Tattoos

I have 3 tattoos and would really like to get a few more, these are the ones I currently have: 

The tattoo on my foot reads "when everything feels like the movies you bleed just to know your alive" for those of you that dont know its a line from the song "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls. This song means a lot to me and has helped me with some tough times.

I have this tribal piece on my lower back which was my 1st ever tattoo. Because of where it is I sometimes forget that it is there and ill catch a glimpse of it in the mirror and say to myself "hello there, I forgot about you"

I have these 2 butterflies on a heart on my upper back - i think this may need a recolour soon. My dearest friend Rosie has one of the butterflies on her hip so we kind of have matching tattoos.

Ollie on the other hand in covered! He has 2 full sleeves and I love them, whenever I look at them I see something that I didnt notice before:

BTW: this was Ollie's profile picture on Match and what made me start talking to him in the 1st place!

I am already planning and saving for my next tattoo. I love art nouveau and pin ups and after many months of searching I came across this picture:

Isnt she beautiful! I adore her. I have always said that I would only ever have black and gray tats but this picture needs the colour to really make her stand out and look as amazing as she does. Now its time to do my research and find an artist who can do her justice as she is very very intricate. 

Ollie has a cute little tattoo on his leg of a funky little skull and cross bones called Rosie Bones. He, like me (thankfully) like Hello Kitty, although he isnt nearly as obsessed as I am. We recently came across this picture and Ollie has decided to have this one done:

I love her and think she would make a great addition to Rosie Bones. My talented friend Bev is going to do this tattoo for Ollie and we are currently trying to arrange dates to get it done. 

I love this design! At Bev's 30th birthday party we both mentioned how much we want a Hello Kitty Tattoo and how the Kitty LadyBug is uber cute. I dont know if she remembers (lots of booze that night) but Bev said we should get matching tats, I will have to show her these! 

I have also seen a really cute small tattoo that I want and when Ollie is getting his done I may sweet talk Bev into doing it for me! 

Crafty endings, Crafty beginnings

As you can see from my post title I have finished a project or 2! 

I have been asked by a lady who I see on the bus most days and lives in the village to knit a baby blanket it white for her first grandchild who is due in September. I have finished it: 

This is a feather and fan blanket in Patons DK FAB yarn. Its taken a while for me to get this one done as it turned out to be very rough going on my wrists. Its only about 3 weeks ago I realised i was using 3.75 needles when I should have been using 4's and I knit quite tight anyway so it was hard going. It is a pattern repeat of 6 rows but during the last 7 repeats I couldnt seem to get the pattern right and kept losing a stitch (not wraping the yarn properly) so a lot of unpicking and reworking has taken place very close to the end. Im glad its finished now and Im very pleased about the end result. I will get a few more pictures of the full size when the weather cheers up a bit.

I have used the same baby hat pattern booklet for a long time now and felt I needed a new one so I treated myself to this. I love the different hats and one weekend went all out and made the 3 hats you see in the above picture. Im really loving the patterns and the ones ive made are 6-12 months but the booklet goes from 0-7 years so I plan on making a few more.  

There is another Dad to be at work so I am making another blanket. Im going for a ripple blanket from Lucy at Attic 24's blog (I love love love this blog, Lucy is amazing, you should definatly check it out). I have used this one before with a solid colour and a verigated yarn but this time I am going for coloured stripes. After much deliberation on what colours worked best with what I decided to use the Stylecraft Special DK colours of Plum, Magenta, Clematis and Candyfloss, Dont they look amazing: 

I was going to use a different combination but once I started working the colours these ones just seems to scream "pick us pick us, we work best" so I went with it and I love the result. I have 2 other shades of pink that didnt work well as part of the ripple but may be used to edge the blanket.

 As you can tell they will be having a girl! 

I also treated myself to a few of the blues from the Stylecraft Special DK range and my next project will be a blue baby ripple blanket with a twist. The twist being that between every 2 rows of blue there will be 1 row of white and I will also edge the blanket with white. I cant wait to get started on that one! 

I love love love working with Rico Design Essential Cotton DK as its a super smooth, super shiny yarn. I have a set of the really bright bold colours that I have made some jar covers out of but came across some muted pastel hues in The Pincushion and on a whim brought them, arent the divine

! 

Im not sure what they will become yet, im thinking along the lines of a circle cushion cover or maybe even a ripple cushion cover, something that is beautiful and does the yarn justice. Pop back soon to see what Ive decided on. 

A little nom nom nom

 I havent given you guys a recipe for ages so I thought I would write up a post for you. I love love love this dish and I cannot take credit for it. My Dad was shown how to make this my the one and only Mama Roson! Mama is an amazing woman who cooks amazing food, a trait that her son has defiantly got too. The Roson family are friends of my Dad's and are wonderful people.

I have probably tweaked this a little to my own taste over the years and no doubt be frowned on my the Roson's for it but here is my version:

Chicken and Chorizo Stew.

Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
1 pack of  Chirizo (I use the small ones designed for cooking)
1 onion
1 cup of frozen peas 
I pint of chicken stock 
potatoes 
garlic
basil
parsley
a little olive oil

Directions:
Cut the chicken into chunks and brown in a pan. Remove from the pan. Slice the onion and then cook in the same pan you cooked the chicken in. Add the chorizo and cook until the beautiful red oil starts to come out then add the garlic and herbs (and chilli). Once this is all combined and smelling yum put the chicken back in and pour over the chicken stock. Turn down to a simmer and peel the potatoes. Boil the potatoes until they are nearly cooked and then drain and add to the chicken mix. At this point also add the peas, turn the heat up a little and let it sit for about 10 mins so that the potatoes start to soak up all the juice and break up into it.

Serve in a big bowl with some chunky bread and a glass of wine!

Wordless Wednesday

Bev's 30th Birthday

June 9th was also Bev's 30th Birthday! We have been friends a very long time but due to distance dont see too much of each other. When I got the invite to her party I was determined to be there, I didnt want to miss it. It took me over 7.5 hours in travel to get to the party (public transport) but im so glad I went. Its made me realise how special she really is to me. Here are a few pics of the night:

Happy Anniversary!!

I know this post is a bit late and im very sorry for that but I wanted to say a massive Happy Anniversay to my Nan and Pops. 

On the 9th of June they celebrated their 56th Wedding Anniversary! There is no specific gift to represent the 56th anniversary but the 9th day of the month is represented by the Bird of Paradise Flower. 

So this one is for you guys. 

I hope that my love lasts as long as yours has and I aspire to have the life, love and family that you to have made together. I love you both so much. xxxx

Holiday!

Instead of boring you all with a day by day run down of the holiday im just going to show you my photos: