Come rain, come shine

What ever the weather the little man gets taken on a walk every day, sometimes just the once but usually at least twice - once during Daddy's shift in the morning and once during mine on an afternoon. I find it is a good cure for the dreaded afternoon grizzles and the blast of fresh air does everyone good. Today we decided to document our favourite route ... the Talybont loop.

Ready for the off ...



Round by the pretty church ...



Up the lane ...



Past a house I'd like to live in, the one on the left. Sewing room on the top floor, window seat in the bay window, greenhouse out the back (you get the idea!) ...



Over the bridge ...



To say hello to the fishes in the stream ...



We get very excited when we say hello to the fishes ...



Then past Mummy's other dream house which is in the process of being renovated and stripped of its character. They pulled down a victorian glass house/conservatory that was on one side of this cutie ... next the plastic windows will go in ... grrr!



I think it is the symmetry of the place that I love. It is how you would draw a house as a child and I think it would definately suit some roses round the door ...



Then is is a quick scoot round to the playground ...



For a quick swing swing ...



Before it is back home for a well earned cuppa and a sit down. Phew!

Toodle pip
J
x

I'm a lucky lady

Just a quick post to say I got a lovely pressie today from t'other half - a no specific reason, just an 'I saw this and thought of you' pressie. The best kind!



It is a book of cute Japanese baby makes - little toys, clothes and storage thingies designed by Aranzi Aronzo. It has things like a nappy holder with appliqued poo on it! Erm ok :) Maybe not - but some of the other designs are fab. It looks really fun and a bit bonkers, especially with the translated instructions.

More things to add to my long to make list. Which reminds me, enough of playing computer and on with some knitting!

Toodle pip!
J
x

Sowing the seeds

I grabbed a quick half hour in the garden this afternoon. Things are starting to sprout (including the weeds!) and things are looking a little less soggy and bleak out there.

The first plant to be called into active production this year, as usual, will be my favourite - rhubarb.



I have three active plants and if the harvest is anything like last year I'll be stocking the freezer and no doubt be calling upon the Nigella archives again to help me use up the crop in something other than rhubarb crumble. Rhubarb ice cream anyone?

Then I popped these little beauties in - just cheapy supermarket ones this year...



Can you see where I'm going here? I have a vision of a colourful sweet pea pyramid cascading gently next to the path and providing me with daily batches of lovely scented blooms to put in my various little jugs on window sills round the house. Well a girl can dream can't she? Last year slugs ate most of them and the rest got toppled by strong winds but this year maybe my luck will be in!

I also planted a batch of salad leaves, leeks, beetroot, courgette and thyme. No photos as they are just pots of mud at the moment - Dave calls pots of mud my speciality as I'm awfully good at them and every sowing I usually end up with several duds!

Toodle pip
J
x

Mothers day

Just a quickie to blog my mothers day pressies. I had a little lie in this morning followed by an extra squidge from the little man - and these lovelies ...



A daffodil hand picked from the garden and a box of rose and violet creams ... yum, yum! Unfortunately, Dave is working today so the full princess day will have to take a rain check.

At playgroup this week the older kids had been making paper flowers in a vase for their mums, the ladies that run the group didn't want those of us with babies too small to get involved in the crafty stuff to feel left out so they made us one too...



Sweet huh? I can't wait to receive real hand made craft goodies from the little man, or even better join in the fun myself! Happy mothers day to all the other mums out there.

Toodle pip
J
x

And the moral of the story is...

Never leave the house without your handbag! I popped out to fetch Dave from work this evening, a twenty minute round trip that I do one way or another on most days. I literally just scooped up baby and grabbed the car keys on my way out - as I normally do. Sometimes I do the run still in my slippers, not tonight - thank gawd!

20 minutes later and I'm sat in the supermarket car park just up the road from the Uni with a very poorly car :( A giant pop was heard while negotiating a dastardly speed bump, followed by grinding noises from beneath the beast and bits of car related debris scattered in the road - arghghghgh!

But without my handbag I didn't have my breakdown details on me, I didn't know the postcode of my location to tell the breakdown people where I was (lots of spelling of welsh road names required), and I didn't have identity on me to prove who I was when the recovery man eventually turned up - no boy scout award for me this evening, 'be prepared' ?? erm what!?

Thankfully Dave had his mobile on him so I was able to 'straight through' 118 118 and get the number for the AA to request a rescue. Simple enough you would think? Oh, no. My car insurance that I bought from the AA in December came with free breakdown cover - but the muppets couldn't find any of my details on their system (breakdown and insurance are two different sections who clearly don't communicate with one another). They wanted to charge me £120 just to come and take a look. What? No way hosay. By this time R was wailing, he was hungry and tired and wondered why his Mummy was getting all cross in the middle of a strange car park instead of taking him home to bed. A quick breast feed to shut the munchkin up and then onto plan B - ring the RAC. I knew there was a good reason I 'forgot' to cancel my old breakdown cover from my previous car! So finally we had someone willing to consider coming out and rescue us, just the usual hour and half wait to sit through - by this time we'd called in Dave's Dad to come and rescue the little man and get him home to bed.

So two and a half hours later I'm half frozen, starving and I apparently have a shattered coil on one of my front wheels which means the car had to be towed to the village garage to await what no doubt will be a hideously expensive repair.

Sigh. It has been quite an evening.

Toodle pip
J
x

Spring is in the air ... and I've got a new bucket!

