Making Monday.....

I have taken myself off to my sewing room today to hide from the horrid dusty dirty mess downstairs!! I plan to immerse myself in pretty fabric and ignore the fact that washing is piling up, the heating needs re pressurising as it wont come on and that a very heavy mist outside is making it sooo dark and gloomy everywhere!!

So here is what I have been doing so far today :

a little taggie for a friends new baby girl (it's pink gingham on the reverse side)



playing with patchwork - a cushion? a bag? I haven't yet decided!



wondering what I can do to re use a baby cot sheet that I had made from vintage noddy fabric when small boy was born.



and making a sewing machine cover from a tea towel (I cannot be the only one who has tea towels that are "too nice" to use can I ?!)




and its only mid-day!!


enjoy the week ........
bye for now
Lesley x

a night on the tiles................

or not as the case may be!


well the tile project went horridly disastrously wrong I am afraid to say! Having spent about 2 weeks just putting 3/4 of them down we then lifted a broken tile to reveal that they hadn't set and to cut a long boring story short we had been advised to use the wrong adhesive so the whole lot had to come up again! thank goodness for my Dad who came and spent the day with me lifting and cleaning the tiles so we could re use them! We are still living in a building site it seems with hardly any kitchen access but I am being very philosophical about the whole thing and hoping that we will be sorted out within the next couple of weeks!

I have been so disorganised though and delays in sending parcels (sorry girls they have now been posted!) and responding to emails etc etc as I am just trying to stay out of the house and take refuge at friends houses who provide tea and cake :-D Am slightly worried about the weight gain due to lots of takeaways etc due to lack of kitchen workspace !

I will hopefully be back to normal soon but will leave you with a scary picture of the daughter ready for the re organised Halloween disco which was lots of fun :-) I am desperately needing to do some sewing stuff and have 2 new little babies born to friends last week that I need to create something for !

Enjoy bonfire night to anyone celebrating and a Happy Birthday to a special little girl who we are very much looking forward to spending the day with on Saturday :-)

its beginning to feel a lot like.......

Christmas! I get soooo excited about Christmas each year and can hardly wait for November to come around so I can officially get into the spirit of things :-)
One thing that really gets my Christmas mojo working is the Christmas editions of some of my favourite interiors magazines.



Never one to disappoint me is Ideal Home Magazine - made even more "ideal" by the yearly calendar they include which has some fab pictures that Lucy over at Attic24 waxes lyrical about and for good reason :-)



Just a couple of little snippets of this month's yummy pages for your perusal ;-)

I do have my own quest for an "Ideal Home" but looking forlornly at the massive tiling job that is being undertaken in my own home makes me run back to the sofa and lose myself in the pages of my magazine and plan for the day our (not so) little project is all finished :-)


bye for now
Lesley x

The winner takes it all..............

Hi there!!

well what a week it has been! we have had bouts of tonsillitis and then the Halloween disco at school had to be cancelled due to a power cut in the local area that also left us in the dark for a while until we took up residence at a friends house! All our work decorating the school hall had to be undone and instead spent an hour at school ringing round all the parents to let them know!

The weather was atrocious but cleared later on revealing a beautiful rainbow...


I've been busy doing Christmas shopping and feel very ahead of the game but it wont stop me running around the week before buying stuff frantically :-)

So as it's now Friday I must let you know the results of the giveaway in my last post. As I had such a lot of entries (thank you everyone) I have done two parcels and without further ado the numbers generated were:

Madewithlove

and


Sam@BellaBlossom

I will pop by both of your blogs to let you know but could you please email me your addresses then I can get your parcels to you :-)

Due to the postal strikes I will leave it till the end of next week to see if it all calms down before I post them as have had two parcels go missing lately and I wouldn't want yours to not get to you :-)

Have a lovely half term if you are off with little ones (and even if your not :-)

bye for now
Lx

giveaway... giveaway... giveaway :-)

Well I have been waiting with baited breath (ok, I have been checking every now and again:-D) to see if my followers would reach 100 and today seems to be the day so in time honoured blogging tradition please leave me a comment on this post to be in with a chance to win a parcel of goodies :-)

even just "Hi" will be enough! I will choose a winner using random.org next Friday the 23rd.

bye for now
Lx

catching up....

Time flies when your having fun apparently! The weeks are whizzing by and I seem to be playing catchup so a well deserved day at home today has me playing in my craft room attempting new makes to get ideas for Christmas..........



Little birdy needs a bit more work! His beak is looking at bit iffy at the moment...

The gorgeous Autumn days have had me eager to get out and about whilst we still can knowing that chilly winter days are just around the corner but what beautiful sunsets the end of each day keeps delivering :-)



I am sort of releived to be able to wrap up in warm clothes as the stone in weight I have been trying to lose for the past 6 months has gone no-where! I must really really make an effort and try and lose it before Christmas but it's so hard when I end up with a glass of wine and chilli nuts in front of X Factor on a Saturday night ! We all need our little treats though don't we :-)

Bye for now

Birthday Girl..........

Today we are having a .......


My (not so) little girl is 8!!!!!!!!! I want to say how much I adore her and hope she has a fantastic birthday and I will soon forgive her for me being up at 6.30am on a Saturday and having to watch Hannah Montana the movie (and I still can't do the Hoedown Throwdown dance!)

Lots of presents and cake and friends and family to see today :-)


Not to leave small boy out just wanted to show you our little conker family we have been making :-)



Happy weekend everyone and Happy 8th birthday Mia!

A boat and a brooch......

A quick blog thank you to two lovely ladies who I recently did a mini swap with and received some lovely items!

The boat from Claire is gorgeous and hanging on small boys door handle although it keeps sneaking up to my craft room with me then he brings it back down again!

and thank you Little Gem - what a lovely parcel to receive - its like a party bag for grown ups :-)


Two talented ladies whose blogshops you should vist soon....

I, on the other hand, am having a complete blank regarding sewing etc at the moment and really want to be getting on and doing some makes with my ever growing pile of fabric but the age old problem of what to make and that hesitance at cutting into it, is not helping! Any ideas of bits and pieces I can make ? and dare I mention *Christmas* makes as well?!



We have a soon to be 8 year old (on Saturday 3rd) who is greatly excited about her forthcoming birthday so will be back soon with a birthday blog post :-)

putting it off..........

I am not that good at many things but procrastination is something I excel in:-)

I have a list of things to do a mile long (all boring and therefore not interesting to do)

Currently they include:

*trying to find some way of getting school tops (of only a week old!) back to white again without resorting to neat bleach

*moving sofa's to vacuum under as I suspect the ridiculously large spiders are nesting and growing under there

*sorting out Jacob's wardrobe as a 5 year old doesn't need age 3 clothes....

*considering opening the boxes hiding in a cupboard from our move here 3 years ago as curiosity is getting the better of me and I want to know what is in them...

just a few things to get me going but for the moment I am just wasting time arranging flowers in vases and wondering what I can have for breakfast ..........

please stay summer, please stay!

5 reasons I shouldn't go out in an evening:

1. I cannot walk in high heels anymore. I resemble a 5 year old trying on her mums shoes

2. I cannot stay up past 10pm without severe consequences the next day

3. I cannot drink more than 3 glasses of wine without severe consequences the next day

4. I almost gasped out loud at having to pay nearly £6 per glass of the aforementioned wine

5. I tutted at the inappropriateness of a young couple paying each other far to much attention considering they were in public and forget that I have done this myself when I was a youngster.

BUT, its so nice to go out with lovely friends who "get" me and I feel so comfortable with so we made a pact to do it more often and just remember smaller heels and to drink less wine ;-)

In the meantime I am in complete disbelief that September has arrived. I am hanging onto August and our so called summer with gritted teeth refusing to let it go!

I need at least a few more weeks before I can acknowledge Autumn's arrival as I feel cheated out of summer yet again this year! I also need my stubbornly green tomatoes to ripen! Just one would do it as Ive never grown anything from scratch before and was completely absorbed in nurturing them into lovely red tomatoes but no, green they are and I suspect green they will stay. I am considering getting a batch of Tesco's finest and arranging them amongst the foliage to fool people......

