Contented

A little bit of family history

A few of you guessed what my special present was, and Clare got it spot on.  This was my Nana's sewing machine.  Isn't she a beauty?  She's been stuck up in my parents'  loft for the last 20 odd years.   At various times over the years my mum has mentioned either getting it fixed or getting rid of it, as she would never use it, but I asked her this week if I could have it - and here she is!   My mum said that my Nana used to make her clothes with it when she was little, and I do recall that, one summer, Nana helped me to make a skirt as well, when I was, maybe 9 or 10?  

 
 
It dates from 1931 and still has the original instruction book and all the attachments.  I spent ages with it yesterday, picking about half a ton of lint out of the mechanism (!) and then trying to figure out how to insert the bobbin and thread the needle.  I couldn't get it to wind a bobbin but, luckily, there was one already wound in the little tool compartment, so I set it up - and it worked!

The tension was all way off but I was so pleased that it did actually work!  I'm going to give our local sewing shop a call to see if they might be able to service it for me, even though I don't suppose I will ever actually use it for sewing, but I just really wanted to have it.  It's such a beautiful piece of machinery, and it reminds me of my Nana too, of course.  We don't even have room for it!  If I had my own sewing room then I could have it permanently on display.  I really don't want to just put it back up into our loft, so I'm going to see if I can re-jig things downstairs and find a nice home for it.

 R x

Seven

Yesterday was Joe's 7th birthday.  He had a really lovely day, went into school happily, came out of school happily, was thrilled with all his presents and enjoyed all the attention.  We had his birthday outing on Sunday (Joe called this his "fake birthday"!) when we took him and two of his friends (and William) to see Fantastic Mr Fox at the cinema.  All the kids really enjoyed the film - I did too although it's not at all your typical children's movie.  After the film we came back here for birthday cake mark one...

And then of course I had to make another cake for his actual birthday too!

Yum....

I also got a very special present yesterday, but you'll have to come back tomorrow to find out what it was.  Here's a sneaky peak...

 
 R x

Friday

It's Friday and we're coming to the end of our half term break.  It's been a lovely, lazy sort of week, but the weekend is actually going to be quite a busy one.  It's Joe's 7th birthday next week so we are having his little birthday outing on Sunday (he doesn't really do parties) - a trip to the cinema to see Fantastic Mr Fox with his two best friends.  Tomorrow I will probably be whizzing around like a mad thing shopping, tidying and baking in readiness - we're coming back here after the movie for birthday cake so the dining room at least needs to be tidied up!  At the moment it's covered in school books, toys, random bits of paper etc - the usual crap!   On Joe's actual birthday we will have a little tea party with both sets of grandparents coming to visit, so that'll be another cake to make!  I must check our candle situation too....

Thanks for the comments about my planned table runner.  For those that were interested, this is the pattern I have my eye on..

It's the Rail Fence Runner pattern that was in Sew Hip magazine a couple of months back.  It looks pretty straightforward, but I'll let you know how I get on with it.

In the meantime, looky what arrived in the post this morning...

Have a great weekend!

R x
  

Half term

The first seven weeks back at school have flown by and we have next week off.  It's gone so fast, and both boys have settled back into school really well.  I wasn't worried at all about William and, aside from the extra nagging that seems to be involved (reminding him about homework and remembering which books to take), he has taken to secondary school like a duck to water.  I was concerned about Joe but it turns out I needn't have worried - he's settled into Yr 2 remarkably well.  I think continuing with his hour per day one-to-one with Katie has really helped and he is even going in by himself in the mornings too!  The trick is to get there early so that he can be first through the gate when it opens and he then runs in as fast as he can, to try and be first into the classroom!  His reading is still going really well and we're trying to work more on getting him to write - his least favourite activity!  He can be very uncooperative when it comes to doing homework, but I do need to make the effort to spend more time doing writing with him.  We don't have much planned for half-term - just a nice quiet week pootling about at home so hopefully we can spend some quiet time together practising words.  I found this brilliant website (after Angry Chicken blogged about it recently) where you can type in your own words and it then generates printable handwriting worksheets - Joe is currently obsessed with a Super Mario Smash Brawl (or whatever it's called!) video game so I'm thinking of printing out things like Mario, Sonic, Yoshi etc to try and spark his interest. 

First and foremost though, I'm looking forward to a week of lie-ins and no rushed start to the day!

Enjoy your week!

R x

One year older...

