Saturday 31 March 2012

Another wandering Wednesday

There were lambs to be seen. Fresh as the newly mown grass on our walk. New as the spring bulbs in flower. Delicate as the gauzy blossom. Young and so delighted to be gambolling on our hillsides. It made me wonder:
  • Do those born in the countryside still get the same sense of wide-eyed excitement and childlike glee at the sight of the first spring lambs?
  • What about the farmers - do they also feel like this or is lamb simply livestock?
  • How do such glorious, giddy little creatures - so full of skippity energy - turn into the sedate, mundane sheep? (No offence sheep, but you do seem to have lost your sense of lamblike wonder).
  • And are we just as bad? Oh I hope not. I'd like to still be making a fool out of myself over spring's hatchlings, sucklings and sproutings when I'm old and grey.
By the way, there were also tiny toads whenever our steps took us streamside, heading from winter hibernation to the scent of water. They were so lovely to watch and we saw so many, crawling and pouncing their way home. But I won't show you the photos of the macabre sight of so many who had reached a squashy end en route to their earthly heaven. Go slower cars, there are toads about!


Wednesday 28 March 2012

Nine things

The week that was; the week that will be...
Alexander Henry 'zoo' fabric, from Fabricworm

  1. I'm a little a lot late posting this week. My mother-in-law was here for the weekend, the sun has been out and uncommonly hot, and so the computer has been a bit neglected.
  2. Speaking of the weather, we've been in the play park, lunching outside every day for nearly a week, and gardening a lot. Our garden looks lovely now. For the first time ever (after giving up on any hope of it) I've been bitten by the green-fingered bug. Not that bugs have fingers.
  3. I've been receiving fabric through the post and getting embarrassingly excited. There's been a lovely batch of 30 felts from Giant Dwarf and three half-yard lengths of Alexander Henry 'zoo' fabric in three colourways - see image above! I'm completely potty about the zoo fabric. It's for the Tiny One's birthday quilt and I'm so desperate to get started.
  4. Speaking of which, all the fabric's arrived and ready to go, and I've found this wonderful 'quilt as you go' tutorial online that should be just the right thing for my first foray into quilting. I'm off to John Lewis for extra thread supplies and wadding (batting in Americanese) tonight, then off we go.
  5. The Tiny One has become very wilful. We're even getting toddler-style strops and he's not even one yet. I like that he knows his mind, and I like that he communicates it. But tantrums by one? From my easy-going little sunshine?! Oh well, onwards and upwards.
  6. My 90% lovely Big One has developed 10% very stroppy attitudes. Over things like unwashed P.E. kits. Thank goodness the Little One is taking a break from his terrible twos. Two at once is not great, but three boys with stroppyitus at once would send me right over the edge.
  7. The Easter Holidays start once the Big One gets home from school on Friday. I have some decorating and baking planned. Watch this space.
  8. My sewing corner is getting used! Oh ambrosia to this little sewist! (PS, I am relegating the word sew-er to the dustbin. It sounds right when I say it but in print its sewage-related homograph puts me right off. Will sewist do instead?)
  9. I have a dream of waking at 6am after eight hours of restful sleep, and getting in a full hour of 'me' time (shower, laundry, blogging) before the boys wake at 7am. My reality is getting woken at least once, if not twice, between 4-6am and often having an awake Tiny One who will not go back to sleep. This has been going on for two months. I have had enough! Unfortunately neither the Tiny or Little Ones seem to understand this. I've been awake since 5am for three mornings in a row now. The bath-coffee-smile cure is no longer working.

Sunday 25 March 2012

My sewing corner

I have dreamt of this for so long. It's just a corner of the playroom. The shelves are old and basic, and too small. The table is borrowed only until May. The wallpaper is awaiting redecorating.
But it is my little space and when I see it, all I can do is smile and force myself to turn away from the lure of the sewing machine. I want to sit there all the time. Sun streams in through the afternoon window, and in my peripheral vision I see the world walking past. My Nanna's antique Indian embroidered tablecloth lies on the table. My dad's antique embroidered Christening gown and underdress hang from the picture frame. The piles of not-neatly-enough folded fabrics look set to topple, and call me to stitching. Bags I have made hang from the shelving; quiet moments of pride. Swatches of felt I love from Giant Dwarf tease me on the wall. Books and magazines lie patiently on the shelves, as does an undressed pillow, drawers of buttons and ribbons, and an old box of felt. My sewing machine is patient but welcoming. It wants to sing a stitching tune. All the while that I am not sat there dancing with it, I am humming its song to myself. Round and round the song goes in my head, as the housework and child rearing take precedence. Then an hour or two can be grabbed and we waltz again.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Organising the pretties

