Loving Autumn

While I do miss the end of the Summer days, I do also truly love Autumn. I think if I'm honest it is my favourite time of year.

I love the beautiful colours and where we live we really do get to see a lot of those colours. We're in the heart of the Chilterns and although we're on the edge of a town, we can be in stunning beech woods within a few minutes walk, or more stunning countryside just a short drive away. There is something particularly beautiful about beech in Autumn. They really do turn the most vibrant orange colour. At the moment there is still a fair bit of green mixed in but this just seems to add to the beauty of the orange shades. 

I can't admit to taking these lovely photos as they were taken by lovely S on Saturday. He and little F went for their first proper Father and Son adventure leaving me to 5 hours of peace with my sewing machine. Most Saturdays since the beginning of this year have been christened 'Daddy Day' as they always go out together in the morning to have a bit of time together and to give Mummy a bit of peace, something I've really especially appreciated while pregnant. Usually they end up in town and often meet Nanny and Grandad for coffee. But last week S announced that they were going for a walk and taking a picnic. They did a walk that S did as a child which we've been meaning to do. Part of it involves going to the top of a lovely hill, part of it is through beautiful beech woods and part takes you round land on the 'Chequers' estate. You can see the house in the picture above. Not sure if the PM was in or not! Little F absolutely loved it and came back covered in mud with tales of all the things they'd seen as well as a big stick he'd collected and some dandelions for Mummy. It's definitely a walk I'm looking forward to doing once I'm more mobile again. 

The other thing that I love about Autumn is that it is the start of snuggly cosy season. It's a time for lighting candles in the evening and making everything snug and warm. 

I had a re-arrange of the mantle-piece the other day to make room for lots more candles. I would really like to paint the fireplace as the wood is a little orange, but as I may have mentioned before, lovely S is not quite sold on my desire to paint everything in sight and is currently resisting this particular paint project. So for now it stays wood coloured and I'm putting up with the blue tiles that I don't really love either. I'm still happy with how it looks though now I've got all my cream candle holders arranged. It did make me realise that I need far more though. What I really need is some cream candlesticks as all I seem to have is lanterns or tea light holders. One thing I did do to create more holders was to use a cream pot (second from the right) to hold a tea light. It's added more in the way of cream to the shelf, and although you don't see the actual candle, it gives off a lovely glow from the top that works really well. 

Back again next week hopefully with some nursery photos. It's just about done but I still have the pictures to put up. Have a lovely weekend. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Candlelit Breakfast

Here we are at Friday again. Can't quite believe it. The weeks are flying past at the moment! Doesn't seem a minute since last Friday when I spent the morning in my PJs baking little F's Birthday cake.

It's very gloomy here this morning so I lit a little candle for us to eat our breakfast by. For a 2 year old my son has quite sophisticated taste as he loves it when we light candles while eating. I guess it's the pretty flickery light. I can't wait to see what his reaction to all the Christmas lights is going to be this year. I reckon this will be the first Christmas where he will be properly excited by it and may even remember some parts of it in years to come. I can certainly remember some things when I was two.

Despite the gloom and drizzle we're going to venture out and about this morning. We have library books to return and I desperately need to buy a new iron as ours decided to drastically overheat and die on us last Sunday while lovely S was in the middle of ironing his work shirts. Luckily he was on his last one but it was completely ruined and our ironing board is now sporting a lovely black iron shaped mark right in the middle of it. He was not impressed! Apart from needing the ironing to get on with the general ironing pile(yes I am a bit of an ironing freak and even do my teatowels!) I also want to spend tomorrow morning while S and F are out on their usual Saturday morning 'boys time' completing new curtains for Little F's room so that I can move his current ones into babies room. My super Daddy put up the blackout blind and curtain pole in babies room yesterday so I really want to get the curtains up now as that will really start to pull things together in there. I promise I will share pictures once it's all done.

I just wanted to say thanks for all the lovely baby blanket comments. You're all so kind. I know how busy everyone is but I do so love to hear from you all.

Have a lovely weekend.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Baby Blanket 'Ta Da'

I've been meaning to show you this for the last few days as I finally finished the blanket some time last week.

I'm really happy with it. I'm not the Worlds best or quickest knitter and considering the last time I did something like this was seven years ago, I don't think it's too bad. It does look a bit wobbly in places, particularly as the stripy squares turned out a slightly different size to the cream ones and I had to pull them just a bit to get them to fit together. Yes I know, those of you who are fab knitters will probably be cringing at that!

But generally I'm very happy with the end result and I don't think it looks too girly which is something I was worrying about despite there being blue and green in the stripes as well as pink. I'm sure either a boy or a girl are going to look at home snuggled up inside it.

I just hope it's going to be big enough to wrap around my new little babe. It measures 55cm x 65cm. In my head I just can't visualise how big this baby might be having had such a teeny tiny prem baby the first time around. I had a scan last week and they estimated baby to be already 5lb5oz. Little F didn't get to that size until he was 2 months old. With potentially 5 more weeks growing time plus the week we've just had I guess this baby could be up to 8lb or a bit more. Little F didn't reach that weight until he was 4 months old and by then he didn't seem like a new born. We'll see. I'm sure the blanket will be snuggly enough and I'm just so pleased to have been able to make it. I really enjoyed the knitting and would like to do more now.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So much I would like to do

My brain is popping with ideas and inspiration this afternoon. There is so much I would like to do. Things in the house, ideas for the garden next year, new crafts and creative things I would like to try. So so much, but as I am currently the size of a house with very little energy I am contenting myself with sitting on the sofa, eating the remains of the chocolate buttercream I made yesterday for Little F's 2nd Birthday cake, and taking a good browse around the internet adding to my inspiration.

