Wordless Wednesday 27/02/13

Half term - Cathedral, Craft, Cats and Colour

I know many of you are having half term holidays right now but ours was last week. I like half terms so much better than the main holidays. A week out of the routine is just long enough for us both to recharge our batteries - it's amazing what difference not having to set the alarm makes.
Not that we slept in very much later, mind you, but it is nice not having to rush out of bed!

I really wanted to take the Little Man to visit a castle, as that is what he has been learning about at school. There are several good ones locally - Chepstow, Raglan and Goodrich are all wonderful to visit - but it is just too early in the year for them to be open. I think we may have to save that trip for Easter or maybe summer hols.
Instead we had a mooch around Gloucester Cathedral (you know - where they filmed bits of Harry Potter ;-) ) Little Man just loved it and it I loved seeing him gazing around in awe.

Later in the week we went to my mum and dads for a few days.

I always like going to my parents place for a little break. I like not having to run around and do everything. I like eating big meals together as a family. As someone who normally does supermarket shop online for delivery, I love that we can spend three hours in a big supermarket mooching around looking at the clothes and magazines (my dad's not so keen on this one, neither does he relish the Ikea trip - which I am saving for next visit ;-) ). I love that there is usually a cat in every room I go into. I love that I get a cup of tea in (sofa) bed every morning. I love watching the Little Man interacting with Grandma and Grandad, and this time he had some fun with his little cousins too. Most of all I love that I can spend all day looking at crafty magazines and knitting while Little Man does colouring or chases round the garden with the dog, or goes for a walk with his Uncle and the dog down by the canal, leaving me to enjoy the peace for a while . . .

 My mums house is full of stuff - whilst not *technically* a hoarder, she is certainly a collector of a great many things! Pretty china, ornaments and books are everywhere. Then there are projects both she and my dad are working on and finished articles are dotted around the house. They love to knit and needlepoint/cross stitch. Their walls are covered in beautiful pictures and samplers, the conservatory furniture is draped with hand knitted throws and made comfy with tapestry cushions. It's all so very inspiring!

Now I am back home and the Little Man is back at school. Right now the sun is shining (although we have been threatened with more snow later in the week!) The primulas are looking colourful, the bulbs are all coming up and I am expecting a parcel from Abakhan any day now so I can start my Creative Budget project for Easter.

Spring is definitely in the air!!

Making it up as I go along...

I am a little bit proud of myself. This weekend I managed to knit a pair of gloves for the Little Man, completely to his specification WITHOUT an actual pattern to follow. That is a written, tried and tested by somebody else kind of pattern anyway...

It was definitely cold enough for gloves when we went out on Saturday but rooting through the hats/gloves/scarves box (aka Little Man's dressing up box) and could not find one pair of gloves that matched AND fitted him so he ended up with a pair of fluffy mittens which spent most of the day in his pockets not on his hands which meant he spent most of the day with cold hands!

'I want some like yours mummy' he said pointing to my wrist warmers, 'but not sparkly!'

So I let him pick some yarn. After steering him away from the lime green acrylic - there are some places I just won't go! - he chose a nice blue-grey with coloured flecks. We took the yarn home and I set to, ploughing through my patterns to find what he wanted. Nothing.  Had a look on Ravelry for free downloads and couldn't find anything there either.  So I bit the bullet, grabbed a pen and some paper and made my own pattern.

He wanted a longer cuff than normal (kids gloves are always too short at the wrist don't you think?), he wanted a thumb but he didn't want fingers. And he want the top left open, 'So I can eat sweeties without getting fluffy bits in my mouth!'  I wanted to knit them in the round using double pointed needles so there was no sewing up afterwards...

I used a basic mitten pattern as a starting point for number of stitches to cast on and also for shaping the thumb gusset but after that I kind of made it up as I went along (writing it down so the other glove would match of course!)

I can't begin to tell you how satisfying it was once they were finished (in one day too!) and Little Man put them on, then didn't want to take them off!  He proudly showed them off to his teachers when he went back to school yesterday.

And now I am proudly showing them off to you!

Growing up . . .

