Flowery favourites

Today I thought that I would have a bit of a flowery post and tell you all about my favourite flowery bits and pieces..........


My very favourite flowers in the whole world are these beautiful pink lilies. I absolutely LOVE the way that they smell...... the way that they practically take over the house when they bloom and the way that they look so very pretty with their big pink petals in perfect contrast to their greenery. I Love them because they remind me of when my little girl was born when my room in the hospital was filled with their smell and their prettiness. My lovely husband always buys me a great big pink bunch of them on our little girl’s birthday and our Anniversary.


I also love pink carnations ~ my Dad bought my Mum these flowers when I was born and my lovely Mum now buys me some every year for my birthday too. I love how family traditions are made and that a simple gesture from my Dad to my Mum all those years ago is still being made from my Mum to me.


Another flowery favourite of mine is the little Attic 24 inspired crocheted flower pot which I made a few weeks ago. It now has pride of place on my bedroom window sill and it always brings a little smile to my face when I see it sitting there looking very colourful and pretty.


I also love my very flowery blue Cath Kidston Knitting/Crochet bag which my best friend bought me for my birthday last year. I have to say that it has had quite few derogatory comments thrown at it by various members of my family ~ words such as Granny and Old Lady have been said about it ~ but I don’t care! I love it!! and it is a very useful bag too........


Finally, I love these little Flowery summer garden squares which I started to make yesterday when I really should have been doing some very yukky housework! Once again they are another wonderful inspiration from the very lovely Lucy over at Attic 24. I am not quite sure what I am going to make with them yet ~ I would like to think that I could make a lovely flowery blanket to cosy up with on the sofa in the winter ~ but we shall see! :O)

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Yesterday my little baby girl turned ten ~ TEN! Into double figures! How did that happen so quickly? I can’t quite believe how quickly time goes zooming by once you have children. It really doesn’t seem like ten years ago when she was born and whisked away into intensive care in the Special Care Baby Unit where I didn’t dare to dream about birthdays and just had to take each day as it came. However! Here we are celebrating her tenth birthday and what a lovely day we had too.


She decided that she wanted to take three of her friends swimming to a Water Park in Edinburgh ~ one of these pools that have all manner of slides and waves and rubber rings and waterfalls going on! Followed by a Chinese Buffet Lunch ~ all very grown up! Then it was back home for more charging about the house, lots of girlie screeching and giggling (at very high volumes) and some Happy Birthday cake with candles and lots of presents.

Yesterday it was also our wedding anniversary too ~ we have been married for 9 years! All those years ago we decided that it would be a very lovely idea to get married and have our daughter christened all on her first birthday! A little bit unconventional, but it makes her birthday and our wedding anniversary extra special. We got married in this beautiful little church in the very picturesque village of Dirleton in East Lothian.


I got some very lovely Anniversary presents ~ self portraits were drawn and button bracelets were very carefully threaded up and proudly presented. I also got a beautiful bouquet and a very nice bottle of champagne from my lovely husband. You may also just see that we did manage to find the time to drink it in the evening too!!


We tend not to do too much more to celebrate our anniversary as birthday celebrations are obviously far more important in the minds of small children ~ so our anniversary meal out was the very same Chinese Buffet Lunch where we were accompanied by five lovely children! All very romantic as you can well imagine, but a great time was had by all:O)

Successful Shopping

I had a very successful shopping trip last Saturday and actually came home with some very useful purchases. You might have already guessed by now that I love shopping for woolly bits and pieces but I hate shopping for clothes for myself. I don’t normally get the chance to buy very many clothes for myself as money is usually a bit scarce and like most families the children’s needs come first. It also has to be said that they have much nicer clothes than me and a much fuller wardrobe too!

However, I was on a mission on Saturday to buy myself a very much needed pair of shoes in preparation for the winter months ahead of us. I don't know about the rest of you but I usually get a picture of what I want to buy in my head and then can’t find anything that I like when I trail around the shops. Luckily for me this Saturday the shopping was very successful. Do you want to see what I got?


A very comfy pair of trainers ~ perfect for wearing with jeans and doing the school run.


A very cosy pair of black leather boots ~ also perfect for wearing with jeans and doing the school run when the weather gets a bit colder.


And a very pretty little top and a pair of jeans too! You have probably realised by now that I am definately a jeans and t shirts kind of girl and I just don't never ever wear heels!

Like I said ~ A very Successful Saturday Shopping trip :O)

Getting there

We are getting there! It has been busy...busy...busy! An absolute hive of activity in fact! Workmen have been coming and going at an alarming rate! But ......walls have been painted, patio windows have been repaired, kitchen sink has been replaced, carpets have been laid and everything is starting to look very lovely indeed. We still have quite a bit of work to do, but our little house is almost ready to be put up for sale.



I am getting there with my very colourful crochet cushion cover too. Both sides have now been completed and I just have to join them together now which I will do by using this method here from the very lovely Lucy over at Attic 24. All going well I should be able to show you the finished cushion cover sometime very soon.


I am also almost getting there with two amigurumi figures that I have been making. A cute little pink birdie and a sweet little grey rabbit. They still need a few finishing touches done to them ~ such as sewing in of ends ~ but I am fairly pleased at how they have turned out.

I am really looking forward to this weekend as we have a Friday and Monday holiday from work and school. I am taking myself off on Saturday with my very best friend for a little Girly Shopping Trip and I really do intend to make the most of the day out. It is such a treat to be able to go out shopping without having to have eyes in the back of your head whilst keeping watch on two wandering small children. It is also such a treat to be able to stop for coffee and cakes and a lovely lunch when you want to....... instead of listening to cries of 'I'm hungry' or another favourite 'I’m bored’!!

I hope that everyone has a very lovely weekend and I will ‘see’ you all sometime next week :O)

Moving House

Arrgghh!!

Things have been very hectic around here for the last week or so! Earlier on in the year you may remember this post when we had decided to build an extension onto our house. However, following a week full of meetings with the bank and estate agents we have now decided that moving house would be a much better idea.

I have been under very strict instructions from my lovely husband that I must de clutter the house in order to get it ready to put up for sale. Who is he trying to kid? I am a hoarder at heart and find it very difficult to get rid of things ~ quite traumatic in fact!! I like to squirrel things away ‘just in case’ they may be useful later! However, I have been a good girl and have been sorting out and sending bags of stuff to charity shops and putting lots of things in the bin and although I hate to admit it, the house does look a lot better with less clutter.

We have been ~ or should I say my lovely husband has been ~ very busy ripping up carpets and doing lots of painting and the house is starting to look very lovely indeed. So lovely in fact, that if we really didn’t need some extra space I would be changing my mind about moving altogether!



Whilst my lovely husband was painting last weekend I was sent on a little shopping trip to buy some new lampshades and blinds and other bits and pieces to make the house look pretty. As this only took me a couple of hours and I had been sent out of the way for the whole day I decided to have a little look in the wool shop! It was only a little look and as you can see I only bought a few balls of that very lovely Rowan Pure Wool DK. At last I can now finish my colourful crochet cushion cover and have plans to maybe start on a blanket too :O)

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)