Bag it all up...

Ah the sewing has begun... my sewing machine and I are back to working as a team. As a knitter and a sewer it always amazes me that sewing comes together so quickly... Once you know what your doing and the pieces are all cut your only a short while from having a finished project. After seven weeks of being away from my machine this was the perfect project to get me back into sewing...My bag for autumn. Predominantly brown but with some traces of green too. It is rather loosely based on the Amy Butler Swing bag, the one with the big floppy bow... as I am not one who likes rules and following direction I made some changes... first I made an Ipod pocket with a little removable loop to hold my ear plugs so they do not get all twisted and knotted together (very annoying)...
Then instead of the big floppy bow I added interest with a few corsages (courtesy of wise crafts tutorial) which gives me the option to remove one or two to add to a cardigan or jacket.
I am pleased with the general look and style of the bag, its big and roomy for all my 'Stuff' so I think this will carry me through the change of the seasons quite well.
The weekend got off to a poor start and has left me feeling like a cloud is following me, my motivation is slipping and trying to focus on day to day activity is getting increasingly harder. The first thing that goes with me when I am upset is my ability to sleep which is the last thing needed in being able to handle the current situation. What has coursed this BLIP? Well the time of year never helps, the children go back to school and I miss them so much, the change in the weather knocks me for six... this time though its more than that... My own Mom has fallen out with me. I try to keep personal stuff like this off my blog but I guess as my family do not read my blog, means that I will not be hurting any ones feelings. Since my kids came along I have a need to be around my family, we moved to be closer to my family. This proved to work the opposite way, my Mom and Dad had got used to us not being around so we actually saw less of them once we became within an hours drive away. Over the last few summers I have made requests for the children to be more of a focus to my parents. Sadly this never happened and whilst I know they love my kids very much it still hurts me immensely. So I do the best I can and this year we spent most of our time away, I asked my Mom if we could all stay over sometime but the invite never materialised. So when I get a call on Friday and I was asked by my Mom what I was doing this weekend? I told her rather excitedly that I was going to my sewing class... well I was shouted at for being self centered and generally not a very nice person, I remained calm, I pointed out that I had made various requested to see her and invited her to stay with us at our caravan, all of which got met with hostility and eventually the phone was put down on me. I am at a loss now, I feel sad, nothing I will do or say will be right, I know I need to swallow my pride and agree with all my Mom says about me and go and visit her with the children. I am also cross I let it upset me so much, my eyes are still sore from tears and I feel like a lead balloon moving through my day... I love my Mom very much and I find it hard to accept that she can be like this with me. I know I have faults too, we are so very different, but I still feel like a thirteen year old clumsy girl who gets it wrong all the time yet still constantly tries to seek her approval. OK enough personal stuff! This was to explain my glumness... I tried hard to have a good weekend, my sewing class was great and helped to lift me a little. On Sunday I took the boys into the city, first stop had to be Starbucks for my enormous mug of coffee and sugar fix.

Later an early supper (as we had got to the city rather late in the day) its a routine to us, our city trips. I like the security and comfort of a routine when I head to the city, I aways was a country girl at heart. So we headed off for our pizza, dough balls and of course a little bit of pasta...you can't go to an Italian restaurant without having a little morsel of pasta...
After this pudding was consumer (with speed) so with our energy tanks now filled to overflowing, we went to explore...
We walked through the city spending most of our time looking up... I tell the children to always look up when out and about as most of the interesting things to see are above you. We visited an art gallery which had an excellent interactive show on and I was rather taken with this simple mirror arrangement...what could be more scary than hundreds of 'Suzie Sews'? We returned home, overtired and in need of our beds...

Your still reading...I thank you, like I say I try not to put 'too' personal information in my blog, it is my happy place after all, sometimes though, life just gets in the way and its about who I am... it has a big effect on my creativity... I thank you for still being there...

Beating the post holiday blues...

