The first of my catch-up posts and a lot of thank you's.

I've had a lot of lovely things through my post box recently... I've bought a couple of things and I've also been really really fortunate to win more than one giveaway in the last couple of weeks. I've never been a particularly lucky person but it seems that I've had luck on my side recently! :-)

I've never had anywhere proper to store my crochet hooks, I've just always chucked them all in a jam jar up until now and it's such a pain trying to find the right size hook when you need it. So when I saw that Messy Jesse had added this beautiful crochet hook cozy to her shop, I just Had to get it. It's perfectly stitched and the Cath Kidston fabric is just gorgeous.

Not only did I receive the crochet hook cozy, she also included some extra pieces of pretty fabric which I was happily surprised to get..! :-) Thank you! xx

Heather over at Pink Milk won my giveaway the other week and even though she really didn't need to, she sent me a little thank you gift which was a beautifully smelling scented candle. Thank you Heather xx

I was so lucky to win this beautiful pair of earrings in a giveaway over at Scented Sweetpea's. They are tiny silver hearts from Becky at Red Bird Jewellery and are just perfect because I struggle to wear dangly earrings these day's with Rose's little hands grabbing anything and everything in sight! Thank you to both of you :-) xx

I was also really fortunate to win the giveaway over at Rosie Hearts, I've won a machine embroidered glasses case and will show you some pictures when I receive it. Thank you Rosie xx

Finding it hard to squeeze everything in...

This is just a quick one...

I just wanted to explain why I haven't been very good at commenting on other peoples blogs the last week or so. I'm read as many as I can but when I'm occupying Rose at the same time, sometimes it just takes too long to leave a nice comment when the word verification thing takes long to write out than the actual comment! Why is it Two words now and not one..? I don't actually need glasses but I struggle to understand what the letters are a lot of the time!

I like to reply to everyone's comments on my blog but have been missing a few lately... I'm really busy trying to finish a couple of things off for people and I'm trying to get some stock sorted for my shop, as well as this... just looking after Rose keeps me pretty busy! :-) 

I've been given lots of brilliant advice and one of the most common things said, is that I need to have a Lot of things listed in my shop regularly. That way, people are likely to come across your shop more often and it's good to see new things being listed all the time. 

So anyway, I'm just getting as much made as I can so I have things ready to list... hence my reduced amount of time in blogland! All will be back to normal soon though :-) It would be much easier if there were a few more hours in every day!

By the way, the photo's are of my surprise bouquet of flowers Ray brought home with him after work the other evening. They do look lovely on my dining table.. :-)

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

What a beautiful day!

When Rose went back down for her morning nap this morning, I didn't do what I probably Should have done which would have been to get dressed! Instead I finished off hand-quilting this pretty patchwork bib.. I'm really chuffed with it as it's a first attempt and I already have another in the making! Addictive!

So, I finally got dressed rather late this morning... thankfully no one knocked on the door! Thursday's we don't have much planned, so it was actually really lovely to just take it easy and relax with my crafty bits and bobs whilst Rose slept upstairs. The front of the baby bib is made up with lots of cotton patchwork squares and the bib is backed with a really pretty polka dot brushed cotton, I'm really glad I hand quilted it, I think it makes it look a bit more delicate...

I've popped it in my shop here. To anyone else that has their own Etsy shop... I'm Very new at all of this and would be so so grateful for any advice or tips you can pass on my way. How do I get people to even look at what I have for sale..? !Thank you Jooles for your emails xx

What a beautiful day it's been here in West Sussex, it felt like early summer! Ray was on-call but had a bit of free time so we packed up to go to the park with a flask of coffee and my knitting in-tow. Reallllyy annoyingly he was called pretty much as soon as we got to the park but it didn't matter too much because Rose and I still had a great time on the swings. Then after we had moved out onto the main grassy area of the  park with our picnic blanket, my friend came to join us with her little girl so Rose had someone to play with.

In between getting up Multiple times to sprint after Rose (those little legs of hers sure move quickly!), I squeezed in some knitting time. I'm working on the second base now of the tea cosies I've been asked to make, something quite simple to work on while 99% of my attention was on the whereabouts of my little munchkin!

The sky was brilliant blue, just gorgeous.

I managed to quickly get a photo of her in the first two minutes of us getting out into the park.. after that it was impossible for me to get a shot of her. Let alone a photo where Rose was actually looking at the camera!

