September so far

Baking :: Watching The Great British Bake Off ::

Ironing uniform :: School runs :: Coffee mornings ::

Applying for jobs (eek!) :: Steam cleaning bathroom

tiles (yaaaawn) :: Wiping runny noses :: Applying

Vicks liberally :: Watching Peppa Pig :: Buying more

Peppa Pig DVD's to save my sanity :: Making soup ::

Enjoying darker evenings and crisper air.

I love Autumn.

Oh poor me!

I often find myself wallowing in the dreariness that comes with being a woman at home. Feeling like I am the only person who has ever experienced the frustrations and exhaustion of mothering and general housework monotony. This is ridiculous I know, I just need to chat with my Mum, Sister, friends, heck, half the population to find echoes of these feelings and yet there are still times when I feel like it is only me struggling. It is always relieving to come across women I admire and find inspiring who admit to feeling the same sometimes!

I don't always feel like this, I hasten to add! I appreciate the small joys (and large) of being able to watch my children grow, but I do find the mental and physical demands (especially of a one year old) particularly draining.

On days like these I really have to remind myself to just focus on the small things like this beautiful flower peeking out from the weeds in the garden. Yes, the house may be a mess but there are lots of little bits of loveliness if I just realign my focus and keep telling myself

' This too shall pass'

Phew.

Well that's all the baking done

Now I just have to get through the rest of the summer!

Family visiting part 2 starts on Wednesday.

Off to recuperate from part 1.

See you later.

What fun!

The summer is flying by.

We have been visiting my Granny in beautiful Cellardyke.

Sometimes I wish Cornwall and Scotland weren't so bloomin far apart!

I have been baking more than knitting.

I have to produce a pirate cake and a mermaid cake

in the next month. I'm getting a little nervous!

Still, I'm rather pleased with the bookworm!

Pooh sticks and other shenanigans

The Easter holidays were very busy and full of fun.

A Hello Kitty cake pleased a certain five (5!) year old,

as did the Hello Kitty sunglasses!

Fun was had by all.

I'm still reeling!

Will blog more when my head's stopped spinning!

A change is as good as a rest....

We are back from our family holiday.

This was not a 'put your feet up' kinda holiday.

There was swimming everyday, and lots

of walking through the beautiful Longleat woodland.

Plus two small children who decided to wake at

5.30am EVERY DAY!

But we had a great time, and I certainly feel refreshed

and ready to Spring clean and face the world again.

We also visited Bristol zoo and saw this lovely fellow

(Mr R's favourite)

This very cute little fellow (my favorite!)

And lots of beautiful butterflies (Imogen's favourite)

It is just as well I have refreshed my spirits.

Spring is the season of many birthdays in my family.

In April my little girl will be 5... I'm not too worried about

her celebrations as her knew Hello Kitty obsession

makes for an easy theme and gift solution!

Just 6 short days after her my baby will be 1!

Where has the year gone?

Ellie the Elephant

What happens when you take a photo through 'magic glasses'?

You get this very funky kaleidoscope effect!

It amused me for hours, I do love the simple things in life!

I have finished the elephant ordered by Imogen.

She has named her Ellie....so original.

This is better than naming it Imogen which is what she likes

to call most things at the moment. I cannot convince her

that variety is a good thing, especially with names.

Having various toys all called Imogen gets very confusing!

I am really enjoying crochet. I've got the hang of it now

and it's very satisfying. I think it's a lot better for toys

than knitting as the fabric is much denser. Having said that

I do have a special place in my heart for knitting!

The next thing I would like to try is squares,

if I can achieve something like this I will be very pleased.

Half Term

We've done some painting

We have marvelled at seals ( a little apprehensively at first!)

They really are a lot prettier in the water!

Little boys have got up to new tricks

Little girls have practised sewing

And Mummy has discovered where all the missing toys were.....

posted through the cat flap.

Little boys obviously learnt two new tricks!

Thanks, that was fun!

To end the most wonderful 1st swap experience was this scrumptious yarn.

I have often gazed at Manos yarn in magazines but have never come up with an excuse to treat myself, and now I don't have to.

The only dilemma now is what to knit with it!

Suggestions welcome!

On the sixth day of specialness.......

....my partner sent to me, a lovely new book!

I love craft books, even if I never make anything from them I love looking at the pictures.

They make me happy!

I am also the proud new owner of a scrumptious hot water bottle cover. The colour is a gorgeous blue and it's made in organic merino wool.

Thank you Philippa!

The list goes on.....if only you could smell this package,

the deep, rich smell of chocolate is wonderful. I think a chocolate sauce made with this would be rather wicked! Mmmmm!

Some lovely stationery that really is very fine!

It almost feels wrong listing so many gifts when it's not even my birthday tee hee!

Tomorrow I open package number 7!

Feeling Special

A knock on the door on Tuesday morning brought a lovely package of specialness.

Thank you Philippa

It is now day 2 of the swap and I have a new book and yummy tea to enjoy.

There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea. ~Bernard-Paul Heroux

A Satisfactory Sunday

I am very excited about my first swap.

I have always watched swaps on other blogs with interest

but have been too nervous to join in.

However the Seven Days of Specialness swap appealed

as I find February terribly dreary. All the fun of winter has passed

and I just want Spring to hurry up and arrive.

So here's my parcel all ready to go in the post tomorrow!

After parcel packing and putting the children to bed

I felt ready for a nice warm bowl of soup and dumplings.

Mmmmm, all in all a very satisfactory Sunday!

You can't please them all

I love this hat!

