Oooh la la - c'est le weekend

I do quite like this photo of me taking a photo of myself, though I do think it makes me look like a cross between the Michelin Man and a pair of tweezers.  In reality I look a lot more like a 37-year-old woman than you'd believe from this picture.

This was taken at Lyme Park, which is a really beautiful National Trust property not too far from where we live.  We quite often go there for a bit of a run around and a play in the brilliant play area (kids) and a cup of tea and a wodge of cake (me).  This weekend I had a rare Saturday off work and the weather was so unbelievably perfect that we had to really make the most of the fact that we had two whole days at home together and get out and about in the sun.  Got to stave off the rickets and all that...

It really is heaven for small boys - mud, sticks, big open spaces, climbing frames and hot chocolate - what's not to love?  It's places like this that make me really appreciate having boys, actually.  I have a teeny confession to make here - sometimes I don't really understand my little beasties.  By this I mean that I know they need to let off steam and 'express themselves' by running around, shouting, fighting and making bizarre noises, and generally I don't mind it too much, but I never really understand what it is that makes them want to do it.  Probably something to do with me never having had a willy, I suspect - Mr N certainly gets where they're coming from.  But I digress; what I mean is that this unfathomableness (good word!) gives me opportunities to experience things that I may not otherwise get to experience.  There are many times in a day when I can be found acting as some sort of UN-level peace-keeper, splitting up fights and sorting out arguments - and that brings a fair amount of stress, if I'm honest.  But the flip side of that is that I get to spend my weekends in all sorts of brilliant outdoor places, running around and pretending I'm ambushing people and I have a sneaking suspicion that I just wouldn't experience that side of life if I didn't have to my two crazy boys.  We went to beautiful Lyme Regis in the Christmas hols (clearly I love all places with 'Lyme' in their name) - and I had a real moment of 'boy joy' while we were on the beach - me and my girl sitting on the stones all wrapped up in a mound of coats just watching the three males running around, jumping away from the waves, skimming stones, throwing rocks into the water and generally having a high old time just amusing themselves.  I was so happy sitting there in the freezing cold on that beautiful beach and I said a silent thank you to my boys because I'm fairly certain that if I had only girls, I wouldn't have been doing that, and I was glad that I was. 

Not that I'm suggesting for one moment that girls are all calmness and Zen, oh no no! (Pause for slightly hysterical laughter).  Take this photo, for example:

Four and a half seconds after this photo was taken, Mr N had a bit of a slip into the stream (bet he regretted not wearing his wellies then...), decided it was all just a bit too risky with baby n there, picked her up, carried her up the bank and put her on the grass at which point the world ended and she had a ten-minute meltdown because she wanted to get back into the (freezing cold, fast-flowing) water.

Now, I've no real idea how to link these next two photos in to this post at all - they're completely random, but I do want to include them, so here they are in all their random-ness.  Firstly a rather brilliant birthday present:

I love this little bluebird cruet set and thought I'd been cunning in hiding it on the window sill by the sink where the kids would 'never discover them' and want to break play with them but sadly, despite my best efforts, they've been discovered and baby n is now obsessed with the 'gucks' (ducks?)

And random photo number two: my latest wip:

When I saw Lucy's beautiful bunting at Attic 24, I just knew I had to make myself some.  Originally destined for the bathroom (possibly the only room in the house not already bedecked with flags, now I think about it) I have decided that I love it too much and can't possibly hide it away where I'll only get to see it when I'm in the shower.  Watch this space for my latest bunting ta-dah, coming soon to a sitting room near you. x
PS - if anyone's seen our remote control, could they please let me know where it is - it's driving Mr N crazy having to actually get up and change the channel

Lovely little trinkets

You may remember from my last post that I mentioned I've been experiencing a certain level of muddle-headedness as far as my WIPs are concerned.  Frankly, I've got enough other gumpf in my life to make me muddle-headed, without WIPs getting in on the act too; so I've decided to be calm and logical and try to tackle them one at a time.  (I'm trying to imagine how I would have approached it in the days when I had a proper job and wore a suit, but my memory's shot and I've given all my suits to charity, so it's not working very well.)
Today saw me sitting outside in the sun, surrounded by piles of flags and bits of bias binding and pins - attempting to finish off my latest and absolutely final batch of tent bunting.  I feel I may now be approaching the point where people are likely to walk past my tent and mutter to themselves 'hmmm, she's overdone it a bit on the old bunting-front there.  Over-egged the pudding, as it were'.  And if there's one thing I certainly don't want, it's an over-egged pudding tent.  Anyhooo, I made my first lot in a very efficient and logical fashion from some rather delectable winceyette (just had to check the spelling of that on Google.  It's a funny old word - makes me shudder a bit.  It seems totally inappropriate for the thing that it's describing.  A bit like sleet.  I always think that's just completely wrong):

And then, with about 500 flags still to go, I ran out of bias binding.  So that was a bit of a pain.

