Silent night

Hiya
How are we all today.

Well river's fast asleep and hubby's in the bath so I thought I'd take a few minute's out to share some christmas pic's with you......

apologies and Holiday pic's

Hiya ladies
I am so sorry That I've been so very slow in getting around to catching up with you all, things have been quite hectic here. I did survive my two day's crafting at pre-school last week only to be asked to do it all again this week ( why can't I just say no lol). So this week we will be making Christmas party hat's and next week I'll have the honour of making the cake's and mince pie's for the pre-school nativity play.
Anyway The reason I'm here is to bore you all with a couple of holiday snaps .........

The view from our hotel balcony on Monday morning. We were blessed with A glorious 19 degree's of sunshine for our entire trip.


A walk along the beach in calella.......



And a bit of shopping in .........

....... Barcelona.

Sorry for the short post I'm off to try and catch up on a bit of blog hopping

Speak to you all soon
(((hugs)))

Just a quick one

Hiya How are we all?

Well just a quick one to say a big thankyou to you all for all your good wishes and emails They really are all appreciated and I will reply to them all as soon as I get a minute.
We got back late last night and I have spent the day at rivers pre school today ( and tomorrow) doing christmas crafts with the children.
I will of course do a blog post about our little trip away and about the little pile of parcels that were waiting for me when I got home.
Speak to you all soon
((hugs))
karen

Happy aniversary

I just popped on to say happy aniversary to my darling hubby. I love you very much. ( because we all know that you sneak a look at my blog from time to time lol)




Were off on a long weekend away and will be back late Wednesday night. I will try my best to catch up with you all when I get back. I received a lovely Christmas parcel in the post the other day from a lovely new blogging friend so I will share it all with you when I get back.
(((hugs)))
Karen

well, I was going to show you our cake's

Well I was going to do a quick post today and just show you the banana and choc chip cake's that river and I made today

Recipe from the lovely Lucy over at attic 24

But Just as I was about to take them out of the oven there was a knock at the door. It was of course the postie with a rather large box for me. A couple of week's ago I won a giveaway over at Becky's lovely blog The rambling of an everyday mummy.

So we pulled the cakes out of the oven and set them to cool. By this time river was beside himself waiting for me to "open the box mummy" lol. so we opened it up to reveal oh so many pretty little parcels.

And when we opened the card and river discovered that the two blue parcels were actually for him, he set off round the living room doing a merry little dance lol

Naturally River just had to go first...


And was more than thrilled with his cowboy cushion for his bed made from the cutest of fabrics. a lovely little hanging heart made with cath kidston's cow boy print and a little selection of chocolates.
" can I eat this now mummy"
" No you can wait until after you've eaten your tea"
I'm so mean aren't I lol.


And that very pretty gift bag that you saw in the picture above. well that was filled with lovely little gifts just for me.


So what did I get....

A very pretty rose print make up bag, The most gorgeous hand bag note book, some yummy hand lotion, a vanilla lavender Yankee candle tart which I have to say smells Divine, a box of my all time favorite chocolates ( I'm gonna lie to you here and tell you that I'm waiting until after I've had my tea hehehe), some very cosy socks, a very pretty lavender cushion made with one of my favorite fabrics, a lovely little rose cross stitch kit which will be slipped into my suitcase for our trip away this weekend and of course the lovely and very well made card which will be cherished and kept safe with my new little collection of cards from bloggy friends.
So needless to say I am now feeling very spoilt in deed. Thank you so very much Becky and Jess You got it all so right and have indeed made me smile today.

So how about you, what made you smile today?

Chic, chic, chic, chic, chickens.......

Hiya

I've not got much to show you in the way of crafting I'm afraid. I've been working hard on my Christmas swap parcels and I'm pleased to say that they are now all finished most of them have been gratefully received.




My weekend as usual has been taken up with housework and the weekly mucking out of the chickens. who, thanks to a break in the horrible wet and windy weather were able to get out into the garden today. That meant that I was able to get a couple of half decent pic's of them to share with you.

although it seems they don't like posing for the camera because I ended up with this...........

Hmmmmmmmm Nice bum's girls lol.

I can't believe how much they've grown in the short space of time that we've had them.

Hubby Say's " hu I just wish they'd give us an egg" hehehehe.

So chic, chic, chic, chic, chickens PLEASE , PLEASE, lay a little egg for me !!!! lol.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. I'm off to wrap up a few more Christmas presents.

Thankyou's and a couple of awards.

Hiya How are we all ? Wrapping up warm I hope?







Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to you all for all your very kind comments about my little blog shop I very much appreciate that you took the time to take a look and leave a comment.







