Simples!

Happy Birthday Child number 4!!

Oh my goodness, my baby is 13 today!  Four teenagers in the house! No wonder I look much older than the 21 years that I admit to.  We have had a lovely day today, football this morning where daughter scored two goals taking the team to a triumphant 3-2. Happy days! Then we dashed over to QM in Birmingham to have birthday cake with my Mum who has been in and out of that place since the summer holidays.  Now back home I can hear my bed call...

It was the final journey for two of our pigs today.  Husband, children 3 and 4 were trying to load them into the trailer.  Pallets were used as side gates to help guide them inside, well, that and some apples.  The pigs were tempted and started to walk up the ramp.  Child 3 was instructed that once they were through the gate it needed to be closed.  True to form he closed the gate immediately, just brushing the rear end of one of the pigs.  She was spooked and looked for a way back into the field. On finding the gate tight shut she looked for the easiest getaway.  This happened to be child 4, the pig knocked her flat on her back with the pallet on top of her and ran straight over the top, it stopped, sniffed at her and ran off into the long grass! She was caught thank goodness, and they still made it to the abattoir on time. With mixed feelngs the final two also make their last journey next Monday.

Time for a new laptop methinks!

About four years ago, despite my husband saying 'your cup of tea is too close to the laptop' and me saying 'it's fine, stop moaning!', you can guess that I spilt my full cup of tea over my laptop.  I was not thrilled as you can imagine, my laptop was relatively new and I also had to make myself a new cup of tea!  I managed to save it, however some of the keys are very temperamental and work intermittently.  I now frequently spell words wrongly by the laptop omitting letters (it's easy to blame others!).  Normally a quick spell check sorts it out.  A combination of busyness and tiredness meant that I was not quite as thorough as I should be with my spellchecking.  I thought I'd typed the word count, the laptop missed to type the letter o.  Thankfully an eagle eyed friend spotted the vulgar word before it became embarrassing - especially as my class of four year olds can read phonetically! O indeed!

A catch up with frends!

Had a lovely day yesterday. I met up with my friend Karen, she was busy working away on her stall of  her beautiful makes.  She is so talented!  Of course I had to take some photos to share...

She sells her one off makes here and here

Easily amused!

I know that it is an age thing when you are easily pleased!  This advert just amuses me...

It always makes me smile! And a bargain too!

Only 61 days until Christmas! This means that there is still time to nip over to Winnibriggs house to make some cute and Christmassy decorations! You can find both the gingerbread man and the snowman here.  I have bought the felt and hope to make some this weekend...
It's that time of year when I have an essay that is due in, I have already had an extension and to be quite honest I still can't get motivated enough to do it.  I have decided that once this is out of the way I'm not continuing with my Masters for the time being.  No 4 (the 12 year old) has given me a stern talking to, "For goodness sake Mother get a grip and just do it!" That's me told, I'm off!

Piggies galore...

It's always a pleasure to meet the animals in the mornings when the sun is shining and this morning was no exception. The pigs were pleased to see me (I get a more excited response from them than I do at home and a girl likes to feel loved!) We only have a week before two of them make their final journey. It will be sad when that day comes. As meat eaters it would be hypocritical of us not to get involved in the process, and I'd like to think that they have all had a happy life.

Now just to show that the excrement excitement never ends at my house I'm off to collect a porta potti that I've just won on Ebay!

It's been a long time...

I Know I've been away for a long time...such a lot has happened that I wouldn't even know where to begin!
This has not really been such a good year for us. Having said that there have been just enough good bits to keep us going! So now that the ice is broken once more I will try really hard to post regularly come rain, shine or the odd little thunder storm!

As part of number 3's Chief Scout Award, we attended a meal which was cooked by who I can only describe as, 3 dodgy-looking muskateers...They had to plan, shop and cook for ten guests and they did an amazing job - none of us died from food poisoning!

Only a little late...My new scarf!

