French Knots

Last to know?

Some people just seem to know about techy things, I'm not one of them. So when I find something I had been wishing for already exists I am disproportionatly happy!

We are on AOL and had been talking about changing to a cheaper option ( it's all about budgeting here these days) but I didn't want to loose my hundreds of favourites - tutorials, shopping sites, recipes, gardening tips etc. Then this week I discovered Delicious, the solution! I saw it as a button on someone's blog and wondered what it was, now I have my own page there and have been saving urls like a demon. I love the way you can tag things so that it makes it easy to find what you are after. And also to nosy at what other people, who like the same stuff as me, have saved too.

   

I have been playing with my new camera, especially with the depth of field, so of course needed to subscribe to a few more blogs to help.Digital Photography School is proving the best so far with really clear explanations of shutter speeds, DoF,ISO and their relationships, I've hardly scratched the surface as there is so much great info, worth a look if you want to move beyond 'Auto'!    

Have a weekend filled with savouring the small details.

Ta da!!

And the winner is..............................

Michelle Rosborough! Please drop me an email Michelle so I can get your prize in the post, the comment you left doesn't have a link in it. Thank you for all your comments, it's always great to find some new blogs to visit too.

The prize is one of my draught excluders ( unless I discover that Michelle lives in the tropics!) as so many of us are thinking about living a cost efficient life these days I thought it would be handy to keep the December draughts out. It's made from a recycled pair of jeans and decorated with some fabric I picked up from the remnant bin recently. I'm going to make some more to make sure I'm toasty warm this winter - which seems to be fast approaching despite the non appearance of summer this year.

I've been buying old woollen blankets to line the door curtain and curtains too as we live in an old house which is prone to draughts, I shall be hibernating in front of the wood burner with my knitting from Autumn onwards.

Amazing

My Little Helper asked for the stabilisers to be taken off his bike, we did and he got on and rode it. Just.like.that!

 Amazing!

My big boy, racing away,

And the sun came out this afternoon, almost as amazing!

Birthday Giveaway!

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! I have been enveloped in good wishes,kind thoughts and treats by family and friends ( including a trip to a tasty tapas bar with friends who made sure everyone in the place knew I was 40 with balloons and enthusiatic 'Happy Birthday' singing!) so I thought I'd spread the love a little.

Please leave me a comment on this post, just say hello if you don't usually like to comment, and I'll draw a winner next Wednesday  for some handmade goodness from me.

Thank you to everyone who gave me camera advice too, hopefully you will see an improvement in the photos around here as my new one arrived this morning

It is a Finepix S5800 ( happily the link button has mended itself with the newest typepad changes, though the spell check doesn't work any more so please forgive any mis-spelt words!) which is just what I wanted - more functionality than my old camera but small and lightweight too, and a brilliant price, perfect! Thanks to Sara eden  for her feedback on it. Then I discovered my brother has the same camera too, we all have such good taste!

 It arrived while I was in the shower, so I scared the Parcelforce man both with my enthusiastic grabbing of the box and my state of undress. No....., I had my dressing gown on, otherwise he'd probably still be collapsed on the path in a state of distress...I am 40 now you know!

Grown up now?!

Wonderful! A wonderful family celebration. If last weekend was the adult/coupley celebration this weekend was all about celebrating my birthday with the children, My Little Helper woke up at 6am as he was bursting with secrets and surprises.

Present opening was followed by breakfast in bed and when I went downstairs the house was decorated with birthday balloons and bunting. The Big Sister had a sore thumb from 'tying so many balloons!' 

One of the surprises was a trip to see Afrika!Afrika! an amazing show with energetic dancing, amazing acrobatics, vibrant costumes - all from a ringside seat for a wonderful view of the performers, many with rippling muscles and rather small costumes! What a birthday treat!

 

The chandliers were really unusual

creative recycling.

A family dinner at the Italian round the corner was followed by cake - oh my goodness.........

a chocolate truffle confection topped with tiers of marshmallows with some super cute candles chosen by Mr FK.

A lovely family day drew to a happy close as the sun finally came out and I celebrated the beginning of my fourties with a glass (or two!) of wine.

When I down loaded the pictures I found a few extra shots from My Little Helper

his cute self portrait and can you guess what this is......

well, it's his seat from the restaurant! What a star!

