April coming to an end already!!

Ever sit and try and think back what you've been doing - knowing that everyday was busy with something - but for the life of me (what does that saying mean exactly?) - I cannot remember... it'll come, maybe.

Anyway, the children went back to school for 4 days. I had very cleverly or incredibly stupidly (think the latter) made a dentist appointment for 9am on Good Friday. So we had to get up early on our day off, bad planning. In actual fact it meant we were then able to get some shopping done afterwards and be home at an earlier time. It did amaze me how busy the supermarket was, particularly the chocolate egg aisle!!
So there's been plenty of this...

Even better the sun decided to come to the west coast of Scotland :-D so we were able to sit outside for our evening meal which was the second time this year.

Mr H and I have managed to put up this...

which I am very pleased with. We just have to get the sides organised, maybe next week aft No2 Ds birthday. The wood is lovely hardwood and was pulled out of a skip so - even better.

We had a family day out on Easter saturday. 13 of us in total and Miss H. A day trip to St Andrews, picnic, chairs, windbreakers, tables, the whole shebang. Everything except sunshine which is in the hands of the gods - and they weren't sharing...

Que sera as they say. It was a pretty wet day but it didn't dampen our spirits, and in the end we were rewarded with evening sunshine and ice creams.

So after a lovely weekend the children went back to school, for 3 days this week. BUT there has been a bit of this...

oh my word - it was so cold I had to light it up and get the coal on - cosybags!!

AND so the greatest excitement of the week has been my starting my new class. I have enrolled at the Art School to do a 6 wk Stained Glass class, and this is what I made today -

I am very happy and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Nxt week I will play at fusing glass, and nervously am wondering where do I put the glass hobby?? I am aware that one can lose oneself in a hobby - hence one converted garage now sewing room, and maybe a few bits of fabric, bobbins of thread.... OK this isn't a confessional!! I don't drink (much, very often) :-)

The sun came out...

... enough for sitting eating outside and wearing shorts (kids not me - not THAT warm). After a sadly wetter week the weather picked up and life has moved into spring/summer indoor/outdoor. The kitchen door gets left open instead of "oh shut the door it's cold", the dog has been sunbathing. This makes me smile. When we first went to see the puppies, before Miss H was chosen - or chose us really - her mother and grandma both were to be found sitting facing the sun, eyes half shut, chin up to the warmth, basking in the sunshine. Now Miss H does the exact same thing. sweet.

We had a lovely day in St Andrews at the end of last week. I had made a meatloaf and homemade bread for our picnic. We took our chairs, windbreakers, etc for a right good picnic-y sit on the beach etc. The wind was too much though and we ended up eating in the car. 

We had a play on the beach with Miss H but No2 D and I gave up and retreated to the windproof motor. Ended up falling asleep for a wee nap, very nice :-) Followed by fish'n'chips which were absolutely delicious.

I also took advantage of the sunshine to wash some quilts, won't take pictures of my washing really but thought this quilt was like stained glass when I was sitting behind it. It's quality, natural wadding inside it but the sun was so bright it shone through.

AND... I am quite pleased with myself here. I have been playing with my laptop and - it may not mean much to some - but I have managed to make a new header!! I have been staring at this thing for so long trying to work out how to do it. Last night my husband came home after midnight to find me tucked up in bed, laptop on and making my fourth montage. I can now cut and paste pics and blend the background away - it's FUN too!!!

Lovely Week 1

Well that's us at an end to week 1 of our holiday break. Mr H returned to work today and will be very late in due to The Masters. I'm watching this through my fingers as I type this... poor McIlroy, he's lost it. Will Tiger come through?
We were thinking of going camping last week but the weather was so terrible, rain rain rain... again and again and again. it's really a pain how much we seem to get. The end of the week it picked up a bit but still cold winds!! After a bit of a rant to the skies the sun came out on saturday. All my doing I'll have you know ;-]

I'm showing this terrible veggie patch to make me get my act together. For the last 2 years the trampoline has been over it. The grass that was under the original position of the trampoline was not growing. We had just got Miss H

and so the veggie patch was on hold. The grey/brown bit is the underside of an old carpet which has layen there to stop weeds and has done a pretty good job. Anyway we have decided to build a little fence thing to keep her from doing any business amongst my edibles making them in-edibles... 

I might work on it this week. Mr H does not enjoy DIY preferring to feign shock at things that appear or are built in his absence. After all I have constructed many a flat pack incl 3 kitchens. Our fence out the front appeared one day when he returned from work to park in the driveway. To give him his due, he did cement in the fence posts before he left...

So I have managed to get some seeds in, some onions and potatoes chitting happily. 

I am ALWAYS full of enthusiasm at this time of year and hope that it continues. There's always a point when I can't bothered a few months in, then the bit when things are flowering well and looking very nice when I return to the enthusiastic gardener role. I love big pots of colours, and this year I have bought tiny plugs of geraniums which I have now potted on and they are looking very nice thank you!!

Then today look what we found..

AND later on a butterfly was sniffing around my purple azalea, but didn't get a pic. Could we be heading for summer?? Mr H said weather forecast is saying wind, rain, snow... help!!

Holiday break... YEAH!!

So as I type this we are about to embark on a fortnights holiday from school and college. Much needed refreshment time - and I don't really mean glass of wine or whatever, I'm just talking about - no deadlines, no expectations and the break from the usual routine. Lovely.
I have also JUST completed sewing together the sewing clubs project this term.

There were 15 to do, they have made these sewing tidy's with 2 pockets inside and a needle keeper, and cross-stitched their own initial. i went around each one with my sewing machine to sew the inner and outer pieces together. This hid all the workings and thread endings. We had 2 boys this term which was pretty good. Next term it's aprons - although due to our busy busy April with so many holidays :-/ we will not restart until May, so plenty time to prep for that.

No2 D has just completed a 'Victorian" project at school so we were invited to go to a Victorian morning at school. Each child took in a little something, Victoria sponge cake, homemade lemonade.. my D made "Fondant Fancies" 

We actually managed to make quite a few and when I saw how many cakes there were altogether I thought we had been overly ambitious... however - every one was eaten. They were very good.