Advent swap

A few months ago I signed up to take part in Laa Laa's Advent Swap and I was paired up with Ada Bea ~ who has a lovely blog called Vintage Sheet Addict.

These were the parcels that I sent ~ I really did enjoy putting together the swap parcel for Ada and my daughter was also really enthusiastic about it and gave me lots of help and advice along the way, suggesting that " the lady might like this" in practically every shop we went in to! She also handmade a present for me to include in the parcel too.

If you fancy having a peek at what I sent to Ada then you can pop over to her blog and take a look. There is also a Flickr group for the swap if you would like a wee browse at all the other swap pressies.

It has been really has been rather exciting having a little pressie to open up each day ~ much better than having a chocolate Advent calendar! In fact, my children want to know why they can't have an Advent parcel to open every day and are asking if I can make them up a box each for next year ~ we shall see!!

This is what I have received so far::

Day 1 ~ embroidery threads
Day 2 ~ a little bar of Green and Blacks chocolate
Day 3 ~ a pretty sea shell
Day 4 ~ a pack of vintage wall paper
Day 5 ~ a little bar of Green and Blacks chocolate(this one didn't quite make it as far as the photo shoot as it was too tempting and got eaten with a nice cup of tea)
Day 6 ~ heart decorations
Day 7 ~ vintage sheet material

I'm looking forward to the opening the rest of the parcels and will let you know what's inside once they have been opened :O)xx

Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my recent bloggy birthday Giveaway post.  This year I somehow managed to get my brain into gear and work out how to use the Random Number Generator thingy ~  however, I didn't quite manage to work out how to post a picture of the said generator results onto my blog!

The lucky number selected was comment number 11 which was from Tales from a handmade home. Congratulations to you! ~ please can you e mail me with your details and I will get your book posted out to you sometime very soon :O)xx

The Polar Express ~ All Aboard!

Last weekend we headed off to Weardale as we had booked ourselves tickets on The Polar Express!

We all love the film of The Polar Express ~ we watch it faithfully every Christmas Eve ~ so the chance to have an actual trip on it was too much for us to resist.

We boarded the train at Stanhope station and set off on our journey through the dales towards the North Pole. The small people were dressed in their pyjamas and dressing gowns which made it seem even more magical for them.

Each carriage was decorated with Christmassy wreaths and baubles and had it's own conductor and fleet of singing and dancing chefs who served everyone with cups of hot chocolate and delicious chocolate chip cookies. During the trip the story of The Polar Express was read over a sound system whilst the chefs carried a beautifully illustrated book up and down the aisle for all the children to see.

For those of you that are not familiar with the story ~ it is a lovely story about a little boy who is just starting to doubt the reality of Father Christmas. He embarks on a magical train trip to the North Pole ~ along the way there is a ghostly hobo who preys on the boys doubts, but he is looked after by the kind conductor and all the other children who are on the train dressed in their pyjamas and dressing gowns. At the end of the journey he has his beliefs reaffirmed when he meets Father Christmas at the North Pole.

Our journey towards the North Pole was really enjoyable ~ the chefs went up and down the aisles singing and dancing and the ghostly hobo made the occasional appearance trying to steal the children's golden train tickets. As the train got nearer to the North Pole all the children on the train got very excited ~ pressing their little faces to the windows trying to get the first glimpse of Father Christmas. Once we reached the North Pole, Father Christmas and his elves boarded The Polar Express and all the children got a chance to tell him what they would like for Christmas and he gave out silver bells from his sleigh to all those who believe!

It really was a most enjoyable trip and I am now starting to really get into the Christmas spirit ~ not many sleeps to go now!! :0)xx

A Thank You and A Giveaway!

Firstly, I would like to say a huge Thank You to everyone for all the good wishes and bloggy hugs that were sent our way when my daughter went in to hospital for her operation.

I am pleased to report that the operation went very well, and although there were some hysterics before the pre-med, she managed to cope very well with the procedure. They decided to use "sleepy" gas to put her to sleep and then did what they had to do with needles whilst she was out for the count! Everything is healing up very nicely and she returned to school yesterday complete with a set of crutches. It will still be a few weeks until she is running about again but I am just so glad that everything is done now and we will just have to keep our fingers crossed that the legs grow at the desired pace and sort out their differences!

Last week ~ on 21st of November to be precise ~ I noticed that I been blogging for four years. I can't quite believe that it has been that long ~ but it has! I love being part of this lovely bloggy world ~ it truly is a wonderful place to be ~ packed full of inspiration and ideas and lovely like minded crafty souls like you!

To say a big Thank You to all of you that take time out of your day to read my ramblings, I am having a little Christmassy giveaway. Up for grabs is a copy of the new Mollie Makes Christmas book and I will also add a few other Christmassy bits and pieces to the parcel ~ although I haven't quite decided what they will be yet!  All you have to do to enter this giveaway is to leave me a comment on this post ~ it would also be lovely if you were a follower of my blog too.

I will leave the giveaway open for a week ~ until Thursday 6th December ~ so that the lucky winner can enjoy the book and hopefully have enough time to make a few things from it before Christmas arrives.

