WIP Wednesday - Return to blog land!

Hello you wonderful people you!  Wow it feels like ages since I wrote on here although it has only been just over a week... my lovely laptop is currently poorly as some horrible individual gave it a virus ~sigh~ and in order to blog I am using my husbands netbook which is much slower and with smaller keys which I am finding it very hard to adapt to and it makes being online not as exciting and as comfortable as usual :(

Anyway seeming as I have been missing you all so much ;) I thought I would brave the netbook.

Work in progress phew.... just a few!  I have been putting in much more time to the crochet Lucy bag... to such an extent it may be finished for friday! and it is much bigger than I had expected it to be! I love it, it is wonderful!

As you can see it really only needs handles and flowers now!  YAY!

And I have finally got round to doing a bit of spinning, I had to really as next week "tour de fleece" will begin and I need to have as many bobbins free as possible!  Oh how excited I am about "tour de fleece" watch this space, as I will be blogging further about it soon!

so here is my WIP spinning which is STILL the lovely northern lights by my heart exposed yarns (there are some gorgeous fibres in the shop at the minute)

 And this yarn should also be a finished yarn by Friday or maybe the following Friday as I always underestimate the time taken to ply my yarns and set the twist :)

is that it?  ermmmmm nope, remember my "age of brass and steam shawlette"?  well I had to frog it ~sigh~ as I got distracted but it is now back as a work in progress.... and here it is!

And this is a lovely knit.... not so easy as to be really boring but not too difficult so I can't pick it up and put it down easily.  Oh and the camel silk?  it is knitting up so beautifully, it feels amazing, so lovely!  I'm so pleased with how the shawl is feeling, I just can't stop squishing it ~lol~

Anyway... I'm off to go and spin some more and hopefully peruse the other WIP Wednesdays which have been shared over at Tami's go and take a look, I'm sure you will not be disapointed :)

T x

Tuesday Treasure 21/06/11

Hello lovely people!

I've not been around the last few days as life has been very busy... fathers day, work and of course mothering and crafting!

Today it is the longest day of summer here... the wind is blowing up dark clouds and the sound of the leaves being whipped into a frenzy gives me the wonderful anticipation of a heavy summer downpour... although it would be slightly more welcome had I not had to get my car loaded and unloaded several times for work this afternoon ~sigh~

Anyway joining in with the house on the other side of the hill with Tuesday Treasures, please go and take a look, lots of wonderful links to pass a rainy summer afternoon while keeping dry...

here is this weeks treasure (Well one of them)

Little Unconventional J got his first ever swimming award!!! we were so proud watching him as he jumped in on his own and blew bubbles under the water!!!  although he was a bit miffed it was pink ~laugh~

And the other treasure which I wanted to share was the fathers day present I had made from the two little unconventionals...

And so it is with great regret I go back to the grind stone....  I have nappies to fill with pretend poo and a car to load up before the clouds crack!

Have a wonderful evening.

This moment .... 17/06/2011

Here we go again... this moment with Soulemama

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

FO Friday ~ Not exactly as planned! 17/06/11

Good morning all,

Hope you are all well :)  I thouhgt I would get my FO Friday done first thing as I have a day of essay writing and class planning stretching out ahead of me ~heavy sigh~

Well my FO's are nothing like what they should be, I was at least expecting an apple cosy to grace this page but alas it seems I can't count! ~blush~  Anyway I did manage to finish something this week unless you can count frogging which I have finish lots of over the past couple of days!

Here is another jar cover... The kittens that resided here broke my vase so I had to make one really...

And the roses are from our garden, which is in much disarray so thought as we can't enjoy them in the garden I would bring a few in to brighten a dull tedious day of work!  The jar cover was very much inspired by the colours of my garden with the gorgeous silk/merino green really vibrantly cutting through the pinks and lilacs just like the natural beauty of an english summer garden :)

Right then... back to the books for me, although if you have some lovely time to browse take a look at tami's blog to see lots of other FO,  I will later as my reward for working so hard today.

Oh Bother!

~sigh~ good evening... Bit of a late one here from us.  Life is pretty hectic now we have a long school run to fit into our days.

Today has been very disheartening involving much ripping out... far too many ~sighs~ and a few yawns to boot.  My Age of Brass and Steam has been ripped back twice today, not because it is complex but because I am far too easily distracted and trying to play catch up in a not of quiet moment of the boys playing trains was not the best thing to have been doing this afternoon ~rolls eyes~

My lovely apple cosy has also been ripped back!  I know how could I go wrong with such a simple little thing?  well I think it was too much picking up and putting down over too great a time as it seemed to be big enough for a melon! so may give that another go tonight, depending on what time little unconventionals go to sleep, by the sounds coming from the dining room where they are colouring with unconventional daddy they are about ready for bed, about half an hour ago! 

