Christmas goodies

Had some really great presents this Christmas,
thanks to everyone xx.
Not sure where we are going to put it all though as our tiny house is already bursting at the seams. I got some brilliant crafty stuff which should keep me occupied for the holidays and more food and wine than we know what to do with. We won't have to leave the house for weeks!

Just a few of my favourites:



From Peaheads mum and dad a goat for a family in Africa. Hope they love her. Brilliant idea, anyone stuck for a gift for me in the future check out the Oxfam catalogue at http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com/



Some warm winter slippers from Alison - just what you need for walking around on a cold stone floor.



From Brodie - fab tiger scissors.



Really nice set of bamboo knitting needles in a knitty kitty case from Steven and Suzie.



Brilliant giant knitting needles that dad made for me. I wanted some after seeing them at the Knit and Stitch show in Harrogate. I'm going to attempt to make a rug.



A lovely cross-stitch picture that mama made. I haven't put it up yet, but think it will look nice in the bedroom as the colours are really similar to the green we just painted the walls in there.



Loads and loads of really nice food (oh and chocolate) and wine from Peahead's mum and dad, my mum and dad, Robbie, Darren and Nicky and Auntie Gillian. (I think we have put on five pounds each already!)



The animals (honest) got me a new glass panda for my collection. Isn't he cute.



And of course......the new washing machine! (good one Peahead).















There is lots more, but I would be here all day. Thanks again everyone. Have a fun New Years Eve. x

Lovely Christmas

Had a lovely Christmas at home. Lots of food, wine and presents for everyone, including Bert and the cats.


Bert's new ball.



Bert also landed himself a new girlfriend, Muffy.













Party at Alison's house.

Free range Christmas

Christmas has come early for the babes. I won't be here tomorrow so we celebrated today with a special breakfast and then spent the morning going free range in the woods.

Babes Christmas Breakfast Menu

To start -Mixed seed bread

Main - Savoy cabbage, carrots, turnip, spring onion and traditional goat mix.

For afters - Strawberries and english apples

Washed down with chilled Coca-Cola








Oscar and Bosie got new bells for Christmas too.

Grandads cushion

Grandad has had to go live in a home. He won't be home for Christmas. I don't like it, but mum says it's for the best.
I made him a cushion for christmas.

Cats found catnip toys

I knew it.

Even though I put them in a sealed bag and hid them high up in a drawer, the cats found the catnip toys already. What is in that stuff?

Turkeys are for life......

Its been a busy week, but some how I found time to finish my first submission to a month of softies. Decembers theme is 'Under the Christmas tree' so I made Bernard. He's a turkey. One of the lucky ones who has found a safe home for life this Christmas. He's a great cook and will be rustling up a yummy nut roast for Christmas dinner.

I also made a few catnip toys for the cats stockings. They can tell there is catnip in the house, so I have had to put them in a sealed bag. I reckon it will take the cats about 30 seconds to rip them to pieces on Christmas morning.

Deer

originally uploaded by anniebee on Flickr.

I haven't seen the deer on my garden for a while, but these make up for it. Click on the photo to see anniebee's whole collection.

Manchester

Thursay is the day I get to escape work to go to Manchester University. After my lectures I had a walk to Chinatown to pick up some supplies and then on my way to the bus stop I stumbled across the lovely Christmas market in Albert Square. There was a brilliant stall selling plants and trees - standard Holly trees for only £15 ! I've been looking for something like this to go by my frontdoor for ages, but they were far too heavy for me to carry home on the bus :0( .



Christmas trees. Isn't the blue one lovely? I'm tempted to buy some blue lights and send peahead up the tree in our garden!

Lovin' Christmas

I love it when people do this to their houses at Christmas. These guys do it every year and by December 25th the whole street is lit up. After a stressful day at work this puts a smile on my face as I drive home.

NO to Ladbrokes

This is the first weekend in ages that I haven't had a load of coursework to do for my masters. It feels good. I volunteered to work at the Visitor Centre tomorrow, but to make the most of today we drove over the tops to Hebden Bridge.

It's a really fantastic little place with loads of independent shops selling everything organic, veggie, locally made, eco-friendly, fair-trade, hand-made and recycled. Hippies, artists and musicians flocked there in the 70's seeking an alternative way of life and today it's just heaven for those of us who seek something other than the clonetown high streets that plague the rest of the UK. I'd love to have a little shop there one day, but unfortunately property prices are going through the roof at the moment.

Today I was pleased to see the activists out in force protesting against Ladbrokes attempts to purchase the old Yorkshire Bank building in Hebden. It's a beautiful building in a prime location and a Ladbrokes would be completely inappropriate.

I made sure to visit Attica while we were there. I picked up some really lovely Colinette thick and thin 100% wool (made in Wales). I have been looking for something like this for a while so that I can try and make a horse inspired by the ones Hilda Portela makes. It also reminds me of my sisters hair! (shamefully I realise I don't have a picture of her....something I will put right when I see her over Christmas).
I also got some really interesting salad seed from a cute shop called Art of Gardening. Not really the right time of year, but they'll save.

First winter snow

Today the snow came. I like it. Bert seems to like it too. Oscar isn't so sure.

Knit and stitch

Peahead took me to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate today and I finally found some brighly coloured wool to make some of Jess Hutch's toys. I got the book a couple of weeks ago, but haven't been able to find anything as nice as the Lamb's Pride that Jess uses. I got this lovely 100% Alpaca to make a robot.

I also couldn't resist this 100% pure wool from the Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop stand. The colours available are really nice. Peahead had to pick these for me as I couldn't decide. They do mail order so I got a shade card. I really like the hot pink, so maybe this will be next..

Babes hit the world wide web

Last summer I adopted two male anglo nubian goat kids. They were going to be put down as males serve no purpose on a goat milk farm. Oscar came first at two weeks old and Bosie followed a week later at just under two weeks old. They lived in my front room for a while until I got them bottle feeding. Then they moved to the outhouse.

I have created a photo stream on so everyone can see how beautiful they are.

Peahead looking very tired after bottle feeding every two hours.....

Birthday girl.....

Today it's my birthday.
I decided to start a blog.

I'm not really one for keeping a diary, but thought this would be a good way to keep friends and family (and anyone else that might be interested) up to date with what I'm up to.

I also thought it would be a good place to keep all of those photos I like to bore people to death with, especially now that I have a cute new Fujifilm Finepix Z1 to play with (a birthday present from peahead).