Turning 11

Two weeks ago it was the last in our little run of birthdays, with David turning 11.
I've been trying to get a chance to put his birthday on the blog for those last two weeks, before I can then post about anything else we've been up to, so finally here it is!
David loves cycling, and as his current bike was rapidly getting too small for him, he asked for money from everybody so that he could put it towards getting a good bike. He absolutely loves it, even if November is not an ideal month to get a new bike.

His favourite dinner is Pasta Bake, but since his birthday fell on a Sunday we had the Pasta Bake the night before, as there would be a rebellion in this house if we had a Sunday without a roast!

David also loves football, and asked for a football pitch cake, exactly the same as the one he had had on his 6th birthday. I had kept the little figures from that cake just in case we ever had another request for a football cake!

Calum (14) offered to help with the cake decoration, which was good as his knowledge of the markings on a football pitch is a lot better than mine.

David was born in the early hours of Remembrance Sunday 2005, on a very frosty night, and the day that his biggest brother, then aged 5, was due to take part in his first ever Remembrance Sunday Parade, with the Boys' Brigade. James was still able to march in the parade, although I didn't get along to see him take part! 

This year James was again marching in the Remembrance Day parade, as he has done every year since, although the last four years he has been marching with the Army Cadets and not the BBs.

So the first thing to do on David's birthday was to wrap up and go along to watch the parade.

And of course after the parade was a great opportunity to get a photo of all the boys together.

For his birthday dinner, David asked if his cousins could come around for Sunday lunch. My mum was down on holiday for a few days so he also had the bonus of having granny around too. Most of the children sat at the kids' table in the living room, which looked like it was lots of fun!

There could have been a bit of a disaster with our plans for the birthday dinner, as the night before, as I was baking a second batch of mince pies, the heating element blew on my oven. Thankfully I had already baked the birthday cake! I had bought two chickens to roast for the birthday lunch though, so instead of roasting them I popped them both in my slow cooker overnight. Disaster averted!

This was the best I could manage at getting a photo of the boys, my nephews and niece. Getting a good photo of 9 excited kids is never going to be easy, especially when two of them are toddlers!

Now that David's birthday celebrations are over it's time to look ahead to our Christmas plans 🎄

And I was only oven-less for a week. I ordered the part online and my clever husband replaced it.

Makings - Autumn Crochet

It's been a while since I shared any makes over here. So here are a couple of my autumnal ones.
After making my mum and dad's anniversary blanket I wanted some smaller projects to work on for a while!
So first of all I revamped the Autumn Wreath that I made last year. 
Since I wanted to hang my wreath up quickly last year, I didn't crochet the cover for it but wrapped the yarn around the wreath form instead. It was only every meant to be a temporary thing while I got around to crocheting a cover but I didn't ever get around to doing that last year!
This year I did though, and as well as crocheting the cover I also crocheted a pumpkin to join the cluster of leaves and acorns that I had made last year, which I think just finishes it off perfectly.

The pumpkin pattern is from Simply Crochet Magazine, issue 49, and I'm afraid I can't remember what pattern I used for the leaves last year, but I'm pretty sure I found it on Pinterest.

The yarn I used was, of course, Stylecraft Special DK in Parchment for the wreath; spice for the pumpkin; copper, gold and khaki for the leaves.
Next up on my hook was a birthday present for Fraser.
In the summer we were at the boys' favourite Toy Shop in Stornoway, where Fraser absolutely loved playing around on a hobby horse. Being an obsessive crafter I thought to myself, 'I have a pattern for one of them in a book back home, I could easily make one for him.'
So I did.

Isn't he cute?

The pattern is from the book Crochet at Play by Kat Goldin. There are lots of lovely things to make in it!

The hobby horse is still a little comedic, as we can't find the saw in the shed and so the head is still attached to a full size vintage broom! Still, it doesn't stop Fraser from jumping around with it and shouting, 'Yee-ha dowboy!' No that's not a typo, but how he says cowboy.

Finally onto my current make, and it's another continuation of something I started last Autumn.

Remember the Christmas Character Afghan? I didn't really think I would get all nine squares made in time for last Christmas, and I was actually OK about that, after all it would mean less to do this year!

I managed to make 6 squares last autumn - santa, rudolf, frosty, candy cane, Christmas pudding and a stocking. 

Last week I completed the Christmas wreath, and I'm now just past half way on the Christmas tree.

That means I have one more square to make, probably the gingerbread man, and they take at least a week to make. That is, a week of the little crochet time that I get, and then I have to crochet them all together. 
I'm aiming to have the squares all done and joined by the beginning of December.
Can I do it?! Fingers crossed!