Bye Bye Kitties

10 weeks have passed since we had the 4 little kitties come and live with us, and now the last one has left. The mother disappeared again a couple of days ago, but we managed to find good homes for all her babies - it's the last time though, it was a big relief to get rid of the litter tray!

I thought the last one was the cutest, she was very much a people cat, enjoying lots of cuddles and strokes. I would have liked to keep her, but stayed strong - we already have too many animals!

I spent the last couple of evenings making a cover for the arm rest on our sofa. It's a large sofa and does get grubby arms from time to time, so it seemed like such a good idea. It's finished and sitting proudly on the armrest. Just need to make one for the other side now. Why is it never as much fun making a second version of something?

Here it is being tested out by the kittie before she left us.

Andy went to the council this afternoon and picked up the key for the new allotment. Hopefully the weather will improve enough soon so he can go and make a start. Still so much to do here though, still decluttering and tidying.... yes, that's how messy it was to begin with... sigh!

Take care
xxx

Building Walls

It's been a busy week, though more for Andy than for me!

I said those dreaded words, the ones that can make a husband's hair stand up on his neck... 'I've been thinking...'

We have a living room/dining room all in one. There's a lintel where the rooms were once two separate ones. The house was built in 1931, the days before open plan living became the thing to do, and it was knocked through by the last owners who lived here from the mid 1970s until we came nearly 10 years ago. I have really wanted a separate dining room and living room for some time and have toyed with the idea of wooden separators, but we have high ceilings, and nothing seemed appropriate.

So I started thinking...

Followed by a trip to the diy shop, and Andy got straight on with putting up the framework.

Followed by plasterboard

Lots of filling and sanding

'scuse the washing drying in the background, but it won't stop raining!!

I'm thrilled with the result. It's now been painted on the living room side, and we're in the process of trying to declutter the dining room, which means I'm trying to sort out my 'stuff'! I've seen some wallpaper I like for the dining room and hopefully we can think about that next month, I'm finding it quite exciting! I will keep you updated :)

While Andy's been busy with his sawing and banging, I finished off Adam's throw. It's a while since I started, but thought he wouldn't be bothered until the autumn, but as the summer is so dismal I thought I should get a wriggle on!

Adam stretched out the top while holding it up, so I took another photo below.

Take care
xxx

We have an Allotment!

Yesterday was an amazing day, it was like waiting for a bus and lots of good things coming along at once.

Imogen has been in a talent contest at school, she went into the semi finals before half term and then the final was at school, hosted by the local radio station last night. She sang Celine Dion's My Heart will go On and came second (runner up), she was so thrilled and it meant so much to her. We were so proud, especially when other people in the audience were saying wow about her voice. Daddy filmed it, but I can't post it as there is a school agreement that we can take photos and video, but must not post it on the internet - I think it's a fair agreement and means we can still take pictures to help preserve our memories.

So Imogen was very happy (as were we), then Adam came from work and told us what a fantastic day he'd had... brilliant :)

And the other very exciting news for us is that we have an allotment!!!!!!!!!!

We put our name down 4 years ago, and it seemed like it would never happen. We went to have a look this afternoon, it's very overgrown... but so exciting. Lots of very hard work to get it cleared by Andy, and we've already bribed Adam to help with the digging over.

Even overgrown as it is, we still fell in love with it instantly

We even picked some of the rhubarb growing there to make something tasty with. We are complete novices and have only dabbled with growing some veggies in the garden so are hoping to get lots of advice as we go along. I can't help much with the physical side of it, but I'm just as excited as Andy...

Take care
xxx

Pretty Things

Here are some pretty cupcakes to go on the pretty cake stand I found the other week. Imogen piped our initials on some of them with delicious chocolate buttercream...

even the wrappers are pretty!

Yesterday we made the most of the last drop of sunshine with a lovely walk around the park, I love our local park so much, it has everything and it makes me smile just to be there.

Imogen looking pretty with the daisies

about to do a handstand

Well today is the first day of summer and it has poured with rain all day. Oh well, the grass looks nice and green, and hopefully it won't last too long. Andy's told me about someone who's been predicting the weather all year very similar to 1976... the year of the sun!! If he is right, the change should start next week... who knows!

Meanwhile, kitties are wrecking the house!!

Doing some crochet maybe!

Take care
xxx

Olympic Torch

How exciting, what a great thing to be part of. The Olympic Torch passed a few metres away from our house this evening. We picked Adam up from work, and the 4 of us went and waited with great anticipation with everyone else lining the streets.

Here it comes...

