Skirt

30 April 2013






My adventures in sewing have continued this week with a skirt.  I shared a picture of the pieces along with two pairs of trousers.   This skirt was made up of fourteen pieces of material in five different fabrics, the pieces were cut into a tall trapezoid.  I arranged the fabric on the floor to get them in the order I wanted them once I had a plan I started to sew them together once they were all sewn I attached a waistband and then sewed the skirt together, the waistband is elasticated in exactly the same way as the trousers.  When competing the hem I could have just turned up a narrow edge but I decided I rather liked the bias binding tape used in pattern I was following so I did the same.  It was relatively easy to attach this to the hem, my sewing is not that even but for my first attempt I am very pleased, I expect it will only be worn for one summer as my youngest grows so fast!  I can see myself making something similar again in the future as it was much easy than it looks.

The pattern for this skirt is from a book that I currently have out on loan from the library. I have looked at many sewing books recently, online, in bookshops and in the library but could not find any that I liked or thought I would make more than one project from. This book is what I was looking for and I expect I will asking for it for my next birthday.

Joining in with Nicole for this weeks sharing on Keep Calm Craft On.

Gratitudes

28 April 2013

Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for..

...a car that worked every time I needed it to.

...a mellow afternoon with friends knitting and chatting.

...an afternoon to myself after my children decided to go out with Daddy.

...our first rhubarb pudding of the year with home grown rhubarb.

...finding some carrots and turnips in the garden when weeding, I must have left them in the autumn as they were very small and they had grown into a root worth eating we had them for tea that day.

...spending an afternoon with a friend who I have not seen for eight weeks as she has been away, I have really missed her company the children had a great time with her children too it was like they had never been away.

...having friends over for dinner it was good to catch up with them again.

...green shoots continuing to grow in my polytunnel.

...a great songbook we found in the library which we had fun singing and learning some new songs.

Reading

27 April 2013

I want to share another library find with you this week.  We have found some wonderful books in the library recently, that is not to say that we don't have some lovely books at home but isn't it wonderful to be able to supplement them with borrowed books from time to time?

Ruby Nettleship and the Ice Lolly Adventure by Thomas Docherty is a wonderful adventure of magic and imagination.









Ruby Nettleship, like most children, loves to play in her local playground, but her playground is in a sorry state.  The only part that the children can play on is the swing as the rest of the equipment is broken.  When the swing brakes everyone leaves the park except Ruby.







 She is visited by an ice cream van and given a rather interesting looking ice lolly on the stick of which is the words, plant me.  Ruby plants the stick and the adventure begins.








An amazing playground evolves from the stick and eventually the whole town is playing, adults included. When it gets late and it is time for Ruby to go for tea the playground returns to the ground, but next time Ruby visits the playground she is in for a wonderful surprise.



This magical adventure also has wonderful illustrations which is, I am sure, part of the attraction of the book for my youngest.

Garden

26 April 2013










Another week has slipped by and my garden is slowing turning green.  There are small green shoots, leaves budding, herbs growing and daffodils making steady progress towards blooming.  I have been busy again this week sowing seeds and weeding, with a little help from my youngest.  Over the weekend I managed to weed the whole garden, I was exhausted by you the end but I am thankful I managed to get it all done.  In the past few years I have struggled to keep on top of the weeds, I am hoping that by doing it now it will be easier as the year goes on I live in hope anyway!

Seed wise we have sown, more salad leaves and lettuce, herbs in pots parsley, dill, coriander and basil, cabbage, kale, chard, spinach, courgette, cucumber, french beans and leek in seed trays all of these for the moment are in the warmth of the polytunnel.  My chitting potatoes have gradually succumbed to rotting or mice and were rather depleted in number, luckily for me I have a small garden centre in the village so I wandered down and bought a few more to bulk the numbers a bit.  I also bought a pack of shallots which I have planted outside.

Using the biodynamic gardening method is definitely helped to keep me focus on the garden this year, apart from the mammoth weeding session most of the work I am doing thus far has been short bursts of activity which is easy to fit into the week.  It remains to be seen how long I can keep it up!

What's going on in your garden at the moment?

