Karens play time

Sad day , happy day .

2010-11-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Today was a sad day.

Today saw me say goodbye to three of my beloved girls.

Today saw me pack away there feeders.

Today saw me sit and think about how strange it's going to be without them.

But

Today also saw me remember all the fun and special time's we've shared......

Today also saw me enjoy putting a smile on a lovely ladies face.

And

Today saw my son come home from school with a smile on his face.

Today saw my son do his homework without causing a fuss.

And today saw my son eat all of his tea because he was calm.

Why did he do all this ????

Because today school finally decided to listen and to take the long walk to the next classroom and get my son the harder reading books that he requires!!!!!!!!! and oh boy it really does make a difference

Today is a good day

Hope you had a good one too and have a lovely weekend.

P.S I promised my good bloggy friend libbie that I'd share a photo of my latest make so ........

There you go hun xxx

Cheeky little monkey.

2010-11-10T02:55:00.000-08:00

Well I promised I'd be back to update you with some baby new's, so here I am.

The scan went well yesterday, baby seems to be happy and healthy so It's all good there.

unfortunately though Baby decided he didn't want to share his sex with us just yet. so were just gonna have to wait and see lol.

I do have some scan pics to share with you though............

Notice the cheeky little thumbs up at the bottom hehehehe.

All speak to you all again soon

((((hugs))))

Take a guess?

2010-11-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

Well That's me at 20 week's and 5 days now ( not that I'm counting or anything lol) and with my 20 week scan booked for tomorrow afternoon I'm sat with ant's in my pants wondering ........

Hmmmmm..........

This..............

.............. Or this .....................

............ This .......................

............. Or this .............

Would anyone like to join me and take a guess at blue or pink. I shall of course be back tomorrow night to update you with the outcome. That is of course as long as the little monkey co-operates and opens it's little legs for us lol.

A swap parcel, a quick baby update and some woolly goodness :-)

2010-10-12T03:35:00.000-07:00

Hi guys.

How are we all today? Have we all put out heating on yet? It is getting rather cold down here now But the sun is still shining too so we mustn't complain must we lol.

Firstly I would like to say a rather belated thank you to Beki. Back in august I signed up for her pincushion swap and was lucky enough to be paired up with the lovely beki herself.

So anyway, last week I received my swap parcel......

A lovely big pin cushion which sit's perfectly on the arm of my sofa and of course a wheel of pins to go with it. A nice selection of fabric scraps to play with and a quarter of CK boats fabric. A quilting magazine which I Have never seen before, can't wait to take a look through it (I'm hoping that now river's at school full time I might get a bit more time to do these things lol), a yummy little scrapbooking kit which I know somebody had his eye on so I've had to hide that just now And well I was sure there was a bar of chocolate in there somewhere but hmmmmm I wonder where that's gone hahaha :-)

So Thanks again beki I hope you loved your parcel as much as I loved yours.

Ok so a quick baby update. I'm afraid there really isn't that much to tell at the moment. I had my 16 week check up last week and we listened to baby's heartbeat which was all good and I got my 20 week scan date thorough which will be on November 9th so I shall be looking forward to that.

Oh and we are now the proud new owners of..........

Which is now safely stored away in the attic so that's one less thing to worry about.

And The woolly goodness ......... well how better to relax on a cold evening than with a ball of two of wool. And with having a couple of friends who are also pregnant I decided that it might be a good idea to start making a few bits and pieces now so here's the pile so far..........

Wich will soon be joined by this ......................

Just as soon as I complete it's border lol.

Well I think That's about it for now. I'm gonna head off and try and visit a few of you before I stop for luch.

Have a lovely rest of the week and I'll speak to you again soon.

Thankyou :-)

2010-09-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Hiya

Just a really quick post ( I'm not here really I'm working hehehe).

I just wanted to say a huge Thank you to all of you for your lovely comments on my last post. They really do mean a lot to me. I'm not sure what I'd do without you guy's.

I'm gonna try and make a huge effort to catch up with all your blogs over the next few days but please bear with me.

Speak to you all soon

(((((((hugs)))))))

changes ...........

2010-09-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

Hi guy's !

How are we all? Did we manage to survive the summer holidays and settle back into the dreaded routine ok ? ( yes I just know were all shaking our heads at that one hehehe).

Well as you could probably tell from my last post I have been going through a rather " uppy downy" phase at the moment a kind of an emotional roller coaster if you will. I know some of you will be nodding your heads and totally understand what I'm dribbling on about and if you don't then sorry you'll just have to bear with me a little while longer lol.

A few major things have happened over the last few months that have made me stop in my tracks and really think about where I'm headed in life. Although I'm not usually one to be sharing these sort of things on my blog I just feel like I need to kinda get this off my chest a bit.

The end of July saw my baby boy graduating from pre-school. I must say I was really sorry to see him leave. They had been soooo kind to us during his two years there and had put in and endless amount of work to meet River's needs and for that I thank them very much. This is then followed by his long awaited two week trip to granny's. I must say I was looking forward to this as much as he was. A nice break with some peace and quiet hmmmmm Not quite so because you see once he had gone I really did find myself rather lost. We had never been apart for so long. Our home had never been this quiet or this tidy lol. These feelings were made worse when I received the news that my nan had suffered yet another stroke and wasn't expected to make it through the next 24 hours, shortly followed by another call to say that she had passed away. Unfortunately living away from home and being unable to drive meant that I didn't get to say goodbye. It was then that I realised Hey life is too short and fragile to be moping around surely there are other things I can look forward to. Hmmmmm in a weeks time river was coming home and we were booked up to go off on our summer holiday. With lot's of day's out planned, trips to the beach yeah !!!!!!!

But no a phone call to say that nan's funeral had been booked smack bang in the middle of our holiday, two hours in the opposite direction of our holiday destination meant that all of our plans had to be abandoned. Poor old hubby in an effort to salvage something managed to get us booked onto a camp site near where my family live. So off we went trying to be cheerful if not for anything other than river's sake and do you know what ........ It tipped it down with rain the whole time we were there. we honestly got to the point where we just wanted to come home, and that we did. We stayed long enough for me to be able to go to the funeral and then came home the next day.

Hmmmmmmmmm Do you ever feel like you do nothing but moan lol I know I do !!!!!!

Well to say that I was soooo glad to be home, sooo glad to have my little family back all together again was just a bit of an understatement and to be honest I couldn't wait for the holiday's to end. couldn't wait to regain some sort of normality in life lol.

So into September now and things are moving forward. River has started primary school and I really didn't mind at all. I knew he was more than ready for it the question was were they ready for him lol. Unfortunately the answer to that seems to be no. after-all if you ask a child to sit and learn things that he was already able to do over a year ago, do you not expect that child to become frustrated and somewhat angry !!!!!!!!! we have a meeting with his teacher on Monday so hopefully we can tell her yet again that giving a child a stage 1 reading book when he's already on stage 4 is really not going to cut it for him lol. But I am very hopeful that we can get it all sorted out in the end.

And on a slightly happier note. Last week hubby river and I went on a little family outing. Nope we didn't go to the beach or the cinema of the park . We went to he hospital !!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so I know I've got loads of you who aren't already in the know very puzzled in deed so I'll let you in on my little ( although not so little any more ) secret. We actually went for our first scan so week could all meet .......

...... the new addition to our little family. I am now 13 week's pregnant which makes me due around about the 23rd march 2011. We are all very excited and very much looking forward to what will be a whole new adventure.

So here's to the future because you know what ..... Life really is far to short and fragile to be dwelling on the past :-)

P.S Just a short note to say I'm terribly sorry for the extra long really moany post. Just to make it up to you I'll treat you to the one photo I did manage to take this summer. ..........

River admiring his very own, home grown baby carrots lol.

A slow start

2010-08-09T12:43:00.001-07:00

Hiya strangers

How are we all enjoying our summer holidays so far?

We'll things have been kinda up and down here with a mix of really exciting new's and rather bad news. That coupled with the fact that my little man has been away for the first two weeks of the holidays has left me feeling rather .......... well ......... Lost to be quite honest. But hey that's not what you want to hear about is it lol.

So let's take a look at the positive side of things.

River being away has meant that I've finally had time to finish this....

Hexagon Patch work, Baby quilt. All finished and waiting to be washed :)

2. My little boy is on his flight home as we speak :)

And will soon be driving me mad as usual lol

3. In just under one week, this little cutie.....

Will be Joining us for a week to do a spot of camping and to visit a few of these places........,.

Plus what ever else we can squeeze in lol.

So here's me looking to the future :)

Fishing and the wannabe Joules model !!!!

2010-07-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hello folks How are we all doing?
I just thought I'd pop by and share a couple of pic's I took today on our little fishing trip........

