Birthday Party

It's hard to believe, but my little girl will be 10 years old in 6 weeks time. For this reason she was desperate to have a birthday party, so we booked the party at the swimming pool with the inflatable and she invited 25 of her friends.

An hour in the pool with the inflatable, which I was told was a pirate ship and they all had a fantastic time.  Once they were all changed we went upstairs to have hot dogs and nachos and cakes.

They even had 20 minutes to play bulldog to end the evening.

We didn't want party bags, so I came up with the idea of sweet cones and spent Friday making up these cones and finishing them off with a glow stick when I tied them.

Her friends thought this was fantastic and loved the glow sticks as an extra.

I had thought I'd get away with not making any cakes, instead buying a slab cake in Morrisons, but they only served 15 and I couldn't have cut them any smaller than they already were, so I bought some red, white & blue sprinkles and made 30 fairy cakes.

Again the kids thought these were fabulous and tasty :) 

As they were leaving they all thanked us for such a wonderful party and one boy even told Marion her Mum sure knows how to throw a party :)

I Won a Giveaway

Back in January I won this lovely jigsaw on Stitch Bitch's blog on her giveaway for 10,000 posts.
I didn't think anything of it after I gave her my address, just thought Nikki had sent it surface mail for cost of postage.  She emailed me a couple of weeks ago apologising for not having sent it yet and it was on its way.

A big pink box arrived on a miserable rainy Thursday.  I pulled out the box with the jigsaw in, had a quick look and then had to go off out into the rain.  Little did I realise what else was in the box until Friday and WOW just take a look at all this fabric.

Some lovely threads wound onto bobbins with magnets on the back, a little matchbook needlecase and a matchbook notepad.  Nikki was apologetic for not having posted the prize sooner, but like I've said it didn't matter at all, but I LOVE EVERYTHING SHE HAS SENT.

THANK YOU SO MUCH NIKKI.  An email will be sent to you when gmail stops crashing.

Last Day of 2011

This year hasn't been the most fantastic year, it's been a very frustrating year for one reason or another.

I've made quite a few cards, I've stitched small things, but nothing big and my New Year's Resolution never happened - I never managed to hypnotise Sally into stitching all my projects, perhaps it will happen in 2012 ;)

We're going to go out for a few drinks with friends tonight later on, as we've already had our New Year's Dance that we normally go to as the caretaker for this new school refused to come out on New Year's Eve. It was called 'twixmas' and a brilliant night was had by all on Wednesday.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year's Eve and whatever you're doing, stay safe and I will see you all again next year :)

On The Twentieth Day............

This morning was such a brilliant morning at craft class. We'd all taken in some food (sausage rolls, cakes, crisps etc)and placed them onto an empty table and then we got ourselves settled in our seats to do some crafting, having a great laugh at the same time.

We made this lovely desk calendar. I coloured the hair blonde so my darling daughter wouldn't moan too much about it being pink (she's not a fan of pink, girls wear pink, her favourite colour is blue).

After we'd completed the calendar we put everything away and got the food and drink out and started the party off. We had poppers and crackers and a really good laugh. Then we got back to some more crafting. I almost completed it, I just wanted to tweak it a little and brought it home with me. Not done anything yet, my back was a bit sore but hopefully I will finish it tomorrow.

I have cleaned the kitchen worktops and the hob and fridge, now all I need to do is sweep and clean the floor but some dopey twit (me) had put the broom outside and it's raining now, so I will do it tomorrow evening when she's in her bed.

This Tickled Me

I saw this in a card shop when I was going for a birthday card for the birthday skein group on facebook. This just tickled me and I decided to get it.

Happy Birthday Theresa, hope you enjoy the threads aswell as the card.

Wonderful Weekend

The beautiful stacking jewellery box my darling daughter gave me.

Yes I had a fabulous weekend. We went down to my Aunt's house on Saturday morning, it was such a lovely hot day we were all in shorts and tshirts and after opening a bottle of champagne we went into the garden and sat chatting. Boy it was hot, thankfully I'd taken my hat.

Another bottle of champagne was opened, this time I was told to let the cork pop and it went almost to the top of the garden, which is 75ft long and not a bubble spilled over.

We had some lunch and then we all had to move to the neighbour's house two doors down to continue the rest of the day and that's where we were staying overnight. They have a heated indoor swimming pool and Marion couldn't wait to get into it. Only the 3 of us went in and Mum almost sank to the bottom after missing the last step into the pool. We were in swimming for almost an hour and then we got out for a drink, Marion gulped her lemonade down and then back into the pool and the little water babe thoroughly enjoyed herself.

We then went to our rooms to shower and get ready for the meal in the Brasserie in Woburn and the balloon is what was in the middle of the table when we arrived.

There were 10 of us altogether, myself, Marion, Mum, Dad, my Cousin Andrew, his fiance Clare, my Aunt & Uncle and Eve and David who we were staying with.

After we'd eaten the main course we waited quite a long time to have out dessert because we were so full, so my daughter and cousin started a war with the confetti. She loves Andrew to bits and he loves her just as much, they get on so well and it was so funny watching them. Marion then got Clare on her side and Andrew had no chance. I was the only one in the end who didn't have a 'naughty forty' or number '40' stuck to me lol

We had dessert, I had a raspberry sorbet it was delicious and then we were asked if we wanted tea or coffee. That came and then 5 minutes after that they came in with a cake and started singing happy birthday. I never saw it coming, normally I guess these things and I went a little bit pink. Lovely cake though.

