Why do you blog?

Why do you blog. Recent events have made me ask myself this question. I started reading blogs a number of years ago. I wanted to join in but being insecure and worrying about my dyslexia I believed I couldn't do it. I had a cancer scare, I carried it on my own, I watched three people pass away from this illness and I started to think about my own children, how would they would remember me and all we did together. Soon the urge to join in and feel like I belonged someplace overtook my insecurities and before I knew it I was blogging. Recording all the nice bits in my life, happy times with my children, what we did, a record of our holidays and quality times. Like most of us in blogland we keep away from the rubbish in our lives choosing to record only the positive. I had a place to store my pictures which improved my skills. I became more focused on my creative side and found that people would commission work, I was asked to write for two local magazines. A lot has come out of my blog.

Friendship.

An invaluable record of my time with my children that they are able to look at and enjoy.

Work, commissions and photos sold as art.

General focus in my life.

Keeping in touch with friends and Godparents

Yes indeed its been a fabulous place for me. Yes I know my dyslexic meanderings can be a bit tiresome. I have even received emails pointing me in the direction of correctness. I force no one to read my blog, the choice is yours. Mainly I do it for my children.

Sadly I am forced to end this happy relationship as I watch my blog be used as a tool of manipulation. At present it is not the safe place for me and my boys that it was.

I am still here, I am still in blogland and I hope very much to return soon.

Thank you for all your support, each and every comment, the friendship and creative spirit here is wonderful, if I have inspired just one person I am happy.

Take care my friends, make play, friends and family a focus in your lives and craft on.

Atishoo...atishoo...sorry a bit snuffly here. I guess that's why a few days of none blogging has just slipped me by. Shhhhhhh don't tell anyone but I quite like being a little off colour. Shhhhhhh!!!! No seriously, obviously I dislike being ill immensely, but when I am still with it but just need to cosy up with hot drinks, vitamin c and a some paracetamol. Well the excuse to stay indoors and not do housework, well it sits well with my creative spirit...Before the 'snots' got a big hold of me I had my day at the crochet work shop with the lovely Sarah (From Rowan). This lady has the patience of a saint and before you knew it a table of learners (after munching into muffins and warming endless cups of coffee) sat with smiles on their faces, well actually a few with tongues poking out of their mouth in pure concentration, all happily hooking away. Yes a fabulous day, and yes I feel able to say that one of my New Years Resolutions to learn to crochet properly can now be ticked off.
So with a poorly house hold I found myself a little corner, put my feet up, put on radio 4, and clicked away for a good few hours.
With the snow starting to melt and the pools of water collating all over the place I am wearing my winter woollies less, but my hat (made last February) has been worn most days on the school walk. So good for bad hair days. When I spotted a lush colour of the same yarn I popped it in my shopping bag and rushed it home to start the process off again, who knows maybe next winter this might be my most worn winter hat!!!
When my babes had been safely ensconced into school I still had the excuse of feeling poorly which again gave me the excuse to venture into my sewing room rather than deal with the mounting laundry. Easy projects though, not complicated as I didn't want to hurt my head. Ermmmmm, that would be cushions then...
Two new cushions for my child's bedroom and a big sloppy cushion for sitting up in bed at night reading or maybe a little knitting.
Now what else is an easy project but with a little more bite to it, Oh yes a couple of PJ bags for my boys. Don't you just hate the way that in the evening you can not find your children's PJs or the book/comic they are reading? Or is this just my babes? Anyway a couple of simple bags that can be slung over the bedsteads and keep their bedtime stuff together in one place, I hope, seemed like a good thing to me.
Not a very flowing post this... in fact I am all over the place, but that's how my passed week has been. A little bit of this and a little bit of that...On the 'little' front my youngest has been asking me for a weeks now to make his bedtime bunny some clothes, I confess, I did not jump to the request...untill...he said he wanted the bunny dressed in girls clothes because she is a pretty girlie bunny.
So as a mother of two boys, blue, green, red and at a push a little pinch of apricot is about as colourful as they get. So to play about with pink...BLISS!!! Maybe I went a little too far, this is for the little boy who thinks he is Indiana Jones.
NO, if your going to do something you must do it as you think is right, What could be more girlie than a ballerina. Out with the tulle and the pretties of my ribbons, beautiful pink yarn...
One little white bunny transformed into a pretty ballerina. Bunny was received with delight, oh but she now sits by his bed. On asking why bunny doesn't get a cuddle anymore, "oh she is much too pretty for that now Mommy." You win some you lose some I guess....

Work in progress...

