Giveaway Winner!! and a few other things...!

We've had a couple of strangely warm day's recently in this part of the world, so we've been venturing out into the garden a lot more often these day's. Although it wouldn't be possible for me to actually Do any gardening out there, as Rose is just determined to try and eat as many things as possible from out there! 

When does it get to the stage that they can play happily outside without eating all the earth from the flower beds!?

There are a few signs that spring is on it's way, it's so exciting to look out the french doors and see that the crocuses have flowered. It's been really boring and dull out there for sooo many months now!

Rose and I had a lovely morning at one of the playgroups we go to this morning, it's a bit of a walk to this one in particular but feels good to give my legs a good stretch! I haven't been doing nearly enough exercise lately... I have a Hen do which I have a gorgeous LBD to wear to and our friend's wedding the weekend after to go to at the end of April and I still haven't lost my Christmas weight. I really need a kick up the backside so will be going to Slimming World tomorrow evening.. (Say's me that's just bought not one but TWO creme eggs from the corer shop!!)

Rose having a good feel of the plant pots... or maybe just pointing out the dead plants that really need to be removed at some point!

I used the random generator website to find the winner of my giveaway but I'm a bit of a techno-phobe and couldn't figure out how to show you the page. 

But after counting through the comments on my giveaway post, the lucky winner was....

 Heather at Pink Milk!!

I'll be sending you a message in a second Heather to let you know that you've won! :-)

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Recovering under a huggge mound of laundry!

We went to visit my Mum in Cornwall on Thursday and stayed for a few nights, it was only 3 nights but by the amount of laundry that is needing to be done, it looks like we were away for at least a fortnight! How can one little person produce sooo many dirty clothes!? I only have one at the moment, goodness knows how you mum's of large families cope!

We had a really brilliant time, I just wish car journey's were a little easier these day's... If we're lucky we get a couple hours of sleep/ quieting playing time and then after that, all hell breaks loose and we have to contend with an extremely loud screaming baby in the back of the car! I ended up dangerously unstrapped hanging over the back of the front seat, trying  failing to calm her down. Nothing would work. Since we got home, I realised Rose has 3 big molar teeth poking through her back gums.. so this could have been part of the trouble..?!

I have loads of photo's to show you but I will leave that to the next post.

Anywayyy... this is my progress on Rose's dress. I managed to fit in quite a lot of knitting time on the journey's, the parts when she was happy anyway! I'm just working on the back straps now and then will begin on the picot edging to the bottom of the dress.

I was reading Messe Jesse's blog the other day and really loved the look of her new book in this post. I managed to get it for a really bargain price from the Book People and it was waiting for me when we returned from Cornwall.

There are so many pretty photo's inside but I really want to give this cupcake design a try as it's Ray's mum's 60th birthday coming up soon and I would like to make her a tea cosy as she is a Big tea drinker. I wont have the whole thing white but I would like to use that design.

When we were in Truro, we had a browse around the charity shops and I came across a pair of rose printed curtains for the bargain price of £3.50. The fabric is lovely and will be cut up to make something pretty.

I got some gorgeous fabrics in an amazing fabric shop there. There was sooo much choice and I really had to stop myself from getting too carried away!

Mum treated me to a few things which was really nice of her, it's always nice to be treated! :-) Thanks Mum xXx

As you can see... taking photo's with a small person nearby isn't always very easy!

I got some 1/2 metre's of the patterned fabrics and then a few fat quarter's in plain colours.

Dreading Slimming World tonight, it's impossible to stick to a diet when your away. Well I find it impossible anyway!

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Edited to add: I almost forgot to say, I've gone and joined in with the fun on Twitter and you can find me here! 

Colds, cakes and my 100th post!

Rose has got one stinker of a cold at the moment and is feeling rather sorry for herself. So instead of going out anywhere this morning, we I had a lazy morning in our pyjama's and did some baking! I did have to go to the dentist at 11:45, so the laziness didn't last long I'm afraid...!

I got this book for the bargain price of £4.99 the other day in W.H.Smith, I really don't need another recipe book but there were sooo many beautiful photo's of yummy treats inside, it was just too tempting! 

So anyway, I had all of the ingredients to bake the sticky gingerbread cupcakes in the book, so we were busy in the kitchen even before Rose and I had got dressed! She's got to the stage now where she's not happy just playing on the kitchen floor while I get on with whatever I'm doing, she wants to oversee Everything that is going on! So, in the high-chair she went with a little bread and jam to keep her happy! :-)

 

Ray came home to watch Rose whilst I went for my check-up at the dentist (everything was fine - phew!) and then I iced the cupcakes when Rose was having her afternoon nap. I was really happy with them because I've never piped icing before today, I thought I'd better get in some practise before I have to Rose's cake next week. They were delicious... far too delicious in fact, I've eaten 3 today!

I'm trying to lose my post-Christmas weight at the moment and I just know I won't be able to resist scoffing more of them tomorrow...

So, I'm sending the rest of them in to work with Ray tomorrow. He seems very happy to do so... I think he thinks it's going to make him the popular guy at work for the day! haha

This is my 100th post! Woohoo!

I plan to get a giveaway sorted fairly soon-ish, I just need more hours in the day please!

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FO: Hexagon Blanket (made for Lettie)

I finished this hexagon blanket just in time to give to my auntie for Christmas, it was all a bit of a relief to be honest when I finished the edging and had sewn in the last few ends.

I think it was March last year when I started crocheting this blanket, I found the hexagons quite tedious to crochet as all the colour changes make each hexagon much more fiddly and time consuming. This meant that it was cast aside for other projects quite a few times...

