Victorian Knitting Kit

I received the second of the Victorian Writers knitting kits last week.

This one is Little Women.

A lot of thought has gone into the planning of it  and for that I am grateful but I must admit I'm not going to make this pattern.  I like it but it isn't for me I'm afraid.  I just wouldn't wear it.  I will use the gorgeous yarn to make a nice scarf I think.

Yes that is cake in the little blue box.  I'm definitely going to make use of that.

Skywatch - 28th April 2011

In honour of tomorrows big event

 This one is a staged picture with the flag I bought my youngest son to wave tomorrow.  I say youngest because the older boys are not interested in the slightest little bit. 


This one I took this morning while I was walking past the town hall type thingy we have nearby.  It is on my phone so very rubbish.

and this one is a sneaky one I took while I was in town using the hipstamatic app on my iphone.  I felt rather stupid pointing my phone while it was very busy so I just held it as if I was texting and shot a few pics.  This is about the only one which was anything worth looking at and even then it had people on the bottom so I have cropped it.

The Day Is Almost Upon Us

Royal Wedding day that is.  If you haven't seen all the hype where the hell have you been lol

If you are hiding away from it all then I don't blame you.  There is big danger of overkill going on in the media circus.

However, it isn't every day or even every decade that a future king of England gets married (OK we will forget that Charles tied the knot with Camilla less than 10 years ago because that wasn't anything like this scale).

As a little girl I can remember bits of Princess Diana getting married from what we saw on TV and then the Duchess of York a short time later. 

So what do you think Kate's dress will be like?

I think it will be something very simple but with the WOW factor at the same time.  I don't think there will be miles of train following her. Maybe a couple of yards but nothing extravagant.

As for the bridesmaids I really don't know. Again I think it will be simple yet effective. 

Somebody has told me the bouquet is rumoured to contain lilac and wisteria so maybe a purple theme.

One thing that is more or less certain is that Prince William will be wearing his RAF uniform.

Will you be watching? Are you in another country and getting up early to watch it live?

Easter Sunday Walk By The River

Yesterday we went for a walk by the river.  I've put pictures on before of a bridge across the river but I'll be honest and say that I've not been up one particular side of it before.  It forks and we have only stayed on the other side of the fork before so this was a whole new walk seeing things we have never seen.

We decided to have a little try at something we haven't done before - geocaching.  Unfortunately for us when we found the place there were people around and apparently you aren't supposed to give away what you are doing so we left it for another time.  We are still geocache virgins lol

Lots of boating people were enjoying the sunshine.

Just one crop of bluebells so I couldn't resist a quick pic

The dog enjoyed his freedom.  We only took one.  The other is showing signs of coming into season (yet again).  I swear that girl must have the most seasons ever. The vet won't spay her until she has been three months clear of one because of increased chances of bleeding yet she doesn't go three months!

A few geese along the way

so back on the lead

plus there were some horses stood right in front of the gate we had to go through which was fun particularly as one which is hidden on the picture was facing the other way to the two you can see and as everybody knows you shouldn't walk behind a horse especially with a dog that could freak it.

At the other side of the gate was a little paddock with a couple of donkeys in. So cute.



take a look at their home - it is an upside down boat.

and then on the way home there was time for a play on the swings.

Skywatch 21st April

I took this picture whilst we were walking to a hospital appointment last week.  The hospital has recently moved into brand new purpose built premises which are all nice and sparkling and whilst lots of the old hospital buildings will be demolished at some point there are parts which are listed and have to stay.  I really hope this bell tower is part of the listed section but if not I photographed it for prosperity.

My son has had very regular orthodontic appointments for a long time (at least once a month most months for years) and in the old department the bell tower was one of the things we could see out of the waiting room window.  From the surgery window there were some very tall and I'm assuming very old trees which were mesmerising when they blew in the wind and I often watched them to while away the time waiting for a broken brace to be fixed or adjustment to be made.  Now the view is frosted so very very boring.

Happy Easter

A few days early but happy easter to everybody.

