Dragon Update

Here are the girls' plates this evening;


The eagle eyed among you will notice that the peas were replaced with sweet corn because my freezer was pea less! This increased the cost by 20p so the meal now cost £3.52!

I also made a chocolate cake for the girls after school;

This cost me £1.27 to make taking the grand total of our two course meal for five to..................£4.79. eat your heart out Jamie Oliver!!

While the cake was baking a knock on the door brought me this;

Full of lots of lovely Christmas crafting goodies;

I think I will mostly be making Christmas cards for the foreseeable future!!

Daisie xxx

* A quick comment about my last post. I seem to have ruffled some feathers. I apologise for any upset but that is what I think and I am sticking to it! I have a strong suspicion I know who 'anonymous' is and I'd like them to know that I am a 'good milker' and am proud! (sticks tongue out in a very childish way!)*

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

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

Lovely Things....

Two thank yous, one for Jenny for sending me a lovely parcel and one for Royal Mail for not losing it!! Inside was this brilliant card which is actually very funny for those that know me in real life (not just in blog-land);

There was this beautiful little bundle;

Inside which was some lovely little chocolates;

There was also an amazing ATC, titled 'Summer Daisies';

A beautiful blue dangly thing for my bedroom;

Three wonderful button rings, mine is red and black, Francesca wanted the pink sparkles and Elizabeth wanted the purple one;

After a morning opening lovely goodies Francesca, Nathaniel and I went to lunch at Lynsey's and after lots of lovely food Lynsey and I sat and crafted while the children played contentedly. I took along my Knit-Wit and created this rather fancy bracelet. I have layered orange and yellow flowers with a vintage button centre onto a braided wristband with button closure. Not sure about the colour but quite impressed, expect to see more soon;

Daisie xxx

Happy Birthday Heather!

We need to say a very big happy birthday to my friend Heather who is thirty years old today (she won't mind me telling you)! Heather is my oldest friend, we were at school together from the age of 11, we have very different lives but stay in touch even after all this time. I am so glad that my name then came after hers alphabetically otherwise we'd never have sat next to each other in French when we were sweet Year 7 pupils. We had a lovely teacher Mme. Reese (can't remember how she spelled it, bet Heather knows) who had the biggest 'bingo wings' in the world which filled us with mirth every time she wrote something on the blackboard! She always used to wear the most amazing crocheted vest tops which we made fun of at the time but personally I would go for a crocheted vest top now (how we change)! I posted her present by special delivery on Saturday so it was guaranteed to arrive today (cost a bloody fortune) and I will have very harsh words for Royal Mail if it hasn't arrived!! This is what was in the parcel;




Her maiden name was Salthouse and nearly six years ago when taking Elizabeth on her first seaside holiday in Norfolk I drove through a small village called Salthouse. I took a photo of the sign as you entered the village, it had the speed limit above it and when the photos came back from the developers (blimey, it was a long time ago) I thought it would be good to save for her 30th birthday. I have mounted the photo onto a copy of a map of the area and have put the whole lot onto a wooden frame so she can hang it (probably in the downstairs loo but I don't mind) and think of me whenever she sees it!! The bag was also in the parcel with the kilt pin brooch and a scarf to match;

This photo doesn't really do this yarn justice, it's two or three shades of brown with a bronze thread running through it, I have finished it off with long chocolate brown tassels.

Goodies from yesterday were fab, have been having a play with them today. I bought some amazing pens for drawing on acetate, expect some more sparkly window cards coming this way. Have made a lovely flying dragon one for Rohana but realised as I dropped it into the post box that I hadn't taken any pics, der! I got some amazing brads and lots of fancy embossed cards. Two lovely tubs of mixed glass beads, am going to make some more beaded bracelets, Mum came and got hers today and was really impressed. Have told her that if anyone asks where it comes from to point them in my direction! Will stick some on etsy soon, still waiting for my first sale. Lots of people have visited me and after only ten days sixty one people heart me (sorry for confusing non-etsy people, go have a look at me and all will be revealed)! Am getting quite obsessed, I check at least three or four times a day how many people love me, Elizabeth asks me how many people love me when I collect her from school, we really should get out more!

And finally a big thank you to my lovely husband who is washing the dishes while I lay in bed with my poorly teething son and the computer on my lap, I love you Simon!!

Daisie xxx

A Good Day!

A big thank you to my Mum who brought me back a big bag of buttons from her last visit to her house in France;



And another thank you for taking me to a huge craft fair at Aintree Racecourse today. Her friend Rohana makes silver clay jewellery and got us complimentary passes (saved us £6 each). Rohana's work is beautiful and I have spent alot of today trying to convince her that she needs to open an etsy shop! Hope she takes my advice and then you can all see her work too!

Mum saw a lovely beaded bracelet but sadly it wasn't for sale so I made her one this evening, not quite sure it's as good as the one at the fair but I am quite pleased with it (excuse the scary 'reaching arm' photo);




Off to bed now, will tell you about all the money I spent on lots of lovely crafty goodies tomorrow!

Daisie xxx