Good Luck and I look forward to reading your comments :O)xxxx

Tomorrow

About three years ago my daughter's dance teacher took us aside and told us that she thought that there was a slight difference in the length of my daughter's legs. She had noticed this because she was paying particular attention to the posture of the girls in the ballet class. Up until then we hadn't noticed that anything was wrong ~ but when we looked more closely we did see that she definitely had problems when she was trying to stand up straight. We promptly made an appointment with the doctor and the doctor did indeed confirm that there was definitely a difference in the length of her legs by about 1.5 centimetres. The correct term for this condition is Leg Length Discrepancy.

We were then referred to a Paediatric Orthopedic Consultant so that her legs could be monitored by X rays and MRI scans to see if the discrepancy became worse. Unfortunately, over the last couple of years it has now gotten to the stage where the difference is 3.4 centimetres ~ which is now fairly significant.

Whilst this is not really bothering her at the moment ~  it could have major implications later in her life if it starts to affect her back and spine.

Tomorrow she is being admitted in to hospital to have an operation to take growth cells from the knee joint of her longer leg so that hopefully her shorter leg will catch up when she takes her biggest growth spurt as she approaches puberty. She is absolutely terrified! She has a huge fear of all things medical ~ mostly needles ~ and although we have managed to successfully avoid these things in the past she will obviously need to have an anaesthetic which will obviously involve a needle.

I know that she is going to find this whole experience incredibly difficult and there is no doubt that she is going to be in some amount of pain afterwards. I really wish that I could change places with her and that it was me instead of her that was going to have to go through the operation tomorrow.

I am trying desperately to remain calm but inside I am terrified too! xx

Half term and Halloween

Life has been pretty hectic around here recently, what with half term and lots of extra time spent working in the library. There has definitely not been an awful lot of time left over to indulge in much crafty stuff ~ although I have managed to snatch a little time to knit up a bit more of my lacy scarf and am now on to my third and final ball of yarn.

I am desperately trying to have a bloggy catch up before some of the moments get lost in the camera ~ never to see the light of the day!

We had our half term a couple of weeks ago here in Scotland and we headed off to the beautiful little village of Alton in Staffordshire to visit family. And of course, a trip to Alton would not be complete without spending a day up at Alton Towers. We scared ourselves completely silly on some of the bigger rides ~ in fact after going on some of them it was almost impossible to walk!  

We were really lucky with the weather the day we visited as it was a beautiful Autumn day ~ very cold but thankfully no rain! The leaves on the side of the Towers were a spectacular colour.

There were lots of Halloween decorations dotted about the place as it was the start of the annual Alton Towers Halloween festival ~ Scarefest.

We hid in giant pumpkins!

And came across some very strange residents!

Who were driving some very spooky vehicles!

The following day we had an enormous amount of fun at Splash Landings ~ which is a water park inside one of the hotels at Alton Towers. There were lazy rivers, crazy cannons and a VeRy fast and VeRy scary Master Blaster water coaster. This is an extreme water ride and definitely not for the faint hearted and most definitely NOT for me! Once was more than enough and I will never venture on it again! Needless to say the kids loved it!!

Tonight, following in our own Halloween traditions, the small people will be dressing up in some scary Halloween outfits and we will play hide and seek in the dark with torches. We will get absolutely soaked dooking/bobbing for apples and then we will get cosy and snuggle up on the sofa to watch some spooky Halloween movies with maybe a little bit of Scooby Doo thrown in for good measure.

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween happenings as much as we will!! :O)xx

Weekend away

I spent last weekend away visiting my best friend who lives in the beautiful Scottish Borders.

There is something quite nice about going away by yourself for the weekend. It's not something that I do very often, in fact hardly ever, but when I do I find the whole experience very enjoyable indeed. The very fact that you can completely do what you want to, when you want to, without having to stop for a minute to consider the needs of others is quite wonderful! Of course I did miss my little family very much ~ but I made up for that with lots of cuddles when I returned back to the fold on Sunday morning.

My friend and I had arranged a little bit of retail therapy for ourselves, and as we were in the Borders we headed off to the Gretna Green Outlet Village. Before we went shopping we decided to stop and have a look at the Blacksmith's Shop at Gretna Green, which is famous for marriages and for the place where Scotland and England meet.

We had a stroll around the sculpture garden and stopped to admire this lovely sculpture of two hands clasping. The sculpture was designed and created by County Durham artist Ray Lonsdale. It only took two months to create and is made from weathering steel and standing at 13 feet tall it is rather impressive to look at.

It can be interpreted in lots of different ways ~ are the hands coming together? Parting? Meeting up or saying Goodbye? Is it a happy or sad embrace? Are the hands joining in friendship or is it an embrace of love? Personally I like to think that it is an embrace of love.

There was also a wedding taking place at the Blacksmith's shop whilst we were there and as is often the tradition at Scottish weddings there was a lone piper playing his bagpipes. There is nothing quite like the sound of the music which comes out of the pipes. I really do love it!

Which is quite fortunate really ~ because for the last few months my little boy has been learning to play. He started out learning on an instrument called a chanter and he has now progressed rather quickly onto his first set of bagpipes ~ he is aiming to get his full set of pipes complete with drones, which are the really noisy part sometime very soon. I think the reason he loves his music so much is the very fact that he is allowed to do something noisy without getting told off for making a noise!!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend too  :O)xx