House For Sale.......

The "For Sale" sign went up outside our house yesterday. Seeing it go up brought a lot of mixed emotions, sadness, anger, nervousness, excitement and a sort of relief.

My ex partner & I bought the house nearly 6 years ago. It was our second step up the property ladder & we were very happy & excited to move to this village as it is such a lovely place to live & to bring up children. The house wasn't "our dream home" but it was a good solid family house & was a step nearer to where we wanted to end up ie. a pretty country cottage.

It is such a shame that those dreams are now broken, we where together for 10 years & I loved him very much. I am trying to turn a bad situation into a good one by thinking that it is another new chapter in my life & a fresh start. The main thing is I have my little men, they give me such joy ( & sometimes grief !!!! ) & we have a very close relationship.

Moving is not new to me, I have moved house 18 times in my life & lived in Canada for just over a year when I was 7. Even there my parents moved twice, Penticton & Kamloops which are in BC. My mum couldn't stand the cold winters so she & I came back I . My father still lives in Canada with my step mum & half brother & sister.

I hope I haven't been too depressing, & as the saying goes " what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

Girlie Day in Rye......

Today the little men went out with their daddy, so I had a me day. I love my little men to bits but it's nice to have some time to myself & I think every parent needs it.

My friend Jo rang to see if I would like to go to Rye for the day so off we went. I love Rye, it's full of antique & junk shops & most of the buildings are very old with cobbled lanes.

Mermaid Street

The Mermaid Inn ( 15th Century )

Gate House ( & Jo )

I bought a lovely dressing table set, some silver teaspoons & tea towels. We stopped for lunch at a bar called Baileys & had char coaled chicken burgers ( very good ) & chips. I had a lovely day, the weather was sunny, great company ( I love Jo, she's a sweetie ), and nice shops.

Weekend Baking at Nanna's.......

On Saturday Little Man no.1 was feeling a lot better so we went to my mum's for the afternoon.

Mum suggested doing some baking, so the little men made Favorite Biscuits with a little help from me. I was about their age when I started making these & are a family favorite, hence the name. They are so easy to make & are yummy !

Here's the receipt....

TANSKI'S FAVORITE BISCUITS

8oz/225g SR Flour
8oz/225g Light Brown Sugar
8oz/225g Butter
5oz/125g Porridge Oats
2oz/50g Cocoa
2 -3 tbsp Camp Coffee
pinch of salt

Pre heat oven to 180/350/Gas 4

Mix everything together with your hands to form a slightly sticky dough. Roll dough into walnut size balls & place on baking sheets (about 20 balls). Press balls down gently with a fork, & bake for 9-11 mins. They are best slightly under done so that they are chewy. THEN ENJOY !

These 2 little characters are my mum's dogs.

Bertie
Lilly Lilo

Sick Little Man, Sponsored Bike Race, Village Houses & More Spring Blossom.....

Today little man no. 1 woke up with a high Temp. of 39.4. I rang my mum to ask her to sit with him as the nursery was having a sponsored bike race to raise money for a new storage shed & sun shelter for the children to play under in the sun & little man no.2 didn't want to miss it.

After dropping him off I had 20 mins to spare before the race started so I went for a walk. I love our village, it is so pretty with lots of olde houses & cottages. As I had my camera with me I took some photos.

.

The photo above shows the way we go every day to school.

This is a little studio shop that is near us that has local artisan's crafts in the the window. I love the knitted rabbit.

More blossom

The bike race was a great success & little man no. 2 did really well, I must say I got rather choked up seeing him going around all the obstacles with a big big smile on his face.

I was soooo proud of him, it was such a shame that little man no. 1 is poorly as he would have loved it too.

Cake, Yarn, Crochet, & Friends to Play.......

The weather today was perfect, blue skies, warm & a slight breeze. After I picked up the little men from nursery we had a picnic lunch in the garden.

My friend Beckie & her childern H ( who is the boys best buddy ) & baby P ( she is actually 2 but the little men call her that ) came for tea. I sat & worked on yet another new crochet blanket ( I now have 4 blankets on the go!!) chatted, drank tea & ate homemade lemon cake, while the little people played. We ended up eating our tea in the garden as it was still warm at 5pm.

The Little Men chatting to the builder next door

The boys where so tired after all the playing & fresh air that they had a quick bath & were asleep by 7pm, hooray an evening to myself.

"What, not more wool !!!!"
This is the comment that my ex partner used to make, when yet another package can through the post crammed with yarn.

Yes I know that I wasn't going to start another new project, but I have no self control. I am making another granny blanket using Rowan Pure DK Wool. I love working with this yarn, it's sooo soft & the colours are amazing.

Cats & Wool Do Not Mix !!!!!!

My Cascade 220 yarn from Pavi Yarns came to day in the post. I am really happy with the colours as it's hard to tell the true colours on the computer. I am going to make another Ripple blanket for me to snuggle under on the sofa next winter.


