Livvie playing her new drums.

Baby Jake's Taggy Quilt.

I made this yesterday morning. It only took a couple of hours and I'm jolly pleased with it! The front is a patchwork made from some yummy fabric that my friends Debra and Jo from Texas sent.
The back is red fleece and I appliqued a nice little 'J' on it. I have inserted lots of ribbons round the edge seams to serve as little taggies.

Here's a close-up of the applique.

I sent it Special Delivery, so Jakey should be receiving it tomorrow morning. I am safe to put this on the blog tonight (before they receive the parcel) as my wicked brother never reads my blog because it's girlie nonsense!

New Year & Party Games

Well, Christmas and New Year is over and of course I couldn't keep up with the blog-a-day idea! Not only was I busy, busy, busy over the holiday period, but with the children home from school I haven't been able to get near my laptop. Christmas was nice. I got a new watch from Mr.Wooks and some lovely threads from Emily. I got me and Gary some tickets to see Lee Evans next September. Both the girls had a very small pile of presents and were totally satisfied with that, but what they didn't know was that on 1st December we had an insurance policy mature so Emily had money and Livvie had a surprise later in the day when we got to mum's. Just when she thought it was all over we presented her with this:


Bless her, she wasn't expecting anything else and she was so excited she was shaking as she opened the boxes as she must have known what was inside. Not in her wildest dreams would she have expected such an extravagant gift. Thank you Mr. Prudential man! :0)

New year was a blast as usual with loads of silly party games which included Chin Heads:

Danglesplurge. Emily won the magnificent Golden Banana trophy this year:

And Bin Liner Fashions. My team won with this gorgeous creation modelled by Glen:

The other team did this...not entirely sure what it is, but please note the genitalia made from fruit!:

Babs and Mo couldn't join us this year and I must say it was extremely quiet without them cackling! Just for Babs, here's a photo of my new nephew Jake. :0)

I made something scrummy for little Jake today which I will show you in tomorrows blog.

Carols By Candlelight And New Baby - 2 Days To Go!

I cannot believe I was silly enough to forget to take my camera out today (Sunday) so this will be short blog. :0(

This evening we attended the carols by candlelight service at church. I love a good sing-song, TRA LA LA! Everyone carried a candle and there was no artificial light at all, it was very pretty. That got me into the Christmas spirit a bit. :0)

Afterwards we had to rush to mum's as Chris, Sarah and the boys had arrived earlier in the day and we wanted to see them before the boys went to bed. We just made it as Aaron had just gone to bed and Jo was on his way to sleepy land with his bottle. We nipped up to see 6 year old Aaron and wind him up a bit about Christmas Eve. He was a little disappointed as he had made some reindeer food at school but forgotten to bring it. I told him not to worry as we could make some Christmas Eve. Reindeer food, for those who don't know, is a mixture of oats and nuts with the addition of sparkly glitter. Apparently, the glitter glints in the moonlight and tempts the reindeer off the roof for a little snack.

Jo (aged 2) wasn't talking much as he had his bottle and was so tired from his exciting day.

Jake (9 days) was a little more receptive and gave us a full rendition of all his squeals, snorts, cross eyes and dribbles to coo over! This was the first time we'd seen him and he's such a little munchkin with the baggiest of little sticky legs and a nosey the size of my finger nail. I shall of course put some piccies on later. :0)

Pizza Night and Art Gallery - 3 days To Go!

We spent today (Saturday) in Sheffield doing some last minute Christmas shopping. As a special treat for Livvie we let her spend some time in The Peace Gardens where all the 'Dirty Goffics' hang out. The thing is, all the 'Dirty Gofficks' are her friends! It's so funny to see all these lanky teenagers dressed in black and even the boys have black eyeliner and long black hair. They think they look so cool but I always have a private laugh at what idiots they all look! Livvie on the other hand, has the brightest blonde hair and bright clothes and really stands out from the crowd. As mean as they all look, they all came bounding over for a group hug when Livvie arrived. They're not so hard after all!

After that we took Livvie to the Graves Art Gallery for some sketching time. We sat opposite each other and decided to do portraits.

This the sketch I did of Liv, mmmmmm. More like Livvie in ten years time! It looks nothing like her.Well......the hair is good!And this is Liv's sketch of me:
I can see it's me, can you? :0)

Tonight we had a pizza night (not my favourite thing) and Vicki joined us as well. I had to put Vicki on the blog or she'd moan. All please say hello to Vicki! Vicki will be joining us for our New Years Eve party which is by now legendary. I'm sure she'll have great fun and not tell her mum too much!!! I just hope she doesn't win the Danglesplurge Championship or she'll steal the trophy. We have decided that if she does win, she can take the trophy home for a few weeks and then it'll have to be in Emily's room after that for viewing. :0)

Alternative Christmas Presents - Still 5 Days To Go!

I just heard that my cousin Lynne has asked for something from this website for Christmas. What a fantasmagorical idea! I am so impressed that I am going to ask for things from here too when my birthdays comes round. That will be February 1st......I say FEBRUARY 1st. :0)

http://www.greatgifts.org/GiftCertificateSelection/Success07.aspx?adid=welcome6

Look at all the cool things you can buy! Please do take a look and put it in your favourites for when you have to buy a gift for someone.

We in the Western world want for practically nothing. A small purchase on this website can change a family or indeed a whole villages lives.

Someone get me a bog will they?!!!

Daddy's Home And Sausage Rolls - 5 Days To Go!

Daddy's home! Mr. Wooks arrived home last night to the sweet smell of freshly cooked sausage rolls, yummy. I also did a batch of veggie rolls for Emily to my own recipe and they turned out really well. This has to be the most unflattering photo of us ever, but it captured the moment. *love*

These are the carniverous rolls with pastry just like Mr. Wooks mummy used to make:

Most of them are still plated up for you doubters out there! We all had a few and then had dinner, so there was no room for any more. I'm sure we'll polish them off tonight though! Below is the mess I get into when I make pastry. I just can't help it. Pastry making is the messiest job around!