Family Love.

I’ve had a truly enjoyable weekend.  I’ve been spoilt by my two boys for Mothers day. Homemade cards and flowers had my little man busy in nursery all week.  A lovely breakfast and a roast dinner cooked for me, and bunches of flowers brightening up my day.

Usually I am a bit of a flippety jibbet on weekends wanting to clean and then go out and herd the boys to various locations and ultimately feeling like I need another weekend to recover, however this weekend I was very much happy to go with the flow and just chill.  We went out shopping (a trip to Ikea for some bits and bobs), we went walking, we played, and I even had time for crafting.

Delightful. 

 

I am so lucky to have my family and they whole heartedly reassured me that I’m not doing a bad job of being a mummy (and I’m sure that’s something that most parents question at some stage).

Love. Love. Love.

……………………………….

I had to buy some photo frames from Ikea for some pictures I had recently bought.  On opening the smaller one, I was most surprised to find there were two frames in the pack! That find made me instantly smile, almost like finding treasure. So with all the family love I’ve been feeling this weekend, it seemed fitting for this make.

 

I’d recently seen this Valentines heart card idea on Pintrest, and thought it would look fitting in a frame for a pop of colour in the living room.  I had all the ingredients…a frame, cardstock (cut to the size of the frame), needle, and embroidery cotton in red.  I had contemplated a different shape, but actually I really liked the heart so I forged ahead and traced a heart template on my card.

 

I picked the first needle I came to…Small eye and thick thread – NIGHTMARE!  It was fine, but threading the needle took more time than the project in total probably!

 

So making this evenly spaced, threading the cotton through the outer shape through a centre point and repeating around the shapes outline.  It was a nice one to do in front of the TV last night.  The thread did start to get a bit congested toward the end so I employed some pliers to pull the needle through a bit more easily.  Surprisingly, it took quite a lot of thread to complete. Thankfully I had enough red, otherwise I would have had to do a 2 tone heart.

 

 

TA DAH….

 

 

 

 Here in it’s frame…shot taken at night time so a bit dull…so here’s one in daylight with it sitting nicely in my living room.

 

 

 A simple but effective project.  I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and it makes me smile to look at it

Love. Love. Love.

More things to show soon.

 

Love from me and my little men x

 

PS..I'm not sure what's happening with my blogger but the layout keeps going all screwy...so excuse any bits that look odd!

THIRTY

I have turned THIRTY during this time away from my blog.  That's right the big 30!  It's not as bad as I thought it would be.  I do feel old...but then that might be due to the new family addition.  I have a few more wrinkles setting in, and considerably more grey hairs. 

My family were down for my birthday, but generally celebrations were low key.  I had lovely pressies and cards.  Hubby bought me a lovely new watch (he took initiative and sneeked on my pintrest for ideas...he gets brownie points...), and promise of a family holiday (which we've just returned from, but I'll tell you of that later!).

Of course we had the obligatory trip to the fireworks where we won a goldfish.

 Barry was probably the most expensive goldfish ever. Won on a darts fair game.  I doubt the RSP of fishes would be in support.  You'll notice this was Barry...he decided to take a leap of faith behind the sideboard...and that was his demise.  We had him for 4 months...not bad...I just wonder how much longer it will take Wills to notice that Barry is no more...yes he's been gone a month and he hasn't even asked where he is!

For my birthday an amazing gift from my family...a new sewing machine! It's a Singer Confidence -  electronic and a bit posh!  Lots of knobs, buttons, feet...it was like Chinese torture...a fabulous present that you have no time to use!!!  So I've been slaving over Pintrest lining up some projects in waiting.

My fabulous husband took the boys away for a weekend to give me some space.  I couldn't believe it...in 3years the first time I've been in the house on my own for a whole weekend!  It was a little strange.  I did a massive clean on the friday night to ensure I wouldn't need to lift a finger over the weekend.  And then I chilled, slept, crafted, watched movies...! I loved it.  It was nice to stop for a minute, however I did have the feeling I was waiting for them all to come back.

I then set about to do some projects.  I felt a bit daunted getting to grips with a new machine...but once I set it up and had a go I LOVED it!  My sister helped me find a few tricks to the machine (she has the same one). 

I wanted something simple and quick just to get me back in the throes of sewing. 

 Dummy clips - an essential!  We are indeed a dummy family - it works for us.

 I like the solider one...fantastic fabric for a boy.

 I also dabbled around in making a nappy clutch.  I've started using a nice brown leather bag as a nappy changing bag, but things do tend to get lost in there.  I thought a clutch/change mat would be useful to keep bits together.  I set off and ended up making this....

...it keeps nappy/wipes and a change of clothes, and then the dark blue is an oilcloth so that it is a wipe clean change mat.  I am pleased I used that oilcloth - I deconstructed a Cath K change mat that was far too bulky to use in a bag.  It works well, apart from lack of fastening to hold it together.  Since using it I now think a zippered pouch would be more useful for me with the change mat separately just for ease of access.  So that's the next project in the pipeline.

Not too bad for dibbing my toe back in the water.  I'm sure that now I've started I'll hopefully get back in the groove of making bits and bobs and keeping my blog updated as a record.

Must dash...naptime is over!

Love from me and my little men x

Overdue

What a long time it has been.

The last time I wrote I was awaiting the arrival of our new baby last October.

I'm sure you can tell by my absence that he is most definitely here!!!

 He arrived on the 12th October weighing 7lb11oz fit, healthy with a head full of hair...no joking...a serious mop. He is delightful.

We forgot what it was like to have a baby...but we soon got into the swing of things and the sleep deprivation doesn't seem so bad second time around.  To be fair he's quite a chilled out baby with smiles in the main, and now we are past that dreadful first 3 months (one word...colic!) things are a little more settled.  

My little man is loving having a baby brother, and already they are a little gang.  As a parent of two I think it is one of the most special feelings ever to see your two children playing with, sharing with, and caring for each other (soon to be hitting, fighting and shouting at each other no doubt...but I'll keep my naivety for now!)

So now with two boys I should consider changing my blog name to "mylittlemen"...but I'll keep it in it's origins for now.

So my family have been keeping me busy - not a chance of crafting!  However, now we are getting into a rough routine (Henry does not like long naps unfortunately so I may have to exercise a bit of speed crafting!), hopefully some crafting time will return and some important time for me.

Love from me and (..wait for it...) my little men x