WOYWW - well the floor in this case......

My mum thinks I am bonkers, I have been hoarding boxes for a few months, this morning we have built a castle! At the front the draw bridge goes across the moat........ A very happy little fella is playing inside while being 'subjected' to the best of Def Leppard :)

In other news I did make my first piece of clothing using my new (I am in love) Jenome sewing machine. If you want more info check out the previous post. For more actual desks hop on over to the queen of desks, Julia Dunnit at the Stamping Ground.

 

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I made something at last

Well it seemed like a very long dry spell, I guess it is inevitable if you are so creative day in day out that suddenly you find your mojo has up and left. So how did I get mine back? 2 things, first I got a pattern I really liked, the bebe dress from Sew Serendipity, now it wasn't all plain sailing I am bigger cuddlier than even the xxl size covered but with the help of a book and a blog or 2 I managed to resize the pattern and using an old cotton bed sheet of my parents hand sewed a mock of the bodice and a sleeve :) and it worked! The next thing was I came across an ex-demo model of the sewing machine I really wanted, I am so broke now I old cry (but I do have enough material for 3 more projects so it is not all doom and gloom) and I love it, it made such a difference to my sewing it is amazing, hopefully I will get some tutoring come September and with Timothy starting school more availability.........

So what did I make? Well it is not all perfect, but I am very proud of it and I love the material, made me feel so happy to wear it the other day :)

Ok so I hope these photo's work, hedgehogs :D the second picture is just designed to show a close up of top stitching on neckline and sleeve (round the hem to) and the inverted pleat on the skirt (one on the back and one on the front). The dress is more generous than needed because while I don't mind sewing a zip I sure as hell can't be bothered trying to do one up at the back! Oh and it comes just above my knees (so I can finally crack out the 3/4 leggings!)

 

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Rocking Your World Friday

Here we are again :)

Gratefully time so let's see

Making and baking with my son, grateful he is happy to do these things with me, we made a sponge cake, single layer and topped with fondant icing then drizzled with a cocoa icing mix. The theory was to imitate Mr Kipling angel slices the reality was T ate the icing and I ate the cake (he hoovers all of the Mr K cake..........) later in the week we made chocolate biscuits with white chocolate filling (heading towards Oreos) he wouldn't even touch those. Grateful therefore my husband is back and the goodies get shared.


Finally doing something! other than baking, creative. Finished the penguin pincushion I started in February.........

Although the general consensus in Coventry is that pins should not be allowed to enter it...........

The sun coming out on Tuesday for a few hours meaning we got to the park - and the slide is wide enough for adults to go down :D

That I had a few nights decent sleep and felt refreshed because the last 3 nights have been pants

For lastminute dot com for having an overnight spa break deal including bed and breakfast for £65 2 for 1, back massages booked roll on 19th August!

For the idea of a girls night out involving cocktails in Kenilworth to look forward to at some point in the future.

Right that'll do time to post, hope I have figured out how to post photo's using blogsy and check out the other Rockettes, always starting with Virginia at Celtic House, the beginning :)

 

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Rocking Your World Friday

Baa baa lost sheep looking to return to the fold. Friday seemed an excellent day to get back in the swing of things especially when my crafting mojo is taking a while to rev up again. So here we go:




I am very grateful first off to have survived May and June. Earning the majority of our yearly income in 2 months is never going o be an easy task. I always pay for it o am week or 2 but no permanent harm done and mission accomplished.I am grateful for all my bloggy friends who forgive my absence and are still willing to chat and let me back in when I do re-emerge.

I am grateful for the friends who help pick me up when I am left alone with Timothy while my dh travels far and wide to conferences and for job interviews. Proud and grateful of my dear son who starts school in September (probably) for making me laugh, challenging me everyday and for waking me up at 5:30 with Where's daddy is he not back yet.......

Grateful and excited by the new fabric called Fox hollow by monoluna which is getting my crafting mojo to peek out from wherever it is hiding.

Proud of my tutee who I home schooled for just over 2 years in science and maths who really knuckled down in the last 2 months and now we wait nervously for August and to see if she has the grades for her college course.

Very thankful for the school holidays that mean I can take a few weeks break from tutoring.

