Friday, June 25, 2010

'You're a drunk ....and a wh*re and an unfit mother...'

After doing my motherly duties for the day i.e. taking the naughty ones to the school fair and sewing them each a water bottle carrier ready for a long, hot day trip with Cubs tomorrow, I decided I'd earned a little reward.

I asked that naughty Minx to kindly bring me the bottle of wine from the fridge.

This is what I got:



She has style, my girl.

Either that or a great future as a cocktail waitress * :o)

xxx

* ETA - or both -they're not mutually exclusive, of course!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Tick


WIP no1 in Just-finish-it June - done.

Two more to go.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Knit news

Normal knitting service has resumed. I think my knit-free holiday did me good.

This little project has been pending for months. Ever since a dear friend asked me to knit her a tea cosy in fact. I got a baaaad case of Knitter's Block with this one.

Luckily, her fast approaching birthday kicked my knitting mojo into gear.



Then there was the Stashbasket and Moogsmum June sock to attend to. At one point I doubted my ability to even cast these on as it all felt like too much effort.

Then I realised, this was meant to be fun!

Believe me, these Rhodie Gus socks are an absolute joy to knit. Deceptively simple but with enough going on to keep a knitter interested. Mine are also rather large thanks to going up a needle size. I'm happy with this though, as I like to allow for a little shrinkage.



I did cables!!



Naturally, I now have an overwhelming urge to cast on a brand new project.

Unnaturally, I've made the somewhat uncharacteristic decision to finish some current WIPs.



So, as far as I'm concerned, the remainder of the month is to be know as Just-finish-it June.

Anyone care to join me?

xxx

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Alchemy

I do love it when a little kitchen experiment goes according to plan.



Unlike a recent dismally failed attempt at creating a sourdough starter, the latest bit of kitchen chemistry is a resounding success.



Homemade yogurt.



Using just a few basic ingredients and a food flask, I have created white gold - creamy, smooth and sweet white gold.

For the curious among you, I opted for skimmed milk (just under a litre), a heaped dessert-spoon of skimmed milk powder and a tablespoon of Yeo Valley Probiotic natural yogurt.

Yum xxx

Saturday, June 12, 2010

It's a hard life.....



......and it just keeps getting harder.....



I do hope you're having a more restful weekend than me :o)
xxx
p.s. I'm NOT being lazy - Mr Moog is indoors watching the footie and I just cannot cope with the noise of the vuvuzelas!!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Doings

I can barely believe it's four weeks since I last posted. My blogging mojo isn't what it used to be but I seem to get there in the end.

The past few weeks seem to have been busy busy busy. I had a very busy half term at work and there was no let up at weekends either.

We were ready for a holiday and the half term break was just what we needed. While Moog went to m-i-l's for a break, Mr Moog, Monster, Minx and I packed up the car and headed off for a glorious week's camping in Wales.

Our first stop was near Chepstow for a wonderful few days of camping with family - my brother, s-i-l and littlest niece (a very grown up 13!) and my cousins and their children from Mum's side of the family.

Mum's brother and two sisters also came along and it was so precious to spend time with them all - especially as it was exactly three years since Mum passed away (on 31st) and we all got to be together and talk about her. The general consensus was that we all miss her more than ever and are still very cross with her for going off and leaving us far too soon.

After several days of camping in a big group on a very busy but very basic and very slopey site overlooking the beautiful Wye valley, family Moog packed up the tent (in pouring rain) and went deeper into Wales to our favourite campsite.

A total contrast to the first site, we were nestling amid the trees in a flat valley bottom, with glorious sunshine the whole time we were there......and managed to do the laundry and have clean, hot showers every day!

Although missing the chat and fun of big group camping, we did chill out and relax more than we ever have on a camping holiday before. Thanks to the fantastic weather we spent days sitting outside reading, chatting and playing - none of the driving miles trying to find something to do in the rain that we have had in the past.

Whilst there we caught up with very dear friends - my friends of 20 years standing, who came to visit us en camp and Mr Moog's friends of many years who we stayed with on our last night. Both friends have children of similar age to our own and they all got on brilliantly, whilst their parents got slowly sozzled on rather a shocking amount of wine!

On the drive home over the Severn bridge we concluded that this was without a doubt the very best holiday we have ever had.....no doubt helped by the fact that for the first time ever I actually slept well every night whilst camping :o)

You may well be thinking that nine days away camping would have seen an awful lot of knitting being done. I took four knitting projects with me - one Baktus scarf and three different socks.

Shockingly I knitted four rows of the scarf and not one stitch more.

In fact, this is the first proper knitting I have done for nearly two weeks!



The first pattern repeat of Rhodie Gus - the June sock for the Stashbasket and Moogsmum sock challenge. I cast on last night and so far I love this pattern - even the fiddly cabley bit. I'm using some Blue-faced Leicester sock wool that I hand-dyed......couldn't face using any of my posh stuff in case I didn't like the pattern!

If it works out I may end up doing another pair in something more delicious.

Crochet has taken a temporary back seat. After doing 9 ten inch Granny squares in four days I had to give my poor aching hands a rest.

Luckily, I can foresee a whole lot of knitting and hooking this weekend as the little beasties are heading off for a whole weekend away at Cub's camp......of course, I'll miss them dreadfully but will just about manage to console myself with some yarny doings ;o)

xxx