Knitting

24 April 2013


I ended up frogging the Baby Kimono that I shared last week, thank you for all your lovely comments but I couldn't get any more yarn, did not want to buy any more and had nothing suitable in my very small stash so that I could knit stripes as some of you suggested.  I was so disappointed by this project and my lack of yarn planning that I lost my knitting mojo for a few days before searching for an alternative on Ravelry.  It was really hard to find two projects suitable for boy babies in the first place so I really struggled, there was nothing I liked for this weight of yarn, so I searched for something I could adapt and chose this one.  In a twist if irony I had a flare up of urticaria this week, having complained about endless knit rows I found knitting purl stitches too painful!  I had hoped to have this nearly cast off by now but I have not been able to knit for three days this week so progress has been slow.  I am pretty sure I will have enough yarn for this project as I have just added ball two, I hope there will be no more games of yardage chicken!

I am nearing the end of How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall and don't want it to finish.  I feel like I have been looking in at a window of the worlds of the four characters and want to carry on.  This is a book that changes perspective with every chapter, each written from the perspective of one of the four characters, one of them in the second person.  It is about art, life, death and the feeling of being trapped and waiting for something to happen, to move on, whilst reflecting on the past.  I love the narrative it paints a wonderful picture for me.

Joining in with Tami for this weeks work in progress and Ginny for this weeks sharing of knitting and reading.

Trousers

23 April 2013





My sewing so far has always been flat, sewing two simple seams together, I have never followed a pattern just looked at pictures to get ideas and then created something of my own.  I have been wanting to make clothes for some time and  thought that making them for a child was a good place to start.  I had originally wanted to make a dress but could not find a pattern that I liked that did not involved masses of gathering which I am not ready to tackle just yet.  So I went for trousers, I decided that as I might make a few pairs I would cut out the pieces using scrap pieces of plain fabric.  I traced the pattern onto parchment paper from the original pattern pieces so I did not need to cut them.  I used this pattern.

They were pretty easy to sew up, each pair took a couple of hours, once the fabric was cut.  There were four seams to sew before tackling the waist.  I learned a few new techniques and words sewing the waist, basting, I have only ever done this to a chicken, edgestitch, sewing in elastic.  One of the things that had put me off sewing from a pattern was the words used, like so many skills it comes with its own language, I have mastered the language of knitting, mostly, so I figured I could do the same for sewing.

I am pleased with the way they have turned out and next I am going to make a skirt using the pieces in the last picture.

Joining in with Nicole for this weeks Keep Calm, Craft On.

Weekending

22 April 2013

This week has been one of stops and starts, of stepping forward then going back.  On Monday we got ready to go out for our weekly trip into town and the car would not start, dead as a dodo.  I called the local garage and hoped they would come out quickly so we sat I the car and waited, after half an hour the children asked if they could go inside.  We passed the time, waiting and reading books together.  Four hours later I discovered I had a flat battery, it was too late to go out so we walked to the village shop and picked up a few bits for tea.

On Tuesday we got ready to go out again and the car would not start, dead as a dodo, I was baffled my husband had put a new battery in.  I lifted the bonnet, it had disconnected.  I found the tools I needed but the wind was blowing and the bonnet kept wanting to close on my head so I got my neighbour to help, an hour later we were heading into town!  We got the shopping done, headed home for lunch the straight back out to our Tuesday friends to celebrate a birthday.  After a long afternoon of fun we headed home and fell into bed soon after tea.

The next day we had plans to stay at home and rest, mid morning we had a call from friends who were meeting in a nearby town for a play did we want to join them.  I threw some lunch bits in a bag and we headed out.  We had a weird afternoon but it was fun.

Thursday we did stay at home and rest, we needed it as on Friday we were out again for swimming, playing and a picnic with a home ed group.  Over the weekend I did some sewing which I will share tomorrow, sowing seeds and weeding so much weeding it took three days but I weeded the whole garden.

In between times I noticed that my hands were sore with a flare up of Urticaria it got worse as the week went on, bad enough that I could not knit and bending my fingers was painful.  I think I had been too busy to notice earlier in the week and by the time I did it was getting bad, as often happens with this condition I have still not pinpointed exactly what set it off.  I know what to do to improve it but it takes time.

