Looking Forward ~ 2015

The year ahead looks like it is going to be a bit of a BIG year for us here in the Button Tree household ~ Firstly, three out of the four of us have fairly significant birthdays happening throughout the year ::

Next month I will be having a very BIG birthday which ends in a Zero!
In May my "small" boy will become a Teenager and turn Thirteen ::
In September my "little" girl will turn Sweet Sixteen::

Also in February we will be taking our first ever trip to the United States of America. My Dad has very kindly offered to take the four of us on a wonderful American Adventure to celebrate my BIG birthday. We will be going to Los Angeles for the first few days and then we will be taking a drive up to Las Vegas for the rest of the holiday. We only have five weeks to wait until we head off on our trip and to say that we are all very excited about it is a bit of an understatement!

I haven't really made any other plans for the rest of the year yet ~ other than all the usual plans that tend to be made at the beginning of each New Year. (And then never happen!). A couple of other bloggers posted this list of Things To Do in 2015 and it all does seem like pretty good advice to me ::

2015 To Do List

Eat Less,

Move More,

Buy Less,

Make more,

Stress Less, 

Laugh More, 

Feel Blessed,

Love More, 

Find a quiet spot every day

and breathe :O)x

The one thing that I definitely want to get around to doing this year is to be making more. I haven't really been spending a great deal of time on very many woolly activities for a while now ~ but this year I should hopefully have a bit more time on my hands to surround myself in huge piles of squishy yarn again. I have lots of crochet plans and yarny projects swirling around in my head and it's now up to me to make them happen!

I am absolutely bursting full of excitement and anticipation for the year ahead and am looking forward to seeing what 2015 holds for me and my little family :O)xx

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

Christmassy Snippets

:: I am absolutely loving my Poinsettia plant just now ~ these beautiful red and green leaves are just so Christmassy::

:: This jolly looking snowman came to live with us a few years ago. Each of the small people were given one by their Granny filled with Christmas goodies. He now gets to sit at either side of the fire place at Christmas time with his friend to add a bit of Christmas cheer::

::  I went into Edinburgh on the train by myself one day last week for some final Christmas bits and pieces, and I took the opportunity to have a leisurely wander around the German Christmas market ~ I just couldn't resist buying this beautiful tea light holder which lights up the Edinburgh sky line.::

:: "Christmas stockings are hung by the chimney with care" ~ this image reminds me of my favourite Christmas poem ~ The Night before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore. We always read it to the small people at bedtime on Christmas Eve ::

:: Our little town is looking exceptionally lovely just now with lots of sparkly and colourful Christmas lights strung about everywhere ~ my favourite is this old Horse Chestnut tree which is at the entrance of the park ::

Hoping that you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and that all your Christmas wishes come true :O)xx

Christmas Popcorn Box

My two smallish people love nothing better than a trip to the cinema ~ however, they don't get the chance to go and see a film that often these days, as a family trip to the cinema very nearly requires us to take out a bank loan.

A little while back when I was thinking about what to buy them for Christmas, I thought that it would be a lovely idea to get each of them a cinema voucher as part of their Christmas present. My daughter is just old enough to be allowed to go into Edinburgh by herself on the train and can use her voucher to go and see a couple of films with her friends. My son is not quite old enough to go by himself  yet..........  so he will have to go with his Mum and Dad ~ which means that everyone is a winner!

Instead of just handing them over a boring old white envelope with the cinema voucher inside, I thought it would be a nice idea to get a little bit more inventive with the wrapping. I googled some printable popcorn box templates and managed to print them out onto some white card. A little bit of snipping and sticking and ten minutes later I had something that resembled a popcorn box. So far so good!

Next I gathered a selection of yummy goodies that could go into the box ~ mini bags of popcorn (obviously!) and some portable bags of sweeties that could easily be taken to the cinema. Although there is a pretty good chance that the goodies will probably be eaten well before the trip to the cinema actually happens.

Here's hoping that they like their Christmas Popcorn Box ~ I think I'd maybe quite like one for myself too! :O)xx

Easy does it!

We have had some unwanted visitors here this week in the form of coughs and colds and sneezes and it has been necessary to slow the pace right down and take things a little bit easier. I've had a small boy home from school for the last couple of days. He has been fighting a temperature and has been wrapped up in a cosy blankety nest on the settee ~ and although my Little Boy Blue Granny Stripe is not quite finished yet it has already been put to good use as part of that blankety nest. There has been some cuddly doggies making use of it too!  I know that he must really be feeling under the weather as he has been happy to sit still and has been a bit too quiet ~ which is really not like him at all!

