Not going out!

Half term arrived and with it came illness. The last day of School Fred was sick and though out the first half of the week it has worked its way through the family. Which had meant that we haven't been out much or done anything really, which is not like us as half terms are usually action packed.

Molly joined rainbows after Christmas and was really proud to be enrolled just before half term

On the first weekend of the holidays Ewan was sick so Molly and i took the chance to do some sewing on the new little machine she got for Christmas. It was from Hobby craft and was £12.50. I wasn't really sure how much good it would be, but i was pleasantly surprised.

She loves it and i think i might have created a little sewing addict like me. All my kids love crafting and we have even got Paul involved on a few occasions. I love teaching them how to do things and they love routing round my craft boxes and finding things to make with. Both Molly and Ewan can knit, we have never tried crochet yet for some reason, maybe that can be for next half term

I showed Molly how to make scrunchies, when i was a teen i made these in loads of colours

Ewan had been popping down and he wanted a go on the machine so when he was better we had another day of making toy animals. I got it out of a kids craft book i have, so they had to trace the pattern cut it out, pick the fabrics and cut the pieces out and stuff them and sew buttons on. Hours of fun!

The results were fab and they played with them all day. These pictures don't do them justice.

Alex is super mobile now and will make a quick escape whenever a door is open!

I did a little quick knit hat and cardigan for Emma's new baby. I love this pattern as its quick, looks good and includes the edges in the main pattern

We managed one small outing to the beach, it was a glorious day and the kids were collecting shells and other beach finds. On the way home i remembered a canvas i had bought for something and half a tub of grout, cue next craft!

I spead the grout on the canvas and let the kids make this shell picture which now has pride of place on our play room wall and i think is really artistic

The day came where i was ill and Paul took them out to the towers, but other than that its been very quiet and not the best half term ever. It was my birthday and as we were well on that day we went to my mums for the day and i promised i would take the kids to the cinema, only when we got there the film was filly booked, so on the way home we decided to pick up a parcel from the post office which was a jigsaw roll, as we have been doing a lot of big puzzles recently but its not good to leave them out because of Fred and we had just got a new one that we were eager to start, anyway the post office had lost the parcel, then o top the day off as i was changing Fred i saw he was covered in spots, Chicken pox!!!

So half term has been topped off nicely

Ice Magic Baby Ripple

My oldest friend Emma announced she was having a baby last year, she has two children already who are teens, but had always wanted more. I know she loves handmade things so knew i wanted to make some little things for the new arrival. I had seen that Emma had posted on Facebook about tye dying clothes for the baby and i remembered the Ice Magic yarn i have bought and stashed away and knew it would be perfect for them. Ice Magic is a variegated yarn that is hues of the same color so it creates stripes of different shades which creates a great effect without having to spend hours deciding which colors should go where.

I took it with me on the train to work on as ripple are a nice easy crochet

and i spent a lovely Sunday morning in bed working on it

Then it was finished

TA-DAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I posted it off to Emma with some little cardigans and hats, to be honest i didn't was to part with it, its so soft and the colors are just what i love, but it needs a tiny baby to wrap round! Two days after she received it Emma had the baby, a little boy a few weeks early named River and she has sent me a picture of him snuggled with it.

I had about half a ball of each color left so i am working on a little something with those.
Bye x

Queens Part 3

Last weekend was the Queen of Queens Competition. We held this event last year and it is the last chance for some of the Queens to compete against each other. This year it was held by Normoss and Staining Gala and they added some new categories As well as best Queen and Best retinue, they had Best Princess and Best Prince Charming.

I was so proud that our Prince Charming  Ashley won an award. It was also a chance to introduce myself to people from other Galas as this is my first year as Chairperson.

On the home front things have been nice and relaxed,we have all had flu at one point or another over the last month so we have been staying in at weekends spending time doing jigsaws and playing games. The new one is Monopoly Towers its a bit addictive! also baking with the kids.

I have still been doing my diet and have lost 6lbs last month, not a lot really but i haven't cut anything out and have made subtle changes, also i have been exercising and walking for up to 3 hours a day and as Paul keeps telling me muscle ways more! I am please though, i think slowly and not restricting myself will work better for me.

We are all really enjoying the new meals, Over the years i have got into a rut of just cooking what everyone likes and being busy means that i stopped experimenting and tring new recipes that used to be something i enjoyed. One of the kids favorites is Heavenly Soup, Leek and potato really but that's what Ewan called it, High praise indeed!

We did make  it out a couple of times, we went to the Towers and i printed treasure hunt sheets for winter off the Woodland trust website, the kids love doing these and we took a flask and some biccys.

  Aex loves the duckies!

He is very mobile now so i have to have the play pen out to pop him in if i need to leave the room or do anything, he is a cutie!

