Nine things

The week that was; the week that will be...

Shipyard fabric from Fabric Rehab

1. The Tiny One learnt how to walk! Oh the excitement in this house.
2. He also learnt how to throw huge, arched-back, screaming tantrums. Over things like wanting a biscuit. Or a different biscuit to the one you gave him. Or a toy he wants. Goodbye little Mr Sunshine, hello toddler years (and he's only thirteen months old).
3. My mother-in-law came, and we had a lovely, simple time: She arrives by train and we can't all fit in the car for daytrips, so we're forced to be creative with all that's in walking distance. This is a good kind of creativity.
4. There have been some days of sunshine. Not quite warmth yet, but it feels like early spring instead of winter (don't tell the atmosphere that it's actually the last month before summer - I don't want to lay on the guilt too strong).
5. The to-do list has gradually been whittled away. I can't tell you how good this feels. Tiny successes are like air to me - can't live without them.
6. I have a lot of sewing and fabric hunting to do for the week ahead. Including buying the fabric above for the Little One's birthday.
7. Invites to send, plans to make. And there's the village May Queen to prepare for (Olympic-themed house and buggy decorating). And the Jubilee street party. Stop. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
8. I need more quietness and kindness to myself, by myself. Perhaps I should forget number 7. for now.
9. And there are nine long days until I see my mum again.

Nine things

The week that was; the week that will be

Lotta Jansdotter's 'Moira' in apricot, from the Echo collection & found here

1. We had a lovely walk, just myself and the two littler boys, across a gorge and up into town. There, we visited charity shops to buy provisions for our village May Queen celebrations (and toys too, of course), and checked out our new lovely greengrocers (wicker baskets!).
2. The lovely husband and I talked about ways to better manage our time, so that I can concentrate more on the sewing.
3. The Big One joined the army cadets. Downside: I'm not so into the soldier thing. Upside: discipline, sport and community. Good things for a teenage boy to be doing.
4. The two littler ones have been hard work. Tantrums and arguments. The Tiny One certainly knows how to stand up for himself now.
5. I baked a lovely rhubarb and stem ginger crumble. But we gobbled it up so fast, I forgot to photograph it to show you.
6. Finally ordered a new phone, with a decent camera. This is my solution to the whole blogging-without-a-camera problem, when I have to rely on a lovely but forgetful/busy/opinionated(!) husband to take blog photos for me.
7. The Bank Holiday weekend has mostly been filled with walking and cooking. The cooking has been good. So far, I have made the crumble, squash soup, hot dogs with homemade ketchup, prosciutto & melon salad, lemon meringue cake, fish pie, and boiled ham with pease pudding. I have so enjoyed myself!
8. This week I plan to focus on more sewing and more friend-seeing/calling.
9. And I'm aiming to try getting up at 5.30 for a bit of 'me time' or sewing/blogging before the little ones wake. I know, I'm going to be knackered. But the Tiny One wakes around then anyway, and if he's not gone back to sleep by 6.15/6.30, I have to give up and get him up. I have come to accept and not feel guilty about needing to start the day with time to myself. I just need a bit of 'me' before I spend my whole day devoted to everyone and everything else. Dawn it is, then.

Nine things

The week that was; the week that will be...

Eleanor Grosh's 'Zoo Menagerie' fabric, found here

1. We went to the zoo. Oh my. It was fab-u-lous. Purely through luck, we picked the only dry day amongst days of wind and rain. The boys, especially the Little One, loved it. The animals were just awe inspiring. There were a few uncomfortable moments when we thought they'd be happier free. But they'd also be less safe too, which is why the zoo's there in the first place. I can't recommend the zoo highly enough: Chester Zoo. Go!
2. It has been rainy, grey, and on occasion seriously windy, for weeks now. We've done some puddle-splashing and some indoor playing, but our patience is wearing thin.
3. I feel like I've been getting my mojo back again after a bit of a wobble.
4. It is my lovely husband's birthday this week. I have lots of plans, but none sewn - he likes things sewn for the house, but not for him (grrr!). House presents seem more of a joint present, so I will instead put my making energies into the baking realm. Probably also a bit of a joint gift!
5. My ironing pile can no longer be called such. Even 'mountain' is a bit of an underestimation. I should feel stressed about it, but I know it's been caused by too much sewing and I can't seem to find any guilt hanging around. Just glee!
6. I have sewn a mobile for a friend's boy that my last-year self would have given, but now it just looks too amateurish. Really not happy with it. I've given an apology, promised a late birthday present, and tonight I am going to attack it with the seam-ripper and start again.
7. I have quite a few baking plans on the rise in my mind. Watch this space.
8. I've only got about a month until the Little One's birthday, so I think it's time to start quilt planning again.
9. Now the day is calling me - a rare day of sunshine and just the barest of chills. I have a rosemary bush waiting to be planted, a honeysuckle to wind round a spiral staircase, and yet more grass invading the flower beds. So goodbye for now!

