home at last

On Tuesday the 11th of August Dan returned on HMS Manchester after 7 months deployment to the Falklands. The kids were very excited to see their dad again for anyone who is interested if you go to
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/operations-and-support/surface-fleet/type-42-destroyers/hms-manchester/
it will tell you all about the day. It might be sometime before I get back to this as life is hectic. By then the builders will hopefully be in and i can tell you all about it

Well its been a couple of weeks since my last post and not much has been happening in my world. Unfortunately last weekend Jason went down with chicken pox so he missed his last few days of school. It's true what they say about being two weeks apart Lewis came down with three weeks ago(hence the post about Timmy) Then like I said a week ago Jason work up with it!. So most of my time has been spent indoors looking after them all.

Lewis was lucky enough to return to pre school in time for his leaving presentation. It hard to believe that he starts school in September and he's not even 4 yet! that's the trouble with having summer babies they always seem so young to start school but there always has to be an eldest and a youngest.

Here he is having received his certificate.

Having made Timmy for Lewis I thought that Jason might like some clothes for action man (I don't know about you but I can't cope with naked bodies about the place!!). I've had a real job trying to find anything that isn't way out of fashion or just ridiculous. Once again there's always loads of stuff for girls like Barbie Sindy or Bratz outfits but very little for boys toys. Well I did manage to find some and here they are:-

This is the one I like to call gangster action man only as it's a hood
This one was supposed to be a jacket but as it was one of the first patterns I found I'm not that happy with it what do you think?

This one is my favourite so far. It's not finished as I need to make the trouser and shirt to go underneath but so far I think it s the best. I also need to add a small flower to the lapel to make the outfit complete which is my plan for this evening


As always thank you for taking the time to read my blog and guess what that's right I'm off knitting now.

Jack of all trades.....

As we are now coming to the end of term of thought I'd better pull my finger out and get some cards made for the all the lovely ladies that teach my boys and here they are:

These are for Jason's teaching assistant and teacher, who is a fan of Paddington Bear.

These are the ones I've done for Lewis' Pre-School teachers. Seem strange that he will be starting school in September.

I was recently give a custom order by Amy (mimi of artbymimi) who is a fellow crafter on misi for a black crocheted hair scrunchie. I would put a picture but can't find it!!!

From that i decided to set up a fan page on face book. I've now got 58 fans not bad considering I only set it up a week ago. This has also given me a couple of sale again for scrunchies this blue one and then same design but one red one green.

The boys finish school this week which will be strange no school runs to do or homework to argue over. Should allow time during the day though for me to get some more stuff done to put in the shop. As always thanks for reading my blog and off to do more crafting.

it's Timmy time!

Just finish knitting Timmy the Sheep for Lewis, who came out in chicken pox yesterday morning. Shame really as he's got alot going on at pre school over the next few weeks and I think he'll end up missing it all. Anyhow back to Timmy, a friend of mine (Knitwits from MISI) told us all that she'd made him recently and was kind enough to send me the pattern so I could have a go, and here he is

Also during my not so creative time I've taught myself to crochet and have made some hair scrunchies. It's a shame that I haven't got any girls (and for those of you who are thinking maybe NO I don't want anymore!) I think they would would make a lovely addition instead of ribbons. I have listed them in my misi store-if your interested why not take a look.

Then after making my friend her bag I thought I'd make myself one. I wanted it to be larger enough to carry a spare nappy for Oscar, wipes and his cup as well as my odds and ends, but not as big as the traditional changing bags. It sits well on the hip so allows a free hand. Typical me though showed my mum and she now wants one! (but she doesn't need the nappy bit), then I listed so might have to make some more. Its reversible so at least if one side gets dirty I can turn it inside out and nobady would know.

Lastly I took the boys to get theirs hair cut last weekend as Jason was in the school porduction of Joseph and he needed to look smart. That's all for nowI've got to go and do the ironingI'm afraid whilst Jason is at a party, Oscar is having his nap and Lewis is quietly resting and trying not to scratch.

I don't know about you but I am really struggling in this heat! Even the kids are just lying about I hate to say it but we could really do with a storm to clear the air. I can't have my front room windows open at the moment, nothing to do with bugs hay fever etc, more to do with inquisitive children. Oscar my baby (well 15 month old) decided to move the foot stool across the room and use it to climb up onto the radiator and then onto the window sill. Whats wrong with thatIhear you cry, nothing except that the window was open he had one foot inside and one out oh yes and there is about an eight foot drop down into the garden!
Other than that not to much to report from the south coast. Jason will be performing in Joseph and his amazing technicolour dream coat next week. Don't think much learning has gone on at school this week other than rehearsals. I have completely lost all interest in crafting just can't seem to gather up any enthusiasm and when something is made I think its a load of old pants.
Going to do the washing up and a few other chores beforeI think about having a cup of tea.