There has not been much opportunity to get out and about either as the weather here has been rather a mixed bag. There has been rain, sleet, snow, lots of wind and the odd glimpse of some sunshine. And it's been bitterly COLD too ~ It really can't seem to make up it's mind!

I took the opportunity on one of the nicer weather moments to have a walk along the sea front ~ and on the way home I passed this wonderful statue. He's called The Watcher ~ he is dressed in outdoor gear, with his camera slung over his shoulder and he gazes out towards the sea looking through his binoculars in the direction of the Bass Rock. He stands there in all weathers and I think he is just crying out for a bit of a woolly makeover ~ maybe a hat and a scarf would keep him a bit cosier!

I've been trying to get myself into the Christmas spirit too ~ I managed to rescue this little Poinsettia plant from the reduced shelf in the supermarket for a bargain price of just less than two pounds. It was all dried up and in need of a little bit of TLC ~ all it really needed was a long drink of water and a nice spot at the window and it soon perked up. It's looking very healthy now and I am enjoying seeing it's beautiful red and green foliage every time I come into the room. These lovely plants are just so Christmassy!

Hope that you all have a very lovely and cosy weekend :O)xx

Flowery Coasters

A few days ago I showed you the Flowery Coasters that I made to make life more comfortable for my Hyacinths in their seasidey mugs and I thought that I would share the pattern with you ~ just in case you wanted to make some Flowery Coasters of your own. I know that there are lots of patterns for very similar coasters out there already but this is how I made mine.

First off some Hooky abbreviations ~ using UK terms ::

ss ~ Slip Stitch
tr ~ Treble Crochet
ch(s) ~ Chain(s)
sk ~Skip a Stitch

Materials ~ I used a 4mm hook and some StyleCraft Double Knit but you could use any size hook and yarn that you have to hand.

To start chain 4 and join with a slip stitch to form a ring

Round 1 ~ Chain 3 (counts a one treble) and then 9tr into ring ~ join with a slip stitch into the top of the top of ch3.

Round 2 ~ Chain 3 (counts as 1tr), 1tr into same stitch, 2tr into each stitch to the end ~ join with a slip stitch into the top of ch3.

Round 3 ~ Chain 3 (counts as 1tr), 1 tr into same stitch, *1tr into next stitch, 2 tr into next stitch*. Repeat from * to * until the end and join with a slip stitch into the top of ch3.

Round 4 ~ Chain 3 (counts as 1tr), 1tr into same stitch, 2tr into each stitch to the end ~ join with a slip stitch into the top of ch3.

Round 5 ~ Chain 3 (counts as 1tr), 1tr into same stitch, 2tr into each stitch to the end ~ join with a slip stitch into the top of ch3.

Round 6 ~ *Skip 2 stitches, 7tr into next stitch, sk2 and then slip stitch into next stitch* (This makes one petal). Repeat from * to * until you have made 12 petals in total. When making the last petal join with a slip stitch into the first stitch of the first petal.

Fasten off the yarn and then darn in your tail ends.

Your Flowery Coasters are then ready for you to enjoy and for you to pretty up your flower pots as you wish.

Random Things

This week I have been enjoying a nice cup of tea and a very sticky slice of syrupy flapjack bought especially for me by my boy. It was absolutely delicious despite the fact in had been wrapped up in a napkin and carted around inside his school bag for a whole afternoon.

I treated myself to a really cheap pot of hyacinths from the local supermarket for just a few pounds, They came inside a rather dull and dreary brown plastic pot so I decided to re-pot them into my favourite seasidey mugs. I'm really looking forward to seeing them bloom on my kitchen window sill and can't wait for them to begin to flower ~ I decided to go for the blue flowers as I love them the best. They have already grown quite a little bit in height since I brought them home.

I decided that the afore mentioned re-potted hyacinths were just crying out for couple of crocheted coasters to make their life on the window sill a bit more comfortable. I had a bit of a rake through my stash of Stylecraft and found some suitable hyacinthy colours and managed to whip up some pretty little Flowery coasters for them to sit on.

I also enjoyed a nice chilled glass of white wine on Sunday evening whilst adding the last few stripes to my Little Boy Blue Granny Stripe blanket. I am happy to report that I am now on the final push with this blanket (it's only taken me nearly three years!) and I am just about teetering on the edge!

Just recently the skies around my little part of the world have been pretty spectacular ~ this was the sunrise a couple of mornings ago. The colours have been particularly beautiful this month and I do love to see the dark silhouette of the Law against the sky.

Hoping your week has been full of lovely random things too :O)xx