A season of great change...

I am trying so hard to remain positive and upbeat about all the changes going on around me. I am trying to have some sewing or knitting time each day just to keep me sane. First of all I can now report that I have accepted that summer is over, with great reluctance I must add. This might be down to the fact that our camper van needed to have the frost scraped of it the other morning and the next day I awoke to glorious sunshine, pulled on my shorts went outside to let the rabbit out and MAN!!! was it cold...The sun might have been shinning, but there was no strength to its rays. I eventually gave in and put on my wide legged linen trousers and a long sleeved top. Funny wearing clothes with legs and arms in them seems almost claustrophobic. I have spent some great mornings with my little one before he starts full time at school next Monday as he is still only (only she says) on half days. Everything we do seems bitter sweet, lots of this will be the last time!!!

Monday I went to my last National Childbirth Trust coffee mornings. I have been involved in this charity for over eight years and worked in many different roles. Both my children have been involved in the coffee mornings and the charity events...they really do have the T'shirts to prove it. Funny how something that was once so much a part of your life suddenly just stops and you move on to something else. My little one and I have spent time just relaxing, reading, baking, crafting and chatting. Did I mention thrifting yes we both love the little round of charity shops followed by a drink in our favourite tea shop to look at our prized goodies. Today he asked asked what I will do when he is at school...As you are aware (and possibly fed up with) I am not looking forward to it, I have been asked numerous times if am I going to get a job, or how am I going to fill the time, one kind person even suggested I needed a 'Project' to keep my mind off it all. Me a 'project' can you imagine...
Well yes I am going to find it very lonely without my little guys for company, I am sure I will also even miss the constant need for milk, loo trips, blowing noses etc... So with all this emotional stuff going on in my head I thought I would get a grip and take action...so finally I am making some 'House' plans. As time has gone on I have started to get more elaborate with my ideas and plans. The main one is sorting out my sewing room (studio or as it is really known as...the play room)! I have previously posted pictures of my sewing area, and been very open about the fact that it is actually the children's playroom, the above picture is the reality of what I look at when I am sewing, the 'other' half of the room. Well its going to get transformed, its taken a lot of thought as I potentially have three rooms I could make my sewing room, obviously the other rooms have a purpose and its a case of juggling it all around to work. So after the beginning on next week I shall allow the Monday to be tearful and generally sad at the silence in the house then it 'Action stations'...

I bid you a very good and healthy weekend and the next time I write my role in life will be shifted, but Oh! I have great plans...

WIP update...I am working on a few Craft Fair products at the moment, wishing jars and more knitted mice, the Dino knitted sweater is getting the odd row done every so often, lots of sewing for gifts including a toy for the tooth fairy to take those precious teeth over to fairy land...I will post more next week plus my giveaway, as promised...

PHOTOGRAPHS: 1)Thrifted cake stand with new cup cake candles2)dishes off my Mom, eventually she gave them to me rather then bin them Yippee!3)This weeks thrifted goodness, yes I know I could have done it myself, it was the thought someone had spent so long knitting it and finished off with great care I felt I had to give it a home that would really appreciate it4)The reality that it the Sewing and playing room!!!

Rainy days!!!

After a week of the most amazing sunshine the weekend arrived...and with it the rain, I awoke in the morning to grey skies and that all to familiar pitter patter on the window. Of course it was the weekend, I should have known. So the plan of a weekend away in the camper was put on hold...again, as I mentioned in my last post we had hoped for it to clear and head off later that day, sadly the rain kept on coming!!! To add to this my youngest had a rather nasty virus. He had a temperature and spent the day curled up on which ever sofa was close to the action. This meant I had some one to one time with my older child, so we got the paints out. Now I have quite a few kits for the children, I buy then when I see them, usually at a cut down price and then squirrel them away until either a rainy day or I discover them and have to use them straight away! Often these are the things I put in the holiday craft box when we go away together. This is one such kit. Painting stones, they are the glass stones used in paper crafts, I remember using them in the late 90s when they first came popular, plain glass, flat bottom curved top, which gives a great magnifying effect.
Between us we made quite a few, all the time we where serenaded by the gentle snoring from the little one curled up on the sofa next to the kitchen table, man did he look sweet!!! So what to do with these little stones, well this was our solution, we made little jewel boxes, We stuck them down with gloppy clear drying glue which oozed out of the side, then sprinkled on little tiny craft beads to add to the jewel effect. Yep I am still crunching these little beads under foot they are about the same size of fine sand!!! Not a great picture, sorry guys!
A very satisfying project with a great end result, I think this always encourages children to do more when they have a practical object at the end of their playing. Although I love nothing more that paper and paint for no other reason than the 'right now'

