Peggy Fairy & A Felted Pudding

Good evening

Wow just how cold was it today?? Even with my customary 3 layers I was still cold. We were lucky here in Suffolk - no snow/sleet/rain but I saw on the news tonight that others have seen their first proper wintry blasts.

At least now I've finished my leg-warmers - though the boys have told me that I'm not allowed to leave the house in these if they are with me!

I tend not to worry if others don't like my 'look' - I'd rather be warm and woolly!

I managed to complete one of the jobs the other day that I'd initially planned to do in September once the boys went back to school. We all know why I've taken so long ;) I'm trying to empty my freezer to make room for some scrummy Christmas treats and there were 3 tubs of blackberries in there that I picked in August. Finally they got their chance to become jam;

You might have seen Dawn mention on her blog today about our little trip out together yesterday. We headed to Snape Maltings to the Cool Yule Christmas Market. Oh how brilliant it was. So many stalls with loads of wonderful handmade goodies. We spent ages browsing the stalls and of course neither of us came away empty handed;

Peggy Fairy made by a very clever friend of mine and the most wonderful needle felted Christmas pudding. Both are great and I can't wait to put them on my tree this weekend - just need to send MrVV up into the attic to retrieve it.

I bought this Acorn and Will  brooch from another stall - I've seen these on loads of blogs and had promised myself one at some point - I do need a replacement for my felt poppy on my coat!!

I've been out today too - back to the hospital for a check up with the orthopaedic people. They are pleased with how I'm doing and I don't have to go back to see them again but just carry on with my weekly physio sessions (such hardship ;) ).  Once they'd reassured me that I can't do any damage by just walking and I can reduce the number of supports in my shoes, there was only one thing on my mind - SLIPPERS. Again I'd planned to buy some in September - our house is tiled downstairs and whilst these are great in the summer in the winter they are cold on your feet. We stopped off on the way home so I could treat myself. Again not the most stylish of items but again warmth is far more important;

Fair isle, furry lined and pom-poms - what more could a girl ask for!!

Right that's enough for now - my computer is in the hall and its draughty in here so I'll bid you all goodnight.

See you soon.

xxx Vicki xxx

Progress and pretty things :)

Good morning

And yes it is a very good one today. The reason - I've had my first shoe wearing session outside the house in just over 12 weeks :) I've been to the physio and he'd very pleased with me. However it does mean next week I get more exercises added and more time in the gym. Its a lovely sunny morning here and when we got back I went for a kick in the leaves in the garden;

Its not been a bad week actually. I went out the other day with my MIL - we headed over to Saxmundham for a change of scenery. Firstly I traded loads of old bits of broken jewellery in for a lovely fat cheque. Then we headed down the high street for light retail therapy.

Firstly yarn - my leg gets cold and as I can't fit my boots on yet, I thought I'd knit legwarmers for around the house - after much pondering, I chose some Crofter yarn in a grey/deep pinks colourway. The ribbing proved a bit tricky as my knitting skills are rusty - once I cracked that it was fine - should have one by the weekend!!

A few other sewing essential were bought and then I glanced at the buttons - I spotted these and had to buy them - no plans for them yet though;

I found a wonderful shop that was stuffed full of pretty things - I need to go back there sometime soon as my MIL kept picking things up with wishful looks in her eyes - least now I've some ideas as to what she'd like for Christmas. This ring was too pretty to leave behind - its just costume not really silver/turquoise but very lovely;

My MIL gave me this little vintage OXO tin - she'd found it the other day in a sort out and was going to bin it but she thought I might like it - oh yes;

Time now for one small festive make - I love working in felt and each year make something new to add to my ever growing decoration collection - here's this years gingerbread house;

Do you remember the patchwork square I showed you that was going to be made into a big quilted hanging? Well it was finished and handed over at the party last weekend. My clever friend Lotti from our S&B group got the task of putting it all together - well she's blogged about it now so you can pop over and see the finished result here -  its stunning.

Finally, I had a late night last night - MrVV & I headed to Ipswich for an evening of laughter with Bill Bailey. A brilliant show - my sides ache for laughing so much. I spotted another blogger in the audience - hi Dawn, hope you enjoyed the show too and your ice-cream ;)

Right that's enough for now. I'll be back at the weekend with my first Pause in Advent post - this is organised by Floss - we're now into our third year which means I really need to think about what my themes will be this year.

