French Knots

Pottering week

A low key half term for us, bit of baking, park visiting, some crafting and dvd watching. Naturally we had to buy HSM three and watch it several times, we also bought Sky High which was really entertaining. In fact My Little Helper would have done nothing but watch it all week! Throw in a growth scan ( all well, just the size it should be for 29 weeks) and the week off was gone in a laid back and pottering flash!

    

I finished sewing my little squares together, I'm glad it is a pram blanket and not a king size - some of the seams will not take close inspection!

A friend kindly showed me how to crochet an edging, now I have the crochet bug and see some granny squares in the near future.

The robot was eventually stuffed, (once the bag of stuffing had been unearthed - the sewing room is undergoing a transformation into a new bedroom and smaller sewing room so everything is goodness knows where ) and sent off along with a couple of kind contributions from friends too. Whilst I know giving money is probably the most practical way to help it feels good to send tangible evidence of our concern.

Hope your week has got off to a good start, the children were surprisingly keen to get into school this morning, must have had enough of my company!

Small bit of love

The world is such a small place, connecting with people half way round the world via our blogs has made it smaller still. The horrifying news about the bushfires in Australia,all the people affected are in our thoughts. I looked at my children and imagined for a moment how they would fare without their beloved cuddlies. 

If enough of us send a small bit of love perhaps it will help a little.

    

Just needs stuffing then will be ready to post to The Toy Society.

You can also help with donations and packages at

 Rainbow comfort packs   

Handmade Help

Red Cross  (UK)

WIP

 

Some squares in different stitches, mainly the same size..ish! Need to read up on finishing techniques so I can make my little blanket. Cotton cashmere has not been a joy to knit with, very splitty, so I foresee the need for more chocolate ahead as I try to crochet a border.

Some days....

it has to be chocolate

 

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....................now I've got heartburn......................off to find the Rennies!

Lovely white stuff

You can tell from the glow behind the curtains that the magical snowfall has turned the world white. I love the way it illuminates the sky and paints the landscape fresh and bright. The children were out in the garden before school making the most of it, we only have a few inches here but certainly enough to enjoy.

The morning chorus of children passing on their way to school had a different sound to it, giggles and laughter as a selection of brightly coloured woolly hats made their way past the window. Snowballs whizzed across the playground and there was a holiday atmosphere as the children enjoyed the novelty of proper snow.

   

Yes it makes driving hazardous and slows the world down, seemingly to halt in some parts of the country, but I love it. Soft, powdery and new.

 

Leftover Pie

I have been reading the forums on money saving expert for tips and ideas and have found a thread about finishing off leftovers in the Money Saving Old Style section, which is basically an area of the forum about being thrifty, a bit make do and mend. I've been trying to use food up before it gets past it's best, especially fruit and veg, to cut down on waste. Usually there are a few oddments rolling around in the fridge and pantry, today I had cheese and some french bread that needed using up. Cheese sarnies, while tasty, wouldn't really cut it for dinner.

     

So I grated the cheese, melted it into milk, added a few beaten eggs and poured to over the thinly sliced bread. A sort of savoury bread pudding.Very tasty served with beans, the children wolfed it down!

Has anyone noticed a problem with Typepad comments? They seem to have changed things, not for the better of course. When someone leaves a comment now it often takes me to their profile page which doesn't always have a blog/email contact so it's hard to reply. Having a conversation with you is half the fun,no I don't like change! 

A little light reading

 

What a lovely stack of inspiration, these are keeping me company at the moment. The great thing about books for Christmas is the weeks and months of pleasure they give. I've earmarked projects in Sew Fabulous Fabric and Childhood Treasures but will have to wait a while to get started as my sewing room is undergoing a transformation. Mr FK is building a couple of walls to split it into a nursery and little sewing room, such a treat to still have my own little space even if it might be a bit neglected after May! The Cath Kidston Make book is my least favourite, nothing in it really grabbed me.

So while the building work is going on upstairs I have been knitting instead, some little squares to make a pram blanket trying out different stitches. Some are a bit wonky but I'm working on the basis that once it's been sicked on and through the washer a few times I'm not going to notice.

 

These lovely dpns were also a Christmas present, thanks to my lovely ( but blogless) friend Amanda. I find wooden needles much easier to knit with and now have them in every size I might need - more hats and socks to come I think. No surprises there!

Some advice too please. I have a great, woollen, stripey rug in lovely zingy colours that I got from a fellow freecycler in perfect nick apart from the fact that the end is fraying. I think I need to bind it with something to stop it getting any worse but amguessing I'd need to stitch it by hand as it's pretty chunky. Unless any one knows of an iron on wide thingy that would do the trick?!

