Ripple blanket progress report

It's long, so long!

I 

LOVE

IT

SO

MUCH!

Only six more colour rows to go, so I can't really stop cos I'm in.

FINISHING PROJECT FRENZY!

Hope you all had a glorious weekend.

Love 

♥Sue♥

Meet the cats

Well you've met the children so it's only fair you should meet the 

cats!

Apologies if you're not a cat lover. 

You may find the gushing a bit much.

So here we go.

This is Howard he's the baby of the bunch, special skills involve him throwing himself at our feet and dragging himself along like a slug.

he is THE LAZIEST CAT

EVER!

Then there's Treacle our lady cat.

Actually she's the one who sees off any imposters into the garden.

And boy can she talk, meow meow meow!

Finally we have Ghetto, he's Treacle's brother, handsome isn't he. 

A more gentle cat you couldn't wish to meet.

He had a nasty accident a few years ago and has a damaged pelvis, 

he's not got much strength in his back legs. 

Favourite thing is stretching out on the sofa watching TV, 

especially nature programmes.

Of course we love them all and for me having them around makes our home feel, 

well, 

more homely.

Who do you share your home with?

♥Sue♥

When you don't know when to stop!

How's your rippling going?

Mine's going swimmingly!

One of the most joyous projects ever!

I'm loving it so much, just one question, when is it big enough?

At the moment it's plenty big enough for one, plus cat.

Gorgeous.

But.

Should I go on and make it a blanket for two?

Friends I already know the answer 

looking at the loveliness spread over my sofa this morning,

it has to grow.

I think four pattern repeats should do it!

Yum.

Now just have to deal with those pesky ends!

♥

♥Sue♥

Welcome!

I've been blogging for a little while now and 

I thought it was about time I introduced you properly to my family.

Let me tell you.

I live in Portsmouth on the south coast of the UK

I like it.

I live in a lovely old house which one day we will finish doing up!

I have four children, two step children, three crazy cats 

and an amazing partner.

Would you like to meet them?

Lets start with 

Heather

♥

She's gorgeous, not just to look at,

but as a person.

We love Heather, we love her to visit us, she's a joy bringer.

(by the way that's my cardi, tights and boots she's looking so glamorous in)

Busy always.

 An explorer, travelling the world with her rucksack.

Incredibly hardworking and a wonderful friend.

At 25 she is just finishing a Masters degree in 

Human Rights and working at an ethical magazine.

We miss Heather when she goes.

♥♥♥

Next we meet 

Adam.

We all have one child who doesn't quite fit the mould, one who makes you worry 

just a little bit more

One who finds out

his own way.

Who takes a different path.

Adam is an amazing person.

he's a doer, he gets things done, fast.

He's a bricklayer, and has been since he was 16.

 It's a hard route and it's taking a while but he's finally settled with a good firm who give him regular work.

At 22 things are starting to look very good for Adam.

I'm so pleased , he works so hard. 

He spent his childhood building walls riding bikes (very fast)

getting into scrapes and spills and driving me a little bit crazy!

But he's one of the kindest, funniest caring people you'll ever meet.

♥♥♥

And here's Oliver.

He was the birthday boy.

Oliver's the sensitive one of the bunch.

Oliver is a very relaxed and relaxing person to spend time with.

Time slows down when he's around. Oliver is just happy to be!

Working hard and studying at the Open University.

Oliver is the one who worries about the others and will do anything for anyone.

Oliver loves his family and routine,

we set our clock by him!

♥♥♥

Then we have the baby of the bunch.

The lovely Jacob.

He's the only one living at home,

nearly 18 and enjoying life to the full!

He's fun to be around, he makes me laugh,

everyday!

Everything he does is done with huge enthusiasm.

Life is awesome when you're Jacob!

He is wonderfully thoughtful, 

I often come home from work to find a cup of tea waiting for me

 or the washing rescued from the rain!

he's generally known as a 

Lovely Boy!

♥♥♥

So there you have them.

That's my gang!

next time I'll tell you about my 

Lovely Man

♥Sue♥

21st Century Family

Friday saw number two son turn 

21

It hardly seems possible that my children are really not children anymore!

To celebrate we had our usual chaotic family meal, 

with the birthday boy requesting

Shepherds Pie and Profiteroles!

Sophisticated bunch we are!!!

Anyway the profiteroles went down a treat, 

instead of chocolate we had a toffee topping.

S

C

R

U

M

M

Y

And being a thoroughly modern, 21st century family, everyone came!

Here's a lovely birthday snap!

That's Heather on Skype, Adam on the left,

 Jacob in the middle and Birthday Boy Oliver on the right!

That's my family people. 

My wonderful, crazy beautiful family!

♥Sue♥

De-stress

Do you ever get a day which makes you want to just be somewhere quiet!

My job involves being with approx 30 lovely children everyday, boy are they noisy!

I'm lucky I live 5 mins from this lovely spot, which is a haven for wildlife, next to the beautiful Langstone harbour, although it is next to one of he busiest roads in Portsmouth the traffic noise just melts away.

I head here nearly everyday to look at the sea take some photos, think and relax.

Lovely.

♥

How do you relax?

♥

♥Sue♥

Growing curtains and flowers!

You may notice something a bit strange about my dining room curtains, 

yeh, a bit short. but it's okay I've been growing them!

 I love this fabric

 and have been trawling the internet gathering morsels of it for months.

It's a vintage M&S fabric so my search led me to some dark and secret internet places.

Eventually I figured I had enough.

I ended up with two pairs of curtains and a bedspread.

Loads of fabric, no problem!

The bedspread was rejected, slightly different fabric (now tucked away for another day).

First job,

unpick

it took 

AGES

Now the original plan was to buy some contrasting fabric to make a border and heading,

The olive colour is the one that makes everything pop,

can't get it,

not anywhere.

Came close in B&Q with a nice pleated cushion!

I gave up looking.

Anyway I've attached panels to the top and bottom, 

you can see the seam but pattern matching was impossible!

And there is a fading issue also a not gathered issue ( needed that olive fabric for luxurious gathers)

BUT

Now they are up I think they look just fine.

I'm happy just to be looking at that gorgeousness when I'm eating my dinner.

To other growing things.

This flower is amazing, well it's not, it's just a chrysanthemum

 but it really is!

This flower grew from bouquet that my children gave me for Mother's Day!

For a start the bouquet lasted for a 

MONTH

I weeded out the faded blooms gradually until this was one of the last ones left.

It sat looking pretty on my kitchen windowsill and I noticed little spindly roots coming from it.

Planted it up and 

WOW

now I have a whole plant!

And guess what this Gerbera came from the same bouquet!

Again it sat on the windowsill until it went to seed

so I stuck them in a pot

and 

hey presto

a 

beautiful new plant!

Isn't nature wonderful!

♥

I've also been growing my crochet skills!

I bought this vintage pattern in a charity shop ages ago.

The wording took a bit of getting used to

 but with only one more row to go I'm delighted how it's turned out.

Isn't it pretty!

♥

♥

♥

What did you grow this weekend?

♥Sue♥

And so it grows

Just a quick update today. 

I'm rippling at every opportunity of course!

And very pleased I am too.

My rainbow is growing beautifully, as you can see I'm reaching the warm orangey pinky part.

Delicious!

The only problem is not having enough time to ripple!

Hope your week is ticking along nicely.

♥Sue♥