 

Yesterday was my birthday.  It was one of those big, milestone ones - let's just say I'm 21 with 19 years experience!  I had a really nice day, despite the cold (which is on the way out now, thank goodness - I'm a real wuss when I'm ill!)  The rain stopped and the sun shone all day for me!  Peter has had the whole week off and my mum & dad came down and we all went out for lunch - just Pizza Express but I do love pizza - and then home for cake after the kids came home from school.  A very low key affair but I don't like to make a big song and dance about it.  We'll be going out for a proper celebration with some friends soon, as soon as I can arrange babysitters (ie grandma!) for the kids.

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog a bit recently - nothing very much to post about - but I'm hoping that next week I'll be able to get down to some serious sewing.  I have four cushion inserts that need covers made so I'm quite looking forward to having some fun playing around with my fabrics!  Plus, of course, there's that "C" word approaching...

P.S.  I was almost beside myself with excitement when, in amongst the birthday cards, these arrived in the post this week...

 

Anyone else going?

Have a fab weekend, everyone!

R x

Still here!

Hello!  Sorry for disappearing there, can't believe I didn't manage to blog at all last week (although I did at least manage a post for TLBG Wednesday).  I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things now that the kids are back at school.  Last week Peter was off work, so it was lovely to be able to spend some time together, but it did mean I couldn't quite get back into my term-time routine!  My to-do list is filling up like you wouldn't believe, and it's mostly really boring but essential stuff (filing, lots of boring paperwork stuff, renewing house insurance, trying to get the house into a reasonably tidy state etc)  Hopefully, if I can get my arse into gear, I'll be able to get back on top of things this week and then I'll be able to start some fun stuff.

I can at least show you now the little secret something I was making back here. 

 

I used the "Little Pink House" tutorial, (found here), but instead of framing it in an embroidery hoop I decided to make it into a little mini-quilt for my Mum's birthday.

 

She was thrilled to bits with it, it was such a sweet, fun thing to make that I'm sure I'll be making some more in the future.  I'm going to make her something else that she can choose the fabrics for, like a bag or a quilt,  so this was just a little something to open on the day.

Right, must go and have some lunch now and then maybe I can tick another job off the list before the school run!

Have a great week!

R x

September

All over blogland I have seen people writing about how they are feeling the change in season and, I must admit, I am kind of feeling it too.  The boys both went back to school on Friday, Will to his new secondary school and Joe back to the primary to start year 2.  Will has been so laid back about starting secondary that I've been pretty chilled out about it too, but I do feel a little anxious about Joe still.  He was fine on Friday - his TA was waiting outside for us so that I wouldn't have to go in with him and they're going to continue to do that next week, to try and get him used to going in on his own, but I'm not sure how he'll be with that.  We'll see.  

September marks the start of peak birthday season in our family - all four of our birthdays fall within an 8 week window, starting with Peter's 40th this coming week (and my own 40th a month later - eek! how did that happen?  I could have sworn I only just turned 30!).  Unfortunately, the boys aren't so keen on the idea of lots of handmade gifts so some shopping has to be done, and as soon as all the birthdays are out of the way we are straight into Christmas!  Ack, I hate Christmas shopping!  (and I can't believe I'm even talking about the C word now either!  Sorry, I'll stop now)

I haven't been up to anything very much this last week or so.  I have a couple of rather big and tedious jobs on the to-do list (Peter's tax return and a pile of 15 curtain panels to be hemmed for the school's Santa's Grotto) which are kind of putting me off starting anything else until they are out of the way.  You'd think I would just get on with them wouldn't you?  But no, I've been reading instead, two very absorbing books that had been sitting in the to-read pile for ages.

 

Both very good books.  I'll warn you though, When Will There be Good News? is not a happy book.  It sort of works out ok in the end, but it really does seem like just one bad thing happening after another - I think that's what kept me reading it, I just wanted to know if anything good was ever going to happen?

Hopefully next time I'll have something crafty to show you.

Have a great week!

R x

Trying to keep up

There are now just two weeks of the summer holidays left.  It's gone so fast and has, actually, been relatively pain free so far!  We've not been particularly busy, but I am starting to feel like I just can't keep up with everything - housework especially.  Now, you know that housework is not my strong point (!) but, honestly, with the kids around all the time it's just getting ridiculous!   No sooner do I tidy something up, than they come in and trash it all again!  Joe's toys are EVERYWHERE, and William is still leaving his stuff all over the place, despite several reminders to pull his finger out.  Although I'm not yet at the stage of wanting to scream, I'm starting to feel it might be nice to have some time to myself again.  Not least because I want to be able to get the sewing machine out and spread some fabric all over the place without having to stop every five minutes to see to the kids! 

