Starting the week with some making, baking, sewing & happiness

Beautiful spring sunshine and a Monday morning getting the chores done (the joy of vacuuming) left me feeling optimistic and eager to get on with some projects!


I made some cards on Monday evening, only one of which I can show you as the others have yet to make it to their destinations. A good friend of mine had a little girl, so I made her a little collage card. I'm really enjoying the collage technique for my cards. As a teenager I was pretty good at drawing but I've discovered it's not like riding a bike - having held the knowledge of my talent so smugly within, I tried a decade later to draw again only to find I can't. Cue depressed self-loathing. And so I think I need a bit of collaging before I venture into the frightening world of the pencil again.



Then came the glorious spring sunshine on Tuesday morning, to which my little garden crocus in its regal purple - and no longer solitary - responded with thanks. As did I! It's like it's petals were clenched shut against the chill of winter's last breath, and then opened with a little 'aaah' of relief. It's also been joined by a lot more garden growth and the hellebore lower down in the garden has sprung back to life. We've only been here for six months so I feel a little guilty calling these plants 'mine', but since I've inherited them I think they could do with a little loving and stewardship. I have a weekend of gardening coming up (complete novice) with my wonderful mum (not at all a novice). More to follow!

On Tuesday afternoon, the Little One slept for an unexpected and glorious two hours! Out came the sewing machine, the fabric for a couple of children's presents, the mug of green tea and a very satisfied me! It's been lovely to feel that the sewing is coming more easily now, and that although I'm still not following patterns, I'm feeling more competent at working out what to do and how. These fabric pieces frayed after pre-wasing. They will become bags, but worried about wear-and-tear, I've made each bag side its own turned-rightway-round sealed unit (there must be some technical language for this that I should be using - feel like all I can manage is gobbledegook) so that when I sew them together there's no way they'll fray apart with use. Don't you just love the Hungry Caterpillar pattern?! I adore Eric Carle's illustrations.

And when the Big One came home from school on Monday, we hurriedly made rhubarb muffins from an internet recipe to use up some slightly wizened rhubarb. Good texture, but too much vanilla and too little sugar. I think they'll taste better with a bit of thick yoghurt for breakfast. I did make a yummy Nigella Moroccan chicken stew on Tuesday night though, with double quantities so that there was a meal to freeze for post baby-number-three.

Oh, and pancakes! Followed Ruth's tips on the Pink Whisk, but probably should have done something fancy and exciting to post to the blog. The problem is, I'm such a sucker for lemon & sugar. And we've had quite a few Scotch pancake recipes recently. Maybe next year!