My very first craft swap -Part 1

As you probably all know I'm quite obsessed with Instagram I especially like to follow other people who enjoy crafts, quite often they will give me inspiration for new crafts or patterns to try. 

They are a very friendly bunch who share patterns and ideas, recipes and pass on books which have been read, there is a great community feel. At Easter I noticed that a few of the people I followed were involved in a craft swap and I was intrigued to find out more, it is set up by one person who coordinates it all, there is a theme and you must sign up to it agreeing to send a parcel of goodies based on the theme, some of which must be handmade by yourself, a card should be sent with the parcels and everything prettily wrapped, the parcels are then opened on the reveal day and everyone shares the photos of their goodies on Instagram. It works in a sort of circle where one person sends to you and you send to another person- its a huge amount of coordination needed these women who organise it deserve a medal! There is a great atmosphere leading up to it as everyone posts pictures of the swaps they send,it's such a lovely way of getting to know new people, it's great and I was eager to be part of it. 

I have really jumped in at the deep end signing up to two swaps, one by @kellysmellysharpe were the theme is hearts and birds and one by @hunnypothouse which is colour me pretty, where I had to state 3 colours that were my favourites and things I liked eg, birds flowers etc to help with ideas to make/buy. I chose duck egg blue, pastel pink and pastel green, and said i liked hearts, birds, flowers, Cath Kidston style. Likewise my swap recipient @donna_marie74 favourite colours were light pink,light yellow and light green and she liked flowers ( another thing to remember is not to tell you swap recipient that you have them so its a surprise - I can say Donna's name because she got my parcel this morning! ) this swap reveal day is this Friday, although I have not received my parcel yet I know that there are lots currently in the post so hopefully I'll get mine soon. The birds and hearts swap reveal day is 1st June so there is a bit longer to wait for that one. We have had about 3 weeks to make things and for me who always has good intentions to do crafts but never get around to it, it has really given me the incentive to do them the only problem is its been absolute torture not being able to post pictures yet of the pretties I have made! The worry I have is if the things I've made and bought are good enough and liked, having not done it before I have nothing to base it on, but I think they are pretty and I would like to receive them so hopefully they will too! *fingers tightly crossed!* 

Look out for part 2 where I open my swap package to see what goodies i receive and at last get to show what I have made for my swap recipient...ohhhh excited!!!!

Thanks for reading, 

Abigail xxx

                  

Our Adventures in the Peak District

This was our first camping trip of the year, we decided to go back to Castleton in the peak district when we visited in February. We had notice a sign for a campsite which seemed to be not too far from Castleton with lots of pubs and amazing walks we thought we'd try it out. The name of the campsite is Rowter Farm Campsite, a working farm with horses, cows, chickens and lots and lots of sheep in the surrounding fields.Its facilities were basic, the toilets where in a brick outhouse which were not heated at all unlike previous places we had been where it would usually be warmer to get changed in the toilets, saying that it was clean and what more do you expect for £10 a night for 2 people and a dog. 

As it turned out the campsite was not as close to castleton as we had first thought, it was a short drive but about 30 minutes walk downhill and longer uphill coming back, its a good job we enjoy a good walk especially when there is a promise of a nice drink in a pub beer garden when we got to there.The walk was lovely, we crossed fields of sheep and lambs unfortunately Max's inner sheepdog made it so that he was constantly pulling on his lead and barking, one day I'd love to let him off his lead and see what he does because he's a softy really he probably wouldn't know what to do! The weather was nice and sunny and the views across to Mam Tor and the great ridge where great we had a wander around the village then went to the pub for a nice cold cider. If you've ever been to Castleton you will know that to get there you pass through a place called Winnats Pass its a windy road with steep hills at each side winding down to Castleton, it didn't seem to bad driving down it so we decided to walk that way back to the campsite, it was so hard but finally we made it and settled down for the night having a barbeque and a fruit beer. Once the sun goes down it gets cold and it was quite windy so once the barbeque was done we closed the tent up and wearing baselayer top pyjamas, gloves and a hat I went to bed. I was awoken a few times through the night with the fear the tent would be picked up and blown away wizard of oz style, add to that the bed half deflating and it wasn't a great nights sleep.
We woke to drizzle on the tent we got up had a lovely breakfast of bacon butties and set off for Castleton to meet Matt our friend who would be accompanying us on our 15 mile (!!!!!) walk. The thing about this walk that worried me was not how far we were going but that Matthew had the map on his GPS and I didn't really have a clue where we were going or if we were going in the right way.

This cute little bridge near Edale reminded me of Hobbits for some reason!

