Hello Again..............(Part 3)

Here we are again....this time it is the turn of April...you've guessed it, busy, busy, busy!

We still had our house guest (Mum-in-Law), in fact she stayed until after Easter.  We also had Easter holidays and 2 very special birthdays!

We kick-started Easter with a Bonnet Parade at school.....they were all so sweet!  Here is our simple little creation made in a panic the night before from 2 sheets of 12"x12" scrapbooking paper and an Hawaiian garland!

And here is a little lady sporting it at the school parade..........

It might have been very simple compared to some of the other wonderful creations, but....she loved it!

Later on in the holidays it was Tiddly Toes and Mum-in-Laws birthday, yes the same day!  Tiddly Toes was really happy that Grumps came for the weekend and got the surprise of her life when we unveiled her present....a 'Bounce-line'!

We threw a little family party for them both, one of the attendees was my utterly gorgeous God-Daughter, Tiny Angel.  Here they are together Bounce-line-ing!!!!

How sweet is that?

Tiddly Toes had also specified a Mimmie Mouse (that's Minnie Mouse to the rest of us!) cake...oh my life! How do I do that, I thought?!  Well, this is what I came up with.............

...and thankfully it went down a storm!  I also made it following my no fat recipe but proportioned the mix for 6 eggs. I simply printed spotty paper from the computer and used the giant cupcake mould base as a template and stuck black paper ears on cocktail sticks....ribbon courtesy of my stash!

I also had to show you this........

It's a VERY tight neck-squeeze from Tiny Angel.... what can I say?  It's love..........mutual!!!!!!

Not forgetting the other special lady of the day, Mum-in-Law...........

Snapped here in her very trendy jeans opening a pressie.

Once the party was over and a few days later, the house guests left, my mind turned to all the crafting, blogging and housework that had been overlooked (yes, in that order!)

My get up and go had got up and gone, so DO-ing wasn't top of my list so I went for a bit of appreciating instead.  I cast my eye over some of my projects, just to re-visit the pleasure I had in making them.

First up were my button hoops..........

This one is a little more 'free' than I usually work, even the fabric is running at diagonals!  Unlike this one......

.....which is my 'straight and all lined up' OCD version!

I do love hoops and have a Pinterest board dedicated to them.

The other make that I love at the moment and the one which is currently 'on show' on our celebration tree is this one..........

....Little Birdies. I found them on the FABuloUS blog S.O.T.A.K. Handmade written by Svetlana, you can find her post here, the original idea came from Kajsa of Syko and was featured on Sew Mama Sew the tutorial is here.

I have a heap more to finish and even some Christmas Birdies for later in the year.

I also fancied a bit of retail therapy...and who couldn't resist this!...............

Aren't they DELicIouS!  Spring...ice cream.....purely display purposes and NOT for use.....!?   

It's Rico Essentials cotton available from Wool Warehouse at £2.49 per ball (40p per ball cheaper than Deramores!)  I did try using it and I must warn you it splits which is VERY annoying! BUT it looks and feels fantastic and I bought it because I have in my mind to try this.......

A slightly different take on my hoops.  I wanted to include crochet flowers too....and maybe not flat fabric but yo-yo's (Suffolk puffs).  My Crafty friend found it on Pinterest.  Sadly there is no link to a blog or tutorial, but I think the photo is good enough to work out something similar if you are interested.

With crochet and yo-yo flowers in mind and thinking flower centres...I treated myself to these little beauties.........

 .....from a craft cabin at out local garden centre called The Shopfest Craft Den.  If you are local to Surrey or West Sussex, it is certainly worth a look, they also do events at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking.

After things had calmed down not only was there time for craft appreciation and retail therapy the was time for The Hubs and I to spend some time together taking a wander up to our local bluebell woods.  With Tiddly Toes and dark evenings, we've not bee up to much, but now that it is light after she has gone to bed and Teenage Daughter is happy to keep an ear out for half an hour or so, we can wander here........

Isn't it gorgeous?

Somehow photos don't do it justice.

We also came upon this.............

I think small people had been at work...what fun!  Sadly they had damaged alot of the bluebells, but.....at least the wood is being used and the kids aren't indoors playing on the various technology available!

Well, that's my little round up of April, hope you enjoyed it, I shall return soon with May and some recent makes, not sure which order yet, but see you soon.

Love

Nora

xxxx

Scooter Monster Bag....done!

So, here we are about 2 hours after the last post with a Ta-dah moment!

Ready.......?

OK, here goes.............  ta-DAhhhhhhh......................!

She is just SOOOOOOO proud of herself, and rightly so!

