I Knit Like I Cook

Just a quick one for now as we're in the middle of a busy Saturday.

I have noticed that I knit just like I cook. I follow a recipe once and then do it my own way the next time I cook it. I followed the pattern I found (must find out where it was so I can credit the person) for the hat (see yesterday's pic) and then I used the basic idea and changed it and tweaked it and played around with different stitches and created this;

If anything I like this one better. Am now trying to work out whether I need to double or triple the pattern to make a hat for me, I have some beautiful textured yarn in a deep purple that I have had for an age just because I like the colour. Will need to do a test piece me thinks as I'll use bigger needles for a chunky look. Think I may have a new hat and scarf for the winter. Yes, I know it's only May!!

Have a good day, may be back later....

Daisie xxx

Little Hats And Poppets

Another nice holiday day today, Simon at home from work too so we set off this morning to have a play at Little Treasures, we met some friends there, had a bounce and some lunch. Nathaniel loves the bouncy castle now that he can move around, only sorry I forgot to take the camera!

I quite often meet Lynsey there as our girls are all big enough now to go off and play and because there is so many of them they look after each other nicely so we always know when someone needs us. It means that we can sit and drink tea and craft.

I took some knitting today. One of my very dear friends is expecting her first baby in November and I am determined to make some beautiful things for her long awaited bundle. I only learned to knit last Christmas (Mum was off work following a mastectomy and a year of chemo therapy so I grabbed the opportunity to get her to teach me while she was unable to run away), I seem to have taken to it quite well but have stuck to very basic items so far. I found a pattern for a baby hat that you can knit on two needles (I still have trouble with DP needles and knitting in the round), thought I'd start small and work up to a cardigan and a lacy blanket in time. I don't yet know what colour the baby will be (pink or blue) so am knitting in white. I had planned to send the hat now, something of a taster of things to come. I was going to send the hat with a pink flower to sew on if the baby is a girl but I realised it would probably be easier to cut it off if it's a boy! I am very pleased with the hat, what do you think;



The girls like it so I may have to make some pink ones for their dollies.

If anyone out there in blogland has some really easy but fancy looking baby patterns feel free to email them to me!

On the way home this afternoon we stopped at the shop for a loaf of bread, Simon climbed back into the car and asked;
"What flavour poppets* are your faves?"
"Toffee."
"Phew!"
"Why?" asked I.
"Because I bought you some,"
"Ah, thanks. Why, because you love me?"
"No, they were less than half price."

I am rapidly approaching 100 posts and am planning a bit of a give-away (not sure what yet) so watch this space!

Daisie xxx

*Poppets are small round chocolate covered sweets that come in mint and orange fondant and toffee. They come in a card box that has a small hole in the top, usually they don't come through the hole so you make it bigger and then they all come rolling out at once! Yummy!

Extendable Nozzles, Textured Wallpaper And General Sadness

The Singing Kettle was wonderful, as usual! Derby is such a long way but the show was well worth the journey time! Forgot to take any good photos of the girls, this years theme was pirates. Here are my pirate princesses;




And here we are having ice cream at half time;




Today has been a strange old day really, Nathaniel woke at 5am so I was wide awake and busy from then really. I crept round upstairs and tidied the bedroom and then came down early and made a shepherd's pie for tea whilst the breakfast was underway. The girls came down to join us and the cleaning continued with the hob of the cooker and the top of the microwave etc. I put some washing in the machine, changed our bed, washed and dressed the children, vacuumed the floors and was out of the house at 9 to go to our breast feeding group. All the children came this week which was really nice. I'd invited my friend Caroline and her son George along too, Caroline is no longer a star but was for two years with George. Claire was there with Li-Bau too. They come with us every week, Li-Bau is six months old and Nathaniel thinks he is the coolest friend he has (mainly cos he's a boy and not dressed in pink!), here he is beating him to the ground in a passionate cuddle;



And moving in for a quick kiss;

