HOW Many???

Last year I went with Bob to collect some materials for a Men's Shed project, from a local decorating supplies firm. By the door was a large bucket with a sign saying "FREE!" It would have been rude not to check it out. It had some 2m lengths of wallpaper. I grabbed a couple of William Morris designs. A week later, I gave one to a friend who needed to cover a large gift box. In January, we went back again, and I took just one piece. I went to the counter to wait for Bob. "Can I help you?"
    "I'm with him - but can just I say thank you, for these lovely free samples of wallpaper"
"We will be getting rid of the big sample books soon, would you like some?"        
    "Yes please!"
"Give me your phone number and I will call you- I will be really pleased if you can use them, we usually just throw them in the skip outside"
And so a couple of weeks ago, she rang, and I went early next morning [they open at 7.30am for trade customers] I left Bob at home, preparing breakfast. The woman remembered me, and said the books were behind the counter. 

I said I would like to make a charity donation, and while she was getting them, I put a couple of quid inside the pink elephant box for the blind children.
"Here you are, where's your car?" The woman, plus another assistant helped me carry the sample books out to my car. There were TWENTY of them. She insisted that any I left would go in the skip, and I couldn't let that happen, could I? Bob was a little taken aback when I got home. "HOW many? Ang, will you use them all?"

We lugged them into the lounge, and stood them up against the sofa. A real mixture - patterns, plains, textures, stripes... Most from a French company, Casadéco, one from Crown.

I enjoyed going through them as I sipped my coffee, muttering "Ooh look! Isn't this cute? I can make use of this one..."

Later in the day, I took the Nursery Patterns Book, and made an Easter Card and a new baby card for my latest nibling.

I used a rabbit design, mounting the pictures on the co-ordinating golden polka dot paper. There are lots of great patterns in this book [animals, trucks, dinosaurs...] which will make good cards for children. I am planning to use one of the other books to mount displays for the Easter windowsills at Chapel.

And Bob is right - twenty is rather a lot. I took some to my good friend Val a few days later. Val has been a friend since 1981, when we lived in the Medway and Bob was student minister at her church. Teacher, Girls Brigade Officer, crafter - we have heaps in common and have been firm friends for 45 years. She still lives in the Medway with her husband Philip [like Bob, former employee of Marconi, and into woodworking etc] They were on holiday in Norfolk, it was lovely to catch up [now we are both mothers of two grown up daughters and we have grandchildren] I gave Val the books, and she gave me a jigsaw and a striped teeshirt! [Thank you Val, it fits a treat]
I gave three more to my young friends who are home schooled. And when I told the story to my old school friend [who is sadly back in our local hospital again] she laughed, and said "Please can I have one when I get home?" So that is one third of the hoard distributed... and I have so many ideas in my head for papercrafts! Look at these gorgeous pictures from the Casadéco website...

New Life, Fresh Joy

I love the signs of spring everywhere - the 'volunteer plant' primula which has randomly popped up in the back garden, the buds on the trees, the sense of new life, and hope. I love the fact that Easter happens in Springtime.
We are certainly celebrating new life in our family - my niece had a baby last week, her second little boy. I have a new great-nibling!*

A good excuse to knit a hat and bootees, and make a Spring-like card. Primrose yellow seemed an appropriate colour, the bootee pattern from my favourite Zoe Mellor book. 

God bless this little bundle of new life, may he bring great joy to the family, and be always surrounded by love

[*if sisters and brothers are siblings, nieces and nephews are niblings]

Woolgathering

Defined in the dictionary as indulging in aimless thoughts or daydreams. I've definitely been woolgathering as I've continued with the Loft Sort!

One of my nieces is expecting a baby next year, so I thought I'd do some knitting. The day before going to Manchester, I confidently climbed the loft ladder in search of baby wool. I was sure it was in a wicker hamper. There was a hamper, but only one suitable ball of wool. I found a pair of 4mm needles on the table in the back bedroom. I began knitting a little hat.

I'm embarrassed to admit that on Tuesday as I began to move the stacks of boxes around I unearthed seven hampers of wool, a large plastic box of wool, and a smaller one with assorted needles. One box was full of Sirdar baby yarns. 

I brought the blue box downstairs and spent an hour sorting the needles into pairs, and discarding damaged or odd ones. Then I lined them up in size order from 2mm to 20mm. 

Then I was ruthless removing all my duplicates. There were more than 2 dozen pairs. They will go to the Big C Cancer Charity Craft Emporium at Wymondham. Whenever I visit, someone is sorting through looking for a particular size. I'm sure they will sell.

Here's the little baby hat in a soft lemon shade. Now I've found the hamper with all the baby yarns, I think I'll try a little cardi in another colour.  Is it really November tomorrow?  The year is racing by. Last November I did a knitting challenge for the Bone Cancer Research Trust. I'm too busy for that this year...