The instructions in the book are really good, although we did opt out of the basting, only because I think she would have lost interest, it's something she can learn as she becomes more proficient and independent.

She started by pinning the stripes on to the bag front.....

Then she stitched them on with the machine switched to it's slowest.....

How impressive is that!

This wasn't posed, she was genuinely running the machine herself and controlling the fabric!  One amazed Mummy!

As you can see she hand stitched the eyes and buttons on to the flap front and everything else was machined.

I can honestly say that the only help I gave was a bit of pining through the thick layers.....

....... guidance and a running commentary for the most part and then when it came to stitching layers was a bit more hands on with the fabric but she decided when to stop, start and reverse the stitching.

I have to say I was really impressed....and amazed at how quickly she worked out at what point she needed to press the button for the machine to stop where she wanted!

So here she is once again.... proud or what?!

She is now taking a hard earned rest in front of the TV to watch Shrek 2, Mummy is off to sip Earl Grey and sew a bit more of her Clothkits skirt...woohoo!

I'll see you again soon either with Part 3 of my updates or a finished skirt!

Byeeeee,

Nora

xxxx

Polling Day means a day off school

Here in the UK there are local elections going on and in time honoured tradition local schools are turned into Polling Stations for the day.  This inevitably means that many Infant and Junior (Primary) schools are closed for the day.

Added to that is the absence of Tiddly Toes from school yesterday due to earache and we have one VERY challenging little person, feeling a little better and wanting to DO!

SO.....a week or so ago, I bought her this book.......

It is meant for 7+ years and she is only just 5...but....she has watched me sew forever, and I think she understands the concept anyway....so we're just going to go for it!

Granny and Grumps bought her a new scooter for Christmas, so she has decided to make herself this scooter bag for it.

We've cut everything out...she helped cut the pattern and as she was a little wobbly in places (round bits), we've decided that Mummy would cut the pieces of felt.

Mummy needed a drink before the off, so Mummy made a nice Senseo coffee and Tiddly Toes had a bounce on the Bounce-line, no, not trampoline...Bouceline...I think that's a much better name for it!

Here she is letting off some energy in order to be able to sit still at the sewing machine for a long-ish stint!

And here she is again...she just wanted to show off her bracelets and new specs!  Bless.....

Well, here we go....and we'll take photos of our journey to show you all later.

Thanks for stopping by, 

Nora (& Tiddly Toes!)

xxxx

Hello Again......(part 2!)

So here we are hot on the heels of the February round up with a March round up......

It started off in BRILLIANT fashion with a visit from my sister!  Here she is.....

I hadn't seen her in 11 years!  She and my other sister are both Danish, so live and work over there.  Busy lives, my fear of flying and our combined lack of money meant that 11 years sped by before we had realised!

Here we are waiting at the airport.....we had such a wonderful weekend.

Do you think we look alike?

When she left on Sunday afternoon, I needed some time to myself so...........

I was brought back down to earth with a bump and some dirty graft!  Our caravan, Miss Flossie VanRoyce has been leaking!  Not good news if you are a caravan!  I traced the culprit back to either a loose flue or pinprick holes in the roof caused by a chemical reaction between copper tacks and aluminium roof!  And so I set about the dirty task of sealing it......

Flue off and cleaned and then replaced with sealant.......

Plastic strip sealed over both sides of the roof to cover the little pin pricks...just in case.  Looks messy, but once it was set and cleaned up...it looked fine.  It does the job anyway....we have had a few downpours since then and it seems that there have been no further leaks!  Yipee!

Here is progress on the 'Melman' Trellis Quilt.....all sewn together and awaiting sashing on the sides and a large sash top with some surprise detail for Tiddly Toes!

I made this crochet Granny Square square as an experiment A-G-E-S ago with inspiration from Hopscotch Lane and decided to DO something with it!  Following a tutorial on Bunny Mummy I came up with this..........

I used a section of a cheap fleece throw, blanket stitched with Stylecraft DK and then crocheted into the blanket stitch loops to form a nice envelope edging, machined around, slip-stitched my cover on the front and..........

..(it's been a long time since I've said this.....)........TA-DAH!!!!!!!!

Towards the end of March I received another S.O.S from The Hubs parents,Dad wasn't coping well with Mums needs again so she asked if I could collect her...no problem!  It was good timing really as I had booked her and my Mum and Aunt (twins) on a little surprise for Mothers Day and my Mum and Aunts 70th birthday.

So here are........

My Mum

My Aunt

Yeah...I know...they don't look much like twins!  To be honest they don't look 70 either....especially my Mum!!

And here is my Mum-in-Law............ 