..... it was about ten minutes after this that River decided to fall head first into the sea hehehe.... and about 2 minute after that I discovered that We didn't actually take any clean clothes with us .....Soooo.....

........... Do you think joules will take him lol???

Hope you have a lovely week.
(((hugs)))

Meet Rusty

2010-06-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, How are we all today? Good, I hope.

Today I thought I'd take a bit of time to introduce you to the newest member of our family. But if you could just humour me for a little while I'll start at the beginning.

Do you remember Kate?

Yes ... That's the one ....... Well a couple of months ago now she decided that she wanted to be a mummy. So Hubby and I ( being very unprepared for this ) took a trip back to the chicken breeder and asked him for some advice. An hour or so later we found ourselves armed with a broody coop ( in the form of a rabbit hutch lol) and 8 fertile eggs!!!! So we slipped the egg's under Kate and crossed our fingers lol. Over the next few day's Poor Kate managed to break 4 of the egg's but sat tight on the other 4 quite happily for the next 21 day's.

So anyway to cut a long story short two of the remaining egg's turned out to be infertile, one tried to hatch but sadly didn't win the fight and well .... That leaves Just one doesn't it ............

So ..... Meet Rusty .................

Here she is at not quite a day old ................ How cute...... It's been great fun watching her develop over the last few week's. I have really enjoyed Watching Kate teach her baby how to peck, scratch and perch and all he other things That chickens do.

Here are some snaps I took about an hour ago.....................

...................... Hasn't she grown ................

She's about 6 week's old now and is Growing rapidly and happily getting into lot's of mischief lol.

Of course I'm saying she but really we haven't got a clue as to what sex it is, we shall just have to wait and hope that it is a she because unfortunately if it turns out to be a he we shall have to Re-home him. But we won't think about that Just now will we?

Yes dad but my way is sooo much easier !

2010-06-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

So ... You hold the stick just like this and you've got to get the ball's to go into the pockets hmmmmmm ....

OK Dad I think I can do it all by myself now ................
Hmmmm I think maybe it's a bit harder than I thought............ Perhaps If I wear dad's hat I'll be able to play just like dad..........
....... Hmmm maybe not ........ Oh well, " look dad This is a better way !"
... Yippee I got one!!!!!!!! ...........

Hiya folks

I just popped on quickly to say I'm so sorry about my serious lack of blogging over the last few months. I've got Lot's to share with you so I'll try my best to catch up with you all soon.

Hope your all well and enjoying the sunshine.

((((hugs)))

Swap parcels

2010-03-24T10:23:00.001-07:00

Hiya How are we all today ?
I'm sorry my blogging has been a bit of a rarity lately I just don't know where all the time goes. I seem to be awfully busy with this and that at the moment.

Anyway the reason that I popped on today was to share with you the lovely swap parcels that I recieved last week. The first swap that I signed up for was Alex and joanne's Mothersday swap. It was a bit of a swapping circle and I recieved my parcel from the lovley nicola from over at smilernpb and ... well ... look.....

Thankyou so much nicola I Love it all, especially the very cute chicken, dip bowl and the lovely cross stitched bag is just perfect.

The second swap that I entered was Faerie nuffs Springtime tilda swap and I was paired up with the lovely linda Who sent me these cuties .......

Once again thankyou so much linda I love them both, they now have pride of place in my living room.

Right I'd best get moving and get a few more jobs done. I'll leave you with a quick pic I snapped at lunch time. This Is why you should never leave River and his dad aloan with paint. hehehehe

egg 'n' cress

2010-03-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

Take an egg , some seeds and a little cotton wool

........... and wait..................................

.................... and wait .................

............. and wait .......................

................ TA DA................

and what to do with the egg out of the shell.................

...... an egg custard tart pehaps .......

Today I .....

2010-02-28T11:49:00.003-08:00

Today I took one very excited 4 year old here.................

To see.......

Who went on "a very royal mission".

What did you guy's get up to this weekend?

Welcome to my world .......

2010-02-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

Hiya everyone. How are we all?? did we all survive the half term holidays hehehe.

The other day a bloggy friend of mine (Libbie) invited us into her home to take a looksy round her bedroom ( in the hope that we would do the same because she's just toooo nosey hehehe). So in an effort to make this blog a bit more about me and my life and in an effort to satisfy Libbie's curiosity lol I thought i'd share a few pic's that I snapped this afternoon of my bedroom .... uncut ..... unedited and unstyled .....
.....because you know what, nobodys perfect, nobody's life is perfect and nobodys home is as perfect as we'd sometimes like to think here in blogland.

So welcome to my bedroom.... oh but please don't trip over the laundry basket on the way in hehehe..........

We live in quite a small two bed semi and don't have the luxury of a laundry room ( oh how I would love to have one of those lol) so clothes airers and baskets of laundry are a familiar sight in our bedroom

and as much as I try to keep things tidy and looking nice we always end up having to use top's of wardrobes as storage for things and a king size duvet on a double bed neatly disguises my handbag collection that's lurking underneath hehehe

but I do love to have my pretty things around me.......

I just want to stop there a minute and show you the beautiful blocks that I received from the very talented Annie over at birdcages and butterflies in my Christmas swap parcel. I do love them very much.

Right just a little bit more to show then I must be off.....

So there we are, a little snippet of my world. I do hope I didn't bore you lol
and I do hope you will join me and show a little bit of your home's ......

uncut...unedited and unstyled...

Speak to you all again soon

(((hugs)))

I won !!!!!

2010-02-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

A couple of day's ago I was having a look at all the pretties over at
vintage amethyst boutique and noticed that she was having a giveaway. So of course I entered ( as you do ) Anyway to cut a long story short yesterday I received an email from Alison to say that I had actually won woooohoooo !!!

And then to my surprise the postie knocked on my door this morning and handed me a lovely pink package. Hmmmmm what can that be. The giveaway was only drawn yesterday so it can't be that .........can it ......

Well I was wrong. It was my prize and I am absolutely thrilled with it..... look...

Two of the yummiest smelling lavender hearts, a lovely hanging bird that will look right at home by the little birdhouse I have hanging in the bedroom and the prettiest heart shaped candle holder.

Thank you so much Alison I am truly thrilled with my prizes.

Please do go take a look at this lovely little shop it is packed full of pretties. Just don't blame me when things start jumping into your baskets hehehe.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend

Introducing ....... and forgiving....

2010-02-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

Hiya How are we all today? Have we all had a good week?

I managed to get a few chicken'y photo's the other day and although they're not great photo's I thought I'd share them with you anyway because my two new little feathered friends are just dying to meet you lol.

So without further delay I would like to introduce.............

Henrietta (Hetty for short)
And

Kate
( sorry Kate no offence intended hehehe)
( oh and Libbie you should stop laughing now I might just decide to buy another one hehehe)
Poor Kate would normally be mostly white with a touch of black but unfortunately we went through a bit of bullying when we first introduced them and we ended up having to spray her with an anti pecking spray which seemed to turn her an amusing shade of orange / brown. Hopefully it will ware off hehehe.

So as you can see my tiny little bit of " the good life" is coming along nicely.

I'm sure some of you may have noticed that there are only three hen's in the last picture and your sure that I now have four... Right .... Well Yes you are right but whilst I was trying desperately hard to get a decent photo of the little darlings, Lola decided she would sneak away to make me a little present.

Do you wanna go take a look ?........................

OK then but we'll have to be quiet !!!!!!

Lola I do forgive you for walking out on my little photo shoot because ...........

well because ..................

Without all the little presents that you girls leave us we wouldn't be able to make................

All the lovely treats we like to eat.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend
(((hugs)))
karen

vegetables!!!!! what vegetables ?

2010-02-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

Now I'm sure that a few of you can relate with me on this but this little man......

Just will not eat fruit and vegetables. You ask him why and he'll say " because I don't like them that's why" ( 4 year old with attitude lol).

Well , what river doesn't realise is that Mummy and daddy have been a little sneaky over the past week or so and well........

These sweets that river has been finding in his lunch box this week......

Are actually dried apricots hehehe

And this "yummy" cake that disappeared on Tuesday before I could even make the frosting.............

Was actually CARROT AND BANANA CAKE hahaha

And this chocolate cake that he just cannot wait to eat .......................

is actually chocolate and beetroot cake :-)

Mummy 1 River 0

Anyone got any other ways to help him reach his 5 a day????

And the winners are ...........

2010-01-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

Hello every one. Have we all had a lovely weekend? Yes ? Good

Just a very quick post today I'm afraid as time is ticking on and I've still got a few things to do before bed. So I'll skip straight to the part that your waiting for lol.
Because most of you kind bloggers wanted to share the giveaway prize I decided to split it and draw two names ( Hope that's ok ). I had to use the random number generator thingy because river's fast asleep and hubby's gone out.