Newsround

Hands Up if you loved John Craven's Newsround. The first guy ever to read the news on BBCTV wearing a sweater! I was always so impressed by the careful way in which they reported the difficult bits of the news in a way which was appropriate for their young audience, The Falklands Crisis, the Challenger Disaster [the news actually broke on British TV on Newsround, as it had happened just minutes before the show aired] But always delivered by John and subsequent presenters [like Julie Etchingham, who came originally from Kirby Muxloe]
Here is my Newsround reporting of the last week or so

SUNDAY The Christmas Pie came out of the freezer and provided us with three good meals. A proper pie, shortcrust base and puff pastry top - filled with chicken, pigs in blankets, brussels sprouts, carrots, roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberries. It was a splendid use of leftovers

MONDAY A fabulous rainbow appeared over the close, just as we were going out to the car. 

TUESDAY The sunlight through the new front door in the morning made beautiful sparkly patterns, some rainbow-edged, on our family photo wall

Mum's picture is fading to a strange sepia colour.

WEDNESDAY I did cook Bob a Chinese meal - from scratch - sweet&sour chicken, beef chow mein, eggfried rice - 

along with prawn crackers from our last takeaway [one of those Sainsbury Box Deals]

THURSDAY All the seeds got sorted and labelled and into a box, with an index card for each month and a tick chart on the front. So I shall know what to plant and when and where. The chicken brick is not becoming a herb garden - Liz has requested it for her kitchen, Which is fine by me.

FRIDAY Put on Radio 4 extra** and did serious tidying in the back bedroom. The Duplo box is definitely going at last. Some bricks in there date back 40+years! But the Sylvanian Stuff is staying...

SATURDAY Went to the licensing of the new vicar who is coming to the church up the road from our chapel. It was in an incredibly cold church, you could see the Bishop's breath when she spoke. The Bible passage was Mark 4 [Storm on the Lake] When the reader got to

verse 38 "Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" Bob nudged me and whispered "Is that the text for the sermon?" They did serve a splendid tea afterwards though, in the cosy little village hall!

**I was listening to SandiToksvig talking about old family photos. "There's my Grandma, looking like a little Sylvanian family rabbit. You can see a lot of her in me" This made me chuckle, and i took it for confirmation that keeping the SF is the right thing to do, for now!
There have been other happenings too - but these have been a few of the highlights, I hope next week is as good, and I hope you are enjoying your days too...

Happy Families

The Grandchildren are growing up fast. Steph and Liz work hard to give them good experiences, and get them out and about, so they can appreciate all the opportunities afforded them living in two great cities. And at home, they play games, do baking together,  and much, much more. Weekends are full of fun. And we grandparents really appreciate seeing pictures of their activities and hearing from the children about what they have been doing. They have all had a busy January...

And what have I been doing? Cleaning up the high chair and travel cot. The children can sit properly on dining chairs at mealtimes, and they all sleep in beds now, so we won't need these anymore. Tomorrow these two items will be going to the Dereham [Ukraine] Aid Centre. I understand that they are dropping 'Ukraine' fromn their name now, as they provide aid to anyone in the community who needs it. 

I am so grateful for the years I have had these items, and been able to use them for our little ones. Now it is good to pass them on to bless other families.

Three Blind Mice

 Well, to be accurate, six headless mice! They do look a bit sinister...

I've progressed a little further - but completion was slightly delayed as I waited for the eyes. I've been using my original prototypes [or Adam and Eve as I have been calling them] as models for the outfits, and working on different costumes.
This is a definite learning curve. I have realised that the mice need a little bit of support to stand. 

As I don't want them lounging drunkenly against the walls of Museum, I have retrofitted their tails with lengths of green garden wire. These can then be bent into shape to support the mice. Future creatures will have the wires inserted earlier in the construction. This reel of wire was purchased at Gillingham SavaCentre,  in 1982. I used a few feet of it making a mobile to hang over the baby's cot.
Mr and Mrs Noah plus ark, and a few animals dangled and swung over baby Liz, and then Steph. I still have the felt ark somewhere!I have used the reel often since, so cannot complain that I have not had my money's worth [£1.45]
As I make these, I am considering carefully how I will make future animals for the shop. They are quite fiddly, and these are not as consistent as I'd like [but as they will be in six different rooms, and I'm not charging the Museum for them, that's ok.] 
I'm alarmed to see that some similar felt mice are on sale online for over £60. I would not dream of charging that much - maybe the people who make those need to cover the cost of their time as well as materials.
How is it July already? Where is the time going?

It's A Boy

Bob's God-daughter has just had her first baby. We haven't had a new baby in the family since Jacob over a year ago. I'm afraid I went into creative overdrive - knitting, sewing and cardmaking...

