Freya's Fabric #1

Through one of my birthday crafting parties I have met a fun loving and endearing girl called Freya. Since then I have gotten to know her parents a little better and last week her mum offered me Freya's old bedroom curtains. She knew that I probably wouldn't use the fabric as curtains but chop them up and turn them into something new. She was right!

I thought I would keep a little note of what can made from one pair of curtains and see where it leads. There is alot of fabric in a set of curtains and so often they can be picked up free of charge or in a charity shop for a few pounds.

 One of the pair.

 A little book bag ready for a birthday party which Lj has been invited to.

 A soft toy canopy to help store Lj's soft toys and keep her room a little tidier.

Now, what next to make with Freya's fabric?!

Another week of creating!

 At the end of last week MJ announced 'I wish things would go back to how they were, I was 5, Lj was 2 and the bathroom wasn't a mess'! This is what he was referring to!

So I went a little crazy with the bathroom and stripped all the tiles off ready for the suite to be replaced. What I hadn't anticipated was that half the plaster would also come off. I have watched a couple of You tube videos on how to re plaster a room but I think it is time to leave it up to the experts!

Last week I finished two cushions for the lounge. When in Bath over the half term holidays I spied a new Michael Miller panel, Norwegian Woods. I loved the print and the colours and although I set myself a personal target at the beginning of the year, not to buy any fabric this year, I just couldn't resist...oops! I decided to quilt the panels and add some embroidery detail before turning them into cushions.

My first crafting birthday party of 2014 was 'fab'. I love working with 10 year old girls. They are so capable and ready to have a go at anything. I realised again that I would like to do more of these crafting parties.

Remembering the little things #1

I have been noticing on a few blogs that I check in and out of a kind of summary of the week and I'm wondering if it will help me get back into blogging...so let's try and see where we go with it.

This week I/we...

Read/Listened- Katie Morag by Mairi Hedderwick. MJ, Lj and I love the stories about Katie Morag who lives on the Isle of Struay so we have been visiting the library and borrowing a few at a time. This week I also listened to an interview of the author Mairi Hedderwick on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island discs while out on one of my 5km runs. She is a really interesting woman with a great story to tell. Listening to her story and reading the stories she tells has really made me wish I could spend a year on a little Scottish Island with M and the kids. But I do have a tendency to believe that 'far away fields are green' and as life is pretty good just here in this little patch I think we will stay put for now!

Watched- Downton Abbey Series 1. M and I do not watch much TV owning a lot to how we can so easily get addicted to a Series and then feel guilt at having wasted so much precious time. However this week we really felt like watching a TV series and thought we would try Downton Abbey, after all everyone seems to have watched it and loved it. One week in and we have finished Series 1 and started Series 2 and the addiction had led to a week of later than usual bedtimes but relaxed and enjoyable evenings together. Thankfully we have only got Series 2 and 3 left so we should have them dusted of in another week or so and get back to doing something useful with our evenings and earlier bedtimes.
  

Thought- 'Comforter'...a while ago I was challenged about what my role of Wife, Mother and friend is and somewhere along the journey I came across the word 'Comforter'. Nothing less and nothing more. A 'comforter'. I quite like it. I like how it simplifies things for me. If I am in any doubt of what to do in a situation if I could just remember 'to comfort' then I think many disputes would be resolved, many wounds would be healed and stressful situations would be eased.

Made-

This week I went a step further in our bedroom revamp. I decided that the curtains definitely had shrunk in the wash and were in need of lengthening. I used red gingham cotton and covered the original hem line with a blue grosgrain ribbon. With the left over fabric and ribbon I covered our bedside lamps. 

Inspired by-

I always love Habitat and its products and their Spring 14 range is no exception. I love the red/orange, yellow and blue combination in this mug. As the main colour in our dining room is similar to this shade of yellow I'm thinking that our kitchen would look nice with hints of the blue. I'm so tempted to get a big pot of paint and start painting. Watch this space!

I thought this would be a quick and easy blog post to write but I was wrong. However I did enjoy it and am sure I will try it all again soon.

February rain...

This year is in sprint mode and we only have a couple of days before half term begins. I hope to take the kids to see some of our friends in Bath for a few days so have been running up little gifts for the girls...but what do you make/buy for a teenage boy?! Our visit is totally dependent on the weather. Yesterday we had strong winds and rain while today we have sunshine. We seem to be getting off very lightly compared with the rest of the country which is flooded with no sign of receding.

On Saturday we went over to Audley End in the rain to see if it had flooded the day before. We made good use of our new forest school waterproofs and had alot of fun exploring a near deserted Audley End. MJ also spent the first of his pocket money on a new pencil for his school pencil case. Since the New Year we have kept a reward chart. If he is helpful, does something without asking, needs a bit of encouragement or does well in his learning he can earn 5p's. Equally if I need to discipline him he can loose 5p's. At the moment it is working really well and he loves to keep a running tally of how much he has earned. While choosing what to spend his money on he got a lesson in the value and worth of his money...he has alot of saving up to do before he can afford the wooden bow and arrow!

#Ilovetorun

It is official...I love to run. The reality of this hit as I extended my Thursday run and found myself running through the muddy Hertfordshire countryside in the rain with a feeling of happiness in my tummy. I wanted to try out a new route which was in part successful but not totally as I must have missed a turn off and instead plodded through muddy fields for a mile or so. I managed 10km but am now at the lovely stage where I feel like I could run forever or until my left quad snaps!

Running through puddles and mud while listening to Section D from Monocle 24.

Master Yoda

MJ loves Master Yoda...so I thought it might encourage some pencil work if we learnt how to draw Yoda. We followed a step by step guide from the internet. He was very proud of his final drawing. Lj's looks like baby Yoda...don't you think?

Squirrels dressed in Joules!

 

Almost a tradition, we have done it twice, when the Joules new season catalogue pops through the letter box Lj and I dress ourselves in make believe clothing. Today we combined our drawings of squirrels and the Joules catalogue and ended up with Mr Squirrel dressed in Joules...quite a posh little squirrel he is!