Treasure.

I won a giveaway recently from Debbie, here are my treasures as I took them out of the box.

Beautifully wrapped

Here are some of the treasures I received I i thought I had taken a photograph of the rest but cant find it). Thank you Debbie, I love them all. You are very kind.

Life seems to have been fast paced here over the last couple of weeks. The days fly by into weeks and here we are already in the second month of the year. Work seems to take up most of my time and energy recently, it is difficult getting a happy medium I think. I love my job and want to work but Oh life would be SO much easier if I where at home during the day. I could get all of those jobs done during the day that I am either running around doing late at night or they just dont get done. I was a very lucky Mamma to be able to be at home until both of the children went to school, I went back to work part time and within a year I am near enough full time. I know this fella below would prefer me to be at home,

Here he is fixing his beloved at the weekend, she is all dolled up ready for the roads with new shiney parts to show off with. However whilst I praise his efforts and am certainly NOT a feminist in any way ( Ilike to play at houses if you know what I mean) , I would like to point out that it was ME, a woman who went out and fixed it. Yeah you heard right it was me. All it took was a hammer and sheer Girl Power to get this beauty ready. Hahahah !!! OK OK so I was wearing gloves to protect my girly soft skin from the nasty dirt and grease..

Here is my poor Princess, she had gone out for a walk in the snow and came back with blood pouring from her little paw. Poor thing must have stood on some glass and was cut to shreds. Thankfully she is OK but I just cant understand why people throw glass bottles around.

Crafts and Birthdays.

I have been off owrk today (as ordered by Hubby) as I have an awful cold and I guess sitting in a room with 25 children wouldnt help on the road to recovery.
Anyway whilst I have been sat here wallowing in self pity I have had the chance to surf the net for some blogtastic ideas to craft.

My crafting has become none existent recently although I did sew together the cardigan the other night and as it is the first thing that I have knitted which is not a blanket I am pretty pleased with it. (will post pictures when I can be bothered to find the batterys for the camera).

I was thinking earlier this year to try and make all gifts this year for birthdays and other occasions. There are so many wonderful ideas out there and I feel that most of the shops are full of what can only be described as ....... Well you kinda get the idea, right?
I am hoping that I will get the time to do this and think that it is best to try and plan ahead for what I need so that there is no need to dash out at last minute to get a gift.

I am still thinking about the soon to be 10 year olds birthday. We cant decide what to do.. It is still work in progress, although after today I think I may have some ideas of things to make her. I will just have to have a trip to the fabric shop, oohh the things you have to do to keep them happy .....

Right, off for an early dinner then off to swimming lessons. My son moved from swimming one to swimming two after christmas. we went to his first lesson last week at level two and the instructor said she wanted him moved straight into level three as he was doing so well. He has come on leaps and bounds, he was unable to swim a stroke in September when he started and was terrified of the water and now we jump in and swim and go under the water.

"We dont say Can't

We say can't do it yet"

You see this is the kind of thing I hear myself saying to children on a daily basis. I tell them that there is nothing they can't achieve if they really want it. I firmly believe that if they believe in themselves then it gives them a wonderful confidence.

Now WHY on earth do I not take my own advice? It is so easy to have a pity party and think "Oh I can't do that " or "Its ok for them, look at what they can do" " I dont have the time" blah blah blah !!

I have been on self destruct recently and enjoying my own pity party, it is not pretty.

So I have got the sewing machine out, dug out the knitting I started nearly a year ago and shamefully only needs sewing up, have ventured into the deliciousness that is my crafty cupboard and dusted it all down. I cant wait to get started now.

P.S Thank you for all of your comments on my previous post. I have been given some wonderful ideas and will let you know what we decide on.

I need your help.

It is my daughters birthday at the end of February and she will be ten. The problem I have is what do you buy a ten year old girl wh has everything she wants? Now before you think she is spoilt (in having what she wants), she never asks for anything. I have just asked her what she would like for her birthday and apart from the usual reply of a horse (whatever!!!) she would like a surprise. I also asked her what she would like to do for her birthday, er yeah she also wants a surprise..
She would get a surprise if we did nothing and bought her nothing.. SURPRISE !!! How cruel..hehehe
So if anyone has any ideas or advice as to what I can get her and a special way we can celebrate her birthday I would be very grateful ( so will she as she may get nothing if it is left to me !!)

Christmas and New Year

I hope that you all had a wonderful christmas. Just catching up with afew pictures from the last couple of weeks. Sorry they are a little blurred. We have been

Snuggling by candlelight
Watching he brave people swimming in our Boxing Day Dip (truly mad mad people)

Watching the lights twinkle on the christmas tree.

From our little house by the sea we wish you all the very best for the new year.

S xxxx

Simple

Yesterday the children and I had the most wonderful day out enjoying lots of old fashioned christmas cheer. Sadly Andrew was unable to come with us as he was home sick and spent the day in bed with flu...

When we came home and the children were tucked up in bed I decided it was about time that I made a start with the christmas cards, I had out it off enough.

What better way to get off to a good start... Candle light, cards, pen, ink and a wax seal for the envelopes.

We bought the pen and ink today as the children were wascinated by it. I normally use a good quality fountain pen that my Gran bought for me years and years ago but have never really used one that you need to dip in the ink, it was fun to try.. It makes you think about what you are writing as you need to concentrate so much on getting just the right amount of ink on the nib and all that. The candle light just added that extra touch.... The wax seal has the initial of our surname on it and looks sweet on the back of the envelope...... Simple.....

We have been enjoying som lazy days here recently, kind of stopping to smell the roses. It is about time

Christmas cakes have been made
Dods have been snoozing

And beautiful walks have been taken. We have had the most stunning weather this last couple of days. It has been so very cold and icy but once you have wrapped up it is just so nice to be outside. The water here is frozen solid, it is so quiet that if you drop something on the ice you hear the strangest of noises.
The air smells of cold and fires, I love the smell of fires.

I have finally started with some christmas shopping. It is going to be a fairly modest affair this year but as long as time is spent together it really doesnt matter to us. I am not going to list gifts on here just yet as I know that family read this blog.

Another idea I wanted to share with you ( I cant claim this to be my own idea, borrowed it from another blog)

My children have got a chocolate advent calendar which was bought for them and also one of those fabric ones that you put a gift inside the pockets (which was made for them). Rather than use the fabric one for chocolates I will put a little note into each pocket with an activity on it, it could be making popcorn, baking, watching a movie or anything. I think that this is a wonderful idea as my children wont remember the chocolate they had but will the time spent with their family. I will blog mre about it in the next few days.