April Intro..a little late..

 

Disclaimer: I wrote this a while ago and forgot to hit publish.

Welcome April..how lovely to see you and you have brought some sunshine..how kind. Despite March being an eventful month I can honestly say that I am glad to see the back of it..it just didn't seem like spring at all with it being the UK's coldest March since 1962. Of course us 'hardy Scot's' are used to a colder climate but this year even the newborn lambs just south of the border are being trussed up in little sweaters..I kid you not.

So, looking back on my March (freezing temperatures aside)...

First up, we went to the theatre to see 'Priscilla Queen Of The Desert'. The Mister & I are both fans of the movie version so were a little sceptical that the stage adaption could live up to that. However, it was absolutely wonderful from beginning to end..the music, the costumes, the whole performance was a kaleidoscope of fabulousness. Such a change from when we went to see 'Joseph' and were bored to tears..lol.

The next day I attended a long awaited hospital appointment to see a scoliosis specialist. Many of you may know I had a series of spinal surgeries in my childhood but for those who don't..I have multiple curves (scoliosis & kyphosis) which were fused to prevent them getting worse but unable to be fully corrected.
After many years of being 'okay' the last few have seen me slow down due to considerable back pain. Last year I joined SAUK (Scoliosis Association UK) and attended a great seminar and it was there I met the consultant Mr Tsirkos who advised me to see him so we could check things over. Thankfully, there were no noted changes to my spine or metal implant and the pain is predominately muscular from years of gravitational pull against my curves. Surgery has advanced so much since the 1980's but the risks in my case are too great to proceed in that direction.
After some initial disappointment at no 'miracle fix' I am currently looking towards hydrotherapy and acupuncture for pain relief alongside medication.


I see life from a different angle..lol

Yarn is also a great therapy and it was a great thrill to finally have our very own yarn festival here on the East Coast (of Scotland). The very first Edinburgh Yarn Festival was astounding with great vendors from all over the UK and visitors coming from as far as Switzerland to attend. I don't think the organisers had any idea how popular this event would be..rumour has it they expected a conservative 500 people through the doors when infact over 1600 squeezed their way through the yarny goodness that was on offer. It was a feast for the eyes (and of course yarn fondling fingers!) but it got a bit much for this pocket sized woman after a while. I purchased what I could and left while I could still get a breath..not before a photo opportunity with Ysolda of course.

I think that's my embarrassed expression..oh dear!

Other shizz that went down in my March...

• We got a new car and we have named her 'Doris'
• The date has finally been set for the Scottish Independence Referendum
• My baby brother reached the age of 33!
• I taught my first knitting class

More about some of these things in later posts..I've ranted on enough for one day.

Happy April Everyone!

 

Life Moves Pretty Fast...

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it" ~Ferris Bueller

Ten days into February already! 2012 flew by and it seems 2013 is doing the same..I guess it is something to do with getting old. Do you remember when you were a kid and the six week school summer holidays felt like an eternity? Alas, it's now 20 years since I left High School..how can that be?

One example of time passing this week is the anniversary of the day The Mister and I met. On the 6th February 2000 I went to a college friends housewarming party and met a lovely guy, but little did we both know that 13 years later we would be married and marking this occassion with tea and scones. Ain't love grand?

Not one to be left out, our four legged beastie had an anniversary of his own this week. Patch the Jack Russell 'terror' celebrated his 11th birthday and apart from some whitening around the face in recent years you would never guess he was now a senior dog.

He drives us constantly crazy and hardly a week goes by where The Mister fails to tell a certain pampered pooch that if he is not happy he can "move oot". However, despite their differences the bond between man and beast is a strong one and moments like this can't fail to warm my heart.

So despite all the little things in life that cause me complaint I simply have to look around me to remind myself what really matters..."my boys"..man & dog.

It's Snow Day Fir Going Oot



Today, I am having a snow day. "Snow day" is a Stateside term I have become familiar with recently and means a day in which things are cancelled or delayed by snow, heavy ice, or extremely low temperatures.
Whilst conditions presently aren't too bad in my little part of Scotland it looks set to get worse as the day goes on and so my Knit Club tonight is cancelled.
I'm not going sledging or building snowmen..I'll leave that to the kids. This little old lady will have her knitting out and a lovely cuppa by her side (and more than likely a small heat-seeking dog as well).

I shall also be flicking through my new knitting book 'Colours Of Shetland' by Scottish based designer Kate Davies. I have long since admired Kate's designs and been a fan of her blog so it was a great pleasure to meet the lady herself at a recent book signing in nearby Pittenweem (at a lovely little yarn store called The Woolly Brew).

