A Person's a Person, No Matter How Small

A friend I met when both our eldest children were small has just become a grandmother for the first time. Her beautiful daughter gave birth to a perfect little boy on the 7th of February (my birthday). He was a little over eager to come into the world as he wasn't due until late April, the wee mite was 11 weeks early and only 3lbs.

Thank goodness he is doing well, breathing on his own from the beginning, has now moved from the intensive care baby unit to the next one up! I've seen pictures and he is beautiful, such perfect skin, blonde hair and so tiny and sweet.

On the wall in the baby unit is a well know Dr. Seuss quote

What a lovely quote to have around so many tiny babies. It made me think about the Whos from Whoville and Thing 1 and 2 from Cat in the Hat... which made me think about wee willie winkie and his night cap.

So with some lovely soft baby blue yarn, I crocheted one up for the new little man.

With a lovely big pom pom on the end

It's been half term this week, so Imogen has had the week off school... well most of the week, the drama teacher had them in Monday and Tuesday for rehearsals and they're back again over the weekend, quite a hard taskmaster for a school play. I felt like we'd barely seen her, so Wednesday we popped to a garden centre for a wander around and a cavery for lunch.

It was a lovely dinner. Imogen and I had a small, but it was still very filling... did you see the enormous Yorkshire pudding!

Afterwards we walked it off with a look at all the goodies, many of them were Easter themed, chicks and bunnies everywhere!

I was quite taken with this giant stag, he had a giant price tag too!

I love tortoises and thought it was rather cute how he was arranged peeping through the bushes.

Treated myself to this cute vase, it'll look lovely on the kitchen windowsill with some pretty flowers in it.

These little airplanes really caught my eye, I loved the way they hung down in tiny terracotta pots. The picture is a little deceiving as there's no point of reference to see how small they are.

Half term seems to have passed in a flash, but most weeks do don't they. I have a chicken roasting in the oven and lots of roasted veggies so I suppose I should think about dishing it up to my hungry family.

Take care
xxx

City of Culture

Hello lovely people. Thank you for all the beautiful comments, I can see that Ethel and Ernest is quite a popular film, I'm so glad I have a copy. I've noticed that I have a few more followers, thank you for coming and sharing my space with me, it's very appreciated. I would love to say hello back, but google no longer gives me a link back if you have a blog, very frustrating! If you want to stop by and say hello or drop me an email, I'm always thrilled to hear from people.

Did those that celebrate it have a lovely Valentines Day? We don't celebrate it, we say "I love you' a few times every day to each other and never end a day, visit or phone call without telling each other, so no cards are usually sent.... but this year I received a card, to our pack leader...

It was a card from 'the dogs', how sweet was that!


Hull in East Yorkshire is the city of culture this year, 2017. It started with a bang on the 1st of January with fireworks and an amazing light show projected of the city's buildings (here) every evening for a week. Hull has so much history and is even famed for playing it's part in the start of our country's civil war when it refused to open it's gates for the king. Hull was also the most bombed place after London during the second world war, much of the city was decimated.

I really wanted to see the enormous wind turbine blade that has placed in Queen Victoria Square. It's there for 3 months, all hand finished...

It's quite a spectacular sight to see, 75 meters long. You can read more about it here. There are so many things planned throughout the year and so much to see. I really recommend a trip to Hull, even if you've visited before, you'll notice how much has changed. I'm so proud of my adopted city.

I've been doing a bit of crochet this week, so will have some photos to show you next time I hope.

Take care
xxx

Birthday and I Won a Giveaway

Thank you so much for all the wonderful birthday wishes, it was so lovely to read them all, you really are my blogland friends. Thank you as well for the comments on my grand baby scan picture, it's good to be able to share my excitement.

I had a lovely birthday, spent it the best way possible, with my amazing husband and children. We watched a film in the afternoon, it was on TV over Christmas and I'd asked for the dvd for my birthday. It's very rare that we buy a dvd, but we both enjoyed it so much - Ethel and Ernest.