I started the afternoon by visiting Jen's lovely blog and got all inspired by her beautiful holiday journal. I so want to create one for our honeymoon which is three and a half years ago! I also want to do some sort of journal/album for Little F so far and a new one for the new babe when it arrives. Seeing Jen's book has made me really determined to achieve these goals.

I then skipped over to Claire's inspiring blog and have spent almost an hour reading all about her journalling and notebooks. I love notebooks and want to do more with the ones I have.

The other day I was tagged by Ada on VintageSheetAddict. I'm not normally one for tagging but I'm going to partly participate in this one. These were the rules.

The Rules:

Each tagged person must post 11 random facts about themselves.

Answer the 11 questions set by previous blogger.

Create 11 more questions.

Tag 11 more blogs, with less than 200 followers.

Inform the blogs they've been tagged! 

I'm going to do half of this by giving you 11 random facts and answering Ada's questions but I'm not going to tag anyone else. 

Random Facts - Autumn is my favourite season, I hate spiders, I love the smell of woodsmoke in the winter, I'm currently addicted to Nutella, I hate tea when I'm pregnant(but love it normally), red and blue is my fav colour combination, I don't like heights or tunnels but went to the Alps as part of my Honeymoon(only mentioned this to lovely S as we were driving up our first hairpin road!), I love Christmas, I'd love to learn to dance properly, my favourite film ever is The Railway Children, I hate flying but love watching planes.

Now for the questions - 

What's on your bedside table? - a pretty lamp, a tiny painted cabinet of treasures, two pretty boxes containing some favourite jewellery. 

What's on the top of you wardrobe? ( being nosey, was what caused me to set off the alarm!) - Not very pretty. Just a small selection of overnight bags, one of which is going to be coming down today ready to be packed for hospital. 

Happiest memory? - I have two. Our Wedding Day and the moment I first saw Little F in his incubator 10 hours after he was born. 

Favourite toy as a child, or adult? - Ted H. He was my first Christmas present when I was just 3 months old. He is currently living in our new nursery and is very very thread bare and loved, not to mention well travelled. 

Your perfect holiday destination? - Anywhere in Europe, especially our favourite town of Ieper in Belgium. 

Spring or Autumn? I think it has to be Autumn by a whisker. I love the colours, smells and general feeling of being able to get snug and cosy again. But I do love the beauty of Spring too. 

What's your moto, number one rule, you live your life by! - Try to treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. 

If you had a time machine, what year would you like to land in? - I'm happy right where I am. 

Roast dinner or fish and chips? - Roast dinner cooking by lovely S, just like the one I enjoyed a couple of hours ago!

What makes you 'belly laugh'? - So many things but I love laughing the most when it is my little boy or Husband that are making me laugh. 

Favourite outfit, past or present?  - Anything that's not maternity as I'm longing to get back into normal clothes again. Actually it's probably my Wedding dress which I adored. I know it's a bit typical but it did make me feel like a princess. 

Today's pics are all pretty old so sorry if you've seen them before. They all come from some pages from my inspiration journals. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. It may be nearly over but at least we've still got Strictly and Downton to look forward to. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Decision Made

Thank you for your responses to my previous post. Having thought about it I have finally made some decisions about my shop. Firstly, I have opened up my little blog shop again. You can find the link to it at the top of the screen just under my banner. I will be adding items to it as and when I have the time for the time being with the not too distant arrival of baby. I've added paypal buttons to all the items so purchase is simple and you can leave me a comment if you want any further information about something of if you would prefer to pay for an item by cheque. It seemed from what people were saying, etsy is more popular than Folksy which I have long suspected. So I am slowly running down my stocks in Folksy as items expire or are sold and I will be concentrating on Etsy in the New Year. Given that my time is going to be very limited until Christmas I don't want to revamp the Etsy shop until the New Year as I want to do it properly. And as I have my little blogshop my shock can go in there for now so it is still available. I'll let you know when the Etsy shop is open again though. So that's that. Decision made. Thanks for your advice. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Trying to decide

I'm trying to come to a decision as to whether I should stick with selling on Folksy or not. It seems like just when I think it's really not the best place to sell because I haven't had a sale in weeks I go and sell something new. I'd made this decision a few weeks ago and was slowly letting the shop run down. As things expired I wasn't renewing them so the stock levels were gradually going down. But this week I sold a lovely ticking cushion that I'd actually been starting to think I might keep for myself. It was a good sale so now I'm wondering again.

At the moment and probably until next Spring, I don't have a lot of time for making many new items, but I do have a long term plan to keep my little business going and hopefully do more. So I feel I need to keep an on line presence with my items but the answer is where?

Do I stick with Folksy? Do I try Etsy again as I still have a shop there? Do I open up a little shop here attached to the blog or do I sell via my Facebook page as so many people seem to do? I just can't decide. Despite the fact I can't make many new things, I do still have a lot of stock here that I would love to sell. These three are just a few of the pretty things available that are no longer in the Folksy shop.

I love to hear anyone's thoughts on this. Do you sell on Folksy or Etsy? Which one works best for you?
I'm sure I'll come to a decision soon enough. I'll let you know when I do.

See you soon.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx