I'm going to be running a couple of knitting events for Windmill Hill City Farm. I'm really excited as Henry loves the city farms that we have in Bristol and Windmill Hill and since we've moved it is now walking distance from our house. I was really pleased to be asked to get involved, especially as I'll get to teach some children to knit at Apple Day in October. I've got some amazing apple related craft projects lined up and I'll share some of them with you on the blog nearer the time as they'll be great for autumn!

I'm also teaching a beginner's Knitted Bunting Class there next Saturday 21st September & you can book via their website here. It's a mixed age one to give anybody who wants to try knitting a go. 

They run some amazing workshops there so have a look at their website if you fancy learning something new this autumn. The eternal student in me always gets the learning bug at this time of year! I'm quite tempted by the build your own bread oven......but I'm not sure our garden is big enough for one!

I'm really bust lately on the knitting lesson front & I love it!! I've already started to plan my Christmas patterns & lessons ready for November & December! The next few months are going to be great fun!

Anyway I hope you're all having a great Friday, I'll be back tomorrow afternoon to post up another free pattern as promised!

Last night I went along to the Tobacco Factory Theatre to see the Catwalk opening of Amber Hards Spring/Summer 2013 collection. Amber is a friend of my sisters, but I went along with my knitting geek head on because as somebody who designs 'little things' the concept of designing big elaborate knitted outfits fascinated me! Also having seen the work that Amber produced for her graduate show from UWE which you can see here I was excited to see what she would come up with next! Her work is full of amazing shape & texture & really is unlike anything else I have seen before. Thanks to her previous design work Amber was a Knitted Textile Awards finalist in 2010, also winning an innovation award from the craft council both of which were well deserved from what I saw last night! 

Before the show started the everybody mingled in the bar area which was adorned with Amber's design artwork & inspiration boards and examples of her knitwear. There were also complimentary Cosmopolitans to enjoy as well & they were delicious!

The show was well put together & the make-up was fantastic thanks to the help of Victoria Hemmings! I could describe all of the outfits to you, but I'd be here all day & I'm sure you'll get bored so instead here are some pictures from the night! 😊

I'd love to say that I stayed & partied late in to the night, but I have been feeling rotten this week thanks to a large Ovarian Cyst causing me a bit of grief so I was home by 9pm in my PJs knitting & watching Fringe on dvd in bed!! However I think everybody else stayed & had a great time! Amber did a great job putting on a show by herself! Also seeing her work has me really interested with the different things machine knitting can achieve! If you would like to know more about Amber's work then visit her website: www.amberhards.co.uk

Last week was a bit of a week of celebrations  for us as Henry turned 18 months on Thursday (yes that's right my baby is now 1 1/2 years old!!). How did that happen? Where has the last 6 months gone? We had lunch with his Auntie Tash & then went shopping in our local charity shops. We had lots of luck with Henry getting loads of amazing 'new to him' toys for less than £5! We then all went the balloon fiesta in the evening which as I've already said was amazing!  

The celebrations continued on  Friday as it was Ken's last day in his old job! He has a much better job now based in Bath, which is great news for our family. I haven't wanted to say anything just in case I jinxed things, but he starts tomorrow so it seems ok to say something now. The weather was so beautiful that we decided to celebrate in our local park with my Sister & some friends. Armed with wine, pizza & fresh fruit we set off for an evening of relaxing & balloon spotting evening.

The park was full of other people who had the same idea as us so there was a really lovely atmosphere there, with children & family pets running around playing while adults relaxed in the evening sun taking in the views. Evenings like these are great for the soul! It really is amazing how a bit of sunshine can make all of the difference!

Our dog George thought that we had thrown him a party & invited loads of other people & dogs especially for him to play with! He was in heaven! Our friend's Anna & Alan have a little puppy called Munch who is a new friend of Georges! He is super cute & very hyper! Henry also had a great time running around playing late in to the evening........in fact that both had such a good time that they slept in until gone 9am the next day! It was just a shame that I had to get up early to teach a knitting lesson so I didn't get a lie in too! Typical!

