The Daphne Tree

    The Liebster Award is for bloggers with fewer than 300 followers. A blogger nominates 11 fellow bloggers and asks them a set of 11 questions. The rules state that a nominee must link back to the blogger from whom they received a nomination. The nominee will write 11 random facts about themselves and then answer the 11 questions which have been set for them. They in turn will nominate another 11 bloggers and pose 11 questions to them. This is a really fun way to discover and connect with new bloggers and help us all gain some new followers along the way.   Lovely Hannah from Make, Do and Push has nominated me as one of her bloggers so I will do my best! Thanks Hannah! If you like crafting, and a slice of positivity to balance out the cynicism you hear from me (!) you should check out her blog. She is up to wedding planning too so is bound to have lots of ideas up her sleeve! OK, first of all, 11 random facts about me! Crikey that seems a lot! 1. I used to deliver mil

Well. The husband returned from work today, and from my lank hair knew I hadn't showered. What a disgusting cowbag, right? That's the look I got anyway. In my brain I wanted to go schizophrenic psycho mentalballs on him. On waking I found cat sick all over the living room. Cleared it up, washed hands a lot. They are chapped from this. Daphne woke up and promptly threw a tantrum about dropping a dummy. One of her two. A proper tantrum. I held her at the window to watch the snow, then we had to stay there for ages while she pointed out every damn thing she could see. Breakfast. Milk all over the carpet. Tried the naughty step. Tantrum. Hit head during tantrum. Crying fit. Hug. Retching as crying fit got out of control. Tiny sick. Daphne demanded a banana which then mysteriously became smeared over every flipping thing in the universe. Notice my lack of swearing as she now copies every blinking thing. I wash up, actually for the second time this morning. Daphne comes an

This post is inspired by all of the people getting married this year! And I'd love to say to them all, it is YOUR day, you don't have to do what anyone else wants or whatever anyone else does. You may have dreamed about a big white wedding since you were small, and if that's really what you want you should go for it. BUT, in this day and age, you can make it whatever you want. You can get married underwater, in a windmill, on a remote island or up a tree. You can wear black, blue, animal print? Hell, you can probably be naked. You can write your own vows, play your favourite music, eat your comfort food and tailor everything to truly represent YOU. If you want to be a bit different, I BEG you to look at  Offbeat Bride , the ideas and real weddings on there will get your brain ticking! They call it wedding porn you know... Here's a couple of snaps from our wedding two years ago: Yep, we were on a farm, I was 36wks pregnant, we camped that night, we h

So, turns out I am a terrible mother. We went out for a walk yesterday and Daphne nearly froze. She refused to wear her gloves, and we stayed out too long, and she was like an ice block when we got home. This NEVER happens. Even when she was a tiny, delicate newborn she never got cold, she only ever OVER heats normally. It saves us a fortune on the heating bill, as I'm too scared to put it on in case she overheats and starts puking. It happens! ANYWAY, when I found myself chucking out a load of her too-small tights this morning, I decided they should go into my "corner". I have claimed a corner of our dining room as my own, and it is now an immaculate, efficient sewing workspace (junk-filled, ribbon-tripwired, needley-haystack Nic-haven). I decided to make Daphne a pair of special mittens. Ones which were long so they could go up her arm and keep out the draughts (and be super-hard to take off) AND they had to appeal to her in some way so I could be all high-drama enth

Even when I know it's for the best, I do hate goodbyes. Is there such a thing as a good goodbye? I'm used to goodbyes; relationships, jobs, friends, towns. I've moved house 12 times in as many years, lost my best friends, broken up with a fiancé, had countless jobs due to moving around, and of course I always knew I'd have to say goodbye to my dad early... I love moving house... Maybe that's why I do it so much! I love the de-cluttering and packing, the organising and rearranging of furniture, the buying new stuff! I like having to be resourceful and decorating on a budget. Getting to know a new town is great too, exploring, meeting locals and becoming one. The losing friends and losing blokes is probably just life. It hurts like hell, but deep down you know it's for a reason, and you carry on living. It's not your soul. Saying goodbye to a job should be easier than it is, but when you spend day in, day out with people, it somehow becomes your personali

 It worked! I'm quite pleased! Now I want to do them in lots of colours...

abeautifulmess.com First of all, Happy New Year! I'm hoping to get seriously organised for 2013 and have specific posting days, so watch this space for weekly updates!  I've noticed a few patches turning up on elbows throughout the Winter...   This tutorial got me a bit excited on www.abeautifulmess.com And jumpers like this are for sale over on asos.com So I thought I'd have a go, and came up with these patches!  This is a great way to update an old jumper or top for yourself, but here I'm going to spruce up a couple of pairs of Daphne's old leggings. You will need: iron-on fusible webbing (This is where I buy mine, eBay! But you can get it in smaller amounts at most haberdashers http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110769893120?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 patch material (if it's non-fray material that's a bonus!) scissors/ pinking shears needle and thread  iron! An hour or two tops! I used red tshirt