ted and agnes

on to pastures new

I really meant to post this on Friday  but a few things got in the way so better late than never!! My little Jake has left Primary school and is moving on up... It has been a brilliant last week even though the highlight of the year 'Sports Day' was cancelled again due to the rain... Tuesday was the fab summer performance which in my foolish pregnancy head forgot the camera twice (pm & eve performances) Weds was the fab leavers church service...thankyou Mrs Harper you did a fab job

(sorry about the appalling photo, bit blurry from the back of the church wobbling around with my hands above my head)

a fab heartfelt rendition of 'Consider yourself' by the year 5's. Jake also performed a recorder solo, 'in your dreams' from Lord of the Rings which was also brill and then there was the leavers disco on Thursday, lots of gadding about & yummy food and his final whole school picnic in the pouring rain up to Ingleborough Cave and there we have it.

He recieved a lovely folder with various pieces of work over the years which I shall scan in and add to the post later....Love you Jakee my special squirrel!

at last I've cracked it.....

knitting socks that is, 2 together on a circular needle and I do in fact think I'm hooked.

I have been drooling over the fine socks created by the amazing Jane over at yarnstorm and struggled with trying to crack the mystery of tiny little dpns, thrown the wool across the room on several occassions and vowed never again and to admire from afar......then the wonderful Sandra at Beckside yarns let me into a magical secret of socks on a circular needle knitted from the toe up.....and there you have it, although I haven't braced the heel yet that's lesson 2!

I've also finished a couple of these cute tank tops and a pom pom beret. The striped one is in Rowan's Purelife organic cotton and it is delicious to knit with. In fact I indulged in a couple more balls to knit a little cardy which hopefully will make an appearance later.

and finally my pic of the week

 

 a picture for the nursery (which is almost there....) my favouritest story ever, princess and the pea. I am hoping that Lily-Rose will be a fan as the boys were never too keen + I've started ready my top ten tales to the bump just to get a head start....I do admit that I borrowed the idea for the image from this fantastic site Hiya Kids but stitched it in my own style and I can say that I will definately be buying various items from the site its fab.

So projects on the go are....

taggy comfort chicken/ cloth dolls/dolly peg dolls

felt vegetables/dolly peg soilders for my nephew

various knitting projects for when my back is just too much

and of course the nursery...I promise promise pictures soon. Rx

introducing.........

lily - rose......well almost that will be official later in the year. Look at that little button nose.

Had the scan for 3 weeks but have been totally neglecting my blog as I have been busy beavering away on nursery, knitting & making cute little liberty clothes ( in between being crippled on the sofa with my saggy sacroiliac joint) which I shall definately be sharing soon. (not the back pain obviously!).

today i've mostly been making this.....

my cath kidston dressing gown....I've been wanting a new one for a while as my present one is bleach stained and a bit ratty. I've also made a couple of pairs of pj trousers from some lovely liberty prints & have a camisole style top in the pipeline. Whilst I am feeling chipper and not too tired I am trying to make war on the 'to do' list before the bump hinders progress...

local food heros

I've been trying for a while now to do as little supermarket shopping as possible and when neccessary only those with more ethical efforts than not and only go once a month for a stock up. So I thought I would give a mention to a couple of my local food heros.

Luckily we have an organic co-operative in the village 'Growing with Grace' which has a fab range of produce and I buy my large sacks of bread making flour from them....friendly staff and a excellent ethos and I feel good about spending my money there! Then the main reason for this post was to celebrate my fabulous farm find Sillfield Farm....

We had these for Sunday Lunch this week...

chicken parcels stuffed with wild boar & wrapped in bacon...they were delicious and the prices are highly competative with supermarket meat, the taste is far superior and no plastic cartons to deal with! (and a lovely warm welcome & service with a smile) and they look really cool too! plus I can also say that I will never buy sausages from anywhere else.

The other real treat is that when you drive up to the farm you get to see the wild boars roaming about in the woods, shuffling about in the mud, chickens clacketting about the place and a sense of harmony that animals are being well treated and cared for before their eventual fate.

So I salute you local heros keep up the good work.

Sunday show and tell

Baking done for the week, Archers caught up on and so I thought I'd do a spot of blogging...I have finally completed several of my projects this week and so I am posting a few pics for you to have a gander at if you so choose!!

I would just like to say that I don't have any intentions of turning this into a baby blog but obviously in preparation for the little one I am beavering away on various things. I am trying my best not to have to buy anything for baby in a bid to be as eco as poss, live by the principles of reducing, reusing & recycling etc that I firmly believe we all need to adopt to protect our childrens future, being inspired by several fab blogs like becoming domestic & down to earth and so far so good...plus freecycle has yet again been brilliant.

The first project completed is a baby bouncer that had already had use for 2 generations in one family and is now off to a new home. The cover had seen better days so a new one was whizzed up with some fabric from the stash.

We tried it out on baby Hector when we looked after him earlier in the week ...he seemed to like it but I think he was a little overwhelmed by the attention from Jake and Tom not quite understanding that 4mth old babies aren't really into star wars yet!

Next to be finished are a couple of crocheted cot blankets....

 

Lastly a quilt in progress, I am just handstitching at the moment so when that is complete I will bind & finish the edges...