And seeming as I have nothing hugely productive going on, my knitting and crochet disasters were ripped without pictures I thought I could share a couple of pictures of my little dare devil!

look no hands!

Yes thats my 2 year old who can't reach the foot rests on the seesaw going for the thrill, especially for the camera!  my heart was in my mouth knowing I couldn't stop him from falling. No children were harmed in the taking of this photograph may I add!

but nothing beats a sleep on Daddys back... no?

Lovely Bamberoo SSC in Echino Scene Green, which I think wins the award of my favourite fabric ever!

I also had the pleasure of wrapping lovely G in our Didymos Goldfish wrap as he was a very tired grumpy boy and I needed to get dinner cooked. Such a lovely flood of memories from last summer when we were wrapping more often.

Right then I am off to get the little ones ready for bed and try to finish something ANYTHING for FO friday tomorrow eek!

wish me luck can't bear to rip anything else out tonight!

T x

camel silk! WIP wednesday ~ 15/06/2011

Hello lovely people!  I do hope you are having a fantabulous day :)

Well it is WIP Wednesday with Tami today ! and here is my offering.

I've decided to not bore you today with the incredibly slow progress of my crochet Lucy bag and instead thought I would share this with you.

I started with this....

Gorgeous yummy camel with tussah silk tops ~drool~  it was/is just lovely... if not a bit static and fly away.

which I then spun into two singles on my lovely Louet wheel Bertie which looked like this...

so once I had spun the singles I plied them together into this...

This picture was taken before I set the twist so it ended up much more even than that and the colour is much more golden IRL it feel very silky and has a nice drape to it.

So then I wound it into a ball and it languished in my yarn basket for ages!  It would look at me with pleading eyes demanding attention so when I saw the pattern for "age of brass and steam" kerchief it would just look amazing in this yarn!

So today here we are... we have another WIP!

So here we go!  hopefully this one won't haunt me for the next month or two ;)

And as we were all hungry for something lovely I used my favourite allergy friendly chocolate cake recipe (egg,nut and dairy free) to make these which were enjoyed by all!

If you are looking for a fab cake recipe safe for allergies you can find the recipe here 

Anyway... we are going to go and find some muddy puddles to splash in before dinner.  Have a lovely evening, which should probably involve heading over to Tami's Blog and looking at all the other WIP posts that are there.

Thanks for dropping by...

T x

Tuesday Treasure ~ Spinny Spinny Wheel!

Hello Everyone!  Oh what a wonderful morning here!  sun is shining and as I pegged the washing out bare footed the grass is lush, cold and wet with delicious rain from the past few days and dew!  I love to feel nature under my feet..  just not the slugs and snails, always a risk going out barefoot after the rain eek!

Well I am feeling slightly more relaxed at the moment... Jamie loved his first day at school yesterday and positively couldn't wait to go again today!

~sigh~  It's as if with the dark rain clouds my mood which has been slightly dark and stressed with impending assessments has cleared and I am feeling as bright as the blue sky this morning :)

Anyway.... whats my Tuesday Treasure?  well here she is....

She is an OLD Ashford traditional wheel, older than me!  I found her languishing in a junk shop with an almost lazy kate and niddy noddy for £25  yes £25! 

I ordered a maintenance kit and gave her a good oil and managed to spin on her.  She is a little sorry for herself and needs a bit of sanding and oiling to make her as beautiful as she could be, I have a few new parts for her too. She is going to be my summer project... something I can get stuck into in the garden while the children play and I am oh so looking forward to getting her looking lovely again.

Want to see lots more "Tuesday Treasures"?  head on over to the wonderful The House on the Hill  to see many more.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

T x

Phew!

What a weekend...

I do hope you have all had a lovely weekend :) Mine has been blissful, relaxing and of course full of the stress that an assessment can bring!  Oh yes the trials of being addicted to further education eh?

On Saturday morning I awoke early... full of nerves for this is the day! the day of my assessment for teaching antenatal yoga !  I had to give a presentation and lead a session on pranayama's which to be honest I do alot of anyway within my courses with breathing awareness and relating relaxation to the breath BUT I had to explain it "properly" using sanskrit words ~faint~

Well I was in pieces for goodness sake I struggle with the language that is my mother tongue! Anyway I just had to do it.  I prepared and boarded the train, In my pressure to perfect the presentation forgetting all about my coat... I mean I have only lived in England my whole life, I should have expected it to be like winter in the middle of June ~rolls eyes~  ANYWAY....

One the train I find the mindless trebles of my bag AMAZING! I let my mind wander and really relax into the rhythm of the treble only stopping when the inconsiderate person next to me puts on the music in their headphones so LOUD I can barely hear myself think ~sigh~

Anyway... the assessment went well, I think, I don't get my grade for a month!

