Crafty Christmas

So the stockings are finished and (mostly) hanging up - two more to go!

There's Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus hanging on the tree;

And a jar of light on the table;

Happy Christmas!

Stocking update

Knit, knit, knit...
Still frantically knitting those teeny tiny stockings - last count 19 - only five to go! Wish me luck.

Going retro...

So the boy and I decided to go a bit old school yesterday and give playdough a try. It turns out there are about a million variations of the playdough recipe and nearly all of them use a cup measurement. So I did a bit of googling and quite a lot of guessing...
The boy, as always, was up for a bit of stirring.

Then, I, as the nominated grown up did the hot bit.

Once it had cooled down we got down to the serious business of cutting,

Squidging,

And rolling.

As well as learning some new words (squidge and squash!) it was fascinating to see how quickly the boy picked up the different ways of handling and working with the dough.
We put it in the fridge for another day. And it's just possible that Father Christmas might be bringing some playdough toys too!

Little acorns and great oaks

We've been to the park today. As well as the obligatory go on the big slide and some time on the swing we found lots of acorns.
The boys the was intrigued by these little things and their 'hats' and had great fun putting them on and collecting great handfuls. We decided to bring some home so that we could plant them and watch the grow. Hopefully.

Shhhhh!

Don't tell anyone but I've started my Christmas shopping. And more importantly my Christmas crafting!
I have, for several years, knitted little stockings that fit a celebrations type chocolate inside to hang on the tree. This year I decided to up the ante. I'm going to knit 24 of them and string them up to make our very own advent count down! So now you can see why I've started early.
So anyway, knitting these tiny stockings is fine, the pattern is pretty easy to follow and because they're small they don't actually take that long to whip up but then I thought how am I going to number them? I thought about embroidering numbers onto them but I was fairly sure that I wouldn't be able to to them neatly enough to satisfy my slightly perfectionist tendencies. So what to do?!
The answer of course, as with so many things(!), is buttons. So off to google I went and found a company in Germany that sold every button imaginable including number buttons. I could have spent a fortune!
But here they are, just waiting for their stocking.

So if anyone needs me, I'll be knitting. And possibly humming Jingle Bells.

Where did the summer go?!

We're truly pausing here - the boy and I are holidaying on the Isle of Wight with family.
It's great not to have to rush here and there and just take life a little bit easy. It's fab too to spend time with family, four generations under one roof - it gets a bit noisy at times but makes me realise how lucky the boy is to be able to get to know Great Nannie as well as spend time with grandparents, auntie and cousins.
Typically the amazing weather we've been experiencing did not come on holiday with us, it's been a little wet and windy today but we still managed to make it to the beach for a paddle!

Yeah, ok, so it was a bit windy but that's the great British summer for you! And we warmed up with an ice cream afterwards!

A walk in the sun

Today we've been for a walk with friends. We've been enjoying actual sun the like of which we haven't seen for ages and it seemed a shame not to get outside and really enjoy it - who knows how long it will last!
So we got to see some of our beautiful countryside and stunning views. It was definitely a day to pause in the pursuit of happiness and just be happy.

The elephants went in four by four (nearly)

So, a quick update on the crafting (yeah, it's a word!)

Elmer and his friends are almost ready for their outlining. The last elephant has been a pain to sew, despite having sewn three of them already he went wrong several times. Now a lesser mortal would probably have thought that it all adds to the 'homemade look' I just knew that it would bother me every time I looked at it if I didn't unpick it and start again. Twice. Grrr.

So as you can see the end is in sight and then it will be time to start the next project - hurrah!

Stir, stir, stir

Today I've been baking. I bought some spelt flour to make biscuits for the boy (he refused to eat them  but that's a post for another day!) Anyhow it mean I had most of a bag of flour to use up, so off I went to google...
And found some yummy looking blueberry muffins to try. So the boy and I went off to the kitchen. Usually he's happy to be fobbed off with a few kitchen implements while I work my magic(!) but not today. He wanted to be up and helping. So he had a go at stirring the wet mix. However there's only so much you can do with a heavy boy in one hand so I wondered if he'd be up for a bit of solo stirring action. So a bowl of water and a variety of stirring implements were provided and yes, turns out this was acceptable! For ten minutes at least.

Hands were also a useful stirring tool.

Oh, and in case you were wondering the muffins turned out ok too.

Coming soon...

I love to craft, in an ideal world I'd have much more time than I do to do all kinds of crafty things. I'd bake more, I'd have a bash at making my own clothes and generally make rather than buy where I could.
Unfortunately life gets in the way of this utopian vision of mine. I go to work, I look after the boy and attempt to keep the house from being taken over by toys, books, paper and other detritus. And if that sounds like I'm complaining, I'm not, I count myself singularly fortunate to have a job I love, a small boy to wonder at and a house to roll my eyes at the mess in. What it does mean is that I have rather a lot of half finished projects all clamouring for my attention. And they will get done, eventually.
Here's what I'm going to do; I'm going to make a list of the projects, and one by one I'm going to work through them and I'm going to document them here. Because that's sort of what it's here for.
So, first on the list (because its almost finished anyway) is a cross stitch for the boy's room. It's Elmer the elephant and his grey elephant friends. I'm on the last of the four elephants and then it just needs the boy's name stitched on and we're done. Phew, that was easy.
Then I'm going to finish the cardigan I started for myself. It's a beautiful brown, soft, chunky wool using a pattern that I already have made in grey wool. Once you get going, because the wool is chunky it takes no time at all. She says, trying to convince herself.
Then I'm going to start a blanket. This explains why. It will also give me the chance to try out some of the new knitting stitches in a book I got for my birthday. So not totally altruistic.
Then I need to knit hats for the boy and his cousin, because it will be winter by the time I've some all those other things. Probably.
Watch this space! Photos to follow - if I can figure out how!

In the beginning...

Well, here I am. It's been on my mind to try and start blogging for a while, but something stopped me. Would I have anything to say? Would I have things that were worth recording for posterity? Probably not, but that's not a reason not to try.
So this will be my blog. It will be where I post the things I'm thinking, activities I've tried and projects I would like to do. If anyone else wants to read it, great, but it's really a place to collect the things I might otherwise forget.
And the name? Well, I love a good saying and one of the sayings I love is "Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy". So here goes...