A busy two weeks - Part 2

Finally - two minutes to catch up with the blog!  I have been a busy wee crafter over the last few weeks.

The house has been desperately needing proper curtains.  All our windows are single glazed and after the rain and snow of recent weeks, we have been feeling the cold.  I wanted to line the curtains and with the way the pattern was laid out, was going to have to join the fabric to make the right width for the window.  I was finalising my measurements to work out the hems and realised that the width of the fabric was the exact drop I needed for the windows.  I remarked to Mr H that it was a shame the pattern went the wrong way as it would make it much easier to sew.  The fabric had a leafy design and after a quick squint at the fabric we decided we liked it just fine going sideways!  So the curtains needed no joins and were much easier to make - yay!

After all that work I felt I deserved a wee treat craftwise and decided to do something frivilous.  I had long fancied making a crochet blanket for my bed and decided to try out some granny squares.  I had a few odds and ends of wool that I rescued when a friend was clearing out, so got to work on a wee blanket for baby Lollipop.

 I have no idea what kind of wool it was but the colours went quite nicely.  After making a few squares I realised I didn't have enough wool to make a blanket, so I made a wee mat for the windowsill.  It looks nice with a spring vase of flowers.

I was really pleased as the granny squares were so quick to do and decided to look for a pattern for something bigger.  A quick scout on pinterest brought a new blog for me.  According to Matt has a similar colourbase to Attic 24 and as all my walls are white, bright colours fit in quite well.

I fell in love with Matt's granny square blanket and after a few days of telling myself I had lots of other things to do.....

A parcel arrived!

Full of lovely colours!

20 of them!

I splashed out and bought the Stylecraft Special DK Colour Pack (Hunt about on google for the best prices) that Matt had used.  I also added in 3 darker colours to make the overall look a little less pastel-y.  I added green, claret and raspberry.  I'm going to try and make the blanket completely random and have decided to join as I go and will try to sew in the ends as I go too - wonder how long that will last?!

Work is progressing steadily and I've borrowed a friends yarn winder which makes the balls a little more manageable and they take up less space. 

So hopefully I'll have more pics soon, have fun, xx

A busy two weeks- Part 1

I always feel that January flies past and is a very busy month.  After the chaos of the pre-Christmas rush and then the idleness of New Year, I'm usually good at starting the year by getting things done!  

The weather has been quite chilly over the past few weeks, but we wrapped up warm and headed up to the top of a nearby field.  KP was quite tired and the walk didn't last long but it was nice to get out.  Hot chocolates all round when we got home. 

Trying out the new wellies.  Away in the distance you can just see Glasgow.

 It's been the kind of wintery weather that makes stodgy food so welcome.

A cosy breakfast with some posh raspberry jam (my Mum makes up a Christmas hamper for me each year) and my new spotty mug.  Just the right size for the morning caffeine hit.  Imagine my dismay when the handle cracked 2 days later. ;-(

I tried an old recipe from my great-grannies cook book too and made sausage pie.  When I read the title I imagined nice pastry, but it turns out it's more like cottage pie, but made with sausages.

We tweaked the recipe a wee bit, adding a few more ingredients.  There were 4 clean plates at the end of the meal, so we'll assume it was a success!

I thought I'd share some lovely pictures of a building Mr H is working on at the moment.  It was a children's day nursery for many years and is being converted back into a house.

Some beautiful old wallpaper which has another few layers on top.

The entrance hall with it's original tiling still intact.

The view from the roof.  The church with the scaffolding is another building Mr H is working on.

The window on the stair - It's a pretty grand place!

 I think I'll need to sign off now, the kids are starting to lose interest in CBeebies so back to work for me! ;-)

I'll post part 2 as soon as I'm able - lots of crafting!

TTFN

I'm back

Happy New Year to everyone, what a year 2012 turned out to be.  I only started blogging in September 2011 and made it to March 2012 and then it all stopped.  I do have a good reason, honest! 

Would you like to see my excuse?

There she is, little Lollipop.  We were taken a little by surprise but now can't imagine life without her!  I suffer from pretty bad morning sickness, although it was as usual, worse at night.  For the first few months I was asleep most nights by 8 o'clock, so my blogging time was spent in the land of nod!  

With a new arrival imminent, we had to try and finish the house so it was off to storage with furniture and boxes, plastering finished and walls painted.  The outside of the house was rendered and the floors inside sanded.  

