Snow stopped play !!!

 Flippin heck it's chilly up here, -17 degrees the night before last, a mile or so from us - brrrr.  (Above pic is high up on Royd Moor )

Anyhoo, hope you're all keeping safe and toasty.

After Twiglet's 3 snow days off last week, we're really into the exciting pre Christmas build up at his school now.

We went on a lovely trip to a local marina where the children had a visit from Santa, who came up the canal by  boat - their faces were a picture. (apparently the lovely chaps who work there - The Safe Anchor Trust) had to get up early to break the ice so the boat could sail).  We all had a jolly sing song, the children visited Santa's grotto, had lunch, made badges, did some colouring, received a goody bag and had a terrific time. (The Mums enjoyed it too - magical). Twiglet is most taken with his flashing lights fire engine he received !!!

We have the Christmas Carol concert in our village church tomorrow, I'm going with my lovely in laws as my Mum has hurt her ankle and Mr Twigs has to work :(

Saturday we are visiting Thomasland again, with Twiglet's little cuz.  He's excited cos they have a snow machine and guaranteed snow 3 times a day - hmmmmm !!!

Well we finally set off to go sledging last Saturday and went up to our favourite spot.

   I thought we'd had more snow than this time last year, but crikey, look at this. 

 We had to make do with having a good play instead, check out 

 Twiglet walking on top of the snow drifts.  This is the road we usually drive up !!

 Made a few snow angels and then home for hot chocolate.  

Ace fun.

 

Sunday saw us keeping cosy and putting up the Christmas tree which I'll show you next time, very pretty and overloaded it is too :)

Righto, off to do my grocery shopping and ironing now.

I LOVE this photo!!

  Take care on those slippery pavements and keep safe.

Twiggy x

PS I was lucky enough to win lovely Lynsey at Swirlyarts competition recently, I will blog my lovely goodies soon.

TGI Friday

Well after 3 snow days, Twiglet finally returned to school today, although they didn't start until 10am. We're sat here in our PJs all cosy and there is a strong smell of wax as I switched the light on, the bulb blew and the house went completely dark. Twiglet said thank goodness the TV is ok, can we have candles, so that's what we're doing.
Very cosy.Honestly, he went to school armed with spare socks, wellies you name it, got sent out of school to walk home in school shoes and NO socks and one glove. I had to go back in school with him, apparently no one had noticed or found his socks. His wellies were the only pair left next to the door next to a plastic bag with his spare socks and glove !!! I don't expect his teachers to dress him, but a bit of observation would be nice.

Anyhoo, we've had a lovely cosy toesy time this week. I managed to go to my first ever meeting for my new job on Monday evening BEFORE the snow started, it was nice to use my brain again!!

We found time to make Postman Pat buns.Christmas trees.And a bit of Christmas stitching.Righto, off to dish up the cottage pie I made for tea.

We're hoping to go sledging this weekend.

Have a great weekend and keep safe and cosy.

Twiggy x

Twiglet is pleased to announce..............

That the snow finally arrived last night.He has a snow day off school, so wrap up warm and come with us on our little walk if you wish.Hope you enjoyed it.

His Daddy doesn't know yet, but when he gets home from work they are going sledging in the dark.

Twiggy x

PS The young man has just had a warm bath and is now in his fluffy Pyjamas - apparently he will wear them for sledging later :)

Making and doing

Well Twiglet thoroughly enjoyed his school disco on Friday. He went as a fireman in the end as he'd ougtrown his Superman outfit!! He was very pleased as he won a prize for his breakdancing skills and was kissed by B a very forward young lady in his class:)

Here is a bit of the young man's school art work, Elmer the elephant, isn't it fab???He also got his wish on Friday night as we finally got some snow, however it was just a dusting really, so he's still got his fingers crossed for enough to build a snowman this week!!We had a very invigorating walk on Saturday, just lovely.

When it's chilly and icy outside, I like to nest. I watched Little Women for the umpteenth time last night and made these.

