Relaxing walks and using my time more productively!

After our snowy trip to the park on Friday, we went straight to buy a snow suit to keep Rose warm on our future trips out and about. We tried it on Saturday and if I do say so myself, she does look incredibly cute in it! It was the first time I had let her walk around by herself in the garden (I'm so scared of her falling on the concrete slabs out there..) and after I helped her walk down the step, she almost ran out into the garden. Obviously she was desperate for the freedom! 

I hadn't put her mittens on for this little trip out into the garden and the first thing she did was touch the snow on the flowerbeds, the look on her face was hilarious! I don't think she was expecting it to be quite so cold!

Ray and I decided to go for a walk  in the afternoon to stretch our legs and luckily we have a really pretty footpath just up the road from us. Rose had a little wander with her reins on up there but was exhausted so after about 10 minutes she was sound asleep in the pushchair..

Ray and I really enjoyed the peace and quiet though and it was nice to have some (not quite) alone time, I think you have much more meaningful conversations when out walking. It's so easy to just talk about the usual boring things like what needs to be done around the house when at home, so it's definitely nice to get out and get some fresh air!

I finished Ray's mum's birthday present yesterday evening and it's now wrapped up ready to give to her! I was so relieved from all the comments on my last post saying I Had actually sewn the pot holder together in the right order, thank you for that. :-) 

My hand quilting definitely isn't perfect but I guess it's not bad for a first attempt. The back looked quite nice as well which was also a big relief!

Rose has started to amuse herself a lot more these day's which is lovely, a few more minutes to myself are always welcome! It's incredibly sweet when she sits looking through her books on her own, I Love books but what is it about them that children love so much?!

I've decided I'm going to use my time more productively to make things that I can sell in my Etsy shop, as it would be so so lovely to have a few pennies of my own, even if it's not very much.

Okay, well speaking of making thing's... I've off to get busy with the sewing machine! :-)

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Patchwork, fabric and venturing outdoors.

This is the progress I've made on my dresden plate potholder today. It's all sewn together now, I just need to decide on how I'm going to hand quilt it.

It's going to be Ray's mum's 60th birthday present, I was planning on sewing her a tea cosy but that never materialised! I was instead inspired by Amy's dresden trivet's over at nanacompany and thought that something similar would be perfect for her to either use to place her teapot on or she could use it just for decoration or on a little table or something.

I now realised I should probably have hand quilted it before I sewed the back on as now the stitches will show all the way through, I'm really kicking myself as there's no way I'm going to un-pick it all as that would mean un-picking the centre circle as well.. What should I do!? Silly me...

My hyacinth bulbs are coming along nicely in the kitchen, it frustrates me the way they droop over every time though. I know they were just reaching out towards the sunlight, but now they look all lop-sided... well anyway they're now tied together with a little ribbon.

A little camera time today when Rose had just woken from her morning nap... I think it's my favourite part of the day to spend with her as she always wakes up from that nap incredibly bright, happy and with a big grin on her face. The mid-to-late afternoon nap is a wholeee other story though!

A little treat was popped through my letterbox this morning, a few pretty fat quarters from myfabrichouse. It's such a lovely website to have a browse through and the brilliant thing about it is, postage is completely free! :-)

See... so so pretty. Gorgeous!

Rose and I took a walk to the local swing park this afternoon and there was still a scattering of snow around, she was fascinated by it all. I let her have a little walk in the snow as she was desperate to see what it all was when we got into the little park area but it wasn't long before she was too chilly. We managed a good session on the swings before we were straight in M&S buying her a snowsuit! Hopefully we'll have a little more snow tonight and she can be all snug tomorrow when exploring the white stuff!

Here are a couple of photo's from yesterday outdoor adventures. I met up with a friend with a little girl who's a week older than Rose and we went for a lovely walk all around Bosham. 

It's such a pretty scenic area and how amazing would it be to have that view out of your kitchen but it must become really busy in the summer... We were walking along the water's edge next to countless gigantic houses, they all had their curtains shut so I think they were all second homes. Lucky people! 

Okay, I'm off to carry on with my baby bootie knitting now. I'm trying to get some thing's made so I can get my Etsy shop up and running...

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Visiting mum in Cornwall...

We went to Cornwall last Thursday to visit my Mum for a few day's. She's been living down there for a couple of years now and because of the distance, I don't get to see her nearly as much as I would like to. I usually see her when she comes up to Dorset when we're there too, so it was really lovely to spend some time with her down where she lives.

We were so lucky with the weather and apart from it raining a bit on Saturday, it was lovely and dry... but still very cold! 

We had some lovely meals together whilst we were there and a few really nice day's out. On the Friday we spent the morning in Mevagissey when it was beautifully sunny and then the afternoon at The lost gardens of Heligan. All in all we had a really special time down with Mum in Cornwall, this is quite a photo-heavy post but it's so I can easily look back at it in the future. :-)

Mevagissey was just beautiful, it must get so busy in the summer! It was lovely and peaceful because it's out of season but at the same time, it was rather annoying that most of the shops were shut!

This is my favourite photo of Mum x

This would have been a nice photo if it wasn't for the crazy man in the background! haha

I've been making a dresden plate potholder this evening but have had to give up with the sewing machine for now... Rose has been a really light sleeper the last few nights because of her teeth and she's already woken up once and I don't want to risk it happening again! The last couple of nights I've been up with her at least three times. Tonight I've got my fingers crossed that she sleeps through, because I Really need a good nights sleep!

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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! 

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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