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

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 ..........

11

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.....

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

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

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

Hiya
How are we all today.

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

apologies and Holiday pic's

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

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


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



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

....... Barcelona.

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

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

Just a quick one

Hiya How are we all?

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

Happy aniversary

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




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

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

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

Recipe from the lovely Lucy over at attic 24

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

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

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

Naturally River just had to go first...


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


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


So what did I get....

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

So how about you, what made you smile today?

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

Hiya

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




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

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

Hmmmmmmmm Nice bum's girls lol.

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

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

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

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

Thankyou's and a couple of awards.

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







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







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







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







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


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

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




And in my pretty pink parcel....

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



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



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


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

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

2. I have 2 sisters and one brother

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

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

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

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

7. I never go to bed before midnight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rachel another new bloggy friend and a lovely lady.


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

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

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

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

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

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

((((hugs))))