Anyway, enough of gorgeous baby boys, lets get back to the title of this post. In my mad cleaning mode I tackled the rest of our bedroom when lunch was over. The bed was moved and the floor beneath cleaned and the rugs were lifted and wafted in the air and the floor beneath cleaned (sounds like nesting to me...). There were a few spiders' homes (cobwebs) in the corners near the ceiling so I extended the nozzle on my lovely vacuum (I don't get out much) and attached the brush end and went on a cobweb removing spree. Great, though I until I stepped back to admire my handiwork. We have horrid 'wood chip' wall paper in the bedroom that we just painted white (it was moss green and plum and reminded me of vomit) when we moved in because we were going to make things nice as we went along. Needless to say, tis still white, eleven years later! But I like white. The tiny bumps in the wall paper collect dust and where I had removed said cobwebs the walls looked brighter and cleaner, so off I went with my nozzle extended around the room making the walls dust free. Well, sort of, the walls in my bedroom now look like an old grey zebra. Never mind, I'm usually asleep when I'm in there, ha ha!

I came back downstairs from my cleaning madness to find the girls had got the play dough out and were making food, I had chocolate spaghetti with strawberry 'meatballs', vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce drizzled over, small love heart cakes, and big aeroplane cakes waiting for me.....

And the mention of sadness is because whilst ironing (I am a domestic goddess!) I saw an advert for this on the TV and squealed with delight, I have to have one!! How sad am I?!

Daisie xxx

Can't Believe I Forgot.....

That my amazing husband bought me this wonderfully fancy (limited edition) daisy stamp;


I stamped three this afternoon and cut the main daisy from one and the daisy and inside border from another and layered them up on a full stamp. I highlighted the edges and swirls with a gold glitter pen and finished it off with some amber coloured gems. The photo doesn't really do it justice;



Daisie xxx

Cosmic Letters

How SMART is this, I love it, thanks for the link Swirly!!!

A Day At The Seaside

A fabulous (windy) bank holiday Monday was had at Fleetwood yesterday.
Here are the crashing waves;






We wrote our names in the sand, well, Elizabeth did and Francesca managed her 'F' and then was distracted by a crab's claw;



We had a big shop at Freeport and bought lots of lovely goodies and drooled over many things in an amazing cook shop. Then we walked on the beach at Fleetwood and drove on down to Cleveys and had a fish and chip supper (well four of us did and Nathaniel stuck to boobie and threw it up all over everyone). Elizabeth and Nathaniel fell asleep before we got home (Francesca was still awake but she did sleep on the way there).

Now for my goodies. I found this book in The Works for £1.99, it's really rather good and very easy to follow, watch this space for my creations.

I also got an amazing scrap booking kit, it has lots of different papers, eyelets, toppers, sentiments, beads, stick on gems, ribbons, metal and wooden buttons, and just amazing things and all for £3.99, can you believe it!?

Here's a close up of my buttons and can you see (on the left) three wonderful green resin daisies;

Today has not been so marvelous, I was awake most of the night with a small starving boy demanding boobie because he was so hungry and then being covered in my own milk when he threw it all back up twenty minutes later. Fun and laughter (not). By this morning he was very miserable indeed so we set off to the doctors. After an hour of hanging around and crying (mostly him but me also) we saw the doc who examined him thoroughly and told me...wait for it.....he has a virus (!), winter vomiting virus (in May) apparently and there's not alot we can do. He is quite dry so we have been trying to give him rehydration salts (he likes it not one bit) and his tummy is sore and empty, poor baby. He is having lots of loves and hopefully will feel better soon because we are off to Derby tomorrow to see The Singing Kettle we go every year and have a wonderful time, am hoping to get a few more years out of Elizabeth before she grows out of it and will get many years from Nathaniel and maybe we'll just have another baby........

If ever they are near you, take some small people along, they'll love it!

Daisie xxx

Paper Craft And A Clean Car

Bank holiday so Simon at home tomorrow, we are planning and adventure and in readiness we have cleaned the car (he did the outside, I did in), very shiny it is too!

I have been feeling a little poorly, a bit cold and not very motivated even though it's been very sunny outside. So I have been indoors while the children have been playing beaches and schools and labour wards(?!) in the garden. I have been playing with all my lovely goodies that arrived last week.