Gratitudes

21 April 2013

Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for...

...the warmth of the sun on my face.

...rain to water my garden.

...being able to hang my washing outside, I love the smell of washing dried outside.

...help from my children in the garden, weeding and sowing seeds.

...time to read.

...help from my neighbour when my car would not start.

...a surprise call from friends inviting us to join them for the day, we had a great day out.

...being invited to celebrate a friends birthday.

...a phonecall from a friend with an apology, I had been mulling over in my mind about whether to call as they had upset me with their behaviour.

Reading

20 April 2013


We found a delightful book in our local library this week that I am sharing with you today.  Maudie and Bear by Jan Omerod is a collection of stories which perfectly captures the relationship between a child and their carer, in this case a large brown bear.  As in a child's world, Maudie's world revolves around Maudie and Bear's world revolves around Maudie.  In each story Bear treats Maudie with the utmost respect, patience and love which is unconditional, she is absolutely sure of his love.




The beautiful illustrations enhance the text and make this a truly wonderful book.  We have read this one a lot since bringing it home from the library.  I am really saddened to read that some reviews of this book describe Maudie as a spoiled brat they have missed the point of this book and what it takes to be a good parent entirely.

Seeds

18 April 2013

Spring is a time for new growth and now that the weather is warming my garden is starting to grow as it emerges from the long winter.  My seeds which have sat waiting in the cupboard are finally coming out.  I had wanted to sow in March but I felt it was just too cold, all my sowing at this time of year is in the polytunnel but even in there it was only just above freezing.

I sowed two sets of onion seeds in March one set at the beginning and another at the end, last week the first set started to shoot and now the other set have to.  I really thought that as they has sat in the cool polytunnel for nearly a month they would not germinate but to my amazement they have, now I need to work out what I do with them next and when as I have never grown onion from seed before.

Many other seeds have been sown this week, broccoli and a a packet of mixed wildflowers yesterday and today cabbage, basil, parsley, coriander, lettuce, spinach, kale and chard.  Over the weekend I am planning to sow beans, cucumber, peas and courgettes and tackle the weeds that are also shooting up all over the garden.  My biggest pest, mice have also had a nibble on my chitting potatoes so they are obviously on the hunt for food.  They usually eat all my hard work chomping through the stalks of small seedlings leaving the leaves on the ground, very frustrating!

Knitting

17 April 2013


I have cast on a new project this week, another baby cardigan for my nephews due next month.  Having just finished knitting a big project entirely of garter stitch I must have conveniently forgotten how slow and tedious row after row of knitting can get.  I fooled myself into thinking that as this was a baby sized cardigan it would knit up quickly.  It is a kimono style cardigan so the rows are long, so long that I find myself measuring how much I have knitted and realise I have only actually knitted one more row! I am longing to get to the decreases so that I will at least have some interest.  To further add to my woes I am not going to have enough yarn to finish this, I am playing an extreme version of the game Yardage Chicken I have already used a ball and half of yarn to get this far (to buttonhole two) and have one ball left.  I bought this yarn from a bargain bin in my local yarn shop so I need to go back and see if they have any more if not I think I will have to frog it and knit something else!

I have been reading lots this week.  I finished the excellent Veiled Kingdom which I shared last week, a wonderful insight into the lives of women in Saudia Arabia.  I am now about half way through reading How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall, I have previously read Haweswater by the same author.  How to Paint a Dead Man focuses on the lives of four people, each chapter is written from the perspective of one of them.  Even though they live quite separately their lives are wonderfully intertwined.  She has a remarkable way of drawing you in to each characters life and then leaves you to ponder whilst you move onto the next.

Joining in with Tami for this weeks work in progress and Ginny for this weeks sharing of knitting and reading.

Green?

16 April 2013

Welcome to the April edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Going Green cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month, we write about going green and environmentally friendly living. Please check out the links to posts by our other participants at the end of this post.
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When it comes to labels, those that apply to people that is, I find them difficult to apply none more so than that of being green or environmentally aware.  This is not because I don't agree with it as a principle but rather that I fear that some choose to apply it to themselves because it is what they think they should be doing.  But should I be critical?  If it means that more people are recycling is that not a positive step, well of course it is, but if we are truly signing up to being green should we not extend this further and look at other areas of our lives.  That does not mean that it has to be an unreachable goal, it is about paying more than lip service and thinking mindfully when we make decisions.