I haven't got round to thanking some of my lovely bloggy friends for my birthday goodies so thank you Hen, Mary Poppins and Melmel - as usual I am completely overwhelmed by how kind people are and how lucky I am to know such lovely people - I am going to have a big sort out next week so will be showing off all my goodies in their new homes although you can see some of them in these pictures :-)

The craft space has been a bit neglected so some recent playing about in there has resulted in a few new pretty things to look at but a lot of organising to do!

I did have some money to spend on myself as well so have accumulated a little extra fabric and sewing books (I got Sewing in no time and Sew Pretty Homestyle - is the Sew Sunny Homestyle one worth getting as well?)
even if I don't make anything from it I have just enjoyed the pictures anyway!

Not much sewing has been done over the holidays but now the children are back in school I hope to get on creating my creating space as well as getting some routine back. I have enjoyed the 6 weeks break and was almost sad to see the children back at school and the school run starting again but it will be nice to shop without the constant "could we have this?" "mummy, leave the carrots and come and look at what Ice Cream we can have!" type comments. The luxury of shopping alone (food or otherwise) should never be underestimated.
I have also been playing with little "corners of my home" I think I will do a whole post on this soon!

Mia will be 8 in a few weeks then I will be Mummy to an 8 year old and a 5 year old which seems so strange when I think about it as in my mind they will always be those cheeky little toddlers and I am holding onto that - so, Mia and Jacob dont keep growing up so quickly please?



This picture is Mia's doll that I found on the first day back at school in my bed - I think that's me after 6 weeks of full time mummymode! I made the sleep mask although the chance to wear it is few and far between as Abigail the doll has claimed it, it seems....

I am currently craving a nice roast dinner so off to the shops!
bye for now
Lesley x

Now we are Five...............

It doesn't seem two minutes since I was writing this post and yet here we are a year later and small boy turned 5 yesterday............. it really is true the older you get the faster time goes by and I am in complete denial that September will be here next week........ NEXT WEEK!!!


Due to time constraints and trying to eek every last bit of fun out of the school holidays (and completely pretend that the large pile of new uniforms with name tags to be put in does not exist) means I haven't been around much in blogland so this is just a quick post of mainly pictures to acknowledge Jacob's birthday on my blog as that is part of what my blog is for :-)


Back next week with lots to show and tell :-)

setting up a craft room and busy with birthday's....

A very quick post and visit to blogland. Small people have been deposited at grandparent's house and although I miss the little dears lots, I do love the silence in the house.

It's a short lived moment as I will be collecting them tomorrow and being taken out and spoiled by my lovely Mum for my birthday (and no, I'm not admitting how old I am ;-) It is also small boy's 5th birthday next week eek!! how on earth did he get to be 5?! have organised very little so need to get my act together and not leave it all till the last minute.

In the meantime, I have been sneakily "organising" (throwing away) toys that are hardly played with to enable me to take over a little attic room we have to make it into my little craft room. I can only dream of having a den like Hen's but just being able to keep my sewing machine set up and not having to clear the kitchen table so we can eat after one of my slightly messy sewing sessions will be bliss!!

I need major storage solutions but that's part of the fun of it so its very definately a "Work in Progress" at the moment!




Loads still to do in there but I have made a start and have some suitably girly, flowery wallpaper for the back wall to put up so will keep you updated with my progress :-)



I have to show you my little parcel of goodies that arrived recently. The lovely Hen is such a clever girl and seems to know what I like better than I know myself! The bag is GORGEOUS and has been on many, many outings with me recently. Thank you so much Hen I loved all of it :-)

Hubby is due back any time now and a meal cooked by someone other than myself beckons...... I can almost taste something cold and fizzy calling my name as well ;-)

bye for now
Lx

time flies.........

when your having fun :-) luckily, all bar a few stressful moments, we are enjoying the summer holidays and having lots of busy but fun days and are half way through already!! the sun made a brief appearance but we have gone from splashing about in the paddling pool yesterday to grey overcast skies this morning but I am determined to keep my manic "aren't we having such fun" grin on my face knowing that bedtime and my well deserved glass of wine isn't really that far away ..............

I always find the first couple of weeks of the school holiday a bit challenging as we are all trying to find our new routine and space within the house. I need to pull back on the stress of having 2 messy children around all day rather than the tidy peace and quiet I am used to and the children are slightly out of sorts with no school routine to stick to although we do tend to keep meal/snack times and bedtimes pretty much the same.

My children have a mass amount of toys and gadgets (blame hubby for the gadgets he is the ultimate gadget man!) but I declared a no electricals day last week as the first couple of weeks of the holidays I gave them free reign after a long school year for both of them.

The conversations with the daughter were comical at times as she wailed and lamented about missing Hannah Montana whilst I explained about how we only had a couple of programmes a week to watch at which she exclaimed in horror " but what did you DO?!" and she in particular really struggled to manage without but we did have a breakthrough and they seemed to get back the skills to entertain themselves and find something to do that did not involve DS/Wii/Television/Computer etc etc........

I do think social interaction skills are sadly lacking nowadays in a lot of youngsters and am determined that my children will be articulate young people capable of conversation when necessary!!

Whilst this was going on I managed to squeeze in a little crafty time to make a little present for my Niece's birthday. I do think I am getting better and am guiding the foot pedal rather than driving it nowadays which helps ;-)

I do have an apology to make to Tabiboo though - her lovely owl that I received sits over me when I am surfing away in blogland and I must thank her properly for it :-) I do need to sort out a couple of things to send to lovely blogland people so will try and get that done very soon (children permitting!)

Have a lovely week everyone
Lesley x

my shopping tales..............

Great excitement!! - the sun is out, the sky is blue, there's (a few) cloud's to spoil the view but thank goodness as I thought it would never happen!! fingers crossed it continues as my poor tomatoes are looking a bit sorry for themselves :-(

have been a busy bee keeping little ones occupied whilst trying to find some things that mummy enjoys - and one thing that mummy does enjoy is a little shopping trip :-)

so this is now a blatant "see what I bought" type post as hubby just shrugs and doesn't understand how I can get excited over tea towels...... so please induldge me my little show and tell moment :-)




also bought a wire castle photo/card holder for small boy's bedroom (feel like I cant spoil it by putting things on it though!)



pretty cupcake items - No matter what if I see cupcakes I must have it! this includes real cupcakes which my waist line is not thanking me for at the moment.........


and something to spread some love............



hope the holidays are going well wherever you are :-) There is much excitement in the Notes house at the moment as The Daughter is about to have her first real sleepover so we have quilts and cushions and blankets and allsorts in chaos at the moment but she was more concerned over the "food" items that are required (chocolate, crisps etc) oh to be 7 again!!
Lx

OTT bunting and being wet.................

we have that "slightly soggy, damp clothes, requiring the heating on but refusing as its July" type of thing going on at the moment! I like wearing my spotty wellies normally but am thinking that I may develop an allergy to rubber if I have to keep wearing them.

Can it be any wetter? August better be a big improvement as we are going a bit stir crazy being indoors all the time whether it be here or somewhere else just being indoors doesn't agree with me for any length of time ! and small boy's are like dogs and need regular exercise I think and I keep finding Jacob with his little face pressed up against the window forlornly looking out at the black clouds and subsequent rain.....



to cheer myself up I decided to put up some extra bunting (in addition to what we already had up!)I had tucked away but a few hours later am wondering if there is such a thing as too much bunting??? be honest I can take it ;-)


it is very cheery though and almost a party atmosphere which helped when I had a request to make a birthday cake for "beaky" and "dotty" - we sang Happy Birthday (twice) and had to blow out the candles (twice)....... the things we do to keep bored children occupied!!


In the meantime I am writing lists of Plan B's things to do in case its raining with my new stripy/dotty pens :-)


Hope its not too soggy where you are...
Lx

Time for a sit down.................

Our Summer Holidays started yesterday ................

so far we have:

done silly hairstyles


chased butterflies


done crafty pictures


danced around the kitchen

meal planned, wrote shopping list out (in the order of the aisles!)
& done our supermarket shop (with two children and no blackmail and got out of the shop with everything on the list - extra points for that I think !)

re organised the toys (my children have far to many toys!!! are yours all over the house? am I mean mummy to limit toys downstairs and then back to bedrooms at the end of the day? because its the only way I can keep my sanity!)

jumped with joy at first signs of small green tomatoes on tomato plants :-D

found small boy asleep at 2pm but didn't have the heart to wake him

dead headed some flowers

crocheted another heart (only about 3 more to go for my heart bunting)

wrapped up birthday presents

vacuumed all 3 floors (an almost yearly occurrence ...ahem)

phew that was yesterday - what will we do today?!?!?!? besides looking at the rain!

time for a sit down with tea and cake I think ;-)

I'm "cured" & other things I've been upto .......

