Winter blahs

Ugh, I'm having a massive attack of the winter blahs today*.  Blah, blah, blah.  Big, fat, ploppy blah.

Blah one - one of my absolute best, most lovely friends moved a long way away on Friday and I am veeeeery sad about that.  She and I saw each other almost every day for the past six years - during which time we both had babies, we both had worries about our children being bullied, we discovered a mutual love of John Lewis, tea cakes, Chanel perfume, White Company lamps and white wine amongst other things and we discovered that we are both, in fact, sweaty buffoons.  I mean by that, that we get ridiculously intimidated by other people, jibber incoherently, go a bit red and sweaty and walk away feeling like we've made a complete tit of ourselves and then spend quite a considerable amount of time angsting over that fact that said intimidating person probably thinks we're an idiot.  I think if you too are a sweaty buffoon, you will be nodding in understanding and sympathy with this, in which case I salute you and say 'welcome to the club'.

Blah two -I'm currently experiencing a wellie crisis and I'm getting a bit fed up with it.  I need wellies, I spend a lot of time pelting about in the mud with my boys and I have an allotment (eeeek - did you see how I slipped that in there??)  It's a long and boring story, but it involves wellies that rub my ankles, wellies that perish after about five minutes, wellies that leak, wellies that I can't squish my sturdy calves into (when I lived in Lesotho I met a woman who said to me 'aaaah, you have beeeeg legs.  They are gooood legs, like mine.  You can walk well with your legs'.  She meant it as a compliment.  I felt like sobbing into my rucksack.  It's a cultural thing.)

Blah three - Yarn.  Horns.  Dilemma. 

Blah four - my daughter pooed on the floor this morning.  She did it in her pyjamas and it fell down her trouser leg onto the floor, where she trod on it.  This was my fault - I neglected to mention to Mr N that she was without a nappy as I swanned out the door to work.  Ooops

Blah five - I took loads of photos of my little heart chainy buntingy thing this morning - I think it looks really pretty in the hallway, but all the photos are really noisy and some are a bit blurry (I obviously took them before my morning cup of tea had kicked in) and I'm just annoyed about that.  So it's just the one photo today - I hope you can get the gist of it.  Soz x

* This is an expression that I have shamelessly copied from Lucy Attic 24 - I think it may be the best expression I have heard for a very long time.

PS - do you like the way I've used blah colours for my bullet points today?

Play dough recipe and 'how to'

Now, here's a thing I've been meaning to share with you for absolutely ages - how to make playdough. You can make it for virtually no money at all and it lasts for ages as long as you keep it in an air-tight container.  The recipe was given to me by my good friend, Mrs Hen, who you may remember me saying previously has magic ways when it comes to children - now, I'm not claiming that is magic playdough, but you never know, it may buy you long enough to make the dinner in peace...
So, here it is - my playdough 'how to':

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
1 cup table salt
4 tbsp cream of tartar
2 cups water
2 tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil
Food colouring

Method

♥ Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over a low heat for 3-5 mins.  Stir continuously, even when it becomes difficult to stir - stir on!
♥ When you have something that resembles playdough in the pan (this shouldn't take more than a few minutes) remove from the heat and knead and squeeze so that it forms a big, smooth ball of dough.
♥ Give to your assembled small people for them to enjoy (once it's cool enough for them to handle) then sit back, relax and enjoy watching them have fun, while you bask in the glow of thrifty satisfaction. x

PS - I'd really love to hear from you if make this - I hope your kids enjoy it as much as mine do

The gubbins post

So today I present you with a random collection of things.
❄ random thing one: these hyacinths smell a bit lush, sitting on my sitting room windowsill.  I've gone a bit bulb-crazy, actually - we've got a little pot of daffodils that middle brought back from school to raise money for Macmillan and a pot of narcissi that called out to me from the shelves of Waitrose as I was doing a quick sweep for weekend rations on Friday.
❄ random thing two: I've sorted out my bunting.  aaaaahh - sigh.  It's so much more Zen now:

