Fun day :)

This morning before feeding the kittens I opened the door to let them go out for a little while (trying to get them used to the garden). Mac ventured out as far as the flower bed and had a sniff around. Bellatrix wasn't keen to go out and decided to stay in the kitchen.

It wasn't too long before Mac decided it was much warmer inside and headed back indoors.

I can't say I blame him, this was the ice on the table outside and the temperature on my computer was showing -3C.

Emily and I left home around 9am and headed out to The Quilt Room in Dorking. I have a quilt to make and needed to find some suitable material. What do you think of this little selection? The Quilt Room have moved premises and (I may be wrong) the new shop feels smaller than the previous one and the selection likewise, wasn't as good as the last time we went. However, that said, I think this quilt could be very cute when it's finished. Will keep you posted.

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Our next stop was St Marcus Fine Foods in Redhill which is a South African shop. We'd run out of curry powder and nearly out of peanut butter and, seeing as Redhill isn't that far from Dorking, I decided to kill two birds with one stone this morning. When we got there the first thing we noticed when we opened our doors was the smell of boerewors (which translated means farmer's sausage) cooking on the braai (barbecue). They were making and selling boerewors rolls but we didn't buy because we were getting boerewors for ourselves anyway and that's going to be dinner tonight. Needless to say we found a few other bits and pieces while we were there too ;o) -South African shops always bring back memories. (And I forgot to take photos!)

We got home just after 1pm and left again just before 2 to meet my friend Pam for a coffee at Neros. Pam had been at the same coffee morning as me on Thursday but we didn't get a chance to chat, so arranged to meet today as well :o). Emily came too and had a hot chocolate with cream and a chocolate cupcake. They looked yummy so I had to take a photo; mine didn't look as good. Now after that quick summary, time for me to go and start cooking said boerewors.

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Enjoy your evening/weekend

xx

PS I also ended up buying some more wool because I really enjoyed knitting the last little cardigan and can think of at least two more I could make.

Friday again!

I had said we were going to have a quiet day today and that's exactly what we did. We stayed at home most of the day, Emily made a start on some school work to be handed in in March and I got on with my knitting (as well as doing housework, washing, etc.) The little cardigan I started yesterday is now virtually finished, just the sleeves to sew up and a button to sew on. I also need to give it a light press then I'm done! It was fun to knit and I couldn't get over how quickly it came together. The little album and photo frame arrived in the post today from Ruth. Each Saturday Ruth has a Pink Saturday give away on her blog "Everyday Life of a Suburban SAHM" and the names of people who left comments go in the draw. I always tend to leave a comment but have never expected to win. Last week I did win :) and this was my prize. Thank you Ruth, they are lovely! xx

Busy knitting

This morning I met up for coffee with friends and popped across the road to have a look at the wool. I had been thinking of crocheting a granny blanket but the wool I liked was £4.50 per 50g ball. I can't afford that at the moment so decided to see what knitting patterns they had. I found one I liked and loved this green baby wool. I got started this afternoon (while watching some ER) and have continued this evening

You can see a peek of the pattern here and the sleeves. This pattern is different to any I've made before in that you knit the sleeves to the armhole cast off stage and then put them on a holder. I'm now knitting the body of the cardigan all in one piece and the sleeves get added in at the appropriate place and then you shape the raglan all in one go. Not quite sure how it works but will find out soon enough :) Thanks Jane for getting me started on knitting again and Ruth for getting me watching ER. I'm thoroughly enjoying both at the moment :)

Emily also thought about starting her scarf again. She wasn't happy with her current one because the edges weren't neat. I started a knitted one for her but she doesn't know if she wants to carry on with that or whether she wants to go back to crocheting (hence both crochet hook and knitting needles are out). I think this afternoon reading her book won out instead!

And finally, a couple of days ago I walked in to the kitchen and saw this reflection on the ceiling. It looks like a crystal heart - had to grab my camera and get a photo.

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Looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow :)

xx

Busy afternoon

We had a bit of running around to do today

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I was up fairly early to take Hugh to the station by 8am. He was meeting the editor of the website he's writing for and they were going to meet a couple of games designers. It was an all day affair and it sounds like he had a good day. It was all new for Hugh and good experience.

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Claire had the day off and went to Crawley in the morning to pick up something for Craig. As is always the case when she goes to Crawley, she did a bit of shopping too. Today it was new jeans and a dress. Still made it back to EG by 12.30 - not bad going

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Emily and I had a quiet morning at home before dropping a camera off at a friend's work place, then heading into town to meet up with Claire. We had a quick lunch at Starburger before going in to town to do a few things.

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From town we headed straight over to my sister Kay's for her birthday tea and cake. Unfortunately I didn't take my bigger camera with me and just had my point and shoot. I'm really not happy with the photos I'm getting with it and as a result don't have many to share (and even those I have got aren't brilliant :o( ). When we got there both Tyler and Alyssa were asleep so we had to wait for them to wake up before lighting the candles on the cake.

Once Tyler had woken up properly he was only too happy to help his Nan blow out the candles.

Alyssa gets bigger by the day and I can't believe she'll be four months old on the 25th. Time flies! She's full of smiles at the moment and I just love the way she tries to "chat" to you. So sweet.

And finally, one of my two beautiful girls, Claire and Emily. To give you an idea of the problems I'm having, Emily was wearing a purple sweatshirt! I guess you wouldn't have realised that!

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We left Kay's in time to get Emily to the Orthodontists. She'd had another two brackets come off since we were last there so they had to fix on new ones again. She's been told she has to cut her food into tiny pieces so that she doesn't have to chew too much! What fun! She's also not impressed that she has to have a tooth removed when she goes to the dentist on 01 March.

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We had a enough time to watch the latest episode of Glee, and for me to get Jon's dinner in the oven, before we headed out for haircuts. Mary cuts our hair at her house and we usually go in the evening. Claire had the most cut off while Emily and I just had our fringes trimmed and ends neatened. I'm still growing my hair - can't believe I've made it this far. It's now just past my shoulders and I'm hoping by summer I will be able to tie it up (without looking silly!).

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Congratulations to Steve and Vicky (Jon's nephew and his fiance) whose baby girl, Tatiana, was born today, weighing 6lb 12oz.

xx