Here's the bit of blurb from Amazon

"Roger Mainwood writes and directs this hand-drawn animation featuring the voice talents of Jim Broadbent, Brenda Blethyn, Pam Ferris and Virginia McKenna. Based on the autobiographical novel by Raymond Briggs, the story follows four decades in the lives of an ordinary couple living in London. Beginning at their first meeting in 1928, events that fill Ethel (voice of Blethyn) and Ernest (Broadbent)'s days include the Great Depression, World War II, the invention of the television and the birth of their son, Raymond (Harry Collett/Luke Treadaway).

I suppose it's a love story really, but it had me in tears, definitely one to watch with a box of tissues and I can't recommend it highly enough.

When Adam arrived after work, we sat down to a birthday tea partly made by Imogen. Ham and pickle or cheese and cucumber sandwiches sausage rolls, crisps and lots of tea. Followed by a lovely birthday cake.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable day. I'll have to show you some of the lovely goodies I received another day.


The day after my birthday, I received this lovely parcel through the post, a giveaway from the very kind and talented Jenny at Winnibriggs House

The card was lovely, the heart decoration on the front was flocked.

Jenny had made herself a lovely warm and cosy headband to keep her ears warm in this cold weather. As well as kindly giving a tutorial in how to make one, she also offered some lovely fleece for us to make it with.

As well as the lovely soft fleece, Jenny included 2 little surprises... 2 beautiful brooches. A stunning vintage brooch...

and a very cute dog, how cute!

Thank you for stopping by

Take care
xxx

First Picture of my First Grandchild

How exciting! Adam and his girlfriend had their first scan on Friday then came straight to see us and show us the photo of their teeny tiny growing baby and they now have a due date for the beginning of August.

We have no photos of Adam from scans, it wasn't something that was available then, though we did get them when we had Imogen 14 years later, in fact we have a few because I was very ill throughout my pregnancy so as well as the daily trips to have Imogen's heart rate monitored, we also had weekly scans (it was a difficult time). Names have even been partly decided for both a boy or a girl, though it's still a long wait so they may change their minds before baby makes an appearance.

I've been very lucky, Andy found me some beautiful roses in the bargain bucket (the red ones) and also bought me some gorgeous pink roses to go with them. Last weeks were yellow and lasted quite well.

I love the cheeky puppy climbing up the side of the mantle. I only put him back out this week after being packed away since before Christmas.

This is a plaque that I received for Christmas. It hangs near my favourite seat so I can glance up at it. I do really love Alice in Wonderland and this sentiment is such a good one, especially when there seems to be so much bad news around.

I've been posting on Instagram most days, I've tried to round up some of the pictures and put them on here too. I thought this photo was so cute. Alfie falls asleep in the funniest of positions, this time he was half standing with his head resting on Honey, both fast asleep.

It's my birthday tomorrow, I shall be entering my last year in my forties... goodness me, how did that happen!


Take care
xxx

Thinking about Spring

Thank you for the lovely comments about my long eared bunnies in my last post, I'm glad the inside out tutorial was useful.

It's wet and windy here today, so after catching up with the house jobs, I think it'll be time to settle down with my book. Imogen isn't due home until 7.30 this evening as she's gone on a school trip to see Blood Brothers in Sheffield. Just a couple of baked potatoes for me and Andy tonight, Imogen has a pack up with her, though I'm sure she'll fancy a nice hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream when she gets in and tells us all about her trip.

I missed a parcel delivery yesterday so Andy went to pick it up for me this afternoon.

As you can see, I opened it straight away! I'd ordered a few little bits and bobs from Hobbycraft, a bit early for Easter, but I'm so looking forward to Spring. I've already seen so many little green shoots from bulbs poking through and it almost feels as though the anticipation for Spring is in the air. It's been a very mild winter really, so I feel I shouldn't complain, but it will be nice to say goodbye to the grey days and welcome the sunshine back.

It's always exciting to open a parcel, even if you know what's going to be inside it already. Some little eggs, I really like the speckled ones.

I'm very excited about these paper mache eggs. I have a couple of different things I'm planning to use them for

So I thought it best to get 5...

Pretty little daisies, white ones and coloured ones.

I felt a bit naughty buying the grassy bunny, I thought I should just decoupage my own, but it's just so cute I couldn't resist it and I think it'll be a lovely addition to my Spring and Easter decorations.

Can you see why I couldn't resist him, so sweet!

Take care
xxx