periwinkle

* 16 / 2012 *

2012-02-19T10:03:00.000Z

Just a quickie to let you know the winner of my little giveaway...... c'mon down Missy Anna .

* 15 / 2012 *

2012-02-17T21:11:00.000Z

Amma Ballerina Bunny and Cara bunny say come on don't be shy and enter the giveaway which ends tomorrow. There might even be a few goodies inside the little bag !! Not us though as we are already in our new homes in America and Barnsley but something else really nice.

* 14 / 2012 *

2012-02-14T20:08:00.000Z

I've been sitting here for about the past half hour just not knowing what to say ... a complete and utter blog block, it's happening more and more lately, maybe it's an age thing?

So a couple of days ago my favourite hessian shopper bag got a hole in, it's a good few years old and was a freebie from good old Nescafe coffee. You know when you used to save up the labels and then send off for goodies maybe you still can I'm not sure to be honest.
It was used a lot and I just had to find a replacement so I went on a shopper hunt and found these ' Good Bags'.

I had to bribe the boys with a biscuit to be models!!

I ordered them on Saturday and they arrived today and I'm very impressed, they seem very strong and well worth the money .

I bought myself the knitting one, if you hadn't already guessed and what with Mothers Day not being too far away I bought the 'nana' and 'granny' as presents from the boys. You seriously should pop across and check out their site as the prices are also very very reasonable.

I also saw this little one and thought that maybe one of you guys might like it as a little pressie . It was my four years blogging anniversary back in January and lately I've been totally pants at leaving comments so it's also a sort of apology . All you have to do is leave a comment and maybe suggest some of your favourite blogs for me to read before midnight Saturday and I'll choose a winner on Sunday.

I'd also just like to thank everyone for the lovely comments on my last post they meant a lot.... thank you.

* 13 / 2012 *

2012-02-06T21:48:00.000Z

Do you ever sometimes dither about whether or not you should post about certain things and whether or not they are too personal or too upsetting? Well that's how I feel about this post. I did write about it the other day but after I clicked on the 'post' button I quickly changed my mind and went back and deleted it .
So my apologies that this is a sad post .

Back on December 27th 1999 a little girl was born, a gorgeous little girl with a mass of white blonde hair and she looked just like her mother. Unfortunately this little girl suffered complications at birth which the hospital accepted responsibility for and this meant that she couldn't walk or talk or dance or sing or do any of those day to day things which we may take for granted.

On January 27th 2012 this little girl became ill, she was taken to her hospital and faded rapidly. Her parents made the sad decision to turn off her ventilator on Monday 30th and she died in her parents arms.

Today was her funeral but instead of it being all about her death her parents made it all about her life. She arrived in a pale pink coffin that had been decorated with stickers and drawings which her two younger sisters had done. Some of her favourite songs were played and there was talk about not only how she was loved but also how when she wanted to be she could be' a big pain in the ass'. After the service her sisters released balloons, there way of saying goodbye as they are still a bit too young to understand.

This 12 year old gorgeous blue eyed blonde girl was the eldest daughter of my best friend and I would now like to think that she is somewhere walking and talking and dancing and singing and doing all those things that she couldn't do while she was here on earth.

R.I.P Molly...............

* 12 / 2012 *

2012-02-05T22:11:00.000Z

So yesterday morning I was all excited as the weatherman had predicted snow, lots and lots of snow. Around about dinner time the sky went dark and it started, just a few flakes but they kept coming and I kept jumping up and looking out of the window with a daft smile on my face. Yeah finally snow, but then it turned to sleet.

It sleeted for a good few hours and then the rain turned to ice , really really hard hurtful ice and it just kept coming but the weatherman still said snow. So this morning when I opened the curtains I was really hoping that there would have been snow during the night but nope, nada, zilch nothing.... it looks like the closest I'm getting to snow is going to be these beautiful snowdrops.

Oh well, it could be worse..

* 11 / 2012 *

2012-02-03T15:06:00.001Z

It seems like forever since I last did a post, I kept meaning to but time just ran away with me and the longer you leave it the harder it seems to get back into the swing of things or so it seems anyway. So I'm going to try and do a quick catch up of what's been happening over the last couple of weeks. I feel like it's been non stop work either at Lush or at home, not that I'm complaining but by the time the boys have gone to bed I'm just totally pooped out and trying to get into a decent routine is a nightmare but it will get there eventually... I hope.

I finished Ben Bunny as a custom order for a lady who still hasn't claimed him so he might be available in my Etsy shop very soon if she doesn't get her act into gear! Speaking of my Etsy shop on February 1st it was three years since I sold my first finished toy and since then I've sold a total of 86 knitted items so I've set myself a little goal of selling 40 items this year and I've already sold two so that makes just 38 to go. Whether it happens or not remains to be seen but hey I can but try.

Gabe had an eye test at school and he got referred to the opticians... I thought that he might have to wear glasses at some point as both me and Hub wear them but was hoping it would be later rather than sooner, but then again maybe because he's got them at such a young age his eyesight will be corrected and he might not need them when he's older. He has a short sighted stigmatism in his left eye which is exactly the same as Hub and now they look totally alike too don't you think? I had Milo's tested too whilst we there but he's got 20/20 vision.

I've also managed to squeeze in a brilliant little test knit for the lovely Sandy who designs and sells patterns under the name of Phoenix Knits. This is her Love Bunny Ball but I've also used her patterns when I made Dobbie and the Mandrake if you can remember that far back. You should go check her out.

We've been on a few walks some under bright blue clear skies and some under rather grey and dismal skies but all have been extremely cold. The weather forecasters have been predicting snow for the past few days but so far there have only been a few odd flakes where if you blinked you would miss them. Apparently the snow will definitely be here starting tomorrow and carrying on into next week. I do hope so.

The pooches are settling in well together having completely mental times where they go totally mad and chase each other from one end of the house to the other and back again. Can you believe Kali was one year old on January 28th, she's getting a big girl now and is always putting Freyja in her place whenever she's naughty... which is quite often I might add.

* 10 / 2012 *

2012-01-15T19:01:00.000Z

Just thought I'd share a few photo's from our day, no snow but lots of frost and ice everywhere making for a lovely Winters day and a gorgeous sunrise at 7.45am after dropping Hub off at work.

* 9 / 2012 *

2012-01-13T20:25:00.000Z

You know when something happens and it makes you feel all smiley happy inside and you start to think that maybe things will be okay after all. Well today was one of those days.
The day didn't start off too bad, a bit better than the past few days with none fighting boys and less manic hounds . School run went okay, quite calmly surprisingly enough, missed the bus into town but hey it was only a few minutes until the next one.
No wait in the Post Office and no queue to get my hot chocolate with spiced gingerbread so I arrived at work with twenty minutes to spare.
I'd been in about five minutes or so when the boss came across and totally out of the blue said ' Lisa, would you like to stay with us forever? '. Can you imagine how big my smile was and how quickly I said .. oh yes, yes please .
I quickly rang Hub to tell him the good news and what made it even better was when I told the other girls who work there. One of the girls started jumping up and down and just hugging the living daylights out of me, I don't think I've ever been hugged so many times in one day ,it made me feel like I really belong there, part of something special and boy did it feel good.

* 8 / 2012 *

2012-01-09T22:14:00.000Z

No snow for my birthday walk this year, instead the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the birds were singing......
We went out for tea although the boys were disappointed there were no baby octopus in the anti-pasto!!
Then when the boys were in bed Hub and I relaxed with some wine and some classic 80's films..... it was a good day.

* 7 / 2012 *

2012-01-08T19:34:00.000Z

I'm pleased to say that when I opened my e-mail this afternoon there was a purchase note from a lovely lady in Canada so tomorrow Oona will be on her way for a new life in Ontario. Sometimes I'm quite jealous of where my bunnies go.

I honestly didn't expect her to go so quick so I have chosen more yarns and they are ready for a knitting session tomorrow.

* 6 / 2012 *

2012-01-07T22:18:00.000Z

Woke up this morning with the headache still there .... not good. Boys were already awake and Gabe had gone into Milo's room where they were reading a book. They know they have to be quiet if it's before 8am.

Came downstairs and let the dogs out and that's when the noise starts, it's a bit like a madhouse with dogs barking and trying to get outside for toilet time and the boys are already fighting about who has what for breakfast..... just another typical morning.

The boys are going over their Grans today so we pack up her Christmas presents, which have been sitting in a bag on the landing since before Christmas and toddle off into town to meet her. Lots of hugs and kisses before they go and then I wander around the town for about half an hour and actually buy myself some new trousers and a top.

Back home I do some knitting while Hub plays a game on the Playstation. He can only play when the boys aren't here as it's not suitable watching for little ones. I manage to get two bunny egg cosy's finished and am hoping to get another one done tomorrow.

If I do manage to get another done then hopefully I'll be able to get some photo's done so you can let me know what you think as I've never made these before.

Hub and I took the dogs for a walk down the park, still windy but not as bad as it has been the past few days. We did see another dog running around with a rabbit in its mouth, the owner got the rabbit out but then left it in the middle of the path and the poor thing was still alive..... just. There was no way I could leave it there so I picked it up and hid it right at the back of the bushes . I know it's all nature and everything but it was still upsetting and it wouldn't have been a nice thing for any little children to see.

Not a very nice subject I'm sorry but it wasn't a nice part of the day and it did get to me..

The boys didn't come back until after 6pm and then they were tucked up in bed just before 8pm. I couldn't be bothered to cook so it was takeaway fish and chip with mushy peas for tea while watching three episodes of American Horror Story. A programme which is seriously messed up but seriously addictive..... does anyone else watch it?

Anyway it will be bedtime soon so enjoy the last few pics..

* 5 / 2012 *

2012-01-06T20:06:00.000Z

This year I decided that I was going to try and plan ahead with my knitted items so I had things ready in my shop for special events like Easter, Halloween, Valentines Day etc. So I feel quite proud of myself that I've actually managed to get something in there already.
This little girl is called Oona and she has a patterned heart on her jumper and is also holding a little knitted heart which she is hoping to give someone on Valentines Day.