The first winner is number ......................

3

Who is the lovely

Mary Poppins

A lovely lady with a wonderfully inspiring blog so If you don't know Mary's blog then

Go now and check it out.

OK and onto the second winner ..........

Who is ......

Puppet lady

This lady is a newbie to blog land so please do pop over and say hello.

Well done ladies I'll get your stash in the post as soon as I can.

Right well I'm afraid that's it for now but because I couldn't possibly do a post without a photo

I'll leave you with a pic of hubby's snow creation taken a couple of week's ago.

today we have been mostly.....

2010-01-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

Learning to write our name. Pretty good for a first attempt don't ya think.

Playing with thomas.... peep peep lol.....

Collecting eggs from the hen house........

Squeezing in a bit of crochet time....

and cooking the tea.... toad in the hole with mash........

What have you been up to today?

a little giveaway

2010-01-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

Hiya folks

I wasn't planning on doing a post tonight but I've been having a sort through my stash ( he's making me do it) anyway I was sorting through my boxes of yarn and remembered that a few of you ladies are currently learning to crochet / knit and well look what I've got.........

So If any of you lovely ladies would like to offer a home to this little bundle then just leave a comment on this post and I'll have one of the men folk pick out a name next sunday.

Hope your all having a lovely weekend

A new begining

2010-01-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

Hello there! How are we all? Did you all have a lovely Christmas and a happy new year? Yes, yes, I know, we are three quarters of the way through January and I've only just got round to speaking to you all but all will be revealed very soon I promise.

Well for me the end of 2009 bought with it Lot's of depressed feelings and the feeling of being well kinda "stuck", you know that "same shit, different day" kinda feeling when you get stuck into a routine where your not particularly happy or contented but you carry on regardless because..... well.... that's just the way things are (Am I making sense or am I the only one who gets like this lol). So over the last few week's I have been doing a lot of thinking about how to pull myself out of it and decided to try and shake things up a little, make some changes and maybe set myself a few challenges along the way.
So What have I actually done about it? I hear you ask. Well yesterday saw me start my new voluntary job at river's pre school. It's just one day a week (Thursdays) doing art's and crafts with the children. It gets me out of the house and besides, getting covered in paint and being called river's mummy all day ain't that bad hehehe.
Last night Hubby and I called in a neighbour to babysit ( something we never do ) and headed out to

Where the man himself was cooking and indeed serving a rather delicious stew.

( so delicious that hubby just had to go back and try the vegetarian option too hehehe)

We also picked up a copy of this whilst we were there ............

and me being the shy kinda girl that I am, sent hubby up to ask Hugh to sign it and this is what he came back with.......

Those of you that know hubby and I well will know that hubby is the cook in our house. I can bake, if you want cake's, cookies or bread I'm your girl but I'm afraid if you want a decent meal then you'll have to turn to hubby lol. So Yes you've guessed it I have been inspired to TRY and be a bit more adventurous in the kitchen and fingers crossed produce and edible meal of two along the way lol.

I'm also considering a couple of crafty challenges too but I haven't quite decided on that yet. Maybe a granny a day/ Try something new ? Not sure yet I'll keep you posted on that one.

OK so are you all still with me? still awake ? Yep .... well done .... only a bit more to go, I promise.

So after talking to a certain lovely lady from across the pond I discovered that although I have a blog full of pictures of this and that, my blog doesn't actually tell you guy's anything about ME So I'm gonna make a few changes here too ( if that's OK with you guy's) My blog is currently all about the things that I have made with a few extra bit's chucked in so what about a bit more of the real stuff. River and I are always doing something or other so what about showing you a bit more of what he's made or where we've been and how about showing you a bit more of where we live. So how about it guy's let's have some idea's here what would you like to see on my little old blog???? I'd be interested to know what you think.

OK so I think I'll leave it there just know I will try my best to blog again over the weekend. I do have some chickeny news to share with you but I think I'll leave that for another day.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend

PS I will try my best to catch up with all your blogs as soon as I can.

Silent night

2009-12-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-03T07:30:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-27T09:15:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

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.......

2009-11-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-11T09:08:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-11-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

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.......

2009-11-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-11-05T09:09:00.001-08:00

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 ....

2009-11-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

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 ......

2009-10-31T04:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-29T09:00:00.001-07:00

Todays baking session with river

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

2009-10-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

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 !!!!

2009-10-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Birthday presents!!!

yep!!

Balloons!!!

yep!!!

Scary monster cake!!!

Yep!!!

Happy birthday baby boy!!!

Show us your cath

2009-10-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

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 **

2009-10-14T11:22:00.001-07:00

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

I did my bit...

2009-10-08T12:47:00.001-07:00

I just thought I'd show you my little effort for the innocent smoothie campaign "THE BIG KNIT" did anyone else have a go? I'd love to see some pic's.

up on the roof .......

2009-10-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well these two seem to be just a little mischevious. I'm not quite sure how they got up there but I do know that they wern't quite so keen to get down hehehe.

One man's Junk ......

2009-10-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hiya
How are we all on what is yet another wet, dull day.

Yesterday I promised you all that I would show you something that I was a tad excited about so I thought I'd grab a few minutes this evening to tell you about it.

On Sunday we got a bit of de junking done in the garden, plastic flower pot's that accumulate and that deflated football that's been left on the lawn and the junk that just seems to breed in the shed, you know the sort of thing. So anyway by the time we had finished we had about a trailer full so we headed off to the tip.
Whilst we were separating out rubbish one skip for wood one for cardboard I spotted.....

As hubby came back towards the car he looked at me and mumbled something to the effect of "You've spotted it haven't you" "yep" I said looking at him with my I want it eye's hehehe. With that hubby turned and walked towards one of the staff and I got into the car where River was sat quite happily watching the digger squashing down the rubbish.
Next thing I knew Hubby was loading it into the trailer. Hubby had asked if he could buy it and the man said that he wasn't allowed to sell anything but that if he was quick he wouldn't see him taking it.

So Do you want to take a closer look at my new treasure / project?

are you sure?

OK then I took a couple of snaps for you.....

What do you think? Isn't that just the best winter project? It needs a small amount to wood work, the hinges needs to be put back on the front and a fair bit of painting and decorating needs doing so hopefully this will be a project that both hubby and I can do together. As I said I'm quite excited about getting started on it and I'll try and keep you updated with our progress along the way.

Oh and a quick chicken update Both Lola and Lotta are settling in well they've had great fun in today's rather damp weather digging up those tasty worms and eating every blade of grass in sight. I'll try and get some pic's tomorrow.

Anyway that's about it for now I'll try and show you some makes tomorrow.

*Chicken update***

2009-10-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hiya
Just a quick one today to let you know that our lovely hen's are home safe and sound.
Would you like to take a quick peek before we settle them down? Ok then I'll introduce you ...........

Ok so here they are. We have lola ( the red one on the left) and lotta ( the black one on the right). We have to keep them in their house now for 24 hours to let them settle in before we let them out to play but I'm sure there will be a few more pic's for you to see after that if your interested.

Well that's about it for tonight I'll try and get back online tomorrow as I've got something else I'm a little excited about that I have to show you.

Speek to you all again soon
((((((hugs)))))

holiday snaps and some news

2009-10-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

Hiya
how are we all today, hope were all well.
apologies for yet another unintentional bloggy breakwe took the caravan off to birmingham for a few day's but to make up for it I've come back with a few holiday snap's and I have some new's to share with you but more about that later.

*****WARNING PICTURE HEAVY POST*******

Well as I said we headed off to birmingham last week, can you guess where we spent a day ......

..... Um yes that is a rather large helping of chocolate dribbled down his jumper hehehe....

And of course we had to make a return trip to see this cheeky chappy and his friends ......

We also spent a day at the black country museum complete with crochet blankets , rag rug's knitted dishcloths and teacosy ....

And for the last day of our holiday we went to visit these lovely girls (and boys)

And fell in love with these little darlings ....

Which brings me nicely to my little bit of new's. On the way home we spotted a sign that read
FREE RANGE CHICKENS FOR SALE READY NOW!!!
so naturally we stopped just to take a look you understand hehehe.
Well by the time we left we had picked two hen's put a deposit down on them and even named them lol. So hubby has been extra busy this week building a hen house and an enclosure and fingers crossed all we be ready so we can go and pick them up on sunday. I must say I'm a tad excited by it all and really can not wait to get them home. I'll be sure to take some pic's to share with you as soon as they've settled in and if any of you guy's have any tip's or advice on keeping hen's I'd be very grateful.

