Busy Weekend

Phew! I think I need another couple of days to get over this weekend. It's been a good weekend, but a busy one - trying in to fit in jobs, homework and shopping, as well as buying Emily a new bed, finishing off some Christmas cards, making lists for Christmas shopping (bah humbug!) and going to the cinema (and that was just Saturday!).

Has anybody seen the new Harry Potter film? We have been desperate to go as we are all big Harry Potter fans, and we managed to go late on Saturday afternoon. I really enjoyed the film and felt that it was very sensible to make two films out of the final book - I feel they have done it justice so far. There's quite a lot of Daniel Radcliffe's bare chest in it too - Emily was happy! Roll on the summer for the final instalment.

We had a lot to fit in today aswell but it didn't quite go to plan. Edward had a football match at 1.30 which we were trying to work round, but that got cancelled in the end. We wanted to install Emily's new bed, but she wouldn't get out of the old one - so that's a job for next weekend. Mark and I went into town whilst Edward did some homework, and Emily did a bit of tidying (shock horror!!) and I bought myself a new phone.

I've been wanting one for ages as my old one hasn't been very reliable. My new phone is a Smartphone (it's taken me all day to get to grips with it!!) - an HTC Wildfire in silver. It's pretty cool, can even send emails - I won't know myself!

Not much crafting has taken place - a little bit of crochet of the Dream Blanket, but not a lot - nothing to show at the moment.

Think it's going to be a really busy week. I am feeling slightly panicky about Christmas - I truly hadn't realised how close it is. The children have only got three weeks left at school. I need to get myself organised. Does anyone else feel a bit anti-Christmas this year? I'm fed up with every advert showing how perfect your Christmas could be - it's quite depressing really. And on that grumpy note, I shall good night.

M x

Dream Blanket

Coming along a treat!

M x

Craft Fair

Well today was the culmination of all my weeks of hard work and I had high hopes. I had lots of flower brooches, hair clips, snowflakes, birds, notebooks, and note cards to sell - a very full table indeed.

And how did I do? Well it was pretty poor to be honest. Four hours of very little people traffic - if only I had taken Paige's advice (from here ) and taken my crochet - I could have finished my blanket! It didn't help that the school hall had no heating and I was absolutely frozen. We won't dwell too much on the annoying old man who kept loitering around everyone's stalls putting customers off!

Anyway - another one in two weeks time and then I may have to resort to Ebay!

Take care. M x

How lucky am I?!

Look what I got today! A lovely package of goodies from the very kind and talented Autumn Mist at Chickens In My Kitchen, from her recent giveaway here . The magazine has lots of lovely projects in it and I feel very inspired. I was surprised and delighted with the three cards that were in the package too, all hand made by Autumn Mist and simply beautiful. Thank you.


I've had a busy day of shopping (replacing Edward's lost school shoes!!) and making the final touches for my craft fair tomorrow. These mini notebooks needed finishing off, and I had to go get some little gel pens to put with them - Poundland had 14 pens for £1 - a real bargain. So I've been busy with the cellophane to make them look professional. And now I'm ready to go, I just hope it's successful.


I'm itching to get back to my Dream Blanket - it's coming along a pace, can't wait to show you!

Have a good one.

M x

Stripes!

I'm so excited! I've finally started my Granny Stripe Blanket! I have had the wool (from here ) since the summer holidays and have been so tempted to make a start, but I knew once I had begun, I wouldn't get my craft fair work done. But since I have managed to finish it all, I have been able to start - hurrah!

It was really difficult choosing the colour order. I liked the Aster Blue a lot (on the left in the photo), so I started with that, then I let Emily take on the role of my Artistic Director and she has chosen the rest. So we have Aster, Aspen, Citron, Violet, Pomegranate, Saffron and Turquoise.

The pattern of course comes from the lovely Lucy at Attic 24 here , and it is simply addictive! It grows so quickly and is so easy to do - just clusters of trebles, you could almost do it with your eyes closed. Emily and I have christened it The Amazing Technicolour Dream Blanket!

My first craft fair is on Sunday and I getting a bit nervous. I've worked so hard on the things that I want to sell, that I will be really disappointed if I don't sell anything. I've made flower brooches, hair clips and snowflake tree decorations, as well as the packs of notecards and some notepads (below). Just got to wrap the pads in cellophane with a pen each and then I am done.

Wish me luck! Have a great weekend. I am off out in the fog to collect the children from their schools - one of me, two of them, different schools, 5'o'clock pickup - hmmm not sure how I can be in two places at the same time - oh well!

M x

Happy Birthday Mum!

Today is my Mum's birthday and here is the card that I made for her. The papers are called Ice Cream Parlour and they are from Craftwork Cards, as are all the materials I used, apart from the Petaloo flowers.