The new bathroom

Well here they are as promised the photos of the new bathroom (thanks to my dad). Most things are still in the same place as before except that i've had the bath rotated 180 degrees so that the taps are now against a wall instead of being in the middle of the room. All that is left to do is the flooring and the bits and bobs to house stuff. I think this is a million if not more times better than we had before what do you think?

I've recently come to the conclusion that there is something seriously wrong with my family.

I can remember as a child empty out the wash basket, which was green and plastic and cone shaped, putting it on my head and wandering about pretending to be a dalek by saying exterminate. I then discovered Oscar walking around the house woth the recycling basket on his head! He thought it was great fun and spent most of the time he was wearing it laughing!

It's not my bag (baby!!)

Well where has the time gone? I don't feel like I've achieved very much since the last posting yet I always seem to be busy rushing here and there! I think that's what comes of having three boys and a husband who spends more time at sea than at home. Anyhow I did manage to make this bag for my friends birthday recently. Its fully reversible and considering it's the first time I've ever done anything like it I think it came out rather well.

I must admit that I did have to ask the lovely ladies on MISI how to do it and as always they knew the answer to my troubles.

Creatively that is all I've done apart from a few cards, now that the 'hired help' (my mum and dad) have gone I might find that I've got more time to get things done. One of the cards was for my eldest brother and his wife. They've been married 30 years! The boys and I went to their party at the weekend and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves especially as they got to play with water pistols and shout BUM very loudly.

The day before however Jason managed to get a ride in the back of a police car with the sirens going and the flashing lights. No he hadn't committed a crime, the police were in attendance at a break in that had happened in the house next door, so we asked and they said yes. He loved it thought it was excellent . So a big thank you to the police for that.

The rest of us were sitting in the pub garden, and for those of you who don't now its right opposite my parents house, which is rather handy! Lewis had to bring a teddy bear home from pre school so here they are waiting for their drinks.Just thought that you might like to see a photo of all three of them sitting in the wheelbarrow in the garden at mum and dads. I took one of just Jason and Lewis a couple of years ago and thought now it should be updated to include Oscar.
Once again thanks for reading I'll try and not leave it so long next time.

the things we did this half term

Hello everyone. Sorry I've not posted for a while but those of you who have kids will understand it's been half term, ( no wonder I'm slowly going grey) and on top of that the bathroom is still in chaos but getting there. There is now only one wall left to tile hurrah.

Like many of you the weather done here on the south coast has been very mixed over the last week so it has given Jason and Lewid the opportunity to use their creative skills once again. Jason decided to play with his lego the other afternoon and assembled so interesting lunar models.

Then having watched an episode of Mr. Maker which they think is fab and I like as it gives me 1/2 to get stuff done, we thought we'd have a go at his window decorations made with you've guessed it pva glue. It took two days to dry not over night as he said but it did give them something to look at each morning to see if they were done and here they are.

This is Lewis' and Jason's

The next thing they made were designs that could be ironed onto their Tshirts. They drew onto sandpaper then good old mummy ironed them onto some spare white shirts they had. These have been worn and washed so the designs have faded slightly.

Lastly we come to my activities. I have finally managed to teach myself to crochet!!! After practising various stitches by making little squares Jason asked me to make a monkey for his teacher. The blue one was my first attempt

This is the one that we will give his teacher he is really pleased with it. I think it's not bad for a

novice.

Well hello everyone sorry I've not posted for a while but alot has been happening here on the sunny south coast. We are currently in the middle of updating and revamping our bathroom well when a I say we I actually mean my dad whilst mum, the boys and I keep out of the way!

As you can see from the pics the bathroom isn't the world's largest but it suits us. The best way of describing it was a white suite with black tiles half way up three of the walls, whilst the rest is painted dark peach, the floor also had broken and chipped vinyl tiles on it and there was an antique electric shower on the wall. To get this shower to work you had to turn it on to full power and then turn the cold tap on in the sink to make the thing warm. What taste they had back then!! It had polystyrene tiles on the ceiling and the room would smell of damp and nicotine when ever you showered. Anyhow as we are getting a new kitchen afer the summer and the bathroom which also leaks is above thought it might be a good idea to replace it. This is how it looked just after dad had started the work (forgot to take it at the start!)

