What a crazy weekend we had around here. Which is one reason it’s taken me so long to get around to posting about it ….. that and the fact that I tried to blog this three times last night but our bloody useless Sky Broadband was Sooooo slow that it was taking forever and I had to give it up as a lost cause!

Ewan turned one on Saturday (Can you believe how quickly this year has gone??) and was Christened on Sunday – so he’s been a busy little monkey recently.

The christening was a lovely day, Ewan spent most of the time in the church shouting “Hiya” at people, but he was mostly good. The highlight of the day for him was discovering the communion gong on the Alter and being allowed to spend 5 minutes whacking it. Definitely a rock and roll drummer in the making that kid ;)

It was lovely to see all our friends from further a field. I know some of you are probably reading this (aren’t you Denise?? ;)) - we should DEFINITLEY get together again sooner rather than later.

I’ll leave you with some photos of Ewan on his big day, and one of me (which doesn’t happen very often) with the lovely Lou who came all the way from Leeds to not speak in church and have a few glasses of vino (both of which she managed without any problems ;)).

Ewan Getting Dunked.



Suited and Booted (with some Garlic Bread…. It’s the future ;))



Me and that Looby-Lou



Ewan and Xander Billy Jim



Emily and Grace – “I think you’ll find we’re best friends, actually!”




Thanks to Lou (because she took these photos, seeing as I was too busy running around like a headless chicken to even think about cracking out the camera.

I still can’t believe my little boy is one! Really not a baby anymore. Ah well, onwards and upwards.

TTFN

The Big Knit

Being partly true to my word, I have been doing something crafty everyday – I just haven’t gotten around to blogging it, but hey, I never said I was perfect :P

I’m in the process of making Gracie’s a new school bag (a backpack) so I’ve been trying to work out the logistical nightmare that is backpack pattern pieces (my spatial awareness sucks! I can’t help it though; I’m a woman, so I’m at a genetic disadvantage from the outset, apparently). I need to buy a zip for that, then hopefully I can get started and it will be appearing at a playgroup near me shortly :)

In the meantime, I’ve somehow managed to get roped into making these:

I know you’re wondering what the hell they are! Well, they’re little hats, for Innocent Smoothie bottles – obviously!

The deal is this, Innocent smoothies have a charity event called “The Big Knit”. They ask people to knit these little hats which fit perfectly on top of their smoothie bottles. The hats are then put on the bottles that are sold in Sainsbury’s stores and for everyone that’s bought Innocent give 50 pence to charity – Age Concern’s “Fight the Freeze” campaign.

I found the whole thing hilarious, and a stroke of fundraising genius and when the lady who organises the college’s effort for this found out I was a knitter she immediately harangued me into signing up (apparently my predecessor was quite a prolific “little hat” knitter, so I’ve got a lot to live up to!).

If you want to join in with “The Big Knit" and whip up some little hats of your very own the check out the website, here. There are also some little hat making instructions, here and their very own blog – which features a “hat of the week” – this weeks was little piggie hats :) I love piggies :) )

Right, blogging in work and it’s just about home time… woo hoo!! So, I’m off.........

TTFN

One Little Word: PURE

I haven't done anything papercrafty for what feels like forever! Yesterday I stumbled across the One Little Word blog again, which has been lying forgotten in my favourites folder for ages, filed under the "baking" folder in some bizarre slip-of-the-mouse accident. It's now restored to it's rightful place in the "scrapbooking" favourites folder.

The latest word prompt on there (they're up to #9 already!) is PURE. As soon as I saw the word I knew what I wanted to do with it. This:

I've had a song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in my head for ages (since Gracie discovered the copy on video at Nanny's) so "Pure Imagination" was my first thought. The layout includes some of the lyrics, which go perfectly with the theme:

If you want to view paradise

Simply look around and view it

Anything you want to, do it

Want to change the world?

There's nothing

To it

There is no

Life I know

To compare with

Pure imagination

Living there

You'll be free

If you truly wish to be

The photos are of Gracie doing various creative/let's pretend/dressing up type things and I've altered the colour settings (namely the Hue) to give that purpley/green look to them. There's hidden journaling under the three squares with the dome stickers on about how amazing Gracie's imagination is, even at just 3 years old.

