It's all about darcy.

Darcy 12 weeks old

It's like having a new baby, 4 feeds a day, late nights, early mornings and lots of crying.

Darcy has been part of our family for a little over two weeks now and she's fitting in just fine.

The children love her, and shes great company for me during the day.

Crying, yes she crys when the children are getting ready for school she runs around taking their shoes and putting them into her bed. Then she sits by the door and crys lol.

We just can't wait to take her out for a walk, shes had her first lot of injections and gets the next lot this Thursday, then we have to wait a week before shes safe to go out walking but it couldn't be better timing as the children break up for half term on that special day.

So I guess half term week will be walking week.

FNSI

So I joined in with a whole bunch of other people last night and had a cosy night in sewing.

It was just me and the little lady.

 

I spent the day cleaning, tidying and getting the kids over night bags ready for their weekend with their dad.

I spent a little time choosing the right project.

I bought myself this cross stitch for my 40th birthday.

However it got packed with all my crafting projects for the move and it never got taken out of the packet until yesterday.

I thought this would be the perfect FNSI project then I may actually get it finish.

So from now on every Friday night I will endeavour to work on my cross stitch.

So its out of the packet and started.

The books in the photo arrived on Thursday morning and as much as I desperately wanted to take a look then and there I used every last bit of self control not to because when it comes to new craft books you need to take your time to enjoy every inspiring project and take your time choosing which projects will go on your to do list and which one will be first.

Do you like my slippers? The kids gave them to me for Christmas

Something a little sweet

Now did I say it was a cosy night in, well my little lady likes to sit outside in the cold but she likes to be able to see me too so for a good part of the evening I had the back door open for her. It's lucky it's not real cold out.

She's a beautiful girl!

2012 A year for Challenage

So this year is going to be the year I challenge myself , nothing to big but challenging all the same.
To start with I have joined a few blog challenges not sure if that's what they really are but they will be for me if I'm going to keep them up.


First up

I've  joined Kathy and many others on this years photo scavenger hunt. Each month Kathy gives us a list of 12 words for are own interpretation and we have to take a photo for each one. I joined this one because I want to get more use from my camera. I took AS photography back 17 years ago when I was living in Cornwall, I never went anywhere without my camera. Then when I had the children the camera was always within an arms reach so I could catch all those little moments. However since they have all gone off to school the camera seems to come out less and less. We always seem to be rushing out the door and the camera gets left behind but I pledge to take it with me at every opportunity and take at least 12 photo's for this challenge.

OK so this is a good one because at the end of the year I will have 12, hopefully more gifts for Christmas. Every year I promise I'm going to make more gift items for Christmas then two weeks before I end up buying every ones presents. Not this year.

Here's present number one Looby Lou. There is a little girl who I know will love this knitted dolly.

And next

Hopefully this year will be a handmade year all round so not only am I going to make Christmas presents but I would like to have a little selection of birthday gifts so if and when the children are invited to party's I'll have a little special something for them to give to their friends. Sharing my makes and being inspired by all the lovely things that the other bloggers who are pledging to a monthly make in 2012 should help keep me on track.

Meet bunny he's the first to go into the gift box

(Just need to find a nice box)

Next

However this isn't so much a challenge as a cosy night in.

It will be like having a bunch of friends over to enjoy a night of sewing, a good chick flick, chocolate and a cuppa or something a little stronger if you want.

All you have to do is stay in and sew, enjoy the evening and then blog about it on Saturday how simple is that.

I spend most Friday nights in on my own as the children go to their dads sat watching a good film, with chocolate and a cuppa all I need to add is a bit of sewing and that really is no hardship.

So there you have it my blog challenges.

There is a whole bunch of other things may be plans rather than challenges I'll blog about these later right now I have one little challenge sat at my feet waiting for her dinner.

Butter wouldn't melt Hmm really!

Oh yes and if your wondering i've changed the name of my blog AGAIN but a change is as good as a rest isn't it.

A week !

Oh wow what a wonderful week I have had but oh how time has flown by.

Monday I went to Yeovil (not my favourite place in the world) but needs must and I had to buy some new clothes for Tallon for our trip to London. Why do children grow so fast?
Then on the way home I popped into see mum and dad, this is something I promised myself I would do more of this year. My realationship with my parents has been shall we say a little (or a lot) strained over the past 15 years. I wish I could say that I had a wonderful mother daughter realationship but I don't. When I read stories here in blog land about you all going round your mums for coffee or going shopping, crafting together. How your mum has passed her love of crafts on to you I feel a small pang of jealousy. I'm really not sure where I get my love of crafting from but it's not my mum. I have three sisters too and I don't see much of them either. Anyway I digress.

So Tuesday was the big trip to London which was AMAZING. The ballet was beautiful,  I didn't know what to expect as this was my first expirence of a ballet and although I  know the story of Romeo and Juliet I didn't know how easy I would find it to follow without words but the music and dance were so powerful that there was no need for words. I wish I could write in words how it made me feel but I just don't know how to explain it in words, may be there are no words.

