limited time

We have had almost a week of school so far and have, as yet not done anything major. We have spent time at home having  a relaxing time. It has been lovely.
We are now awaiting my sisters arrival, she is coming to stay for a couple of days with her children. So we will no doubt be busier and I won't get a chance to blog. WE are also off on our summer holidays next week, so will be  whole fortnight without blogging.
I have not had any time to do any more sewing, the last of Stephanie's dresses have not been made, although she does have lots now so its not too drastic.

I ordered some material from an etsy seller last week, it came today and I am very pleased with it. Lots of lovely prints. I can't wait to start sewing it into a picnic blanket. I had hoped to have the blanket sewn in time for our holiday but with my sisters arrival expected anytime its not gonna happen!

I must say I was so impressed with the presentation of the lovely fabrics I took a photo of them;

How neat and tidy they looked, thank you very much to the etsy seller Stefaniexu

a finished baby quilt

Its finished my very first quilt! And I am less than pleased as it is not straight on the long edges. Stephanie loves it, so I am am tempted to let her have this one and make a new one for my sisters baby, and hopefully manage to produce one that is straight.

We spent today as a lovely relaxing family day. We got up and mooched before taking Dylan to his swimming lesson. When we got home we had a power cut so I couldn't do the ironing, any sewing or any of the other things I had planned to do. So we replanted some of the flowers into my new hanging baskets and played in the sandpits.Lovely.

We also went to the library and signed up tp this years reading challenge, this year the theme is space hop so to get the stickers and prizes the children need to read 6 books over the next few weeks. Not something which is difficult as they read a lot.

home grown and home made

This is Stephanies caterpillar- she learnt the 'recipe' at nursery and has shown both me and Dylan how to make them. These are the new favourite dessert in our house!

This is a variation of the fruit bugs- can you guess its a ladybird, Stephanie thought of how to make this all by herself

This oddly shaped beauties are the rainbow carrots we have grown- they may be slightly mishapen, but htey taste great!

This is an apron I made and Stephanie has decorated, I love they way she has made a picture of the flowers complete with blue sky and sun. Also love the stories she tells as she was creating her masterpiece.

This here is my latest masterpiece! Yup I have completed the quilt top for my sisters baby, I have found a lovely cot sheet I am going to use for the backing, its soft and snuggly and just perfect for the baby. Also fits into my eco credentials as it means I am for the first time using an upcycled piece in my sewing. This is something I would like to do more.

family day out, eco inspiration and a soapnut decision!

Wow, we have had a very busy weekend and the pace won't slacken for a few days yet!

We went to the Kent Show yesterday and had a fantastic time. We watched the Hell Riders on their Wall of Death;

Why is it even though I knew they were going to ride the go-karts and motor bikes round the vertical walls it still made me jump??!

we watched the vintage tractor/ bus parades, watched the horse jumping, the children looked like this during most of this

Stephanie loved this music machine

WE even watched a fly over and demonstration of a spitfire. Was very good and slightly surreal as everyone was walking round the show ground chatting etc and all of a sudden everyone including children stopped to watch this

This was just some of what we saw at the show.We also learnt to make hamster treats, learnt about how bees/ wasps build their nests and their lifecycles. Just too much to describe it all. We have been for the past 3 years in a row and are yet to see eveything/ get bored there. I loved the eco-village section there were lots of ideas for being more eco; I have now fitted a reflector panel behind one of the living room radiators and would like to get some more before winter arrives. These reflect the heat back into the room rather than into the walls of the house. Thereby saving energy (and money!). We also got some sweets from Goody good stuff which are suitable for lots of allergies and vegetarian/ vegan diets. Unfortunately they do not cater for Stephanies citrus allergy, although this wasn't really that surprising. We also got a tub of munchy seeds from Munchy Seeds wso many yummy snacks to try.

Today we went for a picnic with my nephews and the children's auntie. Lots of excercise and was nice to catch up as have not seen them for a while. I really do need a picnic blanket that is easier to wash as a drink got spilt on the blanket and as it has a plasticky back it is still on washing trying to dry. So that is something else to add to my make it list, which is growing faster than I can make things.

Stephanie loves  to take pictures when we are about, I have lots on the camera which she has taken over the weekend.

Oh yes before I go I said I had made a soapnut decision didn't I. Well I have decided that soapnuts are not for us, I don't feel the clothes are coming out the wash clean with them. I ended up soakign clothes, spraying them with nasty stain removing chemicals and re washing them to get them clean. Even them they were not as clean as I would like. So I have reverted back to my original choice of using Simply washing tablets.

Food, clothes and gift for a baby!

Yesterday I was clearing out the fridge and found some fruit which needed using up so Stephanie and I set about makinf crumble. We have pear, apple, rhubarb. Then some mixed ones rhubarb and apple, pear and apple and pear and rhubarb. There was still some rhubarb left over and no topping (or small dishes!). SO have frozen the rhubarb as it is, will add more topping as required.

Then we worked on Stephanies new dress;

With the left over materials I made her a handbag before we left for nursery this morning. She loves it and ran in to show off her new outfit.

