5 years ago today...

5 years ago today I was still in hospital in a daze wondering how on earth I would ever be able to look after the tiny helpless creature in my arms.  Well, it was a long road but somehow we have made it through five years without too much incident and we have a perfect, gorgeous, opinionated, clumsy, clever, beautiful, funny, quirky, firey, skinny, energetic, imaginative, sensitive, lovely 5-year-old girl to show for it.

She is in school today then afterwards we are treating her to afternoon tea at the Cadburys Cafe, I don't know who is more excited about this :)  As is our tradition I made her one of her presents.  This year she chose something out of my Curious Creatures for Immature Adults book.

A pretty floral print doll perhaps?  A cuddly princess?  A cute little animal? Nooo...

She chose "Mr Skelly", the cheese-eating, dancing skeleton!  Not one to disappoint my daughter I set to work last night and after three hours of sewing and stuffing, a bit of swearing, and two glasses of prosecco our very own Mr Skelly was finished...

Of all the things I have made her Mr Skelly was the one that has had the biggest reaction.  She came downstairs to see her pile of pressies with Mr Skelly on top and ran squealing across the living room yelling "Mr Skelly Mr Skelly!"  So it was well worth the effort :)

I have to say I do rather love him.  He is settling in nicely and is currently sat in the armchair opposite me reading Lillia's new copy of The BFG.

Now earlier this week I promised you a dancing skeleton and a cake the colour of a dead fish.  Having delivered on my first promise it is only fair I share with you the cake.  Before I do I must first explain.  I made a fabulous (and huge) two layer madeira cake sandwiched together with jam and buttercream.  I then went to ice it using ready-to-roll royal icing but failed miserably.  I just couldn't get it to look like anything other than a big white lump of wibbly wobbliness.  So hubby whipped up a ton of buttercream and we dyed it pink, not counting for the fact that buttercream is slightly yellow and therefore the whole thing went a kind of dead salmon colour...

Believe me it tasted divine...it just looked like salmon mousse.

I am now off to get ready for the next round of celebrations and chat to Mr Skelly about cheese.  Happy 5th birthday Lillia!  

My first arigurumi - Blue Monkey

March sees the start of Birthday Season here in the Snipsnaphappy household.  It starts with Hubby's birthday (god he is scarily old now...closer to 40 than 30) and ends with mine in April with various parents, siblings, friends, god-chidren and relatives in between.  It is utterly exhausting and more expensive than Christmas.

For my nearest and dearest I always like to give a little handmade gift and this year is no exception.  I've never really tried arigurumi before, I made a little heart but not a proper creature, so being me I waited until three days before Hubby's birthday before starting.  Nothing like a little pressure to get things moving. 

Now, I don't know if it was the lovely yarn (Patons Smoothie in cream and Rowan Alpaca Cotton in blue) or the pattern, or just the fact I love monkeys, but this project was thoroughly enjoyable.  Best of all though is that at the end of it I had a new little friend...

Lillia has named him Bluey White, which suits him well I am sure you agree!  I added a jaunty little bow made from Cath Kidston ribbon as he seemed to be a dapper little fellow.

He was waiting with Hubby's pressies when he got home from work.  Hubby was delighted!  Though possibly more delighted with the lovely bottle of Chateauneuf...

Bluey White will have to spend his days above floor level at all times though.  You see his bottom is stuffed with lentils and the last creation I made with lentils in its bottom (a gremlin named Rosie) had a rather unfortunate injury when we had mice.  The mice have now been evicted and Rosie has recovered well but still bears the scars and doesn't like to talk about it...

Bluey will therefore be protected from a similar fate, just in case the mice sniff a treat and return :)

More birthday makes from me later this week, including a cake the colour of a dead fish and a dancing skeleton...you have been warned.

Crochet booties not made by me

Look away now if you don't want your eyes aching from too much cuteness...

