January

January in a nut shell:

Finished Objects:

2 Skirts using this pattern, soon to be blogged.

1 pair of earrings

2 necklaces, again, still to be blogged.

1 Star Wars themed birthday cake

Books Read:

2nd Chance by James Patterson - this was great, looking forward to getting stuck in to the 3rd book in the series!

Half Way though Cupcakes at Carringtons by Alexandra Brown - a little light relief from murder books :)

Weight Lost:

5lb - yipee! Only another 22lb to go...

Worst Bits (before best bits to get them over with):

Watching my Mum go through the first round of Chemo.

The emotional roller coaster that we continue to be on as a family.

Head lice - yuk!

Best Bits:

Big E's 9th Birthday celebrations

Sewing day at the Stitchery in Glasgow with fellow sewing bloggers (which I forgot to take photos of...)

Snow!

Watching as E, e and their wee cousin become more and more crazy about each other :)

Doing the 30 days of yoga series, I am a few behind but this has kept me sane in what has been a crazy month!

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4/52 , Burns and Lice!!

Big E: Still building birthday lego!

little e: Head Lice!! Arghhh......

Anakin: Just because he is cute :)

Today is Burns Day today and what more of a fitting tribute to Burns than actually finding lice in little e's hair during church... Burns wrote To a Louse after seeing one on a ladies hat in church.

To A Louse

Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie? 

Your impudence protects you sairly; 

I canna say but ye strunt rarely, 

Owre gauze and lace; 

Tho', faith! I fear ye dine but sparely 

On sic a place.

I turned to quiet the kids during a prayer and saw 2 lice mating, with another one watching , right on the back of her head! Arghhhh, I picked them out, dropped them on the floor and stood on them. This afternoon has been spent de-lousing (we only found 2 more but have all been treated) !

Now to deal with the mountain of washing, joy

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R2D2/Darth Vader/Yoda Cake

I made a strategic error on Saturday when asking Big E what kind of birthday cake he wanted, I googled Star Wars cake with him, big mistake, he immediately knew this was the cake he wanted:

via

Another Star Wars cake, slightly less involved than the ATAT from 3 years ago!

He decided this yesterday morning, 24 hrs before his birthday party...

I set to work though, I made a Victoria sponge for the bottom layer and a chocolate sponge for the middle and top. I made R2D2's head using a pyrex bowl. After cooling the cakes I filled the sponges with buttercream then crumb coated them. I should have let them cool for a bit longer as they started to buldge and slip when I put the fondant on but it wasn't too bad.

I didn't have the right colour for R2D2, these are his party colours! I also ran out of time for the fine detailing,

Darth is also lacking the finer details,

and I didn't have brown food colouring so this is what I managed for Yoda's cape!

The chocolate layer was eaten at Big E's party and hopefully Yoda will still be edible tomorrow for his 9th birthday!

The kids loved the cake and no one commented on the wrong colour of R2D2!

Oh, and before I forget, you can follow along with the blog in the places in the side bar but also now on instagram, it would be great to find some new folk to follow there!

Linking to some of these link parties.

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3/52 : What a week

What  a few weeks, possibly the most nerve wracking ever. My Mum was diagnosed with cancer at Christmas and we have been waiting nervously to find out what will happen. The week ended well though, with news that my Mum's cancer is treatable, I think we all feel like we have won the lottery! This year is going to be very tough for my Mum but she is determined and will fight this every step of the way.

We got a wee bit of snow during the week, I wish we had more, I love snow! little e made herself a tiny Gruffalo snowman!

Today was Big E's birthday party, we had a party at my in-laws garden railway, all the kids had a fab time! He is 9 on Tuesday, I have no idea how that happened!

Off to recover now!

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2/52

Week 2 and after saying I would make these posts 'proper' posts I have failed this week, in fact I forgot to take photos so tea time ones will have to do....!

Big E: He sees the camera and immediately goes cross eyed!!

little e : actually eating, not willingly though! 

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DIY (Very) Big Earrings!

I was in hobbycraft (which is always dangerous) after Christmas and, in the name of market research, bought this kit. I have made up some learn to sew kits and booklets but have been researching other types of kits to see what you get for your money (not much it turns out...!).

This kit was made up of really cheap findings and beads and had minimal instructions, in fact they were just plain wrong in places and I had to go by the picture on the front of the box instead. I would not recommend this kit, definitely not worth the £9 it cost! Anyway I now have an enormous pair of earrings that I will never wear, they will go in my gift drawer!

Hopefully my next make will be more successful!

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1/52

I am going to do the 52 project again this year but hopefully make it a bit more interesting by making it snapshots from the week or an outing rather than it all being Big E and little e! Here goes:

We are really lucky to live about 5 minutes drive from the Pentland Hills, there is no better place to go for a walk on a freezing cold and sunny Saturday afternoon!

Big E: Pulling a face as usual!

little e (and Daddy!): in the bird hide looking out over the reservoir, mute swans and tufted ducks were spotted!

clean air means lots of lichen!

This is the photo going on their Christmas Thank You cards!

 Back soon with some jewellery I have been making!

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Hello 2015

Happy New Year!

I was going to write how I planned to make small goal each month instead of resolutions but unfortunately, a few days ago, my Mum got a pretty awful diagnosis after tests she had on Christmas Eve. The main focus of this year will now be getting my Mum back to full health and making sure she obeys what the doctors tell her! We are keeping everything crossed that all will be well but there is a long and no doubt bumpy road ahead. Not the greatest end to 2014 / start to 2015 but hopefully buy the end of 2015 life will be 'normal' again.

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