Weekend - making the most of the good weather

Its been ideal for gardening and we achieved lots yesterday, hedges trimmed, border clearing, veg garden rotavated.

We changed the clocks last night to British Summer Time, thus losing an hour, somewhat mean on Mothering Sunday don't you think?  I got beautiful flowers and cards from the girls and spent the afternoon playing around with some boxes Peter brought home from one of his customers. They make great planters.

These get thrown out, can you believe it!

drill a few drainage holes

paint with some Cuprinol Wood Shades

take some herbs

The boxes are lined with some roof liner we had left over

This small box is great for herbs

I was actually painting these but he took over

Of course little Miss J came to visit, if you missed the post from earlier in the week here is another chance to see the photographs I took of her.

So all in all a good, productive weekend.  Still lots to do in the garden, but now we have lighter evenings we can get out after dinner.  Hope you all had a great weekend too.

Family - Music and Dinosaurs

This Friday was a musical day.  I took Rufus and Laurie to a Cosy Concert at the Stamford Arts Centre yesterday.  This was a first for me, lots of Mummies, babies, toddlers and young children.  Check out the link above for the concept of the concert, but basically Mummies listen to the music and the kids do their own thing.  Our boys certainly did!

Have I mentioned that our boys like bubble wrap?  Well, there was a "river of wrap" for the end of the concert, BUT our boys found it early on and went ramaging along it, soon joined by other children!  This was soon removed and some element of peace was regained.  I enjoyed the experience, though I can't really tell you what was played as I spent most of my time trying to keep an eye on where the boys were in the room.  Laurie did help himself to some little girl's snack, even though he had snacks of his own.  Oh well its good to share!

Whilst Laurie was napping, Rufus and I played Dinosaur Pirates!!?  First we made some Dinosaur flags and then a ship aka sofa

can you tell what it is?

Ok the boy insisted that I took this, the things you do for your grandchildren!

The music continued later in the afternoon when some saucepan lids, a recorder and the drum came out.  I hope the neighbours were out, if not sorry about the noise.

Oh and it was also baby Penguins birthday, here is a cake that Rufus made for him

As always an enjoyable day x

Knitting - dressed to impress?

As I mentioned a few weeks ago our village has a festival every 2 years and the theme this year is "Childhood".  I attend a craft group that meets at the Memorial Hall every Monday and we were all given a doll to dress for an exhibition entitled " A Swavesey Childhood" in the local church on the 14-15 June.

So here is my doll. She is 11" tall,  the pattern - Teddy Knitting Yarns booklet 7140 - I had, had to be amended slightly to fit her.

The hat was just a rectangle of garter stitch folded in half and then crocheted along the edge, folded back to make a brim.  I added a couple of flowers just to finish it off.  The little shoes were given to Jessica but were too small so I just crocheted along the top and added a chain bow.  The little buttons were some I got in the charity shop, and the yarn just some double knitting yarn from stash, label long gone

Family - Miss Jessica at 4.5 weeks

I spent the afternoon with (some of) my girls today.  We went for a long walk then came home and took some photos. Jessica is really starting to fill out and also spend some time awake and smiley. Isn't she a cutie?

Knitting - flying off the needles

I seem to be getting through the knitting at a rate of knots at the moment.  The one good thing is that the projects are small so that helps no end.

My latest project is for Jessica.  Rachel requested a cardigan in green and grey to go with a baby-grow she has which is predominately grey with little green cats on it.  Here is what we decided on

Pattern -  Sublime 634 - Stripey Sailor Girl. Size 16" chest
Yarn - Kirkton House Craft Double Knitting from Aldi.
Buttons & Motif - from the Knitting & Stitching Show

My next project is to dress the doll for the village festival and then some bunting for the Cambridge leg of the Tour de France this summer.  

Knitting - love a quick knit!

Pattern - King Cole 3179

Yarn -  Zettl Monte Carlo - from Aldi

Size -12-24 Month - 22/24"

Buttons - Wooden - from charity shop

Knitting - a splash of spring

I finished the cardigan for Jessica last night and several people on Facebook have commented that this makes them feel happy as its so springlike.  Great comments, thank you.  What do you think?

The inspiration for this cardigan was a sleeveless all in one jumpsuit which you can just see in the photos.  The yarn was from Aldi.  The pattern was made up from a couple I had by me. Buttons from my store but I  got them at the Knitting & Stitching Show last October

My next project is a cable/moss stitch/stocking stitch cardigan - yarn and pattern details here.  This is for my niece

Family - A weekend full of grandchildren

It was a great weekend, very tiring, but then with two lively little boys its to be expected.  Miss Jessica put in an appearance on each day and the boys got to have cuddles, she also got to meet her great uncle Simon and her Great Grandma got to have cuddles too.

Saturday we took the boys into Cambridge and got their haircut at Peter's barbers, then took them for a spot of retail therapy before going home to enjoy an afternoon in the sun.  It was an amazing weekend weather wise and most of the weekend was spent in the garden having fun.

I did get a bit of knitting in and you can see the results here .  Here are a few photos from the weekend

Friday -

Saturday -

a kid in a sweet shop!

shopping just a bit too much for him

then Sunday

very enthusiastic cuddle!!