The design for the LO actually came from a sketch I'd done with the intention of doing a page for Ewan's album. This is the sketch:

Obviously I've adapted it to suit the DLO, but hey, it's my sketch, I'll do what I want with it ;) I'm still going to use it as is for Ewan's LO, hopefully tonight, I want to see if I can keep this scrapping ball rolling!

For the "Pure" layout, I've used:

Bazzill cardstock (white and 4 colours)
Patterned paper from the DCWV "Pocketful of Posies" stack
BG Chipboard Monograms (as a template for the "pure" title)
Creative Imaginations "sonnets" poem stones
Sen Plus ribbon
Dovecraft brads
Just Pots "Funky Flowers"

Right, I'm off to make lunch for a hungry preschooler... and a hungry Mummy :)

TTFN

Going To Work For A Rest!

As someone who both works outside the home (3 days) and stays home with the kids (2 days) I have to testify that being home with the kids is far and away the harder of the two! I’ve been at home on my own with the kids today for the first time in a fortnight (Kendo has been off work the last few weeks). I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and I’ve noticed a couple of things.

At least while I’m at work:

I’m getting paid for doing stuff for other people

I can go to the toilet whenever I want to without being followed by at least two people

I can manage to drink a cup of tea while it’s still hot

Occasionally, other people make cups of tea for me

No-one shits on me

No-one pukes on me

No-one pees on me

I don’t have to pretend to be any one of a hundred different children’s TV characters – I can just be me

People call me by my actual name

I get to eat things other than partly squished, left over banana and previously chewed biscuits/breadstick

My lunch hour actually lasts an hour

Nobody tries to pummel by computer keyboard whilst I’m typing

My clothes can last all day without gathering an assortment of stains

I don’t have to discipline my colleagues for pushing/biting/shouting at each other



So, all you SAHM’s, if anyone every tells spouting that you have it easy being at home tell them to take it from me, going to work is a hell of a lot easier!

Roll on Monday, I’m off to work for a rest! ;)

TTFN

These boots aren't made for walking... not anymore anyway.

I know, I know, daily blogging I promised, and have I delivered??...... have I buckleys. I'm officially crap :P

So. What's gone on this week? Well, at work on Tuesday there was a minor boot related incident.... which led to this:

*SIGH*

I was rocking back and forth on my heel whilst filing a million student files, and then I heard a rather nasty crunching noise. That'll teach me. I did get numerous funny looks (even more funny than usual) walking around the college in my stocking feet but hey ho. Then I had to drive home with no shoes on, which was interesting, not to mention completely illegal. On the up side - at least it wasn't raining that day ;) I really like those boots too. Glum :(

I've finished the patchwork quilt I was working on, but I'm not posting pics of that on here until the recipient has received it..... just incase people are watching ;) I might finally get around to some papercraft-type stuff this week.

Ewan's getting much more brave with his walking and is delighting in tottering from place to place. I managed to catch him taking a couple of steps on video this morning for the first time, which you can see on photobucket here:

http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o95/Mariek76/?action=view&current=100_3798.flv

I also got one of him grooving to the Tweenies - as you can see he inherited his father's dancing skills ;)

http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o95/Mariek76/?action=view&current=100_3800.flv

Right, it's the first of my days off this week today so I'm off to spend some time with the munchkins, then do some ironing once Ewan's asleep and Gracie's at school. My life is so rock 'n' roll!

TTFN

A Project In A Bag.

Knowing that I wanted to get at least one crafty thing done today (and that I had the whole quilting disaster to unravel tonight) I quickly packed this last night to take to work for my lunch hour).

(Okay, I confess, I took this picture when I got home, it only had the pieces in it this morning, not the finished clips..... Sshhhhhhh ;)).

