The New bittersweet cowl...

My lovely friend Sarah and I went (with my two little ones!) down to stay with the lovely Cuckoo and her family. I had the most wonderful time and the time just went far too quickly while we were there! I know I have definitely made a couple of friends for life there!

Anyway.. I wanted to knit her a little gift to say thank you for taking on myself And my two children. I chose to knit her the New bittersweet cowl which is a lovely free pattern on Ravelry. It was a joy to knit, when Rose and Arthur gave me a few minutes here and there to get on with it that is... It is knit with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran which is so soft, it just glides over the needles.

It can be worn like this...

...or like this! (I'm not particularly fond of the photo, I still have my pregnancy chubbiness! Finding it Much harder to lose the weight this time round!)

..and in the meantime I am soldiering on with Arthur's blanket. I'm over half way now but it's taking a little while, I love the way it looks but I really like how quickly crochet is worked up into something compared to the speed of knitting.

xxx

A little trip away.

Some would say that March isn't really the best time to visit the Isle of Wight but we were actually pretty lucky with the weather... if you don't count the heavy snow that we had for 2 day's after we arrived! Fortunately the snow stopped falling and melted for the next few day's after that and we had some lovely spring sunshine which we made the most of by going for couple of nice walks. 

We drove up the road to The Needles and went for a long walk out along the coast, luckily we had Rose's scooter with us so I pulled her along on that and she didn't get too frustrated with being strapped in the buggy the whole way. She was due a nap though so by the time we reached the end  of the walk and were making our way back again, she was fast asleep in the buggy... just in time for us to have a nice quiet visit to the cafe! (Arthur kindly stayed sleeping for quite a while so we were treated to a little peace and quiet!)

I'm not sure when Rose will stop napping in the day but she currently wakes up at 5:30am Every morning without fail, so by the afternoon time she's absolutely shattered. I've tried keeping her awake throughout the day the help her sleep longer at night but she just gets far too tired and becomes grouchy and clumsy.

We had a lovely day trip to a miniature village which Rose absolutely Loved. They even had a working train going around it which fascinated her (and her Dad...) Ha!

This was all followed by a delicious cream tea... we had far too many creams tea's on this holiday! I'm now attempting to get back on the diet, which I'm finding is a lot harder this time round. I just need to focus on the summer months and all the clothes I want to fit into again. I'm not huge but just that little bit bigger than I'd like to be.. 

We all took a trip to the supermarket the first evening we were there to buy supplies for the week and the man on the check-out asked me when this baby was due! (To be fair I wasn't wearing the most flattering shirt in the world..) He looked thoroughly embarrassed when Ray told him I wasn't actually expecting and I actually cried when we got to the car! I must have been feeling particularly hormonal that day but you would have thought he would have seen Rose And a newborn baby in the trolley and put two and two together.. never mind, no more chocolate for me!

Arthur's growing up so so fast.. the smiles appear regularly throughout the day and he just seems a lot more content. He's actually been sleeping All evening up in his cot in our room...he's Never done that before. Up until today, he's only settled in the evening if he's in the baby carrier on my front. So maybe we've turned a corner there, fingers crossed anyway!

The best bit about going away for the week was that Ray cooked All of the meals! Such a lovely break for me and this left me with rather a lot of knitting time, especially in the evenings. I will have to show you some of what I've been working on but right now, I'm going to try and get to bed. Maybe Arthur will be kind and let me get a couple of hours sleep before waking for a feed?! Ha! No chance!!

xxxx

May round up - Part two (even though it's nearly the end of June!)

Well I'm now 15 weeks pregnant and definitely looking like I have a bun in the oven... rather than just looking like I'd been eating my weight in cake! Everything is going well so far, fingers crossed! Although yesterday and today I am struggling to do anything with my left hand as my wrist feels about as strong as a twig... even typing at the moment is pretty uncomfortable but I will get a blog post written, even if it kills me!! Ray thinks I may have a spot of Carpal tunnel syndrome related to this pregnancy so I'm going to get myself a wrist support tomorrow, it's only in my left wrist at the moment but then again I broke that wrist when I was younger so maybe the bones are still lined up a bit funny..!?

Here are the rest of the photo's from our trip to Dorset, which feels like agggess ago now. Once I publish this post, I will get started on my most recent one which I already have the photo's for...

Nan had Rose for a good few hours on one of the day's when we were back in Dorset so we made the most of the opportunity of a bit of 'just us' time and had a lovely lunch out next to the beach followed but a nice walk.

We were So lucky with the weather and I think our minds went into shock at not having to constantly watch Rose and we both dozed off laying on the beach in the sunshine... very responsibly neither of us had any sun cream on and I burnt my arms quite spectacularly. No tan for me after it all just peeled away! 

We had a lovely walk around Langdon hill and got to enjoy all of the gorgeous bluebells, it was lovely to just be walking with one another on our own for a change as we end up talking about other subjects apart from the usual baby/toddler/rose related things... although, Rose still features in most of what we talk about!

