December 17, 2010

closer and closer!

Hi peeps! 

Sorry I haven't been blogging recently, i haven't been feeling well but now I'm getting back to myself! Why is it the week you need to be doing everything is the week you get ill? Typical! Anyway I'm back up to speed with all UK Christmas pressies sent off (5 days after the last postage date! oops!), I just hope they make it there okay through all the snow that is supposed to be hitting Scotland again. 
I have also been busy with my Etsy shop, I had a great week last week and have had to order more fabric! This is always a good sign!

I really need to get in the Christmas spirit and decorate the apartment a little. We have some lights outside but nothing inside. Sonny's mum brought me a little tree in October so i need to get it up and decorated. I made us stockings and a couple of decorations last year so they should go up too.

I am doing well with my handmade Christmas this year, with a couple of exceptions! It's a lot more work that you think it's going to be!! Just need to got making the pressies to take with us to Aberdeen, can't believe we go next week! Sonny's mum has just got herself a new little puppy! Can't wait to meet him and I will definitely get some pics of him. He is called Mango and he is a miniature Doberman - so cute!

I hope all your preparations for Christmas are going well and your not too 'snowed' under!I will leave you with some lovely decorations I have seen on the web this week!

cloudfront
cloudfront
Triipinkid
designspongeonline.com


December 3, 2010

Not too many days left!

Allsorts

I've been busy, busy, busy this week! I can't believe December has snuck up on me like this and international postal dates are so much closer than before!

I am now thinking that, this close to the "C" word, is not a good time to try out new projects! I tried making some bath bombs the other day they should have looked great and solid shaped... but instead they turned out like this...


 Disaster!!!
All deflated and flat! Oh well, I'll just need to try again - as Sonny told me the first time you make something it's not meant to be perfect! At least he understands! ha ha!

The crochet is going well, I just need my fingers to go twice the speed and I'll manage to get lots of things made! Christmas card design is done and this weekend is to be cold so I think that will be my inside project!

I shall leave you with some fun gift wrapping ideas I have come across this week
Paper Pastries


Paper Pastries

I hope you have a lovely weekend and stay warm!

November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!


I love all the different variations out there on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster, this one is very apt for today!

Have a great day - don't stuff yourselves too much!!

November 24, 2010

SNOW!!!

Welcome to our our winter wonderland, which I think many people are getting this week! We woke up on Monday morning to 4 inches of snow and -10C temps!
It has been so long since it has been this chilly, I had forgotten how, when it is this cold, that when you breath in the cold takes your breath away and
freezes your lungs!

Everywhere looks so pretty , white and glistening. As I was walking back up the street yesterday the way the sun was hitting the blowing snow it looked like glitter in the air! It was so cool!


 





Look at the icicles!!

We have Thanksgiving to look forward to tomorrow and Sonny has a four-day weekend which is great! Hopefully we won't get any more snow for now!

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and manage to miss most of the storms!

November 19, 2010

Fiber fun

A couple of weeks ago I was happy to find that there is a Fiber Arts Guild in Rapid City. They meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month, so two Tuesdays past was a meeting night. 

I called the lady that runs it and she said they would be knitting... I don't knit, so I thought I'd give that meeting a miss. During our conversation, I said that I wanted to learn to crochet, so she encouraged me to go buy a ball of yarn and a crochet hook and come along as there would be someone willing to teach me! So I did, it was a great meeting, everyone was busy knitting and a lady called Peggy was teaching me how to crochet!

The next few meetings are to be about Felting.. so I will not feel as behind!

Here are some of the things i have been working on...


some really cool wool yarns I am hoping to felt after..



Crochet flowers



 and a pair of fingerless gloves I am working on, they are harder than they look!!
It' s so much fun, I can't stop! I have the crochet bug!!

 The birdie likes to crochet too






November 9, 2010

Our new flatmate!

Please welcome our new lodger, a cute little Cinnamon Conure. We don't have a name for 'her' yet (we don't know if the bird is actually male or female but the lady we got her from called her a 'her'!) so we are thinking a name that can be bot male and female would be best! The pictures are taken outside as she has had her wings clipped so she can't fly away, Sonny thought he better get them before her wings grow back!

Thankfully she is a very quiet bird and has more of a 'quack' than a chirp or a squawk! She is a very different bird to Sonny's other one, Tweetie, who lives with his mum in Aberdeen. At least this birdie likes me and i can pick her up and everything without getting bitten - a huge bonus!

Here are the photos and I'm sure there will be more to come, they live for at least 20 years!!!





She is predominantly green, with a pale green and a little red breast and silvery head. Her tail is a light maroon, and we think her flight feathers will be blue once they grow again.




We match! ha ha!

She loves taking baths!

November 8, 2010

American Beauty!

Well, we have just had the most fantastic weekend here in SD. It was 26C on Saturday (Sonny and I both had shorts and t-shirts on again!), yesterday was 21C and I think today is to be the same - It's November!! Can't believe it! I think we had the last warm weekend of the year though as it is to get cold this week, down in the single figures and a chance of snow tomorrow! Brrr!

So, I finally managed to get some pictures of the upstairs house. It was built in 1919 and has loads of history, all original woodwork and wood floors. The pictures don't do it justice!




I love this kitchen!




This room is my favourite. It is so light and bright!

Our apartment is to come, I know i keep promising you pictures, but I really have to tidy first! It will be by the end of this week, I promise!


November 3, 2010

New Blog Address

Good Morning!

Welcome to the same blog, with a new address. 
It is now emzusaadventures.blogspot.com, exactly the same just minus the hyphen (emz-usaadventures = old address!)

I will be posting on here from now on but if you do use the old address there is a post with the new one to bring you back here!

November 1, 2010

Wildlife Weekend

So, it's November 1st and I heard the first Christmas song on the radio this morning... It's far to early for christmas music but i'm sure it will be upon us before we know it!

Just a quick post to show you some of the fun pictures from our weekend with Sonny's Mum. We went to Spearfish Canyon on the Saturday and Custer State Park on the Sunday where we had a lovely picnic by Sylvan Lake and drove around the needles highway and the wildlife loop.








We saw deer, sheep, donkeys, and I think the whole heard of buffalo in the Park. We saw some of the buffalo calves having a great time running and jumping around in the corrals. They recently had the 45th Annual Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup where cowboys and cowgirls roundup and drive the herd of approximately 1,300 buffalo. Following the roundup, park staff sort, brand and vaccinate the herd in preparation for the fall buffalo sale.