A Heart Hug :)

Apart from an 'accidental' fabric purchase and an 'oops just clicked the add to my cart button' book purchase (neither of which arrived!) I was not expecting anything in the post today.

Therefore, this came as a lovely surprise!



Inside were some gorgeous goodies from my lovely bloggy friend Julie.

A great card featuring one of her husband's photos - isn't that a fab picture?

Julie had written me a very lovely message inside and I have to say I got a tear in my eye at her beautiful words of friendship.

Julie sent me a 'Heart Hug' and I absolutely love it. My photo does not do it justice as the colours and textures really sing - beautiful! I will be framing this :)

As I said to Julie when I emailed her just now, one of the reasons I love crafty bloggers so much is that they are such genuinely kind and thoughtful people - something that seems at times to be sadly lacking in 'real life'!

Thank you so much Julie! Your beautiful gesture of friendship really did make my day :)

As I've been working today I have not been up to crafty stuff.

I did do a little something last night though.....


This is the large Matryoshka doll from here. She turned out middle sized as the wool I used was finer than that stated on the pattern. She may end up without her two smaller friends as I'm not sure I could crochet anything so teeny!

The children have now finished school for the half-term holiday. They have the next 11 days off. Minx is already planning some crafty projects with her Mum!

Her teacher's birthday is on 2nd June and Minx (who adores her teacher!) has designed a stitchery, which she has already started. Apparently I am required to turn it into a cushion at some point!!!


As the children are now on holiday and so am I - about time too! I've had to work for five whole weeks y'know!! - I have decided to take a blog break. I want to spend time with them and just chill out.

I plan to be back in a week or so refreshed and full of crafty inspiration.

Have fun - but not too much or I'll feel left out!!!



If only - I never get left alone to find out just how long I can sleep for any more!


Hugs to all you lovely bloggers xxxxxxxx

Gorgeous swap parcel!

I got back from a meeting at lunchtime to find something rather exciting in my post box.

My 'Lucy Locket's Mini-Quilt Swap' parcel from the very lovely and extremely talented Kajsa over at Syko.
I've loved the beautiful things Kajsa makes for quite some time now and was excited, to say the very least, when she was drawn as my swap partner!



Oddly enough, I was on the phone to Lucy Locket as I opened it and she shared in the excitement :)

My mini-quilt is so fab - I adore the colours and I love everything about it - especially the fact that it includes one of Kajsa's wonderful birds...and that cute house....and the gorgeous tree!!



The reverse is beautiful too - with a fab machine stitched label.

As if that was not enough Kajsa also sent me some beautiful fabrics and ribbons! As soon as I get a precious day off to myself I will be playing with them!


We're not finished yet! Kajsa also included two of her fab cards. I've admired these for ages!

Thank you so much Kajsa - it has been lovely to swap with you :)


Pop over to Kajsa's blog today - she's just had her next lot of beautiful cards delivered - I'm off there now to drool over them!


I'll leave you with this thought:



...wish someone would!!!!

xxxxxxx

Huh - part timers.....

My new job has been going really well and I'm really enjoying it. I was finding, however, that I was doing much more than the 22.5 hours a week that I'm paid for - one of the penalties of working from home. That's not so bad in itself but I felt that home life and maybe more importantly crafty time was suffering!

I realised last week that I had an option.

When I took the job we agreed that I'd start off by working 4.5 hours every day. In reality this soon became 6+ a day. We also agreed that this was open to review once my initial training was over.

Today I took the bull by the horns and asked if I could change my working week.

So, from now on I'll be working four days instead of five and having a whole day off during the week - and it's all mine!!!!! My poor neglected sewing machine may see the light of day once more!

Although it's not a drastic change it will make such a difference to how I feel about going back to work :)


The naughty Sausage Monster was full of cold this weekend, with a very sore little nose :( To make him feel a bit better I sat and crocheted him a friend while he sat and sniffed.

This is a great free pattern from here. His feet were sort of cobbled together as I lost my way with the pattern - he still stands unaided though!

Sausage did give him a name but I can't for the life of me remember what it is!


I've also joined in with The Toadstool Swap at Lucykate Crafts which I'm really looking forward to. I need a little handsewing project to do as we're going camping very soon and I need something crafty to keep me sane while we're sheltering from the rain!!

Big hi to my swap partner Dyan - all the way from Jamaica :)


I'm off now for a bit of a lurk and then it's beddy byes for me.....



xxxxx

A new obsession...

I ordered myself a new book a week or two back and it arrived today :

I've been wanting to try amigurumi crochet for ages now.

I love these little guys :)

Lucy has been doing some too after a real life tutorial from Clare recently.

Lucy sent me a link to this great etsy shop - where I purchased a couple of patterns for a baby seal and some gorgeous Matryoshka dolls.