I have since made her a hairband out of a slither of left over material,

I have also begun work on a baby quilt for my newest nephew due to be born in August. I don't think my sister has discovered my blog yet- If she has she needs to turn away now!

I am planning on making several of these framed squares then using a pale blue material to join them all together. If it turns out as well as I hope I will be making another one for a friend whose baby is due in September. I will use pale green/yellow for hers, or other neutral colour I discover whilst out and about as she doesn't know what flavour baby she is getting.

another source of foraging??

YES- that is the common brown garden snail, and yes I discovered today that they are indeed edible. According to the lovely zoo lab lady on our school trip today if you catch your snails in the garden bring them inside feed them lettuce, cucumber etc etc for a week you can then cook and eat them!

However, this is a step to far for me I cannot ber the thought of eating snails, but for those of you who are braver, and more adventurous than I am here is a recipe link!

Thinking ahead

Today I have been thinking ahead an dplanning what I can grow in the garden next. I need to get the pumpkin seeds planted quickly, I am going to start them in pots then transplant them when the plants in the main bed are all gone. When I say main bed it is still small. at 1m20x1m60 but in it we have carrtos and onions, along with lettuce and raspberries. Its doing well. I have worked out a rough plan of what I am going to grow next in the garden, beginning to look at next years planting as well.

Also remember I mentioned I was going to joinin with the make a month I found vis another blogger; I made a fleece jacket for Stephanie. Had a few teething problems, mainly that I don't like the size of the hood and I can't find the sleeve pattern piece for the pattern I was using. So I altered the pattern sllightly so that the jacket has a collar and I made up the sleeves, so I hope it fits ok. Will find out soon when I collect her from nursery. I think it looks good though, here have a peek

Yummy!

Ok so I didn't make these, Dylan did, but they are still homemade, and so very scrummy! I have had to put them in a box to stop me eating them all before I go to bed.

I have also decided to join in with Lynsey and her "a make a month". Basically the idea is to aim to make one thing a month from fabric you have stashed. Whilst my stash isn't as ordered or large as some crafters I do have some material I want to use which I bought 3 or 4 years ago. I have always had vague ideas of making fleece jackets etc for Stephanie with it. So perhaps I will finally get around to it, well maybe!

a skirt and matching bag, rainbow carrots and some lovely family time

Yesterday we went to Eynsford to play in the river/stream there. Always lots of fun trying to catch the fish, have only succeeded in catching 1- they obviously are used to avoiding children with fishing nets.

Today we went for a ride on the high speed trains to London to have a look round the V & A museum, then on for a picnic and walk in Hyde park before coming home and cooking dinner which included these;

YUP they are carrots, rainbow ones to be exact and rather interestingly shaped but tasty all the same.

Have also found time to do some sewing this weekend, very impressive no? I made a skirt and matching handbag for Stephanie and altered 2 of Dylans school shirts from long sleeve to short sleeved and I also found time to sew a few hexagons together in the park.This is the handbag as designed by Stephanie, yup she told me how she would like it to look, "I want t be one I hold in may hand and it need to handles mummy please". I love being able to allow her some choice in exactly how her clother look, they can be made to her preferences, I definately need to make her more, I'd quite like a dress in the style of the one she chose as well.

turn your head to the side!

today I made the dress as instructed by the lady in the material shop. I am really really impressed with it, and Stephanie loves it. She has informed my she is not getting out of bed until it is washed so that she can wear it again! Thank fully my sewing skills are better than my computer skills, I can not work out how to turn this picture round or how to get the nicer picture of Stephanie wearing the dress I have on my phone on here.

There is enough fabric left to make Stephanie a skirt as well. I have cut it out, it just need sewing together. I plan on doing it tomorrow at some point. So will try and get some nicer pictures once the dress has been washed.

all excited

I went in my garden this morning and was very impressed with what I found look;

our first ripe raspberry- Stephanie tells me it was delicious!

Chilli peppers- think they are nearly ready

And these are the first peas of our only  one of the originally planted pea plants to survive the slugs- Stephanie also assures me they were deliciousThese tiny babies will be yellow peppers when they are ripe

 

We went to the dentist and Stephanie opened her mouth (clamped shut last time), sat in the chair by herself and let the dentist have a thorough look in her mouth even let the dentist give her a little POLISH. Wow she is getting so grown up. Both Dylan and Stephanie have perfectly healthy teeth, so very pleased with them. To celebrate I took them to the shop to choose a toy/ book each. Stephanie choose a craft set where she designs clothes for the cardboard dolls, she loved it. Dylan choose some lego.

Whilst in the town it would have been rude not to go in the fabric shop, so I bought the zips for the long awaited dining chair cushions. Stephanie also choose some fabric for a new dress and the lovely lady in the shop showed me how to make lovely summer dresses, am going to have a try at making one for Stephanie tomorrow while she is in nursery, if it goes well I will be making one for me in the gorgeous fabric I found for me.

So you see why I am excited, lots of yummy food in my garden growing for us to eat, and some lovely fabric and a fantastically easy dress to sew- well it sounded easy when the lovely lady explained it to me.