Jj's 40th BIRTHDAY today!!!

Hip hip hooray! So it WAS the coldest most windy and hail-ridden day for some time. And it was also JJ's birthday: 40 today! We started with a cupcake tower around 11 pm yesterday and this was ready for breakfast to be snacked on all day...
We were going to go skiing at x-scape in MK but at the last minute JJ wanted to stay home so we walked the dogs at the Prebendal instead and explored a field reached by walking UNDER the by-pass.
Daffodils were the only bright spot as there was an icy wind and lead grey skies all day.

The dogs loved their walk and after we had a super-cosy lunch together and then JJ slept all afternoon. Made me think of my 4oth which was when Miss Y was one month old and I probably slept all afternoon too?

Was thinking how I can't really remember and how I should keep a ''birthdays-book'' to see what we did and how we are/live in all the years as they rush by at ever increasing speed.

My dad died aged 51 and I'll be 50 in 3 weeks from tomorrow so I'm a bit contemplative re birthdays at the mo.

My day was GREAT! Reserved for JJ but not called on much, so apart from cleaning and tidying and baking I finished my book: the self preservation society- very good- and had a shower and hairwash- not so good: rash on face is back.

Having done the goal setting workshop with TR last night I DID do 25 minutes fast ''power'' walking for fitness: to an old Charmed DVD , but then subsided back into procrastination by crocheting some sockwool instead of working on my pleated cupcake cases and my cupcakes.

My tutor didn't approve of my lovely white pleated case nor my chocolate beaded cupcake yesterday.... It has to be more pleated AND embroidered and the cake has to be embroidered too, NOT beaded; aaaah this has to be thought about.

Cupcake tower slightly depleted after the day of snacking, my phone has the ''before'' photo but it is only compatible with JJ's computer and I don't want to disturb the love.
Miss E and Y did splendid pieces of art and literature for JJ on the computer for him and made cards too and small pressies were made as well as bought. We also invested in a load of hardy perennials for the front AND back garden so he will enjoy seeing them grow as he sits on his ( and OURS) beloved swing seat. Miss E wrote an amazing ''newspaper article'' for JJ.
And after a yummy dinner- JJ wanted to cook a pork belly roast a la Jammie O.; we had a log fire and tv time as well as barrel fulls of laughter at Miss Y's video clips. ( she was given a wee video camera for her b'day and has been recording 58 clips since then)

Doggie and person cuddles and a wee bit more crochet for me 2.

I'm LOVING this: a Kaffe Fasset Regia sockwool worked with a 4.5mm hook and a pattern from Kathy Merrick's book: Crochet in Color. ( USA TERMS)

Very denim-y with lovely cafe au lait and milk chocolate as well as dark chocolate accents.

I'm planning to add other variegated KF sockwools though- all in broad stripes of lace.( ????)

So far it's 37 cm wide and 10 cm long and is about 7 width ways pattern repeats and 6 whole pattern-repeats in length. ( it's a multiple of 10 sts plus 3) and this weighs only about 14 g.

The yarn is 210m for 50 g. I'm even thinking a long loose duster coat in this stitch and this wool, open low V at front, very slimline.

It's very easy to work while watching TV as it's such a simple - mainly chains- design in an easy to remember sequence.

I went a little crazy at Kemps wools ( i.e. bought lots of ''to try out'' colours) when I'd tried this pattern stitch out in an acrylic King Cole sockwool before Christmas and these balls of wool have been ''bugging''/ calling to me for some considerable time now....oops.

I'll share the ones I bought with you tomorrow if time allows- I WILL need ( NO not need I'll LOVE TO )to make 2-3 entire cupcakes by tomorrow as I have to have 23 finished by April 19th! EEEEK.

i know i have to think i WANT to make all those cupcakes as because- as soon as you think ''HAVE TO''- it makes you NOT want to do it at all.... SIMPLE psychology really.

i DON'T have to do anything, I CHOOSE to do the course and I desire to pass so I'll be loving it, making those cupcakes. Really I DO.

