My life, this day, today...

Here I go again...missing summer, I know its a bore!  One of the main things that I dislike about the return to routine is living my life by the clock.  My brother once laughed at me for being privileged because I do not need to wear a watch...now this is true, a little bit more involved though because I do not need to wear a watch because I am so acutely aware of the time.  The children test me, out of the blue they say 'What time is is Mommy?' and  8 out if 10 times I am right.  So we return to the routine of early mornings, which always start with a cuddle, then its rush rush rush...
Breakfast is the first big thing, its easier now as my oldest one helps, he puts out the dishes,the cereal and milk  As we eat we chat about our day, what is happening, things to do and places to be.  This morning we had a little free time so before I knew it the kitchen table was turned into a play area, each of us bringing something to the table that we wanted to do, my youngest is struggling with his words so when he picked up the letter land alphabet pack I was amazed and he and his brother played letter games, I sipped my tea and when the words all got too much we put Sam Sparro , Black and Gold, on the laptop and danced around the kitchen.  School uniform time next and then the mad trip to school, total chaos at the school gate with cars parked on double yellow lines and people driving far to fast dodging the children as the parents rush off late for work.  Its a small school in the centre of the village, yet the madness of this fifteen minutes is more fitting for a town supermarket carpark on a Friday afternoon.
So once again I open the door to my home, now on my own and the silence hits me...radio four is turned on and the house is tidied, beds made, toys put away and toilets flushed (if you have kids you will know what I mean by this).  I check into my sewing room to see the mess I left from my late night sewing time, not so bad and I look over my present sewing project...I am happy with how it is turning out.  Its a bag, more details to follow in another post. Sneaky peek time...
I am not really on my own, the animals keep me company and as they have not been on the blog for a while I took a couple of snaps...Archie the cutest bunny in the world (in my opinion) my HUGE french lop, he has the run of the garden and the kitchen, he does not go any further because his big feet want allow him... he slips on the wooden floor.  Plus this makes me quite happy as I do not want animal fur around the 'Suzie Sews household' as one member of the family has allergies.
... and it would not be fair to leave out the GPs, Charlie and Lola, these are the children's pets although they keep me company most of the day, every visit to the fridge they squeak in anticipation of a tasty treat...
I need to get my head around the housework, I HATE housework!  My soul mate is coming to visit, she is travelling now as we speak, she will be with us tomorrow as she is flying all the way from Australia.  This is me though, not doing the housework, instead I am putting the finishing touches to her present, on her last visit she liked a scarf I had on, it inspired her to make some for friends and family, I thought she would be far to busy making them for others to make one for herself...
...so it was my duty (because it was such a chore...NOT) to make her one just for her... she is quite tall, taller than I am but then I am small! So its a long skinny scarf with the option to wear it Dr Who style or layer it up and use the pin...
So that is my life, this day, today in the house, but what about outside, well the views are changing dramatically now, the hills are going from bright green to a pale sludge green and slouches of pinky purple colour as the heather goes into full bloom... The view from my back garden and bedroom...
The view from my front garden and sewing room...(These pictures, with the sunset, actually got taken on Saturday evening when I returned home from my sewing day...a nice welcome home).
So in a nut shell that's my morning, Now to be serious and concentrate on the housework, or maybe a little sewing or even knitting...NO! NO! I must clean....
I leave you with the parcel that is hopefully arriving on Miss French Knots doorstep today after she won the 'Suzie Sews Summer Giveaway' The lovely red and white butchers twine came from the lovely Donna at Country House Antique Textiles.

Have good day.

I just wanted to add, how touched I was at the thoughtful and very heartfelt comments about my situation with my Mom, my email account is down, I will get back to you in person soon, its always a little cold feeling when you do it over the blog.  The current situation is I sent her a beautiful card, not handmade as she views this as I can not be bothered to go to the shop to buy one, (sorry a little harsh from me there) with a few lines saying I was sorry, could I bring the children up next week for supper and did she want to come away with us for the weekend next month?  I am now checking the answer machine every hour and living with some anticipation to the outcome... sleep is still eluding me and I have a cold so still feeling a little glum about it all. 

