Chickens and Tandems ....

Well two of the girls got re-homed recently.  These cute little chicks are now growing into lovely little ladies so we took 2 to our grandparents the other week.

My gorgeous Grandad Pete (the Sweetpeas Smashing Super Great Grandad) has recently had a hip op.  It hasn't been easy for him getting used to the fact that he can't go skiing down the black runs any more so I thought the chickens would be a great distraction.  My Nan Glynn has always been maternal so she can mother them whilst Grandad looks after them :-)

Daisy and Gert as they are now called settled in really well and had a potter around the garden ....

They said hello to the gnomes and pecked around the apple trees ......

Before snuggling up in their new home, grandad even cut some lino for their bedding area, what posh chickens they are lol (it was really to make it easier for him to clean them out but I have never heard of chickens having  a nice kitchen floor before :-)).  As I left them Grandad had popped out to check them several times and Nan was cutting up little bits of food for them, I think these chickens are going to have a very happy life :-)  We are all hoping that Gert doesn't turn into Bert as it is rather hard to tell at this age but we have another girl at home if that happens

We have also recently been to my Nan & Grandads to pick up their old tandem.  oohh this has some very happy memories attached to it, we have photos of my parents biking off on this on their wedding day in full wedding gear and I fondly remember my aunties sitting on the front and back seats whilst me and my sister sat on pillows which were tied to the cross bars :-)

 

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and thanks for all your lovely comments which always make me smile :-) xxxx

Gorgeous Crochet Buys

I have really got into buying direct from artists in the last couple of years.  There is something really lovely about buying from someone who you know has put their own time, effort and love into creating something gorgeous.  When I saw these ickle scrummy shoes on Jacey's Blog Coffee 'n' Crochet I fell in love with them.  Luckily in coincided with a friend having a new baby and another friend's baby turning one very soon so it gave me an excuse to buy them :-) 

Aren't they just the cutest little baby shoes you have ever seen!  They are even ok for babies who are a little older as I have read that you can pop puffy paint on the bottom of them to make them non slip, what a fantastic idea for babies who are at the cruising stage.  The recipients of these little shoes have told me they have had many an admiring comment about them on their little cutey kiddies feet.

Of course then I popped into Jacey's Folksy Shop and just had to buy the above little hat for little Sweetpea, oh and of course a rose brooch for me :-)

The package arrived a few days later and was wrapped in the most lovely birdie tissue paper!  In the parcel was the most wonderful surprise for little Sweetpea, just take a look at that fantastic crochet bag!

Little Sweetpea has adored her hat and bag, here she is watering in seedlings with her hat on , not sure there is any water left in her watering can with the angle she is tipping it in this photo :-)

Another hand made shopping experience that re-confirms why I love buying direct from the artist!  Thanks Jacey :-) x

Who stole time ...............?

Thanks so much for all your comments on my last post, I am glad you all loved my crochet hearts :-)  Some of you wondered what yarn I used, I used several but mainly Patons Cotton Twist which has a lovely texture to it and is a pretty good price :-)

This week has been quite emotional in the Sweetpea household as our eldest child has been to College for two induction days.   As he is one of the youngest in his year and our oldest child it has been quite a wrench :-(  Above is a photo of him the day he was born with Mr Sweetpea, just how has 10 years 10 months gone past so quickly, it only seems like yesterday that photo was taken!

Helping Daddy make him a new bedroom when his sister arrived :-)

He had a couple of nights beforehand of finding it hard to get to sleep so that made it hard for me to sleep as I was worrying about him worrying :-(

The day came and he seemed fine, a little nervous but I sat with him and watched some science programmes on tv (his fav) so that seemed to distract him.  He had to go on a bus to college as it is a couple of villages away, I was fighting back the tears as it drove past (we looked out at it from our house as of course it is rather uncool for Mum & Dad to take you to the bus stop :-)) .  It looked like he went to wave and then decided that was not cool and put his hand through his hair instead lol (he insists he did wave and this wasn't the case :-)).

A nature lover from the start, here he is with a 'pet' snail :-)

He really enjoyed his first day , made new friends, wasn't phased by it being such a huge place.

With nanny (my Mum) at a 60s/70s fancy dress party.

The second day was harder work as they did sports all day and he did have an encounter with a couple of feisty boys but he seems to have taken that in his stride.