In the summer holidays I posted about getting a little twitchy about being away from my sewing machine.  My solution to this was to keep a sketch book and as ideas came to me instead of them being lost in a compartment of my brain I would actually draw them out.  This meant that when the post holiday blues kicked in I had no excuse to not be inspired...SO that is exactly what I did and on a wet afternoon I flicked through my pages of drawings and scribbles and this one in particular caught my eye...
In the summer holidays I had bought the children some lovely new drawing ink pens as their ability now deserves the good equipment, I sat at the table with them and we all had a go at playing with the inks, as the children drew Pokemon and cars and stick figures self portraits, I felt the need to do something more purposeful.  I love embroidery in fact my Art exams consisted of a  lot of it, I have always drawn out little patterns and then stitched the pictures, I might not be very precise but this is the style I use, just do not look at the back of the work! 
So with a silent house I sat and as the blog suggests 'Suzie Sewed'.  I used a linen napkin as my fabric , its actually a delicate pink shade, I am not sure yet of its future, it might get made in to a cushion or added into a quilt.  Once finished I again flicked through my sketch book and this page made me smile, as most of us do, I like owls and I am very lucky to be an owner of owls from Small Fox and Lucy Kate Crafts.  I had a little play and had drawn out some owls to see how it gelled with me.  (One of the owls is inspired from a plate design).
Mmmm what to do with them now? That is the question, I fear these might just be left as sketches in my book.  
Corner of my home

Oh how I miss all those pictures of Corners of my Home, when I first started blogging there was a routine to posting...Self Portrait Tuesday, WIP Friday and Corners of my Home...as time has gone by this has trailed off and most people who blog enjoy the more freestyle way of writing.  I miss this, it was a way to learn more about the person behind the blog.  As a nosey person who loves looking in houses and flicking through the endless stacks of magazine and House books just to see how a house interior is designed... well, Corners of my home is missed here.  So this morning I wondered around the house once I had picked up the children PJs off the floor and put away the toys the boys get out before they head off to school... with camera in hand looking for a shot... My photo wall came to mind.  I miss my photo wall when I am away, its full of photos that spark off special memories, from friends far a field, the birth of my babes and celebrations .  So I took a few snaps it was only when I uploaded the photos to my laptop that  what struck me was the dust... I am not a houseproud person, to much living goes on here for that, however all I saw was the dust... so guess what I am off to do...

Three cheers for the weekend, I have reacquainted myself with my machine, the bag is finished I just want to make a few little accessories to go with it, tomorrow I am off my patchwork course and Sunday is a family day...I wish you a great weekend.

cup cakes anyone????

The house is so silent, its also a huge mess after the summer, its kind of creepy,I miss the endless shouts of Mom can you, Mom will you...I roam from room to room with an ache inside I can not describe.  The post holiday blues are well and truly kicking in, it happens every year.
I have a head full of ideas and a sketch book of drawings filled with ideas of things I want to try, yet here I am feeling lost... I need to get a grip,  I WILL sew today, Oh My! it will be the first time in six weeks I have sewn on my machine!
I spent most of my creative time knitting, its easier to fit in around the children, you can pick it up and put it down quite easily, especially the cupcakes, I think I can make these in my sleep now, these are the latest batch, a few more changes, I am not so sure about the decoration...it well, looks a bit like... Oh I shall leave that up to your imagination.
SO already I am missing the beach, sitting on a deserted beach when everyone has gone home and just looking out to the splendor of the sea, the sheer size and power of it thrill and scare me at the same time, last weekend I watched two lone surfers in wild waves, the sky was grey and the rain was the kind of see through rain that without you knowing it soaks you to the skin, the surfers battled against the elements for a few moments of triumph when they finally caught a good wave...thrilling to watch.
So whilst it rains, and rains... all the more reason t0 spend some time in my sewing room today, I have a bag I am putting together...a bag that marks the change of the seasons, its roomy in design and will suit my life style and once made it will no doubt be filled with the usual bits of Mothering nonsense that seem to collate in each bag I own, a couple of toy cars, little pencils and a pad, wet wipes and tissues and the lipstick that loses its top and get covered in crumbs despite having no crumbs in my bag???...I love being a MOM!!!

