Recovery

This week the theme has been extreme tiredness from the cold/flu bug, I have been at work but exhausted by 8pm and asleep in the chair. Spring is really waking up the flowers in our garden and the pots outside our back door are beautiful, even on gloomy days like today its as if we've trapped a few sunbeams. The cowslips are forming a beautiful clump just behind the terracotta birdbath. The Polyanthus and Daffodils together with a little purple Wood Anemone brighten up the base of the wall. Further along the border the ruby coloured Helleborus are almost finished flowering but the pink Bergenia (Elephants Ears) are just beginning to flower. Our garden is small, only 15 foot long x 20 foot wide, but I try to have something in flower or colour foliage all year round. The last photo for today is of the camellia at the end of the garden against the garage wall. I planted it as a small cutting approximately 9 years ago, It is now just about 5ft tall and looks beautiful. The photo doesn't do the colour justice, but then I was playing with my old camera! Tony took one earlier in the week with his camera and the colours are much better. I have finished my shawl and it looks lovely. I think I need to crochet or knit an edging so I'm on the hunt so a suitable pattern, any ideas please? I have started a wrap in a beautiful mauve yarn which I bought from a table sale, 50p for a 300g cone. I decided it would be perfect for a lacey shawl I wanted to knit, but oh dear, the yarn is slightly fuzzy so if I made a mistake it was very difficult to undo as it knotted its self up! I decided to knit it up in stocking stitch and then crochet a fancy border. Hopefully it will be lovely for a summers evening to keep off the chill. I have also just cut out the pattern for a shirt in a mauve liberty print cotton lawn, so I shall be doing some sewing this week. I hope you have a happy week, we are on the downhill ride to the Easter holidays so three days of school, a parent consultation day then an INSET day - yipee! holidays. Jane x

Mothers Day

We spent Mothers day at Nymans National Trust House and Garden. It was a beautifully warm sunny day but I was not feeling very well from my cold, so I'm dressed as though its six foot of snow. The gardens were full of plants in flower: Daffodils, Camellia, Magnolia, Fritillery and Rhododendrons. We wandered at our leisure admiring the views and then chose a bench in the sun to picnic on. It was a lovely day, just what a Mummy needed - sunshine and flowers. I hope your weekend was good too. Jane x

Glass Bowl, a Rainbow Shawl and a Rotten Cold

Last weekend on our visit to Dorset I bought a lovely little green glass dish, its quite an unusual shape. Does anyone know what it was originally used for please? on Monday Evening I started a cold - not that unusual, except Tuesday morning I felt so rotten I couldn't get out of bed. I had all the usual symptoms of temperature, sore throat, streaming cold, aches and pains but I also felt as though my legs wouldn't hold me up and I lost my appetite. I spent some time knitting which has speeded up progress on my shawl wonderfully. I am up to row 87. I have also slept quite a bit, and yesterday I made a Bounding Bunnypin which Jenny had designed. Sadly I managed to mess up one ear but Em thought he was cute, so instead of throwing him away I stitched a safety pin to the back and she pinned him to her Ikea heart cushion. Hopefully I have turned the corner now and life will resume its normal pace soon. Happy Weekend and Happy Mothers Day for Sunday to all Mums around the British Isles. Jane x

Birthday celebration, Ofstead and Knitting

On Saturday we went to visit Ali for a Birthday celebration, we had a delicious meal out. Now I can show you a photo of the teddybear jumper I knitted for Ali's bear, Timber. I knitted it on dpns and I followed a pattern which I found here. There is also a blog which I thought looked interesting, and I like the monkey blanket. It is very cute and also it might appeal to Monkey Maker. Yesterday the school had its Ofstead inspection and at the moment we are awaiting the final report for the grading but it is a good result. Needless to say the staff are all very happy and relieved. Knitting hasn't been so good. When I started the shawl I made a very silly mistake. So, having done 120 rows I had to take it all out and start again. It took me 2 hours to rip out nearly two weeks knitting work - groan and it looked so lovely too :-( I have started the shawl again and managed 18 rows thus far, at the moment my rows are 360 stitches long and seem to take for ever.
I hope you have a good weekend. Jane x

Sewing and Bushfire Appeal.

