The highs sometimes comes with the lows...

Today started out as a lovely day, we were all up early. Ray and I took Rose to get her first Proper haircut, my Nan has given her hair a little trim once or twice when we've been back in Dorset (she's a hairdresser) but it really needed a good all-over neaten up as it all seems to grow at a slightly different rate. It was definitely a challenge to get her to stay still, I was glad to have had Ray with me to help distract her!

We went to Petworth house for the day to meet up with Ray's Mum and brother, even though it's only about half an hours drive from us I'd never actually been and it was such a perfect day to go with today's sunny weather. Ray's brother that we were seeing today lives up in Scotland, which means that Ray rarely gets to see him so I think they really enjoyed each other's company.

We had a little picnic in the grounds and then eventually went for a walk through the house. Rose had on her backpack with the reins attached so I had some control over where she went and she had a great time, walking through the rooms pointing at the statues and paintings on the walls... The poor people walking through the house were trying to have a quiet and peaceful visit to the house but there was no way I could quieten down Rose's squeals of delight! Oh well, at least she was happy and not crying eh!?

I've been doing a spot of baking... only some basic fairy cakes but they were pretty yummy! I think I'm probably eating way too much at the moment but currently I have such a big appetite and I'm not hugggee yet, so I think I'll just carry on enjoying a fairy cake or two..!

So after our lovely day out, we got home about 4pm. Ray had to pop out for a couple hours at 5pm which was perfectly fine as Rose had been brilliantly behaved so far today and was looking exhausted so I thought she might even go down for an early night! Ha! I wish... 

...The next 2 hours ended up being absolutely awful. Rose usually has a beaker of warm milk before I take her upstairs and she goes to sleep by herself. I've probably been really spoilt lately with how easy she goes to bed as this evening she refused to stay in her bed.As soon I left the room, banging on the door.. crying hysterically! I'm not used to her acting that way before bed so I kept going up to bring her back downstairs when all she did was cry and whinge, she was Definitely tired but just refusing to go to sleep! A sort of vicious circle really... as the longer I kept her downstairs to try and make her happy, the more upset she was when I eventually attempted to take her up to bed again.

So anywayyy... to cut a long story short. Ray came home just before 7pm and I had only just managed to get dinner ready. I've never felt so tired and drained of energy in all my life... it was as if my lack of tiredness these past few weeks had been saved up for tonight. I ended up sobbing in the utility room with the relief of knowing he was home to help with Rose. I'm never like that! It must be the pregnancy.... must be! 

But on a positive note! I saw the baby kick as well as feeling it this evening, I've only been feeling small fluttering movements recently but over the last couple of days the little guy in there has gotten really strong! It's so exciting and every time I feel the movements, I feel so ridiculously happy. :-) Even after an evening like I had!!

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A quick peek at what I'm working on...

It's my Nan's birthday soon and I've been busy trying to finish her present in time, I just don't seem to have as much 'get up and go' at the moment and sometimes struggle to find the motivation to get working on things. I have so many WIP's at the moment that I need to get finished!

I started this paper-pieced patchwork quite a while ago now from a template that was given to me by my auntie, I'm making my first mini quilt to hang up on the wall and am struggling to decide how I will quilt it all together.. hhmm...

My friend has just had a beautiful baby and myself with a couple of other friends went round to hers for lunch. I was to provide something sweet for an after lunch treat and I made a chocolate fridge cake... and I have to say it went down Very well! I'm in denial about how many pieces I had myself but it's not I eat it everrryy day.. I would if I could get away with it though! Yum yum... :-)

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend..?! It was a nice sunny one here which makes a change to the Constant rain we've been coping with!

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Happy Valentines Day everyone.. xxx

This is what was sat waiting for me when I arrived back at the house from a stressful shopping trip in Sainsburys... Ray had given me a card this morning but this beautiful red rose was a really lovely surprise. :-)

I love Valentines Day now that I know I'll have someone to spend it with every year... I used to dread it slightly before Ray and I were together!

 

He was up baking yesterday morning at 7am to bake me this cake. It's very multi-coloured! Hundreds and thousands anyone!? The sponge is delicious though, much better than my Victoria sandwich!