Oh and I've the contents of a fab swap parcel to share with you too soon AND the results of another months Photo Scavenging!! Does anyone know of a housework fairy - at this rate I'll need one!!

xxx Vicki xxx

Definately Autumn

Good evening

If there was any doubt about which season it was last week,  then over the weekend its become more and more obvious that we are in the throws of Autumn;

The weekend started with a Friday night comfort food type meal - sausage stew and mash.

Whilst the weather on Saturday morning prevented me from getting out to see MrVV & Little Son in their parade, at least the rain stopped by the evening and we were able to get out to my littlest sisters bonfire & fireworks party. Taking pictures proved to be tricky whilst hanging on to my crutches, so here's one of the few I managed - small children having fun with sparklers;

The fireworks were great - the garden backs onto many others and it seemed we weren't the only ones having a party that night - the sky was very pretty.

Sunday was also damp & grey here - not really going for a hobble weather. Instead time to be indoors crafting - 2 works in progress;

 A mini-raggie - just over 15cm tall - along side a 'normal' sized one.

The start of a knitted monster for a my little nephew for Christmas.

Today was pretty grim here too - if you've got my sunshine can you please return is asap.

Leftovers from a roast dinner yesterday meant soup for lunch today;

This afternoon was back to the physio for another leg massage ;). I've been set a task for the next week - to try to wear a pair of shoes!! Feels rather strange at the moment and I'm back to walking very slowly & carefully. For a while the rule is shoes in the house and moonboot outside.

Right - off the computer now - I've done something to my email and I can't access any at the moment - here's hoping MrVV can fix it!!

xxx Vicki xxx

Your Country Needs You.....

To bid on this wonderful ebay listing - here

 

This Royal Wedding Party have been knitted by a group of friends on an internet forum. It is being sold to raise money for the Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami Relief Fund - all proceeds are going there - all the ebay fees/postage/material costs have been born by the group who created these wonderful pieces.

If you've family who are Royalists - wherever they are in the world this wonderful collection could be theirs.

BTW my role in this is purely advertising - I couldn't even begin to understand this sort of knitting pattern - plus the wedding is only 2 weeks away - I'd have needed a lifetime to just have produced one arm!!

Go on bid - you know you want too :)

xxx Vicki xxx

Celebrations

Good evening

No not the chocolate sort but April celebrations. So many things happening in one month;

Easter - which means we need an Easter tree;

A mix of branches from the garden - cherry, silver birch, hawthorn and a stray shoot from my pear tree.

St Georges Day - all 3 menfolk took part in parades today - had to be this weekend as the churches are busy with something else next weekend!! Big son finally got enrolled as an Explorer on Friday night (seemed to involve hanging upside down from a climbing frame!!) St George is the Patron Saint of Scouts - so all scout/cubs/beavers/explorers are asked to re-do their promise each year.

THAT Wedding - the shelves looked so bare - they've had cards hanging on them since December so it seemed the best place to hang my red,white & blue bunting;

I think I'll look out for some other suitable bits to display this week - I know I've some UJ paperchains somewhere in the house!!

Friendship - one of my best friends from my teenage years is coming to visit tomorrow. We lost touch for 20 years but thanks to the magic of facebook we've got in contact again and she's coming with her children for coffee tomorrow morning - so I thought we'd need cakes!!



Spring time - the cherry has now fully bloomed - earlier than last year.

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx

Ne'er cast a clout till May be out

Good evening

Oh that saying has a lot of truth in it - especially this week. After the warmth of Monday/Tuesday, its steadily got cooler and if it drops another degree then my socks will be back on and I shall be considering having to wear a coat!! I do the same every year and rush to wear my summer clothes- perhaps one year I'll listen to my Grandma and her collection of sayings/old wifes tales.

As its been cooler the past couple of days and as the boys are pretty self-suffcient in the hols, I've had time to myself, for knitting - patriotic bunting triangles - just one more blue one to go;

When I've had enough of that - I've a new book that I'm rather loving - saw this when buying music books for little son on Amazon and somehow it ended up in my basket!!

I am convinced that the weather has changed as MrVV & Little Son have their first marching practise session tonight for a band engagement at the weekend. Little son has never marched AND played before so it could be interesting. If it had been warmer I would have gone to spy armed with my camera - but its quite chilly and thinking of raining - so I've opted for indoors and relative warmth!