Last night the boys went to watch some old timers play football and once Minx was in bed I got cracking.

By the time the boys got back , Sammy the Seal was ready to meet them. Minx found him waiting next to her bed this morning :)

Lucy has been nagging constantly asking for a photo of him - so here he is...

Wait a minute.....someone's lurking.....

....trying to get into the picture.......

.......shamelessly trying to hog the limelight.....

.....trying out the cute baby seal pose......

Awww - quite a good attempt at cute Ruby :)

(If you fancy having a go at amigurumi there are loads of links to free patterns here)

In other crafty news I've needlefelted another tortoise (as you do!!).

This little guy is for my sister-in-law's birthday....his friend from a few posts ago accidentally jumped into a parcel that got sent to the Locket woman!

.....oh maaaaan - here she goes again!

What the......


Ok.... I give in.....hello Ruby.....

......euwwww Ruby, you manky monkee, where on Earth has your eye been? What is that?

Don't worry folks. Further investigation revealed it is in fact some chocolate she was saving for later!

Here's a little something for the weekend:

Thanks to my friend Helen for sending me a load of these in an email today - lots of blog fodder!!

I have a meeting at work on Monday, after which I hope to have some good news about a little change that could give me more time for crafting....and blogging of course!

Got a rather nice crisp white chilling in the emergency wine chiller freezer to celebrate the fact that it's Friday :)

Happy hooking!

xxxxxx

Funny ha ha or funny peculiar?

I've had an award!!!

I've hardly been here lately......but I've had an award!!

The very lovely Louise has given me this fabulous award dahling....because I make her laugh!

Thank you so much Louise - getting the award from you really made my day :)



I haven't felt like a bundle of laughs lately but, lucky for me, Ruby Monkee helped to cheer things up last week!

In the true nature of the Blog Awards thing I would like to pass this award on to a few barmy bloggers who make me laugh on a very regular basis:

Lucy Locket - no surprises there then ;) - however, this woman not only causes me to chuckle 'en blog' but also in real life, on the phone nearly every day! I'm not going to harp on about what a crubbish year I had since Mum died but I really feel it would have been much tougher had the lovely Mrs Locket not been there to make me chortle - cheers Lucy :)

Trashy - for her hilltop antipodean rantings and for her sterling work in promoting the work of her A.R.S.E.....and for being a rather lovely and very funny hooman bean :)

Monkee Maker - this woman has done so much for the world in bringing very funny primates made of knit to our attention and for cheering up the dullest of days. Although officially on a blogrest right now, I still felt an award was wholly justified :)

Vicious Chicken - nobody that young should be that funny but she is and as such deserves an award. And she makes great Brussels Sprout Christmas cards :)

Blimey, it reads like the 'Usual Suspects' doesn't it?!!

'Blog incest' alive and well in Moogsville :)

Talking of incest......one of the places I cover for work is, apparently/allegedly, one of the UK 'hotspots' for incest......nice :)

I won't go on.....don't want to do anything in bad taste! I was going to but then erred on the side of caution!!!!

To make sure I end on a funny note (feeling the pressure to amuse now!!!) here's something that Monkee Maker, in particular, might like :)

Sporadic...moi?

Before I start wittering on (and on and...) I'm pleased to report that Ruby is back from her 'World Tour', in fine fettle - albeit a little tired. No photos of her to prove it I'm afraid - as I'm being crubbish with the camera! (We truly appreciate all your fabulous comments but Ruby and I are being far too pants to reply to them - sorry :( )

I'm a wee bit scared about where on this Earth the time is going!

Tomorrow starts week four in my new job. (Not sure where 1,2 and 3 have gone!!).

Blogging has become ad hoc to say the very least! Reading everyone else's blogs has become even more hit and miss and as for actually doing or making anything creative - forget it buster - creative drought going on here in Moogsville!!

Things sort of got to me a bit this weekend (didn't they Locket?!!!). We had the in-laws down and I may not have been the most gracious of hostesses....

......mainly 'cos I'm utterly knackered and would rather blog/craft/eat my own feet than entertain anyone at the weekends right now....not that much entertaining went on!!!!

Lucky for them that they had to be elsewhere today and Moogsdad took charge and decided we needed a fambley day out at the beach :)

So, after unceremoniously shoving his parents out of the door and me and the little beasties into the car, he drove us to Hengistbury Head near Bournemouth (via Waitrose for posh and bizarrely healthy picnic nosh).

There are times - very rarely of course - when the man himself is right.

A day on the beach with the little bubbs was just what I needed.

The Moog of course was a bloody idiot as usual. Desperate to go in the sea. Too scared to go in with Moogsdad as she couldn't understand where his legs had gone and too much of a girl's blouse to go in on her own.

Eventually she got in there and cooled down so much she was shivering - idiot!




