Acceptance Speech!

I found out this week that 2 other lovely Bloggers have given me awards.  These awards are passed around as a way of sharing the bloggy love so I was very touched.

The first award was the Versatile Blogger Award which was passed on by Faith at http://faithymay.blogspot.com/,

and the second was the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award passed on by my lovely university friend, Emma, from http://emmavarnam.co.uk/.  In accepting the awards the idea is to link back to the person who gave the award, share 7 facts about yourself and then pass the award on to 15 other blogs.

1.  My middle name is Jayne.  With a Y.  For no other reason than that my parents thought it went well with Sandra.
2.  In order to explain my "Anglicised Scottish-ness"  I was born in Motherwell, spent the first 4 years of my life in Campbelltown (think Mull of Kintyre), moved to Southampton for 10 years then Ringwood, on the edge of the New Forest for a few more until I headed back North to Uni at Aberdeen.  Hubby and I did our PhD and PGCE respectively in Cambridge then back to Edinburgh (and Dalgety Bay in Fife) asap!  We emigrated to Newcastle, NSW nearly 3 years ago, where Husband is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University.
3.  I have no idea where we will be in 5 years time!
4.  I asked Meg to think of a fact to help me and she said "You're nice and you're lovely"!  I'll pay her later.
5.  I'm a tea drinker but always have a Latte when I'm out as I resent paying $4 for hot water and a tea-bag.
6.  Although I love my parents dearly, I miss my brother more than anyone else (I'm safe from a ribbing as I'm quite sure he never reads this!).
7.  I am an appalling housewife and would rather go for a walk at the beach than tidy the house.

There, that wasn't too painful!

Now as for passing on the awards it is very hard to choose so here goes in no particular order... they can choose to pass on or ignore!  Some are to do with crochet, some parenting, some eco-life-style inspiration, one takes beautiful pictures of Scotland, and one is travelling Australia in a caravan.  Please enjoy browsing and I take no responsibility if you become hooked!

1.  Pieceful
2.  Peacock Blue
3.  The Green Dragonfly
4.  Coco Rose Diaries
5.  Mama of 2 Boys
6.  Cozy Things
7.  Foxs Lane
8.  Blue Teacups
9.  The Baynhams
10.  ANDAMENTO
11.  Sketch
12.  Brave New Me
13.  tales from cuckoo land
14.  Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me?
15.  Joyce Lives Here

ps if the light is cooperative for taking photos tomorrow, I hope to have a Granny Square ta-dahhh!

Sandra recommends...

This is just a quick post that I have been meaning to do for ages now.

It was my Mum's birthday in May and being disorganised as usual, I didn't leave myself time to make anything myself, or get to any crafty places to find something here.  I remembered that Anne from Andamento lives very near by to my "Old Dears" and thought I would contact her to see if she could point me towards any other crafty types in the local vicinity who might have websites.  However, Anne herself is super talented and makes mirrors, suncatchers and vases from stained glass.  I asked on the off-chance if she had anything in stock and sure enough she did!  Not only that but since there is a fab play park nearby, she offered to deliver it to the door on one of her outings.  What a life saver!  Mother liked her gift so much she decided to put it in her bedroom window which over looks the water and catches the sun in the evenings.  I'm only sorry I can't be there to see it for myself.  

Another blog post that got my interest recently was this one from Lolly at This Domestic Life.  I have seen QR codes before and hadn't really seen the point of them but when I saw that you can create your own, the kids and I had great fun designing some for my brother's birthday and had them put on a mug for him (he hasn't got it yet, but I think I'm fairly safe as I doubt if he bothers to read this blog!).   We'll see which of you is technical enough to work mine out!  Since then we have noticed them all over the place.  

I think that will do for now, I'm off to bed to prepare for another week of the kids being at home.  All the fresh air and exercise is helping me to sleep well, if only I could make myself go at a sensible time!