Spring Chicken Designs

2010-07-09T02:35:00.001+01:00

As I am sure most of you know we have moved from rural Wiltshire to the very wild and rural Falkland Islands. You can follow our adventures over at www.polka-dot-penguin.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there

2009-07-29T16:13:00.002+01:00

SO THIS IS SUMMER!

Well I am sure you are all as sick of this weather as we are. At least my boy enjoys his walks in the rain. I find it so comical when I see him jumping through the fields. The summer holidays have started and so far, cross my fingers they are going well. We have had trips to build a bear, play dates with friends, swimming trips and play at home days. Today we have had a friend's twins for the day and after a very wet but fun walk over the fields, we have had a quiet afternoon watching Bedtime Stories. The boys were desperate to get on the x box which worked nicely to bribe them with when it came to tidying Euan's room up. I am suffering from another head cold (isn't it always the same when you stop!) but am holding on to the hope that it wont affect my surgery scheduled for next week. Right I shall head off and dig out the pizza from the freezer for tea and then I might allow myself some time to surf the net.

2009-07-14T06:29:00.004+01:00

Forgot to post a picture of the party bags. I had Maddie draw a teddy bear for me so that I could scan and print the tags out for the bags. She did a wonderful picture complete with party hat. I used publisher to change the colour and re size and then stamped the names in the turquoise to match the ribbon on the sweet boxes. They turned out simple but cute.

I have been trying to make all my birthday presents this year, or at least all the ones for the kids parties that mine get invited to. It was getting ridiculously expensive with 3 or 4 parties each month. I seem to have stuck on the theme of pen rolls which I try to match to said birthday girl or boys taste. The above roll was for a friend of Ellie's who liked lions and I loved the result.

Spiderman for the boys of course.

Tractor for a friend of Maddie's. Boy did this bring back the memories of Euan and his love of tractors!

Another lion and this time I wrapped the tail around to come inside the pencil case.

Batman as a commission for a friend.

Pretty flowers for another of Maddie's friends

and a little butterfly bag which I added a butterfly notebook and pen from Tescos to.

and before I forget, the picture from Saturday night's Ball. We do scrub up okay occasionally. Right today has to be a garden day. The Lavender is getting to long again, you know you are upsetting the post lady when she leaves you a little note on your post asking you to cut the lavender back a bit! I haven't been in the garden out front for months and you can tell. There are rape plants growing, massive weeds and everything is looking rather unkept and messy.

2009-07-13T21:21:00.002+01:00

I cannot believe that my little one is 6 years old now! I know every one seems to say the same thing but wow time has flown by. She is definitely my cheeky monkey, always quick with a smile and a hug.

She had her birthday party at Build a Bear this year with 10 of her little friends and it was a massive hit. They each got to choose, make, name and dress their own bears. It was the first time mine have ever done this and they loved it. They got to choose a sound, and a heart to put inside their bears before they were stuffed. I managed to keep them all to a strict budget so they had to choose whether they had a more expensive bear with only a sound or a cheaper bear with a sound and clothes. It worked out really well and I would definitely recommend it to anyone with smaller kids.

This years cake was of my choosing, I wanted to stay along the teddy theme but also keep it simple. I have to say (not blowing my own trumpet) but it was really effective. I got the idea out of a cake decorating book and just altered it to suit our pink and polka dot theme. Each child got to take home their own individual cake in a party bag that just had a little box stuffed full of gummy bears. Since they had their own bears to go home with I thought that was more than enough.

The Thank yous came from a close up photo of the cake with a little bit of a tweaking in photo shop. I am currently in the middle of a course with Jessica Spraque which I cannot rave about enough. I am slowly learning about all those techniques I have seen on others blogs and silently craved to know myself.

Maddie's actual birthday was today, so we had a quiet family tea and have promised to take her out on a birthday trip to see ice age three on Thursday. She has been thoroughly spoilt and her room is full of even more Littlest pet shop and Build a Bear clothes!

I have also been learning about masks, frames and TTV files this week so watch this space for a few more glitzy photos as I slowly attempt to take on board all this new technology.

Saturday night saw John and I head to Shrivenham for the Purple Ball. We had a lovely time but unfortunately I made the fatal mistake of eating a curry and then going on the waltzers. Ah! I did manage to keep things down but boy did I feel mighty rough for the next hour or so :(
John obviously didn't laugh much as I was screaming my head off on the ride. I think at one stage I sounded like Maddie on Big Thunder Mountain at Disney - I do not like this ride, I want to get off. Thankfully the dodgems were more tame but that was the end of my fairground activities for one night.

Sunday saw us head to the village green for the annual Strawberry Fayre. Other than that we have just been ploughing on with life and trying not to fall of the fast paced treadmill.

2009-06-12T21:43:00.004+01:00

A little bit of manipulation

and no that doesn't mean me manipulating J! I actually mean digital enhancement :) John helping with the shelter building at Euan's 9th birthday.
I have been having some fun on the computer tonight in otherwords wasting time farting about. I have found this great site on one of my favourite blogs. Link to http://www.picnik.com/ and you can upload your photos and play about with all sorts of actions. I am a real newcomer to all this digital enhancing game. I had my first lesson on photoshop a few weeks back and I think I could be hooked! This is definitely a quick and easy way to sharpen up your photos without having to know what you are doing. The peonie above is the same picture as the post below but wow what a difference. J had a 60's effect added to his and I quite like the outcome. He will be home from Washington tomorrow which will be nice, as long as he isn't grumpy and jet lagged! Right my neck is pulling and I feel absolutely knackered so I think for once I might listen to my body and head off to bed.

2009-06-12T21:01:00.000+01:00

2009-06-09T13:56:00.007+01:00

A new haircut has inspired me to blog, no only joking just thought it really was time to get back on the blog!

Boy it has been a long time since I updated. Lots has happened while I have been away. Firstly we have finally heard that we are on the move! we are heading off to the Falkland Islands in January 2010 for 18 months. Many might be surprised to hear that I am really excited about this move. The kids and I went down to the Falklands when J was there for four months a few years ago and we loved it, yes it is remote, yes there is not much down there and yes it is a very long way from home but we are really looking forward to the family time it will bring us. I will have to adjust to J being home every night and possibly every lunch time :) but the chances to see wildlife and step away from the hussle and bussle of life will be super.

A photo for Hilary to show her my letters that I have in my hall, Hilary something like this even just with initials on your wall would look good. These are about 15 inches high and are all old shop letters except the S which I made myself.

Right what else have I been up to. Well lots of scrapbooking, quite a few orders, gardening, caring for my 95 year old Gran and a few other bits and pieces. My Mum broke her ankle while she was on holiday in Turkey unfortunately, but is making a good recovery. In the meantime I have stepped into the breach and have been doing the shopping and cleaning for my gran. We have had some fun taking her out for day trips with the kids. It has been a good opportunity for me to get to know her better since I think time is very precious at the moment.

A few layouts to show from last month.

My boy has just turned 9, I cannot believe it. He had a lovely party in the local Forest School. He had fun learning how to make shelters, build fires and track. As usual there was the cake request from said birthday child. I swear these get harder every year. This year Euan wanted a clone Troopers helmet and the language which came out of the kitchen was rather colourful by the end! The next morning I asked Euan if he liked it and he said he did, I checked it out and found he had already been sampling it around the bottom! Ah well I guess he was the birthday boy!

Right I had better skidaddle and go and pick up my children from school. Tesco awaits and then Brownies tonight. J is lucky enough to be in Washington this week, working he says - yeah right I say. It was good timing because my engine on the scenic gave way last week and is rather poorly in the garage at the moment. I have been told to expect a £1,000 bill so we shall see. It only needed to hold on a few more months and we could get our tax free car ahhhhhh!

2009-02-23T19:40:00.009Z

A MIXED BAG!

WARNING this post is photo heavy and off a scrapbook nature so look away if you are not into paper!

Firstly we had lots of fun the other week when the kids had a few days of school because of the lovely white stuff. We headed out into the field opposite with some friends to build ourselves a snowman. Well anatomically speaking it was a snow woman with perfectly formed bosoms. It brought a smile to lots of peoples faces as they drove by and realised it was slightly more special than the usual snowman at the side of the road.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the same for all people. We went to bed with an intact snowlady only to wake up to find it completely smashed up. Our lady had been assaulted! Ah I keep forgetting I am no longer living on an Airbase but a small sometimes small minded village. It would seem our lady caused offense! Well nothing new here then, me causing a rucas in the village again :)

Last week Ness and I got together to make some cakes for her boys 6th birthday and for J's 30 something birthday. The boys were having an outdoor forest party and for J a rugby ball was called for. I did contemplate putting English colours on it but thought my marriage might not survive if I did!

I have decided that I might start doing cakes for local people if requested. A lot of people ask me if I make them and I usually decline but I could desperately do with making a bit of dosh at the moment as the marketing is rather quiet and difficult. I am in the process of looking into food hygiene and see where that takes me. So if you are in the Wiltshire area and would like a novel birthday cake give me a call!

Next up is cookery club. Three girls and myself started this last month. We get together once a month to cook together. The idea is that we take turns in picking recipes we would like to do - are scared of doing! and then cook them together. This month is was noodles for starters and then lemon curd sponge puddings for desert. I forgot to take a picture of the pudding but they were both fantastic dishes. In March we have a pasta dish on the menu with possibly Key Lime Pie for desert. Anyone have a good recipe for either?

Felt Hearts was also in order the other night in front of the tv. I have been wanting to make one of these for a while now but just never seemed to get the time. Sod it I thought the other night and got out my mess and started creating. I was rather pleased with the result so made another to give to a friend as a thank you as she had given me a rather nice cupcake book.

Well that is about it for the news front. Here follows the scrapbook weight. I have still been trying to get caught up with the girls 2008 books. Only around another 40 pictures to go :0

2009-02-20T09:23:00.002Z

Jessica Spraque is offering a great giveaway Thursday through Friday for a chance to win a place on her Digital Course. You have to post your favourite picture and explain why - mine is above I so love the look of fun and carefree play in my kids faces with these pictures. I had such fun just shooting photo after photo that day.

Be back soon with some more photos from half term love to all Helen

2009-02-05T05:17:00.004Z

Scrapbooking and furniture

Over the last month I am slowly making in roads in getting caught up with things. Well I say caught up but really I mean actually just starting to attempt to catch up. Scrapbooking is one of the things i really enjoy but unfortunately it is one of those that always takes a back burner when life gets busy. I have recently been trying to get the kids 2008 albums up to date. Euan's is the first to be completed, I only have December and this January to go and 2008 is all done. I have printed Maddie's pictures and Ellie's are picked just not printed! A few layouts below that were completed last month.

Legoland
Hill Walking with J

New Teeth

One of my favourite pictures of last year these were taken at Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust in their Wellyboot Land, it was such a gorgeous day.

Euan's Birthday and his go carting party.

A very tired looking Mum and Euan

A night of Bat Watching with a bit of Deer spotting at the local farm.

School Play

I finally persuaded John that I needed a bookcase in what was meant to be the snug. Um Yes sorry love I have finally taken it over as my workroom :) Fantastic Ikea but boy can it hold some stuff. I have moved all my craft books out of the Livingroom bookcase now and have a place to put all my scrapbooks. I spent the day a few weekends ago, building the bookcase and clearing the room. Walls were retouched, skirtings washed and three bags sent to the rubbish. Gosh it felt good. I had a real purge to see what I had and what I really didn't need. I would still like to get rid of the basket on the floor but it holds all my wrapping paper, bags and puffy envelopes et cetera.

I can finally see my desk! Still a few boxes stacked underneath but I am working on them. I will take a photo of the computer area soon, I have put a few shelves up there now. What I want to do now is start to bring out and make some crafty bits to put into the space. I still have a mosaic that I started when I was pregnant with Maddie and have yet to finish. Poor John you don't stand a chance.

Right I am going to head back to bed. Not sleeping well at the moment. I think the kids might have a snow day off school today. As I type the snowplow is passing by and it is still snowing YEAHHHHH!!!!

Love to all Hx

Just before I go a before and after picture of Ellie's desk that I picked up from a friend for £20. It is very red but I love it and so does Ellie which is great. I just need to sort out a chair for her now and she will have somewhere to sit and draw.

work in progress

Finished.

It looked really nice and clear but then Ellie got home and added her bits and pieces, she is definitely the queen of tat!

2009-02-03T19:39:00.003Z

Bedroom Makeover

Can't you always tell it is about time to move house when I am just about finished decorating all the rooms? I only have the hall left in this house and I have been through and decorated each room at least once!

Last week was spent making new pillow covers for my bed. I decorated the room with the help of a friend back at the beginning of September but hadn't really moved on from there. John wasn't sure about the grey on the walls when I did a test patch, I believe his quote was "it looks like the F...ing inside of a tank" to be precise. I knew that it would be really quite warm and restful and I should really learn not to put colours up on the wall and expect him to understand what I want to do with them! Still bless him he said I could go ahead but if he hated it I would have to repaint. Umm yes okay love :) The colour is a Little Green paint which I absolutely love to use on the walls as it covers really well and doesn't drip everywhere.

Next I repainted my £15 cupboard find which we have had since Leeming. If you remember it was once a really warm cream colour with a toffee coloured fabric behind the wire. Not to self next time remove wire to begin with before trying to repaint with satin finish as I got myself into a big mess. The fabric behind the wire is a Cath Kidston print, I think it is called faded rose or something like that. I also put up to metal hook racks to hang all my jewellry on as I was getting fed up of tangled necklaces.

Curtains were next.Well about five months later. I painted the pine curtain pole white which was a bitch of a job. The curtains are made out of a Cath Kidston duvet cover and some brushed heavier weight white cotton. I have interlined them as our bedroom is north facing and gets quite cold. In theory the curtains are great but unfortunately Fergus's favourite spot is to lie up against them and the radiator. My lovely white curtains now have a ginger fuzz all across the bottom!

Fed up with digging around in drawers and bags for makeup and cream, I found a lovely grey wire cake stand in a local shop I love, Old Mother Hubbard in Nailsworth. Although everything is on display and some might think it messy, I absolutely love it as everything is to hand instantly.

I plan to put a picture wall up behind the bed head of black and white pictures. I have been slowly collecting frames and I just need to get around to picking or taking pictures to go in them.

Grey Spot Pillow made of wool and the white brushed cotton of the curtains.

Cath Kidston print pillow with pink pearl buttons.

Pink Fleece Spot cushion rejigged from a blanket from Asda Home.

Patchwork Pillow from a mix of all the above fabrics.

Small heart pillow from the white brushed cotton and the grey wool fabric.

I still have a rocking chair I wish to repaint white to go in the bedroom. I have made two other pillows out of a fushia pink fleece and also left over grey spot from the duvet.

I would love to get built in wardrobes in this room along with new bedside tables. The MFI furniture we bought when we moved in was a really bad buy.

So there you have it. I have been active the last month. I have rejigged my office which I will show you soon and I have also been doing a lot of scrapbooking and other sewing.

Hope all are well that read this and I shall TRY to update again soon.

2009-01-06T21:42:00.002Z

Which Direction?

What is it about New Year that makes you stop and take stock of your life? I have been doing a lot of soul searching recently and don't seem to be able to come to any kind of positive answer. At 36 soon to be 37 I feel I haven't achieved much in my life. I have three beautiful children which I absolutely love don't get me wrong but as far as career, nope not really done much with that. I got my degree in design and then got married and took it no further. I was chatting with a friend today and she said she was jealous of me because of my talent. She said all I needed to do was chose a direction to go in and take off. Sounds simple hey but here is my problem, I don't know which direction to go in! in fact I would not hesitate to say I don't think I have ever known. I love my art and craft so yes I would love to do something with that but what? Teach, I enjoy yes but full time no I am not sure. I would love to have my own shop with a little studio to do classes in but we are never in one place long enough to build up a clientele and reputation. We are back in the situation again where we are waiting for March to roll round and the RAF to decide on our domestic situation again. I seem to get these ideas in my head, start running in that direction and then get so far before I get cold feet turn round and head back to my safety zone. I just wish I was one of those people who had a clear direction of where they wanted to go and what they wanted to achieve. Anyone got the golden answer?

