Sarah's Blog

Pictures

Some random pictures from the last week or so, including a craft that I've done ... I will get the photography and craft pages done ... I WILL .....

Jeffy the bun ..... he's getting on a bit now ... he's also ENORMOUS - that's April's little arm next to him!

Floyd .... I iz on ur keyboard, messin' up ur Google searches ....

Another bun - one I made for April from a free pattern at Allsorts

... she has a reversible dress ... and lopsided ears but we won't dwell on that :)

The first leaf buds of early spring on a tree in our garden

... and the first crocuses on our lawn

Have a good weekend

Easy Peasy Christmas Decoration

This one is great for the kids to do (but I can't resist the glitter so I do them too!)

You will need:

White card

Ribbon

Stickers/transfers/card toppers/pictures cut from old wrapping paper or cards

Glitter/glitter glue

Regular glue

1. Draw round something to create 2 circles

2. Cut them out and put glue all over 1. Stick together with a short length of ribbon sandwiched between.

2. Stick on chosen picture - we used glittery transfers

4. Add any additional glitter you want (the more the merrier!)

5. Finished! Here are some we did

Winter - well and truly

Like the winter blog look? Kinda cute I thought.

It is soooo cold here however, despite that, we are pretty much the only place in the UK I think that doesn't have snow. It's actually a gorgeous day - all blue sky and sunshine.

We have been having family discussions with Tim's rellies about what's going to happen at Christmas. Normally, there is a fairly big "do" on Boxing day which goes on for hours and involves tonnes of food and lots of people. However, for obvious reasons it was felt that this wasn't such a great idea this year as mum gets very tired easily. So, it was agreed that something quieter would be good - just a couple hours, light buffet food, pressies and just us, Sarah, Rob and Tim's mum, Tony and Luke. No neighbours, other rellies, friends or former foster kids this year. Got to admit, I'm looking forward to something a little more low-key myself - we are aiming for something incredibly fun but peaceful this year for Christmas.

I've been busy finishing up some last minute sewing (actually still not done but getting there!) including these little bird decorations which I'm hanging on the hall shelf:

.... and, of course, Christmas cards - I do love the tree one :)

The kids are getting madly excited (did I mean JUST the kids? *laughs*) because it's nearly Advent calendar time .... ooo! the countdown begins!

Seeing spots

Today was the Pudsey Party at April's Rainbows group (in aid of Children in Need). We had 2 instructions - bring some cakes and make sure April wore something spotty. First request was no problem - behold spotty cakes :)

The second request wasn't so easy because april owns not a spot (ha ha) of spotty clothing apart from her wellies which would have been too hot (in any case they were caked in mud from bonfire night). Hmm .. what to do? what to do? Being ever such a resourceful mummy I came up with the idea of a big floppy spotty hair bow! Two strips of white fabric, sewn together and hand painted with spots!

April has fallen asleep standing up by the looks of it, but oooh! she's such a cute babba with her hair up like this :)

So, we all trundled off to the Guide hall and spent lots of money on cakes and putting coins on the cut-out Pudsey and watched April take part in the games (which were very loud!) Our favourite was "Beans" which we actually play at home sometimes and is SO funny. Maybe I'll video the kids playing it one day to show you the game in case you want to know .... SURELY you do?! *laughs*

Oh and don't forget, tomorrow night - Children in Need on telly! Tune in and donate if you can!

A hotchpotch of stuff

Firstly, I feel the need to apologise for the dreadful quality of the pictures you will view today - I don't know what's wrong with me but I haven't been able to take a good picture for days!

Anyhow, first a few from Halloween:

Rosie in the witchy dress she designed and (more or less) sewed by herself. She did it out of a couple of Tim's old tshirts and put gold glitter-glue bats on the front. Turned out pretty good I thought!

I woke up on Halloween morning to find this on my toilet .....

..... and this in my kitchen! Rosie had been busy before we even got up!

April made (with a little help from her mummy!), orange jelly pumpkins

.... and played a yukky Halloween game Rosie invented which involved pulling plastic spiders out of a cup of gunge (flour and water coloured blue!)

I made cupcakes and the kids helped me decorate them

.... and we all had tea by the light of the pumpkin :)

So that was Halloween :)

Yesterday I finished a sewing project I've been working on. I had to cross stitch a heart onto gingham - I've never cross stitched gingham before so it was a bit weird! More tricky than sewing onto Aida but it turned out ok in the end. I sewed the whole thing into a heart shape stuffed with toy stuffing and dried lavender (picked back in the summer) and hung it over the door leading from the hall to the living room. Cute :)

Finally today ........

What can this be all about?