Grateful for brilliant athletes. I didn't watch the end of the Andy Murray match because Timothy was asking me to read him stories and getting annoyed when I got distracted by the tennis then I would get cross so I took the tennis out of the equation. I can't imagine being one of the best in the world the at anything, I hope he does win Wimbledon one day I am sure he can.

Grateful for the seaside. I will go and visit some, somewhere, before this excuse of a summer is over.

I think that will do a wide and varied list me thinks........Happy Friday :)

 

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Checking back in

Wow nearly 2 months. No crafting has happened, no art has happened. It hasn't been a bad time lots of nice has happened. I just ran myself down. Too much staying in and being on my own with the little fella. Far too much illness, nothing serious just colds, tonsillitis, infected blocked sinuses but worst of all no energy. Easter helped a lot, rejuggling my tutoring should help further. The next 2 months ar hard. Lots of tutoring and exam marking get some pennies in storage. My little fella starts school in September, possibly in Coventry who knows husband still searching for the next position. Need a holiday but there are no spare pennies. So here is how it will be, no room for air working wise until the jun 20th ish, there will be a family visit to Scotland and 2 birthdays to celebrate. Then some time, T still in nursey and therefore Mondays and Thursday's free. Gardening must happen or food will not grow. The world will be re-entered into. While I may not post I do promise to come and visit which I have also been bad at............... Hope you are all well and busy :)

Rocking Your World Friday

Friday again - anyone else finding this year is slipping away real quick? Time to reflect on all the good and happy moments from the last week to remind ourselves that no matter what there is always something right somewhere :) Started by Virginia over at Celtic House and championed by a faithful team of Rockettes / Rockers.

Let's see people wise first up are my Mum and Dad. Who lovingly put up with myself and toddler for 2 nights to give me a break while dh was swanning around Boston and yes 3 days might have been work, but 2 were jollies (and your still not forgiven for going there when there is the rest of the planet to choose from). Said toddler always loves the excuse of a train ride that visiting my parentals invokes and was happy running trolleys around the fabric warehouse my mum and I visited and charming all the people there.  I am grateful for his personality, ability to entertain himself without causing havoc when needed, his unconditional love and the joy he gives me every day.  

For the friends who come round to visit when dh is awol and give me some grown up time especially Dott who I haven't spent one to one time with in a long while. As a person I survive the day to day by talking through things but that does need a person on the other end.

For the mouthy stitches swap which just worked so darn well.  All credit to the mama's that headed it up. The idea was that we were assigned a partner, stalked them then put together a plan. We then posted up hints and ideas about our plan on our flickr group and then waited for people to comment and hoped that the intended recipient made a comment so you could make sure you were on the right track. I am sure it worked to varying degrees depending on how well partners commented but I did just splendidly both ways. On Monday I arrived back from my hour and a half adventure to deposit child at nursery (my fault never learnt to drive and no desire to  - Toddler enjoys bus rides and of course has to do lots of exploring on the way - dh arrived back 8:25 very jet lagged and deposited himself in bed for a few hours and then on the couch). So anyway I arrived back home and there was a most definitely zippy pouched shaped parcel all the way from Australia :D  and only 8 days in the travelling (amazing). Now when I was looking and commenting (yes I'll show you in a minute stick with me) there was a lot of work that I admired, people from the quilting world. But there was one pouch which I fell in love with and it was the one that arrived on my doorstep :) my partner was Dolores who blogs at labouroflove, I nicked this photo montage from her site because it was so much better than anything I took.........

Turns out that W was for Wendy (and womble and woolly mammoths (furry elephants (and cows for that matter) are brilliant)). Not only is that pouch and all my scraps fantastic but it comes on the back of the fact that Dolores's favourite colour (and 80% of her stash) is the colour I hate most in the world (pink). Which links me nicely into the recipient of the pouch I made whose favourite colour was also pink and therefore provided me with a challenge. Cindy's response was everything a girl could hope for from a swap partner and blogged here. I am very grateful to Cindy for introducing me to Kate Spain's Terrain range of fabrics many of which I adore although they are quite difficult to get hold of here in the UK.

I am grateful to the couple of new bloggy followers/friends I have made through the swap and hope there will be more. I love the chance to chat to people.

I am grateful to Boots decongestant tablets and nurofen express that allowed me to get through a ten and a half hour tutoring session yesterday. The joys of being self employed, no work no pay. Once this is published I plan to do as little as possible today (having woken up at 3 this morning, gave up and got up at 5, all the chores are out the way so it is just the feeding that is essential left to do and hope toddler can mostly entertain himself.