My sister made these gorgeous wee booties for baby Phoebe.  They only just fit her so she is wearing them pretty much constantly whilst she still can.  Can you see a glimpse of those chubby legs?  She is properly squishy :)

Too too cute, I think I need a lie down.

Bombay Dreams

Every so often I come across a crochet pattern that I just know I will keep coming back to time and time again (remember the sock addiction of last year?)  I found this luverly pattern on Ravelry when I was frantically clicking through the iterweb trying to find a baby cardigan pattern the day before my neice's christening.  It is incredibly simple and very quick to do, I can see myself whipping up many of these...

If you are my friend on Flickr you can see Phoebe modelling her new cardy and totally rocking the crochet look (very on-trend)  If you are not my friend on Flickr, why not?

March (and evil pom-poms)

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

Charles Dickens

Ok so I am a bit late with this one given that we are already half way through the month (where does my time go?)  March to me feels like the first serious step into the year.  Whereas January and February feel like dipping your toes into a cold pool, March is when you finally take the brave and bracing waist deep plunge.

This week we have been dusting off our gardening gloves and venturing out into the garden...

We've raked leaves, composted old dead plants, sifted through the piles of broken pots and tidied up ready for Spring.   We've also been planting cress seeds in various places for a school project to see where they will and won't grow...

...which is why I have to explain to visitors the old trainer in a container on my kitchen windowsill....

The things we do for our kids. Though I was intrigued to discover that the cress has grown in the inner part of the shoe as well, where there is no light!  I didn't know cress would do that. Strange plant.

Meanwhile, inside, my crochet hooks have been working hard on various projects, more of which I will share with you in the next few days.  Here is a wee sneak preview though of one of my latest creations, just finished...

What could it be??

Before this particular project I had considered zips to be my ultimate nemesis of crafting, but no!  It turns out that actually pom-poms are my Dr Evil...

They look innocent enough don't they?  Don't be fooled! They are little evil balls of fluffy deception. Grrr.

I cannot show you any more of this project as it is a surprise for a reader of this blog, all will be revealed once she receives it.

More from me later this week, in the meantime Happy March everyone :)

Malteser Muffins

I was twittering on about my favourite recipe for malteser muffins when Fi of Childcare is Fun asked if I would like to share the recipe on her site.  Of course I was more than happy to spread the joy of malteser muffins.  I must admit the recipe is not of my own conception, I am not that clever, it comes from an old and cake mix splattered cutting from a magazine.  I've had it for years and can't say which mag it came from so I am guessing it's ok to share.   So without further ado please click here or on the pictures to be taken to the recipe, you are just a click away from muffin heaven, trust me...

If you make them do leave a comment here or over on the recipe at Childcare is Fun to let me know how you got on.  Enjoy!

Big Happy blanket update - February

Just three more blocks of colour have appeared on the Big Happy this month.  Progress has been slow indeed.  But this is a Good Thing. Why? Well...

...progress has been slow because life has been busy, but also because I have been diverted by other crafty projects (to be revealed later!)

It's a good sign.  In the beginning, in the earlier weeks after Phoebe was born, I could couldn't have contemplated doing any kind of project, let alone the many I seem to keep getting stuck into now.  The Big Happy was always supposed to be a great lumbering slow project...

Progress is slow but steady, which as we all know will win the race :)

February: Progress

Well here we are already at the start of another month. The grey months of January and February now behind us with the first month of Spring ahead. February has been a definite improvement for me, though I still have a way to go, progress has been made.

My February in summary looked like this...







Click on any of the photos to be taken to the original post.  Not a lot of blogging from me this last month.  Mainly because of this...

My first half term with two children!  It was busy and hectic (and messy as you can see) but a lot of fun, much to my surprise.  Baby Phoebe treated us to a full week of sleeping through from 7pm until gone 7am which helped tremendously, daytimes are so much easier after a good night :)

More from me tomorrow with an update on The Big Happy blanket!  For now though there is a post-injection baby snuffling for my attention....