This second little girl is called Maura and she was a bit of a test as I made her using two different yarns twisted together to see what the effect would be and I think she turned out okay. I might try doing this again but with two yarns of a similar shade rather than being completely different.

I'm thinking of making some little lambs for Easter, which I know is months away but like I said .... I'm planning ahead and I've never done a lamb before and maybe some ducks too ... oooh lots of ideas whooshing around in this little head of mine.

* 4 / 2012 *

2012-01-05T21:54:00.000Z

So much for my posting every day in January huh......... I had full intentions of doing a post yesterday but after I got home from work it was like someone flicked the off switch and the yuck set in. I was tucked up in bed just after 9pm.
This morning I still felt pretty awful, queasy and had a banging headache but it has definitely eased off as the day has gone on.

I think the rather chilly and windy walk around the park with Hub and the pooches might have helped a little bit. Don't let the blue skies fool you as it was very cold and blowing a gale just like it has been for the last few days.

The ladies didn't seem to mind though, it was all fun and games for them. Freyja is settling in very well and Kali has accepted her which is a good thing. This is the closest we have come to getting a photo of them together .

Kali is going to be one at the end of the month and Freyja was 19 weeks today and you can see that there isn't that much difference in size. I think we're going to have a big lady on our hands!

* 3 / 2012 *

2012-01-03T21:29:00.000Z

It's blowing an absolute gale outside and I really think I should be drinking hot chocolate to keep warm instead of a glass of wine but hey I'm feeling like a little celebration is in order.

Remember I was working at Lush over Christmas, a job that I was really enjoying, well my contract ended on the 29th of December and I left the shop in tears . I'd been home about an hour when the phone rang and it was the manageress asking if I'd like another shift for the day after and two for this week --- hell yeah, course I would.

So today she asked if I'd like to work another two weeks ......... yes please, big smile on my face. I think to start with there were ten temps but only eight started then another four or five were taken on so there were quite a few of us altogether and as far as I know I'm the only left . I consider this to be a huge privilege and it makes me feel like I've achieved something. I don't know if I'll be kept on any longer but I'm happy with what I've got so far.

Hey and you never know, tomorrow I might actually take some new photo's instead of dragging out some old ones !!

* 2 / 2012 *

2012-01-02T20:29:00.000Z

I was intending to show you some photo's of our walk around the park today but they were all totally pants. It looked as though there was something right in the middle of the lens so every picture had a big blob right in the middle... oh well.
So instead I'll show you the boys stocking toys which I didn't think would get finished in time. I had started making them other things but then Gabe eventually told me what he had asked Santa for. He wouldn't tell us at first as he said ' it was a secret'. He asked for three things, a polar bear, an Elf and a Santa Claus . The polar bear caused a mad rush around the town and we eventually found a little one in a cheap book shop. The Santa Claus was a chocolate one and the Elf, well as you can see I managed to make an Elf which has the original name of 'Elfie'.

I had started making Milo a stripy wolf in his favourite colours but then he became hooked on playing a game called Little Big Planet so Hub suggested making him a 'Sackboy' which is the main character from the game. I hadn't been totally happy with the wolf idea so Sackboy it was and although I couldn't get the right zip he didn't come out too bad. Which reminds me I must add the wolf to my ever growing list of WIP's !!

If you are wondering about my new header photo which I think is absolutely gorgeous, all credit goes to my dad who took it. I haven't taken any that I like recently, my photography has gone right down the pan unfortunately, so another note to self..... must try harder.

* 1 / 2012 *

2012-01-01T20:41:00.000Z

I didn't post much at all over the Christmas period I think mainly due to work / home commitments but it's all over now in a blur of excited boys and much Lego of the Star Wars and Harry Potter varieties. As for New Year I was in bed by 10.30pm, gone are the days of drinking and dancing my little legs off at midnight and way past for that matter!

I don't know if you'll remember but last year I posted every day in January so I thought what the heck, let's try and do it again and to start I thought I'd introduce the newest member of our family. The very curious and camera shy Freyja. I think I've taken about 60 photo's of her so far and these are the best .....

We never had any intention of getting another dog never mind another German Shepherd but when we heard of an 18 week old girl who was in real need of a good home we just couldn't refuse. So yesterday we went and got her. She was living with 7 other Shepherds including her sister and the owner just couldn't look after them all. At the minute she is curled up over my feet chewing on a bone which she pinched off Kali. Luckily the two of them are getting on okay, there are instances of snapping and teeth showing and quite a bit of growling but that is just to be expected and should ease off eventually.

She loves being cuddled and stroked and judging by the size of her compared to Kali I think she's going to be a big girl . I will try and get a picture of them together at some point but don't hold your breath.....

* 128 *

2011-12-31T21:54:00.000Z

Just dropping in to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2012...........

I'll tell you all about this little lady next year.......... have a good one xx

* 127 *

2011-12-24T20:38:00.000Z

We've had our Christmas Eve carpet picnic and the special Christmas Eve bath. Reindeer dust has been sprinkled and carrots and cookies have been put out for Santa and his reindeer. Good job we had carrots in the cupboard as I had forgotten to buy some !

New jamas have been put on and The Night Before Christmas has been read twice and now there are two excited boys tucked up in clean beds.

So all that is left for me to do is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope that Santa is good to you all. Don't eat too many mince pies xx

* 126 *

2011-12-13T18:41:00.000Z

My nephew made this for us and I'd like to share it with you all as it brings a huge smile to my face and I'd like to think that it brings one to your face too.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/Bj9ppo14iU4tjTC9?cmpid=jj_fb_friend_holidays

Just click on the link.

* 125 *

2011-12-10T20:35:00.000Z

Well that's another week gone by in a blur, whoosh, gone just like that in a haze of work and school runs. Don't get me wrong I love working in the shop and the people I'm working with are all so nice and the happiness just rubs off but it's very tiring and it did upset me that I had to miss Gabe's Carol Service at school and will miss Milo's next week. Thankfully my parents went to Gabe's and Hub will be able to go to Milo's so at least someone will be there for them.

Hub made a little sort of grotto around the boys bedroom doors and they love it. His tree has also been put up in the back room, it's the same one with the same baubles every year but I really like how it looks, a kind of modern approach as opposed to the more traditional in the front room.

Oh and one of the flower shops around the corner has the most amazing window display. It's just recently been taken over and the new owners are putting everything into it . It makes us smile to see Rudolph every time we walk passed.

This sunrise photo was from this morning and was just so beautiful so I had to share it with you and we still haven't had any snow !!

* 124 *

2011-12-04T18:39:00.000Z

Today much to the boys delight we put the Christmas tree up. Hub was at work so instead of being a happy family time ( supposedly) it was quite stressful, well for me it was anyway.

Finding all the decorations you had forgotten about is always exciting.

So is putting on the new ones that we buy. This time we bought more bells ( I like bells) and a girl Maileg pixie to go with the boy we got in 2010.

This year we moved the armchair upstairs into Milo's bedroom as I wanted the tree back in the window where we could all see it instead of being tucked away in a corner where it has been for the past couple of years. It's surprising just how much dust you find under furniture... cough, cough!

Here we have our finished sitting room tree just waiting for Hub to get home from work,

so we could put the star on. It was Milo's time this year and I only remembered that by looking back at my similar post from last December.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend......... oh oh it did snow this morning for about 10 minutes apparently but I missed it , sad face.

* 123 *

2011-12-03T21:46:00.000Z

I think this was the quietest they were all day... Milo reading a Dr Who comic ( his new obsession ) and Gabe trying to figure out how to play games on the playstation!

Oh and after much humming and aahhhing and with thanks to Hub I've finally figured out which stocking toys to make for the boys this year, phew

* 122 *

2011-12-02T19:53:00.000Z

Bare branches,

foreboding skies

and heavy morning frosts.

We've got snow forecast for next week ......... yeah.

* 121 *

2011-12-01T22:15:00.001Z

I've been trying to change the header picture for the last hour or so and now my head is totally battered! What with it saying I haven't enough space.... again and then making the photo about a million times bigger than it should be but I'm finally sorted now.

We've got all four of our Advent calendars up and the Santa countdown has begun. I did want to show you what they look like but due to the fact that I leave the house when the sun is rising and return when it's setting I've been unable to take any decent pictures. So these ones are from my walk last week.

The boys are in super hyper mode at the minute and from tomorrow I will be on a major mission to get their stocking toys made and doing it without them seeing..... not an easy task I might add. I was hoping to have a really good go at them on Saturday as I had thought they were going over their grans but that is a no go now and Hub is at work so I might have to let them play on the Playstation while I do knitting on the sly. Sometimes need must.

We've also got all our Christmas reading sorted with a few new books thrown in . What are your favourite Christmas books and films?

* 120 *

2011-11-29T18:03:00.000Z

When the wind outside is howling and the rain is lashing it's nice to hunker down with the boys and watch a film by cande light.

Even if the film is Horrid Henry and it's the fourth time you've seen it in a matter of a few days!

* 119 *

2011-11-24T22:18:00.000Z

I haven't done anything this month blogwise, well hardly anything. So I thought I better pop by and let you all know that I'm still here and also send my apologies for my lack of comment leaving.

Work seems to be taking up all my time and although I love it and my workmates are great by the end of the day I am just totally shattered. My days are still exactly as they were before with cooking, cleaning, washing, tidying up,school runs and looking after the boys but most of them also now have five hours a day of standing up serving customers.

Some days I will be on my feet for nearly twelve hours bar two ten minute bus journeys so by the time I sit down they throb a lot. It is getting better though and I think by the time my contract ends at Christmas they will be fine, which would be typical.