Clickety click

Regular readers may remember I learnt to knit earlier this year and got hooked on sock knitting. A few weeks ago I discovered a really easy pattern for a hat, a satisfying, snuggly, bee hive of a hat.

that looks great in all sorts of colours. Obsessive, hummm, yes I seem to be! I need to move on to something new as I now have lots of socks and lots of hats. Something simple,small and portable, hand warmers perhaps? Any suggestions knitters??

This was the scene a couple of evening ago

yes I know it looks like a sheet pegged up on a bit of wire in the bay window but it is actually our home cinema! Mr FK had a snazzy projector from work and hooked it up to the dvd player, once it got dark we hardly noticed the creases on the sheet/screen!

Hope you have great plans for the weekend either doing exciting things or relaxing and chilling out. I think I will be doing a bit of both -Sunday is my 40th birthday and there are plans afoot but I have no idea what they are. But I'm sure they will be fab, the children have been whispering in corners and I'm not allowed in the Big Sister's bedroom. Good, means she'll have to tidy it herself!

See you next week in a whole new era of my life!

A weekend away

Mr FK had clients to entertain at the bike racing at Knock Hill, near Edinburgh, on Sunday, a great excuse for us to get away together....but requiring some planning.

Friday 9am leave home( near Manchester) :: drive to Anglesey ( yes I know it's the wrong direction!) :: arrive 11am :: drop off children with Grandparents :: 1.30 get back in car and head for Scotland :: knit a lot :: 8pm arrive Edinburgh :: drink wine :: go to restaurant for curry :: find it is on fire ( I kid you not!) :: road closed :: go elsewhere to eat :: drink more wine :: go to bars :: drink more wine :: 2.30 collapse into bed 

Saturday 10.30 wake up :: wish had drunk more water and less wine :: 11.30 full breakfast for medicinal reasons :: read papers :: see a weird play at the Festival :: visit craft fair :: see hilarious stand up Pam Ann, 'Terror at 41,000 feet' :: go for tapas :: no wine, can't face it! :: midnight bed

Sunday 8.30 leave for racing :: arrive with tens of thousands of bike fans :: try not to show ignorance of all things motorbiking :: enjoy looking at all the men in leathers :: watch warm up races :: 12.30 eat massive 3 course lunch :: watch some more racing :: chat to other guests of MR FK's company :: 3pm force self to eat cakes ( just to polite you know) :: hope racer taken away by air ambulance is ok :: return to Edinburgh :: watch The Deceased and As Good as it Gets ( yes we like Jack Nicholson) :: fall asleep 11pm

Monday 7.30 leave Edinburgh :: drive home via Wales again!  

Phew, glad we don't do it too often!

The tiny room we watched the play in, felt like we were on stage too.

Lovely, and unexpected, views in central Edinburgh

 

Crossing the Forth Road Bridge

Men in leathers whizzing round very, very fast.

Cheddar

We had a relaxing week away in Somerset, despite a fair bit of rain we really enjoyed ourselves.We stayed on a great site with a huge adventure playground for the children, a swimming pool( My Little Helper complained the water made his eye bulbs sore!) and even hedges between each pitch to give some privacy.I love going on holiday in the caravan, it reminds me of making dens when I was little and is such a relaxed and laid back way to see different parts of the country.

Delish scrumpy on the cider farm with a HUGE roast dinner in their farm shop/cafe.

rain beating on the caravan roof, while cosy in bed

going cross country as the satnav took us down lots of little lanes in the middle of nowhere, a great way to explore

watching sweets being made, amongst the sweet sugary smells and of course buying some to try

spicy barbecue roasted veggies

the amazing Gorge, hideously touristy at the bottom but further up, unspoilt and wonderful

underground, a whole new world to explore, shaped by water millennia ago

 

We're back!

Well, where were we before a week away in Somerset intervened?

Ah yes, sports day and the end of term

a couple of birthdays, so I now have a 5 year old and a 9 year old,oh how the years are racing by ( too fast!)

and a wonderful day out with friends at the Tatton Flower Show. A mooch round the Country Living Pavilion, the amazing show gardens, the back to back gardens that are more realistic but no less breath taking, a tasty picnic lunch and of course some slug food..I mean plants to take home. The weather was lovely, sunny and breezy just right for a flower show so the new wellies were not required.

A wonderful relaxing day, a perfect way for 4 Mums to get ready for the long summer holidays. The children broke up the next day and then we were off to Cheddar for a week. More on that later as I have almost 700 of your posts to catch up on and I can't wait to see what adventures you've been having!