Saturday 27 June 2015

Fun with the Fairy's


 
A few week's ago we had a lovely wee day out with my sister and her family at Slieve Gullion Forest Park.  Apparently the forest park has been there for ages, but had just recently been part of an art project which has completely refurbished the park.  It's in a beautiful area known as the Ring of Gullion, an area of 'outstanding natural beauty'  just over the boarder into the South of Ireland, near Newry.  We had heard a lot of good things about the park over the last while and decided to see what it was all about for ourselves!  I have to say I was very glad we did!  There is so much to do and see and the best part is it's all completely free!!  Thankfully we left home early and arrived before the crowd's so the massive play park was fairly empty and the kids had a good time running about and exploring.


Ben was the only one who stood still long enough to have his picture taken, which is a rarity because he usually hate's having the camera pointed anywhere near his direction.  It was pretty overcast in the morning, but that didn't bother the kids and it did brighten up as the day went on!

 
We found our way through the maze to the wishing chair, where each of the children, and a few of the adults as well, made a wish.  I did laugh when NJ's turn came, he squished his eye's up real tight and said 'I wish for Lightening McQueen'.  When he opened his eye's he couldn't understand why Lightening McQueen wasn't there.  The innocence of children is a truly wonderful thing. 
 
 
 
After a long play in the park we went for much needed refreshments, in the form of the biggest ice-cream cones the van had, and then it was off to find the fairy's.  Before starting on the walk through the forest, you can read the story of the giant, witch and fairy's who live there, then your off into The Giant's Lair, and you better hope you don't wake the giant on your way round.
 
 
Through the red door and the beautiful wicker tunnel into the fairy village!!
 

 
The little fairy house's were built so skilfully into the beautiful natural surroundings they looked like they had always been there!

 
They were so cleverly made and named.  There is only a few pictures of them here, but there were at least 60 little houses, all with different names.  The fairy tale book shop was BT's favourite.


These ones were my favourite, the stepping stones winding their way up the tree trunk, with little fairy houses every so often and a wee bridge between the tree's, you can just imagine the little fairy's flying about from house to house!



 
As we leave the fairy village behind we upon a few larger houses belonging to the trolls of the area!
 
 
My lovely family.
 
 

BT listening at the door to see if anyone is home, thankfully there wasn't!

 
Then we came to the part of the forest where the giant lives, we had to be extra quiet here so we didn't wake him up!  This is the kids sitting on the giant's dinner table.

 
 
The Witch!
 
 
HP was very comfy and enjoyed his first time in the baby sling, in fact he slept most of the way and missed the fairy's, the giant and the witch.  He woke just in time for the Giant's tea cups.
 
 
 
 

 
Absolutely magical place for adults and children.  Our visit here was well timed as BT and I were just finished the first book in Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree collection.  If you havn't read the books with your little ones, or even just for yourself, you definitely should, they are fantastic.  We are now half way through the second book in the series and we both love it.  I can't wait to enjoy it with my other two when they get a little older!

We will definitely have another trip to Slieve Gullion over the summer holidays, fantastic day out and loads of lovely memories.


































Sunday 21 June 2015

Here we go again!!!

I'm embarrassed to say it's been well over a year since I last posted, and while I hate to make excuses, I'm going to anyway!  I haven't been doing much on the crafting scene, over the past year I have mostly been focusing on my family!  Adding to it, would probably be more accurate. 

I am now the very proud mother of not two but three beautiful boys! 

Most Of my pregnancy with my last little darling was dreadful and I was completely unable to do anything else, let alone crafting.  Even my love of crochet had to take a back seat, for the entire nine months I was completely incapable of picking up a crochet hook, and believe me I tried!  For most people, expecting a new baby is the perfect excuse to crochet and create beautiful baby clothes, blankets and all sorts of gorgeous things!  In fact I actually taught myself to crochet while I was expecting my first baby, such was my intense desire to create some of these wonderful baby things!  But, for some reason during this pregnancy the very feel of the wool and hook in my hand made me incredibly nauseous! When I did manage to start something, the act of crochet gave me motion sickness.  It was not very pleasant!  After nine long months without any form of crafting I was anxious to get going again, but then of course I have my beautiful new baby boy to look after, as well as the two little handfuls of trouble I already have.  As you can imagine it's a very busy household! Eventually, we did manage to get back to some form of normality, our new baby fitting in like he had always been here, and I finally managed to pick up my hook.


It has taken me a little while to get my crochet mojo back, but I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere.



I have completed a few projects in the past few months, and while all I have time for at the minute is my family, with a little bit of crochet on the side, I hope that as time goes on I will get back to some of my other crafty notions as well!