The gable end

 

 

 

The scaffolding around the back of the house

Before

After!

Skirting boards and door frames were cut, painted and fitted (mostly by me and bump) and the girls finally had a finished (more or less) bedroom to sleep in.  I finally put door handles on the kitchen cabinets and took the protective film off the doors (the kitchen had been in for about 20 months so it was almost like having a new kitchen again)  Our bedroom is now painted too although it was done after baby arrived and while we were in hospital.  Phew!

The garden has been totally neglected and if anything is in a worse state than it was before.  I still managed a little bit of crafting but not nearly enough!  The girls have grown and are turning into little characters, so alike, but so individual.  They think their little sister is great and have become very helpful, getting nappies for me and rocking her moses basket - long may it continue!

So....

this year I am planning to 

* finish all the painting in the house - mostly windows

*get the house in order - back to using flylady to organise the chaos

*craft, craft, craft, hopefully making some nice nicknacks for the house

*tackle the garden, some flowers would be nice and some home grown vegetables

*spend vast quantities of time with the kids, playing, entertaining them and generally having fun

* go on holiday, somewhere, anywhere!

 

Let's see how we do, I hope you'll join me, look in often and leave nice comments to encourage and cajole me.

Christmas Day walk on the beach

I'm still here!

Hello blogland, I've been missing in action for nearly a month.  My camera has been broken and I've been taking snaps on my phone, but Mr H has the cable at work so I can't show those pics either and I have some beauties!

I have also been crafting my socks off.  My girlies now have curtains in their bedroom (yay) and I may even get some up soon in my own room.  February's craft project has taken longer than planned and been slightly highjacked with a 'this one I need to finish' project so I am plodding along slowly but hope to be posting regularly soon.

I had a lovely message from Lyn asking how March's scavenger hunt was going, truth is I wrote down the list on a piece of paper at the start of the month and promptly lost it.  March seems to have been a terribly disorganised month ;-)  I'll pop over to Postcards from the PP and write out another list.  I still have 4 days to come up with the goods!

TTFN and wish me luck

February Photo Scavenger Hunt

Here we are with February's photos.  I took most of them today, nothing like leaving it to the last minute!  Thanks to my glamorous assistant.

5 - speaks for itself!

Black and White - and still a few answers to go

Crowded - our windowsill with all of R's birthday cards

 Cupid -face has been disguised to protect the innocent - I'm not really married to a stick man

 

 

Empty - the last of the Christmas chocolates, roll on Easter!

Food - left over mashed potato, mixed with a little flour and deep fried - sooooo tasty!

Heritage - my great great granny's cookbook (check out some of the recipes on Voices from the ancestors )

In the Sky - there are little specks in the sky which are some local racing pigeons (trust me), we pass them on the way to the nursery.

Leap Year - My engagement ring, we got engaged 4 years ago today, (12 years really!)

 Love - I love tulips and these ones are gorgeous, thanks mum

Music - I have been doing a little bit of work and used these Cd's

Train - KP's favourite, in her words, toot toot!

Phew, made it for the month and with 42 minutes to spare!

I will be more organised next month, honest, now do I have time for the monthly makes tonight too....

It's been a while

I've just realised it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last post, I've been having camera problems and also seem to have been running around like a headless chicken!  However, my house is slightly tidier and the spare room less full of boxes, craft projects have moved on and I have even been dabbling in a little work, so I have not been idle!

Just the one picture today, R celebrated her 4th birthday last week - 4! how did that happen?  After the party with her friends last month and her Tinkerbell cake she decided that A little mermaid cake would be satisfactory!  She has quite a way with words,  the night before her birthday she told me she was just practising being 4 that night and that I had to get her a present and a cake.  Kids learn fast!

I used ready coloured icing to make the decorations.  It was quite easy to use although I found the blue crumbled a bit.  It kept in an airtight container for the month between the party and birthday so could be used for several cakes  I cheated with an Ariel toy and added gummy sweety sea creatures.

I now have a month off before Mr H's birthday, I have an idea for that, so watch this space!

Any keen chefs out there may be interested in my other blog, (just started) where I am taking recipies from my great great grans cook book (I think she wrote it out in the early 1940's).  The blog is called Voices from the ancestors and I plan to add documents from my family's history including diarys and anything else I come across in my family tree research.