We do recycle, we compost food and garden waste, we buy products with little or no packaging and we have reduced our rubbish and put out a bag for collection every eight weeks or so.  We grow some fruit and vegetables in our garden, those that we buy are locally grown, where possible, and seasonal.  We have solar water panels to heat our water and have insulated our house to reduce our fuel bills to a minimum.  We used washable nappies, I breastfeed.  We are considering ways to reduce our water consumption and would like to install a wind turbine in our garden to take our house off grid.  Does that make me green, perhaps it does but all these decisons have been made because they felt right to us, we were considering the impact of our behaviour when making them. We own a dishwasher, take baths rather than showers and we have two cars.  Two cars is there anything wrong with that, or a dishwasher or taking baths not showers?  Some critics might say there is.

We made a conscious decision to become car owners.  They are cars with low emissions but cars they are nonetheless.  We recently had to make a decision concerning one of these cars, it failed a test that is required by law where I live.  It needed a considerable amount of work doing to it before it would pass, money that we were not sure we wanted to spend.  So we tried to sell it, unsurprisingly no one wanted to buy it so we ended up selling it for scrap.  I would like to believe that it will be stripped of its parts and recycled completely but I am not sure if that will happen.  I have to take it on trust that that will happen in the same way that anything I place for recycling is actually recycled rather than placed in landfill.  We had another decision to make and that was do we replace the car or just have one.  We live in a rural area it would be difficult to live with one car but not impossible.  My husband is self employed and his work takes him all over the place, often at short notice, it would make planning our lives much more difficult.  It might mean that we could not join in with many of the home educating activities that we currently go to as we could not get to them on public transport.  We had to strike a balance and we decided that for now, we wanted to continue to own two cars.  We wanted to continue to be able to do what we were currently doing.

As we negotiate our path through life we can choose many routes.  We must make decisions that feel right to us, that are mindful and fit with our own beliefs and practices.  But to be green or environmentally friendly or whatever you wish to call it we must care.  It is not about offsetting one set of behaviours against another we must care that packaging is wasteful, or that using less water or energy is a positive step.  When we live simply I believe we have the capacity to do this.  We are not tied up with meeting our own unmet needs by filling our homes with the latest must haves for example.  We have the capacity to consider the impact of our decision making and leave the world as a place for our children's future that we too would want to live in.
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Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating eco-friendly living solutions into their everyday lives. We hope you will join us next month, as the Simply Living Blog Carnival focuses on Daily Lives!
  • Green Renovating: A Lot, A Little, Not So Much - Laura at Authentic Parenting ponders about the many things that have an impact on eco-friendly renovating
  • Growing Native in My Flower Beds - Destany at They Are All of Me takes the guilt out of her flower habit by switching from high maintenance flowers to native plants which not only lessens her gardening load, but also benefits the local wild life.
  • Baby Steps - Kellie at Our Mindful Life shares how her family became more sustainable, one step at a time.
  • A Greener Holiday - Sara from Family Organic discusses the overwhelming amount of "stuff" that comes with every holiday and talks about how to simplify instead.
  • Forcibly Green--Obligatory Organic - Survivor at Surviving Mexico talks about her family's evolution from passive to active green and sustainable living.
  • Giving It Away - Juliet Kemp of Twisting Vines writes about the role of Freecycle, the giant karmic lending library, in her simple and green living.
  • Simply Sustainable - Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children discusses her family's attempts to live in harmony with the earth by living simply and more sustainably.
  • How Does Your Yarden Grow - Alisha at Cinnamon&Sassafras writes about an ongoing permaculture project, converting her grass lawn into a mower-free paradise.
  • Green? - Is it about ticking the boxes? sustainablemum shares her thoughts on what being green means in her life.
  • Using Cloth Products To Reduce Household Waste - Angela from Earth Mama's World shares how her family replaced many disposable household products with cloth to reduce their household waste.
  • Going Green in Baby Steps - Joella of Fine and Fair shares some small, easy steps to gradually reduce your environmental impact.
  • Are You Ready To Play Outside?! - Alex from AN Portraits writes about gardening, and playing in the dirt, and how it's O.K. to get dirty, play in the dirt, play with worms, for both adults and kids.