Hope you have all had a splendid week to :)

WOYWW

Right at this minute (due to be removed for 11:30 so my tutoring can start) Chusby station (elf is looking a bit bedraggled at the moment as we are fighting a crusty scalp so he has been oiled!)

The reason we have made Chusby station is so that the train below on its tracks can pick up the passengers (which will be our family next time we get the paints out)

Also recently I finished the mini quilt that I have entered without much hope into the modern mini challenge (button over there somewhere). I say finished but I plan yet to do some more silver cloud quilting in the sky and quilt the curves that form the grass. A girl needs something to do of her evenings see..........

Oh and last but no means least the happy 17th birthday card mum that I was commissioned to make and was very well received (does it help if I tell you that the mum in question was born on the 29th Feb?

I am sure by now you are all familiar with Julia at the Stamping Ground (see WOYWW linky on the right if not) and fly visit desks, lots of desks and find everything from paper to fabric and in between.

Modern Mini Challenge

Right, it has been a year of firsts so far for me. I apologise for my quietness in some areas of my blogging life I will be back soon. The reason for my quietness is that at the beginning of the year I decided to join 2 challenges the first was the mouthy stitches zippy pouch swap and my pouch is winging its way across the oceans and I wait somewhat patiently to see what that person thinks and for my pouch in return. Hot on the trail of the Mouthy Stitches I found out about the Modern Mini Challenge over at Jennifer's blog.  I so enjoyed making my pouch that I checked I could make a 'circle' and I could, so I set about my plan, It is finally done and is definitely a tad quirky but I am happy.  

The quilt is 18" in diameter. My photography skills are needing some improvement so here are a couple of close ups to show the hedgehog with his rainbow crosses between his spines and body :)

And a close up of the birdies (plus the cloud complete with a silver lining ;) 

Thanks to Jennifer for giving me my next sewing challenge and Mouthy Stitches for providing the original boost! I am off to see the other entries (some which I already know are amazing) and to dream up more creations for my rainbow hedgehog :)

Rocking Your World Friday

Getting back on the wagon, seems I am an all or nothing girl at the moment.So having WOYWW on Wednesday and postcarded this morning the final thing left to do this week is to celebrate the positives of the last few weeks since I last joined in with Virginia and the the Friday Rockettes:

There has been bronchitis type stuff and busy type stuff but there have been smiles through it all.

My little man continues to make me smile, I am so grateful for having a healthy and happy boy. One who communicates better and better each passing day so it makes it easier to sort out issues as they come up. This week I drew Puffer Pete the train so he could paint him and his response was 'Thank you mummy, it's wonderful. There also followed 3 carriages and some paint and some stamps. I got to paint my daffodl postcard for Darcy's challenge :)

My MIL came down for a few days from Scotland. We didn't manage to get her down here last year with one thing and another other than for a flying visit around T birthday (which made the little fella happy). I have a good relationship with my MIL so I always look forward to her visits and she helps get me back on the straight and narrow I guess because I just feel that I have had a few days of support with the mundane in life.

I finished my pouch for the zippy mouth swap. Posting commences tomorrow. Excited to see what I am getting, nothing has obviously called out as being mine and all mine but there are a fair number that I would happily give a home to.

I got more tutoring, yay, so more pennies which will hopefully mean I have more chance of getting my mitts on the electronic goodies I want to get my mitts on now that the flat is no longer sucking us dry! Hopefully a girl can start to build a reputation (as the last 2 are based in schools) and I may get requested in the future. Also got invited back to do exam marking between May and June, gets a but crazy but worth it for the pennies boost.

I got commissioned to make my first card - hurrah and they approved of the sketch I put together. I finished the card a couple of hours a go but will wait until next week to post as they won't have it in their mitts until tomorrow.

Hope you are all well I shall be over at the weekend to catch up :)

Postcard challenge weeks 6,7 and8.............

Well it took writing a list - in all fairness Belgium was done it just needed assembly and writing. I managed to catch up on postcards on Wednesday while T painted and stamped on big drawings of a train and some carriages I drew for him.........

So I give you in very particular order, Belgium, Wales and Cuba and I'll see you at some point across the next few days........