Boy that was heavy. Well not much else is going on at present. Spent the day catching up with things, letters to NHBC to complain about the builder, letter of complaint to the holiday company about the extra money we had to pay out because of their ineptness. I did get the kids to finish their Christmas thank yous, (still need to do mine!). I also managed to clear my desk, well put the scrap booking paper away and file the mountain in my in tray :) The weather has been really crispy and cold today, I walked the kids to and from school, managed to have a healthy diet all day and then blew it tonight when J brought out the Cadburys ooooppps!

Tomorrow is a planning day I think, I want to get the schedule drawn up for Rainbows this term and try to get as much organised now so I don't waste hours surfing for games and activities each week.

Right off to go and read my book, I have been loving this reading fest I have been on lately. Hey I even managed to get to bed and sleep by 10:30pm last night. Miracle! Night and love to all.

2009-01-02T21:32:00.005Z

Happy New Year

2009

I hope this finds you and yours all well and fully recovered from the holiday season. We have all been rather busy with trips to Disney land in Paris and then Christmas fun, Murder Mystery Parties et cetera.I have been trying to upload pictures tonight but to no avail so this will be a verbal only post unless it finally sorts its self out. (now sorted) I packed all the christmas decs away today and got my house cleaned. It had got beyond a joke the dog hair had formed a carpet on our wooden floors.

So what have I been up to since October? Well the usual really. The marketing job went very quiet unfortunately due to the current economic climate. Typical for me really as the timing couldn't have been worse with christmas fast approaching and not a lot in the kitty! I picked up quite a few supply days from Preschool which was great but unfortunately the hourly rate isn't as good. I have been back in school doing art with Euan's class and then just before christmas I helped make felt candy canes in Ellie and Maddie's class.

I have been sick on and off now since August, I am currently typing this with a thumping toothache which the dentist assures me is a sinus infection and not a filling problem. I am now on my sixth set of antibiotics since August which cannot be good for me or my body. I spent New Years Day in bed being a very lazy bugger but it was rather nice as I read a book from cover to cover! I am now a third of the way through my second book of the year :) I have enjoyed bookclub this year as it has really made me read some different books which I wouldn't usually have looked at. I have decided to keep a record of what I read this year and mark down what I thought of them.

Stitch was definitely my favourite out of all the characters and Euan loved him wiping his armpits with his hat.

We had a lovely if not slightly stressful time at Disneyland. The euro was at an all time low so we didn't get much bang for our buck. Generally each meal was costing us £100 yes that read pounds not euros and that was usually for a very average meal. The lines for each ride we sometimes over two hours and don't even get me started on French manners :( Still the children seemed to enjoy themselves and I am glad we took them but I will not be heading back again. I think we had just as much fun at Legoland free with my clubcard vouchers. We came home to find out that a little boy had died in the hotel swimming pool the day before we arrived which wasn't nice. There was no sign of anything while we were there but it was peculiar because the second time I took the kids swimming on my own and I just wasn't comfortable. We arrived home on christmas eve at 1:45pm with three very tired but must I say amazingly behaved kids on the eurostar and the underground at that time in the morning.

Christmas day was spent here with my parents. They arrived after lunch and stayed for a big christmas meal in the evening. The kids were spoilt rotten as usual and so must I say was I. I had lots of lovely Suzie Watson pottery from friends and my Mum. My dinner service is slowly started to build up, 6 bowls and two side plates plus a butter dish and numerous jugs. I think I now have about 8 mugs to. John got me a Wacom Tablet for the computer that I wanted, I have absolutely no idea how to use it but hey a new years resolution for me to learn this year. J got a Jamie Oliver pan from me (at his request!) but the pink not stick, non scratch utensils made him laugh - well that had to match my kitchen obviously!! Boxing day was spent building lego, trying to get into the packaging of Littlest Pet shop and generally being lazy slobs. Pure Bliss.

NEW YEARS EVE

New Years was spent at my parents and we had a roman murder mystery party. Before the evening kicked off though my parents had the neighbours over to launch the lanterns which we were unable to send off on bonfire night. I think I must have got confused about them because I thought my Mum had said that they were to go on the lake but quite the opposite. You light them and the as they gas builds up in the paper balloon they take off and reach massive heights. They were absolutely stunning and my picture really doesn't give the illusion that we saw first hand. Apparently you are not allowed to release them within 8 miles of any airport. It would be stunning to see a whole mass of these sent up together.

After this Mum's neighbours came over along with their son and his partner. The costumes were hilarious and I found that if you take several paracetomal, antibiotics and alcohol you can get rid of your toothache for a few hours.

Tom who was Licentious Caesar

Me - Mercedes Accelarata and my Mum Rowtunda (forgotten her last name)

J -Harangus Adnausuam and Roe - Cleptopatra

Dad - Maximillus Testosterus with his very good home made helmet.

Apparently J doesn't want me to dye my hair black as it freaked him out, my Mum however said she quite liked the wicked side it brought out in me!

I have decided on my new word to 2009 it is going to be search. If you don't know what I am talking about then head over to Ali Edwards blog and all will be explained.

Right I am off to bed to see if I can read two books before the third day of the year. May all your wishes and dreams become reality in 2009 and if not lets just hope you have a bloody good year.

2008-10-07T20:22:00.003+01:00

Two posts in ten minutes boy I am smoking, forgot to add on the latest party invite. Ellie is having a penguin party this year and we are going pottery painting. I decided to keep it simple and only 7 friends are invited (2 of which I now know can't make it). I am not going to do food but I will make her a cake. We are going to be making an igloo apparently :0 aah Mummy's skills put to the test again :)

The wings lift up and have a funky patterned paper underneath. The writing was on the back of the invite. I have been thinking about offering a personalised invite package on my etsy shop but not sure whether it would fly. They would be fairly expensive because of the time involved but I may give it go.

2008-10-07T19:44:00.004+01:00

Okay I give up I am hopeless with this blogging :) hey ho. A few things I have been making lately. If I get time tomorrow I shall upload some of our holiday photos from this summer.

Butterfly bags as a commission for Suzanne. I had such fun making these bags, I am finding moving away from the heavy zigzag bordering is suiting me much better and I feel gives the piece a bit more life.A lavendar and purple bag for Oli
The names were hand embroidered to resemble the trail of a butterfly and i rather like how they turned out.
Detail of butterfly
Dinosaur bags

I finally got around to making some new cushions for our sofa. You know things are bad when even the husband says things are starting to look a bit tatty :) Still we have had the sofa since we got married. This is Fergus' favourite place to lay about. The old throw we had was not machine washable and looked disgusting. I have been trying in vain to keep this new one clean but Fergus is definitely not understand the concept of staying off!

I used up a lot of my spare fabric to make these. I had planned on making a quilt to go over the sofa but as usual time never allowed and I couldn't face the old throw any longer.

Last month Mum and I went on a wire sculpture course taught by Celia Smith. Her work is absolutely fabulous and we had commissioned her to make a NeeNee goose for Dad's sixteeth birthday. I will up load pictures once we have had a bright day to take them. I make a chicken in the end and he is rather funky with coloured telephone cables all over him. Mum made a cockeral which is out of more natural wire colours of copper and grey. It was lovely to get away for the weekend and not to hear "Mummy, Helen, can I, she said, he hit" but it went by so quickly.

I have a few prototypes in the making for some christmas decorations but, this year I am not going to be doing a show at home. We are off to Disneyland Paris before christmas and for once I wanted to just enjoy the season rather than run around filling orders. That being said I am still taking custom orders for a few things here and there.

Right off to go and start designing the christmas card for this year.

2008-08-25T03:36:00.002+01:00

Little Creations

I thought I would post a few pictures of a little bag I made for Maddie way back in April to house her new little friend. Maddie has a large peg shelf which she uses to hang up her numerous bags and paraphernalia and I got so worried about the plastic being over her bed I decided to take action and make her some fabric bags so I could sleep at night. I really enjoyed making this bag even though it was my first attempt at squared off corners. I would love to make a few more in different sizes to add to her collection.
Below is the fish I referred to in my previous post. It is large and used for a pj bag. I made it back in April as a commission for my friend who wanted something to put in her son's bedroom to house his pj's. I have posted about Hilary's boy's rooms before and posted pictures on Flickr. I suppose I should make more of an effort to put my pictures up as and when I make things to hopefully prevent this from happening but I wrongly had worked on the theory the less I put up on the net the less likely I was to be copied!
all the fishes scales where made using fabric I had previously used in the blanket, drawstring bags and duvets in Corey's room.
Well it is oh dark hours here and I haven't been able to sleep as usual. We are off to my parents today, J is taking Euan up to Gloucester with Grandad to the Rugby open day. They went last year and had a blast so thought they would have another look see. Mum and I are probably going to play gardens with the girls. I spent all of Friday in my front garden and cut back my lavender. It has been beautiful again this year but all the rain and wind had caused it to flop all over the path, the postie plus several friends kept complaining they got soaked coming to my door when it was wet and then had to run the gauntlet of the bees when it was dry. It was a shame to cut it as the scent was fabulous. I also dug out a lot of geraniums as they were rather brutish a few bits had rotted off under the lavender and just getting rid of the dead delphinium, lupin and allium heads took all day and nine bin bags!

When we got back from Scotland I had a lovely note from a lady saying she admired my garden and would love to know who had designed it for me and would they be interested in doing hers. It was rather flattering but amusing since it is all my own work and I am definitely not a garden designer. I gave her a call and popped round for a coffee. She was a really lovely lady and had the most beautiful house and gardens but like all of us has such a busy life that the time was not there to create like she would want to. We chatted plants and I promised to let her know when I was going to plant my bulbs this year. She kindly offered for me to bring the children up to use her pool and tennis court, bless her she hasn't met my loud threesome yet!

I had been pleased with my spring garden this year but the summer just didn't quite come together for me, some of this was down to the yucky weather but mostly down to placement, so I think this winter will be spent hopefully planning out how I might change it around a bit. I was aiming for a big blousey garden that all meshed together which it did in places but not in others. i do need a bit more structure for the winter as well which sounds expensive if Mum and I visit the garden centre today - oops sorry John :0

Right I suppose I should attempt to get back to sleep otherwise I will be a crabby bear later today.

Night all Hx

2008-08-24T18:07:00.003+01:00

Has it really been three months?

Wow I can't believe that it has been three months since I wrote on this blog! We have just got back from our annual jaunt up to Scotland to visit the relatives. We had a lovely time and have some fond memories of places and people visited.

Callum and Megan my niece and nephew were amazing they entertained my children a treat and are turning into really well rounded and lovely children. Megan and I had a little nail painting session were I gave her and a friend a french manicure. I got to see Megan in her prom dress for next year and she looks absolutely gorgeous. Callum looked after Euan and brought him home covered in mud on several occasion's.

They day after we arrived John took Callum and Euan off for a stadium tour at Murrayfield. I believe they all had a good time with quite a bit of damage being done at the shop afterwards! obviously it was all for Euan's new rugby season and very much needed ;)

Meanwhile I was sneaky and disappeared early Wednesday morning on a train to go and see some friends. In the evening I stayed with Eileen and Adam Watts who spoilt me like made. We had dinner with the family and then a few of the girls I miss terribly came round for a wee drink in the evening. Eileen pulled out all the stops including a delicious Choc Cake (Oh so not on the slimmers world diet!)
I got to have a hug with this little fella who I had not seen since he had not been born when we moved.
I got to spend the day with my good friend Hilary which was so much fun, I knew I had missed her but oh I had realised how much. She (or rather Euan Thank You!) treated us to lunch at the Links and I had the most divine Mozzarella and caramelised onion ciabatta (also so not on the diet). Afterwards we might have done a little bit of retail damage in St Andrews. I have started to collect Suzie Watson pottery and would like to build up a dinner service but it is so expensive, Farmore Expensive had 20% off so I stocked up on a couple of bowls! I also managed to snag a lovely red cardigan from White Stuff and a T in the sale at Fat Face. Even better for me they were both size 16 YES been a while since I was that size. I must thank Hilary's mother in law though as we were shopping she was babysitting especially Corey bless him who has chicken pox.
John picked me up on Thursday morning and we headed up to Aberfeldy to go on a highland safari. We had a fabulous time and booked it through our Tesco clubcard. I am not sure I would have payed full whack but it was definitely worth it through the clubcard system. We had a lovely driver who was very informative and good with the kids which was great. We saw lots of deer, stags, sheep and this little fella below We also looked at deer tracks which lead us to a little stream where we say tadpoles, toads and beetles. I made me stop and realise how were are always so busy getting from A to B that we don't stop and look at what is under out feet. Again we had a delicious lunch (Venison Sandwiches oooh so not on the diet :) ) and then headed up to the house of Bruar for a quick nosey about. I might have sniffed out a few more Suzie Watson pieces which was rather nice, the girls got some lovely cozy and very fluffy Joules socks to keep them warm this winter.

On Saturday and Sunday John and I headed off on our own up to Glen Coe for the weekend to celebrate our 11th Wedding Anniversary. We stopped in to see Gus and Kirsty who don't seem to have changed at all in years. Their children however have, Lindsey is now a beautiful teenager who was a delight to meet and David is 17 now, when did that happen. After that we headed up on the hills and yes the above picture is me doing a victory dance on top of the Pap of Glencoe, a 742 metre high hill that seemed to pretty much just go straight up! there might have been sweat and a few swear words but thankfully no tears. It did take me a lot longer than the book predicted to get up and down but I did it. I have told John I am choosing the anniversary jaunt next year and something about New York and Fabric along with Scrapbook shopping might feature high on the agenda!
This is a picture of the Pap of Glencoe from our hotel room, taken after a wonderful power shower and before another lovely meal.
Monday was spent at the Glasgow Science Museum where we watched a film at the Imax theatre and then had some fun with the exhibits. We also went up the tower but Maddie was rather happy to get down from there.

The last few months have been busy as I have been working three jobs to help the old coffers as well as the usual round of kids and house jobs. John has had a month off before he starts staff college in a weeks time. The kids have had good summer holidays so far, Tom the son of my parents neighbour gave them some intensive swim lessons and it was wonderful to see them come on, I just need to keep taking them now.

I have just stumbled over folksy.com which seems like it is the UK version of Etsy. I was intrigued until I found an almost blatant copy of my fish pillow case that I did for Hilary. I have heard of other people who have been copied but never really experienced except in my fabric design days but this certainly hit me between the eyes. I now a lot of people see my work at my friends houses and have said to my friends oh I looked on your friends blog and I thought I might do something similar but never have I seen a direct copy before. We all look at other peoples work and use it to influence our style and direction but hopefully most are tactful enough to take it in a different direction and not blatantly copy. Ah well enough on my soap box for now. I have been busy creating but not for sale only for commissions. I hope to get back in the saddle once the kids go back to school.

Right husband and children are hungry so I am off to see if I can duplicate that lovely ciabatta I had at the links.

Love to all Hx

2008-05-28T14:52:00.006+01:00

An Upsetting Day

Today was meant to be a good day. I had a friend visiting with her new little baby girl that I was yet to see. We had plans for lunch and to let the children play together, she also has a three year old. I saw her pull up outside my house waiting for traffic to clear before she pulled in and then bang, a Travis Perkins lorry with a trailer and digger ploughed into the back of her. Oooh my heart was in my mouth, I rushed outside and thankfully apart from being incredibly shock up they seemed to be all ok. Poor Alicia was in such shock and worry for her little ones. My mind raced back to five years ago when it was me in the car with two of my precious babies and my accident. The ambulance took her off to hospital to get checked out as her back and neck were showing signs of damage. My fingers are crossed for her that she is ok and that the little ones don't suffer to many nightmares about what has happened. Bless him Dillon was very angry with the silly man for breaking his Daddies new car. I remember Euan being upset when the tow truck guy took away my car, I guess it is their release, their way of dealing with the shock.