My son made an easter garden at school.  It is a fab way to get across the easter story to kids.  I am very surprised we managed to get the grass to grow but grow it has done (apart from the little bald patch) and he is very proud of it.

Work In Progress

Just a little post on this sunny Saturday afternoon with some work in progress piccies.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Skywatch

Very early on Saturday morning (430am to be exact) I took my son to school so he could catch a coach on an exciting journey to Paris.

I will be honest and say that when we gave him our camera to use with instructions to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower I wasn't expecting anything like this.  I am very impressed.

He also drove past the Arc de Triomphe (no idea if that is spelt correctly).  We drove past it ourselves a few years ago and the shots I got of it were absolutely rubbish in comparison to this shot he got through the coach window.

The Eastenders Cover We Have Been Waiting For

Finally the baby snatch story is uncovered. I was so pleased to see this TV mag cover in Sainsburys today. At last Kat and Alfie (ok and Michael) have their baby back and Ronnie is behind bars.

Eastenders is the one soap apart from Holby City that I watch religiously. I know that it is very sad for me to get excited about a fictional story.




Kerry

Shabby Chic

A friend mentioned on facebook that she had had an email saying something she had bought on Ebay had been cancelled by Ebay because the seller used the term shabby chic on the listing and apparently the trademark for the term is owned by somebody.

I thought it sounded like the totally ridiculous thing Ebay would do but was curious if it was actually the case or whether it was somebody just saying so.  Apparently shabby chic is  actually trademarked by somebody called Rachel Ashwell.  There is an Ebay page set up explaining all the ins and outs of it.

I don't know about you but I was totally unaware of it.  I thought it was just a term used to describe that particular style.  Lots of websites certainly seem to think so.  A simple google search brings up thousands if not millions of results.

It got me thinking about some of the shops and how they can use the term without this lady taking their ass to court and suing them for breach of trademark.  This one for example - Shabbychicshop.co.uk or Laura Ashley or Cath Kidston.  Even Prima had a range of flowers called Shabby Chic and I definitely used the term when I was selling them because that was their name. 

The photo I've chosen for this post comes from here. 

I want that mini tin bath type thing for my own yarn.

Then there is this blog.  I'm presuming that since she isn't selling anything then it is OK.

Before I leave it at that I also did an amazon search and it came up with over 27,000 results.  Surely not all those are made by Rachel Ashwell's company?

Royal Wedding Memorabilia

I've just watched a programme on memorabilia from Royal Family events and basically every item was worth hardly anything.    I can't speak for every UK citizen but I'm betting that most houses have at least one item from either the coronation, silver jubilee, golden jubilee or the last couple of Royal weddings.  We have a silver jubilee cup and saucer hidden away at the back of a cupboard.  What for though?  I can't answer that.  I really don't know.

I keep getting email updates from Cath Kidston about their range of Royal Wedding memorabilia.  It isn't actually that bad in comparison to some of the tacky rubbish out there.  I don't know if I will be parting with any money though.  Cath Kidston products and me are a love affair but pennies don't allow me to spend much.

This is quite nice from the official collection

and then of course there is this. Spot the mistake - could just be a publicity stunt though.

For those who didn't spot it - the picture is of Harry not William.

Yankee have joined the party too with a range of candles

There are mountains of other things out there.  A quick search on ebay or etsy brings up thousands of items. We even have a Royal Wedding badge in Guiding which I am quite looking forward to working on because it means a party. I haven't actually seen the badge yet but found this on ebay.  I'm liking it even though I'm not a fan of all the crown stuff like 'Keep Calm and Carry On etc'

Skywatch

One Year On

Today the prompt on Shimelle's Blogging For Scrapbookers course is absolutely perfect for me.  She wants us to think about how things have changed with us since a previous point in time.

Today marks the one year anniversary since work started on our loft conversion.  These posts from last year tell most of the story but I had already planned to do a one year on update so maybe it is fate that the prompt for today is so apt.

Originally I bought plain white bedding with just a hint of embellishment but recently I decided that it just wasn't practical with a 7 year old who loves to have his bedtime story under the skylight looking at the stars, clouds, sunset etc depending on the season and I fell in love with this Kirstie Allsopp Lydia set.  It was pricey but worth it.  My husband isn't so impressed with the floral aspect but ho hum TOUGH because I like it.

