Making the most of the sunshine.

Last night I felt exhausted after spending pretty much the whole day working away in the garden... It really needed to be done, but it's just a case of finding the time really! Nothing new there!

I suppose it's because I'm new to gardening, but I'm not always sure where the best place for the plants in the flowerbeds is. So half the time I just shove them in anywhere, then a lot of the plants grow and grow and end up looking a bit out of place where I've originally put them.

So I had a big move around and the big tall one's are now at the back where they belong, and the little one's at the front. It's all looking a bit more organised, but I still have lots more to be getting on with!

I was completely chuffed when I realised a little while ago that one of the plants my Nan had brought up with her was a foxglove. I was so desperate for one, I think the way the flower's grow looks so impressive and the colour of this one is beautiful. So it put a smile on my face when I spotted the flowers appearing..

We had a visit from Ray's Mum, sister and little niece... we usually go round to his parents house to see them, so it was lovely to have them around here. I think you tend to feel so much more comfortable when you have people around your own house, you do have to look after everyone obviously, but you can feel more relaxed in the enviroment your used to.

Ray's sister gave us this lovely bouquet of flowers, aren't they gorgeous..!? All of the bright colours look amazing and I currently have the vase sat next to my branch with coloured crochet hearts hanging from, they compliment each other well!

They looked so pretty, I just had to take some photo's.

 

I was feeling a bit down the other day about whether or not I was doing thing's right when it comes to putting Rose in her cot to sleep for the night. Thank you so much for the lovely comments I recieved, it was so reassuring to know that everyone does everything differently, and there really is no wrong or right way of doing things.

I decided that I wanted Rose to learn to fall asleep by herself, not fall asleep whilst feeding from me and then me having to transfer her to the cot very carefully. If she can fall to sleep on her own, it would make the idea of a friend or family babysitting her at that time in the evening much less daunting.

The first night, I bathed her, got her ready for bed, fed her but made sure she was sleepy but not completely asleep when I put her down in the cot. I told myself that if she cried I would leave her for a maximum of 10 minutes then go up and settle her without picking her up. But I came downstairs and she only cried on/off for a maximum of 5 minutes before falling fast asleep. The next night it was literally only 2 minutes and then tonight, not a peep! I couldn't believe it... we've cracked it! :-) I never knew something like that would make me so happy!

I been working away on the cardigan I'm knitting for Rose.. 12-18 months this time. At least I know this one will fit her for more than 1 day!! I've also been getting more done on my hexagon blanket.. it seems to be one of those projects that I stop, start, stop, start.. it's nice to have a project that's continually there to work on whenever I feel like it..

Okay, back to the hexagon blanket. Ray's on nights at the moment, so just Rose and I at home. Oh how it's lovely to have complete control over the remote control! haha

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A very tiring day and a birthday gift finished ready to give away.

Well... I'm feeling a little worn out right now, it's been a very long day. But thought I would take a little time to write this post, as it feels good to sit down and have a little 'me' time.

It was lovely to get to sleep until 7:15am this morning but then Rose dropped her mid-morning nap and during the whole day she only slept about 30 minutes worth altogether.. it was so frustrating, she kept falling asleep but then shortly after, she's wake again. We had some of Ray's family visiting, so I thought that maybe she had just had too much stimulation and that's why she wasn't settling.. but usually she's fine and pretty much sticks to her routine. I tried her with calpol and teething gel, in case it was teething but she still wouldn't sleep. So obviously she was so over-tired by the end of the day that it was then really hard to get her down for the night.. I've got myself in a bit of a pickle really because I've been so soft and have gone for the easy option of breastfeeding her until she falls asleep and then VERY carefully transferring her into her cot... this sometimes doesn't work and then I end up feeding her for a little longer until she falls asleep again. This can sometimes go on for a while.. what I Really should have done by now is get her used to falling asleep by herself in her cot. I should let her cry for a short amount of time, instead of just going straight in to sooth her... maybe I'm just too soft.

Anyone have any advice?! Or did/does anyone else have the same problems... even if it's just to make me feel a little better about my mothering skills..!

Right! Onto other things... Since the embroidery that I was working on for my Nan's birthday went a little wrong, I decided to do something different for her gift. It was a pattern from the 'Cute and Easy Crochet' book, but it was printed in the June 2011 issue of Country Homes and Interiors. I thought I could make the flower purse for her and she could use it for a number of different things.. plus when I'm crocheting it feels like there's a faster result, rather than embroidery which seems to take foreverrr! Not that I ind spending the time on it, just not when I have a deadline to get it done by.

Here are some pics of it as a WIP:

Once I had sewn in the lining for the purse and sewn the sides together..