So on a happier note I did manage to give her the presents that I had made for little Thea and for Dillon.

This is is the first time I have used my thread to actually draw an image on a bag. I have done this numerous times on my scrapbook layouts and cards but always fussed to much about loose edges that can fray before. I thought sod it and gave it a go, I am pretty pleased with the results. I had difficulty controlling the speed of the machine unfortunately so the thread patterns aren't as smooth as I would like but not bad for my first attempt. Next time I think I might just sew with the feed dogs down and free machine stitch. I would like to do some bags for Maddie' room like this.

I made a matching card to go with bag simply out of paper and a pen.

This is the present for Dillon, I had seen pencil rolls on a site somewhere on Flickr and loved them. I thought they would make fantastic gifts for little ones.

I have made several of these and they are in my etsy shop at the moment. Below is the one for Dillon.

This afternoon I decided to have a quiet one, even I felt a bit shaken up and I wasn't involved. I allowed the kids to have a play on the x box and settled down for a bit of inspirational surfing. Ellie came in an hour later crying and saying sorry. "Why are you sorry Ellie?" "well I was pulling on the curtains and they broke" right said Mum lets have a look shall we, thinking that they probably had only come off their hooks. No Ellie had pulled the whole rail out of the wall ripping a she load of plaster with it *%">*. GREAT aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh I could have killed her. I spent Monday filling in all the cracks and putting up things that were bugging me, I didn't want to have to start this again, especially with such a big bloody hole. Oh the joys of children.

So I am hoping for a quiet night but quite frankly I would love to just go to sleep now. Ellie is meant to be going for her first "friend" sleepover but I was oh so close to saying no. She has lost her ipod, favourite pillow and toy for the week along with her pocket money. When I asked why she was hanging off the curtains, she just responded she thought they would come down. Well yes they did love and was it the effect you desired? no Mummy. What did she expect? Oh deep joy.

A few other photos from this month. We had a go cart party for Euan which was a huge success. Sorry if I haven't sent out thank yous to all of you yet. Euan and I made and iced his requested cake which was R2D2 this year. Note to self, as much as I love this "work with the children idea" not on birthday cakes again it was so stressful ;)

I am in the process of designing invites and party bags for Maddie's this year. We are going to be having a cookie decorating party and the theme is Scottie Dogs, all in white, brown and orange. I have the invites done and just need to decide what to put in the bags and make the name tags. Then I will need to get baking cookies. I think I have 12 coming so I am not sure how many cookies I will need to make. Anyone got a good receipe?

This is a sneek peek of something the kids and I did at Westonbirt yesterday. It is for Father's Day so I shall reveal more once Daddy has got his surprise.

The weather is lousy again today and tomorrow I am meant to be helping Mum with her pebble mosaic in the garden. Not sure we will be able to attempt it if this rain continues. Friday we are off to a friends for lunch and then we are back to the weekend again. I am not sure where our time is going. I hope to pop back here later this week and show you some more bits and pieces I have been up to but for now I am signing off and taking Ellie to her sleepover against my better judgement.

2008-03-24T20:34:00.003Z

A busy month for the tooth fairy ...........

It looks like it could be a busy month for the tooth fairy in this house. Euan came home from school on Thursday and started to wobble his tooth. Within a few minutes he said he could bend it backwards, look Mum I can turn it around, ah Mum it has come out! His other front tooth is also wobbly, going to have to scrapbook this I think. Ellie sat at dinner that night and was complaining about having a sore tooth, she had bumped it the other day so I just nodded and said not to worry it would just take a bit of time to heal. Dinner continues and so does Ellies moaning. I asked J to have a look to see if he could see anything and bless her both her second set of large front teeth have already broken through the gums behind her baby teeth which still haven't dropped out. Ouch my poor baby I felt so bad. The baby ones are wobbly so I am not sure what to do? I think a phone call to the dentist to sort this one out. Molly, Ellie and Maddie modelling their hand made easter bonnets.
On Saturday we had an easter egg hunt at the house for some friends and their children. Well 21 children to be correct! We were slightly worried in the morning when it started to snow like crazy that we would have an interesting time finding eggs in the snow drifts. Friday was spent baking, much to Ellie's enjoyment (she really just likes licking the bowl I think). We made crispy cakes, mars bar cakes, caramel shortbread, cupcakes, chocolate triangles and pecan cups.
The annual easter tree was erected and decorations hung. Every year I swear I am going to get a proper tree I can bring out instead of searching the hedgerows for suitable branches.
Easter Sunday we awoke to find the easter bunny had paid us a visit much to the childrens excitement. Messy bunny mind you I had to get the hoover out after the kids had been down, his footprints had gone everywhere! Sunday was spent in slobby bliss. I didn't get out of my Pj's until noon as I was finishing off the book "The Kite Runner" which I thought was excellent, I definitely want to see the film now. The afternoon was spent painting up some christmas ornament prototypes which turned out really rather well. All in all a great day.

Today we had a lazy morning and then popped over to my parents for the afternoon and dinner. The kids had a blast trying to fly planes in the garden and then enjoying home made plum crumble YUM for dessert.

Freaky weather, that is not snow it is hail stones which have accumalated in just a few seconds.

more cushion sewing using the Bridgewater tea towels. Two cushions this time, front
and back and
a little heart with the spare fabric.

Well that sums up my time since Thursday, I hope you all had a lovely easter, we certainly did.

2008-03-19T19:36:00.003Z

Star Cushion Frenzy

I seem to definitely be in a red, white and blue phase at the moment. A few star cushions I made last week but hadn't got around to up loading. The two square cushions are 16 inches and the middle one is 40x60cm

Red Star Cushion

I am loving my new bias tape maker I cannot believe how much easier it is to make the tape without all the burnt fingers now!
back of Red Star cushion
long cushion with patchwork sides and the white star is stitched with red.

back detail

Blue Star cushion with patchwork background
Blue Star back.

This bunting is for a friend who is like me "a bridgewater pottery freak" well not freak but definitely an avid collector. Hilary wanted some bunting but since you cannot get bridgewater fabric YET (are you listening people you are missing a sales opportunity!) I used some tea towels to create my own.

Right show and tell over for tonight. Not much else to report except I did see the most beautiful barn owl hunting in the field opposite tonight. A neighbour mentioned she had seen him last week during the day and I had hoped he lives around here and will stay. I think I will need to pay more attention in the early morning and early evening. The kids were fascinated.

2008-03-18T19:49:00.002Z

This last month has seen me have a bit of a mid life crisis of sorts. I have never really had a burning ambition in life that many do, I have loved travel, art and knew I always wanted a family but other than that didn't really know what I "wanted to be". With Maddie now at school full time I have had a bit but not much! more time to myself. I have started to ask myself what I want out of life and what I will be remembered for when I am gone. Hmmmmm not much at this point other than a wife and mother. I don't mean to put down these roles as I know they are important and worthy in their own right but I just feel that I need to find me Helen Shields and what I want.

I have been seriously considering going back and taking my teaching degree as I really enjoying the role I have at school of teaching the children sewing, I enjoyed my time in Scotland when I went into the nursery with Jill and taught art once a week. I looked into courses but couldn't decide between the general age ranch of 5-11 year olds which would make me a jack of all trades as such and the specific job of art teacher at secondary level. Because John is not here much during the week and with his iminent move to Staff College in September I would be taking on the role of mother, student, housekeeper, gardener and general dogs body all by myself. My greatest fear was that I would have to put the kids into care morning and night just so I could attend college. Euan has just started to settle down and maybe make a move towards flourishing and I am petrified that he would take a backwards step if the main "rock" as it were was to be moved slightly. The girls I think would adapt better to the change but I don't know how I would, would I become to tired and thus cranky about the general things in my kids lifes, I know it would only be for a year of two until I qualified but then what, would I take full time teaching or a part time and where. Am I looking for issues where there are none? I have saught advise from all sorts of friends and the advise has come back so varied. Some say my children are still so young I should just take a breather and enjoy life with them before it is all gone, others shout at me that I should do something for myself before it is too late. Many say that my talent lies in what I create and I shouldn't give that up, my response unfortunately is that it doesn't pay the bills! I do enjoy sewing and creating but I don't seem able to sit down and perform it like I should with a job. I so desperately want an answer to all of this but just seem to get deeper and deeper into confusion. I can feel tears welling up as I type this which is silly really . The main comfort I take is that I am not alone, through some of the wonderful ladies in blog land I have found out that I am not alone, I think it takes an arty mind to be this confused ;) and so frustrated with my direction. So bare with me as I navigate this current chapter in my life and hopefully you should have some better crafting viewing in the up coming weeks. I have been creating just not photographing and sharing. Hilary my love don't worry I am still plodding on with your request and you will see my labours soon.

Sorry to be so miserable but thank you for reading!

2008-03-18T19:44:00.002Z

Take a look at my boy go!

So proud of my little boy - will he play for England to his Grandfathers pride or for Scotland to his Father's Pride? Rugby has brought his such confidence and although bias Ithink he is really rather good and quick at it

2008-03-16T14:09:00.003Z

CD Mukoksy Class with Chepstow Pink ScrappersThe week before last I went over the bridge again to Chepstow to take a class with CD Mukosky courtesy of Chepstow Pink Scrappers. Lousie, Pam and all the comittee are great at organising high profile people in the Scrap book industry to come and teach at Chepstow. We completed an album titled Angels. You had to take along 10 pictures of people that you consider to be angels in you life and some journaling to add. I haven't taken pictures of mine yet even thought I did manage to finish it the following day, miracle of miracles for me! I need J to bring home his laptop so I can download from my camera.
It was a brilliant evening as usual with all the familiar faces who are always so friendly.

Mini Swap Goodness

Last month we signed up to a Mini Swap through Mommy Coddle's blog and we were partnered with The Severson Family, Stephanie, Quinn, Claire, Tatum and their dog sam. My children were so excited about swapping with a family in the States. The parcel arrived and I was cruel to the girls because I made them wait until Euan cvame back from numeracy group so they could all open the parcel together.
We scored some fabulous goodies with knifty knitting looms, littlest pet shop, star wars, sweets and some fab books. I got some great american magazines and fabric.
Ellie's favourite with the Webkinz unicorn which hasn't been out of her grasped since it arrived (much to Maddie's annoyance she wants a go). I haven't seen these before, they have a code which you input in the computer and you can play games online with them.

Our package went out a little late due to my ill health and then the post office wanting to charge stupid amounts for one large box, apparently if I packaged it in four it would go a lot cheaper, which I did and saved myself £16. Must make sense to someone!
I forgot to take photos of what we put in the bags oops! Each of the children drew me a picture which I scanned and copied onto fabric paper and then made up a drawstring bag. Quinn had a dragon, with a book, sweets, lego kit and a welsh flag which is in the post seperately.
A hamster drawing by Maddie with a book, sweets, pen, magazine, littlest pet shop and hand made hamster.
Ellie drew a pony and this bag contained a book, magazine,pen, sweets, littlest pet shop and a handmade mouse and bed.

It was a lovely thing to take part in and I think next time I might put more emphasis on getting the kids to make some things.

2008-02-20T15:11:00.002Z

Still Sick

We seem to have been sick in this house for a long while now. The kids brought home a virus that has been doing the rounds at school and as it does, it went round all three of mine. Then J and I got it and seem to have taken really bad with it. Last week it was all I could do to raise my head off the pillow and ended up at the doctors surgery on Thursday almost in tears as the pain was so bad. The doctor thought it was a virus but that I now also hada sinus infection and the nice man gave me some drugs. I was suffering with hot and cold sweats like none I have had before and also this strange dizzyness which I can only liken to being drunk without the fun alcohol consumption beforehand! I still feel pretty rough now to be honest with you, focusing on one thing for any portion of time is difficult.

The kids are on half term this week which is a shame because I really don't feel fit enought to take them out anywhere. I have a mini swap which is 80% together that needs a few last bits sorted but I can't seem to pull my finger out and get it done. In fact I think I shall sign off now my eyes are starting to blur just looking at the screen. A few photos from before the bug which still need to be uploaded to etsy. Hope everyone else is not been struck down with this yucky virus season. Helen

Lined Robot Drawstring bag

Heart Bunting

Heart Cushion in denim and cotton

2008-01-31T10:01:00.000Z

Another week has gone by and I am not sure what I have done with it!

I have been busy with the sewing machine. I have made a few more pear doorstops as below, I have also finally got around to making a roman blind for my work room. It had got to the point where I couldn't work in my room at night because everyone would say they watched me through the window - hmmm not nice! Now I have a wonderful blind I can drop down and create in peace. I also have a cushion sewn with denim and red, it was the first time i had made my own binding and attached it. I was quite pleased with the results. I will post pictures once J brings his laptop home so I can download them. I finished a little scalloped edge bag for Maddie's room and a scallop edged carrier bag holder for the kitchen. Red and White bunting with hearts on for my etsy shop which I hope to update this weekend.

A Bob the Builder and JCB peghook which were both orders.
Today should be a day where I get on and design some new images. I have had robots on my mind for a while and feel the moment has come where I should develop it a bit further. I find there is always lots of things for girls but very little for boys.

The last picture is of my sweet little one Maddie. Last week J called me upstairs to come and look at something, I had just sat down with a cup of tea after a long day and really didn't want to get up again. "is it important" I asked " you don't want to miss this" he said. I trundled upstairs mumbling under my breath to look into Maddie's room. At first all I saw was her legs hanging out of the bed as usual, not much to see there but then J said look at her head, yep she was fast asleep with the ear defenders on. We got these ear defenders for the girls at firework time as they don't like the loud bangs. So sweet I couldn't stop laughing. The wind was particulary bad that night and she doesn't like the sound it makes around her room so obvious solution block it out! This picture has definitely made it onto a scrapbook page.

Right I had better go and do something before I get sucked into the void of blog land. Hope you are all having better weather than us today, take care H. x

2008-01-22T19:48:00.000Z

Another week has whizzed by and I forgot to blog again! sorry. Nothing much has been happening her past the usual madness. We have been baking up a storm in the form of cupcakes, sunflower seed rolls and flap jack. God help my figure there is no hope!

Miss Ellie enjoying some cake madness.
my boy is back to the rugby again (I cheated this was actually taken before christmas at an away game in Marlborough) The washing of the kit has been a nightmare the last few weeks, I am not sure where the mud stops and the boy starts!

My other beautiful boy who is going so grey around the eyes now. I cannot believe he is going to be ten this year. We have had some good walks the last few days as I am car less. A long and negative story (not don't worry no accidents just annoying husbands and mechanics).

We did however have a lovely but very fleeting visit from Maddie's Godmother, Auntie Di. We hope to see you again soon my love and for longer.

and then there is the little one who causes holy terror in the house, no i don't mean John :)

I have had a buzy week at the sewing machine finishing things off for orders and getting some bits sewn to take to show Mary Howard when we have our meeting this Saturday.

School tomorrow and another hand sewing lesson for my poor students. I hope to get a few more sewing bits and pieces done this week as well, however a trip to Cribbs Causeway on Thursday might throw a spanner in the works ;) Does anyone know where I can get thick fleece from?

Right Leslie I am going to call you now before I forget.

