AMY'S FIRST PROPER SNOWFALL

Amy is 8 years old and this is the first proper snowfall she has experienced.  She got really excited on Sunday when it started to fall and when she went to bed Sunday night she could hardly wait for the morning.  This picture was taken at 6.45 am Monday morning.  She was dressed and out there before I could say anything to her.  Unfortunately for her, her school was not one of those that closed so she had to spend the day at school.  Luckily the school gave them plenty of playtime outside so that they could make the most of this experience.  We don't get this amount of snow very often in the part of the UK where we live.  As soon as she was home from school, she was changed and back out there until nightfall.  

AMIGURUMI SOCK MONKEY

I first saw sock monkeys on Etsy and fell in love with them. They are so cute and colourful and it is hard to believe they are made from Socks. So when I found myself thinking of something different to crochet, it isn't too difficult to see why sock monkey popped into my head.

I wanted to make this into one of my keyring buddies but it has turned out too big. I think this size, approximately 6.75" (17 cms) is perfect for hanging from a bag or even for sitting on your desk, a pocket sock monkey. I am hoping to start another today, but I have not decided on the colour combination.

IS TIME PASSING BY FASTER?

Is it just me or does anyone else think that this year is passing really quickly? I went part-time in my job just over a year ago in the hopes that I would have more time but it is not happening. I can't believe how quickly the weeks are passing, it is Thursday again and the weekend is almost upon us. There are so many things I want to do but I never seem to have the time to get round to them.

We were hoping to go away this weekend but have cancelled due to increasing fuel charges. We are going to Cornwall at the end of July for a fortnight, so we have decided to save our money for that instead. We have a caravan and bought a diesel car to tow it with as at the time the running costs were cheaper. Unfortunately the price of diesel has increased and now it is more expensive than unleaded petrol.

Jasper was sick on Sunday and when he is sick he always does it in his bed. Anyway I put the cushion out of his bed into the washer. When I went to get it out all the contents of the cushion had come out and the washer was full of polyester filling. What a mess!

We had to rush to our local pet store to get him a new bed. I picked him a very smart red tartan one, brought it home and put it in his corner. He wasn't impressed. I made him sit in it for this picture, look at his ears. I don't think he has slept in it yet.

I sold one of my favourite pairs or earrings this week. They were bought as a birthday present for the lady's mum. She sent me a message to let me know they had arrived safely and that her mum was pleased with them. I thought it was really nice of her to let me know.

UK EARTHQUAKE

My blog has just been rejected by Blogexplosion because it contains adverts and I talk about my shop on Etsy (whoops there I go again). So I thought I should maybe talk about something else. I have decided to talk about my experience of an earthquake. I should have given this a mention sooner.

In the early hours of 27 February 2008 I was woken up by a loud rumbling that was getting closer and closer, then everything started shaking. I sat up in bed and I could feel myself being shook and things were rattling. Then everything went quiet.

I immediately rang my husband, who was at work, and asked him if he had felt it as he works on the opposite side of town and yes he had. Then my daughter rang me and asked me if I had felt it.

I tried to get back to sleep but my mind was racing and I kept imagining I could hear it again. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night.

It was a very frightening experience, one I wouldn't wish to repeat, and it was only a small shudder compared to the earthquakes suffered by other countries.

I wanted to add a picture to this post and I remembered this one that I took on 17 February 2008. I was getting dinner ready and just happened to look out of the kitchen window and saw this amazing coloured sky. I went to the front of the house and took this picture.

TWO ITEMS SOLD

I was beginning to think I would never sell anything on Etsy again, then out of the blue I made two sales. The first item to sell was my 'remember summer' cell phone cosy. My eldest daughter called in the day I was packing it ready to send. She picked it up and commented on the wrist strap, she thought it was such a good idea to have one. Hmm maybe I can sell her one later.





Two days later I was surprised to find I had made another sale, this time this pair of earrings - my bubble earrings.


If you have ever sold anything that you have made you will know how exciting it is when someone likes something enough to buy it.


Anyway I am very grateful to both these buyers and I hope they are both satisfied with their purchases.

