27th June 2010

What a glorious day, after the huge thunder storm last night it's nice to see the sun out again.





Most of yesterday was spent doing the dreaded grocery shopping and then Hub and the boys sat glued to a screen, first it was the new Harry Potter lego game on PS3 and then the football.





Now don't get me wrong I do like the football and I'm not averse to them playing games for a short while but sometimes it just gets ridiculous.





This morning it was my turn for a lie in but I was still up by 8.30am. When I came downstairs the boys were not surprisingly sat on the couch with the PS3 on. When I told them we were going out Gabe was fine but Milo looked like he'd been slapped in the face with a wet fish !!





Hub decided he wasn't coming so it was just me and the boys ..... ( as I write this Hub is still playing on the PS3 and it's 2.30pm ).





When I was younger I spent most of my time outdoors, it might have been different if we'd had console games I suppose but most of my best memories are of places I went with my parents , camps or dens that I made with friends in someones garden or just playing on a bike.



I don't want to sound like a moaning minnie and I know as a parent it's me that has control of what they do but it's hard when Milo comes home from school and talks about what his friends do or when Hubs idea of relaxing is playing console games .



It did make me smile when I was driving home with two just about naked boys in the back and Milo said that he'd had a great time and was glad that he'd came .. and then Gabe asked if we could come again tomorrow - maybe we'll just do that ..



.........................................................................................................................................................

With the help of both Milo and Gabe pulling names out of a hat I now have your swap partners for you.

Hetty's Happy Days and Some Of A Kind
The Sewing Room and Lizziejane
Periwinkle ( me ) and Karens Hopes
Buttontree Crafts and Louise@Home
Driftwood and Rattling On
Twiggypeasticks and Forestpoppy
Everyday Life and Hennies Nimbleneedles

So if we all get in touch with our partners and try to complete the swap within six weeks , which is the 8th August. Just send something that you think will make your partner happy. It doesn't matter if it's handmade or bought .
The only thing I ask is if you get in touch with me if you have any problems and also when you have sent/ recieved your swap. Have fun girls.

June 26th 2010

Hey peeps , hows your weekend going ? We've had glorious weather the past few days but at this precise moment we are in the middle of a thunder storm, the sun is still shining but the rain is lashing down and old Mr Rattley Bags is really giving it his all.

Anyway, enough of the weather, I've been cleaning out some of the pics and I came across these.





Not surprisingly I have no idea where I got the pics from so my apologies to the owner but the reason I am posting about them is that I would really really like to get my hands on some . I did have some very similar to these a long time ago but to cut a long story short they were stolen from me.
So if anyone knows where I could get them or could point me in the right direction I'd be eternally grateful.

I've checked Etsy and Ebay with no luck ..

Help ................

23rd June 2010

Just a couple of days left to join in the Happy Swap ---- get your name down by midnight Friday 25th if you'd like to recieve or send some goodies to/from one of these lovely ladies..

Everyday Life
Forestpoppy
The Sewing Room
Hennies Nimbleneedles
Lizziejane
Some Of A Kind
Hetty's Happy Days
Louise@Home
Driftwood
Twiggypeasticks
Rattling On
Karens Hopes
Buttontree Crafts

Siona please can you get in touch


I'll let you all know your partners on Sunday 27th .......

21st June 2010

This morning after we'd taken Milo to school I decided that it was just too nice to go home and do housework ...I mean, who cares if there are breakfast crumbs on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink and dust that you can write your name in . That can all wait , sometimes buttercup fields are way more fun - aren't they?











Hope you all had a lovely Summer Solstice ..

16th June 2010

edited to add more swapees 17th June



The weather the past few days has been absolutely glorious , perfect blue skies and no sign of the rain clouds that have been hanging around for so long.



Perfect for a little boy to be a sunflower in his school play all about protecting yourself in the sun. Something mammy didn't do today and now has one bright red arm...

Perfect for finally being able to take some decent photos of finished items.



Pod, another monster.



Sage, a bunny made entirely from organic cotton.



Darcy , a cute little ballerina mouse made from a pattern by Dollytime.



Two hats made for presents kindly modelled by Gabe and bribed with pea pods to do so.



For some reason the second one turned out a bit bigger!!



Not as big as the firemans helmet though..kindly loaned by some very nice firemen at the school Summer Fayre.

A few people have signed up for the Happy Swap, so far we have ..

Everyday Life
Forestpoppy
The Sewing Room
Hennies Nimbleneedles
Lizziejane
Some Of A Kind
Hetty's Happy Days
Louise@Home
Driftwood
and of course myself ..... anyone else fancy recieving some nice goodies through the post?

Siona, please can you send me some contact details as we'd love you to join the swap but I've got no details for you... thank you :-)

12th June 2010

Flowers make me happy ...



My boys make me happy ( old pic from last year )

Chocolate , knitting and the sun make me happy.