I came home this afternoon... thinking I would be coming home in blissful English summer weather... but no I did a wonderful impression of a drowned rat... complete with straggled hair, running eye make up and an attractive squelching sound from my shoes which were an open summer affair.  To which you may have thought I would have been upset BUT no!!!! the inconsiderate too cool crowd kept there distance!  no loud music! I was treated as a none person!  was I bothered?  Oh goodness me no!  Lovely peace and quiet on the train home, alone with my hypnotic, almost meditative trebles.

Oh and no photographic evidence of the state I arrived back in Birmingham exists, thankfully :)

Tx

This moment... 10/06/11

{this moment} 

 A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Please head on over to Soulemama's blog for more beautiful moments

FO Friday! 10/06/2011 Got to keep those buttons warm!

Well I did feel sorry for those buttons... all cold and exposed in the jar....

All together now  awwwww poor buttons.

So I followed the idea from Attic 24 to crochet a lovely (if I do say so myself) little cover for my little button jar.

The only change I made was a couple of reductions on the last 2 rows so it fit snug to the neck of the jar.

Here it is 

and my now happy, warm buttons :)

And now I must go.... I am in the midst of preparing for a yoga presentation I need to give tomorrow, producing a handout and completing Yoga class plans!  which is why my little apple cosy didn't quite get finished!  Wish me luck!  I need it !

But remember to go and have a look at Tamis blog and the wonderful creations others have done!  Including Tami's rather wonderful socks!

Tx

Last week at home....

Good afternoon lovely people....  

It's been a lovely morning here....  G has had a BIG long sleep which is unlike my little robot of a 2 year old! This meant after a bit of  polishing (yes really) J and I had time to get out the things he likes playing with but usually end in arguments and frustrations as 2 year olds tend to have different ideas to almost 5 year olds to how to play nice.  

We built the circus....  which incidently had a giraffe who couldn't get in the door.... oops!  J was the chief animal trainer and he took his job slightly too seriously... even for him :)

The Circus set has a gift for Christmas and was quite a few pennies... I remember thinking, I hope he "gets it" and oh but he does, such a warm fuzzy feeling to hear him and watch him using that amazing growing imagination,

When G decided it was time to join us we got out his birthday crayons and I printed off some colouring sheets from a fantastic website!  wee folk art where there are free patterns, tutorials and much more!

Well it's the last week of having J at home full time... he is almost 5 and on Monday he will be doing his first half day of kindergarten.

I have many mixed feelings... I so wanted to home educate him but I have found it more of a challenge than I expected, I love it and hate it all at the same time and as I am not the most social of people I have found it difficult to get out as much as I think J needs.

So J is going to be starting at a Steiner school on Monday... 5 half days a week until the summer as a trial run to see how we get on.  If he likes it, and it suits him he will go back in September, probably in kindergarten again as he is a summer baby.  

I almost feel like I am mourning for what may have been this week, I feel emotional although I know we can change our minds and still home educate I do think J will adore his new school.

who knows where the rest of today will go... sky is looking heavy with rain... 

may have a browse of the blogs I love so much for inspiration and try something new this afternoon.

Hope you all are having a fantastic day... 

T x

WIP Wednesday 08/06/2011

Good Morning lovely people!

I do hope this finds you well :) 

Well I have had a bit of a break from things crafty in the last week as I had been so busy that my arthritis in my fingers really started giving me grief so I let them have a bit of a break.... However yesterday I had the urge again and although my fingers were not quite up to knitting I got the hook out to continue with the...

da da da......

bag!

as you can see progress is still slow.... but still it is progress is it not?  I shall get this finished if it kill me!

and as a side line I also started something a bit smaller....

Yes I am crocheting an apple cosy... probably not the most useful item but very cute :)  I did make an arror as I have been using patterns in american crochet so initially I started it in uk trebles only to have to undo as the pattern was written in British terminology so back we went and did the thing in double crochet as intended!  

I admit the reason behind starting something small was so I actually may have something to show you for Finished Object Friday.... fingers crossed my fingers hold out!

Thank you so much for visiting and I do hope you will pop on over to Tami's where you can get links to many other WIP Wednesday projects!

Have a wonderful day!

Tuesdays Treasures ~ 07/06/2011

And again I am joining "the house on the hill" in sharing a Tuesday Treasure....

a simple one from me....

I am so appreciative now of all those moments I still get to sling my baby, who is now 2!  the closeness, the chatter and the cuddles are priceless.

The wrap he is in on the picture will always stay with me, it will be a wrap to treasure forever and a wrap I hope to carry grandchildren in.  It was our snuggly, if he was poorly he wanted it, released near his birth month (it's a Didymos Limited Edition Colour Grown Waves) and it's like wrapping in air!  yum!

Please take a trip over to The house on the hill and see other Tuesday Treasures and share you own :)

Well thats it!