You will have to excuse my bed making skills to take this photo. My husband is so much better at it than me.

My favourite thing (after my new bedding) is this Laura Ashley door stop.

It is still a novelty to actually have a bedroom door as we didn't have one for a lot of years.

My least favourite part of the bedroom in the loft is the storage area the builders created for us.  It is handy but unsightly so behind the corner is the best place.

A lot of things happened after the work was finished not least that my husband was out of work for a short time and ended up taking a job that was less money than his previous one.  We are only just getting back on our feet after having to make a lot of financial adjustments so we still don't have a stair carpet and we still haven't decorated downstairs but that is another story.

Anyway this is the staircase as it is today which is no different from how it was the last time I showed you it after we had painted the walls apart from a lot of dust bunnies that I have no desire to hoover up right at the moment because I'm a bit lazy like that.

It also shows the opening into the whole purpose of the loft conversion which was to get one of the boys a room of his own.  The reasons for this are another story aswell.  He was originally supposed to have the loft room but after hearing the noise of the wind and rain during a bad storm while we were still decorating he decided he would have another room. 

This is the main staircase which I bitterly regret pulling up the carpet from.  At the time we thought we would be getting a new one within a matter of a couple of weeks but obviously that didn't happen.  This is the number one priority once we have saved enough as it is very old and splinters in feet are not pleasant.  Again lots of dust bunnies.

Now to the bottom of the stairs - we moved our bookcase temporarily but I actually quite like having it here.  It originally had a door which rattled in the wind which led straight into my horrible green coloured kitchen.  The kitchen is still that horrible shade but they built a little partition to comply with building regulations which I absolutely love.  It means I can shut off the stairs from the dogs and the house is warmer in the winter.  I've also added a cabinet to house my knitting and sewing stash which is spilling all over. Again it is a bit of a mess and the bookcase needs a good tidy up.

Finally another thing I absolutely love is this light.  It is in the little partition bit they built.  I bought it because I thought it would be a bit like a windchime when the back door was open but the ceiling is too high and the partition is too enclosed.  I still love it though.

Next step after the stair carpet which I have decided we will forego a holiday for is decorating downstairs.  Hopefully by this time next year lol

WIP Wednesday

This Wednesday I am showing you the progress on the Around The World shawl from the 2011 Kalendar Group on Ravelry.

This is up to the end of clue 3 (I think)

The instructions gave us a choice of nupps, beads or eyelets.  I chose beads for this section as I have some gorgeous czech ones in purple shades but put them in a slightly different formation to the directions.

To see more lovely works in progress please visit Tami

I also wanted to thank everybody for their kind words yesterday.  I learnt a lot from the comments I received. I tried to respond to each one but blogger doesn't always provide an email address to reply to so thank you everybody it made a difference.

Right I'm off now to compile another blog post (yes 2 in 1 day!).

The Confidence Drainer

I've decided that I'm no longer going to fool myself about my ability and all my future scrapping is for myself and my family, as it should be.  I've applied for several design teams lately and only one actually bothered to acknowledge my application. It was a no which I expected but I appreciate that email.

So......I won't really be showing much of my scrapbook work  in the near future.  There might be a few things such as my remaining Punky Scraps work and my shop blog but my confidence is at a deep low to put much into the public spotlight. I am also aware of a number of people I know in real life who are constantly taking the piss about what I put on here so less scrapbook pages will add less fuel. I'm not stupid and I will do as I always have done once I realised what was going on and stand up tall and ignore it.  If they are talking about me then they are leaving somebody else alone.  As the old saying used to go 'todays news is tomorrows chip wrappers' except they no longer use newspapers to wrap chips in anymore lol.

As for my confidence - well I'll pick it back up soon and move on with life.

Precocious Paper April Sampler

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a guest designer over at Precocious Paper and Tessa sent me this gorgeous package which was the April Sampler.

Here is what I did with the sampler.