2008-01-11T14:10:00.000Z

Little bath Pixies

Fantastic Holidays and New Years Resolutions

I must have composed a million blog posts in my head but just never made it to the computer. We have had a fabulous Christmas, the kids were thoroughly spoilt by Santa and so was Mummy. I received a new Canon 400D slr which I totally love. Still trying to get to grips with all of the gadgets on it but hey it is fun playing. John had a new xbox 360 which meant that I didn't see much of him and Euan! Maddie has been busy with her pink (yes pink!) digi camera and Ellie has started her teenage years early by holing herself up in her room with her new IPOD at full blast. Euan's room now looks like a Lego shop which started at 3:10am on Christmas morning :(

We had a relatively quiet but well needed down time over the holidays with the odd trip out here and there but nothing manic.

Mum and I have officially gone into business now and are hoping to do the Mary Howard Show in Hullavington this year. We had wanted to do Country Living but to be honest the cost just to get there was beyond us this year. As you can see I have updated the Etsy shop with a few bits and pieces for Easter and valentines, hopefully there will be some more in the coming weeks. If you are in the UK and want to purchase anything let me know by email and I can arrange a cheaper postage deal without being in US dollars.

As for New Years resolutions, well it is very quiet in my house now as Maddie started full time which means that I need to get by butt in to gear and start making things. I am hoping to try and keep my making day to school hours and then spend some time in the evenings for me. We shall see if this works but that is the plan for now.

One of my new years resolutions is that when the kids get home from school I want to spend some time with them, not just doing homework but putting that extra little bit of effort in to do something one on one. Monday was story time,Tuesday we made cupcakes. Did you like that Ellie?

I think that is a yes!

Euan concentrating on how many sprinkles he can get on one cake,
Maddie well, yes the usual she was just eating the icing!

We have also been trying to spend some more quality time together as a family. This usually entails Fergus and Westonbirt or some other muddy location.

followed by nothing better than a hot chocolate of course.

some of the shop updates for you to peruse.

valentines felted eggs
romantic tin vessels

pretty peg hooks

heart felt angels

cheeky chicks

Prancing cockerels

coloured eggs

Wednesday was spent playing the Peter Rabbit game with a lesson for Euan in not winning ;) mum enjoyed that one(not much). Thursday Euan went to play at a friends and Maddie had here friend Molly around. They decided they wanted to make some more cupcakes which was fine by me. Tonight we shall see Euan has asked to watch a movie, which to be honest wasn't quite what I had in mind but they are all tired after their first week back and I am out with the girls tonight to celebrate Vanessa's birthday. Daddy is home early to which will be nice as he has been in London today.

Another resolution was to stay up to date with my scrap booking. I say up to date but I really mean starting from now. I managed to do over 25 layouts over Christmas and loved it. Not all of them are stunners but I feel so much better for playing. I made a promise that I would scrapbook at least three pages a month or scrapbook my photos as I take them this year so I don't miss life. I have been trying to go back and make up the children's albums but I feel so sad that I have totally forgotten so much about their baby years. It really hit home that I only have these children for a short time before they will be out till all hours or moving to university.

Weight will forever be on my resolution list but not sure if time will allow this year again. If we do get a slot at Mary Howard I think it will be all hours at the desk working. J was planning on climbing Mt Kenya this year but that doesn't look likely with the current political environment, so he has turned his attention to Ben Nevis with Euan in the late summer.

Not much else to report, hopefully I can pop in here at least once a week to try and update. Happy Belated New Year to all!

2007-11-25T10:25:00.000Z

SORRY FOR THE DELAY IN POSTING, BEEN RATHER BUSY!

Sorry for the long delay in blogging but I have been rather busy just lately. We have had Ellie's birthday, half term break with a trip to the London Eye and Disney on Ice with the kids, my craft night, bonfire night, character day at school and many other activities.

Yesterday I had a wonderful time with the girls of Chepstow again, I have come back fully relaxed yet desperate to scrap. Kirsty Wiseman came down for the day to teach THREE yes you heard right three classes. We had a house layout below, I still need to add my photos of the family.

House front opens up to show the photos inside. I still need to add my title.

a lovely simple layout with punch out buttons which we tied on with thread. I still need to add my title which will be Cpt. Jack as this is a picture of Euan on Book Character day at school. He went as Jack Sparrow.

and best of all a Christmas advent. I loved the papers immediately and the project was just Divine.
above is the outside of the advent and below you have the inside. I still need to write or print my numbers on the little pockets. I think I am going to write a little bit of something each day to remind myself of what we did in 2007 at Christmas. If you ever get a chance to take a class with Kirsty grab it with two hands. We got all of this and teaching for £25 total Bargain. Kirsty is such a lovely lady who is so willing to share what she knows with you. If you live in the Wales area Chepstow Pink Scrappers is definitely the place to go for scrap booking.

Louise bless her invited me over for dinner again which was just Divine. I have commented on her house and shop before it is like a sweetie shop with eye candy everywhere. I don't think there is a piece of bridgewater pottery made that she doesn't have and I am so jealous :) We had a fabulous dinner of Moroccan Lamb pie with delicious cheesy potatoes, sticky toffee pudding, warm cheese dips and lime drizzle cake, gorgeous if not totally fattening! Considering this is only my fourth time with these ladies, I feel like I have known them a lifetime they are so giving and caring. Ailsa best of luck with the diet you are doing so well. Maz lovely to have met you again, good luck with the photoshop and t-shirt nipples! Kirsty I look forward to seeing you on the 8th if you can fit us in :) pretty please.

Right I shall attempt to upload a few more of the recent photos over the coming week in between filling orders. Now I need a shower and start the usual house clean and laundry sweep.

Love to all Helen

2007-10-16T22:32:00.000+01:00

Do you ever seem to have so many things to do you get paralyzed?

I have a to do list the length of my body, I don't seem to be getting any further forward in fact just further back! I went out into the garden at the weekend to simply cut back my lavendar as it had got to the point that when it was raining you couldn't walk up the path without being soaked. I thought I could do this quickly and then plant my bulbs that arrived last week while I still remembered them, as past years some have gone very soggy before I got around to the task. Well five hours later and six bin bags of garden waste later I had a very nice tidy lawn and beds but the bulbs were still sat in the box on the bench :( One job seems to lead to another and create another ten that need doing before you can do the original job, are you still following me?

Anyway, last week was a right off as on Monday Ellie was sent home from school with the stomach bug Euan had had last week. Bless her after only being home thirty minutes she was throwing up and looking really peaky. She headed back to school on Wednesday and saw me heading off to the dentist. Well I made the dentist only to find myself home in double quick time with the very stomach bug but tens times worse. Not to be to graffic but I ended up on the toilet with bucket and not to great :P I had to call J home from High Wycombe to take care of me and the kids (who's harvest festival I missed:( and who I had to call several friends to pick up for me). I took me a good few days to get over it which I spent most of asleep in bed and for those who know me know that this doesn't happen often.

Sickness done and we hit the weekend again and the usual round of birthday parties to attend (does everyone else seem to get twenty invites a month?). Sunday was spent visiting my grandma who is 93 years old as my Mum was out of town and wanted to make sure she was okay. The girls and I went to visit while J took Euan to rugby and I was so shocked how much she has deteriorated in the last month. She looked so frail and I just wanted to cry. I am not sure how much longer we have her for but I made a promise to get over to visit with the kids more often as she loves seeing her great grandchildren.

Yesterday saw me attempting again to plant bulbs but that was side tracked when a friend came around in a great need of tlc. My Mum popped in on her way home from visiting my Godmother and Aunt and that was another day over! I did manage to get some invites started for Ellie's birthday party next month.

Below are a few pictures of some trading cards for my year to remember class which needed to be sent off quickly. We had to take a quote and pop it on some cards with our own design ideas.

The quote reads "Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." by Carl Sandburg.

This really got me thinking about how I seem to be unable to say no to those asking for my help or time and made me realise that it is my time and I should really think carefully how I choose to spend it. Take yesterday, my friend needed to talk and I stopped what I was doing to give her that. Don't take me wrong I don't begrudge her that time, but now I feel on the back foot I am rushing to get things done, the weather has changed and the bulbs aren't in which in turn is stressing me out. The chain continues on to the kids when I get ratty at not being able to get my things done for my craft night because I have household stuff to sort out. I feel rightly or wrongly that I should take care of the house, garden and family issues before I do my crafting, even though that crafting brings in a little extra to the family coffers each month. I put myself and my "craft" last in the order. Is it right, who knows but I just get a bit grumpy from time to time about how my "time" is dictated by others and other things. Boy I bet you wish you hadn't popped in for a look:)

All the cards have been sent off and I should be receiving 10 different ones back next month from other course members.

Bunny invites close up - I used the basic shape from a Making Memories Chipboard. I cut out all the faces then inked the edges, cut out and inked ears and noses, then Ellie and Maddie helped me find and stick on pairs of buttons for the eyes. We hand wrote the invite on the back. We are having a Rabbit Cupcake Decorating Party, since the ladybird one last year was such a hit. (plus it is a new bunch of girls since the move so no one has done or heard of this yet!)
All thirteen (yes I am mad) invites ready to be handed out tomorrow.

Tonight I have been working on the name tags for the party bags, carrots of course! I have bought barbie sprinkles, a rabbit cookie cutter (in pink) and some chocolate bunnies for the party bags. I thought I would type out a cookie receipe and put that in the bag. Do you think it will be enough? I can't stand the usual rubbish you get home in party bags, I think it is such a waste because it all ends up in the bin usually within a day. I managed to get hold of some cute little stuffed rabbits for party prizes, which hopefully we wont have to spend to long playing if they get involved in the cupcake decorating. Last year it worked really well even if it was majorally messy!! Angelia I need your help again you were great last year please come for a visit ;)

Right it is 11 oclock and I should head to bed as I am grumpy Mum again today, even retail therapy didn't help :0 I have teaching tomorrow afternoon and a tag rugby tournament to attend. Love and good wishes to all and to all a good night.

2007-10-06T20:52:00.000+01:00

Fully Relaxed!

Dear friends and fun have totally relaxed me. I have come home knackered (2am bedtimes don't do me any good!) but so relaxed and ready to start again. Pam (on the left) kindly gave me a bed for the night and fed me dinner - thank you sweetheart!. Louise (in the middle) fed me lunch and allowed me to drool over her house and shop - if you are ever in Chepstow check out Country Clutter you will definitely come out with a light wallet if your taste is anything like mine. Maria Grace (on the right) came over from America to teach at Scrap Camp (sadly I couldn't afford to go) but I did manage to attend her class she gave at Chepstow Pink Scrappers. Maria Grace has a blog called www.momentarybliss.com if you are a scrapbooker and fancy a nosey.

Pam and Louise hosted us both for the day and gave us a personal guided tour around Chepstow, the castle and best of all Louise's shop. I might have had to pick up a few bits and pieces from her shop (god I wanted lots more!!!!!!!!!!!!). The little Christmas tree below just jumped into my arms and shouted at me to take it and put it in my downstairs loo! honest I am not lying........
Talking of shops there have been a few more uploads into my Etsy shop. My Mum has also uploaded some of her fabulous hand dyed and hand painted silk scarves.
Rupert the Red Robin
Rockey the Rock Hopper Penguin

Rusty the Round Red Robin

Penelope the Penguin

and some xmas puddin love.

Now this morning was spent at Venture Photograph having a family shoot which I won last month. The kids, dog and parents all had a fabulous time larking about and hopefully getting that group family shot we don't ever seem to be able to achieve. The voucher I received gave us one free print, so UMMMMMM how much this could cost is anyones guess. I will let you know tomorrow when we go back for our private viewing just how bankrupt we are. Can you tell Miss Ellie above hates having her photo taken? Oh boy she could not stop jumping in everyone elses shots so we promised her a private photo shoot at Grannies in the afternoon.

Not to be outdone her sister demanded the same!

Okay so Euan and Leo wanted in on the action as well.

Right I am off to bed to try and remove these bags from under my eyes. Pam and Louise I hope you are enjoying Scrap Camp and don't get lost with the Housemaid's trolley! Goodnight to all.

2007-10-04T12:19:00.000+01:00

Hip Hip Hooray I am going away

Yes you heard it I am going away for a night without children or husband. The kind ladies at Chepstow Pink Scrappers have invited me down to a scrap class tonight and offered me a bed for the night. Whooo Hoooo I asked J to take the two days off and he said yes!

I shall report back if the headache allows as Louise is known as the Bubbles Monster

My layout for the September Art challenge in my big picture class. Not sure I enjoyed this one really, we had to do an art journal page and its not really my thing. Still its done!

An order for Hilary. Two little covers for a photograph album. Sent off on Monday.

A very belated name plaque for Aarons arrival, sorry Adam and Eileen - I Know he is already early 6 weeks old.

Last part of the order for FLynn went out on Monday to all in all not a bad weekends packing.

Right I am off to have some fun! :0

2007-09-29T19:32:00.000+01:00

Another one of those days!

No I didn't forget Flora today, I was definitely not in charge of her. Day started badly as I woke at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep, headed downstairs for a cup of tea and managed to get back to sleep at 5am. John woke me at 7:45am and couldn't understand why I was grumpy, it appears he didn't know I had left! Had breakfast, checked my emails with much jumping about and screeching as we have sold our first item on etsy!! Superb really made my day, ah yes but that means I really need to sort out my labels for sending things out. Okay asked J to copy all my publisher files from the disks we took off the old computer and put it on the external hard drive (ehd) for me (gets complicated here as the disk drive doesn't work on my computer). Went to get the ehd for him and dropped it!! F... F... F... or something similar escaped. The ehd no longer works - ahhhhhhhhhhhh all our photos were on it. Thankfully J has up till May backed up on his computer but I have lost the rest. I felt so sick again, J was great and just said it was one of those things but honestly I seem to be all over the place at the moment. My life seems to swing up and down at a dramatic rate of knots. I don't think things are helped by my neck being so screwed up, lets just hope my appointment to get crunched on Monday helps me out. Do you think she could unscrew my brain, tiredness and lack of organisation at the same time? Right off to attempt a sewing order not sure that it is a good idea but I need to get it done. Peaceful night to you all x

2007-09-28T21:14:00.000+01:00

Every had one of those days?

Have you one of those days were you should have done something important and you totally forgot? I had one today. I was meant to be looking after my neighbours dog, letting her out several times for wees. I totally and utterly forgot. I look after Flora regularly and have never ever forgotten her before - today total blank until Lynda turned up at my door with donuts to say thank you. Oh God total sick feeling, the dog she didn't even wee in the house, how bad do I feel!

Right onto better news while I try to calm my sick stomach.

Pear doorstop for my kitchen

A pear just because

Ellie's picture of Mummy and Daddy in love, doesn't that make your heart melt.

Maddie's picture of Mummy and Daddy holding hands

Seasonal goodness

New homemade bathroom mirror with finally curtain to cover the crappy boiler

drawstring bag for the downstairs loo

I need to replace the heart with my own creation

christmas stock starting to build up

a very messy desk!

Hall settle with the kids new shoe draws that are fab as they hold all their boots, shoes, bags and general niff naff. They are on wheels for easy access.

Fishy cushions made from old curtains.
Poppy cushion made from an old section of knitting by my Mum which was meant to be a cardi for me. I have had this for over 12 years and didn't want to throw it away but didn't know what to do with it.
Hand made kitchen shelf (with the help of my Dad). I had no where to put my cook books and now I do!!

Meet Basil the worker bee, he and his buddies are in the shop, go and have a look.
Beatrice the Queen bee with her flirty heart shaped eyes.

Spiral bottoms! Quick while they are in stock!

2007-09-07T21:26:00.000+01:00

WARNING MONSTER POST! - best you put the kettle on and make yourself a cup of tea before you sit down. Apron above is a recent commission for a little girl who is a tom boy and bike mad. Interesting thing to try and sew the detail since it is only a child's apron. I had another commission for an apron with flowers on for the same lady but I forgot to take photos. Been rather good at not taking photos recently, two shelves went out at the weekend before I took photos and a few other bits.

