Happy, happy, joy, joy

This week I have mainly been getting into embroidery, I found my embroidery hoop whilst tidying out a cupboard - it has rained a lot here so I had to find something to do! I haven't used it since I was at college and had a white vintage sheet that warhammer paint spilt on some of it so instead of throwing it out i have been making cushions, this little birdie was too lovely to use for a cushion so I framed him instead.

Meet Henry the applique owl, he is my first cushion I made, I got the lovely retro ribbon from a little craft shop in my town, its full of all sorts of pretties and very inexpensive, I spend way too long browsing for things in it, so my boys tell me!

This one is for my mum, she adores flowers and I wanted to make her something really pretty so I edged it with vintage lace and pearl beads. I have added beadwork to the embroidery too and Im really pleased with the result, she is coming over tommorrow to collect it, she only knows I have made her something so i hope she will like it.

Sometimes as a mum it can all get you down with the kids arguing, the constant "I'm Bored" and the whinging but then things like this happen and it makes the day so much brighter. There was a shout of "Mummm" from the front room, and as I hear that at least a few hundred times a day, I wondered what it was this time, so imagine my suprise and overwhelming joy when my little guy had made me this out of bluetack!

I just had to get a picture, he was so pleased with himself for making me smile so much, but he makes me smile lots of times everyday, he says the funniest things that have us in fits of laughter, things like after playing with water "mum, do i have blood shock eyes?", or when we was having a serious grown up talk about the future I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up and he said after much contemplation " a tortoise". Its the little things like this that makes me so proud to be a mum and makes all the whinging worthwhile.

Im forever blowing bubbles!

With the lousy weather here lately, sunny one minute then pouring down the next its been hard to go anywhere for a day out, weve mainly been homebodies, keeping warm and dry. Tom (lovely man in my life) came up with the idea of making bubble wands out of the plastic tennis rackets that had broken and was doomed to a life in the bin, we used this recipe:

1/2 cup of washing up liquid

1 and 1/2 cups warm water

2 teaspoons of sugar

mix it all together in a plastic toybox and find as many round holey objects that you can and let the fun begin!!

the look on the boys faces as the bubbles flew higher and higher was awesome, we managed to make some really big bubbles, but if you have ever tried them capture them on camera you know how difficult it is, everytime i went to click the bubble popped!

Later on when the eldest came home from school he wanted a go but unfortunately it was pouring down - did this stop him? oh not a bit, but because of the rain and the silliness of them it turned into this
they thought it looked like snow, and eventually the garden and the boys were covered!

they came in and listened to vera lynn's "im forever blowing bubbles" but didnt like it so listened to the cockney rejects version instead and liked it a lot better!

Talking of all things bubbly you might want to have a look at my better photography over here

All things gorgeous

I just love anything for my kitchen at the moment and usually buy things just to put on the dresser and look at, but this juicer i could actually look at and use woo hoo! These come from another site i dream over quite a lot, check out the rugs they are divine.

oh my i love this egg cup, what a lovely way to brighten up boiled eggs! At £4.19 its a little treat to put a smile on my face - note to any family reading i want one please!

Look at the fab cushions i found today when i was having a tea break - ok really i was just being a bit lazy whilst the boys played outside at a great game called capture the flag with the neighbours children, this is the second day they have played it, i joined in yesterday and its great fun although im sure some of them cheat!

this Clarissa the cat cushion made by jane claire is available from a great website called not on the high street where you can find unusual items for your home, this one is £54.95 which is a bit too much for me to pay but i can dream or try and make something similar.

I adore this one even more, just look at the gingham!! Woodland floral is by the same designer and so cute.

Catching up with the garden

I finally managed to get out in the back garden as the sun came out and we didnt have anywhere to go, the boys are busy on projects and i was able to get round to some planting. the pic above is some lovely pineapple mint my mum bought me a while ago and now is by our back door on the kitchen window sill, its smells lovely and i love it in the meakin teapot!

