Post Christmas

Ah an indoor picnic! Lay out a blanket, with lots of nibbles, left-overs, add kids and voila an instant no-hassle meal-time!! This buffet style eating is one of the things I love about Christmas and when I've got a miserable cold it's also much easier than sweating over the cooker!

The cold has been doing the rounds and we have all had it over Christmas at one time, so it is now my turn unfortunately!

One of my best presents this year has been from my other half:

A knit your own monkey kit!! Supposedly for 8-12 year olds! I'm really enjoying it, it's very easy for a newbie and I can't wait to finish it. It is a pre-cursor to a better present apparently as he has promised me a real Sock Monkey!!! All the hints may have paid off!
Underneath is my second best present, "The Ultimate Knitting Bible", which is a fantastic resource, nicely laid out and the diagrams are the best I've found for explaining techniques.

All I need to do now is suss out the french knitting kit my daughter got as the instructions with that are beyond me!!

Handm@de Fair, Oxford

Went to this craft fair on Sunday, it was really fab, such a wide range of handmade items, if I had lots of money I would have gone mad and bought tons of stuff! I especially liked Mondo's monsters, which I have been dropping hints about to the Other Half for Xmas ideas! So fingers crossed. The crochet and knitted items really made me very envious! I am so going to keep at it!

Mamatomama.org

Please visit this link, this is a great idea to help Mum's by sending handmade baby caps to Haiti.

A great idea from SouleMama, whose blog I absolutely love:

http://www.soulemama.typepad.com/

Halloween and other things going on...

A rather jolly pumpkin!!

Courtesy of Grampy, who didn't want it too scary apparently!

This is Aeryn's Halloween robot costume, almost finished, thank goodness for foil and glue!

Then we made a chart of simple flash card words using a magnetic photo holder, Aeryn is learning to read so I thought it would help to have simple words/letters around. The cards are from the Oxford Reading Tree, which is a great teaching resource, I'm just sorry they're not using it at her school.

This is THE simple cat hat I've been knitting for Aeryn as my first knitting project, I've now finished and cast off but am struggling to get the mattress stitch neat on sewing together, so am going to practice on a spare bit first! I'm quite happy with it, I've enjoyed seeing it grow and it is simple but as feared I'm not very neat and I dropped quite a few stitches!! Still I'm hoping with practice that both these things will get better!!

And this is my project for my textile evening course, we were asked to choose a landscape so I've chosen a London cityscape and painted a background onto a piece of secondhand linen (from Oxfam, it used to be an antimacassar!!) and now I've appliqued on geometric shapes for the buildings, next is lots of stitch work to build up texture and shape. I'm enjoying the course, it's quite relaxed and no homework is expected, which is good as I've struggled to get going, I've felt a bit hesitant to get going as my stitching is not great, but as above practice makes perfect!

I've only just got back online properly after three weeks of intermittent access due to faulty power adapters, fingers crossed this latest one will survive! Thanks to Sony Vaio helpdesk for their replacements!

Getting ready for Halloween

Bats and black paint, this year as I'm home more at the moment I thought we'd make more of an effort to have fun at Halloween, so I donwloaded a free bat template, cut them out of cereal boxes and got the kiddlies to paint! Kira ended up painting her hands and arms black, she looked like a coal miner!! Aeryn decorated her Halloween costume, which she decided is going to be a robot (!), so lots of gluing with foil.

And then off to the park for a pre-dinner play, then home for sausages for tea oh and a Dora episode!

Autumn days

IMG_0604, originally uploaded by blackdoganna.

I do love autumnal mornings, cold but sunny, a nip in the air, mist burning away, glove wearing weather, but the clear beautiful light makes a serene happy glow and the day can only get better.
It's also the time of year when you know to make the most of good weather days!
So after school was over for the morning, we headed off to 'The Forest'...

This is actually Harcourt Arboretum at Nuneham Courtenay near Oxford and it's well worth a visit, the kids can roam about, hide under bushes and collect leaves and fir cones etc.

Even though it's next to a major road, it's so tranquil and restful, just hearing all the birdsong today with the sunshine was a real pick-me-up. We had a nice picnic and even saw a butterfly, which has sadly become a rarity in our area.

Then it was time to head home when small legs were tired, but the fun didn't stop there as the kids then had a great time gluing all the treasures (pine needles, leaves etc) to make autumn pictures.

I realised how little crafty things I've done with my youngest, as she was well away, stayed at the activity much longer than her sister, I know that at nursery she was always reported as loving gluing, well now I know! Her mark making has also improved, more circular shapes now. I shall really have to make an effort to set out more craft activities that she can do too.

Homemade Christmas cards are definately on the agenda!

building up a stash

IMG_0337, originally uploaded by blackdoganna.

Ooo, I love charity shops!
They're my first port of call for building up my resources, fabric's (old bedding is great), wool, knitting needles, crochet hooks and craft books, are all to be found for the diligent rummager!

Which when you're short of funds for luxury items means you can still have fun! There's quite a good few in my town and I've also just found Orinoco - the scrapstore in Oxford, which has loads of crafty items which have been saved from landfill and a bag full of booty is only £2!

I got several balls of wool from here (all this odd bits of wool etc are excellant for practising with and no guilt about spending money on expensive new wool when the knitting/project turns out as a disaster!), one of them being an easy ball of double knitting in cerise so I'm knitting a beginner's hat at the moment - 'cat hat' pattern from the book that has taught me to knit - it's actually a childrens book, (Usborne - How to Knit) but it's nice and simple, good illustrations and tasteful easy projects to give confidence! (An mp3 cosy is next!)
I'l post photos soon, as always it lacks neatness, but I'm sure with practice I'll get better!

I've also started a stiched textiles course which I'll update about in ny next entry!

Oh and the bread making is going great guns, I haven't bought a loaf since!