An emotional end to the week (or thank goodness for knitting)

So Thursday ended up being a day of it.  My Grampy passed away in May last year, and Thursday would have been his birthday.  I took Granny and the girlies after school to his gravestone and we placed some lovely pink and yellow roses there.  I feel extremely lucky to have reached the age of 30 only having lost one grandparent, but his loss is felt greatly.

Later on Thursday evening I received a text message from a friend joking that she wasn't going to let me do any science practicals with her son (I tutor him) after what happened at the school I work at.  I didnt have the faintest idea of what she was talking about but quickly discovered there had been a fire, and a bad one at that.  I can't say much as there is now a criminal investigation taking place, but luckily no-one was hurt.  However "back to normal"  will not be happening for some time.  Everyone was quite emotional on Friday but there is huge community spirit and we will come out the other side.

Of course what does one do when silent contemplation and relaxation are needed - knit of course!  This week I have managed 28 loops on Miss Winkle, and almost finished my girlie no.2's bolero - but get this - I ran out of yarn with 14 rows to go!  I realised I had only bought enough for the short sleeve version not the long sleeve.  Never mind - hopefully the dye lots wont be too different when I get round to ordering another ball.

I have sort of begun my vegetable garden - meaning I have bought things but not done anything with them as yet!  The potato planter you can see in the pic below was a jumble sale find for £1 yesterday - I was well chuffed with that!  Still, seeds are ready, pots are ready, compost is ready so there is really no excuse to not get going.

Well, no excuse apart from my lovely collection of magazines and a nice hot cup of tea just made by my husband waiting for me!

Party! (and a KAL)

My youngest girlie turned 5 on Sunday, and to celebrate we had a circus party which was fantastic!  Thank you to Nick from Circusseen who was brilliant with the children.

After much discussion about the cake (which at one point was going to include both Batman and Barbie!)  I ended up making this masterpiece:

Quite obviously homemade but as my daughter described it as "the best cake in the whole world ever!"  I think I did ok!  I found the number 5 sparkler in Tesco which worked really well.

On a different note, I joined in with the Crafts from the Cwtch knit-a-long that started on saturday.  The pattern is called Miss Winkle and can be found on Ravelry here.  I am using 'Amitola' by Louisa Harding on 3mm needles.  I love, love, love the colour changes on this yarn it is just beautiful.  I cant wait to finish it and start wearing it!  When I have finished it however I really must finish all the other projects sitting in my basket!

Anyone that is into knitting really should join in with this project it is so relaxing just knitting away in front of the tv now that the repeating pattern is firmly wedged in my head!  

Garden colour

I was late picking the girls up from school today as I forgot I didn't have the car seats in my car (oops!) so I had to pop home again to grab them.  To make up for it I took them to the garden centre on the way home for icecream.  While there I may have accidently bought a four tier greenhouse thingy and some vegetable seeds . . . (money diet fail!)

We spent the weekend gardening, both at the girl's school and at home, and although our garden has a long way to go (having only been here since july last year) daffodils have sprung up everywhere which is great because I LOVE daffodils!  They are my absolute favourite flower ever in the whole entire world.

Daffs outside and . . . 

daffs inside!

We did get some primroses to add some more colour to cheer us up while we are working out there, and I popped them in a small border around the patio that I cleared of ivy (for the record - I hate ivy with a passion I do not understand why people purposely buy it).

I have so many plans for the garden in my head and I am adding to pinterest all the time ideas that will probably never materialise, but I am determined to grow veg to eat in the vain hope the girlies may actually eat some!  Some of my favourites are shown below (sources on my garden pinboard).

Messing about

Oh.  My.  Gosh.  It has just taken me FOREVER to redesign this blog.  I am however happy with it now so should actually start posting!  The sun has finally come out and with it oodles of inspiration that I am desperate to record so I dont forget it all.  However it is now late and so that will all have to wait until tomorrow.  I was reading through my resolutions and I am happy to report that family time is happening!  We have started to go for a walk on a Sunday and they have just been fabulous.  It has been so muddy we  have had endless squelchy fun.

As for the other resolutions . . . well one at a time dont you think?