I've spent the last couple of evenings organising all of my embroidery threads. They were all stuffed into various containers and so I couldn't actually see what I had to work with!

I bought this organiser box months and months ago but never actually go around to sorting them out. It's taken bl**dy hours though! Strangely it's quite therapeutic though...

A pair of pink booties finished and ready to go in my shop, I just need to get on and finish the other things that I have half done at the moment...

I nearly forgot to take a photo before but I thought I would show you what my lovely friend made for Rose's birthday present. Isn't this little felt gnome gorgeous!? (I don't know what I should be calling it...)

She lives a couple of doors away and we now have a regular cup of tea and a catch-up but she's just told me they're having to more which is realllyy annoying! Not too far which is a relief but it was so lovely to have a really good friend that only lived two doors away... :-(

Rose is having a rather late afternoon nap at the moment, so I'm going to make the most of it and get on with  Mum's birthday present.

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Rose's 1st birthday!

This is going to be quite a quick post as I'm grabbing a quiet moment when Rose is napping to sit down at the laptop but what I should really be doing right now is packing, as we're travelling down to Cornwall tomorrow to visit my Mum. (Sooo looking forward to it!)

Edited to add: It sounds like quite a few people live in or regularly visit Cornwall, does anyone have any idea's of nice things to do or places to visit whilst we're down there..?

I've got a few WIP's on the go at the moment, so I'm hoping we'll time the car journey's well so Rose will sleep and I'll have a few solid hours of knitting/crocheting time! That's the plan anyway... I'm sure it won't work out quite that way though..!

Ray had a big exam the day after Rose's birthday so really needed to crack on with his revision, so Rose and I went back to Dorset for a few day's and had a little birthday party at my Nan and Grandad's house.

 I baked a cake for her and did my best at decorating it. This is where I got my inspiration from.... okay I know it doesn't look half as professional, but I was pretty chuffed with it! Looking at the photo now, one of the front rose's looks pretty rubbish but that doesn't matter as it still tasted pretty good! haha

I really enjoyed making it... especially the glitter part at the end!

Rose was given some really lovely presents and it was just a really lovely day. It was a real shame that Ray wasn't there but it couldn't be helped and he got to see her for a good few hours in the morning.

It was a really special day for another reason as well, my best friend Vicky who lives in Wales was able to come back to Dorset to see Rose on her birthday. She's Rose's god-mother but because of the big distance between where we both live, we hadn't seen her for months and months. We're going to Wales in March to stay with them for a few day's and I'm so so looking forward to it. :-)

One of Rose's presents from her was this really sweet basket, she's going to look so cute carrying it around when she's a bit older.

My mum crocheted this beautiful blanket for her and she loves it! I especially love the little felt hearts she stictched onto it, something I would never have thought to do.

Such a pretty pose!!

The next day Rose and I had a little day-trip with Vicky and went to Lyme Regis. We had a look around all of the shops but annoyingly most of the nice ones were closed... it was a Wednesday! There was a shop that looked amazinggg and was a really sweet cupcake decorating shop, but no - closed!

We did have a really lovely lunch in the restaurant there though and luckily it was relatively quiet where we were sitting so Rose got to walk around a little, unfortunately the table corners were at just the right height for her to walk straight into though so we did have a few tears!

Right, well time to crack on with packing! Or maybe I'll just make a cuppa and make the most of Rose Still being asleep and get on with my knitting... ;-)

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Just a few snippets from my day...

It was lovely to have Ray home for longer than usual this morning which meant I had another pair of hands to help entertain Rose with. I made the most of that little amount of time and got to work on a few teeny tiny granny squares. I'm not entirely sure what I plan on making with them yet, maybe a small little lined case or maybe I'll just keep on going until I have a blanket! (That'll take a longgg time though, I'm not sure if I have enough sticking power...)

My stash of Stylecraft yarn is working out to be excellent value for money! I've already made two well-loved baby blankets with it and still have so much more to use up. :-)

We had quiche for lunch. I usually try to avoid this kind of food (the pastry kind!), as it's Really not helping me to keep off the pounds but I wanted to see if Rose would eat any for her lunch. She wasn't sure at first but did eventually take a few bites... she can be quite fussy. A lot of time I feel as if I just don't know enough options of food to give her, it can be so down heartening when I spend ages making her something new and then it gets chucked straight on the floor whilst she shakes her head from side to side. In some way's, I do really look forward to the day's when she can actually tell me what she feels like for breakfast/lunch/dinner!

