Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day!

My daughters combined their funds and Child #1 offered to go to Chester, after school on the bus, earlier this week to purchase gifts for me. I love it when they prove how independent they are, it makes me feel like I have managed to raise kids that will be able to fend for themselves in the big wide world someday rather than just depending on me or other family members/close friends for help all of the time.

So Child #1 has been saying how much she was looking forward to today ever since. She did text me on the day she went shopping to ask what I would like and I said some 'funky pens' so that I can use them every day and think of my them when I do.

She exceeded expectation completely....

I received pens - funky ones as requested - I love them. In addition she bought the owl pencil case to put them in, some little stickers to put on my chromebook (she and I both have the same model now and it can get confusing) and those fab socks! Child #3 made both the cards on left - one at school and one at home last week sometime.

My kids are great...FACT!

Yesterday I had a bit of cooking day. I bought a new cake book a couple of weeks ago so yesterday I made this...

This is a chocolate and orange marble cake. It delicious...most of it has now been eaten! 

I also made this...

Delux chocolate and prune refrigerator cake

This is from the Sarah Brown book which I must admit I need to put a bit more effort into really. Its not because I don't want to cook but more the lack of ingredients because I'm never organised enough to remember to buy them in advance.

Child #3 made some shortbread biscuits too. Not many, so hence they were all gone before I could photograph them but he is quite the little cook when I have the patience to help him.

Yesterday evening Child #3 was suffering from a really really bad cough which was made worse by him leaping around and hanging upside down on the sofa etc as he usually does. In an effort to keep him settled I suggested a jigsaw...

He does love a photo opportunity! This isn't just any jigsaw though. This is a jigsaw that I had as a child, I'm not sure what happened to the actual one I had but I found this one on Ebay a few years ago and couldn't resist it. Its a photo of a minature shop so lots of things are made out of everyday items. Like the 'soap' in the jar is actually pain relief tablets etc. Its good fun to do with the nest as you spot things like that as you do it. 

I cannot believe that it was snowing this morning either! Snow!! In mid March!! I so want spring to arrive. I thought it almost had last weekend when I snapped this picture of my living room window...

The sun was blazing through the window onto the rug (much to the delight of Oscar the cat...where there is sunshine, there is the cat). I went for a walk on Tuesday lunchtime and it gorgeous and sunny and warm. Today...it snowed. :-(

Well I shall get back to enjoying a very unspring-like mothers day and leave you to enjoy the rest of yours. Bye for now.

My son's new bed.

I think I have to admit that I am pretty impulsive when it comes to purchasing things no matter how big or expensive they are. Well...I am writing this from the front room at Vivod after all. Vivod was the most expensive impulsive decision I've ever made!

Last weekend I had planned on a rather dull weekend consisting mostly of work (lots and lots going on at the moment - all good but too boring to blog about!). And work I did, until about 3pm on saturday. I then decided that a trip to IKEA was needed. At this point it wasn't for anything specific. Having realised that this could result in a lot of money being spent on many 'nice but not really needed' items, I decided that I would just buy the bed I promised Child #3 last year sometime.

The bit of this story I am proud of is the fact that at this point I did actually make the effort to check the website for the size of the box and then measure the car to check it would fit. 

So at 4pm off I went. I was very self disciplined and only bought a few extra items. I did get my son some new drawers too as his were falling apart. I had one of those trolleys that you can stack high with flat pack boxes and then hang a bag with all the other random items over the handles. The bed was easy - huge but just in the one box (when I saw the size of it I was a little concerned about it fitting in the car and figured i may need to unpack the box in the car park - it wouldn't have been the first time!). Then I had to find the 16 (yes 16!!!) boxes that the 2 little chest of drawers were in. Needless to say that the trolley was now stacked quite high and I also had to push it whilst keeping one hand on the top to stop it all sliding off.

At the checkout the cashier explained that I can leave the trolley with the security man who will bring this out to me when I drive the car to the pickup point. Handy. I took the trolley over and he asked what car I drove...then, having eyed up the trolley, struggled to keep a straight face when I said 'Black Ford Fiesta'. He clearly doesn't understand the versatility of such a vehicle! ;-)

Anyway, with a bit of imagination and a slightly challenging drive home (with a box blocking the view almost completely to my left unless I lent forward) I arrived home at 6pm. Made a cuppa, ate half the bag of swedish crisps I'd bought (I had planned on something more nutritious for dinner) and began unpacking. Half an hour later and numerous trips up and down the stairs with random pieces of wood, it's fair to say I was completely knackered. I would have happily left it at that for the evening and gone downstairs to knit. However, this was state of Child #3's bedroom...

