Happy Easter!

What an absolutely beautiful weekend it's been. The run of good weather that we've had virtually the whole of April continued and we got out and enjoyed it.

On Good Friday we went up to Steve and Ally's. We went to this place which was gorgeous. There was some lovely scenery:

 Though quite a lot of hills:

 But lots of photo opportunities:

 After a few hours there we headed back to Steve and Ally's where the kids enjoyed the slip 'n' slide:

 And a bit of rocking out on the trampoline:

 Needless to say, the munchkins were exhausted:

 The rest of the weekend we've been mainly at home. Good job really as there is this little lot to plough through:

My kids are very spoilt but very lucky. Thanks to everyone who thought about them this Easter and sent an egg, it'll keep them in chocolate until Christmas!

So, Easter is now over and we have a whole 3 day working week to get through until the eggs are moved to make way for the bunting!

Snuggly Pirates

A couple of weeks ago, I had a half an hour to kill in the local town so popped into the library. I'd not perused the craft section for a while so went and had a look and spied this little beauty:

I've not quilted for a while now but my friend Kirsty started this year and she'd got me thinking that maybe I should make another. Plus, after the marathon crochet blanket for Em I felt like I should make Xander something similar but crochet doesn't really cut it with 4-year-old boys. So whilst flicking through I found the perfect project. Quickly I whipped out my phone to send a pic to Kirsty "we have to make these woman!" I told her, tbh I didn't meet that much resistance. The day after I popped down to Kirsty's with said book and we got planning, ordering fabric and started our quilts (mine for Xander, her's for her grandson). I even took my quilt on holiday with me last week and sat in the forest doing all the hand stitching. And this weekend...VOILA:

Lovely boyish pirate quilt, with a nice handy treasure map on the back (well, you never know when you may be in need of treasure whilst snuggled up in a quilt!):

And most importantly...the boy loves it!

So, love of quilting reinstated and next fabric-type project is in the planning....;)

We Love Center Parcs!

We've just got back from a week at Center Parcs and had the best time. We absolutely love it there and this week we had the added bonus of glorious weather. Here's our week in a nutshell:

Lovely scenery:

 Bowling tournaments (mummy lost!):

 Creepy crawlie hunts:

 Rope climbing:

 Learning how to be a premiership football player (let's face it, he has the temperament already!):

 Bike riding:

 Dorito-loving squirrels:

 Dare devil waterslides:

 Hours and hours in the pool:

 Chilling by the pool:

 And most importantly, lots and lots of fun:

Can we go back now please?!

Scrapwhating?!

I've been a very very very bad scrapbooker of late. My poor desk has sat unused and unloved for a good few months now. I got taken over with all things woolly and completed neglected all my lovely paper, glue and ribbon. However, a couple of weeks ago I gave myself a good talking to and forced myself back into the craft room and spent some time with my first love! Here's what I've been doing.

First up, a LO I've had planned since last summer, a good old mi hearties piratey one about Xander's pirate day at school (ahem, last June!):

 Bit of a more tricky one next. I wanted to scrap about discovering Xander had autism. This pic was taken the day after we found out. I decided in the end to keep the autism part on some secret journalling so it is there just for me and him, and the main LO to be about how he's still our special little boy:

 And lastly a chance to use some lovely lettering I picked up the other week, plus I couldn't leave her ladyship out of my crafting now could I?!

Kind of into it now, I think with the evening's being lighter it makes it much more pleasant to go out to the craft room. Now for the 300 half finished projects stacked up in there....

Happy Red Nose Day!

It's Comic Relief again. Like most people we can't afford much this year but just a few quid helps so we've done our bit by buying red noses, red hair streaks and donating a pound each to dress up for school (the kids in red, me in rainbow colours).

Must point out my beautiful rainbow orange bracelet, made by my wonderful daughter when I realised I didn't have anything orange for my outfit, thanks Em!

Hope whatever you're doing for Comic relief you're having fun!

S.O.S. Save Our Surgery

You may have noticed the little widget to the right. Some of you will have seen my links on Facebook and I apologise for repeating myself but this is a cause that really affects me and many people I know.


They are talking about shutting children's cardiac surgery in Leeds. You may remember that there were a high number of deaths during children's heart surgery at another hospital and this prompted a review. The result of this review is that the government will shut some of the 11 children's heart centres in the UK and make less larger centres with all the expertise in this area. Not a bad idea until you consider the impact...

There are 4 million people living within an hour of Leeds, 14 million within 2 hours. When 1 in 100 babies is born with some sort of heart defect, that's a lot of people...and Leeds is currently closing in 3 of the government's 4 alternative plans. Wherever these units shut it is going to affect people - heart patients, relatives, friends - but a quarter of the population? I am failing to see sense.

I have had a child in hopsital. Some of you may remember how ill Emily was as a toddler and she had to have lung surgery. A horrible time for us and the people around us, but what if we'd had to drive hours to see her? That is what these parents and families are facing.

And then today I got an email from my cardiac nurse saying that the government had refused to take into account those of us that are adults but see the paediatric cardiac teams due to our conditions being congenital (both my cardiologist and surgeon are paediatric, I look very silly in their waiting room!) when considering shutting these units. However, if the children's surgery ward goes then so do the surgeons, the cardiologists and the lifeline to people like me. In October 2008 I had an emergency operation in Leeds within 2 hours of them diagnosing my problem, if I'd have had to be transferred to another hospital, well....

So if you could click to the right and sign the petition? Whether we can change the government's mind I don't know, but I need to say I at least tried.

Thank you.

Come On, Follow My Nose!

We decided that this weekend called for a family walk and a bit of fresh air. I'd noticed a few crocuses out at work so we decided to head for flowers. We could have gone to my work but I doubt that would have been too interesting so we headed for Kirkstall Abbey as they always have carpets and carpets of flowers:

 Very pretty eh? Unfortunately the temperature doesn't match the view and it was blooming Arctic out there!

I do like the fact that we live near such an old monument like this:

 It's lovely to look around it and imagine what used to happen there. This time we didn't go in though, that cold air whistling through the ruins didn't quite appeal!

The kids had fun:

 And Xander took us all exploring on a bug hunt with his exploring kit. "Come on everyone, follow my nose!":

 Xander even made notes on what he'd found and drew pictures!

And collected, er, the stones the bugs lived on! Well I supposed it is more humane locking a stone in a tin than a living insect!

So, first 'spring' walk of the year. Hopefully they will start getting a tad warmer from now on, couldn't feel my hands when we got back in the car! We had fun though.