I just can't understand how he has gone from being this little 4 year old above to a College lad, they really do grow up in the blink of an eye.

I just hope he still loves cuddling up with me, chatting to me (sometimes non stop) and still loves his nature for a few years yet ... oh how I love this boy. 

To tell you the truth I will be glad when this week is over , Mr Sweetpea has been on a late shift, we have had college and the usual clubs plus little Sweetpea has been a bit full on and not wanting to go to bed until 9pm - I am shattered!

Hope you are all having a fab week. xxx

Edit - he just called me up the garden to help him save a baby blackbird  who got stuck in his strawberry net so the nature loving boy is still there , oh and he resuscitated his gold fish the other day - never have I seen a fish be bought back to life - this kid has talent lol :-)

I am an addict!

Oh dear ...... what shall I do ....... I think I may be addicted to crochet!  I can't stop making these cute little hearts!  As soon as I wake I feel the need to make one even before I get out of bed!  I keep buying scrummy coloured wool whilst thinking how lovely a little heart would look like in that colour.   Why did no one warn me of the dangers of getting addicted to this lovely new craft I have just learnt :-)

It is all your fault - you know who you are - I blame you entirely for putting too many gorgeous crochet photos on your blog and making me NEED to learn :-)  This pattern came from the lovely Attic24's blog if you want to give it a go.

All those scrummy colours ........

Gorgeous textures ........

So many possibilities ........

Gorgeous equipment to work with .....

And so many lovely things that I want to create.  I think these little hearts will become some bunting, oohh I can't wait :-)  I have now bought The Happy Hooker book and borrowed some more crochet books from the library, I just now need to find more time to create some more gorgeous wooly things.

As a thank you to you all for your inspiration I have made the bloggers who love crochet a little bloggy button.  Feel free to pop it on your blog and show your love of crochet.  Just right click on the piccy below, save to your hard drive and then upload it as a piccy into your blogger template.  I hope you like it. xxx

Happy days and holidays ......

 

It has been a bit quiet on my blog for a little while but I have a good excuse honest :-)  I have been away on holiday, I promise not to bore you with all 230 photos I took whilst I was away ........

The sweetpeas love our (well it is my parents really but I have adopted it :-)) hideaway in Mallorca, they love the outdoors so the place is just perfect for them.

We spent many a happy hour looking for treasure on the beach.  I have fallen in love with seaglass and bought back a big bag of it :-)

Little sweetpea tried out her new UV protective swimming costume, if only they had invented those when I was a child!

The villa's garden was blooming, this gorgeous smelling broom was one of my particular favourites.

The boys had a little helper whilst fishing, this Cormorant was sitting right next to them and so tame, this photo was taken with hardly any zooming in.

The beach was as perfect as ever and the only real place Mr Sweetpea and I got to chill out so we were there every afternoon :-)

Snow angles in the sand ......

The track to the villa has been tarmacked, we were quite sad about this at first as we loved the bumpy old track but it is great for cycling along with the children in the evenings if it was cool enough.  Mind you the weather got up to 39 deg C towards the end of the holiday so cycling was off the menu then !

My Dad has always loved recycling, the bike above was found in a dump (Middle Sweetpea was riding it in the last photo) as was the wheelbarrow (which is now a planter) I think :-)  The car was bought many moons ago and is now a house to some lovely rock mice and geckos.

With no TV there it is lovely to see how creative the kiddies can be with their time - they spent the hotter mornings sitting at the table doodling piccies and making books.  The table was covered in felt later in the week by me :-)

Being at the beach provided time for me to delve head first into crochet, I borrowed The Happy Hooker book from the library as recommended by Jene and it is a great book to learn with (thanks Jene :-) x).

Mr Sweetpea also taught little sweetpea some swimming, she loved it!  She had great fun when we remembered we had some arm-bands back at Morca (this is what little sweetpeas called the villa, we thought she was always talking about the Island until we got there and she insisted the villa itself was called Morca :-)).

I have now had the Sweetpeas all with me for 3 weeks, I do love them all dearly but must admit to craving a little time away from everyone now.  Morca is gorgeous but as it is a one story building and surrounded by hills you do feel a little on top of each other after a while until you adapt to the new way of life.   We had no fridge for the holiday - my poor parents spend 600 euros on a new fridge freezer a few months back but we couldn't get it to work, I hope they manage to work out what is wrong with it :-( 

Until next year my gorgeous Playa, I will be back .....