Today I had a day off, so after dropping the boys off at school I took a walk around the park. I watched the squirrels play and listened to the birds through the mist. I've done a bit of knitting and cleared the back yard of the summer plants along with the daily chores but now my eyes are starting to close and I feel my bed is calling so I'll say night night and fingers crossed I'll be back soon .

11.11.11

2011-11-11T07:50:00.002Z

* 117 *

2011-11-10T12:23:00.000Z

I saw this yesterday and was going to use it as next months header to continue with the ladybird theme but I thought it was too sweet and really wanted to share it with you.......... kissing ladybirds awwwww.

* 116 *

2011-11-09T14:54:00.000Z

Honestly, the older I get the more forgetful I get. It's a standing joke here and even the boys take the mickey out of me.

But last night's forgetful episode was a doozy. Now I don't know whether it was down to old age or the fact that I hadn't sat down since about 8am with a five hour standing shift at work but,,,,,,but ,,,, I forget to pick up Milo from school!!!

Oh, the shame of it. I walked to school and got Gabe then walked home again. I was just about to put the key in the front door when my phone rang, it was Milo's teacher reminding me that a letter had been sent out last week to inform us that Tuesdays after school club had been cancelled. Luckily I know her so she thought it was quite funny. There was no way my feet could cope with walking back again so I took the car.

At the minute I don't know if I'm coming or going and my head is all over the place so today I've had a day of rest, a day just for me. Well, that was after the school run, the shopping and the washing of dishes and clothes .

As for the flowers, a little something bought by me for me. They look quite pretty on the now tidy table don't they. My feet are still throbbing so I might just have to do the same tomorrow.

* 115 *

2011-11-06T21:43:00.001Z

You know when something goes wrong, like losing your cash card and you feel a bit bleurgh but you cope? Then something else goes, say your elderly cat foaming at the mouth constantly for no apparent reason which means an emergency trip to the vets.

Luckily said cat is fine when an infected tooth is removed even though there is a hefty vets bill and she now only has three teeth left. On leaving the vets or should I say on trying to leave the vets the car breaks down. The exact same car which was just serviced and had its MOT the week before. A quick phone call to my dad to come and help us but we had to leave our car behind in a not so nice area.

My neighbour came to the rescue the next day, jump started said car and replaced the battery. The insurance quote came through which caused a mass choking but thanks to searching on the internet which managed to stay on for more than five minutes it was reduced dramatically.

Did I tell you Hub got a new I Mac two weeks ago, I don't think I did, well that's on it's way back .... Kaput so they say.

Can you see the face on this tree? Looks a bit like how I feel at the minute .

* 114 *

2011-10-27T17:44:00.000+01:00

Jeez this week has gone by in a big whoosh hasn't it and to be honest the way things are going I'll be glad to see the back of it.

I'm normally fine with school holidays but this one I'm tearing my hair out in handfuls. My two little cherubs who look like butter wouldn't melt have been more like little devils.

What with the fighting and the bickering, the tears and the yelling, the grumpitude and the attitude my head is totally battered and it's mainly coming from the big one. He's a dab hand at winding his brother up and then pretending like nothing has happened and he's the innocent party!

Last Tuesday and today he went to a youth club for three hours which was been held at the school and for those few hours Gabe and I had some peace. Gabe hasn't been perfect either mind but nowhere near as bad as Milo. I feel like I have a sulky teenager in a seven year olds body.

Yesterday the weather was bright and sunnny so I took them down the park and told them to go wild. Run, scream, yell do whatever they wanted in the hope it would get it out of their systems --- pah, no such luck.

While they were doing all this I took some deep breaths, admired the golden leaves of the Norway Maple and watched the squirrels running back and forth hoarding the acorns in preparation for Winter.

Tomorrow I've got my second shift at work from 11 until 4 ..... bliss!

* 113 *

2011-10-21T18:59:00.001+01:00

Since my post the other day talking about my Etsy shop the shop has done a little bit better. I really appreciate all the feedback I was given so thank you all very much.

I did a few tweaks here and there , things like putting ' ready to ship' at the front of the descriptions for the finished items and making a separate category for them . Since doing this Daisy Bella ( above) has sold and is currently on her way to Australia and Clarice ( below) is on her way to America.

Unfortunately there isn't a lot I can do with regards to having all the backgrounds the same on the photographs as the majority of them aren't mine. They belong to and are taken by Debi Birkin who is the actual pattern designer.

The tea cosy above is still available. It was originally made as a custom order for a lady who promised faithfully every week that she would pay for it but no money ever appeared so I made it for general sale .

These Wuzzies are also still available and they will be joined shortly by a few more, perfect for cheap little stocking fillers and Augusta below is still available too. She hasn't been up for sale for very long so I do have high hopes that she'll be making a little someone happy on Christmas Day.

The three cuties below are a custom order . It's the first time I've made the hippo and I think she's a cutie so there will probably be more hippo's somewhere in the future..... what do you think?

Debi has also given me two new patterns to sell , Ching Chong and Jingles . These are both larger animals and are made with doubled yarn but I have seen them on Ravelry made with just a single yarn so either way would be fine.

I feel quite proud of Jingles as some of the parts were what I made for Debi as a test knit and they've been used on the finished article .

I've also got a sale on until the end of the month where if you buy one pattern you can get a second half price and this does include the two new patterns if you are interested . I'm considering a Facebook page too in the very near future so I'll let you know how that one pans out.
So once again I'd just like to say thanks for all the advice and I hope you all have a lovely weekend .

* 112 *

2011-10-16T20:48:00.002+01:00

Hey guys, how are you all doing, good weekend I hope?

I am totally going to overload you with photo's today I'm afraid,

because today something happened that was a once in a lifetime event and I don't want any of us to forget it.

Even thinking about it now makes me smile, a big, huge smile.

So, to start at the beginning. Today was our yearly trip through to Newcastle to see the pumpkins at the market.

We started off having a wander around the old castle, gatehouse circa 1247 so pretty old.

Then a walk down to the river front where the market is passing a lady abseiling down the front of a hotel for charity. Way to go strange lady you are so much braver than me.

Passed some random poster graffiti of a chicken holding a mans head - very strange.

Then passing a car where the guy was singing to a dog - honestly!

Finally reached the market where we had to partake of the most delicious chocolate brownies ever. No pic's of them as they were wolfed down.

Along to the pumpkin stall, all luckily grown I might add. We also bought some hyacinth bulbs, last year it was daffodils.

Then across to the Baltic Museum on the other side of the river crossing the Millenium Bridge to get there.

It is probably just me but I really don't get this place at all. It's a gorgeous building but the things inside ...... not my taste of art at all.

Last year we saw dead trees all laid down in a line, this year I really don't know what it was .

So I'll just leave it at that!

The best thing about the Baltic was in fact the view from the top, awesome.

So anyway, are you wanting to know about the once in a lifetime thing, you are aren't you ?

Well here goes. We knew that the bridge was going to open just after 12 and as we had never seen it before we thought we'd hang around to watch it. While we were waiting we got chatting to this man about football and then he disappeared. The tannoy started going telling everyone to clear the bridge so of course the boys joined in shouting away and then, ooooh excited now, and then the man came back and asked the boys if they wanted to press the button to make the bridge open ................

They looked at me all wide eyed and then back to the man , er yes please, open the Millenium bridge --- hell yeah !!!

The bridge opened, the boat passed by turned around and went back the way it had come. As it went back it blew it's horn and then it was time to close the bridge .

Open and close ........... WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO.

Milo also got to talk over the tannoy .......... ' open the gates' . All the people around were laughing and smiling with them as the boys just taking in their excitement.

It really was just an amazing brilliant thing for them to be able to do and it pleases me no end that I was there to watch the happiness that just poured out of them.

Oh and they got to meet a lego C3PO too..... what a great day .

Thank you to everyone for the Etsy advice too, I'll be coming back to it but just had to get the bridge excitement out of the way first.

* 111 *

2011-10-12T21:29:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I feel like I've got loads to say and other times just nothing - total blank . So very briefly what have I been up to ?

I've made Milo a Roman Centurions outfit for his school play ( notice in the pic above it was the wrong way round !! )

The weather has been total pants and I've been totally lazy so have been taking the boys to school in the car doh, oh and speaking of the car I watched someone outside my front window reverse into it yesterday. They actually saw me watching and then just drove away, luckily there was no damage.

I've been knitting like a trooper to get things in my shop and orders that I've got but when I go to Etsy and just type ' hand knitted bunny' in the search engine some of the things that come back terrify me . For similar items to mine some of the prices are just extortionate and yet they are selling whereas mine aren't and I'm trying to think of how I can put this nicely but some of the bunnies just don't seem as though they are of a high enough standard. Maybe mine just aren't good enough and because the market is just soooo saturated with bunnies that perhaps I need to look for something else to knit.The exception being Julie's rabbits of course because they are just awesome.

I'd really, really appreciate it if perhaps you could just pop across to Etsy, have a look and then give me some feedback please as at the minute I'm at a bit of a loss what to do?

Right, enough of the whinging now. Hope you enjoy the photo's of my little centurion and his friends .

* 110 *

2011-10-04T20:23:00.000+01:00

Thank you so much for all your help with my posting pictures problem. Between Rachel's suggestion and Tess's advice I've managed to fix it, or so it seems with no money exchanging hands yeah .Thanks girls.

Well after Saturdays heatwave it looks as though we are now actually starting Autumn. It's very much colder and the wind is whipping the fallen leaves into a frenzy which is what I think Autumn should be like.

There are still a few blooms about although they are starting to fade quite rapidly. These were taken this afternoon whilst me and Gabe were doing our walk around the park when Milo was at Gardening club.

Quite a few Foxgloves which I was surprised at, maybe there is an Autumn variety? Not so many little insects though, a few bees but no butterflies or ladybirds.

I thought I would stick with my ladybird theme for this months header photo. It was taken last week and I had to stand on tip-toes with my arm up in amongst the Beech leaves to get it. I think it was worth it as I love the colours, pity I didn't get its face though.

