Meeting Ysolda Teague

Just popping on quickly to share my excitement and delight at meeting the fabulously talented Ysolda Teague this week.




I joined in a fab short workshop at the brilliant Baa Ram Ewe shop in Leeds and she signed my copy of Little Red in the City (which is amazing!). We also had lots of fun trying on her test knits of all the beautiful patterns from the book - and I want to knit them ALL. NOW!





I think Cria will be first, seeing as I may have indulged in some gorgeous Fyberspates sport-weight especially for it. Just need my ball winder to arrive in the post now - me thinks Royal (pain in the arse) Mail may have lost it. Sigh.

Oh well, me and the boys are on our holidays this weekend, and we are having a fab time, so I promise lots of lovely pics when I get back :)

xXx

All new

Two new things in particular have made me happy this week.

Here's the first, our completed dining room. I don't have photos of it before as it looked too hideous, but here it is looking all pretty, fresh and much more spacious...
















I just love it so much and we've been making a big effort to keep it looking so good - fingers crossed it lasts, then I might try take some better photos on the DSLR!

And then there's this little sweetheart, our new niece...





Too cute!

I can't go travel down to meet her this weekend as I have to work, but I've made this to send with the boys...





I'd seen some similar on Pinterest and it just took a quick bit of Photoshop, my new printer and a frame - quick, easy, inexpensive and special. Hope the new parents like it.

xXx

Scrapped it!

I was a very lucky girl yesterday. My lovely hubby bought me this fantastic contraption...




Not just a printer, but a wireless printer that allows me to print any photo straight from my iPhone4 at the click of a button - no Mac/PC required! So now it has become much easier to scrap, I can match papers to the photos on my phone and quickly and easily print one off. It also scans and copies. But the best thing is that it's on sake for just £30 at Argos. (Don't rush off to buy one just yet though, I have a layout to share - I know, gasp, right?!)

So last night I got to this...










You might recognise the photos from our recent fruit picking adventure, and most of the papers and embellies are from Studio Calico kits (which I'm loving so much).

So what else is new? Oooh we finally decorated our dining room at the weekend. Here's a sneak peek but I'll share a full reveal once the blinds arrived and we've hung them as well as the new mirror :)







Hope you like!

Best get on, today is a day off and I'm trying to juggle tidying with entertaining Alex - I'm looking forward to going out for knit night too and catching up with my girlies :)

xXx

WIP Wednesday - and the big 3-0!

Just popping on to share my latest WIP with the regulars at Tami's Amis...

This is the start of Sophia, an open weave, slouchy neck top that I thought would be great for late summer. But the yarn I'm using is quite thick so unless it softens a lot after washing/blocking it might be better for early autumn - but whatever!

I really wasn't sure about how this was knitting up, or even if I was doing it right, but after seeing the photos I just took to show you guys, I actually think it might be ok so I'll persevere. It's a really easy, quick knit, a bit boring almost, but easy tv knitting so hopefully it shouldn't take me too long to complete. And it should help finish off a bit of this huge ball of cheap yarn I got in the US when I didn't know any better!

So, on to the big 3-0! No, not me, my husband, it was his birthday on Sunday (and his dad's as well! Happy birthday both of you!). So me and his mum took us all off to Scarborough for the weekend. The rain was somewhat of a hindrance on the Saturday, but Sunday was fine and sunny so the big boys took themselves off to their beloved cricket match and us girls and the little boys went on a train to the Sealife Centre.

Our weekend looked a lot like this:

A bit photo heavy there, sorry! Although I had to stop myself from sharing a whole load more as well lol!

Right, better finish getting ready for work - I'm on a later shift today, which is handy for morning blogging, but I won't be too grateful when I'm still at work nearing 8pm this evening. Groan. Oh well, I had a really good day yesterday, fingers crossed for another today please!

xXx

Fab family day out! (photo heavy!)

Woweee, what a scorcher it has been today!

We decided to use a recent Groupon voucher purchase and head up to North Yorkshire to a beautiful stately home to see some birds of prey. We saw an amazing display and I even got to hold a fully grown eagle - boy was he heavier than he looked! The boys had fun watching the birds and visiting their homes (Harry wanted to buy his own owl and take him home lol - a boy after my own heart!), as well as enjoying the bouncy castle and trampoline and running through the picturesque grounds.

On the way home we stopped to pick some strawberries at a local farm, and ended up with two big baskest of both strawberries and raspberries for the bargain price of just over £6 (once we found where all the lovely red, ripe and juicy strawberries were hiding!) The boys had loads of fun doing this, and I, being in a short dress, had more fun taking lots of photos lol!

Yummmmmmmmmy!

And finally, exhausted, we stopped for salad and pizza on the way home, more yummy!

That was the leftovers, which we took home (I blame the diet me and hubby are on, we just can't eat as much anymore - but we have both lost weight, exactly a stone between us in just two weeks, which is fab!). And once I'm no longer stuffed full of stuffed crust pizza, I'm going to think about baking a raspberry crumble and serving up some delicious strawberries and cream, droooooooool! I have tomorrow off work (no Monday blues for me this week!), so I think a spot of baking and crafting is called for ;)

xXx