Can you believe my baby has started school?
Maddie started big girl school this week and is loving it. She is still rather quiet in the classroom apparently but we have assured them this will not last and they should make the most of it! Maddie was adamant that she should carry her own new and hand picked bag to school with her lunch box safely tucked away inside. By the time she had her gym bag and book bag as well she was rather loaded down. Euan was nearly dwarfed as well by his new bag that everything fits into!
Excuse the fuzzy photo I found a fingerprint on the lense afterwards!
Look how my babies have grown over the summer. It wont be long before Maddie starts to catch the other two up I think.

Excuse the large bottom (no rude comments please Adam!) The walk to school is good and gives me a workout since I have to do it three times a day now. Maddie will only be going until lunch time until after christmas because of when her birthday falls. (completely crazy as far as I am concerned, they are either ready to go to school or not nevermind this half day nonsense )

The last few days of the summer holidays were rather packed. John has been on leave for the last week and a half and took Euan and Grandad to Gloucester Rugby Clubs open day last week. Euan enjoyed testing out out the training facilities

He was rather good at the tackling and enjoyed this because in tag rugby which started up again this weekend there is no contact.
So you ask Euan which activity he enjoyed the most and his answer was a resounding yes to paint balling. The army were there and he got to shot the SH** out of some targets with quite a lot of paint amo.
So you really meant you enjoyed meeting the stars of the Gloucester Club Euan? no paint balling Mum! The girls and I enjoyed a day at Grannies helping her to dig some of her greenhouse area and I managed to get some verbena seedlings in the process (marvelous). We had a lovely quiet day until the men folk came home and started to wind every man and beast up until all the kids were crying and the dogs fighting. Funny that!

A lot of time this summer was spent riding our bikes around to the park to have a play and master new skills.Ellie has mastered the skill of hanging from the monkey bars and not breaking a sweat. I tried to show her how it was done and fell off after three bars. John thought was absolutely hilarious so I challenged him to do better. He managed two bars and fell off, apparently he had sweaty hands and that was the reason!!

Euan wanted to join in but couldn't hold on for laughing or was it that i took so long to take the picture?
Maddie did not want to join in the silly game but would really like a very VERY high push on the swing please. My children have become mad people since Grandad built a swing at the bottom of their garden in one of the trees. They like to swing up so high that their feet touch the branches and leaves!Granny cannot watch it is just to scary!!

During the month of August John and I celebrated our tenth year of marriage. 15 years together this Christmas. Apparently John said he could of got less for murder! nice dear I will remember that. We went out to the Rectory a hotel, restaurant bar in the village here and had a superb meal in the gardens on a very pleasant and sunny day.
My Parents joined us and we jointly celebrated their birthdays. The hotel has a pool which is open to the locals (unknown to me) and we spent a time cooling our toes in the water. Euan got in in his shorts and has a swim and Ellie also wanted to have a soak. Right the rules are Ellie you don't go past me because it will get to deep and you cannot swim - got it Ellie? Mummy has all her clothes on and will be pissed if she has to come in and get you. Yes Mum says Ellie - why do I believe her each time? Within five minutes I turned around from holding Maddie in for a swim to see Ellie just about drowning. Enter Euan the brave knight who saved the damsel in distress by dragging her back into her own depth again. If it is going to be any of my children it will always be Ellie.

The back of the Rectory where we sat and had lunch.
In the grounds they have this fabulous chair you can go and sit in which I would love for our garden it is so private and I could imagine a really lovely time in there with a favourite magazine and a glass of wine, plus a nap or two.

I also took the children to Bibury a beautiful little village which I have talked about before. They have a trout farm there which I thought would be interesting for the children. I would definitely take a picnic next time so the entrance fee was worth the time. Bibury itself always seems full of Japanese Tourist buses which is fine but be prepared for this if you visit.

They have lots of ducks and swans there also which are lovely for the children.
The fishes are of all sizes and with over twenty large pools that you can walk around and feed (obviously you have to buy the food yourself ) it is quite interesting to watch. Now what was I saying about only Ellie, ah yes do watch the children don't get to close to the edge in case they start sliding in and end up with a wet foot all day!

No I apologise if I have spelling and grammar mistakes in this post. It has taken me three hours to upload photos and just try to type this out. My poor laptop is a very sick bunny at the moment and doesn't like moving quickly anymore so correcting typos takes forever and quite frankly those that know me can understand what I might be trying to say.

With the school holidays over I will hopefully be getting back to some more crafting in the near future, my language will hopefully not be so colourful and the children shouldn't get shouted at by a crabby mummy so often. John goes back to work next week and regular programming will return. Peace and quiet at last, no tv, not stereo and no Mummy he/she did ............ I love my children dearly but I also love that quiet me time. I hope everyone is relaxed and enjoying a hot cup of tea in one sitting to!!

A few hellos while I remember. Welcome to the world Aaron Watts I am working on a present for you. Sarah I haven't forgotten I have to send you a parcel, ditto to Tara and thank you for the gorgeous coat for Maddie. Charlie Ball a Happy Belated birthday for yesterday. Right I am off to bed, the husband has already gone up which means I have snoring to look forward to now darn it. Goodnight!

2007-08-23T17:08:00.000+01:00

Pond Dipping at the local stream was a definite hit with the kids. We only caught two sticklebacks and a bazillion shrimp but they were happy. Well that was until they banged heads trying to get a look at what was in the bucket!
My little cherubs outside the front of our house. The garden has come on a treat this year and I seem to be continually surprised by it. I didn't think I would get much "fat" or "height" this year but things have really taken well. Could be something to do with all the rain we have had mind!! I Will try to post some more pictures of the garden later but alot has now gone over.

Number two daughter hanging upside down in a not so dignified pose! she loves the climbing frame in fact anything that includes any slight bit of danger. She has fallen on her head several times from this pose! Now this week she has been in my bad books. On Monday I went to a friends house who has offered to have the children for me so I could go and do my walk since I haven't been out for over 6 weeks now. Against my better judgement I took her up on the offer. The kids and I, including Fergus headed over to her place and then I went on my merry way to remind myself how unfit I am. I should add before we left Fergus had a wail of a time watching Claire's rabbits (dog tv at its best). Got back and everybody was in the house. Left the dog in the garden checking the rabbits were safely in their run and had a chat with Claire. Checked from time to time to make sure that Fergus was not digging all ok. Ellie disappears outside to look at the rabbits, Claire reminds here not to lift the lid and I ask her to come and tell me if Fergus starts digging. We head up to Claire's little girls room which she in in the process of redecorating and was having a very nice chat when Ellie comes in crying and shouting that Fergus is chasing the rabbits around the garden - oh shit! I got down there to late, Fergus has killed one rabbit and apparently bitten the other on the head. What do you do or say? I immediately offered to replace the dead bunny but apparently they were sisters and you cannot put two unrelated rabbits together or they will fight. AHHH I was so angry and embarrassed I did not know what to say. Claire bless her sole was so lovely about it and didn't explode like I think I might have. I still feel horrendous about it but can't see what we else I can do. Hind sight is a wonderful thing! Anyway the next day Ellie headed off on a planned visit to my Mum's for a sleep over for two nights. She has started to learn how to ride her bike with the stabilizers off and didn't really want to come home to a grouchy Mum, personally I don't blame her. I can tell you that the dynamics with only two children was so different and so much easier than with three. We didn't have any bickering or fighting and I was so much calmer because of that. I picked Ellie up this afternoon and already we have had three hours of tears and fighting. Granted Ellie is tired as she went to dog training classes with my Dad last night but it seems that Ellie and Euan are unable to get along for more than half an hour without one of them looking at the other wrongly or something else totally catastrophic. Deep Joy my blood pressure is now back up again.

Euan has not escaped the wrath of Mum either. I looked out of the patio doors on Tuesday morning to see a huge hole in the drystone wall at the back of our garden. Not again ran through my head and I ask the usual question does anyone know who did it. Not me can the trio of answers. Right it turns out is was Euan again (this is the third time, the first two he got the wrath of Dad) but this time he has not only taken the stones out but chucked them into the neighbours garden GREAT! this would be the neighbours who have two rather nasty dogs and who I sense don't like me to much. Remind me again why did I have children?

We sort this episode out and I send them off to watch some tv to calm everyone down only to have Ellie coming in screaming that Euan has trapped her fingers in the living room patio door (which they are not allowed to open). Mum goes off the scale again and wishes she could be somewhere where the walls are padded and they cannot get to her.

As for Miss Maddie, what has she done, nothing too dramatic just the usual whinging and laziness about tidying up. Kids I love them loads but quite frankly I cannot wait till these holidays are over and they are all back at school. I usually enjoy the holidays and I have to say I was looking forward to these, now whether it is because J is away during the week and I don't get even that five minute bath break or I am just trying to do to much I am not sure. I need time for me and I haven't had it months but I still love them and am grateful for them I just wish someone would take them off my hands for a few days!!

Having said all that I have manged to get a bit of crafting done over the last week or so. I have made a new mirror for my downstairs loo, curtain to cover the ugly boiler, drawstring bag for the loo, a couple of heart button wreaths, several peg hooks for birthday presents, bunting for my Mum and a few odds and sods. I shall post some photos soon. Right off to make dinner and try to calm down!

2007-08-09T21:18:00.000+01:00

Hello there again sorry for yet another long blogging break! Been a busy week this week. Hilary you will be glad to know that the about package is going in the mail tomorrow! Completed pillowcases, oxford cushion, drawstring bag as requested and a further drawstring bag and rag heart as a sorry for the delay.
I had scraps left over from making the cushion cover and for some reason I couldn't throw them away. I decided to make a rag wreath of sorts shaped into my favourite form a heart. A friend had given me a little circular wreath similar in technique to this a few years ago and it suddenly came back to me. I had fun doing this and was quite pleased with the results so I hope Hilary is a well.

At the weekend the family took a trip to Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands to partake in a bit of bird feeding. As you can see by Maddie's face above fun was had by all, there were moments were things weren't all hunkie dory but I decided not to show you the shot of Euan's crying sulk! If you are ever in the area I suggest going it is a great day out for the kids and it wears them out! I would recommend buying copious amounts of seed though as the kids went through a bag at a real rate of knots.

Tuesday morning was spent at Westonburt Arboretum which is simply gorgeous. We went with my friend Wendy and her little girl who is Maddie's best friend Molly. Flora the neighbours dog was with us for the day as well so Fergus got to take his friend to! We had superb weather and a stroll around the woods with a chance for the kids to run madly all over the place from marker to marker on the nature trail tuckered everyone out. An ice cream was in order of course at the end and a large bucket of water for the dogs. The afternoon was spent making the above fabric bits and pieces then an early night for all.
Speaking of fabric pieces I have been meaning to show you all these for a few weeks. For the end of term I made the children's teachers a tissue holder each in some gorgeous fabric I got from Superbuzzy and since I was going to be making a few I thought in for a penny in for a pound. Well 35 to be exact! So there you go I finally have some christmas stock started!!

I have a fascination for these little hedgehogs, I can see a felt one coming on at some stage.

Wednesday was spent at the Cotswold Water Park where the kids can have a paddle in the lake, sit on some diggers and play with the sand with the added bonus of a playpark. The kids had a fabulous time, me it was lovely but I couldn't go to often as the crowds began to freak me out! It was really hot though and although I completely covered the kids with suncream I managed to burn my own legs - Ouch!
Not sure abou the colour of the water either, yes I know stop stressing but with the floods of late I wasn't sure what was in the water.
Is it cold Ellie? "No Mummy" two minutes later the bottom lip was out and she was shivering from head to toe, ahhhh children you've got to love them! Once bonus of the day was I meet up with Katie after three years. I knew Katie when our little ones went to a music and movement class years ago. Katie has been a kind purchaser of my work in the past and it was lovely to catch up again. Hello Katie look forward to a coffee with you soon.

Today was spent with my Mum in part and the rest trying to purchase my Anniversay gift for John. 10 years this year, god knows how he has managed to stick me for that long! More on the gift story later.

RIght I am off to bed since I have caught up with a weeks work of blogging in one night. I have a new copy of Mary Engelbriet to peruse and a copy of Creating Keepsakes Mini Albums. What more could a girl for ? Night all

2007-08-06T22:13:00.000+01:00

August Layout complete on time!!

Can you believe it I have actually got one of my Big Picture briefs finished in the right month!! I had fun with this layout, we had to pick a picture that made us smile and this one definitely does. Maddie doesn't do anything by half and that includes giving a hug. Be prepared to be squashed to within an inch of your life!

Bottom half of the calendar

a close up of the chipboard letters, that I added some gloss to.

Last but not least this is a picture of a very happy little boy on his last day of school before summer this year. I was so proud of him as he received an award for the year 2 student who has made the most progress. Euan missed out on a whole year of school moving from the Scottish education system to the English one and I was worried he wouldn't be able to cope. But his report home shows how much he has improved in all areas and is now attaining C's which is the national average. Considering he was well below when he started in February he has worked so hard to jump up three grades in that short amount of time. Funnily enough the two subjects he received B's in were Design Technology and art!! that's my boy.

Well a short blog tonight I really need to go to bed because I have been one very crabby mummy today. I am still getting really frustrated that I cannot get any work done. (I hear you Hilary I am working on those pillowcases, bag and cushion!!) Part of my year to remember was to set a goal and I hoped to get my christmas stock done by the end of August, UMMMMMMM not going to happen I don't think! Right I shall love you and leave you. I think water balloon fights and another bout of stream dipping is on the cards for tomorrow. We caught two sticklebacks and a few other strange creatures yesterday, the kids loved it but unfortunately so did Fergus he came home covered in slime from the muddy strem. NICE not.

2007-07-23T12:11:00.000+01:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY FROM YOUR LITTLE GIRL (WHO'S NOT SO LITTLE NOW!)

Lucky Escape

We had a lucky escape on Friday of last week when heavy rain and flood waters caused chaos and damage throughout our village. My neighbour Linda wasn't as fortunate as she had water start to creep under her floor and along the grout lines of her limestone flooring. Many in the village had oil, raw sewage and dirty flood water in their homes which must be horrendous for them. At either end of the village the water was waist high in places completely covering bench seats and walls.

Flora, Linda's dog is seen here in her front garden which thankfully didn't get any deeper. With heavy rains still forecast I think everyone is on tenterhooks. John and my Dad took 7 hour to get home which would usually take them 2! but I am thankful they arrived safe and sound. Dad stayed the night here and we had to laugh in the morning because Euan complained of Grandad's snoring and Grandad complained of Euan talking in his sleep! The girls thought it was wonderful to wake up and find Grandad eating breakfast with them.

The rest of Saturday was pretty much a right off. I have been so tired this week that I took the opportunity with John being home and went back to bed for a massive three hours!! I felt so much better for it and could actually start to function.

Sunday was spent cleaning the house and getting the last of the pictures up on the wall. John is happy as his plane pictures are finally located at the top of the stairs. We finally have new neighbours who are absolutely adorable. Guy and Rachel welcome to Crudwell and we hope you settle in and have a happy home here. I had to laugh as Rachel has two horses (huge smiles from Mummy and the girls at this comment :) !!!!) so she has been trying to persuade John about how wonderful it would be for them to have their own! Meanwhile I am trying to persuade Guy that Rachel really does need to have two colour co-ordinated Christmas trees in the house this year with all the swags and trimmings that go with it. I think we could make a good team.

Sunday night was spent creating my July layout for my Big Picture class. Lots of mess was made but I am happy with the results.

June Layout completed some time ago but just not posted.

Well I had better go and sort the ever growing laundry pile out so that my kitchen doesn't look like a Chinese laundry when my sister in law Sharon and her children arrive this afternoon.