On Sunday evening I went for an induction at work. It seems funny saying work, chuckle, anyway there are ten of us starting, wow, that's a lot isn't it for a small shop but to me that means it's going to be busy, busy, busy which I much prefer to honest.

On Saturday evening Hub and I had a night out without the boys and it was great . We went through to Newcastle to see something called the Revival Tour . It was basically a bunch of guys from different bands all getting together to do an acoustic set, so there were four acoustic guitars an upright bass and a fiddle player and you know what -- it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

Right, well I'm off to watch a bit of telly now and sink a few glasses of wine .... enjoy.

* 109 *

2011-10-02T09:33:00.000+01:00

Hmmm , having a bit of a problem uploading photo's at the minute . I was trying to change my header and I get the message that I have ' exceeded my upload quota ' it then refers me to a Blogger help page and I'm prompted to buy more space . Has anyone came across this before or has anyone got any suggestions about what I can do .... help please.

* 108 *

2011-10-01T16:32:00.001+01:00

Who would have thought,

that on the 1st of October,

the boys would be running around the park

like this?

* 107*

2011-09-30T21:16:00.000+01:00

Wow, when the weather forecasters predicted an Indian Summer they weren't wrong . The last few days have been absolutely glorious , so hot in fact that I've had to get the boys school shorts back out and buy ice cream on the way home.

Yesterday I went up the allotment for a while, oops, I just realised that I never updated you on what happened with it did I ? Well the lady I share with is moving to Yorkshire so doesn't want it any longer . She is going to keep it in her name though so that I can have it all and when my name comes to the top of the waiting list she will just transfer ownership across . Anyway, yes, I was up there yesterday for about an hour or so and even though I had taken a drink with me I was just sweating buckets and my face was just beetroot red all day . It was just sooooo hot .

We've also had several walks around the parks . When the boys are at school I've taken Kali out and then in the hour between Gabe finishing school and Milo finishing we've spent another hour there just watching the squirrels running backwards and forwards to the big Oak tree picking up the acorns and then burying them ready for the Winter. Oh I do love to watch them they really are so cute.

You really would never think that it is October 1st tomorrow would you?

There are signs of Autumn everywhere, the leaves are turning and there are berries by the bucket load being devoured by the hungry birds.

Thank you for all the congratulations on getting the job . It's for a company called Lush which sell the most gorgeous fresh handmade products like soaps, bath bombs, shampoos etc . I'll be starting on October 20th and finishing at Christmas so it's only for about 9 weeks but hey I'm really looking forward to it and although it's got nothing to do with the teaching assistant course I've just finished at least I'm out there and employed.

All this good weather is supposed to last for a few more days yet so here's hoping it does and hoping that everyone has a lovely weekend.

* 106 *

2011-09-27T20:58:00.000+01:00

Hey, guess what?

I got the job ............ yep , I got it .

It's only up until Christmas and a few hours a week but it's better than nothing and makes me very happy . Thank you so much for all the Good Luck wishes .

* 105 *

2011-09-25T15:22:00.000+01:00

Last week I applied for a Christmas job in a shop in town . Yesterday they rang to say I have an interview on Tuesday.

It's been at least 13 years since I've done interviews of any kind and just thinking about it gives me butterflies . Wish me luck please .

* 104 *

2011-09-23T20:51:00.000+01:00

Did you know that today is officially the first day of Autumn ? Weather wise it's been a gorgeous day so much better than the last few weeks in fact , I even walked around the park in a short sleeved shirt!. Maybe we are going to have an Indian Summer but then again the weathermen are forecasting snow for next month so maybe not . Anyway just though you might like to see a few photo's from today.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend .

* 103 *

2011-09-17T19:35:00.000+01:00

Just a quickie to let you all know I finished this little bunny and have just about finished a mouse . I think all the to- ing and fro-ing took it's toll on my knitting last week.

Now for the results of my little giveaway .... I asked Hub to pick a number between one and twenty-four and he chose twenty-three which was Leanne , so Leanne if you would like to get in touch we'll sort something out.
Thank you to everyone who left a comment . Hope you are all having a lovely weekend .

* 102 *

2011-09-15T12:41:00.002+01:00

It's a bit of an odd week this one and to be honest I'm so sick of the walk to and from school but at least there is only tomorrow left.

What with Milo starting at 9am and Gabe starting at 10am, then Gabe finishes at 2pm and Milo finishes at either 3.30pm or 4.30pm depending on if he has any clubs or not .

Backwards and forwards , backwards and forwards ...

So this morning after dropping Milo off we took a quick walk around the park seeing as how the gale force winds have dropped now and watched this little ladybird scurrying about.

Just one more day and then relax . Next week they'll both be starting and finishing at the same time phew.

If you haven't already entered my little giveaway on post 100 then get back there and leave a comment ..

Oh and if someone could please point me back in the direction of how to make your photo's bigger I'd appreciate it .... mine seem to have shrunk!! edit thank you Louise x

* 101 *

2011-09-13T11:31:00.000+01:00

Milo started his guitar lessons yesterday and he also came home with a letter to say that he had been placed on the schools ' Gifted and Talented Register' for his abilities in reading and math. Words fail me when I come to say just how proud we are of him.

* 100 *

2011-09-10T16:39:00.000+01:00

Thank you so much for all your kind words from my last post, needless to say both boys were perfectly fine and Hub did indeed call me a big softie. Milo has settled straight back in with no problems and even has some new clubs to look forward to which include learning to play the guitar , to speak French and gardening with the headmistress. He's not so sure about the last one !. Gabe enjoyed his first week and a quick word with his teacher put me at ease and fingers crossed there were no little accidents of the changing trousers variety. Next week he will be in from 10 until 2 which will help him ease into staying for school dinners then after that it will be in full time - phew.

So, school matters aside , you may or may not have been wondering as to why my last post was titled 99 and a half ? Simply because I wanted my 100th post this year to be of the nice variety and also to announce a little Giveaway as a thank you to you all .Can you see the little Wuzzies above , well if you win I will let you choose one . It can either be a bunny or a mouse and you can also pick which colour you would like it to be made in. Plus if you commented on my last post you will also get an extra entry . I'm not going to ask for anything fancy like following me or posting on your own blog , just leave me a comment - that's all. But if you would like to follow or mention it on your blog then feel free.

I set myself a little target this month to see just how many things I can knit if I really set my mind to it and knit, knit, knit. So far I've done the two Wuzzies , the swimming Bunty above was made for a lady in Sweden and I went back to an old pattern for Ginger the bear . He really is quite cute , well I think so and I love the colour of his dungarees . I'm also nearly finished another bunny and am trying to make some Innocent Drink hats too.

Oh I nearly forgot, I'll pick a winner for the Giveaway next Saturday so that gives you one week. Hope you are all having a lovely weekend .... take care .

* 99 and a half *

2011-09-05T20:15:00.000+01:00

It's 7.50pm, both boys are safely tucked up warm and cosy in their beds , Hub is at work and I'm trying to figure out if I should close the living room blinds or not .

Our six week Summer holidays have now finished and tomorrow the boys are back to school. Their fresh new uniforms are all named and are hanging from hooks on wardrobe doors and new shoes are ready below them waiting to be worn.

P.E kits are labelled and are bundled up in new bags on the chair in the kitchen and Milo's packed lunch is chilling in the fridge.

It doesn't seem like two minutes since we were all at the ice cream parlour celebrating Milo's award and the end of term but whoosh in the blink of an eye six weeks has passed and we are ready to start again.

Did we do enough over the holidays, in fact is there a limit on what should or shouldn't be done ? The weather wasn't at it's best and a bit more sun would have been nice but you have to make the most of what you are given don't you?

This term will be Milo's first as a junior and Gabe's first as an infant and it makes me feel quite sad thinking about it.

I don't know whether it's because Gabe is the youngest that I worry about him sometimes. I know he'll be fine with his happy go lucky ways but Milo just seemed. I don't know , just seemed so much older and wiser when he first went into the infants, whereas Gabe still seems like a baby.

It's not even as if he is going to be going in full time straight away . The next four days will be just 9am until 11.30am and then next week it will be 10am until 2pm to get them used to staying for school dinners.

That's another thing I worry about too, he is such a slow eater , sometimes it can take him at least an hour to eat his dinner and they only get a short amount of time to eat their packed lunches , he'll get used to it though I'm sure , I mean he's quite quick at picking things up - when he wants to that is.

He'll be fine I know he will , doesn't stop me from worrying though does it and I know I'm not the only parent going feeling this right now , just helps to write it down.

I also know that when Hub reads this he'll just call me a big softie.

I suppose that one benefit I do have is that his new teacher is one that I worked with last year and the support staff are all lovely so if there were to be any concerns I know they would let me know straight away.

Deep breaths , deep breaths , deep breaths ......

Okay , I'm fine now , honestly I am , just being silly.

Right, I'm off to pour myself a glass of wine and seeing as how it's now really dark outside I will be closing those blinds.

Dark nights are creeping in faster and faster and it's not long now until the first official day of Autumn.

Soon all these lovely flowers will be gone , scattering their seeds and preparing themselves for another show next year

Thank you for listening to me babble , it really is greatly appreciated .

* 99 *

2011-09-02T17:42:00.000+01:00

On one of my previous posts I asked if you would like more details about the beaches and parks that we go to. A few of you said yes so here is my first one. Hub upgraded my Blogger the other day and I so wish he hadn't as I have no idea what's going on with it so please excuse anything odd!

A couple of weeks ago I took the boys to a new beach which is about a 20 minute drive from where we live and just a bit further up the coast from the beach we normally go to . Some of these photo's are from that trip and some are from today.
From the sign you can see that it's called The Blast Beach and one of the information boards tells us that it is so called either because of the 19th century ironworks which were situated here or possibly because of the ballast which was dumped here from passing merchant ships.
If you enlarge the picture below it shows you a photograph of how the mining works used to look and it also tells you that this beach was also used in the film Aliens 3.

