Highland fling

My sewing machine has been sitting vacant for a while now and life has just been quite busy and blogging has been far from my mind so again i am sorry for neglecting you BLOG!!

Winter has arrived and along with it a desire to sew........and shop!!!
I love new seasons to browse the array of catalogues that come streaming through my letter box and drool over the latest Boden or Joules designs and then I go in search of (The look) for less!!

I spotted this dress from Joules but by the time I had pondered over purchasing it it had sold out in my size

This is when the sewing machine came out and the hunt for fabric began!! My other half suggested I just sew a couple of tea towels together to get the same effect but then what does he know of fashion!!! Although I did actually give it some thought as they had some rather wonderful tea towels on line!!! ( I jest)

We have a little sewing shop in our town and it stocks some rather old-fashioned fabrics so I did not hold out a great deal of hope that I would find the right thing,but then I guess its rather a dated fabric with a trendy twist so I was lucky to find a wool blend in a traditional tartan design at a mere £4.00 per meter....result!!!

I was in too much of a rush to buy a pattern so i just cut out the material from a dress i already had that was a lose fit and my finished result was this

 I put the zipper on the outside to give it that Joules feel

 I think this will look great with a shirt,maybe a denim

french seams to finish it off!!!

Right I am off for project number 2!!!

Getting back in the swing of it

And what a better way to get back in the swing of things is to make a swing coat!!!


I wanted to make a simple project one sunday afternoon.This was just going to be a what I can find in my fabric kinda project as I really need to use up fabrics that have been laying around for a while.

I am always too impatient to order fabric and wait for the postman and so I buy as I see with no particular idea in mind and usually I can find something (albeit not exactly right)

I realised that I did not have large enough pieces for the lining but I managed to find something that sort of goes together and although I dont love the star fabric in this coat its given me ideas for the next coat I make from this pattern found  here           

The only thing I may do next time is slightly alter the volume in the sleeves and make them longer but here is the finished result

I am back!!!

Where from you may ask?

I am back from from the darkest deepest well of sadness and for the last 16 months I have not found the  love of life to add that extra little energy to write,read,create,laugh!!! I have survived or lets say I have functioned as I am needed by my children to do just that but the reality is that inside I have been deeply grieving for my beautiful mother who passed away a year last september.

I find it hard still 16 months on,it does get easier but no less painful.Recently I went to visit my stepfather and I went up to her spare room where all her things still sit just where they were left and I opened up her diary to see a year of hospital appointments.Radiology.Chemotherapy.Oncology.She had spent the last year of her life holding on to slim hope until she finally could take no more and climbed the stairs one last time to take to her bed where she switched off from the world and wished her pain away

It was the most painful heart wrenching experience I have ever seen and I will never get over the dignity and calmness that she withheld in her last few weeks

I was with her when she died.I knew she worried so much about me her youngest daughter and I think she was waiting for me to tell her that I would be fine and that she needed to let go.

I know she was waiting for me to hear those words as moments after I sat on her bed and whispered quietly in her ear that I would be ok I watched a single tear fall down her cheek and my mum left her pain and suffering behind

For a long time I just went on to autopilot,doing the mundane day to day jobs and just getting along with life as a parent has to.On the outside you just about cut the custard that you are fine,but on the inside I was grieving not only for my mother but also I think the grief I felt when my father died when my first daughter was a few weeks old seemed to rear back up and I cried for the loss of my parents as a unit.

I knew a part of me had died along with my mum yet at the same time I knew I wanted to keep a part of her alive through me but its only been very recently that I have felt connected with her again and have been able to turn back to my creative side
I feel that connection with her through the crafts and pictures that I take and I know how she loved to see this blog and for her memory I feel ready to move forward and with every post I put on here I will write it with you mum in my mind

I love you mum and I miss you so much.I told you I would be ok!!!