Well hello blogland how are we doing? good I hope! me? well I was hit by the dreaded swine flu and I have never been so ill in my life!! it was horrendous and I ended up in an ambulance and on drips and all sorts and feel like I have lost most of July in a haze of aches, pains and general flueyness!! The NHS gets a bad deal sometimes but I have to admit to being dealt with fantastically although was a bit disappointed that A&E is nothing like Casualty on the television on at Saturday night :-)

I am very much on the mend though after a forced week of confinement and even managed a little trip to London this week that hubby very kindly sent me off to knowing a little break would do me the world of good ! The best therapy was spending time in Hen's den :-) What a lovely, creative, eye candy space to be in!!! Thank you Hen for a fab time!

Of course for a lot of people it is the (insert fanfare and/or doom and gloom type music here) Last Day of Term..... meaning 6 weeks of lovely, quality time with the two little darlings in my life........... OR 6 weeks of using every possible negotiating, management & organisation skill that I possess to stop them killing each other or me spontaneously combusting from the sheer stress of it all!!! I will hold my hands up now and admit to not being one who looks forward to the holidays but then I do enjoy the freedom of no school run and taking each day as it comes and usually find that we get to the end of the summer holidays and I look back thinking how fast it went by and how it was actually quite pleasant the majority of the time! any ideas/hints of things to do to keep the peace would be gratefully received :-)

I remembered this year to take their pictures this morning as I usually do the first day of each school year but its nice to see the difference at the end as well - Mia will be starting Juniors in September which seems baffling to me who thinks she should still be in Year 1 and Jacob will be going into Year 1 having had a difficult time at some stages during his first year but I wont go into the whole debate about the fact he started school a week after his 4th birthday and that's far to young , yadda, yadda...... Some of the new starters are actually 5 just a week or so after him but only start in reception this time and he will be in Year 1 ! I can't help but still a bit bothered by it all .......



anyway! got myself a little project to do next week whilst the children will be playing quietly and amusing themselves with fun but educational type past-times whilst I smile down at them lovingly with a satisfied feeling of contentment............ okay that's never going to happen but I did buy this mini sewing chest and have plans for a makeover so will hopefully have something to show you soon!


I have my last hour of freedom now after a lovely meet up with friends this morning and then enjoying the lovely sparkly cupcake in the top pic to give me the energy to deal with the weeks ahead.... something tells me I may need more of them though............

bye for now
x

AWOL

Hi All

had to take a little blogging break due being poorly sick and a little visit to hospital but hoping to be back soon as I am on the mend slowly but surely :-)
Lx

always take the weather with you .........(& blogiversary giveaway)

sunny days are back again :-) which makes a nice change from the random rainfall that appears from nowhere and soaks me through as I am never prepared.

Sports day was rained off which I wasn't that bothered about - I still have that dread of sports day even though its my children taking part and not me. The feel of those scratchy, rough, will rub your skin raw, hessian sacks for the sack race. Because I am not the tallest person in the world it was hard to hold it up and not end up with it over my head! I remember jumping like my life depended on it frantically keeping the finish line in sight then realising I had managed to cover about half a metre and was completely spent!!! so forgive me for not entering into the spirit of the whole sports day event its just not my thing ;-)


I'm more of a collapse in a heap as soon as the children are in bed - i would win the "how quickly can you pour a glass of wine and find any leftover chocolate" race though but we all have our priorities don't we ? ;-)

Sports day did go ahead a few days later and the children loved it so will keep my thoughts to myself and busy myself thinking of things to make with my 25% off Laura Ashley fabric. It was so busy in there this weekend and I just kept grabbing random people saying please cut me some fabric before hubby comes in from the other shop and sees what I am buying :-D We have our school fair in a week or so that I was thinking of making some bits and pieces for to donate to the raffle/tombola but we shall see as I'm a bit nervous about putting my stuff "out there" as not many people know I'm into all the crafty stuff - do you find your in the minority with liking sewing, crochet etc?

In the meantime I will keep checking on my tomatoes which although are now resembling a small rain forest have no signs of even one small green tomato!!!

I am extremely offended by them and am obsessively checking them morning and night! I feel under some pressure as Mother in law and my parents have asked for samples and I am sure they think I will have killed them off before any tomatoes appear so may have to resort to Tesco's finest and pass them off as my own ;-) This ladybird is even checking if there are any like the growbag promises!! wonder if I can get a refund................


I missed my blogiversary a few days ago and as I have joined in with the Pay it Forward tag I will combine the two and say that 3 of the comments I receive will get a little something from me :-) the idea is that you then do your own Pay it forward post but I know how busy people are so I will leave the decision upto yourselves so please leave a comment anyway to be in the giveaway

Have a good week!
Lx

my feel good song of the moment ;-)

First heard on the Special K advert of all things! If I can't look like a slim toned special k eating girly I can at least dance around to this and pretend I do ;-)

Making things and playing with buttons :-)

Oh what a busy bee I have been this week :-) In a good way though. You know those weeks where you feel you have been really productive and got loads done rather than breezing through the days then realising its Friday!!!

I have been playing with more fabric and the yummiest buttons ever from The Crafty Fish. Are these not just the prettiest things you have ever seen!



I have been making little things for upcoming little friends birthday parties inspired by the lovely Mary Poppins (thanks Mary) although the "R" on this doesn't stand out enough does it? any ideas/suggestions anyone? Its not the neatest in the world but the first attempt was worse honestly! I just have a bull in a china shop mentality with the sewing machine and my foot is pressing on that pedal like I'm in the Grand Prix.



I have been playing with my new laminator (don't ask why I needed one it was just one of those must have impulses!) if anything gets left around it gets laminated at the moment :-D


I have been making little bits and pieces for small boy as I do tend to favour the pretty girly stuff for the Daughter usually!

The "J" looks a bit squiffy but I have since realised that I would be better off to have a flat back to these as you would not believe how difficult it was to turn this the right way after sewing it inside out.......



I did help the daughter with a little fabric cupcake practise picture and am planning on doing some "proper" versions of these soon as they are a great way to use up old fabric scraps :-)


All that was much more fun than worrying about half dead sunflower plants, the washing machine not spinning at the end of the cycle and why my skin seems to be sliding down my face in a "drooping and will need a face lift sooner rather than later" type of way.

I will post next week about the Pay It Forward that I have joined in with via Tabiboo so watch this space !

enjoy your weekend x

Fabric.

Fabric. My still quite newish love....... even more lovely when it's super discounted Cath Kidstony fabric. The cogs were turning in my brain with all the things I want to do with it! A week later I have made some half hearted attempt at a mini cushion and small tote bag but never mind :-) just owning it is half the pleasure isn't it ?!

My "special" cupboard is overflowing and I have no real need for any more items in the house so what do I do with it all!!! I wish I was better at this sewing lark and could sell some bits and pieces then at least there is a purpose to it.

I have had requests from the children though so will work on those soon :-)

The weeks just seem to fly by at the moment I don't know how I would manage if I had to fit work in like I did when the children were babies although I have started doing some voluntary work one morning a week which I am enjoying. I did think about also volunteering in a charity shop as well but after watching Mary Queen of Charity Shops last night it put me off !! Is it just me or was she really rude to those lovely older ladies who have given up years of their lives to work for nothing for the benefit of a charity? I hadn't seen any of these programmes before but although the shop looked better at the end I can't agree with putting items up for sale at £40 as I can't imagine people will pay that in a charity shop but I am willing to stand corrected if I am wrong!!

It's made me resolve to support my local charity shops even more though so I will keep you updated with any Jimmy Choo handbags etc that I manage to pick up ;-)

Bye for now

Friends Swap & Fab Finds......

I recently joined in with Beki's Friends Swap and was lucky to be paired up with Alex from Pink Feather Paradise. I have been the lucky recipient to some of Alex's fab crochet in the past so was pleased to be her partner for this swap!!

For those who don't know the Friends Swap rules were to send something beginning with each letter of the word "FRIENDS"

I sent my swap off to Alex with nervous anticipation of whether or not she would like what I had put together for her! you can see what I sent here.