I must get off now as bed time for my little one is getting closer and closer I'll try not to leave it too long before my next post I do have a couple of make's to share with you.
Speak to you all agan soon

allsorts

2009-09-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hiya
I hope we are all well on this rather grey looking day.
There's a little story behind this post so I'll bore you a little and start from the beginning...
A couple of week's a go my niece came down to visit and I was showing her some bit's I had made whilst playing about with some polymer clay, and she mentioned that she had seen a licorice allsorts bracelet made from polymer clay and quite liked it. A week or so later her mum ( my sister in law) asked me if I would be able to make a licorice allsorts bracelet and me being me said " well I'll give it a go"
So I had a little play and came up with ........

So I posted it off to her and guess what ... she loved it ....

A few day's later ( I told you this was a bit of a story didn't I hehehe) My sister in law phoned to say that every one loved the bracelet and that if I could possibly make 5 more, my niece had 5 friends who wanted to buy them.
So for the last few day's I have been ... well .... why don't you take a look....

The five for my niece are all packed up and ready to be posted off now and I have 5 charm bracelets left so if anyone wants to get there hands on for just £8 each, just leave me a comment or email me ( my email address is written towards the bottom of my sidebar).

Well that's about it for now were going off in the caravan on Sunday so I'd better get some clothes packed.

Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll speak to you all soon
((((((hugs)))))
Karen

National cupcake week

2009-09-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hiya
Are we all having a lovely day? I'm sure we all know that it is national cupcake week this week and so the results of this week's baking session with river are of course

"Cupcakes"
I think I'll have to work on my icing skill's a bit though. Does anyone have a good recipe for frosting / icing they could share with me ?

I don't have many things around with cupcakes on to share with you so I thought I would show you my cup cake case collection. So here's a couple of snaps...

Just a small collection but they do seem to be multiplying quite nicely hehehe.

Anyway that's it for now. I'm sure I'll be back soon, I seem to be on a roll with this regular posting now lol.

See you all soon
xxxxxx

we're home!!!

2009-09-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hiya, how are you all did you have a lovely weekend.
We had a lovely little break in the caravan. We didn't go too far just to bath (which is only about an hour away from home). but even so we had a lovely time and we were blessed with great weather which made it even more enjoyable.
I remembered my camera so I thought I'd share a few pic's with you.

Feeding the ducks.....

...... playing at the park .... ( not sure which one enjoyed it most lol)

A touch of fishing .....

..... But I'm afraid the only thing we caught was .......

We also managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping but more about that tomorrow
So there we are I hope I didn't bore you too much.
I'll have to shoot just now river is waiting patiently for his tea.
Speak to you all again soon

Be back tuesday

2009-09-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Bread anyone???

2009-09-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

a touch of the good life

2009-09-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

Hiya, how are we all today?

We've had a bit of an action packed afternoon and I remembered to take my camera so In an effort to keep up with the blogging I thought i'd share some of the pic's with you.
A few day's ago one of hubby's customers had mentioned a place he knew not to far away from us (within walking distance) that was packed full of berries ready to be picked. So today after work we dug out our wellies and wandered up the road armed with half a dosen plastic containers and a couple of carrier bags and well... I'll show you ....

And what we returned home with.....
.... Blackberries....

........sloeberries......

And ..... elderberries.....

The kitchen has already been a hive of activity.....

River helped me to make 3 dozen jam tarts ( that are disappearing fast)
And hubby got busy with his jam making...

At this point I left him to it ( our kitchen aint big enough for the both of us hehehe) and went to have a play with my sewing machine.
The other week when we were in belgium I bought myself a few meters of fabric (naturally hehehe) one of wich had a camoflage pattern. I bought it with the intentions of having a go at making river some pyjama bottoms.
Unfortunatly he's in bed now so there's no pic's yet of him wearing them but ... well ...here they are ...

Along with two tissue holder I made with the scraps to go in his school bag.

So That is what we got up to today. All that remains now is... well ....

.......THE DISHES .....
(and yes Kim he did leave me a big mess)

Hopefully we'll be spending the day tomorrow doing a bit of much needed tidying up in the garden, weather permitting of course. So i'll try and remember to get the camera out.
Speak to you all again soon
(((hugs))))

Remember me ???

2009-09-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

I hope your all well. I'm sorry for the rather long and unintentional blogging break. My sister in law kindly reminded me during her recent visit that my last blog post was back in april ( not that she ever leaves me a comment hint hint) so I thought i'd better get my backside in gear hehehe.
So What's been going on here? well not a lot really just your normal eveyday sort of things,a bit of crafting, a bit of shopping a bit of bakeing and a couple of holidays. We had a bit of rethink about our holidaying habbits and decided that european city breaks really aren't a 3 year old's idea of a great holiday. So we took the plunge and bought ourselves a caravan ( Sorry No pic's yet I promise to take a few for you next time we go out) We've had three short breaks in it now and have all thoroughly enjoyed it despite the good old english weather but hey that's what welly's are for right!!!

You'll be pleased to hear that my creativity has not lapsed as much as my blogging so I thought I'd leave you just now with some pic's of a few of the thing's I have made over the last few months. You should be able to click on each pictureto make them bigger if you want to.

A few bit's to add to my tilda collection

Two new rectangular cushions for the bed

A newly knitted popcorn bear

Hubby and I bought this chair back at the beginning of the boot sale season. We payed just £3 for it however it was rather shabby looking with dark brown wood, broken fret work and without it's cushions. Hubby sanded it down and fixed the fret work and I painted it and made up some cushions to fit and now it's sitting pretty in our newly decorated bedroom ( I'll show you more of our bedroom in another post if you like).

A crochet rose

A new bag with some bargain £ 3.50 a meter fabric

You saw the beginning of this blanket a few months ago, well here it is all finished and I must say I really enjoyed making it, so much so that I have already started another.

A new hamma bead creation for river's bedroom

And some birthday cards and my first batch of christmas cards.

Oooops sorry I think I got a bit carried away with the photo's there hehehe.
River is back to pre school tomorrow so I'll try my best to catch up with all your blog's over the next couple of day's. Bye for now (((((hugs))))

Candles, tilda's, cath kidston, crochet and basically playing catchup

2009-04-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hiya
Sorry my posts seem to be few and far between at the moment I've been doing a bit of voluntary work for my son's pre school of late namely making cakes, cleaning toy's and crafting with the children.

I bought this box of dolls home to clean up before we go back to school in two week's I wasn't planning on doing it straight away however river had other idea's so they were cleaned and dressed that afternoon. He thoroughly enjoyed himself playing with the doll's ( shhhh don't tell daddy hehehe)Although he was a little baffled as to why they didn't all have willies lol.

Anyway I promised to show you what I've been making over the last few week's and in a huge effort to use up some of my stash instead of just buying more here's what I came up with...

Candles

I bought these tea cups in the sale a few week's back (not that we use or are ever likely to use tea cups but I just liked them) anyway whilst I was being made to sort out my craft stash I came across a little candle making kit and so hubby and I ( yes he does like to join in ocasionally lol) set to it and our little tea cup candle's were born. They now sit looking pretty in my kitchen.

Tilda's
Do you remember my naked little bunny rabbit I showed you a few posts back. well here she is with her new dress.

This however started me off on a tilda addiction. Have we all seen the tilda book's? If not go and find out about them now lol. So now I have a little collection growing...

and I have another few tilda projects on my to do list so watch this space lol

Cath kidston

I got this cath kidston cowboy print fabric because.... well because I fell in love with it and thought it'd look great in river's room so here's what I've done with it so far...

I also made a small laundry bag (which river has decided is actually for keeping his favorite toy's in lol) and a small lavender hangy thingy for him to hand on his bedside cabinet both of which I forgot to take photo's of.
I still have approx half a meter of this fabric left has anyone got any ideas of what I could make with it please?

crochet

Anyone that has known me and read my blog for a while now will now how often I have moaned about being unable to crochet well you'll never guess what .....

Thanks to lucy over at attic 24

her inspirational blog and her very simple to understand tutorials I have now mastered the art of crochet yipeeee!!!
so we now have one crochet pot holder, one crochet blanket ( although a little bit wobbly in places lol) for river's bed and the start of another blanket.

Hama beads

Hubby and I sat for a few hours last night ( well maybe more like 3/4 hours lol) playing with the hama beads our aim was to make a picture placemat to fit on top of rivers bedside cabinet and well .....
Tadaaaa lol

And for my next trick ...

Mother bought some spiderman curtains at her local car boot sale for my nephew they were the right width but too long so she had them taken up and well....
" Please karen can you make something for him with the leftovers"
.... of course I can mum so the other day she traveled down with my little sister and gave me this ...

