Older bits and bobs

I have been recently trying to sort out my photos on my computer so that i don't have hundreds of folder with one or two pictures in each, and i came across quite a few pictures of finished projects that i have never put on here so here a round up of some of the project i finished before i started blogging.
My Bunting which is still up

 My first ever granny square

 My first ripple blanket which now lives in Fred's cot

 I love this Noah's Ark Blanket i made for the crib

 My Wedding dress (not the best picture but you can see them on my

 This was a last minute fancy dress i made for st Georges day party, its amazing what you can do with cardboard tinfoil and some car flags!

 And yes we won!!!

Don't know why its sideways but a dress i made last minute fior a night out and the Sands

Our entry for Gala Day 2011 The Good Sip molly pop! we came 3rd

This year i am helping with the Gala and will have lots to share but got to keep it under wraps for now!

Cakes past and present!

It was Ewans birthday last weekend he was 8, time really does fly when you have kids far to quickly. The baby is 8 weeks old already, i wish time could slow down just a bit so i can spend as much time as possible like this whilst they are young. Another hobby of mine is cake decorating some of the cakes i have made have been fantastic successes and some have been epic failures but i keep on doing it as the kids seem to love and be proud of the fact that mummy made it for them. Thinking back now to some of my favorites i wish i had a picture, but i was either to busy with everything to take one and just forgot, a lot of them have been videoed whilst singing happy birthday and some are on phones that are so old i took them to the shop and the lady had to work out how to get the pictures off so they are not digital. But i gave had a look through my computer and here are some that i have got on it.

Just looked and i can't believe how few i have photographed, its great that i was just living in the moment and forgot but they were great and i wish i could see them again. So i will try to remember what the kids had- Ewans 1st birthday was a chocolate cake with cream filling and teddy s made from golden marzipan, one sat on the top and others squashed in between and hanging out, this cake turned out brilliantly. 2nd birthday was a flat iggle pigle as at the time he was a huge in  the night garden fan, 3rd was a 3D Thomas train and carriage filled with sweets on a tray covered with green coconut grass and a liquorise track.

Ewans 4th Birthday was ....

another Thomas cake, a bit wonky but i tried and that's half the fun.

5th Birthday was a large number 5 that was done like a road with 2 real racing cars sat on the top and black and white square round the sides

6th Birthday we are in the Pokemon era and a picatu cake was requested, which was another wobbly but not bad attempt.

7th Birthday was a rainbow cake for his party and Mario cupcakes to take into school for his class, which is something i do if the birthday falls on a school day.

and finally this years 8th Birthday which i did Angry Bird Cup cakes for school and an Angry-bird cake for  his party.

For Molly's 1st Birthday i did a Teddy Bears Picnic cake with coconut dyed green grass and a red blanket with three Bears each with mini cake and a cup.

Molly's 2nd birthday cake is one of my favorites. Cup cakes with fairies and Teddy's, a water baby, a teletubby, makka pakka , timmy and others.

Molly's 3rd Birthday was a Castle cake with faires.

Molly's 4th birthday was another Rainbow cake as she loved Ewans.

I will forever feel guilty that Fred didn't have a cake for his first birthday but at the time he was suffering from a rash caused by being unable to tolerate  eggs so i did try and make him an egg free cake but i failed, i know he won't remember though and as its his birthday in a few weeks. 

He did have a lovely christening cake, but was only 6 months old so couldn't eat much!

Finally i found this which was the original fairy cakes i made for school summer fair

I wish i had photos of all the other i have made i must remember to photo them in the future at least for the kids scrap books.

Summer Dress

The sun has finally got his hat on! and after seeing all the beautiful dresses on other peoples blogs and facebook i decided to try one for my self. I keep a bag full of old clothes that either have lots of fabric in them or have a nice pattern, its ideal for just trying ideas out without having to spend lots of money till i know its something that's going to work. Often these originals are better than the subsequent ones.

So this is the top i selected, which was actually quite an easy one to use as all i had to do was slice the top off.

 The yarn that i choose was one that has tiny flecks of color in it you can barely see them on the photos but they match the skirt brilliantly.