The rest of the weekend has been pretty chilled out & tonight feels a bit like the last day of the summer holidays in our house as we get everything ready for Ken's first day in his new job. I even gave him a haircut today so he'll look smart. It's quite exciting though!

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend too & have managed to enjoy the sunshine! ☀♥

Here are a million pictures of Friday night....there's sunshine, hot air balloons, &  a puppy what more could you want?! :)

Its summer again today.....The sun was shining & it was hot hot hot! Bristol must be in the weather god's favour as it seems the sun comes out for our staple events! First we have a glorious weekend for the Bristol Harbour festival & now we have been blessed with some more sunshine. This may not seem like that big of a deal in years to come when I read this back to myself..........So I want to remind myself that  2012 was the year that it rained NON STOP!! 

The Balloon Fiesta is held in Ashton Court & Is a free event. Me, Ken & My sister Tash all decided last minute to go, but I'm so glad we did! My only hesitation was that I seem to suffer withdrawal symptoms whenever I'm not watching the Olympics! Who would win the men's 200 m final? Would Jade Jones get a taekwondo Gold medal?! But I couldn't miss  tonight really as it was the evening glow where dozens of hot air balloon light up to music & generally look amazing! Plus the power of google means that Olympic news was with me anyway! I'm so glad we did go though as it was a lovely evening sitting outside in the warm air! Almost makes you forget the rain that we've been living with constantly! We sat eating burritos in the twilight waiting for the main event to start. Then all of the balloons inflated to  a soundtrack of amazing (and cheesy but in a good way!) music started. The balloons really do put on a breath taking show! It was quite late by the time it all finished so I spent the last few minutes giving a very tired Henry cuddles instead of watching properly, but apart from that we all had a great time! There is a firework display at the end that anywhere else you would normally have to pay a lot of money to see so it really was a fantastic event considering it's free! If you haven't been before to any of the night time events at the Balloon Fiesta I highly recommend going. Dogs are allowed too as long as they are on a lead & not scared by large crowds of people (because there are thousands of people there!!!). George came along with us & thought it was great.....but barked a few times at the people behind us for singly badly! George hates it when people sing loudly, but i guess he does have very big ears!

Anyway it's late & I should be off to bed as I have a busy day tomorrow, but I wanted to write this down because if i left it, it would disappear into my list of things to do & probably not get written. These pictures don't really do it justice, but I think it gives you a good idea about what a great family night out it is!

I know I say this a lot, but I really do Bloody love Bristol, especially on nights like tonight! 

I hope that you all enjoy the next few days of sunshine & have a lovely weekend! xx 

We have olympic fever in our household, even Henry has it bad! He's cheering "Go Go Go!" whenever a race starts & cheers with both of his arms in the air whenever somebody wins.......It is so cute! I'm now convinced that he will be an olympian because of his early enthusiasm for competitive sports.

I really wasn't that excited about the olympics before they started mainly because of the politics involved. Watching David Cameron's smug face on every news report related to the Olympics really does dampen ones enthusiasm for the event! However once they started my opinion completely changed, I have been hooked! Watching how hard these athletes work & the amazing things they can achieve has moved me to tears on numerous occasions. 

It has been fantastic to watch every country's achievements & the gamesmanship between athletes. However i have to admit that seeing Team Great Britain doing so well has been the icing on the cake! I have been cheering along with Henry watching sports that I really wouldn't under any other circumstances! Also I have been blown away by the achievements of women in this Olympics! It makes me so proud to think that my son will grow up expecting to see women competing & performing like champions! It will never occur to him that females are less worthy of competing.

Anyway in the spirit of the Olympics I have made Henry his own medals! They are super easy to knit & even the most novice of knitter will manage them. I knitted all 3 of them in just over an hour while watching the gymnastics yesterday so it really is a quick DIY. I'm tempted to show some of the older children in my wool workshops because they're great for children as they can use them in games afterwards. Anyway I hope that you can spread some olympic fever with these medals like we are! 