❄ random thing three: I love this little jug, which a very lovely friend gave me for my birthday.  I've put it on the radiator cover in the hall where I can see it every time I come in the house - though this is does qualify as pure madness - it's almost crying out for some clumsy dervish to whirl past it and knock it off:

❄ random thing four: I'm at a slight loss with my crochet projects at the moment.  I am desperate to start the starry blanket for my boy, but I still haven't located the elusive, perfect yarn - grrrr.  I'm also mulling over a ripply blanket in pinks, greens and creams for the sitting room and am thinking about using Drops cotton light - has anyone used this?  What's it like?  For the moment, until I can finally start my next big, 'proper' project, I've been fiddling away making some little hearts:

I have plans for turning these into a garland to hang on an old mirror that I'm going to paint white and hang in my newly-redecorated-yet-mysteriously-already-grubby hallway.
I've also been messing about with some little bits with a vague idea of making a hangy thing for my beautiful nephew, who I'm going to visit in a couple of weeks - the added boon is that his mum and dad (my lovely brother) will be there too.

❄ random thing five: I've been given two awards recently - the Versatile Blogger from The Craft Giraffe - thank you so much, Niamh; and Liebster Blog from Chaos, Kids, Crochet and Cake - thank you Sandra!
And with that I bid you adieu - here's hoping we don't all disappear under a snow drift... x

New books

Oh-kaaay, so it's not, strictly, a book, but I wanted to sneak this in as it's my latest 'make' and I'm really pleased with it.  It's made from some lovely old fabric that my gran gave me - it feels like a linen/cotton blend, though I can't be sure - and I've had to patch it together as there were only strips of it left, but I deliberately made the joins visible because I think that they somehow enhance the look and 'old' feel of it.  And how could I resist adding a big, bright pink satin ribbon bow?  Subtle.

And now on to the booky bit hinted at in the title.
I went on a bit of an Amazon spending splurge over Christmas and thought I'd share my spoils with you.  The first book, Stitch With Love, I bought after seeing on Homebird's lovely blog, here. 

It is my mission for 2012 to learn to embroider and obviously, before I actually got on with any real, actual embroidery, I simply had to buy a book to gaze at first.  And embroidery hoops, fabric and a veritable rainbow of thread...so now I'm all set - just need to get my act together and get on with it now.
The second book I actually bought a while ago after an exciting discovery on Pinterest (oh Pinterest, how I love thee so, even though you suck me in and make hours of my life disappear before my very eyes.)  You may remember that I made a Little Boy Blue Granny Squares blanket for my big boy recently - well, in the interests of fairness and a peaceful life, I also have to make one for my baby boy - obvs.  I had it in my head that I wanted to make a starry blanket, but couldn't find a pattern for a star in a square that I liked.  So I was more than a little excited (some might say tragically excited, in fact) when I found this here.  Just what I'd been looking for!

The book is called Crocheted Gifts: Irresistible Projects To Make And Give and I have to say, I probably wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't been so in love with the blanket - a lot of the things in it aren't my normal style, but I'm glad I've got it nonetheless.  I am absolutely, one hundred percent, prime-time in lurve (name that film) with this pattern, but gawd I'm struggling to find yarn!  I want something fairly light (my Rico blankets are actually quite heavy beasties), I much prefer natural fibres to man-made, I can't spend a fortune, and I want grey, denim blue, cream and possibly a red.  Any suggestions??
And the final book is this:

There are some great things in this book, but why do so many crochet books use really dodgy colour combinations??  I don't get it - do the authors not read blogs?  Do they not cruise Pinterest for hours on end?  What's the deal with the fuddy-duddy styling?  Erk. 

That said, this above is lovely - and as for this:

there's not a chance I won't be making a load of these for a bit of spring-y, Easter-y accessorising! x
PS - I'm approaching some landmarks in my little blog - it's nearly my 'first birthday', I'm nearly at my hundredth post, and I've nearly got a hundred followers.  In honour of this bit of blog-related excitement, I'm planning a bit of a giveaway when I hit the first milestone, whichever that may be!

Bunting ta-dah!