So things are getting done around here, quietly and almost organically. Slowly, slowly throughout the day the sewing and knitting and even a little bit of hooking are creeping into all the areas of my day, just a few minutes here and there. Instead of rushing around and worrying about things I have no control over, that time is being replaced by something constructive, tactile and most of all calming... the joy of making things...
The winter warmer jacket is on its way and I am loving the colour of the yarn, its a nice easy knit and quick too. As I sit for a few minutes amongst the chaos of toys and laundry waiting to be done, I cross my legs and knit a couple of rows...
When the chores are done and the children are snuggled up fast asleep at the end of their day, I creep happily into my sewing room with a tray of tea and play...
Felt and buttons, just small happy little object of fun and colour, to chase away the winter blues...
The quilt has now been quilted (folded to show back and front). I whizzed through this in a few hours, methodical and almost hypnotic, straight quilted lines in opposite direction of the jelly roll quilt fabric. Creative Mom Podcast on the ipod to keep me company, how I love this women's voice and her choice of music always sits well with me. If you have not listened to here before I really recommend you do. Little sound bites from here children is a lovely personal touch and remind me of my own two boys.
So today is housework day, laundry, changing the sheets and generally putting stuff in its rightful place...Later this afternoon before the school run, its an hour in the kitchen making another batch of cakes, I have my eye on a banana, chocolate and crystallised ginger cake recipe I would like to try. I even bought old bananas (35p for 10) at the supermarket as bananas don't sit around much in this house, so to make banana cakes sounds like a good idea to me...it also means a chance to warm up in the kitchen, trying not to put the heating on in the day but its sooooooooooo chilly just now.

I love the time when the children come home from school, its a precious time that if you blink its gone, a few minutes when my little family sit around the kitchen table, with milk and cookies or some other homemade treat to keep the babes (and me) going till supper time. Its the time to chat about the day and plan the evening before they rush off to play.

Have a great day what ever you are up to.

Housebound

Still housebound here, I actually managed to get the car out, only to drive up the road and nearly miss a car swerve into the side of me. So the car has remained a good walk away from the house (I live on a hill and there are no cars driving down my road). I managed a food shop, so the fridge is full and stocked up on cake making goodness and of course extra Hot Chocolate and marshmallows. Keeping me warm in my sewing is is my quilt work, nothing like managing a big quilt to keep the legs warm whilst in my sewing room, its so chilly that it shows your breath as 'dragons breath' as it escapes your warm body into the cold air. I am hunkering down in the kitchen most of the time. My kitchen is a haven of warmth and love, it really is the heart of this family home. Its big enough to hold a big old pine table with a miss match of chairs around it, I religiously change the oil cloth cover monthly, this makes me happy. It has a small sofa in the corner that the children cuddle up on with cushions and quilts to keep them toasty. The floor is big enough for a train track to be laid out on and of course the kitchens the place all the food is prepared...
So my pile of books (see last post) sit on my kitchen table, and slowly I am devouring each book. It would only be right that I sit down with a cup of something warming and some sweet treat to help me in my reading.
Over the last few days I have made various cakes and cookies from the Hummingbird bakery cook book has each one has turned out fabulous and scrumptious...
My favourite so far being the marshmallow cup cakes... delightful
So the view from my kitchen window is still rather white, its so cold here and many layers are needed to keep warm, last night while I sat by the fire, I pulled out from my wool stash the biggest chunkiest yarn I could find and started on a winter warmer jacket on HUGE needles.

I have a big treat next week, I am going on a crochet work shop, now I have been doing a little crochet myself, all self taught, but I fear what I call a treble stitch is not actually what it is, so I thought it would be an excellent way to meet up with some fellow yarn type people after days, no weeks, of not really seeing anyone, and an opportunity to learn a new skill, but the best bit is to spend the Christmas money that is burning a little hole in my pocket with the promise I made to the giver to only spend it on something for myself.

Right time for a cup of tea to warm my fingers up and put the oven on and pull out my knitting, Oh how I love lazy Sundays, by far the best day of the week.

and it just kept snowing...

Happy New Year.Sad farewell to all the Christmas magic and the sparkling lights...
all boxed away nice and safe...
and yet it just keeps snowing...
So what a better way to accept the cold than to curl up with masses of BOOK inspiration (Thank you Santa, I must have been a very good girl last year)...
with bundles of fabric and lots of other sewing goodness, you will find me in front of my fire, mug of hot Chocolate (and maybe a nip of Brandy in there at bedtime) drooling over my books with a head full of the years sewing plans...

I would like to wish you a creative New Year.