EASTER HOLIDAYS

We decided late on Good Friday to go to Cornwall for the Easter break. My daughter, along with her husband and 2 children, had already booked a caravan on a campsite near Bude. So we booked onto this campsite too.

I was a bit concerned about leaving our house as there had been several burglaries in the area the previous night but my husband told me that we could not let that stop us from doing anything. Anyway we haven't got much worth stealing, we don't have a plasma tv, my husband's computer is very old and we took our 2 laptops with us.

The view from Padstow Harbour

We set off Saturday morning about 7.30 am and arrived in Cornwall 6 hours later, we were towing our caravan so this slows us down a bit. Even so we arrived at the site about 10 minutes before my daughter and her family, much to the annoyance of my son-in-law, who had apparently been trying to catch us up all the way down.

The beach at Newquay

The site was ok but the ground was very muddy, yuk. I put Jasper, our West Highland Terrier, outside on his lead and he got involved in a play fight with another dog and ended up needing a bath. That was the last time he was allowed out on his own.

The little steam train

We had a good week, the weather was very mixed, wet, windy, sunny, but fortunately we had no snow which the folks back home had, much to the annoyance of my young daughter. She hasn't seen much snow and she would have loved to have had the chance to play in it.

Sunset at Widemouth Bay

We visited Padstow, Newquay, Truro and we went on a little steam train from Launceston which took us to a farm where the children could play on swings, slides, bikes all sorts of things. There was also a little petting zoo. We had a really good day there.

We had a good week, I really enjoyed it. It was nice to spend time with my daughter and her family. We are going back to Cornwall in July, I am looking forward to it.

MY NEW BUSINESS CARD

I was going to order some business cards from a company I found on the internet, but they quoted 3 weeks delivery. So I had a go at doing it myself, which I suppose is a good thing as I now recommend buying handmade. Anyway here is my attempt, what do you think? Please be kind with your comments.

Coin Holder Keyring

I have been making some really useful coin holders for my Etsy shop. I decided to add keyrings to them as I thought it would make them more useful and easier to find. How often have you got to the supermarket and found you haven't got the right coin for the trolley. This is always happening to me. The same with parking meters I never have the right change and just the other day my mobile (cell) phone decided to run out of battery power and I needed to make a phone call, again a scrabble around looking for some change. Well now I have made one of these for myself and I have got it attached to my keyring. So now I will never be in a situation and find I haven't got the right change.

Another brilliant use for these little cuties is somewhere to keep that extra bit of cash you need when you have a night out with your friends. How many times have you run out of money for the taxi ride home. Just place your taxi fare into this and you will never have that problem again.

I have made them in the colours shown, but I have loads more great colours that I am going to use over the next few days and get them all added to my shop (http://lizzyt.etsy.com/).

Mother's Day 2 March in the UK

Mothering Sunday is fast approaching. In the UK this year it is on 2 March. I have not actually made anything specifically for Mother's Day as I have a good selection of items for sale in my Etsy shop that would make ideal presents for your mum or gran.

This scarf would make an ideal gift for Mother's Day, the colours are hot and vibrant. A lovely scarf for this time of year to bring a bit of colour to the world. It is in my Mother's Day Offers Section and has been reduced to $22.00 (£11.00) plus p&p.

I also have a wonderful selection of bracelets and earrings, some of which have been featured here in earlier posts. The one above has a wonderful selection of red beads. It too can be found in my Mother's Day Section and has been reduced to $25.00 (£12.50) plus p&p. I also welcome custom orders, if you see something which you like but would prefer a different colour or different design, please feel free to get in touch with me through my Etsy store at http://lizzyt.etsy.com. Keep checking my store for special offers, especially at the weekends.

Cards

I am starting to introduce my newest products into my Etsy store, cards. I have just listed the first one today, a notecard. It is really pretty. I am very pleased with the way they look and I have loads of great ideas for for more. I get like this sometimes, I have all these ideas running around in my head but I don't seem to have enough hours in the day to do them all.

I find it very relaxing to do, it takes me back to my childhood when I used to spend hours cutting and pasting into my scrapbooks. I have now got to improve my photographs, I can't seem to get the cards to look white.

I love using these to write notes to my family and friends.