Here's a sneaky peak of what I'm making as my homemade present for my cousin's birthday which is coming up. She has some shop-bought gifts as well but I have to have this finished along by the time we go to Dorset for Rose's birthday, as I'm sending it up to her in London with my Nan and Auntie... I need to double check that this is okay with them to do so..!

I never realised it was So hard to sew simple patchwork squares! Well I found it pretty tricky anyway... No matter how carefully I cut the squares, some of the seams just didn't want to match up. Very frustrating when your trying to get it done really quickly before Rose wakes up!!

Okay, I'm off to watch a film with Ray now and maybe have a little knitting on the go too. I find it so hard to just sit and watch the telly without doing some sort of crafting these day's... does anyone else have this problem too?!

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PS - (Thank you so so much for the helpful comment's that I received on my last post, I am working my way through replying to comments and emails... I just haven't had the chance yet today. As you can see.... I figured it out! Well I very much hope it's worked or this will look rather stupid...)

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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2011 Photo memories and a lot of chatter!

I know everyone's probably bored with seeing all of these 2011 photo mosaics by now but I wanted to put one together as it was an excuse to look back on the huge amount of photo's taken this year. I only started blogging in March so I've only included photo's from then onwards. I've used most of them here on my blog but there are a few extras that I added in... just because I liked them.

March

I crocheted a cushion cover for my mum's birthday, it was my second cushion cover and I was really happy with it.

We went on a little holiday to the Isle of Wight and stayed in a lovely little cottage, we were really lucky as there was a heat wave and we ended up relaxing on the beach!

Ray and I went on plenty of walks with Rose when she was tiny enough to be snuggled in the Wilkinet carrier.

April 

I completed Rose's ripple blanket, it still my favourite of her baby blankets and I got sooo many compliments on it. I still have loads of the Stylecraft left from making both her blankets, probably enough for another one!?

I began my Japanese flower scarf in King Cole yarn.

Rose and I enjoyed many days in the park enjoying the sunshine, the park behind the Cathedral here is so so lovely and peaceful.

I completely my granny bunting for our kitchen and it's still hanging up in there now. :-)

May

I began and completed Rose's knitted bolero, stupidly I knitted it really really tiny though so she only got to wear it for a day! (Lesson learned here...)

Rose came with us to her first wedding, it was one of Ray's colleagues that was getting married.

Plenty more walks were had in West Sussex And Dorset.

Fruit and vegetables that I was attempting to grow in my little garden actually Grew!

June

I crocheted a little purse for my Nan's birthday, she's now gone and sewn it onto the Outside of her handbag which looks shall we say... interesting!

My Nan and I drove half way to Cornwall to meet my Mum and spend the day with her. We had a picnic and it was lovely to let Mum spend some time with Rose.

I finished my Japanese flower scarf. I haven't actually worn it yet... it's just not that warm!

July

I finished Rose's baby shrug, I love it but it's still too big for her to wear. I think it'll fit her about half way through this year...

Ray and I visited some gorgeous gardens, before starting this blog I never really took in how stunning some plants can be. Now I really enjoy taking photo's of flowers as I can look back on their beauty anytime I want. Just another positive about blogging...

August

I crocheted a baby blanket for Rose using the granny square pattern from Attic24. I remembered exactly when I started it, it was about 4am in the morning and I was awake downstairs with a poorly Rose. I started crocheting granny squares to keep me sane!

I sewed an oven cloth for my best friends birthday, I also made a few other things to go along with it.

I borrowed my cousins SLR camera for a day and had so much fun taking photo's of the views from my Nan's garden and the flowers in it.

September

We went on holiday to Spain, Rose's first holiday abroad. This photo was taken on our one and Only trip to the beach... she got sand everywhere! (I was finding sand in her chubby creases for day's after!) Rose was terrified of the waves and didn't understand that your not supposed to eat sand, just a bit too young... The rest of the holiday was spent relaxing by the quiet pool by the villa.