Here are the fruits of my guillotine (so to speak).

Another tear drop 'Daisie';





This is a really cool stand-out flower with a die cut butterfly, it needs something more but I quite like the idea;






This is what it looks like from the side;

I had lots of fun playing with this wired handmade paper. I need some more practice at this but I quite like the rustic look;

I made a 'box' of flowers for a friend's coming birthday;

And this is a card that has been in the making for ages, it's an order from my mother-in-law for a friend of hers. Her friend is an artist and I felt under pressure to produce something really marvellous, think I've achieved what I was aiming for. This is the outside;

And when you open it up......

Hope she'll like it!

So hopefully tales of an adventure tomorrow, unless the British weather lets us down(well it wouldn't be unheard of for it to rain on bank holiday Monday)!

Daisie xxx

One Size Fits All

Morning, sorry I didn't get back yesterday (well I did but the internet was down, bah!)

In my huge box of goodies was a tear drop shaped paper punch, it's an X-Cut for those of you that know about these things and I didn't want to let it go but couldn't think of what to use it for. So I cut lots from some swirly handmade paper and then cut some from some lovely metalic green and made this;



I didn't crop this picture like I usually do because you can see my rather groovy purple knitting needle bracelet that Swirly made for me! I love it and it gets lots of comments. And you can't see my lovely button ring that Jenny made for me on the other hand - I am truly a crafty person on so many levels!!

And here is a lovely thing that Kae-Lei brought me back from her weekend away where she celebrated her 8th birthday. A thank you for the present I made her. Think it says it all really, don't you?




Daisie xxx

New Toy

Hello, just a quick one at the mo to show you all and especially Swirly that I have learned to use this mosaic maker, how smart. It won't take photos from my computer though, so more photos going onto flickr when I have time. These are the cards that are on flickr now.

Going to do one with the babies later, ooh, love to play but now the shepherd's pie needs to be made and the baby needs a boobie before we set off to school.

Will be back later as I was given some presents this morning, how lucky am I this week? It's FAB!!

Daisie xxx

Lovely things!!!

Squeal!!!
My things from Artymiss arrived today, oh the excitement was wonderful!
The box was HUGE! The lovely posty man had to help me bring it in, I think the fact that I was dribbling and giggling like an idiot didn't help my box carrying abilities, must get out more! Here is Francesca sitting on the box (yes, it was that big) and trying to share my enthusiasm even though she didn't yet know what was inside....




Before we get to the goodies I paid for (absolute bargain, I must stress) I must just show you this rather groovy packing stuff, it's a bit like tissue/handmade paper if you know what I mean and has been neatly folded and put away until I find a use for it. Any suggestions most welcome;





Inside the BIG BOX there was this lovely storage container full of lovely embellishments of all sorts;




And this two drawer chest full of more goodies;

And this amazingly cool pink carry tote also filled with goodies, oh so many;

I have lots of lovely rubber stamps, papers, blanks and envelopes, beads, paper shapes, die cut shapes, metal tags, mini scrabble tiles, ink, glass paint, window sun catchers, peel offs, magazines, buttons, fancy pegs, the list is endless and I can't wait to get making things with them (or just sit stroking them)!

There were some things that I wouldn't use or that I already had and two of some things are good but when one only has a small craft corner (which takes up most of the house) there is no point in hoarding. I am selling some things here and if there's anything you fancy and buy I'll send you an extra something if you mention MACAROONS in any info for seller box!

Off to bed to knit now.

Night all, Daisie xxx

Geography Is Not Our Strong Point!!