Weekending

15 April 2013

This has been a week spent with my parents who have been staying with us.  We had our usual trip into the local town to start the week but every other day has been different.  On Tuesday we travelled to a town up just south of us and visited an art gallery.  I have never taken my children to one before, this one was small and had a bag of activities that children could do as we walked round.  They enjoyed most of it but had had enough by the time we had walked round the whole gallery.  We had taken a picnic with us and we ate it in the park before returning to the car along a river running through the town, we also found a cafe for a drink to warm us all up.

Wednesday we spent the morning at home before heading out to an old mill.  The mill was used for weaving cloth in the past, and has now been developed into a museum, exhibition and a place for crafting.  There were many many small workshops with folks selling their beautiful creations most of which were made on the premises, quilts, felted objects, knitting, woodwork and pottery.  On one floor there were two very old powered looms which are still in use and there are demonstrations there each weekend.  On another floor are human powered looms which are used by volunteers who weave their own projects, some of which were for sale, and talk to all visitors about what they are doing.  There was a place on this floor where you could have a go at weaving which my children loved.  There was also a cafe which we had to go and test!

The next day we visited the grounds of a local castle which are being slowly renovated after sixty years of neglect.  I have been visiting regularly over the last six months and it is wonderful and amazing to see the changes each time.

On Friday my parents stayed with until after lunch before heading off to spend the weekend with my brother.  We had a quiet day at home after our rushing around here there and every where over the last ten days or so.

Over the weekend we visit a friend who had a nasty fall about ten days ago and broke her wrist.  She had to have it operated on, to have pins inserted, the day after the fall.  When it was checked a week later the pins had not done anything, so she had to be operated on again and have a plate fitted.  She was looking and sounding a lot better than when I saw and spoke to her earlier in the week when she had had to go back into theatre for her second op.  It will six weeks before the plaster is off which I know will drive her mad by the end.  On Sunday we pottered at home, it rained most of the day which was wonderful for the garden which was becoming a bit dry.  We are looking forward to getting back into our usual routine and rhythm this week.

Gratitudes

14 April 2013

Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for..

...sunshine

...the warmth in the air as spring slowly emerges.

...green shoots of life in my polytunnel.

...my parents coming to stay for a few days.

...wonderful days out to local places with my parents and family.

...rain, we have not had any for weeks it is watering my garden for me.

...sleep I seem to need a lot of it at the moment I have been so busy that I need to slow down and rest now.

...a afternoon with a friend who has had a tough time over the last week.

...the contented play of my children.

Reading

13 April 2013

My youngest has recently been drawn to fairy tale type stories.  She seeks them out in the library and I love reading them to he, my eldest did not like these stories at all so I have never had the chance to share them with my own children until now, in the hope that I would, I have a small collection of beautiful illustrated fairy tale story books which I hope I will now get to share.  This week we found a lovely book in the library about a Princess on a search for her kingdom.


The Princess who had no Kingdom by Ursula Jones is a delightful story of a princess who has all her worldly goods on her cart which she travels with as she searches for her kingdom.  She makes her living taking things from place to place on her cart.  On her search she encounters many beautiful palaces and people who have much wealth but they are not quite what she is looking for.  She does, in the end, find what she is searching for a soul mate who want what she does in life, money is not important.  The illustrations are beautiful.  Some pages are in colour and some in silhouette reminiscent of those that you would find in a Jan Pieńkowski book.



My small collection of fairy tales is the following books.

Granny's Wonderful Chair by Frances Browne is a wonderful collection of tales written by the author, our version includes beautiful illustrations by Gisèle Rime.

A collection of the well known Hans Christian Anderson stories.
The Rainbow Book of Nursery Tales by Sam Childs is a collection of all the well known tale such as Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  It is illustrated with simple, bright pictures.

Joining in with The Children's Bookshelf a sharing of all things related to Children's books.