Two 16" x 67" pieces. I have thought of the usual coshions and laundry bag type ideas and I do have a nice plain red cotton fabric in my stash that I can mix with it but once again please does anyone have any thoughts on what else I could do with it?
Anyway I have probably bored you enough now. It's past 12 oclock and hubby has gone to bed without me so I'll say goodnight and will try harder to post a bit more often ( although it is the easter holidays and river is off school for two whole weeks lol)
Hope you are all well
speak to you soon

Think springtime .....

2009-03-25T16:04:00.001-07:00

Think flowers.....

Think Easter eggs ....

Think Easter bonnets ....

Just a few things I have been making with river over the last few days.

Sorry about the lack of posts of late. I have been busy and have got Lot's to show you very soon.

And the winner is

2009-02-12T01:52:00.000-08:00

Hiya every one
Just a quick one today because I've still got such a lot to do before we go away on monday.
So anyway I've been on the random number generator thingy and it tell's me that the winner of my little giveaway is.......

.............. Comment number 2 ...........

Who is the lovely MEL MEL

Well done hunni if you can email me asap with your addy I'll try my best to get your goodies posted out before we go.

Right then I had better get back to it. I'll try and post again before we go to show you what we've been up to.

(((((HUGS)))))

snow, cookies and a giveaway

2009-02-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

Hiya
How are we all doing with all this snow? River was up bright and early yesterday morning shouting " it's snowing mummy, It's snowing Daddy" I don't think he's ever seen so much snow.
Hubby decided to take the day off and so much fun was had by all...

... But when we got up this morning much of our snow had turned to ice and slush River and I decided to do some indoors stuff and so these choc chip cookies were born....

There were 12 but hey who can resist a chocolate chip cookie hehehe and I'm sure there will be a lot less once hubby gets home lol

Anyway, The bit you've all been waiting for " My Blog birthday giveaway" I've been giving this a lot of thought. Some of my bloggy friends are card makers, some stitchers and others just like pretty things. So what on earth should I give away lol. Well I've come to the conclusion that I should just do the giveaway and decide what goodies to send when I know who's won (does that make sense?).
So all you need to do is the usual leave me a comment and I'll put your name in the draw. I will leave this open until next Wednesday midday and will draw the winner sometime Wednesday night.
Good luck everyone and I'll speak to you all again soon

" Ding ding" round two lol

2009-01-29T03:59:00.001-08:00

I know I know it's like waiting for a bus lol.
So As I said earlier I have some finished projects I wanted to show you so here go's .....

I started to struggle with my card making towards the end of last year. I kept seeing lots of amazing cards on various blogs but just couldn't pull it together myself. So I decided to go back to basics and bought myself some card kit's and well here's what I came up with...

I've also been working hard at my mini quilts and with two new one's added my wall is now starting to fill up

and I've also managed a curtain....

A cushion ....

And a set of four place mats...

And I also have a couple of unfinished projects.....

This is my little silver cross pram that has been sat empty in my bedroom for a couple of month's now. So I decided it was about time I did something with it. It now has a couple of occupants and a new quilt. I'm planning on making a small matching pillow to go in it and My mother in law has kindly agreed to crochet a blanket for it. So I'll be sure to take a piccie of it for you when it's finished.

And last but not least....

I've had this project sat in my stash pile since last summer but I kept putting off making her because The only instructions I had were written in dutch (aaahhh) So anyway I finally plucked up the courage to just go for it and do it without instructions. After all how hard can it be lol.
So here she is looking pretty cute ....but .... um .... yeah she's got no clothes hehehe But don't worry I've promised her that she will have a new dress by the end of the week lol.

Anyway that's it for this one cause I've got a bit to do before I pick river up from pre school. I'll try and get back this evening to do that giveaway.
see ya all soon
Karen

Remember me !!!!

2009-01-29T02:49:00.000-08:00

Hiya guys
Has it really been that long since I last posted? oooops sorry lol.
Well I guess you wanna see what we've been up to then eh?
Here's a few piccie's I've taken over the last month or so .....

A visit from father Christmas at pre school.

A quick ride on a shopping trip to exeter

Dressing up

A trip to London to visit the....

The London aquarium
( sorry It appears that my camera doesn't like glass)

And we even got to take our own sleepy shark home with us lol.

A little bit of creativity

Oh and we've even had a birth in the family ( and I didn't even know she was pregnant lol)

Well Have I bored you enough yet? What do ya mean yep !!!!
I'm gonna leave it at that just now and do another post a little later because I've finished lot's of new projects I want to show you, also I've managed to pick up a few awards in my absence "AND" Guess what? Today is actually my 1st bloggy birthday so In true blogging tradition I'll be doing a GIVEAWAY.

Speak to you all in a bit
((((((hugs))))))

Ps. I've added a few new blogs of talent to my list over their on the right please do and take a look there all fab.

Ok I really am going now lol

Honey I'm home !!! lol

2008-12-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

Were home now after a very cold but enjoyable trip to scotland. I haven't got anything to show you crafty wise ( bacause I aint done nothing lol). So I thought I'd treat you to some piccies of dornoch (Taken last weekend.

So here's dornoch beach....

And dornoch cathedral where hubby and I got married last year....

And If you take a close look at this one You'll see all the snow on the mountains

Gotta get off and Get river's tea now so I'll leave you with some pic's of our christmas dec's and hopefully I'll have something crafty to show you soon.

not a lot !!!!

2008-11-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hiya
Sorry I haven't blogged a lot lately (did you miss me lol) I have been busy with one thing and another but can't show you a lot of it Just yet ( christmas pressies). So I really don't have anything at all to show you sob sob...
... anyway what I really popped on to tell you was that were off on our travel's again tomorrow afternoon. Were leaving River with his Granny ( thanks granny it's much appreciated) and hubby and I are off up to dornoch for two nights to celebrate our first anniversary. We'll be flying back down late Tuesday night but then River and I are off up to my mum's first thing Wednesday morning to do the whole christmas thing ( and a bit of shopping hehehe)then we'll arrive back home sometime saturday. So all in all it's gonna be a busy week but I'm sure we'll enjoy it.
I promise to make up for the lack of blogging when we get back and I'm sure I'll have Lot's of picture's to show you.
Speak to you all soon
xxxxxx

yesterday's doings

2008-11-14T02:20:00.001-08:00

Hiya
Just popped on a bit quick to show you what river and I got up to yesterday afternoon.
Firstly we had our little baking session....

Yummy cheesy buiscuits. Unfortunatly there aint many left hehehe.

Oh and do you remember our little walk in the wood's? yes, well here's what we did with our collection of leaves...

Anyway that's it for now except to say that you really must go take a look at
jellybelly*jellybrain's Blog She's having a bit of a compitition you see and I really must win those yummy goodies lol.

Anyway I'm off i'll speak to you all soon

I told you I'd be back didn't I

2008-11-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

Ok so on the weekend in between terrentual downpoors and gale forse winds we did manage to take a little walk out in the wood's.

So we put on our wellies.....

and set off on our little mission to collect some leave's....

So now we have a bag full of slightly soggy but very colourful leaves drying our ready to use in river's little craft session this week ( oh and we'll be making cheesy biscuits tomorrow so watch this space lol)

A little while back ( well actually a couple of months back I just didin't want to admit that I am so disorganised lol) I was lucky enough to recieve a copy of...

from ginny over at the flour loft It's her first published book and in my humble opinion it's a great book for both beginners and the slightly more advanced. It's full of lovely little projects....

Anyway the reason that I've waited so long to tell you about all this is that I wanted to make something out of the book to show you and well here they are ....

Ta da lol what do ya think? I went for the linen with a splash of colour look and I think it worked quite well.

Any way that's it for now I'm afraid. I have completed a couple of other projects over the last few day's but they are gifts for people who peek at my blog so I cant post any pic's Just yet.
I'm off I'll speak to you all soon
xxxxxxxxx

Go take a look at this

2008-11-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

I've just been bloghopping again and came across this fab giveaway.
Dana over at old red barn
Is giving away three georgeous quilts to three different poeople.

I'll be back later to show you what we've been up to
see ya later.

cake's, trips away, christmas and a bit more...lol

2008-11-06T02:10:00.000-08:00

Hiya
Sorry it's been a little while since I last posted but to make up for that I have got lot's to show you so go and put the kettle on cause I've got the cake lol.

Some of you may know that river celebrated his third birthday at the end of the month so I had a go at making a birthday cake and ..... well... what do ya think?

I've decorated cupcake's before but never anything as big as this one but I quite enjoyed doing it and river thought it was great so I surpose that's the main thing.

Keeping to the cake theme I've been having a go at knitting some cupcake's and donut's. I haven't quite cracked it yet but here are my first attemts.

to celebrate river's birthday we took a little trip to Gent in belgum it was rather wet and cold most of the time we were there but we still had a great time....