Moog, in case you didn't know, is our lovely old border collie - 13 this year!! - thinks she's a puppy but is actually a cantankerous old b*tch.

She's unaware of her canine genes and thinks she's a hoooman just like us - only a much more grumpy one where other dogs are concerned.

Having said that, she was quite the lady on the beach today. Not the barking, pooing, spraying everyone with sand, following their owner into the ladies' toilets (yup, this happened - big black dog joined the queue with his mistress and even sniffed under the door while she wee'd!!!!!! - while the others in the queue went 'awwww, how sweet!! [WTF!!!!!!])) sort of dog that we witnessed at Hengistbury today.

Told you I'd witter didn't I?

Ha!

Tough - I'm catching up here!!!

So, we had a loverley day on the beach and have all come back feeling relaxed and refreshed.

In other news......

.....I've been spending my wages......


....on these for Moogsdad:


...and this for me:


So......you can expect lots of chickeny, greeny stuff from here on in!



You have been warned :)


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Monkees can't navigate but at least Cedric saved the day!

I should have known yesterday that Ruby's mission to rescue 007 would not go according to plan!

As predicted she did end up on the Isle of Wight - in the very picturesque village of Godshill, as it happens.


After asking a policeman they found their way back to the mainland and, eventually, onto the M4 - albeit the wrong bit of the M4 and, scarily, in the opposite direction to the rest of the traffic!!!


After causing several near misses, and a possible trucker's heart attack, Ruby and PG1 were finally headed the right way - due west.

They made it as far as the M5 interchange at Bristol.

They were nearly there.

Somehow something went slightly wrong with Ruby's satnav (PG1 as he's known to his friends. A monkee of very little brain who can't read a map for toffee - especially when going at speed in an open top armoured personnel vehicle).

I have a feeling they may have turned right instead of left.

Next stop Liverpool.


Another look at the map (later found to be upside down) got them back on the road......

.......headed due north.....ahem......to Scotland.


Ruby was getting very tired by this point - she had, after all, been driving a heavily laden vehicle for several frustrating hours.

Therefore, she may not have been listening properly when PG1 said 'We need to come off at the third exit.'

She thought he said first - oops!

By this time they knew they were well and truly lost.....

.......and more than a little bit lost.....an awfully big bit scared too!

Do polar bears eat monkees made of knit?


Ruby wasn't waiting around to find out and stuck the pedal to the metal baby - they were out of here!!

Unbelievably the saga doesn't stop there!

She drove so fast.....hitting mach 3.....and of course missed every turn off to Brizzle.....ending up somewhere rather lovely and romantic as it happens :)




This seemed a good time for a rest. Ruby and PG1 were incommunicado for several hours en France.....?????

Satellite links were restored early this morning, by which time 007 was already safe and sound, cooling his achey bits, after a dramatic rescue by everybody's favourite superhero Cedric Splatt!!

It's so fantastic that 007 is back, safe and sound - if a little bruised and high-pitched..... although, the perps are still very much at large!!

Ruby is still trying to find her way home......

......having just realised the cause of the navigational difficulties.....PG1 has been pointing left the whole time......which doesn't exactly explain that right turn that got them to the home of the Beetles.....stick with me folks......we're nearly there....

A quick stop in paradise....

.....and some amphibious exploration......

....... last I heard they were once more heading north and may be home sometime tomorrow.....

Ruby on a mission!

Ruby got the call this morning.

007 is in the gravest of danger.



Although initially shocked.....


...our brave heroine knew that duty called.


She must mount a rescue mission....and fast!

She planned her perilous journey....


She gathered the essentials for dealing with hostage situations....


Whistle....to warn fellow agents - check
Action Man Laser shooter gun thing - check
Plastic revolver - check
Magnifying glass to look for clues - check
Telescope - check
Spy tool thing - check
Crocodile clip/tingling bell torture implement thing - check
Mini Light Sabre - check
Laser proof glasses - check
Rope for tying up baddies or abseiling down buildings - check
PG1 - special agent assistant level 1 - check


Now - how to get there?


Motorbike?

Nowhere to put all the kit.

Vicious and scary T-Rex?

Bristol is a long way y'know?! Rexy would tire very quickly without fresh meat.

Bat car?

Too complicated to work ....and a bit on the small size.

The Weasley family Ford Anglia?

Too slow...and inclined to crash into huge willow trees and forests full of spiders!

Aha - Ruby's trusty jeep with it's 3 inch thick steel bodywork and V12 nitrous injection engine - this is just the job!

Within moments Ruby and PG1 are packed...

Good luck Ruby.....

..... stay safe and give those bad guys the full force of your Monkee Power!

oops - she appears to be heading due South! I hope she takes a sharp right turn soon or she'll end up very confused on the Isle of Wight!!!!