2007-07-16T22:16:00.000+01:00

A few work in progress pictures for you to see so that you don't think I have been slacking off. Mum and I are starting a new venture together with felt. We have been making felt necklaces and creatures to see and some kits for children and adults to play with. We are a few weeks off putting the items up in our shop at etsy but I will notify you when we do. Above is a wet felted necklace my Mum made with a Kumihimi (need to check the spelling) braid made in 100% silk.

My necklace is also wet felted with a silk braid and adorned with little flowers and beads.
Euan made this spider all by himself after Mum and I finished the felt workshop with his school during art week.
Shock Horror I have started my christmas stock and this little fellow is a prototype for a new range of tree decorations. I am planning on adding little wings at each side as I decided that some legs I had planned on didn't really suit. He is wet felted using alpaca and then dry felted details using merino wool. He is just over an inch tall.
Hello Mr Snail sorry your colour is not great in this photo, in real life he has a lime green body and rather vivid pink shell. Another creature in our felt range.
Meet Sid the Snake who comes in many different colours and designs.These were a real hit with the boys at the school.
Then there is Mr Bumble who will come in kit form and finished form. He has clear winds and lovely bead eyes.
Last but not least are next in my range of tree decorations, little felt christmas trees. These are all needle felted using merino wool and then adorned with more felt or beads.

So there you have it, I haven't been totally idle and there are lots of ideas in the works just don't have the time at the moment to bring them to fruition. We have John's parents staying with us this week and today was their wedding anniversary - Happy Anniversary John and Margaret! In the morning we took advantage of the break in the weather and got outside to do a little bit of weeding since the garden was becoming more weeds than flowers. Thank you John and Margaret for all your help with that. We then went to Bibury for lunch which is just the most picturesque village of all time. We had a nice lunch in the Swam Hotel, lovely food not so sure about the atmosphere there though. We spotted huge trout in the river and millions of ducks, I will definitely be taking the kids there for a wander around in the summer. We returned home just in time for Euan and Ellie's sports day and luckily Daddy was off work for a change. We returned home to cook american pancakes for tea for the kids (their request) and tikka chicken salad for the adults. I have watered the garden, walked the dog and finished all my thank you cards for Maddie's presents. So all in all a productive day. Plus this is my third post in two days can you believe it!!

Right off to bed now and up bright and early for my babies first induction day at school tomorrow. I still cannot believe she is going. :( Let me know what you think I should do with my robin, I am thinking little tear drop wings but if anyone has any ideas they would be greatfully received.

2007-07-15T21:36:00.000+01:00

House Pictures especially for Hilary, Sarah and Margaret!

After much time wasting I have finally got around to taking pictures of some of the rooms in my house. You will have to excuse the order of the photos, blogger didn't seem to want to play when it came to uploading them in my chosen order! Above is a shelf I have built for Maddie's room, I still want to make lots of nice bits and pieces to put on it but I am sure they will come in time. The shelf itself is quite big, it is probably about a metre plus wide.

My living room fireplace and stove. The wall colour is sea urchin from Dulux and I am still not sure whether I should have stuck with a cream or minky colour on the walls but I am not changing it now!

The view as you come into the living room, my first set of interlined curtains and boy were there swear words making these. The actual curtain fabric is a really floppy cotton weave that moves about quite a bit so trying to get three layers together to look neat when sewn together was a challenge. What you can't spot is the big mark on the laminate in the middle of the floor that I made while trying to make said curtains when I dropped my large sewing scissors from a height! More swear words might have been said!!

My freshly painted downstairs loo. It is actually Tarragon Glory by Dulux but I had to take these pictures without a flash as it changed the colour so much. More pictures and details below for the loo.

My number one son's room. He had a plane theme in his room and we decided to paint a huge target on his wall. The curtains are actually a duvet which I cut up because I couldn't find material to match his duvet.
The paint on the walls is from the Little Greene Company which I can thoroughly recommend it was a dream to work with. I think this is the neatest that the book shelf has looked.
This is two magnetic boards and the one in the middle I am going to put corkboard onto once I can find a piece large enough without having to patch it.
Miss Maddie's bedroom and a wardrobe that just about killed me trying to get up the stairs. We still need to wax the cupboard as well but it is somewhere down the bottom of said list!
Pottery Barn quilt which I bought for Ellie's first bedroom but still love. Maddie is still in her cot bed at the moment which is great because this is the smallest of the four bedrooms.

Ah the downstairs loo again and that colour. It has definitely grown on me and John doesn't mind it now. When I first painted up a sample J said it looked like puke and no I couldn't use that colour. Me I did the usual and just waited till he was away a few days and got on with it as I knew once it was done he would come round! I still need to sew a curtain to fit across the space under the stairs which you cannot see in this picture. We have a very ugly boiler and pipe system there, plus hoovers and mops et cetera which I would like to cover up. I cannot decide whether to sew any buttons on the scallop joins, at the moment the buttons are just pinned on.
The wall behind the door holds my angel and towel rail. I want to get a few other bits and pieces here to liven up the red and white colour mix.
My kitchen from the door looking towards the front. Sorry the picture was taken at night as it is the only time I get peace! I am still waiting for the builder to come back and put the kick boards on to finish this area. The walls are painted in Dulux's Mystic Mauve which has given the kitchen a really calm, warm feeling. I was worried that it would cool the kitchen down and draw it in but it has done the opposite.
The bottom end of the kitchen looking towards the patio doors, with my £60 welsh dresser (thank you Eileen I love you) and my £10 cupboards (in the corner) which has become the kiddies art cupboard after a lick of paint.

a close up of my kitchen window. I used some Cath Kidston fabric which although is mostly pink it also has a bit of blue which matches the wall colour perfectly. We are not overlooked from the front so I decided to go for a half curtain for a change rather than a roman blind or a full curtain and I am please with the result.

So there you have it. I still need to take pictures of Ellie's room, my workroom and our bedroom but I have yet to finish these rooms off. Ellie's room is almost done but I do have lots of ideas for bits and pieces to make it original. Well I had better hit the sack the kiddies are back to school tomorrow. We have John's parents staying with us this week so I will need to be up for breakfast duty extra early. Goodnight to all.

2007-07-15T21:04:00.000+01:00

Party Time at the Shields House

Time to celebrate Maddie's 4th Birthday

Boy when did my baby get to be four years old? I cannot believe that Maddie will be starting school this year she still seems so little to me. We had a fairy Toadstool party theme this year and the invites were handmade by moi using some of my forgotten scrapbook supplies that have been catching dust since I never get time to scrap these days. I hand cut all the bits and inked them and then glued them together. The dots are just office supply dots which came in handy. We only had 9 little girls coming to the party this year which was a nice managable number especially in this house. I was hoping for nice weather and thankfully although the grass was slightly wet we did manage to get outside.

Party bags were going to be lovely little sewn bags in calico with toadstools on but as usual time didn't allow and I resorted back to the old faithful boxes with a simple toadstool tag bearing the child's name on the reverse. I did manage to pick up some gorgeous tooth boxes in a ladybird, sheep, frog and chicken design to keep with the fairy theme. They also got a little red notebook, fluffy pencil, fairy chocolate, toadstool post its and a cupcake!

How can you deny this little beauty anything on her birthday?! She is sporting her new hat and dress from Granny England which she wore to Nursery on Friday, she took cupcakes in to all her friends which I think was a big hit and then her party was on Saturday as Daddy would be around to help!

Blowing candles on her toadstool cake (picture below) please excuse the bad picture it was rather dark

Birthday table before the onslaught!

and one fairy toadstool cake which took Mummy four hours to make and a bit of structural engineering to work out how to get the top to stay on without flopping. I reckon this is probably the best cake yet for effect but boy if anyone knows how to get red icing without having to add so much food colouring I would love to know the secret please. We had some fun games of musical statues, duck duck goose, pass the parcel and what's the time Mr Wolf? but the last scaring a few darlings when Mr Wolf called dinnertime.

Well now I just need to design the thank yous and that will be another birthday gone for this year, only Ellie to go now in November and she cannot decided between a bunny birthday and a butterfly birthday. I am definitely thinking about repeating the cupcake decorating of last year and it was a real hit and so much easier for me than party games.

As usual forgot to take any photos of the actual party which is annoying as I have a little mini book planned for Maddie to record her 4th Birthday. I think I will have to get creative now to complete it! Right I had better go and clear up the kitchen and try to steer clear of the caramel shortbread that is calling my name before I am sick.

2007-06-06T16:50:00.000+01:00

Farting about the Edges!!

I always wish I had more hours in the day to get the things done that I want to but somehow I never get there. I swore I would have the bulk of my christmas stock done by now but not a bit of it in sight! HMMMMMM I am crap at trying to organise my time. I find when I have time I am so knackered that I can't move a muscle towards the workroom and then when I don't have the time I am brimming with ideas and visions in my head just itching to get going. This week has been spent playing catch up with washing, gardening and general niff naff after being away for a week. I started on two name plaque commissions and two new baby gifts of my own today. I hope to get them finished tomorrow morning but with Maddie home I don't know how much I will get done. Hilary's fabric arrived today which looks gorgeous but is now crowding me shouting to be made into curtains and cushions. I sometimes wish I could just disappear off the planet for a week or so and not have to worry about school runs, dinners, dog walks and just concentrate on what I need to do. Hey ho I wouldn't be without the little ones and I know this is just a demanding stage. In years to come I am sure I will be chasing them for a chat! Here are a few things I have been doing lately. Maybe one day I will stop farting around the edges and sit down to get on with some proper work and creating!

Little mice for new babies. I made one mouse to go with the pink booties (see picture below). I had only planned to make one but when I came to press the ears I managed to melt the fleece ******* well something like that came out of my mouth! So back to the sewing machine and this time I thought I would make one for Tara's new baby Carsen and for a commission that needed to get finished before I headed up to Scotland.
Another commission for a friend which had to be completed before I headed up the road.
Yet another commission for a friend at Preschool.
Sorry about the bad photo. This was a present that I made for my Nieces birthday. Emma has started a textile course at school so Mum and I decided that for her birthday present we would make her a felt sewing book. It has pages for needles, pins, safety pins and little pockets to store scissors, chalk et cetera.

A little something I rustled up for Corey's first birthday. A handmade bib, shoes and a little stuffed fish to fit the colour theme in his room. I love these little booties, I got the pattern from a fabulous Japanese craft book and will definitely be making some more. I am not sure how practical they are but god they look cute on a shelf in the nursery.

Little pink polka dot girlie booties.

Right well I had better pop off and feed and bath the children before I head out to book club tonight. Hope to post some more tomorrow of the felt workshop I did at school with Mum and some details of my latest adventure with her

2007-06-04T21:05:00.000+01:00

A Very Happy 40th Birthday to a very special friendHilary darling we wish you all the best on this special day. Sorry we can't be there to share it with you but I think I would freak you out if I popped up anywhere else to surprise you!!

On Saturday night Euan, Hilary's husband surprised her by organising a birthday dinner at a local hotel. He hadn't told her that he was intending to invite 13 of her friends along as well. John and I had to fight the traffic on the Forth Road Bridge to make our way up to Cupar but it was well worth it. The Birthday girl was suitably surprised and very happy with her hubby! The meal was divine, I haven't tasted steak as good as that in a very long time. I also got to catch up with Laura, Biz and Aisling as well which was lovely.

So Hilary have a fantastic birthday you are a very special lady. We miss and love you loads from the Shields Madhouse.xxx

2007-06-04T20:50:00.000+01:00

Fine Weather for a walk on the Beach

My Miss Ellie looking pretty in her new dress looking for white shells to put in our jar.
My Mad Euan doing star jumps after he has scored his name in the sand.
and finally my Miss Maddie enjoying the feeling of sand between her toes and somewhere else!

We had a lovely time just wondering up St Andrews beach looking for shells and making patterns in the sand. It always amazes me how something that is free can entertain the children and bring peace to the adults so easily.

While I remember, Sarah Stringer I hope that the trip out to the States wasn't to painful and that you are now enjoying yourself in all that sun. We are not green or bitter it is just the colour of the rain clouds we have here! We miss you and shall be in touch soon. Love to all.

Chris and Helen Ash a big thank you for putting up with our family during our time at Leuchars and looking after us so well. We hope that you are not to traumatised by the whole affair. Chris we hope that you are feeling better now and on the road to recovery. We will see you at the 90th Reunion at the end of the month.

Wendy Fraser congratulations on your graduation earlier in the month what a clever lassie.It was lovely to catch up over a cup of coffee last week. We hope that you enjoyed your time down in London and Legoland. Anyone who has not been and has little children I recommend you go. We went last month for Euan's birthday and it was fab.

Leslie, I have a few new books I shall try and send your way very soon, I have been reading like a maniac with all these car journeys we have been making.

2007-06-04T20:23:00.000+01:00

Half Term Break in Scotland

Boy where did May go? I know I said I would be a better blogger but hey life happens!!

We have just got back from a visit to Scotland during half term week. We had loads of fun and got to catch up with some very special friends that we all miss terribly. J had to work but the kids and I made the most of the time, playing on the beach, shopping, eating out and gallons of tea at everybodies we visited! It was lovely to catch up with John and Margaret our old and very special neighbours at Eastfield Steading. We miss you and so do the kids.

Then up to the kids old school to catch up with their former class mates and to catch up with news. Ellie had her learning leopard from her new school and she took pictures to tell the story of her week to her class when she got home.
Then in the evening a girls night out at the DCA in Dundee with some very special friends. Thank you Eileen for organising the night it was lovely. I wish I hadn't have been driving though as it was half price cocktails and Shona the girl on the left of the picture tortured me by drinking my favourtie Pimms and Lemonade AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I really miss these ladies they are very special people who are so genuine. Ladies I will be back and this time I shall not be driving!

I will share some more pictures in my next post but I shall leave it here as Blogger doesn't seem to like to many photos!

2007-04-19T17:53:00.000+01:00

ARRIVAL PRESENT FOR BABY JAMES

Little baby James is now nearly three weeks old but we held on to the present so that we could give it to Jo in person. My Auntie Jan (Jo's Mum) had told me in advance that Jo was decoration the nursery with the Next baby bedding that had the animals on it in the lime green and yellow gingham, so I dove into my Next Catalogue and used their images as a starting point for Jo's present. I did a tin last year for my friend Hilary when her little boy Corey was born and she seemed to quite like it. My Mum filled the tin with the most gorgeous baby gros, teddy, bib and socks. I think Jo liked it, I certainly have fun making these tins as each one is so different.

A Little Zebra

A Friendly Roaring Lion

A Cheeky Giraffe

and A Stripey Blue Elephant

All tins can be made to order for special occassions but because of the labour time and materials costs there are not cheap . Please email me for a quote.

2007-04-19T17:36:00.000+01:00

HAPPY 93RD BIRTHDAY (GREAT) GRANDMA

Granny celebrated her 93rd Birthday yesterday. I had everyone around at mine to give her a surprise - ish party. We had told her we were having a tea party to celebrate her birthday but didn't tell her that her 6 great grandchildren would be there including the newest addition James Francis Price who will be three weeks old on Friday. She had a lovely time and thoroughly enjoyed all the attention. The kids all get on so well. Jack and Emma are so fantastic with my three, I think Maddie is secretly in love with Jack as she didn't let him out of her sight for a minute. Euan, Ellie and Maddie made Great Granny a heart cupcake cake stand with their own little hands.

Little James is absolutely gorgeous and I think Sharon and I could have got quite broody if we had wanted to but reality struck and I remembered how much work they are and that it is now a medical impossibility for J and I to have anymore - phewwww said my Mum I can't cope with any more!!

Well straight after the party the kitchen had to be cleared so that the flooring guys could come in this morning and start to lay the slate floor in the kitchen. I can't tell you how thankful I am that this is finally going ahead. Not only did the concrete look unsightly but it means were are one step closer to getting things straight in this house. AAAHUMMMMMM did I just say get things straight sorry I meant finish something of the massive to do list I have. Right best go I am off on a Mother's Night Out to the Priory in Tetbury tonight which will be lovely. J doesn't look to amused that he will have to cook his own tea and bath the children but hey!!

