Party of Five

The Mom Song from Northland Video on Vimeo.

Sent to me by a friend - I'm not as nice as this mum!

We are always going to know when Christmas is close when the Music School concert dates are posted and I am in a panic as Sam's birthday appraoches too quickly into December.

We always make it with the presents and nativities and the parties - but it's not easy.

Here is my boy - a week away from his 10th bday about to perform in his 1st Christmas concert. Enough to bring a tear to any mothers eye.

This house was just begging to be made, not just because of the deeply cool blog whose pattern this is, but also because it is super easy to make a lot at once and you can embroider them however you like - even subversively!
I am making a bunch of these for the tree and hopefully for friends in lieu of bought gifts. I am stitching the year on as well, so when I get senile at least I'll know what year I've forgotten.
Am planning on making some square shaped houses too, I'd like to play with my darning foot I bought for my machine and it would be a good project to practise with.

After wreslting with this for a week or two......ok for not doing anything with the formed coined strips for a week or two, I finally got to grips with quilting and binding it.
I chose not to stitch in the ditch as I wanted some contrast, so chose a diamond grid instead.
I haven't seen any tutorials on how to mark quilts, but had managed to get a silver Quilters Dream pencil and used that. I should not have basted the top to the wadding and back as it was a total bitch to mark (note for future - mark quilt before basting). The pencil was good, but having to draw lines on a soft surface coupled with having to do it on the carpet does not make for a tidy sharp process.
Anyhoo - got it done, everyone likes it. Cannot wait to start the next one!

We've been taking advantage of the Autumnal weather by going for walks and having fun.

I made these cushions on a whim. I found the small piece of fabric at John Lewis in the remnants bin. I never look any further than the remnants bin in John Lewis, it's really out of my cheapskate price range.
Anyway, I saw this fabric and thought "this will look lovely on my Ruth's red leather sofa", then I saw some Amy Butler cushions on Sew Mama Sew that were buttoned and I knew what I had to do.
It was a good experiment in first time covered button making (don't use easily frayed fabric on tiny buttons, you WILL tear your hair out) and first time piping making and sewing (god bless the zipper foot).
I loved how they turned out and so did Ruth. Apparently they are now gracing sofa in style.
It means that I can now replace my tired old cushion covers without worrying about those two particular techniques.
In other news, there is none! Hubby still has no job, the stock market has bombed, kids have stopped asking for 'stuff' every day.

I have been downloading a lot of old photos onto flickr, more as an insurance policy than anything else. I am up to the year 2000 at the moment. The year Hubby and I married after 15 years and at that point 1 child together. My wedding day was the best day of my life, full of laughter and warmth, surrounded by family and friends all dressed up to the nines.
Looking through the photos it has suprised me how many friends who were there I have lost contact with, friends through work who i spent a lot of time with but as soon as I left work they disappeared from the viewfinder. I am not sad about this, just grateful they were part of my life at the time and hope they are having a good life.

I needed multiple hot drinks this morning because of a disturbed night with Pip. He woke around 12:30am about 30 minutes after Hubby said to me (and I quote) "He's been very good considering [he had his jabs today and has been arsey all afternoon]". He did preface this with "I want to say something but I don't want to jinx it", I told him not to be stupid and just say it (which he did) and of course he jinxed it. Pip must have heard through the walls and started crying.
I got up and brought him into our bed to see if he'd settle, no way, my fault really as when he was tiny I used to take him downstairs and put the tv on to distract him so Hubby could get a full nights sleep before work (label me a mug and be done with it). Now when Pip has a bad night the only way to calm things down is to watch the Boomerang Network with him.
I was refused a lying down spot on the sofa with the little prince, even though I had brought my own pillow with me, and had to perch awkwardly at a 45 degree angle on the end of the sofa watching 'Robotboy'. Joy.
I woke at 4am in the same position whilst sleeping prince had spreadeagled himself on all the cushiony goodness. I bit the bullet and took him upstairs, placed him in his cot and ran as fast as I could.
Hubby got up with the older 2 boys this morning, but as it was nursery day I got up and showered just in case Pip was going to nursery (he has to be chauffeur driven there whilst his lesser mortal brothers walk to school). We decided that we would not shake the apple tree by taking Pip to nursery, he has a big lump on his leg where the nurse injected the MMR in and it wasn't worth the worry or phone call to pick him up should he geet unhappy.
he doesn't look unhappy or tired from the lack of sleep does he? I do, hence no pic. Oh and I don't believe in wiping faces very often clearly.