I stitched a card using a design from the little book of patterns which Kirsten sent as her 'flat gift' in with the cross stitch a couple of months back. I added a couple of words above the posy, and I am quite pleased with the result.

I'm less pleased with Royal Mail who have seem to have mislaid the September cross-stitch parcel posted to Kirsten on 27th September. 

Where can it be? We have exchanged nearly 40 parcels since we started this collaborative stitching project, and this is the first time one has gone astray. 

It was a few days before the postal charges went up, but even if it didn't have enough stamps, surely they would have been in touch with K for her to pay the difference by now? 

I shall have to take this baby parcel into the Post Office and pay for tracking I think. Another Norfolk village has featured on the BBC News for their postal problems recently

Bring Up the Bodies!

We had a fabulous time in London. I spent a lot of time on buses, ferrying Jess to and from nursery. This gave me a fair bit of 'thinking' time, in between singing [softly] Wheels On The Bus and other songs to keep her occupied.

Question 1 - bodysuits - for babies or adults? I get the point of them for Jess. They keep her tummy warm, they prevent her nappy from sagging. But not for fully grown women imho. I remember Donna Karan's fashion item in the eighties. The idea was that you got a 'sculptured look and smooth silhouette'.There were three basic sorts

• too long, so you got wrinkles not smooth lines
• too short, so you were incredibly uncomfortable all day
• with ineffective poppers- so you often returned from a trip to the loo, unaware that you had a tail flapping at the back, instead of being tucked in and popped shut

So no thank you, I'm not wearing them this time round!

Question 2 - packing - why is something ALWAYS omitted?

I put trainers and socks out, plus my sandals. It was hot the day we travelled- I wore my sandals - and left my shoes and socks at home. Thus Friday I was very cold, wet feet. Meanwhile Bob travelled in jeans and took shorts. The day we returned he wore his shorts- but left his jeans behind in London.

Question 3 - why does every baby's buggy have a different folding technique? Even the lovely staff member at the nursery who helped me get Jess ready had a struggle "I have two children myself - and neither of them had a buggy like this"

Especially good moments

1. Time with Bob to stroll in the city, enjoy art galleries, and eat falafels in the sunshine
2. Time to read stories with Jess, and teach her new nursery rhymes. 
3. Time to chat with Rosie about her school topic [Civil Rights] and hear her explain why she thinks Martin Luther King was a good man. 

Best remarks from the girls

As we struggled to persuade Jess to have a bath before bedtime, Rosie said "How can I help you with this, Grandma"

When I arrived at Nursery to collect Jess, she turned round, saw me in the doorway, and cried "Grandparents! Yay!" and threw her arms in the air. 

But now we are home again, and Julian is with us for a few days holiday. There was a parcel waiting in the box when we got home on Saturday afternoon. Someone had returned a couple of books Bob had lent - one contained this bookmark

'please return it as soon as you can' it says. They only had it about 10 years! Better late than never. I was aware these books were missing when we packed to move in 2015 [but assumed they were misplaced] then in Dorset looked for them again, and vaguely remembered lending them, but not to whom.

What is the longest you have waited for an item to be returned? 

 

Dinner Is On Me - Literally!

In the difficult days while my aunt was in hospital, and afterwards, my lovely daughters were eager to help however they could. "Please keep sending me pictures of the children to cheer me up!" I said. And bless them, they did! The cheeriest baby in Manchester is weaning now. For sometime he has been very interested in his brother's food. 

But he is really enjoying his own menus, and certainly makes mealtimes a whole-body experience!

Things My Children Have Taught Me This Summer

First - an update on Auntie Peggy. She was brighter than we'd expected. The change in meds clearly helped. It was good to see her and feel reassured. Thank you all for your concern

This is not a profound post in any way. Just a few observations about how childcare has changed in the last 40 years!

Safety gates - when Liz was a baby we lived in a flat and were very poor. Bob fitted plastic channels inside the door frames and we slid a piece of board in, to keep her in the room. One board, decorated with a Mickey Mouse poster fitted every doorway. "Don't put Mickey in!" was the bedtime lament. But it was effective, cheap and easy. 

In Manchester, there is a safety gate top and bottom of the stairs, and one at George's bedroom door. Every one is different! I had to remember which method to use as I went up and down stairs. 

And don't get me started on the different ways of folding buggies or fitting car seats! "No Grandad, that's not right!" says Rosie helpfully. Perhaps we need to pin up a copy of this poster 

It's not just us - we've seen others on Grands duty struggling in car parks to buckle up the child and get the buggy in the boot. 
But this summer I have picked up two very useful tips from my girls which I think are worth padding on. One you may use, the other I hope you never need. 