I can smell my dinner now so better check it, Roast Lamb yum x

Queen Part 2

Our next Queen adventure was just the two of us Paul and i on our own, alone, off to see Queen in Manchester . Pauls been a huge Queen fan for years and i love them to, so i bought surprise tickets before Christmas and booked a hotel as well so we could make the most of it. At the last minute we decided to get the train so it would feel like proper break.

I did take some hooking with me though for the journey, this is the start of a baby blanket for my friend Emma, who is due in march.

Train selfie, to be honest being leyt out on our own made us a bit giddy and silly!

 It was nice to see a bit of snow on the journey

 The train station was only half a mile from the hotel and the hotel only half a mile from the arena, so Paul thought he would use the sat nav on his mobile, so we started walking to the hotel, however i realised it was really cold and i had the most inappropriate summer shoes on ( don't ask me why i decided to do that) so when i saw Primark i nipped in for some cheap ugg boot type things and once we came out we started walking again following the directs from the lady on the sat nav... only after 30 mins i started to question whether it was accurate as it should have only taken us 10 mins at the most! and when we arrived back in front of Primark to be honest i couldn't stop laughing, especially when Paul suggested that our first trip to Primark had confused it!

 Turns out the hotel was just round the corner from Primark but the sat nav assumes you are driving and took us round Manchester centers one way system!!!!

 The hotel had a really bad write up on trip adviser but as we had already booked and paid we went anyway. It was not as bad as i had expected and as we were going to be out most of the night we were happy with it ( won't bore you with all the other photos which showed its bad side.

But its been a long time since i have seen a tv like this in a hotel!

We had a couple of drinks in the room and headed out to have something to eat, quite a few Bacardis later and we headed off to the venue. On the way we walked through a train station that they are doing up and restoring, it was amazing and glorious, even the toilets must have been original and restored, i wanted to take some pictures but thought it was possible a bit inappropriate so just took this one of the ticket offices.

We arrived at the concert and got ourselves some fruit cider which has started a new addiction that not really compatible with my new diet! and waited for the show to start

We had to laugh ( at this point we were quite merry anyway) an elderly couple behind us were reading the TV times.. as if you would take that to a Queen Concert!!

We were up clapping and dancing, in fact Paul got a bruise on the palm of his hand from clapping so hard. They really were amazing and you could see the energy and effort they were putting into it. Adam Lambert was great and even a giant freddie joined us.

After we walked home and got a bag of chips to eat in the hotel, Paul did a Freddie pose whilst we were waiting for the lift

And finally a merry lift selfie!!!

What a wonderful time we had, its great to get away once in a while, but we did miss the kids x

Queens Part 1

Th last few  weeks had been full of highs and Queens! Its been so busy, two weeks ago was my very first Gala event. We had the Santa breakfast fundraiser in December, but this was the Choosing of the new Gala Queen. I started advertising before Christmas but only in a small way as i felt that pushing it before Christmas would be a waste of time s i know that as parents we are so busy with everything that the message would get lost and forgotten about. So as soon as school went back i tool leaflets to every school for every child, and put posters up everywhere i could think of and then spent night after night plugging it on facebook. It worked because on the night we got 22 Children involved. We had a disco and then the children where asked question by the judges, then the Queen, Princess and Prince Charming were chosen as well as the retinue. I know that the amount of children sounds small after all i dropped leaflets to more than 2500 kids, but normally we are lucky to have 5 people! That night i could barely sleep i felt so excited and proud, as well as relived that it had all gone so well, even the parents seemed to be enjoying themselves and we have another 3 committee members so over 20 now and its going from strength to strength!

We are very lucky that we have a great Dj who comes to all our events and is great with the kids and kept them all entertained whilst the other were being interviewed. We hired the football club to hold it in the same as i had for Mollys birthday, its perfect for an event like this.

Each child gets a number, Molly won't actually be in the new retinue as she is in the current one, but she felt left out so she joined in. Do you like her new party dress? it was a complete bargain that i got from Oxfam for £4.99, she loves dressing up and is a really girly girl.

The night went on for 2 hours and at the end i announced who was our new queen and the current queen presented them with flowers. As its always been so hard to get kids involved we let everyone who attends have a part in it so all the children will be part of the retinue this year. I even go up on the mic to announce everything so am super proud of myself for that. I really great night was had by all and the atmosphere was great, i have started to think of some more fundraisers like this one.

Princess Anna

Its not all been exercising and diets this new year, there has been some crochet and a bit of knitting!

I have been working on stripy blanket and started my knitted shawl using my lovely yarn bowl hubby got me for Christmas, to put my very special yarn i bought at yarndale last year.

But Molly asked me if i would make her a Anna hat from Frozen so as a quick make i managed to make one last week.

Fred and Ewan loved dressing up as Anna & Elsa! they will kill me for this when they  are older!

Bye for now x