Blog award!

I have been lucky enough to have been nominated for a blog award by no less than 4 bloggers! They are :- Beate's corner, My In Box, Just me and my fbs and Creative Hands.


The rules of this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve nominated.

As quite a few of these awards are going around at the moment, I am going to leave my nominations to a later date - keep posted to see if you are a winner!

A day out at Dover castle....

On Saturday we took a drive down to Dover to visit Dover castle and the secret wartime tunnels. it was a really good day out and was really interesting. The views were also fantastic across the English Channel.

here is a view of part of the castle.....

....'Why are you taking a photo of me Mummy?'....

..another part of the castle.....

.....and another one!

The wartime tunnels were really interesting, especially the underground hospital. It was quite amaziing the think they organised the evacuation of Dunkirk there in 1940 and it was such an important part in the organisation of the D-day landings. A very educational trip was had by all! Unfortuantely you weren't allowed to take any photos in there for security reasons...

Been away for the weekend.....part one

This weekend was spent in a caravan in Kent - not the luxury kind, but a static home - it was fine for a few days but it was a bit cramped to spend a whole week there. It was also a bit cold so it was good we remembered to bring our heater!

We made the most of it by visiting some National Trust and English Heritage site whilst we were there.

On Friday we went to Scotney Castle which was lovely to look at. You can go inside the 'new' castle, which was very interesting, but not so picturesque as the 'old' castle. The owners built the new one as the old castle was too damp!

This is part of the old buliding.....

...and the view across the water - just beautiful....

This is the new building, not as pretty - but I still wouldn't turn it down if it was given to me....

There was a beautiful garden and lake, but it was a little too damp to walk about too much. We spent an hour or so there, which was a good way to break up the journey.

A visit to the sea life centre...

On Saturday we took a trip into Southend with our friends and their son, to visit the sealife centre. I haven't been for years, so we thought it would be good to take the kiddies along.



Leah loved looking at the fish - but seemed to enjoy running about just at much. I think she wanted to join the children's party that was taking place at the same time ( I never knew that little boys could be soooo noisy! I don't think there was one of them at the party that spoke rather than shouted!)

It was quite difficult to take many photos because of the lighting, but we did manage a few. We saw some gigantic sea bass - about a metre long - stingrays, plaice and sharks too! There were also some little turtles and some cute tree frogs.

Here was a fish (not sure what) swimming quite fast - I liked the effect the camera took, all by accident too :o)

We went to a cafe afterwards for a cup of tea (the restaurant at the sealife centre was full of the kids party!) and I took her on the Tweenies ride outside and she loved it! Luckily she was happy with the one go :o)

I've been tagged (well almost!)

I haven't been tagged exactly, but as my friend Groovey Crafts mentioned me in her tagged items, I thought I might as well add my facts on my blog...

There are a few little rules to mention....

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.

4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.



Well here are my 7 facts..

1. I am a qualified chartered accountant and have been since 2002. I have only been working part time since my daughter was a year old and that has suited us all really well.

2. I have been with my husband for 12 years since I was 18, and we were married in 2005 - 8 years after we met. We spent our honeymoon in Whistler Canada, and Waikiki, Hawaii.

3. I enjoy thriller movies and books - the gorier the better (excluding the SAW series as the first one really freaked me out!)

4. I HATE Friends (the TV series) with a Passion and can't sand it being on!!!

5. I enjoy horseriding and go once a fortnight at a local riding stables. I used to loan a 14hh blue roan cob when I was younger, called Jimbo, from the riding school I worked at. He bit and kicked but never got me!

6. I don't have any pets as we lost our cat Tigger 3 years ago now. We have no plans for any more in the near future, although I fancy getting a rabbit when Leah is a bit older!

7. hmmmm, what for the final fact?? I am a total tea addict and love a good cuppa! I hate it when I am abroad and can't get a decent cup - the first one back home is always the best!

now for the people I am tagging (hope you don't mind!)

Creative Hands
Cotton & Cloud
Under The Hedgerow
Lizzie Jane
Roo Knits
JoJo-Caramel
Rachael rabbit

Just came across this!

I was just browsing Etsy and came across this pattern for a guinea pig - how fantastic! I am so tempted to buy it as it is sooooo cute! Leah would love it :o)

I really thought it was a live guinea pig LOL!

Feeling under the weather....

I woke up this morning feeling a bit queasy and my tummy has been delicate all day... I don't know what has caused it so I have been feeling very sorry for myself at work!

I have got some Pepto Bismol which seems to be doing the trick - although I couldn't manage my sandwich for lunch :oS Instead I went to the cafe and got some plain and boring toast. Hopefully I'll be feeling more like myself tomorrow and my tummy will have stopped hurting when I touch it. I just hope it isn't catching as I don't want little Leah being ill!

Feel free to give me lots of sympathy hahaha!!

My latest pair of socks are coming along nicely...