With my younger one poorly the older one went to bed and the I had a bath with the little one, who suddenly rolled his eyes and went floppy, I managed to get him out of the bath and on to the bed. He fell asleep, whilst slightly alarmed I did not worry. UNTILL...once he had fallen in to a deep sleep his breathing was very irregular, I moved away due to his temperature and his cute little hand brushed across the bare skin of my shoulder. It was stone cold!!! I started to feel that panic feeling which I tried to over come with logic, which worked for about fifteen minutes, then I felt the need to take action. His temperature was through the roof, his hands and toes so cold. I need to point out that I very rarely take my children to the doctor and in fact when my youngest was a new born I did not take him to have his weight checked etc and have no idea what centile line he was on...he was growing and happy..I trusted my maternal instincts I am a believer that today's world actually rocks a mother confidence (I would like to say that my child did have his six week , three month and hearing tests). So this was quite serious for me to worry.

NHS help line was called, I have been a bit cynical of this help line, well I need to take it all back, how lucky we are in this country to have the NHS, they are fantastic, very calming and very thorough. After a very worrying hour, with their advise he did come through his temperature, in fact I watched it go down, I even managed to get him to drink some water. Oh boy! he looked so sad and helpless, lying there, it was like having a little tiny baby again, so vulnerable and yet as I watched his little body was fighting like made to rid itself of this nasty virus. How are amazing our children are, in the morning he awoke and got out of bed, woke up his brother and started running around. We have so much to learn from our children. I am keeping alert as I am sure he will dip at some stage through the day, the medicine is near him, but he is off enjoying the day. As for me...well I am tied and frazzled, but the important thing is we are over the worse. So we might not have got our weekend away, funny how these things go, how frantic would it have been if we had gone away and he had been so poorly.

So on that note I am off to enjoy the day, the rain has stopped and the sun is peeping through the clouds...the garden is calling...

Photos...1) the work table 2)the finished stones 3)the end result 4)my current WIP 5)making me happy, two different charity shops in two days resulting in two matching goodies, I am so loving this mug:0)

Scary thought...the latest news about foot and mouth, it is such a worry, our British country side suffered so much last time in so many ways.

Back in the swing of things

Things are retuning to some normality after the much need break, I still have so much to share with you about my special week, watching my son painting a landscape, decorating cookies, some great photography by my babes, endless amounts of origami, we all enjoyed playing with paper this break. For now though I am still thinking Doll Quilt Swap, I have seen a few people post pictures of their quilts before they have sent them out so I thought I would show you the WIP...Here is the label I did on the new 'LOVE OF MY LIFE'... Here is the front of the quilt, I have tried to incorporate different techniques to keep the interest going for the the receiver. That's the first hand embroidery I have done in years, I mean years...since I was a child I think! The weather here is still raining and gloomy so all pictures need better light, if I waited for it though you might not see any pictures for ages.
So as I mentioned yesterday I was off to buy the binding and some thread, I went with a friend who at the time of leaving had to feed her little one so I called into a garage sale on the way to waste a little time. Oh joy! I am so glad I did, look at the yummy goodness I walked away with, and I have to confess this was not all of it! Just look at this lovely bowl set, its very kitch and very ME. I can not wait for the summer weather to be dipping into a bowl of strawberries or cherries or better still home made trifle, my Mom says it has to be made with sponge not jelly to be a real trifle!!! I especially like it if the sponge has been soaked in Madeira. This beautiful cake stand said 'BUY ME', but it weird as I am sure I have seen this before as if I have already owned it, very bizarre, but how sweet it is and even better as the glass cake stand I had got broken being washed up after the babes birthday party.
Of course I need another tea set, I really must show you my collection...I just can not help myself and whats a girl to do when it was only a pound. My tea sets used to be displayed on my kitchen window sill for me to enjoy looking at, I got asked once did I not have any cupboard space for them, I was devastated, I could not understand how people could not get the joy out of them like I do, it seemed odd. I was adamant it was not me in the wrong, BUT sadly the joy of looking at them diminished as worry took over that when people visited did they think me slightly mad. So they are now all stored in my glass fronted cupboard, I have to say the kitchen does look brighter and the the cupboard looks real 'eye candy' so once this lot has been scrubbed up and shiny it will join the others.
Garage sales are not big around here so when I saw this one I had to have a poke around, the ladies that ran it could not have been nicer to me and so happy to see my little babe, they even offered me a drink in their kitchen, sadly I had to decline as I had my shopping date at the thread n fabric store.