Hopefully normal servicce shall resume soon, I need to get my photo scavenger hunt done tomorrow and make an effort to finish my monthly make.  I can see another busy week in store.

Thanks for popping by and have a good week.

Happy Valentines day

 Good morning, I hope you are having a nice Valentines Day.  Mr H and I agreed years ago that we didn't do Valentines.  We would usually have a nice dinner in the house but that would be it, so you can imagine my surprise this morning  when....

He knows me too well!  I love fizzy sweeties and always fancy one of the Ness tweed handbags (they're a bit above me price wise!) a brooch is just the thing!

So no pressure on me to find something romantic for him.  I could always try some more chocolates, I  made some salt caramel chocs last week for my friends birthday with a little bit of success and lots of squashed chocolates!

 Step one, melt your chocolate and paint your moulds, I used ice cube trays.

Step 2, make your caramel and once it cools add the salt, pour into the moulds when it is cooler.  The first batch had set too firmly as R woke up with ear ache and took a while to settle back to sleep.  The second batch was gooier and poured beautifully.

step 3, tip out gently onto a plate, ta da! or if you are me, wiggle the mould furiously, say a few choice words as the chocolate cracks into pieces!

Luckily there were enough whole ones to make a box of choc's for my friend and I ended up eating all the squashed ones.  A hard job but someone has to do it! ;-)  I think I may have made the chocolate in the moulds too thin as they were very delicate.  

I'm not sure I would make these ones again, the caramel had a burnt sugar taste which went well with the dark chocolate but I didn't like the salt at all.  The grains seemed to have sunk to the bottom of the bowl so only a few made it into the chocs, which I think was probably a good thing.  We'll see if my friend is still talking to me later today!

Last pic was a wee surprise too,

Not from Mr H this time, but a wee thank you for looking after another friends children while she went through the stress of moving house - rather her than me is all I can say, 1 year on and most of our things are still in boxes.

Have a great day, I hope your significant other is good to you!

Monthly make, weather and Tintin

Blistering Barnacles it's chilly!  Our house has been taken over by Tintin phrases, Mr H loves the books and for Christmas recieved this boxset.  Some of the stories are awful - I'm surprised Tintin has any brain cells left - he gets knocked unconcious at least once in every episode. It's a bit stereotypical but....

 

the little Habbies have taken to it in a big way, R watches intently and KP runs around barking like a dog everytime Snowy appears.  Ach well, it gives me 10 minutes to myself, so can't complain.

The weather here has been a little chilly over the last few days but alas no snow.  We started the week with thick fog which made for a very atmospheric walk to nursery!

 The clock tower

 The shops at the bottom of the street have disappeared into the gloom.

 The hill and woods at the end of the street seem to have vanished too.

 I happened to be out and about the evening of the day these were taken and it was very eerie walking up the lane myself with the mist swirling around!

 The next day the fog was still there but it was so cold that you could see the frost settling.  It was the oddest thing, it looked like someone had been out with a can of spray snow.

 The cobwebs were all beautifully painted - R informed me that the fairies had been busy painting them,  They looked so delicate and you could see all the ice crystals, very pretty!

 You do have to feel sorry for all the wee spiders though!   You don't realise there are so many webs around until they are all painted silver.

My first month of making in 2012 resulted in quite a number of creations - more than I thought I would manage!

 After taking down all the Christmas decorations the house looked a little bare, so I decided a chain of colourful wheels would be just the thing. Taken from Christmas Crafting in no time  Thankfully we had the birthday party which provided a nice selection of colourful paper (Mr H did laugh at me ironing a few of the more crumpled pieces, he muttered something about shirts but I pretended not to hear him!)

After visiting Aannaboos house I got this great idea for organising myself.  A peg for each day of the week, one for the 'to do' list and one for shopping.  All I need to do is find the letters 'm' and 's' and I can finish them!

I also managed the birthday cake (yep claiming that as a make!) and my curtains are ready, they just need curtain poles to attach to (Mr H take note) - I know he noseys on here to see what I'm up to.

Here's a sneaky peek at February's effort although I have already finished one make for KP.

I also managed to finish my scavenger hunt for January and will pop along to add the extra photos to the previous post.

Phew! note to self, don't leave it so long between blogs!
Keep cosy folks, spring must be on the way soon (she says sitting on the rug in front of the fire, with her thick jumper on)
ttfn