2007-04-19T14:05:00.000+01:00

BIG THANKYOU TO GRANNY AND GRANDAD SCOTLAND

The Children had a lovely surprise from Granny and Grandad the other week they sent the children and early easter card with some easter money in it. It was burning a whole in their pockets and Euan had already worked out what he wanted to spend his pennies on. The photos show their ill gotten gains. I must admit that it has kept them quiet for the whole afternoon. Euan is majorily into his planes at the moment and we are getting quite a display now. Miss Ellie got herself some rather jazzy glasses for the summer posing and Miss Maddie has some more Barbie bits.

2007-04-19T13:20:00.000+01:00

MESSY BUNNY

Yes sorry folks it has been a while again since I have blogged. I seem to have my wheels spinning but not getting anywhere just recently. We had a lovely Easter the weather down here is absolutely gorgeous Euan is already turning a nice brown and I have a watch strap mark already!! The Easter bunny managed to find us in our new house which the children were relieved about. How will they find us they asked? The Easter bunny knows where all the children are said Mummy. "Is the Easter Bunny male or female?" Ellie asked?? Answers by return please couldn't answer that one. Gut instinct tells me female but then the mess they leave behing could indictate male!!

We put our Easter Tree up as usual but I had to use Hawthorn branches this year as I couldn't find any other ones that were sturdy enough. Rather prickly unfortunately and the beautiful blossom did keep dropping all over the table! I would also recommend a very large based pot as I started with a vase first and we had rather a lot of tipping accidents.

We popped over to Granny and Grandads on Easter Day and Mummy used the opportunity to pinch a few more plants from Granny's borders to stock up her front garden. I have spend the week digging over my front and have now managed to plant it up with mainly blousey cottage plants which should hopefully fill the area. The path is flanked by lavender plants again as I felt this worked really well in the last house. I have also bought a Prunus Tree which was a must really since this is Prunus Cottage. It had the most beautiful blossom on it last week. I will post some photos of it once I get chance.

2007-03-25T18:16:00.004+01:00

TUDOR DAY AT SCHOOL

I have quite a lot to post about but since I haven't worked out yet how to get the photos up in the order I want I will have to do them one at a time! Wednesday of this week was Tudor day in school were class 2 and up had to dress up in tudor costume and take in a tudor lunch box. Now you might think that a simple make do costume would do? Oh no we got sent home a full set of instructions on how to sew your own tudor costume!! I had a quick look on the net for fancy dress but all were coming in at around £16 minimum to buy. Me being me thought I can make it for less than that since I can sew. Hmmmmmmmmm Bad Bad Mistake. By the time that I had been to the charity shop to buy a white linen blouse to adapt and a faux suede skirt to make a waistcoat I was already up to £10! and I still had to buy fabric and feathers for the hat!! It took me an evening to make the waistcoat which I will say turned out ok thank god since I was making it the night before he had to wear it. Bless him though he was suitably impressed with my efforts and went off to school wearing my creation with no tears. Lesson learnt, order online early and swallow the cost soooooooooo much easier. Ellie had to go in as her favourite story book character which of course was Cinderella. (Sorry no photos). Last week was Red Nose day and Maddie had to wear her pjs and the older two had to go in red clothes and red hair. I was away in London with my Mum to see the Country Living Fair that day so I had to get them organised before we left. It was also the day that the cakes had to be taken in for the cake stall and each child had to have money for red noses and dressing up. I think poor John got a bit confused and had to do several trips back and forth to school before he got everything where it should be. I tell you the kids are keeping me busy even though they are at school all day.

I had a lovely time with my mum at the country living fair, unfortunately there wasn't much that captivated me, or rather fortunately for J and his bank balance!! Some of the jewellery was nice but the rest has all been seen or done before. I did manage to get Mum some glass baubles for Mothers Day to hang on her tree outside which were a bit different. Well I shall sign off this post and go and make the kiddos some dinner. I shall attempt another post later tonight.

2007-03-12T22:53:00.000Z

New Hair Cut and Shoes

What more could a girl ask for? Yes I finally went and got the hair chopped a little bit today and feel alot better if not poorer (if that is a word?) I also managed to get myself not one but two pairs of shoes. I have been having problems with very sore heals now for a while and have worked out the that the black higher heeled shoes are doing in the outside muscle of my feet and the slip ons are damaging the muscles under my foot as I am scrunching up my toes to keep them on. With a trip to London to wander around the Country Living Fair on Friday I couldn't possible make the 5 hour shopping marathon with the current shoe state. So I now own a pair of lime green shoes and a pair of very comfy slip on trainer, sport shoe. I also managed to get a few bits and pieces for the kids for easter. The girls have got these great felt flower pots in a range of colours to put on their window sill to brighten things up. Yes John just shock his head. I got Euan some more Lego as he loves it and then I picked up a present for Al and Niki who have just given birth to a little baby boy called Kyle.

All in all not a bad day!

Tomorrow I have had my arm twisted to go to Laura Ashley with a girl from preschool gosh it hurt ;) I have some vouchers to use up so as long as I am controlled I shouldn't get in much trouble!! Me controlled yeah well the thought was there. The kids had their parent teacher evening tonight. Miss Ellie is getting on really well she just has a few gaps in her word construction. Euan is doing well in maths and reading but his writing is a different matter. Apparently he is a reluctant writer?*! The teacher thinks he will catch up but he is a long way behind at the moment. I am not sure how I feel about this. Part of me would like to see him go back and repeat the year as the Scottish and English systems are so different, however the other part of me says he will get on fine. I don't like to think of him struggling with things when I know he can get on fine as long as he is given the right instruction. I can't believe that we live in the same country and our teaching systems can be so different. Oh well I am sure it will all work out.

Well I had best go to bed I suppose. My husband went up ages ago so I am sure he will be snoring away by now. I have finished Maddie's very pink shelf I made on Sunday so just need to put it up now. Ellie's bed canopy is pinned but not sewn. Tomorrow I need to clean the house and do these drawings for the Village Ball as well as shop. I used to be quite good at getting things done in the evening but these days I just seem to be so tired.

Sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite!

2007-03-09T17:08:00.000Z

Girls Nite Out!!

Hello my lovelies yes I have finally got around to taking the photos off the camera! sorry but the nite out photos aren't that great if any of you have any thing better please can you email me them. I am glad to hear that you have been going out without me - how could you!!!!! no really keep it up and hopefully we might be up in May to say hello and get a nite out.

Look at these little cuties, Maddie misses you so much and you Keir, she wants to know when she will be coming back! Hope all is well Eileen and I will call soon.

Not bad for 92 years old. This is my Gran, my Mum's Mum. She had a lovely day the other week when she joined us for lunch and sat colouring with Miss Maddie. The kids all really love her which I think is fantastic as some times the older generation is a bit scary for the little ones. Euan is sweet he says he is sad that he never got to meet Great Grandad and that he misses him. Sometimes he can be so sensitive and other times I could kill him.

Sorry about the randomness of the blog just thought I would get the photos up instead of chocking up the system trying to email them to everyone. Love to all

2007-03-09T16:50:00.000Z

SOFT, CUTE AND CUDDLY!

On Wednesday Maddie's nursery had a visit to a local farm where they some lambs were being born. When we got there we saw some absolutely gorgeous ones who were only a hour or so old. Maddie had a wonderful time looking around and cuddling them all, she also

bottle feed them which she particularly liked and

hand feed them for a while until one bit her finger bless her. She hasn't quite got the knack of keeping her fingers straight yet! but I must say who can resist the little cuties. These are apparantly Texel sheep which are raised for the meat and boy were they stocky little things with wide backs. The pregnant mums looked like they were two sheep stuck together. Maddie is definitely enjoying her nursery and has made a few new friends. She is going to play with her friend Molly next week which is really nice. I often feel Maddie misses out because she just picks up the older twos friends but with being at nursery on her own she has a chance to make her own mark. Apparently this year is going to be a big intake at the School so hopefully she will have a lot of companionship.

2007-03-05T14:11:00.000Z

Okay so I am hopeless

Yes I know I am a hopeless blogger, I do have one excuse the first two weeks after the move we weren't on the phone or online. We had an absolute nightmare with BT trying to get the line connected. The first day it was supposed to be connected nothing happened, I rang and asked them what was going on and they said they would ring me back on my home number when they knew what the problem was, OK BT step one if I didn't have a fault and my phone was usuable would I be ringing you? Next day an engineer called but couldn't fix the fault because it was underground and he didn't go underground! Day three engineer two, no the fault isn't underground but up the lamp post over the road and he wasn't allowed to go up the lamp post?!! Day four, engineer three and four together, sorry love the fault is underground and we can't do that because we will need to get some traffic lights to look in the box. Alright I have had enough, use your initiative you have two vans, park one either side of the box with your hazards on and I will go and make you a cup of tea, if you manage to fix the fault I will even give you a chocolate biscuit. Amazingly we were connected in half an hour, never say the great british workers tea break isn't effective bargaining tool!!

Well we have just about settled in the rooms are slowly starting to come together but we are rather squashed in, boy do we miss the space of our last home. Storage more than anything is a problem. I have just about finished painting the children's rooms. Miss Maddie is pink (surprise surprise) Ellie is lavender blossom, lilac to me purple to John and Euan is Eau de Nil or green. We got him a cool duvet set in JOhn Lewis (yes I have been shopping!!!) which has planes, scooters and cars on in a combat style colour. We have painted him a massive target on the wall above his bed and are in the process of putting up a pinboard and magnetic board for all his bits and pieces in a bid to stop him using blue tack which usually gets stuck in my carpet. I will post pictures once I get chance to empty the camera.

Everyone in the village seems to be fairly friendly which is nice. I have been invited to a book club which is great, Sarah don't laugh! I am already on book three in two weeks so I have been productive just not in the right areas!! I have also been asked to join Friends of Crudwell School which is the board that does the fund raising for the village school. Could be a bad move we will see. I don't want to get to involved as I really need to start getting on with some work.

The kids seem to have settled in well after a few hiccups to begin with. The schooling system is very different here than in Scotland. Euan was in the year directly above Ellie in Scotland but here there is a year between them which was a bit confusing. Ellie as usual was doing fine but Euan was struggling with everything. Speaking to his teacher they reckon he is two months or so behind so we have some extra work to do with him. I did suggest putting him back a year but they don't think that is necessary. We shall see. Miss Maddie started Pre school last week and loves it. She goes for five sessions as in Scotland but because they are only open three days a week she goes two full days and one half day which is fantastic. It gives me a longer stab at things at home. She will start school in September which is so odd because she would have had another year in nursery at Angus. She seems so little to be starting school but I am sure she will do just fine.

Fergus seems to have settled in well to the new house, I was worried because there isn't really anywhere for him to look out onto the front of the house but he seems OK. We have a walk directly opposite which is great and it takes you nearly round the village on one side.

Not surprisingly I haven't done any work yet, I will promise Hilary! I am hoping to get the rest of the curtains finished in the next few weeks and then paint the living room as we already have the paint for there. After that it will be as and when we can afford it.

Love to all and we miss you all in Scotland, especially me and all the girls. Will hopefully post with some photos soon.

2007-01-29T22:36:00.000Z

Moving House -Dislikes

What do I hate about moving house the most? oven cleaning, oh I absolutely hate that job. I managed to gas everyone out the house tonight while using ammonia to clear the inside of the oven. It did manage to clear that big old ugly stain at the bottom of the stove which was good but my poor eyes and throat are now paying for it. Each time we move I swear I will get oven-nu in to clean but can never swallow the cost involved. Still job done except the shelves which are outside steeping in the bin bags with my ammonia cloth. Tomorrow the packers arrive to start the mammoth task of packing all our bits and pieces up. I still need to make sure I have enough clothes, shoes et cetera to do us and the children for the next few days of school and travel. I am sure there must be a better way of doing this but not much longer and it will all be over for move no 18 of my life.

I tried to make caramel shortbread today to give the teachers a treat to say thank you for all their time and energy over the last year, but as usual when you try to rush something it didn't work. I have never had a problem with my caramel before but today when I am trying to make four trays would it go right - grainy caramel and no amount of heating and stirring would clear it. Give up it is to difficult they will just have to have a box of chocolates instead!

I am still waiting on my scrap booking parcel coming from the States for my course. It should have been here over a week ago but as usual in a hurry no show. I haven't had any chance to catch up on my assignments either as my work room is now totally empty. Wow what a lot of stuff I managed to cram in there.

Miss Ellie has picked her fabric for her room. She has gone for Flutter by flower from the Liberty range at Osborne and Little. She also wanted the voile net to hang down by her bed, so cute I couldn't resist, now just need to sew those too!! That is me up to six pairs of curtains to sew at the moment.

I had a fabulous weekend, on Friday my friends from the nursery all came out for Dinner at the Strathmore Arms in Glamis. We had a lovely dinner with lots of laughter, rude talk and fun. I tried to teach them how to eat their desert Korean Rule style but only two out of nine would attempt it, the others looked on in horror!! Would I let my children behave like this, NO but hey I don't get out often! They all clubbed together and gave me a beautiful necklace and bracelet (thank you Leslie for choosing it) which was so thoughtful of them. I am really going to miss their caring thoughts, laughter and company, especially you Eileen you get where I am coming from!!

On Friday afternoon when picking the children up from school Michelle gave me a lovely picture frame and beautiful card to say goodbye which was totally unexpected. Thank you.

Saturday was spent clearing the garage which was great (not that it is a task I like but one that needed doing desperately). We managed to get rid of two tables and a bulk load of wood we didn't need to Eileen and Adam -thank you again you saved us several trips to the dump! We did however managed one massive trip to the tip with an assortment of stairgates, wood and sundries. Sunday we took our last walk in the woods with the children and dog. Maddie pronounced "you have a baby in your tummy Mummy" - ok J and I now look worried at this point. "No Sweetheart I don't" "Yes you do Mummy" and off she trotted. J I love you but I would kill you no more children please. John by the way looked equally horrified.

Today was spent trying to make the ill fated caramel shortbread and visiting a friend for lunch at Dairsie Manse. Biz and Guy have the most spectacular house in Dairsie which they are in the process of doing up. It has a beautiful walled garden which will look amazing in years to come when they have restored it. They also have outbuildings which I would die for. The best bit though for me had nothing to do with the house but all the spring bulbs which were popping their heads above the ground. The snow drops where just stunning. Another sad goodbye at the end of the day to Hilary and Biz, will miss you lots but hope to catch up soon. Helen and Chris popped by to pick up the tumble dryer and very kindly brought us a Fisher and Donaldson carrot cake, YUMMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYY you really know how to grab a friends heart! Totally delicious but now I feel sick as a had another piece after dinner. We hope to see you both again soon, you just know that you will end up down by us next year. The house next door is really rather lovely!!

Well I think the fumes have died down now so I shall shut the window down and head to bed as I am knackered. Love and wishes to all Stay safex

2007-01-23T13:32:00.000Z

What will we miss?

Moments like these! and the beach - oh the beach, it has become one of our favourite Sunday past times to go to Broughty Ferry beach, collect peebles, take photos (Ellie had a new camera for Christmas) and then head down to the Glass House to have a hot chocolate or lunch. Definitely going to miss the icecream sundaes on the pier in the summer. St Andrews beach will also be missed as one of the best places to play rugby. Yes I hear you John I need to improve my catching skills! Fergus will miss the doggy communication with all the pooches running in and out of the waves. I know we will have Westonburt but nothing is the same without the sound of the waves and sand underfoot. It always manages to relax me, clear my mind but most importantly wear the kids out!

John and Euan on the Dunes at St Andrews.