The walk was actually great fun we walked up from Castleton over the great ridge at Hollins cross through fields down to Edale a really charming little village where we stopped for a beverage at the pub, we then headed up towards Kinder Scout and eventually got to a bit were there was a stream coming down the mountain or hill (it felt like a mountain!) and lots of boulders and stepping stones to traverse to get further along the path, i looked upward and there were people higher up still clambering over rocks to get to the top and I thought we mustn't be going that way but to my surprise we were, I would have never gone if I'd had known but I actually really enjoyed it. When we got to the top we had our picnic and then we continued on our walk we only really walked around the edge of Kinder Scout there are some really odd shaped rocks up there and I would have really like to explore more but we where on a very tight schedule it was 3 o clock already the time that the guys who had done the walk had got back having set off at the same time as us and we were only just over half way around, i was beginning to think we had over faced ourselves my feet were beginning to hurt and the next bit was walking over peat bogs which made you feel like you were walking on a bouncy castle. The last 4 miles were the hardest mainly because I couldn't work out how much further there was to go. When we got back to Castleton it was about 6.30 and the only antidote for our weary feet was a pub dinner and a nice drink. I was tired and sore but had a really good sense of achievement that was our highest and longest walk so far. If we were going to go to Kinder Scout again we would set off from Edale and do a shorter walk so we could take it in more.
That night I slept a bit better in the tent probably because I was shattered, we had planned spending some more time in Castleton before going home, but the weather, surprisingly for a bank holiday, was glorious so we leisurely got ready had a lovely breakfast of sausage butties and sat in the sun all morning reading my book...Bliss! We also got back home by 1.30pm so we had plenty of time to enjoy the sun in the garden too.
All in all I enjoyed our weekend, although cold at times, I will go back to this campsite its great value for money but only if the weather forecast is nice and hot!

My Wish List

The thing that has always kept me going after failed IVF attempts and realising that we won't be able to have children is to focus on the things that we can do and the reasons we are lucky. I have an amazing husband who is my best friend, a lovely house, a fantastic job which I love and a little dog who isn't a substitute for a child (as some people think!) but he does really enhance my life and I am so glad we have him.

We spent a lot of energy and time, putting our life on hold waiting to find out if we could have IVF, then having 2 attempts at it, in fact after we got married nearly 7 years ago it had dominated our lives.

This week we have just finished turning the room that was being saved to be turned into a child's bedroom into a craft room for me,and actually it feels great to be doing things that I really like.

I may not have children but I am going to have an amazing life I have compiled a list of all the things I've always wanted to do and I hope to do its not a bucket list because I don't want to focus on things to do before I die but it's more a ' to do' list its not going to have a limit because I want to keep adding to it. It will have a smaller things as well as bigger things otherwise I'd be bankrupt!

1. Do a walking challenge 
2. Skydive
3. Ride in a hot air balloon
4. Sell some of my crafts 
5. Take a helicopter ride 
6. Go to New York
7. Go to Italy
8. Visit a Greek island and Athens
9. Go to the Christmas markets in Germany.
10. Go to Hawaii
11. Go to Barcelona
12. Watch a formula 1 race live
13. Try horse riding
14. Learn to knit cables
15. Learn to knit fair isle
16. Build a campfire and make s'mores
17. Visit Sark
18. Make a recipe book of family favourites 
19. Make a photo book of each year me and Matthew have been together
20. Watch the sunrise
21. Learn to make cocktails
22. Go wild swimming
23. Have a proper picnic
24. Grow my own food
25. Fly a kite
26. Make a dress for myself
27. See the northern lights
28. Do a painting  to go up in my house
29. See a film at an open air cinema
30. Walk behind a waterfall
31. Visit Olympic Park in London
32. Go to London with Matthew
33. Ride an elephant
34. Visit an far east country
35. Ride on a dog sled
36. Visit the Giants causeway, Ireland
37. Visit Portmerion
38. Try skiing

I have already started to plan for some starting with booking flights to Berlin for the weekend before Christmas to see the German Christmas market, one thing we wouldn't have been able to plan so far in advance before now and it feels good to be able to now.

I will keep you informed on how I get on.
Thanks for reading!
xxx

Beautiful Wales

On Easter weekend, we went to Pwhelli in Wales a stones throw from Snowdonia national park.You can see the mountains from the beach at the holiday park where we stayed and it was like being in a Nordic country or looking at the alps. It was beautiful.

 Originally we were going to walk up Mount Snowdon but true to its name it was covered in snow, there had been news stories about people falling and having to be rescued. Although we have the walking gear, cleats for our shoes and walking sticks, its still not worth risking it. We will be going back in the summer so we'll do it then.

We still wanted to do a good walk so I found this one on the Snowdonia National Park that starts from a beautiful place called Beddgelert, it was a 6 mile hard leisure walk.
Fisherman's Path & Cwm Bychan
It was a really good walk that had a bit of everything, first walking along by the side of the crystal clear River Glaslyn, then through woodland and then a walk through a valley and ascending the hill to see beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and down to the coast, where we had a picnic then descending down to a lake and back around to Beddgelert.

