Tuesday 30 December 2008

The inbetween bits



Hello, again thanks for stopping by. The weather today in Preston is cold, quite cold, the canal is lightly frozen - not too many skidding ducks to be fed this morning .



Does anyone else find the in between bit from Christmas to New Year a bit unsettling? I find I spend a lot of time thinking about the things I should be doing but don't really do anything about it. All this makes me feel in someway unsettled - that feeling that I've somehow forgotten something does that make sense?? Possibly not - I must admit that I've always been a bit odd....

Anyway, so far today I have done very little. Both big and little man (aka Neil and Jamie) have gone to face the shops as J needs glasses and his very first pair are ready for picking up this morning. I feel a bit nervous about it and hope that he copes well with glasses, I know he is a bit anxious about walking into school next week with glasses on but I've done my best to reassure him that the days of continuous name calling for glasses wearers is long gone and these days it's trendy to wear glasses (crumbs how old do I sound). Nonetheless I am also nervous for him as J is not despite appearances a rufty tufty young boy and apart from being one of the loudest children in the world is actually very very sensitive and my protective mothers instinct is definately kicking in. Please don't think I am specaphobic, both Neil and I are as blind as bats without our glasses so really it was inevitable that J would need to wear them one day and I'm actually quite suprised he's managed 8 years without needing them. Oh well deep down I know he will be fine.

I've been working on two cushions for my God daughters which are to be collected on Friday morning as late Christmas presents. Hopefully they will be finished without too much stress by tomorrow and I will be able to put the photos on here. My God daughters are gorgous, they are the children of my oldest friend from school. She lives near Birmingham now so we don't see each other as often as we would like but like all true friends despite the lack of regular contact we regress back to our school girl behaviour instantly whenever we meet. My friend adopted her daughters 3 years ago, when they were 3 and 4 years old and it has amazed me how well they settled in and became part of the family. I cannot imagine them not being part of all our lives and I find it really heartwarming how children can just adapt. J just accepted that one day my friends had no children and then suddenly they had two - no questions asked. I love the way that kids just get on with things as far as J was concerned it made the visits so much more fun as he had instant playmates and that was that.




This is a photo of a penny rug I made as a wall hanging for our lounge. It took a couple of months to make but I love the colours. Every day I look at it and smile, I think it's hard not to smile when there are bright colours around. I love colour, I love the way that something as simple as a colour can make me feel happy. When I look at magazines of homes I always think the neutral colours make homes look spacious and clean and calming but I know I could never live like that myself. Neil and I tried it once - pre child - to have a neutral minimilist home, we painting the walls cream, had our wooden floors and leather sofa and not much else. No books or magazines lying around and everything in its place. It lasted about two months, we just couldn't keep it up I remember the last straw being me trying to work out what to wear - nothing too bright or bold in case I didn't 'blend in' with the room - how bonkers is that!! Anyway it had to change so now we have bright coloured rooms with flowers, J's toys make the house looked lived in (well that's one word for it) and books around ready to be read. I love our home it feels like us and whenever I think that perhaps cream would be calmer I remind myself of the day I tried to match my clothes to the sofa - how's that for a reality check!!!!!!

take care and have a fun 'inbetween' day xx

Sunday 28 December 2008

Starting Again




Hello,

I've decided to restart my blog after nearly a year of browsing and lurking around into other peoples lives via their blogs. It's been so much fun reading and seeing how others have spent the last year. It's a bit like people watching via computer I suppose. Anyway, I've decided to come out of the shadows and join in the fun again. The problem with this is it becomes a bit of an obsession and I find that I end up spending far to much time on the computer but then never mind such is life I suppose.... Anyway it gives me the excuse to get some much needed practice with my camera.

So a quick think back over the last twelve months tells me that not that much has happened and the year somehow merged into a mass of work work, school, work, shopping, cleaning and in reality not much else. Hopefully this will not be the case for the next twelve months. My man and I have decided that the last year we spent far too many evenings talking about work and far too many weekends running around chasing our tales catching up on the shopping and/or housework that we never seemed to have enough time to do during the week.



We have decided to buy into the Country Living campaign to reclaim the weekend and as such try to limit 'chores' to the barest minimum. There are some wonderful places within an hours drive of our house and we fully intend to visit as many as possible throughout 2009.




I also fully intend to get my act together and concentrate more on my sewing with the aim on perhaps trying out a market stall or an etsy shop, But I have said this every year for as long as I can remember so don't hold your breath on that on. Also January 1st looms every year with the aim of losing weight once and for all but again I would suggest not holding your breath on that one either......
So tomorrow I will pick up my camera afresh and share a little more about my life in lovely Lancashire in our little terraced house on the canal banks of Preston. Till then take care and bye bye x