Me and Brian had a lovely quiet night in on New Years Eve with a Darling buds of May marathon accompanied by lots of cheese and wine. We headed down south on New years day as it was my Mum's 50th birthday weekend. We had a great time with lots of surprises. My lovely mum had prepared a mini Christmas for us when we got there (with a full roast!) so even though we had lots of presents at Christmas we had even more to open! Luckily I'm truly my mothers daughter and had bought them all some extra presents too :) Along with some other lovely things they had got me a new purse from none other than Cath Kidston and I can't explain how much I love it! It even matches my new red roses hand bag I got in the sale :) Look at it, isn't it amazing? :)
My parents also got us a great book on Alpaca farming which will come in very useful soon and they very generously gave us some money which me and Brian have decided to use to buy the Chicken Ark I blogged about last time so needless to say I'm very excited! They also got me this pretty red jumper from Joe Brown which I am wearing now as I blog :) Aren't I lucky? :)
Saturday we went to visit our friend Sally (who I miss loads) who has just moved on to a farm in such a pretty location. We went for a walk to the poets stone (a very high hill with stunning views) and then had some stolen loaf and hot juice back at her house. Saturday evening was my Mum's cheese and wine birthday party which was great fun and I got to wear my lovely new dress I got from Next in the sale which you can see here (not modeled by me!) which went perfectly with an antique style white rose necklace my sister gave me.
Sunday was my Mum's actual birthday and we went for a lovely meal at the pub up the road. I'm happy to report my sister is doing well after her hip operation and is whizzing around on crutches and should be back in college tomorrow. We travelled back Sunday afternoon and came home to yet another blanket of snow. I managed to make it in the work this morning but minty decided he'd had enough after the 500mile round trip and stopped working at lunch time today! This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that Brian's car died last week......as I wrote that sentence Brian called me downstairs to let me know he fixed his car with a new battery! Hooray! At least we have one car working now :) Minty is currently sat outside work waiting for the AA who can't come out till tomorrow so I will let you know how he gets on in a later blog. At least I don't have to walk to work in the snow tomorrow :)
My final pieces of exciting news are all crafty really. I spent a few evenings last week reading through the whole of Diary of a Tiny Holder blog and getting so inspired by Sian and her amazing craftiness so I have decided to start knitting. I have also been wanting a sewing machine for a while now but her blog really got me wanting one and by sheer coincidence, whilst I was down at my parents, my God mother offered me hers as she is getting a new one for her birthday! How amazing is that!? My Mum and Sister are going to be bringing it up for me when they make their first visit up here in Feb. My final bit of news is that my Mum has in trusted me with her 30 year old kenwood mixer (which was a gift from my Great Nan) as Mum got a new one for Christmas. I am so excited about this as it has so many memories of baking and cooking from my childhood so I cant wait to use it :)
I'll leave you tonight with a picture of the ice skating ducks in the park across the road :)
P.S. Brian has just told me that he has handed the notice in on our flat so we are officially moving! Hooray!P.P.S. I just looked out the window to see a blizzard falling out the sky! Fingers crossed we're snowed in tomorrow :)
