a ‘better late than never’ giveaway

September 23, 2015 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)1,348 Comments

Dressingroom

Firstly, thank you so much for all of the messages about my finger. Happily the hefty dose of antibiotics did the trick and kept me out of hospital and I now have a normal looking finger again which can bend and, most importantly, knit (hooray!). Never again will I have complete faith in antibacterial hand soap – I now have an industrial sized pack of latex gloves and put a pair on every time I go into the chicken run.

Now, on to the purpose of this post…

On September 4th of this year I started my 10th year of blogging and it has become my tradition to host a little giveaway to mark these anniversaries. Writing a blog is a mostly self-indulgent act, a way to record passing moments that would otherwise fade and be forgotten but truthfully it would be an empty pursuit without the comments, emails, encouragement and friendship that all of you bring with you as readers. So thank you all so very much for visiting here with me, for taking the time to leave me a comment, for encouraging me, supporting me in my little knitting business and for generally helping me to stay up-beat and positive in the face of a challenging home life.

As always I've pondered ways of putting my thanks into a tangible form and as usual I've not really found a solution. I have however written up a small free pattern for a little capelet to fit the knitted animal patterns* which you can download directly from the link.

Capeletbunny

There is also an open draw with 2 prizes of a knitted animal. The two winners can take their pick of the latest batch of knitted animals that I am just finishing off and I'll include with each an extra outfit and a little suitcase to store the extra clothes in.

Suitcasetravels

In order to enter the draw to win one of the 2 animals please just leave a comment below. You can write anything you like but I'd most like to read about anything that makes you happy so if you have time to tell me then please do. If you're busy and still want to enter then just say hi, it won't make any difference to the draw as I'll use a random number generator to pick 2 random winners from the comments on this post and I'll happily post the animals anywhere in the world. The draw will close on Wednesday 30th September and I'll then write about the winners and about the next batch of animals that I'll have available soon.

Hope you have a good week and again my sincere thanks for dropping by to visit with me x

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* There are some other free supplement patterns too. You can find my entire current pattern range over on Ravelry and I'll be adding more patterns soon.

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PS: The suitcases and the clothes rack are made by Maileg and I bought these ones from Bijou Lifestyle – a lovely little on-line shop with lots of tempting things! The coat-hangers I made myself from garden wire.

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Post Update, October 2nd 2015: The random number generator was used and came up with the following 2 numbers:

322

Denise said…

Julie, your blog makes me happy. To see how your family supports each other and interacts with Toby makes me smile. I have a sister with Down Syndrome who lives between my other sister and I. Your story makes me a better sister and caregiver to her. Keep up the wonderful work. I have one wish…. That I could remember how to knit as I did as a child. Now that there is a grandchild, I will have to try again so I could make her one of your adorable critters.
Thanks for the chance to win one!! September 23, 2015 at 02:40 PM

1245

Catherine Small said…

Happy anniversary! Planning, anticipating and starting a new craft project makes me feel happy! (Finishing them, makes me feel virtuous.) September 29, 2015 at 08:17 AM

I'll be back soon with pictures of the animals that they chose as their prizes and news of the little batch that are almost finished and ready to find new homes.

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Just to note, there's a bit of a glitch with the comments displaying properly. After the first page of 100 comments you have to click 'show more comments' to see the next 100 and at this point the numbers after comment number 98 will be out by one digit because of an erroneous glitch which pops up at number 98, which then incorrectly boosts all subsequent comments up a number.

There are a total of 1332 comments entered in the draw, so if you want to view them all and see your comment then please follow this link.

general stuff

late summer snippets

September 5, 2015 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)40 Comments

Our last few weeks of the summer break have been busy and lazy in equal measures. There's been plenty of laying about in PJs days and days full of action and activity…

A trip to Forty Hall with Amy and her boyfriend. A wonderful 1620's built, Jacobean mansion house with amazing plaster-work ceilings and beautiful parkland where we wandered, watched wildlife and picnicked.

Forty hall

Fortyhall

Plasterwork

Stained window

Avenue

Heron

Couple

A walk around Aldworth in Berkshire with Gran and Granddad, watching the buzzards and red kites, listening to the skylarks and finishing in style at the pub.

Publunch

And the highlight for Toby was a little hot-tubbing in a gorgeous garden with a beautiful family friend. Thanks to Julia, Josie and Kitty for the lovely afternoon x

Laughter

Hottub

Smile

We're now settling into comfortable term-time routines though it might be a week or so until I'm back to full blogging strength – I'm convalescing at the moment after a rather nasty encounter with staphylococcus which somehow found it's way into the tiniest of cuts on my finger and from there proceeded to party up my whole arm via my lymphatic system. Happily a hefty course of antibiotics seem to be getting the message across that staph is not welcome here and my finger is starting to resemble a finger again rather than an alarming purple sausage. The most frightening thing was the speed with which the red line spread up my arm so please, if you have a little cut which looks like nothing but you then feel a bit unwell with a swollen armpit a few days later, get yourself to the doctor quickly and get it checked out! And chicken keepers – always wear gloves when you clean the food and drink containers, even if you are in a hurry!

Anyway, I hope to be back soon to celebrate my little blogging anniversary, til then keep well xxx

general stuff · wildlife

snippets from the last week

August 17, 2015 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)40 Comments

Jamspoon

Jam

Breakfast

Breakfast1

Support squash

Squash support

Hydrangea jug

Wetweather

Bluebutterfly

Gathering up the fallen plums from our tree to make jam and enjoying eating it on toast for breakfast.

Crocheting little supports for the squash which are getting heavy now.

Waving to the Dakota plane which flew directly over our house on it's way to the VJ day commemorations in central London and thinking about everything faced by a generation we've come to view as the bravest and most selfless in our history.
Re-homing hydrangea heads bent by the heavy rain.
Rainy days wet enough to make a frog frolic and balmy August afternoons perfect for basking butterflies.

Summer is passing quickly and we're trying to make the most of the long days. Hope the days are enjoyable with you too.