French Knots

Friday

What a glorious week, typical that after a grey and wet Bank Holiday weekend the week turns into a scorcher! We went to the May Day Steam again on Monday

more than a little mud, no sitting in the sun watching the traction engines in the parade ground this year as it was too wet for them to move

but we enjoyed the sights and the smells before squelching home to rinse off the mud - My Little Helper's jeans have been through the wash twice and are still not clean!

Never mind, it's Friday again and hopefully the nice weather will last and we can have a weekend of paddling pools, lazing in the sunshine. Well probably not too much lazing for me as Mr FK is away on a work piss up conference for the next two nights and will no doubt be a little worse for wear when he makes it home on Sunday! I've risked planting the peas and beans so will need to stand guard over them to stop the slugs and snails tucking in and I'd like to get some weeding done too. Other than that I think the deckchairs need an airing, which means I need to get them out in the sun for a few hours and should probably have a snooze on them just to make sure the cushions are still comfy.

I was the lucky winner of a draw that Florence held recently

The Big Sister thought it was some new fabric for patchwork and I have to agree that they are much to nice for washing dishes with, well perhaps Champagne flutes but certainly nothing too mucky! Thanks Florence, the little sparklers were a sweet surprise too.

Thank you all for you Anniversary wishes, we had a good day and are planning to make the most of our child free trip to Stockholm next week.....but I'll probably be missing them both by day three!

Have a chilled out weekend!

Happy Anniversary

May 7th 1988

Goodness weren't we young!

I find it hard to believe we have been married for 20 years, so many days, seasons and years. So many happy memories, some hard times and struggles that we have tackled together and somehow here we still are.Through effort, luck, stubbornness...and love. A couple, a family. We could never have guessed what lay ahead as we stood in the sunshine by the old tree in the Churchyard surrounded by our friends and family, full of dreams and possibilities.

Happy Anniversary, with my love. x

Big socks, little socks

It's definitely an addiction!

No sooner is one pair finished ( not for me this time, a gift for a friend - hence them not being modelled on my chunky calves as I don't want to stretch them!) than another is on the needles

These little ones were so quick to do, but blummin fiddly. I could do with some mini dpns I think, wonder if they are available? Not that I should go looking anywhere,Helen at  Angharad mentioned that she had found a great offer on sock yarn at Get Knitted and before you could say knitting needle I'd ordered 5 more balls of sock yarn! Whoops.... but it was on offer so really I'm saving money and will be able to make a start on some Christmas presents early!

I can't believe it's the first of May, the year is whizzing by so quickly and some days I'd be hard pushed to say what I'd been busy with all day. I wish the weather would perk up, unlike the rest of the country we had a grey and wet weekend and it's still pretty cold. I want to move into flip flops and lazy afternoons in the garden pottering in the warm sunshine. At least the garden is beginning to come to life, our seeds are getting rather leggy on the window sill but I don't want to loose them to a late frost.

But the hoards are gathering ready to munch their was through our veggies and salad again 

I think some sort of slug slayer will have to go on the shopping list.......right off to squeeze in another row or two......

Finally made something!

Finally found a bit of sewing mojo - perhaps it was unearthed at the back of the cupboard when I was doing a bit of spring cleaning the other day!

Little embellished brooches, stamped linen ( heat set with the iron), vintage cotton fabric and lace together with some beads I've had for years. And then once I got started

I

couldn't

stop!

There's a real feeling that comes with spring time, a fresh start after the sluggish winter months.A need to clear the decks and clean out the corners. I'm usually a dreadful hoarder so am trying to take advantage of my current desire to have a clear out to make some space in my sewing room in particular. While being careful not to sling something I really might regret loosing! I've got a great pile of stuff to freecycle/pass on/take to the charity shop and am now eyeing the kitchen cupboards. There's all sorts of dishes and goodness knows what lurking at the back of the corner cupboard that never sees the light of day.

I read an article which said you could decide if you really wanted to keep something by asking yourself ' If I was moving to Australia tomorrow would I take this with me?'.........on that basis I would need a large ocean liner to take my treasures over there!

Peaceful grey weekend

This was our view over the weekend. The Big Sister was at Brownie Camp ( has it really been a year since the last one?!) so we took My Little Helper away for the weekend to a peaceful campsite overlooking the Dee Estuary. There weren't too many people there so we could see straight out of our caravan window right across the estuary and watch the boats go past and the cloudy sky merge into the grey water.It was cold and grey but not too wet, we had a bracing walk along the sands, looking for pirate treasure. In fact it was Mr FK who found the treasure - a phone that someone had dropped ( we phone the 'Mum' in the names to arrange to return it as Mums always sort things out don't they!!)

It was interesting going back to just one child, no bickering or wails of Muuummmm when some injustice was done. But something was missing and for some reason I worried about her more than I would have done if we had been at home. She had a brilliant time, with very little sleep of course. Her highlight of the weekend was finding a dead rabbit and watching High School Musical for the umpteenth time. No doubt the Brownie Leaders thought the highlight was the glass bottle of wine they were looking forward to once all the little darlings had been collected.

I'm feeling more like myself, energy is returning and I have some exciting plans for this week so instead of a load waffle you might get to see some creativity!

Oh the pressure!