A couple more hearts, I think the second one looks very retro.

And a little owl!!!Today my thoughts turned to Christmas gifts and food. The old jam pan came out, we started with a batch of chilli jam. Then moved onto a first for me onion marmalade. It all smelt delicious and unblocked our sinuses again, so medicinal too.I'd just finished popping it into jars, looked out of the window and it had started snowing and a little robin appeared on the garden table. Of course he'd disappeared by the time we found the camera but it was a lovely pre- Christmas moment.

Righto, off to prepare for tomorrow and to do a spot of stitching.

Take care, keep warm and safe.

Twiggy x

Hunkering down for the snowy season.

A snowy scene from last December.

Well it's that time of year again folks, cough, sneeze, splutter. Twiglet has a proper old mans cough and we have grotty colds and coughs but are following the lovely boys example and just getting on with it.

What a top little chap.

Here are the Pudsey Bear biscuits and pizzas I made on Friday, beautifully decorated by Twiglet.We had one of those unexpectedly lovely days on Sunday. We went over to Nana and Grandad Twigs for a most delish lunch and Twiglet wanted them to come to the park with us. My lovely, lovely Father in Law who is 80 next year(it is hard to believe it, his exuberance is infectious!), loved whizzing round on the miniature steam train cuddled up with Twiglet and said he'd not had so much fun for ages !!

Like many of you we are nesting and hunkering down for the snowy season. Mr Twigs has been sent off into the attic, curtain poles have been found. We had some terrific long heavy curtains at our old house, which have never been unpacked. One will do nicely for the draughty front door and a set will be shortened for Twiglets bedroom.

I've done a bit of Chrimbo shopping today, cards, wrapping and stuff and we went to the garden centre after school with my lovely Mum who is staying over. Bought Twiglet and Mr Twigs some snuggly, thermal welly socks, so we're all ready for the walk to school.

Twiglet has a school fancy dress disco on Friday, he is going as Superman :) do you think Superman needed thermal socks in the snow???

Here's some of our making. Mr Twigs red cabbage (we managed to salvage 2 cabbages from the flooded lottie!)My Christmas hearts.Inspired by Kirstie's Homemade Home, a Christmas cushion for Twiglet, (he saw another cushion I'm making for my pal for Christmas and wanted one making with a car on it). I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.I know I'm on a make do and mend vibe at the moment, but all this lovely fabric was half price, so it was rude not to !!!I want to say a HUGE thank you to lovely Louise from Home is Where the Heart Is, for the terrific and surprise parcel we received on Saturday. Some gorgeous little birdies for Twiglet's window and a great little book and beautiful cards for Twiggy. Thank you so much Louise, we love them. Twiglet has postitioned two of the birdies so he can see them when he's laying in his bed!!Righto, must go and drink my Lemsip and watch Kirstie now.

I promise to post Nana Twigs yummy lemon curd recipe in next few days and I'm planning on having a little giveaway in the next few weeks.

Keep your eyes peeled, stay cosy and take care.

Twiggy xxx

PS I' ve got my very first governors meeting - as the minute clerk - on Monday night, wish me luck !!!

By it's chilly !!!

Well Winter has arrived with an icy blast up here. Twiglet and I walked to school on Monday morning along icy pavements, blowing, checking out our smoky breath (as he calls it:) and we both had VERY rosy faces when we got home in the afternoon.

The hats and gloves are out and sockies are hung on the radiator in the morning!!So my thoughts are turning to keeping cosy, making and obviously FOOD.

My lovely mate came round to see me on Monday (remember the one I've know for 35 years and we bumped into each other by chance a few months ago). We had a good old gossip while I made a casserole in my slow cooker, not forgetting dumplings of course.Cherry buns for the boys and a rhubarb crumble with custard, just what's needed after a chilly walk home from school:)I've been doing a lot of making recently watching Miranda - yay!!, Sue & Giles in The Good Life, not forgetting Kirstie's Homemade Home and Turn Back Time - The High Street and of course, Strictly Come Dancing, are you watching too??? Anyhoo I have lots of works in progress, which I'll share later.

