Party of Five

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 :)

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 :) ).

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

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?

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!!

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

exactly as it says in the titel :)

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.

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

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.

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.