Shopping and Cocktails

Spring is definitely here and the wildlife has been out and about so I have been out and about trying to take some pictures of the cute little lambs that are frolicking about in the fields by us as well as a wag tail I saw having a bath in a puddle and one of the many pheasants.

nervous little lambs

Saturday I went to Inverness, wedding dress shopping. Yes, you read right, I went wedding dress shopping after finally accepting that my lovely OH will not be thrilled if I turn up in jeans. I should be clear and say that he is not be demanding just let slip that he has been thinking about me turning up on the day in a dress even though he knows I am not a girly girl. I took along a friend to give me her opinion of the dresses and we went to an appointment at one of the bridal shops in the city. If I say it did not go well it would be an understatement. We decided to go to the shopping centre and browse some shops before getting some lunch but then we got a little lost which turned out to be very lucky for us because my friend asked a random man for directions and we all walked into town...right past another bridal boutique. The ladies in there were very different to the ones at the first shop and the dresses were gorgeous. I wasn't made to feel like the short, rather curvy woman that I am, more like a soon to be gorgeous bride. The dress has been found and is with the seamstress to be adjusted and we celebrated by going to Bar One for cocktails.

My friend's bubblegum daiquiri 

Many cocktails were tried before we went home rather merry and with another thing ticked off the list of things to do for the wedding. This may well mean that I will be trying out a few more cocktail recipes.



Oh, yes, I now know that I should have been shopping for the dress last year which makes this somewhat of a miracle so maybe I shall have a drink to that. In the meantime I am working on some cute little knitted chicks as creme egg covers for my munchkins at Easter as part of the egg hunt but I will have some pictures and the pattern for you next time.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

My favourite of the ones I tried, Look at the Flowers Lizzie

handsome pheasant

fluffy little wagtail

Spring? Wedding and Quilting

I am sitting in my kitchen eating porridge (something I have eaten for years, not just since my relocation to the land we all associate with porridge) and outside although there is frost on the ground it is beautifully sunny. Not the cold winter sun but a warmer light that is spilling over the fields and already starting to chase the frost away. In my little flower beds I have some daffodils trying to decide if they want to open up or give it another week while others are little dare devils and the frost on the bench is so pretty and sparkly that I had to take a picture of it.

That's right, I think you guessed what I am thinking...Spring might actually be here! But shush, I don't want to scare it off. A couple of days ago I felt the urge to get out into the greenhouse and so I spent the morning clearing, digging, and preparing the beds all ready for a special year. For the first time since I was a little girl with a square of soil to fill with plants I am only growing flowers and herbs. No fruit nor vegetables for me this year as I am growing all of the flowers for our wedding. Yay!

After months of looking at flower catalogues and trying to decide how best to approach this it seemed best to decide what I want in my bouquet and work from there because that will decide the button holes and corsage for the mother of the groom and finally the flowers that will go on the tables. There will be more details to follow and pictures as the plants grow although it may be a little while as I only ordered them yesterday. The colours will be pastel shades of cream, pink and purple with some greenery added. My plan is to have a mixture of soft flowers with smaller textured ones. Of course I do like sweetpeas so maybe just a bunch of them.

As part of my seasonal urge there has been a little bit of tidying and my stash has had a massive overhaul. That's what I said, it has all been sorted and now resides in two big pine boxes one of new yarn with projects in mind and one of leftovers from projects which includes the 2ply white yarn from my munchkins' Christening shawl knitted over 12 years ago and some yarn I inherited from my Gran (I have no idea why she liked navy double knit so much). My plan is to knit charity projects from the leftovers and maybe a stash busting blanket but not for a while yet because something else fell out of my stash box...MY FIRST QUILT!! Oops, sorry to shout but I got a little bit excited there. You see, when my daughter was a toddler I went on a day course to learn how to do patchwork then I let her choose some fabric to make her a quilt for her cot bed. Huge mistake. It was bright Barbie pink and custard yellow. Now don't tell me you aren't wincing right now. I got as far as a stupidly complicated design scribbled on a piece of paper, sewing a few blocks and developed a deep deep regret before packing it all away amongst the yarn. So in the interests of Spring cleaning (there I go again, I hope I didn't  jinx it) I dug it out and finish sewing the top of the quilt. Ta aaaa!

definitely needs pressing!

She loves pink.

I went to my local craft shop and bought the backing fabric, the binding fabric and the wadding and did not realise I do not have a free motion quilting foot so I ordered one online and as soon as it arrives I will shut myself in the kitchen until it is done (does anyone else hear that cackling?). I am really looking forward to finishing my first quilt and may even make a second once I take a serious look at all of my WIPs and future projects. I had been so organised until the sock diversion happened.

Oh, before I forget, the rose bush was very well received by OH's mum and my munchkins made me some cute cards and bought me knitpro interchangeable needle which I am thrilled with. They brought me cereal which I found about five minutes later and they made me toast for lunch; I am a very lucky mum.

KnitPro Symfonie Interchangeable Needle Starter Set, Multi-Color

Well looking back it has been busy and this has been a very picture heavy post but there has been so much I wanted to share with you.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

Mothering Sunday

After a super hectic trip to see friends and become God parents to two adorable little munchkins I am battling through a mountain of laundry whilst dragging myself through an awful cold. The service was good and the Christening shawls were well received; who am I kidding? My friend went completely potty over them and loves them to bits which is a huge relief. They have now been packed away carefully for the little ones to keep along with their St. Christophers. We helped to blow up the helium filled balloons and believe when I say I am not a fan of balloons because of the loud bang when they burst, Unfortunately we filled them up the day before so the day of the Christening they were weird hovering blimps that floated through the room but the children all had a lot of fun wth them so it all ended well. After only a year and a half since I moved up here I noticed that my old stomping ground looked a little strange to me and when we were driving back there were certain points in the journey that triggered excitement at being home.

Now we are back home we have to prepare for the next event as such. Mothering Sunday always used to involve a trip to the local market the day before and buying large bunches of flowers to make my own bouquet to give but now we only have my OH's mum (soon to be Mother in Law...eep!) and they live too far away for a visit on the day so I have ordered a rose bush for the garden because it will last longer than a bouquet and I know she likes to have fragrant roses in the garden.

In all the stress of my youngest going away for the week I made three demi-johns full each of mead, red grape wine and apple wine and I have been so surprised that they have all been bubbling away (showing signs of fermentation) even when the heating was much lower when we were away although it does sound a bit like a dripping tap so it is driving me a little bit crazy. The pea pod wine I made last July was opened when we arrived home and it was much nicer than we had hoped. Yay! Home brewing success. I admit that my resolve has weakened and there may be a couple of brambletinis in my very near future. Several people have expressed a desire to try my home made liqueurs so I am making them ready to be served in different ways at the wedding. Yay!


Hugs from Haggis Land,

J x