Monday?

I seem to have blinked and a whole week went by!

I'm pleased to say Monster is much better. He had a very heavy cold but no sinister flu symptoms and was packed off back to school after a couple of days driving me mad.

I then spent the rest of last week catching up on work, as I'd had to cancel several meetings thanks to sneeze-boy. Only eight working days left and the holidays begin - woohoo....I can't wait!

Just a gazillion reports, numerous meetings and lots of cruddy worky I.T. problems to wade through first.....not to mention school disco, sports day and awards ceremonies to attend.

Still, there's six lovely weeks of long and lazy get-ups to look forward to.

The summer reading library is well stocked and thanks to Jo, I now have two extra books and some sustenance to enjoy :)



A brief foray to a local charity shop last week, saw me come home with a very pretty little cakestand - to which we added homemade Rocky Roads.... purely for the sake of providing blog-fodder, you understand ;)



By Friday night I was desperate for a little creativity. A pink cotton curtain from the Scrapstore and a bag of scraps from Cinnamon Kids, teamed with an old crochet doily, were the perfect ingredients for a pretty new cushion for our bed.



Yesterday, I was forced ;) to stay at home with Monster as he just didn't feel like going on a bike ride. So, while Moogsdad and Minx disappeared for the afternoon, Monster and I settled down to a gentle few hours pottering.

I'd developed a sudden overwhelming urge to crochet something circular.......



.....and rainbowy......

......and finished at 11.30 last night.....another bl***y cushion, as Moogsdad calls them.

What is it with men and cushions?

Don't hear him complaining when he rests his weary head on them after a long day's breadwinning!

.......and the reverse of the bl***y cushion

I now have to resist the siren call of my crochet stash and put my mind to teachers' presents and a birthday present for Minx's friend........any suggestions gratefully received!

Have a lovely week :)

xxx

A lovely day

The children are in bed. Moogsdad is snoring on the sofa - after a hard day as a lone parent ;-)

So, now I can blog about a really girlie day out in Winchester.

Trashy, Maria and I met on the Guildhall steps just after 10.30.

Handmade @ Winchester was our first stopping off point. There was a good range of stalls, with some lovely jewellery, handmade soaps, textiles and ceramics. The first stall to catch our eye was full of the most gorgeous hand-dyed yarns from Ni Mu and each of us was unable to resist a little yarny indulgence.

Then I made my way, as quickly as was decent - without appearing to rush past all the other stalls! - to a stall I had been very much looking forward to seeing....

It was great to finally meet Monda (and Mr Monda!) in person. As happens so often with meeting fellow bloggers I immediately felt at ease with Monda. Her stall looked great - just check out those fab big birdies on the board behind the stall - and the softies are even more gorgeous in real life - especially those little monsters :)

After a bit more browsing and a bit more buying, it was time for a long and leisurely lunch, indulging in good food, good conversation and a healthy dose of people watching.

Whilst people watching we'd noticed one or two Cath Kidston carrier bags passing us by. Of course, this warranted further investigation!

I had no idea I had one of these so close to home!

The shop's only been open for four days and we all lost ourselves in here for a nice long time. Soooo pretty :)

Due to getting home and finding a very flustered husband, very stroppy Minx and not very well Monster, I've had no time to photograph woolly purchases or the very pretty summer top I bought for Minx from this maker.

I did manage to sneak a minute to snap Monster's new monster - Boris :)

....and the gorgeous cards made by Monda.

Yup, a truly special day. I feel more relaxed now than I have for ages - thanks to a day full of pretty things, good conversations, a rather nice lunch and lots of laughs.

It's a good job I've had a relaxing day as Monster is full of cold - fingers crossed it is just a cold - and I have a feeling I may have his company tomorrow. Luckily he's got a brand new woolly monster to snuggle up with :)

xxx

Saturday round up

Warning: this is a very mish mashy post!!


In readiness for all that summer reading - of which, more later - I've had a week of finishing off some works in progress.

First , some very bright rainbow socks for an upcoming birthday - knitted in Katia Mississippi cotton - lovely to knit with during the heatwave!




