Back from holiday

Before going away on holiday I took part in a happy swap thanks to Lisa at Periwinkle park. My partner was Adrienne and she sent me this load of goodies!

Doesn't it all look great?

This soap smells wonderful.....

....and this little balm will come in very useful.

Some very handy cotton yarn.....

....and a lovely summery knitting book.

I just love this beach blanket in a bag, I think it will be very quickly going onto my Ravelry queue!

Thanks for all the wonderful things Adrienne, they sure made me happy!

Look what I got in the post......

I sold a few items from my stash, so decided to treat myself to a few nice items instead of saving the money :o)

I bought some lovely supersock merino from Cherry tree hill which feels so silky soft and will be a delight to knit with. The colourway is 'Monet'


I also got a lovely skein of yarn from Malabrigo which again is beautifully soft, just a shame my camera doesn't give the colour any justice, it is just divine!

I also took part in a group swap via the Fuzzy Mitten group in Ravely and received this great swap from Bluesocks.

As well as the darling puppy she knitted for me she included some RYC cashsoft in pink to make the puppy a jumper and also some Colinette cadenza to knit my little pup something else. She kindly included a little pressie for leah - in the way of a Winnie the Pooh book and also a piece of kendall Mint cake (famous in the Lake District where she comes from). What a great swap!

Isn't this pup so adorable? She even knitted her a blanket to keep her warm on her journey South to me :o)

Some more things to show you.....

I have been taking a break from swapping lately, as I found it was beginning to feel a bit like a chore making and sending fbs rather than enjoying it, and because of that I wasn't enjoying my letter writing either - basically it all got too much. So I decided to take a break until I feel up to starting again. It means that my friends and swappers will have to wait a little for my replies - but those who read my blog will know that I haven't forgotten them, I am just trying to feel like myself again.

In the meantime I have made another pair of socks (!) and finished those during Leah's nap yesterday afternoon. I was pleased with the yarn, not bad for a find in Austria!



it's quite hard to photograph anything with the way the weather has been lately, so as soon as I saw the sun this morning I whipped my camera out and took some photos.


Not too bad, eh?

I had to cast on another pair straight away as I was dying to use this yarn - Araucania Ranco Multy - and it is lush! I have 12 more rows to do before the heel......

FBs being sent today....

These are the latest fbs I've made via a group swap......



..My melody to K in Cananda.....

... Rilakkuma to A in Japan...

....Diddl & Friends to S in the netherlands....

...and Disney characters to S in Finland. Enjoy them!

FBs being sent tomorrow

here are the latest fbs I made via a group swap. My creativity has been lacking a bit lately, but I was fairly pleased with the results...



Kuromi fbs on their way to M in the Netherlands...



Charlie's Ark fbs for S in Finland...

Milly the pinkest cat fbs to L in Denmark....

and finally Fizzy Moon fbs are on their way to K in Japan......

Thursday's mail

I received a wonderful letter and some FBs from my dear friend in Holland. It was great reading what her and her family had been up to :o)

Hello dear, if you are reading this *waving madly at you!* You know who you are!! LOL! hahaha!

Wednesday's mail

I received this lovely swap of fbs from my dear swapper in France. Thanks for that, I enjoyed signing them all!

Wednesday's mail

This is a lovely swap I received from my swapper in Japan - she always puts the fbs in a cute Hello Kitty paper bag :o)

Monday's mail

Sorry about the quality of these photos - my camera needs charging, so the flash won't work; I can't find the charger(!) and I'm stressed about getting everything ready before going away, so this is the best I can do for the moment!!!!!!

I received a lovely letter, some fbs and some memo sheets from my lovely friend in Denmark, thanks dear!

sent my fbs....

Here are some fbs I made recently and are on their way to K. in Japan, via a group swap. The theme was 'all for her' so the theme was free.

These are Diddlina fbs and have been sent today to S. in the Netherlands. I hope they arrive soon and won't take too long to arrive!