                        In loving memory of my wonderful parents,missed and loved so much

Bathrooms

I am in interior design mode and right now Im thinking bathrooms!! I am uninspired by my google search and I got to page 16.....yes 16 before I even found a bathroom I loved and Im not sure that even if I copied this bathroom that it would really work unless of course i lived on a beach and loved to show off my bubbled bathed body to all who sun worshipped below my window...........even more of a no no when you think of Great yarmouth beach........hmmmmm so moving on........

currently I have a blank background,a sea of white and nothing to give it the wow factor,its clinical and practical (easy to clean) and I decided i would love to have a bit of romance injected in to my operating theatre kinda look bathroom and so i started my search????

and then i wonder where do you start?

Shower curtains seem a good place as I am a loather of them,yet they serve a purpose,who wants a flooded floor?? and I find this..................................

a vey ruffled shower curtain

My search has begun yet I cant get one anywhere near the United Kingdom unless i am willing to pay Anthropoligie price tag of £98.00 and so I am on a quest to make this little baby and i will update you with my results very soon

Megan is 14,happy birthday baby

Happy birthday Megan,you need to stop growing up so fast though!!!
Megan is such fun,she makes me laugh so much,we spookily share the same thoughts and laugh at the most strangest things and sometimes during our deep conversations we realise that thoughts and feelings we may not be confident to share among others are mirrored and we can then laugh till our bellys hurt

Megan is such a home bird and I love that but I realise that she will be spreading her wings more and more now she is growing up but at the end of the day I know she will always fly home,she is still my baby in my eyes

Wedding

July 29th 2011

The moment my daughter put on her wedding dress,we are exchanging looks that are glazed with tears of emotion and happiness.I could not have been a prouder mother.
The day was an amazing day and Rebecca had made such special touches that will make the memory last forever

Getting ready for the big day was a very special time,it was calm and relaxed,not what I had expected it to be, almost surreal and another wonderful memory that when I look back on this picture it just brings back that wonderful day like it was yesterday

The final walk down the stairs as a single girl

My beautiful daughter and my new son in law,I really could not wish for a better son in law,he looks after Beckie so well and I know she is in safe hands,they make a very special couple

My Luverly lot!!!!! No more needs to be said here

what a pair of cuties

Wedding cake made by mummy x

More pictures on the way soon.

A Little Lucy update,almost 3 and a half!!

I have not been blogging recently and i know that a lot of people that check in here come along to see how the little lady Lucy is getting on so I thought I would just drop by and give a little lucy update.

All I can say is what an amazing transformation we have seen in Lucy now that she has started nursery two mornings a week,she is a confident,popular,funny chatty little girl and her speech has hit new heights.

She has a one to one support worker called Kim who is an amazing woman and knows the right time to step back and step in when needed,she has given Lucy the freedom to explore and make friends and is happy when Lucy tells her I dont want to play with Kim I want to play with my friends!!

Lucy has her lunch at school and she does so well and there have been no issues,Lucy has adapted so well,she has become independent.

There is so much to say that I just cant fit it all in to one post!!

She is now in a big girl bed and there have been no problems there,the stair gates are down and she manages the stairs,she takes herself off to the toilet and picks out what she is going to wear each day,such cute combinations as well......maybe not too color coordinated!!!

She has made some good little friends as well and they all run over to each other in the morning,its so cute and show each other thier baby dolls,we even have to pick out baby dolls clothes on a nursery morning,like they discuss what their babies are going to be wearing.

I worried that Lucy would not form (normal) friendships but I had no need to worry,she is a very popular little lady in class.

I have the most funny amazing conversations with lucy now,she has decided she wants a horse and she is going to have a pink hat and boots and gloves and her horse is going to be called BIG EYES!!

She has an amazing humor,she really gets irony and she told me today that she hated her cheesy mash at school,Hated!!! thats a strong word that she has never used before

She is bouncy and lively and such a joy to spend time with everyday and while i know we will have issues later down the line Im just focusing on the here and now and loving my confident very very chatty girl

The sign of the times

 Any body who knows me or comes to my home knows I love signs and pictures and letters as decoration,something draws me to them I have maybe 12 different displays of affection on show around my home

but my wish list is ever growing as I recieve the new catolougue for  Not on the high street.com and i am drawing some inspiration

I can feel some crafty moments coming on!!!