If you look at my picture below and then check out this photo which someone put on Flickr you will be able to see some stills from the actual film . It really is quite spooky . The beach itself is not what you would think of as a normal beach all sandy and being able to make sandcastles etc, this beach is rocky . There are rocks of all different shapes , sizes and colours and you can see this as when you look down from the cliff tops you can see the stripes where they change from one type to another.

The path to get down is quite steep so you have to be very careful as I'm sure many people have ended up on their backsides!

The beach of black sand is due to eroded coal and iron pyrites which came from the ironworks and it is said that Fishermen who landed here would kick the ash and this would combust and start a fire which would keep them warm.

It's very hard to describe this beach as there are just so many oddities about it, the odd smell which lingers which is probably from all the iron , it's neither a nice or nasty smell - it's just there and although the beach looks pretty flat , it isn't. If you walk towards the cliffs , which are teaming with all sorts of wildlife I might add , the rocks get bigger and more orange but the strangest thing is that it gets quieter too and when you turn back to look at the sea it isn't there. There is a crest which just hides the sea and the rest of the beach altogether.

There are two limestone stacks at the far end of the cove but unfortunately I don't think this particular one will be here for much longer as it seems to be eroding quite rapidly , which is a pity. All the cliffs are limestone too and I read that all the waste that was once dumped here actually helped to protect the cliffs from the sea spray and erosion.

There are a couple of bright orange pools like this one which are naturally stained with iron and minerals .

Now something which I have never ever seen on a beach before is a Pillbox . This box was built during World War two ( 1939 - 45 ) as a defence against a possible invasion from Germany. It was built from concrete filled sandbags and has a roof made from a concrete slab. This was the first time the boys had seen a Pillbox and they were quite fascinated by it and it's history.

It appeared as though someone had been camping here recently as there were signs of a camp fire and stones that had been made into seats. I can't say that it is somewhere I would particularly like to be at night as there is a real eerie air about it.

Towards the end of the beach there is a staircase which was built by the National Trust and once you get to the top you can either turn right and head back towards the car park or left to continue a walk along what is called the Durham Coastal Walk. Today we turned right but I think there will be a day when we turn left and continue on to do a little bit more exploring. I do have quite a few photo's of the walk back to the car but am going to share those with you maybe tomorrow or in a few days as I think I might have over loaded you with facts in this post .

I couldn't end without showing you our finds though could I ? I started the walk thinking that this wasn't going to be a very good cove for sea glass but boy was I wrong , oh so wrong. It was definately more on the 'green' side than for any other colours but we found some really nice pieces.

I've used a 20p piece for size comparison. The top two are green eggs, the bottom left is quite orange but it hasn't shown very well here. The long thin turquoise piece is the bottom part of a stopper and the red is actually a glass bead which is a real find and the blue is the biggest piece of blue we have found so far .

But the piece de resistance , oh my , I yelled when I found this one . The biggest piece we have ever found , it's about the size of my hand !! Isn't it a corker .. wow , and I can't believe I just used the word corker , that shows my excitement doesn't it?

I hope you liked this post just as much as I liked writing it although it did take me quite a while , silly Blogger !!

* 98 *

2011-08-30T18:46:00.000+01:00

This young man has just put up some video blog posts across at Milo's Summertime, please pop across and see him.
A big thank you also to those that already have ...X

* 97 *

2011-08-29T21:20:00.013+01:00

So, following on from yesterdays post .

We got on the bus which was to take us back to the boat and the closer and closer we got to it the lighter the rain got and by the time we had boarded and got up on deck to say 'bye' to Amsterdam it had stopped completely and Mr Sun was out and shining brightly - typical eh?

We watched for dolphins and harbour porpoises but didn't see any, although according to the wildlife notice inside they have been seen here quite often. Notice the lack of coats which goes to show how warm it got.

There were loads of other boats and at one point I think we counted sixteen , it was all a bit spooky as they looked like ghost ships on the horizon.

Then we saw 'aliens ' all lined up and coming towards us, dozens and dozens of them on both sides of the boat.

Well, they did look like aliens to the boys ha ha. It was a bit strange seeing that many wind turbines out at sea, a sea which was much calmer than it had been on the inbound journey I might add.

Our friends decided to play a game of Bingo which was part of the entertainment and they won the jackpot of over 100 Euros so there were celebrations all round . Cocktails of the non alcoholic type for the little ones and seeing as how the Euros were given in voucher form and had to be spent on board the ship there were also presents of the Lego kind .

There seems to have been a few late nights for the boys lately and Gabe fell asleep on the chair so he was carried back to the cabin and safely tucked up in bed . I stayed with him whereas Milo was allowed to stop up a bit longer with Hub which he thought was a ' great big treat '.

It was raining again the next day when we sailed back into harbour but it didn't matter . We had a lovely time with lovely friends and the rain didn't spoil our time together in Amsterdam.

Our friends left to go to York for a night before heading back to their home whereas I set about doing loads of washing whilst the boys did their Lego.

I wonder where we'll go next year ?

* 96 *

2011-08-28T19:53:00.015+01:00

All week before we sailed I checked the weather forecast and every site said the same thing rain on Tuesday, sunny on Wednesday, rain on Thursday . Now that was fine by us as Wednesday was the day we were going to be walking around Amsterdam.

It was raining when we left Newcastle and the crossing was choppy to say the least . Lots of travel sickness tablets being past around which didn't really work in my case !

On arrival in Amsterdam Port it was still raining but when we actually came to the city centre it had stopped , thank goodness for that . So we set off for the flower market but half way down guess what ... yep, you guessed it , the heavens opened - so much for weather forecasts!

We made the most of it though, no choice really . I managed to find the way back to the old square that we had stumbled upon last time we were here. Still peaceful considering it's in the heart of the shopping district .

Don't think we needed any more water thank you Milo.

The boys still really enjoyed it though as the friends we went with also have two boys , they are slightly older than our two but they still get on really well.

I had wanted to take loads of photo's and do some really big posts but it's not to be I'm sorry . I did take quite a few pictures but they didn't come out so good with the weather being so terrible.

I'm going to leave you with these few because I just loved the red shutters .

* 95 *

2011-08-20T19:24:00.017+01:00

So last time we spoke I was asking you to keep your fingers crossed for sun for our picnic wasn't I ? Well it sort of worked.the boys had a paddle and splash about then when Gabe's lips decided to go a funny shade of purple I dragged them out got them changed , sat down for food and WHOOSH ..... the heavens opened.

Quickly grabbing everything we ran back and sheltered beside the cliffs , it was okay for a little while but then the wind changed direction and just about had us pinned to the rocks so we had no choice but to run for it.

We got absolutely drenched to say the least . Back home after hot showers , clean dry clothes and some lovely Heinz Chicken Noodle soup to warm us up we did laugh about it .

I think I've mentioned it before but this rocky beach is perfect for sea glass and is apparently one of the best in the world for what is called multi coloured glass, like the ones below. This is due to all the glass works that were once in the village close by.

The famed Multi's strands of glass were cut off a molten glob that had been removed from the kiln for working. These are found in about one in a thousand or more. Glass would be gathered up on a pipe and any excess was cut off and collected in a vat that lay next to the kiln. Colours would become all mixed and layered and then discarded off the cliff at the end of the day.

These are our few bits of multi's the biggest one is in the photo above and we also have what is called a ' fisheye' and that is the clear one in the middle on the right . If you enlarge this photo you will be able to see why it's called that.

These are called Boulders or Eggs and are usually a large single colour piece that started as a huge lump of slag glass that were chipped out of vats and then thrown into the sea. The smaller ones are probably 'marbles' which were used in the necks of bottles as stoppers .

These are just a few pieces of our collection we do have quite a few hundred more , all colour co-ordinated in different tubs chuckle.

Phew I didn't mean to go off on one about sea glass , hope you don't mind?

Now , what else did we do last week ? It was my dads birthday so we spent the day with him and my mam . He wanted to go for a walk along the river and luckily it was a sunny day.

On the way I did find these lovely lilac flowers , very similar to Clover but not sure what they are -- anyone have any ideas?

By the time we got to Roker Beach Milo needed a rest so climbed up on here for a quick power nap ,

But was quickly woken up by nanna.

I think one day I must make a list of all the beaches and parks we go to as I think it must get confusing for you sometimes , I know it confuses me ! Do you think that's a good idea?

Speaking of parks we also managed a few outings and I was pleased to see quite a few fungi sprouting here and there , must have been with all the rain we've had lately.

Oh and there has been some disastrous cake baking too. I used a recipe that I found in this months Country Living for Blueberry muffins. On my first attempt I forgot to put in the baking soda and the second attempt was just plain awful ... yuk yuk yuk . These were on the side waiting to go in the bin when a certain young lady decided that she would rather eat them .... say no more !!

I went back to my tried and tested recipe and by the amount of chocolate around Gabe's face I think these went down a bit better.

Next Tuesday we're off to Amsterdam for a couple of days so prepare yourself for tons of photo's next week okay .... have fun x

* 94 *

2011-08-13T20:37:00.017+01:00

Finally after what seems like forever being cooped up due to crappy weather I had decided that today we were going out . No matter what the weather was doing we were going to brave the elements - luckily for us it turned out to be a rather nice day.

There were still quite a few black clouds hovering about but there were also a few white ones and a bit of blue sky too and believe it or not it was quite warm, T-shirt warm in fact . So we headed off to the beach and with Tess's post in mind we created some beach art. I also did a bit of stone writing which was inspiration from Pinterest.

If you enlarge the photos you will see that there is writing on the stones beside the figures.

The beach was near enough deserted , a heck of a lot different from when the air show was on and just the way I like it, so I'm going to let the photo's speak for themselves.

It's forecast for nice weather again tomorrow so we'll probably be heading to our normal beach armed with buckets, spades and towels ... fingers crossed as the boys are really looking forward to playing in some rock pools.

