Happy Halloween

Home grown Halloween pumpkin

DD grew this pumpkin herself from seed so was justifably chuffed with herself tonight. She went Trick or Treating with her best friend & dressed up as a vampire - another excuse to wear lots of black & her favourite black silk head band covered in skulls.

Susoolu surprised her today with a belated birthday present as DD turned 11 at the beginning of October:


Skull Stitch markers made by MLQ Knits

For once DD was speechless as she was so taken by them. Click here for a closer look.

Thank you so much Susoolu it was a lovely thing to do & you've made a 'not so little girl' very happy

Hot Socks Swap

Just before we decided to move & life suddenly went barmy I signed up for the Hot Socks Swap. Then as the deadline approached with a chance to pull out I realised that I'd be stupidly busy & should I really do this but I decided to go for it & I'm really glad I did.

I sent to a woman in Norway & she now has a beautiful skein of Fleece Artist Merino in Marine with some coffee, hot chocolate, a small scented candle & a bag of Thorntons Toffee. The yarn was gorgeous & nearly didn't make it to the post office!

My spoiler & I have really hit it off. She's an English woman living in Canada & I'm now gutted that we've had to postphone our trip to Canada due to our impending house move. My parcel arrived a few days ago & I wasn't disappointed when I opened it:


Gifts from Canada

I didn't stand a chance of actually keeping the moose & he's now taken up permanent residence in DDs' room. There was also a book on Canada but that's upstairs as I've just finished reading it & DH has nabbed it now.


Canadian Hot Chocolate

As a confirmed non-coffee or tea drinker it had to be hot chocolate


Koigu Sock pattern book

I've done swaps before & never had an overseas pal before - now I know why I've always wanted one! And the best for last:


Koigu sock yarn

Thank you so much CL for being a great pal & I look forward to staying in touch with you & eventually meeting up when we get over there. Also a big thanks to indieknits for organising it all.

Now I'm spoilt for choice over the yarn for my next sock project - my beautiful new Koigu or the beautiful Posh Yarns Cashmere that Piglottie gave me. It'll be a hard decision.

Diamante progress

Started ages ago, when I was recovering from whatever knocked me backwards & then abandoned when we embarked on our manic decluttering, my diamante socks are finally back on track:


Diamante - gusset increases complete

Bad news is that I haven't made them long enough but the lifeline means that it's not too much hassle to rip out & increase a bit more before I do the gusset increases again.

I'm so excited...

we've found our perfect house It doesn't need much work apart from decoration as it was owned by an elderly couple previously. So now we've got to sell ours quickly - I'm sure the estate agent is fed up with me as I've spoken to her nearly every day this week - here's hoping......

Necessary Evil

Tia is really starting to go down hill. We've lived together for over 18 years all over the country. From bedsits in London, shared student houses in Bradford & for the last 13 years she has shared my life with DH. She is now on medication for her various ailments & is responding well.

However old age is catching up with her in another way as well & she's stopped grooming herself. I've been brushing & combing her to control the fur but she was getting really smelly. I was hoping that my vet could suggest a way of controling the grease - a sort of feline blanket bath but instead he suggested giving her a bath


Tia before her bath - stinking

I knew that she wouldn't enjoy it but it was getting the point whereby none of us wanted to cuddle her as she was so smelly so something had to be done:


Tia in the bath - under protest


Tia after her bath - skin & bone

I tried using my dog dryer on her on it's lowest setting but she didn't tolerate it so that was abandoned. She now smells much better & spent the afternoon doing something that she's done all her life - stealing dog heat:


Tia & Blue

Or even better - the whole bed!


Dog bed stealer

I think this will be her last winter

Progress

We went on the market yesterday at 9 a.m. & 13 minutes later had our first request for a viewing. A couple saw the house last night & put in an offer today!!! However they haven't sold their house yet so it's been acknowledged but not accepted. The photos and floor plan are happening on Friday & the board went up outside today. I'm hoping for a quick sale to either a cash buyer or someone who has already sold their house so we can move quickly.

For a bit of fun I saw this

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

on Random Fiber Ramblings & can't believe it that there is only 1 person in the US with my name. I don't have an unusual or foreign sounding name but it's been said that it's 'classical'. So I'm an exclusive woman - I wonder what DH would say to that?!?

Our home

The house was valued at the weekend & now we just have to instruct the agents that we've chosen & arrange another appointment for them to take pics & do a floor plan. DH took his own photos which I'll share with you below. Most of the images are clickable for a bigger picture.


our house

Can you see our extra pet? None of the estate agents were prepared for what they found when they entered the house:


Living Room


Kitchen


Our Bedroom


DDs' bedroom


Spare room


Our bathroom


Storage cupboard in the hall upstairs

Our Alarm system


Blue


Annie

I think we'll miss the kitchen, bathroom + storage most of all as both were planned & designed by us for us & DH of course built it all. None of the houses we've looked at even come close but we're moving to get into a certain area to get DD in a good school so have no choice. The last estate agent said that DH could 'do it all again' at which he made a face but I hope he does

Surfacing for air....

Phew - we've spent the past week and a half getting the house ready to sell. We've got 3 Estate Agents coming tomorrow to give us valuations & have found a house that we'd love to buy BUT we need to sell this one first.

DH has been off work all week finishing the little jobs that have been mounting up over the past two years & today the stair carpet is finally going back down I've got rid of so much stuff - it's amazing how much you accumulate. We've lived here 12 years next January which IMO is far too long.

We're both absolutely shattered due to working on de-cluttering & packing every night but it'll be worth it. I'm hoping for a quick sale as the house we want to buy isn't in a chain & we could move straight in without doing anything to it.

The best news of all is that our noisy neighbour situation unexpectedly resolved itself the weekend that we finally made the decision to move & we haven't got a problem anymore. I couldn't stop beaming at work the following day

I've got to go now - the empty boxes are calling my name again....

Blogging holiday

I'm still here but we've got a lot on at the moment. All good so no need to worry but I'm too busy to update here very often at the moment.

Happy Knitting!