On Sunday we had breakfast at Eve and David's and then went up to my Aunt's house. Again the weather was lovely and we had a nice relaxing day. We then popped up to my Cousin's house to see their little boy Thomas. As soon as he saw Marion he was squealing with delight that 'Mayan' (not bad for an 18 month old) had come to play, so we went up to his orchard and the kids played football with Clare, the dogs and the chickens and Mum and I harvested some of the fruit with Andrew. The apples were lovely and sweet, completely different to the ones I've got.

After an hour it was time for us to leave and Thomas kissed us all, gave Marion a big hug and said 'I wuv you Mayan'. She loves him just as much as she loves Andrew.

So a fantastic weekend had by all. That was the perfect way to celebrate my 40th Birthday :)

Happy Birthday to ME :)

Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
I am now for-tee-ee
Happy Birthday to me!!

Yes on the 30th September 1971 I arrived in the world.

My daughter came in bouncing on top of me screaming Happy Birthday Mummy! (honestly I've been deaf ever since lol) and then gave me a card and my present - a beautiful tiered jewellery box (will take a photo later and show another day) and then I opened the card from my parents.

It was time to get ready for school and I promised her I wouldn't open any other cards or presents until she was back in from school.

My parents then took me to Comet and Curry's to pick out the tv they were buying me for my present. It's a nice Samsung 32" flat screen LED and with that the came the glass tv table. Haven't taken it out the box yet, we will do that later on.

We had a 'do it yourself' chinese meal for dinner, which was delicious and then I opened my cards and opened this beautiful gift from Sally I LOVE IT. Thank you so much Sally :)

There are plans for the weekend, I have to pack a dress and my swimsuit and we're staying overnight, but that's all I'm privvy to just now. So I'm off to pack and have another glass of champagne.

Gift From Sally

It was my birthday yesterday and Sally sent me this wonderful needlecase. Isn't it beautiful? I LOVE IT. All that work that went into it, the smaller they are the more work that goes into them.



Sally has some much nicer photos on her blog. I got in too late last night to get a decent photo and today is a really miserable, rainy day.



When I got back in this afternoon there was another card waiting for me from my Cousin. I will get him back next year.

The outside:


The inside:

Happy Birthday to ME

Yes it's my Birthday today and it has been an interesting one. Firstly I hardly got any sleep as my darling little daughter decided to come into my bed at around 2am and then for the rest of the night ground her teeth, even managing to argue the odds with me when I asked her to stop it for the umpteenth time.

When we got up all she said was 'morning Mummy' and then tried to go back to sleep. Five minutes later I heard a gasp and 'Happy Birthday Mummy, I've got something for you' and then ran downstairs and back up with a card and out popped a £5 note (Mum had sent it up for her to put in my card as they hadn't had time in the holidays to buy me a present). Mum phoned to wish me a happy birthday and then we were heading out to school armed with her goodies for the Harvest Show.




These are her cakes. The only thing I did to help her was to put them in and take them out the oven and she did everything else herself. We'd bought a cheat kit for her to make cakes for my birthday and she took the decorations from that to put on her cakes for the show. Unfortunately she didn't get anything for them or any of the other items she put in and she's said that from now on she's going to stick to the horticultural shows where she's got more chance of winning a prize for her efforts.

I bought the flowers for myself as a treat.



On Facebook I joined a Birthday Skein Swap and one of the cards that I opened had this frog on it. Let's hope it's the only frog that appears in this stitching household!!!



These are all the wonderful skeins that I received and not one of them is a duplicate :)

I also received the most wonderful gift from Sally, but I didn't get a great picture of it, so I will blog tomorrow about it (and rightfully it deserves its own entry because it is stunning).

Unfortunately my darling little girl is poorly with a full blown cold :( I hope she gets over it quickly, it's never nice to have a cold, but for a child it is even worse.

Thank You's To...

Sally and Barbara. Sally sent me the Just Nan Winter Humbug chart that she was finished with and the leftover beads. I knew that there wouldn't be enough of the peanut shaped beads, but I found these peanut shaped ones at one of the local shops. One set is different grey shades with clear and the other is blues and yellows. All I have to do is decide whether the grey or blue will be best when I've completed the stitching.


Barbara sent me her Drawn Thread chart, I'd admired her stitching on her blog and asked who the designer was and she asked me to email her with my address. In the post came this gorgeous chart "you must stitch this for Christmas Mummy" says the beady eyed child.

I'm beginning to wonder whether I should keep looking at these blogs, Barbara is going to have to join Sally on the naughty step a lot more if I do ;) Oh I've just thought, Barbara could just send me her finished piece instead ;-)

Some Friends are............

...........a bad influence. Take Sally for instance, she's been put in the naughty corner; actually I never put her there, she took herself there, along with her stash LOL

Sally updated her blog with her latest purchases and one in particular caught my attention, Poinsettia Tree by LHN and so I popped along to Down Sunshine Lane to take a look. I never came across that particular design, but I did stumble upon Robin Hood and with my 7 year old daughter standing behind me at the time 'oh Mummy look, Robin Hood, I want it NOW. Please Mummy I love you very much' and Marion got her wish. I purchased it, along with some more Piecemaker needles because I'm on my last one and I've been wanting to purchase some more for a while (it was a bit pointless just purchasing needles on their own).



Not that I mentioned anything on my blog, but Marion and the rest of the year 3 went to Sherwood Forest on a 3 day camp. They stayed in the youth hostel and all the rooms are named after characters from Robin Hood. Marion and 3 others were in Guy of Gisborne. She had a fantastic time, saw where Robin is buried, measured trees, did rubbings and various other activities. This chart will just add to the memory for her.

Anyway while she was away, I did some more stitching on the letter I and this is how far I've got. It's almost complete, so I may sit and finish it tomorrow evening.