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      Humble half term antics

      February 19th   

      This year for the first time ever my husband lept out of bed last Sunday mumbling he had to dash downstairs as he'd left my Valentines present in the study. A slow silly grin began to appear on my face as I thought to myself wow, we've never exchanged presents before... 

      I should have known and he swears he did not say present but that he had mumbled card and within a few minutes tea and coffee in hand he produced (for him) a beautifully newspaper wrapped gift...

      Still grinning from ear to ear I began to open. He had gone to so much trouble. What have I done to deserve such a man. What was my gift-cum-card...

      ... an engraved parsnip!


      An engraved heart With blue food coluring


      A 'V' for Valentine

      See I am loved and we both had a good giggle whilst drinking our morning cuppas in bed. Hope you all had an enjoyable day last Sunday too. Oh how he still makes me laugh all these years on. 

      What else has half term produced this year, well as always a much nicer me. I become less frantic and calmer not being ruled by the clock and the beginning of the week was taken up with dentist and eye appointments but with those out of the way the week has gone from strength to strength. 

      My latest glass fusing antics this week have led me to decide I am going to produce an entire cake plate range throughout the year. My first cake plate I present to you now. 


      Plate before firing


      ...and after firing


      The inspiration to cake plate making was my
      glass cake dome, it needed some 'wow', I think I may have found it


      The week saw us also jump on a plane to visit mamma in Norway and despite the extremely mild winter the south of Norway have experienced this year, the weather gods were on our side and it snowed for us. We donned the skis and managed some sledging too all in the dark. Adds a frisence of excitement. 



      Apologies for bad quality photos the
      camera phone did not like the conditions!


      Fun in the snow

      And what would our visit be without eating traditional food, it has to be waffles as far as the children are concerned. Being with bestemor means they are spoilt and why not?



      Home made waffles as soon as they were
      off the waffle iron they were eaten,
      I couldn't manage to photograph a whole stack!


      Home made Bestemor strawberry jam
      on some and chocolate spread on others!



      And what would half term be for me without a little crafting... I finally began and finished the Shaun the sheep hat after a false start. Having begun the hat I frogged it not liking the yarn I had chosen and opted to buy the correct colour rather than using from my stash. I'm pretty pleased with the result although I feared it was too small half way through and thought it might need to be frogged again. But I continued my heart not really in it as I thought I was wasting my time. However I have been rewarded with a perfect fit. Just hope my husband likes it when he recieves it tomorrow.



      I know it's half term when I'm knitting in bed in the morning




      Beginning to grow but looks a tad on the small size!


      Shaun the sheep beginning to shape up nicely


      Apart from fastening off, it's done!



      Ta-dah!


      Joining in with  Amy  for the first anniversary of the beginning of 5 on Friday, do pop along and see what others are sharing and remember Amy has a giveaway this week too!


      I must apologise for not having responded to all comments from last week yet, I will reply to each and everyone as I always do, but am a tad behind this week, sorry again!
      Please do not let that stop you chatting with me, I love it more than you know x


      Wishing you all a fun filled week ahead

      xxxx



Colours and inspiration

12th February

I have been 'off ' my game so to speak this week AGAIN!  Beginning to wonder if I am suffering from S.A.D so I turned to old photographs to inspire me and bring back my enthusiasm which is normally oh so me.  Are you inspired by colour and nature?  Everywhere I walk, drive, visit becomes this wonderful mind map of colours and inspiration, sometimes I am able to capture it in a photo to remind me later and other times I try and commit it to my memory. My cup over flows with all these colours whizzing and swirling around wanting me to put them into a crafting make...  Sharing with you today five colours that I hope can in someway inspire you too...


PINK










 GREEN









RED












WHITE













BLUE










 YELLOW

















Sharing my colours that inspire today and joining in with
Amy at Love Made My Home, pop over and see what others are sharing
 
 
 
♥  Hope your weekend is filled with Valentine love  ♥





A village walk Sunlit Sunday 4

February 7th


Let me take you on a little walk in my surrounding area.  Wrap up warm, the sun maybe out but it's still quite chilly.  Ready?  Let's go...


Holly in my front garden, you can just
see our house chimneys in the background

The centre of our village

 
Blossom is out!


