The Blanket - Work in Progress!

When I first learnt to crochet I started making a Granny Square blanket.
I started using Rico Creative cotton and a size 5 Hook.
I am pretty much using every colour that they offer in this yarn!

Initially, I didn't know what path I wanted the blanket to lead, I just knew that I wanted it to be bright, cheery and colourful.  It also needed to be huge as it needs to cover our kingside bed, with plenty of overhang (Idon't like it when crochet blankets just sit on top of a bed)

I started by planning to just keep on getting bigger and bigger from the first granny square, but as time went on and I got more confident I thought I'd make lots of different sized Granny Squares and stitch them together at the end.

I statred by replicating the initial granny quare in size but with the colours in the reverse order.  But then after I'd finished the first two large squares in this way I thought the colour order looks terrible side by side - so they will probably be seperated now.

I'm using white as the outer border on each square to tie each square together and also make it easier to sew up at the end.

It's such a beautiful yarn, as it's cotton its really soft and heavy, perfect for a snuggly blanket.  I think that at £1.99 for 50g it's reasonable too.  It's roughly double the price of a scratchy cheap acrylic ( not to my taste!) so although it's not the cheapest its worlds apart.

I've really picked up momentum now on this blanket, and I'm determined to get it finished by Christmas!

Here's Gabe with one of the squares!

A Hooky Present

My lovely friend Nat is due her second little boy in three weeks time.
Her colour theme for the nursery ( well, clothes storage room really , as she co-sleeps!) is teal and grey.
I was in a real quandry as to what to make this bundle of joy.  A ripple blanket in grey and teal?  Well I bought the yarn, started the intial chain and decided it just wasn't quite right.
A cot mobile? no, he will never be in there anyway!
A hat and booties for when baby is in the sling? erm, not sure.
Baby leg warmers for when he's slung? - still might do!

Here is what I went with in the end:-

Excuse the awful hanging space for the photo!  We are decked with multiple Halloween bunting and decs at the moment so I couldn't hang them on the fireplace!



I'm hoping it'll look lovely with her nursey and that she loves them.  I certainly do :-)

This is her nursery wall art so I'm hopeful they'll go great:-

So now this little project is finished , onto the next things that have been burning a hole in my creative pocket:-
*  knitting a scarf for Gaz
*  Crocheting wrist warmers for myself :-
*   Finishing the forever blanket?

Creative Times!

Since I last wrote ( hooow long ago?!) I have finally learnt to crochet!

I think I shall chart what I have made so far on here as a crochet diary for future!
I have pretty much put knitting on the back burner as I just get more enjoyment out of crocheting.
What bugs me about knitting is that if I make a mistake I have no idea how to remedy it, at least with crochet you can unravel at will and start again!
I think the main thing that I alway wanted to learn to crochet for is a tea cosy.  I finally made one last week:-

I got the pattern from here:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/article-2219040/Lifestyle-Gran-Designs.html

and it only took a couple of hours.  I used Rico Creatice cotton and a 5 hook.
In hindsight it is too big for our Burleigh teapot, I think I am going to make another smaller one or tighten this one, I'm not sure yet.
I have been looking for a simple pattern for ages so was chuffed to find this, and more importantly it works.  It really keeps the tea lovely and hot ( so they are used for a reason ;-)

Well, We had THE conversation...

Well, Gabe and I had THE conversation yesterday...

No , not the birds and the bees one, we had the 'GOD' conversation.

Gabe and I were baking a Valentines cake for daddy whilst Kitty was asleep ( only 3 days late for Valentines day but hey ho!) and Gabe asked if we can make pancakes soon.

"funny you should say that Gabe, it's Pancake Day next week"
"why" - not an uncommon question in this house!
"erm, because if you believe in God, and you are a Christian, you believe that you eat all the sugar, and naughty things up ready to be good for lent"
"do you and Daddy believe in God?"
"we don't, but you can if you want to babe"
"erm, ok"
looooong pause
"yes, I have decided I will have a religion, I will be odd!!!!"

Excellent Gabe, you truly are embracing this family's religious views!!!

To Sleep Perchance to Dream

I have always loved my bed,perhaps a bit too much. And i've always loved a lie-in.
Since having children i've learnt that the lie-in is long gone,i've had perhaps 3 in 3 years and im ok with that,really,i am,really.
But I do really miss being able to look forward to my evening,as a chance to relax,unwind and a restful nights sleep. Kitty,quite simply is a horrendous sleeper. Last night (due to a combination of a snotty nose and too much sugar before bed ) had me up every hour most of the night. I an exhausted and quite frankly hateful today !

Sometimes she sleeps great, and im such an optimist that I presume this means that she WILL get it one day and will be a brilliant sleeper. I do kinda still believe this in my heart of hearts,i think I may have to cast a spell actually.

Until that day,i'll remain knackered and lurching from mild tiredness one day to suicide watch the next.

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Mind the Gap!

Wow! That has been quite some gap in my blog!

Ive just been pondering why,and think partlybecause  i've been quite low,and partly i've been doing other things like getting better at knitting and doing my workout dvd in an attempt at creating some endorphins and cheering myself up!