* 93 *

2011-08-10T17:34:00.012+01:00

Got my new camera - yeah. Thank you very much to Hub for that one , very much appreciated . I was really, really lost without it.

We went back to the Fairy exhibition yesterday but there were huge signs saying you couldn't take photographs of any of the exhibits which was a shame but you could take some in the grotto. A lot of the work on show was by a man called Brian Froud . I was going to put a link to his website but it's down for maintenance at the moment so would have been a waste of time - sorry.

I did find a couple of fairies of mine own although I'm not so sure about the second one !!

After that we went for a walk around Mowbray Park which is just next to the town museum where the exhibit was. I needed to check out the macro option on the camera and it seems to work just fine. Not that I had any doubts it wouldn't and if we are friends on Facebook you can see on there ALL the photo's I took to test it out . I think the next two are my favourites .

Of course I had to test it out on the boys too which wasn't easy as they were running about the playpark like they had been let out for the day. In a way though they had as it's rained on and off for days now and staying cooped up is just not fun .

I haven't even made it back to the allotment as the one day they went across to their grans and I had some alone time it rained constantly so the gardens are just a muddy mess. I've got spring cabbages to plant out so a couple of dry days would do very nicely thank you.

I've heard from the allotment chairman that the lady I share the plot with is giving it up and although this hasn't been confirmed yet it's possible that if she does I'll lose my little bit too. I do hope not as I have put quite a bit of work into it and am a bit reluctant to do anything in case it's all wasted . But on the other hand they might see how much I have done and because of this let me keep it ... what to do eh?

Opening the blinds this morning to yet more rain and trying to figure out how to keep the boys occupied , it's so not easy . We needed to take the library books back but every time the rain eased off we got ready to make a run for it and it started on heavy again. We did eventually get there about 4pm 'ish and Milo is now snuggled up on the settee reading a Star Wars character encyclopedia. It's the quietest he's been all day, apart from when he was painting the stone that he carried all the way back from the park yesterday.

I'd like to thank everyone who has left comments on his little blog, there will be another post shortly.

So today if you hadn't already guessed we've been painting monsters . I've had one of my mad ideas for what we can do with them and if it all pans out I'll be sure to let you know .

Oh and thanks to a certain Mrs Thimbleanna I'm now addicted to Pinterest so if you are on there give me a yell.

* 92 *

2011-08-07T15:01:00.007+01:00

Last week has just whizzed by so fast and to be honest I can't even remember everything that we did .

Monday we went for a new walk , still local but somewhere I've never been before . No photo's I'm afraid as my camera broke while we were out .The lens got jammed and I was quoted anywhere between £50 and £80 for a repair . So I've got a new camera on the way and fingers crossed it will be here tomorrow.

Tuesday was a trip into town to see a new exhibition at the new museum . It was all about fairy's so I didn't tell the boys where we were going I just sprang it on them and they thoroughly enjoyed it and want to go back . So when we do I'll show you. We also ended up going to Build-a- Bear ( thanks Tess ) and spending the last of the birthday money on two bears which are now called ' Sausages' and 'Jelly Baby Army Soldier Bear' !! My children really do have a vivid imagination as far as names go .

Wednesday and Thursday are a bit of a blur, the weather was very sticky during the day and drizzly and with Hub on late shift all week I don't think we did much . A quick trip to the allotment and the supermarket if I remember rightly but that's about it.

Friday we went to the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. Once again it was a first for us and when you consider it was free entry it was really good with lots of different exhibits including dinosaurs. the living planet . Egypt and a few others. Hub very kindly loaned me his camera for the trip so I did take a couple of pictures.

Notice the blue skies ... it was a gorgeous day .

The reason I mentioned the blue skies was because yesterday was the exact opposite , big fat torrential day all day with just a bit of thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure,

So this led to a jama day with lots of Wii playing and Knex building until cabin fever set in and the fighting began. It always ends in tears .

Today has been a little bit better with a walk to the park in the drizzle followed by a roast chicken and crusty bread lunch . Tomorrow the boys are off to their Grans so it will be a day of peace for me -- yeahh and fingers crossed the sun gets out next week too .

Hope you all have a lovely week.

* 91 *

2011-07-31T17:29:00.014+01:00

Would you believe it, I came to do my post for this months Scavenger hunt and I've lost some of the photo's I intended to use so please excuse a few of them as I've ran around the house looking for bits and also searched my files so some are a bit old.

Red, White and Blue .... a RAF Falcon parachutist from the airshow this afternoon.

Flip Flops .... these were worn once at my wedding and have never been worn again.

Ice Cream .... Turkish Delight flavour which was mine mmmmmmmmm

Strawberries .... knitted strawberry bookmarks and a Yankee candle as part of the teachers thank you present. It said " thank you BERRY much".

A Flag .... on the ferry on the way back from Amsterdam about 6am . Did I tell you we are going again in a few weeks?

Fields .... not a lot to say about this one really.

A Celebration .... quite a few to choose from this month , three birthdays, a wedding, finishing school, Milo's award . I decided to go with the cheeky chappie though.

Shells .... it's lucky we live beside the beach .

Stars .... this is kind of pushing it as it's one of the ones I lost . The guy wearing the 54 shirt is Chris from a band called Bowling For Soup and this was taken before children when we actually used to go to gigs - a lot. It's me on the right if you hadn't guessed , Hub to the left of Chris and the other guy is a friend of ours. So Chris is a star - yes !!

Oh, and I've just thought I could have taken a picture of the stars on my Converse - all of them , oh well.

Stripes .... also taken this afternoon at the airshow as it's another I lost.

Kite .... and another , this is a letter chart on our back room wall .

Something that makes you happy ( not a person or an animal ) .... Technically yes this is an animal but it's a knitted animal and knitting makes me happy , not only that though because this little pig is called Pabla and she is one of Julie's little animals and the fact that I've finally managed to get one after three years of trying makes me very very happy indeed.

Two pictures of me in this post taken approx eight years apart so don't look too closely ..

* 90 *

2011-07-29T22:12:00.004+01:00

I can't believe the first week of the school holidays is over already , but then again I can't believe it's nearly August !!!

Even though there are signs all around that Autumn is starting to creep in , very slowly inch by inch I just don't want to accept it - not yet anyway .

The blackberries are all ripening , seed heads are forming and today we found conkers . A lot of them were still quite small but others , well, just see for yourself.

I think it's going to be a good year for them judging by this whopper?

* 89 *

2011-07-26T17:23:00.020+01:00

So, four days into the holidays and so far we have been busy, busy, busy.

First there was the wedding then on Sunday we had a trip up the road to Nannas to return the boys suits and a walk along the river.

Monday we had a walk along Roker beach, a very blustery walk I might add. It was quite windy and the sea was very rough with big waves and even people surfing.

There were quite a few broken lobster pots and more washed up seaweed than I can ever remember seeing before.

Whopping great big lumps of it all along the shoreline.

Halfway along we stopped for chips , you can't beat salt and vinegar chips beside the sea.

It was quite a refreshing walk and the cobwebs were most definately blown away.

We'll be here again at the weekend for the annual airshow but we'll be joined by a few thousand people this time.

Today it was not so windy so we ventured up to Causey Arch , about half an hours drive away.

Lots of little wooden bridges to cross which the boys loved.

Causey Arch was built in 1725 / 6 and is the oldest surviving single arch railway in the world.

These stairs were a killer but the view from the top was worth it.

We also found a new friend .... can you spot the face ?

Hub is back to work tomorrow so I think we'll be having a lazy day , I think we need it.

* 88 *

2011-07-24T16:19:00.011+01:00

Yesterday the sun shone and the sky was blue , exactly what had been ordered for my sisters wedding.

Everything went to plan , well almost , as two days before there was a family fallout when my brother decided he wasn't coming !!! Always happens doesn't it?

The boys were pageboys along with their cousin and they all did brilliantly .

A very happy mam smiled all day

and a very proud dad gave away his youngest child.

It all got too much though for one little person who caved in at 9pm , way past his normal bedtime.

I wish Trish and Keith all the best in the world ..

* 87 *

2011-07-23T09:49:00.005+01:00

Last week we got a letter through the post inviting us to an awards ceremony at the boys school. We were told that Milo had won an award but not what it was for and we were also told it was a secret and we were not to say anything about it to him.

Do you know just how hard it is to keep something like this quiet when you are just bursting with happiness?

There were only five awards for his year, one for attendance, one for handwriting, one for maths, one for science and one for reading , so we assumed that his was going to be for reading as his teacher is always commenting about how good his reading is for his age. We sat there amongst the other proud parents and when they called out his name for science .... science ... well, the tears flowed I can tell you and not just from me I might add Hub wiped a few away too. His teacher gave a little speech beforehand saying how the winner of the award was very curious, always asking questions , some questions that she didn't know the answers to and had to research things before replying .

Words cannot describe just how proud we are of him .

We had already decided that as a celebration for winning this and the fact that he has now finished infant school and Gabe has finished nursery we would take them to the new ice-cream parlour in town as a surprise.

It went down well I think .

Milo has also decided that he is going to write a summer blog , a little diary of sorts of things that he is going to get up to over the next six weeks. I'll help with photos but that is all , everything else will be his own so please pop across and visit him at Milo's Summertime .

* 86 *

2011-07-20T14:40:00.002+01:00

My Whoopies look more like flopsie's !!

Even with a Whoopie tin they are just so flat ...... and sticky . Oh well , at least the dog didn't get them !!

* 85 *

2011-07-16T17:27:00.004+01:00

So, chocolate cakes aside and the fact that she also ate a potato, an eraser and a crayon this morning I'm going to show you what's making me happy today despite all the rain outside.

Smiley knees....

and a bunny called Mariette which I've just finished.

There is a third thing which arrived in the post this morning which has had me beaming for most of the day but I'm going to leave that for later.

What's making you smile today?

