What?

Sometimes my elder son amazes me, Yesterday morning was the usual rush to get everyone ready for school & work, when we eventually got into the car, my eldest son, who had obviously sussed I was a tad stressed, said.
Mum,
''Yesterday was History, Tomorrow's a mystery, today is a gift,that's why they call it the present,''
In his own little way he was telling me to chill and enjoy the day. And do you know what that thought stayed with me all day, and yes I did have a relaxed day.

Lamb hot pot.

Today I feel like cooking some hearty food.
So I choose to do one of my favourites, the good 'ole lamb hot pot.
You can find the recipe here http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/lamb_hot_pot.htm
go check it out, i promise its scrummy........

so whilst that's in the oven, it takes 2 hours I am going to go knit..
there has been a severe lack of knitting pictures of late...
tomorrow's goal is to post knitting pics.....

I've been tagged: Fifth Photo meme.

Lynda tagged me for this meme.

Here’s how it works:

Find your 5th photo file folder, then the 5th photo in that file folder.

Then pass the meme to 5 people.

So here's my photo, dont have 5 files!! but this is the 5th photo in my photo file;

This is junior son and his little bud sharing an 8th Birthday tea..

I tag, missme, fluffyknitting, camilla, brouhaha, blogblethers,

Holiday.

Yeah, today's the first day of my week off.

So to start the celebrations I decided to drop in on the knitter-natterers at Get Knitted

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Lovely morning spent mastering the art of dpns!

decided to use my UK swap goodies and start on the cupcake mitts

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using the Sublime yarn

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Chose the pink as the main body and the purple and teal for the co-ordinating bits

am real pleased with myself, never knit mitts before and never knit with dpns before but all going well.

Whilst at Get knitted decided to spend my birthday money so got the following goodies

2 balls of the gorgeous kidsilk haze to knit the Ice Queen.I am being real good as this is a CHRISTMAS GIFT!!!

Then Debbie's latest mag,

And finally a dolphin critter to help me organise my notions!! This was bought as took yarn & pattern to knit group but forgot things like stitch markers, stitch holders etc etc etc..

So a great start to my week, am now about to go clear out the fireplace from last night, rebuild a new fire, and then plan to sit and knit the rest of the day away

housework can wait till tomorrow , it is Valentines day after all!!

:0(

so mummy has the day off, for once in months I can go pick up the boys from school and guess what? did they want to come home?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Big advantage being taken here, mummy's picked us up so we can invite ourselves to a friends house!! both boys have now gone to friends for tea, so mummy is home alone again!!

oh well, I know I'm old and boring now!!

Had a good day though, did nothing at all... just poddled as my friend Fi would say.
Watched a great Movie, 'ps, I love you' a Cecilia Ahern book, I love her books and have read all of them, was not sure about the film as usually once you've read the book they never normally meet your expectations, but I have to say it was fab, if sad. If you like a good girly love story with some sadness chucked in, go watch it...

Knitting, have lost mojo at mo, cant find the right thing to knit, so not inspired. Still plodding along with the mystery blanket, but you have to do some swiss darning and its killing me, it looks HIDEOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

so have left that well alone...and continued on with the squares as they come, its looking good, am loving the colours, and think the theme may be Arabian? I hope so,
My poor sock swap pal's socks are continually ripping.. cant get them right either, its a colour pattern thing, cant get the 2 to meet!!

I may just have to go shopping ...shhh but don't tell hubby!! he cant understand the need to buy more yarn when I have boxes of the stuff!!

I'm thinking I just need my holiday now, only 2 days left to work then a whole week off!!!!!!!!!!
cant wait, planning on doing some things with the boys as weather has picked up. And am going to make effort to go see some girlfriends, some good ole girly gossip is needed I think.

Any best off, 3rd post in one day, don't want to bore you all...

45 Today..

yeah its my birthday and today i'm 45..
I'm liking that age, it feels good.

My 45th year is going to be the year of sorting myslef out.. its about time, I cant believe its taken me that long to get around to it. I suppose its the single child thing, always having someone there to bail you out, but as Mums been gone 5 years now its about time I started sorting me out dont you think?

I have done some silly things in my time, as we all have I should imagine, But you learn by them, and this credit crunch we are experiencing has certainly made me re-evaluate things.
Gone are the days when we willy nilly spent our cash, enjoying all the mod cons, now I want a simple life, a life where I don't HAVE to work full time,just to pay the bills. I want to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, like spending time with my family, enjoying the boys growing years before they find me embarrasing!!

Gone is the need for a big house, me? Now I want a simple small house, less housework, less bills and more time for 'us', and knitting of course!!
Gone is the need for a 'career' Now I want to do something I enjoy, havnt worked that one out yet!!! but I do know it will be a creative job, Years back I worked in a florist and whilst it was hard work I really did enjoy it.

Shopping, do you know I actually dont want to spend money anymore, I dont feel the need to surround myself with beautiful useless things..unless of course its more stash enhancement! but I can satisfy that need with swapping yarns on ravelry...
I checked out my stash yesterday and I believe I have enough yarn to keep me knitting for a good few years yet...

So lets see what this coming year brings, less stress and more joy!!

Happy Birthday to me....

Scrumptious goodies.

OK I know there's a credit crunch and I said I wouldn't be swapping for the foreseable future, but these were joined before hand..
so lets see what gorgeous goodies I have had..

First up is the sock it to me 3 swap on Ravelry. Just looky at what Barb sent me.....


How spoiled am I? first up some gorgeous grey baby alpaca and silk with a 'stole my heart 'pattern, some bright & cheery knit pics baby alpaca & silk, both yarns I have not knit with before, some yummy Java coffee, cute little buttons and some note cards, and some well needed lip salve.
Thanks so much barb, its all great..

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Next up was the uk swap.

yet another great package. The theme for this swap was winter warmers, and boy was I lucky....

Firstly 4 great balls of sublime yarn to knit the gorgeous 'cupcake mitts'. And in my favourite colours too, Neapolitan ice cream!!!

There were also 2 sets of double pins with some cute jumper needle holders, a lovely smelly candle, scrumptious dark chocolate and a pattern for the marvelous mitts too... thank you so much Joanna.

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Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.............