No amazing makes today, although I've done a quick card shuffle in the nursery 'shop' and emptied the money box. Only two sales this time, obviously not card selling season! :-( I have started knitting Bo's bootees, made an yummy and wholesome minestrone for tea, posted some things on craftjuice and had the most amazing conversation with my middle child on the way to school;

"There's no gravity in Spain is there?" Asked Francesca
"Yes there is, there is gravity all over the planet and that's why we don't fall off."
"No, Mummy, there is no gravity in SPAIN, listen!"
"There is," I repeated.
"No, Mummy listen, there is no gravity in Spain and that's why the rockets can fly and why spacemen can float around and have to wee in bags."
"That's in SPACE, not SPAIN," I tried not to laugh too much as she is a sensitive child.
"What's space then?"
"It's everything outside of our sky," I tried to explain.
"Do you mean the sky that the trees are holding up?"
"Yes, I suppose so,"
"What is Spain then?" Her brain obviously hurting by this time.
"Spain is a place near France."
"Oh, you know lots of things Mummy. Do they really have gravity in Spain cos I don't think they do?"
"Yes they do."
We'd reached school by this point so the conversation ended and I was quite glad truth be told!!

Daisie xxx

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Well, lazy all day really!

We woke early so had breakfast (marmite toast, what else) in bed and watched last night's Dr. Who. It's just too late for the children to watch on a saturday night so we tape and watch on sunday. It allows little minds to ask questions and process images before bedtime so no bad dreams!

The children and I left Simon in bed and came downstairs so I could try and rearrange my craft corner in order to make room for all my lovely things that will be here soon! Squeal!!

The girls made a 'beach' using some yellow cot sheets for the 'sand' and the rug from Simon's side of the bed to make the 'sea'. They spent an age 'paddling' with their skirts tucked in their knickers. We had some scary moments when Nathaniel crawled into the 'sea' and nearly drowned. Francesca saved him just in time, phew!

This is a picture Elizabeth took of the paper bucket and spade she made (she also made footprints for the beach in paper);



After lunch everyone was a bit grumpy so the girls were sent to bed to read and have chill time while I cleaned up and washed the dishes. After Simon and I had had some coffee and were sufficiently chilled to allow them back downstairs Francesca had fallen asleep in her book, ah! Just goes to show that My Little Pony isn't really that exciting;



Whilst browsing the web Simon found some news I've been waiting for; Nic (of Pendleslotracing) and Sunicha's baby girl has arrived safely. She is called Isabella and this is the card I made for them;

I knitted the tiny booties in about five minutes and think they look really cool, will be making more, watch this space (although I may have to knit some for Bo yet as it's the same yarn I did her hat and scarf in and Francesca thinks she'd look good 'matching'). The nappy is a simple felt triangle with a tiny safety pin to join it together.

Daisie xxx

OMG!

Am going to sleep now, have just gone mad at artymiss, hope I don't regret it in the morning. Can't wait to show you my goodies when they arrive :-)

Night night, Daisie xxx

Party, Lighting and Knitting.

Elizabeth was invited to a party this morning so I left the two small babies with Simon and set off with Elizabeth and a bag of things to craft while drinking coffee and chatting with the other Mummies. There were only two other Mums and the conversation wasn't up to much but look what I made;




It's completely made from recycle materials, how cool is that!! The folder is one that was full of advertising bumph for a car and the felt and embroidery thread were from SAMS ( waste from industry that would have ended up in landfill if it weren't for members like me and my friends that make good use of them). I made one last week for Kae-lei's birthday with her name on, I filled it with pages of handmade papers so she could use it as a notebook/scrapbook/photo album, whatever she wants really. I forgot to photograph it though (sorry Christine)! I thought I had packed everything I would need but I didn't put my tailor's chalk in, der! So the flowers are sewn 'freehand', I usually draw on the picture I want and sew over the image. Quite pleased with how they turned out, my petals look quite even?!





I have been complaining about the lack of good light in our bedroom for a while now, being tired I like to get to bed as soon as is humanly possible but also like to sew or knit while I'm there. Whilst I cooked our evening meal Simon was in the attic, avoiding being useful (or so I thought) but when I came upstairs to put the children to bed I was greeted by this;




How fab!!! So I have snuggled up to watch the Ideal World 'Create and Craft' weekend and finished Bo's summer hat and scarf (best not to ask!!)

I have also been looking here at amazing things, my 'basket' is groaning so I need to go now and trim it down by deciding what I really need!

Daisie xxx