The Craft Barn Blog Candy Giveaway

What a fabulous giveaway. I wouldn't mind being the new owner of all those crafting goodies. :-)

Move to Scotland

Now not only have I had 2 more gorgeous grandbabies this year but hubs decides he wants another job. Now the job is as a herd manager to 450 cows on a very modern farm etc., BUT it's in Scotland, which is a move of nearly 300 miles for us. It all happened very quickly and although the house itself is bigger we have no outbuildings and even worse for me NO PLAYPEN! How will I ever manage? Sob.

And to top it all I had to have our very elderly cat, Cleo, put to sleep. She would have been 25 this month so was a very good age for a cat really. Still very, very sad though. RIP Cleo.

Here are a few pics of the chaos of the last few weeks. Please feel free to feel sympathetic. Tea and cake is the best healer so if you feel like joining me for tea and cake please feel free to pop round. :-)

Packing up my Playpen, I shall really miss her.

Packing up the house.

All loaded and ready to roll. The guys came on the Monday and loaded the van, they then went back to their yard and didn't leave until the early hours of Tuesday morning. Here in the UK we were experiencing very high winds so it took them 7 hours to drive up. We left Monday as we had 2 vehicles and a caravan to take up. We were able to drive nearly all the way up but by about 10pm I'd had enough driving so we pulled over in a layby and kipped in the caravan.

The removal men arrived just after 11am and unloaded all our stuff. We went from having a nice, empty, tidy house to chaos in minutes. I am slowly getting sorted. It's like trying to fit a gallon into a pint pot never mind a quart.

Not sure if we'll ever be straight. It's a lovely area though and I'll post some pictures of the area shortly.

Update photo of Mollie

Just thought you might all like to see a more recent photo of Mollie, she's now 3 months old and I can't believe how fast that time has gone. She's a proper little chatterbox by all accounts.

Her mummy says she's a really laid back baby and smiles and gurgles all the time. All being well, mummy, Mollie, Hannah and Taylor are coming for a visit. :-) That makes for one happy grandma.

And not to be left out here's a photo of Hannah and Taylor.

New Baby Grandson

Not only have I had a new, beautiful baby grand daughter this year but also a new baby grandson who is also gorgeous. That makes 5 gorgeous grandchildren for me.

Here is Zachary John George, born 2 days before his sister's 1st birthday and weighed in at 9lb 5oz.

Here is a photo of his big sister on her 1st birthday too.

Aren't they just gorgeous?

Apologies

I can't believe how long it's been since I last updated my blog. This has been due to two reasons really. First off my laptop died and secondly we moved from Shropshire, England, to Stranraer, Scotland. I have loads to show you and catch up on as well. I'm still struggling to find homes for everything to be honest and am wondering if I'll ever find anything ever again.

Watch this space for updates, hopefully regular ones from now on.

New Baby Grand Daughter

Here is my newest grandbaby. Mollie Joy, born on the 24th June 2011 at 10.39am, weighing in at 7lbs 8oz. She’s a little redhead like her brother and sister.

I had the dubious privilege of being there when she was born. I say dubious as she was born by Caesarean section and that was a tad gruesome to see. Not that I saw any of the operation itself you understand but I could see the blood pooling on the floor etc and things didn’t go too well for my daughter who ended up having to be put out under a ‘general’ as the pain became too much even though she’d had an epidural. 

Both mother and baby are doing OK though and I am staying with my daughter for a few days just so I can help with the two elder monsters -  Hannah and Taylor.

Crop Circles and Things That Go Bump in the Night

Well, there are crop circles, created by aliens or not, depending on your point of view, there are stone circles like Stonehenge etc, but here, on the farm we have thistle circles. Now please don’t ask me why we have thistles (and the odd bit of ragwort) that grow in near perfect circles but if you know please do tell us as we’d love to know. There’s not just one patch but several thistle circles.

Now I don’t think for one moment we have aliens at Clive but I’ve never seen this before. Do do do do do do

I wonder if it’s a new game or something that the cows play when we’re not looking?

More Random Spring Photos and Farm Goings On

This is the old oak tree, he’s a very old man now but he still gets a hug from me.

The hawthorn blossom all ready for the May Queen.

The girls coming down the track to be milked.

Moss and the girls. They were quite horrid to Moss today and kept chasing him, he soon saw them off though.

Clive church.

Weekend Away in South Shropshire

Every now and again we take Betsy, our caravan, away for a few days. We don’t go far, just far enough to get us away from the farm so the OH can relax and switch off. Anyway, last weekend we took the van down to Craven Arms.

We didn’t do much on Friday except pop into the local Discovery Centre. I was a tad disappointed with it to be honest. Too geared up for infant/young junior school kids. Not enough ‘meat’ for the older/adult person.

Anyway, on Saturday we popped into Bridgnorth, Ian had never been and it had been at least 6 years since I last went. It was a lovely day and we had lunch at Peepos near the North Gate. I was also lucky enough to bump into my friends Matty and Sarah from Bridgnorth Bouncy Castles. They had some of their bouncy bits down in Severn Park.

Then on Sunday we popped over to the Stiperstones. It’s been years since I last went up there and Ian had never been at all.

You really don’t have to go far in Shropshire to see some stunning scenery.

   

I’m actually not sure which of the rock outcrops is the Devil’s Chair. I saw some Stone Chats too but couldn’t get a photo of them.

If you want to read a bit more about the Stiperstones click here

Technorati Tags: Stiperstones,Bridgnorth

Award Nomination

I have recently just learnt that my Soap Book publisher, How2Crafts, has just been nominated for an award. How cool is that. It’s in the Best Content Innovation section and you can read all about it here.

I have also just added two more recipes to compliment the recipes already in the book and they can be found here and here.

Stash Busting Challenge

Recently I challenged myself to make a few things using only scraps. I don’t have the time to make really big things so I aimed for small, achievable little projects. Here is something that I’m just about to finish, just got to sew the binding down. It’s from a Chook Shed pattern. I changed the colours and fabrics for a more soft and girlie look.

 

This is the original pattern and can still be ordered from Fiona Marie.

Here is a sneaky peak at my ‘work in progress’. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: patchwork,quilting

A Bit of This and That.

I can’t believe it’s nearly a month since I updated this blog although I have updated my Pink Poodle Quilts blog more recently if you’re interested in sewy things.

Spring has definitely sprung and everywhere is full of yellow daffodils and other spring flowers. The fruit trees are full of blossom too. I can’t wait for the longer days and warm sunshine.

And here’s a recent photo of my gorgeous little grand daughter Rhiannon. Is she cute or is she cute? She is soon to be joined by a little brother or sister.

Green Lanes

As some of my followers are aware my Other Half is really into Green Laning and Off Roading. The off roading bit done legally at proper Pay and Play sites.

Anyway, last weekend my OH, myself and a couple of other Green Lane enthusiasts, Shane and his lovely fiancée, Louise and their little boy came with us for a recce mission to Mid Wales to check out Strata Florida, Nant y Moch, Happy Valley and Soar y Muynydd. My OH is the area rep for the L200 Owner’s Group and is running a weekend away for them.

So, here are a few photos from our weekend away. :-)

 

This is the River Dovey and the Aberdovey Estuary.

The photos above were taken in Happy Valley and another lane on the way there.

Photos below are Nant y Moch

The pictures below are Strata Florida Abbey, we have driven past this many times but I’ve never been allowed to stop and look round it before.

Below, the famous ‘Bomb Hole’, Strata Florida

Below: Soar y Mynydd

Technorati Tags: Green Lanes,Strata Florida,Happy Valley,Nant y Moch,Soar y Mynydd,4x4,L200