How are the school hols going for everyone?? Like I said the boys don't really require much input these day - as long as the fridge, cupboards and cake tins are full and the internet is working they are happy. We've fitted in some of the 'maintainance' appointments that are easier to do during the hols - both now have smarter haircuts and little son is collecting his new specs next week.

Tomorrow we're off to see family and my youngest niece who is celebrating her 8th birthday - hopefully there will be cake. The boys are off with MIL and their oldest cousin for a lunch out - lucky things so I'm tempted to drag MrVV to Aldeburgh for a fish & chip lunch.

Here's hoping the sunshine comes back for the weekend.

xxx Vicki xxx

Felting and Flowers

Good evening

What a mixed day its been. Glorious sunshine this morning and springlike temperatures and then after lunch, it went grey & misty and I had to rescue my washing from the line.

During the sunny spells this week its made me realise that some serious spring cleaning is needed as the spiders appear to have been working very hard indeed. So once the craft fair makings have been completed I shall be arming myself with a bucket, pile of cloths and making my house shine.  I had a little go this afternoon, I'd treated myself to a pink primula this morning and thought it would like to live on one of the kitchen windowsills - after moving things around I realised that this was not a simple task. Instead the windows had a clean and the sills cleared and tidied.

A wander around the garden this morning found loads of spring flowers in bloom or just about too burst open;

Here's hoping half term has plenty of sunny days and then these daffs might open up and make the garden feel sunny.

As I said at the beginning, I've been busy making more stuff to sell - I've become rather addicted to knitting/felting and so far this week, 3 purses have been produced - the russian doll one was for a friends birthday. She was delighted with it when I handed it over @ S&B last night.

I had to chuckle @ some of the comments on my last post re. the lacy bunting - just wonder what sort of swap some of you thought I'd signed up too - trust me - am definitely more Bridget Jones than Jordan in my choices ;)

Hurrah half term starts tomorrow - can't wait - think the boys are ready for some late mornings and just having a break for routine & organisation. There's been talk of what they want to do - mainly seeing friends and catching up with family. Little son has promised to cook dinner one night - I am really looking forward to that - especially if he does the washing up too!!

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx



Making & baking

Good morning

Not often I blog during the daytime but I've a cake in the oven and I can't wander too far from it as its getting to the almost cooked stage. Another birthday tomorrow - big son. Cake gets made today and then decorated once he's gone to school tomorrow as I want the finished item to be a surprise. Lets just say it will be along the lines of my normal over decorated and colourful cakes! I've also a pile of pressies to wrap too - am hoping that he'll love the Toy Story paper I found yesterday.

Been finishing off more items for the craft fair this week but I found time to finish a felted purse for myself;

From knitted piece, to felted shape to purse :)

I've another piece of felting drying at the moment and started knitting another piece last night whilst watching mindless nonsense on the tv.

I've also been playing around with a collection of random cups & saucers that I've got - far cheaper than Liberty's - I've started making these again;

Teacup pincushions with Annie's lovely pins in them.

I treated myself earlier in the week to some lovely new fabric to make myself a new dress - so far I've got as far as washing it to preshrink it and then hanging it out to dry;

The 2p gives you an idea of how small the squares are - all those straight lines should make sewing nice and simple!!

As I was wandering around the house earlier opening windows, I thought I'd take some reality photos of my house - here's big sons room complete with floor 'storage' and the mess of a soon to be 15 year old male.

Who lives in a mess like this????

Study area complete with card collections and a radiator based Top Gear cool wall.

I need to have a hunt through old photos later to find something suitably embarrassing I can post on here or Facebook tomorrow - can't believe another year has gone past so quickly. As he informs us - only 2 years till he can learn to drive - have suggested he starts saving ;)

Finally before the timer goes ping, Monday went really well. The crematorium was packed with people from the many parts of FIL's life. We heard so many stories about him and laughed as well as cried.

See you tomorrow with some cake pics.

xxx Vicki xxx

Protest, thankyou & balls!!