This weeks return to school has been a busy one and our three years is up, so an Ofstead Inspection is due to take place in the next 12 months. At home this week there was a lot of excitment for Emily as she started her Electric Guitar lessons on Thursday. She loved her teacher and enjoyed the lesson, which was a relief. On the crafting front I have been making pincushions and needlecases; both sets are going out to Australia. I sent one set in a zippered pouch with the books to Jarryd, the other is going to the quilter who lost everything along with a couple of fat quarters. I have continued to knit more of my shawl and it is slowly growing, the rows are so long it takes me nearly ten minutes per row! I had to frog my sock as it was too big, so once I need a rest from ten minute rows I'll start again with a smaller size sock. On Friday at work, we had a coffee morning to raise money for the Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. We raised £60. 86 which is approximately $135.00 which was wonderful and several people bought / made cakes too. I made the one in the middle with the white icing and Thank You written in blue, lots more delicious cakes arrived after I had taken the photo which I'm sure helped us raise so much money. I'm off to knit some more of my shawl now, I hope you have a good week. Jane. Oh and this pretty and clever young lady is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Ali from Mum, Dad and Em x

Half Term Flew By ......

Monday came and went in the midst of changing Alice's and Em's rooms over, so Em could have a bit more space. She still has to put up with my sewing corner as that didn't change over. Tuesday was mostly more of the same except I had to go to the dentist for a filling - now I've said this before, but I am the biggest baby when going to the dentist. Its not justified though as my dentist is a gentleman and very understanding. When I got home Em had made me lunch and a very cute pipe cleaner flower called "Guenoladooless" It made my day. Wednesday we went shopping and had lunch out at Starbucks, Why Starbucks? because they are the only cafe that actually keeps labelled dairy-free food. Other cafes are not sure/don't label/or look at you as though you are speaking a foreign language when you ask if its dairy-free. Thursday we went up to London and visited Madame Tussauds which was brilliant. Em was delighted she could have her photo taken with Britney Spears and Shakespeare. Cool! We enjoyed it too although it was very busy. Friday we went to Ryde in the Isle of Wight. It brought back many memories of childhood holidays spent with my Aunt, Scruffles her little dog and Boy cat Long sunny days spent on Ryde beach cockling and building sandcastles with Mum. My Aunt died in 1993 and this was the first time I had been back. It was full of poignant memories. Friday evening Em went to Guide sleepover and had a wonderful time, she came home this afternoon happy and tired. In my previous post I mentioned the Handmade help appeal for the families/people affected by the bushfires in Victoria, Australia. I have now added the button to my page so you can have a look at the appeal too - you never know there may be something you could help with. I have also added the followers list to my side bar, please add yourself to my list. Happy crafting, Jane

A Helping Hand Down Under

Whilst wandering about in the blog world today I visited moogsmum and followed her link to TrashCan who is having a raffle with the Australian Red Cross to raise funds for the people who lost their homes and all their possessions in the Victoria state (Australia) fires last week. So I followed the link and donated some money. My Aunt lives in Victoria State and thankfully wasn't affected, but she did send us some newspaper cuttings which were shocking. Then I followed another Handmade Help button on TrashCan's page which took me to more appeals for help. The two that caught my eye were: The quilter that lost everything and another quilting friend suggested sending in one fat quarter each to help her rebuild her stash, she likes earth tones cream, browns, greens. The other was an appeal on behalf of a teenage boy who has lost his extensive book collection in the fire along with all his other possessions, A friend of his family suggests sending a book or donating a voucher for him to purchase a book, there is a list online. With Alice at Uni studying English Literature and with her having a huge collection of books which grows daily, and me, who loves crafting and sewing I suddenly felt there but for the grace of God go I. So I have promised to find a book or two to post out, and I'll see what I can find from my stash.
Meanwhile we are enjoying our half term, I hope you are too. Jane x