Christmas Eve

It's Christmas eve. The shopping's all done. The fridge is full. The last minute knitted gifts are wrapped. The home-made sloe gin is open. We've had our traditional meal with our lovely friends and walked to the Christingle service with them. The children are tracking Santa on Norad. Michael Buble is singing Christmas songs in the kitchen.

Happy Christmas!

December birthday girls

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here-the tree's up, the light up snowman and robins have taken up their positions in the garden and the old decorations which we bring out every year have been distributed around the house. The knitting needles are clacking away furiously on the last few knitted presents.
But there are 2 events to celebrate in December before we can start on Christmas. Kirsty and I have our birthdays on consecutive days-13th and 14th December.My baby was 14 this year-a very grown-up sounding age

We celebrated with a family party on the big day

followed by a fun friends party at home..complete with a marmite cake for the marmite-mad birthday girl!

the next day I celebrated..

with a birthday cake made entirely by Cameron

Playing catch-up

Well, I don't know where the last few months have gone, but I've been meaning to catch up on blog posts every week and it just never seems to happen.Over the past few months there has been a lot of yarn-y therapy going on...

this is the flower basket shawl knitted in alpaca sock yarn which I picked up at Woolfest earlier in the year,

My cable-yoke tunic knitted in Rowan coccoon...

and some Christmas presents

Summer 2011

Well, summer is almost over-Charlotte went back to school today and Kirsty and Cammeron start tomorrow.Am feeling a little wistful and sad-summers seem to be slipping away faster and faster as the years go by. Today was a truly horrible windy, rainy day and it made me feel that we'd skipped right past Autumn and straight into the depths of winter. I have been looking over the photos of our holiday and summer and decided to post them on here to cheer up this dark, cold day.

France's own version of the Red arrows on our first evening

Rock-pooling on the pink granite coast

Enjoying Croque Madame in the Harbour Bar

Amazing rock formations

Mer-people...

...and a little yarn-therapy on the beach!

Felty fun

This last week of the summer holidays we got crafty with wool and made a felted picture

We decided on greens and blues, and after having some silly moments with the wool tops...

we decided that a sheep theme would be apt-

18 years

Today I will have been married for 18 years

it's been a full and happy 18 years, full of ups and downs, 3 children, 4 house-moves, a large number of pets and one life-threatening illnes. And it's been the best years of my life!

We celebrated with a family meal at a local pizza restaurant-happy days!

Baby blanket

My friend Etty is due to have her first baby any day now, and I wanted to knit something special for the new arrival. Having worked on this project for three months I am very relieved it's finally finished

the pattern is Elven Pixie Baby Blanket by Tall Gal Knits and can be found on Ravelry

I am pleased with the result- not too easy, but not too taxing either. Hope the baby likes it!

It is never too late to be what you might have been." ~ george eliot

my boy is 12

last weekend saw my middle child turn 12-and i found myself asking-how did that happen? How did my wriggly, boisterous, fearless boy-child

become a 12-year-old gorgeous young man?

He went to an indoor skate park with 4 friends,then came home,tires, hungry and happy for birthday tea and cake

A lamborghini cake for a car-mad young man!
Happy birthday Cammie xx

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day. We celebrated with home-made cards;

presents in bed-this year mostly garden-themed;

with LOTS of chocolate;

We spent a happy afternoon walking by the river at Bolton Abbey

and finished the day off with cake...

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful dad and husband X

Ouch!

Summer is here, and I have done my back in! So instead of the outside jobs I had planned for such a day, it's been a day of resting in the sun, painkillers and ice-packs. Still-it's been a good opportunity to get on with some reading and knitting...

( I'm slightly embarrassed to confess to my present reading material-New Moon, but I read Twilight and am now hooked, so, moving swiftly along...)

I managed to get quite a few rows of this done. It's a surprise for a lovely friend whose first baby is due late July-it's calle Elvin lace baby blanket and I hope I can get it finished in time.

Daisies

My daily dog-walk/run (depending on how energetic I'm feeling) Takes me past this field. This morning it took my breath away-a sea of ox eye daisies.

Time flies

A week and a half is not a long time, but we've managed to pack a lot into ours, and tomorrow the littlest of my 3 babies goes off to school again, leaving me at home... and missing them. We have had a good time though, nice to look back on the memories...

We clambered at Brimham Rocks,

Pic-nicked by the river,

cooked breakfast in the great outdoors,

got soaked,

sustained minor injuries,

and celebrated a birthday with... rainbow cake!

Now roll on the summer-hols!