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