The difference between the blue and the green was so striking

I just love looking up too

As I only had my hone with me I was
not able to grab a great capture
of the red kites up above

Traditional British post box in the sun

The sun allowed for the reflections to be striking

Everywhere now the daffodils are out


The catkins are budding

I couldn't help but bring a few catkins home

Whilst in my garden I noticed next to the snowdrops
the narcissi were out in bloom and the
hyacinth will not be long now

After a sunlit walk I brought the catkins indoors

Pop back in a day or two and I will share with you my latest walk following in the trail of Agatha Christie and where she used to live...

Now I must get back to knitting that jumper... 



Joining in with   Karen looking for those sunlit moments in the week
which make these grey wet days just that much more manageable. 



♥   Hope the week brings you many sunlit moments   ♥

National Wear Red Day

British Heart Foundation Wear it Red day
 
 
February 5th   ♥

Today in much of the world it is a national wear red day today.  Why?  To highlight the big killer that is heart disease. Wear red day is today, organised by the British Heart foundation ( UK )   and I am going  to be wearing red.   

Many die of this every year and look at the photo, 12 babies in the UK alone are born with heart defeats every day  and 400 people a day die from it!  That's a huge number. 

All over the world heart disease is a problem and many countries are wearing red today.  In America it is in its 13th year.  ( USA and Canada )  And I notice Australia are also involved but their wear it red day is a tad later on Feb 26th, so you have some time to get organised. ( Australia )


Had a search through my wardrobe and decided my red poncho would not be enough and it needed sprucing up.  I often wear red so nobody would think it 'different', but they might now don't you think?

Hoping people will now ask
me why I am wearing all these hearts


Keeping on the theme of red and perhaps not quite so healthy after writing about heart disease but I could not resist sharing these cookies.  I cannot vouch for there taste as have not yet tried them and I suspect they could be a bit of a faff to make, but Oh my goodness they look divine.  My daughter and I are going to give them a try, hopefully this week end...  Heart cookies

Perfect for Valentines, or other shapes
at different times of the year perhaps.



Crocheted napkins holders
And just look at this knitted goodness of health!  If I had smaller children I would definitely be badgering the talented Jules (formally of the blog The Hidden Jem) for the pattern to these vegetables.  How wonderful for the children to have these in their play kitchen.  Jules you ARE very talented and thank you for sharing your photo with us.  Have you ever knitted or crocheted food?  So many people have, I am yet to jump on that band wagon, although thinking about it now I did crochet some rather lovely serviette holders last summer, ummm, where have they gone?!?!?





The carrots are perfection, such fun

As for me I have so many thoughts running through my head that I am not productive at all.  I keep thinking ooh I'll try that and then begin but get distracted by something else.  This really is no good and I am off after posting this to have a very stern talking to myself to buck my ideas up.  Do you ever suffer from this problem?  The one thing that is constant and that I do keep returning to well I do not have a choice as there is a birthday dead line to meet. Is the surprise jumper for my husband.  Main body is completed up to sleeve level, the new dpn arrived so I can continue with the sleeves themselves and soon it will be time to add in the pattern and knit it fairisle style!  Yeah! 

The jumper so far...

Simply knitting free pattern

Lastly, I need your help.  My husband has asked for a Shaun the sheep hat.  I have tracked down a great 'free' pattern from Simply Knitting of the sheep I would like to use, but their link does not seem to be working!  I have emailed the magazine but I suspect I am low down on their priority list to respond to.  Normally I would not dream of asking anyone to share a pattern with me due to copyright etc but I'm thinking as they offer it for free... does anyone have the below pattern?  It's not specifically for a hat, I will use my own hat pattern for it, just want the chart for the sheep.  If not I will have to resort to charting one up for myself, but would rather not.  Can anyone help?  If so please email me at eclectichomeandlife(at)gmail(dot)com The link that I could not get to work is here:  Shaun the sheep Simply Knitting pattern


The above has had to be struck out as in finding the link to share with you all, the chart popped out this time!!! As this was my 5th thing to share with you, I've kept it in although I now no longer need your able assistance, but thanks for the offer in any case...
 
Joining in today with   Amy sharing my five with you on this
Wear it Red Day for the British Heart Foundation.
 
♥  Wearing lots of red today   ♥