Contented

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

A week in pictures

This week I have been...

... sewing,

 

coin purses for my stall,

 

secret sewing for the Freestyle swap,

 

and, AT LAST, starting to piece my Georgina quilt top,

... receiving,

 

scrummy fat quarters purchased from here,

... reading,

 

a new magazine and a new book,

... and planting,

 

three little strawberry plants, bought for Joe, which he is going to take care of (with some help!)

There has also been plenty of other stuff that I don't have pictures for - such as knitting (secret), baking (eaten!) and a fair bit of Joe stuff, but I'll save all that for another post.

Hope you're all enjoying the beautiful weather we're having this weekend.  Tomorrow I'm off to Penshurst craft fair with the parents - so you can bet there will be a bit of show and tell afterwards!

Oh, and I just couldn't post without mentioning, but is it just me or did anyone else watch Kirstie's Homemade Home on Thursday and feel a bit shocked that she'd hung a "Never Mind the Bollocks" poster in the children's playroom?!! 

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!

R x

Reasons to be cheerful

 

A lovely, new, embellished Moleskine notebook, destined to become my next to-do-list book, bought from this lovely lady. (Thanks Jane!)

 

A beautiful, handprinted fabric panel, all the way from Australia, purchased from this etsy shop.

 

 

The latest copy of Country Living magazine.  I love this Easter tree!

Also, yesterday morning I went to a clothes swap party, held to raise funds for our school.  (There were also Phoenix Cards for sale with profits going to Comic Relief so I bought quite a few cards too).  I didn't have any clothes to swap so I had to pay for any items I chose, but I got two cashmere jumpers, a Monsoon skirt and two tops, for just 50p each!!!  What a bargain!  A very cheerful end to the week indeed!

Have a great weekend!

R x

I like Tuesdays

Today is shaping up to be a pretty good day, so far.  First we had Joe's class assembly, which was very sweet.  Joe fidgeted throughout, but at least he was smiling and he held up his letter (the "o" in "courage" - the theme of the assembly) when he was supposed to.  After that, it was a quick hop across the road from school to my friend's house, where we have a regular Tuesday morning get together with various other mums.  It was one lady's birthday so chocolate cake too, yum!

When I got home there were two packages waiting for me - always exciting, even if I did have to pay for them!

 

 

A lovely, Country Living book on storage style, which I can't wait to sit down with and start browsing through with a nice cup of tea.

Then there was also a parcel of yarn from Colinette:

 

Isn't that the most gorgeous colour!  It's called Adonis Blue and I'm going to use it to make a scarf.  "That's not very interesting" you might think, but I'm going to try something a little more taxing than just knit and purl this time - I want to try the "my so called scarf" pattern, which I think you can find here, but I've also spotted it on Ravelry, which I joined last week.

Finally, I had six comments regarding the bag of scraps, so all the names went into a bowl:

 

I stirred them around,

 

and drew out.....

 

Shelley!   If you can email me your address I'll get it posted off to you asap.  Sorry to those who missed out, but it's my blog birthday next month so keep your eyes open for another giveaway soon.

Now I'm off to make that cup of tea and sit down with my new book!

R x

Sock report - part 3

It's finished!  Well, sort of.  I followed the pattern that came with the yarn for the toe bit and I'm pleased to say it all made sense and worked perfectly, no extra research required! 

However, as you can see and as I suspected, it is rather on the baggy side (that's an understatement - it's mahoosive!), so I refrained from grafting the ends together as that would involve cutting the yarn, something I don't want to do as I will be reknitting this AGAIN!  I am going to invest in a set of the correct sized needles (!) and try and get it right next time, but I actually don't mind as I really enjoyed knitting it and am just so darned pleased with myself that I got all the way through it without tearing my hair out!  Don't worry, I won't bore you with any more progress reports, but I will definitely post a photo of the finished pair.

As I was typing this the postman came, and look what has landed on my doormat!

 

The first issue of Sew Hip!  I've just had a quick flick through it and it looks fab!  So lovely to see many names I recognise from the bloggy world too!  So I'm now going to go and make myself a cup of tea and settle down to have a proper read through.  I only ordered the first copy but I think I will definitely have to get myself a subscription!

Many, many thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes!

Have a great weekend!

R x