Happy Leap Day

Happy 29th February.  That date which only appears on the calendar every 4 years.

I have another WIP (work in progress) for this wednesday.  Batik is finished and I will get some pics of that for finished object friday.

My WIP is Frangiflutti using a sport weight Zauberball. It's a fun quick knit.

You can find more WIPs at Tamis Amis

Book Journey

I haven't taken part in the Book Journey for a long time. I saw a post by a friend this morning so thought I would head back over there and find some inspiration. I was drawn to the Call The Midwife book by Jennifer Worth after seeing the advert on TV for the series. I read it more or less alongside watching the TV series as I had to order it into the library which at the time was being relocated so took a while to arrive. Anyway it is one of those can't put down sort of books but when I finished it before the series ended I realised some of the stories that had been televised weren't actually in the book. I checked out the author and there is actually more than one book which explains the extra stories so I ordered the next one which is the book I am currently engrossed in - Shadows Of The Workhouse

The stories are based in the East End of London in the 1950s.  Jennifer Worth wrote them from her own experiences and the recounts of her patients.  Obviously over time those memories may not be totally accurate but I've read enough to want to look further into that time period. 

The tenements people lived in sound horrendous.  I can only imagine them to be like the high rise flats we are used to seeing in densely populated areas in modern day life but without sanitary facilities.  Families in those days had lots of children so there were as many as ten or more people living in one room. Unthinkable now but the norm then.

D

The D fortnight went a bit like this:

Lots of Mr Bean DVD watching

Our daughter was home from university for an extended visit

Liberal use of the Dettol spray to avoid the little ones' bug spreading

Son number 2 decorated a cake




I decluttered the bathroom which led to a disaster at the dump with a set of drawers. They had previously been used for toiletries etc but were broken so I swapped them for some my daughter no longer needed and took the broken ones to the dump. I left all the old stuff (out of date make up etc) in the drawers but somehow managed to get them out of the car the wrong way and they emptied themselves all over in front of the dumpster. Needless to say it was packed and nobody offered to help!

I tried to read Dickens and Dostoyevsky but found them incredibly boring. I did try them though which is the whole point of the journey through the alphabet.

Son number 1 had an unexpected trip to the dentist because his bridge fell out yet again.

I bought some daffodils.




I'm ashamed to say I bought my son a donner kebab. I hate them!

As always Daisy dog played a big part in family life



If you want to play along the link is below for you to add your details. I'd love to see what you did for D.

Fairground Skywatch

Taken with my phone at a local fair

For more skies around the world please visit Skywatch

Working Through Mr Bean

I swear those who created the Mr Bean character must be on the autistic spectrum. My youngest two are both diagnosed on the spectrum, one has classic autism and the other has aspergers. They both find it absolutely hilarious and will sit for hours watching it over and over. Personally I think it isn't funny.

My sister bought my youngest a DVD box set for his birthday and as you can guess he loves it. He has had the last two days off school ill and out the DVDs came.

Yesterday I was the good mum and sat with him saying the right thing at the right time but today I got out some work and made these felt flowers. I'm not 100% sure what they will end up as yet.

and another one

I think I prefer this one to the one I made in the previous post.

I've changed my Facebook profile pic to this one as I think this will deter me from straying to the dark side where the games are rather than the first one.

Keep Calm And All That

A phone app that produces that popular Keep Calm signage has amused one son and the husband the last day or two so I got it onto my phone and had a play.

I made one for my Facebook profile picture to remind me, on the odd occasion I step over there, that the games I used to be heavily addicted to are not real life. Yeah obviously I knew that already but I used to spend so much time on them when the kids were at school that my work was being neglected and that's not going to pay the bills. No good when you are self employed and in charge of your own work schedule and ultimately how much you earn.

So anyway I made this one to remind me to stay away from the games. If you want to use it yourself then feel free to snag it.

