Wepre Woods in Winter

Happy New Year!

I'm on a mid Christmas decoration removal break so thought I would pop in and say hello rather than just sit here idly. 

In 2012 I took you on a walk through Wepre Woods and I promised to show you this same walk during other seasons. We have been on it since but I didn't blog as this was in the summer. One of my Christmas presents was a new pair of wellies from Cath Kidston so, after eating too much and being far too lazy, I suggested to my youngest that we could go for a walk in Wepre Woods? A little to my surprise he agreed (he did get an Xbox for Christmas you see) so off we went. Again, this post is mostly pictures but that is the point of it really.

The Wellies

Like most of the country we have suffered some really bad winds recently so we saw lots of sights like this all over the woods.

  

This was my favourite picture this time.

I had to test them properly by paddling!

It was really nice to get out of the house for a couple of hours. We had very festive 'picnic' by the castle too consisting of satsuma's, crisps, and a mince pie. Child #3 is now desperate to go again because, following this outing, we realised his wellies were a bit too small, so he now owns a new pair too. His are superman ones though. It has rained constantly since then and I am too much of a wimp to do this when it's actually raining (I'm sure he wouldn't mind at all though!).

Christmas 2013

I really must blog more because when I don't I then have to try and cram lots in to a single post or write lots of posts at the same time which isn't ideal either. Let's start with Christmas anyway.

I told my eldest 2 that they were not to open their stockings before 6am. I was awoken on Christmas morning by Child #2 pottering about on the landing. I thought that maybe she would get her stocking and go an open it but it was still dark so I checked the time...6:01am. She'd clearly been awake and waiting for the clock to strike 6! Despite this, I didn't hear any stocking opening and she just seemed to go back to bed. I thought it was odd but went with it and attempted to sleep again. Then I got a text at 6:29: 

"You awake?x" 

I knew then that more sleep wasn't an option. That would have been ok if I hadn't had to stay up until 1am on Christmas Eve to play Santa to my youngest who claims he still believes. I'm sceptical to say the least but went along with it for one more year. So, we were all up and dressed by about 7am this year ready to open this lot...

Child #3 was about to burst with excitement...

All for this....an Xbox!

The older 2 were only marginally less excited too...

Its never too early for a 'Onsie' either apparently, I think this was taken at around 10:30am. (Note child #3 in the background, on his xbox, where he remained for most of the day and even managed to get refreshments delivered to him by passing siblings on a regular basis. He was evicted to the portable tv setup after tea with a frown!)

I cooked...and I did really well too....

I was, however, still eating it until yesterday...it was delicious though.

So that was that. It was a lovely relaxing day, where we all just did whatever we liked. No arguments, no tantrums (those were saved for the following days) and no crying if only every day at Vivod was like that!

I think the Angel may have had one too many though...

The 'Afternoon Tea' Knitted Blanket

Wow....I cannot believe I am actually going to say this...IT'S FINISHED!!

The blanket I began in the summer of 2011 is finally complete. Look!!!....

2 years and about 3 months later! It's not that big really either (it's laid out on a double bed in the photo above) but...BUT....it was all knitted on 3mm needles. Any knitters out there I am assuming will now be impressed. (For non knitters that a bit like cutting an acre of grass with nail scissors.) If that's not enough to justify the delay then can I also highlight that the squares (all 81 of them) called for various skills like beading, intarsia, cable etc. Well anyway, I worked out that I knitted something in the region of 165,000 (!!!) stitches. Enough said.

Here's some more pictures...

So that's it, and it has been finished in time to make a lovely gift for Child #2 for Christmas, I think that was only reason I have been motivated to finish it in 2013 to be honest. 

Half Term...

Hello! It's been a while! Work is still very busy but I won't be dwelling on that today. It's half term here and I'm so grateful for the break. We haven't done anything significant, just appreciated not having to do that much. So, there are probably lots of things that I've done since I last blogged properly but I will not be talking about all of that today or we would be here for hours. I did finally gloss the stairs last weekend though which I'm quite proud of. I still need to finish the bannister and may even manage that before then end of the week but we shall see.

I have been quite creative in between working. Child #1's blanket is looking good...

I will get it done this year! Very pleased with it so far though. Child #2's blanket is only 8 squares and 2 borders away from completion too. (Please don't be mistaken into thinking that I have overcome my issues with incomplete projects....I haven't...quite the opposite but I have given up caring. They all get finished in the end so does it really matter?!)

Child #3 has been up to his usual October half term activity...

I don't know what it is about this half term holiday but lego building always seems to feature, maybe its a because winter is on its way?

Talking of winter being on it's way, I too have certain things that I seem to do at this time, one of which is cooking. I've done loads this week and currently waiting on Asda to deliver so that I can do more.  So far, since the start of the weekend I have made:

Soda Bread....

Smoked Haddock and Spinach Quiche (with home made wholemeal pastry)...

Apple upside down cake... (bit of a disaster resulting in lots of maple syrup on the oven floor! - it was still nice)

Country Soup...

Vegetable Paella with eggs....

Now the problem I really have is that I want to bake cakes and pies the most. Which is fine but ultimately leads to me eating cakes and pies in vast quantities. Not good. Now, in my last brief post I mentioned that I lost weight (just over a stone I think) so now I'm trying to convince myself that I like cooking healthy things but if I'm honest its just not as much fun! Why is life so hard?? I just want to bake bad things, eat bad things but not put weight on!

I shall persevere with the healthy cooking for now anyway but I will be making bad things on Sunday...that's what Sundays are for.

Bye for now.

Back soon

I am still here but just taking a little blogging break. It is that time of the year again. I refer you back to this post, and it has, well and truly  been that time of the year again. However, this time has been 3 times as bad. This is down to 2 reasons:

• We merged. We are now more that twice the size we were and I now am responsible for more than twice the amount of enrolments, funding, data and staff.

• I was ill during Main Enrolment!! Not just a cold, but properly  - 'Can barely get out of bed' ill!! Obviously I did get out of bed and go to work on almost every day but it did hinder things somewhat to say the least!

Anyway, there is light at the end of the tunnel, things are getting much better at work to the point that I did actually take some time off on Friday and devoted it to me. (Aka Knitting :-) ) I promise to come back soon and update you on some things that have been happening around all of that at Vivod. Namely stitching, cooking, weight loss (yes, there is a plus side to working 80 hour weeks!), and concert ticket buying (we deserve something to look forward to!!).

Can I just highlight that not everyone at Vivod has been quite so busy though...

!!!!!

See you soon.

xx