Half-term starts as it means to go on...

A post by Little Grandma

Friday afternoon (late)

Leaving The Viking in charge of the 3 Little Uncles ( I'm loving that bit), I head into town to buy some knitting yarn. I had none left. None whatsoever. So when I found that both knitting shops in town were closed I got a bit panicky; until I rediscovered charity shops. On entering the first shop, Belle almost stopped breathing with sheer excitement when she spotted a Baby Annabel pushchair. I bought it ofcourse, without hesitation. It wasn't until afterwards I worried I may be setting a trend that I would begin to regret...

Anyway, I came out of the same shop armed with a small stash of wool and eager to start knitting friday's hat; which I started at about midnight

As usual, the morning started early; Belle and the Littlest Uncle were kind enough to get me out of bed before 6am. This is their way of ensuring that way I can really get the most out of each day (!) This morning, the Middle Uncle (aka Action Man), was looking forward to going to a birthday party, so by 8am the dining room floor had a lovely sparkling carpet of glitter and sequins, and his friend had several homemade birthday cards.

The Viking kindly volunteered to take Action Man to the party (easier than staying at home with the other 4). Anyway, it wasn't until they were about to leave that we realised the Littlest Uncle thought he was going too. Poor little man, he was so upset, he cried so much that tears ran down the outside of his Optimus Prime mask. We also realised at that point why he had got dressed up in the Transformer costume; it must have been especially for the party.

The Littlest Uncle holds the world record for maintaining screaming tantrums for impressively long periods, so I had to think on my feet...

I whisked him outside where he just couldn't resist a cuddle from the beautiful Mavis, one of his pet guinea pigs, and the Transformer was transformed.

And here is friday's hat, knit on saturday, and courteously modelled by a bottle of red (keeping it warm for later)

I expect there is more of this to look forward to over the coming week; more early mornings, more tears and tantrums, more cuddles, more late night knitting, and hopefully more wine!

The Gallery - Our Backyard

A post by Little Grandma, with a bit of help from the 3 Little Uncles

The theme over at Sticky Fingers this week is Our Backyard

Apart from being a jungle of weeds and a dumping ground for all things broken and mouldy; our backyard is:

A place to fight baddies
A snowy place
A sunny place
A football arena
A stage for rockstars
A bughunter's safari
A place to do handprinting, footprinting and bumprinting!
A place to climb the tallest trees and look out for aliens.....

and the list could go on for ever...

A Cute Little Pinafore

A post by Little Grandma

Ever since I started watching 'Pippi Longstocking', or 'Pippi Longstrump' as she's known in Sweden, I have wanted to make (or have!) a little cross-over pinafore like the one she wears. It's a lovely simple design that can be worn over leggings or jeans, and either with or without a top underneath. I ordered a pattern from etsy because I thought it was easier than boggling my own poor brain. This was delivered to me via email; it wasn't a paper pattern, and I don't have a printer, so I improvised by tracing it off my laptop screen, hoping I would get the sizing right.

Anyway, I made a reversible version (I like reversible clothing!). I used an Alexander Henry 'wren' print on one side and a cheerful yellow Micheal Miller print on the other side. Then Belle put it to the test...

My next job is to make a pair of matching bloomers, scrumptious!

The Joy of Teenage Daughter

A post by Little Grandma

Now that the dreaded GCSE's are upon us and Teenage Daughter only has to attend school for exams, she has a lot more time on her hands... she's been very busy revising watched the complete box set of Lord of the Rings, got up early to help me clean the house rolled out of bed at lunchtime, and her hair has changed colour a few times...

...any mum of a Teenage Daughter will know that when you find something like this on the kitchen worktop, it's best not to venture into the bathroom at all; not unless you want to be done for murder!

Anyway, this manure cocktail natural henna hair dye, which was so considerately mixed using my kitchen utensils, seems to be part of her 'natural and healthy phase', which is great; she's decided that she can't eat meat anymore, has to avoid dairy (interestingly this doesn't seem to include icecream), and excess amounts of pastry. Having four small children to prepare meals for, I always get a little nervous about how i'm going to fit this in with teenage eating fads and fancies. When I asked her what she would like for tea, she replied...pot noodle(!!!)...not one of the 'meat flavoured' varieties ofcourse

Silent Sunday - Spider Boy

My Fear of Sewing Machines...

The other day, I decided I should combat my fear of sewing machines (As I mentioned before, they seem to just die in my presence). So, I decided to make Elle a new buggy liner with a matching blanket... sounds pretty simple...

However, as soon as the first stitch went down, CLUNK... I'd already broken the sewing machine!

Still determined to make this liner, I drove to the nearest sewing machine repair shop which is miles away; and then when you get there, you have to park a good few streets away, from where I had to struggle with the machine and a baby IN THE RAIN!

When I got there, the sewing machine man kindly agreed to look at my 'broken' machine right there and then. Now, all he did was flip it open, fiddled for about 3 seconds and then claimed it was mended!