Spring cleaning, spring sorting, spring organising. I seem to have had it worse than ever this year (or better, depending on how you look at it). Much of it has been quite practical and very satisfying. But organising needn't be utilitarian and dull. I have also been organising the pretty things in life too. And voila:
And here is a close-up:
I have been looking for a pretty but practical way of storing my earrings for ages. Here's what you need to do, should you be equally inspired...
  1. Find yourself some broderie anglaise style fabric. Lace would also do. You need it to be in long lengths, and, crucially, you need it to have holes in it that are just the right size to easily slip an earring through, and for a stud earring with a butterfly clip on to stay clipped in (if the hole's too big, they'll slip right off!)
  2. Cut the broderie anglaise into lengths that are right for your space and your earring collection. Tip: cut longer than you need! Nothing's more annoying than buying more earrings and finding you've got to get rid of old ones to fit them in to your display. (Also, this is a perfect excuse to 'need' to buy more earrings.)
  3. Pin your fabric onto your wall. I used clear noticeboard pins and a hammer. Unfortunately I also used my building-obsessed Little One who hammered so enthusiastically he broke the ends off a few pins! Use your eye or a spirit level to get your fabric straight. If you are setting more than one length of fabric on the wall (as I did), make sure the lower length is parallel to the upper one and that the spacing between the two is enough to allow your longest earrings to hang without overlapping.
  4. Add additional pins to the fabric as well as the ones at each end. This helps to support the weight of your earrings. My two strips of broderie anglaise are about half a metre long and have 4 pins in each.
  5. Get hanging and clipping your earrings in! If you have an unfortunate mix of mild OCD and an artistic eye like me, hang them in colour groups. Scarily satisfying.
  6. You may find, as I did, that the weight of the earrings causes the upper section of your fabric to warp (you can see this slightly in the top picture). I used clear sticky dots behind the worse sections to hold the fabric to the wall.
  7. Ta-dah! I am unashamed to admit that the sight of my pretty earrings all lined up, pretty and colour coordinated cheers me up every morning.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Spring has sprung

The Spring Equinox was yesterday. We are officially in Spring and I am going just a little bit la-la-crazy for it. A big welcome!
I have lots of new beginnings to show you and to write about over the next few days. Watch this space!

Monday 19 March 2012

Nine things

The week that was; the week that will be. And I have a very excited post for you today...
Michael Miller's 'cake' fabric, found at eQuilter.
  1. My blog has passed its one year birthday and its 1000 page views milestone. I was mucho excited until I read on the Smile & Wave blog that it gets 3,500-6,000 hits a day. I have 1,000 in a year. Ho hum.
  2. My sewing corner is done! I see it and it looks like heaven. I work in it and it feels like heaven. I hope to show you some photos later this week.
  3. My parents came last week and it was just lovely. Happy Mother's Day to my fabulous mother, and a happy Mother's Day for me, spending it with them and my boys.
  4. Fabric arrived in the post and my mum brought me all the vintage fabric she had selflessly let me steal from her stash. I now have a mountain of fabric and that mountain touches heaven.
  5. When the posted fabric arrived, the two-year-old said "Mummy, this fabric is mine and you can make me bags with it!" I love that this is so much a part of his world. He ran around the room trailing fabric in the air behind him, throwing it into concertina piles and rolling in it. He acted out how I felt.
  6. What he didn't know is that the fabric is for the Tiny One's quilt and I plan to start it this week. Not at all nervous about my first quilting foray. Chomping at the bit.
  7. I also got the book, The Craft Business Handbook, and am two chapters in. Yes readers, this hobbyist is planning on turning her passion into her vocation. Currently, I am stuck with the precarious balancing act of stay-at-home mum versus emerging self-employed sewist. Not sure yet how these two full-time jobs will squeeze into one full-time person, but we shall see.
  8. Today I have been a full-time grump of the shouty, impatient, exhausted variety. These moments writing with the babes in bed are bringing me back to myself and I am inhaling it.
  9. Interestingly, I am working really hard on getting more organised, sorted and scheduled in my life. For some, this would provide rigidity of the stifling variety. For me, I am finding it is settling me down while inviting my mind to dance and soar with creativity.