They are all sporting their Rosettes...two 70ths and one Best Mum!

And just for good measure here's me taking a selfie of my chins and a glass of Pink Champagne!  Can you guess what the surprise was?

Here's another clue..........

Yes, Afternoon Tea on The Orient Express!

It was rounded off by my daughter bringing me some unusual and very lovely flowers...just because....

So March came and went in a flurry of house guests, trips.... Teenage Daughter, myself and 2 friends went to a gig in Brighton...it was all fun-filled, creative and heart-warming.

I'll be back soon with part 3...can you bear the pace!?

Love

Nora

xxx

Another 'Melman' Update

Hello lovelies....how are you today?

I'm here to share a bit of a disaster. In case you haven't noticed, I hadn't mentioned the 'Melman' quilt for some time (until catch up part 1)....and there's a good reason for that!

Going back a few months, I started to piece together the coloured squares in pairs with the white fabric between...

Having completed that part I decided to cut the longer white piece to join 2 pairs to 2 other pairs (to make a set of 4 squares with a white cross in the middle).

So off I went, cutting away, then I stopped with a bit of a niggle that things weren't quite right.

I had done the whole 'measure twice, cut once' thing, but I think something got lost in brain-translation because.......disaster.... the lengths were too short!

I couldn't believe it, I'm still not sure what I did, I just know I measured the correct length and cut the correct length, but it wasn't the correct length! Grrrrrr!

So having got the major hump with myself I stopped working on the 'Melman' quilt. That is until my brain had worked through some different scenarios and time and again had come back with the same answer..... "Move on and buy some more white fabric" So guess what? I am still cross with myself, but I have moved on and splashed out on some more white fabric!

Only...when it arrived I had ordered the wrong colour!!!!!

I investigated the colour, courtesy of the wonderful CottonPatch and put in ANOTHER order!

When it arrived I cut the lengths CORRECTLY and popped it all next to the sewing machine (which still doesn't have a name!) so that when inspiration (and a few spare minutes) struck me, I could simply pick up the fabric and go.

There we are, confession over, 'Melman' quilt almost back on track.

Want to see a placement photo? (Not a very good one as 1) the light was awful and 2) it was meant for my use only so that I remembered where to sew everything!)

Now you're all caught up with that, which I am pleased about, we can both go and get on with something else!  Haha!

Happy sewing, knitting or hooking.... and I hope we'll catch up again soon,

Love
Nora
xxxx

Hello again! It's been a while..... (part 1!)

I've been very busy a little unwell, family issues.....the list goes on!!

I am here reading blogs occasionally and definitely crafting away quietly.

I have missed you!

As so much has been going on, I thought I'd try a little photo update of the last few months; of life and making starting with February and once I've got that out of the way for 3 or 4 months, get back to sharing details and patterns and recipes.......gosh I have missed this!

So onwards.......

February looked like this.....

It started off with a house guest, The Hubs Dad collapsed at the end of January and Mum & Dad came to staty, Dad went back for some recovery time alone whilst Mum stayed with us.

We went to my Mums for Sunday Lunch and whilst the 2 Mums had a good old chinwag, The Hubs and I took TiddlyToes on a trek around the village where I grew up....look at the scenery......

This is Ranmore in Surrey.

And this is Tiddly Toes going down 'The Alley' to get back home.  I had forgotten how steep this was and am amazed when I think back that in her 70s, my Nanny used to romp up this to catch the bus into the local town!

More Ranmore over the rooftops.

That steep climb again!

My eldest daughter turned 15!

And my middle son (on the left) turned 20!  My youngest son (on the right!) will be 18 in a few weeks!  Where does the time go.......?

I pieced this lovely quilt top, when finished it will be a Christening gift for The Hubs newest cousin.

Working out the placement of blocks on Tiddly Toes Trellis Quilt.

So as you can see I wasn't idle!

We took Mum back home just before half term and stayed for a long weekend and had daughters party straight after.  The month passed in a blur!

Lovely to be back...let's hope life does not interrupt continued 'normal' service now that it is resuming.

Next time I'll show you the highlights of March!

Love

Nora

xxxx

Cheesy boat

Just had to share this little gem with you.

We had jacket potatoes the other night and Tiddly Toes decided to use her imagination on her dinner.....she mashed the fluffy bit with butter and popped it back into the jacket, topped it with cheese and gave it a spinach leaf sail......sweet!





I am off the radar at the moment as I am still unwell, I have been reading your posts though and they have been bringing warmth, joy and smiles to a very worn out me...thank you!

'Normal' service will resume shortly (well as normal as I am....so that's not very then!)

Lots of love
Nora
xxxx