First - When you finish your day at the beach, and the tots' feet are all sandy, it takes forever to rinse and dry their toes. Liz taught me to put some baby powder on my hands and rub it over Rosie's feet. The sand and grit comes away easily, and socks slide back on, with no fuss. This tip works for grown up tootsies too! 

BTW, there has been much fuss in the USA about the safety of baby talc. Boots, like Johnson&Johnson now use a maize starch formula. I think the key thing is to avoid clouds of powder round the baby's face. And use a cream for nappy rash. 

Second tip - if you have children around, keep a jar of honey in the house. I knew that if a child swallows a tiny button battery, they need to get to hospital ASAP. Steph told me that you should feed the child 2tsps of honey every 10 minutes until you can get medical  treatment*. This helps reduce risk of serious injury and death. [*not suitable for babies under 12months]

As I said, I hope you never need to use this tip. But it is worth knowing and sharing. Too many children's toys rely on battery power imho, but that's a Rant for another day
My daughters are intelligent and resourceful young women. It is good that each generation can share wisdom with others. 

Reading The Signs

Steph and I went to the Trafford Centre on Monday morning. My first visit there for over 10 years. There were lots of stores to see, and signs to read. Perhaps I should have gone to Specsavers - I thought at first this was sewing happiness, and was a little disappointed to realise it was serving ice-cream** 

John Lewis haberdashery was really depleted compared to last time - so very little sewing happiness there either. The cushion was encouraging though

Steph and I were quite unfamiliar with some of the newer shops, and the fashion brands have such intriguing names. 

I thought Stradivarius made violins, and "Pull and Bear" sounds like some sort of instruction to engage in hard labour! 

This had to be the strangest name! Whatever do they mean by it? 

We also looked at - but did not buy - the bags of meringue sweets

Live lightly and brightly ✔️ Fair trade ✔️

Recyclable ✔️ Vegetarian ✔️

Gluten free ✔️ Natural colours and flavours ✔️

75% + white sugar? ? Not quite so good

There's a wonderful building firm locally, we've seen their vans out and about

In these days of national mourning, it lifts one's spirits to come across the cheerful name of "Rejoice and be clad" doesn't it? 

It takes ages to get round the shops when pushing the buggy - every other woman wants to look at Jacob and comment on how tiny he is, and how well Steph looks, considering she gave birth just 3 weeks ago. 

**As well as gelato, you can also buy 'rolled ice cream' which is a very strange concept [website here] but seems extremely popular amongst the Mancunians. 

Buttons, Bicycle, Baby

For my August contribution to the Postcard Project, I added two things. I found my box of Dorset Buttons in the loft, and decided to. make a few more. As I did the foundation ring, I was struck by the similarity to a bicycle wheel. Apart from that week of really hot weather, I've tried to do at least one ride a week since July [to the Library, Craft Group or Egg Farm]

So I stitched a bicycle - using two curtain rings for the framework, and a tiny black plastic button for the chain guard. And of course,  I had to stitch a small Aida banner declaring the details of Baby Jacob's arrival. My 'flat gift' for Kirsten was a card of my ”Blandford Cartwheel " Dorset Buttons.

Both of us have had a chaotic time recently, family wise, and agreed to have a Stitch-free September [our project, our rules] but now we are thinking that our postcards should acknowledge the Queen's passing this month in some way.

 

Jurassic Lark

George loves dinosaurs - in December we went to the Roarr! Dinosaur Adventure Park. I thought Jacob's bib and George's facecloth should have dino-designs. I went to Etsy and found the lovely Mermaid Embroidery site. An instantly downloadable design for my Memorycraft embroidery machine cost less than £2

I decided to try and simply stitch one  of the motifs from the cute picture. So I played around and practised the design on scrap fabric. I tried to be clever and flip the image, but that didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I also wanted to try a new idea I had read about for stitching on towelling.

. 

The problem is that the loops get caught into the work. I'd read that using water soluble film on top of the fabric helps

Instead of regular vilene underneath, I tacked some of this over the area where I planned to stitch. I chose the colours and set to work with the machine.

I think that this technique is a tip worth passing on to anyone who stitches onto towelling, The letters are clearly defined, and I'm extremely pleased with the results.

My Janome Machine is nearly 20 years old now, but still works a treat - apart from the facility which enabled me to design my own patterns. The software is completely out of date and I do not feel like shelling out £1600+ for a new machine . So the occasional £2 pattern purchase is not unreasonable. 95% of my output is bibs and facecloths after all, and I have plenty of motifs now.

Is there anybody out there, reading this, who regularly uses an embroidery machine for wonderfully complex, multicoloured designs? Do let me know [and which machine you have] I have yet to meet any 'home-sewer' who has an embroidery machine, I've only ever encountered professionals, demonstrating at sewing shows and in shops.