I thought I might be quite sad to see it go when I had spent so many hours working on it, but I was actually quite relieved to give to a good home and have space in my head to concentrate on my other WIP's that I really wanted to get finished. The tutorial I used for this blanket was from Attic24 and is really clear and easy to follow.

The yarn was mainly Stylecraft Special DK apart from a couple of colours which were Stylecraft Life DK. I love the Stylecraft DK acrylic ranges of yarn as there are such a large number of colours to choose from and they crochet really well, as it's not at all splitty.

For the edging I did a round of double crochet in the light beige colour yarn and then a round of green scallop edging. There are a lot of tutorials and patterns to be found on google for scallop edgings but on my blanket I attached the green yarn with a slip stitch and chained 1, *skipped a stitch, made 5 dc's into the next stitch, skipped a stitch, slip stitched into next stitch... Just repeat from the * until your all the way around the blanket edge.

Sorry about the rubbish photo's in the last couple of posts... We sold my slightly better camera as I really wasn't happy with it, so at the moment I'm back to my basic 'point and shoot' compact camera. Hopefully I'll be getting another camera soon though, I didn't realise before how different the colours are in photo's that I take with the little camera. It's especially noticeable when taking photo's of craft bits and bobs that I've made...

Wish me luck for 5:30pm, it's the first slimming world meeting of 2012... I think I put on even more weight this week, I'm definitely not at target anymore! So from tomorrow I Really need to be strict with myself... no more unnecessary snacking!!

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Playing catch-up..

Sorry I haven't been here for a few day's.. I didn't realise, but it's almost been a week!

I will remember to let you know next time I think I might not be on here for a little while...

I'm amazed at the response I got to my give away..! My followers have soared from 53 up to 91! Blimey, I never thought I'd even have 20 people reading My blog! haha

So, welcome to all my new followers, lovely to have you here. :-)

(I might just be kidding myself and as soon as the giveaway has ended, I might lose quite a few... hopefully not though!)

If you haven't entered.. you can do so here.

I had my Mum come to visit for a few day's last week, which is why I haven't been able to do much blogging. I've popped on to leave a few comments, but haven't been able to sit down and write a post. It was really nice to have her here to spend time with myself and Rose, as she lives far away so I don't get to see her very often at all. 

She came on Wednesday and with her she brought a hamper full of lovely goodies for me! So so generous of her and SO not necessary! (But much appreciated..)

My favourites were a Gorgeous creamy coloured shawl which is so soft, some beautifully smelling handmade soaps, some Cath Kidston fabric goodies and a 100gram skein of Ethical twist yarn, which I have already started knitting into something lovely for Rose. Obviously everything else was great and I felt completely spoilt.. Thank you very much Mum xXx

(There were some photo's of mum and I with Rose, but they're not very flattering of either myself or Mum. So I think she'll understand if I don't post them on here!)

Rose is now on the move....

Forget 'Where's Wally?'.. it's where's Rose!?

First she mastered rolling from back to front and now front to back. She just keeps on rolling right across the living room floor and getting herself into very awkward places... not that she seems to mind this much though! More things to explore.. more chair legs to gnaw away at!

She turned 6 months old on the 24th July, it's so scary how quickly time is flying by. It won't be long until she's leaving home! Okay.. maybe I'm being a little too dramatic there..

It was our 1st Wedding Anniversary yesterday. My friend babysat for us and we went out for our first evening meal that was just us together since having Rose. We went to a lovely Thai restaurant and the meal was completely delicious but I definitely haven't reached my target weight at Slimming World this week!

If you do the maths you'll realise that Rose was well and truly already with us on our wedding day! But somehow that feels so special, that she was part of our magical day. (Ewww.. how cheesy is that!)

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Ta-dahh post for Rose's cardigan..!

Well..! I did it!

I finished the Debbie Bliss cardigan for Rose.. it Jusstt about fits here.

Basically.. she wore it for one day and now it's hanging up in her wardrobe looking all pretty. I could squeeezze here into it a couple more times I suppose, but it does look a bit ridiculous! 

I'm such a numpty, but I've learnt my lesson.. always do a size bigger than what she is at the time you start it!

It is very pretty though.. don't you think!? Such lovely soft yarn.. it was so lovely to knit with, but not so great when it came to the crochet edging.. the strands all went a bit splitty so it was a bit of a fiddly business.

 

It's supposed to have a button near the neckline but she could only just about wear it as a type of bolero thing, so there was no way I could button it up.. I will add one though, just to make it look a little more finished..

Look... Such a poser for the camera..!!

I'm carrying on with my Japanese flower scarf now, I've banned myself from beginning anything new (Let's see how long That lasts!) so you never know, I might be back on here with a 'Ta-dahh!' post soon. And then on with my tea-cosy....

(Had my weekly SW meeting tonight and good news.. I've lost another 2.5lb's! A total of 1st2.5lb's.. only 7.5lb's to go!)

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Almost there!

I'm getting there gradually with Rose's 'Debbie Bliss' cardigan..

In this photo is the back of the cardigan, the right front piece and the start of the left.. I took it a few day's ago though and have now finished the left front and am a little way through knitting the first arm.



I was a bit dippy when choosing the sizing.. I wanted her to be able to wear the cardigan straight away when I finished it so I chose the 3-6 month choice of sizing.. but now realise I Really should have started making the 6-9 month. Silly me! Oh well.. when I finish it, she'll probably be able to wear it just about long enough for me to take a picture anyway..!

But I did get some good news tonight.. well not exactly 'news'.. But I found out I've lost 1 stone since I started slimming world and I'm now back in my pre-pregnancy jeans! Woohoo! : )

I hope you are all well..!?

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