Personal...(off topic)

Thank you so much for your comments and personal emails yesterday about my hospital appointment...The appointment went well.   I had minor surgery... what can I say, maybe you can learn from my error... As a child I remember my Mom always telling me to get my face out of a book and get some sun on it, a tan was healthy and the knowledge we have about the sun today was not widely known to my parents generation, so I burnt and burnt yearly as a child under the suns rays, then as a teenager sunbed salons became the thing to do, so I followed the trend and spent a good few years using sunbeds, I burnt once under these rays so bad I blistered... Then I went to work in Europe and spent most of my time outdoors using factor 4 suncream, which then, was thought of as quite a high factor as various people still used coconut oil.  I am fair skin, blue eyes, I freckle, my skin is covered in little moles, which might sound unattractive but I kind of like them.  So I am a big girl now and I have the knowledge about the dangers of the sun my parents generation did not have... my boys are smeared in suncream and its reapplied every few hours, we avoid the mid day sun and I try and keep hats on them, as for me I use sun protection all year round, I have sun damaged skin and I want to stop it getting worse, factor thirty+ for me, I go and have my skin checked yearly after I had a skin scare.  So this year was no exception, only this year I did not get the all clear... so I sit here a little less of me than when I last blogged... Ouch it feels like bee stings...and really does not look pretty, its a preventative option and I am blessed I have that option... But if I knew then what I know now, I would not allow my skin to burn, I never even went brown...  Now I use a high factor suncream and apply it regularly I get the healthy look, but the damage is done for me, maybe not for you though...

Time for some sewing....

Days of Summer...

Oh those endless days of summer, what can I say, we had a perfect summer... the days seemed to go on forever and despite a lot of grey sky and a considerable amount of rain the memories of the summer are filled with days at the beach, the sun warming our cheeks as we played in the surf, cleaning off smeared ice cream from rosy faced babes and washing out endless swimsuits and towels... just bliss... so indulge me if you will...  a few memories of my time with my children when no attention to the time, no need to be anyplace or do anything that we do not want to be or do...I love this picture, we are a bit of a 'Croc family', we all have a pair and have had for a few years now...  the perfect summer beach shoe, when my youngest one got ready for school today he complained at having to wear socks after so many days without having to bother. After my realisation that I had a bit of a thing for photographs of daisies (see previous posts) this seemed the perfect adornment for my shoe.

We spent most of our time away, either camping in the camper van, staying in cottages or our caravan by the sea.  So we got a lot of time on the beach, the beach draws me, it has a calming almost hypnotic effect on me, I have always felt this, my best memories as a child myself involved the annual two weeks trip to a beach resort.  Even when I was pregnant with my children I spent hours in water either at the swimmingpool or in the bath, in both of my labours I enjoyed the deep warm water and soothing effects of birthing pools, my second child was also a waterbaby... you know when you throw them in the water just weeks old  and watch them swim...
I can not imagine going to the beach and NOT wanting to experience the sensation of the sand between your toes or when you absentmindedly run the sand through your fingers as the grains pass through like an hourglass timer...
As for the other important thing in life...FOOD!!!  We eat in some great places, again mostly by water, we had more picnics than I can remember and quite a few bacon butties in seaside cafes when the rain came down...
Of course we took to the water in other ways, a few little boat trips to take us to exciting places to discover and fill our need for adventure...
But when your little the biggest adventure is camping...as the summer drew to an end the night sky came in earlier the children stayed up to star gaze...
With all this activity the children slept like angels ( my children do not usually) so when we spent time in the camper van my wee one would curl up in his nest and whilst he dreamt the evening away this Mommy would get on with some much needed creative time...
Lots of knitting, a little hand sewing whilst listening to some of my favourite podcast.  Now the camper van is small and it is hard to keep it tidy so as you can see a lot of multitasking goes on...
Every night whilst camping in the woods we had a little woodland creature come to visit us, I think it was the remains of the peanut butter sandwiches that enticed him out in the evening, each night I would sit there and hear a little snuffling and then right at my feet this handsome fellow would appear...
The lazy morning followed the pattern of  the lazy evenings.  Whilst I relaxed with my cuppa and a little alfresco knitting the children would run about the trees and come and show me who had the best twig, stick and even branch...
We headed off to Cornwall for our yearly family camping trip (the children's Dad came to) on the way we called into see a special friend and her family, they were moving that week and we turned up right in the middle of the madness, boxes all over the place and total chaos, now you know you have a true friend when, despite all this, they welcome you, they top up your flask of coffee for the second part of the journey and they even share with you some wonderful homemade Chocolate Brownies...yum! The children had a great time playing together as if the months of not seeing each other had been a matter of days and it gave my babes a welcome break from sitting in the van for hours...