Hope you are having an inspired and cheerful start to the week.

Sun at last

A lovely sunny day here has put me in the mood to get things done. As yet another dose of illness had me under the weather again last week (after months of one thing after the other and a total lack of appetite I now weigh the same as I did when I got pregnant 24 weeks ago) , a veerryy slow computer and typepad eating half written posts put me off writing anything for a while today was the day to get back in my groove. The sun just seems to lift my spirits and give me some energy, much welcome after grey damp days.

Thanks for all the photo love on my last post, they were taken at Beaumaris on Anglesey between Christmas and New Year on a freezing cold but wonderfully bright day.

Have been doing well with my cost control goal apart from a little blip in the wool shop

    

Such amazing, zinging colours had to come home with me! At least they were in the sale, it's silk and really soft to the touch and no, I| haven't a clue what I'm going to do with it.

Other than that my spotty jug keeps me on the straight and narrow

I stuff all the household shopping receipts in it and than have a grand tally up at the end of the month. I did this all last year too and it reinforces how much is actually spent, handing over a debit card still doesn't feel like spending money. Once I've got my monthly total I divide it by the number of days in the month to compare on a like for like basis ( I know, how sad....must be hankering for the days when I was working and a ran a £40million budget!) I aim for £10 per day for food and household stuff which is about right for us I think. I stockpile when things we use a lot are on special offer so my pantry is groaning under the weight of cartons of orange juice and passata at the moment.

Right might just fit in a walk in the sun before collecting the children...... hope the sun is shining on you too.

2009

 

I love the New Year, an empty year stretching ahead waiting to be filled like the pages of a new journal. One of the reasons I love blogging is the record it makes of family life, the small everyday things that are so easily forgotten but are so precious.

 

Once the flu had passed we had a lovely family Christmas, visitors and visiting, lots of food, new bike riding, new guitar strumming, film watching and just hanging out together. 

Today feels like a fresh start as the decorations come down ( I'm a bit superstitious so even though the tree came down at the weekend (thank goodness for wooden floorboards that are easy to sweep) and I've taken the rest of the decorations down today, 12th night. So the house is relatively clean and tidy, as long as the doors to the children's bedroom doors are shut! All ready for a fresh start to the year.

2009 promises to be an exciting year as our family grows and we welcome the new baby in the spring. Knowing it will be a challenging year I'm not going to set myself up for failure with a raft of resolutions but I have some goals that I'm going to keep in mind this year

Allotment - I'm not expecting too much this season as bending will be a bit of a problem in the spring (!) but anything we grow will be a bonus. The children really enjoy it, they think it's a bit like Time Team digging for treasure and are really excited at all the bits of china and clay pipe that they dig up. My Little Helper wants to grow potatoes so he can make chips! Hmm not quite the healthy approach I had in mind.

Crochet - 2008 was the year I learnt to knit properly and 7 pairs of socks later my enthusiasm has not waned. So this year I want to learn to crochet, I see a ripple blanket or granny square blanket in my future.....possibly quite a few years in the future!

Simple living - drive less, walk more, get back into meal planning, tackle the clutter hotspots (like the tottering pile of papers on top of the fridge)  no spend days and to address the cash trickle, you know when you get £30 out of the cash machine and somehow it trickles out of your purse without you really knowing what you've spent it on.

Happy New Year to all of you. May 2009 bring you peace and happiness.x   

Merry Christmas

What better way to get ready for Christmas than to get the flu and spend 10 days in bed?! Achey, shivery, snotty and a soaring temperature - perfect. It's certainly helped me let go of my control freak tendancies as Mr FK and the children set out for the tree the gleam in his eye told me it would be a huge one....and it was, perfect, bushy and yes, huge! Then they decorated it and put the other twinkly bits up around the house.

Even through my stuffed up nose the fresh evergreen smell of Christmas cheered me up. Then he got it too and so did My Little Helper, we love to share.

Luckily I had taken part in a magazine swap organised by Periwinkle and my partner Kellie had really spoilt me with an amazing selection of magazines

     

which kept me company in bed. I've got lots of ideas for next Christmas.

We put together a mega shopping list for lucky Mr FK and were discussing what else needed doing ' don't forget to collect the turkey from the butchers'.....'oh no' said My Little Helper 'not turkey again, we had that last year!'  

Thank you to everyone who visits me here at French Knots, I really appreciate it. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas with those you love.xx