Grrrr!

Grrr...
...a friendly monster purse which I recently purchased from The Linen Cat. It's for N's birthday which is not till July, just thought I'd better get one while they were still in stock. I've seen so many lovely purses for girls but none (apart from Beth's!) for boys.

Grrr...
... this is how the weather has been pretty much since my last post over a week ago. Cold and wet. We've all been wearing big cosy cardigans and winter jackets and most definitely socks. May is usually my favourite month (and often has the best weather as sometimes summer just doesn't happen here) so I have not been happy!

Grrr...
... I made some mince pies with the mincemeat I had left from Christmas. I had only made the short lasting mincemeat (ie hadn't bothered to include the heating step) so needless to say the mincmeat was indeed a little off so although they looked nice they weren't especially tasty. Still, good enough for us to eat and they didn't end up on the bird table which has been the fate of some of my baking in the past.

On to more happy happenings now...

...N and I went on a sponsored toddle.

It was absolutely pouring down until about ten minutes before the walk was due to start and then stayed dry for much of the rest of the day, hurrah!

Due to the rain we'd got the bus to the meeting point. While waiting for it's return I photographed this lovely little thistle detail on the war memorial next to the bus stop (it turned into a long wait, we could have walked home quicker!)

My parents popped in en route to the airport, their first visit since December. Amongst other things I made lemon curd muffins from Hugh FW's River Cottage Everyday. The were yummy, and look there was some sunshine during the photo shoot too.

And on to the blanket...

I had a bit of difficulty in deciding what kind of background to use. The original intention was to use a beige colour like Andrea did for her lovely version of this blanket. However, I just didn't think so much beige would look good in our living room. I still liked the idea of using just one colour so that the circles would stand out, I tried a blue/green which is pretty much the colour of the sofa the blanket is intended to be used on, but there wasn't enough of a contrast between this colour and the circles. So I have decided to use random colours, similar to the sample on the left but with bigger stitches so that there is more space between the circles. I also wanted to join as I go so I devised a way to do that too, and then decided I didn't like the red, gold and pale purple after all, so big changes from the original plan.

N calls it a turtle blanket, you can see why.

His teddies finally got a much needed wash. It was too rainy for them to be dried outside, so not such a photogenic scene as it might have been

A's class at school are doing a fairyland project, part of which involves taking a cuddly dragon home for the night and writing about it in The Book. Happily A was keen to write her own story (some previous entries had been written by parents). I just thought it was really good! I like the idea of sailing the seven seas before bed time. (Click pic to view it larger).

And here is how things were just before I started writing this post. The sun was shining, the blanket was coming on and N was playing happily with his fire engines. N is still happy, the blanket is still there, but I notice it's now raining so the two washing loads I have hung out on the line won't exactly be getting dry. I've just got up to look out the window properly - the earlier patches of blue sky have all now disappeared. I had hoped to finish on a high note but the weather is horrible again. Please can we have a warm day without rain soon!