Wandering Wednesday

Walking is good for the soul. Fresh, clear air filling the cavities of your skull; earth tramped beneath your feet; eyes full of nature and weather; ears full of  birdsong and chattering water.

There is a glorious story to tell you of our walk last Wednesday. It includes streams, canals and mill ponds. Canadian geese pressing pause and refresh on their migratory journey. Ducks in gentle pairs, horses breaking into a run, coots sat atop miniature nest islands. Old railway buildings reinvigorated or left to delicately decay. Old mill buildings existing only in ghostly echo; old mill sluice gates rusting and mossing over, turning from engineering utility to al fresco art. The first hawthorn blossom innocently white yet singing so loud and brashly of spring. Gorse bushes yellow as sunflowers in midsummer; magnolias on abandoned manor driveways whispering an excited promise of glory; daffodils audaciously growing from dry-stone walls. Doesn't that sound like a story worth reading?

There is another story I can tell you too. It involves tears and tantrums over stones in shoes, bunched-up socks in shoes, the wrong snacks being brought, tired legs, tired feet, carries versus buggy boards, and coats versus jumpers. There is a baby sleeping gently but at the 'wrong' time, leading to a ruined afternoon. There are slow footsteps and short strides leading to a late lunch and a grumpy car return. In fairness, there is also joy at the ducks and birds, laughter at buggy pushing, and long stretches of walking beyond toddler years. There is time as a family, jovial greetings with strangers, enthusiastic sightings of yellow diggers and men at work.
The problem is that, Jekyll and Hyde-style, these two stories co-exist on the same walk, and I am not sure how to do justice to both in one telling. So I am leaving you with these worded snippets, a few photographs courtesy of the lovely husband, and a sneaky view of the darling but demanding Little One, happily tramping along with precious bear long after the grumblings and tantrums, and a little before the late lunch meltdown. Enjoy.

 T

Monday 12 March 2012

Loafing around

We made bread, the Little One and I. Let's see how many boxes this loaf can tick...
  • It's quick and easy - we made it in less than half an hour, and that's with a two-year-old 'helping'. Then of course there's oven time, but that's not too long either. (The recipe's name gives a clue: 45-Minute Pumpkin & Parmesan Bread)
  • A two-year-old can help!
  • No scales - just mug sizes.
  • It's filled with enough to make you feel that a) you can get away without too many toppings if needed - I ate it warm with butter, and b) you're covering lots of dietary requirements in one. Parmesan, olives, rosemary, squash - dairy and some of your 5 a day.
  • I moved a little left from pumpkin and used butternut squash. Heaven.
  • Which brings me to the most important point: it is really delicious. Really.
  • And if you're into bread making but need a short-cut, take this one: no kneading, no proving, just mix, shape and bake.
  • And if you're into impressing people, everyone thinks you're clever if you serve homemade bread. You know you're not, but you don't have to tell.
  • Want to make? Find the recipe in the Abel & Cole recipe book p.121. Sorry I can't find it online, but let me know if you want me to write it up here.
  • PS Photo courtesy of the lovely husband. Thank you my dear!

Nine things

I am not very good at efficiency in writing. Or speaking. I'm efficient in other things maybe, but give me some language to play with and I'd rather say the same thing three flowery, clever ways than one concise one.

Which is why my 'week that was; week that will be' posts had nine items each and probably bored you all to tears. Answer: "ta-dah!" consolidate! You may have noticed the post has been missing for a few weeks anyway (been on pause here in the last month of husband-revision-fest).

So in the name of efficiency, while retaining the spirit of looking back and forwards, I give you 'nine things'...

