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I have moved

http://apartyof5.wordpress.com

trying to edit the themes on blogger was rubbish. Am trying Wordpress instead as I am too cheap to pay for Typepad :)

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Recently

There has been a lots of minor complaints and illness buzzing about the place, a kind of domino effect of one person being ill then getting better, followed by another person being ill and getting better etc etc etc Kind of hangs about a bit when you have 5 in the queue.

But it's nothing major and I cheer myself by saying (to anyone who will listen) that's it's a sign of milder weather and Sprin being around the corner.

I love Spring, I love the delicate blooms of the snowdrops, the brassy showiness of the daffodils and I love not having the wear hubby's jumpers all day (I don't have any jumpers....that fit...and I won't spend money buying any that do fit).

I won't post the video here, but please go to Tara Whitneys site and watch the video - it is amazing, gut wrenchingly amazing, it makes you feel like you need to get this done yourself now, without a moments hesitation. In fact if I don't do something like this with my kids this year I will have failed as a parent. Really. It may not be as beautiful as Tara's but it will capture a moment in time with my family. (Sharon - if you are reading this we should do this for you guys too-I can totally use Movie Maker :) ).

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Last Time he's 2


The most troublesome member of the household is 3 tomorrow, well he's 3 at 5 minutes past midnight to be precise, but I am not going to be the one to wake him up and tell him that!
We have a small birthday tea for him that involves not much effort from me - cake has been bought, I may hoover.
It's a shame that the enormity of the financial crisis looms over us like Damacles' Sword. No matter how cheaply we try to live, the bills we have to pay do not change, with no money coming in and nothing I can do about it, I wander about the house achieving nothing and just feeling plain sick. I love this house, it's our home, I don't want to lose it.
Being a worrier by nature does not help matters. My fretting which leads to shouting at the kids and other non specific unfairness of treatment is hard to bear. I sometimes feel that if I just sat still and breathed really shallowly my impact on the world and therefore it's impact on me might disappear for a minute and with it all my worries too.

But I am being overdramatic, we'll be ok, a little poorer but wiser. and anyway, how can I be sad when I have this little guy?

or even better when I've edited it

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Another Wee Wonderfuls


P1010522, originally uploaded by toniann.

I made this for a 10yr old girl for her birthday. Akind of making her first steps in sewing gift. The pile of fabric and notions you see were also included as were tiny clothes patterns, so birthday girl could fashion more outfits for her doll.

The hair was a nightmare and way too short, but I was very late in making this and only just got it to her on the day! Same old story eh?

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Knack Warmer made for Sharon


P1010526, originally uploaded by toniann.

Even though this is 100% acrylic, this scarf was completely lovely. Easy to knit, and will no doubt be a breeze to wash (apart from the pom-pom fall out that will inevitably happen).

I tried making fingerless mittens to match, but was getting a bit too big for my boots and failed miserable to make even one glove that could pass muster.

Hubby wants one of these now (sans pom-poms) - cheap wool here I come!!

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Lotta bag with my junk in it


Lotta bag with my junk in it, originally uploaded by toniann.

exactly as it says in the titel :)

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Lotta Jansdotter Bag


P1010596, originally uploaded by toniann.

This is the garden Tote from Lotta Jansdotters book. It's Huge! 17inches long by 10.5 inches high or so.

very big indeed, but it does hold all my scrapping stuff nicely.

Plan on making one for knitting/crochet but it was a bit of a struggle - so will hang fire til I have more sewing mojo.

Will post again with it full of crap/scrap stuff.

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Chaos -as-usual

I sit here in utter chaos; cars and toys all over the capet, a bag 3/4 finished on the dining table, a kicthen sink full of dishes to be washed and no doubts beds to be made even though it's afternoon.....instead of sorting all that out I am posting videos and having a aggravating telephone conversation with hubby over what shampoo I want! who cares! (well I will when he comes home with the wrong one.

The chaos of the recent snowing in has more or less gone - I think our little bit of where we live was particularly bad as we still have a lot of snow on the ground, but the sun is out and here's hoping that by tomorrow we'll see grass. Mind you there might still be a bit too much snow for that.

following should be a videos of Munch & Sam hurling themselves down a slope that made my heart beat a bit faster - luckily hubby was there to catch him, as his always is :) love him x



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Look!

This is the lovely child apron pattern from sew liberated

This is the gorgeous 'kit, louise and chloe' pattern from Wee Wonderfuls.

Although 95% of the credit goes to these awesome pattern designers I think I did a pretty good job sewing them :). Have made more since, will upload pictures soon.

My little christmas houses were 'featured' on Pimp Stitch's Flickr Friday post :) here.

