We're back!

We got back from Spain in the early hours of the morning last night and because Rose's routine was all out, I ended up only having 4 hours sleep! Luckily she had a lonngg nap this morning so I had a chance to catch up on some sleep and start un-packing. What a task I tell you!! I think I've got about 6 loads worth of washing to get through. Fun times eh!?

It seems that we've brought the sunny weather back with us! Today it's been beautiful weather so even though I still had loads of unpacking and sorting to do, we made the most out of the sun and Ray still having 1 more day off of work and went and relaxed on our picnic rug in Priory park. 

The good thing about going away for a while means that when you return there's a load of un-opened post waiting for you. Not so good when it's bills but quite exciting when it's your subcription to you fave mag!

Rose is on the move crawling now so she was amusing herself (under supervision of course! haha), so I enjoyed a little time flicking through Country Homes & Interiors in the sunshine.. and oh my! It's Such a good issue, so many pretty pictures. :-)

I'm going to try and get an early night tonight as I've got a busy day tomorrow but I will write another post soon telling you about our holiday and show you some pics...

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A good day...

Today has been a good day.
Ray had some time off so we spent some good quality time together as a family..

We've been trying to use up food in the house before we go on holiday, so we packed up a lovely picnic with a flask of coffee and went to some pretty gardens in Chichester for lunch.

It's lovely having Ray there with us so that I get a little time to be able to read and also go around taking photo's of things.  I felt a little self-conscious at times thinking that people would be looking at me with my camera... but then I thought 'What the hell! No one cares what I'm doing!' so I carried on snapping away and I'm so glad I did because I think I got some really nice photo's.  :-)

We ended up spending a few hours there and obviously the fresh air had a good effect on Rose because she ended up have a 2 and a half hour sleep this afternoon! It was a good job she did because I had loads of packing to get on with. We've been on holiday with Rose before but just to the Isle of Wight, so we could pile everything except the kitchen sink into the car. But this time I'm having to pack a suitcase with all of Rose's and my things in it (most of Ray's stuff in a smaller suitcase that classes as hand luggage) and I'm quickly running out of space!

This evening I cooked a beef and ale casserole from one of Jamie Oliver's recipe books and it really was very yummy. It was a recipe that I haven't used before and I think it's the only one I'll use from now on as it was so good.

For pudding we had an apple berry pie, definitely not Slimming World!

But I'm feeling a little more relaxed about food, until we come back from Spain anyway... then I'll have to lose all the weight I would have put on whilst we're away..!

Okay, well I'm now off to carry on with knitting my current WIP.

I hope everyone's had a lovely day.

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A very pro-active week...

I'm feeling really happy at the moment... that might have something to do with the fact it's only a few day's until we go to Spain though!

Since we got back from visiting family in Nottingham I feel like I've been much more pro-active and have got loads done. Because I'm at home with Rose all the time, sometimes I find myself thinking 'What did I Actually get done today?!', it's easy to forget how much time is actually spent sorting the house out and caring for Rose...

This photo was taken when we were in Nottingham (she always has great timing for when she wants a feed, just before I eat my breakfast!)

I've almost covered the whole fridge with my SW certificates, looking at them helps me to stay away from the biscuits.. only sometimes though!

After moaning about the garden in my post that I wrote the other day, I decided to get some motivation together and get out there to sort it out!

Luckily we had a relatively sunny afternoon a couple day's ago and I put rose in her activity station thing outside and I got to work. After almost an hour of good behaviour from Rose and a few scratches to my arms (Rose thorns), I had filled 4 massive bin liners full of garden waste.

In just a few weeks it had gone crazy out there... probably because of all the rain, but everything looked so forgotten about and overgrown!

I've decided that I HATE Nasturtiums..!! I got given a couple of tiny little Nasturtium plants and so in the ground they went... but they then proceeded to Completely take over my tiny garden. In a couple weeks they had grown over everything and because my garden is quite dry usually and doesn't get loads of sunshine on one side, it just made matters worse. So out they came! And now every thing's looking much better.... :-)

I've also finished my auntie's birthday present and I'm completely thrilled with it, I'll have to wait until we get back to show you it though as i don't want to spoil the surprise...

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Sniffles and sewing...

I've been working on my auntie's birthday present any moment I can get, I have less than two weeks to get it done and I'm starting to panic that I won't have it ready in time. Usually that would be plenty of time to finish it, but lately I don't seem to get much free time in the day and then when it comes to the evenings, Rose has to be fed and put to bed, dinner has to be cooked and eaten and then any time that I have left in the evenings I don't really want to sit glued to the laptop or sewing machine and ignoring Ray!

I can't show too much of it as it's sort of a surprise what I'm making for her, but when she's received it I shall put a photo on here for you to see.

We've had a few sleepless nights recently, Rose has an awful cold at the moment and she keeps waking all through the night from coughing. I've got my fingers crossed that she won't wake tonight, I've put baby vicks rub on her and the nursery smells like olbas oil. It would be sooo lovely to have a good nights sleep but I doubt it'll happen!

My tomatoes have Finally started ripening... I thought it would never happen!

The garden is looking a little bit neglected at the moment, I just can't seem to find enough minutes in the day to get anything much done out there. Sometimes it just too hard to find the motivation to go out when it's miserable weather... laziness on my part really!

It's my best friends birthday today and I sent a parcel of mainly home-made gifts to her. I kept to a 'kitchen' theme as they're moving into a new house soon and thought it would be nice to have some things she could make use of. I crocheted a dishcloth, prettied up a tea-towel, made an oven-glove and bought a pretty apron.

Here's the oven-glove...

I really did struggle with the bias-cut binding though, I've never sewn on binding before and found it really tricky to get right.

I'm busy packing and getting ready for our holiday at the moment. We're going on our first family holiday abroad later on this month and I'm starting to panic slightly that I wont have a clue what to pack for Rose! I have had some brilliant advice already about it.. but if anyone has any tips for taking a baby on a plane, I'd be most grateful..!

On another note... I reached my Slimming World target last night!

I'm so happy and am celebrating tonight with Hagen-daaz ice-cream! :-)

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Rose's granny square baby blanket - finished!

Well, I've finished Rose's blanket.  :-)

...and I love it!

       

Around the edges it's still a little wobbly and I'm not too sure why it's happened, maybe I did an extra treble cluster somewhere. I'm not sure but I'm not too fussed about it as it won't notice when it's being used..!

I was worried that the colours weren't going to go well together as their all chosen randomly but I think it looks quite nice. :-)

It helps having all of the centres the same colour, it helps to bring it all together.

I chose to crochet a scalloped edging which makes it look nice and girly...

So... do you like it...?!

I'm off to start another WIP... oops!

It's this gorgeous cowl.

I'm making it with my Rowan lenpur liner yarn which I think will look really great, but I really shouldn't be starting something new. I have so many other thing's to finish off, including a birthday present... which means I have a deadline to stick to...

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(Edited to say: Thank you very much to the lovely Louise at Tea at weasels for giving me the Versatile blogger award. :-)

I'll get a post written for it as soon as I can.)