OK so about two week's ago the lovely Mary Poppins did a post about her lovey rag hearts and well I just had to have one so I asked Mary if she would like to do a little swap with me. She very kindly agreed to the swap and asked that I made a set of beanbags for her little boy. Now I really didn't want to make for one child without the other so I also made a little quilt for her daughters new doll ( sorry I forgot to take pictures before I posted them off but Mary being a bit more organised that I am did take photo's and you can See the quilt and the beanbags on her blog)







So anyway in due course Mr postie gave a knock at my door and well ..... I'll shut up now and show you the rest in photo's ...........







Isn't this just the prettiest card.....


As usual River is first in line ( don't know where he gets that from hehehe)

After a very quick unwrapping he got a lovely cowboy cushion with his Initial appliqued on the front ( which by the way I'm very jealous about because I can never get my zig-zaging to be that neat) But I'm afraid if you want a closer look you'll have to wait because he just ain't letting it go lol.




And in my pretty pink parcel....

now I have to apologise here as my photography skills really doesn't do it justice, isn't it just the prettiest Christmas heart. I love,love,love it
Thank you so much Mary we both love our parcels.
Oh and for a closer look at that adorable cushion....



A couple of week's ago the lovely pixiedust passed two awards my way...



And then this evening the lovely kate who is also my polka dot Christmas swap partner passed me this award....


So what do I have to do? ..... well basically I'm gonna combine the three awards and tell you 10 facts about me and pass it all on to a few of you poor unsuspecting bloggers hehehe.
So here's the part where you decide I'm really weird and you don't want to read my little blog no more lol

1. Although I now live in somerset I was born and bread in the forest of dean. Gloucestershire and then moved to somerset in 2002.

2. I have 2 sisters and one brother

3. I have 5 tattoo's including a rather large pair of angels wings tattooed on my back

4. My darling husband is 15 years older than me.

5. It took me over 6 months to learn how to crochet ( which made me cross because I usually pick things up really quickly)

6. I am a fully qualified senior care assistant and used to work in a care home for the elderly ( pre river)

7. I never go to bed before midnight.

8. I used to be able to keep up with the best of them as far as alcohol was concerned but since I fell pregnant with river I cannot even stand the smell of it (That's weird ain't it)

9. I start my Christmas shopping in January ( OK I know were scraping the barrel now lol)

10. I often suffer from a lack of self confidence.

OK so for those of you that haven't run away screaming lol .
I'm gonna pass these awards on to....................

libbie a new bloggy friend of mine who has a fab blog.

The lovely Mary Poppins a lovely lady who's blog will never fail to cheer you up.

Rachel another new bloggy friend and a lovely lady.


Debbie over at country heart and home who's blog I regularly stalk but very rarely leave a comment but boy can she bake!!!

Becky over at the ramblings of an everyday mummy Another lovely bloggy friend.

Lissy-lou Because she keeps on showing me all the pretties in her magazines that I just have to buy lol.

And ............. YOU ......................................... If you are still reading this post then you deserve it lol

Please do go and check out the blogs that I have linked to they are all fab blogs that I like to haunt regularly.

Anyway that's it for tonight I have been working on a few new bit's for the blog shop so I'm gonna do a bit more before bed.

((((hugs))))

Well I've finally gone and done it.

Hiya every one How are we all today?

Some of you may know that for a long, long time I have been uuuming and ahhhing about selling some of my makes and that for a long long time I have been collecting a few of my little makes to sell. Well I have come to the conclusion that .... well ... what have I got to loose.
So today my fellow bloggers I set the morning aside to do a little photo shoot and ... well..... Go see for yourself .......

Rivers patch

Is now open and I would be very gratefull if you would go take a look and let me know what you think.
Wish me luck lol
(((hugs)))

we've been baking again

Rock cake's anyone. If you want one you'd better be quick, hubby will be home any minute and then you don't stand a chance lol.


I got this lovely recipe from elizabethd's blog She's a very nice lady with whom I'm lucky enough to be doing a christmas swap with.

Have a lovely evening.
Speak to you all soon

at 4pm (edit)

Hi every one how are we all today? Enjoying the weekend I hope.
With no work today I've spent the day doing the usual washing, ironing and poop scooping for the chickens. Just a normal, somewhat boring day ....... That is until 4 o'clock. I was just getting ready to tackle those dirty windows when ...........
"KNOCK KNOCK " Now my postman has an unmistakably loud knock so both river and I knew who it was and made a dash for the door hehehe.
Do you want to see what the postie bought?








Yep ........... OK then I did manage to hold back long enough to grab the camera so I'll show you....... One lovingly wrapped red parcel for me and one lovingly wrapped green parcel for river......

But who were these lovely parcels from ????????



