Going by in a blur

Life moves pretty fast.. 

(ten points if you get the movie quote!)

What have we been up to? The usual but we've had birthdays, a Cub camp, a Scout camp, a school residential, not to mention unemployment, days out, a new camera, a new iPhone and days dreaming of a holiday!

The eldest attained her Silver award from Cubs and was invited to attend an awards day, where as well as receiving a commemorative woggle and certificate, there were also activities to enjoy, she loves a good zip wire but this one was so high I wasn't sure if her fear of heights would kick in, several Beavers cried at the top and couldn't do it, I'm not sure I could!

But I should have known she'd be fine!

She's now become a Scout and suddenly from being an elder Cub Sixer she's now one of the youngest newbies. It's a real big change as the age range is 10 1/2 to 14, so some of them look much older! She's already been on her first Scout camp though and lived to tell the tale, she enjoyed having a go at archery and doing fire lighting and knife skills. 

We had the annual St. George's Day parade in March where I very proudly watched both my girls take part. It's great to see how many people are involved and enjoy the movement.

The eldest also turned Eleven last month! It's a cliche but I'm not sure how that happened, she's also turned into a fully fledged phone addict, as she'd happily stay plugged into Minecraft YouTube videos all day if we let her, it's even taken over her book reading habit, which I'm very sad about. I keep hoping the novelty will wear off soon, how many videos can StampyCat have made?!

With her Minecraft addiction, it meant that of course deciding on a birthday cake theme would be easy!

I think I preferred it when they were small and had no expectations on my decorating skills!

It was also my Birthday and the eldest did me a fab painting of my favourite thing - a cuppa!

I managed to use my Birthday money to finally join the rest of the world in having a smartphone, hurrah! So I've been mostly using the camera and getting to grips with Instagram.

After going a long time without a compact camera, I now have two! My iPhone and I also purchased an Olympus Pen EP-1 on Ebay, it's a Micro 4/3rds camera, so it's a bit like a hybrid between an SLR and a compact and I love it! 

We had a lovely family Bank Holiday visit to Cogges for the Festival of the Fleece

and we all had a go at paper plate weaving, which even the littlest enjoyed.

So busy I've not even done anything crafty, I'm thinking I might treat myself to a day off work to remedy that ;)

Happy 1st Birthday!

Rowan turned one on Wednesday!

It's a cliche but this has been the fastest year yet.

I've just returned to work too so hopefully I can work on my blog a bit easier now!

May

Where has May gone?!  It's been a blur of Birthdays, school, work, sunshine & showers!

At the beginning of the month it was mine and the Eldest girls birthday, we're 'lucky' (!) to share the same day - I'm not sure being in labour on your birthday is the best way to spend it and it does mean I'm usually now running around like a blue-arsed fly on my birthday!  Seriously, it's really nice and while she was enjoying the day at school,my day consisted of putting up lots of bunting/birthday posters and blowing up balloons - how is blowing up balloons with a pump so tiring?!  I managed about 3 before I was bored and my arms were aching!  I did manage to squeeze in some 'me' time for a lovely bit of sewing time with the iPod blasting and singing badly!

Organised chaos!

The sewing wasn't all therapeutic though, I was attempting to make 12 party bags for the party that was due in the next two days!  I'm glad to say I did manage it, even had a few spares!

I was determined to make them using only fabric I already had (which is way too much and needs reducing!)

I made a rough rectangle template based on the size of the 'goodies' that were going in them - mostly small making kits from Hobbycraft and cut each bag on the fold so I'd only have two sides to hem.

To neaten the insides I also decided to do French seams, so I folded the fabric WRONG sides together to do the first line of stitching, then turned it back again to have RIGHT sides together and did another line of stitching down the side and along the bottom, the seam allowance has to be a bit more generous for this so that you hide all the first allowance inside (see last picture).

Then I just need to fold over a hem for the top of the bag, which I did twice and then pinned the handles in place (pieces of ribbon), poking them under the hem.  I did two rows of stitching for strength.

Job done!



The other sewing job I've done this month is a present for my Dad's birthday, it's a key bag, so he can keep all his keys in it, instead of a food bag!

I used the Bento Bag pattern in Sew Hip, issue 29 as a starting point and adapted it slightly.  The denim material was a secondhand pillow-case and the lining a piece of an old sheet!

Putting it all together was easy, instructions for box corners never make sense to me in written patterns, visual instruction for things like that are much better! Basically it's two box shapes put together, topstitched at the hem and a channel for the cord on the outside. I used bias binding for the channel as trying to press a tiny hem proved too much for my fat fingers!  The denim fabric was also quite bulky which restricts the gathering when pulled tight with the cord, but I haven't had any complaints from the recipient!

We've also had some new members of the family..

meet Harold & Tom, our first guinea pigs!

I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying them and it's lovely seeing the girls learning how to look after them.

I've also had my 20 week anomaly scan which went well thankfully, sadly I don't have any good pictures to share as little bump wouldn't keep still!  The poor sonographer had a hard time getting all the measurements, let alone a good picture and we're not very sure on the gender either!  I was convinced it was a boy, but now I don't know what to think!  The suspense is going to kill me, I'm not good with surprises!  I was going to start a Debbie Bliss baby cardigan once we knew what it was, but now I'm not sure what colours to use, cream seems a bit boring!

I've just realised I haven't taken any pics of my lovely birthday presents, I had a lovely handmade brooch from my sister and a lovely bunny by 'The Vintage Magpie', once this rain & greyness disappears I shall have to remedy that.

Well, on to June...which means our holiday is almost upon us, I honestly can't wait!  We're going to Weymouth for the first time, I haven't been to the coast for years and the girls are very excited as we're staying in a caravan!  If you have any Weymouth recommendations I'd love to hear them!

Birthday Goodies

A glimpse of the pretties from the birthdays...

Lovely wrapping paper, carefully unwrapped so it can be used again!
Small bit of crafting, the night before I made this badge for my daughters badge, I think I'll do more of these, it was really quick and she loved it!

This was my birthday card from my fabulous Mum who knows me so well, we have the book too as it used to be her's, which we've all read and loved the illustrations, I've read it to my girls too now.

This was my sisters card, again another Ladybird illustration (I never did get a pony!), the cards are by Simon Spicer.

This is the fabulous sewing box that was in our local sewing/yarn shop at Christmas which I admired! Thank you mum!!

and I love this tea-towel, very me and it's now in my kitchen!

Birthday time

Thursday may have been election day, but in this household it's Birthday time, 34 for me and now the Big 6 for my eldest! Yes we share the same birthday, which is actually kind of lovely (apart from the usual work/prep that has to go on on the day!).

We were both very lucky on the card and presents front, I've got some amazing vintage things, the above set came from last Saturday aparently - my mum being sneaky! I shall post more photos in due course, the sewing box house is really cute...