I promised these to a fellow BWer a while ago. They've been on the (ever growing) list for a while but were perfect to take out of the house with me and I managed to get them done while chowing down on my cheese and ham sandwich, whilst getting bemused looks from the people in my office! These are the finished article:

These shall be winging their way to their recipient by Snail.....er... I mean Royal Mail tomorrow :)

The plan for tomorrow is to hopefully get a couple of cards made (Congrats on the New Baby cards... for babies born at the end of July!! Tisk!) so I think I might just pack another project-in-a-bag for tomorrow :) Better than answering the phone in my lunch hour ;)

As for the rest of my evening......... the unpicking marathon awaits, unfortunately. Ah, well. Needs must. It'll teach me to pay more attention in future I guess.

Oh... I forgot to mention that my sink is clean, my clothes are laid out for tomorrow and I have just rebooted the washing machine. Go me! :)

TTFN

Cookies and Warm Milk.

So, daily blogging, as promised!

I've actually managed to get a lot done over the weekend. I think I ironing about nine loads of laundry on Saturday (not very flybaby like to let it build up that badly - but hopefully I can keep on top of it now). I also cleaned the kitchen and bathroom and found time to make homemade pizzas for tea with Gracie (which she loved making, but not so much eating) and I even managed to whip up a couple of sock puppets for Gracie's makeshift puppet theatre (made out of the box the new cooker came in, remember that? Yes, it's been in my living room all this time!). You would get to see photos of both of those....... if I hadn't decided in a moment of insanity to delete all the photos on the camera because the memory card was full! Muppet! Ahhh well, gone but not forgotten!

Today I've made Tollhouse cookies (on request from Kendo, so he can feed them to the site guys when he starts his new job tomorrow :) ) and this afternoon we went on what Gracie eloquently refers to as a "puddle walk" (thank you Balamory!). More like a total wash out really. We went to Sherdley park in our wet weather gear and jumped in every puddle we could find. Unfortunatley in true British weather style it pissed it down with rain the entire time so we were a decidely soggy and chilly bunch of Kendricks when we arrived home (all except Ewan who was safely ensconced under his rain cover! Jammy bugger!). Fresh baked Tollhouse cookies and some warm milk saw off the worst of that though and we were soon defrosted. There would have been photos of that too...... except for the deleting thing, which was prompted by a moment of rain soaked insanity..... and then it was too rainy to take photos anyway!

Back to playschool for Gracie tomorrow (woo hoo!!!) so she's got her new uniform all laid out for the morning. Best bib and tucker for me at work too (seeing as all those pesky students will be in residence) so I've got my clothes picked out and waiting (now THAT's a bit more Flybaby!).

As for the patchwork..... the less said about that the better. Sufficient to say that in a moment of total quilting muppetry, I sewed the pieces together in the wrong order so now it's waiting to have about 6 metres of unpicking done!! I'll try to get to that tomorrow as it needs to be finished by Sunday.

So, that's been my day, and now I'm off to my bed.

TTFN

Today's The Day.

Do you ever have those times when you get to the point where you’re sick of listening to yourself bitch about stuff? Well. I’m there. It’s taken a while. I’ve been bemoaning stuff around here for a long while, but enough is enough. I’m starting to give myself a headache!

So. Today’s the day I stop bitching about how things are around here and start getting on and actually accomplishing something!

I’ve just realised as well that it’s September 1st today. What better time to start! The beginning of a new season (although by all accounts our September is going to be more summer-like than our August was autumny (I have no idea if that sentence makes any sense! LOL)).

I’m going to try to blog every day with something that I’ve accomplished, even if its only getting through the day without screaming at the kids. I’m also climbing right back up the Flylady wagon (once again!). Hopefully that might stick this time.

I’m going to try to do at least one crafty thing everyday, even if it’s only drawing a sketch or writing down a project idea. I might even rustle up a little album to go with my month of accomplishments (especially seeing as I’m too brassic to sign up for Shimelle’s new class! *SIGH*).

I’m not sure what’s brought on this new found enthusiasm. Probably something to do with the fact that the kids had a later bedtime last night and thus a lie in this morning. Or, it could be the fact that we’ve already been out to the park and I’ve had some fresh air this morning? Who knows. Whatever it is lets hope it keeps up.

Right. I’m off to do some ironing before the urge to launder wears off!

TTFN