I dreamt I was designing and building a garden at the RHS Show at Tatton Park ! Only a few weeks to go and I hadn't done a design, no plants had been sourced and my main concern was how to fit it all in the back of my little blue Beetle to get it to the show ground! I woke up in a panic when My Little Helper climbed into bed with us at 6am.....but soon calmed down once I remembered I wasn't a garden designer and my input at the show will be spending too much money on plants and goodies from the Country Living Pavilion! I think my bizarre dream was brought on by thinking about the sweet peas we are planning to grow this year - mainly the fact that they are still in the packet!

I think Spring is trying it's best and today has been sunny, windy and rather chilly, but at least sunny. I crawled out from under the last month of illness and moaning to cut the grass and tut over the weedy state of my flower beds. Lots of shoots coming through, forget-me-nots, cowslips, Lily of the valley, dicentra, crocosmia, red white and blues and some pale lilac grape hyacinths that I thought were dark blue but are still welcome to join in the first flush of Spring.

It never ceases to amaze me how a bit of sunshine lifts my mood and spirits.Lets hope we get plenty of it this year!

Dig it!

While we were away we visited Diggerland (you might want to turn your speakers off if you click the link, it has one of those jingles that gets right inside your brain!). I wonder who thought of the idea, well the farm's not doing too well, shall we do B&B, open a teashop? No, lets invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in JCBs, diggers and tractors and people can come and have a go!

It was BRILLIANT!  All four of us could try digging holes with mini diggers, playing hook a duck with a digger or driving the tractors. My Little Helper wasn't tall enough for some of the activities but guess who's driving this?

Yes that's The Big Sister! 8 years old and she jumped up behind the wheel of this massive JCB and drove it round the muddy, rutted field bouncing over the bumps and expertly steering and working the accelerator.

I am so proud of her fearless approach, she's not fazed by trying anything new and joins in with any adventures enthusiastically.

My Little Helper soon got the hang of the ' rub your tummy while patting your head' type controls and was hooking his ducks no problem. In my defence I'd like to say that as I'm a creative person, I'm not good at the whole spatial awareness and hand/eye co-ordination thing and am not therefore embarrassed that a 4 year old hooked more ducks than me!

Am now returning to my quilt on the settee and some more crap on tv, I think Extreme Makeover Home Edition is on in a minute, my secret trash tv favourite.....oh, well, not so secret now!

Home again

What a wonderful week in Devon!

We took our caravan on it's first long trip and picked a campsite because it had an indoor pool - great to keep the children happy on rainy days we thought,but the weather was amazing.I'd packed woolly hats, scarves, gloves, wellies and extra blankets in fact we needed shorts and flip flops.

We got a bit sun burnt one day as it was so warm, we paddled in the sea and chilled out on the beach.Lovely, sunshine is such a mood enhancer and combined with the smell and sounds of the sea it's perfect.

Luckily the campsite was pretty empty as the nights were rather noisy - Mr FK snoring, My Little Helper grinding his teeth, The Big Sister talking in her sleep and me cough, cough, coughing! If we'd had close neighbours I think we'd have kept them awake with our night time chorus!

I've been back to the Dr today as I'm still feeling pretty manky ( didn't see my usual Dr, saw a new chap who was about thirty with the longest, darkest eyelashes I've ever seen!) and I still have tonsillitis and maybe glandular fever too, great!

Like most of the country we woke up to snow on Sunday morning, so different to our sunny week away.

I've managed to whittle the bloglines total down from the 578 new posts I had to read but still need to catch up with some of my favourites, an inspiring way to enjoy the peace in the house before collecting my little darlings from school.

That's better

Lovely new sock yarn, soft and such gorgeous colours. Now I have it I don't feel that I have to start the next pair straight away but I had to go and buy it!Thank you for all the sock love, I'm delighted with them.

A Wedding Shadow Box order that I made this week when I bribed the children to leave me in peace for an hour, they got to watch the terrible Power Rangers and I got to fiddle with glue and feathers. Everyone was happy!

We're off to Devon for a week tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed for some sunshine. I can't seem to shake the sore throat and now have a stinky cold too, I'd really like a week sitting by the sea with a good book or six, no interruptions, nobody to cook for and a size 10 bikini body! In the absence of all that we'll have a super time in Devon I'm sure.

Better than an egg!

Oh yes, so much better than an egg! The yarn has produced a magical pattern and by some miracle I had the right number of stitches when it came to shaping the toe. I'm so pleased and rather surprised. I couldn't get to grips with grafting the toe so it's finished with a three needle cast off. So after spending the best part of a week lolling around feeling manky.............

a pair! It's funny how once they are off the needles they go from being my ' don't touch, be careful not to slip the stitched off the end of the needles, keep counting the stitches and writing down how many rows I've done' project to just socks! On my feet all day today and wondering if it would be ok to wear them tomorrow too as I'm so pleased with them! I can't quite believe I've managed to learn to knit and made my first socks in just a couple of months.

I'm desperate to start another pair, John Lewis didn't have any yarn I liked today so will have to brave the gallery ( with the children! Arrgh full of beautiful ceramics - perhaps I can handcuff them?!) to get to the knit studio upstairs and sooth my craving with some more Opal Picture...oh yes...got to have it!!

Thanks for your get well wishes, I manged to force down a Creme Egg or two and can only say thank goodness for Penicillin! Whilst I know the half stone I've lost is due to dehydration and not eating so will go back on in a flash, at least I can enjoy feeling thinner for a day or two!

We had a quick Egg Hunt between the snow flurries on Sunday

and enjoyed watching Over the Hedge all curled up together in front of the fire. Hope your long weekend was chocolate filled!