The Royal Wedding - A Girl Thing?

A post by Little Grandma

As you may or may not know (pay attention Martians), today, a Royal Wedding took place.  
There has been something of a build up to the Big Day in the media; the dress, the vows, the guests, the expense... It has also been the topic of discussion and celebration in primary schools all over the country. In fact, the school that two of my boys (aka The Little Uncles) attend, held a themed party yesterday and every child received a beautiful commemorative coin. I asked the younger of the two boys (age 5) what the party was for and he replied that he didn't know but that it was ok because he'd been given some 'money'. The older boy, age 7, knew that the party was in celebration of the royal wedding, he even knew their names, but still seemed totally disinterested. This morning, the only thing they wanted the tv screen for was the playstation (tut, tut).

In contrast, the daughters of one of my closest friends, with whom I think I share about the same level of interest in the royal family, were full of excitement this morning. The eldest, age 7, even woke her mum up to ask what she thought Kate was doing at that moment...

It must have been lovely to see the girls so excited. I think I might have been able to muster up a bit more interest if I'd had little girls showing such enthusiasm. I did watch some of the coverage with Teenage Daughter, which was nice; she loves to see what everyone is wearing, but the whole Princess wedding thing seems to be so much more magical through the eyes of a little girl...



Anyway, other bloggers are taking this opportunity to share their own wedding photos. I haven't got any, because I'm not married, but I do have my own tiny Princess and handsome Prince

Kreativ Blog Award

Last week Ally at Cancer and Baby Equals Chaos gave us the Kreativ Blog Award! We just have to link back to her blog and write ten interesting facts about ourselves. 

1. I once appeared as an extra on Waterloo Road.

2. Between me, Teenage Daughter, Big Grandma and Little Grandma, we make up Coronation Street's top 4 fans. Big Grandma has religiously watched every single episode since day one.

3. Little Grandma once cycled to and camped in Wales in the snow, and when she woke up the tent had magically transformed into an igloo! They had 3 punctures on the way and had to melt snow with the camping stove to repair them!

4. When I was about two, Little Grandma woke up to find me playing with a tea set in my bed

room, merrily pouring golden liquid into a cup...

5. We must be a very imaginative family because when I was little, I had three imaginary friends called Horning, Gorky and Poopooks, and Little Grandma had two imaginary donkeys called Dusty and Snowy.

6. Little Grandma was going to call me Yellow Banana... I'm glad she didn't!

7. If Elle was a boy she was going to be called Ziggy after Little Grandma's late 'husband' who was our elderly cat. Ziggy was a special cat, but that's a post in itself.

8. Little Grandma's first car (bought in 1999) was a 1972 VW Beetle called Betty. I can remember being towed all the way back from Anglesey...

9. Little Grandma one picked me up from school, car packed up and announced we were going camping in Wales.

10. When I was little I had long, blonde hair in ringlets all the way down my back. One morning, I don't know why, but I cut it all off up to my chin and hid it under the sofa! Little Grandma was very upset, but I said, 'don't worry, you can always sellotape it back on...'.

We think the following blogs deserve this award...

Knitting Not Necessary

Beadsflowersglue

Kitschycoo

Green in Black and White- The Gallery

A post by Little Grandma

The theme over at Sticky Fingers this week is Green. I have lots of lovely 'green' pictures of the 3 Little Uncles climbing trees, rolling down grassy hills, picking their noses....

However, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a couple of the photos that Teenage Daughter has used as part of her GCSE Art exam prep work. The brief she followed was 'green'. This could be interpretated in many ways: some students chose to focus on green vegetables, some on environmental matters etc... Teenage Daughter, ever the individual, chose to study Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies. She used photos of herself in an improvised dress she made herself, and photos she took of Belle, as the starting point for a 'Flower Fairy' inspired portrait. I haven't seen the final piece that was completed mainly in pencil. She has told me, however, that she added wire wings and a touch of watercolour (green I assume).

Two-tone knitted hats!

A post by Little Grandma

If does feel a little bit weird knittting woolly hats whilst the kids are rolicking about in the garden wearing shorts and t-shirts, but I am trying to use up my odds and ends of yarn and build up some winter stock. I don't know why, but most of the hats I have created so far have been mono-coloured. I've used various yarns, some have been speckled and multi-tonal, and I always embellish the hats with buttons or crochet flowers; but until today, i've been a 'one ball per hat' woman.

I am quite pleased with the two-tone hats though...

Silent Sunday

 

Rosie Sews!

My sewing skills are nothing compared to Little Grandma's. Every time I touch a sewing machine it goes a little crazy and bits fall off. In fact, I was even banned from them at school, even though I was in the textiles group!

But, the other night, I managed to make this buggy liner! All hand sewn of course. Lovely Ikea bird fabric for the front, with a soft matching fleece for the back. To put it lightly, I was gobsmacked when I saw that it actually looks quite good!

A Day The Chaotic Life of Little Grandma - Holiday in Wales

A post by Little Grandma

The blog has been a little quiet lately, this is because we have been wreaking havoc in Wales.

There have been sword fights on Llandudno pier;

Cuddles in the caravan;

Wreckless driving;

Monkey business in the play area; in fact, monkey business everywhere! I often think that being out and about with the 3 Little Uncles must be something like having 3 badly trained dogs in tow: they don't sniff strangers' bums or poo on the floor, but they do have boundless energy, run about in all directions, jump on and off walls, attack each other, completely ignore me when I shout at them like a mad woman ask them to stop, constantly pick up anything gross off the floor interesting objects and often only respond when bribed with sweets and chocolate...

So, having the freedom to run around on the beach was just what we all needed. The weather was beautiful; chasing waves, building sandcastles and collecting shells kept us all busy for hours...