The following day I received my parcel and was giddy with excitement trying to restrain myself from ripping it open!

Here are the absolutely fantastic things she sent me: (all wrapped up in the lovely box above)
The handmade felt magnet tags are fantastic! the amount of detail and time that has gone into these is amazing I love them!


My F is for Fairycake is fab and looks good enough to eat :-)

My R is for Ribbon & ric rac is lovely and the I is for Individually wrapped chocolates (clever!) were eaten rather quickly!


My E is for Eclairs (one of my fav chocolates) have dwindled slightly but have saved a few for this afternoon :-)

N is for Notebook is the notebook I have wanted for some time after seeing it on a blog a while ago but never being able to track it down so am loving that along with D is for Dishcloth which is gorgeeeoouuuss and far to nice for spoiling with dishes!
S is for Salt Scrub is in a lovely crocheted holder. Again, very clever Alex :-)


I loved every single bit of a it! What a fab swap thank you soooo much Alex!!!

On my jaunts this weekend I popped into "King of Tat" TK Maxx :-)
Love this shop for various reasons including finding designer stuff at next to nothing and seeing the bizarre and the unusual!
This book I've had on my Amazon wish list for a while but been holding back trying to justify the £25 price tag so was pleasantly surprised to find it, albeit a bit tatty around the edges, but for £12 so popped it in the basket :-)



I also noticed this one as well which is full of yummy pictures and projects to do so imagine me(and children of course ;-) ) in that teepee one day very soon!





I am about to have a very lazy Sunday afternoon reading my new books and eating the rest of my eclairs but in the meantime here is what you get when you leave your 4 year old son and a pack of his reward chart stickers with your sewing machine! Apparently it has measles.......



Bye for now

Prickly heat, paddling pools and kitchen tiles....

How's that for a random mix of things!!!

Yes, silly me took it a step to far and subjected the pasty white skin for just a little to long and now have prickly heat rash all over my arms so look like I have measles!!! I don't think I imagined the till assistant in the supermarket recoiling in dismay when she was scanning my items earlier. Just for the record I went for pasta and Parmesan (as per the daughters orders) but came out with bamboo canes, some "cupcake" coasters, some peonies (possibly fav flower ever) and a small blue flowery plant....... maybe the prickly heat messes with my brain as well?
I did run some other errands today including posting my "FRIENDS" swap to Alex. I do hope she likes them as my sewing skills are limited so had to buy some things to save embarrassing myself ;-) is it silly to be nervous about a swap?!
I did take a picture of it all wrapped up but then realised I had written on the tags what are in the parcels so will wait until Alex has received it.

The children are also slightly red cheeked today but have spent lots of time splashing in a "larger than I thought and therefore nearly passed out from lack of oxygen blowing it up" paddling pool but they had loads of fun for the first 5 mins until one of them splashed the other and sibling war broke out.....sigh.... I sooooooo look forward to regaling them with tales of their sibling rivalry when they are adults!!




Currently issues involve how many Go-go's they both have......
Georgie mentioned these a while back and I had no clue what they were and now wish I still was completely oblivious to their existence as they are just a complete waste of time but of course we "MUST" collect all 80 of them...... and if you think Lego hurts when you stand on it then try finding one of these in the dark with your foot......


My current project is choosing kitchen tiles.... I do sort of like the floor we have in the kitchen (black slate) but its so hard to clean and seems to look slightly dingy no matter how much elbow grease is used! So! Hubby gave in after losing the will to live with me going on constantly about how hard it was to clean and alternating between sighing loudly and groaning every time I had to attempt to clean it ;-) I did want the same tiles as we had in the hall but cannot source them so have found some very similar although a bit smaller (hall ones are 60x60cm and we currently have the standard 30 x 30 in the kitchen but the new ones are 45x 45 - just thought you would like that bit of useless trivia )



I think they will really open up what is already quite a good size space but with these down I think it will look a lot bigger and brighter and more importantly easier to clean!!! Of course I do have to put up with a weeks worth of mess and hassle and I do not cope with mess and hassle very well so wish me luck!!

Have a good week!

for the peeps who think im a bit mad and crazy putting paddling pool on gravel (which i am normally anyway) I did the silly trick of filling it and then was unable to move it onto the grass where it would be normally :-S !

the sun has got its hat on.................

!


lots of hat wearing here the last couple of days with the beautiful sunshine we have been having :-) As is the norm with most English people I rushed outside at the first sign of sunshine yesterday exposing acres of pasty white flesh whilst watching children swinging and splashing around :-)

We have a had a lovely couple of days and the children are now on their way to the grandparents for their sleepover and Hubby and I are going to watch Angels and Demons and maybe partake of a takeaway or a meal cooked by anyone but myself......
I finished the fabric letter I wanted to make and also have been keeping a close eye on my recently planted tomato plants.... keep your fingers crossed I manage to keep them alive


Ahhh bank holiday weekends are great aren't they ? Hope your enjoying yours!!

One little project, One Big Mess!

Can anyone explain how I can be so tidy normally but as soon as I sit down to attempt a little sewing project my kitchen looks like a explosion in a fabric factory?






I needed to make a little present for my god-daughters birthday and thought a nice padded fabric initial would be relatively easy to make so started making a J for my Jacob instead as a practice ............ I currently have a laptop & 2 sewing machines on the kitchen table and the floor is covered in thread, stuffing and offcuts of material but I managed it eventually although its very "Shabby Chic" with more emphasis on the Shabby!

It seemed like a good thing to do today as we have been having some very bizarre weather and I am desperately cloud spotting watching for a 5 minute break in the torrential rain followed by sunshine, in which time I can run outside and plant up some hanging baskets..... It's like Challenge Anneka but without the jumpsuit (thank goodness)


Here is my gorgeous lovely beautiful love it to bits new fabric (Amy Butler) but ! I now do not want to cut into it AT ALL so maybe will have to dig a bit deeper into the fabric pile to find something suitably girly ;-)

Just thought I would also show you my new tins from good old Dunelm - how retro are these and a bargain as well!!


Bye for now x

To post or not to post................

that was the question I have been asking myself!!! Stepping away from blogland (for a variety of reasons) meant it was hard to get back in the saddle so to speak but I do like my little blog and the other blogs I read so here I go again :-)
One thing I do need to look at is how many blogs I am trying to keep up with! I found that if I start at the beginning of my bloglines list and work through it all by the time I get to the bottom the top one has probably posted again so I am back where I started!

What with bloglines, blogs I follow and bloglists its a wonder I haven't collapsed in a snivelling heap like I used to at school when faced with a list of French verbs to learn.........

So..... short but sweet for my blogging for now is my new motto.

I did have a whole host of things to tell you about and show you but thought I would set of a mass yawning session with the length of post required so I will show you my most recent little project instead .........

No comments of "you missed a bit" are allowed which is what my 7yr old said when she first saw it ! I am of the school of thought where you just slap on the paint and see what happens so don't look too closely ;-)


I did have images of two lovely pots filled with lavender either side with me sat amongst pretty cushions reading the latest Country Living magazine. Alas the weather has turned and its more likely to be covered in bird droppings and develop wet rot but hey, it looked nice for a day ................

"May" I come in????

see what I did there? :-) It's May already how did that happen!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been completely and utterly the worst blogger in the world but am planning on getting back on track very soon indeed as my mojo has just turned up at the bottom of a washing basket :-D
Back later in the week x

The early bird catches the worm......

early mornings... great aren't they?? NO !!! my children have taken to waking at around 6ish every morning and its messing with my Mummy patience!

I thought it was because of the lighter mornings but they both have blackout linings on their roman blinds and then blackout linings on their curtains!! its like a tomb in each of their bedrooms and if I went to sleep in there I probably wouldn't wake up for days.

I love having children I really really do (mostly) but the one thing I crave is more sleep - I do get sleep obviously but BC (before children) I would surface around lunchtime at the weekend. I am thinking that I can get my own back when they are teenagers and I can go in their rooms at some ungodly hour saying "can we go downstairs yet, pllleeeassse can we ? ok in 3 minutes then? 5?" this is the sort of thing I find myself discussing with my 7 year old most mornings!!

