Please cast your votes .....

This is my friend Sonja

Isn't she beautiful?? Well I am here to tell you that she is not only beautiful on the outside, she is also a warm, caring, wise person and an all round awesome friend. She also needs a little helping hand from us at the moment.

Sonja has been taking part in a lifestyle changing weight loss and fitness  competition , she has made it into the top 5 and needs all the help she can get to win ! She deserves it so much, her dedication has been admirable!

Here is the link you need

Please please PLEASE take 5 mins to vote. She is so totally fabulous, has been eating healthily and has literally worked her butt OFF at the gym and lost 30lbs! You will receive no spam from the sponsors of this competition, all you will gain is the great feeling that you have helped someone awesome today! You can vote once for every email address you have, she needs your votes! please vote for SONJA CLARK

**VERY IMPORTANT! **

Once you have voted you will receive a confirmation email, in this email there is a link that you need to click on, only then will your vote be counted.

Thankyou thankyou thankyou to anyone who votes, you have no idea how much Sonja and her fabby Husband deserve the holiday for two that is part of the prize!!! 

Another new addition!

Introducing ..............................

 Keith!

Or if you would like his full title, Keith Goat Snail.

LOL

He has been with us since Saturday and we have watched him make his merry way across the new paving slabs in our front garden.

W built him a little house yesterday, the sun was very hot so we made him a little place to stay cool.

He seems to like it!

Although the neighbours are a little nosy......

Slowly but surely........

my time is becoming my own again! We're not quite there yet but I can see the end! woo hoo!!

Just waiting for Mr Postman to bring me a scary letter, one to tell me when my inspection will be! eek!! Then once that is over I can relax about it all again for another 12 months. Phew can't wait for that day!

Apologies! This is about 6 posts worth in one!

In the mean time I thought I would do a teeny catch up on the things we have been doing , while I have been too stressed  busy to share. Because, much as I would have to liked to have holed up in a nice wee cosy corner of the Cadburys factory where I could hide from my responsibilities, cry and gorge on chocolate, Real life goes on and I actually have 2 kids of my own, 4 that I take care of while their parents work and a whole myriad of other responsibilities needing my attention in varying amounts.

We even managed to have some fun along the way and I tried to keep my total and utter incomprehensible sobbing and freaking out   little worries away from all of the kids.

I managed to get a hair cut. I am not totally sold on the fringe yet, not sure where we will go with that at my next appointment, but it sure made for some fun trying to get a picture to document what it should look like! I am notoriously rubbish at styling my own hair, I am just not blessed with those talents. So I tried to get a reminder pic so I have something to base it on every morning LOL

Hmm not sure why it did this at the front lol I hadn't realised til I uploaded the pics. see it has a mind of it's own!

As always I had a helper. It was , of course , much easier to take a photo of myself , in the mirror while holding a wiggly 4 year old, who is doing some fairly impressive posing!  She did not get that from me! I don't like mirrors or cameras. They are not kind , I would rather pretend all is well ;)

We baked!

marble cake mmmm

We  planted some vegetable seeds

which are beginning to peek through!

We have enjoyed some lovely sunshine

I love the way K's hair shimmers and changes colour in the sunlight

Even when it is tangled and needs brushed !

I have been given some lovely gifts of flowers and precious stones ....

We have been working on the garden, well Murray and my dad have been working in the garden. K and I just prettied it up a little

Gardening with style ....

It's good to get your hands dirty

Ta da!

You had to have seen it before to truly appreciate the after! Picture a big square of mud stuffed full with weeds :)

Sorry for the overload, feels good to have it all there though :)

Today I have a day off! woo hoo! No paper work or anything yucky to do. Fraser has a birthday party and we still have a gift to buy.

I have a bit of organising to do! My firstborn is leaving me next Sunday................ he is packing his case and heading out the door ........ He is off to Paris!! Without us! Wow!

I will be back tomorrow! YAY!