Mommy's fab weekend!!!!

Wow, what a fab weekend. I was really looking forward to this weekend, filled with all the things I love. It started off with some family time on Friday evening and between myself and my boys lots of playing, making and dancing took place...you can't beat a family disco in the kitchen at the end of a busy week...we all had our cocktails...of course the boys drink was just pretend!!! On the Saturday I left the boys for a day out with their Daddy and I headed off to my patchwork class. Oh how I loved this session, I so wanted to have a go at folding fabric. I love origami so I thought this would be fun. Trust me it was...
Look at these little lotus flowers...they need to have their petals sewn down, although I like the look of them like this...Saturday evening after travelling through all the village's Christmas lights being switched on in the area on my way home, I got the children to bed and ordered in a curry, which went well with a nice glass (or two) of wine and a little hand sewing. An early night was needed as it was off to the Harrogate Knitting and stitching show. I was meant to be going with a couple of friends, sadly though this never happened, boy did they miss out it was GREAT!!!! I do think this is the best show as it does concentrate a lot on design. Plus Harrogate is such a lovely place and despite my reservation about big towns and cities...this place is a little special.
I headed straight for the stall that sells the Boden fabric so I could top up my decreasing Boden stash...As I went on a Sunday I did run the risk of things being sold out, this was way out weighed by the lack of crowds...yes you could actually walk around without being pushed or shoved and see the delights on offer. I worked the three large rooms one at a time so as not to miss anything, then started my purchasing....
This little lot is all the goodies I just felt like buying, some reduced wool to go with my crochet squares I am making on an ongoing project, some funky beads, a little wool dyeing kit, some minkie, a couple of patchwork patterns and a selection of kits to make up with the kids around the Christmas art table...with the idea to make some more for friends children. Christmas is all about 'making' in this house.
I did go for buttons, I love topping up my collection, a great Christmas vintage pack, a few buttons to go around my scarfs, a pin for my knitting pashmina and a selection of buttons for corsages. Sadly I had missed out on the lucky dip packs..usually £5.00 for a bag of buttons, last year I bought the boys one each just for them to play with and they gave hours of fun...not to mention Mommy picking up stray buttons until June!!!

I adored this bracelet, its very me, I am not really in to posh jewels, I like it to be fun so this was a great little find. I bought a few little extra charms as pressies for my friends.
The other good thing about this show is all the work on show, lots of new designers showing their work for the first time and of course some established ones, I could not comment on this without mentioning Julie Arkell (Treefall did a good review). Love her work or not you can not get away from the childlike dreaminess of it all...I think its cute and very clever although someone did say that they found it a little creepy, but is that not part of the design to get such reactions about your work? It really does stir up emotions.

I manged to get to one of the fashion shows, to busy shopping to see any more. I was lucky enough to get to the Rowan design show, some lovely pieces, although my next big knit is going to be a sublime vintage jacket...I fell in love with at the show and I even tried one on so I know its a good look on me, sadly the shop had sold out of the pattern, but I plan to make it my next BIG project. All in all the show was a great success for me, one I recommend, most of the shop assistants came across as very friendly despite it being their last day, the ones that were not...well I did not shop with them. I am a big customer services person, I think it is very important, without it you might as well do all your shopping on line and cut out the human contact all together and then where would be? I did not drag my boys around the show, they went off to a model show just up the road...both of them collapsed into bed at the end of the weekend. They do have their own rooms but they like to sleep in the room with bunk beds and more frequently I am finding them curled up in the same bed...how sweet.
A rather long post today, but I could not leave it without showing pictures of the rest of the family, once the house was quite the animals came out to play, the GPs had a bit of free time with some tasty treats and Archie the rabbit needed a little home comfort rest after his visit to the vets last week.
So all in all a FABULOUS weekend all round. Thanks for the lovely emails you have been sending me of late, I am still having a problem replying to blogger emails, they keep bouncing back into my spam file. I so hate not replying to comments and mail...I really appreciate your comments. Thanks again and I hope you had a great weekend...now its on with my Santa hat as its the run up to all things Christmassie from now on...