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Just to prove i do do something other than crochet these days!
This is my latest layout for the Scrapions league

The challenge was set by mum and i had to include some heartfelt journaling (which she knows i dont do!) so i hid that behind the picture - which is me and Ewan on the day Evie was born.

I have still been crocheting though! Ewan requested a snail so i found a few patterns online and between them and myself put one together for him. I'll try and get a pic tomorrow and upload it

Yet more crochet!

Yep i'm on a roll, just finished this little bag,

i've been hdc, bphdc, fphdc - yep its all jibberish, but it took me 4 evenings to do - which is quite quick for me so i'm pleased. Evie loves it so i may have to knock up another one, perhaps with lemon icing.... I'll have to give my poor callousy finger a week or 3 to recover

Phew, just in time....

finished this little fella just in time for Easter today, he has already been adopted by Evie and christened Ra-ra (and smothered in chocolate kisses already). As you can probably tell, he is the 1st crocheted anything i have made besides granny squares, even so i'm quite pleased with him, in spite of the now rather large callousy lump i have on my finger, perhaps my next project will be a little cushioned crochet finger glove!!!

Ewan and Evie had fun looking for eggs at mums today, they both came home laden with large amounts of chocolate (which i am sure i can help them whittle down!!)

Old bunny, new bunny

As its easter i thought i'd go all seasonal and post up pics of my bunny creations. Billy, on the right, was made a few months ago after Ewan requested a cuddly bunny. I made the pattern up as i went along but i'm quite happy with how he turned out, perhaps its time he got a new summer wardrobe though....
The 2 blobs on the left are my current WIP - thats right i'm crocheting!! took me a fair while to get it right (read that as HOURS!!!) and i now have a rather sore patch on my left index finger where i push the hook - anyone with any tips for that??? I doubt i'll have him ready in time for Easter but i'm sure copious amounts of chocolate will make up for that

2 Years Old

Yep, our little monkey turned 2 today, officially not a baby anymore!
Unfortunately, both her and Ewwy were still ill with the horrid cold that has plagued them for 10 days now, so it was a bit of a non event. They spent the afternoon either clinging to me limpet style or falling asleep in various states of undress (please - dont ask!) on the floor.
Her cake was a hastily knocked up chocolate mascarpone brownie - she will get her 'real' cake at the party on Sunday, fingers crossed they are better by then.

Reliving my youth

i was just doing a bit of blog hopping - still ill and still no hot water so nothing better to do! - and rediscovered this song on someones blog - i forgot how much i LOVED this, i think i was about 15/16 when i 1st heard it and listened to it pretty much every night for AGES. I only ever had it on cassette and my collection of those is gathering dust in the garage somewhere! Think i may have to pop along to itunes and download it!

Supermarkets sell allsorts these days...

It seems Tesco will sell you anything these days, just look what i managed to pick up with my shopping this week:

Ok, so i added the 2 small carrots for artistic effect, but the big one is all natural!!!

Unfortunately, i couldn't keep it, even if it did make me chuckle every time i opened the fridge - it had to go for the chop....

but it did make a lovely carrot soup!

I also managed to scrap today. It's a piccy i took of Evie earlier today posing in David's hat. The layout is for the Scrapions league over at Scrapitude, hope its good enough to earn me some points!

Party time!

We had Ewwy's 4th birthday party yesterday, for some reason, he didn't like us singing 'happy birthday' to him - didnt think our singing was that bad!

but he did like his cake:

a choc-o-nana monkey cake!

Evie had a great time helping herself to all the goodies on offer:

and posing in silly hats:

But at least Ewan liked his presents:

especially his new (1st!) bike.

4 years ago today...

...I became a mummy

I never realised it could be so hard but so rewarding. Ewan is such a gorgeous little man (i know, i'm biased) he's a real little charmer and over the last 4 years it has been a real joy to see him develop into a little person - funny, quiet, animal loving, clever, stubborn but always gorgeous!

Happy Birthday Ewan - love you!

(ps - please excuse the filthy table - i have 2 small children - enough said!)

Billy Elliot eat your heart out!!

Never let it be said that i do not pander to my child's every whim...
Yesterday, while watching Cbeebies, Ewan saw a boy dancing and decided that thats what he wanted to do, then by chance at Mother and Toddler group today, one of the mums mentioned a ballet class that she takes her little girl to with Ewans little friend from his old nursery so i decided to take him along and see what he made of it. And - he LOVED it, Miss Linda, his teacher, made him fly like an Eagle (his favourite thing at the moment is pretending to be an animal so he loved that), Miss Linda also told the girls to be butterflies and they all had to fly to their nests, but 'butterflies don't live in nests so you have to tell Miss Linda off mummy' - yes Ewan....
Tomorrow he turns 4, can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Day trip!

After being stuck inside for over a week with both Ewan and Evie ill, i decided it would be good for them to get out so tagged along with mum to visit nan in Lowestoft.

When we got there we took them to the park by the Broads, it was a beautiful day, more like spring, i can't believe that just over a week ago it had been snowing!

They both had a great time feeding/chasing squirrels - one particularly tame one was even playing chase around a tree with Evie! - at least - i think he was having fun!!

We didnt get home until almost 5.30pm - and both kids spent the best part of the 2 hour journey home asleep, so getting them to bed was 'interesting'....

Off out for a girlie reunion today - should be fun! Haven't seen some of them in 10 years!

Snow Day!!!

