Contented

And the winner is...

Thanks for all your comments on my giveaway!  I think owls probably came out as the top choice for your favourite birds, but robins, ducks, penguins, blue tits and hummingbirds all got several votes.  But you really just came here to find out who the winner was, right? ;)  I used a random number generator to pick out the winner and it was...

Number 6 which was Maria!  Congratulations Maria, if you could email me your address I'll get your prize sent off asap.

(By the way, if anyone can tell me how to get a pic of the number generator screen onto the blog, I'd be very grateful!)

Big thanks to everyone who took part but also a HUGE thanks to everyone who has taken the time to leave me a comment over the last 18 months or so - I really do appreciate every single one of them!

I will be back again next week to share with you news of a lovely swap parcel and, of course, my day out at the Country Living Christmas Fair - I have some serious eye candy to show off!

Take care

R x

Freebie time!

I noticed that I just passed the 1000 comments mark, so have decided to have a little giveaway to celebrate!

Up for grabs is this cute owl fabric zippered pouch, which is about 8x6inches big, and which I will fill with goodies.  If you'd like the chance to win it, leave me a comment and I'll pick a winner out of the hat on Saturday (14th).  Just to make it a bit more fun, tell me what your favourite bird is - mine is the robin, so cute and so Christmassy too!

Good luck!

R x
 

Kerrymaid Giveaway

My lovely blog pal Emma is having a giveaway on her reviews blog here- this fantastic hamper is up for grabs, to help promote the launch of a new garlic butter product.   Click on over and take a look. 

Now, I don't have a particular garlic butter recipe to share, but you really can't beat it, spread on some toasted French bread and topped with grated cheese, then melted under the grill - yum! 

Good luck if you do enter! (And tell Emma I sent you!!)

R x

The big draw

Thanks so much for all your lovely bloggy birthday wishes!  I hadn't realised quite how many regular blog "friends" I had, and there were a few newcomers too - I hope you come back again!  Anyway, down to business - I've been so excited about this giveaway, I decided to give two runner up prizes as well, of a birdie brooch each.  So, are you ready?  Fingers crossed?  Here we go...

 

The first name out, for the cute fabric basket is....

 

Lucy Locket!  Next, for the buttercup bag, we have....

 

Michelle!   Now, for my runners up, the next two names are...

 

Jessica and Picciolo!  Congratulations, ladies!  If you can let me have your addresses, I'll get your prizes sent off as soon as poss.  Thank you again to everyone who entered, and I'm sorry I can't send you all a little something.  Hope you all have a great weekend.

Happy Easter Everyone!

R x

Easter hols

School holidays are usually very laid back affairs in our house, and this one is turning out no different, which is just the way we like them.  This week we've been mostly at home, just mooching about, but at least the kids have been able to get outside in the nice weather.   It's been lovely to see them playing out there together.  Today, however, has been a bit grey and drizzly, but was brightened up no end for me by another lovely package from the postman:

 

Actually it wasn't from the postman at all (he just delivered it - haha!) but from one of my newer bloggy friends, Lisa.  I won a runner up prize in her giveaway and just look at the lovely things she sent me!

 

(check out the cute little origami bird on the front of the parcel!)

  

A felty hot cross bun, some yummy chocolates and jelly sweets, and a pack of easter bunny decorations, which you can't actually see in the above photo, so here they are on our easter tree:

 

Lisa is another lady who is very talented with felt - not only does she make hot cross buns but loads of other, rather realistic looking, sweet things such as fondant fancies, party rings and, my favourite, fab ice lollies!  Do go over and pay her a visit - tell her I sent you!  Thank you again, Lisa!

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the big birthday giveaway!

R x

One year old

Good morning!  Hold on, it's actually good afternoon already, how time flies!  So today, as you all by now have gathered, is my blog's first birthday!  I can't quite believe it's been a whole year.  365 days, 160 posts, 541 comments, 8110 views(!!!), 3 quilts, 5 pairs of socks, 7 swaps, and too many bags, scarves and felty things to number!  My life has honestly changed so much in this last year - and it's quite wonderful.  I could get all gushy at this point and tell you all how much the whole blogging thing means to me but, to be honest, it's all been said before (and probably much better than I could ever say it), and you guys know already. So I just want to say thank you to you all, for reading my ramblings, leaving me little messages, giving me loads of inspiration and for generally being wonderful friends!  I wish I could have you all over for a cup of tea and a piece of cake!

