I’m on a roll right now, made another cushion from that lovely flowery fabric again with a centre panel and lace.
I quite like this one. There’s enough of that fabric left to make two or three more cushions, the cogs in my brain are starting to turn! Although, I need to make my dad’s birthday present first & I’ve got until the 3rd of March to get it done so I’ll have to prioritize.
Well the sun is shining, Indi is having a nap and as soon as he’s awake and fed we’re popping along to HE group. We haven’t been for so long and I’m always terribly shy when we get there but it’s for Indi and the families there are incredibly nice so I’m making sure we get there this week and regularly from now on!
See you soon
Today saw our little family (Dad, Mum, Toddler & Dog) taking a stroll along the banks of the river Usk in Brecon. It was absolutely freezing out though! Thankfully Indi was wrapped up warm but Jeff & I assumed it would be as warm today as yesterday so the cold went into our bones!
Indi & Sky had a blast. Our little man ran so much – I think he had energy to burn!
We’ve never been to Brecon town before, one day we shall return on a Saturday, sans dog, so we can take a wander in and out of the shops.
Brecon has been added to our ‘places we would like to live’ list, I think it sits at number 4 or 5.
Anyway, on with the pics…
- This is Indi’s new ’smile for the camera’ pose!
A puffed up pigeon - told you it was cold!
Another cheesy grin in front of the old bridge
Indi & his daddy
Throwing a stick for Skylar
- Indi laughing at Jeff wearing his hat!
A duck balances on a bit of rock sticking up from the river bed
Run, Indi, Run!
I just spotted this heron and it took a few photographs to capture it as it was quite far away
Another lovely photo of the boys
The River Usk
A rather cute gull!
Continued from here
MY NEW NOOK FOR SEWING, QUILTING & OF COURSE HOOKING (CROCHET)!!
This little area used to be a huge built-in wardrobe that was crammed full with junk!
While Indi slept today I made a cushion for my chair. In time this chair is going to be recovered/painted/replaced. Notice my crochet quilt project there?!
Anyway, here’s the cushion – the centre panel is from an unfinished quilt I was making years ago. The lyrics are from Lou Reed’s song ‘Sick of You’.
It’s not the most apt song for a square that’s depicting our wedding day but it suits when you think about a large feline family!
Jeff’s shirt and my dress are made from our actual wedding clothes by the way!
Jeff has been off this week which means less blog time. I’ll separate this post up as there is an awful lot of photos to show off!
MUSEUM DAY
FIRST TIME WITH GLUE, GLITTER & SEQUINS!
Lots of fun was had, especially by Indi… Although the mammoth and bison wasn’t liked very much!
KNEADING ANOTHER BUN (AND MY HOME!) IS UNDER-GOING SOME CHANGES.
SORRY ABOUT NOT BEING AROUND FOR A WHILE – I SHALL BE BACK!
IN THE MEANTIME, I SHALL BE CHANGING BLOG NAME TO the hooky nooky (SADLY, KNEADING HAS BEEN PUT ON HOLD FOR A WHILE SO DOESN’T QUITE ‘FIT’ JUST RIGHT NOW ) BUT I’LL STILL BE WRITING ABOUT THE SAME THINGS OF COURSE!
SEE YOU SOON MY FRIENDS 
Weighed myself this morning – 4lbs gained!
Back on to the diet then, and my running has lapsed too so time to find some motivation.
Bread & Butter Pudding
No more baking of lovely welshcakes, fruit cakes, bread pudding or shortbread everyday, just every other few weeks!
Ah well, can’t be good for me all this losing & gaining weight. Got to call the surgery today to find out the results of my blood test. Really hoping my cholesterol is nice and low, of course.
In other more interesting news, the allotment is coming on wonderfully! I am loving it down there, digging and moving paths, seeing it change before my eyes. I need to transplant some green garlic as at the moment it is smack bang in the middle of where one of the new paths is going to be, so that’s on my job list. I’ve already dug a patch where the leeks were to loosen the ground ready for the garlic.
Clearing a bit of ground by the compost bin, where all my flowers will hopefully go, I saw new tips pushing up through the ground. As I cleared dead weeds from around the tips more & more appeared – daffodils! I had completely forgotten about them, and the bluebells bulbs that Jeff planted last year are coming through. When flowering they’ll brighten the place up no end!
And it was so heartening to see them, like a promise that these ever so cold Winter days will be running out soon and Spring is surely on her way.
Jeff has volunteered to be ’in charge’ of the greenhouse plants – tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, chili and herbs. He does like gardening but thinks he doesn’t have enough time to come down the allotment regularly. So I’ve happily given him the gardening-at-home job.
It’ll also be warming to know that everything that grows down the allotment is totally down to me! I’m sure Indi would like to be given some credit but I honestly think that throwing soil from one bed to another (or worse at me) is not helping!
The first day that we visited the plot this year Indi was very nervous. He didn’t like the mud, he didn’t like the loud call crows were making, he didn’t like the cockerels crowing, he didn’t like very much. But now he loves it down there, especially with the park as our last stop before going home… he still doesn’t like the crows though!