I haven't blogged properly for a while. Computer problems have been part of it. Minor loss of blogging mojo (it happens) has also played a part. But the main reason, for which I make no apology, is that I have been trying to cram in as much time with the Little Man as possible before he started school...

On sunny days we have gone for walks in the woods or over to Nonny's house or just hung out in the garden tending our teeny veggie plot. On rainy days (there have been many!) we baked, got the craft box out or just snuggled on the sofa, watching movies.
There have been a couple of family BBQ's when he has stayed up late, running around the garden until the light faded.
We even convinced Daddy to close the shop for a couple of days and went on holiday to Devon, having a great time splashing about in the sea, clambering over rocks and into caves, investigating rock pools and eating ice cream on the beach.

I would be lying if I said there weren't times this summer when I wished for some time to myself, some peace, an opportunity to tidy up and for it to STAY tidy for more than five minutes. There have been days when he has driven me almost to distraction, days when his behaviour has been 'challenging' (to put it mildly) and he has spent more time in his room for 'time-out' than he has downstairs. Some days I just felt over whelmed by his constant demands for my attention - from bouncy 6am starts to when he finally dropped off to sleep between 8 and 9pm (damn those long, light summer days . . . )
Some days his stubbornness really got to me - can't imagine *where* he gets it from - and I had to remind myself just who was the adult here.

But it's all par for the course and now the era of 24/7 mummy/baby time is over. He's growing up. It's time to hand over a portion of responsibility for his education, both academic and social - to other people. I will no longer be completely in control of who and what he is exposed to. It feels like I am letting him out into the big bad world on his own and I worry a little about whether he is ready.

To be honest, it's probably me that is not quite ready . . .

On Monday afternoon I waved goodbye as he and the other newbies were led into their new classroom for the first time. He stands a good couple of inches taller than the others, despite being one of the youngest there, and looked so grown up in his gray and navy blue uniform. He had been so excited in the weeks leading up to this day, and that morning he could barely contain himself, asking for lunch at 9:30am because he knew he was going to school after lunch! Watching him walk across the playground I could see his mixed emotions playing across his face. He was happy and excited, yes, but I could also see a little apprehension as he entered this new environment full of people he didn't know. Just before he went round the corner and out of view, he turned, smiled and waved and I knew he was gonna be just fine . . .

Nano Speed Super Vert Crash Set Review

Little Man has been eyeing up the Nano Speed cars for a while so when the Nano Speed Super Vert Playset turned up at Mount Pleasant for him us to review . . .  well I think his face says it all!

The teeny Nano Speed cars work by a simple pull-back mechanism and boast an "insane power to weight ratio . . . capable of defying gravity and pulling off stunts never done before"  What this means basically is that they are *very* small and *very* fast. Frustratingly we found, more often than not, that they flipped over when released but when they DID work properly, they really went for it!


Setting the play set up was easy enough - all the track pieces are numbered and the instructions are simple diagrams that are easy to follow. The set requires 2 'D' size batteries (BIG chunky round ones) which we didn't have in the house but that didn't stop the Little Man enjoying himself immensely, customising his set by plastering it with the cool graffiti stickers provided.

Once the battery situation was sorted and the motorised launcher was working we were able to see the play set in action. The super charger/launcher is annoyingly noisy but the effect is quite stunning and the Little Man actually squealed with delight as the Nano Cars shot round the track at turbo speed ( apparently as fast as 1500mph scaled speed *oh really?* )

It's a shame the cars didn't actually stay on the track for more than a couple of circuits and we have yet to get two going simultaneously and therefore get the 'crash' effect but maybe I am just being picky!

Little Man soon discovered that disconnecting the track and using the speed launcher to fire the Nano cars across the room was MUCH more fun!

Little Man says - "It was fun. I liked putting the stickers on.

 I like the tiny little cars and they go very fast. It was cool.

 I didn't like them falling off all the time"

Overall the Nano Speed Super Vert Playset was great fun to play with - although maybe better suited to an older child. The cars can be bought separately (which is good as they really are small and will probably be lost/stood on fairly quickly . . . ) and are intended to be 'collected'. I feel that, at £34.99 (rrp) the playset is a little expensive but, let's be honest, if you can't find it cheaper you really aren't trying hard enough!

