Back ... but not for long!

Well, that was a longer than expected absence. I'm back at home now, still in pain, but with no real idea about what's going on. It's been a strange month, mostly spent in bed, and watching a whole heap of daytime TV!


The drugs I'm on have left me feeling slightly spaced out and therefore not much crafting has been done - morphine influenced knitting is always an interesting experience!! I have managed to finish a pair of socks though - a nice straightforward pattern that doesn't require much thought.



I've also made a few gifts for a lovely baby boy who was born the day before went into hospital and who was three weeks old before I had my first cuddle - well worth the wait! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures before I gave the presents. Doh!


I did manage to get my Christmas Polka Dot Swap off to Australia before the deadline (phew!) though nearly gave my husband a heart attack when he took it to the post office and was asked to pay a HUGE amount of postage!!! Must bear that in mind next time I do an international swap.......!!! Will post pictures when I know it has arrived.


On Friday we're off to The Netherlands to begin our search for a house. We have booked a cabin on the ferry even though it's a day crossing so that I can lie down whenever I need. It's also got a TV, sofa and internet connection, so (fingers crossed) it should be an easy journey for everyone. It's only 14 weeks to go before we intend to move and I'm in complete denial about the amount of packing that will need to be done! Hopefully our search around the Hague will be successful.

Ouch...

..In case you were wondering where I've disappeared to, I've spent most of the last week in hospital with a recurring kidney problem.

Boo.

I've been home for a day and it looks as though I may have to go back.

Double Boo.

Normal service will resume soon - I promise!

Little oak trees...

Having seen a number of these being made in Blogland,

I thought I'd have a go myself!


A whole bunch of needle felted acorns!

Mmmmmm!

This book:

recently jumped into my trolley during a supermarket trip and now I am slowly working my way through it. Not so handy when you're trying to lose 2 1/2 stone by the end of the year (1 1/2 down already - Yay!) Fortunately, I have more than a few willing volunteers here to help me out!

Our absolute favourite recipe so far has to be the 'Dutch Apple cake' (though it's not like REAL Dutch apple cake you understand.....!!) It has been made at least three times already and I tried it last week with blackcurrants in the bottom instead of apple. Still very delicious, but a bit too soggy!!

Banana bread was good too (went too quickly to photograph!)

Snickerdoodles are next on the list.....

Rainy days and Mondays.....

Not a lot of (finished) crafting going on over here at the moment. I'm finding it really hard to settle on one thing and so am flitting from one project to another without getting anything finished. Meanwhile the pile of chaos on my desk just grows and grows.

Feeling a bit grey and 'out of sorts' really..... (bit like the weather!)

In a feeble attempt to chase away the grey, thought I share some of the amazing colours I saw in a recent walk in our local park.

I do love this time of year

Swapping goodies...

I know I promised pictures of Paris last week, but I've been soo busy and I'm afraid you won't get to see them today either...

I really need to blog about the lovely package I received in the Button Jewellery swap. I was partnered with Caroline , and these are the wonderful goodies that I received from her:

A lovely button bracelet in gorgeous soft pastels,

a beautiful embroidered cuff with teeny-tiny buttons ( I think this was my favourite),

a crochet brooch,

a brooch made with lovely dangling glass beads,

a hand- bound notebook embroidered with my 'name' and

a sweet box containing lots of lovely buttons!

I also received some chocolate, a lollipop and some sweets which are long gone by now I'm afraid!

Here are the items I sent to Caroline:

I really enjoy these swaps, you never know who you will meet and what you will receive and I love thinking of things to make for others that they (hopefully!) will appreciate. Can't wait for the next one!

Knitting and Stitching show

As bit of a last minute and unplanned event, I've decided to go to the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace tomorrow. Any one else going?

A week in Provence..

At the risk of stating the obvious - I'm back!

We had an amazing time away, though I missed my babies so much! I've found it really hard to get back into the swing of things since we got back home, though I suppose it hasn't helped leaving behind weather like this:

to get back to grey skies and rain!

(the view from our living room)

I took lots of knitting, but the only knitting that actually got done was a small bit of sock on the Eurostar on the way over!

I did however do lots of this:

drank lots of this:

swam in here:

walked here:

visited here:

and here:

and here!

It was an amazing part of Provence, there were vineyards everywhere..

We helped the local economy as much as we could by tasting the local produce....!

Will post Paris pictures tomorrow!

An apple a day...

Due to a request to re-jiggle our sessions by the nursery, Pickle now does a whole day on Wednesdays, which means that she gets to stay for lunch. She was so excited to hear this and was so pleased that she too would have a lunch bag - just like her older brother and sisters!

It happened that only the week before, I had seen a link to these and so decided that Pickle would have her very own too (when will I learn?) . She chose the fabric she wanted - albeit from a 'selected' choice! - and so Tuesday night found me making this:

It went fairly smoothly...

I decided to make it out of fabric so that it could be washed and wanted it to be lined so that it looked pretty on the inside too (?!)

...to hide the seams, I really wanted to use this spotty bias tape that I had, but there wasn't enough - grrr!

as I had once again left it as late as I possible could, there was no time to get any more, so I used cotton webbing, which looks better than I thought, but I had a huge problem with the corners and my sewing machine.

As everything in the nursery needs to be labelled, I used my fledgling free-embroidery skills and made her a fabric covered button with her name embroidered on and sewed it to the front. She loved it (phew!)


I'm not happy at all with the corners though, really not happy. I do however have more fabric and tape. I feel a second lunch bag coming soon.....!!!

p.s. (once again, sorry for the quality of the photographs, but I took these at a time of day when I shouldn't even have been awake, let alone trying to take pictures of a flippin' lunch bag!)