Then here it is finished! Button hole sewn... button sewn on.... flowers positioned and attached.

I quite like it..! :-)

But it Is a gift.. and I have to give it away, but it's going to a lovely home..!

I also bought a Dahlia plant for her as I know she loves them.. and just in case she doesn't like my homemade gift too much, she can enjoy looking at these pretty flowers..



Okay, I have to go bed now.. just in case the little madam wakes up again!

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Weekly round-up...

The garden is continuing to bloom... I think helped along quite a bit by the huge amount of rain water that has been falling onto the flower beds over the last few weeks!

Even if there hasn't been a lot of sunshine lately.. at least this photo looks bright and cheery!

Some of my pink Cosmo's have begun to flower. These flowers have come from my Nan's garden, she brought some up with her when she helped me to sort out my garden and they were one of the flowers that we had at our wedding. Nan did all of the flower arrangements and bouquets for our wedding and she saved some of the seeds from then and grew them on again. It feels quite special to know that this flower comes from the seeds of the flowers I had in my wedding bouquet.

My Lupin plant has begun to flower..! :-) I was so so chuffed when I noticed the flowering part of the plant growing taller and taller.. it looks so impressive in front of all the greenery behind it.

The other day I was saying how I've been potting up my new pots in the garden that were given to me, well here you go..! They're still pretty 'green' looking at the moment, but it won't be long before the plants are looking a bit more perky and start to flower. I can't wait..! I probably sound a little sad... how I get so excited over just plants!

I forgot to include this photo in my last post.. It's from when we went down to meet up with Mum, three generations together.. there would be four, but Nan was taking the photo. She's at Glastonbury at the moment, working as a nurse. I find myself feeling a little jealous as I've been a couple time before and absolutely loved it. But obviously having Rose now.. it wouldn't be the same, and I can watch it all on telly, in the comfort of my own front room!

(Edited to say - I meant my Mum was at Glastonbury, not my Nan! haha)

Ray has had his first Father's Day! He had been working long hours and so had forgotten that it was Father's Day that morning.. so was pleasantly surprised when he went in to get Rose and found a card and present laying next to her. She's obviously very advanced for her age.. being able to go shopping and write in a card already!!  (I apologise for the dodgy t-shirt... it didn't come from me!)

A very happy girl..!

I had my first trip to Hobbycraft yesterday! I needed to get a frame and mount for my Nan's birthday gift, but I couldn't find what I needed so I think I'm going to have to start all over! I've done some embroidery to put in a frame but it's on too smaller piece of fabric now and doesn't fit inside the mount. I'm not overly keen on it anyway, so I don't really mind starting again. Although I'm seeing her on Saturday and supposed to be giving it to her then.. somehow I think it may be a few day's late and have to be sent to her in the post..!

But look at all of the colours! I couldn't resist taking some photo's.. so pretty!

A whole aisle of craft books.... heaven!! I did manage to resist buying any more though, as I really do have quite a few to be getting on with anyway!



Rose has been napping upstairs the whole time I've put this post together... It's Sooooo lovely to have to quiet time to myself..!! Now... time to get on with the housework..!

I got all excited about the prospect of wearing a summer dress today as it was so so sunny this morning here, but yet again... it started to rain. When will the summer really arrive...!? I think we're definitely deserving of a heat wave sometime soon!

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Family, friends and picnics

As I mentioned before, last week Rose and I took a trip back to Dorset for a few days whilst Ray was working all over the weekend. We had such a lovely time.. well I did anyway, I can't really speak for Rose! But I'm pretty sure she enjoyed herself!

It was so lovely to be back home, I love it here in Sussex for the moment.. but in a couple of years when Ray will be able to move with work, I do hope to be able to move somewhere a little further south. Somewhere kind of half way between his family and mine. I see my family at least every few weeks but now with a little baby, it really makes you realise how quickly time flies! Seeing how much Rose changes in just a couple weeks makes it feel like I haven't been back in yonks!

As you can see from this picture of my Nan holding Rose.. she now has two teeth! Which has meant some sleepless nights for me... She's already transforming into a toddler! Scary stuff!

I got to see close friends and family whilst we were back in Dorset but as my Mum lives in Cornwall I wasn't going to be able to see her, so my Nan came up with the idea of us driving half way to Cornwall to see her for the day. We met up in Okehampton and went to a lovely place called Finch Foundry where we had a picnic and a look around. I think Mum was a little pleased to see Rose by the look of things!

The garden where we were was beautiful and had some gorgeous plants. So of course... I just Had to take some photo's to put up on here! :-)

These blue flowers were gorgeous! They weren't actually in the garden, it was a plant that Nan had bought. The flowers look like their made out of silk and to me, they look like they could be tiny fairy bonnet's.

