French Knots

Whoosh!

That was the sound of last week rushing by me.....a whirlwind of a week. Mr FK was away on his course again so it was just me and the children. Suddenly there seemed to be so much happening - a new after school football club for the Big Sister, swimming lessons, secondary schools to visit ( along with about 2000 other people) to help us start the process of applications and 11+ exams for the next year, choir practice, friends over for tea, costumes to be chosen and then made for the book themed day at school ( 2 days sewing a mediaeval style dress like Lucy from Prince Caspian and a Jolly Postman outfit!) apples to be picked from the tree, apple sauce and stewed apples frozen for the winter, new tyres bought for the car, the DJ booked for the PTA Christmas children's disco, spellings learnt, flapjack made for the Macmillan coffee morning .....no doubt pretty much like your week too!

When I stopped to draw breath I noticed a honey bee on the, still flowering, verbena bonariensis but by the time I grabbed the camera it had flown off. A busy bee too.

 

An exciting parcel arrived to cheer me up from the generousSuzie Sews with a wealth of goodies   

pegs,sparkly thread and a wonderful selection of brooches which have been much complimented in the playground. Thank you so much Suzie!

I must thank Rachel of Contented too as she solved the upside down screen problem, and I could be rather smug with my husband, for about 2 minutes, as he had fiddled around with it for about an hour and not been able to work out how to fix it and I'm certainly not known for my technical wizardry!

Speaking of which just look what Emma from Bagladee has put together for our swap   

feel free to use (a smaller version!) on your blog. Has everyone heard from their partners? We have one extra player who can steo in if their is a problem otherwise I will swap with her too.

Right off to tour another secondary school - I wish my school had had the amazing textile, art and technology departments they all seem to have these days, am I too old to apply for myself do you think?? - then a peacful afternoon enjoying the autumn sunshine. Have a lovely weekend!

Christmas swap partners

Typing at top speed as this post has vanished into the ether 3 times already, my wonderful linktastic post lost when the flammin broadband crashed again....and again...!

I have a great idea for what I'm going to make and I hope you do too. I suggest something that takes two or three evenings of creativity to finish so everyones gets a similar amount of swap goodness.

Please post by 19th Novemebr at the latest to allow time for the international parcels to arrive and if you are anything like me it will free up December for making presents for family and friends as somehow Christmas always creeps up on me! It might be a good idea to get a proof of posting in case anything goes missing in the busy Christmas post.

Please take a photo of your swap before you send it and email it me so I can do a showcase of swap lovliness in the New Year.

ok here we go...

Lynda and Kiona

Lucy Locket  and Vanessa 

Diana and Maxine

Sal  and   Claire P

Rachel L and  Lesley 

Angel Jem  and Suzie 

Camilla  and Kat

Karen T and Tea and Cake

Monique and Nicola  

Leslie and Solorn 

Anne and    Julia 

Maryanne and Periwinkle 

Tracey and French Knots

Ginny and   Kali 

Elizabeth and Bagladee 

Mary   and Frugal trenches    

If you have any problems with the swap- missed you out,changed your mind, links don't work etc- please let me know. I will email the partners contact details for the people who don't have a blog.

Happy swapping!

I have amended the links that were wrong so hopefully they should be working ok now. I have also emailed the contact details for the ladies without blogs to their partners, if you've not had the email please let me know...I'll assume no news is good news!

Quick one...

We changed our ISP this week and all I have to say is grrrr!! Have tried to write this post several times but it keeps crashing and throwing me off line.....oh yes and My Little Helper has done something to turn the contents of the screen upside down ( if anyone knows how to get it back the right way round I would love to know!) so anyway....

Thanks so much to everyone who wants to join in the Christmas swap, I'm really excited. There are 30 of us participating and I'll get the children to draw partners this weekend.

Just a couple of things I want to check -

Does anyone mind posting internationally?

Does anyone not want a blogless partner? My thoughts are that while a blog is great to see what someone likes and would appreciate for their gift it is not essential, perhaps flickr photos could give a feel for their lifestyle and taste. 

Please email me and I'll bear any preferences in mind when partnering you up.   

If anyone else wants to join in please get in touch and I'll post the partners ( ISP willing !) on Monday.

I'm off to enjoy this lovely sunny day.

Christmas Swap

I know it's a bit early for the Christmas word! I wondered if anyone would like to indulge in a little Christmas swap ? Hopefully I wont be the only one, but if I am it wont be much fun!

I thought it would be nice to send a handmade gift, a softie, mini quilt, stitchery, pincushion, bag or whatever you enjoy making, to someone else as a surprise present for the holidays. Getting started early and posting by mid November means that it should arrived in good time for the big day. I like the idea of presents made with love and care winging round the world to blogging friends. Tangible evidence of our virtual friendships.