I don't know why, but I can never photograph them very well. They don't like to lay flat, I think its the the covering I use, its rather thick.... Lucky I bought some other stuff at the weekend :o)

Got my liquorice swap.....yum, yum, yummmmmm...

Yesterday I went to the post office to collect my package - and yes - it was my liquorice swap from my friend in Finland, thank you dear, sooooo much!! ( I will e-mail you too xx).

It was DELICIOUS, and sad to say one bag is already gone (with the help of Richard and my Dad!!). That was the salmiakki one which is lovely. We don't have that kind here and it is definitely my favourite :o)

I am just looking forward to trying the rest now LOL!!

Today Richard and I have been pulling weeds from the garden - not our favourite thing to do but something that has to be done every now and again.

The sunshine and showers has made the weeds go mad, and what makes it worse is that the weeds escape from next door and come through the fence - so I've been pulling bindweed like mad and it keeps coming, and coming and coming! I got it all in the end :o)

I also gave the bird bath and bird table a feed so I can refill everything later and keep the little birdies coming. Well actually, not so little as we have quite a few magpies and carrion crows that visit our garden daily, as well as a pair of wood pigeons and a pair of collared doves.

Now we have just finished lunch and am going to relax a little while Leah has her sleep....

can you believe it?!?

I have been waiting for a couple of parcels to arrive this week, so when the postie didn't drop anything through my door today I was a little upset..... So later I went to a friend's house so our children can play, and on my journey I passed the post van (that often delivers parcels). I thought to myself - is my parcel there?? - no chance really!!

Well, when I returned home a little red card was waiting for me saying I had 2 packets that couldn't fit through my door, so I have to pick them up tomorrow- WHAT!!!!OH NO!!! He had been at 1.25 and I left home at 1.15!!!!!

JUST MY LUCK!!!!!!!!

Bought the chocolate for my swap....mmmmm..

This morning I have been to the post office to post a letter to my dear friend in Holland, and I've also been to the sweet shop to buy some chocolate for a friend in Finland who is kindly sending me some liquorice (mmmmm.......) in return!

I decided to post the chocolates on here so that all the chocoholics that read this blog will be jealous and my friend can see what I am sending her.

I spent a little more on the chocolate than the liquorice - £2.80, but I think the postage will be lighter, so that balances it out a little, as postage is expensive from here in the UK! The weight of the chocolate is 250g (not so good for the waist line!!!).

I hope the 6 bars will be enough - if they are not - you know who you are if I am sending them to you - please let me know, I'd like to be fair! I may also send a little surprise too if you are lucky LOL!

My favourites are the 'Time Out' and 'Twirl', but I also love the 'Crunchie' bar and the 'Flake' - I actually bought all the ones I like myself :o) x

Got some mail!!

Today I received a great swap from my new swapper in Germany. What a great selection!

Returning some homers...

Tomorrow I'll be returning some homers to their owners - three to Germany and one to The Netherlands. Do you recongnise any? It may be coming to you!

BAD mail weeks - what's up?

Well, I think that my mailman doesn't like me any more as I haven't had any mail for ages! Well, I say no mail, I actually got loads of mail last week but all from the tax office so it doesn't count. It was good news though as they gave me almost £400 in tax credits for last year so that was great! it will pay for our holiday in Cornwall next month :o)

I'm not actually waiting for anything in particular, I was just hoping some swaps will arrive as I think (??) I'm up to date with MOST of them LOL! I have group swaps to receive but they're not due until the end of August so I don't expect anything that quickly. I just LOOOVE getting good mail..... I don't even have anything to arrive from eBay - what's wrong???????

Hopefully tomorrow will be better, I can only wish :o)

FINALLY some mail!!!

Here is part of a swap via CuteFBswappers, from a Finnish swapper, the theme was Diddl & Friends.

This was the second part of the same swap, Cute Disney Characters. Aren't they great??

Here is the private swap from my swapper in the USA - can you see any of your fbs here?? What a great swap!