It's not the best picture, but it's the moment when the torches kissed, passing from one person in the relay to another.

We all waved our Union Jacks like crazy, the atmosphere was brilliant and Imogen said it was one of the best days ever, not bad from a 10 year old! It felt quite emotional, and I'm so glad we saw it.

Take care
xxx

Sunshine Award

Thank you All4meggymoo, what a lovely surprise xx

The Rules:


1. Thank the blogger that awarded you - Thank you very much all4meggymoo.
2. Answer 10 questions about your favourite things.
3. Nominate 10 blogs & let them know.

Questions


1. Favourite animal - I love animals, but I think as I have 4 little dogs, I'd have to say dogs (especially Chihuahuas).

2. Favourite number - Bit of a standard answer, but going to be number 7 because I was born on the 7th.

3. Favourite non alcoholic drink. Has to be tea, bit fussy about it though, must be nice and strong with only a drop of skimmed milk.
4. Facebook or Twitter - Suppose Facebook as I just don't understand Twitter, but neither really.

5. My Passion - my family, followed by my animals, then my hobbies.

6. Getting or giving - I love getting presents, but really love choosing and giving them, especially for my hubby and children xx

7. Favourite Pattern - don't have one, don't tend to follow the same pattern more than once or twice as there are so many other things to do!

8. Favourite day of the week - not sure about this one, either Friday because I know the weekend is coming, or Sundays because Adam always comes over and we all have a lovely family day together.

9. Favourite Flower - I don't have a favourite, but I do love to see Geraniums, petunias, daisies...

10.  Favourite Country - has to be Great Britain! I have travelled a bit when I was younger, but I don't even have a passport now. I'm definitely a home bird, and think we're so lucky to live in such a beautiful country.

I'm going to nominate 5 instead of 10, though I read so many lovely blogs, it's very hard!


Flowers in the Window

Frugal Queen

Crafty in the Med

Thriftwood

The Log Cabin

Rainy Day Reads

It's the afternoon , but I'm having to peer to see my keyboard as it's so dark in here. The sky is very dark and it's absolutely pouring down... sigh.

Luckily we did the outside jobs this morning when there was some blue up there! Cleaned out the chickens (smelly job mainly done by Andy, Imogen helped me throw in lots of nice, clean and dry straw), planted a couple of Azaleas outside the front of the house and sorted out rubbish for the tip. That means we can settle down now, warm and cosy indoors and read our new magazines.

The wonderful Mollie Makes for me (with The Princess and the Pea on the front cover, one of my favourite stories from when I was young) and  Girl magazine for Imogen with some freebie rings :)  Andy has a magazine subscription to Knowledge. It only comes every couple of months and he really looks forward to it (there's so much in it about so many different things), it arrived this morning so I've been hearing all sorts of snippets that he keeps reading out, from wearing bands on hats to keep horseflies away to spiders protecting us to a massive tropical style island that's been built within an abandoned airship hangar!

Yesterday we popped out for a bit of shop mooching, and I found this lovely glass cake stand.

It just looks a bit lonely, needs something delicious on top of it, like some fondant fancies or some yummy home made scones!

Oh, and a quick update on the wee kitties. 2 out of the 4 are eating well now One of them is the one Imogen is hoping to keep (the one with the most white on it).

She is the most adventurous and friendly, and very cute!

Take care
xxx

An Afternoon in Whitby

It's the half term holiday, bank holidays have finished so Adam is back at work, but Andy and Imogen are free until Monday! Imogen's off being a social butterfly, so Andy whisked me off to Whitby for the afternoon.

My pretty little princess

It was very dreary when we left home, but temperatures weren't too bad when we set off... it got colder and colder as the wind took hold.

It was very chilly for walking about, I was covered with a fleece blanket and ended up with poor Andy giving me his jacket too (he claimed it was hot work pushing me around... I think he's just too good to me). We saw some lovely street performers

and popped in a couple of shops, mainly window shopping as the cobbles were horrendous to navigate and most shops had steps :(

The scenery was lovely though

The Abbey ruins are in the distant background

There are caves in the cliffs that were used for smuggling

Lots of pots for catching crabs and lobsters

There were lots of children (and some adults) hanging over the edges with cord, bait (mainly bags of bacon bits) and buckets, all catching crabs!

I thought he was very brave to hold it up!

We set off home over the North Yorkshire Moors. It was getting harder and harder to see in front of us as we started to go through cloud! I tried to catch a photo as we whizzed through...

The rain soon hit us and it carried on steadily throughout the evening. Oh well, the garden's nice and green :)

Take care
xxx