Autumnwatch - It's officially over!

Is it just me or does it feel like autumn is over almost as soon as it got started?

It really flew by.

Last week I was looking at the bare trees around and thinking that I must get a photo of them to finish off my little Autumnwatch project, but of course I didn't quite get around to it and now they look a bit more like this......

and this........

and this........

 I thought all this photo needed is a wee robin sitting on top and it would look like one of those classic Christmas cards!

I can't believe I have heard people complaining already about the snow. We haven't had too much, just a nice couple of inches. They seem to have forgotten that at this time last year we were completely snowed in under a couple of feet of snow. I made a little slideshow of that here. At the start of the slideshow is an average snowfall and then by the end, which was only a couple of days later, it is rather a lot more. That was officially the worst winter, and coldest December for over a century!

Or if you missed our champion icicles last Christmas you can see them here, which I actually posted exactly a year ago today.

I for one am hoping we do get a bit more snow, but if it could just wait until a bit closer to Christmas as I have one or two things still to get!

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A Festive-fun-filled weekend

Our festive fun began at lunchtime on Friday when we met up in town with daddy, who had taken the afternoon off. 

First stop was the outdoor ice rink.

The boys were so excited as they had never been ice skating before.

I, on the other hand, had spent nearly every Saturday afternoon between the ages of 11 and 16 ice skating. I never did anything fancy, just went round and round with a few friends, week in week out. I loved it!

16 is a little further back than I would like to think it was though, and when I first stepped onto the ice on Friday I thought, 'Yikes, how come I used to be good at this?!'

Thankfully, after a few tentative circuits hovering safely close to the side, it all came back to me, and I was brave enough to let Calum and David hold onto me, without fearing that they would pull me straight over.

James was determined to do it alone, and look, he isn't clinging to the sides!

This was him zooming, well more like sort of staggering/sliding, across in front of me.

OK, in this photo, I had my purse and phone and a whole host of other things stuffed in my pockets. It's really not very flattering!

My arm was aching after an hour of pulling little boys who were clinging on for dear life around.

We had hired some double bladed skates for Alasdair. I was pretty sure he wouldn't want to go on the ice, but didn't want him to feel left out. When we stepped on he said, 'Too slidy, too slidy!' and dad was only too keen to stay off with him!

Instead, they went on the water dodgem things, which Alasdair absolutely adored.

By the time we were done, it was getting dark and so the temperature was plummeting.

This was a good excuse to head into a coffee shop.

We went into the one in the National Gallery, which is really lovely.

The boys who could had hot chocolate,

 Those who are allergic and so couldn't, had freshly squeezed juices,

And we had tea and cream scones.

Brrr, it was cold when we left.

In this photo, Edinburgh Castle is in the middle on the skyline.

On Saturday morning was the Boys' Brigade Christmas Fayre, which the boys always love. This was followed by a trip to the cinema to see Tintin with daddy, while I was at a Craft Fair.

On Saturday night when we were sitting talking about our weekend, I was thinking that the perfect thing to round it off would be if the snow would come.

Then on Sunday morning................

.....well......

......this was Alasdair this morning on our way home from dropping his brothers at school.

:0)

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Christmas Lights Switch On

Firstly, Happy St Andrew's Day!

Now onto those sweet schoolchildren singing last night.

As I'm sure most of you know, our boys attend a Gaelic Medium school, where they are taught in Gaelic. They have no English at all until the end of Primary 3 (age 7).

The only Gaelic school remotely near us is in the city, about 15 miles away, and so we take the train in every morning (which only takes about 15-20 minutes). Alasdair and I then head home again before returning for the other boys at 3pm.

OK, I'm digressing here.

Every year the school choir is asked to sing at the Christmas Light Switch On in the area around the school. It is right in the city centre, with Edinburgh Castle looking down on them from less than a mile away.

It was absolutely freezing last night but the children all did the school proud, as they always do.

The biggest excitement was when the local councillor announced the lights would be switched on by the two youngest choir members, and our Calum was one of the two! He was so chuffed. I do have a film of that, but as I was using my normal camera, I hadn't thought about the fact that if you take a video long-ways, you can't flip it round on your computer like you can with a photo, so I won't make you all watch it sideways!

I have three other video clips for you though - it's OK, they aren't too long :0) - of the three songs they sang.

Firstly was Seallaibh an t-sneachda (shallav an shnechga) - Look at the Snow.

Then they sang the lovely Leanabh an Aigh.

They finished with everyone's favourite, Glacan Binn - Jingle Bells. Only James and Calum are in the choir, but for this last one any younger brothers and sisters were allowed to go up and join in so you can see David at the front with his best friend Ruaraidh. (David's the one with his jacket open, even though everyone else is wrapped up from top to toe!)

Oh, you will also notice in this one that the school is very close to the Fire Station - And that isn't the school behind them but the main offices of the Bank of Scotland!