I spent Wednesday getting myself organised for the school PTA meeting that night. Back in October at the AGM I put myself forward for Chairperson there wasn't many people there and no one else wanted to do the job. Now I do joke and say oh know what have I got myself into but I think I'm going to enjoy the position really. There are some parts of the job that aren't so good paper work and official stuff like making sure we have the right licences for any events we have. However with this year being the Queens Diamond Jubilee we have started to make some big plans for the last day of term. I'll share more about this when it starts coming together a little bit more.

Thursday and Friday was spent getting ready for the new family member who we collected on Saturday.

Say hello to

DARCY

My baby girl.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Restless

Today I've achieved nothing, well nothing I have anything to show for it. I'm in a right old mess, restless and fidgety the first day of the year that I have felt a little out of control.
Am I mad it sure feels like it. I wish time would just stop or at least slow down for a while so I could  catch my breath.
I can't stay focused on one subject long enough to get it down on paper.My thoughts are jumping around in my mind like little bunnies playing in a field. I've so much I wish to write about, I've been scribbling for hours but none of  it makes sense its all jumbled up. Ballet,crafting, family, decorating I can't get it to all fit together.
I write, I edit and rewrite I want it to be perfect. I'd like people to stay and read and enjoy it so they come back. If only the words would flow like a running water from a tap smoothly and controlled.
I think I will have to leave it for today.

How do you all do it, write your blog post. Do they take days of writing and editing, have you got post all lined up reading to go live or do they just happen you sit there and the words just fill the page without much thought?

I will just leave you with this picture of  The Romeo and Juliet Ballet .

Back at Christmas Tallon's school did a concert and the music teacher mention that she had been able to get a few seats for Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Theatre in London. I asked Tallon if he would like to go, OK so I helped a little in convincing him it would be a great experience. When he said yes I went to his teacher I told her that he would like to go and if she needed a parent helper I could be persuaded to go. She said they were always short of helpers and she would be very grateful if I could spare the time to go with them. I thought about it for a millisecond and said yes. We off on Tuesday and I am very excited about it.

January 2nd 2012

So its here, a wondrous new year, a new beginning, a new chapter in life waiting to be written, cherished memories to be made. Three hundred and sixty five bright mornings and starlit evenings. Fifty two promising weeks, twelve transformative months full of beautiful possibilities and four splendid seasons to enjoy.

Ok so I am being very optimistic and that's not like me at all but I was proved so wrong last year, the year started so bad and yet it just got better and better as the weeks and months past and it ended very well indeed.

The gang arrived home Saturday early afternoon and although I wasn't totally convinced I wanted them back after having such a peaceful, productive and restful few days it really didn't take long before it felt like they hadn't been away, in a good way though. Ok so the fact that the washing basket seemed to be over flowing within five minutes, and there was clutter all over the place once again and it didn't take long before the children were bickering isn't some of the good points about their return but the house was full of chatter and laughter again and I was surprised at how much I really had missed all of them.

I can't remember the last time we went out for New years eve not sure when we last stayed up late enough to actually see the new year in either but this year was very different. We all got into our pyjama's after tea for a cosy night in playing games.  It was so lovely to see them all play so well together and no bad losers. Not sure when it happened but my children have all grown up. We had a game of charades, my Very Hungry Caterpillar went down very well with a vast amount of laughing and watching Flynn act out the Gruffalo was a sight I will never forget he could be destined for the stage. Then we had a game of scabs and guts a very delightful game learning has never been such yucky fun of course they loved this new game Flynn received for Christmas. We also played a couple of card games which bought back memories of my childhood new years eve's with my parents. Then before the children went to bed it was outside for some sparkler fun.

The Gruffalo's knobbly knees

Lily's poker (pontoon) face

Tallon's poker (pontoon) face

Sparkler fun

After a rather lazy start to the new year I prepared a chicken casserole, popped it into the slow cooker and off we set for a new years day walk. We are so lucky to live so close to such a beautiful Estate as Stourhead, the gardens are delightful but there are also lovely woodland walks to enjoy We didn't manage the three or four hours we were hoping as the rain started coming down rather heavily and although we are not normally worried about the rain on this occasion we were quite happy to return to our cosy little home, being welcomed by the smell of a lovely meal being cooked without to much hard work and enjoying the last few hours together relaxing, eating the last few chocolates, and watching the telly.

Happy to be out and about. (taken before the rain)

Happy New Year!

January 1st 2012

Happiness depends upon your outlook on life.

Attitude is just as important as ability.

Passion find yours this year!

Positive thoughts make everything easier.

You are unique, with special gifts, use them

New beginnings with a new year.

Enthusiasm a true secret of success

Wishes may they turn into goals

Years go by to quickly, enjoy them.

Energy may you have lots of it

Apperciate life don't take it for granted

Relax take time to smell the flowers this year.

A good friend of mine sent me a card wishing me a happy New Year and this little poem was inside I wanted to share it with you all. It just sums up how I feel about this year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL

X