Punky Scraps Challenge #42

This week we have a get picky challenge for you. Full details are at Punky Central

and this is my take on it using the Basic Grey Picadilly papers I had on my table on wednesday.

Crap light makes for crap photos so I've scanned and stitched it but not very well I'm afraid as I've just noticed the left side is wonky and it isn't wonky on the actual layout.

Skywatch

A quick shot with my phone while we were out earlier today.





To see more skies from around the world please visit www.skyley.blogspot.com

The Wednesday Stuff - WOYWW & WIP Wednesday

First up WOYWW (Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday).

A Basic Grey page of the month kit from November featuring the Picadilly line which I'm planning on using for the Punky Scraps DT assignment for this week.

head on over to Julia's blog for more workdesks around the world this wednesday


Second up is WIP (work in progress) Wednesday

I stumbled across the Batik pattern over the weekend. I think it was on Pinterest.  Anyway I saw it and thought it looked lovely yet familiar. I clicked the link which eventually led me over to ravelry and I realised why it was familiar.  I had purchased it around a year or so ago and started it but with beads (yes I know - I must have been posessed by a crazy moment in time!!).  Needless to say as it is a bottom up working system and the cast on is quite large I didn't get very far and ripped it all out putting it down as a lesson learnt. 

Falling in love with the pattern all over again I decided that since I had already bought it then I would give it another go but obviously without the beads.  I found a really squishy gorgeous yarn from Zen Yarn Garden called Serenity Silk which came in one of the Victorian Writers kits last year and I never got around to using.

It took a fair bit of concentration to get the pattern established but here is my progress so far. I'm up to row 28 and doing the small size.

To see more WIPs this wednesday please pay a visit to Tami

Feeling Sorry For Herself

My furry baby is having a season and feeling just a little bit sorry for herself

Charlie dog would have his wicked way with her at any given opportunity if I didn't stop him. Poor girl is fed up.

It's a C

Apologies if you have been playing along with the AtoZ of discovery through the alphabet.  I didn't get C up yesterday as planned so here it is.  If you want to share what you discovered with the letter C the link is at the bottom of this post.

Not a huge number of photos but here is what we did

I bought two bunches of cut flowers from the bargain bucket in Asda for 50p each

A big factor for the last week has been crunchy snow

I made some chocolate cakes (excuse the bun tin it is very old)

ate chips and curry sauce and drank coffee

took a picture of our chimney

did a fair bit of crafting (no pics)

my little man bought himself a monkey from the build a bear shop and called it cheeky chimp

we went into the city

that photo is so blurred but it was rush hour on the way back from a hospital appointment and I took it on the escalator.

and I got these books from the library

Call The Midwife - definitely recommended.

and

a camera book for dummies which I certainly am when it comes to tech speak about aperture, shutter priority so I'm hoping to learn something.

I think that is all for C and if you would like to share then the link is below. I'd love to see what you have been up to this fortnight.

Edited to add:
I found a recipe for African chicken stew which used chickpeas and little man loved them.

I started an alphabet cross stitch project which I'm planning on adding to as we get to each letter but I have only done a little bit of the border so far so it isn't worth photographing.

Skywatch

This was my view of the sky after the white stuff was dumped on my window





I was a bit hesitant about opening the window as I didn't want showering in snow but I'm glad I did otherwise I wouldn't have got these shots




some of that lump of snow ended up on my bed






and finally my favourites taken the next day

Olay Trial

I have been lucky enough to be selected to test Olay Total Effects 7 In One Moisturiser.

On Friday I received the trial package. 

It contains a full sized bottle of the moisturiser plus some sample sizes to give to family and friends. There are also some vouchers and questionnaire plus some paperwork.

I can't usually afford this type of moisturiser so I was thrilled to be able to give it a try and I must say I am loving how it feels so far.  It sinks in beautifully.

Watch this space for more feedback after I've been using it a while.

Redemption

We found a shop at the far reaches of the bottom of town with sledges for sale. YAY. My little man was over the moon. £12.99 well spent.

