Birthday fun!

My birthday, in 28 pictures (can you guess how old I am??)

Firstly, it was lovely to be in work for my birthday for a change, it’s usually in half term. I got some sweet cards and gifts, two impromptu outbursts of happy birthday from my class and their lovely company when I opened my presents during lunchtime.

Lovely cards, from friends and family…

After work, we visited our friend and her gorgeous girls and I was treated to more birthday singing and a homemade cake…

…and gorgeous gifts…

We spent the evening with two more of my favourite people, who brought gorgeous gifts…

I was spoilt by them…

We do enjoy a bit of bubble-wrap 😉

The next day was spent with family, it is my sister’s birthday five days before mine so celebrations are usually combined…

Customary birthday treats…

Beautiful gifts from my family…

On Sunday, I went to a fantastic cinema in Birmingham (the electric) with my lovely friend, to watch Brief Encounter. This brought about some (rather unnecessary) black and white instagramming!

I do adore this film, a great end to my birthday weekend!

A few other snapshots…

My 2012

2012 in photos…

January-making baby blankets for twin girls.

Enjoying the snow.

Celebrating birthdays with family and friends.

Visiting London with my sister and cousin.

Welcoming spring.

Visiting the tulips in Amsterdam.

Enjoying summer sunshine.

Three June birthdays.

Our engagement in Paris.

Autumn engagement celebrations.

Over-excitement due to The Killers.

Christmas crafting.

Enjoying London at christmas.

Celebrating.

New years with loved ones 🙂

Autumn engagement party

Here are a couple of snaps from our engagement party. Also, I’m trying out mobile blogging so fingers crossed it works.

 

The cake bunting for this carrot cake was bought from a lovely Etsy seller, A Fete Beckons, and the autumnal, tissue paper bunting from another called Shelley. Shelley actually sent me a free string of bunting which helped to decorate both out downstairs rooms. We usually do Halloween decorations but thought we should be a little more grown up this year 😉

It was so lovely to celebrate with all our family and friends!

x

On my hook…

This weekend, I have made a start on the scarf I mentioned a while ago which will be a present for my fiancee’s mother. I am using a lovely soft yarn from Sublime (Extra Soft Merino wool) and it is a light plum colour.

 

I really like this shell pattern and it is a very simple pattern to follow.

x

A day in London

On Tuesday, I took the short train journey to London to visit my sister. The exciting reason for this visit was to try on my bridesmaid dress for the wedding next year! It is very beautiful and I’m very much looking forward to wearing it and the day itself.

A trip to London must also include a visit to Liberty’s, my very favourite place to wander around.

Cute notebooks….

Winking owls…

Beautiful displays on the haberdashery floor…

I also picked up a lovely present for an even lovelier friend which cannot be shown here yet 😉

French toast for lunch was delicious here and after some shopping it was time to leave.

Recent makes…

As I am new here, I thought it would be nice to share some of the most recent of my crafty endeavours (of the crochet variety).

These go way back to Christmas with my biggest project so far, a huge ripple blanket for my sister, made using Lucy’s pattern at Attic24. I used Stylecraft special DK yarn which is lovely and soft and comes in a wide variety of colours.

With the news of a twin pregnancy of a lovely friend, I was again inspired to make blankets. More rippling! These were two smaller blankets but made with thicker pure wool (Patons Fairytale Dreamtime DK). I decided to make one with ripples and the other with stripes, but use the same colours. Alongside these baby blankets, came the sweet little pink pig for the twins’ older sister (pattern from this lovely book).

My current project is a large blanket just for us! It is a kind of patchwork-crochet blanket made using a pattern from Dottie Angel. The only other blanket I have made for us was much smaller and we need something that will actually cover a person! It will hopefully be finished very soon, the summer holiday gives much more opportunity for making 🙂

I am making this blanket using Rowan Pure Wool Dk in five lovely colours (Port, Enamel, Dahlia, Tea Rose and Hyacinth). I plan to make a border for this blanket, something which I have not done before, using Snow.

That’s all for now x