  1. The Tiny One has been ill, almost concurrently, for about three months now. His poor little immune system. Currently he has a slight gammy eye and a very snotty cold. He is usually walking (well, crawling) sunshine. So it almost makes it worse to see him so poorly.
  2. The Little One has been fine for weeks. Until Saturday when he complained of tiredness, chilliness and achy-ness all afternoon, wouldn't eat at dinner, then was sick at bathtime. Oh for some good health. The Little One has, however, been enjoying dressing up as a knight, some very serious building activities, and actually sharing with his little brother.
  3. The Big One had shingles, but is now fine. He went out to play tennis with a chum yesterday, on the old court in the playpark. It must be spring! We are getting some bursts of 'Kevin the teenager'. A sign of things to come?
  4. The lovely husband has finished his exam, hoorah! But has to wait 2-3 weeks for the results. Yah, boo, hiss. We are all enjoying having his time and attention again.
  5. My sewing corner is half finished and awaiting the big unveil. My parents are coming on Mother's Day weekend and bringing a large table for me to borrow. I am so excited and so impatient! Room for a sewing machine and cutting out? Yes please.
  6. Sewing has, nevertheless, resumed on the kitchen table. Watch this space. I feel home again.
  7. A friend's baby was born last week, and another is due in a month. I have felt mobile plans to share with you. First I have the perfect excuse for some indulgent felt purchasing from my favourite felt place: Giant Dwarf. Eco-friendly wool-blend in canary, moss or rhubarb anyone? Yes please!
  8. We had lunch in the garden for the first time this year yesterday. Jumpers on, but glorious!
  9. Lastly, we are in the last month of the Tiny One's zero years, so some party planning is afoot. The lovely husband says 'no party please, he won't appreciate it'. So far, my response has been a silly face blowing a raspberry. In the nicest possible way! It'll be lovely for him to look back on, and I believe so lovingly in the rituals and celebrations that mark and punctuate the key moments of our life, the bedecked arches we travel through. The first birthday is such a milestone. Teddy bear's picnic here we come.

Saturday 10 March 2012

Yellow fever

I've got it bad.
Photo credits (left to right, top to bottom): Anthropologie apron found here, Elise Blaha Cripe's tablecloth, Taza's yellow dress, Trapunto rug at Anthropologie, Asos dress found here, Rachel Denbow's bow garland, J Crew blazer found here, Emily Bowyer Liberty fabric, Emmersonmade skirt & clutch found here.

I seem to be having a really yellow moment. From mustard clothes to umbellifers on yellow fabrics, from primroses on the table to daffodils in the shops. I'm seeing it everywhere, wanting it, dreaming it. Maybe it's because it's early spring and yellow is such a sunny, happy, optimistic colour? It's not only me - Monica at 'Quilt while you're ahead' is suffering similar obsessiveness. So far all I've managed is four vases of daffodils around the house (courtesy of a very lovely friend), a rapidly diminishing primrose (from another), and a cheap mustard top from Tesco. Not satiated yet!

Monday 5 March 2012

Shhh, and close your eyes

Things have been a little quiet around here in my blog life. This is because there is nothing for you to look at.

The lovely husband, chief photographer for this site, has been on study leave. He is revising for his Big Exam at work (tomorrow). I haven't the audacity to invite myself into his bad books by nagging him for photographs. As you will realise from this post, blog narratives need illustrating.

Yes, I could take the photos myself. But he's a little possessive over his dSLR - and I know how I feel about my writing and sewing - so I don't like to tread on his creative foot too much. As you may remember, my camera's broken. Possibly dead.

So I will continue to be a little quiet and a un-illustrated for a day or two yet, and then it's full steam ahead again.

Wish him luck. Did I mention he's quite lovely? And he deserves it.

Thursday 1 March 2012

And spring comes Marching in

Oh joy! Yesterday was beautifully moody, with mist settled on the hilltops, drizzle in the air and a painted grey sky. Today - spring! Yes the daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops were already out yesterday (we're having the earliest spring we've had up north since moving up over three years ago). But they didn't look truly spring-like til the sun hit them this morning. Ping, all their lights came on!

 I have some grey shots from yesterday to show you. Today's will have to wait (the lovely husband, a.k.a my photographer, is shut in the playroom revising for his Big Exam at work).
And I also want to tell you that this post, this joy, this burst of spring comes courtesy of a lovely, lovely friend. She brought the bulbs when the season and my mood was wintry. She helped me plant them. She's a walking spring herself - nothing but kindness, selflessness and thoughtfulness. She has seen me through many a dark patch, and however murky she may be feeling she always gives me the gift of spring sunshine. I am so lucky to have her. Of all my friends, she is the one who has always given the most, to whom I want to give the most back, who deserves the most yet asks for the least. This post is a small thank you to her. I could not have got here without her, and I don't want to travel anywhere else in my life without having her in it.