He pulled it home and then we headed off to the place we passed earlier for some fun.

In Trouble

After not being able to lay our hands on a snow shovel or sledge last winter I promised myself I would buy them before any snow this year. Guess what????

Yep you guessed right - I never got around to it.

My little man is rather annoyed with me especially since a walk in the snow this morning found us passing this scene and to be fair I'm annoyed with myself so will be putting that right the first time I see a sledge for sale. I honestly thought with how mild this winter has been that this would just be a year without snow. You live and learn

8cm

of the white stuff so far.

I don't feel the need to tell everybody on Facebook that it has snowed nor post a picture of my backyard like most folks over there have so I'm thinking my addiction has gotten over itself now.

Anyway the skies have so far dumped 8cm of the white stuff since 1:40pm today.

The youngest wanted taking to the park after about an hour. I made him wait until it had been coming down a couple of hours (yes I'm a cruel mum). The paths were covered but there wasn't a huge amount on the grass. It didn't stop him and the next eldest having an attempt at a snowball fight. I say attempt because it wasn't the best snow for sticking together and one of them had got new gloves that the snow preferred to stick to rather than together.

Punky Scraps #40

Challenge number 40 over at Punky Scraps was an inspirational photo from Nat. She found the most amazing crazy image.

I had so many ideas running through my mind but I couldn't get them all to work together as well as I had hoped. Here is what I ended up with. Scanned instead of photographed because the light is just so rubbish at the moment.

To see what the other punky rebels have done and view the inspirational image for this challenge please head on over to Punky Central

Skywatch

Well today the skies are looking as if they may contain a little of the white stuff however they are very boring so I'm using a photo I took with my phone in January. Those pesky gulls again.

Project Life

I was so up for this at the beginning of January. I saw the kit for 2011 on Becky Higgins' website and loved the idea, however in reality the shipping costs were just too high to get it over here at that time. Then I saw the announcement that she was using Amazon to sell the 2012 kits. I think that is where my wanting for doing this project this year stemmed from.

Back down to earth though with the news that Amazon UK wouldn't be getting the stock for a while. I wasn't impressed but thought hey ho take the pictures and then when it is released you will be ready. I have some Amazon vouchers saved up to use and then BAM last night an email to say that they are no longer using Amazon but are using a warehouse of their own instead. I can see the logistical reasons but to be honest as a customer with potential to want to buy a complete set of album, core kit, page protectors etc etc I am a bit peeved with first of all what seems to be a last minute idea to sell to europe without any stock ready in time to start at the beginning of 2012 and secondly how we were told that we would be buying it from Amazon and have vouchers but now can't. Some people got Amazon vouchers for christmas with this in mind (not me personally).

I have no idea how much their prices will be. It was suggested in an email that if they charge 24.99 canadian dollars for something it would be £23.99. Now I'm no mathematician but I do know that the exchange rate is not that rubbish.

So yesterday morning before I had even had the email to say they wouldn't be using Amazon I took the decision to buy an assortment of page protectors and use up my own stash for the pages. Financial sense to me. I was fed up of waiting. The website selling the official Project Life stuff is going live at 4pm today by the way which I found out last night but they aren't shipping until 7th February. Not even cleared customs according to a post on UKScrappers from them so how they know they will be starting to ship then I have no idea. Anyhow I'm trying not to be tempted and sticking to my principles but how strong I will be remains to be seen. The assorted page protectors came from Country View Crafts and they arrived this morning. Postage is free. Can't ask for better service than that. I'll definitely be using them again.

The Craft Garden - February

It's the 1st of the month so that means a new challenge over on The Craft Garden

Here is my take on the challenge:

badly photographed as the light was rubbish.  The shaped paper is Crate Paper, the blue paper is Prima Reflections and the stickers are Pink Paislee. I used Cosmic Shimmer mists in Midnight Blue and Aqua Lagoon.