A nice surprise

A couple of weeks ago when I was sitting with Ladybug sorting out a problem with her knitting, The Engineer asked me if I could teach him how to knit too.


Completely taken by surprise, as he had shown absolutely no interest up until this point, I said 'of course', he chose his wool and we began.


He grasped the idea really quickly and has stuck with it ever since, picking it up each day. He even took it on holiday with him and knitted on the ferry!


It did take me a little by surprise though when I asked him to put his pyjamas on later that day and he replied 'can I just finish this row?' Not a phrase I had somehow ever imagined coming from my son's lips ...... !!

Goodies revealed

I have been a little tardy in revealing to you all what I sent to my swap partner for the seaside swap. Without further to-do, and because I know she received it aaaages ago, here it is :

A handy denim tote for all those beach essentials! I lined it in shocking pink and appliqued a beach hut to the front (as you all can see!) I also made some fabric badges and fastened those to the front.


Some wool (look at the name on the label...)

Vintage 'saucy' postcards

Ice cream sweets

A windmill - gotta have one of those!

fishy pencil

ice cream lip balm

and my first ever cushion and attempt at free motion embroidery! I was quite proud of this..... (not a very good photograph though

All found their way to my swap-partner, Rachel of Contented.

I have to confess, I didn't read the bit about it fitting into a shoebox size box until after I'd made it all -oops! So having had such fun with that swap, I'm looking for another one to take part in - anyone know of any?

Jammy goodness

Before we left for holiday, we embarked on our annual jam making fest! It has become a bit of a tradition in our house and the children start asking when we can pick the fruit as soon as the sun starts shining in the spring! This year, we were a bit late with the picking, but still managed to get a bumper crop. We picked raspberries,

cherries,


strawberries,


and blackcurrants. After lots of mashing


boiling


and bottling,

we were left with 27 jars of deliciousness. Yum! Just got to wait for the blackberries now....

I hasten to add, they are not all for our consumption!

Oops!

Sorry, sorry! Once again I've been absent for well over a week. I do have a good excuse - honest! We've just come back from a lovely and relaxed (yup, it is possible , even with four children!) holiday in Ireland. I had intended to have a few posts ready to go for while we we away, but never found the time to do them amidst the frantic preparations. Oh well, we're back now, so normal service shall resume once again.

We stayed in a gorgeous house in the south of the country, surrounded by fields and with a number of fantastic beaches within ten minutes or so.

We had nothing planned, and just took each day as it came. Lots of time at the beach, lots of ice cream, lots of walking and a little bit of rain! Wonderful.

Seaside swap

Some people are very organised - unlike me, who, while I have been gathering things for weeks now, still need to finish the handmade bit of my seaside swap BEFORE Wednesday (eek!).

One of these very organised people is the lovely Rachel who organised the seaside swap and who sent me her swap package two whole weeks before the deadline!

There were lots of lovely goodies inside:

A very seasidey card


...yummy chocolate (didn't last long!)..


... a lovely handmade purse..


..a very apt sign..! (though I guess it would be raining there too)


.. a deliciously scented candle..


..some really cute embroidery patches...


..body milk (just the thing if the sun decides to shine!)..


.. and the best bit. This wonderful seasidey mini quilt....

Thank you Rachel, for organising the swap, and for my fantastic package of goodies! I will finish yours on time - honest!

Tea anyone?

Remember this?

Well, I was asked to make another for the mother of a friend. So, not for a 3 year old this time, but a 73 year old!

Apparently, she loves it.

Catching up....

Oh dear - it's been well over a week since I last wrote anything. I do have a good excuse, honest - two cases of suspected swine flu (one of them me) and 4 children at home for the summer holidays have meant that my time and energy levels have been somewhat depleted. It does mean that my posting may well be on the sporadic side for the coming six weeks, so please bear with me!

So, what have I been doing? Well, the visit from my 'in-laws' was lovely, as usual. We had a great time and I wished they could have stayed longer. I'm really looking forward to next year when we move back to The Netherlands so that we can see them more often. I'm not looking forward to the move itself though, nor the packing that that will entail!. Ah well, plenty of time yet.

While they were here, we spent some time in London, taking in a few sights. It's silly, we live less than an hour away, but rarely make the journey. Should do it more often...


We saw dinosaurs at the Natural History museum, and also paid a quick visit to the V&A. Ladybug and Miss Chatterbox were particularly taken with the jewellery exhibition, and Ladybug wants to be the Queen so that she 'can wear jewels and crowns (tiaras) like that....'

We also said 'hello' to the Queen, who was 'having a cup of tea' (Miss Chatterbox) and then went to see Big Ben as the girls had just done a project about it at school. The Engineer was noticeably absent for our little trip, spending instead the weekend under canvas, on his very first Cub camp without grown ups !

There's lots more to tell, lots of crafty makes and knitting progress, but I'll keep that for the next post! I need to finish my seaside swap first as the deadline is nearly upon me and I'm not finished yet - eek! I'll be sharing the lovely goodies I received from my swap partner next time too....