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

Birthday Boy

My little boy celebrated his ninth birthday a few days ago. I can't quite believe where those nine years have actually gone as they have whizzed by so quickly. I'm one of those mother's who loves all the cute little baby stages and I have to admit that I do sometimes struggle with the fact my babies are growing up so fast! But grow up they must do! Although, on the other hand, it is equally as exciting watching them take the next step in their little lives and develop into such lovely children.

He had a lovely day ~ there was a small pile of presents waiting for him at the end of his bed when he woke up ~ all guarded by his faithful little dog Winston ~ who is his most treasured soft toy.

Fortunately, he loved all his presents.

We spent the day down in North Berwick and had a leisurely stroll along the seafront ~ and my goodness, there was quite a sea breeze ~ I almost need my hat, scarf and gloves! The cold breeze did not put anyone of their ice creams though and we all enjoyed a delicious strawberry cone, complete with a chocolate flake.

One of the presents in his birthday pile were a couple of golf clubs so we headed off for a little practise and had a game of putting which was a lot of fun. There was also a fair amount of cheating going on too. In the end we all decided that the fairest score was a draw.


And, of course at the end of the day there was plenty of yummy chocolate cake and the obligatory blowing out of the birthday candles :O)x

Under the weather

I've been feeling a little bit under the weather this week. Nothing too drastic you understand ~ just some nasty little bugs visiting with some coughs and sneezes and a helping of sore throats and thumping heads hidden in their horrid little suitcases. They have very definitely outstayed their welcome now and I am of the opinion that they should now pack up their little germ ridden suitcases and head on out my door.

You know that can't be bothered feeling? Well that's been following me around all week too. You know how it is ~

I can't be bothered getting out of bed
or getting washed and dressed
or cooking
or cleaning
or doing laundry
or walking to school
or dealing with squabbling kids
or anything else for that matter!

But as we all know life doesn't just stop when us girls are feeling under the weather ~ Does it? Oh No!! Things have still got to be done, families have still got to be fed and watered, household chores have unfortunately still got to be completed, albeit slightly less thoroughly than normal it has to be said.


On the plus side though, I have felt well enough to do a little crochet and to sit with my feet up and drink large volumes of tea. I always feel that's a very good remedy for almost anything!

Hope you are all feeling fine and that you all have a good weekend :O)xx

Birthday time again!

It was my birthday yesterday ~ another year has zoomed by at a most alarming rate and here I am another year older and I'd like to think that I was another year wiser too ~ but probably not! And although I know that it's said that age is just a number I have to say that I would like that number to be ever so slightly less than what it is just now ~ but Onwards and Upwards is the only way to go!

I had a very nice day and was thoroughly spoilt by my lovely husband who took the day off work especially to wait on me hand and foot and to make sure my day was extra special. I do absolutely love him to bits ~ He is the best!!

I got lots of lovely cards and flowers and of course there was also chocolates and cakes served with large amounts of tea.


Amongst my favourite birthday things was this lovely card drawn for me by my little boy and a little stitched picture made for me by my daughter, who has obviously been watching me stitch away over the past couple of days.


And talking about stitching, here is where I'm at just now with my Quilty Hearts needlepoint ~ I'm almost finished with only a couple more hearts to stitch.

Of course when I've not been stitching I have been hooking away and making progress with my colourful Rico cotton stripes too.

Hope that you all enjoy the rest of your week ~ have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you soon :O)xxx

Valentine Hearts

Hello ~ I hope that you are all having a very lovely and Happy Valentines Day.



I thought that today would be a very appropriate day to show you all how I am progressing with the contents of my Jolly Red Bag that I treated myself to a couple of weeks ago.


As you can see I have now completed the middle panel of Quilty Hearts and I'd love to be able to tell you that it has all been plain sailing ~ I really would! But........... unfortunately it didn't quite start out that way at the beginning!


This needlepoint malarkey might look like it would be easy ~ but to be honest, I did have one or two false starts with it and had to do quite a little bit of unpicking of stitches before I actually got into the swing of things. But now I'm happy to say that I have finally got the hang of tent stitch and am enjoying myself immensely.


This week it's half term up here in our part of the world ~ although it doesn't really seem all that long since the last school holidays. However, I'm not complaining. It will still be lovely to have the children at home and we are all looking forward to the lack of routine with some long lies and lazy days thrown into the mix. And me? Well I am also hoping to find some crafty, hooky, stitchy time in there too!

Enjoy the rest of your day and see you all soon :O) xx

Baking Day ~ Banana & Chocolate Muffins

Yesterday was deemed a Baking Day here and I decided to bake something from my new Nigella Lawson's Kitchen book which I got as a pressie at Christmas time.

This book is huge! And very heavy!

Nearly 500 beautifully illustrated pages to drool over. But it is totally jam packed with lots of very tasty recipes ~ most of which sound very yummy and seem relatively easy to make! The recipe of choice yesterday was Chocolate Banana muffins ~ which I thought sounded just the thing to enjoy with a nice cup of tea.

Here is the recipe ~ courtesy of Nigella ::

3 very ripe bananas
125mls of vegetable oil
2 Eggs
100g of soft light brown sugar
225g of plain flour
3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 x 12 bun muffin tin


First preheat your oven to 200 degrees or gas mark 6 and line your muffin tin with papers ~ although to be honest, I don't own a muffin tin so all I did was bung some regular cake cases onto a baking tray and that worked just as well!


Next mash up the bananas ~ either with a fork or with an electric mixer, then whilst still mixing, add your vegetable oil followed by the eggs and the sugar.


In another bowl mix up the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb and add this mixture to the banana mixture whilst beating gently. Once mixed, spoon the lovely gloopy chocolatey mixture into your paper cases and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes.


Once they are done, allow to cool slightly and then enjoy with a nice cup of tea and a favourite blog or two!


Oh............ and just for the record they were very tasty ~ at their best, warm and straight from the oven. Although they would be just as yummy served warm with a dollop of creme fraiche or some good vanilla ice cream too.

I hope you all have a lovely and enjoyable weekend and I'll see you again next week :O) xx

Jolly Red ~ in the bag

Last Saturday I headed into Edinburgh for a little bit of Girly retail therapy with my best friend and my little girl.

We had a really lovely day out. And as much as we really do love our boys it was nice to spend sometime together ~ just us girls.

We started off with a very unhealthy breakfast in McDonalds, and then at lunch time we had a very yummy lunch in a lovely little family run Italian restaurant. In between times we had plenty of time to browse around and do a lot of window shopping. As usual we didn't have much money to spend but I did have lots of Christmas vouchers instead ~ mostly for John Lewis. And we all know that the best department in John Lewis is the crafty one ~ don't we?


After taking our time to look at all the lovely things I decided to splash out on this little Jolly Red Needlepoint Kit. Back in my much younger days I used to do a lot of cross stitch, but unfortunately I've now reached that sort of dodgy age where your eyes start to go a bit funny when you are looking at things close up! And although I've never attempted to do any needlepoint before I figured that the holes on the canvas and the thicker tapestry wool should make this a little easier on my dodgy old eyes than cross stitch.

The needlepoint I chose is called Quilt Hearts by Jolly Red and it all comes packed up in this dinky little red bag.

Would you like to see what is in the bag?...........

Of course you do!


There is a colour printed canvas, lots of lovely coloured wool, charts and instructions, a needle and a needle threader ~ which may come in handy when I try to thread the needle with my dodgy old eyes!

I can't wait to get started on this and it goes without saying that I will let you see how I get on with it too.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend ~ See you all next week :O) xx