The hallway was covered in cardboard, the living room was covered in the 16 (!) boxes for the chests and the table was covered in everything else I had bought from IKEA. It was at this point I remembered that I had agreed to meet a friend the next day at 1pm for Lunch. So that meant I had 18 hours to sort all of this out, put everything together, take all the rubbish to the skips, tidy up, sleep for a minimum of 6 hours and be showered and ready for lunch. So I ate another 1/4 of the packet of swedish crisps and got cracking.

I love IKEA but the bag of screws, together with the highly descriptive (or not!) instructions always makes me question why I shop there...

Its just like lego but on huge scale!! So an hour later and I had got this far...

Another 30 minutes...

Another hour (this was delayed by the fact that the bed was reversible and I didn't want it the way the instructions demonstrated so I had to figure out exactly how to reverse it before it was even together)

Another 30 minutes...

If you are keeping up with the times you will have realised that by this point it was about 10pm! I stopped taking pictures and stepped up a gear. Finally managing to finish the bed at midnight. I think I got to bed at 1am having done a litle tidying up but not much - and deciding that my neighbours probably wouldn't appreciate the hoovering at that time either. So at 6am (on a sunday!!) I woke up and immediately remembered the chaos that Vivod was in. Only now I was also aching from the efforts of the previous evening. 

By some miracle I managed to:

• Put together the contents of the 16 boxes and make 2 sets of drawers.
• Dismantle both the bed and the existing drawers and take all this downstairs.
• Tidy the room and put the finishing touches to the bed.
• Take all the old furniture and cardboard to the skips
• Tidy the house so that it looked presentable enough for guests
• Eat breakfast
• Get ready for lunch

All by 12:30pm!

It was all worth it. When my little boy arrived home just after 8pm this is what he found...

This is the picture Child #2 took of him before posting on facebook and commenting on how jealous she was...

So this weekend I have promised to make some colourful curtains for the section beneath the bed to make it more 'den like'. I think I can manage that. 

See you soon.

Narcoleptic Cat!

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!!

A busy week as usual for me.

Saturday was expensive as it was MOT time. I also managed to persuade my youngest that it really was time for a hair cut too after weeks of convincing!

On Sunday I cooked unhealthy things...

On Monday I resumed with healthy eating (porridge and blueberries)....

Work has been quite busy all week but that's the way I like it. 

My eldest was a complete Star this week...literally! She played Elsa in the Rocky Monster Show and she was Fab Fab Fab! She sang, danced and acted her little heart out. I was soooo proud! We weren't allowed to take pictures of the show at the time but I will be purchasing some shortly which I'll put on here.

In amongst all that I hooked up this little (well quite big actually) granny circle cushion...

I also went to parents evening this week for Child #3. In summary, attention span of a gold fish but when he does concentrate he is very clever! 

Now, whilst everyone at Vivod was being very very busy the family cat was....

Sleeping....

And sleeping more...

And more....

And just a little bit more!!!

Believe it or not, he was once a very active, outdoor, playful cat...I think age is catching up with him now!

See you again soon.

Little Ripple Blanket

In between lots of other things, over the past few days, I have managed to squeeze in some time here and there to complete the Ripple Blanket. 

Look!...

The colours haven't come out particularly well in these pictures...its the old 'no natural light' issue.  The blanket's only little, about a metre square, but the perfect size to leave draped over the back of the sofa to snuggle up under as needed. It's made from cheap acrylic wool so I'm very impressed with how snuggly it is really. I have tons of the wool left over too.

It was one of my first crochet attempts so I could list all the things that are wrong with it but I won't. Its not technically perfect but it's perfect for Vivod.

See you at the weekend.

My First Quilt

I am so impatient sometimes. I tried to wait until I got back to work to complete the quilt but I just couldn't. It was also nice to prove that my cheap, but very hard working, sewing machine can cope very well when it needs to. So Thursday morning was spent quilting and now my first ever quilt lies on the back of the big sofa....

Being my first ever quilt I didn't attempt anything fancy (and even I have to admit to the limitations of said sewing machine). I just sewed a wiggly line alone the vertical strips, length ways.

I did, however, take the time to add some little golden yellow quilting cotton stitching along the edge of the border, in zig zag...

It might not be my favourite creation but I do have to admit that it now looks pretty good for a first attempt. Being my first ever quilt I guess it will also always have a little sentimental value too. Of course, I am now hunting for inspiration for my next quilt.

To be honest, this half term has been pretty dull - partly due to the weather, but the nest's individual commitments, my very modest bank balance and forthcoming expenses, and the desire to restore much needed order and cleanliness at Vivod also played a part.