.... of course! Operation Christmas Cake Phase 1! Soak the fruit in large quantities of brandy - phase 2 tomorrow :)

Sewing, sewing and more sewing

I'm doing a lot of sewing at the moment! Here are some pictures (sorry, my camera has run out of batteries so I'm using Rosie's which doesn't take such good photos). First, a little checked bear (with a cute sideways smirk!)

I've also started cross stitching my Christmas cards - yes, this looks messy, I'm used to working in chaos! I'm in the middle of doing a sort of curly Christmas tree (just on the right there)

This is going to be a little stocking filler for April (shhh!), a sparkly pink walking finger puppet bunny (got pattern from Wee Folk Art) I've hidden him in my sewing box drawer! I even managed to unearth a piece of pink ribbon for his neck to match the heart!

I had a nice afternoon as Tim took the kids up to Avon Heath for a couple of hours so I could have some quiet time. Been aaaages since that happened so it was most enjoyable! Didn't do much in the end - just read, sewed a bit, sorted out Rosie's birthday pressies ....

Ooo! I also found that Autumnwatch starts on the 7th October! As last year, it's on once a week (Thursday's this year though rather than Friday). It starts on the day Tim goes back to work which, at the moment, seems a long time off!

Sun rain sun

The weather people - they got it right! Hurrah! For once! It did rain - this morning - LOTS. However, by lunch time it had cleared up and was sunny again. Nice :)

Tim took April out on her own because she wanted to spend some pocket money - she brought herself a dinosaur toy. When he got back, we all went out to Hobbycraft (I could, easily, spend ALL DAY in that shop) and I got some felt and toy stuffing. Getting through vast amounts of toy stuffing lately what with all the teddy making. Then Tesco's to get stuff to make veggie soup and granary bread for dinner (Tim does the soup, I do the bread). Then home again before April went off out to Rainbow's.

Not the MOST exciting day in the work but fairly busy - I need to be busy as I draw ever nearer to my hospital appointment for my check up. Deeply fearful that, due to the endometriosis and ovarian cysts, Mr Pampiglione (gyno surgeon) is going to suggest .... hacking bits of me out :( I think it's a real fear .... I'm 40, not planning any more kids and with messed up insides :( Problem is, I don't want to go through with that - it's a big op with a pretty long recovery time. I've always been one of these people that says no ops unless it's a life saving thing. Anyway, what will be will be ..... just very nervous. Actually, scared half to death :(

To take my mind off this impending (or imagined!) doom, I've been sorting out Rosie's special birthday surprises (with a little help from my friends - thank you, thank you, thank you Natalie!!!) ... aaah! 5 days until she's a teenager! Sometimes I have to catch myself when I realise that, when I first started blogging, she was 7 and April was just about to be born! Unbelievable, time sure does fly....

Nice day :)

Absolutely lovely weather today - really warm and sunny :)

This morning we had ANOTHER builder come round about our fascias - landlord actually emailed to apologise for "all the comings and goings of trades people"! After he'd been, we went off to Tim's work to pick up his wages (where I waited until he'd gone inside and moved his car seat forward for a joke and he had trouble getting his tall body in HAHAHAHA!*) and then stopped off at Tesco and spent far too much money. It was one of those weeks where we'd run out of EVERYTHING so it was stock up time (oh, and I got my cross stitch magazine and am SO happy because it has a Christmas card making kit with it!)

Speaking of crafts, I've started another bear - April loved the first one so much that I had to give it to her! Problem is, I can see her loving this next one too!

Have been looking forward to the start of Autumnwatch on telly but, apart from knowing it starts some time at the beginning of October, I don't know the exact date! The BBC seems to be being very secretive about it! Can't wait - love that programme.

We are planning some walks and other "outings" over the course of Tim's holiday but, tomorrow, it's meant to be raining so it's a quick trip to Hobbycraft for me to stock up on some basics (toy stuffing mostly!) and then a crafty day I think. Suits me! :)

*Which the kids and I found UTTERLY hilarious but he CLAIMED to not find amusing (although I caught him doing that "I'm trying not to laugh" smirk! Oh, and yes, I'm really childish sometimes - being serious and grown up for too long makes me fidget!

Funny bear

I finished sewing a bear - he's meant to be for my mum in law ..... he's not perfect but m-i-l will probably like him even more because of it. Still part of me tempted to give him to April instead (who fell in love with him) ... always really scared when I make something that it won't be liked :( Hang up I've got from horrible mother/nasty ex-husband days I guess :(

Anyway, here he is .. pretty cute even if not perfect.