I've knitted one before for my nephew and the pattern is so simple yet satisfying I thought I'd make Oscar one.

It's a very easy 4 row repeat but the striping looks very effective and it makes a lovely fabric with a lot of stretch. I'd like to try knitting a little tank top using the same pattern ( another project to put on the 'To Do' list!)

Unfortunately the recipient does not share my feelings.

Oh no, he cannot get it off his head fast enough.

HUMPH!

Seven Things

I have been tagged by Philippa to write about 7 things I love. I have been mulling it over and it's very hard not to just reel off food, knitting, music etc..... I've been trying to think of little things (that don't make me sound too mad!)

Here we go then.....

Quotes: I used to 'collect' quotes as a teenager. I still have a big red book filled with all sorts of snippets from books I've read. A little cheesy perhaps but I do find them inspiring. I don't have a favourite but one that I happened upon recently is this

'better do a kindness at home than walk a thousand miles to burn incense'

The Dalai Lama

This made me smile....as a child I was taken along to all sorts of 'spiritual' gatherings which were thoroughly dull and usually involved too much incense, I'm inclined to agree with the Dalai Lama on this one.

Irn Bru: Now bare with me.....I don't mean the amber liquid itself but the memories and feelings that are evoked when I drink some. Irn Bru was the family 'treat' drink when I was little, preserved for birthdays and Christmas and trips to my Grandparents in Scotland. It still doesn't feel like a party to me if I haven't had some Irn Bru! Just the smell makes me feel about 7 years old and I am filled with happy memories. Much the same as a satsuma fills me with Christmas excitement.....satsumas DO smell like Christmas! I love that certain tastes and smells can evoke such feelings and while I don't get quite as excited about Christmas as I did when I was a small child I can still enjoy little flash backs with the help of my senses!

Stationery: Another thing I used to collect and still love. Notebooks, writing paper, pens, stickers. I love it all. As much as I love the internet there's nothing quite like receiving a letter in the post. That said I don't have to use my stationary to get pleasure from it. A bit like just looking at my yarn stash fills me with joy a pretty notebook just sitting on a shelf can do the same thing (I will never be a minimalist....I just like 'stuff'!)

Being alone: If you had asked me to describe myself before I had children I would have said I was bubbly and a bit of an extrovert, amongst other things. Now, I don't think that my basic personality has changed but I read something recently (I forget where) that clarified something in my head. The gist of what I read was that extroverts are people that recharge their batteries by being around other people while introverts are people that need to be alone to recharge. I'd never heard this way of describing it before but it made sense to me. I love company but after 4 years of having a small being with me pretty much 24/7 I do crave time alone. The snippets that I get here and there just feel like bliss and I lap them up. Not that I'm wishing my babies childhoods away but hey....something to look forward to in retirement!

Playing: One of the great things about being a parent is getting time to play. I love breaking out the playdough as much as Imogen. It's also given me the chance to knit toys....I love knitting small things. Luckily my husband is just as mature (ahem) as me. I found a Marvel Comic double

duvet cover that I got him for his birthday ( we both secretly love it!). Swinging on the swings in the park is another thing.....very therapeutic!

Plymouth Aquarium: I love this place. I could sit and watch the fish for hours. Especially the huge Atlantic Ocean tank.

Ermmmmm, struggling now!

Browsing a Thesaurus: I had actually forgotten how much I liked thesauruses until I started thinking about this post. When writing essays for my degree I would start looking for an alternative word and then get endlessly distracted by more interesting words. That's one of the things I love about English, there's just so many ways to say the same thing! I remember when I started learning Welsh (compulsory up to GCSE level where I went to school) that I was amazed at how little vocabulary there was in comparison...it did make it a bit easier to learn.

Well that's me done! I don't like to write a post without a picture and

I have none that are relevant to what I've written so I will show you my

new tin, I acquired it from my Mother-in-Law .

It's the Twelve Days of Christmas and just lovely.... in fact I do like a nice tin!

Peace

School is open and I am glad.

Imogen is also pleased as she is now a full time pupil

and gets to take the all important packed lunch to school.

The house is calm, baby asleep and soup cooking. It now

feels like the New Year has started properly, after the false start of last week.

I am feeling good about 2010, I feel like I'm getting the

hang of this parenting thing now and am really enjoying it.

If I could find my camera I would leave you with a picture of the sleeping babe but I can't so I give you St Ives on a lovely (if a little chilly) day just after Christmas.....We had a lovely time walking on the beach and when we got back to the car discovered that for 2 hours the passenger door had been left wide open! Nothing was taken, the car was just a bit cold! Good ole honest Cornish folk!

In which I acheive some knitting and learn to crochet

Well that's Christmas done for another year. I love the run up to Christmas and all the festivities but there is also something exciting about packing it all away and wondering what the year ahead will bring. I am enjoying the structure that the school run brings ( the enjoyment will wane as the term progresses I'm sure!). I have managed to squeeze in a little crafting. A good friend gave birth to a little baby boy on the 27th of Dec and so a cheery winter cardi was in order

I am also very pleased that I have finally got the hang of crochet. For a long time I have looked at 'How to' guides and I've even had people show me how to do it and although I could understand it in my head I could never quite get my hands to do what was required. I have tried and tried ( I have lots of lovely crochet patterns going to waste because of this inability to master the craft...very frustrating!). Spurred on by my sister's gift to me of an amigurumi book I have managed to produce a tortoise (as requested my husband and daughter....although daughter has now asked for a pink elephant....all good practise!)

Ta Da!

Methinks 2010 may be the year of crochet for me!