I did dedicate some time to helping child #2 sort her room out. She requested hanging rails in her room like I had supplied for Child #1. This meant that, by utilising the shelves I put up, she could eliminate the need for her tired old wardrobes and chest of drawers. Her room isn't yet finished (if it was me I wouldn't be able to rest until it was...she is so unlike me sometimes that if it wasn't for the fact that she was born at home, I would investigate the possibility that she was switched at birth!). On Thursday afternoon we dismantled them and took them to skips (which, as a I drive a Ford Fiesta, involved a significant amount of sawing doors etc in half - I paid the price for that the following day!). I did get a bit nostalgic during the dismantling phase. I remember buying the wardrobe and chest of drawers from IKEA several years ago when the girls were about 6 and 8 and shared a room which had just been redecorated in girly pink and purple. I had to save hard to buy them, and yet there I was sawing bits of them in half to take to the skips, glad to see the back of them! In all fairness, child #2's room is quite small and they did take up a lot of space.

On Friday, as the nest were at their dad's this weekend I did lots and lots of cleaning. I really didn't think this through properly when we moved. The old house would take me 2-3 hours to clean from top to bottom, this one takes at least twice that! It did mean that I could have a very chilled out weekend though. 

So what did I do? I crocheted of course! I picked up the ripple blanket and decided that I could get it finished within a week or two if I set my mind to it. It seems I am on a roll with reviving dormant projects at present. I will keep you posted with my progress!

Bye for now.

Creativity

Had a bit of a creative time recently.

It started with these little footstools. I bought the new 'Home Maker' magazine and instructions for making footstools was in the first issue. So after a trip to Aberkhan and B&Q, and an hour spent playing with power tools and a staple gun, these were the result...

The problem with Aberkhan is that whenever I go there I always come home with the things  I need, along with lots of other things that I find there that I feel compelled to bring home too.

In our old house (it didn't have a name engraved above the door like this one does), I had these pictures hanging on the living room wall (you can just about make them out on the left)....

I didn't put them back up at Vivod so they have spent 2 years underneath the loft stairs gathering dust. I then rearranged my living room a couple of weeks ago and the huge expanse of bare wall has been annoying me ever since. So another hour with the staple gun and this fabric, that I thought was too sweet to leave at Aberkhan, produced these....

Then, yesterday, I got the sewing machine out with the intention of doing Child #1's costume. She slept all morning so I made these instead...

Who else has matching pictures and cushions?!

After this I did something quite spontaneous! I went upstairs to fetch something - fabric I think and spotted the big plastic tub with the patchwork quilt I started years ago (for the old house pictured above - hence the colours). I figured that it was never going to progress unless I brought it back downstairs. It's listed in the Unfinished Business post - Number 11.

I took the quilt out to see how much needed to be done. I had to attach one side of the border, add the backing fabric and wadding, attach the trim and then do the fancy quilting thing over the top. And so it began! Today, all I have left to do is the fancy quilting bit which I was going to do at work but I want to see it finished so I might do this one at home instead.

To be honest, I don't really love the quilt that much at all. It's the first quilt I've ever made so it was just thrown together with any cheap fabric I could find. Of course, now, I am planning the next quilt. The next one will be something I love, and hopefully won't take me 4 years to complete. 

See you soon. 

Neglect!

Ok, I feel like I've been neglecting my blog lately. Its partly because, in all honesty, I really haven't done that much to write about! Its also because I have been busy with work, day to day life, and plodding on with existing projects.

One of the reasons I haven't been up to much is severe lack of funds - it a common January problem for me. Christmas is one cause, followed straight away by both child #1 and child #2's birthday but this year I have also paid for work that was done on the house too which has contributed to the problem quite a bit. Anyway, having been really good with the pennies, things are now back on track in time for half term next week.

I've not been as good with the finishing projects issue though, but I know the overall number has still reduced...I think. Well let's see actually. From the last post (Unfinished Business) I still haven't completed numbers 2,4,5,6,10,11,12,14,18,19,20,21 (I did actually throw number 7 in the bin!), the rest are all complete. So that's 12 projects.

In addition I have these new ones:

1. The Ripple Cushion

2. The Hug Cushion

3. The Granny Square Blanket

4. A new Felicity Stitches kit

(No pictures of this one yet - its all top secret until it's finished!)

So that's 16 in total - not bad - it's less than 21 anyway! I will try and stay on track again now. 

I am looking forward to half term. I have some work I need to do but I will get some time off too and hopefully it won't snow any more either - I hate winter so much now. I might actually do a little bit of work on the house too - maybe. It would be nice if the sun comes out and then I can assess the actual state of my garden and maybe start growing some more things.

I have a costume for my eldest to do some work on. She's a fab little actress and is in the school production in couple of weeks. She was handed a costume by her drama teacher along with the words 'can you sew?' - she replied 'No, but my mum can!'. I am quite excited about it though - there will be pictures. It will be creative too!

Anyway, I will come back soon with something more exciting.