Eating

12 April 2013

I have posted before about my love of simple recipes, those that use a handful of ingredients to create a tasty, wholesome, filling meal.  These recipes are often quick, or ones that need little attention for most of their cooking, I need recipes like these in our menu for those days that we have been out having fun and returned tired and hungry needing a meal as quickly as possible.  I often cook pasta on those days, in a ideal world I would make the pasta it is one of the few processed foods we eat but I live in my world where to make it would turn it into a more time comsuming and complicated meal, so bought pasta it is.  I have a few sauces I make to go with pasta that take as long to cook as the pasta itself or you simply through a few ingredients in with the pasta after it has cooked and heat it gently through.  This recipe is one of the latter and there is never any left!

Pasta, Feta and Black Olives

Pasta
200g Feta
Cream
10 Black Olives

Cook enough pasta to feed those you are cooking for (the above quantities feed two adults and two small children) and drain.

Chop feta into small pieces, add to drained pasta with enough cream to coat the pasta, cook on a gentle heat until feta is melted.

Chop the black olives into three to four slices, add to pasta and serve.

Garden

11 April 2013

The last few days have been warm, warm enough that you can pop outside without four layers of clothing, perhaps spring is now coming it has been slow to arrive this year.  At the beginning of last month I sowed several seeds in my polytunnel, it was not particularly cold at that point but as the month wore on it got colder and colder and the frost and snow kept coming until the last few days.  Every few days I have been to check my seeds, watering them when they got dry wrapping them up in horticultural fleece against the cold and my patience has paid off.

This morning I went to do my usual watering and discovered that everything has germinated, not all the seeds that I planted of every type but enough to make me very happy.  I have lettuce, radishes, perilla, mizuna and onions seedlings very small and fragile but green shoots none the less.  I am now preparing my list for sowing next week, broccoli, cabbage, herbs, more lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, beans, cucumber, peas and courgettes.  I will also be weeding the warm weather will no doubt bring with it an abundance of them soon!  I really hope that the frosts and snow have finished for the year now and we can look forward to the green shoots growing into wonderful food.

Knitting

10 April 2013



I have been busy elsewhere this week so my knitting has progressed slowly.  I am still working on the  sleeve of my Antler Cardigan.  I have several projects that I would like to cast on but my time has been taken up with other projects.  I have finally finished my Purple Jacket which I have worn several times, I need to find the perfect brooch to keep it closed as it does not have any buttons.

I have been doing lots of reading this week.  I finished the wonderful Longitude by Dava Sobel,  it is a good and interesting read.  Although this is a book about a scientific endeavour she makes the subject very accessible.  Some of the issues she raises in the book are still prevalent today, Harrison the subject of the book was a self educated man and not part of the scientific establishment of the day.  He had to spent forty years convincing the Board of Longitude, the body set up to issue a substantial prize, that his invention met their requirements, requirements that they chose to change each time he met them.  I have also been reading a lovely sewing book that I found I in my local library.  It has many projects that I would like to make, one day!

The book that has taken much of my time this week is about Saudia Arabia, The Veiled Kingdom by Carmen Bin Ladin*. Born in Switzerland to a Persian mother and a Swiss father, Carmen grew up in Switzerland returning to Iran for extended holidays with her mother.  She met her husband, Yeslam Bin Ladin* a member of the huge Bin Laden clan, in 1974 when he was on holiday in Switzerland they later married and after a period of living in America returned to live in Saudia Arabia where two of their daughters were born.  Her description of life for a woman in Saudia Arabia is hard for me to fathom.  I cannot imagine what it must be like to have to no place in society, to be unable to leave the house and to do so you must be accompanied by your brother or husband and be covered from head to toe despite the intense heat.  The only man able to see your uncovered face is your husband.  Your whole life is ruled by the conventions of your religion.  Carmen fears for her two daughters, if her husband was to divorce her they would be taken from her and looked after by either him or another member of the extended family, Yeslam had fifty three brothers and sisters.  She travels to America and Switzerland every year where she lives in stark contrast to her life in Saudia Arabia, I know from reading the back of the book that she eventually leaves Saudia Arabia for good but I have yet to reach that part.

* this is the correct way to write the name.

Joining in with Ginny for this weeks sharing of knitting and reading and Tami for this weeks work in progress.