A visit to Cornwall would not be complete without a trip to Eden, we have been every year since it has opened and it is great fun, each year they manage to come up with something new to engage the children's interest and imagination, this year was no exception with a den building challenge....
... they provided everything you could need to make a den and just left you to it... we especially enjoyed a demonstration of making fire, this really caught my older ones interest and he has tried rubbing two sticks together to get a spark... sadly (or maybe thankfully) to no avail...
If you asked me what creative activity summed up the summer for me, it would have to be my new addiction to sock knitting, especially on the beach, its portable, easy to pick up and put down...
and it has some fine results...
So as the summer season draws to a close and this weekend I saw the first real signs of Autumn, the leaves on the ground and the chill in the air, well I smile, the last year for us has had some ups and down, but this summer was special, a time of fun, laughter and being carefree...its back to it now though, already the calender is filling up with commitments and appointments, I have a little hospital visit that I am rather nervous of tomorrow, so I will hold on to these special times...I hope your summer memories are as rich and as wonderful as ours....

Edited to add...as most of the pictures are beach orientated...I have used my point and shoot camera so the quality is not as good as my much adored Nikon SLR...I apologise for the quality.

The winner is....

The winner is French Knots.   I am so thankful for all the lovely comments and I wish I could knit quick enough to send you all a calorie free cupcake, instead I want to thank you for actually taking time out of your day and leaving such lovely comments.  I indeed had a wonderful summer and your good wishes made it perfect...I thank you!So we returned last night at 9.00pm and the children went to their beds very sleepy and slightly grubby...I then ran around like a mad women getting all their school stuff ready and unloading the bags from our time away.  This morning we had tears (mostly from me) as the little ones went off to school after our seven weeks of 'full on' time together...  we spent most of it by the beach and despite lots of rain we still managed to get a swim in most days either in the sea or the pool...our last week took us to the end of Britain for a camping trip, we had a lovely little spot in the woods and the kids really got back down to basics just playing with sticks and helping Mom cook beans on the fire ( a windy night for sure). So I am home and sadness fills my heart as I can clearly see the changes in the season... the leaves are dropping and there is a chill in the air...

I HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF CATCHING UP TO DO THEN ITS ON WITH THE SEWING AND KNITTING...Oh my and sorting through all those summer photographs...

Summer giveaway...

As promised..the summertime giveaway, you know what to do...leave a comment on this post and you will be in the draw...(knitted cup cake, hair clip and gingham button pegs)...How can that be...only two weeks left of the summer holidays...well I plan to make the most of every moment with my guys..so I will be off line and as soon as I return I will pick the winner...
So its been a holiday made up of special moments with special people...we have been away a lot, as much BEACH TIME as we can manage and a few days out to various places.  Eating outdoors has been a major part of our holiday time with picnics and BBQs...you just can't beat eating outdoors, especially with children, less mess to clear up and they eat so much more and food they would not normally eat...
Water is a big feature of our time out and about, from the wild sea to the calmness of the canals...
and why does Hot Chocolate always taste so good when your all sandy and curled up after a chilly dip in the sea?
For some reason when I look at my summer photos there are so many pictures of daisy's, I think they sum up our time together, simple, sweet and a wonderful symbol of summer time fun...