So I moved on to something else: a really simple skirt for baby n, which I'd seen in 'Handmade Living'.  But like a true numpty, I cut the fabric to exactly the width of her waist, as opposed to twice the width of her waist, and that was just annoying; so I left that and moved on to something else...
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Calm?  Logical?  I think not.
So now I'm moving on to something that doesn't get me quite as het-up as my current crafty makes: the rather exciting things that have been arriving through my letter box this week.  Actually, the first rather thrilling blog-related thing that arrived at my house came a couple of weeks ago.  Now, before I go any further with this, I just want to set the scene: I had left the house in the usual flap that accompanies every morning's school run - I walked (ran) up the road to school with the children; meandered back towards home with a couple of friends; decided to pop into the village before going back home, to get some bread (had to borrow a couple of quid from a friend to purchase said bread - which reminds me, I still haven't paid her back.  Ooops); had a chat with a couple of people I bumped into; strolled home again an hour after I'd left, to find the front door standing wide open and an envelope on the front door mat.  After checking that my handbag, which I'd left in full view of the front door, was still there (it was - phew) I realised that I hadn't been burgled, I'd just been a complete goon and forgotten to shut the door in my rush to get to school.  Note to self...  Anyway, the point of all that is that the envelope was from the lovely Cuckoo, and contained the recipe for the elderflower cup cakes that I blogged about before.  So - thank you, Cuckoo - they were yum!
And on Tuesday I had a double-whammy of post-related excitement: this rather cutesome outfit that my auntie kindly bought for baby n:

Thank you, mushroom one!

And this lovely cube for big n's teacher, which I ordered from the very talented Fee.

I'm secretly a bit disappointed I can't keep it for myself because it's absolutely lovely, but sadly my name's not Miss Dorsett and I'm not a teacher, so it just wouldn't look right:

It was extra great of Fee to send this to me as I haven't actually paid her for it yet - thanks Fee, don't forget to let me know how much I owe you!

Blimey, this post's turning into a bit of a tome (by my standards, anyway).  I'm going to finish today with a snippet of my life: yesterday, while trying to make the dinner amongst the usual background of tv noise (boys), computer games (boys), the radio (me), shouting (everyone) I became aware of baby n standing near me saying 'uh oh, uh oh'.  This is a fairly recent piece of language for her, and it's one that never fails to make my heart sink when I hear it.  I turned from my position by the cooker, noting the strong smell of cinnamon in the air, to see bun-bun (baby n's absolute favourite toy in the whole wide world) lying on the floor looking like a victim of some awful, frenzied knife-related crime:

Note to self: must get a catch on the spice drawer... x

Crochet update - June

Mmmmmmmm.......elderflower cakes with whipped mascarpone icing...........delicious and really, really slimming.  (Okay, so one of those facts isn't strictly true...)

So apart from stuffing my face with fat-busting cakes, I've also been quite active on the crochet-front over the past month:

Oh, gosh, that looks like a finished springtime throw...
Then in a frenzy of activity since finishing my throw, I've made these:

Not 'leprosy chic', as Mr N rather unkindly called them (something to do with Ben Hur, apparently.  Don't know what he's talking about, I just ignored him, with a rather superior air to my being), but actually wrist warmers, craftily made from scraps of yarn from my stash:

Just need to wait about four months til I can actually wear them.

And, keeping up with the Bunting Appreciation Society theme, I've made this:

I used up the left over yarn from my little flower squares cushion for this; the pattern for the larger heart I found on Ravelry, and the smaller heart comes from the lovely Julia's blog.

While I was taking this photo, my crochet assistant was on hand as usual, making sure all was okay with my toe nails:

I've been teaching her how to open nail varnish bottles so that next time she can make herself really useful. x
Oooh, and how could I have forgotten my hellebores?