Hello All,

I do hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.... It's been a wonderful weekend here... although I did have to accept that thats it,  G is no longer a baby....

G is the youngest of 4... he was born at home and was very much a worn baby, he has never been in a pushchair and it's been a wonderful thing for both him and I.  I have been looking through our online photos over the last two years and realised just how many slings have come and gone!  and how many wonderful memories I have of sharing so many lovely snuggly moments with my littlest boy.

This post is VERY picture heavy, please forgive me ;)

Before G was born I bought a Storchenwiege  Inka wrap sling and when he was a  week old we went for our first sling walk

By the Time G was 6 weeks old I had fell in love with wrapping and here he is in Didymos Yew on a family day out to Think Tank... it was his fist time legs out in a wrap.  I did have other slings other than wraps but we  loved wraps so much they never got a look in!

Our wraps joined us on holiday!  much easier to pack a wrap and the rest of the baby bumpf when you go on holiday with a 12 week old!  And much easier to walk along the beach!

They also make excellent blankets, and make discrete breastfeeding a doddle! (the wrap is Didymos Graphite Cashmere) 

He loved being wrapped!  so comforting to him, like being in the womb still, the sound of mums heart beat, warm, gentle rocking!

And fun too! what a great vantage point to see his world, and even big sisters can get in on the fun! wraps are so supportive they make babies weightless when wrapped right!

and when it gets too much, they are the perfect place for a nap too!

when the ground is too dangerous for toddlers and pushchairs you can keep your hands free and still explore!

(G is about 18 months here) 

And when it all gets too much it's a safe place to quietly watch!  Gosh we love babywearing, we still babywear but much less frequently now as G is a fierce independent little boy, who is confident and loves to walk, contrary to many peoples belief practicing attachment parenting has not made my little man clingy (far from it) or unable to walk!  he is a little character who has the confidence from all that time content with mum never wondering where she was or feeling alone...  it's coming to an end now.  My boy is 2 but oh my what a wonderful 2 years it has been!

If you are interested in slinging your baby please go and have a look at Sling Guide which has some really excellent information about babywearing safely and Natural Mamas is an excellent babywearing forum, a place to talk to other parents who babywear and who practice some forms of attachment parenting.

{This Moment} ~ 03/06/11

{This Moment} 03/06/11 - Georges 2nd Birthday

A photograph from the week which catches a moment... no words just a wonderful snippet of life to remember.

Thank you for coming and looking at our moments....  If you want to see other peoples moments please take a look at Soulemama's Blog for more.

And ermmmm another Birthday ?

Hello lovely readers!  I hope you have had a fantastic Thursday.

 I am in a whirl of wrapping paper, sellotape and numerous boxes! All of which are demanding my attention to wrap them ready for tomorrow which will be little unconventional G's 2nd Birthday.

G's Birthday is an emotional one... my perfect healing home birth, in water with two amazing midwives who 100% supported me at the last minute when the NHS failed.  G was born in a birth pool in our dining room peaceful, alert and nothing like the 11lb suggested.  His labour and birth is one to treasure, a positive birth story which, as I look at the clock this evening I savour each memory from that wonderful event. As he was born at 1:02 it will soon be the hour of his birth.  He entered our lives in gentle candlelight surrounded by the most amazing feelings of love and support.  I have never felt more powerful or more spiritual, a more wonderful peaceful and empowering experience... I don't think that exists.  I am sorry more women can't say the same thing about the births of their babies.  Birth can be the closest thing to REAL magic humans can ever experience...

For any expectant parents reading this please if you only read a couple of books on pregnancy read these:

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

Sarah Buckley's ~ Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering

Amazing women who really know what they are talking about....  

So what else have I been upto...  well you can't have a birthday without a cake, no?

G is allergic to all dairy, eggs and nuts so I HAVE to bake for him... not the best cake but I am sure he will like it... it's chocolate sponge inside with dairy free chocolate spots, a real treat for him.

And while the house was being destroyed I got the kool-aid pot going again and dyed some plain silk scarfs into these...

lovely silks... just have to hope the playframe turns up as promised in the morning now!

So now back to the gift wrapping and remembering with the clock watching that amazing night... the wonderful labour and birth and how magical birth can really be.

Hope you all have a good evening

x

Just in Time! WIP Wednesday :D 01/06/11

Phew.... just got home and had meaning to post this all day but here at 23:44 I am going to show you my wip !!!

well the bag is still ongoing and I have made some fairly good progress :)

And other than that... I am part way through a present for G and seeming as its Birthday on Friday hopefully it will feature on FO Friday!  so here it is...

So now to bed...  so sorry for the briefness but Adam Ant my husbands childhood hero played our City tonight and today has been a whirlwind of activity getting children and ourselves ready to go out today!

Keep safe all and and take a look at the other WIP on Tami's blog

Which I will be doing in the morning... Night night all x