On one of our day's away we drove half way down to Cornwall to meet up with Mum so we could spend a bit of time with her and she could have some quality time with Rose. We had a lovely picnic in the park enjoying the sunshine, it was so hot that we even went paddling in the stream along side the park to cool us down a little. It's really difficult living so far away from Mum when I'd like her to see Rose a whole lot more but hopefully it won't be long until we're living a little closer to her and in the mean time, we get to look forward to a visit from Mum in July. :-)

Our friends Matt and Amanda got married and their wedding was just perfect, absolutely beautiful. Rose was with Nan and Grandad for the whole day and evening so Ray and I really got to enjoy every moment without struggling to keep Rose under control! It's very difficult to get her to stay still and in any one place for any good length of time these day's.

Rose and I had a lunch date around Sarah's a couple of weeks ago and as it had been so lovely and sunny they still had their swimming pool set up. Sarah gave Rose a chance to dip her little toes in the water and she got a taste for the water... 5 minutes later she was in a swimming costume and walking around the pool with myself trying desperately to keep my shorts dry, I was having to stand up very straight!

Ray and I have had a bit of 'date day' instead of 'date night' today as my lovely friend Danielle has kindly taken Rose for the day and in return I will have her little girl on Friday, the girls love having one another to play with. So we've been to the cinema together (Ray has the day off after working the weekend) and I'm now enjoying the piece and quiet before my little girl comes home. :-)

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Our first trip to Wales with Rose.

Well it's me again! What do you know... nearly 2 weeks without a post and then 2 in one day! I seem to have had a blogging turn-around.

This post is wayyyy over-due. 

We went to visit my best friend Vicky and her boyfriend James at their new home in Wales last month and soon after we got back, I put all of the photo's together in this post but it's taken me until now to actually add some writing to it!

This was where I finished knitting Rose's 'Ring around the Rosie' dress... I'd had it nearly finished for ages but just lost the motivation to knit the edging, but with an almost 6 hour car journey there and quiet time in the evenings, I finally got around to finishing it off. It's Such a good feeling when you eventually finish off a project that should have been over and done with a good while ago..!

We went on a lovely walk while there... the views around Vicky's place are amazing!! Incredible! Very lucky. :-)

I'll admit that Vicky took a whole load of these photo's. I think she was enjoying having a play with my camera (she's a Photography graduate!) and I was enjoying having the lovely photo's to look over afterwards!

I think Rose fell in love with Myrtle the cat, she's not really had any contact with cats before and couldn't believe her luck when she spotted her. Poor Myrtle was probably very relieved when we left for Sussex and she didn't have Rose following her around Allll of the time!

Vicky and James live in the most lovely little cottage in mid-wales, it's been really well renovated and now they have the option of underfloor heating and solar panels. They even had an Aga! One dayyyy I might get one of those beauties! ;-)

See what I mean about the views!? Imagine having this right outside your front door!

Rose enjoyed being up in the rucksack carrier where she could see everything that was going on...

Ray Did carry Rose for the first half of the journey but she is a Very heavy lump and it was all up-hill so I offered to take her for the return journey where it is was mostly down-hill! ;-)

Rose loved spending time with her God-mother and I enjoyed seeing my best friend again. It had been quite a while...!! xXx Thank you for having us to stay my lovely xXx

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo!

It's been 12 day's since my last blog entry which doesn't sound very long but in blogging terms that feels like forever! I seem to have temporarily lost my blogging mojo!...

Rose and I made a last-minute trip back to Dorset for Easter as Ray was working for the whole of it. So I was away for a few day's and then just busy for a while, the trouble is that the longer you go without blogging... the harder it is to find the motivation to then sit at the laptop and put a post together!

Sooo... Rose is upstairs having her afternoon nap and Ray is being a brilliant husband and is busy cooking a roast dinner in the kitchen (they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach but this is also very true in my case as well!) So I'm taking the opportunity to sit down and get typing! :-) I always feel so good when I've clicked the 'Publish' button so I just need to get on with it... I'm sure blogging is better than some types of therapy!

We had lots of lovely little trips out while I was back in Dorset, on Easter Sunday afternoon my cousin Josie and I took Rose to Abbotsbury farm park. Both of us used to get taken there when we were little and it is Such a lovely place to take young children. 

There are all sorts of animals for the kids to see and feel. Rose even got a chance to feed a baby goat! (Admittedly, it did end up being me that was holding the bottle... not that I minded!) My auntie Lettie used to  live on a Small-holding and it brought back lovely memories of  my cousins and I going down to feed the baby goats/ lambs before going to school! :-)

On another day we went with Nan and Grandad to the Subtropical gardens. We spent a lot of time in Abbotsbury over the weekend! There were some beautiful plants there and I couldn't resist taking some photo's.... so prepare yourself for a lot of flower photo's! 

I've been trying to catch up with my time on the laptop and have been going through my emails. I had a shocking amount of old emails that needed going through... I went from 2651 down to 19 and that was just in one inbox! I'm now working my way through my replies to comments. I'm sorry I haven't been very good at getting back to people's emails lately... life kind of just got in the way!

I've been using Instagram a lot lately... if your on there I'm countryrosecrafts. I only have the iphone 3GS at the moment so am extremely excited about getting my upgrade in August sometime! :-)

It's good to be back!

xxxxxxxxxxxx

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!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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!