Notes from my days

He knows when you are sleeping...................

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:44:00 +0000

ooooooooooooooooooooooooo only one more sleep!! although the chances of any of the children in this house sleeping tonight are unlikely :-S I am trying to keep things calm and quiet but they are completely loopy at the moment but I am reminding myself that these uber excited about Christmas years will soon pass and I should enjoy them :-)

Presents are wrapped, Christmas clementines are bought (no idea why!),

Christmas cookery programmes on the television (again, no idea why as we are at relatives for Xmas but I just can't not watch Nigella )

All that remains is tracking Santa on Norad and trying to fit in a few Christmas films with the obligatory Terry's Chocolate Orange :-)

Wishing you and yours Happy Holidays!!!

Bye for now
Lx

Christmas is coming.........

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:24:00 +0000

Hello is there anybody out there!!!!!!!!! I have been absent from blogland for a while due to various commitments but couldn't resist popping back to see all the Christmas preparations everyone is doing :-)

We finally have our tree up but after a bit of a let down last year in the size of the tree that Hubby brought home, I had to be very involved this year! I am, however, a bit concerned about the size of the tree that didn't look that big outside at the garden centre but ended up needing some chopped off it to get it into the living room! Jacob did ask where I had got the magic beans from and if there was a giant at the top of it so it may be a bit on the large side............

We then needed 2 new sets of lights along with quite a few more baubles making it all a bit more of an investment than first thought :-) It is lovely though (for some reason doesn't photograph well) and I am enjoying snuggling up in there each evening with my glass of something sparkly (well it is December) and working my way through lots of cheesy Christmas films including "The Holiday" and "Love Actually" which are dug out year after year!!

We have also had the pleasure of the school nativity play - Hopefully I am not the only one who gets a bit emotional at the school children singing Silent Night etc !

I do hope all your plans and preparations are going well! I, of course, have left wrapping to the last minute and suspect it will be a mad dash on Christmas Eve to get it all finished !!

Bye for Now
Lx

kitchen capers..........

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:08:00 +0000

I won't go into the whole long traumatic stressful story of how a 3 day tiling job has ended up taking over 6 weeks (You could read this post though) ............. Instead I will focus on how I now have a clean, tidy, clean, usable oh and did I mention clean? kitchen ;-) Still some finishing touches to do but ignoring those for now!

You don't realise what you have till its gone but it was worth the wait :-D

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Making Monday.....

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:56:00 +0000

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................

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:22:00 +0000

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.......

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:41:00 +0000

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..............

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:42:00 +0000

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 :-)

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:16:00 +0000

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....

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:55:00 +0000

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..........

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:39:00 +0000

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......

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:39:00 +0000

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..........

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:24:00 +0000

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!

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:36:00 +0000

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...............

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:53:00 +0000

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....

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:08:00 +0000

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.........

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:27:00 +0000

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..............

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:36:00 +0000

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.................

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:02:00 +0000

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.................

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:29:00 +0000

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 .......

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:36:00 +0000

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

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:40:00 +0000

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)

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:31:00 +0000

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 ;-)

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:29:00 +0000

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 :-)

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:43:00 +0000

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.

lesley.shone@btinternet.com (Lesley (Notesfrommydays)) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:51:00 +0000

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