I hope that has everyone in the festive spirit and ready for the start of advent tomorrow!

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Etsy Shop Launch!

It's late, even by my standards - we were home late tonight because James and Calum were singing with the school choir at the switch-on of the Christmas Tree lights near the school - but I couldn't wait any longer to 'officially' launch my wee shop.

Anyone who was visiting my blog earlier today may have noticed that I have added the shop to my side-bar. 

Just click on this to visit the shop.

So far I only have my Christmas cards on there but I'm working on some cute Christmas decorations to add, as well as some crochet and hand sewn gifts.

As an opening offer for all my blog friends, if you are interested in buying anything you can get 15% off the total price by typing in LAUNCHOFFER when you checkout.

I will be taking my crafts to the boys' Boy's Brigade Christmas Fair this Saturday morning and have just heard that I have been allocated a stall at a bigger Craft Fair at the Arts Centre in the afternoon, so it looks like another busy week ahead!

Oh, and one final thing, if any of you are on Facebook then I would love to get some new 'likers' for my Cornerfulofcrafts page, which you can find here.

Right, I must get some beauty sleep now!

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Another busy week

OK, so most weeks are busy when you have four boys to run around after, but this past week seemed busier than usual.

There were three main reasons.

Firstly, I finally have my Etsy shop up and running, as my Facebook friends will know, so I was working on setting that up. I'm hoping to 'officially' launch it on the blog next week. Very exciting. 

I also had a biggish order of Christmas cards to make for the Gaelic Book shop in Glasgow. These are some of one of the designs. 

And then at the end of the week I was busy baking for the cake stall at the school Christmas Fair today.

I made: 

two batches of chocolate fudge

two batches of Baileys and White Chocolate Fudge

 two batches of Gingerbread Men

 three batches of mince pies

 and I also made a Banoffee Pie for our Ladies Evening at church on Friday night.

So, that's why it's been a bit on the quiet side on the blog this week!

Oh, and I hope all my US friends had a lovely Thanksgiving too!

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The Birthday Boy

Although we were all sick last week, I was so thankful that the bug hit us when it did and not a few days earlier.

Had it done so, then this little man,

or should I say big man, as he is sure he has grown a few inches since turning six, wouldn't have had such a fun birthday!

He loved the bike. 

It's a touch on the big side for him. I told him it will be the perfect size for him by the time proper cycling weather comes round again, but he is determined it is the proper size for him right now and whenever the weather suits he is out in the back garden trying to master it! 

That pretty much sums up his character.

He loved all of his presents in fact.

This game below is so much fun. I would definitely recommend it if anyone is looking for a game that suits all ages. 

It's the Playdough Potato Head game. 

You have to get your potato, made out of playdough, round the board without getting chopped/sliced up/turned into chips (fries)/crisps (chips).

If you land on one of the squares in the machine, you have to wait nervously and hope that no-one else spins the square that destroys you. Meanwhile everyone else is hoping that they do get that square - well, that's how it goes in out house anyway!

James was my kitchen assistant for the cake. 

He did a marvelous job of colouring the white fondant icing green and then rolling it out. He also piped on the icing, although stopped before doing the name, and added the footballers.

He's a big fan of Ace of Cakes.

To celebrate David's birthday we went with the cousins to Soft Play, out for dinner to the Carvery Restaurant, then back here for cake and another game of Potato Head.

Here are the boys and their cousins with the birthday boy. He is wearing the Scotland football top that he got from his cousins.He loves it so much that he would sleep in it if he could. I almost have to wrestle it off him to get it in the wash!

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Another day, another walk!

Let's start this week off with another walk. A bit different from the last one I posted, I promise.

We spent Saturday afternoon walking in the Pentland hills with my husband's sister and her trusty collie dog Cuilean (coo-lan, which is the Gaelic for 'doggy').

A crisp, fresh walk was the best medicine for us, as myself and the boys had all been laid low last week with a vomiting bug - bleugh, not nice trying to look after 4 sick boys when you are sick yourself, but at least having it all together meant that we got over it quicker, rather than the bug slowly making it's way through everyone.

So, by Saturday we were all recovered, and since my husband was working away when the worst of the bug hit us, he has so far remained clear of it. 

My sister in law and her dog are avid hill walkers so this was very much a gentle stroll for her. Most Saturdays they can be found climbing the Munroes around the country but with the days getting shorter she will be taking things a bit easier for a while.

The Pentlands are her nearest hills, a 5 minute drive from her house (about 20 minutes from ours) and lie just on the edge of Edinburgh. The loch you can see in some of the pictures below is one of the reservoirs for the city.

Can you spot Cuilean swimming in to retrieve his stick?

Little legs get tired after a while and need a helping hand.....

.....that's what daddys are for!

I'm thinking this will be on our Christmas cards this year.....

....or this.........

....or this one is quite fun too.

 

Finishing our walk as the sun was setting added to the adventure for the boys!

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