About Me

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My name's Alison but for reasons too long to go into I'm known as Cockney Blonde or CB for short. I've been rubber stamping for several years but now spend most of my time either knitting or crocheting. However, with the advent of a New Year I have bitten the bullet and am tackling my usually hated pastime of sewing. I've even bought 'Sewing for Dummies' to guide me on my way. I've been with my hubby Dave for 24 years and between us we have 4 kids and 5 grandkids. We also have 2 cats and a dog, the latter features as my 'photo' image. I used to be able to blog daily but these days I struggle to blog weekly. Hopefully now we are settled into our new home in the country, I can get back to a daily (well almost) update from the room I now have to share with hubby. No more personal crafting space for me!!! Thanks to all the blogs and sites I follow for all your brilliant inspiration, and thank you to everyone who finds the time to comment on my blog.

Sunday 21 April 2013

So where was Mr Duck basking???


Does this picture help you anymore? Yep, well done Diane for correctly guessing the Roman Baths in Bath. This is a shot with the fabulous Bath Abbey in the background.

Below is a larger picture of the main baths.
And just to remind you, here again is Mr. Duck enjoying his little sunbathing session. Not sure he paid an admission fee...


Finally here is a picture of the main stained glass window in the Abbey. Isn't it fabulous. They had a lot of art exhibits on display when we were there. Not sure if that's a regular occurrence or not.
So congratulations Diane, such a shame more people didn't hazard a guess but hey! ho!

Your goodies will be in the post tomorrow, x

52 weeks of Happy - 16/52


Happy Sunday everyone. I hope its not too wet where you are. We had a beautiful day here in Cheshire yesterday but today its been persistently catting and dogging.....

Anyway, my 4 pieces of Happy are a little difficult to share this week as if I include a certain something then it will give the game away for my Giveaway. Check out my previous post to see what that's all about.

So, instead I'm sharing with you yet another piccie of yet more daffs which will lead me into:-

1. My tomato plants, loving the greenhouse effect of my dining room bay window and growing very rapidly

2. A lovely girlie trip out yesterday with my Son's partner and my grand-daughter to watch the British Horse Eventing held just 5 minutes down the road from us. Beautiful morning and a hot cuppa and yummy cupcake enjoyed sitting on a hay bale rounded it off

3. Getting the remainder of my 1st early potatoes in the garden along with creating lots of colourful pots for the garden.

4. At last, seeing my daffs opening out in the front border.

Hope you've had a good weekend and I'll be back later with the winner (maybe) of my giveaway, x

Saturday 20 April 2013

GIVEAWAY reminder and a little tempting....


Evening peeps.

Just a little taste of what will be in the winning envie of the person who correctly guesses where the duck is basking. If you're not sure what I'm on about, check out my previous post.

Come on bloggers, there's not many guesses been made. You need to place a comment on the original GIVEAWAY post, and if you have a preferred craft please let me know in your comment.

Off to find more goodies for the envie.

TTFN, x



Thursday 18 April 2013

My first GIVEAWAY, a duck and fairies...


Happy Thursday everyone, and Happy Anniversary to me.....Mr. CB forgot!!! He's been grovelling all day, bless him. So as its our Anniversary I thought I would take the opportunity to do a giveaway. We have just had an overnight stay in a very beautiful place and I was tickled by this duck getting in on the tourist attraction without a care in the world. Just him, on his own, basking in the sun. So....If you can correctly guess where this photo was taken I will post to you a jiffy envie full of crafting goodies. I've not organised the goodies yet but the envie is 9" x 12". It would love it if you were a follower of my blog, but its not essential, and if you can indicate your preferred craft I will try and tailor the goodies in that direction. If there is more than one correct answer I will get Mr. CB to do something useful and pick a winning name out of a hat on Sunday evening.

So are we all clear..... guess where the duck is and post me a comment to include your preferred craft.

....and guess what appeared while we were away.....