River Glaslyn

Cwm Bychan

Matthew and Max at the highest point of the walk with views of  Snowdon in the background.

and me and Max enjoying the views!

Easter party and egg hunt.

My sister, Christiana and I decided to do a party for our nephews, Joshua, 7, Thomas, 3 and Edward, 9 months. I would do the food and she would do the egg hunt clues. 

It was a simple lunch of egg sandwiches which have to be enjoyed with salt and vinegar crisps- it's the law! Apart from we had the lovely salt and vinegar kettle chips and the children had Pom bear crisps! I made marble chocolate and vanilla easter cupcakes and a nice pot of tea for the adults to wash it down! 

My recipe for Easter marble cupcakes

Makes 24                                                      

Vanilla cupcake mixture	Chocolate cupcake mixture
125g Self raising flour.	100g Self raising flour
125g butter	125g butter
125g sugar	125g sugar
2 eggs	2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract	25g cocoa

To decorate : 

Mini Malteaster bunnies, Mini Eggs, Cadbury's Flake

Chocolate butter cream 

150g butter and 350g icing sugar and about a dessert spoon of cocoa. 

1. Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake cases 

2. Mix the vanilla mixture first in the electric mixer. Mix until light and smooth consistency, scrape the mixture into a bowl. 

3. Next put the chocolate cupcake ingredients into the mixer and mix to same consistency.

4. Then layer a tsp of vanilla mixture then a tsp of chocolate and so on into each cupcake case until they are all filled and both mixtures have been used up.

5. Using a cocktail stick gently swirl the two mixtures together in each case.

6. Bake in the oven at 200C for about 13 mins, take out and leave to cool on a wire rack

7. Now to decorate, mix the ingredients of the buttercream in a bowl with a hand held mixer, it is important not to over mix it as it will begin to separate. It needs to be just combined and quite firm. 

8. Holding the cupcake in your left hand, get a dollop of buttercream on your palate knife and smooth it over the top of the cupcake. Scrape any excess mixture off the knife, now lay the rounded tip of the knife just touching the buttercream and carefully scrape some away in a spiral motion.

9.Put a Malteaster bunny or a few Mini Eggs on top to decorate and sprinkle smashed up pieces of flake around it. 

10. Place on a lovely cupcake stand and enjoy! 

The Easter egg hunt went really well apart from a little blip at the start when Josh spotted one of the clues but he was very good and he didn't tell the others.

Christiana wrote some really good clues and I hid them, my favourites were; 

" What a handsome pooch but where is his name? 

Look underneath to continue this game"

So I craftily folded the clue and put it in between the buckle of Max's collar! 

And..

" Take one if your feeling sneezy or sad, 

Not as good as your sleeve but it makes Mum less mad!" 

Which is of course hiding in the tissue box! Genius! Lol!

Christiana hates this picture because it looks like she's trying to enhance her bosoms but it is a really good photo of Joshua aka Spider-Man and Thomas working together to find the next clue!

And here's one of Christiana covering her modesty with Edward.

The boys went home with bellies and buckets full of easter treats. I do it for myself as much as them I love having the family together and  I'm a big kid at heart. 

Thanks for reading,

Easter crafts

http://blog.makezine.com/craft/craft_pattern_spring_bunny/

I found the link for this free crochet pattern for these gorgeous little bunnies on a blog I follow called 1500 free amigurumi patterns. It's so cute I just had to give it a go, my idea was to make some as easter presents but I started doing it too late really and because I'm new to the world of amigurumi I was very slow. It took me a day and a half doing it nearly none stop! Here is my attempt, I didn't have any safety eyes so I stitched on the eyes instead, I think it's pretty cute!

 

I have noticed that some of the people that I follow on Instagram have done there own versions using the same pattern and its great to see how unique they all are. My 9 month old nephew Edward took a shine to this one so  it went home with him, I'm glad my bunny has gone to a good home.

My second attempt at amigurumi and I'm beginning to get better, this time I got my idea from a book 'Cute and easy crochet' by Nikki Trench I recommend this book to anyone starting out at crocheting it was my first crochet book and I still refer back to it. 

I've been wanting to make these really cute egg cosies for ages.

I thought it would be good to make my own with a twist. I followed the pattern to make the egg cosy bit but then made up my own bit to make it look like a chick! I was so proud of myself it's my first crochet design, I think it is pretty cute! 

Mother's Day crafts

When my grandad died it was the first time me and my 4 sisters and I had lost someone close to us, at the funeral we were all upset my mum tried to comfort us in a group hug and said a line which I will never forget, "At times like this I wish I was an octopus" it made us all laugh out loud through the tears and we all felt loved.

For my Mother's Day card for my mum this year I made it, it's a picture of an octopus holding 8 hearts, on each arm has all her daughters and 3 grandchildren's names.

For my Mother in laws card I did cross stitch Happy Mother's Day and felt flowers.