We are off on holiday for a week in search of the Southern Italian sunshine. Hopefully lots of swimming, prosecco drinking and fabulous food in store for us. I'm concerned I won't be able to get my husband to come home as he has ideas of moving there......we will have to see. Anyway, I'm packed (mostly knitting!) and very excited. See you all soon.......

Yarn Bombing

Super busy at the moment with painting the house and putting up fruit cages and poly tunnels in the garden (photos to follow - I'm very excited about this!) But just wanted to post about the yarn bombing that is happening at the Textile Museum of Canada. I love the whole yarn bombing idea and have donated a whole bundle of corsages which I made ages ago and then they just sat in my knitting pile looking a bit sorry for themselves. They will be so much happier adorning a bicycle rack in Canada.

oh dear.....

...we've had a bit of a disaster in the sitting room! I should explain we live in a large old house which we have been renovating for the last seven years. The sitting room was finished last year but on Tuesday morning my husband noticed the plaster was 'blowing' in places. He then had a closer look and half the plaster on the wall fell off! Arghhhhh! Thankfully our plasterer only lives around the corner so is able to fix it reasonably quickly but it means I've been spending all my time knee deep in rubble and pva stuff and the whole room is out of action waiting to be replastered and painted. What a nuisance! This is what it looks like at the moment.....




The kids are also unimpressed as Cbeebies is off for a while and so today we went to the zoo. We had such a lovely time.

This evening after all the stuff that needs to be done I will be getting on with knitting my cardigan....




....so far so good with this pattern. I love this Kim Hargreaves book its got some really nice patterns in it. I was planning to knit the Jane Richmond jumper but after three failed attempts to get it started (I'm obviously not getting it) I've put it to one side. Anyway I'm knitting my cardigan in one of the Sublime wools. I will post a photo of it once its finished.



Also bought the new Amy Butler Midwest knitting book and some of her wool in a fabulous geranium colour. Not sure what this will turn into but I just couldn't leave it on the shelf - I had to have it!

Oops.....

.....another purchase. This time I was looking for a laptop sleeve on Folksy and got sidetracked by these gorgeous buttons......



oh and these ones........



.......well the postage seemed SO reasonable at 30p per additional item it seemed silly not too (darn - they see me coming!) They came from Mollimoo who I haven't come across before. As I said I bought these from her Folksy shop. Apparently she has an Etsy shop but I'm too scared to look incase I'm tempted to spend more! It will have to wait......and it looks as if I will be making that laptop sleeve myself.

A new creation....

The girls have started a new nursery today (the previous nursery was great but in the wrong direction for Miss B's new primary school so I thought I would make the change now so Miss T can settle in before having her big sister move again) I've spent the morning (in between boring housework) fiddling with a new creation.



It's a baby changing mat/car blanket made from Amy Butler and a lovely minky fabric, to make it super soft and snuggly. Overall I'm happy with it. I think the fabric works really well and the popper strap keeps it nice and neat. It could do with being a bit bigger and I'm toying with the idea of losing the fabric and replacing it with oilcloth. I love all the gorgeous Cath Kidston oilcloths with cowboys etc but as soon as I start even thinking about using this all the profitability goes out the window.......not that there was much of that anyway! I'm seeing my cousin at the weekend who has a six month old so I will give this one to her as long as she lets me road test the baby on it first and gives me her valuable opinion (she occassionally stops by the blog so I have to be nice!)



On another note I want to share with you this fabulous Cassoulet tin we brought back from France. I've been admiring it sitting on the Rayburn for months and last Saturday we finally opened it. It was truly delicious - just right for the wintery weather! Anyway, now we have opened it perhaps the spring weather will return. We can live in hope.