So Hubby is painting the kitchen and I am organsing my flickr photos and uploading old ones. I may even sew today but it will be wonky.

1. The traditional by the front door photo, just tolerating new uniform 2. The why am I in. the car with my brother so early in the morning photo 3. The post-first-day-at-nursery-having-cried-all-morning photo

He went back a few days later, but isn't happy with us


edit -this was on 3 Sept - he still is driving us crazy when on home turf
.

is driving me crazy.

Crazy enough to wish he was 3.5yrs not 2.5yrs

Sam has gone on a school trip to an adventure centre in Norfolk. I hope for a few things from this:-

• that he's not sick on the coach
• that he doesn't get so homesick he insists on coming home
• that he changes his pants at least once
• that he throws himself into the activities and doesn't worry about anything apart from having a good time

Hey ho!

After the disastrous Woolacombe holiday we weren't looking forward to The Isle of Man, a little island so close to Ireland you can kiss the blarney stone.

We had a long drive to get to the ferry, then a long ferry ride. We left the house at 8am and got to our destination around 8:30pm.

But it was worth it.

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

HFPS - The Humanitarian

Humanity, Foreground, Big Picture, and Shape

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Annabel's Quilt
Originally uploaded by toniann.

Took slightly less than a week to make, but was worth it. I learnt to applique, stitch in the ditch and how inaccurate sewing can cock things up.
I am literally itching to make my next one.

our holiday in Pickwell, North Devon was so thoroughly miserable I wanted to come home by the evening of arrival. Normally I don't start on my 'I want to go home' rant until the Wednesday.

We arrived to hear the previous weeks visitors had had a week of wall to wall sun and all that entails on a British coastal holiday.

The other added morsel of thrilling relaxation was Pip, 2.5 years worth of abject monstrousness. He is normally ok, admittedly he's the most hard work of the 3 boys but I am figuring that my addled brain has forgotten how hard managing a 2 year old is beacuse I swear on all thing holy that this child is a complete terror. He's a whole ball of needy, non-verbal screaming, proddy, poky, stealing, torment inducing, racing, food refusing, insominacal, brother bating boy. And even though I left his father to deal with him most of the time as I was on the verge of a total mental meltdown, I was close enough to the core to be deeply harangued by it all.

But, being a 2 year old boy who refuses to speak (when asked he can sound out every phoneme, diagraph etc etc but refuses to say actual words) and therefore who cannot tell us by extended non-verbal communication what is going on, it must be hard for him. A new strange environment coupled with extended car journeys must be difficult to deal with. I'll give him his due though, he's great in the car - Sam was puking at Harpenden (10 miles into our journey), Munch was asleep after tiring himself out by doing his 'our we there yet' Simpsons routine from when we left the driveway.And at the end of the day, you can't stay cross with any of them for long because when the truth is told it's not them it's me.

Bend the Rules Sewing Bag
Originally uploaded by toniann.

I made this bag recently too. It is such a lovely bag, I really really like the material I chose, just right for Summer.

The topstiching reuires you sewing through approx 8 layers at one point (6 cotton layers from the outer bag, the lining and the handles plus 2 from the interlining) - my machine struggled big time. If I did this again I may shorten the interlining and then stitch 2 lines of topstiching to secure the interlining and handles at the top.

Beautiful bag though even though I say so myself!

Brown linen bag
Originally uploaded by toniann.

A friend asked me to make a bag similar to an old leather one she had that was falling apart. I couldn't replicate the buckles and snaps on the original bag without going to some expense and the whole point of the exercise was to be affordable. I made this from soft brown linen with a bright brown and turquoise lining. I stiffened the linen with fusible interfacing, lined the pocket and topstiched to the outside of the bag and used buttons as fastenings.

It was nerve wracking handing it over as that really is the ultimate test of your work. My friend is taking it on holiday with her, I hope she enjoys it! it was a fun bag to make.

Man I sound like some boring clod...

P1000560
Originally uploaded by toniann.

learnt how to buttonhole.

It took an hour or so........

Medium child reached 6! Awesome!
He so loved his birthday and the party the next day. In fact I've never known a boy anticipate with so much relish the fact that a birthday was coming up.