It snowed!!! Its such a rare thing for it to actually settle here, in fact, its Evie's 1st time in the snow, and she is nearly 2!

Its already fast melting but we managed to bundle up in time to build a snowman before it all disappeared

In then end it all got a bit too much for Evie, who spent the 2nd night in a row last night throwing up everywhere - nice...

In spite of evidence to the contary, Evie actually loved playing in the snow and building the snowman. (yes i know the hat is far too small, but she has hidden her others)

In all our rush to get out and enjoy the snow, we forgot breakfast, so Ewan, ever resourceful, found a replacement:

She's finished!!!

..naked, but finished!

I finally got round to taking pictures today and here she is

Now she just needs clothes, but they will have to wait a while; Ewan and Evie have both developed conjunctivitus - they've only just got over the colds they have had since Christmas and now this! And on top of all that - Evie has been throwing up all day AND David is home from work sick too - as you can tell we are a very healthy household at the moment!!

I can't believe how gorgeous the weather was this weekend. We (my mum and sister) took full advantage of it and took the kids to Maldon. The fact they have a wonderful fabric store there was just a lucky coincidence!!
We took a walk by the water and let Ewwy and Evie blow off a few cobwebs in the park and rounded it all off with some yummy chips and a hot chocolate.
I was actually very restrained in the fabric shop and didnt part with any money - i did however, have to take Evie to the shoe shop next door as her shoes were pinching, and i discovered that she is now a size 7. She obviously takes after me, and will never be petite!





On top of all that, i finally finished the dolly i have been working on for far too long now - well, left sitting on a shelf while i tried to decide how to do the face and eyes rather than actually working on.....
Now she just needs some clothes - i'll try and post pics tomorrow, if i get some decent light to take a picture of her.

oops - eta - pics were taken by my mum (with her fuji 9600 - the lucky bean!)

Looky what i made!

After seeing the gorgeous dress on Mandas blog here i was totally inspired to try and make a dress for Evie myself. I've never made any item of clothing either with or without a pattern but i was amazed at how easy it was to make a pattern using one of Evies dresses as a guide. The dress itself is reversible,pink gingham one side and floral the other i made it quite plain intentionally - just in case i cocked it up!! Luckily for me, Evie was a willing model so i think i'll be making a few more dresses for her

Phew!

I normally work well with a deadline looming over me - but this was cutting it just a bit too close. Thanks to feeling so ill last week, i hadnt started on my cj as early as i would have liked, and had NO idea what i wanted to do with it. This is actually the 2nd version of the cover, the 1st was so awful that i couldnt possibly send it out to all the talented ladies at Scrapitude who will be filling it for me.



I've laminated it so not only should it be relatively safe from the multiple bashings it is sure to receive from Royal Mail, it will keep it safe from splashes in the kitchen (well the cover at least!)

And on the subject of cooking - please keep everything crossed for me - this could soon be the face of Bean + cheesy Bubble and Squeak!!!
I had a rather exciting email from Heinz - not only would they like to use my baby food recipe (that i sent in 2 years ago and forgot all about!!!) BUT - they want to put my face on the jar!!!!! Now i'm not sure i'd like to buy baby food with my ugly mug plastered all over it but i wish they had warned me - i'd have come up with a far more exotic recipe than bubble + squeak to put my face to had i known.

A Productive Evening

I have been feeling so ill since the weekend that i really havent had the inclination to scrap AT ALL, however, over on kirstys blog was a tempting little freebie that i couldnt say no to!! I've never digi scrapped before and i doubt i'll ever be a total convert but as i was too ill to get all my real scrap stuff out it was fun to play with
This is what i came up with;

Having a bad day

Do you ever have one of those days? Yesterday was my turn...
Fatty and twatty turned up to do what should be a simple job - cut a hole in the back of the kitchen worktop to set cooker back in. Anyway after 1 1/2 hours and 2!!! visits to get more supplies, this is how they left my worktop....



honest to god - i could have done a better job with a craft knife and a nail file.

After seeing the above photo mum came round to give them an ear bashing. They didnt finish till well after the kids teatime and just as they were about to leave the electricians turned up to connect the ignition. I had 6 adults, 2 screaming hungry kids and 1 almighty row all in my tiny kitchen. All that equals 1 huge headache!!

WIP

New Years came and went - i stayed up just long enough to let all the chavs let off their fireworks and then had to settle the kids back to sleep then went to bed myself - i never even had a drink!!

Last year, i rediscovered sewing - and found many gorgeous blogs dedicated to sewing, after looking at this one, i started looking for vintage patterns after falling for her little dolly Ruby. After spending far too much on ebay (oops!) i got some wonderful vintage patterns from America - and this is the result:



Obviously, she is still a Work in Progress, but i'm sooooo pleased with her - and she was surprisingly easy to make. Evie already loves her, and i think Ewwy is a little jealous so i may be doing a lot more sewing this year!

2006 in review

Well 2007 is nearly here, i haven't thought up any New Year resolutions - i never keep to them anyway!!! I'm spending a rather boring evening in front of the tv/internet, i've got a stinking cold, as has Evie, so no chance of a drink either, just lots of crisps and choccy and rubbish telly.
As for 2006, it was a bit of a boring year for me, no earth shattering happenings in the Young household - Evie turned 1, Ewan turned 3, i got another year older!! I did attempt to return to work, but decided that working more or less full time and still trying to devote time to my family just wasnt happening so i spent a grand total of 3 weeks at work!!!
Anyway - heres to a great 2007!!