Dachshund diaries day 24

Can I go back a day or two? To Mother's day? I have to say it was a most moving and spendid sort of day for me and many thanks to all who made it that way, mostly of course due to my husband: THANK YOU JJ!!!

It started a little early- 6 am- as my youngest turned 9 and was oh sooo excited to open her presents that she could wait no longer.....
However she was whisked off fairly promptly and then the homemade cards and home made chocolates made an entrance and I was in tears of joy......It was the cards that always do it for me- that lump in the throat and then you read what they really think and see those drawings and you go oooh how did they get so clever and sweet ?

Then I got up and had a very busy few hours baking a birthday cake : TA DAH above and sorting out the puppies with food and weighing them and changing their papers, washing the red covers by hand to dry in the sunshine, walking the dog in that lovely sunshine....

AND THEN and then : I got very wet, very very wet and HAPPY.First it was a little crochet ( SUCH a treat) and a bit of Doris Day- good ol' ITV 3 had a series of films just for Mother's day!


And then it was a bit more crochet and lots of tears during '' POLYANNA'' - another film which I was allowed to watch entirely in blissful crochety peace...aaaaaah ...Even the choccies could not stop the flow.
After that it was off to my daughter's rollerskating party with the cake and then it was birthday fuss from then on in, great fun absolutely terrific. Nothing better than 9 giggly smiling faces on little girls enjoying themselves at a party.

Today: let's get back to the puppies: they are eating a saucer of ''mush'' once a day and fall asleep half way through being fed... We all take part, trying to feed one pup each but they do walk from one to the other and eat off each other's faces.
Mum has to be locked away and whines furiously until she's allowed in, then she rushes to eat what's left even though she's just been given her own tea in the kitchen....


This is Tom having a look around suspiciously.....

And below is Jack being tickled on his tummy, in his preferred position: on his back.

Lucy is now off the scale... the scales read ''ERROR'' as she's over 2 kg now and that's the limit on my kitchen digital scales...She's still the one least interested in mush and more keen to keep suckling her mum. She has also developed a baby ''growl''- grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ggggrrrrrrrrrrr

No more pictures today as my camera battery was ''dead'' and I was poorly yesterday- was it those choccies????Or the chicken???

Shrove Tuesday

Hello and HAPPY SHROVE TUESDAY otherwise known as pancake day of course!!!

I have just finished work, walked the dog and taken the children to their ''Kumon'' lessons which helps them with their maths skills as the primary school they attend does not really help them in the most essential of skills.

Let's avoid a discussion of this and concentrate on the jolly and colourful day I began with.

First of all a cup of tea by the flowers in the kitchen and grinding up a tablet of raspberry leaf tea to give part to the dog to help her with her imminent whelping. ( that's having puppies by the way- I only learned that the other day!)

Then on with some carrot sticks for lunch- the dog loves the ribbons of carrot peel and I prefer homemade ones to the bags of machined sticks you can buy- these just taste so much better?

The girls and I have them in our luchboxes with yummy tomato-houmous.( from an unnamed but popular local supermarket)

Birds were singing early today and the sounds of Spring always cheer me up enormously, how about you? Been a bit down lately what with work being a tad tedious and the economy and all the bad news about people's jobs etc etc.

So the blackbirds singing their little hearts out were just great such a treat and there's more: lambs in a field just up the road and lots of piglets on the way to the Kumon centre. Showy white snowdrops in abundance everywhere: in the graveyard by the church, around the cricket pitch and by the roadside.

I will try to capture them on camera this week if I can.

Oooh the smell the pancakes is drifting into my workroom from the kitchen: H( for husband) is frying the pancakes and it smells DIVINE! yum : I'll be off to eat them but I leave you with the applecakes my eldest made at the weekend: if you're tempted I'll post the recipe in the next visit!!!

MMMM they are every bit as delicious as they look!

And as a goodbye for now here is the crochet backpack that I'll be working on tonight at the local sticth'n bitch group.

Didn't think I'd leave with no stitching in view did you?