Yep! a little fairy door on our grassy bank. No idea how it arrived or where the fairy is hiding but she has left a note hanging on the door saying 'shh! fairy sleeping'. Of course we all know that fairies only come to life during our sleeping hours but who knows what may turn up next.....

Don't forget my giveaway and good luck, x

Sunday 14 April 2013

52 Weeks of Happy - 15/52


The highlight of our week was going to the Red Kite Centre near Aberystwyth (on the A44 9 miles outside of the town) to see the Red Kites being fed. Such an amazing sight and truly magnificent birds.

Above you can see the actual feeding frenzy and hopefully you will be able to click on the following 2 pictures to enable you to see the colours of these birds in more detail.
So difficult to photograph with my run of the mill point and click camera.



Here's a picture of the little lady trying to get to grips with Grandad's binoculars with me fretting that she may just drop them in the lake.

Aw bless. She managed to get a half decent photo of the old folks. It was a tad chilly that day.

 Before the Red Kite Centre we had popped into Aberystwyth and caught sight of these guys out surfing on the waves. Hopefully you can spot the one who is currently upright.












These beautiful flowers were a gift from my friend Jo of JoZart, who with her husband came to tea at the Hobbit House. As you can see Jo, they did survive the fall and car journey and live on in a bigger pot. Thank You.


So my 4 things of happy for this week are:-

1 - Watching the Red Kites being fed
2 - Enjoying a lovely evening with Jo and her hubby
3 - Making a Birthday card which I showed in my last post
4 - A little bit of sun and warmth meandering into my week.

Hope you've had a good weekend, x

Saturday 13 April 2013

Ta Dah! A Card....


Happy Saturday everyone. Just a very quick blog to show you a card I made last weekend. Yes!!! I  made a card, at my house, all by myself.....Very simple but all the same it was made. I couldn't show you before as I needed to make sure it had been received.

Hope you like it and I'll be back tomorrow, x

Sunday 7 April 2013

52 Weeks of Happy - 14/52


Hello Everyone, sorry it's been yet another week before I could get back here to talk to you all.
Its been a busy old week here at Hobbit House. Loads of work and then taking advantage of some milder weather to get some gardening done, but here I am now. 

My #1 of happy for this week is this fabulous book by a new author Joanna Gray. If you have children or grandchildren I recommend you go buy it. My copy arrived this week, for keeping here for when Little Lady visits, and I immediately set to to order a further 2 copies for our Scottish contingents in the Grandchild field.
I urge you to give it a try.


My #2 of Happy is the fact I was able to get loads of gardening done this weekend, even after working part of yesterday. Below is the upper tier prepared ready for the seed potatoes. I had to laugh when I realised hubby's work had created what looked like a burial ground.


#3 is the fantastic find I discovered after removing loads of dead and overgrown foliage from the far top of the garden.
Now, personally I think this could be a fairy's den but I didn't want to pry to far just in case I disturbed one.....


But then..... how about this space??? Defo a fairy tunnel. This is just the opening but it goes far deeper than I wanted to take my camera for fear of scaring the little fairies. I also found quite a few pieces of broken china. Now am I right in thinking that fairies like to collect bright, shiny things???

Well of course opening up this area brought the birds in to investigate which meant that we at last had a huge selection of beautiful birds feeding from our bird feeder and my new bird table. No photos yet but watch this space.
Also, watch this space for any fairy developments. Next door has a little fairy guarding their front garden and I'm sure she moves when she thinks no-one is looking.....

Finally, #4 of Happy has to be the yummy Bara Brith I made this morning and got great satisfaction in eating a modest slice. I think it was well deserved after all the gardening. For the eagle eyed amongst you, there is also another fresh loaf of bread.


Just to give you a brief summary of what's growing/planted/sown (on the eating front) in the garden at the moment...we have potatoes, onions, leeks, carrots, gooseberries, blackberries, rhubarb, herbs, broad beans, tomatoes, and yellow peppers. I will keep you up to date with progress.

For now I'm off to do some fairy research, x