It was, of course, an early start on Easter Sunday to see if the Easter Bunny had been - I did hear small boy discussing with his sister that he had seen the Easter Bunny and that he is blue and HE CAN TALK!!!! said with high pitched excitement of a 4 year old :-) that must have been some dream......

It is also the only day of the year (bar Christmas) when it is okay to eat chocolate for breakfast isn't it ? or I am in the bad mummy club? Not to worry, the sugar high should take the guilt away for me ;-)
By next week I will be worrying about the half stone I will have gained over the last few weeks with Easter cakes, long bank holiday weekend indulgences and yes, stealing the children's eggs but for now let us eat chocolate.....

The first week consisted of me painting one wall..... I can procrastinate until the cows come home and I have a list of projects a mile long much to my Hubby's fear as he watches me humming and haaing over paint charts. I finally bit the bullet but the stress and hassle of one wall has made me lay down my paint brush for the foreseeable future and hope that "fingerprints a la children" may become a new paint effect..... I like the new colour but you can hardly tell its been done although I had to of course say to Hubby how much I liked it and it had transformed the kitchen :-S



The second week of the holidays found us visiting the bright lights of London with two very overwhelmed children who had never seen anything like it before. We visited the Queen but she didn't invite us in for tea unfortunately but we made time for museums, shopping and a big trip to Hamleys! Mia also made me climb The Monument which is the largest freestanding stone column in the world at over 61 metres high - It consists of over 300 spiral stone narrow steps and about a quarter of the way up I needed oxygen and had no idea how I would get to the top. A 7 year old skipping(!) up the steps whilst talking (!) saying "come on mummy we cant give up now, you get a certificate when we have done it" spurred me on and it was worth it when we reached the top!
Note to self : must do some exercise to avoid turning unattractive shade of blue when exerting oneself.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter holiday and I will be glad to get back into a routine on Monday. I've not been around much in blogland but am looking forward to catching up next week :-)

We managed a slight detour to the Cath Kidston outlet at Bicester on the way back from London so I have added some new fabric to my little collection and will do a "show and tell" in my next blogpost :-)

Happy weekend , Lx

Craft and create......

Why this picture? Baking is the only guaranteed thing to stop bored children in their tracks and get them to work together in harmony so we spend a lot of time doing it!

It's the first day of the Easter holidays for us so lots of chocolate eating to be done in secret when the children are in bed (well, they get way too many Easter eggs so will hardly miss one will they ? ;-))

This morning started with me up early and to the supermarket to buy Madagascar 2 on DVD which came out today - I seem to have made this a habit as Feb half term found me buying High School Musical 3 at 8am but it's a couple of hours peace so worth it. If you have never seen Madagascar you really must watch it and look out for any King Julian parts as he amuses me no end even if it is a children's film!!

We had some "craft and create" moments at the weekend and I finally had a go at this which I spotted on the Chez Larsson blog many many months ago!
It took me quite a while and I was a bit crossed eyed by the end of it but Mia likes it.


I also did a quick practice for a Union flag cushion (this is just a layout practice so of course will be a lot neater, a bit bigger and with the correct cotton! does anyone else find it a complete pain to change the bobbin? I've found myself avoiding using fabric if I can't use the cream cotton I already have threaded....

Also a little blue thrifted jug to join my collection.

Random.org very kindly provided me with 2 numbers to be sent one of my VERY handmade hearts. (disclaimer: these hearts were made to the best of my ability... unfortunately that ability isn't the best ;-) )

Surfer Rosa Please email me your address (via my profile "contact me") and the Bibi heart will be on it's way to you very soon.

Carol@Katherines Dream - The paisley one is yours if you could also send me your address :-)

The children are going for a sleepover at grandparents today so need to get packed and organised so wishing you all a lovely Easter and hope the Easter bunny brings you lots of yummy chocolate :-)

Lesley x

Hearts & awards & a giveaway :-)

Hello there ! I seem to be meeting myself coming backwards at the moment being so busy but my life seems to have been taken over by small children.................

Okay, I admit as a stay at home mum I shouldn't really be surprised by this but the last couple of weeks has consisted of a multitude of playdates (is this an American thing we have adopted ? I don't remember doing the whole playdate thing as a child) and 3 parties over 2 days as well as the usual school run twice a day. I like that the children are busy and have friends and stuff going on in their lives so maybe I am just a tad jealous that the family organiser calendar columns are full under their names but mine and hubbys are acres of white space............

My social life at the moment seems to consist of blubbing over the last episode of CSI Investigation with Grissom in it, catching up on blogs, planning lists in my heads of the crafty projects I want to do, wondering if I am green fingered enough to start a kitchen garden and thinking that I should really wash the car as the daughter has started a number tally in the dirt of how many more days it will be before it's clean again.

I have been buying a tiny bit more fabric (a big thank you to Mary Poppins for being a kind sharing person with the paisley fabric which is gooorrggeeous thank you MP ) and am almost embarrassed to admit just a bit more ribbon as well :-D

I have actually made a couple of hearts and a little bird though so although my fabric pile is now multiplying on a weekly basis I have made a very small indent into it!


As I have never really done the giveaway thing before if you leave a comment saying which heart you would like I will pick someone out next Monday and it will be yours :-)

Busy week this week as well with it being the last week before half term so having moved 2 large baskets of clean washing from the utility room to upstairs and I am hoping that by Friday I will actually have got round to putting it away but not holding my breath ;-) I'm doing the clever trick of balancing more and more clothes on top of the pile hoping that gravity doesn't take over and tip it to the ground! I even bought a new cardigan and top today rather than risk toppling the pile looking for something to wear !

I am feeling a bit tired though after the clock change and will spend the next week querying what time it "really" is rather than the actual time as it takes me a week or so to adjust!

Just wanted to say thank you ladies for my lovely awards I have received - I think most already have them but feel free to award yourself !


hope you all have a lovely week :-)
Lesley x

Country and the Town

3 years ago we made a somewhat impulsive decision to up sticks and move 40 miles further South. At the time we lived in a large, vibrant, bustling but slightly smelly overpopulated town and we had decided that we wanted a change!
So, 6 weeks after putting our house on the market found ourselves heading down the M6 to a "hamlet" in the countryside leaving all friends and family behind and basically replacing one smell with another. No one warned me about the yearly field spraying which absolutely stinks for days and days!

As we followed the removal van down the motorway I had lots of thoughts whirling round in my head along with a copy of Mrs Beetons Guide to Baking, some Cath Kidston tea towels and plans to trade in my subscription to Living etc in favour of Country Living magazine ( i didn't, I just have both now amongst many others)


I was also giving up work and would become a proper country wife and mother and embrace all things outdoors. The idyllic picture in my head never quite materialised as I should have known. The house we bought is accessed up a drive from a main road that is a tad busier than we were led to believe but having fallen for the Sunday afternoons only viewing trick then we had to grin and bear it and hubby much prefers a bit of traffic noise to "people" noise and having to put up with fireworks going off from October to January where we used to live. We moved in the dead of winter and having inherited "septic tanks" and "LPG gas" which turned out to be only marginally less expensive than diamonds then we took to choosing between warmth and food (okay it wasn't that bad but its very expensive!)

I also decided that i must have a 4 x 4 to fit in..... but after 2 years of getting fed up of attempting to get between the white lines in parking spaces rather than spanning them , I have given up and traded in for a little sporty mummy mobile number instead. Although after the bad winter we have just had and the little winding country lanes I have to contend with I do miss the 'D.A.C' and 'T.C' and all those other little buttons with initials on them that I had no idea what they did but they made me feel safer!!

We do pull on our wellingtons and go trekking across the fields from time to time although the local midges and insects that hide out in the long grass have taken a particular liking to my legs and I can sometimes create dot to dot pictures on them if I join up all the bites..... we have shares in anti histamine bite cream nowadays.

I do, however, find that its a much more exciting event to go and visit "big shops" as I became so used to them and took them for granted. I get almost feverishly excited when I enter a Tesco Extra or a Debenhams. We do have shops obviously but they tend to be the small supermarkets that don't really carry any extra stuff or one of the local towns that is great if you are a short sighted, fish owning knitter (an opticians, pet shop and Wool shop) but not so easy to get the latest 'The Killers' CD...... But then it's more of a treat to plan to go to the big Marks and Spencers and waste money on the lovely food they sell.
I have though, found time to learn to crochet and attempt all things crafty but I do miss Borders with the Latte's available in the upstairs Starbucks :-)

It seems funny now when I find myself contemplating getting chicken's or starting a vegetable plot when back in the early 90's all I had to worry about was how high I could backcomb my hair and my plans to go out at 9pm when nowadays I would be worried if I wasn't in bed by that time!