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Bye Simple - loved you, kept you

Cathy Zielske personifies Simple Scrapbooking for me, I bought her books and still love the design principles she uses. I am sad that the mag is closing, I subscribed for nearly all of it's life, but saw in later issues that it had lost it's edge. Much like me, not that I ever really had an edge, it kind of went from forward thinking, funky, graphic, statement led scrapbooking that not everyone 'got' to being just another style that everyone uses to scrap quickly.

I'm much more journalling led now, well not journalling, but journal. The whole page thing and albums just aren't me at this point in my life, I don't have time for it, I weep for my beautiful American Crafts albums gathering dust and for my half finished layouts needing titles or inpsiration, but where i am at now is sticking something in a book and writing on it or around it. Ali Edwards personifies this style, although I feel sometimes she is too fussy or uses too much product, she is where it's at for me - an achievable scrapbooking style that still looks funky and arty, I also admire her honest photography - sometimes not all in focus or framed perfectly, but reflecting the hectic family life. Margaret Scarborough is also a wonderful scrapbooker - her photography is really spirited and she is a funny lady - her writing style has me in stitches.

The best thing I ever did was chronicle the first year of Pip's life (a Stacy Julian idea) - a few pages a month, no style or format, just freestyling. The love that went into that book shows. I am attempting to retroactively achieve this in yearly journals, I have a good memory for trivial and non-important detail (I can remember who bought every kids present from years ago, I can remember stuff that went on on a particular day at school nearly 30 years ago (eeek i hate that it was that long ago)), so it's really just a matter of getting my big fat round butt out of the chair and getting on with it.

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As ever, late to the party



I broke my spacebar yesterday in an attempt to get rid of an annoying crumb that was making it 'different' to type- you know, it wasn't impossible, just different from normal therefore annoying and requiring a fix. Sounds like a template for my life at the moment! little annoying niggly things that get a quick random fix then go on to annoy even more than before.

I haven't had much time to reflect on Christmas and New Year, mainly because of my fixation with Tetris Battle+ on Facebook - any spare minutes not cooking, cleaning or watching tv are wasted on this. Stops me from thinking or worrying too much :)

It snowed here about 3 days ago, the pictures are from a random spurt of enthusiam by us parents, taking all the kids up the big hill to sledge. Our tiny 2nd hand sledge wasn't really up to the job, especially of handling 2 boys at once, but it was free and it works! Better than the shopping trolley I saw some kids jackassing their way down the hill on.

I was going to do my new year resolutions and post my thoughts on Christmas, but really it's the same old stuff:-

Resolutions

  • lose weight (any weight I lost last year has gone back on)
  • get fit (lost all the fitness I worked so hard on last year)
  • plan more (meals, making presents)
  • no processed foods (chicken nuggets/fish fingers/chips etc)
Christmas
  • don't clean the cooker Christmas Day morning
  • don't buy younger kid fancy new nintendo without either getting one for older kid or being prepared for some major backlash
  • don't put crosses in brussel sprouts the night before
  • don't think no-one will want to eat anything Christmas night because there is always room for chilli and trifle
  • buy youngest kid every car from the Pixar Cars movie and be done with it - that's all he's played with

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Welcome 2009?



A good Christmas was had, if a little hectic. All the days merged into a feast of either hyper activity or prolonged sofa sitting. When it was busy it was hellish and many vows were taken to not repeat the performance, although come November I have no doubts that I will cheerily be taking it all on again.

As yet no resolutions have been made, apart from the hazy get fit/lose weight ones. What is really biting at the moment is the sheer horridness of longterm unempoyment and the uncertainty of it all. It's rotten, I hate it and want to hibernate til it's all over. At least we haven't all killed each other yet, living in each others pockets.

Things have not been assisted by a certain 2yr old,soon to be 3, flexing his muscles and really pulling out all those tasty 2 yr old tricks involving biting, hitting, breaking brothers lego models, wrecking the tree,refusing food, running off fast on walks, shouting 'NOOOOOO'on a continual loop, waking up at 3:30am for no reason, drawing on walls, sofas, tables, carpet, refusing to wear a nappy AND refusing to sit on the potty, crying when anyone threatens to leave the room and wrecking brothers room the minute after it has been tidied.

edit: the above was written yesterday which was a hard day small kid wise, today was better but he did bite his older brother twice for no reason which is hard to deal with and not very likeable.

I made a very quick but beautifully pretty and functional fabric 'box' today as a birthday present. The tutorial and pics are here, will post my pics tomorrow. It's a wonderfully simple pattern even though it is pieced and I made it in about 2.5 hours. Hubby liked it so much he wants me to make one for the kitchen top for our keys and phones!!