15 Years

Today we celebrated 15 years of married life.

For the first time in years we sat down and watched our wedding video. The boys had never seen it before and were quite entertained! It was so funny to see all the people at our wedding who we hadn't even remembered were there. And it was also quite sad to see how many of our older relations have passed away since then too.

I made up this slate plaque as a gift for my hubs, although it is really for both of us.

I bought the blank slate in Hobbycraft as well as some rub off letters. I was a little unsure how the letters would work as the surface of the slate was uneven but the rubbed off pretty well and I'm quite pleased with it.

Now that I think of it, a blank slate is quite a symbolic thing for a wedding/anniversary gift!

We didn't do anything fancy to celebrate. We will have our proper celebration on another night.

We did make up some kid friendly cocktails with fun umbrellas to have with our dinner though.

As for the little man's arm. Well he's getting quite used to his cast now. The new cast gives a bit more freedom to his fingers, which he is much happier about. He can't use his right arm for eating yet but he can carry a super hero in his hand and that's what's important!

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Sofas and screams

Yesterday afternoon David (7) and Alasdair (4) were through in the family room when I heard a big scream from Alasdair followed by some very loud tears.

 

I went through, picked him up and tried to comfort him and find out what was wrong. He was holding his right wrist and asking for Mr Happy, the bruise soother we keep in the fridge and usually use for soothing hot itchy eczema.

 

David said he had fallen off the sofa. He didn't see how he had landed but after about 15 minutes of crying it was pretty clear he had probably landed on his arm. There was no swelling, though, and so I thought we should wait and see how things went rather than rushing off the A & E.

 

Well, long story short, a few hours later, despite there still being no swelling, he was still whimpering all the time, holding his arm and just wanting to sit on mine or daddy's knee so we headed off to the hospital.

 

Because I was sure he would need an X-ray, and because I knew I couldn't accompany him in for one then daddy came too.

 

Thanks to our good old friend, Curious George, Alasdair knew what to expect when having an X-ray for a broken bone. He has watched the episode where George breaks his leg quite a few times! He was extra brave and told me about the funny jacket daddy had to wear when the magic camera took his photo.

The radiographer could see straight away that he had a small fracture on his wrist and we were led through to the plaster room where a doctor told us that the plaster technicians weren't on shift. They would put a temporary cast on his arm and give us an appointment to return and get his proper cast on.

 

Look how brave he was sitting up on the big chair on his own. This was the first time since he fell that he hadn't been sitting on mine or daddy's knee. It was also obvious that the pain relief they had given him was taking effect!

 

 

His temporary cast is quite heavy and he was a little uncomfortable through the night with it. He still doesn't sleep well anyway due to his itchy eczema but last night he kept waking up saying 'too heavy, too heavy' and trying to get comfortable! We go back tomorrow (Tuesday) to get his other cast on, which they said will be lighter and more comfortable.

 

 

Today he has been a little trooper. While he hasn't been using his right arm, he has been playing quite happily most of the time. He did get a little frustrated when playing with his super heroes as he likes to have one in each hand and couldn't do that today!

 

He also managed to eat with his soup with his left hand at dinner tonight. He did ask me to help him when he was about half way through though as he was getting a little tired.

 

Such a brave little boy.

 

The nurse at the hospital said how busy they have been this last month with broken bones since the weather has been so nice.

 

I was always convinced that the first broken arm we would have in our house would be as a result of a shinty or football injury. Not just falling off a sofa!

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Things I'm loving...

Since I missed out on writing a Things I'm Loving post last week I had planned on covering this week and last, but then noticed all the photos I wanted to share hadn't uploaded!

 

As it's late I'll keep it super short instead!

 

This week we attended a lovely wedding which gave me my first chance to wear the snuggly purple shawl that I crocheted recently and shared on a Make it Monday post.

 

But even more lovely than my shawl was the rare chance to wear one of my most precious pieces of jewellery. I have two special pearl necklaces. The first is a single string of pearls given to me by husband as a wedding present. The second are also pearls, this time three strands so they are a bit fancier and I don't get to wear them so often. They were also a wedding present, but this time from my Shen (grandad) to my Granny when they married in 1953. My grandparents both passed away within 10 months of each other and my dad gave the pearls to me.

 

 

 

You can't really see the pearls in the photo but here are my grandparents on their wedding day.

 

 

 

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Wordless Wednesday {Why my kitchen smelled so good this afternoon}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Make it Monday - Granny Square Blanket

About 3 weeks ago I decided to start working on a blanket for the new baby.

 

Now, although my hubs and I know the gender we haven't told anybody else. We gave the boys the option of being sworn to secrecy or waiting till the little one arrives and they all chose to wait - although I'm pretty sure David (7) wanted to know, he just saw his brothers say they wanted to wait and decided to do the same!

 

Anyway, this meant that I couldn't choose colours for the blanket that are too obviously boy or girl themed. I chose these three colours because I loved their cheerful brightness and because they are fairly gender neutral. I can picture either a little boy or a little girl wrapped up in them.