* 84 *

2011-07-15T21:51:00.004+01:00

I was going to tell you all about Gabe's sports day and to tell you how pleased I was this morning when I finally managed to get something that I've been waiting three years for .

I was also going to thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes for the boys and tell you how much I appreciate them but I've kind of got sidetracked .

In fact I've gotten a lot sidetracked and it's all to do with a nearly 6 month old young lady who's made me really , really cross.

Can you see the cake cover on the floor and the cooling tray along with a load of brown crumbs ? Well this was the result of a hard afternoons baking .... 40 chocolate cakes sitting on the side cooling down.......... All now inside a certain pups tummy !!!!

* 83 *

2011-07-13T19:16:00.007+01:00

Today we are celebrating Gabe's birthday ... four years old bless him.

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that the boys birthdays are so close together as it sometimes seems like Gabe's is second best especially when it falls on a school day .

Birthday Eve jamas with Moo - riel the cow.

The yearly measure always done by pops . We always thought Gabe was way taller than Milo but it turns out at age 4 they are exactly the same size - spooky.

After school it's time to play on the new Spiderman scooter.

Then just a little birthday tea with a Toy story cake.

Happy birthday Baby ..... love you xx

* 82 *

2011-07-10T18:11:00.004+01:00

Today my big lad was seven ... wow seven already where did the time go ??

We started the day with the yearly measuring he's now 3ft 11.5 " so has grown 2.5" in a year.

Then onto his one request which was for a fried breakfast like he had when we were in Ibiza. ( It was mostly grilled I might add )

Next we went bowling taking his older cousin with us

and then to Frankie and Benny's for burger and chips.

Back home to birthday cake a la Yoda .

Oh and I nearly forgot we also had the ritual of Birthday Eve jamas and toy. A very very quickly made Dilbert from the pattern by Melly and Me .

Happy Birthday Milo , love you xx

* 81 *

2011-07-06T16:32:00.009+01:00

One think I'd really like to do is take decent black and white photos of everyday people.Nearly every day I see interesting people and would love to take their photo's but getting up the nerve to ask them if I can take a snap is another matter.

I think black and whites gives more character in lots of cases , not all but most.

The pictures I'm showing you here have mostly been taken on the sly , putting one of the boys there and pretending to shoot them when really you're taking the person at the side or behind.

I'm not sure what or if there are any laws in taking them sneakily and I do think how I would feel if it was me on the other side of the camera .

I do like this one of the man with the wheelie bin and I don't think I would be doing anything wrong by showing the mans back .

The other thing about sneaky photo taking is you sometimes get shots like the one below.!!

Maybe I'll pluck up the courage and actually ask someone if I could take their photo ... hmmmm.

I have to say that one person who's style I really admire is the Sartorialist .... amazing blog with amazing photo's.

* 80 *

2011-07-04T13:09:00.008+01:00

You know, one thing that I'm guilty of and I hold my hands up to it is when I purchase something from Etsy or from a fellow Blogger I always forget to post about it . I always have good intentions but then my time goes by and my sieve memory forgets.

So my apologies to anyone out there who falls into this category.

Now one person who I've bought some things from , not just as a treat for myself but also as presents for other people is Beth from The Linen Cat.

The first thing I bought was the big red bird above , that was last Christmas and it still smells of lavender . When it arrived I went straight back to her shop and bought some gold ones for my mam and the MIL as part of their Christmas present.

Everything always comes beautifully wrapped in the most glorious green colour with perfect little beaded tags . An idea which I might just have to copy sometime, the tags that is.

So when I got stuck for an idea for teachers thank you presents I went straight back to Beth for more birds . She doesn't have any of the red or grey ones left but there are some gorgeous blue and pink ones which are definately worth a look.

This talented lady doesn't just make birds though, oh no .... she also makes linen cats ( hence the name) bunnies, tweed bunny purses ( which might be my treat to myself next Christmas) felt flower brooches, cashmere bears and something which I've bought for Milo's birthday -- a monster purse . Now how cute is this please with its zip mouth and little clasp just perfect for hooking onto belt loops?

Go on , pop across and say Hi . You won't be disappointed.

I'd also like to say quick thank you to Kirsty from Sixty One A . Milo had some homework to do writing all about the seaside and we used her jellyfish design as part of that . He did nearly all this by himself and got 5/5 for content and effort .

* 79 *

2011-07-01T12:35:00.014+01:00

Here are my June efforts for the Scavenger Hunt, I hold up my hand though and do confess that a couple were taken today - oops.

Something with your town name on it .... and old plaque at the Aircraft Museum.

An Elephant ..... hopefully three elephants will be okay but if not there is one on the architectural photo too.

A wheel trim .....

Architectural detail ..... This building is the old Elephant Tea Rooms which was built between 1873 and 1877.

Cheese ....

Night ..... taken approx 10pm on the Summer Solstice.

Tree branches ..... I think this has to be one of my favourite photos that I have ever taken.

Cutlery ....

A Childhood Memory ...... the bridge at Barnard Castle ..

Farm animals ....

Something beginning with Z .... Zig Zags ??

The view right outside your door ..... taken last night .

* 78 *

2011-06-30T15:20:00.004+01:00

So, nanna asked for some up to date black and white photographs of the boys.

Gabe , please can you try and keep your eyes open ....

* 77 *

2011-06-26T09:52:00.002+01:00

Just a quick post as I'm getting really bugged by something and no matter what I do I can't do it !!!!

You see this message

* 76 *

2011-06-24T18:37:00.002+01:00

Birds do it .............

Bees do it ...............

Even educated fleas do it ........... chuckle.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

* 75 *

2011-06-21T19:59:00.014+01:00

Okey doke so how on earth did ten days pass between my last post and this one? It's been a mad and hectic ten days I can tell you. I've been working my ass off to get my course finished. I had been told that Monday gone would be my sign off day but when I went in to see my tutor she told me that there was some work she had forgotten to give me so as long as I get it all done then next Monday will be my sign off day.

I was going to stay at the school until the end of term , which is the 22nd July but have now decided against it . The reason being that I need to get some stuff done before the boys birthdays i.e jamas and birthday toys to make and I also need to find a job and register with some agencies - scary stuff.

Another scary thing that happened recently was that my mam got took into hospital. It was all very sudden and because she has been in remission for a few years now and suffers from Coeliac disease we were all really worried about her . She is out now but we still don't know what was / is wrong with her. She still has more tests to go through but in herself she feels fine and the pain that she had although it hasn't gone it has subsided a lot which is a good thing.

I've been up the allotment a few times and have got a fair size patch dug over but rain and hospital visits stopped play . Fingers crossed I'll get back up there real soon. I need to get some things planted a few little things will be better than nothing . It's all a learning experience for me so I'm just starting off small ... any tips would be gratefully appreciated.

Now, the plant in all the photo's - a Giant Hogweed . Don't worry we didn't touch it and although there is a photo of Gabe looking like he is standing quite close to it he was actually a couple of feet away. It is an extremely beautiful plant even though it is quite dangerous and can cause quite nasty blisters and burns if you touch the sap . It's a pity that it flowers in its final year , quite sad really.

The first four photos were taken about two weeks ago when I first spotted it hidden on a bank beside some trees in the park and you can see that there is only one main flower in bloom and the rest are still in big buds. The rest of the photos were taken two days ago and in these you can see that the main flower is now a huge green seed head and the buds are now in full bloom.

The bees loved it and it was covered with them . Speaking of bees I got quite an interesting bee photograph yesterday which I might post about tomorrow and for my Facebook friends who might have already seen it ..... sshhhhhhh..

There was a meeting at school the other night for the parents of all the children who will be starting Reception class next term , this will include Gabe . I can't believe that in September he will be going to school full time , starting at 8.55am staying for lunch and finishing at 3.30pm for five days a week. He still seems like a baby and will be one of the youngest in his year. He is going to have one of the teachers that Milo used to have and one that I've worked with and she is lovely so I'm quite pleased about that.

Anyway I think I've blathered on enough now so I'll just leave you with a few more photos of the Hogweed and my apologies for not visiting your Blogs or replying to any comments left on my last post and I hope you understand why.

* 74 *

2011-06-12T19:28:00.007+01:00

I don't know what is up with Blogger tonight , I've been trying to upload photos for ages and nothing will load apart from these three - very odd.

I did think twice about whether I should actually do this post now or try again tomorrow but I'm just so excited I had to do it now.

You know the old saying about being in the right place at the right time? Well yesterday that happened to me . I'd gone to visit my friend Mr Peacock at his allotment and we'd gone a bit further down the patch to see his dads plot when we bumped into the chairman and the secretary.

I had a good bit chat with them and explained that I really really wanted some ground , even a tiny piece and they just happened to mention that they knew a lady who was thinking of giving up her plot as it was getting too much for her .

Anyway to cut a long story short I met up with her this morning and she said I could have half the plot until at least next April, maybe even longer .

Wooo hoooo , I've been wanting an allotment for so long now and have had serious soil envy when reading posts from bloggy friends who already have one , but now I have my own little patch . In the above photo my bit goes down to the second black bin and I can't wait to get stuck in .

I'm not going to mention the wasteland which is hiding behind the greenhouse .... apparantly there is a skip and a couple of bathtubs under all that !!

* 73 *

2011-06-05T18:29:00.017+01:00

Well , that was it , that was our half term weeks all done and dusted and tomorrow it will be back to normal.

Would you like to see what we got up to ? I'm glad you said yes as I'm going to show you anyhow chuckle. Hub was off the first four days but this just happened to coincide with a cricket match which he went to every day , although he did take Milo a couple of times.

We did actually have a couple of very hot sunny days which I'm glad we made the most of as the last two days have been really quite chilly and as I'm writing this it's raining.

We went for a walk along the river to see the poppy fields , the river was right out , the furthest I think I've ever seen it .

We did quite a bit of ' Springwatching' as we walked along spotting a pair of oystercatchers and several heron.

