Mommy...draw me a picture...

Once again this week has just flown by. Its been spent in a whirl of spring cleaning and creativity, Oh and lots of cups of tea and coffee sometimes with a fellow drinking companion to pass the hours away with...However I always try to have those hours free of work and company when the children come home from school...that's our time. In the spring cleaning I moved some furniture around in the living room (to accommodate my beautiful old singer machine), this involved putting the coffee table in the middle of the room and this has changed the whole dynamics of our early evening routine... Now usually the children have a chill out half hour with a glass of milk and a cookie, then they go and play and come into the kitchen whilst I make supper when they either play Lego or play dough, something like that...With the coffee table being a focal point, as soon as they come home they pull out their pens and paper and whilst slurping their milk and munching their cookies I am regularly called in to join them with a 'Mommy...can you draw me a picture' Having two children I have to draw two pictures then another two etc...you get the idea!!!
My two are really into the whole Pokemon scene, if you have been reading for a while you will remember the Pokemon summer we had...The children are really into designing their own Pokemon's and naming them (we also have our own Pokemon names). My older one has been asking me to draw some of the people and I have to admit I have pulled away from it, I love Manga and the whole design elements to it and I adore the simplicity of their drawings and how they really say so much without words...this has always scared me if I am honest, anything that looks this simplistic usually is not!!! Well after a drawing session of numerous NEW Pokemon I gave into their requests...I had ago...What do think? They are pretty easy actually and certainly once colour was introduced they came to life...
On to sewing as I am not really 'Suzie Draws'! I had my patchwork class last Saturday, I have not gone for the last couple of months so I was really looking forward to it, I had missed some great classes too so I am having to do a little homework to catch up. This week we worked on this strip piecing, useful for filling in areas of the quilt, its a clever way to add interest and I can see many possibilities of use and wild colour combinations. Although I have to say my favourite so far has been the origami folding fabric blocks...Still I am sure when its all put together it will look amazing (I hope so)! It was pointed out to me (politely) that my colours are very Austin Powers...Well Yer Man!!!
OK OK this picture has no association with making, I bought the summer top with the weekly groceries, but I adored the colours and the linen(you know I love linen) it was hung up on the door frame waited to be carried upstairs to its rightful place in my wardrobe and just behind it hung my babes fishing net with his wooden fish and fishing rod, what do you know...SNAP!!!

On to the creative time of late, well I have been doing mixed media work, from making a load of birthday cards (for my First Born's anti natal class babes to celebrate their ninth birthdays) to knitting like a mad woman, I just need to sew up my little ones jumper and I am half way through the front of a summer top for me, knitting in pink...YER!!! Sewing...lots of sewing, the quilt top is nearly finished from the vintage squares and I am working on the embroidery squares (pictures next week), I need to talk swaps with you too...

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The project of the moment is my 'critters in cups' I am knitting mice now so many that I have actually lost count and I have got it down to a fine art, I have changed the basic pattern beyond recognition from size to shape of these little fellows so I can almost make them without my pattern ( I started making these about a year ago and talked about them then) I have never really designed a pattern before, obviously I had a basic pattern to start with and with each mouse I made notes of my changes until it came to a time I had to completely redo the whole thing so it was ledgeable. So using up some of my stash and some very fine needles...the result is a home being over run by the little critters...I am thinking school/craft fair for these as I worry about packaging the china for postal sales, but its fun to match the mouse up with the tea cup...I have so many tea cups and now I have an excuse to buy some more.

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So another week is over, the fun bit of this week was I went along to a knitting group...scary but I am so pleased I went and I will be going back, not that much knitting got done...nice biscuits though!

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We have a sleep over weekend, so I am not planning too much, just taking it as it happens, maybe I need to buy some ear plugs!!!

I wish you a great weekend and catch up with you next week...