All in all though we do love it here and being a stay at home mum is sometimes just how I hoped it would be although some days I do find myself daydreaming about being back in the office and having a new client file allocated to me with a deadline to meet.... I suppose I will go back to work one day as well but not for now....


Would I move back to the lights and sounds of the "big town" ? No, not at this point in our lives but I would like my children to experience everything the large towns and cities have to offer when they are older. Would I like a huge John Lewis store with attached large Waitrose to be built 5 minutes down the road from where we are now? Most definately :-) Some people are townies, some people have their heart in the country. Me? I want the best of both worlds please, as Hannah Montana would say ;-)
Lesley x

R.I.P Jade Goody

a spring in my step.......

i wish smellovision had been invented so you could smell what I can.....
its FRESHLY MOWN GRASS :-)
i think that may be up there in my "top 5 smells i like" which also include newborn babies heads, cakes/cookies baking and anything lemony.

Today was the day Hubby dusted off the cobwebs and got the mower out to do the first cut of the year. It was such a gorgeous weekend and then lovely again today so the children and I rushed home from school to run and stretch our legs outside. I even dug out my bright pink flip flops but in my eagerness to get outside left my socks on and socks and flip flops are not such a good look... I am slightly worried that if the weather keeps on improving I may have to show the slightly blue mottled effect that my legs are sporting at the moment as well.................

As I said in my previous post I had sickly children last week and did try my hardest to entertain them but they were both poorly little ones it was such a shame!! One of the craft projects I had on hold ended up being brought out to entertain The Daughter and we made a good job of our Mummy/Daughter project. Just need to do one for small boy now!


Eventually the children went back to school and I tried to get back to normal but its amazing how just a few days can throw your routine out. I came over all 50's housewife today and attacked laundry, cleaned bathrooms and potted plants outside!! There may even be washing drying on the line tomorrow if it stays like this :-)

Hope you have a good week
Lx

off sick....

Number of times woken by small boy crashing symbals 2cm's from my ear = 2

Number of child free days at the weekend due to sleepover at grandparents = 2

Number of new enamel jugs at a bargain price (thanks Jane) = 2


Number of trips to Dunelm in the last week = 2

Number of phone calls from school today re sick children = 2

Number of children taken to doctors this afternoon = 2

Number of bottles of antibiotics required = 2


Number of craft projects on hold = 2


Number of tired mummies looking forward to bedtime and a new magazine? = just 1 :-)

Shopping, specs & sleep

Today was a good day. One of those days where you meet up with a friend, have a good chat and a bit of impromptu shopping :-)

Hubby has, however, threatened to hire a private detective to try and deter me from purchasing more haberdashery items as apparently he can "smell the joy" in the air when I've been shopping! I do suffer from "blogfluence" (blog influence) and have been known to drop whatever I am doing to rush out when the urge overcomes me for something new and lovely seen on a blog. It was suggested by a friend today that I measure how much ribbon I have altogether but its like getting The Daughter to admit she is tired and should go to bed.... its never going to happen ;-)
(major sleep issues with my 7 1/2 year old are proving very trying at the moment)


so I use ribbon in my crochet bunting to justify the constant purchases although I am deliberating over joining it with a crochet chain ? any opinions welcome!


Alex @ Pink Feather Paradise has sent me some lovely crochet she has done which I love! thank you Alex you are a very talented lady :-)



I have also had to purchase something I really didn't want to spend money on. The last 5 years I have spent convincing myself that squinting slightly, along with tipping my head back and looking down to focus on anything more than 5 feet away was completely normal. Therefore I gave in an booked an eye test and had it confirmed that I do need glasses for driving and distances :-( I am picking them up this week and although it was silly expensive, I figured that it was cheaper than all the Botox I was going to need from all the frowning I do.

Well, nearly bedtime, so another evening to convince The Daughter that:
No, Minnie Mouse is not an evil mouse that comes to life at night and eats her toes, No, having the bedroom door open less than 3 inches doesn't mean that she is "locked in her room" and that , yes, being asleep by 8pm is necessary even if Disney Channel is still on at midnight.......

Truly scrumptious..........

My name is Lesley and I am a magazineaholic......... I buy a silly amount of magazines most month's with interior magazines being top of my list. One of my (many) favourite magazines is Ideal Home which I have had on subscription for some time now thanks to my mother in law!

This months is oozing with colour and lovely things :







Unfortunately it arrived at 5 minutes before school pick up but as we have a friend round to play I am hoping to get 10 minutes to quickly browse through properly before I have to deal with the comments so far including:-
"when will we eat?" "what are we having?" "get small boy out of my bedroom he isn't a girl" "can I have my ears pierced because xxxx has" "oh, and can I have a mobile phone" (she is 7 so the last 2 are never going to happen as long as I can help it!) and don't even get me started on the ideas for what book character they will go to school as next week on World Book Day!

I've also just seen small boy's quilt and pillow being launched downstairs so I better go and deal with it as I am a bit worried the actual bed will be next..........

Clean & Quiet edit..

Half term came and went, children returning to school, house back in some sort of order, quiet reigns............

It's always too quiet the first couple of days when the children go back to school. I have that sort of ringing noise in my ears from being in a VERY LOUD environment for some time as small boys volume is either "maximum" or "mute" (when asleep). The Daughter has worked her way through a small rain forest of paper with various artistic creations and I nearly did myself an injury playing on Wii boxing but the less said about that the better.......

The last couple of days of half term were spent out and about, we even took a trip out to the coast and let the children dig large holes in sand for reasons only known to themselves. Hubby & I turned a very unflattering shade of blue and wondered what on earth possessed us to go to the seaside in such challenging temperatures but it was a really bright lovely day, the sort that makes me think that spring may not be too far away...... I really love Spring. Summer is probably my favourite season (reclined on lounger in garden, feet in paddling pool, tall glass of *insert appropriate drink for time of day*)
but Spring is just so hopeful and promising with it all to look forward to!
EDIT(just browsing my pictures and found a sunny day in the garden last year sigh.............although ignore the building site and army of toys its improved a lot since then!)



There seems to be a lot of colour around at the moment which is probably highlighting Spring like tendencies for me. I'm working on a crochet flower garland/bunting for The Daughter's room even though we have a reasonable amount of bunting around the house already but can you ever have too much bunting? ;-)
She chose herself a new lampshade for her bedroom as well :-)


I've been attempting crochet in circles but luckily Kathy has saved me and sent a pattern for the lovely cushion like the one on Julia's blog. Thank you Kathy.


More spring like items about to come my way from LuluCarter..... This is a very talented lady who makes me sigh when I look at her lovely creations and a few weeks ago I found myself drooling over one of her latest designs, a modern day dreamcatcher. I am so in awe of people who dream (pun intended) up such original idea's and found myself sending an email straight away asking her to please let me know as soon as they were in her shop :-) To cut a long story short we are expecting a delivery very soon!!


More talent in blogland came from Ruby'sMamma in the form of this lovely beaded bracelet - again, finding myself sighing over sweetie coloured glass beads resulted in an another "request" email and now have it adorning my wrist making me smile whenever I catch a glimpse of it.


Thanks also to Mel for sending me lovely cards - The "Keep Calm & Carry On" one is to be placed in a prominent position as a reminder to do just that when I commence my spring cleaning. We have dust bunnies breeding like, er, rabbits, under sofa's and I know there are a few large spiders thinking of taking up residence in dark, cobwebby corners so on with the marigolds and out with the feather duster. You never know but I might even use those attachment thingies on the vacuum cleaner....

Have a good week!
Lesley x

love is all around.................