A bit of a disappointment at the poppy fields though ...... no poppies ! I thought maybe we were too early but there weren't hardly any buds either . The past few years the field has been full so I wonder why not this year ?

Didn't seem to bother the boys though , they were too busy doing their farmer impressions ( again ).

I don't think they found one of these on Springwatch though and I've really thought about it , honestly I have , but I have no idea , none , zilch, nada as to how this car got here. There are woods on one side and field and trees on the other - completely puzzled .

This was the closest I got to a bird shot , all the others were just little dots in a sea of brown.

We did find a couple of poppies around the other side of the field , just a couple though.

By the time we got to this hill we were all sweating but the sight of a little Yellowhammer cheered us up - well it cheered me up . By this point the boys were moaning and groaning and the bickering had started.

It soon stopped when they found the picnic that I'd sneaked into the car.

Kali enjoyed her picnic too - isn't she growing . Four months old already.

On another day we went tree climbing in the park . Even though our old park has re-opened we went to the other one. It might sound odd or even a little bit selfish but when I go for walks or just out I don't like there to be loads of people and at the minute our original park is heaving and I just need for it to calm down a bit .

Going back to the tree climbing , I'm a bad mam ...... Sitting on the grass and the boys were play fighting with sticks so I asked them to stop it . Milo , full of cheek , asked ' what they were supposed to do instead' so I said ' go climb a tree'. At this point Milo had the biggest smile and said ' can we, can we really climb a tree, I've never climbed a tree before '.

When I was younger I was always climbing trees and falling and getting scraped and I can't believe the boys haven't done it before . Is this a bad thing, it made me feel bad?

But one thing I really hope they don't do when they get older is fight alligators , tree alligators are fine but not real ones .... you hear me boys , not real ones ok.

Now this next little bit is something I am so envious of , my friends allotment or Mr Gregs Nursery as Gabe was calling it after a certain children's programme on television.

It still needs a lot of work but oh I do so wish it were mine - sigh.

And lastly a little something I found today , well maybe not so little . It's a huge fungi called a Dryads Saddle and it's a beauty.

So it's 9pm , I have wine in hand and P.S I Love You the film is just about to start so I'll bid you adieu until we meet again ....

* 72 *

2011-05-31T20:48:00.014+01:00

Here are my entry's for May Scavenger Hunt .

A Butterfly.... this was my umpteenth attempt at trying to get a decent photo but luckily this one sat still long enough for me to snap it . Don't know what type it is though?

A Bicycle ... just a random bike in our park.

A Red Door .... the local library.

A Cartoon Character ... no words needed !

An Emergency Vehicle ... friendly ' Bobbies' at the park re-opening.

Think vintage ... Say cheese !!!

Something Blue .... you've seen this photo before but I liked it so used it again.

A Street Light .... looks quite ghostly don't you think ?

Texture .... grasses.

A Sign of the Zodiac .... a goat mask made at school for Capricorn.

An Interesting Local Building .... Doxford Park Hall which is supposedly haunted. I've shown you the park on the other side many times but never did get around to showing you the photo's I took of the actual hall.

A Portrait In Black and White .... cheeky face himself , Milo .

Now to find out the list for June.

* 71 *

2011-05-30T20:09:00.014+01:00

Thought you might like to see some colours from our Bank holiday weekend... fingers crossed you ' love' them .

The oddest brightest yellow fungi I have ever seen, which I believe is called Chicken Of The Woods and is edible , don't think I'll be trying it though just in case .

Laburnum.

A couple of iris's.

Poppy centre's are amazing don't you think.

I think this is called London Pride but I'm not sure. It looks like a pretty pink forest.

Wild orchids.

According to Google this is a Dogbane Leaf Beetle -- gorgeous metallic green.

Pink clover.

Cow parsley .

Stripey pale grey to black clouds .

Now I'm off to watch a certain Mr Packham on Springwatch ..

* 70 *

2011-05-29T19:27:00.007+01:00

Evening all, are we all having a good weekend ? It's a Bank Holiday weekend here and the boys are off school for half term so it's all go.

I finished the little critter that I started a few posts back . Not surprisingly it's a bunny but it is a different type of bunny.

She's quite a bit bigger than my normal ones at 35cm but she is very huggable and squishy . I've never used this pattern before and it took a bit longer than expected.

There are a quite a few little fiddly bits but overall I think she is definately worth it and I do have patterns for her sisters and brothers which are also crying out to be made.

I'll take a few more photos before I put her up for sale as these last two are not very nice , the colour is a bit dodgy and dull on them . That's probably because I was in such a hurry to show you and the light is not very good outside so I tried to take them indoors.

What do you think ?

( the pattern is by Maryjanestearoom and is available here )

* 69 *

2011-05-26T21:04:00.004+01:00

Head is now out of the sand and is inside this house instead ....

( image from Flickr)

* 68 *

2011-05-25T17:19:00.001+01:00

Somedays I just want to do this !

* 67 *

2011-05-22T19:08:00.008+01:00

I don't know why ,

but I got the sudden urge

to do this as I

was walking down

the passage !

* 66 *

2011-05-21T17:52:00.019+01:00

PART ONE ..................

Well, today was the big park re-opening and to be honest I was quite apprehensive about the whole thing. I can remember being really quite devastated when it closed , 18 months seemed such a long time and there was all the wondering of where we could go instead. Luckily we did find lots of other places to go , maybe we wouldn't have found them if the park has stayed open so it might have been a good thing after all. That 18 months has flown by and now I'm going to attempt to show you just a few before and after photos .

So we'll start with the bottom of the duck pond . There was a path going down both the right and left hand sides of the waterfall with a small connecting bridge at the top .

This bridge to be exact.

This is the view now looking up the waterfall , as you can see the bridge has now gone as has the left hand side path and most of the shrubs and bushes which were on either side .

In the picture below can you see where this path forks into two ?

If you take the right hand path you now see this bridge structure. The path has been widened considerably to accomodate it but what you can't see is that all the rhododendrons which grew in huge bushes on either side of this bridge have all been chopped down.

The stumps are still there and a few green leaves have sprouted so fingers crossed they will come back .

Next is the old cannon, tucked away in a remote corner just rusting away all by itself.

Ta da ... major refurbishment and on a new stand too. I never checked to see if there was a new plaque with it as the old one was falling to bits . I'll have to do that tomorrow.

It also has a nice new view , instead of pointing into a load of bushes it now points to the newly refurbished bandstand ( more of that later ).

All the little brick bridges have also been replaced .

This one is to the left of the bandstand. Once again notice where all the shrubbery has been removed.

Now this next before and after is a bit of a biggie . The band stand was taken apart and completely redone. There has also been a ramp added for easy access.

I'll be having a closer look at it tomorrow as there was a brass band in today but look to the left - wow.....

The Grand Staircase made from granite which was removed from a train station in London.

Lots of trees and greenery has been removed here and it leads to a place we've never had access to before as it was the local council depot where they parked all their vans and those big grass cutters etc.

Believe it or not at this point my camera ran out of memory so no more pics , but I will be going back tomorrow so prepare yourself for part two and maybe even part 3.

What do you think so far?

Oh and if anyone can tell me how to get rid of the photo that posted twice I would be very grateful .

* 65 *

2011-05-20T21:13:00.008+01:00

I don't know if it's something I've mentioned before or not but I'm a stickler for routine. I leave the house at the same time every day to take the boys to school and to pick them up . I tend to park in the same places especially at the supermarket and get all tetchy when my space isn't available or when I'm a few minutes late . I really can't abide lateness.

Hub says I need to chill out and just calm down a bit so tonight for some strange reason that's exactly what I did .

Normally the boys are in their 'jamas at 6pm or as close to as possible, Gabe goes to bed at 7pm and Milo goes between 7.30pm and 7 .45pm.

This evening at nearly jama time I got itchy feet and felt the need to go somewhere. It wasn't like I could jump on a plane and head off to New York ( which I would love to do but funding would be a major problem) so me and Gabe went to the park whilst Milo stayed at home with Hub.

I don't think I've ever been down at this time before and was surprised at how many people I saw including little children , lots of them. The light was amazing with the sun going down between the trees and casting all kinds of shadows and I think that the cow parsley has taken over from where all the dandelions left off . There was millions of it , some which we picked along with a few buttercups and it is now taking pride of place in the kitchen.

Maybe I do need to chill out more and sometimes just say ' stuff it ' !!!

A quick update as the pain in my shoulder has now eased off a lot and knitting has restarted.

Also ' Mo' who left a comment on post 62 ... I would love to answer your questions but I haven't got a way of replying to you so if you would like to send me an e-mail I'll get back to you.

Lastly only 14 hours for the grand re-opening of Branes Park wooo hoooo .

* 64 *

2011-05-17T15:23:00.006+01:00

So I missed off a couple of stripes and didn't do the lacy edging around the sleeves but I did have just enough pale blue yarn to do the lacy collar.

Next comes a leg

with a lacy trim sock.

But then this morning I pulled a muscle in my left shoulder which is really quite painful and makes knitting very uncomfortable.

So for now she will have to stay like this !!

* 63 *

2011-05-10T15:02:00.003+01:00

You would think I should know better by now ................ not going to have enough wool - oops !!

* 62 *

2011-05-09T17:02:00.008+01:00

Just thought you might like to see a few of the little animals I've been knitting recently .

Egbert who has a little blue bag on his back just right for a little egg.

Rubber Ducky ..... not my most favourite thing I've ever knit I have to admit.

This is Patience , so called because Lyn won her in my giveaway back in January and has been patiently waiting for her ever since.

Next we have Henry and he went all the way to Australia for a little boy with the chubbiest cheeks .

Then is May , she has gone to America to be a mascot in a bunny sanctuary,

and lastly is Matilda , she's on her way to America too . I'm a bit fond of Matilda so I'll have to give her an extra squeeze before she sets off on her long journey .

Now where are my knitting needles?