I have been somewhat distracted from my socks over the weekend as I have had an urge to knit mini christmas stockings courtesy of Little Cotton rabbits. They are so quick and easy to make!

Anyway my socks are coming along really well and the pattern is a simple repeat. I took it from Favorite Socks by Interweave press and I am pleased with how they are turning out! I have in mind the next pair I want to make already, they are so addictive......

Had a great day at Ally Pally!

I had a great day out on Friday at Alexandra Palace in London with my friend, and we had a good spend up too! (not too much though thankfully :o)


I got this lovely yarn and sock pattern from the Natural Dye Studio, and I can't wait to get started, it is so soft.... the pattern has confused me a bit though, so I will have to study it...



.. I also got these two different sock yarns which were a bit more cheaply priced than the one above, but are still lovely and soft (they are cotton mix and bamboo mix)...

... and finally a selection of reading material - some magazines, a hat pattern and the new Debbie Bliss childrens book. I was lucky enough to meet her at the GMC publications stall....

... and had her sign it!

It was a great day, just a shame that when I got home Leah decided to be sick twice so I spent my evening clearing up vomit and washing pyjamas, bedclothes and sheets! She's ok now and wasn't ill at all in the night thankfully - phew!

What a shame, as I had planned an evening of knitting......

I found yet another bargain.....

Leah and I visited our local charity shop again today and look what I found!


I got all this for £6.20 and you would never even know that the booklets were second hand, they are in such good condition. I wonder which ones I will start with?

Beatrice the Ballerina Bunny

Since joining ravelry last month, I have been having fun with the Fuzzy Mitten Group there. We are all lovers of the little stuffed animals and we decided to have a Knit along (KAL).

As I was away, I couldn't start until I got back, so I started Sunday evening and finished off last night. Here is the result.......

.... meet Beatrice the Ballerina! I decided to alter the pattern so that I could give her some little ballet shoes, and accessorised with some ribbon that I had laying around (it actually arose from her tutu not staying up, so I decided to thread some ribbon through to help with that!).

I thought I would add ribbons to her ballet shoes.....


.. and finished with a bow in her hair. The eyes took ages for me to place where I wanted them, but finally I got there. She had fun today outside in the sunshine with Leah whilst I was hanging out the washing!

Our day out in Innsbruck

Last Thursday we made the most of our bus card and took a trip to Innsbruck. It is a half hour journey by car but took I hour 20 minutes by bus. It wasn't too bad, at least the scenery was lovely all the way there!



Here I am in the square where the golden roof is (not sure of the name) and behind me in the background is the river that runs through the centre of Innsbruck. There are lots of great shops here, includung designer ones, it was difficult not to spend all my money! Luckily I resisted!


Leah and I decided to pose in front of the golden roof - you can just make it out in the background....

We had luch outside the Best Western hotel and I had a lovely farmers salad which included roast potatoes and bacon. Leah was mostly interested in my cucumber and tomato - and also her Granny's spaghetti Bolognese :o) That is her favourite.

Leah was also fascinated with the pigeons and followed them all over the place!

To finish, Richard's Mum ordered us all an apple strudel, but to be honest it looked better than it tasted! I don't really know what I expected - but this one was really stodgy in the middle with not that nuch taste. I was expecting to have more layers of pastry and to be a bit crisper. maybe I was too fussy!

What a brave little girl!

Leah has been to the hospital today for another scan/test and although there were lots of tears she was a brave little girl. They had to put a canula in her hand (she had cream to numb it) but they couldn't get it stay in her left hand so had to go through it all again in her right! The nurses had to hold her arm still whilst the doctor put it in and she really didn't like that. LOTS of tears and screams!

Then we had to go to nuclear medicine(sounds worse than it is) and have some radioactive (!!!)chemical injected that will show on a scan whether or not there is a blockage from her kidneys. She had to lie still for at least half an hour - thank goodness for the Tweenies video!

We had to give her lots of cuddles afterwards, and now she is tired out so she is having a little sleep, bless her.

I thought I would post a picture of her being a little happier - LOL! It was taken at the departure lounge at Innsbruck airport - we should have something like that here in the UK!

The Stubai Glacier.....

On the Sunday we took the bus to the end of the valley, where there is a glacier, great for skiing and snowboarding.


Here we are just before getting the gondola to the glacier.....

...and here are me and Leah at mid station - her first steps on snow!!

We took the lift right to the top - approx 3200 metres and here is the view back down to midstation. It was lovely up there, it just made me want to get on my board!!

what a difference a few days makes.....

Here are the first few photos taken from our holiday and I just wanted to show the difference we had in weather during the week.


This is a picture of our hotel in Voldereau, Neustift, and as you can see it was lovely, sunny and warm....


...then Friday morning we woke to this! What a surprise! It was just a shame we didn't have the correct clothes or shoes for a snowy holiday as we would have loved to go for a walk in it!