Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that you are all enjoying the holidays and that Santa brought you all some lovely presents.

The girls had a lovely couple of days - Christmas day at our's and Boxing day at my parents' house. We had a great time - all 14 of us!

Leah and Evie enjoyed opening their presents (even if Leah didn't like everything we got - think I should've given her the best presents last. Note to self to do that next year)

Leah got a sledge from Richard's parents which they both enjoyed playing with.

Evie certainly liked it!

Boxing day was spent with family as I said, and Leah enjoyed being with her little cousin Amelia. She's 10 weeks old now, but still as tiny as a little doll - and has a full head of hair!

I did my annual dress up and made the effort for a couple of days. I even wore a dress each time. You have to make the effort at Christmas, don't you?

Of course, we had far too much to eat as usual, and the kids tucked in. Although I must day Leah was far more interested in the crackers than her dinner.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Preparing for Christmas

The last few days before Christmas are always busy, let alone when you're youngest isn't sleeping due to an ear infection. Luckily the antibiotics seem to be working, so we're in for a better Christmas than it could have been.

The tree is up and decorated, although parents of young children know how tempting it is for the kiddlies to mess with the tree. I'm constantly redressing it where Leah has been fiddling to make it 'better'!

We madesome decorative presents to go on the tree this year, from mini cereal boxes, wrapping paper and ribbon.So easy yey so effective. They look great although I haven't been able to photograph them well enough yet.

I even put my sewing skills (?) to the test this year and made one - yes one - felt bauble. TA DA!

Today Leah and I made some very tasty mince pies, and even though I told her that raw pastry was not very nice, she didn't believe me and went ahead and ate it. It was spat out and left on the worktop - need I say more?

They are very tasty anyway, especially with a cup of tea. Not bad for my own pastry making skills - the chicken liver pate is being made tomorrow. Wish me luck!

We had a big dump of snow of saturday, and I managed to get into the garden quite soon after to take some photos.

The apple tree looked so pretty I just had to show you the picture of this snow covered branch.

An experience with complaining

it's not often that I complain, but whilst knitting this hoodie for Evie I noticed a real difference in colour between the balls of yarn I purchased, all of which were in the same colour and dye lot.

I didn't quite know who to contact so on Thursday night I e-mailed Sirdar and explained how the colour was different from ball to ball, and hoped for the best. You can see from the photo below how the colour is slightly different, and unfortunately, enough to notice in my opinion.



I received an e-mail back Friday morning, saying that they were sorry I had found a problem and they would send me a prepaid label to send the yarn back for examination.

I didn't read the e-mail until later in the day, and as I had half knitted the hoodie I explained that I was rather reluctant to send anything off and would they accept some photos of the problem.

Due to the time I sent the e-mail I didn't receive a reply until Monday, and when they did they said that photos would do fine. I sent them over and within an hour they sent another replying saying that they would replace the yarn I had bought with any other yarn to the same value.

So I chose some yarn and it arrived this morning!

The moral if the story is that don't be afraid to complain as there are some very good companies out there with very efficient and competent customer service.

Meet the jolly tots!

I just wanted to show you some of the jolly tots I have knitted recently from the wonderful pattern from Dollytime over on Flutterby patch.

They really are a joy to knit and they are so much fun.


One has plaits....

and the other has cute curly hair. Leah has received them in her advent calendar - although at the moment she is a bit more taken by the sweeties!

I've also knitted these little bootees to keep Evie's toes warm in this cold weather we have been having of late. They stay on better than some other bootees I've knitted which is a bonus.

She's now ten months old and loves having a chew on toast and marmite as well as eating scrambled egg from the chooks. Unfortunately she has a cold at the moment as well as teething, so you can imagine that we are having some problems at bed time with her. Hopefully not for too long!

Some snowy garden pictures

My garden always looks so different in the snow. I think everywhere does under the blanket of whiteness.

This crow was waiting for me to go indoors so he could eat some of the goodies I put our for all the birds. I love watching to see what appears in the garden.

Yum, yum, yum!

I really haven't a clue what this plant is, but under the white I could see some yellow bits poking out and though it looked rather stunning!

A walk in the snow

Thursday afternoon, after spending all morning at home with the girls, I decided to go for a walk to the seafront to see the seaside in the snow. I had no chance of taking the pushchair, so I strapped Evie to me, and leah and I braved the cold.

I really loved the beach huts in the snow.....

....they just look so serene and peaceful.

Leah liked looking out to sea, although we couldn't see that much really.

And of course jumping in the snow to see how deep it was!

Aaaarrrrgghhhhhh - SNOW!!!!

I didn't believe the weather forecasters last night when they said there was going to be more snow. I was wrong - as always!

Leah's pre school is shut today, so I am pulling my hair out trying to think what she might like to do. I think it will be some painting and sticking today!

This is the view from my front door.


I've only ventured out in the back garden enough to defrost the bird bath and to give the birds some food. Going to be drinking lots of tea today!! (and hoping to do some knitting too)