I finished my first mini quilt for my auntie's birthday present, I wasn't sure about it as it was my first attempt but she said she loved it and has it hanging on her kitchen door.

October

I baked and decorated my first 'proper' birthday cake. It was for Ray's 27th birthday, it took me forever and I wasn't completely happy with the result but it's the love that went into making it that really matters! haha. Ray was chuffed with it anyway. :-)

I did a bit of a chair make-over, it's a little scratched on the top where Rose pulled it over but it still looks much better than it did before!

I completed a couple of knitting projects, Rose's cropped cardigan and my hand warmers. She's still too little to be able to wear the cardigan and I decided to save the hand warmers and gave them to my Mum for Christmas as I knew she really liked them.

November

We tested out the baby rucksack for the first time, Rose seemed comfortable enough and even fell asleep... her face did get a little squished though.

I began knitting some more hand warmers from the yarn I had bought with a birthday voucher, I've now finished them and wear them everyday.

I hand quilted a hot water bottle cover to go in the Advent swap package I was sending off to Jo at Cupcake Jojo, I hope she liked it.

I showed you a couple of my other WIP's, Rose's quilt that I kind of plan to finish by her 1st birthday.. Eeekk! Also, another baby blanket... I'm not entirely sure if I like it that much anymore though and can't decide whether or not it's worth carrying on with.

December

I decorated my very first Christmas cake! (I had baked it a couple of months before hand...)

I was busy making and finishing off Christmas presents for people, including Mum's mug hug (I Had made a few other things for Mum as well), Nan's dresden plate cushion and Lettie's hexagon blanket.

I finished my cabled headband with the most gorgeous wool, Lettie bought me another skein of it for Christmas so I will have to knit something to match.

Well, that's it! Sorry if I completely bored you all with my knattering... but I hope you've enjoyed a round up of some of the photo's that have been here on my blog since March.

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PS- Before I go, I just have to tell you.

I am Incredibly excited at the moment... I am waiting for the anticipated arrival of my new camera!! Here it is if you'd like to take a peek.

It should be arriving anytime from tomorrow onwards... Every time I start thinking about the things and events I'll be able to take photo's of, I just want to jump up and down on the spot with a huge grin on my face. I know this probably sounds really over the top but to be honest I'm just really looking forward to taking some lovely shots of Rose, I was so disappointed with my last camera as it just wasn't quick enough and she was constantly blurry!

It's nearly that time of year again!

The cake is done!

I may have a million other things to do on my list, but at least the cake can be ticked off!

It's the first Christmas cake I've ever made and I'm pretty chuffed with it. :-) The icing looks a lot smoother than on Ray's birthday cake which I'm really happy about, although it's Definitely not perfect!

I came across a picture of a cake with holly leaves on in the Cath Kidston magazine and decided to use that for inspiration. I Love the cake bunting and bought it from Jooles at Sew Sweet Violet a while ago, I'm so glad to be finally able to use it.

I had Sarah from Shabby chic Sarah around for lunch on Monday, it was a really lovely day and so great to see her again. The weather was really awful so we stayed indoors chatting with cups of tea, whilst she helped me thread in about a thousand ends on the hexagon blanket for my auntie's Christmas present. Thank you Sarah!

I've actually finished the blanket now but if I hadn't had help with those ends I think I'd be stressing out right now trying to get it all done!!

We agreed to make one another a Christmas gift each and Sarah made me this pretty apron out of vintage fabrics, isn't it it gorgeous!? Perfect for those baking day's..!

She also made a gift for Rose which was a really lovely thought, isn't 'Ellie' (as I seemed to have named her) the sweetest elephant you ever saw?! I Love the dungarees and Rose has been fascinated with her since she got her on Monday... her nose is getting a good old chewing anyway!

Thank you so so much xXx

I probably won't get a chance to blog again before we go to Dorset on Friday, so if I don't get a chance to say it nearer the time... 'Merry Christmas everybody!'

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(PS- I have been receiving some really lovely gifts in my Advent swap from Jo, I especially enjoyed all of the chocolate goodies today! I'm afraid I've just been far too disorganised to take photo's of the gifts to put up here, I'm ever so grateful for the gifts though. Thanks Jo xxx)