Happy 1st Birthday

One year ago today at this very time I was in a whole world of pain. 

Having driven two hours through a blizzard to get to the hospital (usually just a ten minute drive) and having enlisted the help of the police to get us through, I was about four hours away from meeting our beautiful second daughter, Phoebe Elizabeth. Phoebe was born not long before midnight one year ago today.



The world today looks very different with blue skies and sunshine and not a hint of snow to be seen.  But we will never forget the blizzard of 2010 when our little podge decided it was time to make an appearance regardless of the weather.

Celebrations have been relatively low key - a family meal, a sing-and-story class, lots of playing and singing, some presents and a ton of lovely cards. I made a few things, which I shall share with you later in the week when I have had the time to take piccies :)



Hubby and I will toast our little Phoebe with a glass of champagne shortly, it's been quite a year and there were times I thought I might not survive it!  But I did, we did, and here we all are remembering that snowy day a year ago when our lives changed for ever...again!

Happy birthday Phoebe-be-be, our hilarious, happy, funny little chubby girl xxx

Eight Years

 Eight years ago today I got hitched :)

 

Yesterday hubby presented me with my anniversary presents, which are fabulous and I am dying to share them with you!  However what with work and running about like a loon I have not had a minute to take pictures.  I will do though, in the meantime lets just say they are along the same theme as a couple of years ago.

The last eight years have been brilliant and very hard at times, I think we have been through more in our first eight years than many face in a lifetime, but we are still here together :)

Happy anniversary Dan!

xx

Preparations

There are preparations under way...

It was 51 weeks and five days ago that we had that massive snow storm here in the UK.  I know because 51 weeks and five days ago I was in labour and stuck on the motorway for two hours whilst trying to make the usual ten minute trip to the hospital. 51 weeks and 5 days ago Phoebe Elizabeth arrived.

Today she is wreaking havoc by emptying out my handbag and attacking Lillia's Sylvanian Families house...I am glad she is at school or there would be hell to pay.

Lillia has chosen what Phoebe's handmade present should be, something from our old favourite bible of ridiculous toys...

Of course I need to make two, as Lillia couldn't be without :)  A creature is slowly forming, but it is causing me some grief...it requires bias binding, I've never used it before and it's all getting rather messy.  Hopefully he will be ready by Wednesday...

It is difficult to get these things all completed with Phoebe crawling about the place investigating every nook and cranny...

...and I have still to package up my little birdies for my swap parcels, so many things to do!

I have a couple of fun crochet bits nearly completed for the Big Day...

But they require the addition of an old enemy...

Yes, I need to make Evil Pom Poms...poms poms and me just don't get on, I just never seem to be able to get them right, but I am willing to give them another go with the help of my new Pom Pom maker, I shall let you know how I get on.

Making time to make it - November 11!

Hello hello!  *cough splutter* I am still an infectious germ machine I'm afraid to say, as are both the girls, and now my mother too, we are all so ill.  Every time I think I feel better I suddenly feel worse again, it's very waring after a while. I am looking forward to just feeling better and rejoining the real world.

In the meantime...for my Making Time to Make It this month I am killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, with some cute birdie decorations.  The pattern is from the Attic24 blog and it really is incredibly easy to do, makes me wonder why I've waited so long to give them a go...






I'm rather pleased with the colours of these birdies, though I admit they were chosen more as a result of what I had in my yarn bag than any artistic thought!  Came out well though didn't they?




I still need to add little wooden beads to the ends of their dangly legs, then they'll be finished!



And they are all destined for new homes!  I am taking part in a couple of swaps and these will make great little additions to my parcels being sent out to foreign lands.  Plus I have a couple to give as presents to people.  I am thinking I might stuff a couple with crushed cinnamon and cloves so they give off a Christmassy scent.

So, what are you making time to make this month?

Loving handmade - Accidental Vix

Hello there! 

Well the weather here has finally turned and we have that crisp wintery feeling at last, not quite frosty but definitely nippy...that's more like it :) 

With the cold air though comes the cold weather germs and I have the flu.  Pffft.  It's been almost eight years exactly since I last had it I had forgotten how hideous it is.  I've had a pretty dire few days but I'm feeling a little better today, my head no longer feels like it is trapped in a vice and I can drink tea without feeling sick, a definite improvement!  I am under strict instructions from everybody to REST.  So although I am itching to do the washing up and tidy the bedrooms I am instead sat on the sofa with my feet up, a perfect opportunity to blog...

I wanted to start sharing more about my love of handmade.  I am such a big believer in buying handmade, second-hand and antique (of the cheap variety) as well as reusing and upcycling things. Recently I am falling more and more out of love with the mass-produced, I just find the handmade things I buy are always more unique, better quality and better value. 

So, I thought I would share with you some of my recent handmade finds.

First up - Accidental Vix.

I came across Vicky's shop on Folksy and started following her blog quite some time ago.  She makes cards using her beautiful and unique illustrations...

(Click on image to be taken to original images - all courtesy of Accidental Vix)

She sells these in her Folksy and Etsy shops.  I especially love the Anonymity range.

When I saw on her blog that she had been working on creating a new range of handmade baby booties and needed some little volunteer testers, well, I knew just the girl to help!  Phoebe was delighted to offer her services as Bootie Tester!

Vicky sent two pairs to try and they are so well made. Phoebe has chubby feet but not much of a heel so booties and socks are a nightmare to get to fit her, but these booties stayed on perfectly...

She gave them a good run for their money - crawling about the house in full destruction mode, balancing, rolling, walking with her walker...

She was very pleased with them, but not as pleased as me as I didn't have to follow her around putting booties back on her :)

Plus one of the other advantages of buying handmade is that you will never, or rarely, bump into somebody with the same item.  So you will always stand out from the crowd.

Vicky isn't selling her booties yet, but I am hoping she will or what will happen when Phoebe grows out of these ones?!

More Loving Handmade posts will follow from me in due course, now I must get back to resting...Serendipity or You've Got Mail...?  Hmmm...

Halloween and Disney

It's been a busy fortnight here.  My little shop gets more busy at this time of year so I am trying to make time to make lots of Christmassy stock, and of course I have my office-monkey job to do too.  So there has been a lot of hours divided between sculpting clay and editing spreadsheets, lots of mugs of tea are being drunk around here lately.

And last week, half term, we popped over to Paris for 3 days (as you do) to take Lillia to Disneyland! 

My lovely Dad and step-mum treated us all to two nights in a hotel and a trip to Disneyland Paris, Lillia was delighted.  Hubby rather enjoyed himself too...

When we returned it was time for all the festivities of Halloween and all the fun of Pumpkin carving...

Of course I couldn't let the innards go to waste (they has been bought from the local farm where they were grown) so pumpkin muffins were made...but they were disasterous.  So we made pumpkin and bacon soup using this recipe from the Asda magazine and that was delightful :)

But all this fun seems a long time ago...at this present moment though both my girls are sick, they have temperatures and Phoebe has been throwing up pretty much everywhere, so it's only a matter of time before the rest of us start....might be quite handy in my case, what with the 7lb weight gain thanks to the steroids I am on, a good dose of a sicky-bug might help..

I am kidding of course.  Health-wise I am doing better.  I have a way to go and the next three weeks or so are pretty crucial as I come off the steroids and see what the new drug can do on its own.  Time will tell, for now though I am pretty much symptom free, which is a welcome relief indeed.

There has been making going on, and patterns being written up for you, but these shall have to wait...for now I am getting the tissues ready and preparing the calpol ready for a rough night ahead.

Please use the antibacterial hand rub on your way out...