A quick scarf pattern

During my stay in Wales I bought myself some wool...It is yarn that is similar to ribbon. To cast on, you need to flatten the yarn and push the needle through the top edge to 'pick up' a stitch. To knit a scarf, pick up five stitches at 3inch intervals.
To continue knitting, push the second needle through the stitch before pushing it through the edge of the yarn 3inches away and then push the first stitch off the needle as you would normally. Continue knitting throughout with the yarn at 3inch intervals.The yarn is variegated, so on one side you always knit into the pale edge, whilst on the other side before knitting the first stitch, the yarn is turned over so that you always knit with the darker edge.
This means that the one side of the scarf is dominantly paler than the other.Continue alternating dark and light rows until almost all of the ball is used up. Cast off and then sew in the ends of the yarn. It knits up really quickly so a scarf could be made in an evening!
I realise that I haven't taken a picture of the completed scarf so I will do that tomorrow!

It has been another hectic couple of weeks. At the beginning week we went across to Wales for a few days and then this weekend I went to St Neots for a weekend of maths! I wasn't really looking forward to it but imagine my excitement as I left the A1 to discover this...It was this afternoon on my way home that I discovered the factory shop, they kindly allowed me to take some photos - not fantastic as lighting was not so good
Everything was being sold at a reduction as it was end of line or even shop soiled/damaged. After spending a weekend doing some really hard sums I felt totally justified in treating myself to this......and yes it was a bargain!

A red rose...Sensational starter...marvellous mains...You can tell that it's one of my teaching days I'm feeling allerative! We had a lovely Valentine's meal last night, food really was fabulous!
P.s. We had the best table in the house too!

We've had a busy week doing field stuff! We started our pig keeping course at the beginning of the week. We looked stunning in our disposable overalls and boots as we toured around the pig farm. We met some very inquisitive piglets!
Yesterday I started my beekeeping course.
Hopefully when the spring comes we will be able to have pigs and bees.

Meanwhile we supported No 4 with her football!
Whilst in the area we popped into the exhibition of the private collection of Vivienne Westwood shoes. Very interesting!
Maybe these would be good for pig keeping...

These are the lovely gifts that I received for the 'Feel the bloggy love' swap from my swap partner Kandi. I know it sounds complete madness, but I didn't open it straight away even though I was desperate to. You see, I knew that I would love all these gifts so I wanted to savour my gifts and not rush. It took a lot of willpower! I squealed with delight when I finally unwrapped the first layer and found this...
a handmade card...

Look at all these that need unwrapping! It was just like Christmas!

Chocolate mmmm!
A lovely slate coaster to put my drink!
A hand embellished box with a hand beaded keyring inside. Both gorgeous!
Some lovely pegs to clip together useful things like recipes and patterns!
Some pretty tea towels and a hand towel - too nice to use!

Ages ago I knit a dishcloth and embellished it with a small crocheted flower and button. I ridiculed my Mum for not wanting to use it! Now I find myself doing the same with this hand knit face cloth and heavenly smelling soap. I will leave it on display!
How cute are these? Solid hearts and photo frames!

Two handknit and beaded lavender hearts have already found a place on my candlesticks on the mantlepiece!
Yes, I love, love love my gifts!
These are all my gifts, all of the above and much more! ...tissues, a passport cover which I need to be taken to Paris to use properly, buttons, pins, a note book...
I have been very, very, lucky, thank you so much Kandi!

My gifts from Kandi have arrived! I have been given such lovely, lovely gifts that I can't wait to show you - I took lots of photos so I will be back, but not for a couple of days!
Before I go, my friend has just started a blog so please pop by with words of encouragement. You can find her here
See you soon!

I've always had a soft spot for Woman's Weekly. My Nan always had it and I remember flicking through the pages as a young girl! I love the crafts specials that they produce throughout the year so I was particularly excited when I saw this in Asda this morning... Lots of things to do...

including some Easter amigurumi (although quite frankly I could have crocheted a dozen of them in the time it has taken me to spell the word!)

a beautiful scarf which takes just one ball of wool (although it does cost £9.99 per ball)
some freestyle circle cushions...
a pretty felt needle casesome pretty felted alpaca wool hearts

I need a cup of tea now to plan my next projects!