The Spring Give-away DRAW & a Happy Birthday!

Hello there!

Are you excited? I have to say that I was very excited to wake up this morning and realise it was the day of the Sunny Spring Give-away Draw!! I want to say a huge thank you to all who took part, its so much fun to do this, and spread a bit of arty-crafty joy out into the world!

Anyway...without further ado - I can't possibly keep you waiting a minute longer - I will now reveal the winner of this give-away (and the winner was chosen by Random, a lovely online number generator).

The number generator gave me a number...and it was number 40!!!

...and upon counting down the list of entrants, I discovered that the winner of the goodies is....

Blooming Felt!!

WELL DONE!!! Please do get in touch dear soul with your address, either through the 'email me' bit of the blog, or by going through the 'contact me' page on my website, and I will mail your prize to you this week! Thanks again to everyone who took part, I've enjoyed this one so much that I've decided I'll probably do another one in the not too distant future, so although I'm awfully sorry for those of you who didn't win this time, you might next time!

So! Thank you for your birthday wishes - I had a splendid birthday starting early in fact, on Saturday afternoon when a smiling chap turned up at the door with these!

...Oh I was so happy! What a very, very joy~filled looking bunch of flowers of the most colourful kind - choc full of most of my favourites!

Sunday morning dawned sunny and blue, and I was treated to some lovely gifts from my other half and the Little One. A new Cath Kidston mug and stationery, two new yoga dvd's, Thornton's chocolate, perfume, a beautiful scarf in shades of tangerine, fuschia pink and purple with shimmery silver threads embroidered through, a pretty bird house and also some birthday money which I plan to spend on some new wool supplies for the RR blanket and some new clothes for Spring! I felt like a very lucky lady indeed!

After a late breakfast, we got ourselves ready and picked up the parents and then headed out into Derbyshire, to Bakewell.

It was a lovely day for a stroll by the river...

...and there were several cygnets sailing along the twinkly water with their parents. We had a picnic sitting by the river and then headed to the park to let the Little One let off some steam! After a wander around the town, we headed off in the direction of our birthday meal destination, stopping on the way for a pleasant wander around the tiny village of Baslow.

Gorgeous snowdrops carpeted the church yard...

...and this pretty catch on the gate that took you through to a path that led to the river caught my eye!

Baslow is a very quaint place, with beautiful cottages and gardens that burst at the seams with scented flowers in the summer. There is also the added attraction of a gorgeous little shop called 'Avant Garde' that sells the most stunning home wares and trinkets, including pretty Green Gate (I bought a new tea towel and some napkins while I was there, its almost impossible to leave empty handed!).

After our wander, we drove to The Ladybower Inn for our meal, it serves the most beautiful food and we were lucky to have booked a window seat where we could sit and look out at the ever changing sky as the sun went down over the Ladybower reservoir. I think the good weather had brought everyone out with the same idea in mind as the place was packed to the rafters! I'd recommend this place to anyone who is out in this part of Derbyshire for the day, it was the icing on the cake for us and later, settling down to watch Larkrise in my jammies with a big box of Thornton's was the icing on the icing of said cake!! :D

Well, that's about all for today, I have noticed that a couple of you have asked about a pattern for the little hearts I showed you last week - well, I will definately try my best to do one for you of course!

I hope you all had a good weekend, I'll look forward to catching up with you soon!

Much love

Julia x x x