I took my little helper to his nursery today only to find it was the open day for the new intakes and we had to come home, I was delighted, so as soon as I have finished this and made the beds we are 'Baking Cookies' the apron is already on and I have a little person wanting my attention...

Colours of the Rainbow

Well today is so far a good day, I did right to just let go of trying to organise everything yesterday. I am still a bit worried about the amount of stuff that needs to come together this week, but allowing myself to just go with the flow has really helped. Only this morning I was asked to help with the nursery sports day tomorrow, one more thing to do, but you know that's just too cute an opportunity to miss out on.

So off went all my parcels, a couple of commissions , my two swaps (I am so excited about these) and a few EBAY payments for fabric and threads. So I should be getting some fab stuff in the post over the next week...Yippee This bag is just a glimpse of one of my swaps and until they get it I am not saying who its for, of course once they get it (and hoping they like it) I will link you to their blog, I read some pretty good blogs let me tell you. There is a story behind this Cath Kidston style bag, which if I have time later in the week I shall share with you. Still on busy mode so it will have to wait.
After school I took my boys to the local charity/thrifty shop. I do this as a means of not buying them sweets, they get to buy a toy for the price of a bar of Chocolate and I get to have a rummage and it supports a Hospice Charity, everyone is happy. Inspired by ArtsycraftyBabe's post about the pillowcases she picked up I looked in the box marked pillowcases. Yum! a pretty candy pink vintage Laura Ashley pillow case and two William Morris styled ones made out of a well washed linen fabric. Also two fabulous dresses for girls ages 6/7. The most amazing fabrics, rather colourful but a great find. I would love a little girl to dress them in. I actually thought about sending them to my little poppet in Australia, in fact my son wanted me to do this. On closer inspection after they had been washed a number of buttons are missing and one dress has a slight mark down one panel. The detail on them is amazing, if in excellent condition worn over a pair of leggings or jeans they would be so cool, alas I know in my heart that they are too fussy for my friend so I am going to take the ripper to them and use the fabric for all sorts of ideas, children aprons, lavender heats, little purses and as for the pockets they will just be cut off and stitched on to something else. Not bad for 35p each.
So yesterday I dared to show you a corner of my home, my very personal space...my bedroom. Today I thought it only right to show you the other bedside table, yep more books. I was not kidding when I said there are piles of books all over the place, she says looking down at three separate piles of books by the computer. I am a BOOK person and feel great comfort being surrounding by books.
A little Archie love coming your way, he is feeling a little sad today, he has so enjoyed being outside and playing around the children and me. Today its raining, the paddling pool has been emptied and no one is in the garden and I have left him in his little (well large) house, with the memories of sunny days. He loves being around people. June, Oh how I love June, its a Birthday month, the best month for birthdays, yes its my birthday month, Champagne and strawberries all the way. We seem to have had a lots this last two weeks, birthdays that is! So whilst the pens and pencils are out on the play table I thought I would do a bit of art work myself and by artwork I mean child friendly stuff...