Next, another crochet cushion. I had a yearning to do a Granny flower square with some bargain Cygnet cotton that I picked up for £1.50 a ball at a local discount store.



I'm so happy with how cheerful and summery this cushion is and I like the back almost as much as the front.




Moving on, I had a day off on Friday. It's seemed like ages since I had a day at home all to myself. Although I should have been sewing for my Seaside Swap partner, and getting things made for some very outstanding PIFs, I just had to give in to a real need to make me a skirt.

I had a lovely big denim curtain -one of three curtains and numerous other things I scored in a recent Scrapstore visit - and was dying to make myself something with it.



A 38 pence zip, a little applique with some Fat Quarter swap fabric from Natasha. and some bias binding from the charity shop resulted in a lovely new skirt that cost me less than £1 :-)

Something very special happened last night.

Monster was out at his friend's house and we had Minx all to ourselves.

Without her brother around to argue with, she was at a bit of a loose end. I tentatively suggested she go and find her knitting.

I've tried several times before to teach her but it's always ended in frustration for both of us. Minx is a very capable little girl and just hates not being able to 'get it' first time round.

However, last night I only had to show her the first two stitches of the row and she had it. Yes, it's rather holey and at times a bit tangled but she sat happily for nearly an hour clicking away.

What thrilled me even more, was her sitting in her nightie this morning doing another two rows all on her own :)



She's a chip off the old block. With just a few minutes to go before Moogsdad took them both out, she just had to squeeze in another quick row!



While supervising Minx's knitting, I made this little chap from the wonderful pattern that Julie so kindly sent me yesterday. My very own Little Cotton Rabbits hodger :-)



Onto the garden news.

The harvest has started.



Better not eat it all at once ;-)

Now then, I just have to say a big THANK YOU to all of you for your fantastic book recommendations!

I've spoiled myself a little at Amazon. I would have gone to a real bookshop but I stupidly got myself accidentally signed up to Amazon Prime earlier this year and have to order from them to get my money's worth!

Still, I ordered these on Wednesday night and they got here on Thursday morning, which can't be bad.



Minx and I had a happy half hour at the library last night and I scored some of your reads plus one or two extras. The top one is a Persephone book and I had to take it out just because I was amazed that our little library even had it!!

Whilst taking those photos, I happened to notice Moogsdad's summer reading selection and thought I'd share it with you......

.....any phsychologists out there? Just what would you make of this little lot?

Phew! If you made it to the end - congratulations!!!

I should be back tomorrow, as I'm going somewhere very exciting with fellow bloggers :-)

xxxx

Summer reading

With the summer holidays looming, I'm feeling the need to gather a little library of summer reading. Although I love my local library and can spend many a happy hour browsing through the shelves at Borders or Waterstones, I often find the huge number of books on offer more than a little daunting.

I've just spent the past thirty minutes browsing online and am still none the wiser.

Therefore, I thought I'd turn to you. What book or books would you recommend?

I will read almost anything - including the back of the cereal packet but do love a good page turner that keeps you hooked and leaves you with that strange mixture of euphoria, at having read such a great book, and sadness that it's finished.

So now it's over to you - what are your favourite summer reads?

xxx

A little cookery and hookery

First off, I need to fulfill an obligation. Having promised to write a review on my blog in return for a free box of Abel and Cole organic fruit and veg, I feel it's only fair that I do so.

As I said previously, I have wanted to try an organic box scheme for ages. I was really pleased with the selection in the A&C box and the contents lasted us for several lovely meals. I think our favourites were the sweet carrots and new potatoes. In my opinion, the broad beans were delicious - not an opinion shared by the children but then that doesn't surprise me, as I wouldn't go near a broad bean until I was at least 20!

The lettuce was very tasty and crunchy - and any less crunchy bits were enjoyed by the chickens.

The watermelon went down a treat, as did the apples. I wasn't so impressed with the bananas, which didn't seem to last very well, and soon went black. However, not one of them went to waste, as they were turned into banana cake and banana custard ice cream.