The sun came out for about half a nanosecond today, creating this beautiful shadow in my sitting room.  I was laughing to myself thinking 'only a blogger would be doing this' as I clambered around in our big bay window, camera in hand, bum in the air, with the bin men outside looking at me like I was a complete mentalist.  As if...
So, in a giddy fit of activity, I bring you my third ta-dah of the year so far (if I continue at this rate, my entire house will soon be just one enormous mass of yarn, with tunnels running through it so that the kids can get out the door to school - much like the inside of a crochet-obsessed hamster's cage, I suspect.  Except, perhaps, without the poo all over the floor.)  So, with that picture in your mind, I present you with my Attic 24-inspired bunting.  Ta-dah:

I've said it before, I'll say it again: I don't mind a bit of wonkiness every now and then.

 Elegantly, temporarily held up with drawing pins (can you spot it?) until I find the perfect thing with which to hang it.

 So, there are two things about this bunting:

1) I am squirmingly irritated by the fact that it's not exactly the same width as the bay, despite the fact that I measured it.  I should have twigged beforehand really, but of course, when I hung it it stretched and so is all loopy.  This is annoying me immensely, but at the moment the annoyance isn't outweighing the fact that I simply can't be a*sed to get it all down, remove a flag and re-do the end bit.  In fact, looking at it as I type, I think I'll need to remove two flags,  Anyway, at the moment, laziness wins out.

2) You see the flag with the little blue flower on it?  Shall I tell you why the little blue flower is on it?  It's because my ever-present crochet-assistant-slash-tidy-upper decided to help me by relocating three of the unattached flags.  Eventually, after much searching and a slightly sniffy text to Mr N (where I may or may not have questioned whether he was responsible for the disappearance of said crocheted articles) I found them.   In the kitchen bin.  Oh how I laughed.  Ha ha ha.  I fair nearly split my sides when I discovered that one of them had a little blob of unidentified, yet highly staining, food on it.  Hee hee hee, said I.

Oh, and after that little outburst, I should point out that I do, actually LOVE it!  It's very pleasing and speedy to make up and the possibilities for a bit of adornment are endless.  I highly recommend it for a bit of happy hooky time.  

And finally, here's a thing I've decided to do with my projects from now on:

This book is my crochet/recipe/ideas/general gubbins bible and if I ever lost it, I would be bereft.  It goes everywhere with me and has pages and pages of stuff in it.  Anyway, as of now it also has little snips of the yarn used for my different projects too, so that if I ever want to know what yarn I have used previously I have the details at my fingertips.  Handy, eh? x

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

Granny squares blanket ta-dah!

My hook has been fairly flying the past few days and I have now finished my third blanket, which I have named little boy blue granny squares blanket (not the catchiest name, granted; and actually, does a blanket really need a name?)  Anyway, that's what I think when I look at it, and so as this is my little slice of life, that's what it shall hereto be known as...

I took advantage of a lovely sunny moment this afternoon when baby n was asleep and the boring jobs were done and school wasn't quite over, and I crawled around on my sitting room floor taking pictures of a blanket.  I would never tell anyone I actually know in real life that I take pictures of blankets while contorting myself into strange positions - they'd just think that was weird - but somehow I know that you know where I'm coming from with the weirdy picture-taking thing.  Ah (happy sigh) isn't blogland brilliant? 

I must point out that this blanket is a collaborative effort and my mum made the majority of the squares, while I just did the glory-grabbing finishing off bits.  Thanks mum!  It's made using six colours of Rico Creative Cotton and is seven squares by ten.  I joined it using double crochet on the right side and put two rows of granny along the edges and I love it!  I'm so pleased with it, it's turned out exactly how I pictured it and my grown-up baby boy has had it wrapped round him every moment he's been at home since I finished it.  He's slept in it like a cocoon, he's watched tele underneath it, he's even eaten his meals with it wrapped round his legs like a little old granny going on a train journey.  And the first morning after I finished it, I came down to find this.  'Look at my den, mummy':

I resisted the urge to flip it over so that the right side was upwards and I left it waiting upside down for him all day.  I'm self-restraint personified, me. x