book club outing

a few months ago the book club I've joined read Wife in the North, a blog turned book, written by a journalist who moved from London to Northumberland at the request of her hubby, who promptly went back to London to work, leaving her with 2 small children, and culture shock.

last night at Barter books, my favourite bookshop in the whole world, there was a talk by the author, sitting in the old waiting room, with a roaring fire, a glass of wine, and a talk about books and blogging; what's not to like.

as with the book I laughed, I almost cried, I admired the courage to bare your soul publicly, balancing the need to talk with the need to consider the feelings of those around you, and the reactions you might cause.

and when asked if anyone had a blog I kept quiet...... still not ready to share locally what I am happy to share on a wider scale, I guess my own blog balancing is still at the wobbling stage....

happy birthday Miss K

Yesterday was Miss K's birthday. 11 years, gosh how time flies.
and what did the birthday girl want for her birthday? well she's a girl after my own heart - chocolate, more chocolate (specifically "after eights") some books, a game and some pj's.

pj's I thought, I can do that. so I take the leftover fabric from downsizing a duvet cover, draw round a pair of pj's we already have, use the directions in Amy Butlers book to work out in what order to sew everything together, sew a motif onto a long sleeved t-shirt and hope it all fits.

note to self, next time check that clothing fits, before using it as a pattern, I've just spent an hour sewing a "border" on the bottoms (not shown), to make them long enough.............



thankfully Miss K didn't mind that they were too short, and happily went to bed wearing them, oh I can't describe how happy that made me feel xxxxx

tonight we have her party, 4 girls making pizzas, rock buns, decorating gingerbread men, and embellishing party bags. which sounds chaotic, until I start thinking about E's party which is tomorrow, and will involve 5 boys, club penguin, a LOT of noise, and running about and shrieking, and if I get my head round it, some penguin themed party games............... any ideas?

then we get E's actual birthday on Sunday, which means more cake! and my brother's birthday is on Sunday too, but we just seen him last weekend, so we won't see him again this weekend, and we'll just have to have some cake for him instead.....

the best thing about birthdays is the cake don't you agree.

and this morning we got another addition to the December birthday list, a nephew for Miss K and E, and I get to be an auntie again.

think that definitely deserves cake, I'm off to do some baking xxxxx

lantern parade

recipe for a truly magical evening.

take lengths of willow and create a square based pyramid, joining the corners with sticky tape
make a cross on the base, and attach a candle to the centre with wires
fill in the sides with more willow in designs of your choice
make a little hole shape on one side for a door,
cover with tissue paper pasted with copydex (very stinky quick drying glue)
leave to dry.

recommended time taken 45 minutes
actual time - over 2 hours........

return later as darkness approaches and attach your lantern to a pole

light candle.

and off we go, hundreds of lanterns shining in the darkness, up through the gardens, through the cherry orchards, past the cascade, fountains splashing in the darkness

candles lighting up the faces of enchanted children (and adults)

leading the parade past the holly king, through the enchanted forest, and to Father Christmas, who is busy handing out oranges.

perfect xxxx

snowflakes

Are you sitting down? Can you believe it? Two posts in one day!!! ok so there was a week of nothing before that, and before that but..........

anyway I'm just so happy with these snowflakes I couldn't wait, pattern of course from the lovely Lucy at Attic 24.

it may snow a lot more round here over the weekend, I can feel a crochet blizzard coming on, hope you all have a lovely weekend, with or without snowflakes xoxoxoxox

joy in the new year

I've joined Jacquie's Joy in the New Year Challenge, which is a challenge to finish up as many WIP's as you can by January 1st. I started a month late, but I've finished one! It's only tiny, and I can't show you anymore as it's a gift for someone, but I'm so excited, let's see what else I can finish instead of doing housework!

if

if........... you go down to the woods today



it will be VERY muddy

occasional breaks in the trees will afford you fantastic views,

you can fantasize about choosing the most enormous Christmas tree in the world...

and it will be just as well that you have essential supplies, and an OS map, as you will get quite lost, and it will start to get rather dark................

and when you finally find the car it will remind you that you are dangerously low on fuel.

nothing like a Sunday afternoon adventure!

excuses excuses

I tried to come up with a list of really good excuses as to why I failed to commit to a whole week of kitchen poetry, and didn't even manage to start bathroom poetry, hosted by Lynn, which makes me feel truly terrible, as I pushed for her to start it........
so where is this great list, truth is, I couldn't do it, there are no great excuses, only a few pretty poor ones - including

• hubby backed up all the photos onto an external hard drive, and then deleted them from the laptop, in an attempt to make it work better.. including my bathroom photos - but you really aren't missing much, a spider, some rather haphazardly balanced pictures on top of the bathroom cabinet, a small collection of plastic polar bears who live in the bathtub (??? strange but true)
• I was too busy baking billions of cookies for the children in need bake sale at school, and truly frustrated to find them all still in E's rucksac when he got home. his defence "I didn't know where to put them, and Mrs C would have shouted at me if I asked" -- Mrs C shouts a lot..........
• I stole away to the knitting and stitching show and had a wonderful day browsing, admiring, wondering, wishing... (and a little bit of buying)

so to try and make amends, one poetry picture, my knitted rag/strip bathmat.



and now for some eye candy, felt scraps bought in a bundle for making who knows what



lovely yarns, which were far too expensive for a impulse buy, so I've given them to hubby so he can wrap them up for me for Christmas - cunning plan huh!



sweet little crochet heart bunting, made mostly from jumpers that E and Miss K have grown out of and I've spent weeks unravelling. look I'm even blocking the hearts - ok so I sewed them together first, far too impatient to wait but still impressed that I'm blocking them.



and last but definitely NOT least, a lovely lovely lovely parcel that came from Fioleta with instructions to open before Christmas so I could be inspired. Thank you SO much, I love it. xxxxx