If anyone is interested please leave a comment and I'll get organising.

Friday

 

So pleased to see My Little Helper taking after me! It's a picture of 'Daddy and me in bed, Daddy's snoring'......no change there then!

Where has this week gone! Considering I have 6 hours a day to myself I seem to have little to show for this week's 30 hours, bit of shopping, errand running and tidying but other than that I'm not sure where the days have gone. I need to get used to being alone again after 6 weeks of the children being at home but even with a list ( and how I love a list!) the days are frittered away, pottering. Ah well ,there's always next week!

 

I found a rare moment of near sunshine while walking earlier this week and snapped this rose. I'm trying to walk more for short errands to save petrol and money but also to increase my activity levels which will slump from low to non-existent as winter approaches.  How do you change from season to season? I feel the need to hibernate and cook hearty casseroles as winter takes hold, longing for summer sun, which we missed out on this year. Are you a sun lover or does your heart leap at the first signs of spring? 

Hoping for a weekend with a little autumn sun to encourage me to mow the lawn and tackle the weeds in my flower bed, enjoy your weekend whichever season you are in! 

Knitting makeover

 

It was a terrible orange when I paid the princely sum of £2 at the car boot sale, of course it had to have a revamp. Goodness it was fiddly! If I paint wicker again it will be with spray paint.

 

Love found on the playground

 

burgeoning late summer hollyhock

 

our weekend walk

I'm lovin' my new camera, learning all the time but finding it hard to remember it all as it does everything apart from cook dinner!

Can you hear it?

.............the silence. The clock is ticking and I can hear the whirring of the computer innards but that is all. For the first time in six weeks all is quiet at this time of the morning. We have enjoyed the hols with sewing, swinging, paddling, squelching, reading, baking, film watching plus some bickering, arguing and grumping thrown in to see how much Mummy can take before she locks herself in the loo!

We had a facinating day out at the Green drops and moonsquirters exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery

 

I think I enjoyed it more than the children! Lots of great activites and lifesize versions of the wonderful illustrations. From dressing up to computer art work it was well thought out.

 

While we were there we visited some of the other exhibitons and one that really touched me was an arrangement of old suitcases and luggage with blank luggage labels for you to write  ' where would you most like to be'. Many, many people had done so and attached them all over the cases, some poignant some fun I added mine to them and tucked it between two cases, a special place I would like to be.

So I will try and savour the silence and look forward to the return of my two, fast growing up, children. If your house is silent for the first time I hope you are finding the transition to school  life as easy as our children.

Last to know?

Some people just seem to know about techy things, I'm not one of them. So when I find something I had been wishing for already exists I am disproportionatly happy!

We are on AOL and had been talking about changing to a cheaper option ( it's all about budgeting here these days) but I didn't want to loose my hundreds of favourites - tutorials, shopping sites, recipes, gardening tips etc. Then this week I discovered Delicious, the solution! I saw it as a button on someone's blog and wondered what it was, now I have my own page there and have been saving urls like a demon. I love the way you can tag things so that it makes it easy to find what you are after. And also to nosy at what other people, who like the same stuff as me, have saved too.

   

I have been playing with my new camera, especially with the depth of field, so of course needed to subscribe to a few more blogs to help.Digital Photography School is proving the best so far with really clear explanations of shutter speeds, DoF,ISO and their relationships, I've hardly scratched the surface as there is so much great info, worth a look if you want to move beyond 'Auto'!    

Have a weekend filled with savouring the small details.

Ta da!!

And the winner is..............................

Michelle Rosborough! Please drop me an email Michelle so I can get your prize in the post, the comment you left doesn't have a link in it. Thank you for all your comments, it's always great to find some new blogs to visit too.

The prize is one of my draught excluders ( unless I discover that Michelle lives in the tropics!) as so many of us are thinking about living a cost efficient life these days I thought it would be handy to keep the December draughts out. It's made from a recycled pair of jeans and decorated with some fabric I picked up from the remnant bin recently. I'm going to make some more to make sure I'm toasty warm this winter - which seems to be fast approaching despite the non appearance of summer this year.

I've been buying old woollen blankets to line the door curtain and curtains too as we live in an old house which is prone to draughts, I shall be hibernating in front of the wood burner with my knitting from Autumn onwards.

Amazing

My Little Helper asked for the stabilisers to be taken off his bike, we did and he got on and rode it. Just.like.that!

 Amazing!

My big boy, racing away,

And the sun came out this afternoon, almost as amazing!