We've had a bit of a day of it today. Firstly, we had another builder round this morning to look at the fascias outside to do a quote for them. Then, later, an electrician because the shower stopped working this morning - the dial thing on the front just seemed to spin round but not actually turn the shower on. Anyway, electrician said that whoever had put the shower up (Dodgy Builders R Us), had not used the right sized screw to hold the shower casing on the wall. Consequently, it had gradually shifted away from the wall which had, somehow, affected the on-off mechanism. All he did was put the right size screw in it and now it works! I knew at the time, that the original builders had kind of mucked it up *rolls eyes*. As I said to Tim, the landlords just don't want to spend any more more than necessary so they get rubbish workmen ... if you pay peanuts you get monkeys ...... ooo, ooo, aah, aah!!

I'm worse than the shops!

I got the October issue of Papercraft Inspirations today (probably my most favourite magazine) and it had a pack of free Christmas card toppers with it. Then I went to one of my most favourite websites - Brocante Home - and found Alison talking about Christmas planning.

Then I realised that I was feeling just EVER SO SLIGHTLY festive. Yikes! It's the 8th of September for heaven's sake!

I think this may have started the other day when Tim and I were discussing various activities we have leading up to Christmas and I mentioned that I have to make my cake at the end of next month. The Christmas cake making joys seem to come round EARLIER and EARLIER each year ... or maybe it's just me....

Whatever, I do LOVE this time of the year - all that snuggling up to my lovely hubby on chilly autumn evenings, yummy-yummy food (beef in red wine done in the slow-cooker mmmmm!), Autumnwatch on telly, jolly fun festivities (we do Halloween and Guy Fawkes night, as well as Christmas, in earnest in this house!) I adore the crafts that get done at this time of year too (especially the ones with the kids) and I always feel completely inspired to try something new.

I've been busy lately turning a pair of very big (as in TOO big for me, saggy-baggy!) jeans into a really nice, fitted pencil skirt. I can't believe how well the project turned out and I've ended up with something wearable instead of something that was destined for the charity shop. Very pleased. Will do some pictures at some point.

.... and I WILL post the crabapple jelly recipe too ...... dear me, I'm slacking!

No title!

Cannot think of what to call this post today so it shall remain nameless!

Rosie went off to the local church yesterday for what turned out to be the Annual Civic Service of our town council. She, and a couple other Guides, had took part in the Mayoral procession. She starts back at Guides "proper" next Monday and, if Tim does do the rehersals for the BOS (although it hasn't been confirmed yet), I'll have to walk up there to collect her. Not happy about this - it means keeping April up late and dragging her off out in the dark. Still, guess it can't be helped.

It's really getting very, very autumnal here - the leaves are starting to turn and it is getting really chilly first thing in the morning and last thing at night. We had an email from our landlord saying that they'd arranged for some companies to come round and do quotes for some new fascias outside. Now, they originally emailed us and told us this back in about February and it's taken THIS long for the companies to finally come round! Maybe they are based on Mars or something and only just got here ..... Now the work won't be done in the spring, in the nice, warm weather but in the autumn - probably in the rain! Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me!

I've got a few crafty bits on the go at the moment - just little things - namely, altering an old pair of jeans into a skirt, a walking bunny finger puppet and a macrame doll (yes, really). I was talking to a friend - hi Nats! - on Facebook last night and she was saying how she had a couple of things on the go craft-wise. Thing is, I'm not too good at working on several projects at once (she is - her crafts are GORGEOUS!), so I should probably decide on one and finish that first I think!

Talking of Facebook - I discovered a long-lost cousin on there this morning. Long-lost because she and her family emigrated to New Zealand when she was just a baby. I sent a message introducing myself because she doesn't know me at all ..... be interesting to find out what happened to my aunt and uncle because we kind of lost touch with that side of the family ....

Fairy Playdoh and Comments

Comments are up and running! Yeah! Tim, being the clever so-and-so that he is, set them up so that they start from the most recent post (the one before this one) - didn't think there was much point in opening comments for older posts!

While he was doing that, I made some fairy playdoh for the glitter lovers (April and myself!) in this house. It's very lovely and kid-friendly - as well as the glitter you can also add colouring (food colouring) and scent (I've used vanilla extract before and it smells divine). It stores, in an air-tight container, at room temperature.

Here goes ....