They were from the lovely Rachel over at made with love and her three wonderful children as a thank you for the giveaway parcel I sent them at the beginning of the week. I do love the children's hand made card very much and it will be kept and cherished always.

.... so what was in our parcels........... Of course river just has to go first ..................

............. So what did ya get matey..................



A very trendy hat to keep him warm in the colder weather were having. Well let me tell you "WOW I LOVE IT" were the exact words he used.
and so now my turn, right .........................................

.......WRONG..............



So what did I get then matey???



A very pretty string of hanging hearts that will be finding a home in my hallway very very soon.
Thank you soooooo very much rachel and the three wonderful children. It was totally unexpected and We really do love what you sent us. In fact here's another picture taken just a few minutes ago. It's river refusing to take his new hat off at the dinner table lol.

"Edit" OOPS sorry I forgot to add the last photo lol

Christmas cards

I thought I'd get stuck into some Christmas cards tonight and this is what I came up with.

What do you think?

( sorry about the dark picture's It's rather late. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger)

and the answer is.......

Well I must say that I'm surprised at just how many of you knew what it was and for those of you that didn't know .................



It is a knitting machine of course
I couple of week's ago I was having a flick around ebay looking into how much a second hand knitting machine was going to set me back. It's something I remember playing with as a child at my nan's house, she used to help us to make our own scarfs etc.
Anyway hubby mentioned this to his mum and she said " we'll I'm sure I've got one in the loft I'll post it down for you" and so here it is. I'm not sure exactly how old it is but the instruction booklets date between 1980 and 83 so It's about the same age as me.
I did atempt to have a play with it last night but unfortunatly I didn't get very far. most of the needle's have rusted to some degree and the top plate keep's sticking. I'm hoping that with a little bit of TLC I'll be able to get it working but for now it'll have to be packed away until I have a bit more time.

So there we have it...........
Hope you all have a lovely weekend
((((hugs)))


Ps I have been making things this week but unfortunatly It's all for christmas swap's so I really can't show you

I've got a new toy!!

Can you guess what it is?



How about now? Anyone?



Ok ok I'll tell you the story..........


TOMORROW HEHEHE

have a lovely evening everyone.

It's beginning to look a lot like ....

new Christmas Dec's and ribbons bought at our local garden center



Bit's n pieces cut up ready to make Christmas cards and tags


A few parcels ready to go into Christmas swap parcels.



A touch of light bedtime reading.

If your visiting our house tonight ......

If your visiting our house tonight


And fancy a treat ...


You'll have to get past the monster first lol.




Happy halloween every one.

peep peep thomas

Todays baking session with river

And the winner is ........

Hiya
how are we all today? Are we all surviving the half term week OK so far lol?
Right firstly I would like to do a few thankyou's. Firstly for all of you who left birthday wishes for river, that was very sweet of you and second a big thank you for everyone who entered into my little giveaway. Oh and a big hello there to all of you newbies you are of course very welcome guests.
eh?...... What do ya mean get on with it........ oh OK then......

Well I haven't got a pretty vintage tin or a hat so will a pretty pink bowl do....

... Yep.. ok then so we did all the writing of names, and folding of paper....

........ And gave it a bit of a stir............


.... And ......





......... and the winner is .........



And for those of you that can't see through Grubby boy fingers lol....

THE WINNER IS ......MADE WITH LOVE.......
Well done hunni If you could email me your snail mail address I'll send him packing as soon as possible.

OK I'm off to put somebody to bed now, I'll speak to you all again soon

Happy birthday !!!!

Birthday presents!!!

yep!!

Balloons!!!

yep!!!

Scary monster cake!!!

Yep!!!

Happy birthday baby boy!!!

Show us your cath

Oh goodness me look at the time...


I'm sorry i'm a tad late I've been out in the gardens with the chickens....

... And I must say I really needed one of these.....


Perhaps we should go inside and have a cup of tea....


I'm awfully sorry but The cakes are all gone...




Oh that reminds me I must get those letters written ....



and some housework done .....


Or should I take a seat and get stuck into some sewing...




.... or maybe I could just sneak into the bedroom .......


And take a quick nap....





Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the rest of the cath party.
And a big thankyou to lissy lou for orgainsing this cath party

*****Giveaway ******

Hello my name is ..... well I haven't got a name and what's even worse than that is I Haven't got a home either !!

If you think you can provide a loving home for me the here's what you have to do.
Post my picture on the sidebar of your blog with the heading " help find bunny a home" and link it back to my blog. Once you've done that come back and leave me a comment. Then on Wednesday the 28Th October we will pull a name out of the hat. It's as simple as that.

Thanks for looking
XXXX BUNNY XXXX