It was also great to see in person all the knitted samples that appear in the book. I especially liked the Puffin Sweater that Kate was wearing herself that day and hope to begin it as a project myself sometime this year. All the patterns in the book are knitted with wool by Jamieson & Smith, one of Scotland's last remaining traditional Shetland wool producers.

2013...I'm Back! (again)

Me & My Mister

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2013 was to restart my blog so here I am back on Blogger after a 11 month hiatus. Did you miss me?
While I could fill this post with what I have been doing/thinking/dreaming of since I was last blogging I shall spare you all the details for now (suffice to say, you ain't missed much..lol). However I will be sure to reflect back on 2012 happenings in future posts to let you know where I am in life now.

Still married (20 months done!)
Still knitting (increased stash of yarn!)
Thankfully it has not yet got to the point where darling hubby has made me choose between the two.

Happy Valentine's Day

First cards as 'marrieds'

Today is of course Valentine's Day, and in our house..the first as Husband & Wife. Some may be cynical about such a day..putting it down as commercialised nonsense but for me any excuse for added romance (and gifts!!) gets a big thumbs up. Bring it on!
You can keep your red roses and champers however..I'm much more easily won over with a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit.
Seriously, I am so lucky to have such a thoughtful partner..he always buys me the cutest little gifts that have obviously taken some thought and time and knowing that can be just as lovely as the gift itself.
I received the sweetest set of Russian nesting dolls (to add to my collection) with messages of love inscribed on them, a knitting book, Russian doll earphones (I didn't know such a thing existed..they are too cute!) and some panties with dogs on that look just like my Patch.

My romantic booty

What did I gift my husband? Monogrammed hankerchiefs, a pair of cargo trousers and some cherry nougat...who said romance is dead? lol.

As I write this he is cooking dinner (yes ladies..he is a keeper) and later we are going out to the cinema to see the Woody Allen movie 'Midnight In Paris'. If he's lucky I might buy him a hot chocolate..lol.

Happy Valentine's Day to All.

2012..knitty dilemma

Hand knit poncho..gift from a lovely friend

After rearranging and sifting through the chaos that is my yarn cupboard I made a pact with myself that future knits would be:

1. Mainly for myself (I've knitted a lot for charity and as gifts but not much for me)
2. Well executed, finished and sewn up before another is cast on
3. Using yarn only from my stash...or bought from proceeds of destashing.

However, it's 12 days into 2012 and I have not cast on my first knitting project for this year yet. What's wrong with me? I have not lost my knitting mojo I am merely being indecisive..but it's driving me crazy.

Last Autumn I bought 5 balls of Patons Wool Blend DK.."enough to knit myself a sweater", I told myself at the time. It was an impulsive buy..I didn't have a pattern in mind but the 'sale' ticket was too difficult to walk by. The total price tag was less than £18.
The yarn is  a really nice shade of airforce blue with a tweedy fleck about it and being merely a wool 'blend' it is machine washable (and not too itchy!).

Hours and hours (and days and days) of browsing patterns on Ravelry have shown me that my bargain buy may have been a phrase my husband often quotes.. 'a false economy'. All the patterns I favour are knitted in Worsted not DK...ahhh.

So my question is do I go out and buy some worsted yarn or keep hunting for a DK pattern?

Happy 2012 by the way!!!

Back to Blogging..Bye To Xmas

Scottish royalty dontcha know?

Yeah, I haven't blogged for ages. I have a dozen feeble excuses but the most feasible is an amalgamation of pure laziness combined with laptop trouble. My Dell laptop was 6 years old..full of junk and barely ticking along which was not helped by our extremely slow Internet connection. Trying to post a single photo on this blog took an age, so planned posts were often abandoned midway.

On Boxing Day (after a couple of months indecision..and driving Hubs nuts by my incessant 'going on') I finally bought a new laptop. Being the frugal Scottish wifie that I am I didn't want to spend much money on a machine just for checking emails, online shopping and of course blogging. I'd seen spanking laptops with all the bells and whistles at purse tightening prices. I'd seen cheap laptops that were the ugliest pieces of plastic ever to exist and with processors not much more advanced than my old Dell Inspiron.

My new purchase was PC Worlds Boxing day special. It's a HP (Hewlett Packard) with a 2nd Gen i5 processor (which I have learnt is possibly more than I need to do what I do). The best bit is it was £399! Chuffed!

The photo at the top of this post is of my little brother and I on Christmas Day. It was a great day with my mum, bro and SIL here. My lovely husband did all the cooking. Despite good company, fabulous gifts and yummy food it's nice to get back to 'normal' again..lol.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!