© Kimberlee Daly/The Homemade Mama

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Last night I went along with my sister Natasha to a talk & book signing by one of my all time favourite authors Jasper Fforde. I started reading his Thursday Next novels 7 years ago when I was working part-time in a bookshop while studying for an MSc In experimental psychological research methods. The studying was pretty intense & heavy going and I was looking for some escapism. I was drawn to the colourful artwork on the cover of The Eyre Affair and was hooked from page one. Since then I have read all of his books enjoying every single one of the for their unique blend of humour, fantasy, silliness, literature snobbery & cleverness. 

I was really excited to meet him as I am a bit of a geek when it comes to books......my son is named after a character in my favourite book & once you get me talking about books I love you can expect to be stuck listening to me for quite some time while i construct a list of books that you MUST read. There was a slight element of fear that he wouldn't live up to my expectations which turned out to be totally unfounded. He talked for an hour not only about his new book The Woman Who Died A Lot but about how he writes in general & things that amuse and inspire him. There was talk of bad jokes that he waits years to fit in to his books, ear worms (That song that you hear & just cannot get out of your head), and walking that fine line between silly & stupid, because silly is good, but stupid is awful! 

He says that he writes by giving himself dares, such as trying to make a plausible (and not stupid) story out of an opening scene involving a man finding a gorilla up a tree in his Surrey garden. Some of his descriptions of these dares were hilarious & will really add to the enjoyment i get from reading his books. The dare for his latest book was that Thursday's teenage son must save the world by doing nothing at all. I cannot wait to find out how he has made that work!

The biggest laugh of the night came when he spoke about his novel 'Shades of Grey'. Obviously it bares a similar title to the very badly written books that women are going mad for at the moment &  it was joked that it was to be re-released with a really cheap dodgy grey cover & placed near 50 shades go Grey in shops so that it could enter the best seller's list purely on accidental sales! For any Shades of Grey fans out there Fforde revealed that there will be a sequel soon as part of a new 3 book deal.

I think the thing that really struck a chord with me though was when he spoke of his struggles to get published . He began writing novels in the late 1980s & each one was rejected until The Eyre Affair was eventually published in 2001(that novel along received over 70 rejections from publishers). He wrote over 10 novels before having one accepted. Although I imagine it was tough it's refreshing to see people work at something because they love & and have a passion for it. So often today people expect 'instant' fame & acceptance for what they do and give up when success doesn't happen instantly. As somebody starting my own business doing something I love I find his story inspiring and a reminder that if you work your arse off & believe in what you do it will be worth it in the end!

Sometimes for no reason other than to amuse myself I get the overwhelming desire to do something highly inappropriate & embarrassing & last night I had to fight from acting on such an impulse. At the end of the talk a chap from the Bristol Literature festival came on stage to announce the 5 winners of a competition reading each name out in a very dramatic way. Everybody in the audience was looking about expectantly to see if there was a winner amongst us........it was then that the urge to leap out of my seat & hysterically scream "I'VE WON!!! OH MY GOD I'VE WON!!!!" then run on stage and hug the man as if i'd won an oscar, hit me! Instead I laughed to myself and whispered to my sister what I wanted to do.....however i didn't whisper quietly enough & the people in front of me asked loudly "What you've won?!". I was still laughing to myself when we joined the very long queue to have our books signed & meet the man himself

Tash & I spent our time in the queue discussing how many of the books we could ask him to sign for us. She gets easily embarrassed so thought one was the limit.....I on the other hand fancied trying my luck & asking Fforde to sign four of my favourites . She was also cringing at the fact that not only was I armed with a bag full of books for him to sign, but my camera  to take a picture of him too! She didn't approve of me taking pictures as you can see above (I'll get in trouble for posting that, but It's too funny not too!).

However the man himself was happy to sign our books & posed for a picture for me ignoring my sister groaning & looking mortified that I wasn't 'playing it cool' at all! We chatted briefly......which was a mistake on my part as I just blabbered on like a crazy fool about his promo picture not being very good & needing updating........I even managed to slip in the phrase 'av a word' in a slight cockney accent just to add to my mortification! I seemed to lose all sense of charm & etiquette and develop an inability to filter what comes out of my mouth! Despite that it was a pleasure to meet him & I cannot wait to get stuck in to his new book! Now all I need is some spare time to do it!

If you are interested in hearing more about Jasper Fforde his website is here & you can find all of his books available to buy here! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!