Weekending

08 April 2013

This week has been one of busyness and spending time with friends. We started the week with a quiet day at home as it was a bank holiday and we could not do our shopping and library trip as usual.  We headed out the following morning to do that but had to be back home by lunchtime as we had friends joining us for the afternoon.  Our Tuesday families met at our house this week for a noisy and enjoyable play.  It was just warm enough to spend some time outside although almost every child needed a pair of gloves which I managed to provide.

On Wednesday we joined up with friends for a canoe on a local lake.  It was a beautiful sunny day and out of the biting wind was warm.  We were pushing through thin ice in shaded places which the children thought was great fun.  Despite all the snow we have had recently the lake was really low and many if the small islands at one end which are fun to canoe between had all joined up.  The wind was strong enough for us to get our sail out to whizz back to the car.  We headed to our friends for tea and the children to play before heading home tired and happy.

We whizzed around the house in the morning getting reading for friends who were coming to stay for a few days.  They joined us for lunch and we spent a lovely afternoon catching up.  The next day we were joined by another family, of mutual friends, who live locally, the men went for a walk in the hills whilst the rest of us headed to a local town for a visit to a museum, a cold picnic in the park and  warming cup of tea in a cafe before heading home via a craft shop.  I cooked tea for thirteen and we all managed to (just) squeeze into our small dining room to eat.

In the morning we all met up again for a canoe on another lake, again it was a beautiful sunny day.  We found a great lunch spot on a sunny beach, got the Kelly Kettles going for cups of tea, explored the bay and collected wood for a fire later on.  We headed further down the lake for an ice cream, before canoeing back to another bay for afternoon tea!  We got off the water and all headed back to our friends house for tea.  They had bought a fantastic fire bowl which we got going with the wood we collected during the day and we enjoyed an evening outside by the fire.

We headed back home after breakfast to once more get the house ready for my parents who have travelled up to stay with us for the week.  We fell into bed exhausted!

Gratitudes

07 April 2013

Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for...

...sunshine.

...green shoots in the polytunnel the first of the year.

...catching up with old friends who came to stay.

...two wonderful days out with friends in our canoe.

...sharing meals with friends two of which I did not have to cook.

...finding some dry wood to keep our fire going during the extended cold nights we are still having.

...sharing wonderful books with my children.

...finishing two knitting projects.

...time for sewing.

...my parents travelling up to stay with us.


Reading

06 April 2013

We found two more wonderful animal themed books in the library this week both illustrated by the same author.




 Tweedle Dee Dee written and illustrated by Charlotte Voake is a lovely book based around a traditional folk song, The Green Grass Grew all Around, the tune of which is in the back of the book.  It is a good book for spring or summer as it celebrates the new life in the tree, the leaves and a nest chirping high in the branches.




The other is the Insect Detective written by Steve Voake and illustrated by Charlotte Voake.  This book is a wonderful introduction to the amazing world of insects, where you can find them, what they look like and what they eat and remember if it doesn't have six legs it is not an insect!

The illustrations in both these books are charming and simple and make me want to find more books written or illustrated by Charlotte Voake.

Joining in with The Children's Bookshelf a sharing of all things related to children's books.

Knitting

03 April 2013


I have managed to cast off a couple of projects this week.  The last pair of Cosy Little Toes and the Purple Jacket this has been blocked and I am now in the slow process of sewing it together I will share pictures when it is compete!  The Baby Cardigan I shared last week has stalled.  I have completed the body and now need to knit the arms, I had completely forgotten to buy the right size dpns when I bought the yarn.  I returned to my local yarn shop at the weekend and they did not have any in stock, they have ordered some in for me which I hope will be in soon.  In the meantime I have returned to the cardigan I am knitting for myself, I have cast on a sleeve and it is knitting up much quicker than the body.

I finished the book I was reading last week, it was a wonderful read in case you want to read it too I will not reveal the ending as it would spoil it.  I am reading something completely different this week.    Longitude by Dava Sobel is about the quest to measure longitude (the vertical lines that meet at the poles) to enable sailors to accurately measure their position.  It is hard in this day and age to imagine a time when this could not be measured.  I have only just started the book so have yet to find out how this was eventually achieved.