Anyway, that night I managed to make these! I was very surprised; the machine didn't even break once! (Touch wood).  

 Even Elle looks happy with it!



The Gallery - Mustachioed

A post by Little Grandma

The theme over at Sticky Fingers is Mustachioed. I couldn't resist using this as an opportunity to share a picture of The Viking, our resident man about the house, who happens to be Swedish

Ok, maybe I am cheating a bit and the picture would be more appropriate to the theme 'wiggy' or 'Jesus Christ Superstar'; but he does have a moustache!

A Swirly Girly party dress

A post by Little Grandma

I am relieved to say that I am very pleased with the final outcome of this dress. These past few days, I have been busy 'trying' to make dresses ready for a photo shoot next wednesday. Thursday morning, amidst total chaos, I wondered whether I could possibly achieve anything at all...other than a few snot smeared scraps and an unravelled hat...

 I was going through the usual morning stuff; wrestling Little Uncles into their underpants, wiping bums, trying to convince Teenage Daughter that revision for exams IS necessary etc...
 Anyway, eventually we were ready to leave the house. I loosely use the term 'ready' as I still looked like Jon Bon Jovi in the late 80's and hadn't brushed my teeth!
 However, just as I was standing in the doorway with Belle, she gagged on a fig roll. Ironically, I had given her the fig roll to keep her 'quiet' whilst I tried to locate two matching shoes for the Littlest Uncle. Nevermind, the gagging episode resulted in a fairly neat biscuit sized blob on the floor just near the front door, nowhere else, so I left it there to deal with later.... it wasn't until I was driving home that I thought about the postman...
Anyway, after the poor Littlest Uncle scraped his knee on the road next to the car, I set about dropping them off; Teenage Daughter at college, Littlest Uncle and Belle at preschool. I said goodbye to the little ones, feeling a tad guilty as 'the knee' was still bleeding, drove home, cleaned up 'the blob', and set to work on the dress

The Gallery- Chilled Out

A post by Little Grandma

The theme for this week over at Sticky Fingers is chilled out. What better way to chill out than to lie on a hammock wearing your muddy wellies? This picture of the Littlest Uncle and Middle Uncle (aka Action Man) was taken during last summer's Just so festival. The chillin' didn't last long, I hasten to add; before the camera was back in my bag they were back to their usual stunts and mischief...chasing baddies...killing giants...eating slugs...



Something to keep your trousers up...

A post by Little Grandma,

Fed up with the saggy nappy/builders bum look, and desperate for an excuse to use my cute pink owl ribbon, I decided it was time to make a belt or two. Apart from the ribbon, I used a couple of D-rings, 27" of 2" wide pink linen, and a strip of fusible interfacing for each belt. I'll post a tutorial one day...if anyone is interested...

Anyway, this was a relatively easy project; manageable even with two Little Uncles fighting 'baddies' under the larva spewing mountain table that I was trying to work on.

So there we have it, a couple of matching 'owl' belts for Elle and Belle, stylishly and cooperatively modelled by a teapot and a button jar

Silent Sunday

CHEESE!

I took Elle to a farmer's market the other day. It was wonderful going round all the stands sampling the different foods... but as I approached the cheese stand, a little voice shouted 'CHEESE!'.

I gave Elle a sample of the cheese and thought that would be it, but no, she wanted more! Every time I tried to move away from the cheese stand she would go stiff in her pushchair and scream at the top of her voice.

I tried giving her all sorts of weird cheeses like Stilton and some sort of 'red hot chili cheese' to put her off, but still she persisted. The cheese man thought the whole scenario was hilarious; it must have been brilliant to see someone so enthusiastic about his cheese.

After Elle had eaten all of the vendor's samples, I couldn't exactly just walk off without buying...  so now I have a fridge full of expensive cheeses, and I don't even LIKE cheese!



Little Miss Daredevil

One of Elle's favourite things is looking at stones. I took her on a walk today, and as soon as she saw the giant 'stones' in the hillside she screamed to get out of her pushchair and take a closer look... I let her out, and off she went, picking up stones, kissing them and putting them back down...

After about 4 hours 10 minutes, she tired of this and became more adventurous, climbing up the 'stones'. I was actually quite impressed, she's only 15 months!

She looked very pleased with herself



Trying to move onto a more difficult level...





The Gallery- April

The theme over at The Gallery this week is 'April'.

April, for me has been a gorgeous month of hot, sunny weather, picnics and holidays. I love this time of year when I can finally play out again! Especially since I now have Elle as my 'excuse' to go down the big slide at the park; she 'needs' help of course :).

 Anyway, here is Elle playing Hide and Seek behind a chair :)

A New House??

A post by Little Grandma



For quite some time now, I've been thinking that we need a bit more space.....

So here we are; myself, The Viking, a couple of Little Uncles, Elle and Belle, sitting on our front lawn, contemplating the purchase of a peacock...

Just kidding; having a bit of a daydream at Little Moreton Hall...


The beds weren't very comfy anyway,

And we didn't fancy the toilets!



Silent Sunday