I know this seems a little shabby but i call it frugal! i made a cloche out of an old kichen cupboard turned on its side and covered it with industrial clingfilm to keep it warm, in the little pots are carrot seeds and in the cut down milk cartons are runner bean seeds, i cant wait till they start sprouting, you cant see it in the pic but just above the milk cartons at the top is the old drawer out of the cupboard with runner beans in it and a wire mesh going up the wall for them to grow up. The milk bottles are an excellent recycling idea and for the past couple of months ive had a row of them on the living room window growing peepers from seed.

These are my pepper plants now ive transferred them outside, they look a little worse for wear as we had a massive downpour and something has been nibbling the leaves! Also little black seeds keep dropping off them, i would appreciate if anyone knows what this is all about to let me know as i cant find anything out about it.

My lovely alpine poppies have grown so much this year and have been in continuous bloom since febuary i have collected loads of seeds from them too, ready to plant for next year. I am slowly getting to see all the lovely flowers coming through as since ive lived here its been a very slow process getting round to the garden and making it into something nice.

My herb garden is another thing thats slowly happening, my basil died off even though when inside it was wonderful but some lemon balm and the lavender has grown really well. I love the smell of the lavender and cant wait to make some more sleep pillows out of it after it has flowered, you cant really see on below pic just how vibrant the colour is, its a gorgeous purple.

I have loads more to do in the garden and hopefully the weather will bless me with another fine day, weve had nothing but thunder storms and heavy rain, its really quite disheartening.

Shhh! im a year older

Well today it was my birthday and to be honest birthdays dont really bother me too much except obviously im getting older and according to my 10 yr old now im 32 i cant pull silly faces anymore- im meant to be a grown up!

I did have a lovely day though, apart from being woken up by two scrapping boys, still dont know what they find to argue about but anyway, after looking at my lovely handmade cards i got a special treat of scrambled eggs and toast in bed, this to me is a treat as it reminded me of being a kid, my mum always gave us scrambled eggs in bed after being poorly but today i didnt have to be recovering from an illness.

I popped into town after a lazy morning and bought myself (out of my birthday money off my mum) this gorgeous teapot from Whittards how cute are the ladybirds!

I also was a little naughty and spent the rest of the money on cakes and croissants and real butter from marks and spencer - this is to me another treat as i havent shopped in there for food for ages. Then my day ended with a scrumptious curry made by my lovely fella. Unfortunately me and the boys then watched the second part of flood ( a disaster drama on ITV) i spent most of the time trying to reassure them if a flood of that scale really happened we would be ok because i shall buy a boat off ebay and keep it in the attic - they didnt believe me because i never venture into the attic - i hate attics. Anyway i guess now at least one of them will wake up in the night crying and thinking weve been flooded!!

Native American day and tadpoles!

Wow, what a great day we had today, full of suprises. The boys got their first letters off their new penpals from America this morning, so they were excited as the penpals are home schooled too.
Then we had a look at the tadpoles we collected a few weeks ago to see if they had grown and they now have back legs, whilst looking at the tadpoles we spotted a frog, he must of returned from last year and lots of big water snails. On the downside we spotted a hole in the pond liner so that will have to be fixed, thankfully its near the top so the water hasnt leaked out.

After a question by my youngest about why didnt the cowboys and native americans live together in peace, we ended up having a long chat and listening to native american music and learning all about what really happened, we have a native american friend on the net thats been really wonderful. The boys then started on their crafts

This is half way through, they made shields, tommahawks, necklaces, wristbands and head bands, they learned about the picture symbols they used and decorated the headbands to tell the story of our family through the pictures.

we also made popcorn and i told the native american story about the spirits in popcorn.

The folklore of some Native American tribes told of spirits who lived inside each kernel of popcorn. The spirits were quiet and content to live on their own, but grew angry if their houses were heated. The hotter their homes became, the angrier they'd get - shaking the kernels until the heat was too much. Finally, they would burst out of their homes and into the air as a disgruntled puff of steam.

The boys played for ages after and they posed for this picture as they crossed weapon sign is the sign for freindship.

Hopefully we are going to make a teepee later on this week and carry on learning about Native Americans.

I found a great site full of games, recipes, stories, beadwork, arts and loads of other really interesting things. http://www.nativetech.org/ My boys loved it.

moved from here

moved from my other blog you can see my other posts on there i have kept it online.
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