I will post pics when it is all finished. So far dad has removed all the tiles filled all the holes painted the ceiling and the wall on the right. I chose a lilac colour for the wall and am going to have plain white tiles with a silver swirly border tile above the bath line. I've not completely decideed what to do yet. The new bath suite is white with shell edging to it. All looks good so far

Whilst dad has been doing that I've managed to fit in a little crafting. Here is a doughnut with white icing and chocolate drizzle.

This one is strawberry icing with sugar strands

I then thought that a chocolate cupcake with pink icing and 100s and 1000s would be worth a try. Also in between this I am trying to teach myself to crochet. The first pattern I tried kept going wrong so got cross thinking it was me, but when mum look at it she said the pattern wasn't clear. That gave me hope. Tried a different one and it worked! so when I get bored of the cakes i can try that instead. I've also been asked if I can make a knitted ice cream so am off to try that in a while.

Their crafting and mine

Well what a day we've had here! The boys asked if they could do some crafting (thanks glueing and sticking to you and me!), so when Oscar went to bed for a nap out came the glue and scissors. We decided to make some abstact pictures by cutting up pieces of paper into pointy triangles and glueing them onto a contrasting colour with the pointy ends inwards and here's the results

This one is Lewis' he had an amount of assistance but he decided the colour combinations and where to stick them.

This one is Jason's who did most of it by himself. He thought that three lots of layers would look good. Not bad for a first attempt.

I've not been up to much crafting lately have managed to create another two cakes though without a pattern ( I designed them myself!!!)

Here is a cherry bakewell

And this is a lemon tart.

What do you think? Off to have ago at some others now.

got to have a rant

Sorry about this but I've got to have a bit of a rant as today did not go well. It started out okay, got Jason to school and check with his friend's mum that it was still alright for him to go to tea. Got to the preschool to drop Lewis off and thought I can hear someone's phone ringing it sound like mine, bugger it's mine. By the time I'd found it the call had ended no message left and I didn't recognise the number. Left Lewis and his buns at school got out the door and heard the phone again still didn't get to it in time, so decide to phone it back, it was Jason's school. Wonder what they want so thought I'd better go back I wasn't far from there.
Now what I must mention at this stage is that we'd walked into school this morning which is about 1.5 miles away so I was rather out of puff as I'd rushed to the school. By the time I got tere I was very red faced and out of breath. What I should also say here is that Jason had woken up yesterday morning with a gunky eye, which he'd rubbed clear, as a result his eye ball looked very red, so I thought leave it til the morning see what happens don't think he's got an infection as the eye wasn't weeping and he wasn't rubbing it or complaining about it. When he got up his eye looked loads better and he still wasn't complaining so sent him to school.
The receptionist said he got conjunctivitis so has got to see a doctor and must be taken home cand can't come back til it's cleared up AAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH. Did they bother asking him the routine questions no. Rushed him down to the doctors thinking got to cancel his outing got a hospital appointment for myself what am I to do. Fortunately my mum and dad rescued me again and came down to help. Got him into the doctors pretty quick and guess what no eye infection.
Brought him home by now it nearly half past 11 and I have to collect Lewis at 1215. I then phoned the school amongst other calls I'd recieved told them he was ok they said oh well he can come back then! I told them no I would be keeping him at hime fo the rest of the day as they had found it necessary to send him home. I wouldn't mind but the person who said he'd got it isn't a medical person, as they would have asked those simple questions, but was leaving to go on a school trip all dressed in a skimpy top and shorts!
Once I'd collected Lewis things did become a lot less hectic and my hospital appointment was ok. Thank you for letting me rant and even more so if you got to the end of this I'm off now to do some crafting whilst watching Ashes to Ashes.

cakes and buns

Following my foray into creating knitted cakes I've become a little bit obsessive about it. Can't wait to start knitting during the day, spend alot a time looking at cakes in the window of the local bakers shop ( is there a song about that??!) which really doesn't help my trying to lose wait campaign, all in the aid of trying to see if I can recreate the cakes by knitting them. I've had a number of ideas but need to get them knitted before I give the game away.

I have made 5 currant buns for the preschool, one of the teachers there thought it was abit spooky as she'd only been looking at the ones for sale on a well known auction site the day before when i walked in with the one I'd done. She did think mine where better though!

Hopefully I will get enough time to make some to sell on MISI what do you think? Would they sell? Who would buy them other than preshools? Let me know you ideas as I like to know what people think.

This is an iced cake with 100s and 1000s on the top. Think I need to put more of them on as there doesn't appear to be too many on here.