Sunday 27 January 2013

Just being busy

I am still here, just being busy! January is a bit like September at work. There's a significant deadline approaching and therefore I have spent the last week working mostly. I did have Friday off though to make up for all the evenings and weekend work and that was nice. I got to be a real mum for once and ferry the nest to school and back. 

When I have managed to fit it some stitchy stuff its been either the Emily Peacock Hug kit (which is coming along nicely) or, this weekend, my big granny square blanket which I've started (I really have fallen off the wagon recently here) so that I use up lots of the wool basket wool. Its gorgeous and contains soooo many colours. Here is a quick phone camera picture for you....(I hate the phone camera pictures now because they seem so inferior to the real camera pictures but those take a bit more faffing to make it from camera to blog!)



My healthy eating was going great until this weekend (this long weekend that is) - I will resume that today (or probably tomorrow). I have a new theory which seems to be proving true. You see, if I didn't snack at all in the evenings I would be thin. I don't want to be thin obviously - just not so 'curvy' (I have taught child #3 to call girls 'curvy' rather than 'fat' - he will be such a little charmer when he's older!). Anyway, I realised that I spend all day being really healthy and eating fruit for breakfast and low fat soup for lunch, and more low carb snacks if I need them and all is good. Then it gets to 4pm and I am STARVING so I get home and crave the bad stuff for dinner (with big portions), and snack while I'm cooking and then I'm tempted by puddings, and then I snack in the evenings so by the end of the day I've eaten all the wrong stuff, mostly after 6pm and sometimes too much of it. So, I have now changed the way I eat. I eat porridge with blueberries for breakfast (when I get to work - I'm not that organised in the mornings), then I eat 'proper' soup or something else with a decent amount of calories in at lunch time, and then, low and behold, I am not starving when I get home and I am happy to wait a little longer for dinner and I am also happy to eat the stuff I should be eating for dinner. I am now far less tempted to snack in the evenings too. 

I'm not making much progress with the cooking at the moment but I did make the mixed lentil dhal the other day. It tasted nice but looked revolting - I'm not sure I can eat food that looks that bad...I didn't even photograph it! One of the reasons the cooking isn't progressing is due to the temperature of my kitchen...I'm scared to even measure it! I haven't done much to kitchen yet apart from paint it bright green and put up some rails and shelves and it is in need of lots of work - building work essentially hence the temperature! I knew it was cold but when I got the olive oil out of the cupboard to find it had seperated I read the back and it said that it would go cloudy below 10 degrees. This was way beyond cloudy! It is the only room that is cold though so we just avoid it as much as possible at the moment.

So today I have a plasterer popping in to give me a quote for the hall and landing work. I'm still enthusiastic about this project and I very nearly picked up the sand paper yesterday but in the end the crochet won! Hmm.

Oh...I did finish this last week too, its another Felicity Stitches kit - just a small one and I've not yet done all the bits and pieces to sell it but I will soon.



I'm not sure how I am doing with my unfinished projects at present. I've started lots of things but I've also finished lots of things too. I think I might create a page on here to keep track! 

I better get back to the projects in hand anyway. See you soon.

Saturday 19 January 2013

Ludo Tapestry Kit by Felicity Stitches

Well its another later than promised post but none the less I am finally going to tell you all about the first tapestry kit being put on sale by Felicity Stitches. As I said, getting this far took far longer, and required so many new skills and so many things to be done before this could happen. Whether Felicity Stitches is a success or not I still have a feeling of huge achievement and I have already learnt so much. Of course it will be a success eventually because I won't give up trying until it is but it may take a while and that's fine.

I currently have 3 completed samples for the business but it's this one that is going on sale first, because it's my favourite, and it does carry some sentimental value too.








I take no credit for the pictures, which are brilliant. They are the work of a rather lovely, and extremely supportive friend, whom I appreciate greatly.

So why Ludo? Well it striking, colourful, playful and a classic design. It's also similar to a game I spent hours playing, with very much loved grandparents as a child. They, my Granddad in particular, would never tire. I was their only grandchild and consequently adored.
Due to copyright laws I couldn't base this design on the exact game we played, called 'Sorry', but Ludo is copyright free and pretty much the same. 

I've not talked much about my past but I didn't go straight to college and university, after school. It took me a while to choose a career path and then complete my education, which began after child #2 was born. My Granddad was in his late 70s then and I was the first in our family to go to university. It was a lot for him to understand and to him I was in endless education with no specific outcome. It was different for him, he spent most of his working life, after the RAF,  in the family business. He was very successful and I have the greatest respect for him. Understanding the paths I was taking was more difficult for him and he one day, while I was doing my degree full time, asked 'So when are you going to get a job then??' Bless.

Unfortunately he passed away just after I finished my degree. Child #3 was 10 days old, and therefore I was on maternity leave at the time. He, therefore, never knew that I did eventually get a job, and then went on to get an even better job 3 years later. Anyway, Granddad, this one's for you, Felicity Stitches may be a sideline but it still counts! 

It's now available on Etsy (link below) and, once I have completed another 2 kits with all associated contents, I will launch the website.

Felicity Stitches - Ludo Tapestry Kit

Friday 18 January 2013

Snow!

Yesterday I attended a 'Snow Meeting' at work. Weather forecasts have been predicting snow all week. I fell asleep looking at a very orange sky so expected to wake up to find lots. 6am...none. 7am a light snowfall. Having checked the college website, and the council website, everything was open as normal. So I woke up the kids and went to get more tea. Then Child #1 claimed 'School is closed'. Really?? I rechecked the same websites at 7:30am and she was right! Everything was closed (well nearly). 

So...work from home? or play in the snow?  

Work from home. :-)

Nah!!!! PLAY IN THE SNOW!!!!!




 









































































We stayed for about an hour until us girls were just too cold! 

I am now snuggled up under a big blanket, nice and warm...definitely the way to work when its cold!

See you soon.