 

 

 

When I began working on the first few squares I told the little man of my plan to make this blanket for the baby. After a few minutes he said, 'But I don't have my own blanket. Can you make me one?' I asked him if he would like one made with these same colours. He said he would and so I told him that this blanket would be his and then we would make another one for the baby. After all, he is already here!

 

He was quite happy with this arrangement. In fact he is keen to see it finished and if he sees me sitting down without a crochet hook in hand will ask me if I'm going to work on his blanket!

 

 

 

Rather than wait until all the squares are finished before joining them all together, I've been attaching them each time I complete a block of nine. This way I can see how big it's getting and decide how much more I have to go.

 

Tonight I asked my little Iron Man if I could see how it looked on him for size. I think I'm almost at about the half way point. By the time I double what I almost have here and add a border it should be about right. Like I said though, I'll just keep adding until I'm happy with the size!

 

 

This is such a pretty little Granny Square and you can find the free pattern (including very helpful pictures for any beginners out there) over here at Attic24. I should also add in closing, if you are a crochet lover like me you may find yourself getting a little sucked in to all the crochet loveliness over at Attic24 and may find yourself there for some time!

 

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Show Day

Saturday was the local agricultural show and the boys were eager to get their entries in to various competitions.

 

As were my parents!

 

Competitions include those for livestock, photography, locally grown vegetables & plants, sewing, knitting/crochet, art, woodwork and of course baking.

 

Calum (10) entered this rather cute duckie into the under 12s 'Animal or scene made from fruit or vegetable' competition.

 

 

David (7) entered his equally cute melon & carrot crab into the same competition.

 

 

 

They both entered the art competition with a drawing each, as did James (13) with his first attempt at an acrylic painting. He sat down at the beach one day last week and painted the rocks. Then later on that evening he wanted to finish it and so took his inspiration for the sky and sea from the photo I took of the beach one evening last week.

 

This is his painting....

 

 

 

 

...and the photo that he kind of copied.

 

 

 

Calum also entered the under 12s baking competition with this marble cake, which he made gluten & dairy free so that he could scoff it when we brought it home again.

 

When the tents open after judging, the boys always eagerly run in to see if anyone has had any success.

 

They were delighted to see that David had won a 3rd place for his crab!

 

 

Although non of their other entries won anything, they were still excited to see that my dad had won 1st for a houseplant he entered, a 2nd for a patio pot arrangement, a 2nd for a cut flower arrangement and a 1st for a photograph. My mum won 1st for her jam and 2nd for both her pancakes and fatless sponge. And lastly, my 16 year old brother won 1st for a wooden clock that he made. Not too bad really!

 

Calum & David also took part in the Kids' Olympics, which was done in teams of 2.

 

 

 

They were beaten into 2nd place by about 2ml of water! The final race involved carrying a tray of water through an obstacle course. Both teams finished at exactly the same time but the other team had about 2ml more of water left and so were the winners of the trophy.

 

Never mind, they got a big box of Maltesers as 2nd prize. One of the organisers overheard David say that Calum was allergic to chocolate. He came after us and gave Calum the same amount of money as the chocolates cost and told him to keep the chocolates for his mum! I thought that was a lovely gesture.

 

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering round the various stalls and helping me out at my craft stall. It was a fun afternoon and Calum is already planning what to bake for next years' show!

 

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Make it Monday - Craft Stall Makes

On Saturday it was the local agricultural show.

(More about the show in tomorrow's post)

 

There are a few craft stalls at the show and so I had one booked for some of my makes.

 

 

I spent the evenings last week making up these glass cabochon shapes. The square ones and the smaller round ones were for pendants, the larger round ones were paperweights and the oval ones were for letter openers.

 

 

 

When I took the photo of the completed jewellery the lighting wasn't quite so good and so the colours aren't true but these were my jewellery and paperweight makes from last week. There are pendants, rings, hair slides, bangles and paperweights.

 

 

 

These are the letter openers and a couple of wee pill boxes.

 

 

 

And a close up of the vintage comic paperweights, which I love. Calum (10) wants a set of these made up for him!

 

 

 

Now, remember my bargain hunting last week when I went looking for teacups to make candles? Well here is one of the finished candles....

 

 

 

 

 

And here is a photo of my little stall all ready for the show to start, complete with little helper in the background.

 

 

 

 

That's the little helper having his first taste of candy floss and not quite sure what to make of it!

 

It was a really busy day at the show and the stall did quite well, as did some members of my family in the competitions, but like I said earlier, more about that tomorrow!

 

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Things I'm loving...

A quick selection of more things we've been loving this week.....

 

 

Playing in the garden.

 

 

 

 

 

A trip into town and some chips (fries) by the harbour.

 

 

 

 

 

All those walks to the beach of course.

 

 

 

Lazy mornings.

 

 

 

 

Nights that hardly get dark (this was taken at 11.45pm).

 

 

 

 

And finally, it's not all been carefree. There has been some hard work too, like tidying up great- granny's garden for her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn't an easy morning for outdoor working that morning either. Very muggy and extremely buggy! Later on the sun broke through though and this is the same view as the photo above (well, I was standing at the end of the barn you can see on the right in the photo above) but with the added happiness of sunshine.

Somewhere across that blue sea lies mainland Scotland!

 

 

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