Oooo look more food, I had my first ever go at making lemon curd today, using Nana Twigs recipe. Oooo it's scrummy and will be prettified for Christmas gifts.Look at this more food, Mr Twigs is getting in on the theme too and purchased this pickling vinegar this weekend, can you guess what he's going to make?

Righto, I must go and do some more stitching, I am determined that our fairly frugal Christmas is going to be a homespun one and I'm really enjoying beavering away. After years of getting panicky over the bank account in January, I have saved during the year, done online surveys to earn Amazon vouchers and I'm in the process of making lots of little gifts. I always feel that although we need to be frugal up to a point, Twiglet must not suffer as both Mr Twigs and I had loving homes, with little money around at times but we never went without.

I was gobsmacked today when a Mum at school asked what Santa was buying Twiglet, his main pressie is a lego garage and no doubt he'll have other bits and bobs from us and I know his naughty Grandparents will be more than generous. She told me she had bought her daughter a computer - a real computer for £500, I nearly fainted, the child is 5!!!! different strokes for different folks and all that, but flippin heck. Twiglet uses my laptop to play games on CBeebies and CBBC now and again but we don't have DS Nintendos, Xbox or anything - we are total luddites :)

Mr Twigs and I are agreed that we don't remember what we had as children but what we did. We work hard to create happy memories for Twiglet rather than buying him stuff he doesn't need. I've used Tesco vouchers to buy us some tickets for Christmas Thomasland with his little cousin. We have also saved up to buy tickets to see Santa on the Twilight Express. We will make gingerbread men, hope to go sledging again and make decorations, this to me is what Christmas is all about.

love
Twiggy x

Boo!! Yay !!!

I must admit I TRY to be a glass is half full type of gal, but blardy hell even I have my limits, so we'll get the bad news out of the way first in one list. Please bear with me..............

I say boo, to the fact I was asked to put myself forward to be a parent governor and was beaten to it by ahem..... someone who sent his wife canvassing for him - I kid you not. However, the Pollyanna in me does like the fact that many people have said we voted for you, which is nice.

Boo as Twiglet wasn't voted onto the school council - we told him he's ace, so there!!

Boo as you may have seen on TV, like a lot of the country we have had rotten weather up here high in the Pennines. Check out our allotment, that is now 80% under water, it was like this at the beginning of October, then after this grotty week we are back to square one. We have lost leeks, cabbages, sprouts, beans, broccoli and Twiglets parsnips:( Our polytunnel is wrecked and frankly, after talking to the parish council for goodness knows how long, I feel like throwing the towel in :( We are currently in negotiations.This is a very, very, serious and most important and sad boo on behalf of my lovely friend, who has just discovered her father is very sick and won't be getting better :( it's so so sad and puts everything else into perspective.

So that's the boos out of the way - are you still reading???

Here's some yays!!!

Yay - Before the crappola weather we had a lovely walk on some of the footpaths around our village.
Yay - I have a new job, the work is sporadic. Funnily enough I'll be working for the governor service.

Yay - We took Twiglet to his friend's birthday party the other day which was ace and involved exotic animals, I held a big hairy spider and a very beautiful snake - brave Twiggy !!
All the children and parents had a great time.

Yay - I appear to have found my crafting mojo, I think it's the countdown to Christmas and I have to take my mind off Richard Armitage disappearing from our screens.

Yay - Miranda is back next Monday - super ace!!!Big yay - Booked tickets for something VERY exciting this week for my birthday in January, but more on that later.

So are you making preparations for Christmas? Twiglet insisted we buy a countdown to Christmas Santa, so I thought I'd pop one on my blog too.

Thanks for listening and take care.
Twiggy x

PS I promise not to gripe on my next post, normal service will resume.