52 weeks of happy

{16/52}

1. although i'd be quite happy to wake up tomorrow to find it all had melted, it still makes me happy to find the beauty in all that white stuff we've been getting

2. a bright & cheery new table cloth, a fab bargain in the cath kidston sale, i was lucky to find some of this in the chichester store as they'd sold out online, my last one had lasted years & years but had a few cuts in {mostly my fault!} but there were enough of them to mean that wherever i sat the smallest ones they always managed to spill their drink right on one of the parts with a hole in!

3. one a penny, two a penny, i love hot cross buns, even better are the discovery of the M&S apple & cinnamon ones {i'm also really keen to try out their belgium chocolate ones too, thanks to the tip from mrs biddle!} 

4. i've totally loved watching the great british bake off for comic relief this week & have been rather obsessed about making a bakewell tart since, it was an itch i just had to scratch, so i made some bakewell slices this afternoon, timed perfectly to be ready when we got in from school - they are every bit as yummy as i had hoped {i used the recipe from my very well used rachael allen 'bake' book}

& it doesn't show signs of stopping

 i have to be a bit bah humbug here & let you all know i'm kinda getting sick of the snow, for many reasons including being unable to get my car out, which in turn means i can't finish the christmas shopping i had planned, not seeing a postman for days (& still missing a few vital presents) worrying that we might not get over to my folks on boxing day & many other problems i won't bore you all with (frozen pipes aren't helping matters - one thing putting me off living in an old house)

view from my bedroom window, i know the snow makes it all look so pretty but i could have really done with it holding off for a week,

i'm trying very hard to do some things with the children to make their holiday fun, today we have made biscuits, which went very well (but then when they'd had enough of that they moved on to trashing the front room)

this recipe is super easy for the little ones & also very tasty, i kept some back for myself to make & turned them into a sweet little gift!

the snow is still falling, so we are going to stay tucked up inside today but will have to venture out tomorrow, even if we are only able to get around like this

oh dear

there is a little more out there today than yesterday, after venturing out this morning, i can now report i am safely snug on the sofa, having made another batch of jam tarts & some millionaires shortbread to keep us all going

with both pre-school & school closed & the roads round here too bad for driving on, we are all having a lovely family day, although i've left the sledging to the boys this afternoon!

finding a little time to knit whilst little O naps on the sofa next to me

two steps forward

it was lovely to wake up this morning to find there had been a light dusting of snow overnight, making our attic view even more breathtaking 

thank you so much for all your comments on my last post, G is well on the mend now, i have spent today making up for my lost weekend, finishing off the children's advent calendar (which i will save for another post), some christmas knitting (rather frustrating, as i knitted one glove only to find i won't have enough to finish the second but never fear, i have a plan)

 indulging little O in some free reign with the glue & glitter & indulging myself with some home-made jam tarts

- now i'm back to starting that first glove again!

a little ribena berry

i'm pleased to report that the debbie bliss yarn was successfully turned into a new hat for little O

details can be found here on ravelry, it was put to good use straight away, with more fun sledging in the snow,

schools back today, (shorter day than normal,)

but a good way to ease us all back into it,

i've been trying to make friends with the sewing machine again (poor thing has been rather neglected of late) but i seem to be spending more time queuing projects on ravelry. although i have signed up to orange flower sketchbooks 'zig zag' quilt piece along over on flickr, as i aim to get my wonderland quilt finished this year!

a slower pace

things have been a little slow round these parts, & in our village we have pretty much been snowed in, luckily our neighbour took me to the shops today (in his big 4x4) so we've stocked up on food, as our local veg shop had run out of so many things, our menu for the next few days will be soup, soup & more soup!

i've spent many hours snuggled up under a quilt keeping warm with little O, as she gets over a tummy bug,

this has given me the perfect excuse to knit a new hat, i love this pattern, (really quick & easy too)

unfortunately i made a bad choice with the yarn (i went with a ball of debbie bliss pure cotton) so this one will be getting frogged, but think i might get hold of some more of the debbie bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed & knit it again. you can never have too many hats, can you?