We took a little boat trip along the canals and looked at some of the site's and took a few picture's with river's class teddy for their little scrapbook.
Oh and I'm not usually one for advetising but we stayed in a lovely little b & b, She's only got two room's but she's definatly going for quality rather than quantity.
It's little thing's like home made jam's and fresh bread and fruit juice in the mornings and taking the time to get the map's out and show us the best place's to go and of course nice clean room's and comfy bed's. If your ever planning on going to Gent please take a look at http://www.callasbedandbreakfast.com/ I'm sure you won't be disappointed. ( No I'm not getting commission for this lol)

Anyway what's next.... oh yeah.... I started a litle cross stitch project whilst we were away so here it is all finished...

... Not sure what I'm gonna use it for yet Maybe a little stocking filler for someone.

A little while back I won a giveaway over at 23 beech hill and when we got back from our little trip away I found a little parcel on the doormat ( sorry I forgot to take piccie's of the parcel lol) and here's what I got...

Aint those little cupcake's just the cutest. So a big thankyou for my lovely cupcake's ( I did email her previously)I love them all.

Ok so now we've got river's birthday past I feel that now's the time to be thinking about christmas so ......

My christmas quilt got finished .... and .....

I altered a paint tin and filled it with goodies ( Just three more of these to do)

And I also got these made .....

There will be some more christmas card making going on in the next couple of week's and I alway's manage to make too many so Anyone who is interested in buying (or swaping) any of my christmas cards please feel free to email me on karengrail@hotmail.co.uk and I'm sure we can make some arrangements.

Ok so last but not least have we all seen these little cutie's...

(picture stolen from quilty's corner's blog "sorry")
The very nice lady over at quilty's corner has shared her knitting pattern so we can create our very own cute little ziggy's and I just couldn't resist so he is....

He was quite quick to make so a little Boing might come and join him at some point
( ooops that's another thing to add to my very loooooong list of thing's to make lol)

Anyway I think I have probably boared you enough now so I'll be off and I'll speak to you all soon.

Just a quick one !!!

2008-10-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

Hiya
Just a quick one before I get off to my bed. I've been asked to blog a few picture's of my kitchen now it's been painted so Here's a little tour.

One lovely view of a brick wall lol. Curtains made by me Just waiting for some inspiration on the tieback's so any Idea's/ tutorial's welcome oh and while we're at it do ya see this pumpkin well it came in our veg box this week and I haven't got a clue what to do with it so any Idea's for that are also very welcome.
Anyway ....

I think the Pink and blue went quite well together what do you think?

Oh and of course I must show you the matching chalk board that my dear hubby made for me to write the shopping list on.
Well there we have it one rather blue and pink kitchen.

Off to bed now cause river and I are off into town for a little shopping trip in the morning so night night all
If you fall through the mattress I'll see ya in the spring lol.

Did you miss me ? lol

2008-10-17T02:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry It's been a while since I last posted. I've been a little busy here but I thought I'd take 10 Min's out this morning to show you all what I've been up to so here goes...

We got the living room painted and new carpet's down.... and

did a bit of stitching.... and

....a bit of baking with River ... Yummy peppermint creams dipped in white chocolate... and....

...a bit more stitching..... and

... Made a couple of cards .... and....

.... started a new project....

and now I'm off to wrap a few presents ready for river's birthday. I've got to be organised for this one because we'll be over in Belgium on the weekend of his birthday. I still can't believe that my baby boy will be 3 whole years old very soon.

Anyway must get on. Hope to speak to you all again soon

An award, a tag and some finished and unfinished projects.

2008-10-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

I'll warn you now i've got a feeling this could be a long one lol

Firstly an apologie to Joey in the last month or so she has given me an award and tagged me but I never got round to sorting it out so "sorry hunni".

Right then, here goes

As I said this award is from joey ( You should go and check out her blog by the way it's full of the most fab cards.

The rules for this award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.
As I'm a little sad and don't have 14 bloggy friends to give out awards and tag's to I'm gonna give em out as a pair to 7 lucky people (lol) after I've done my tag.

So as I said joey also tagged me now I've gotta share 7 interesting (or uninteresting hehehe) facts about myself (aaaaaaahhh !!!) well it's taken me a while to think these up so please bear with me.

1. I've alway's got to have at least two projects on the go at any one time ( it drives my hubby crazy but I can't just do one now can I).

2. I used to work in a factory where my main job was putting the cardboard sleves onto frozen ready meals.

3. I got married up in the highlands of scotland, Dornoch.

4. I get really annoyed at people who have a "life's a compitition" and " mine is better than yours" attitude.

5. I had never traveled abroad until the age of 19.

6. I have crashed every scooter /moped I have ever owned ( hubby alway's say's if it's meant to do 40mph karen will make it go 50mph hehehe.)

7. on my wedding day as soon as the crermony was over I traded my heel's for a pair of cat work boot's ( They wen't really well with my wedding dress lol).

So There you go, are you all still awake lol.

so who do I pass this lot onto.....
Well unfortunatly I only came up with five but all of them have blog's that I check out very often and alway's have yummy projects to show and inspire me so Be sure to go check em out they're well worth a look.

1. Sarah from http://pink-petal-designs.blogspot.com/
2. 23 beech hill http://23beechhill.blogspot.com/
3. http://littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk/
4. Shirley from http://shirleys-cards-and-crafts.blogspot.com/
5. debby4000 http://debby4000.blogspot.com/

well that's all that over and done with now for some crafting.

I've been a busy little bee since we got back from our little holiday so here's what I've been up to...

And here's a sneaky peek at the two ( Didn't I say I had to have more than one hehehe) projects I've got on the go at the moment.

I'm aiming to have both of these finished before we go off on our little holiday at the end of the month so hopefully you'll be seeing the finished projects soon.

Anyway I think I've rambled on for long enough now so I'll speak to you all again soon

A special request for babz

2008-09-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post because babz was a little disgusted that I didn't post a picture of Winnie the pooh.
So here you go hunni just for you...

Speak to you all soon

were back !!!

2008-09-25T02:22:00.001-07:00

Well were home, all the laundry is done and river is back at pre school so I thought I'd take 10 minutes to share some of our holiday pic's with you.

So here goes ....

We spent some time at Disney land Paris....

And visited the feline park...

and fed the ducks in melune ...

and then on to Belgium for a little bit of retail therapy.....

and a quick trip to the supermarket to stock up on...

( I swear if they sold these in the UK I'd be massively overweight by now lol)

and then home again ...

Well that's it for now, I'll be back in a short while to show you some crafty projects I've finished.
Speak to you all soon

au revoir !

2008-09-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hiya
Just a quick one to say that were off on our holidays for the next 9 day's. I have packed some crafty stuff to do in the evening's so I should have something to show you when I get back. Oh and lot's of pic's too I hope.

Speak to you all soon

What do you do with your son's favorite jeans when he's grown out of them????

2008-09-03T03:26:00.000-07:00

Well you recycle them of course lol
I forgot to take a photo of them but basically he had these blue jeans with Thomas the tank engine on the leg but after his latest growth spurt they were now too short.
Anyway to cut a long story short here's what we ended up with...

Two little Thomas bean bag's for river to play with. I must have done good because they've had a lot of use already.

Thanks Sarah
The postie delivered a lovely parcel today

from Sarah Have you checked out her blog and her etsy shop yet they are both full of lovely hand made items.
So anyway a big thankyou to Sarah for being so kind.

Quilt attempt number three.

Here's quilt number three I'm not so keen on this one ( Not really my sort of colours) But hubby Say's it's his favorite so far. Plans for number four are already being sketched in my notebook so watch this space lol

I've also been busy stitching another little bookmark. I love these little beach hut's and I managed to find some matching cotton fabric in my stash to back it with.
We do seem to be getting a little collection of bookmarks now I'm not sure what were gonna do with them hehehe.

Oh and here's a couple of little note cards I made up last night.

Well that's about it for now I'll speak to you again soon

Jam cake's

2008-08-23T03:54:00.000-07:00

Not much to show you crafty wise today but I snapped a couple of pic's the other day whilst river and I were making Jam tarts (or Jam cake's as river calls them hehehe)So I thought I'll show you them.

River proudly cut out all the circle's ( for the bottom's) and the teddy bears ( for the top's)all by himself.
I think baking is something we should do together a little more often because he really did enjoy making his very own jam cakes lol. But before that I must make him a decent apron to wear.

Well that's it for now
speak to you all soon

Mini quilt attempt number two.

2008-08-20T02:12:00.000-07:00

Well here it is mini quilt number two....