Elderflower cordial recipe and a tent-related make

Just to let you know that I've posted the recipe for elderflower cordial on my 'cake' tab at the top of my blog (here you go, Nelly!)  I hope you like it - let me know how you get on if you do make it!  Good luck getting the citric acid - it can be a bit tricky to get hold of as it's used to make bombs too, apparently.  I got it from my local chemist - I think they made a snap decision based on appearances alone and decided that, on balance, I'm probably wasn't a terrorist.  Phew.  I'm sitting here with a glass of it by my side - it's especially yum with sparkling water. 
I also mentioned a tent-related make in my last post....and.....ta-daaaaaahhhh:

I give you: tent bunting (and a splat of bird poo, which I didn't spot when I took the photo - nice).  What do you think?  

I also made some bunting for my shed while I was at it (is that normal?)

I love that fact that every other flag has upside-down dogs on it; it adds a certain je ne sais quoi, don't you think? x

A lovely award

Thank you so much Jacquie at Bunny Mummy!  Jacquie is one of my real big-time crochet blog gurus, so I'm really thrilled to get this from her.
I'm slightly worried now because I need to think of ten interesting facts about myself to share with you, as part of this award.  Eeeek!  After much head-scratching, I've come up with the following nuggets for you:
1) I really hate peas.  Really, really hate them.  I even have to pick them out of curries, so that I have a little pile of yellowed beasts sitting ominously at the side of my plate.  Urgh.
2) I've got a piece of pencil lead stuck in my left index finger, it's been there since I was about seven.  I've also got a little bit of glass embedded in my heel, which happened when we had a car crash when we lived in New Zealand in 2001.
3) My first word was 'shoe' (I'll say no more...)
4) When I was a child I really wanted to be a vet.  That or an astronaut.  I'm actually not either.
5) I've visited 21 different countries (though since I've had children, I've only managed a weekend in Dublin and two days in Barcelona with work.  Ha ha ha)
6) When I was little we had lots of animals - pigs called Pork Lunch, Bubble and Squeak; sheep (including a psychopathic ram called Rambo, natch) and loads of chickens - my favourite was called Scrawny and she got eaten by a fox.
7) I didn't pass my driving test until I was 31.
8) I'd really, really love to be able to sing.  Tragically, I'm so bad that my own children actually laugh at me when I try.
9) I met my husband when I was 19.
10) There are only nine interesting facts about me in the whole, wide world...
I'm going to pass this award on to Jooles at Sew Sweet Violet because she makes really, really beautiful bunting and as I've said before, I've got a bit of a bunting fetish. x
PS - There is some very exciting news on the springtime throw-front...more in my monthly crochet round up tomorrow!

Crochet update - April

If I had a watering can like this one, I'd water my plants every day, rain or shine.

Anyway, I'm getting distracted from the task in hand: a crochet update for April.  I've decided I'm going to do this at the end of every month so that you can see what I've been pootling away at, and so that I've got some sort of record to show me that, despite the chaos, I do manage to achieve some things some times!

So, without further ado, I bring you April's activities.  Hurrah!

Firstly I bring you my little stars bunting.  This was a very quick and lovely project to work on and the stars look perfectly at home on my bedroom mirror now, which is where I'd always visualised them.  I first saw these at the lovely Tales from Cuckoo Land blog - thank you for the idea, Cuckoo!

I am extremely partial to a bit of bunting, as you may have realised by now if you've been reading my blog for a while.  I think it's just so pretty and cheerful and I am in grave danger of my house being completely over-run by it (cue long-suffering eye-roll from Mr Nut).  In fact, I might set up the Bunting Appreciation Society for all like-minded flag-addicts.  

This brings me neatly on to my second April project: bedroom bunting.  This pattern came from the gorgeous Crochet with Raymond blog (with slight, unintentional alterations by me!)

It's a present for a lovely friend's daughter's birthday, which is in June and I reeeealllly hope she likes it!

My third project for April is my little flower squares cushion, which I finished today and which I haven't stopped gazing at since because I love it.

This project just came from my head (though I did follow patterns for the actual squares) and it all just fell into place most serendipitously - good karma all round!
The front and back are different:

 

I am going to find it very hard to let the children anywhere near this cushion for fear that they may sully its pristine whiteness.  Ugh, sticky little fingers grabbing at (shudder).  I think I probably just need to get over that though - the stress would finish me off! x
PS - springtime throw square count is up to 186!!!  Yippeee skippeee!