Fridays are my favourite day of the week! They are our only dedicated family day when neither of us ever has to go into work. So, even when they are filled with numerous boring jobs and a spot of housework, and even when I feel slightly groggy due to a bit of a sniffle coming on, they remain the best day of the week.

Today was particularly nice because of the sunshine. First up was my favourite domestic task - I absolutely love pegging out laundry ...



Next up was a trip into town to purchase various bits and bobs, we dropped by the garden centre for potting compost and I just had to have one of these fab green buckets! A total impulse buy - but at 99p I've hardly broken the bank :)



Post lunch we tackled a thorough house clean and tidy round - we have a house viewing tomorrow morning so we need the place to be spick and span. Then while Dave and his little helper baked bread and mowed the lawn I tackled sorting out the garden shed. Over winter it had deteriorated into complete chaos so it needed a thorough spring clean out. No before shots unfortuntely - but here is the work in progress...



There are still a few boxes of 'misc' crap in there but it now looks a lot less like a bombsite...



And to top it all off this evening I've sat ebay listing a pile of clothes I can no longer fit into post baby. The plan is if I make enough money I will invest in something crafty - probably a batch of wool to make myself something funky that fits.

Talk about productivity overload - time for bedfordshire me thinks.

Toodle pip
J
x

Kerchoo!

It seems that a seven and a half month old baby will only let you do your own thing for a short time before they demand rather loudly that you come and play with them, feed them, cuddle them or take them for a walk etc. So, on days when I'm at home with the little man my day time crafting has to fit into about ten minute slots. These handbag tissue holders are perfect:



I ran one up yesterday in muted colours for my Mum to pop in with her mothers day card. And then today I was inspired by piece of hot pink needle cord I picked up in the charity shop for a quid so I made one for myself. Unfortunately, the hot pink inner doesn't really show on the photo!



It was a good charity shop day today as I also bagged a pair of brand new Monsoon curtains - fully lined in a cute little boys boat print. Kerching!

Toodle pip
J
x

Hats off

I've had a couple of hours quality time with the sewing machine today which has resulted in R getting a much needed new hat! During a recent blog hop I saw a pattern for a seriously cute urchin hat over on Mushroom Villagers. I recycled an old off cut of denim lurking at the bottom of my fabric basket and ta da!



My creation didn't quite go according to plan and I ended up with one of the bands sitting below the peak instead of inside - but it kinda works and I'm chuffed with the result. Here he is again driving his cardboard box train ...



Toodle pip.
J
x

Work blues

I've had one hell of a few days - driven more miles than I dare to think about, coaxed into life the deepest recesses of my still baby fuddled grey matter, and I've even worn heels for the first time in 18 months - and all for one big fat disappointment :(

To explain, we've been having a bit of a life review at the patch recently. Our findings were threefold...

1. My own job, which brings in the bulk of our family income, is looking ever increasingly wobbly due to the uncertainties of project funding and I don't really fully enjoy what I do anymore as I'm on the fringes of the profession I trained for.

2. Dave hates his job and gets paid absolute peanuts.

3. We want to move up North somewhere to be nearer my folks.

So, after much naval gazing and probably far too much thinking/discussing (one of our very bad habits as a couple) we decided to capitalise on my earning power and put me out on the professional job market again, earmarking Dave to become a full time stay at home daddy for R once I found something. It wasn't an easy decision - muchos guilt about potentially not being a proper Mum to R, reality check that I was never going to be one of those lucky Mums able to knit, sew and bake cakes for a living while being a kept woman, plus lots of puzzled faces from the nearest and dearest who think I really have the best of both worlds at the moment by working part time. But, I'm a security first type of gal and the uncertainty over my future job situation and stress about the money not going far enough was getting me down. Decision made - now I just had to get my head round the whole job market madness again.

I saw the perfect job instantly and things moved really fast. But, to cut a long story short, things were not to be this time round and I'm gutted. The job was great, the Uni was great (full of fresh feeling energy and a 100% female senior management team!), and the location was perfect - one of our top two places on the wish list. The worst thing was that I was great too. I got 100% brilliant feedback after my interview - I'd really proved myself able to get back into proper work head mode and then some - so to then be told you really impressed us but unfortunately we had to give the job to someone else was a real bummer.

Oh well, pack away the violins ... enough feeling sorry for myself and back to scanning those job pages.
Toodle pip
J
x

Flower power

Well, where did that time go? It feels like ages since I've found the time to sit down and blog what we've been up to. It has been a mad couple of weeks - what with house viewings (lots of housework required!), writing killer job applications, visiting family and getting back into the swing of things at work. Phew!

Last weekend we went for a long weekend up in Yorkshire visiting with my Mum - Reu was a little charmer and was very well behaved for his Nana. We were going to get her to babysit and head out for our first few hours 'baby free' time but I was feeling grotty with a cold so I chose a decent lie in instead ... in a house with gas central heating. Bliss!

Reu enjoyed the chance to play with his cousins ...



He heard one of Aunty Nettie's piano recitals (complete with yodelling provided by Nana) ...



And of course we all got to go out for lunch ...



While we were there I delivered my latest two commissions. Miss K had requested a big knitted flower for a hat she found too plain. Well, no longer my friend - here is the resulting jazzed up hat modelled by little Reu (too cute!) and his lucky Aunty...



R found modelling the hat hilarious, or maybe that was just us and he felt obliged to join in all the giggling...



The second commission will have to wait till another post as I forgot to gather the crucial photographic evidence.

Toodle pip
J
x