French Knots

Christmas 2011

So Mr FK got tendonitis and a foot swollen like a sausage for Christmas and I got a pinched nerve in my neck, lucky us! Thank goodness for ibuprofen :) My Little Helper got up at 4am and we manged to keep him penned in our bed till nearly 5am before he woke his sister, then downstairs for stockings and presents.  A lovely day, lots of cooking and eating repeated on Boxing Day with more family coming round. Then mainly sitting about waiting for Mr FKs foot to improve, plus a Drs visit then a quick trip to hospital for an xray - on such dark rainy days it's no trouble to snuggle up inside and play Uno, watch family films and chill out.

While rummaging around in the eaves for the Christmas decorations we came across a big blue Ikea bag, these vintage red velvet curtains were inside - we've been here nearly 11 years and they've not been used since we lived in our other house. What a find! They look fab in the kitchen over the french windows keeping the winter chills out.

Also in the bag were a pair of curtains made from some very old floral Sanderson fabric, High Summer, which I have no memory of what so ever! They are being remade and lined with old blankets for the living room as they go perfectly with the greenyblue walls. Thrifty me! What better bargain than using something you already own? I'm looking at our furniture with fresh eyes and planning some more thrifty makeovers in the New Year to cheer me up once all the decorations come down.

 

Merry Christmas

There has been a lot of making going on, mostly secret for now till presents have been given. Shopping is done, wrapping too and just some baking to do tomorrow. Time to relax! Except Mr FK has torn some ligaments in his foot and it's puffed up like a sausage so I'm doling out medicine and The Baby Brother keeps him supplied with cushions to rest it on.

The perfect excuse for us to all cuddle up and watch a Christmas film after today's Advent activity - making reindeer food. Bit of knitting, light the wood burner, ignore the rain outside and pretend it's snowy instead sounds like the best way to relax into Christmas.

Thank you all for visiting French Knots this year, it's been a busy and exciting one and I truly appreciate your comments and company.xx

 

Simple Advent Calendar

On Thursday it will be December, so this week my thoughts have turned to my annual advent calendar planning.

I have a string of decorated envelopes that are pegged onto ribbon, with a slip of paper in each announcing that day's activity or treat. The children enjoy taking it in turns to open the envelope and see what is inside. I do plan the more complex or time consuming things for the weekends so we have the time to enjoy them and the quicker things for busy after school weeknights.

It would be easy to make your own, either with decorated envelopes like mine or slips of paper tucked into a fabric advent calender. Activities range from a visit to the Christmas Market, decorating the tree, making salt dough ornaments or Reindeer food, colouring Christmas pictures or filling in a Christmas crossword.

Of course we have the annoying chocolate type too, otherwise there would be a riot!

Woooosh!

I love Bonfire Night! The smell of the fireworks, the weesh of the rockets and the aahhs of the appreciative audience.

Of course you have to write your name with the sparklers 

Even if you are too little to know how to write yet! Not so little any more though as he's started playgroup 2 mornings a week, he loves it and I must admit I do too. I dash to the Studio and get some work done guilt free. It's got much busier than I thought it would and squeezing in workshops planning and preparation, buying materials, writing tutorials for magazines (eekk!) and taking the accompanying photos, printing leaflets, building a website etc etc all takes time I haven't really got. So I need to fit it into my two 2 hour child free slots a week. No problem!

I've learnt so many thing over the last few month building the business but one of the most satisying was creating the website, the hosting company are brilliant and made it all so easy even I could do it! Just need to stock the shop with more goodies, well actually make the first but you know what I mean. Do take a look if you have a moment and let me know what doesn't work :)  www.frenchknots.co.uk

Guess what this is? One of the 4 amazing Pfaff sewing machine I have in the Studio now for people to use, I could spend all day in there playing with them myself. I'm also selling the sewing machines so if someone fancies taking one home with them after a workshop they can. Perfect!

I have several 'back of an envelope'  lists on the go at once, plans for new workshops, new magazine tutorials, new things I want to make. Woosh! It's all good!

 

Thrifty Thursday

I've mentioned before that a local church have a Coffee & Jumble every Thursday morning, The Baby Brother and I both enjoy going. He likes smiling at people so they give him one of the biscuits and enjoys choosing a car from the toy table. I like rummaging through the curtains and table cloths and finding some cheap treasure to bring home. This week I bought this little jam or sugar jar even though it's lid is missing, it's such a lovely shade of teal I couldn't leave it behind and it was only 20p. 
A pretty Midwinter cake stand for 50p

 
and best of all a pair of jolly floral curtains for my kitchen

 
I lashed out £2 on these, they are very long but will still need a bit of something extra to make them fit my french window, I'm going to line them with a blanket so we'll be toasty warm this winter. I think they are barkcloth, the roses are such perfect autumn colours and will brighten up my kitchen perfectly.