We had our picnic next to the river, the leaflet we had recommended going on the 'river walk'. For some reason we thought this would be a walk suitable for a pushchair but it was the complete opposite, we had to carry Rose over quite a few obstacles before finding somewhere suitable to settle down for our lunch. That'll teach me to forget to put the baby carrier in the car!

I think this blue spiky looking plant is amazing, I don't know what it is though but I'd love to have some in my garden... so I'll have to find out...

They're all so lovely.. I want them all! Greedy me! But as you can see from the above photo.. Rose was also rather keen... 

I was given some pots for the garden from my step-dad and have been busy outside potting them up so I will try and get some photo's up on here soon. :-)

Right! Well, time to go and sort out dinner... so I will love you and leave you!

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Ta-dahhhhh! Japanese flower scarf!

Well here you go..!! I finished it. :-)

I did feel a bit silly posing for the photo's though...

Sorry about the cheesy grin on my face! I was trying to reach out and take a photo of just mainly the scarf but then it looked silly when you could only see half of my face..

I'm so chuffed with how it's turned out, the colours are so lovely and warm. It'll be the perfect scarf to wear in the Autumn. The yarn I used was King Cole's - Riot (I'm not too sure which colour variation though). It really was so easy to crochet with and is really soft, so perfect for a big cosy scarf!

On another note.. I was really happy coming away from Slimming World the other night, I lost 2 pounds this week after putting on half a pound the week before and now I only have 5 pounds to go until I reach my target. Woo hoo! :-)

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Back home

Well, I haven't been doing very much blogging over the last week, I've been a bit busy so my blog had to be put on the back-burner for a few days. It's our first day back here today (Rose and I), we've been to stay with my grandparents in Dorset for a few days. Ray was working long longg shifts over the weekend, so we wouldn't have seen very much of him anyway and it was really lovely to go and spend some time with my family. I've got lots of photo's and things to write about but they will all have to wait for another post.

Here's one of the photo's I took on one of my day's away..

It's been a very busy day here, Rose and I have been to baby massage for the second time today and really loved it. She went quite calm and relaxed for a while and then she just became a bit too wriggly to continue! So then we went to a mums, babies and toddlers group up the road afterwards where I met up with a good friend. I always come away from these things feeling very tired.. a whole room of small children running around and screaming, I suppose it's all good practise for me, getting used to what's still to come!!

I thought I would post a couple pictures of some fingerless gloves I knitted. I finished them a little while before I started writing this blog, but I love them and wanted to show them off! : )

I used a yarn from Sirdar, it's called Connemara - Tweed effect chunky and it's really lovely and soft. My auntie gave me the pattern, it's from Jellywares.com but I can't find the pattern on the website to be able to link you to it.

It's a little random, but I used to be a Big nail-biter. My finger nails have always looked horrible, but very strangely.. since having Rose, the habit has completely gone away and I've been able to let them grow! Maybe I just don't have the time to sit there and nibble away anymore..! I still find it really weird though that I now have nice nails to paint, I bought some new nail varnish the other day and was so chuffed with it. It was a lovely colour, it dried really quickly and it lasted 'chip-free' for quite a while..!

I just thought I would share that with you all! I'm not sure who will actually be interested in my new nail varnish though... ha!

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A couple of Almost finished projects..!

Well.. I thought I'd take a moment  to sit down and write a post..

I've just got back from the health visitors to get Rose weighed, not that we ever got to get that done.. I drove all the way over there with Rose and then as I went to walk in the building there was a sign outside saying that they weren't there today. Very annoying.. but I suppose it can't be helped. It'll just have to wait.. It's not like she's wasting away or anything!

Ray has been on night-shifts over the weekend, so we're having to be quiet so he can sleep... this isn't that easy though when Rose has found her voice and it babbling away at full-volume! Think we might be taking a walk into town in a little while...

So, I've finally got around to starting the flowers for my 'Spring Explosion tea cosy' from Crochet with Raymond. I'm making a lot of them from my '100 flowers to knit & crochet' book... but a lot of them in the book are knitted with double ended knitting needles. This just scares me.. but is it actually a lot more complicated!? Or would I be able to figure it out....

I'm going for a bold and bright colour scheme, a little like Alice's.. I just need to keep myself motivated and get on with making more flowers!

I've begun to block my Japanese flower scarf, I'm pinning it to a big cork board to block it but can only fit sections of the scarf at one time, so it's taking a few days to do..

I can't wait until it's finished and I can wear it... although I probably won't be wearing it for a few months yet until the weather gets a little colder..!

Right, she's getting louder and louder and has taken to screeching now, so I think we'll take a walk into town!

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