What a week!

Well what a week this seems to have been!  It began last weekend with my trip to Manchester to stay with my friend and a visit to the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show.

Before I go any further though I would like to thank you all for your comments on last week's post.  I really enjoyed reading them but unfortunately I had no time to reply to them and very little time to comment on any of your blogs.  I managed a quick visit to a few of you to keep up with what had been going on but that is all I'm afraid. The heat gun I used is a craft one very similar to one like this.

I had a brilliant time with my friend.  We talked non stop all weekend, much of it about sewing and crafts.  I arrived on the Thursday and our evening's entertainment was watching the first of The Great British Sewing Bee.  Couldn't have been better timing.  Like minded friend to catch up with, bottle of fizzy and the Sewing Bee.  Perfect evening :)

On Friday we visited the show but I have to say I was a little disappointed.  I usually go to the one in Exeter, near where I live, but thought the Manchester one would be bigger and better, hence the weekend away.  Unfortunately it was almost identical! So, although we enjoyed ourselves it was a bit of a let down.

We went for a Snowdrop walk in the gardens of Rode Hall on Saturday.  They had a farmers market and we bought some wonderful cheese to have with crackers and wine for tea.

That's me on the left!

A few snowdrops out, but it's still early days

So white against the dark soil

We enjoyed a lovely lunch in a nearby pub and ended up having a mooch around a wonderful fabric shop in Macclesfield called The Quilting Box.  It looks tiny from the front but it was bursting at the seams with fantastic fabrics.

Sunday we set off for IKEA.  Took a slightly scenic route there - a cross between my lack of knowledge of the area and some dodgy written instructions, but it was far more fun this way, and I got to see a bit of the snow (we hadn't had any in Devon).  For anyone who is interested IKEA do Bomull fabric which is a nice soft calico and at only £2 per metre it is great to use for making up dress making patterns to get the fit right before cutting out in your chosen fabric. 

And as all good things have to come to an end, it was back home on the Monday, BUT not before one last special happening of the weekend!!  Wait for it ....... our youngest daughter and her boyfriend got engaged and announced they were getting married in October this year.  As you can imagine this was just the icing on the cake.  

We are all very pleased for them both and excited about the wedding preparations too.

Even when I returned home the week still remained busy.  I was able to return to my swimming as I had been unable to go for nearly 3 weeks previously because our local swimming pool had been closed as someone had apparently 'pulled the plug out'.  Don't laugh, that was the explanation that was given!!!

I had a couple of lunch dates with more friends and managed to squeeze in an extra quilting session (as I missed out on the week before).  I'll bring you up to date on the quilting another time. We caught up with friends we hadn't seen for a fair few months on Friday lunchtime and our eldest daughter and her boyfriend came home and held her birthday get together here on the Friday evening (11 of them, 5 boys cooking homemade burgers in my kitchen!!!!!  I have to admit, they did do the washing up though!).

We finished off this hectic week with my husband cooking a valentine's meal for us and two of our friends last night. He made a very tasty meal and put a lot of thought into the presentation.  We had garlic mushrooms to start with cute little heart shaped toasts and for dessert he cut the crepes into heart shapes and made spun sugar hearts to decorate the ice cream, all topped with cointreau. Awww :) Unfortunately I was so 'caught up in the moment' and so eager to tuck in, I completely forgot to take photos!!!! 

Phew!  I am hoping to have a much quieter week next week

(although secretly I have really enjoyed it

but shhhhh ... don't tell anyone)

I'll leave you now with a short video of something that happened to me, completely out of the blue this afternoon.  After a walk with friends we met another couple who are motorbike mad (well he is anyway!).  He's been promising me a ride on the back of his motorbike for a while now and today it happened.  Here's the video to prove it!

Sorry, don't know how to rotate the video so you'll need to rotate your pc or perhaps yourself!!!! Hope it works - never uploaded a video before!

Ok I'm going to link up to Handmade Monday now and as as this has made me very happy I will shall link up with Planet Penny's Happy Friday at the end of the week too.  Look forward to catching up with you all.  

Have a great week

x