a friendship bracelet.

This first one was made by attaching six lengths of thread to the wheel and then tying a forwards knot all the way down. Somehow it produces this wonderful spirally effect which I love.

My second attempt was made by combining a forwards knot and then a backwards knot all the way down the threads. I decided to pretty this one up a bit by adding some brightly coloured beads to the ends. I really like how this one looks too.

Once we got started there was no stopping us ~ the possibilities and combinations of these simple braided bracelets are endless. You don't always have to use embroidery thread either ~ you could use any scraps of yarn that you have lurking around the house that need using up. There are also plenty of ways that you can pretty these bracelets up by adding brightly coloured buttons and beads into the mix.

We all spent a really fun afternoon making these friendship bracelets ~ even small boys can join in the fun ~ and it was a fairly cheap and cheerful way to keep the kids entertained for a few hours during the half term break too :O)xx

France ~ Day trip to Paris

Whilst we were at Disneyland, we decided that as we were so close to the centre of Paris it seemed a bit silly not to venture into the capital and see some of the sights that make this city so famous. We were not disappointed either ~ I don't think that I've ever been in such a beautiful city! It was absolutely breathtaking! You could spend a lifetime there and still not manage to see everything it has to offer!

As we had such a short time in the city we decided to go on an organised tour so that we could cram in as much sightseeing as possible. We boarded a very comfortable tour bus in the morning and were shown around the city in comfort with a very informative commentary. We drove past all the important sights ~

Up the Champs-Elysees to see the Arc de Triomphe ::


and past the Louvre where the painting of the Mona Lisa is kept ::


stopped to have our photo taken in front of the giant pyramid ::

We then changed our mode of transport for a Bateaux Parisiene for a leisurely sail up the river Seine, this time getting a different view of the landmarks as we passed by them on the water.


Notre Dame Cathedral ::


Pont Neuf ~ which is the oldest bridge in Paris ::


and of course the very famous Eiffel Tower ::

After our river trip, we disembarked and crossed over the road on foot to the Eiffel Tower. This was what we had all been waiting for! We were fast-tracked through so there was no long queue to stand in either. It was all very exciting!


This was the view we had whilst waiting for the lift ~ which was a double decker glass fronted contraption. It sort of went diagonally up the first bit and then straightened itself up to get to the first and second floors.



The views of Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower were stunning::

Once we had taken in all the views from the top of the Eiffel Tower we came down and sat in a little park at the bottom of it and had cafe au lait and ice cream which was a lovely way to finish off our day trip.

Paris truly is very beautiful and is a place which we will very definitely be revisiting again ~ hopefully sometime soon! :O)xx

France ~ Disneyland Paris

We have just returned from spending a fabulous week in Disneyland Paris. The weather was absolutely glorious and we were able to wander around in shorts, t shirts and flip flops ~ a bit of a far cry from the weather that we have been experiencing here in Scotland of late!


It was lovely just to be able to relax in some sunshine and take things at our own pace. We have visited Disneyland in Paris a couple of times before so we know where everything is ~ well, when I say that what I actually mean is that my lovely husband knows where everything is because my sense of direction leaves a lot to be desired!

We went on all our favourite rides ::


Visited Phantom Manor ::


Lost our way a little bit in Alice in Wonderland's colourful maze ::


Saw a Pirate ship ~ but unfortunately there was no sign of Captain Jack ::


Took a trip on a runaway train on Big Thunder Mountain ::


And scared ourselves silly on the Tower of Terror!


After all that excitement we needed to be brought down to earth a bit ~ so we parachuted our way down into Toy Story Playland.


Do you see those brightly coloured plastic monkeys? I may be showing my age a bit now, but I remember playing with those when I was a child and it took me right back and believe me, it is quite a long way back too!

As you can probably tell we had the best time ever and we can't wait to go back again ~ hopefully sometime very soon:O)xx

Holidays ahead

I'm so excited!

I've got 3 whole weeks of time off work ahead of me ~ and after the last few weeks that I've had at work ~ I must say that I really am in desperate need of them!

I usually only work a few hours a week, but have been covering for holidays and other absences and as a result I have clocked up an extra 40 hours in overtime over the last couple of weeks. At times I have been stressed up to my eyeballs! Who ever said that libraries were supposed to be nice quiet places? A few days ago I even had to call the ASBO people out to deal with some horrid teenage trouble makers!!

We are not actually planning to go away anywhere very far due to the house selling situation ~ but I am looking forward to spending time with my family and having lots of days out and about........


I'm planning on reading lots of rubbishy novels and looking at lots of crafty books to try and get some new ideas together for future projects. I've got lots of ideas whizzing about in my head already just now but I'm really struggling to find the time to get them all done.......... Maybe one day!!



I have also got to keep adding to the pile of Summer Garden Grannies...... I would love to get this project finished whilst we are still in Summer! and ...........Yes, I do actually mean this Summer!! I really do want to make a start on a Lucy style Granny Stripe blanket but am not allowing myself to buy the yarn until I am nearly finished with this one!

I hope that you are all enjoying your Summer Holidays and look forward to catching up with you all very soon :O) xx

Sunday viewing

Last Sunday the boys of the household set off on a bit of a Boy Adventure which they had been planning for ages.

They went off to visit Bo'ness and Kinneal Railway ~ which is Central Scotland's Steam Railway situated by the Firth of Forth. A real boys day out ~ lots of fun for the small boys and nostalgia by the bucket load for the big boys!


They took a ride on a beautiful old steam train to Birkhill station.


Where they also took a tour of the Birkhill Fireclay Mine.


Through the entrance and into the dark depths of the mine ~ definitely not my cup of tea! Far to dark and claustrophobic for my liking!!


Back up lots of steps ~ you can just spot a small boy charging up in front of everyone else!


They also met a lovely old doggy, who seemed to belong at the station. They nicknamed him the Dog Master as he parades up and down the platform barking at all the trains and being friendly to anyone who stops for a chat.

Little Miss Madam and I were left to our own devices at home. We normally would have planned a girly day out doing a bit of shopping, but as our house is still for sale we had to stay in ~ just in case there were any potential buyers looking to view our property on the Sunday afternoon. FAT CHANCE!! Nobody turned up!!

To alleviate our boredom we decided to do a bit of Sunday viewing ourselves and settled down with a new DVD ~ St Trinian's 2, The Legend of Fritton's Gold ~ which we had treated ourselves to especially for the occasion. We had a lovely afternoon cuddling up on the sofa, eating lots of yummy snacks and with the added bonus of no small boys running noisily around interrupting the film ~ Bliss!

Hope that you all had a fun filled weekend too ~ whatever you were doing...........:O) xxx

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)

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)

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.