Sunday 31 March 2013

Woman at work

I'm redesigning the blog... I can't get it all done at once so please excuse the unfinished appearance while the decorators are in. x (and, ps, happy Easter!)

Thursday 28 March 2013

Musings: let's make a list

No this isn't a sand dune. This is snow. This is what spring looks like so far.
 
And in this weather, the Easter holidays are beginning. 17 days to fill with the boys: keeping us all happy and enjoying each other while the weather says "stay inside!" and "ditch your plans!"
 
I'm making a list anyway. I've got just over two weeks, and I want to keep them happy, me happy, and keep our world turning round...
 
: : The boring stuff first: having had all the chaps round, we need to choose a roofer to completely re-slate our leaking house-lid, a joiner to replace our leaky, rotting and drafty windows, and a builder to knock down our can't-open-the-passenger-side-doors-so-the-kids-have-to-exit-into-the-road front wall. Then we have to figure how to pay for it all, and schedule it all in.
: : It's going to be Easter! There are going to be some home-made hot cross buns and chocolate nest cakes baked, some felt decorations strung up, and an Easter tree made (if we can brave the arctic wind in order to grab some branches.)
: : The Tiny One turns two! Oh where did all the time go? But he's so ready for it, and we want to make it a day to remember. There are presents to wrap, cards to make and a cake to bake. He's asked for a satsuma cake (!!) Can't disappoint. And we have a surprise trip lined up for him [zipped lips].
: : Then, once he's had a few days to calm down and play with his presents, we're throwing him a little low-key bash with toy playing, cake eating, and chums dropping in. I need to plan some fire-fighting type decorations, bake some biscuits, stock up on the caffeine (for the grown ups!) and make another cake. We've chosen (predictably) a fire engine. But I don't want to use food colouring as he's so little. Time for some cunning plans.
: : I'm taking Elsie & Elise's blog (design) love e-course. I've decided to keep blogging, keep the unimpressive frequency of blogging, but take the design up a gear. You have been warned.
: : In order to do so, I need to spend quite a bit of time designing things on the computer, and book the lovely husband in for a photo session or two.
: : I also need to read the instructions for my smartphone's camera and work out how I can take half-way decent, stylised photos with a camera phone myself (since the lovely husband's photographing and my blogging are not coinciding enough.)
: : My parents are coming up. Let's plan some day trips.
: : And for the boys, some art sessions, baking sessions, and play dates. We need to focus on things we can do indoors that keep ringing the changes. They'd just get miserable if out in that arctic wind for too long. But I think we can plan for a couple of day trips to indoor museums or similar.
: : I've got stuff to do for my local baby & toddler group. Uninteresting for readers of this list, but if it doesn't go in here, it'll get forgotten about.
: : I have three quilts to make and I'm only in the cutting stages of the first one. Exciting but I just know I'm going to get disappointed as usual in my sewing plans. Tomorrow I hope to lay all the pieces out, play with their location, re-iron them all then start sewing up. Ha ha ha, like all that will be allowed to happen!
: : I also have a sewing commission to complete and a commission to scope out.
: : Not enough yet?! There's upholstery fabric to buy, an Ikea trip to make and an overnight trip to my mother-in-law's. Plus friends to catch up with, in person or by phone.
 
I feel tired just looking at it all. Better get started.
 

Saturday 23 March 2013

Nice Spring if you can get it


This was a week ago, early one morning.
 
I won't even bother showing you today. It's too depressing. There's a blizzard outside, several inches of snow and over a foot banked up in places. A bitterly cold easterly wind is roaring through the valley. It is sending the snow under our roof slates and there are buckets catching all the drips from our attic ceilings. It will take some time to dry out when all this weather's calmed down, and then of course there will be the cost of re-tiling our roof. We've had leaks before but this is by far the worst. I am trying to remain philosophical about it.
 
In other news...
: : I finished sewing my parents' quilt and gifted it to them. No photos. I'm having a strange photo famine at the moment that I need to make an effort to rectify.
: : I'm sewing a quilt for my brother now. And there's another one waiting in the wings for my auntie.
: : The two little boys are their own little gang. Watching them play together is just heaven on earth. The occasional squabbles are not. But then, of course, no siblings grow up without squabbles.
: : Our windows are also leaking. Our boiler broke. So did our fridge-freezer (four times), needing replacing. And our outside drain was badly blocked for sometime before the nice man came and jet washed it (but left a pipe facing upwards, causing the water from our sink to back up and flood under the cabinet and causing the aforementioned boiler to break). Trouble doesn't come in three's. The stress levels are undulating. The bank balance is sinking. I am trying to have an 'oh well' attitude about it.
: : I am typing this with a Little One on one side and a Tiny One on the other. Both are alternating between interfering with my typing, playing with toys on the desk, and practising their counting. I think I may have to vacate the computer rapidly!
: : Nearly Easter. Nearly the Tiny One's second birthday (oh my).
: : And time for me to decide whether to ramp this blogging up a gear or finish it altogether.
 
On that note, and with a nagging boy desperate to get on Word to type numbers in different colours, I shall leave you.

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Ho Humming

Ho hum.

So the blogging thing is getting a little less regular isn't it? The fuller my life feels in the real world, and the more I try to live my dreams rather than imagine them, the quieter things get on here.
 
And, let's be honest, I have yet to fully read the instructions for the camera part of my smart phone and my pictures are rubbish. The lovely husband's proper camera photos are perfect but, unfortunately, sporadic. And I'm not allowed to use the camera. Grr. It doesn't feel like a proper blog post if un-illustrated but here I am doing it anyway.
 
I will read the instructions at some point, I promise. I do finish things. Just... late.
 
In the meantime, my 'to do' list includes cleaning the insides of all the windows, cleaning the oven, sorting through my inbox, updating my diary and making a carrot cake.
 
Instead, I am on the computer this evening all layered up against the bitter cold snap we're enduring (the daffodils aren't liking it either). And I naughtily ordered some second-hand cook books last week so I'm about to head up to bed early with a cookbook and a notebook in hand. Truly, one of my most favourite and indulgent things to do is to read a cookbook in bed. So much for the housework.
 
Ho hum.