Something rather exciting......................

.....................happened yesterday at work.

At least, I thought it was exciting,

especially in the context of my usual days full of emails and admin.

But more of that later!

First I need to tell you about my lovely lovely friend Anna
(who I'm sure is probably your lovely lovely friend Anna too seeing as she really is so super lovely)

(picture pinched from Anna's blog - hope you don't mind Anna?!)

because we received a gorgeous and totally unexpected parcel of goodies from her on Saturday!


To say that the children were ecstatic is a bit of an understatement!

And the funny thing is that I was actually out in the sewing room when the parcel arrived, cutting the gorgeous Christmas fabrics that Anna gave me LAST October when we met up in Edinburgh!

I'm using this tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts to turn these strips

into a zigzag quilt for Christmas - and I'm loving it, even if the photos are awful!

So Anna, THANK YOU..............

for our halloween goodies

my gorgeous fabrics

and especially for being such a lovely friend!

Please come and visit the UK again soon!


Now, back to my other exciting happenings.........................

................I was busy at work yesterday when one of the students on the MA that I am programme secretary for called at the office.

We happened to get chatting and somehow it came out that we were both crafty/sew-y/knitty types.........................

and then she pulled her sock knitting out of her bag and said "this is the Mystery Sock I am doing at the moment"

So I said "Oooooh! Is it by Through the Loops? My friend is doing that pattern."

And do you know what?

It was!

And we had a lovely time chatting about patterns and woolshops and Ravelry etc with me looking over my shoulder to check I wasn't going to be called back to my desk!!!

Now I know that in the great scheme of things that isn't really all that exciting.

But it was to ME,

and to have my two worlds of YAY-crafting and Oh-but-do-I-HAVE-to-working overlap like that was truly fab!

The only problem was that I REALLY didn't want to go back to work afterwards!

So M, if you do happen to look at my blog, thanks for improving my day dramatically yesterday!


Finally, after all that chat, I will leave you with some photos of my latest knitting

A Kaffe Fassett pattern called, for some weird reason, Tainted Scarf, knitted first in a fairly chunky wool - um, Venezia I think


and then in the most gorgeous 4 ply sock wool


(handwash only, which is why I'm not knitting socks with it!)

What a helpful little chap!

So there I was,

sitting peacefully watching a film with Poorly Daisy

whilst knitting my new scarf,

when I was RUDELY interrupted by a cheeky little wabbit!Hmmm.

Alice in Wonderland clearly wasn't keeping Alfie's attention!


so he did a few poses for the camera

(is it just me, or does he look like he's sticking his tongue out at me in that last one?)
and ran round his play-pen thingummy like a loony!

But despite these distractions the scarf was finished..............

Noro Blossom with a Kidsilk Haze ruffle...........
and very difficult to photograph as it is actually an elongated triangle - almost shawl shaped

and modelled by Poorly Daisy just before we went to fetch Fred from school.

Ahhh! I love it when I finish something!

Does it make me Happy????

Oh yes it does!

A post about lots of things that have made me happy lately!

Gorgeous presents in the post:


beautiful pink bunting from Katie's pink shed to mine - as she said on the label, "you can never have too much pink!" She also sent loads of fabric and crafty goodies!


a gorgeous cotton reel pincushion commissioned by Trashy from LucyKate

and personalised specially for me!!!

and a fabulous seaside purse from Missus Moogs because she knew how much I coveted the one she had made for her partner in the seaside swap.


It's the perfect size for my sock knitting


and is extra special because there was a very scary time when I really thought it had been accidentally thrown in the bin!

I searched the house for it, shouted at everyone to um, encourage them to look for it too, and, after a traumatic weekend turning the house upside down, eventually had to ring Missus Moogs to confess that it had gone missing.

So I think you can probably imagine my ecstatic relief when I found it about 2 weeks later! I squealed very loudly down the phone to MM and I think she was rather pleased that her kind birthday present to me hadn't actually ended up in the bin!

The other thing making me very happy is, of course, young Alfie McAlfie!


He's really becoming part of the family and spends most evenings in the sitting room with us.




Totally fab!

Although I have to confess that he bit Daisy's finger this evening :o(
she wasn't very happy about that! Hopefully he won't be doing it again!!!

Pink Day

Daisy and Fred on their way to school this morning

raising money for breast cancer research with their customised t-shirts!

Another baby Locket!

Did that get your attention???



Ok, so it's not a real human baby................


.....but a baby Locket nonetheless.


A snuggly little bunny baby.


He's meant to be a pet for the children, but we all know and accept that he is actually a substitute baby for me seeing as I'm not going to be having any more!!


He is a 10 week old mini-lop and his name is Alfie and he is adorable!

We brought him home today and we are all totally smitten.

And we are rather pleased with our new hutch too.

It used to be our hen house that clever Malcolm Powder built out of our old kitchen table (upside down) and the children's blue IKEA toddler bed.

(seen here about 3-4 summers ago!)

Once we'd scrubbed it clean,


Malcolm Powder came back and converted it into a bunny palace


and he even managed to re-use the hen's nest box by moving it round to the other side

so that Alfie can now go through the old window into a lovely hay-filled hidey-hole.


It's already his favourite spot.

And this is ours


sitting watching him explore!
(but please don't look too closely at our garden wall - we painted it blue last summer - and half an hour later it poured with rain and washed all the paint off! We haven't had the heart to do it again yet - maybe in another couple of years!!)

Now we need to repaint the bunny house as well - especially the inside, as trying to spot a black bunny against a black interior is rather tricky.

Does it make me happy?

For once I'm not talking about my job!

"Does it make me happy" is the question I always ask myself when making crafty decisions.


Whether it be which fabrics to put together in a wallet or quilt or which wool to use next in my ripple blanket


or which wool or fabric to buy on a shopping trip.


Often it is the question I ask myself when I'm actually trying NOT to buy something!

You know what I mean?

When you are tempted to buy something but know you shouldn't spend too much.

When you have picked something up on impulse but aren't quite sure whether you REALLY like it?

That's when my "Does it make me happy?" question gets asked.

And often I end up putting back whatever it is that I thought I wanted.

And what's interesting is how "what makes me happy" has changed over the years - especially since blogging.

Right now it's all things bright and beautiful - especially the selvedge blocks from my previous post and my new obsession with spiderswebs.

This is today's creation.


I'm not 100% happy about the telegram fabric in one of the triangles - it's a bit dull. But I think it is going to stay as I'm sure it will all blend in when there are loads of blocks.

What's making me unreservedly happy is my pink spotty box full of scraps just sitting there patiently waiting for me to make another block!


And, totally unrelated, I just want to say what a gorgeous day it has been today! I went for a lovely walk this morning after dropping the children off at school and enjoyed every minute of it!

What's making you happy today?

P.S. Katy, I'm sorry, I've totally copied your idea of putting a couple of Aunty Cookie girls in one of my strips - I couldn't resist after seeing how good yours looked!

Does it make me happy?