Afternoon

All peaceful here - boys busy with technology and avoiding being asked to tidy their rooms and MrVV is watching the rugby. Am happy to watch England play but can't quite muster the same enthusiasm if its the others - sorry to my Scots, Welsh, Irish, Italian and French readers. A good win last night wasn't it :)

This morning started bright and early for a Saturday - no hanging around in pj's till lunchtime for little son and I - we were off to peacefully protest!! Oh yes our County Council wants to save money and close lots of our libraries here in Suffolk - s'ok they say there will still be some - oh but btw we are making cuts to the local rural bus service too so you'll need to allow a whole day just to change your books!! Enough to turn a girl to drink except they also want to close our wonderful recycling centre - making it a 50 mile round trip to get rid of anything they don't collect.

Our little town can sometimes be said to be apathetic so it was wonderful so see a big turn out of supporters - over 200;

Another meeting is planned for March 5th and little son and I shall both be there.

Yesterday morning I was feeling a bit down and sore - I'd spent a few hours on Thursday in hospital having a minor 'girlie' trip to the day surgery unit. There was a knock at the door and there stood my friend the postman with a parcel for me. It was my giveaway win from Em @ Garden Peas and Fleas - it was from her Banish the Winter Blues Giveaway;

Lots of shiny blue parcels and a card - all for me :)

Look what was inside - gorgeous fabric, pencils, notebook, CK tissues, chocolate, crochet cloths, a Yankee tart and also;

These sweet little brooches - I shall be wearing them lots, so pretty.

Look at this little sparkly fairy soap that Em made - she reminds of of a Lalique treasure.

Thank you Em - it arrived just at the right time and certainly hit the spot :)

Whilst watching the rugby last night I finished knitting another purse to be felted. After sewing the ends in I was left with some yarn. Being a fan of waste not / want not I needed to do something with these pieces. I've spent some time at the kitchen sink armed with a bar of soap (not my pretty one) and have turned the offcuts into little felted balls - not enough to do much with at the moment but hopefully eventually there will be enough for a bracelet;

Right - I'd best get one. Got a sister coming in a little while - she wants some sewing doing and then I ought to get sorted as we're planning a trip to the cinema to see the Kings Speech tonight.

Thank you to all who've asked after the family - MrVV & the boys are doing ok - though there is obviously a dread about the funeral on Monday, they are dealing with things in their own very matter of fact way - rather like my FIL would have done. Oh yes I can see FIL in MrVV (have been able to do so for a long while) and now the traits are coming through in Little Son too. Big son is more like my Dad - similar deep voice and warped sense of humour.

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx

Up the apples & pears

Good evening

Well that's day one of the week almost over - blink and it will be the weekend again!!

Today was good - another physio appointment in Aldeburgh. I caught the bus and as I'd time to spare I thought I'd get off in town and have a look around - distinct lack of bargains in their one & one charity shop. Never mind it was good to look around. So off I headed to the little cottage hospital - up the town steps;

Pausing half way up to take a picture.

View from the top over the houses and out to sea

When the boys were small they used to count the steps as they climbed - they never could agree how many there were - and I forgot to count today!!

Good news - there is an improvement in my ankle and even better news I've got to go back in 3 weeks time.

Rewind to the weekend and in particularly Saturday. I had to go into town with little son as he needed a haircut - for someone with long hair he has lot of these. Afterwards we decided to pop in and see my sister in the charity shop so he could say thank you for his birthday pressie. Whilst in there just for a look we found;

3 more Ladybird books for my collection

A skirt for me - just what I wanted - I'd been eyeing up ones in Fat Face & White Stuff but this Monsoon one was far far cheaper and a perfect fit.

For my birthday last year I was given a dolls house - I've just started to collect things to go in there - this ex-display bathroom was a bargain - initially £10 it had been reduced to a fiver & by Saturday it was just £2.50!

A dresser for the dolls house too - I have the perfect tiny tea set to go on there once the rooms are decorated.

Little son also managed to find 3 James Bond books - I think we were the best customers of the morning!!

Over the weekend I finished my felted purse - rather pleased with this. I've ordered some more yarn in different colourways as I think I might like one for myself too;

I couldn't decide how to sew the sides up - I opted for one row of blanket stitch in a single colour with another over the top in 4 different colours to match. I put the zip in before I stitched the sides up - this definitely was a good idea - though this was quite an easy zip to battle with.

Peace and quiet here today (almost) little son & MrVV are at band practise and big son is battling monsters in cyber space. I think I shall take myself off to the front room, find some mindless tv as a background noise and start something else for my stall.

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx