A lovely day....

Just a quick hello from me to you today. I have had lovely day out stitching with my friend Bronny whom I haven't spent time with for months. We had a lovely time, thank you so much my friend.

I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who have been leaving lovely comments for me but have no-reply addresses. I would really love to send you messages but have no way because of the set up you have. That is OK if you want to leave it that way, but it is nice to be able to reply.

Sharon from Highfields, I would really like to send a little message to you in reply, so if you read this again could you go to my profile and email me so I can reply to you.

Still overcast and some little showers going through, it's been really windy, so hopefully that will go and maybe some more rain. The weeds are starting to pop up everywhere, just a small price to pay for the lovely rain though!!!

Nice Matters.....

Thank you Angela at Chelsea Blue Whispers for awarding me a Nice Matters Award.

Isn't it lovely that we can award each other these lovely thoughts and feelings. I really think in a world that a lot of the time is so different and so against the thoughts and values that we hold dear to our hearts and try to live by and raise our families by, that in this world of computers and blogging we can find people who are like minded and trying earnestly to live their lives so differently to how much of the world is. Thank you Angela.
I am, I think supposed to pass this onto someone now. I know a lot of people have had it and I am not completely sure who has. So, I would just like to pass it on to two people. Firstly Jennifer at Buttercup and Roses . Jennifer is a young woman who has her own business - a very lovely little shop in an English village. She should be very proud of herself for at such a young age having a go in her own and business and doing it so well.
Outi at White Country is the other person I would like to pass this award onto. Outi is a lovely lady. She is a busy Mummy with a lovely home and garden. I especially love her playhouse in the garden!! Outi has a lovely blog always with lovlies from her home and garden.

I have had a lovely day today. Still raining on and off and all the house and office uptodate, I was in my sewing room all afternoon!!! For those waiting patiently - I made my PIF gifts. Now, I hope you didn't fall off your chair. I don't think I did too badly - it certainly wasn't 365 days!!
I won't show any pics yet, I will get them away in the mail to the USA and the Netherlands and then show you what I made. I hope the recipients enjoy them.
Any way off now, I might even get something else stitched!!!

Blessings from above........

Please excuse this funny little photo of my two youngest, but you see it rained and in their short lives they havn't really seen too much rain, especially Alexandra. She just recently asked me quite seriously - What is a flood?
They had a wonderful time out in the wet racing little boats down the gutters. Alexandra had made her little pirate ship from foam and Mitchell had a plastic one. They had a great time and hot baths and hot chocolate finished up their wet afternoon fun.
I think this is the most rain we have had at one time for the most of this year. Beautiful water to help to fill the tanks.
Blessing from above - and I am just so thankful.

Enjoying August

August is such a busy month for us with three birthdays to celebrate. Two down, one to go. I can't believe how the last week and a half has disappeared.

Signs of Spring are starting to appear. My Sweet Peas are starting to flower and hopefully will be a lovely display. My new Lilac has come to life and my standard roses that I pruned with great trepidation have also come back to life. The days are a little longer and the taste of Spring is definatley in the air. We had a little rain this morning so hopefully the forcast is correct for more over the weekend. This land of ours needs flooding rains.

Our son Mitchell has celebrated his birthday and is now fourteen. He is a sweety and I hope he stays that way forever!!!

Looking forward to Spring and the warmer weather, to more gardening and more school holidays. But, in the meantime enjoying August and the family times it brings and the promise of a new season.

Another Parcel.......

I have had an horrendous morning getting my children off to school. They missed the bus, so I had to drive them into town which made me so cranky!! As I drove into the driveway I saw on my top step a box - delivered by posty!!! Yea, mail always makes my day.

Closer inspection made my day even better - Leanne from The Stitching Room had sent my PIF gift!!!

Look at that cute paper - hundreds of buttons.

Look what was inside!

Thank you so much Leanne.

Two lovely gifts!! How spoilt am I? The stitching and handwork is absolutely beautiful. I was overcome with emotion when I opened the parcel and saw this beautiful gift. What a lovely group of people I have come across in this land of blogging. I am so glad I started my blog and read so many lovely blogs from all over the world.

I think this little bird looks so cute in amongst the pansies and daisies.

Thank you again Leanne - How many days was that now that I have to get my gifts away?

The Party .....

Tomorrow is Alexandra's 10th birthday. She so desparately wanted a party, so I gave in and said she could have a small one. Well, small it was and it almost didn't happen at all. She had been allowed to invite four friends. By late Saturday morning all but one had rung to say they wouldn't be coming. We had one very, very upset little girl!!

The one little girl left is the daughter of one of my friends, so she stayed for the afternoon and brought her son as well. I rang my brother and his wife to help save the day but Karen was sick too, so my dear brother came and so wonderfully played pass the parcel and helped with the treasure hunt.

Pink Sweets and Cupcakes of course!

With much love for a very Happy Birthday my little Poppet!

A Sack at my front door....

"Nice" mail is always so exciting to receive. I arrived home this morning to find a sack at the front door. I love beautiful books and I love Amazon!!! My wish list goes over two pages at least and I have been sooooo good and not ordered anything for quite a long time. But, I couldn't go any longer without giving in to the "need" for some new lovliness!!, and so the sack above.

I am a little amused by the method of their packing, but mostly the books arrive in good condition despite the lack of packing in the box. I think I have only received one book slightly damaged (only a little tear on the jacket). These thankfully are fine. I feel a little guilty though (just a bit!) having not supported local book stores, but these come at around half the price through Amazon compared to paying local prices! Of course, some of these we don't see readily in the book shops anyway.

I have just leafed through these pages of lovliness and I am not disappointed. It's always a little bit of a gamble to buy a book this way. Mostly though I have read about these in other publications and of course on others blogs.

Now to find a moment to enjoy the inspiration and beauty contained in these lovely books.

My "baby" is turning ten early next week and we have afternoon tea planned with a few little friends on Saturday. So best get organised now for her special day. Hopefully I will have some pics to show of her afternoon.