Catch up .......

Thanks for all your lovely comments about my 'Creative' post, I am glad you liked all of our creations :-)  Now I apologise in advance as this is rather a photo heavy post as I wanted to do a catch up with what we have been up to for the last few weeks :-)

The weather has been glorious here for weeks now, in fact I don't think I have ever wished for rain so much :-o  We have had around a month and a half of no rain here so our gardens and farmers fields really could do with some now.  This has however meant we have had loads of fun outside :-)

Above and below are photos of the Marina which we are lucky enough to have in our village, this is the one place where my kiddies never argue so we spent quite a lot of time down there  ......

We went to Scotsdales (a large garden centre) in the holiday too, I know how to treat my kids lol, mind you they love it there :-)  Middle Sweetpea couldn't help but give the bronzed chap a kiss, you can't take her anywhere!  Little Sweetpea wasn't so sure about him and kept chatting about the 'man with no eyes' all the way home.

The kiddies have been playing in a den they have created in the field bank.  They have since made a little picket fence along the bottom of it and they spend a few hours together making a flag for it.

Much fun was had with the amazing amount of dandelions that popped up this year.   Little Sweetpeas hair even seemed to be trying to get in on the dandelion act :-)

They spent ages picking and blowing them.  I had to refrain from pulling up in the car near roundabouts as I had a real urge to photograph the hundreds of dandelions surrounding them - I didn't think the general public would like a view of my backside up in the air taking photos of them :-)  Luckily we found a field full of them !

We popped to my grandparents (the sweetpeas great-grandparents).  I couldn't help but take photos of my Nan Glynn an Grandad Pete's fab gnome filled garden .....

And we all just love their retro caravan ... in fact my hubby and I have lived in this caravan for a few months in my parents yard when we were buying our second house so it really is like home for me.   I think all my Aunties (my granparents daughters) have lived in it too at some point

Later in the holiday we had more fun down the marina, this time with lots of extra kiddies.  Eldest Sweetpea is at that age when he wants to go out on his own with mates so I have been having to let him go.  He will be off to College in September so I know the time is right but it doesn't make it any easier.

One way round it was the Marina, this did mean I ended up with a few more kiddies (9 one day) but at least I could keep an eye on them all and know they were safe.  We did have a scare with one of my Nephews who came to ours to stay as he nearly drowned, luckily Middle Sweetpea saw him, his big brother was sent to fetch him back and Eldest Sweetpea pulled him to the bank.  Scary stuff and that showed them why I was being boring and telling them all to stay in sight and not jump off the bridge etc!  I was just about to jump in myself but then realised Little Sweetpea would follow me if I did so it would have caused more issues, all was safe and well in the end - phew.

Little Sweetpea has loved it down the Marina too, it is so relaxing there.

Another thing she has loved is dancing, she insists I pop music on for her to have a quick boogy.  Goodness knows where she gets her moves ....

For the Royal Wedding of William and Kate (now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge just down the road from us :-)) we went to Swaffham Prior street party.  I haven't been to one of these since I was about 3, it was great fun.

A whole road was shut off and everyone came out to celebrate ....

Even the phone box got in on the act :-)

And my Dad here is chatting to a mate who is trying to look serious even though Dad was wearing a funny hat :-)

Then I saw this gorgeous Camper Van there, oh how I want one.  One day, one day you will be mine ....

Then on May Day we did our annual pilgrimage to Reach Fair where we met my parents (Mr Sweetpea had to work yet again - in fact both of us worked most of the bank holidays :-().  We had a lovely time but it was a bit nippy,  tea and scones soon sorted that out, they were being served in the little local church and we ate them whilst sitting on the church pews.

Eldest Sweetpea managed to win a goldfish whilst Middle Sweetpea got in a mood as she didn't :-(  We went out and bought a friend for this little fella the next day to cheer her up.  After winning him Eldest Sweetpea wasn't sure it was a good idea to win him as he was upset for all the fish left behind.  Dart & Spark (the fish) seem happy in their new home.

A gold star for anyone still reading and who hasn't dropped off :-) x