Hope you all had a very special Valentines days but seeing all your posts about the subject its obvious there was a whole lot of love in blog land recently :-) After 13 years together Hubby is still very good at the whole flowers and chocolate thing :-)

Of course its also half term as well which means :
How to entertain the children....
also known as : finding activities that suit a 7 year old girl and a 4 year old boy, not spending ridiculous amounts of money to do said activities, not resorting to DVD's/Television, keeping the peace when war breaks out because small boy has dared to go into The Daughters bedroom and messed up her Little Miss Books, thinking its a good idea to have friend's children round for the day who then make it look like the bedrooms have been burgled, getting out "lego" and then regretting finding it a little while later by the use of my foot.... spending an hour building a dinosaur with no instructions only to find that no child has been in the room for the last 30 mins having gone off to find something entertaining to do,
thinking I can keep my normal routines of laundry etc but 3 days in realising both laundry baskets are full and I have no idea where the uniforms are for Monday, negotiating with a 4 year old boy that wearing his sisters High School Musical sparkly t shirt isn't suitable attire for going to the library, agreeing the Spider man costume IS suitable for the library, dealing with the CONSTANT requests for food then burning the toast so badly that a day later the smell is still permeating the whole house, wanting to watch my sky +'d programmes that I normally catch up on whilst children at school but realise they have all been deleted in favour of "Hannah Montana, Phineas and Ferb, Suite Life of Zack and Cody etc etc" BUT then realising any minute now the Grandparents will arrive and take the children out for the day ...............

Back next week (if I have survived:-)
Lesley x

flowers and ribbon......

Nothing heavy this time I promise but just wanted to say a massive ~~Thank You~~ to everyone who left comments on the last post - its amazing how much more clear headed and focused they made me!! I did consider speaking to his teacher this morning who is different to "miss independence" but its parents evening in a few weeks so I will save it for then!!!

anyway, I'm feeling like I need to get back to normal in blogland with my usual posts about pretty things :-)

Started the day with some pretty flowers to brighten up the place, made even prettier by a little bit of raffia inspired by Lydia from "Waving or Drowning? blog" (blogger not letting me do links at the moment so will try and fix it later) Isn't it such a simple idea but so effective? I may have to reign myself in from tying raffia around everything though as I do tend to go a bit overboard with any new ideas!!! The Daughter stood still for a few mins earlier and I was almost wrapping it around her pony tail.......

Had a bit of a sort out of ribbon central but it doesn't seem to have improved. I really need to get to Ikea for the ever growing list of "things I need" but keep putting it off as I am convinced the Marketplace area has some sort of special power that makes me buy things I had no intention of purchasing or any need for....... BUT there is always the meatballs and chips to encourage me :-)














We finish for half term here tomorrow thankfully and have a V.I.P (very important purchase) to make on Monday morning as High School Musical 3 comes out on DVD. The children are looking forward to a lazy week off school with days spent in our "comfies" (pyjamas) watching dvd's and generally lazing about the house.... for once, that sounds good to me!!!


Hope you all enjoy half term whatever you have planned :-)

(almost) Wordless Wednesday.....

Inspired by Rosie i wanted to do my own "Wordless Wednesday" :-)

However, I also need to get a little moan out at the same time if you don't mind? So not very wordless on this particular Wednesday but needs must !
I know I'm not prone to emotion and sentiment on my blog but bear with me as this is not about ribbons for a change ;-)

My youngest, Jacob, started school back in September after only turning 4 on August 26th so only just in time for school. His due date was not until September so it's never sat comfortably with me that he went to school so young. I really think they start school too early in this country (but a whole other debate another time about that!) and when my eldest started she took a little part of me with her and then when small boy started another little bit of my heart went along with him too!!! He is, however, really enjoying it all bar a few problems (there is a monster in the toilets apprently......) So..... today the part time teacher advises me that he needs to be more independent as he cannot get undressed and dressed without help for PE.............. wanting to cry "he is only a baby!" was advisably quashed inside me but really honestly come on!! He is only just 4 so was still aged 3 just 2 weeks before school started so surely we can give him some slack please???

She did, however, tell me how bright he is knowing all letters and good with numbers and keywords etc and surely that's what matters??

Does the parental worry and guilt that we are not doing a good enough job with our children ever go away? or should one just accept and encourage each child to grow and develop at their own pace and not just be part of a group of schoolchildren that should all act/perform in the same way? Mulling this over I then go to the playroom with stopwatch in hand ready to instigate a dressing/undressing time trial ;-) and find this little boy snoring gently with a little dribble of drool in the corner of his mouth and think that he IS my baby and he has all the time in the world to learn to dress himself.........

snow, snow go away, don't come back till Christmas day......

Sunday morning offered bright sunshine with grass and tree's appearing from under the blanket of snow they had been covered in. Thank goodness I thought, relieved the snow thing was all over , but then later that afternoon flurries start to fall from the sky and yet another blanket of whiteness covers everything this morning! So today I am huddled up in my warm kitchen about to eat my Creme Egg which is allowed as you can have eggs for breakfast can't you.......

I did want to share with you my Valentine Swap Parcel (organised by AThriftyMrs)received from my lovely swap partner Beki
She sent the most lovely parcel and it felt like Christmas all over again :-)
Thank you Beki I love it all!!! I especially love the blue dotty heart because she made it for me :-)


hope you all have a good week!

haberdashery chaos........

>

I love haberdashery items and almost have a problem with acquiring more and more on a constant basis! When it takes me 5 minutes just to locate a bit of ribbon I wanted for a project I decided enough is enough and that the big sort out is needed sooner rather than later :-) I really struggle with that first cut into a lovely piece of fabric or find myself picking up ribbons and buttons and just appreciating them but never getting much further than that!

As today is my first full day at home with no children and no real plans as it snowed again last night (oh I am so over snow now can we move on please?) I have started "haberdashery control centre" and I may even make something today as well as trying to organise myself............. or maybe I will just eat biscuits and cram it all back in my special cupboard at the end of the day :-D

just adding this picture - I made this a few days ago when I first started my crochet hobby!! the lovely PetticoatLane had included this fabric in my Christmas swap parcel and I had been to nervous to use it but just did it and was quite pleased with the result :-) The very talented Henhouse makes a professional version of hearts amongst other fab things if you feel like treating yourself:-)

Take a Chance on me.............

A little while ago I was very fortunate to win the giveaway over at Periwinkle. I never win anything really so was completely over excited but anything out of the ordinaryness of everyday life is very welcome so I will not apologise for being as gleeful as a 5 year old :-) "Chance" as he is very nicely named made an appearance a few days ago and as you can see from the first picture was snaffled by small boy immediately!! I wrestled him back to take the rest of the pictures and marvel over how clever and talented Lisa is to have made him and his special blanket , thank you Lisa he shall be very well looked after in his new home


Chance had lots of cuddles as small boy was unfortunately stricken with a sickness bug resembling scenes from The Exorcist at one point but is on the mend and hopefully back in school soon unless they close because of the snow. It was a blanket of whiteness on Monday morning which was soooo pretty although when I ventured out to take a few pictures I was met by some very serious faced fluffy animals looking at me as if wondering what on earth I was doing so I dived back inside to the light and warmth of the house :-) I did feel a bit sorry for them being outside in this weather but also was eyeing up the particularly wooly ones thinking if I run out of wool for my crochet then I know where to go ............... ;-)

I did a little more crochet at the weekend as well and my flowers are improving, although I have wondered how many flowers I will do before I think enough is enough?? but as there are so many different types of patterns for flowers I think it may be a while yet :-)
Stay warm!!!
Lx

Flower power..............

Well guess what I have been preoccupied with the last 2 days??!!

The crochet thing clicked all of a sudden and became my new hobby of the moment which is great for keeping me occupied and away from the fridge in an evening as there are far to many food temptations at the moment to test me. I imagine my flowers etc will get much better as they are not very neat at the moment and look nothing like the flowers on the Attic24 blog that I followed the pattern for but they are definate flower shapes so I am happy for the moment and even found another flower pattern which you then circle round into more of a raised flower (the blue one in the bottom right corner) Hubby did look a bit concerned when I set myself up in bed last night surrounded by balls of wool and doing that silly tongue sticking out when concentrating on something but he knows better now than to question me and left me to it :-)

Today I am trying to make one to go with Mum's birthday present as, like all Mum's, she will pretend its the best thing she has ever seen even if it's rubbish :-D

Have a great weekend :-)

A (crochet) stitch in time........