I'm off to carry on with my mission of removing these bl**dy acrylic nails! I got them done when visiting Josie in London, a spur of the moment decision but they're now getting in the way of my crafting so I'd like to remove them... except they just won't come off! Extremely frustrating...

xxxxxxxxxxxx

A really sweet gift arrived today, all the way from Australia and Rose's first 'proper' word!

We had a really brilliant morning today. I was feeling 100% back to normal (I managed to catch the tail end of Ray's bug he was suffering with over the weekend, so felt really lousy for a day or two) and we had a lovely time at our usual Wednesday toddler playgroup we go to every week. 

Rose said her first 'proper' word!

As usual, as soon as we entered the playgroup I didn't see Rose for about 15 minutes... she's definitely not a shy one that's for sure! She potters over just to check I'm still there every now and then but then loses interest and goes to play over the opposite end of the room again.

I was holding my friends little baby Fabian who's a few months old and after a while Rose appeared next to me, she never seems to get jealous when I hold another baby...  just becomes intrigued and tries to touch their little feet! She stood there looking very interested before babbling a bit and then saying 'baby'! It was repeated continuously a few times so wasn't as clear after a while.. but she still said it! Eeeeee! :-) 

Did anyone else get this excited about their babies first words?!

Anyway, after we got home after the group I realised I had received a parcel in the post. I almost missed it because it had been pushed behind the door when I came in the house.. For a moment I couldn't think what it could be until I saw the Australian post mark! I was sent the most lovely thoughtful gift by the lovely Ann and I am soooo thankful for it.

Ann has sent me a whole load of fabric, mainly Tilda fabric's... am I not the luckiest person!? 

It is so so kind of her as it must have cost her so much to post all the way from the other side of the world! 

I don't think I've actually ever received any post from Australia before, so it was rather exciting knowing it had come all that distance to now be included in my quite modest (now growing) fabric stash! :-)

Of course I just Had to take about a hundred photo's of all my favourites together..!

Thank you so so much Ann xx

I thought I would include a photo I took of Rose and myself this afternoon... obviously, she's trying to perfect her fake cheesy grin pose for the camera! haha (Please excuse the bags under my eye's... Rose was up twice during the night.. and for quite a long time!)

I've managed to list two new items on my Etsy, two sets of my pretty fabric coasters. I now have a grand total of Three (Wow!) items in my shop... it is gradually increasing though..!

I hope everyone is having a lovely week, only two more day's until the weekend! ...This doesn't actually make that big a difference to my usual day but it does mean that Ray's not at work, happy and relaxed at home instead. :-)

xxxxxxxxxxxx

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! :-)

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Granny square blocks & some Etsy bits.

The other night when I was browsing through my Twitter on my phone I came across a link to this tutorial, it's been a while since I've come across a tutorial and just though 'I Have to make this!' but the blocks are so pretty and apparently quite simple, so I thought why not!? I might as well give it a shot!

The next evening I began cutting my 2.5inch square's... I'm rubbish at using a rotary cutter and it took me a longgg time and I managed to slice into the side of my wrist which also slowed down the process! *Ouch!*

I really liked the look of the green and red together, as they could be for either a girl or boy but now I'm looking at the photo's, they look far too Christmassy! This was not the look I was going for.. but I put So much effort into making them that I'm going to finish what I started. My plan is to make a baby quilt for my Etsy shop, even though no one might want to buy it until December!!

I've sewn two sets of fabric coasters also for my Etsy shop, hopefully I'll get them in the shop this evening if all goes well. I'm feeling all motivated now that I have 1 item actually for sale!

We've had a busy day so far today, we've been to the NCT nearly new sale and got a big load of bargains for Rose. She's over the moon with her new toys, she grows bored of toys so quickly but if we bought all of her toy's brand new it would cost a fortune! Why are toy's So expensive!? 

We've got quite a few new pieces of clothing for her as well. I found a gorgeous rose print Cath Kids dress age 2-3yrs and it was only £4! It's a few months before she can wear it but it's definitely a bargain!

*Just a reminder that my Giveaway finishes tomorrow evening at 8pm, so if you haven't already entered follow this link and have your chance at winning some goodies! :-)*

Right, off to carry on with my knitting. I've knitted the main body of one tea cosy, now onto the next one!

xxxxxxxxxx