The pattern i used for the top is just a basic increasing circle. I chained until i thought it was long enough, joined with a slip stitch, then placed it over her head to check. Then i hdc around increase as i went. I placed it on her again to see where the arms should be, and finished it with a shell stitch around the edge.

I love how it looks and i think there will be lots more of these dresses this summer.

bye for now x

Mosaic Mirror family day

It has finally been done! our mosaic mirror for the bathroom. On one very gloomy day when the kids and the hubby was off and we were all really fed up, i remembered about the mirror i had been keeping and the tiles and rest of the things we needed, that i had brought months ago and never started. So we got it all out and got cracking.

I bought the tiles from e-bay and i imagined them to be a lot bigger than they were, as usual i had not read the listing details and just looked at the picture, which is something i have a habit of doing so its not the first time i have been disappointed by a purchase. But they looked colorful so we gave it a go.

We did a side each, and i have to say they both did really well

We all managed to keep them spaced out the same, and it only took about an hour to finish. Thats because like me the kids love crafting or "makey makey" as we call it. There was quiet concentration going on (with tongue sticking out from Ewan which is what he does when he is concentrating).
It was quite sad when we had finished, but after letting it dry they left it to dad to grout and hang in the bathroom.

When they came home from school the next day they were really excited to see that it had pride of place in our newly painted bathroom. We also decided to put the crochet t-shirt rug in there as well. Its still a bit bare so we will have to think of other things to make for in there but for now the kids love that they have helped.

After all that work they still wanted to make something so i opted for them to make tea!
So we made the bases and i let them loose in the fridge to top there pizza with whatever they wanted.

Add some curly fries and a homemade pineapple upside down cake!

I love making homemade takeaways it a lot of fun for a rainy day and a lot cheaper than the real thing, also a lot nicer. This is a McDonalds i made last year.

Hungry now so off for tea
bye for now x

New baby!

I have a really good reason for not posting for a while .. Baby Alexander finally arrived a week late and in only 36 minutes but defiantly worth the wait! I can't believe that he is now 4 weeks old, the time had flown. Just like his mummy and Daddy his 2 brothers and 1 sister are completely in love with him.

So here he is Alexander

Of course he is wearing one of my new creations the Easter Bunny Set, which i made specially for him after he was born as he has inspired me to make quite a few of these Newborn outfits ( watch out for Frog and lion)

In the last couple of weeks before he was born i spent a lot of time knitting a few last minute bits and bobs and i came across this set> It was a very basic pattern but i had a variegated ball of wool that i was desperate to try and the effect was really good, just what i had wanted, i had to get rid of a bit of wool every time i started a new piece so the colored stripes were not perfect but not completely different. I was so please with it l have been and brought some more as Alex has nearly grown out of this one already.

It really is amazing how fast the time goes as i know Alex is my last baby i have been making the most of him and can barely put him down, he is going to be spoilt just like the others. x

Its a Gruffalo (HAT!)

Its a bit late but a few weeks ago i decided to make a gruffalo hat for Fred and since he wore it i have made several for others.

The older kids have also been fighting over this hat so i might have to make some more!

Family time

These last few weeks have been lovely. Although i have been waiting for baby to come (and he still hasn't, i was due yesterday!) we have had some of the  few full weekends we have ever been able to spend as a family, having the shop was a 7 day a week job so the odd day off was as goo as it got, then his new job is really a job where he needs to work weekends to get sales, but at least he can take holiday days. We decided to go the the Ribble Steam Railway ans Ewan has always wanted to go on a steam train however when we got there it was closed and would not be open for another two weeks (i should really read the website before we set off on these jolly's!). So we went to the next place on the list The museum of Lancashire in Preston. Well it was fantastic for the kids, well all of us really. They had activity's for the kids in every room. The first was a little archaeology dig site that the kids had to dress up in fluorescent waistcoats and hard hats and excavate various things from a pit of rubber chips and then sort them into glass, pottery, tile etc., They also dressed as children from a Victorian school, a little drummer during the boar war,a judge and dug veg's up from the home front during the second world war. They learn't so much and we all had a really good time. I would recommend it to anyone and best of all its completely free. Wish i had taken my camera!