Hogmany!

::Hello everyone::

I hope Christmas was fantastic for you all! The TB's Christmas was not our usual celebratory afair this year but I will not allow that kind of stuff on my blog!! This is my cheerful happy place :o)

The Littlies had a ball and got pressies they were not expecting and my lovely Mr TB is just the best and a total trooper.

this view was clear when I started taking photos! Where did the kids go????

Well it's the last day of 2010 and it got me thinking about the year that has passed. Unfortunately the main things that came to mind were so negative I just want 2010 to end BUT then I started to try and change my mindset and think of all the positives of 2010 to balance this out!!!!

So 2010 ........................

The year I learned to crochet!!! I taught myself and this is my first project



Crochet has opened an amazing and exciting new chapter in my life. I have met so many fantastic people through it. Which takes me to my next thing.

::Attic 24 :: Lucy's Blog is the first blog I had ever read and it has brought such joy to my life!! Thank you Lucy. I spread the word to my LYS which I found hunting for Lucy colours. This intoduced me to the lovely lovely LYS owner Lucy who cheers me up sooooo much every time I see her, because of that conversation she now stocks the Stylecraft Attic 24colour pack!

Crochet Club! I started going to crochet club at my LYS and it has introduced me to lots of lovely new friends especially Lucy and Issy and gives me 2hours of mind wandering bliss in a very busy life.

::RAVELRY:: Oh the joy the joy Ravelry has brought me. So many amazingly talented people and they are so friendly and helpful. JOY!!! Deep JOY!!!! Sharing all your amazing projects and all those patterns at your finger tips. Like this one

The Fantasy Flower Bag the super talented Morrewen

 (and changed slightly by me!)

 

I taught my friends to crochet. It's been a great experience to share and brought us all even closer together. I feel truly blessed to have them in my life. I hope they know how much they mean to me.

My darling biggest Littlie started secondary school and is doing amazingly well! She has met so many lovely friends and it has brought her out her shell so much.

I started Blogging! It has been such a positive step to write and your comments make it all worth while. Thank you all my followers for continuing to read my blog. I hope it's interesting on some level. I take it that's the case because you continue to follow me.

I have so many reasons to be thankful for the last year it would be A MASSIVE post if I carried on so I will stop there but a HUGE HUGE Thank you to you all! I had no idea there were so many lovely people out there and you really are amazing. So here's to getting to know you all better in

2011.

HAPPY HOGMANY.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur!!!!

An lang mae yir lum reek. xxxxxx

Snowy Saturday.

It's Saturday, that means it's new blog post day and not to metion that it is 18th December which is International answer the phone like Buddy The Elf day!!!! So today when the phone rings the person on the other end will hear "Buddy The Elf What's your favourite colour?" It also means if some unsuspecting tele-sales person rings the littlies will fight to answer the phone and I suspect the person making the call won't stay on the line!

I finished work on Thursday for Christmas. Yay! No work until 4 January 2011. Lots of lovely time with my babies. Mr TB and I went out for his works Christmas lunch yesterday to the most beautiful place. It was at one of the stunning luxury hotels his boss owns (it is a bit if a hobby of his. oh to have that kinda money). We had a beautiful meal while the littlies were entertained by my friend N who came up to babysit and I will return the favour next week with her littlie while she goes to work. During that time she made this with them!

It is amazingly beautiful and made out of the humble A4 drawing paper. Increadible! This is the instructions I found when I googled the image. The photo is a little bright because today the TB cottage looks like this..............

and the view from the window

I was going to go to my LYS today and drop off a little pressie for Lucy and the lovely Issy but my lane looked like this at 9.00am..................

While that is ok I can't be bothered to defrost my Landy

And with more snow forecast today it can change very quickly! So I am closing the cottage door ......................

and I am going to wrap pressies, bake, and decorate the house a little more and maybe a bit of sledging with the littlies while we hope Mr TB gets up North safely today and safely home tomorrow.

Stay warm out there and have a lovely weekend from all of us in the cosy TB cottage. xxxxx

Oh and P.S. I have edited previous post Feeling Festive to include photos of the finished living room decs and Biggest Littlies jewellery from her party. x

Feeling Festive. Edited to add more pictures

How are you all? Thank you so very very much for all the lovely comments on my last post. You have no idea how much they helped me through what has turned out to be a particularly horrendous week. In fact I don't ever remember things feeling quite so bad. BUT hey life goes on and(that's not what I want my blog to be about) we have had cause to be cheerful too! Middle Littlie and Smallest Littlie had to go into hospital on Tuesday for food challenges. Smallest Littlie is now been given the all clear to eat nuts!!!! That includes peanuts but strangely not cashews?! Middle Littlie couldn't have hers done unfortunately because her oxygen sats were too low because of her asthma but she got another appointment for January so that's not too bad. 

I had enough of feeling sorry for myself so we went to collect our tree and the Littlies set to work their Christmas magic! It was a little bottom heavy so I did a little redistribution after bedtime and this is the result...........