Summer has been all about knitting socks...addictive!  Lots of plans for new sewing designs and makes are all ready to be put in to action come September but, for now I am enjoying as much 'play time" with my children...We have a cool camping trip planned, to spend a week body boarding...the camper van needs a good clean out as we have not made the use of her this season, we have new body boards so there is no stopping us...unless it rains...Ahhhh camping in the rain!!!

Thank you so much for the thoughtful comments made on my last post, what can I say...you guys are the best!

Wishing you a healthy and happy couple of weeks and may you be blessed with good weather...

Thinking out loud

Thinking out loud...yes, there has been a lot of this of late...what am I doing, what direction do I want to go in, what do I want to achieve??? I have spent my whole life trying to live out someones else's dream, to be the person they want me to be, well I am a big girl now and its time to take responsibility...MY WAY!!!The holidays are going so well, I am seeing very little of anyone its just the children and I, we are having a fab time, lots of lazy morning and walks along wild windy beaches with a fabulous day in the sunshine thrown in every so often...once the babes are in bed, a glass of wine waiting and the needles clicking nicely in my hands...well I have been thinking. With no Internet and no phone line for most of the time whilst I am away at the beach I have really been thinking about the direction I am going, especially when it comes to my blog, sewing and knitting.

May be its just me but, blogging seems to be more of a marketing tool now, a platform to self promote, to sell your creative work or if your really lucky may be even write a book.  This is an amazing community we are all involved in and I think we are all different and that is the very thing that makes it work so well.  So why do I feel intimidated?  I do not promote my stuff, sure I get a few great orders from my blog, which helps support the fibre and fabric addiction, but I blog to simply keep a record, a place to store my pictures in a more creative way than just in a computer file, a place I connect to other people and stop feeling so isolated because I have this NEED to make things.  There is no chance of a book deal coming my way...some of my own close friends will not read my blog due to my dyslexic meanderings.  I read (or listened to) an interview a while ago with a rather well known blogger who said if she thought other Moms felt they did not live up to the expectation of motherhood and all the crafting it would be upsetting and not what she intended.  So what direction am I going in? Do I let all this stuff fuddle up my brain? Do I stop blogging all together? Do I make a plan...my creative endeavours do seem to have a market so do I open a shop?   May be this is all part of the journey, may be you have been through this thought process...I am working on a few 'NEW' ideas including some drawing and I have even been approached about an  exhibition of my photo's and some crafting for an arts festival...but my mothering is the most important thing to me at the moment and with the children at home it seems wrong to go take my attentions away from them...after all they will not be little poppets for ever, being with my children is what sets me free from todays world to be creative, its not for everyone BUT it is for me! SO the thinking cap remains ON and as it seems to be summer vacation time in blogland I intend to use this time to find my direction which still might remain to just carry on as I am doing...who knows?

Still reading, you deserve a medal and my personal thanks for your loyalty...

 
So on to something a little less serious...The crafting is taking the form of mostly knitting, its the most portable, lots of small things, a shrug, socks (half way through my next pair...funky colours), a scarf that sort of thing, not to mention more of those cup cakes, I am struggling to keep up with demand for these...I can take it no longer...I have to sew...so on my next little break with my kids the sewing machine is coming with me and I might just work on a few patterns I have in mind...

Edited to add...

Please note that in no way is this post about upsetting anyone, we are all different doing our own thing... 

So I feel the need for a summer giveaway...this will be  on my next post...  

Summer sun... long may it last...