I laid them out in the kitchen to take this photo & then put them on the work surface to put away. As soon as I turned my back Saba decided to check the new yarn out. I knew what would happen so I grabbed my camera, sure enough it was too tempting for him......


Mister Innocent & Mountain Of Yarn .......

I'll just have a sniff .......

Just a Squeeze .....

Just can't help myself .......

Blossom Trail.......


The little men's nursery is only 3 mins walk from our house but look how much blossom we see on the way.

Computer Melt Down arrrrrhhhhhh !!!!!!!.......

Oh Bum, my computer is not loading photos anymore, so its off to PC World to get it fixed. Hope to be back very soon, watch this space for more FO's

FO's & Summer Granny.....

As promised here are photos of my Summer Granny Blanket & some of the colours I am using. I am using Patons 100% DK Cotton. The colours show up better in the 2nd photo.

I recently finished 3 other projects:

My First Ripple Blanket

After years of only being able to do granny squares I was inspired to learn how to crochet properly by Lucy at Attic24. I just love everything she makes & her colour sense is amazing. So one Sunday in January I sat down with "Learn to Crochet" by Sally Harding & taught myself. My first project was a Ripple Blanket for the sofa.

Yarn: Patons Diploma DK
Hook: 4mm
Time To Make: Just over 1 month
For: Our Sofa
Happy: Very

Hap Blanket by Ysolda

Yarn: Artesano Aran & Rowan Kidsilk
Needles: 8mm
Colour: Dusk
Amount: 3 skeins & 1 ball
Time To Make: 8 days
For: My Mum

I can't wait to make this again for myself. The yarn is soooo soft & warm.

French Market bag

You can find this patten at knitty.com. This is the second one I have made & I am making a larger version for a friend.

Yarn: Cascade 220

Things that I Love, Things that I Hate.......

I Love :
1. My little men
2. My Mum
3. My Cats
4. My Family
5. My Friends
6. Knitting
7. Crocheting
8. Cuddling up on the sofa with the little men
9. Reading Crime Books
10. Gardening
11. Cooking & Eating good food with my Family & Friends
12. Thunderstorms & Snow
13. Scary Movies
14. Walking
16. Log Fires
17. Travelling
18. Shopping
19. Country Pubs
20. Christmas with Family

I Hate:
1. Crulty to Children & Animals
2. Unfairness
3. Disloyalty
4. Unfaithfulness
5. Being Judged
6. Bullying
7. Motorways
8. Road Rage
9. Sprouts
10. Bad BO
11. Bad Breath
12. Sad Films
13. The Mess My Little Men Make
14. Tidying up the Mess
15. Being woken up at 5am
16. Cleaning out the Cat Litter tray
17. Vomit
18. Drunkeness
19. Drugs
20. Drink Drivers

Bluebells......

Every year mum & I take the boys to see the bluebells in the woods near us. We have done this since they where 1 year old & each year I take a photo of them in the same place.

The boys love going to the woods with mum & me to walk mum's dogs, they can run, climb fallen trees & be free. There's a little stream that they like to throw sticks into & we tell them about the fairies & elves that live in the trees & under the fungi. I love to see the boys imaginations running wild as they try to find them

Hectic Easter...

The last two weeks have been hectic to say the least. It takes a lot of energy to entertain two 4 year old boys, I wish I had half their energy!!

We have been to Bedgebury & Dunlorlan Parks, friends to play, gone to friends & family, painting, drawing, play dough, sticking, bikes, digging up the garden, mud pies, walks and my lovely cousin to stay (which was a god send she kept them busy for 3 days).

In the middle of all this chaos I have been trying to keep the house tidy as I have had estate agents round as I am having to put the house on the market so that I can settle up with my ex partner. I really don't what to move as the boys & I are very happy here but things need to be finalised & we both need to move on. The thought of packing everything up & moving with two 4 year olds is rather daunting though!

On a lighter note I have had some time to crochet, & my summer granny blanket (idea taken from the lovely Lucy at Attic 24) is coming along slowly but surely, I will be posting some photos soon

I will leave you with a photo of my friends little girl who found my Sudocrem..........

P verses Sudocrem = Sudocrem won!!!!!!!

I Love a Bargain

These are 2 of the duvet sets I bought yesterday for £2.00 each, washed, ironed and on the beds

I'm really pleased with them and the little men love them too, so everyones happy!

Shopping.....

Today I had a couple of hours of boy free shopping thanks to my lovely mum. What a treat to look around my fav shops without worrying about little hands touching or little legs running around. First was Paperchase, I love note books and so I couldn't resist this one



and as always something for the little men, two pencil cases

Then into a lovely nik nak shop where I fell in love with these little chickens

and these Easter Bunnies

After that it was off to my local charity shop where I was lucky enough to find 4 duvet covers for the little men. Then it was back to my mum's for a picnic in her garden.

All in all a very good day!