Nine things

The week that was; the week that will be...

Forest Floor fabric by Central Park, found here at Fabric Rehab

1. The Tiny One is coming on in leaps and bounds, quite literally. In the past few weeks, he has learnt to walk along holding onto his ride-on car, to turn it round a corner, to sit on it and push himself along - and backwards, climb the stairs, get down the stairs, stand without holding on, and screeeeeeem!
2. My sewing is coming along too. I am getting onto the sewing machine several times a week, often in the afternoons while the Tiny One sleeps and the Little One plays around, next to or on me. Even then, I love it.
3. We have had some lovely short walks, the two littlest and I, despite the drizzle. The secateurs come with us and I try and get a few sprigs of this and that for my kitchen table.
4. Speaking of which, there are buds everywhere. The uncommonly warm, dry March has given way to a cold, drizzly April. But the dip in the weather has taken the turbo-charge out of spring and let it take a more leisurely pace. I'm glad. More time to enjoy it.
5. We've visited our local Bluebell Wood twice in the last week. The floor is carpeted in bluebell leaves and there is the occasional fuzz of distant blue as they begin to bloom. So excited! We'll be going again before the week is out. And I have this post by Dragonfly in my mind as I try to keep patient.
6. Not much baking here lately, other than the burst of Easter bread and cake making (watch this space). I have plans to change it. A cake a fortnight, anyone? It's part of the plan to keep connected with my teenager. The Big One is increasingly independent and responsible for himself. But I don't want him to only be an annex to the family. Or continue being surly! We are trying to find ways to include him more without boring him, spend time with him on his terms, and talk to him with reasonable, adult conversations rather than just being cross with each other.
7. More card plans for the week to come. And present making. A dear friend has had a baby, and babies must have mobiles!
8. Shock horror, I plan to actually put some of my pinterest pins into action. That's where I'm heading after this.
9. And lastly, I have almost finished reading Alison McNicol's Craft Business Handbook. I have lots of ideas and plans, but I am forcing myself to take it very slow: it is two years until the Tiny One goes to nursery and I have mornings without children around. Until then, I have to pace myself. I don't want to wish their youngest years away. They may be hard, but they are also the loveliest years we'll have.
 

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.

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.

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.

The week that was; the week that will be

A weekly list. And yes, I know I missed last week. My excuse is illness, as you will see...

Train fabric, Echino Nico, Etsuko Furuya, Kokka, available from Fancy Moon

Last week:

1. The Little One got better. The husband took two (unheard of) days off work as he succumbed. The Big One as usual avoided all illness. But the Tiny One. Oh the poor Tiny One. He is shrinking in front of my eyes as a nasty sickness bug ravages his beautiful, chubby baby body. He feels so sorry for himself. We all feel sorry for him.
2. So not much has been done but...
3. I did treat myself to a joyful half hour stacking my fabric stash by colour. I know, you must think I'm mad. But wait til you see it.
4. I also purged my filing and reorganised all the household files. Organising has been a bit of a theme this past week.
5. And, as the Tiny One showed the first signs of illness, we made the train trip to my parents' house for the second half of half term. The Tiny One then was terribly sick all over me three times on the Virgin train as we travelled from north to south. The two businessmen sat opposite us 'kindly' vacated their seats so the Big One could sit with us too. I think it was the smell.
6. I have had a little time to myself at my parents. Been trying to get on top of blog and sewing plans.
7. My mum let me loose on her old fabrics. I was greedy!
8. The Little One discovered what a sword was.
9. I have been reading fashion blogs. An old love is reawakening.

And this week to come:

1. We leave my parents' house on Monday. Sad to go; glad to return to the husband; hoping we are all well enough for the journey.
2. I am putting myself back on the pinterest diet.
3. I will get to work on the new facebook page to accompany this blog.
4. And the new pinterest page, all ready to go but waiting some technical changes.
5. There is some serious cleaning and tidying to do.
6. And a wardrobe reorganisation. Fun, fun.
7. And I will be sorting out clothes that I think I can alter or remodel (how to get a new wardrobe of clothes with no money for clothes buying).
8. If we are all well enough, I think we deserve a day out somewhere lovely.
9. I am determined that winter is coming to an end. Time for some spring cleaning and putting away the winter things. Premature, maybe. But I am not known for my patience.