A day out to the Zoo!

Last week me and the Little Man spent a few days at my parents house eating well, playing in the garden (yes, the sun appeared!!!!) going for walks along the canal and generally just taking a break from the routine. My dad has mentioned before how much he would like to take the Little Man to the zoo but, to be honest, I didn't feel he was really ready to appreciate it fully until this summer. So we took one day out of our break to head across the Severn Bridge and visit Bristol Zoo Gardens.

We arrived at about 10.45 to see the car parks were full and queue about half a mile long at the entrance! Luckily for us we were travelling with my mum and her wheelchair so we were able to get a special parking spot close to the entrance and, because we had pre-booked our tickets online we avoided the queue too! (plus you get an extra 10% discount so it's well worth remembering!)

The Gardens are beautifully laid out and we were blessed with lovely weather which made the whole experience much more pleasurable!  Yes, it was busy, but we expected it to be. There was more than enough space for everyone to enjoy their picnics and, with the exception of the nocturnal house which was dark (well, duh!) and humid and quite frankly I couldn't wait to get out, nowhere was over crowded and manoeuvring a wheel chair around the place was pretty easy too.

Food and drink available to buy on site (from cafe/restaurants/booths and vending machines dotted about the place) was over-priced, as you would expect, but take a picnic along and this is, overall a pretty cheap family day out. And it's educational too!!  Just be aware that you have to walk through the gift shop to get out and if you are watching the pennies then put blinkers on the kids as you walk through or I guarantee you will be going home with a collection of cuddly meerkats and plastic dinosaurs!

Here a few of my favourite pictures from the day. . .   Enjoy x

snoozin' is what us Lions do best!

Dinosaurs roam free at Bristol Zoo!

T-Rex (scarily huge)

the seals were mostly asleep...

but they still managed to captivate the Little Man

beautiful Silver back Gorilla had his 'I've just woken up' face on...

even the meerkats were trying to nap!

...although there is always one left outside, keeping watch

butterflies feeding - these were about the size of my hand!

LM with Alfred - one of Bristol Zoo's first, and most famous, Gorillas

gorgeous snuggly ring tailed Lemur. Also napping. Hmmm.....

Please visit the 'Bristol Zoo Gardens' photo album on the Tales from Mount Pleasant Facebook page for loads more gorgeous pictures of the zoo's inhabitants. Some of them are even awake!!! ;-) 

It's the Little Things #2

This week's Little Thing is actually quite a big thing.  Little Man attended his nursery 'Graduation Prom' on Friday night. It's not nearly as grand as it sounds - it actually consisted of a local village hall full of pre-schoolers (and their siblings), lots of crisps, cakes, sausage rolls, squash, balloons and a predominately CBeebies soundtrack. Little Man went all shy and decided he would prefer to spend most of the time with mummy and daddy as sadly his best friends from nursery weren't there, although his face lit up everytime balloons headed in his general direction.

The staff at the nursery had created little leaving packs for all the 'graduates' - a bag containing the childs progress report, some art work, a drinks bottle, a disk with photographs they had taken of him throughout his time there (we had to sign a consent form that none of this picture would be shared on Social Network sites due to their privacy policy, which is a shame coz there are some crackers!!) a ticket to the local cinema (timely - he has been nagging to go and see Ice Age 4 for weeks) and an achievement certificate.

Little Man's certificate said he was the class genius. "Quick to learn and retain information. Can intelligently talk about things he is interested in"


I cannot tell you how much this made me smile :-) not to mention the picture I took of him with his playleader, beaming from ear to ear proudly showing off his certificate (no, I'm not allowed to share that one either...)

Obviously this marks the end of an era. My Little Man is growing up. In ten weeks time he will no longer be a pre-schooler but enter the realms of formal education (all be it at Reception level which, if the school's 'Reception Entries Parents Evening' the other week was anything to go by, seems to be a whole lot more fun than staying at home!)