I’m crocheting my blanket for an hour almost every night. Did four little squares last night which doesn’t sound a lot but I’m happy, will take some teaser photos soon 
Speaking of which, hopefully I’ll remember to take the camera next time we go to the allotment and I’ll take some snaps to share with you.
Well, my diet has once again taken a leap off an extremely high cliff. Didn’t do too bad though, I lost 121lbs in 20 days and renewed my love of walking/jogging.
I just love cooking and baking too much to restrict (or keep note of) my calorie intake. I missed it terribly these past 20-odd days!
I will keep up the walking/jogging though, so at least some exercise will be taken.
I bought a book on sale called ‘Victory Cookbook’ by Marguerite Patten earlier this morning and have already made two of the recipes from it – Scot shortbread and Family Currant Cake. The short amount of time baking these was so enjoyable, I just might do it every day (oh hello again 12lbs, did you really have to return?)
Of course, this book isn’t just about baking Victory cakes and such like but is crammed full of delicious sounding recipes that were popular during the war. There are quite a few meat recipes but I’ll either alter or bypass those ones.
With allotment time returning very soon I’m sure that most of these recipes will be used with my very own produce.
And there’s a Landgirl poster I can scan and print out to stick on my shed door. Hopefully it will inspire me to get on with it when I remember all those girls and women working the land to get food out to Britain.
I’ve decided to redesign the beds down on my plot to make them easier to get to. Last year everything was such a rush as we didn’t get the plot until March and then had a couple of months digging, weeding and erecting sheds before even beginning to sow or plant. As it is right now there are four large beds. Over the next couple of weeks (weather allowing!) I intend to remove the inner planks altogether, leaving just the large ’square’ in place to show where my plot starts & ends. The land will be divided into three beds, 5 feet wide with grass paths of 1 foot inbetween and will run the length of the plot – about 33 feet long. I won’t bother using planks to mark the beds off as that will just make it more difficult to get to the beds. There’s a lot to be done, including a heck of a lot of weeding and digging where parts have been horribly neglected but it shall be done!
To ‘pretty’ it up down there I bought some flower seeds – Delphinium, Geum, Aquilegia, Aster, Cornflower, Hollyhock, Lupin and a cottage garden mix to go around and next to the shed. There’s a patch of land by the shed that is just over-run with weeds, that shall have to be dug of course. But once it’s full of flowers, well it would just perk me up straight away!
On the home front, I’m crochet-ing a blanket. Time is sparse so it’s only worked on when Indi is lying fast asleep next to me in bed. This one should be ready by next winter
Are ya sick of all this white stuff yet?!
(Sorry about the neglected blog, I am about, just busy with certain resolutions ((exhale, bend forward at the hips into downward facing dog, inhale, exhale, bring left leg forward etc)) I actually did some crochet yesterday – ear warmers for my nightly exercise/walk with the dog!)
My little man, twenty months old and ’still’ feeding from my breast. He can actually pronounce our word for it now. I find it hilarious when he sits on my lap and looks down my top saying “bwwonnn”, especially infront of others!
More days than most pass now with him not wanting bron at all through the whole day, favouring dusk to dawn milkies instead.
I do feel a bit sad that he doesn’t need me in that way during daytime anymore but I’m so proud of how far we have come and how independent he is.
We’re still co-sleeping too. It is getting a bit crowded in the bed and the past few nights Indi has been waking a lot and just when I’ve gotten comfortable! But we wouldn’t have it any other way and I’m putting these sleepness nights down to the festive season.
It’s funny, but he spends more time ‘attached’ to me through the night than at any other time and I know its not for the milk but you just try prying him from it when he’s not ready!!
My mother breastfed all five of us, my youngest brother for the longest – until he was around three years old when he weaned himself off.
I want Indi to make all the decisions when it comes to the end of this particular bond that we have, and he can take as long as he likes!
Full Moon on the first night of the year
Hope you enjoyed yourselves on New Years Eve, am ashamed to say that I was half asleep when the clock struck midnight! But I did hear fireworks going off and was aware that the year had changed so could’ve been worse!
View from my garden overlooking the snowy valley
There’s a sparkly thin layer of snow on the ground again, it looks like icing sugar mixed with glitter.
Red sky in morning...
So it’s a new year, guess how mine started? … At 6am Indi had a nappy explosion in bed (family bed) so he was thrust into the shower straight away and a pile of clothes bedsheets went straight into the wash – I don’t care what they say about washing on New Years day! Yeah, this family has been sick since the day after boxing day and the two males are still suffering with it. I think today will be better though.
A sweet little robin
Have you made any resolutions for this year?
This year I+++ plan on losing 30lbs +++ am going to get off my arse & start taking Indi out on walks more +++ meet up with friends regularly +++ get fit & take up jogging/running and a load of other things that I always want to do!
Nesting in next doors chimney
This morning I had ten minutes fun playing with our new camera… Can you tell