One of my new years resolutions was to learn how to crochet...... A few nights ago I decided to start knitting for the first time in about 25 years. The knitting is ok but not one to be satisfied with the multitude of things I already have on the go, I had to get my head around this crochet lark. With the help of YouTube tutorials and a few balls of wool I found around the house, I have spent the last few hours teaching myself how to crochet :-) its a LOT harder than it looks and my eyes are starting to go blurry, early onset arthritis is setting in and my arms are aching from holding them in one position but chain stitch, slip stitch, single and double stitch have been mastered (sort of...) and even if I couldn't crochet in public (would love to join a knitting/crochet group) then at least I can nod knowingly when anyone mentions how they are having trouble with their half double crochet stitch :-D

Not sure how long my new found enthusiasm will hold out but my aim is to make one of the flowers on Attic24 blog and then I will be happy and move onto the next thing on my list :-)

Any hints and tips please send my way!!!

Lesley x
Edited on Thursday : I did a flower! it looks a bit genetically modified but its definately a flower :-)

You know your old when..............

firstly, thank you Alex for my award its so nice when you realise someone is actually reading your ramblings:-D
Ive also been tagged by
PillarboxRed & Beki so I have some thinking to do , Thanks Ladies, I enjoy both of your blogs :-)

Well, the wallpaper stayed up *cue cheering* and has received lots of positive comments including from Hubby which stopped me in my tracks as firstly there is a hint of colour, and secondly definitely some pattern going on which would normally induce uncomfortable twitching symptoms but I am keeping quiet and enjoying my moment of triumph..... I have more plans as well so watch this space!!! Although have been doing that rather dull and seemingly pointless job of painting the staircase......... how tedious and I have decided I am going to start a campaign to get Dulux/Crown etc to do a slightly off white gloss/satinwood which would enable me to just touch up areas of woodwork rather than the gleaming white contrast that new paint brings!! A "white with a hint of age" (around 2 years since last painted) should suffice........

Onto the "old" stuff .............. I had a lovely shopping trip planned with some blogger friends which isn't something I do on a regular basis (the shopping I mean!). Couple that with an evening arrangement ON THE SAME DAY and I start to worry........ will my stamina hold up? will I fall asleep with my face in the dessert that evening? Will I start to do my usual nonsense ramblings with my brain not quite functioning?? Well, despite my concerns I had a lovely day (although finished with my feet twice their normal size and sort of shuffled back to the car with the odd "ouch" every now and again) I indulged in a little light shopping (ok, more tat, but sometimes it is necessary tat!) I don't think the lady in the Cath Kidston concession had ever had such a group of enthusiastic shoppers before but a good time was had by all (I hope!) and my evening out at a lovely friends house who had made a fantastic job of a 3 course meal for a group of girlfriends finished my day off nicely. I bought some yummy fabric in Laura Ashley and am itching to get the children to school tomorrow as feeling like I NEED to make things again after having a few weeks away from crafting. I also was nearly drooling over the knitted throw in Cath Kidston but am going to re-acquaint myself with knitting and attempt something myself!!! The Daughter has a new duvet cover but will do pictures another time of it in situ.

As today is Sunday we have a very lazy day planned and Small Boy is currently indulging in his new Wii Game and totally engrossed in Mario Kart...........



If his driving skills now are any indication of the future I can see some very expensive insurance claims coming our way...............

Edited to add: Thank you Beki for my award I will pass it on soon!!

Wallpaper progress...............

 

I took the plunge today and decided to have a go at this wallpapering malarkey............ hmmmmm 2 hours later totally despairing of how hard it REALLY is I think I will leave it to the experts in future but for my first ever go at wallpapering I am sort of pleased with my efforts!!

I have taken this picture and am blogging immediately to record this momentous moment as I have a feeling it will all be on the floor in the morning having fallen down overnight :-D

Lesley x

Making your mind up!!!

Week two in the Diet Zone didn't go too well - I think it may have been that Mars Bar that I ate or maybe the Kettle Chips and dip........ whatever it was I fell off the wagon for a few days but I am back on it again now!!! I weighed myself this morning and think I have lost almost 2lbs (yes every ounce counts!) but my scales don't weigh anything less than a pound so I need some of the WW ones that Vintage Tea mentioned which weigh in 1/2 pounds as well. I found myself re-weighing and trying to hover over the scales to get it to tip into a 2lb loss but it kept flashing between so will count it as 1lb for week 2 and hope I get the benefit next week!

I really find I struggle in an evening mainly so may need to resort to going to bed around 8pm as the cheese and crackers call to me from the kitchen......... I can do without chocolate relatively easily but anything savoury isn't safe !!!

I am "trying" to keep myself busy and occupied though. I had a trip to a friends house last week that I hadn't visited before and seeing how lovely her house was decorated I have been acquiring wallpaper samples :-) the trouble is I am so indecisive with these things !! I have been known to deliberate for some months and spend a small fortune on paint samples to identify the best "off-white" colour that I like........ So chosing wallpaper is a whole new ball game to me as its not something I have ever really ventured into. If you look at the samples here the turquoise one with butterflies on I MUST have for The Daughters bedroom.... even if she doesn't like it :-D

Bye for now
Lesley x

edited to add : The lovely Alex has given me an award - Thank you Alex! will pass it on in my next post and also do my Tag from Beki!!

The Heart of the Matter

Following on from MaryPoppins, Country In The Town, LittleGem & SerendiptylovesNewYork I had a look round and noticed how many heart objects I have in my own home:-) I didn't even realise I had so many but that applies to most things in my house! This is just a few of them................





Be back on Monday with a new post but had a few hiccups re: Operation Diet which basically means eating biscuits and crisps on more than one occassion but slow and steady wins the race :-) I have also been trying my hand at making a little fabric bird for Mia. I have to hold my hands up and say I am not a natural "crafter" but I tried my best and this is my current prototype before I make one in the fabric she has chosen :-)
It's not very good at the moment but a few tweaks and it should look a bit more birdlike!!

Currently, I am hiding indoors before a trip out later on today as I had my eyebrows waxed this morning and look like I have done ten rounds with Mike Tyson at the moment..... The joys of being female ! but if I dont have them done then they take over my face and I end up looking like Noel Gallagher from Oasis with one large bushy eyebrow so needs must :-)
Have a lovely weekend x

He's behind you.........................

Hi there on this wet dark Monday morning - a good start to the week ?? The above is my new toy that I am sure you all have already but I am loving it. It's just a silicone egg poacher but I am the world's worst at poaching eggs for some reason so this makes things a lot easier! I am going to start clucking if I eat any more eggs this week though so I think the novelty is about to wear off :-)

I did have a good start to my week in some ways - Operation Diet is going well and the detox/strict calorie counting of my first week resulted in 6lbs gone this morning:-) obviously I cannot keep that up but if I can chip (oooo chips yummy) away and lose a pound a week maybe then I will be happy with that :-) I have been watching the Paul McKenna "I can make you thin" programme over the weekend - some good hints including techniques to use when you get a particular craving which involves tapping your face/neck/hand etc but I was attracting funny looks in Tesco when I tried it so just had to learn to resist the crisps aisle instead..........

I had a good day on Friday as well - a little visit to Mary Poppins in the morning who was a lovely host as usual and her house is coming along a treat and looking very nice indeed! Then I had the pleasure of going along on the annual pantomime trip with Mia and Jacob's school. We watched Snow White with Claire Sweeney and Johnathon Wilkes (Robbie William's friend) and it was very good I was pleasantly surprised! A bit of "Mercy","Back for Good" and High School Musical songs and I think I was singing and joining in far to enthusiastically at one point!!! It was a long day though and the hour travelling back with a coach full of tired children (and adults) was a bit trying but it's only once a year thankfully :-)

To keep me busy today I am having another go at de-cluttering - it came to a head when I tried to find a Tupperware container with a matching lid and ended up tipping out every container I had resulting in a large pile to sort through. I will get to grips with this de-cluttering concept but really struggle with the getting rid of things and have the "oh it may come in useful" mentality as soon as I start but I plan to be strict with myself. Another job is sorting out "one" of Mia's bookshelves but I don't mind sorting out nice things it's much more enjoyable :-)

Mia owns a very substantial amount of books and has another full height bookcase besides this one and again I find it hard to get rid of any as I love books myself and have the same problem! I do need to sort out the children's rooms a bit though including their wardrobes but will need extra stamina for that so it may have to wait a while!

Hope you all have a lovely week whatever your plans may be and don't forget to sign up for Thrifty's valentines swap if you fancy joining in :-)