It hardly seems like yesterday that we first said hello!

1 day old and FULL of attitude!

What little things made you smile this week?

#TheGallery - Hands

I have a 'thing' about hands. When my OH first came into the bookshop where I worked to place an advert in the local rag all I could do was stare at his hands - big, slightly dirty - he worked in his dad's motorbike shop - and I was smitten (his just over 6ft stature and long blond surfer dude hair may have had a little bit to do with it too . . .) My collegue noticed straight away (not that I was flustered or anything), a friend passed on my phone number and the rest, as they say, is history.

So, yeah, hands are very important to me...


When I read this weeks Gallery theme ONE photo immediately sprang to mind.

It's a picture that melts my heart everytime I look at it...

Woodland walk...

I know I have blogged this walk before but it's one of our favourites - a stroll to the end of our road, across the fields where the mares have foaled (although they were all tucked away out of view today), into the woods along the well used green lanes down to Nonny's house...

#SilentSunday 29/04/12

#SilentSunday 15/04/12

#SilentSunday 08/04/12

#SilentSunday 18/03/12

A New Year Promise

Now I know, what with it being two thirds of the way through February already, it's a little late to be blogging about New Years resolutions and all, but as I have only had my laptop back three weeks I think I have a pretty good excuse...

Most of the first half of January was spent catching up with my paperwork. Unlike the Other Half's business paperwork which I deal with every week, mine tends to get put to one side to sort out 'later'. Well the pressing matter of tax return deadlines reared its ugly head so I couldn't ignore it any longer.  As I sorted through I was pleasantly surprised at the volume of sales I had achieved through Folksy, Facebook and Twitter plus sales from bricks-and-mortar shops and craft fairs. Not to mention the special commissions from friends and friends-of-friends. But (there is always a but) despite having brought in a modest income from my work I had also spent a great deal of money on materials.
Yes, I made a profit (woohoo) but only a small one and the more I thought about it - about the stress of fulfilling orders whilst keeping a toddler occupied; of keeping up with the forums and promotion on social networks; of the OH dropping barbed comments about the amount of time I was spending with my head in my laptop; the late nights editing photographs, listing and tweaking the website/online shops; and most importantly, the frustration I felt because the Little Man just wouldn't let me finish one (more) little thing.  And, you know, actually, I wondered if it was worth it. Really.

Something else has also been playing on my mind recently too. The Little Man - he's not so little anymore. On a daily basis he proudly tells me he is getting bigger like daddy, "I am nearly four now!". In seven months time he will be starting school. Part of me is really looking forward to this. He's a smart kid, he is inquisitive and genuinely wants to know about everything. I know he will love school, but (there it is again) part of me is aghast. Where has the time gone? How can we possibly be thinking about school already? Why am I spending all my time fretting and stressing and worrying about my fledgling business when I should be making the most of every moment I have with him before SCHOOL takes over...

So I have made a promise to myself.

This time I have with the Little Man is precious. It is important. Once gone, I will never be able to get it back. So for the next seven months the business will be sitting on the back burner, gently simmering, while I get on with the important task of properly enjoying the spring and summer with my special little pre-schooler...

#SilentSunday 12/02/12

 

 

for more fab pictures search #SilentSunday on twitter.com

#SilentSunday 11/12/11

#HandmadeChristmas - An Apology

Life has a way of taking over, have you noticed that?

Despite all my plans and ideas for a whole series of Handmade Christmas posts, we are less than four weeks away from the BIG DAY and... well... time is running out.

It's not that the ideas went away more a case of being pushed to one side while I was forced to concentrate on more important stuff like working out how the hell we are going to keep both shops open now we are a staff member down and all our friends/family/nice people who help out are either ill or have other commitments. It doesn't help that while much of the retail sector is building up for the Christmas rush this is traditionally the time of year our business tends to wind down a little as all the fair weather bikers pack up their gear for the winter...