I think we are all looking forward to finally be back together as a family but this home has provided us with a very happy existence over the past three years. The ability to just walk out the door into the countryside will also be sorely missed. Friends I will really miss you all, our drinking nights, cinema nights with Eileen and our coffee mornings at Abernyte Antique Shop will leave a vacant hole but I am sure I shall get one with things at the new place.

I started a scrap booking course with Big Picture Scrap booking that John gave me for Christmas. It is a year long course called a Year to Remember with Heidi Swapp as the instructor. It has been great to get me sitting down at my desk to scrapbook rather than just thinking about it. The brief for January was to pick a goal that I could achieve in 2007 and to scrapbook it and five reasons why it was important to me. I have picked to get my Christmas stock done by August - yes those who know me well can stop rolling around on the floor now, how many years have I been saying this? but it really is something that I need to get a grip on and start to get organised so I don't get so stressed so close to Christmas (for my sake and the families!). Hopefully a few months after the move when everything has settled down I can get into a routine of getting things done. Maddie will not be going to nursery in the mornings when we move because it is all privatised down there, she will start 1/2 day school though in September and then go full time in the term that she is 5. I cannot believe that she is already so big. I have made a steady income this year and I will miss the client base that I have managed to build up over the past few years but needs must and I will have to start again. I have just uploaded Flickr to my blog so I can start to slowly add all my pictures of stock and commissions. It will have to be done slowly as you are only allowed a certain limit to stay within the free limit on the account. Hopefully this will allow people to see what I have been up to and allow them to order direct by email if there is something they see they would like. Make sense - apologies if is doesn't my brain is fried!

Well as usual two posts in one day hopefully it wont be as long before the next one, I shall try and make an effect to update more regularly. Love to all Hx

2007-01-23T10:02:00.000Z

NEW HOUSE!!

Well I can hardly believe two months have gone by since I posted here but I haven't been idle. We are in the process of buying a new house in Wilthshire called Prunus Cottage and hope to be moved in on the 2nd of February, English Conveyancer willing (can you tell we have been having problems with an inept solicitor!!) We cannot wait to be back together again as a family, the last year has been somewhat trying to say the least for all involved particularly Euan.

We had a good but quiet Christmas and New Year with a few friends and family. Most of John's leave was spent clearing the house of excess stuff for the move. I think at last count we got rid of 41 bin bags to charity, tip and the local nursery!! We were slightly concerned we were going to be over the baggage allowance for the move but thankfully due to getting rid of all our old appliances in the garage (the new house has all built in) we managed to scrap under the limit. The new house is great but smaller than this and I think we are going to struggle with storage initially. The kids are all going to get their own bedrooms which will be great and they have already picked their colour schemes. Surprise surprise Maddie has chosen pink, Ellie purple and Euan blue!! Mum has yet to work out all the other colour schemes but she has got the fabric for the livingroom curtains. John is pleased with the new place as it has a wood burning stove so he is happy. It is in the village of Crudwell which has a lovely little primary school, riding stables (sorry John you know it is inevitable!) and three pubs. We have already checked out the Wheatshef and it has very nice food. So if you are in the area please stop by for a cup of tea, I cannot tell what state we will be in but a hand with unpacking, painting, turfing, fencing et cetera would not go amiss.

2006-11-12T21:40:00.000Z

Miss Ellie's Ladybird Cupcake Decorating Party

We started with musical bumps, statues, pass the parcel and best dancer competitions and then onto the mandatory party food!
A Ladybird cake had been requested and duly produced although I kept wondering what the face reminded me of and I have finally worked out it is Shaun the Sheep from Wallace and Gromit in a head on wind rush! I should have made the antennae with pipe cleaners rather than licorice as they weren't strong enough to hold the icing bobbles up. Nevermind the birthday girl didn't seem to notice. I also forgot to put it on a bigger board so I could put the ladybird candles around it, so they got a cake stand all of their own.

The party invites and party bags all followed the theme. I couldn't find Ellie's box it has been whisked away into her burrow never to appear again I think. Each little girl got to take home a ladybird purse and ladybird mechanical toy which is rather good fun, it runs about and turns itself over on its back and spins circles (adults can be children at heart to. J and I didn't fight over which colour we got to play with!) They also had foilwrapped chocolate in ladybird designs, rather nice but rather pricey! sorry J with birthday cake and a sheet of what else but glow in the dark ladybird stickers!

I can't believe our Miss Ellie is nearly 5 (officially her birthday on Monday). After the food J and Euan bogged off to the rugby leaving myself and a fellow Mum Angelia (sorry if that is spelt wrong) to the cupcake decorating part. Each child was given 5 plain cupcakes and let loose with a bowl of icing to mix and colour and then to decorate away with as many toppings as they desired. I did set them challenges such as the best looking ladybird, butterfly, most colourful, best pattern et cetera with which they could win a prize. I was so involved in supervising I forgot to take pictures of the process or the end product which is a bit of a shame. Still after all the girls had gone I asked Ellie is she enjoyed her party to which she enthusiastically said yes especially the cupcake part. Ah bless a mothers duty is done. The party was followed by a manic clean up by Mum as we had two viewings that afternoon. Why is nothing ever stressless in this house. Well all I have to do now is design the thank you cards. Hmmmmmmm.

Auntie Helen and Uncle Chris came over this afternoon and brought Ellie her present which was lovely. Helen did a bit of buying damage with my christmas stock, nice for me!I have just finished wrapping the gifts for the offical birthday tomorrow so all in all the girl has done rather well. Now back to these damn christmas cards, number 93 and 10:10pm!

2006-11-12T21:05:00.000Z

SLOW PAINFUL DEATH BY CHRISTMAS CARDS

Yes you guessed it, it is that time of year again where I ask myself just why do I like to design and print my own christmas cards? Last year I printed them on 6x4 cards and the printer took them like a dream, this year I designed an image that had to go on 5.5x5.5 cards which the printer hates. Yes every single one of the 120 cards I have to print for our own personal list has to be hand fed into the printer with quite a few rejections. The air is rather blue since I started at 6pm and it is now 9:10pm and I am still only on number 76. I hope those of you who read this and receive a card will appreciate it in a new light!

The smiley face stickers next to the cards are definitely not the way I feel right now. They are in fact for a good behaviour chart which was started on Monday with a reward of Pizza Hut on Ellie's birthday if they can get twice as many smiles as sad faces. It has had the desired effect and behaviour has improved and John will be able to tick off another thing from Euan's list - being a family trip to PH for tea with Dad!

We have had a busy weekend with Ellie's Party and 3 house viewings. John decided to escape the mayhem and watch rugby with Euan at Murryfield coming home in more Scottish Rugby parafinalia - sorry Dad I do try to avoid it. My works in progress for the craft night on Thursday had to be moved from the dining room table back into my work room, which also received a major makeover for the viewings. All this was rather frustrating as all I really wanted to do was get on with some work not fiddle faddle about for time wasting househunters, yes one couple were just checking what was on the market as they hadn't yet put theirs up for sale - arrrrrrgh I could seriously swing for them especially at this time of the month! Still I have a clean house so I should be able to get on now without quite so much distraction. I have no where near enough stock for Thursday but it has been a rather silly year. I wish I could get out of this cycle of manic making just before christmas when I still have so many things to do for the family. My children are still waiting for homemade christmas stockings. Looks like it could be another year of J's flying socks waiting at the bottomof the kids beds for Santa!

We are still no further forward in the search of or sale with our house. We are still waiting for the elusive proposed offer by the Strachans and are still standing with startled bunny eyes at the prices down south. We have found two that we quite like but they both have disadvantages of either busy roads or having to walk through a bedroom to get to another. John is going to start viewing when he starts in London in two weeks time and I am going to be down at my Mum's at the end of the month. It will be interesting to see what Fergus and Leo make of each other. Right back to the cards and a very late night at this rate.

2006-10-23T23:18:00.000+01:00

A Fun Afternoon at the Coast

Uncle Chris with his godson and terror sisters posing in the ruins at St Monans Castle.

We had a fantastic walk along the coast at St Monans to see the castle ruins and have a play on the beach. Ellie was particularly taken with all of the underground rooms at the castle as I told her they would probably have been the children's bedrooms and how would she like to have a room like this? Mean old Mum! she decided she liked her bedroom better but was still fascinated with it. Fergus the kamakazi dog had a whale of a time jumping up and down the cliffs into the sea and up the banks, Mum meanwhile was having a heartattack every time he lept off a 10ft drop!

Euan and Uncle Chris playing statues in the afternoon light.

The light yesterday afternoon was just amazing and the coastal wind was quite warm, a rare treat for the end of October. We were all quite hot in our fleeces but it was just a bit nippy without them. We came across a very large dead seal on the beach which was sad but very educational for the children.

I will desperately miss the sea and beaches here when or rather if at this rate we move back down south. There is something quite magical about the seaside with its noises and calming effect on the soul. The children went out like lights last night when I put them to bed, I always feel like they have been exposed to something special and healthy when we have had a walk at the seaside. The evening was rounded off with fish and chips sat in Anstruther harbour courtesy of Chris and Helen (thank you very much!) which the children devoured, even Maddie took the remainder of her chips home in the car to finish!

Today was spent getting covered in orange paint with the nursery children and then over to my friend Hilary's house for lunch. I got a wonderful cuddle with her little six month old Corey who is just edible, you want to squeeze him and kiss him constantly! Tonight I have finished painting my robins and twisted their wire feet. 20 more Cranberry hearts have been threaded and Fergus has been sneaking cuddles on the sofa all in front of a wonderful log fire, quite devine.

Tomorrow or should I say today nearly as I am always late to bed must be a work day as I need to get some crafting done. Thank you to those who responded to my email about the blog, I hope I don't bore you to death over the coming months.

Sweet dreams to all and to all a good night.

2006-10-23T08:29:00.000+01:00

Anyone who is crafty and fancys doing an ornament exchange this christmas check out this.

2006-10-22T10:49:00.000+01:00

HOUSE FOR SALE STILL

Okay it has been 7 months now since we have put the house on the market, fate possibly has kept me here while John has been away in the Falklands. I'll be honest it has suited me not to have moved yet. I have a good set of friends who are there when things get to bad and my inlaws have been coming up once a week to give me a hand and a break. I have even managed to let them help me with things (don't faint) yes I am learning to ask for help and take it! Finally got around to taking some fresh pictures of the house yesterday, up a ladder to get the height and have sent them off to the estate agent with a note to drop the house price by £5,000. We will see if it makes a difference. I hope so because I am sick of trying to clean the house to show, I have wasted so much time this summer cleaning and clearing the garden, shouting at kids to not mess it up again before the viewing. Poor little devils don't understand what is going on either.

LESS THAN ONE WEEK TILL J GETS HOME!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that we are almost at the end of this 19 week stretch, I can't wait to get J home, the poor man is going to be hugged to death by the family when he gets off that plane and probably for the next week! Euan has been writing a list of things he wants to do with Daddy when he gets back, I think he is up to number 30! Ellie has plans for baking cinnamon rolls and sunflower seed rolls and Maddie I think she is still to young to understand. Me I just want some crafting time and a break from the day to day stuff like cooking and cleaning.

Talking of crafting I have finally got around to making a few things. I have a sale scheduled for the 15th of November at a friends house. I figured I had better set a date or I would never get around to doing anything this christmas. The house sale and J being away has really drained me more than I thought it would. Work in progress below (excuse the quality of the photo) has now been finised. 26 penguins inspired by the Falkland visit were completed, 15 sold already argh maybe I wont have stock. I have since made 15 camels (2 gone), 18 tissue holders (2 gone) and 20 christmas puddings. I have some wooden and fabric robins in the pipeline, around 10 peghooks half completed and a few bird index boxes constructed but not painted. Poor old J back into the fire when he gets home.

Well I had better go and get out of my pj's since it is 11am and we are heading over to Auntie Helen's and Uncle Chris's this afternoon for a trip to Anstruther harbour and a fish and chip treat for dinner. Oh how I love not having to cook! I also need to prepare the art projects I am doing with Maddie's nursery this week as I am in two days this week instead of the usual one. We are making pumpkin paper plate masks and halloween ghost footprint cards (Messy but fun!). I will post some pictures of the completed works when I get chance (um could be a while my to do list is so long!).

2006-10-08T09:25:00.000+01:00

Missing Photos!

Daddy and his Jet
Gentoo Penguins at Sandy Bay, Bleaker Island

Yeah I think I might have got the photos where i want them. Surely there is an easier way to get the photos were you want them without uploading them first? Oh the joys of computers and a very limited knowledge!

Well I suppose I had better get dressed as we have a busy day planned, making toiletroll tube penguins, dog walks and then the girls are coming for wine tonight!!

Looks like another grey day here John so you are not missing anything.

2006-10-08T08:58:00.000+01:00

Things have been rather busy round here!

Well the plan of keeping a blog while John was away in the Falklands seems to have fallen by the wayside but hey life with three children is never predictable! Less than three weeks now and John should be flying home - Yeyyyyyyyyyy can you tell that we have done 16 weeks on our own, possibly the twitch in my eye and the fixed grin/grimace lets it slip. All in all the kids have been okay, poor old Euan has struggled with his Daddy being gone and we have had a few temper/behavioural issues but whos to say we wouldn't have had them anyway.

The visit to the Falklands was a resounding sucess. I was rather concerned at taking three young children on two 9 hour flights back to back on my own but they were fantastic. Yes we did have a few spilt juice issues and some tired babies when we landed but I didn't see too many people getting off giving us dirty looks. I was really glad I went to see the Falklands it is a bleak and yet beautiful place. We had a helicopter ride (Euan grinned from ear to ear) to Bleaker Islands where we stayed for two nights. Bleaker's population is 2 and rather a lot of sheep and cattle! Euan loved the Sei whale bones found on the beach and the plethera of skulls around the island. The girls liked the forces ration hot chocolate!! Our departure was rather special except for the two hours spent sat on the runway because the pilot had gone down a taxway and got stuck (would this worry you?). John managed to get airborne and fly along side the 747 in his jet and wave us off, the kids thought it was amazing, Mum thought it was lovely but heart breaking at the same time. Then home for a further 14 weeks of solo parenting.

Unfortunately for me I picked up a bacterial infection on the flight which was quickly followed by a sinus infection which took two sets of antibiotics to clear. I still seem to have a cold lingering.

Okay I am having a problem getting my photos where I want them and now I can't seem to find two, hmmmmmmmmm. Oh why couldn't this be simple! Right I shall post this and see what comes out.

2006-06-20T17:16:00.000+01:00

Wooden Angels

This is one of my wooden angels that I create for the wall. They come with all sorts of different wings, tin straight or curvy, gilded in bronze, silver or gold, paint effect to look like tin. You can have them in almost any colour you wish. I make them with wire hair with beads or sequins in, tin star or heart halos, tin twig hair or natural twigs. If you want a slightly flirty one you can have an ankle bracelet! The decoration on the angel can vary as they are all tin decs (which I buy from the US). I have painted some in two colours to create a contrast so the weight of colour and added embellishments sits at the bottom. One lady had me adapt the design to create a mermaid and another a fairy godmother for a little ones christening! Each angel is stamped with a number, my name and comes with a tag to explain the care and its originality.

2006-06-20T16:59:00.000+01:00

Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer

This is one of my christmas decorations
from the 2005 collection. I try not to repeat the designs from year to year. I create about 10 different decortions each year from a mixture of wood and fabric. I am usually late in designing things, starting around August and then having a manic rush for christmas! Each year I swear I will start early and get them completed before the summer, hum here we are nearing the end of June and I still haven't started!!

2006-06-20T15:32:00.000+01:00

A Fishy Creation

This is one of my peg hooks that is hanging in the children's bathroom. We use them to hang up their towels. I can create them in any style or design and in any colour. You can have plain or patterned to suit your taste.

2006-06-17T22:41:00.000+01:00

Just trying to work out how to set up this blog!