Still not to the standard I would like but I'm getting a little better with each attempt so maybe one day lol

Here's a card My neighbour ordered it's for her 11 year old grandaughter I hope she likes it!!!

Anyway That's all for now I'll speak to you again soon

A sneaky trip to the beach and a good team effort

2008-08-16T02:52:00.000-07:00

We were a little naughty on thursday. It was such a lovely day we shut up shop and headed off to the beach.

We were blessed with nice weather for the whole day and I we all thouroughly enjoyed ourselves and we even managed to squeeze in a trip to the craft shop nearby lol

When we got home hubby and river decided that they wanted to got blackberry picking. So off they went in there wellies and came back and hour later with a bowl full of beries ( Hubby said they would of had loads more but river decided to try and wash them in the brook hehehe)
So anyway after a bit of team effort we've ended up with several jars of ...

Ummmm I wonder how long it'll last in our house lol

Oh and I finished another bookmark last night ...

He hasn't got a home yet but I'm sure he'll find one soon

Anyway that's about it for now I'll speak to you all again soon

Scrap store bargains

2008-08-12T02:51:00.000-07:00

Hiya
I took a trip to my local scrap store yesterday and picked up some real bargains so I thought I'd tease you with them.

I got all this yarn for the giveaway price of 50p a ball now is that a bargain or what. Most of it is 100% cotton but I also got a few others including luxury alpaka yarn. I could have gone mad and bought loads but The scrap store has a " don't be greedy" policy because all of there stuff is so cheap which I suppose is only fair.

I also picked up these small pieces of fabric and a pot of buttons for just pennies.

They are only small pieces but I'm sure I'll be able to make use of them.

Anyway Gotta go now, the Ironing is calling me (again)
Speak to you all soon

Sorry!!!

2008-08-09T02:28:00.001-07:00

Hiya
I'm sorry about the lack of posts over the last two weeks and I'm afraid I haven't got any crafty projects to show you. But I do have a few pictures of river in Thomas land.

We visited During our week up at my mums and a lovely time was had by all.

But now it's back to the reality of potty training and decorating which has been taking up most of my time this week. Next week is looking to be the same too.
I'll try my best to post something crafty as soon as possible
Speak to you soon

Bubbles bubbles everywhere lol

2008-07-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hiya
I decided that I fancied having a go at making some soap this week so after finding this tutorial
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2007/07/rebatching-soap.html

Here's some of what we came up with

From front to back we have
vanilla
honey and oatmeal
lemon
They all smell so yummy but I have to leave them to dry out for a whole week before I can use any of it.

I've also had another go at making myself a bag. I seem to be improving with each attempt and although it's not perfect I quite like it.

Oh and we popped over to sherbourg (spelling) for the day last Tuesday and as we came in to dock our little ferry was dwarfed by this..

"The queen Mary 2" or in rivers words "WOW mummy it's a big boat" lol
I think it's one of those things, You just don't realise how big and amazing it is until you see it in real life.

I'll try and post again this week but just in case I don't get round to it River and I are going to my mum's next week and won't have and Internet access (sob sob)
So I'll catch up with all emails etc etc when I get back.

Speak to you all soon

A couple more finished projects

2008-07-12T02:14:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd pop on a bit quick whilst river's playing quietly ( It won't last for very long) I've been keeping myself busy stitching and knitting, here's what I've come up with...

Tadaaaa!! lol

My very first door stop ...

And one of my car boot sale bargains has now turned into a cute Eeyore cushion.
What do you think??

Speak to you all soon

Time for a change

2008-07-10T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hiya
As you've probably noticed we've had a bit of a change about. I thought it was time to get rid of the black and swap it for something a little more chearfull. I also added a few new tune's to the Music player, I hope you enjoy them.

I'm afraid I haven't got anything crafty to show you just yet but I promise there will be in the next day or so.
But I do have a shiny new award to show off. I've put it in the sidebar for you all to see A huge thanks to Joey for thinking of me when giving it out. I guess now I'll have to have a think about who I'm gonna pass it on to.

Anyway that's enough dribble from me for one day I'll be back in a day or so.

It's been a while

2008-06-26T04:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted but it's been one thing after another...

We had out little trip to Belgium ( which was lovely ) Then we had Internet troubles so we couldn't get online at all for a few day's and now we've all got this dreaded Bug that's going around (again).

Anyway I have got a few crafty thing to show you, as always all comments are very welcome good or bad lol

Do you remember the lighthouse that we bought at the boot sale a few weeks ago well here it is in it's finished state hanging on my bathroom wall

I think hubby and I made a good team on that one.

And I've been playing about trying to get back into my paper crafting and Here's what I came up with. I just can't seem to make anything that I'm 100% happy with at the moment.

And I had a play about with some felt and beads and come up with this ...

Hopefully it will be made into a door stop but that's one to be left until I'm feeling a little better.

Oh and while we were in Belgium we came across this fab little quilting shop with loads of different kit's fabrics and buttons which of course I just had to have lol
Anyway I thought it was about time I had ago at one of these lovely little mini quilts I keep seeing on all your blogs So Here's attempt number 1

It's a little rough round the edges but not bad for a first attempt I suppose

And It's not finished yet but here's a sneaky peek at mini quilt attempt number 2

Anyway that's it for today I'll speak to you all soon

Were off for another trip away !!!

2008-06-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

Hiya
Were off to Belgium very early in the morning So I thought I'd pop on now and show you all a few pic's of this week's completed projects.

Do You remember hubby's bird house well here it is in it's finished state.

He's very proud of it and made sure that I took a photo of it for you all to see.

I've finally managed to finish baby popcorn who actually wasn't a s difficult to complete as I thought it was going to be ( Ain't he cute)

Hubby's nicknamed him scary ted cause he's been sat on the arm of the sofa for a week with no body just a head lol

A lovely lady who I've not long met (online) forwarded this knitting pattern on to me ( Thank you your so kind )because I really wanted to give it a go. I had to learn three new stitches to complete it and I know it's not perfect but I like it. Maybe the next one will look a little better lol

I need to say a big big THANK YOU to Sarah from pink petal designs for this lovely place mat that I won on her blog. It's lovely

Oh and I've finished and posted off my kitchen swap items today but I forgot to take a picture before I sent it duh!!! lol
Any way I hope she likes it.

Have a lovely weekend and I'll speak to you all when we get back.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Our morning at the car boot sale

2008-06-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

Hiya
We took at trip to the boot sale this morning but this time we were selling so we were there early enough to grab ourselves some bargains.

First up was this lighthouse shaped set of wooden shelves The top bit is broken off and it's in need off a good clean and a lick of paint but hey it'll look lovely in the bathroom once we've given it some TLC. And the price .... £1

An old pattern book for cuddly toy's of witch there are several I Fancy having a go at and it's in immaculate condition and she only wanted 10p for it..

A bag of 14 balls of 100% cotton yarn In some of my fav colours Baby blue and lovely duck egg colour for £3

and this spot the dog fabric panel which I thought would make a lovely wall hanging quilt ( much nicer than the a-z poster he's got now) for only 50p

And last but not least

Hubby picked up three odd shaped slices of wood for £1
But why I hear you say... Well I said the same thing but after about and hour of hammering and drilling in his shed he came out with this...

a funky bird house which right at this moment is getting painted with a rather large collection of different coloured paints.... I'll be sure to show you what it looks like when it's finished ( I can't wait to see it either lol)

Oh And I've been working hard on my project for the kitchen swap and it's now finally finished. I can't show it to you just yet cause I want it to be a surprise for my partner but I'll be sure to take a photo before I pack it up and I'll let you see it when I know she's received it.

Gotta go now cause hubby's dishing up our tea ( Yes he cooks too lol) So I'll speak to you all soon.

Look what I've got!!!

2008-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Aint they just the coolest wellies.
Have I got any need for wellies? um NO but I've had my eye on them for week's and I just had to have them. I'm sure I can think of some occasion to wear them lol

Anyway back to the real reason your here...

Here's a few craft projects I have done over the last few day's.

Here's our new birdhouse for the garden. It came flat packed so I let hubby build it ( well you gotta let keep em happy eh lol ) then I painted and stamped it.

Meet mr owl I made him from a kit I bought in my local craft shop. He's not perfect But I think it's given me enough confidence to have a go at making my own softee's from scratch.

I saw this dream catcher project somewhere online and fancied giving it a go. It was quite easy to do but also quite time consuming.

Here's a quick card I made for my niece's birthday It's just some stamped images that I decoupaged and sat on a beach coloured background.
( Note to self I really must be more organised with birthday cards instead of leaving it till the last minute I acn do better hehehehe)

Oh and I joined a kitchen swap the other day It's my first ever swap so I have been tossing a few Idea's about. Here are a couple of knitted dish clothes I made, I have never been brilliant at knitting but they're not too bad.