I have been ill for best part of three weeks too, and last week Little Man was struck down and spent 3 days in a semi-zombie state on the sofa, temperature going up and down like a yo-yo and with barely enough energy to keep his eyes open.
Evidently he was not considered serious enough for a home-visit from the doctor so I had to bundle him up, fish out the long unused pushchair and take him down to surgery in the cold and dark only to be told there was very little to be done and to continue giving him Calpol every 4 hours.

A week of sleepless nights compounded by worry about the business, our finances and family stuff has left me feeling drained and exhausted.

So this post is mainly an apology that the promises of Handmade Christmas posts I had planned will not be happening now - I will not be making my own mincemeat because we simply cannot afford the ingredients (although I still hope to have a go at fudge...)
I have been asked by MENCAP to create a tutorial for their Christmas Make with Me campaign which I am more than happy to do but the tutorials I had hoped to share with you here will have to wait until next year. I will, however be posting a list of fab tutorials that I have found around the inter web for you to have a go at and I still hope to highlight some great handmade decorations available to buy for those of you who have neither the time nor the inclination to create your own.

As life continues to do it's damnedest to butt in and spoil my plans I will be taking a little step back from the blog. I am determined that no matter how stressful and depressing our situation may seem at the moment, we will have a wonderful, Handmade Christmas to remember.
I hope you all do too! xx

#SIlentSunday 27/11/11

#SilentSunday 23/10/11

Project Bed (or 'How to be a flat-pack queen')

Little Man is growing up. Fast. His lovely cot bed that has served so well for the past three and a half years has become noticeably 'too small' over the past couple of months. So it was time to get 'A New Bed'.
His room is tiny (lets be honest - all the rooms in our house are tiny!) so we needed something that would make the most of the space without being too overpowering. And we had to bear in mind that he is only three so I didn't want to get anything too high off the floor...
We found this brilliant raised bed frame in Argos - lovely antique stained (not shiny varnish, thank goodness) solid pine. No cupboards underneath, just under a meter off the floor so plenty of room underneath for toy storage and play! Simple, basic and not too expensive (for bonus Brownie points!).

It arrived, in a deceptively small box just after lunchtime. I didn't have to put it together myself. I could have waited till the Other Half was here all day on Sunday. But, you know, I get impatient about stuff like this...

And, besides, I am the Queen of Flat-Pack!!

First things first - dismantle the old cot bed...

This lovely cot bed was second hand from the Newent Association for the Disabled charity shop. It was missing a couple of bolts (but a friend in a fabricators sorted that for us) but otherwise fine. It will be going to my brother and his wife for their new tot due in December...

It was a darn sight easier to take apart than it was to put together, I can tell you (sorry R&M but you are going to have fun getting it back together again ;-) )

Won't be needing this anymore either. Little Man says it's for baby beds not big boy beds! Oh, he is growing up so fast *sniff*

Rule no 1 - when tackling flat pack furniture - ALWAYS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!
This is where most men fail dismally.

Rule no 2 - assemble a decent tool kit... this is where I fail dismally...
Luckily all we needed was a a screwdriver and a hammer.


 Now to put it all together.  I am always happy to accept help when it is offered...

The bed ends are done (that really was the easy bit!) now to join them together. To be honest, I could have done with a helper who was a little less easily distracted by toys at this point!

I think we were about 2 hours in to the build and it was nearly time to break for tea. But not before the ladder was put in place...

After tea it was on to the important bit - adding the bed slats. Properly spaced out. Using a ruler and everything just like the instructions specified (yeah, right...) whilst at the same time getting the Little Man in the bath and having to move everything out of the way to get to the pj drawer...

As you can see it is dark now - and actually Little Man's bedtime. As you can probably imagine, he wasn't complaining too much about staying up a bit later than usual...

Mattress on. Duvet and pillows in place. One happy not-so-Little Man- anymore in his big boy's bed!
It took five and a half hours, gave me very sore hands (who ever thought allen keys were a good idea?) and pushed bedtime back a whole hour (woah) but I did it. All by myself (more or less).
I am the Flat Pack Queen!

Today brings Project Bed Phase 2 - tidying and sorting toys/books/clothes and other furniture in the room and creating a den under the bed. Will let you know how it goes...