Doesn't time fly?

Good morning.

It's been a whole year since I started this little blog of mine.

And, to celebrate, I'll be doing a surprise giveaway.

Don't worry, I won't be offering up Violet as a giveaway prize.  Unless you really want her that is!!!!!

To enter all you need to do is answer the following question:

What are the full names of the 4 main human characters in Scooby Doo?   

(I'm not after the name of the person behind the voice, I'm after the actual character's full name - yes, they do all have surnames).

Violet's been a little obsessed with all things Scooby Doo of late so I thought we could have a little bit of fun by posing a Scooby Doo related question.  But, don't worry if you don't know, or can't find, the answer, you can still enter my giveaway.

We've got my best friend and her little boy (aka Violet's boyfriend) staying with us for the rest of this week so I wont be around blogland for a wee while.  

I wish you all a lovely week, and if you 're off with your children, I hope you have a fun packed half term. 

My giveaway will be open until the end of February.

Good luck.

*

Take a chill pill Jill.

It's been quite a few years since I last bought a house, but I can't ever remember having so much trouble trying to actually speak to the mortgage advisor at the bank/building society.  

I seem to be spending hours hanging on the phone, listening to very cheesy music, waiting to be put through to the right person.  

These days you have to go through a call centre, using a premium rate number, then listen to options that don't apply, speak to a call centre person who doesn't know what the hell's going on, only to be told 20 minutes later that they can't put me through, but that they'll get said person to call me back ASAP, and no, they can't give me their direct dial number - arrrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  

Frustrating is not the word!

Anyway, I'm sure I'll get the cogs of this house purchase moving along soon.  Email seems to be the way forward.

Did you want to see more housey photos?

(I've copied these photos from Rightmove so they would be available to the public anyway).

Just check out that lovely garden - room to grow fruit & veg and for Violet to run around in.  There's plenty of lovely little spots to sit and read a book too. It'll be bliss to have a garden again.

*

Simply divine

Where do I begin????

I've got some very, very, very good news to tell you all.

On Sunday we went to view this house....

We put an offer on it yesterday.  

And, guess what?  

It's been accepted.

I'm so excited and can't quite believe that we've finally managed to bag ourselves a new home.  It's been a shed load of stress and a longgggggggggggggggggggggggg time coming

I'm now keeping everything very firmly crossed that it all goes smoothly.

OMG - We could actually be living in this beautiful house in 6-8 weeks time.

I could scream my excitement to the World.

Pinch me somebody (but, not too hard).

On an equally lovely note.

Head on over to the Divine Chocolate website for a chance to win a heap of goodies in celebration of Fairtrade Fortnight.  As well as lots of chocolately goodness, you can also win smellies from Neal's Yard Remedies and some 'pants'.  Go and check it out.  You've got to be in it to win it.  Good luck!

O Happy Day!

*

One less stress to worry about

Yesterday something arrived that I've been dreading for months.

 

Violet's nursery admissions letter.

There it sat, staring at me from inside our mailbox.

I glared at it.

It glared back.

Are you the bearer of good news or bad news I wonder.

Do I open you straight away and get it over with, or do I wait until the other half comes home so we can open you together?????

Be brave Jill and just rip it open.

OK - I will.

Here goes......

Yay - Violet's been offered a place at our first choice of nursery.  

Happy, happy, happy.

What a stress parenting can be - and this is just the beginning of all the decisions that'll have to be made through the coming years. 

At least this is one less stress for me to worry about.

I think I deserve a large bag of Mini Eggs to celebrate!

Wishing you all a very happy weekend.

*

Cheeri-uppy

Last week the lovely Vivienne, over at Green Rabbit Designs, sent me copies of some great 80's knitting patterns for children.  I've been keeping my eye out for 'vintage' patterns for a while now, and when Vivienne blogged about some of her old patterns, I cheekily asked her if she'd got any, which she thought Violet might like.

Just look what she sent me..

What a very kind lady Vivienne is (she makes the most beautiful knitted bags and crocheted corsages too). 

So before I begin knitting my Babette cardie (again), I thought I'd use up some of my stashed yarn and knit something a little Summery for Violet with an Eighties feel to it. 

I had this lovely Rowan Handknit Cotton in Sunflower (shade 336), which I picked up for £25 for 10 balls, and it's just perfect - very cheeri-uppy.

I thought I'd give this pattern a go.  What do you think? 

It's a Hayfield pattern (#00901).  A double knit, cropped Aran style sweater.

This is my first attempt at cabling and I have already made a couple of changes to the pattern.  However, so far things seem to be going OK.

However, I don't think I'm a lover of cabling, it's a bit too 'faffy' and time consuming for me.  Or, maybe that's to do with the fact that I'm a bit of a novice at it.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

I'm a little late in joining the party, but I'm hoping to take part in Kathy's great idea for a Photo Scavenger Hunt.

 

February's Scavenger List:

• a big lorry/truck
• a big round clock face
• a bridge
• a musical instrument
• a newspaper headline
• a park bench
• a postbox
• eyes
• something heartshaped
• something red
• something with stripes
• your shoes

I'll be posting my efforts on my blog at the end of each month, and on the Flickr Group too. 

Maybe this little project will give me something to focus on and I may even end up taking some decent photographs too.  Here's hoping.

Thank you to Kathy for organising this.

*