Oh and don't worry I'll be sure to let you see what I come up with for the swap in due course.

Speak to you all soon

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As promised

2008-06-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hiya
I just thought I'd pop a quick post up because I promised that I'd let you take a peek at river's new quilt and curtains. They're nothing fancy but hey I'm getting there lol

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The invasion of the funcky monkeys ( and some pic's from our little trip away )

2008-05-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the little sock monkey that I made a week or so ago. Well he's now got himself some new mate's lol.

There were five of them but one got wisked away before I had chance to take a picture and is now sat proudly in hubbys barber shop lol.
I have had some subtle hints that three more are required so watch this space ...

Our little holiday

We had a little weekend break down in cornwall last weekend with my mum and her partner for my birthday so I thought I'd share a few pic's with you.

This is penvith barns It's the lovely little b+b we stay at in looe. It's not very often that we stay at the same b+b twice but we've stayed here three time's now because she never fails to impress. Waking up to a three course breakfast with freshly baked bread really does make for a good break away.

Whilst we were away we took a trip to the eden project which wasn't really my cup of tea but enjoyable all the same.

And we were also blessed with a sunny afternoon so we could spend a little time playing on the beach...

My little world of crafting ...

And on a crafty note My sewing machine has been working hard and I have managed to make river's new quilt with the fabric I showed you a post or so back. He now also has some beach themed curtains that I made tonight with some fabric I bought at the weekend. It's kinda late now so I'll get some pic's of them tomorrow and post them up for you all to see.

Hope your all having a nice weekend
Speak to you all soon

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Got lot's to tell you!!!

2008-05-20T06:46:00.000-07:00

I know it's only been 4 days since I last posted but I feel like I have so much to tell you so I'm afraid this could be a rather long post lol

Anyway we all got up early on Sunday and it was another lovely day so we decided to got and have a wander round the local car boot sale. It's not something we do very often but I'm glad we went because take a look at what I came home with!!!

Two complete Disney cushion knitting kit's!! The lady only wanted £2 each for them but hubby being hubby he managed to get the 2 kit's for £3!! I don't know when I'm gonna get time to do them but I couldn't not buy them at that price even if they sit in my shed for a couple of years.
Then a little further on I spotted this...

She only wanted 50p it's a bit of an odd L shape but it's a nice size and I'm sure I'll find something to do with it lol

Oh and whilst were on the subject of bargains Hubby and I went into town yesterday and we spotted this...

I spotted him, wanted him then hubby pointed out that it was only £2.50 in the sale so Hubby grabbed him and bought him for me ( thank you hunni)

Sock monkeys
The other day whilst blog hopping I came across a tutorial for making a monkey out of a pair of socks So I thought I'd have a go. I was up till 1 am this morning making him (I'm still a little slow on the sewing machine lol) But I think he was worth it, What do you think?

River's first words this morning were " funky monkey" as he ran away with him neatly tucked under his arm. That was swiftly followed by hubby's comment " I guess you'll be making two more of those then"
" why two" I answered
" Cause I want one too! " he said with a child like grin on his face
So whilst I was in town today I picked up...

...........Some more stripy socks ( Gotta keep the kid's happy haven't we lol)

River's quilt

River's been needing a new quilt for a while now but I just couldn't decide what sort of theme to go for until yesterday whilst I was tidying his bedroom I spotted these.....

It's a Boat themed mobile that hubby made last summer and a cross stitch picture of kipper the dog building a sand castle that I had done for him some time ago. So today Whilst I was in town I popped into the craft store and bought this...

So River's gonna have a beach themed bedroom for the summer ( hope he likes it)

Oh and whilst I was there I spotted this...

I had never seen it before It's 100% wool The basic Idea is that you knit with it then wash it at 60 to produce a nice felt like material. So me being me couldn't resist it and bought three colours to have a play about with.

If anyone has any tips or advice for me about this product I would be very grateful!!!

Anyway I think half of you are probably dying of bordum by now so I'll close for now and I'll speak to you all later.

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oooooh I forgot to show you

2008-05-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

I forgot to show you what river bought me for my birthday ( with a little bit of help for daddy lol)

I'm not allowed it until my birthday (another 7 whole days) but I can't wait to get my hands on it and give it a go ( I know I'm like a big kid lol )

Thankyou Mr postman

2008-05-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

Look what the postman bought today...

A cute little pink parcel and it's all for me.....

Look ain't she just the sweetest thing.... A little babushka doll keyring and some of the cutest little buttons

Sarah from pink petal design has the most amazing blog that has realy inspired me enough to drag out my sewing machine. She also has a few of her lovely handmade items in her etsy shop.

If you wanna take a peep at her blog the web addy is

http://pink-petal-designs.blogspot.com/

A short note for Sarah.... If your reading this hunni I just want to say Thank you so much You are so talented and I love her. I promise to take good care of her and to put the buttons to good use.

Well that's it for now

speak to you all soon

All Done !!!!

2008-05-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

It's one of river's favorite phrases at the moment so I thought I'd pinch it lol

I've finally got round to finishing my little challenge so here they are...

....... Four basic square cushions for my patio chairs. The only problem is that now I've finished them the weathers turn back to rain so we've got no cause to use them lol.
So what's next on my new adventure with my sewing machine?? well I haven't got a clue so any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Speak to you all again soon

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Recycled crayons

2008-05-14T09:02:00.002-07:00

Well I hope your all enjoying this glorious weather whilst it's here.
We've been playing in the garden all afternoon with mum.
Just thought I'd pop on for ten minute's before we go out again. we're going to have a look at car tonight down at lyme regis so hubby promised us some fish and chips and a strole along the beach whilst were there yipeee!!

Anyway I had a spare few minute's this morning whilst river was at nursery and before mum arrived so here's what I got up to....

I've seen this done on many blog's whilst I have been blog hopping and it looked so easy to do I just had to give it a try.
So I peeled the paper off the crayons, (with a little help from hubby before he went to work) then I sliced them up into tiny pieces Then hmmmmmmm well they just didn't want to melt!!!!!!
So after about an hour of heating, poking and proding my crayons they finally melted and I managed to produce my thomas the tank engine crayons. They're not perfect but river recognised that it was thomas and that's good enough for me lol

If anyone can give me some advice on this then it would be gratefully recieved!!!

Speak to you all soon

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ta-da !!!!

2008-05-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

well not quite a set of cushions but hey I used my sewing machine didn't I !!!

I used some scraps of denim fabric, dark blue cotton fabric (for the lining) and red felt to make a simple draw string bag for river to take to nursery.

AND .....

One half finished cushion. I still need to close one end and as for the other three well the fabric is cut and pressed and all ready to be run through the machine.
Probably won't be able to do it tomorrow though cause mum's traveling down to visit.

Speak to you all soon

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Look what I've got !!!!

2008-05-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

Ain't she sweet I spotted her whilst river and I were shopping today and I just had to have her.
ummmmmm I feel a new addiction coming on lol

Oh and I've decided that It's time to brush the cobwebs off my sewing machine and build up my confidence with it so whilst I was out shopping I picked up some nice summery fabric...

.....and a set of four cusion pads...

.... so my mission for tonight is to make a set of four cusions for our new patio table and chairs so watch this space......

Does The phrase "jack of all trade's, master of none" come to mind heheheh

Speak to you all soon
karen

Our trip to farmer palmers

2008-05-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Well we were blessed with some lovely hot weather for our trip to farmer Palmer's at the weekend and river enjoyed himself so much that he wouldn't sit still long enough to eat a picnic, so mike and I ended up sat on a bench at the side of one of the play area's having our food and watching river playing on the tractors.

We did manage to drag him away from the play area's long enough to take a look at some of the animals and I was proud to see that river could name every type of animal he saw yey!!!

All in all I think it was a sucess and I'm sure we'll be visiting again at some point.

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we're going on a picnic !!!

2008-05-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

We've decided that we're actually going to do something this weekend. We are going to take river to a place called farmer palmers. we've never been before but it looks great on the website I'm sure river will love it!!!

Anyway we decided that we'd have a picnic whilst we are there
(Cause hubby make's a fantastic picnic) So I thought I'd make a little contribution. What do you think?

I've also got another batch of flapjacks in the oven but they've got another 15 mins to go yet

Gotta go now cause that rather large pile of Ironing is calling me !!!!

Speak to you all soon

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yummy !!!

2008-05-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

Hiya
Haven't got anything crafty to show you today so I thought I'd show you the yummy flapjacks I made this afternoon. They've got a bit of a rustic look to them but they're still yummy lol

Speak to you all soon

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