It was my Dad's 70th last week and some of us got together in the soft autumn sunshine to help him celebrate. My Littlest Sis and I indulged in a few cheeky glasses of afternoon wine - what a treat! And the boys young and old enjoyed playing trains

 
 
Chugga chugga choo choo!!

Grow Your Own

The joy of being able to pop over to the allotment and gather an armful of flowers, so glad I made a little cutting patch. My Little Helper scattered some seeds earlier in the year and we have been rewarded with lovely flowers almost for free.

 
 
Many of the crops were less successful, the slugs ate the squash plants, the sparrows had the pea seedlings, the potatoes have some sort of wormy infestation.......thank goodness for simple flowery pleasures! 

ps have launched the new Autumn and Winter Workshops over here if you fancy a nosy - crochet, hand sewing, jewellery making, sewing machine skills, photography and some Christmas goodies to make too!

Summer

After the end of term whirl settled into the luxury of no deadlines or clockwatching we headed off with our caravan to the Isle of Wight. Even the journey was exciting for the children as we boarded the ferry. 'Boat!' said The Baby Brother 

 
We had almost three weeks of lazing around, playing on the beach and in the sea making the most of the warm sun. My Little Helper soon had a group of friends who raced about the field beside the site playing wonderful games and enjoying the freedom to chase each other in the warm dusk of evening. 'Playing zombies' he said when called for bedtime. Of course! The Big Sister and her friends became Uno addicts, playing most evenings when everyone was back from their days adventuring.

 
We watched the carnival procession,visited a country show ate ice cream and explored the island.

 
So many different sorts of beaches on a small island, sandy, pebbly, peaceful and windswept.And some heaving with people with hardly an inch of sand to sit on! The children all took to the waves with their bodyboards and we swam in the inviting sea.

 
Even The Baby Brother enjoyed standing on his (slightly broken but inherited from his big brother, so therefore coveted) in the shallows.

 
 
 

 

You can never have too much beach time! We have washed the sand from between our toes and I have washed a mountain of dirty clothes and spent the rest of the holiday playing with friends, visiting the park, bouncing on the trampoline and bike riding.And rather too much whinging and arguing, in case you think this sounds rather Pollyannaish!

 
Oh yes, and sorting gravel too!

Mr FK

My blog burbles on about my children, crafting, crochet, gardening and cooking but doesn't often mention Mr FK unless he is undertaking some physical job that I can't do like climbing on the roof to pick apples!

Today he did something brave and amazing that makes me so, so proud of him. He stood up,quite literally, in front of a lot of people, for something we both think is right in the face of daunting and intimidating opposition.  He was shouted down by some parties but stood his ground with dignity.

To act with integrity is not always the easy path but after knowing him for over 25 years his actions today have made me quite weepy and emotional with pride and respect for him.

Remember I love you Mr FK.x  

Spring memories

Thank you to everyone who gave their thoughts on my workshop post, I'm going to follow up on them later this week. And do the draw for the World Book Night book. Just a quick post today..... 

 

A lovely bright morning today so The Baby Brother and I headed to the allotment, it was tranquil and pretty much deserted. I felt so lucky to be there on a Tuesday morning rather than sitting at a desk in a dull office watching the sunshine longingly through the window.

We passed the only other person there as we wandered down to our plot,an older lady hoeing, she smiled and we stopped to chat, no need to rush when the day is your own to spend as you wish. She commented on The Baby Brother wonderful blonde hair and how like her own little boy he looked and a look of such longing appeared on her face. Thinking of time long ago that she spent with her son, seeing the wonders of nature through his eyes, his pleasure in a stone and a bit of soil.

We did a bit of digging on our plot then sat in the sun on the path to eat a biscuit and chat about the birds we could see.No need to rush anywhere, time to sit and just be with him. I stored up the moment in my heart for the years ahead when I gaze longingly at sweet little blonde haired toddlers and remember......

Of course after a morning hard at work with the spade it's no surprise he's a bit tired

 
Even if I don't grow a single pea or potato on my allotment this year it has already given me the best of gifts.  

Chatty Boy

 
The Baby Brother helped me tidy up a bit in the garden, sadly nothing we could do to improve the boggy mud patch that used to be a lawn.

 
He's going to be two in a few months (!) and is full of energy and interest, if something is there well obviously it's to climb on and jump off. He's full of beans all day and has decided he doesn't want a nap - sadly as I'm not full of beans ( perhaps he has mine) I'd love it if he still had a nap! And those chairs are past their best aren't they!

 
But an afternoon out in the sunshine is to be relished, looking for signs of spring to come - soon please! He is especially keen on words beginning with B boo ( book), bore ( ball), bur ( bird), quite a few burs flew over the garden so there was a lot of excited squealing and unsurprisingly the burs chose not to land in our noisy garden. He also loves to walk down our road pointing out all the cars, 'car!' two steps later 'car!' another couple of steps ' car!', his enthusiasm for the every day is infectious.

Then it was back inside for some boo reading

 

and lots of snuggles. Perfect!