 

So, to the fun stuff!  As is blogging tradition, I have a giveaway for you.  There are not one but two prizes and I hope you'll like them:

 

- a little soft fabric storage basket, made from that super cute teatowel I showed you the other week,

 

- and another Buttercup bag, made with a button and loop closure this time.  There will be some other little goodies thrown in as well, and I may even pick a couple of runners up too!  You know the drill - leave me a comment on this post and I'll pick names out of the hat next Friday morning (10th).   I will post internationally so my overseas bloggy pals can enter too.  Good luck everyone!   And thanks for sticking with me!

R x

Just dropping in...

...to say "hello!" and to remind you to come back tomorrow when it is my little blog's 1st birthday!  There will, of course, be a giveaway to celebrate, and maybe some cake too!  In the meantime, this week has been good so far - a trip to Ikea (where I only spent £35 - now how did that happen?!), a trip to T.Wells today, some online shopping here (to make up for the fact that the shop I ordered my lovely cheap white cotton from has gone bust!  They don't seem to have debitted my credit card though which is a bonus, at least), and a meeting this afternoon with Joe's teacher and the SENCO lady, just to see how he's been doing this term and where we're at generally, the upshot of which is that we are making some progress, but it's often a case of two steps forward and one back, but at least we are moving foward, and I have some new strategies to try out over the easter hols.

Anyway, hope to see you all tomorrow!

R x

I like Tuesdays

Today is shaping up to be a pretty good day, so far.  First we had Joe's class assembly, which was very sweet.  Joe fidgeted throughout, but at least he was smiling and he held up his letter (the "o" in "courage" - the theme of the assembly) when he was supposed to.  After that, it was a quick hop across the road from school to my friend's house, where we have a regular Tuesday morning get together with various other mums.  It was one lady's birthday so chocolate cake too, yum!

When I got home there were two packages waiting for me - always exciting, even if I did have to pay for them!

 

 

A lovely, Country Living book on storage style, which I can't wait to sit down with and start browsing through with a nice cup of tea.

Then there was also a parcel of yarn from Colinette:

 

Isn't that the most gorgeous colour!  It's called Adonis Blue and I'm going to use it to make a scarf.  "That's not very interesting" you might think, but I'm going to try something a little more taxing than just knit and purl this time - I want to try the "my so called scarf" pattern, which I think you can find here, but I've also spotted it on Ravelry, which I joined last week.

Finally, I had six comments regarding the bag of scraps, so all the names went into a bowl:

 

I stirred them around,

 

and drew out.....

 

Shelley!   If you can email me your address I'll get it posted off to you asap.  Sorry to those who missed out, but it's my blog birthday next month so keep your eyes open for another giveaway soon.

Now I'm off to make that cup of tea and sit down with my new book!

R x

Clear out

My fabric stash may be small, but it is already threatening to overflow what little storage space I have, so today I had a bit of a tidy up and clear out.  All the decent sized pieces of fabric have been nicely folded and stacked in colour groups, but the scraps were really starting to get out of hand, so I have bagged up a selection and was wondering if anyone might like to have them?

 

It's a real mish-mash of plains, patterns, cottons, poly-cottons, plus a few bits of denim and decorating weight fabric too, and in a range of sizes, but i hope someone might find them usable.

 

I'm happy to post this to anywhere in the UK, so if you're interested, leave me a comment.  I'll leave this open until next Monday, 9th and if I get more than one reply I'll draw a name out of the hat. 

Have a great weekend!

R x

Gobsmacked

Oh.  My.  Goodness. 

Once again, I have been completely blown away by the kindness and generosity of fellow bloggers.  This time, the blogger in question is Claire of Matching Pegs in Australia.  Some time ago I won a little giveaway on her blog - the prize was some cute mini pegs (natch!)  Shortly after that, Claire blogged about a quilt of hers that had been published in Australian Homespun magazine, and I very cheekily asked if she could send me a copy of the magazine, and I would send her a UK title in return - a mini swap.  Anyway, this morning a parcel landed on my doormat containing this little lot:

 

Not only did she send the magazine and the pegs (in the little fabric bag) but also:

- A note paper set (her giveaway question was "name your favourite stationery item - mine was pretty notepaper! How thoughtful is that?!)

- A felt flower brooch in purple and lavender - perfect colours for me

- A little tin containing the tiniest star shaped buttons you've ever seen!

 

- And finally, this beautiful stitchery design

 

Claire also wrote me the lovliest letter, including some instructions for the stitchery (which is good as I've not done much in the way of embroidery so I don't want to muck this up!)

 

Here's the page with Claire's quilt on - isn't it fab?!  Thank you so much Claire, what a wonderful bloggy friend!  There will be a parcel winging it's way to you very soon!

R x