The summer holidays are about half way through now, I am enjoying every minute of it and for the first time in ages I feel relaxed and happy and my creative vibe is well and truly in full flow...
OK, I might not have the time to actually make all the crafty goodness but the ideas are fully formed and I just need some time to put them in to being.  Once the summer holiday is over the post holidays blues will kick in, so this is when I will get my ideas and sketch books out and start the 'MAKING'...So its back to full on Mommy mode, the buckets and spades are packed, the picnic is coming together, the wine is cooling in the fridge and we are off for a couple of days by the beach...off to pack the knitting bag, will I take more sock yarn or something a little more substantial? 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Today we are loving: The Charlie and Lola craft magazine... all the cutting out, gluing and sticking, stickers and stories...

I am enjoying reading a 'new to me' blog the Simple Mom blog, I love the way this blog gets me thinking about the way I mother and how I do things...this can only be a good thing.

Circles in the sand...

So our weekend was a little more than a couple of days, we had so much fun we thought we would stretch it out a little...
 This visit to the beach was yet another success, we had a couple of days of great weather and a couple of days of rain...as you would expect with our British summer.  Lots of playing got done, both by this Mommy and the children...The silk socks got finished... 
...and the boys spent lots of time rolling around in the open air...
A small amount of sewing has been accomplished, I am so missing my sewing time, I know however once the summer is over I will be back to it so I comfort myself with a small projects just to keep that addiction fed! So another block for my latest quilt is complete...

The weather was set to change so we thought we would head home, we spent the morning on the beach and then hit the road...

As I drove the rain came down and what should have been a couple of hours in the car went on to be nearly five hours, driving through torrential rain and at one stage I was unable to see the markings on the road...scary...I arrived home and went straight out to my knitting night...It was good to be back home and  immediately slipping back  into the the rhythm of home life...when I returned, I popped a pizza in the oven and caught a glimpse of myself in the oven (we have a mirrored oven) due to the stressful drive I had huge panda eyes, as I had rubbed my eyes whilst driving to try and relieve the stress of all the concentration needed to NOT crash the car...I ran in and then out again and had not looked at myself...So I should now rename the blog...PANDA SEWS, KNITS, CRAFTS AND MOTHERS!!!

Carry on being silly....

Yet more of the silly stuff...
The little cup cakes are just such a quick and fun project, very suitable for the school holidays when time to sew or knit is so limited...I am saving my better ones (knitted with 4ply on small needles) for sale, but a few of the first ones went missing and I later found them in my youngest child's play kitchen all ready to serve up with a pot of "pretend' tea...
Well if my Mom thought my cupcakes silly, goodness knows what she would think of my latest project...Last night after the babes had all drifted off to sleep, tired after a busy day playing, I spent a good hour putting the house back together as we had had a few friends over to play.  I poured myself a rewarding glass of chilled white wine, opened up the french windows and watched the night roll in over the hills whilst cutting up little bits of paper...to make my own little beach hut...you  know how much I love beach huts...now I have my own...only it did not stop there...I got a little carried away and made a whole beach full!  I got the idea from this months Craft Beautiful magazine, I am not really a big fan of this magazine, I feel it has got a little too run of the mill, but being the summer holidays and wanting fresh ideas to entertain the children I picked it up and I have a plan to make a few little things from it.  Talking of idea's if your looking for fun stuff to do with the kids get yourself over to The Crafty Crow, there are some great inspirational ideas, and if you have no kids, its still worth a look.

This week has been spent at home with the children, we have had lazy mornings, 'lie ins' with a pot of tea for Mommy and glasses of milk for the little ones, time to read a selection of books and magazines, and even make a cupcake or two, all before breakfast.  We have spent time with friends and had a few days splashing around in wetsuits getting very wet indeed...This weekend we are off to the beach again and we are hoping for the weather we had at the start of the holidays...I shall be taking my sock knitting with me and I am in the process of looking for a small hand sewing project to keep me busy.  I am so missing my time at my sewing machine, I keep wondering into my sewing room and picking up my fabric and longing to make things...
So may the sun shine on us and here's hoping for another weekend filled with memories that will keep us warm when the winter chills blow in....Have a good one...