April amid corona virus lockdown

The weather has been amazing. Warm, sunny and dry.

White courtyard walls

It’s a slow but strangely satisfying job...gradually the courtyard walls are transforming from discoloured pebbledash to brilliant white. I’m so thankful for an outside job when the weather is mild and sunny.

Easter, covid 19 style.

 A home made Easter egg treasure hunt, lots of chocolate and an Easter service online.

Designing Foundation Paper Piecing FPP

I’m fascinated by how to design your own Foundation Pattern Piecing (FPP). It is a complicated and brain twisting thing until you get your head around it. A bit like writing with your left hand if you are naturally right handed!
But so satisfying when you have a design in your head and can piece it all together.
I’m hoping to design lots of basic blocks as I learn the process and then pull them altogether to make a quilt or wall hanging for our bedroom.

Macrame wall hanging

I had bought some macrame cotton a few months back and really wanted to make some macrame but didn’t really know where to start. I was tidying my craft supplies and found this gold hoop which I bought in Sorstene Grene months ago. Our master bedroom and new en-suite still need some wall art so I googled ‘easy macrame hoop’ and found a great tutorial. If I can find it again I’ll link it. 

Once you can get your hands used to making the knots and your eyes trained for the mistakes, it comes together very easily and is very satisfying to finish a project in an afternoon.

A wall hanging for our bedroom

We treated ourselves to a new Super king size bed which required new bedding and a chance to make some progress on finishing off our master bedroom.
I had seen something similar to this on Pinterest and knew I could cobble one together with supplies I already had.
I found the piece of bamboo in M’s poly tunnel and got him to cut it to size.
Them I used a mixture of wools, in pink, grey and green tones, plaiting, twisting and unraveling them to create what I had envisioned in my head!

Our hatching chicks journey

Always up for a project and having fertile eggs, we decided to buy an incubator and see if we could hatch our own chicks.
We are one week in with 7 eggs being kept warm and turned 4 times a day.
Lj is mother hen, looking after them and is putting together a power point ‘from egg to chick and everything in between’!
We candled them on Sunday and thought we could see the chick developing...but to be honest, we don’t really know what we are looking at!!!

A crochet blanket for Ezra

I started this blanket back in January as a project to keep me sane while doing the afternoon homework’s. Having already created one for Mj and Lj, it was Ezra’s turn. It probably should have been a red blanket as ‘red’ is definitely his favourite colour. How an ever I liked this colour combination and had some of the colours in stock to get started.

It is based on Attic 24’s Dalhia pattern.

With home working becoming full time since March, it has been completed quicker than normal and has been a welcome companion while building train tracks, playing kitchen and building duplo.

Ezra’s 4th birthday

Ezra was convinced that all his friends were coming to share his cake. No one could convince him otherwise. But when the day arrived, the distraction of presents to open and new toys to play with seemed to help him forget that all his friends were not coming over!

We did however manage to organise a zoom call with his cousins and grandparents. Who even knew that ‘zoom’ existed two weeks ago?!!

M helping to build a Lego gift!

Cake and ‘Happy Birthday’ on zoom.

A visit to his favourite puddle!

Trying out his new rocket toy.

Completing his pirate treasure hunt with some help from Lj.

March, Lockdown begins

Oh my, what a difference a month makes! I just flicked back in my diary to the start of March when we were blissfully unaware that Corona virus was beginning to circulate. I can’t believe it is less than a month. How life inside and outside the home has changed.

With the sun shining and no where to go, the spring clean begins in ernest.

The table tennis table which was only used as a layout space for me has been dusted off and is in full use again. A UPB, an unexpected pandemic benefit, as my friend has coined.

Our last visit to McDonalds drive thru. The following day, even the drive thru closed. We wondered how we were going to cope, not having somewhere to go on a little trip but it is amazing how we can adapt to change.

Home schooling begins. Lj dressed for her first lesson in a Greek chiton!

Ezra’s nursery teacher is keeping him busy with all sorts of activities to complete. Lj helped him to make a farm for his animals and machinery.

We found a huge puddle we could walk to and play in. With no rain for over a week, it was beginning to dry up and yesterday when we visited it had completely dried up so I think we need to discover a new daily walk route.

Calvin has his own hiding place...I could do with one of my own at times!