These boots were made for walking

I did the moonlight walk half marathon for St. Catherine's Hospice in Preston on June 6th (my third year) and we did our best time. Thankfully it's not one of those that you do in your bra - that would be more of a challenge than the walk.

I have also convinced my husband that walking for the sake of it is a good thing and so on Wednesday we decided to have a (wet) walk around Rivington and up to the Pike. It was actually really beautiful in the rain and was very, very quiet, especially as the children were at school.

We are determined to do more of this as the weight needs to come down for both of us!! Another goal is to try and make this blog look a little more exciting - any suggestions gratefully received...

Oh dear...

I am ashamed to say that my blogging life has ground to a bit of a halt and I need to kickstart it again - my problem, creatively speaking, is that I have so many ideas buzzing around in my head that I don't know where to start and so I start nothing!! Also, the house is a nightmare at the moment - it constantly looks like we've been burgled. I am great at creating chaos (as are my husband and two children) I'm not so good at living in it!

So, a new start, the house will get sorted, I will paint and sew and knit and decorate, I will blog it all and I will try to relax a tiny bit about the amount of 'stuff' a family of four generates.

For now I am posting the piccies above of our little trip to the Lakes (an overnight stay at Windermere Youth Hostel) and a couple of shots of my garden which despite neglet seems to be doing ok.

Painting

I have always wanted to learn to paint. My grandma painted watercolours and oils (I may post some pictures of them sometime) and as a girl I loved to sit and draw and paint with her. I did GCSE art and have done nothing since except doodling (winning a doodling competition a few years ago and meeting Christine Hamilton!!!)

Last year I bit the bullet and enrolled on a beginners art course, I'm now onto level 2 and LOVING it. Here is my latest - as yet unfinished - effort.

The picture below is my first and only finished and framed painting.

Any comments would be gratefully received - if anybody is out there reading!

Rabbit Egg Cosy

In order to get into the habit of posting to this blog I am going to show some pictures of an egg cosy I made last Easter. My first foray into sewing since GCSE needle work which scarred me for life!

I am currently in the process of trying to knit an egg cosy - knitting is a very new thing to me and so it may take a while.

Ta da

So, here it is. I've had this little blog sorted for about a year now!! Yes, a year, and haven't posted a single thing to it. Why? Fear - what do I want to say? I suppose I want to record my attempts to make things and bring up a happy healthy family - with varying degrees of success!!

First things first, Valentines Day and the remnants of our Valentines breakfast (minus Mr B who has an OU tutorial) oh well, the kids enjoyed it - chocolate chip pancakes.

I also forced Mr B to make his Valentines card to me - his is the Harry Hill one, mine is the heart.

Hopefully, in the coming weeks some of my paintings, knitting and even maybe sewing will magically appear on here.

Thanks for reading, if indeed anyone actually is!!