Recieving nice things in the post makes me happy ........... so, I was wondering, if anyone would like to take part in a " happy swap" ? Just sending a little something to a fellow Blogger to brighten up their day.
Leave a comment on here if you would and I'll get back to you .

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend .

9th June

I really am rubbish at showing you my crafty things aren't I ... Here is a round up what's been finished since the end of April .



A couple of monsters, well there are actually three but I haven't got a photo of the third one yet!



Gabe asked me to knit him a green bear with a pumpkin suit. I used one pattern for the bear and another for the suit but the suit didn't fit ... looks like I'm going to have to do him another green bear.



Peter the Pirate .



Grace , another big squishy bunny who is on her way to Florida.



I have also made a hat which is to go towards my sisters Christmas present ( I know I know chuckle } something for a present , which I can't share yet and started on some bits for the boys birthdays which is next month . Phew.
I don't think I'm doing too bad on the crafty front do you?

7th June 2010

It's nearly 8.10pm here in the UK and about half an hour ago I finished this little chap . I just had to nip outside ( in the drizzle ) to take some photos immediately as I'm just really pleased with him.



If you are a Harry Potter fan you'll probably guess what this is peeping over the edge of the pot.



With his gruesome little face.



Cover your ears ..................



SSSSCCCCCCRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCHHHHH





There is a Mandrake on the loose.

4th June 2010

Hi folks, I really didn't mean to be gone for so long . I've had so many things to blog about and due to one thing or another it just hasn't happened , so my apologies and I will show you the Sensory Garden from the park another time .

This week has been all go, go, go .... Milo is off school for half term and Hub has also taken time off work so we've been out and about all over the place. We had intended to go away somewhere but as per usual we left it far too late and everywhere we wanted to go was fully booked or sooooo expensive it was ridiculous . Then we thought about another trip to Amsterdam but realised that Milos passport had expired so instead we've done some exploring.
Yesterday the sun was shining , the sky was blue and it was definately a ' go somewhere' day. Hub suggested a drive to Middleton-In-Teesdale and a "short walk" when we got there.



Our " short walk" started well by going through gorgeous fields of buttercups and clover, alongside the River Tees and was a truly awesome sight . We had a slight detour onto a country lane for about 15 minutes which I have to admit scared me silly as there were so many bends and the cars were going quite fast so I was really pleased to get back onto the trail so to speak, especially when this was what we saw as soon as we left the road.



Wild garlic everywhere and the smell aaahhhhhh.



It was so peaceful and quiet except for the birdsong which surrounded us and the sound of the river .



We had several refueling stops as little legs ( mine included) needed resting. At our first stop we found lots of little tadpoles in the pools .



So first pit stop over off we set again.



Saying hello to a few horses as we passed. Now take note of that hill in the background!!



Don't you just love these old bridges ?





At another stop we found these Globe flowers and watched Dippers bobbing across the rocks.



I couldn't believe how many Bluebells we saw , they were literally on just about all of the walk and although they were past their best, in some places still looked and smelled beautiful .



Finally we reached our destination , Low Force , a set of small waterfalls which is further down the river from High Force which we visited January 2009. Don't worry , the boys aren't dangling off the edge even though it looks like they are.





At this point we headed back to the road in the hope of catching a bus to take us back to Middleton - the bus that we found out wasn't due for another few hours - oh dear. So what do you do with a few hours to kill, oh yes, you walk some more . Well that's what we did anyway!!



Spotting this tree , or should I say trees was a big treat for me and this would have definately been " The Tree" if we'd lived a bit closer.



So we walked on to a place called Bowlees Visitor Centre which is a place I remember well from my childhood.



I just realised that most of my photos are taken with what looks like me walking way behind everyone else - I don't honestly :-)



This little waterfall is called Gibsons Cave. I can remember playing underneath here when I was younger but all access is barred now.



Someone is getting tired now as we make the decision to walk back to Middleton instead of waiting forever for the bus.



Another pit stop on the way back and at this point we have ran out of all the drink that we had. It's about 4.30pm now and fast approaching tea time.



Maybe we should have counted all the stiles we climbed across , most of them were in dry stone walls rather than wood ones.



Once again me walking behind everyone . I was just admiring the bluebells and watching the dozens of rabbits that were now running about in the fields on our right. There were quite a few dead rabbits lying against the fence ( on the other side). We couldn't figure out why until we saw some wood tunnels that someone had placed into the fence and we realised that because this path is regularly used the rabbits must be running into the fence when trying to get away from walkers.



Now , going back to the horse picture , do you remember I said to take note of the hill? Well this is the view from that hill looking down to the horses field.





We are all now extremely tired and some of us a bit more worse for wear than others.





After what turned out to be a not so short 9 mile , 6 hour long walk we were all absolutely and utterley shattered.
We are still recovering today.