I think the longer I left it the harder it became to pick the blog back up. Just reading back through it is such a great record of life,i must carry on -even without any followers !

Well,Kitty is walking now, she has been for about a week and she is really confident with it now.  It is so so lovely seeing her walking round the house, I absolutely love it!
We went for a trip to the shoe shop and £47 pounds later she has some shiny red boots for walking outside,  so the first place we took her, the dirty muddy woods!
Well - it is a family tradition! We got the first photos of Gabe walking up Bagnall Road woods and we wanted the same photos of Kitty.  We had a really lovely time.
Here is a favourite photo! :-

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Little Gems

Gabe has been coming out with some real corkers lately, which I thought were worth preserving for posterity.
He has moved on from asking WHY about everything, and instead asks, 'mum, what would happen if...?
He woke up the other morning and greeted me with, 'what would happen if I had no eyes mummy?'
And in the cable cars at Matlock Bath on Monday, 'mummy, what would happen if the doors opened now and i fell all the way down there?' not really what I want to be imagining whilst dangling in a cable car 1000ft up!

He doesn't appear to be overly bothered by my attempts at chastising him. After I told him not to throw his toys ad that boys who throw toys don't have any toys, he turned it into a nursery rhyme, dancing round the living room singing ' boys who throw toys dont have any toys' to the 'tune' of Jack and Jill went up the hill!

The best one was probably yesterday, Gabe told me that if I am naughty he will take all my knitting to the charity shop! Hmmmn, I wonder where he has heard that?......

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getting better ?

Here is my finished second heart' I sewed it together last night and added the buttons, i'm really pleased with it. It's by no means perfect, but it's mine and I made it! Yay!

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Small Victories

- Managing to get Kitty down the stair at 6.30 am without waking up her big brother

- Having a lovely shower first thing whilst the boys sleep on.

- Realising, as you look out the window this am that its really quiet and peaceful and you love the morning rain.

- Surviving on very little sleep and choosing to smile, be happy and realise worse things happen,

- Star gazing through the velux with Gaz last night and finally seeing a shooting star.

- Being excited about going to Run To The Hills this weekend and showing the kids lots of camper vans and choosing what features we want.

- Having great friends who come round for a cuppa instead when you cancel a cinema trip due to non-sleeping baby.

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One of those gorgeous days

For some reason at the moment I feel a lot more in control of my own life and able to cope with both the kids.
I'm not sure whether this is because I am getting alot more sleep than in the past few months. Kitty is still pretty horrendous but for the last couple of weeks she has slept at least until 12 which means that I get my evening back. Having a crap nights sleep is one thing, but not getting to relax for a few hours when the kids are asleep and being up and down the stairs is pretty soul destroying.

It also helps when Gabe is well behaved. Im not asking for him to be seen but not heard, just not evil! He was fantastic today. Yes, he ran a bit too far from me sometimes round Trentham Gardens, and he was a bit flick happy in the sandpit, but he was generally brilliant!

Kitty's been her happy, chilled self today. She squealed when she saw the swings and smiled her little heart out all day. She is such a little angel.

I've felt so content and happy with my beautiful babies today. The sun has been shining and I have felt so lucky. Tired, but happy! X

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Plums for breakfast

After their normal shreddies, banana, honey on toast combo the kids have been eating plums from Nanny & Grandad's tree today. Love it!

Gabe's gone to pre-school and I carried him the whole way!when do boys get less lazy I wonder? Do they ever?! I must admit though, I loved it. It's not very often anymore that Gabe is the one that gets to be carried.

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Small Talk

So what are you upto at the moment?
I am so shit at answering this question at parties.
When I get home I can think of lots of exciting, fun things i've been upto lately (well ok maybe a couple!) but when asked at a party my mind just goes blank! I think its because I am and always have been really crap at talking about myself. I'm just not that sort of person. I think it's due to growing up with a loud, funny, centre of attention sister and being the quiet one, busily doing whatever she wants with no_one noticing.
Photo above it Gabe with his face painted as a 'black tiger' love it!

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I did it!

I got my nose pierced yesterday. I have had it exness before when I was 16. But I did it myself that time ;-)

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kidlets

I had vague plans of what we could do today, the kids and I . None of these surfaced, for various reasons,, and I ended up having a very productive housewifey day!
You see, I am a housewife, but I often neglect my duties. For instance,hubby rarely gets tea and his sandwiches made for work in the same day.
I'll cook something gorg for tea and the next day there's no bread for hubbys toast or for his sandwiches that day. That's just the kinda gal I am.
However, today I have hoovered upstairs (yes upstairs! I think this is generally a bi-annual event.)
I have took the car to the car wash (gabe loooves this!) and hoovereed it out.
I have also cooked from scratch Butternut Squash soup for the kids (including homemade chicken stock natch) and lasagne and veg for us.
God its been a good day.
Lets see what the night (and princess terror Kitty) brings....

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lifting your spirits

On a grey dreary 'summers' day in stoke I was sat at traffic lights when I saw these gorgeous flowers and it made me smile.
I love that someone has made the effort to brighten up a dreary patch of grass - thank you!