It always makes you feel more Christmasy once the tree is in situ, doesn't it? My favourite bit maybe more than even the tree is the fireplace

It isn't quite finished yet but I love doing this bit and do it over a few days adding bit and bobs in so it is so full and glowing (well it will be when I get the damn fairylights working!) and excuse the oven tray under the woodburner but we scoffed some chestnuts while we worked and they were gooood!!!
 Myself and the Littlies will go cut the holly and ivy for the banister on the stairs tomorrow after school and I can put up the gorgeous holly berry lights and then decorate the dinning room.

I had only a little bit of time to work on it today as it was Biggest Littlies 12th Birthday. I can't believe she is 12! She is such a lovely young lady. She had a lovely jewellery party with her friends. They made a gorgeous necklace each and a spiral bracelet too which I will edit this post tomorrow and add some photos of the creations.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and you are all feeling a little festive too and for those of you who don't celebrate Christmas I hope you are not too sick of everyone going on about it yet!

Sending you all happy thoughts for the week ahead. xxxxxxxxx
Ok so as I promised this is what Biggest Littlie made at her party....

 I think they look fantastic! I wish I could do that when I was 12!!!!!!

And at last the living room decs are done! I have stopped tweeking at the fire place and it now looks festive

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! :o)

Santa's Little Elf

Hello everyone. How are you all? Anyone still snowed in? We have been in a tiny pocket of the country that didn't get much snow at all. We got about 2cm but LOTS of ice which has made my journeys to work interesting, traveling sideways down our country lane when you started out pointing forwards!

 I am sorry I haven't written a proper post for a while but I have been a busy girl working an enormous amount of hours producing my new brochure for work and organising our big Christmas events which this year included, visit from Santa, Children's pottery painting day, buffet for 90 people, a Swing Band and so on, but also trying to get some Christmas presents ready for family and friends.

So you lovely people, shall I show you what I have been up to?

I went to my friends studio to do some glass fusing and made some decorations for the Christmas tree.

I love how different they are when they come out of the kiln, all smooth and tactile.

Don't they like boiled sweeties?

I also did some copper foiling to make some more stars for the window............

..................and some mirrored tea-light holders for presents. They twinkle so nicely when you light the candles, it shows the jewel like colours so beautifully.

Candle light and stained glass is an amazing combination.

And so to the softer side of my life.......... I have been crocheting my socks off over the last couple of weeks (I should be knitting those scrummy socks for my niece really, but I needed some instant wooly gratification.) Crochet is sooooo much quicker than knitting. I get such a kick out of making something in an evening rather than it taking weeks. I have mostly been making presents but I have had to make some other bits and bobs for myself too as it has been flippin brass monkeys outside!

A Queen Anne scarf for my Mum using the yarn I bought ages ago. I used this pattern from Ravelry it was written by a very clever guy and is available for free. It took one and half evenings to make and really shows the beauty of the colours in the yarn. I liked it so much I made this one for me ......

It's such a therapeutic pattern to do and is one of the most enjoyable patterns I have every used.

I felt I was neglecting my niece's socks (which made me feel like a bad Auntie) but I wasn't ready to start up on them again, so I made her another Martha Cowl for Christmas. This is another freebie Ravelry pattern that is so quick and easy to do.

 This is the pattern I used for her birthday in this post and according to my sister she has been wearing it ever since. I think she may appreciate a different colour and texture. I wish I had taken a photo of the yarn before I made it. I was very tweedie hence the name Sidar Tweedie!!! Clue is in the title. It has a gorgeous texture and a really cosy feel. The do a really lush blue one

 which I think I may have to treat myself to. I am such a pain when I start making gifts, they really bring out a selfish side I didn't know I had! I just don't want to give things away I want to keep them for me ....... mine I tell you ...... mine ....... mine. I come over all Gollam. My precious! Theives and Bagginses. I may have just taken that a little too far but you get the idea. 

To satisfy the Smeegle side of my personality I made myself a hat last night.

Oh boy oh boy it's cosy! I LOVE IT. It's Stylecraft Aran in Blue Haze which is navy but has a lovely fushia tone to it. Yes you guessed it, it was another Ravelry freebie pattern. I had to alter the pattern slightly by putting in another 3 rows one puff stitch row and one double crochet row and one more decrease row to get the right amount of slouch to the back. The puff stitches are great and give a lovely effect.

 I'll show you in a Wayne's World type extreme close up.......

Aren't the pufftastic???? Sorry about all the shadows in the photos today the light is so wrong for photos indoors.

This afternoon Mr TB is working and the littlies want to play on the Wii so I think I am going to try making a Lacey Infinity Scarf by Beth Attwood this pattern isn't a freebie but it cost $2.00 so hey I call that a bargain! I am making it to match my new hat. I will show you the result in my next post.

Whatever you are all doing I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. xxxxxx