The Littlest Uncle (a keen animal lover), even managed to make friends with several dead crabs and a grey snotty blob thing, which he affectionately described as 'beautiful animals'...

I did intend to do some knitting whilst on holiday (remember my Hat a Day pledge?), unfortunately I managed only half a very tightly knitted hat. Tightly knitted, because the only knitting I managed to do was in the car, and although The Viking is a very competent driver, I am a terribly nervous passenger! Half a hat, because Belle threw up in the car on the way home. This was full-on carrot stew type vomit and everything I needed to clean her up with was buried under a pushchair and several days worth of dirty washing.She was happily consoled, however, whilst I gently and reassuringly stroked her sick-covered leg...



Late night sewing frenzy!

A post by Little Grandma,

Having four small people to chase around the house, and Teenage Daughter's boyfriend/hair/eyebrow disasters to contend with; I really struggle to find time to properly get stuck into my sewing. Last night, however, I had a total sewing frenzy! Rosie had been approached by 'The Lady in The Shop' and was asked if we could take some items in as they are having an 'Open Day' on saturday. So, when the Little Uncles and Belle had finally settled down to sleep (it was about 10pm by the time the fussing about, getting up for wees and so on were done); I got cracking.

Four hours and several bars of chocolate cups of tea later, I had made 6 spring bonnets, a couple of which I made in gorgeous Alexander Henry 'Starling' fabric, and finished off a couple of reversible dresses. Phew!



 

Hair today, gone tomorrow.....

A post by Little Grandma,

The theme over at Sticky Fingers this week is Tomorrow, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to provide an update on my 'hair and makeover' situation:

Yesterday morning, I looked like this; complete with hair that I'd had a 'love-hate' relationship with for many years.

Hair Tomorrow;

At my makeover session I was pampered and preened all day; my hair was washed, cut, coloured (8 different colours were applied in foils!!), the monobrow I didn't even know I had was removed, and so on, and so on...

Apart from 'new hair', I wonder what the rest of my 'tomorrow's' hold? Hopefully good health and happy, healthy kids; they are my priorities, but a successful business, a bigger house and a reliable car would be nice too...

The Viking Babysits

Today, I took Elle to a local soft play area with a friend. To my utter surprise and Elle's delight, The Viking was there with the 3 uncles!

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the book he was reading whilst the uncles played... 'The Viking World'! Haha, he really is a Viking!



Silent Sunday

Lovely Day for a Nice Long Walk...

As the weather was so nice, today we decided to get our walking prams out and visit a local beauty spot. I hadn't been here post- Elle before, and had greatly overestimated the path's 'pram suitability'; we had to drag our prams through knee high heather, up and down rocky inclines and even over a wall! What made the suffering worse was knowing that I had my baby sling in the car!



Our Princess Party Dress

Little Grandma has been busy this week. She's created this gorgeous princess party dress from her own design.



Here it is, modelled beautifully by Elle. It's very twirly and could be worn with a top underneath on cooler days. I think that next time I make one, the underskirt should be an inch or two longer than the overskirt to make it look fuller and even twirlier.

The Gallery - Mother Love

A post by Little Grandma,

The Gallery's theme this week is 'Mother Love'.

For my contribution to 'Mother Love' I want to tell the world what a wonderful mummy my daughter Rosie is to Elle:

She persevered with breastfeeding when a lot of mums would have given up

She is more patient than I could ever have imagined

She always puts Elle first

She has bundles of energy

She takes pride in her daughter and her achievements

But most of all, she really enjoys being a mum

What a lucky little girl Elle is!



Faking it...

A post by Little Grandma,

On Sunday, The Littlest Uncle was doing his usual stunts and crazy bouncing around with the other Little Uncles, when he hurt his foot. As the foot was still attached to his leg; there was no blood, or protruding bones, we decided to leave it and see how he went on. Anyway, he spent the whole day crawling around on the floor despite many tempting offers of 'Alien battles' with his brothers...

In the morning I was convinced he'd wake up having forgotten all about his 'poorly' foot. He hadn't. He slunk out of bed, feet not touching the ground, and continued to crawl about the house as he had done the day before. I pressed and squeezed his foot, and although he made various whining noises, I wasn't convinced. Still, he absolutely insisted it hurt too much for him to walk on. Teenage Daughter tried to 'trick' him into running by challenging him to a race to the car, something he wouldn't normally be able to resist; but he 'needed' to be carried, he couldn't even stand up!

We were supposed to be meeting Rosie at the library for 'sing and rhyme', but what a terrible mother I'd look if I turned up with a child in so much pain. So, I decided to take him to the local minor injuries department. This, I will add, involved mauling up and down steps with a baby and a three year old, neither of whom could walk properly. Anyway, on arrival we waited a while, Littlest Uncle clutching his 'poorly' foot with a pained expression, then spoke to a nurse who took our details. We were told that the waiting time was about an hour. About 20 minutes later the Littlest Uncle must have got bored, because he suddenly announced that his foot was better. It was a miracle; he was even able to run and jump. I humbly explained the miracle to the lady at the desk and went home.

Look at him, butter wouldn't melt

Silent Sunday

The Viking attempts to help with the washing....

A post by Little Grandma,

The Viking is not a domesticated animal, as he demonstrated again today.  I asked him to help me out by putting away the clothes airer...

  "I didn't know it was going to hurt!!", I heard him shout from the other room.

Easter came early today...

Today was the last toddler group session before Easter, and to our delight, the children were all given an Easter egg as a parting gift! I quickly swiped one up for Elle; mmm I'll enjoy that when she's in bed, I thought. Haha who was I kidding; Elle seems to have some sort of chocolate ESP and she knew exactly what was inside that box...

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