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Project cardigan complete and my new favorite place to go

 I have completed Lucys cardigan at last,and I am quite pleased with the results.I dont think I would have quite got so in to this if I had not had such terrible back pain recently as I am still a seamstress girly by nature but i have actually really enjoyed cozying up at night with a good film and my knitting needles,its defiantly a winter hobby.

Lucy actually hated the cardigan and I had to bribe her to wear it for me so I could take some photos.!! Just typical!!

She did wear it though when we went out later that day to have a little brows round the last of the sale bargains.......I just about cleared out Jarrold store of their joules sale items I cant resist I got a dress for Lucy reduced from £32.00 to £ 8.00 now that's a result!!

Anyway here is the finished cardigan

When we were out today I went to visit a new store that has opened called Hobby Craft and I just know i am going to be a regular there it was 2 floors of everything craft and I was like a kid in a candy store,in fact Andrew had to about drag me out of there .

You can try out all the stuff as well in the craft corner so you get to see how things work

I came away with some new wool to knit Daniel a hat..........watch this space I may get it finished before winter is out

A good reason not to do piano practice

When you have spent ages strategically placing you soldiers in prime spots to commence battle then how could they possibly be moved so that army Sergeant Daniel can do some piano practice!!!

A clever tactic on Daniels behalf and as you may tell his new years resolution is not to concentrate on scales and chords.

I knew this piano would give us hours of enjoyment for all the family

I have also made no resolution this year either as mostly mine are to get fit and lose weight and that may last a few days at most.........although this year I really am going to get fit and lose weight!!!!

I have decided that its come to a time when Andrew and I need to make extra special time together,we are always so busy with the children that we sometimes neglect our relationship,I can count on one hand the times we have made a date with each other and gone out with no children and this year that will all change and we have decided that we are going to make that extra effort to get out together rather than one of us staying in to babysit while the other one goes out and I'm looking forward to my first date of 20011 already.



We are already back in to the swing of routine here and Christmas is almost a distant memory although I did find a couple of photos from the end of 2010

Christmas eve

Chrismas morning ( I actually forgot I had taken these as it was some enearthly hour in the morning)

Lots of daddy snuggle time

A belated happy christmas and new year to you all

 During the christmas period I have little time to do what needs to be done let alone any posts,top that off with siatica pain on every movement,dosed up the eyeballs on pain killers and maybe you can understand my lack of cheery christmas posts....bahhh humbug!!!

I worked through it though and had a wonderful christmas time with a big focus on friends as well as family this year and it made christmas extra special to spend some time with great friends.

I was spoilt christmas day by rebecca who cooked a fantastic meal for us all,even though she put the oven on grill for the first 3 hours,the turkey was fine and cooked to perfection,maybe grilling is the way to go!!!

I was amazed at Lucys understanding of the whole christmas thing,she was very in to it all (my party girl) right down to choosing her own outfit and shoes for christmas day,she has style!!

I sadly didnt take pictures this year as I could barely lift myself up let alone a camera so I am afraid this year I will just have my memory of events and those I will cherish! My back is not good right now and so I have not been very creative either although have taken up some knitting,project cardigan!!

One thing that has brought me great joy this holiday season is how well lucy has come on with her speech,its truly amazing and very understandable

Last night she rattled this big sentence off as I was putting her to bed

Me "Time to go bed now Lucy"

Lucy "Ok,Me go in my bed,Gaga (her name for Daniel) go his own bed,he naughty,mummy go bed,daddy go bed,megeg go bed,everybody go to bed.

she then lay in bed chatting to her doll asking dolly if she had missed her and that she needed to put her covers on

It was so sweet and its great now to hear her opinions and her humor is amazing,she is very funny and cheeky and now she can use words to express her personality,im loving this independance its giving her and she loves it too,she is soaking up these words and putting them in to context.

Also just to document another first,this time for my big boy Daniel,he has lost his first baby tooth,and guess what ................the tooth fairy came to our house last night.