* 114 *

Jeez this week has gone by in a big whoosh hasn't it and to be honest the way things are going I'll be glad to see the back of it.

I'm normally fine with school holidays but this one I'm tearing my hair out in handfuls. My two little cherubs who look like butter wouldn't melt have been more like little devils.

What with the fighting and the bickering, the tears and the yelling, the grumpitude and the attitude my head is totally battered and it's mainly coming from the big one. He's a dab hand at winding his brother up and then pretending like nothing has happened and he's the innocent party!

Last Tuesday and today he went to a youth club for three hours which was been held at the school and for those few hours Gabe and I had some peace. Gabe hasn't been perfect either mind but nowhere near as bad as Milo. I feel like I have a sulky teenager in a seven year olds body.

Yesterday the weather was bright and sunnny so I took them down the park and told them to go wild. Run, scream, yell do whatever they wanted in the hope it would get it out of their systems --- pah, no such luck.

While they were doing all this I took some deep breaths, admired the golden leaves of the Norway Maple and watched the squirrels running back and forth hoarding the acorns in preparation for Winter.

Tomorrow I've got my second shift at work from 11 until 4 ..... bliss!

* 113 *

Since my post the other day talking about my Etsy shop the shop has done a little bit better. I really appreciate all the feedback I was given so thank you all very much.

 
I did a few tweaks here and there , things like putting ' ready to ship' at the front of the descriptions for the finished items and making a separate category for them . Since doing this Daisy Bella ( above) has sold and is currently on her way to Australia  and Clarice ( below) is on her way to America.

 Unfortunately there isn't a lot I can do with regards to having all the backgrounds the same on the photographs as the majority of them aren't mine. They belong to and are taken by Debi Birkin who is the actual pattern designer.

The tea cosy above is still available. It was originally made as a custom order for a lady who promised faithfully every week that she would pay for it but no money ever appeared so I made it for general sale .

 These Wuzzies are also still available and they will be joined shortly by a few more, perfect for cheap little stocking fillers and Augusta below is still available too. She hasn't been up for sale for very long so I do have high hopes that she'll be making a little someone happy on Christmas Day.

 The three cuties below are a custom order . It's the first time I've made the hippo and I think she's a cutie so there will probably be more hippo's somewhere in the future..... what do you think?

 Debi has also given me two new patterns to sell , Ching Chong and Jingles . These are both larger animals and are made with doubled yarn but I have seen them on Ravelry made with just a single yarn so either way would be fine.

I feel quite proud of Jingles as some of the parts were what I made for Debi as a test knit and they've been used on the finished article .

I've also got a sale on until the end of the month where if you buy one pattern you can get a second half price and this does include the two new patterns if you are interested . I'm considering a Facebook page too in the very near future so I'll let you know how that one pans out.
So once again I'd just like to say thanks for all the advice and I hope you all have a lovely weekend .

* 112 *

Hey guys, how are you all doing, good weekend I hope?

 I am totally going to overload you with photo's today I'm afraid,

because today something happened that was a once in a lifetime event and I don't want any of us to forget it.

Even thinking about it now makes me smile, a big, huge smile.

So, to start at the beginning. Today was our yearly trip through to Newcastle to see the pumpkins at the market.

We started off having a wander around the old castle, gatehouse circa 1247 so pretty old.

Then a walk down to the river front where the market is passing a lady abseiling down the front of a hotel for charity. Way to go strange lady you are so much braver than me.

Passed some random poster graffiti of a chicken holding a mans head - very strange.

 Then passing a car where the guy was singing to a dog - honestly!

 Finally reached the market where we had to partake of the most delicious chocolate brownies ever. No pic's of them as they were wolfed down.

 Along to the pumpkin stall, all luckily grown I might add. We also bought some hyacinth bulbs, last year it was daffodils.

 Then across to the Baltic Museum on the other side of the river crossing the Millenium Bridge to get there.

 It is probably just me but I really don't get this place at all. It's a gorgeous building but the things inside ...... not my taste of art at all.

 Last year we saw dead trees all laid down in a line, this year I really don't know what it was .

 So I'll just leave it at that!

The best thing about the Baltic was in fact the view from the top, awesome.

  So anyway, are you wanting to know about the once in a lifetime thing, you are aren't you ?

 Well here goes. We knew that the bridge was going to open just after 12 and as we had never seen it before we thought we'd hang around to watch it. While we were waiting we got chatting to this man about football and then he disappeared. The tannoy started going telling everyone to clear the bridge so of course the boys joined in shouting away and then,  ooooh excited now, and then the man came back and asked the boys if they wanted to press the button to make the bridge open ................

 They looked at me all wide eyed and then back to the man ,  er yes please, open the Millenium bridge --- hell yeah !!!

 The bridge opened, the boat passed by turned around and went back the way it had come. As it went back it blew it's horn and then it was time to close the bridge .

 Open and close ........... WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO.

 Milo also got to talk over the tannoy .......... ' open the gates' . All the people around were laughing and smiling with them as the boys just taking in their excitement.

 It really was just an amazing brilliant thing for them to be able to do and it pleases me no end that I was there to watch the happiness that just poured out of them.

 
Oh and they got to meet a lego C3PO too..... what a great day .

Thank you to everyone for the Etsy advice too, I'll be coming back to it but just had to get the bridge excitement out of the way first.