I think the thing that struck me most of all, is how determined I was not to waste any of the fruit and veg at all. Every little bit got used up and I also made much more imaginative meals than usual.

It's so easy to get stuck in a rut of buying the same veg every single week from the supermarket, or even the farm shop. Having the choices made for you, really does encourage you to be a bit more creative and lot less wasteful.

So, will I be placing an order? Most definately, but possibly not until autumn as we'll be living off the homegrown veg for the next few months. This week we have mostly been eating mange tout :)

Now then, now then....onto something pretty.

Baking for the cake stall at Saturday's school fair.



I really enjoyed the school fair this year. Could have something to do with the fact that I was right next to the Pimms stall?

In lieu of anything sewey, I have been very busy with the hook this week. I find crochet extremely therapeutic when I'm feeling slightly wound up....let's just say, my Dad is still in hospital, my brother's family have swine flu and Dad is not helping my brother by helping himself!

So, over four evenings last week, I made a little hooky cushion - edged in cream, because I started making this knowing I had only one ball of the turquoise and the yarn shop no longer stock that colour.



Once that was done, the hook was in full flow, so I made a few pretty squares for hooky cushion #2.



I've just got the back to finish on this one ....but seem to have become distracted by some gorgeous rainbow sock knitting....

There are plans afoot for a full day of sewing this week - and about time too!

I'm now going to water my poor parched veg patch - phew, it's been hot today - 26 degrees inside the house ....no laughing you southern hemisphere types!!!

I know some people who are too hot when it hits 20 degrees :)

Hope you have a lovely week, whatever the weather xxx

Top tip from the kitchen of Moog - and a nice looooong walk

Just in case you were ever curious about what might happen, should you forget to ensure the 'paddle' is in your bread machine prior to baking your daily bread, here is photographic evidence:



On the left....with the paddle....on the right..without - same ingredients, same settings on bread machine. It would seem the paddle is very necessary, when it comes to making an edible loaf.

Hope that was useful :-)

On a less disastrous note, good use has been made of the freebie Abel & Cole veg box, with a most delicious coleslaw using veg box carrots, leftover veg box cabbage and spring onions - yum!



With no crafty doings to show you, I thought I'd share our Saturday walk.

When the babies were small we would be up and out, bright and early, every Saturday morning for a good long walk - each of us carrying a baby in a backpack. I was very much fitter and thinner then!

Somehow, we got out of this habit once the children started school.

Moogsdad decided to remedy this on Saturday, by selecting a gentle 6 1/2 mile walk in a part of Hampshire we had never explored - using our trusty walking guide.

The start was very promising. Even if it did take us 40 minutes to find it - thanks to the wrong road name being given in said 'trusty' walking guide!


It took us very little time to realise the guide was somewhat out of date - for this walk at least.

A great deal of lovely woodland management work had evidently taken place - resulting in every single footpath mentioned in the guidebook being moved to goodness knows where!

The maps and text in the guide bore no relation, whatsoever, to what was 'happening on the ground'.




We valiantly persevered - over stiles.

Through ear-deep swathes of flora.

With Moogsdad stopping frequently to frown and check his bearings.

Until, finally, we managed to find something that was in the guidebook!

The remains of Odiham Castle.....

....and the beautiful, incredibly clear-watered Basingstoke canal.....

...that someone was most happy to take full advantage of :-)

Despite the fact that we somehow managed to walk what felt like 10 miles, rather than 6, it was a great way to start the weekend.

Even the children enjoyed it - once they'd got over the shock of being made to walk for more than an hour :-)

xxx

An uncooperative clothes horse

No....stop it.....keep still.....stop jigging around......



.....don't stand like a robot.....relax and look natural....



.....nooooo...not that natural......stand up nice and straight.....



......oh, I give up!

You get the idea right? I made the girl a new dress.

Note to self: next time just use a coathanger!

xxxx

p.s. and Angela, if you're reading this you may have noticed I used a leftover bit of your fabric for the yoke - thank you!!