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Ooh

My Cath Kidston sewing case arrived today, it's yummy.
That is all...

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k1sl1

This Thursday, like all Thursdays is Gabe's 'swimming day'. My parents come over to see us all in Costa del Stoke and that means when the kids have gone to bed (actually, IF, not WHEN) I can ask mom for a knitting lesson.
Kitty went off really quickly (has woken twice since but hey ho) so I quickly whipped out me bunting pattern and asked mom to teach me to decrease.
As i've been practicing knitting now by knitting random messy rows when Kitty allows by sleeping (not very often) for a few weeks now,moms teaching actually made sense. I loved it.
Almost knitted my first bunting flag and I am dead chuffed.
As for knitting 2 purl stiches together through the back of the stitch - aaaaaaargh!
Photos to folllow I promise x

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Shabby Chic

As a poor student (is there any other kind) I rarely bought anything new and absolutley loved a good rummage throught the charity shops of Stone.
I still partake in this favorite hobby to get the majority of my books but decided today that as I no longer have a job (hubby does have 2!) I should really stop online shopping at places like Cath Kidston and dreaming I have the same sort of cash to throw around of the pre-kids, dual income life!

I am always lusting after Cath Kidston, Emma Bridgewater and various shabby chic items, a particular sewing box I want is totally vintage based and I know that with a bit of legwork I can get the real thing for a fraction of the CK cost! Not on Ebay of course, everyone knows Vintage is huge right now, so nothing vaguely shabby is sold at shabby prices on there anymore!

The kids were dead happy to sit in the pushchair for once too as I went round the many charity shops . They know that each of these treasure mines has an ample selection of toys and books they neither need or particularly want, but hey, it's new, and they are already retail junkies just like their mom.

Gabe got 4 books for £1 today and four dinosaurs (including one that winds and walks _ much to his delight) grand total of £4! Kitty got nothing, (i know, horrid mummy) but it appears that like most of her big brother's toys, she loves dinosaurs!
I treated myself to a fabric Laura Ashley bag to store my knitting - what's not to love?

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Getting Excited

Well, this time next week my little girl will be 1 and my little boy will be 3.

I think it's fair to say I am lliterally bubbling with excitement. I'm excited about seeing their little faces when they open their presents. I'm excited about Gabe being able to articulate how much he loves his presents - at Christmas it was 'ooooh, woooo, I love it' so can't wait to see if that's changed!

I'm excited (if not a little anxious) about baking their birthday cakes and watching and trying to assist hubby icing them. Gabe wants a Brum cake (although this changes daily) and Kitty is having a pink number 1 shaped cake. Or mayble white with pale pink polka dots. The cakes have always been brilliant for gabe (in my humble opinion) so hopefully this year they will be too. God, gabe's tractor cake was fab last year and I baked it whilst having contractions with Kitty and Gaz decorated it on his actual 2nd birthday with a house full of people and a newborn baby daughter!

I'm excited about Kitty's little tea party on her birthday and decorating the table and balloons etc.. I've bought a banner today to hang on the front door that says ' I am one' (tacky) and some wooden bunting that says 'Happy Birthday' to hang in the hall (tasteful)

I'm excited about Gabe's birthday party at Wonderland at the weekend, that he really wanted and we weren't sure about. He will love it. Hope the weather is sunny so it's perfect

Just one downer on the birthday planning. Gabe has been asking all year for the WOW Toy Ambulance. If anyone has asked him in the last 9 months odd what he wants for his birthday he says that. Not ambulance, not wow toy, but Wow toy ambulance. So we ordered it from Over The Rainbow toy shop in Leek and it's sitting in the attic awaiting wrapping.

My mom asked him yesterday what he most wanted for his birthday and he said .......'a remote controlled spider' 'Kitty can have the wow toy ambulance!'

Bloody advertising on telly targeting children when eating their breakfast! He saw in on a kids cable channel at his cousins house....weep

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one of those days

we've had a fantastic family afternoon at Splash Landings water park.
One of the great things about Stoke is that Alton Towers is only twenty minutes away so we can pop up easily. You can also buy one of their not readily advertised 'toddler' passes which is £7.50 per parent And child, so we all went in for the bargainous price of £15.

Last time we took Kitty there when she was six months old she hated it, so we were a bit trepidatious this time.
Luckily, after a bit of clingyness and a lot of dunking, splashing and floating on foam motorbikes she started to warm to the place and eventually LOVED it!

We had no such fears about her brother. Gabe absolutely loves the place. Infact, he asks to go pretty much every other day without fail! He was swimming and climbing up the steps and rope ladders. Squirting poor unsuspecting swimmers with the water cannons. Shooting down water slides and swimming in the outdoor pool.

Then to top it all off, when the kids were eating their overpriced Paninis in the bar while Gaz and i shared a can of pop and a Yorkie ( i'd rather starve and spend the money on something lovely than pay their food prices) there was a pirate and a squirrel giant stuffed characters walking around for Gabe to cuddle, and free face-painting ( Gabe was a tiger as per usual)

We left knackered and happy.

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