May...Where Did You Go?

Well, May has been a very busy, but enjoyable month. We've been settling into our new home, Tony's had some time off work, I've had my 32nd birthday, some happy mail from my friend in Canada and the kids have been poorly. It's been crazy, but mostly fun.

I was kindly given some money for my birthday from some of my family, so I put it to good use and bought a Family National Trust Membership Card for us all. We've already had our moneys worth out of it and we've only had it for three and a half weeks.

Leon on a swing at Beningbrough Hall

It's either this, or the naughty step. The stocks Aldborough.

Newby Hall

Newby Hall has the nicest gardens, but isn't a National Trust site.

Nostell Priory

A surprise birthday card and gift from my friend in Canada

So that's May in a nut shell. There are more photos on Flickr, for those of you that like all the pics, like I do. If you do go over to Flickr, you'll also see I've been busy with a couple of ReStyle projects that I haven't blogged yet. I'll hopefully get round to that this week.

I'll try not to leave it so long till the next time! : )

XxX

We're In...

 but out most of the time because the weather has been absolutely spectacular over the past couple of weeks. Two bank holiday weekends in a row with super weather are something to behold! So we've been having a bbq here and there, going for walks and exploring our new town and surrounding villages. There are some lovely walks to go on, especially near the river and canal.

Leon took his first couple of steps without holding on to anything this weekend. : )

The River Ure

Dylan

Windswept Dylan

The canal

Leon eating his crisps

Tony and Dylan miles ahead

 The house move itself went fairly well. We had a few problems on the day though, the van we hired broke down. Thankfully our friends had a relative with a pick-up truck we could borrow, so all was well in the end.  Thank you Simon and Emma, you  saved the day! Most of the unpacking is done, it's just my craft area that needs sorting now. I'll be back soon with some more pics (i forgot to take my camera when we went for a walk into town). There's a beautiful little green grocers shop in the town centre. I'm so happy we moved here, I feel like I'm on holiday at the moment.


See you soon!
XxX

Moving House!

Hello!  Just the other week, our landlord let us know that he unfortunately has to sell the house we live in. So at the moment we are up to our eyeballs in paper work and packing. We have found somewhere new to live and are just waiting for the application to go through. Fingers crossed we should be moving into our new home on the 22nd. I'm actually really excited about it! We're moving further into the countryside, which is just my thing. So I'll be taking a couple of weeks off from blogging, just until we get sorted.

See you soon, and I hope everyone has a lovely Easter break!

XxX

A Little Bit Of Sass!

Here's a layout I'd like to share with you, that I made for the Sassafras March blog challenge, which had to include the technique of Blocking. Not the same as crochet blocking, it just means to create a square or rectangular shape on your layout using photos and/or paper. The photo on this page is of Dylan this time last year, I can't believe how much he's grown up.

 

All of the items used to create this layout (except the thread and foam pads) are from Sassafras. You can see the list of papers on my Flickr account. 

Also I just wanted to say a big thank you to my new followers and my old ones actually, thanks for coming here to read my rambles! It does mean an awful lot to me, having you all here. :) 

Oh and just one more thing, you may have noticed that I've been messing about with my blog design and fonts. I'd really appreciate some feedback on it please. Is it loading up quick enough for your liking and is the new font clear enough to read? Please let me know if it's causing problems. 

Thanks again!

XxX

Kyla Mod Stroller Blanket

I've been quite busy doing a lot of crochet these past couple of weeks. I've made a blanket for Leon, for when he goes into his own bedroom. The pattern is from Baby Blueprint Crochet by Robyn Chachula. This has been one of my most challenging crochet projects so far. I found it quite difficult to get the tension right on some of the lattice stitch blocks. I have a habit of  making my chains quite loose, this is useful for foundation chains, but not so good for part of a stitch pattern. I'm hoping that a bit of blocking might help. I did consider frogging it, just so I could redo those small blocks, but my craft time is limited at the moment and I've got too many other projects waiting in the wings. I'm quite happy to just move on and learn from my mistakes! Really, I am! :) I used Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton Aran for this, that I already had in my stash. I bought quite a bit of it in a sale a while back for £0.99 & £1.99 a ball, bargain! It's discontinued now though, which is a shame because it's so lovely and soft .

 

Sorry about this photo, it's a bit crappy!

I used colours that I thought would match the colour scheme I've chosen for his room. I've also snagged another bargain, which was this gorgeous fabric that I'm going to use for his bed quilt. I've chosen a theme that's not too babyish so that it will last a good while.

 

I'll let you know if the blocking works! 

XxX

Project Re-Style - Yoga Waistband skirt

Here's my first attempt at sewing jersey fabric, and what a performance I've had with my sewing machine. It's been skipping stitches and all sorts of stuff. I had to walk away from it for a few days and then come back to it with  a clear head. Now it seems ok! Maybe it was my tension that needed adjusting and not the sewing machines?  I made this skirt with a blue maternity top and a slightly short vest. I've always had a problem with vests being too short after a couple of washes (I'm nearly 5'8") and have just recently discovered that if I buy tops for tall people I don't have this problem. Genius!!! Anyway, back to the ReStyle.  So I cut off the straps and the frill edging from around the top and straightened up the edge a bit, where it was shaped for boobs. Then I cut the brown vest in half, and used the bottom half of the vest. I turned the skirt inside out and left the vest the right way around. I hope you're still with me here. Then I made a loose row of stitches around the top of the blue part and gathered it together, until it was the same width as the brown piece. Then I pinned the two cut edges of both pieces together so that the original hem of the brown vest became the bottom of the yoga waist band and sewed them together using zig zag stitch. Now the skirt has an adjustable yoga waist band. There's a couple of good tutorials on the internet for this as well if you fancied making one.

Before

After

  It looks better on than off! :)

Thanks for popping in again! 

XxX

Thank You!

Just recently I did a little swap with my blog friend Julie from Canada. Who's a super fantastic card maker and a talented scrapbooker! I made some little crochet hearts for Julie and some hair clips  for her two beautiful girls. And Julie sent me some lovely handmade flowers some alphabet stickers and paper pieces from Rose Moka. Be sure to pop over to Julie's blog and  say Hi!, there's some great inspiration there.

 

Thanks once again Julie. I love happy mail, I'm looking forward to some more swapping in the future! :)

XxX