A face full of cheek

I am not sure if this is a Scottish phrase, or even just an East Neuk sort of phrase. But no definition is required , all you need to do is look at the pic below!

Sorry I have been scarce, I am currently snowed under with paperwork for an upcoming inspection. I am freaking out! I am also upset that this is stealing all of my typing / writing time. I miss my blog so much!

But soon I will be back and my inspection will be over for a whole year and I am hoping I will only be as crazy as I was before! I hope to bake, sew, photograph, laugh, play and live again once this maaahooosive black cloud has lifted from above my head.

Back soon xx

A little more sweetness

Yes I am just showing off because I can LOL

Joe with his beautiful Mummy

and his Auntie LeeAnn :)

with Auntie Lor

with big cousin Fraser

And a very proud big cousin Kirsten  , who was very excited to be pushing a real baby in a pram!

Holy meatball

Hi all, I am still here! My brain has been so tired and fuzzy this week , which has left me with zero blogging inspiration and zero time!

Anyhoo I just thought I would share a recent observation with you all, I have noticed that most of my clothes have started getting tiny holes in them. I was starting to worry, I have had this problem before and it resulted in the purchase of a new washing machine. Ugh.

But not this time, the machine is in perfect working order.  The washing comes out of the machine ok, but some where in the drying process is where the problem lies.

Or should I say where the problem plays.............

.....and climbs....

And sleeps

Sigh, I am destined to wear holey hairy clothes.

Something else happened this week!

Spring has sprung!

The birds are singing, flowers are opening and the sun was even shining! It was, in fact, so warm that we were able to ........................

wear no socks!

pick a spring flower for Mummy

Boil up some new potatoes

Smoke out the neighbours

And even wear shorts!

(Scotland style )

If there was a glass of wine just out of shot it would have been an even more perfect afternoon!

I hope spring is trully springing wherever you are xx

The wait is over

Does anyone remember this baby shower?

Well on Tuesday at 1.31am my sister gave birth to a very special, tiny, delicate, perfect, utterly adorable baby boy. Joseph , he was named after his special Grandad and has James as one of his middle names after his other special Grandad. He is also known as Joe and K calls him Jophes .

I am so unbelievably honoured to be able to say that I was there, in the room where magic happened. I am so proud of Sarah, she was really put through the mill but she was an absolute trooper.
Sarah ,Thankyou for loving me enough to allow me to share in the most special moment of your lives, I still cry every time I think of it and I am crying right now.


Joe - I promise I will always love you unconditionally, you will always have a home, a family and a bed at my house. I will buy you all sorts of unsuitable gifts, just as your Mummy and Daddy have done for your big cousins. And I promise I will never EVER allow you to wee in your own eye again, I learned my lesson last night! xxxxx

Ruffles and twirls

Last night i finally made a wee skirt for K, I have been procrastinating  planning on making this skirt for a while now.

It wasn't a total success, I tried to scale down the size a little because the tutorial was for a 5/6 year old. Well it ended up only just fitting around the waist and is much shorter than it should be, so I think the next time I make it I will make it as shown and just bring the waist in a little.

It was only ever meant to be a little summer, playing in the garden skirt, (especially after it went a bit wrong) but K was soooooo excited to see it this morning and wanted to wear it to the cinema, so she wore it with her cosy tights and boots.

She is cute enough to pull any look off!

For the record, if I ever, EVER mention I am going to use the check fabric for any other project. Please remind me that it almost made me want to jump off the roof, because I can guarantee that by the time the skirt has been washed once, there will be more of that fabric frayed than there is left stitched to the flowered stuff.

 It . was . a . nightmare .

Bouncing off the walls

I too am bouncing off the walls today! Today is the due date for sweet sweet Baby Hughes ! They are away to the hospital for an appointment right now, I am soooooooooo excited to do a welcome post for my brand new niece/nephew! I hope it will be soon soon soon!