The nursery is progressing slowly (actually a big fib beacuse I haven't done anything in there except make a bigger mess sorting my fabric stash) but I am holding out until 18th June for my next scan when we will hopefully find out whether its a girl/boy. So then thing will busy up until I am too heffalumpus to move!

My next project are some wool nappy wraps. I have been kindly given lots of washable nappies, I plan to make some also and have found this great site selling fabric for that purpose and would prefer not to use any plastics for the wraps. SInce I had used traditional terries & the Kooshies with the two boys I had not heard of using wool (in the dark days before the www) before but it came highly recommended by a lady that had given me some nappies earlier in the week. So on doing a little research found a few sites with patterns to knit so I will be giving these a go and will post info links later if anyone is interested.

trout & tagging

Had a great day yesterday and we caught 6 fine rainbow trout.....although there were many tense moments of bits of sweetcorn being flung about on nasty little hooks, trying to land jumping fish & then the brutal act of hitting them on the head 3 times to put them out of their misery...not too keen on the last one but I believe and think that my boys should be well aware of the food they eat, the road it has travelled and that if they aren't prepared to accept the killing then they shouldn't eat it. Needless to say with their usual vigour and lust for learning they embraced the whole process and were fascinated with the gutting process & had a lesson in swim bladders!

 

Home then for a yummy tea of grilled trout salad and chunky chips.....

So tagging....hmm not done this before so I'll give it a go

1 -What was I doing 10 years ago?

I had a 3mth old baby and lived 340 miles away from where I do now..We rambled about in our old vw, went surfing, camped out and chilled for a bit before I went back to work.

2- Things on my to do list today.

Tackle the overgrown garden

Get my weekly baking done

listen to the archers omnibus

eat wild boar sausages & ice cream...not together though!

3- Snacks I enjoy.

Fruit, carrots, bread, bread, bread....all homemade of course!

4- Things I would do if I was a millionaire.

Move somewhere with NO neighbours, go completely green & self sufficient, give gifts of 10,000 to people I know that really need it, fight with my husband about what we should do with it, buy the biggest aga that I could, buy a split screen vw campervan, give our old one to someone who need it.

5- Places I've lived.

Birchington, Minster, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Salisbury, Clapham (North Yorkshire)

Tag 5 people

Like breaking rules so I might do this or I might not!!!!

beaches...a swap

I am hoping that my swap buddy has her little parcel so I thought I would post some pics on here. This months theme was beaches and being the practical misses that I am thought on of my journals would be a good way to go.....

So out came the sewing machine and scrap bag and the magical bondaweb & got started.

I am hoping that it goes down well as I haven't heard yet but I liked it!!

Next month is titled 'strawberries & cream' and I am thinking along the lines of something practical for a cream tea....maybe a tray cloth or hopefully my swap buddy will use a teapot 'cause I love making cosies..we'll see

Now onto the true crime of this week.....my dining room table! The boys have had to eat the breakfast on their laps and have not been too happy, this is why!

 

I have been a truely messy cat and one project at a time is never enough for me but 10 unfinished ones all going at the same time sounds much more interesting! So finishing a painting, covering some journals, making washable nappies, stitching a patchwork cot quilt and a patchwork blind for the nursery, making some jam and generally doing stuff, but really oil painting & a white linen patchwork blind aren't always the best bedfellows! Ho hum however much I promise myself not to start something else before the last thing is finished I never do.....no matter how hard you try leopards NEVER change their spots!!! (well not this one anyway).

Right we are off to take the boys trout fishing today and hopefully we'll have a yummy supper!

mary, mary, quite contrary........

how does your garden grow.....

At last the seeds are starting to poke their little leaves through the soil...can't remember what they are I am a bit rubbish at labelling!

Some lavender plant cuttings, a handsome geranium, mint making its annual come back and Tom's conker tree...after my post about the royal gardner who grew the first 6 horse chestnuts in England home from school comes my own little Tom 'John Tradescant' with his own little tree....there will be much love and tenderness going down with that little gem!! 

a good day for gems...

So here it is the spare room, the new project. As you can see rather a dumping ground for stuff that I keep intending to sort but just seem to keep shutting the door on! So I decided whilst I am feeling okay and haven't much in common with a beached whale yet I must crack on....First job is to sort & store away all  my bits which I hope to get on with this week. More to come......

Had a change about in the main bedroom, I seem to sleep better for a while if I move stuff about so here is the new set up. I am thinking of wallpapering one of the walls with some vintage paper I picked up recently but it may have to wait until more pressing jobs have been taken care of.

Had a great finds day today on the way to collect a cot thanks to Freecycle, which needs a good scrub and a lick of paint ready for pride of place in the nursery...have allsorts of ideas for bumpers & quilts,

We spotted a random boot fair and nipped in on the way back and managed to snaffle these gems

Two lovely oval mirrors in great condition, and these rather divine wooden candlesticks.....and the best find of the day this yummy eiderdown and its green......hoo blimin rah

Already washed and drying nicely ready to take pride on place at the end of the bed.... I just missed a slightly smaller one but the way I see it there's someone else out there chuffed at their haul.

Then to top off the day my youngest (aged 7 I might add) went for a 10mile walk up a mountain and brought his Mum & bean these wonderful flowers...thank you rom pom Tom XX