Accepting the change...

Accepting the change...the change of so much in my life, I have found myself reflecting all week. Usually after every holiday I suffer post holiday blues, this time it is so much more, after nearly seven weeks of freedom from time restraints and all the great beach time (despite the weather reducing it somewhat) I am finding it hard to find my rhythm. Add to that the change in my Mothering status with both my children starting school I am really having to work hard at being positive and make myself look for the beauty in the simple things that surround me. I am also admitting to myself (still with great reluctance) that the summer season is drawing to a close and Autumn is starting to show signs of its arrival. Our favourite tree in the garden, the one we sit under in the summer when the sun is to strong for the children's delicate skin, is dropping leaves, the centre of the tree has turned yellow, it is a beautiful happy colour, yet still it pulls at my heart strings...eventually the garden will be covered in leaves and slowly the lushness of it all with fade. Soon, yes soon I am sure I will embrace the season, but just for now I notice the chill in the air, we sit outside less to eat, no knitting has been done in the garden whilst I watch the children play, we plan our days out rather than lazy days around the paddling pool. Reading blogs last year really helped me with this transition of the season, to read the outdoor nature trails, bags made in Autumn shades, children's crafting..painting leaves, acorn hats etc...so soon I will throw myself into it, just let the sun shine a little longer...
The advantage of the breeze is the washing is dry so quickly, as I had bought so much fabric last weekend I washed it all and had it ironed all in two days (see first picture). I went in search of good quality linen I was not disappointed. The plan was to sew some 'lounging around the house trousers'...but I had to have immediate gratification...so I made a row of little 'pull along' ducks. Sadly they did not pull along as they need to be more 3D so I need to work on this design (the basic design was from a book, the name of which I do not have to hand). I packaged them up as gifts and put in a few quilting pins to indicate the use as a pin cushion.
Suddenly there seems to be lots of babies and lots of little gifts needing to be made, and just at the right time my Amazon order arrived and in it was the book 'Simple Gifts to Sew'. Now I have a lot of craft books as most of us do, some are just pretty, some are useful and some are better left in the shop, this book however really caught my imagination, well actually you do not need an imagination except to take the designs a little further to make them more personal. It is clear easy projects, slightly different from the usual pillows and embroidered tea towel, not that there is anything wrong with this, and I have most of the materials already in my sewing room. SO with a free afternoon (very unusual for me) I immediately dipped into my stash...a few hours later many little gifts had been made...my kind of crafting, a little relief from the hours of quilting I have done this summer.
So once the gifts are made I can not wait to get them packaged up and given out. Later in the afternoon I did the dreaded weekly food shop, browsing down the reduced section of all the school stationary and school bags which are now all half price...I came across these little magnets for pence...(34p) Now I like magnets and I get mine usually from a children's resource centre, not cheap either, worth it though as the children make great things with them. SO when I saw these I picked up a few packs, great little stocking fillers (Did I really refer to Christmas then)? All I need to do is remove the magnet itself. Having read through the whole previously mentioned book I really liked the project for fridge magnets for little hands, we use the word magnets on the radiators, obviously when they are not hot! due to the fact that the fridge is set in a cupboard. I have so many piles of oilcloth, as I change our table cloth over every few months, its a big old pine kitchen table, bought from a reclaimer's yard in Oxford, despite lots of cleaning it has lots of groves and ridges from time and use so the oilcloth is a great cover up. I keep them all, but every time I come to redo the table I want something new so I now have a useful project to try out whilst being very environmentally friendly as my older child says 'Mom you have to reuse and recycle'.

With the many changes taking place here at the moment along with it has come some free time. It has been put to great use, for the first time in sooo long I went out for a meal in the evening to a lovely restaurant without the children, if you do not have babes it may sounds silly, those with will know what I mean. I got to wear a silk dress, not something you can do with sticky handed children, shoes that do not need to be flat to enable me to chase after little people, in fact I actually felt quite grown up. To also have some free time in the day, OK I have a house to put back together after its been torn to shreds by numerous children over many years. But I did get time to sew, to read a magazine, to shower without someone wanting me to read to them... Have I convinced you that I am not missing the kids...maybe I am just trying to convince myself!!!
...I miss them with a passion...

Are you really still reading my witter...I thank you:-)