Bunting Cards.

 The other day I was out shopping with my daughter, we went into a card shop and I saw some lovely cards with bunting on them.  I commented on what a good idea for cards this was.  When we got back my daughter drew this:

 I did a little google searching to get some ideas about cards and then with a spare couple of hours this morning I sat down with crafty sutff all around me and got started:

 

 

I ended up getting a little carried away!  Well it kept me busy while my fingers were too sore for crochet.

Discovering Crochet

I love using my hands, the last big 'new' thing I did with fabric or yarn was the cushion I made for a friend.  I have also been busy making a scrapbook for my daughter who turned 10 years old a couple of weeks ago. I will get round to doing a blog on that I hope, I am very pleased with it. 

Knitting is something I have always had a project on the go with.  However after an unsuccessful attempt at making a cardigan I have got rather disgruntled with my knitting skills.  This has prompted me to again look at crochet - I have never been able to learn to crochet using books or written instructions.  This became very apparent after a thoughtless purchase some time ago when I decided I would learn no matter what I brought these:

Several attempts and a lot of frustration later it all went back in my knitting bag.  What I hadn't ever thought of was using new fangled technology that sits on my lap very regularly to find a video to teach me.  Good old Youtube - there are so many people who have kindly made films to show folks like me how to do stuff in nice easy visual ways.  I won't advertise any one particular person that I have used as there are so many that I have looked at and picked up tips from.  I think it is one of those things where you should look yourself and decide which voice/film does it for you :o).

The first thing I learnt to do was to make a crochet beret hats for me and my girls.  These were great fun and very quick to make.  I then had a go at making an object and decided on a cup cake as my youngest has a bit of a 'thing' for all things cupcakey.  That went well.  Then I decided it was time to tackle changing colours in a project and started on granny squares.  I am so pleased with the results, here is a picture of my youngest with her bunny 'Poppy' holding the cupcake and snuggled up in her blanket

I now have a long term project on the go - all the wool that I unravelled from the unsuccessful cardigan is now taking the shape of plain granny squares, which I will eventually use another colour to crochet them all together to make a blanket for the sofa downstairs, so that when I am a little chilly but it doesn't warrant any heating going on myself, my husband and kids can all snuggle down together.

I have also discovered that I can use a very small crochet needle and embroidery thread to make some really pretty card toppers, these are some of the most recent ones I have done

 

I haven't put the whole of the last photo on as I know the god-daughter for whom it is for looks at this blog and I do not want to totally ruin any surprise :o).

I am also now going to take a break from my plain squares to make a present for the same god-daughter, I can't believe she is going to be 8 soon!

Whenever I have a spare moment now I love looking through crochet images on google - it is tremendous what some people have thought to do, this is by far my favourite, I wonder if I will ever get round to having a go at something so vast

Acts of Kindness.

I have got a bit of a blog block again at the moment - looking through some photos the other day has made me realise how little I have been writing about what we have been up to. This picture made me think of some lovely acts of kindness that some people have shown us in the last week or so. The picture shows a pile of 'new arrival' cards that I made. These have mostly been sent to folks who we don't see or correspond with regularly. What prompted me to do it was the thought that these folks would have been very upset for it to have got to Christmas and discover my niece appearing in all our cards without us telling them (I also have to confess I couldn't bear the thought of cards arriving without her mentioned in them).

As soon as these were sent out we then went away for a few days, leaving my parents in our home to enjoy some Southern weather (which turned out not to be much better than their midlands weather). They received several phone calls from friends and relatives who were responding to receiving the cards - this made my mum feel good and also meant we got to see my daughters God-mother who we hadn't had chance to tell we were going to be in her neck of the woods.

We also came back to discover several cards written by Aunts and cousins, one of these was from my husbands cousin who I have only met 2 or 3 times, she wrote the most amazing message to my niece welcoming her into an extended family. We have even received a phone call from Australia!

This has been a real unexpected joy and has reminded my husband and myself how fortunate we are to have such supportive friends and family, even if we are not always aware they are supporting us.

A Day with my Youngest.

Yesterday was an unusual one, as I am still not too mobile my husband went off with the eldest two and family friends to a great big annual airshow. Our youngest had a party to go to in the afternoon and as she has been feeling rather wobbly the last few months since our eldest arrived, I thought I would try and pull out all the stops and give her a whole day of my attention.

I had a chat with her the night before and said we would make a plan in the morning (the ones going out were going to be leaving at 5.30 AM!). I requested that she wouldn't come and get me out of bed before 7.30 but said she could come down and watch some tv if she wanted to from 7am (this is our normal routine).

She came into me at 7.30 (I was reading having woke up early!), and said she had been in bed reading to (this is very new for her). We then spent the next couple of hours eating our breakfast in front of the television (watching her programmes, not my preference of the news). We also decided on our plan of action for the day.

The plan was:

1. Get showered/bathed and dressed and spend some time pampering each other.



2. Make cards ( she needed to do one for the party she was going to later).



3. Have lunch in front of the TV (a very rare treat indeed!).



4. Do some baking together.



5. Get herself ready for the party.



6. Go to the party.

This felt reasonably realistic and I even managed to get her to tidy her room while we were 'pampering' each other (naughty mummy doing something she wanted to do!).

I kept in my mind all day the fact that I would get a couple of hours while she was at the party to myself, which really helped me to focus on her.

I sometimes beat myself up for not having more desire to spend more time with my youngest daughter. I really do find her quite hard work and she does require a lot of attention which seems to have the effect of making me not want to give it to her - hmmmm.

Yesterday however, it just all seemed to work, every time I felt myself getting a bit distracted I was able (with Gods help I know) to get back on track.

Here are a few photos of what we got up to.

this is the craft, I taught her a bit of decoupage using an image off the Internet.
the lovely yummy cakes she made and decorated.

the beans on toast and glass of milk after the party.

Creating

In all the angst of this week, by necessity I got out some craft bits yesterday to make cards for the next week. I have been card making since before I got married, but made the decision just after my first was born in 1999 that I would no longer purchase cards. Until this last year I have reasonably kept up with this. Making all birthday, celebration and Christmas cards every year, my children have grown up believing if you want to send a card you make it and I love this attitude. Making a card gives me the time to sit and think about the person that I making it for and most importantly of all to pray for them.

The last 6 months or so I have really struggled to make any, when in emotional turmoil my creativity takes a nose dive, therefore I was quite surprised at how quickly I got these done yesterday. Like with writing card making does not always go the way you want/hope, but as a first draft I am pleased with what I have produced.