Joining in with Tami for this weeks work in progress and Ginny for this weeks sharing of knitting and reading.

Sewing

02 April 2013

I have been slowly amassing a collection of dpn's ( double pointed needles) over the last couple of years.  I have kept them in the same bag as my other knitting needles or in a project bag, loose, as a result I keep losing them.  When reading posts on blogs I kept spotting the different ways that other knitters stored these needles and wanted to make something to store mine in, a specific bag for them.  When you buy dpns they sometimes have a size printed on them which wears off soon after you start using them, in order to work out which size I needed for a project I always had to get them all out of the bag of needles and use a needle gauge to find the right ones.  So I needed a bag which would keep them all together and allow me to group them by size.  I liked the roll up cases that I had seen for storing knitting needles, pencils, paint brushes etc and decided to use that design.


I worked how wide I wanted it to be and cut three pieces of fabric, one to make the pockets, one as a the back and the other as a flap all the same width.  I worked out the lengths for each piece, the back was longer than the longest needle I had, the pockets were about 2/3 of the length of the same needle and the flap was roughly the same so that it overlapped with the pockets.  I doubled all these lengths.



I first sewed the open edge of the pocket piece to the folded edge of the back piece then folded the pocket piece over so it lay flat on the back piece.  I had worked it where I needed the stitching for the pockets to go and stitched the pocket flap to one thickness of the back piece as I did not want the stitches to be visible on the back of the case.  I next sewed the open edges of flap piece to the open edges of the back piece to give me one long piece with a seam in it.  I turned the whole thing so that the right sides were together and pinned up the whole of one side including a ribbon and sewed that seem.  I then did the same with half the seam on the other side, to allow me to turn the whole thing back to the right way out.  I hand sewed the rest of the seam and another piece of ribbon and my case was complete.




Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On.

Weekending

01 April 2013

This week has been one of ups and downs, of getting lots done but with added disappointments.

Our library visit yielded lots of books on animals both stories and fact books this is the children's latest interest following a visit to a local wild animal park.  We have spent the week reading all these books and learning lots of fascinating facts and we watched  a wonderful programme on iplayer about ecosystems.

We met up with our friends as usual on Tuesday, we were celebrating the birthday of one of the mamas so we all bought food to share which we sat around eating whilst drinking tea and putting the world to rights.  I have come to love these get togethers and miss them on the rare occasions that they do not happen.

The next day we joined a home ed group for ice skating which was great fun, I have not been for years so was a little rusty, the children loved it enough to want to go back in a months time.

The rest of the week was spent at home which was not the plan.  I had been contacted by some friends who I was a school with to let me know that they were coming on holiday very close to where I live and could we meet up.  It was such short notice that I pondered replying, first of all I had a busy week and secondly why were they contacting me so late in the day.  There were six of them coming, it was Easter and the area I live is a popular holiday destination they must have booked this holiday weeks if not months ago did they really want to meet up.  I did reply and suggested Friday and Saturday as they were the only days I could free up and duly cancelled my existing plans.  I heard nothing in reply as the week went on and texted on Thursday evening to find out what they wanted to do.  I had a reply on Friday afternoon to suggest they could come over the following morning, great I thought, did they want lunch?  No, they could only stay for about an hour and they had other plans for the afternoon.  I was both hurt and baffled and told them I would prefer to spend more time with them, that was not possible I was told.  Friends are important to me, I want to spend time with them, quality time.  I have not seen these friends much in recent years they are always so busy, they live where we grew up, an area I visit several times a year.  They have never visited my house and I have lived in it for ten years.  I believe that we can find the time to do the things we really want to do.

We had also had plans to have lunch with friends on Sunday, sadly this was not to be either.  Unfortunately, whilst out walking, one had fallen and broken their wrist and needed to go into hospital for an emergency operation which thankfully went well.

Our imposed house time was, in the end, productive.  It was a dry few days so I got lots of washing done.  I finished knitting two projects.  I made a case for my knitting needles. I finished off a curtain for one of the bedrooms.  I hoovered and tidied the house.  We played in the remaining snow outside and a visit to the polytunnel revealed green shoots our lettuces had germinated!