I bought her some sets of Promarkers for her birthday present - she is very keen to start using them. I may have sung their praises once or twice!!

I've started a new crochet project today as I have finished all of my craft fair work. I'm very excited about it and can't wait to show you my progress soon.

Take care.

M x

Craft Fair Goodies

I've been trying to finish off all my crocheted flowers for next week's craft fair. I'm really pleased with my work, but one thing struck me when I had them all laid out like this - they are predominantly red and purple. I hadn't realised this at all until I got them all out, so this week I have been frantically crocheting other colours, blues, greens, yellows and even brown. Hopefully that will even up the balance.
I've still got some notebooks to finish and then I should be good to go. Hopefully I'll get to show you everything next week (I've got a really busy week ahead of me I think!).

Hope you have had a great weekend. M x

P.S. Just wanted to show you Edward's amazing artwork for his homework last week. Edward doesn't consider himself very good a drawing, but I beg to differ. The homework was to make a faithful copy of a Seurat picture and shade it using charcoal. I think he did a pretty good job.

A Super Day Out

After quite a difficult week, my lovely husband Mark suggested a day out to cheer us all up. It was also a good excuse to dust off the National Trust membership cards. Unfortunately not much is open in November! However one place that was open was Ightham Moat in Kent, a place Mark and I had visited and loved before we got married, over 16 years ago.

Only a couple of the rooms were open in the house as November is the month that vital restoration work is carried out (apparently!), and those rooms were decorated in the style of a Victorian Christmas. Whilst the decorations were beautiful, I'm still not ready to think about Christmas - I'm in denial (although I confess that I did buy a little Christmas decoration, just couldn't help myself!). I loved the decorated table - so formal.

It was still early by the time we had finished at the House, so we headed off to Southend for something to eat. Mark was hoping for a Harry Ramsden's but sadly he was disappointed! It was quite a chilly, grey day but nothing stops the bright lights of a busy seaside town shining! I'm not particularly fond of Southend, I think it's a bit too tacky, but we had a nice couple of hours there and the children had a blast playing Air Hockey in one of the arcades.

We had a great day out, it was good to forget about the boring chores that normally make up our Saturdays and just have a nice day. Now we are having a quite evening, catching up on a bit of TV, eating cheese and biscuits and drinking a glass of red wine (adults only of course!) - heaven!

Have a good one. M x

What a day to visit Parliament!!!

Today was our Year 6 trip to London to visit the Houses of Parliament, as an entry point to our new topic of Leadership and Rulers. Who knew when it was booked, that it would coincide with the student protests about university tuition fees!

The trip itself was great. We saw the Speaker enter the House of Commons for Prime Minister's Question Time (I bet Nick Clegg wishes that David Cameron wasn't in China today!!). The lobby was absolutely silent as they proceeded in - it was full of pomp and ceremony as only we know how to do. We got an opportunity to go in the House of Lords - a truly mouth dropping experience! The room is so ornate and gorgeous - fancy that being your work place! It was made very clear that we weren't allowed to sit on the red leather seats - only Lords are allowed to do that. I certainly felt very privileged to be able to be there.

We finished up in Westminster Hall which is hundreds of years old. The place of the trials of Guy Fawkes, William Wallace, Thomas More, John Fisher and Charles I, as well as the Laying in State of Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother.

We then had a workshop in Portcullis House to help the children how the voting system works.

We were supposed to meet our coach in Millbank but a policeman advised us to stay away as that was where the trouble was brewing, so we made our way to the gardens by the London Eye to await our coach. An hour and 20 minutes later it arrived! Because of the protest roads were either blocked off or gridlocked. We were cold and very hungry as all our coats and packed lunches had been left on the coach. A mercy dash was made to the nearest McDonalds where 32 hot chocolates were purchased! We finally made it back to school at 5.10pm - nearly an hour later that expected. Thankfully, at no point were we in any danger. I was rather shocked to see the footage on the news. It's a shame really, because I am behind the protest, particularly as the tuition fees increase will certainly affect Emily and possibly Edward, I just don't like the violent aspect.

I was so excited yesterday to find out that I had won a giveaway from the lovely Autumn Mist at her blog here . I'm so thrilled because I have never won a giveaway before. She was celebrating her 200th post and 50 followers, as well as blogging for a year - a great achievement.

That's me done, I think I'm off to my bed after a thoroughly exhausting day. Cheerio!

M x

Going Buggy Giveaway

Check out this great giveaway here -all the Promarkers you could wish for! Plus some really helpful tutorials. Thanks so much Enfys.
Hope your Monday wasn't too miserable with all the rain. I got wet walking to school - not the best start to the day (or week come to that!!).

M x