Treats

Thank you so much for all your lovely good wishes for my birthday last week.  I really appreciate them.

I had a lovely birthday week with the wonderful surprise visit of Grace on the evening of my birthday.

I was so lucky to receive some fabulous presents, including a gorgeous project bag that Grace made for me.

I just love the polar bear fabric which Grace bought specially for me because she knows how much I love polar bears.

There's a lovely snowflake charm on the zip and it's lined with pink snowflake fabric.  It's just the perfect size to hold my latest sock project.

She also bought me this ball of sock yarn.  I love the colours and can't wait to cast on with this .

I have been ill the last few days - thankfully not on my actual birthday - so I've slept most of the last few days.  I've missed reading your blogs, so I'll be catching up today.  It'll be nice to get back into a normal routine. I hope you have a lovely week.  Bye for now.

Thank You Thank You Thank You

Wow, I can't thank you enough for all the wonderful messages I received for my birthday.  I am so grateful to you all.  It made my birthday extra special to hear from so many of you.

I'm leaving the calendar unchanged for a few more days so that I can carry on celebrating.

I had an amazing weekend.  Firstly in Sheffield with Grace and then in Lincoln.

Our hotel looked up to the Cathedral, which was beautifully lit in the evening.

The view from the windows.

Lincoln is a beautiful city.  We've been there before and I loved it so much, I chose to go back there for my birthday weekend.

The weather wasn't great but we got out and about to see the sights.

Cup of tea and some cake - with a little knitting time
thrown in.

Grace knitted me some lovely socks and also gave me the remains of the ball of wool.

The colours are just perfect.  I think I'll make some fingerless mittens or wrist warmers with the remains.

For my birthday I received lots of lovely presents, including this book.

Who would have thought there could be so many ways to cast on and off in knitting.  My aim is to try and sample them all!

Whilst in Sheffield, I topped up my Stylecraft Special DK, adding some new colours to my stash.  And I couldn't resist stocking up on yellow and pink ribbons.

I also bought some of this lovely Alice in Wonderland fabric.

How happy I was to come home with such lovely goodies.

So, once again, thank you for your thoughts and wishes.  I think I need to come back down to earth and start getting back into the swing of things.  It's Eve's 21st birthday next week, so I had better get myself organised before she comes back home on Sunday.

Lucky Me

I've never won anything from other people's giveaways, mind you, I don't really enter that many.  So it was a wonderful surprise to find out I had won the giveaway organised by Ginny at Ginx Craft.

In the post today I received this lovely package.

And inside were these beautiful knitted hearts (my favourite shape) with snowflakes embroidered on them.

The blue yarn has a lovely metallic thread in it so the hearts have a bit of a sparkle.

Our Christmas tree will be going up shortly and I look forward to hanging these up.

Thank you, Ginny for your lovely gift.

At Last I Get to Wear It

...my new knitted skirt that is.

It's a fabulous fit - no ugly bulges.  And I adore the colour.

You can see full details of the pattern and the yarn I used over on my Ravelry page, here.

I'd like to knit some more of these skirts but I think next time I'd make them more interesting by incorporating some cabling.

Today, Eve returns to Cambridge so, yesterday, as a final treat before she went, we indulged in some yummy mint choc chip ice cream from the local café.

It was delicious and a very generous serving!

Half-Birthday Celebrations

I love birthdays and because they only come round once a year, I like to celebrate half-birthdays as well.  Why not?

Yesterday was my half-birthday, so I made myself some yummy scones.

But that leads to the difficult decision of which flavour jam do I want.

The apricot is irresistible - it's made in Sheffield, Grace bought it for me in her local market.  It's so fruity - I'll be ordering some more from her.  I also have a weakness for plum jam.

Perfect.  Now what other little treats can I give myself?

How about trying some machine embroidery?  Why not?  I'll let you know how I get on.