Talking of fabric, that reminds me of several things that I have been meaning to show for ages and have not yet gotten around to (another thing I can't keep up with!). 

First of all, my parcels for the seaside swap.  I had two partners and I decided to make them a mini quilt each (I really love making mini quilts, so fun!)

 

This one went to Marie at Protect the Cookie.  The embroidered words at the bottom mean "gone to the beach" in French.  I made a similar mini quilt for Maxine at Tiny White Daisies:

 

Oh dear, that looks horribly crumpled doesn't it?  My quilt photography skills leave a great deal to be desired!  I also sent them a little zippy pouch each, a candle, a little seaside sign, some embroidered applique motifs, some body spray and chocolate.

 

Thanks so much for swapping with me ladies!  I had great fun, and I have really enjoyed seeing all the other swap goodies popping up over blogland.  I think I can call my first go at swap arranging a success!  I do already have an idea for another swap, but I'll wait till we're all settled back at school before I post details, probably at the end of Sept/start of October - so watch this space..

Before I go, I did promise some pictures of my finished Georgina quilt, didn't I?  Well, this is about the best I could come up with!

 

In the garden, and here it is in it's proper home, on our bed:

 

Again, looking horribly crumpled (probably because it is - ha!).  I didn't actually quilt this, it would have taken me FOREVER to hand quilt it and I just didn't feel confident enough to put it through the machine so I tied it instead - there's one tie at each corner of the patterned rectangles.

 

Because the weather is so hot and muggy at the moment, this is perfect on our bed, with just a duvet cover (without the duvet) underneath.

Happy Thursday!

R x

Corner of my home

Seeing as I finished the painting of our hallway last weekend, this week I persuaded Peter to visit Ikea to pick up a new chest of drawers and a shelf.  After some assembling and screwing of things to the walls, followed by some very enjoyable arranging of "stuff", our hallway now looks like this:

 

 

I love it!  It now looks neat and tidy and welcoming, things that it has never looked before!!  I'm thinking of making some little linen storage pocket type things to hang from the hooks under the shelf.  I also put up some pictures that I've had sitting around for ages, they're just shop bought cards in cheap (Ikea!) frames, but they look great.

Now, every time I pass through the hallway I pause to look at it all and give a little sigh of contentment!   I am determined that this part of the house will not become a dumping ground, and is going stay looking lovely all the time! 

However, in the interests of "keeping it real", I thought you might be interested to see the other end of the hallway, the black hole of doom otherwise known as "under the stairs"...

 

Clearly, I still have quite some way to go...

Enjoy your weekend!

R x

Yesterday and tomorrow

Yesterday was our 18th wedding anniversary!  How can it be 18 years already?  It's scary how quickly time flies by.  We didn't do anything special but Peter bought me some lovely flowers and we had a tasty takeaway for dinner - yum!

 

Yesterday was also an important day for us as we had Joe's social communications assessment.  You might remember that we were told there was a six month waiting list, so we were expecting it to be around Oct/November time, so this was a real bonus to get it this month.  It all went well, although I once again found it very hard to answer all the questions, and Joe went off with the speech and language specialist for his own assessment.  Anyway, to get to the point, they did give us a diagnosis there and then of Asperger's Syndrome which is actually a huge relief to me.   We've kind of been going on the assumption that that's what it was since we first saw the paediatrician back in Feb, so to have it confirmed it great - AND it means that we can start back at school in year 2 knowing that's what it is and we can then take things further from there.  I'm still not sure if he'll get a Statement - he is pretty bright and I'm not so keen on him having that kind of label, but if it means he gets more specialised help then it may be for the best, we'll just have to wait and see.   But in the meantime, I'm actually feeling very positive about it - it's just how he is and I wouldn't change that for the world, he wouldn't be Joe otherwise!

Now, onto the "tomorrow" part of the post - it's the BIG LAUNCH!!!!  My bloggy collaboration with Emmais all set to go live tomorrow and I'm now feeling both excited and a bit nervous about it too!  I'm still not going to spill all the beans yet, but I can say that it is green, we want you ALL to get involved and we hope it'll make a difference, and that we'll have some fun along the way too!  So please do come back tomorrow to discover what it's all about!

See you then!

R x