Fairy Playdoh

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup water

Half cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Food colouring (optional)

Scent (optional)

Glitter (the very fine, card making variety as opposed to the coarser stuff)

1. Put the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a saucepan and mix together.
2. Add the oil and combine (as best you can!)
3. Put the food colour into the cup of water, stir together
4. Gradually add the water to the flour mixture so you end up with a smooth, thickish liquid
5. Put pan on low heat and "cook" stirring all the time. It will, quite quickly, form a ball of dough. At this point remove from the heat immediately
6. Wait a couple of minutes just to allow it to cool enough to handle and then plop out onto a dinner plate which you have previously sprinkled with glitter
7. Knead the dough into the glitter until it is evenly distributed and a nice smooth ball
8. Play with glittery dough like a big kid and make sparkly people (or whatever!)

This is my hand holding the finished dough ... quite a sizeable lump of dough actually! Couldn't quite get the light right to show the glitter but it's very sparkly :) The glitter doesn't come off on the hands which is nice.

...oh and I just had to have a play didn't I? *laughs*

Big Fish!

I was playing Animal Crossing earlier (yes, really - it's terribly relaxing of an evening) and caught a HUGE fish! My little character said WOW! just like that :) Anyway, April then went off and recreated this scene in crayon - so sweet, she has got her exclamation mark up the wrong way (but not bad writing at all!) and I seem to have abandoned my fishing rod and am pulling the fish out with my hands *laughs*. I do love her drawings.

Rosie has also been arty-crafty - she sewed a Kirby! Now, Rosie has serious fine motor problems (due to the hypermobility) so any kind of "fiddly" work is quite taxing for her. She's never sewed a complete project before - this is her first! I just adore him :)

Oh, and if you don't know, this is what Kirby looks like - Rosie's is a pretty close approximation I think!

Also today, I started collecting crabapples. We've got a tree growing in our garden - last year I didn't get any because April picked them all before they were ready and lobbed them round the garden. This year I said "NO PICK!" and I got them instead - going to make spicy crabapple jelly :)

Now I'm enjoying a glass of wine and Beethoven's Symphony Number 9 on the radio (Proms) - LOVELY! :)

Oooo! Comments coming! Tim's said he'll do them .... maybe this evening! Somebody say hello won't you? Whoops just realised, all text gone different colour ......

Changing rooms

I have been working overtime the last couple of days to get Rosie's room done for when she comes home on Sunday morning. This is no small task given that a) I had nowhere else in the house to move her furniture so had to decorate in stages (moving bits of furniture around the room!) and b) the sheer amount of STUFF that was in that room! There is a single, tall cupboard and a very large wardrobe and both were filled to the brim with ..... well .... behold! The things you find that you'd forgotten about when you declutter cupboards! Oh, and this was just the big cupboard....

Twister ....TWISTER! I did have fun showing April how to play this *laughs*

A pottery wheel and clay that we got about 5 years ago and have NEVER used because we forgot we had it. Shameful.

Rosie's baby bag. Her first little dress and booties. Her first little toys. I nearly bawled my eyes out. The owner of these teeny-tiny little things turns 13 in a month ..... 

BAGFULS of clothes .....

An assortment of musical instruments. Tim also has a big keyboard which lives under my dining table. Oh look! There's the guitar that Tim got me to buy him one Christmas because he "definately wanted to learn to play" ... and then didn't ... and, oh look! There's my clarinet that I never play .... ahem.

The computer graveyard .....

So that was the big cupboard ... as for the tall one ... well, where the heck do you start?!!

Well, I did it ... kind of. Erm.. I THINK it's better ....

As for the room itself. It started looking a bit like this - a bit sort of grim ... and those DISGUSTING dark green velvet curtains!

Here is the colour-change (partway through painting!) Sorry about the blur - I was obviously overcome with paint fumes ...

Rosie is a Nintendo nut so I wanted to include at least a couple of Nintendo themed things. So I got my sewing machine and scrap fabric bag out and my crafty head on and came up with:

A bit of whimsy on my part *laughs*, complete with Mario stars to hold the ends - this sits above her bed

I used the same fabric (from an old jacket of hers) to cover a box to keep her dvd's and games in

Oh I love these! I made Bob-omb curtain-hold-back thingy's - they are slightly stuffed and just very cute I think

...one pink (Bob-omb buddy!)

... and one black (BAD Bob-omb!)

Of course you couldn't fail to notice that I also got rid of the yak green curtains and made some simple tab-top ones instead! The ribbon I used for the tops I've had for years - nearly 13 to be precise - it was from the wedding car when Tim and I got married, so very special :)

Finally, nothing to do with decorating Rosie's room, but, because I was taking photos, April insisted that I take a pic of her in her (very tidy - not!) room. So, um, here she is

Bees and lavender

I've been making lots of lovely smelly things recently - with lavender. I love the smell (particularly around the house) and it grows really easily. Having lavender in the garden also attracts bees which is really, really important. I've made a little video (with some footage Tim took in the garden earlier) - please watch :)