Oh Wally I love you!

Oh the joys of  'where's wally'.  The quiet times and excited 'look mummy's.  I am thinking of buying the box set.  There is just soo much to find!

look what my brother made me

We have been having fun with freezer paper here at Keepapi cottage.  Its not easy to get hold of in the UK, but I found a roll online & we've had a bit of fun.  Also a world of joy with fabric felt-tips. Baby Roo had a packet of plain onsies and well, we can't have that can we.

Tintin made this fantastic design which I might re-use on something else

Big sister got adventurous with the felt tips.  I love his rosey cheeks and the arm detailing

There were a few more but I won't bore you with them all.  My attempts with my new Indian print blocks didn't come out so well.

I must remember to do some testers on old fabric first.  It's not as if I don't have a few bits of fabric kicking around. Ahem.  Still, he only really wears them underneath clothes in the winter.  Plenty of time to practice before spring!

Pumpkin envy

Even in a day of recuperation some lovely moments could be found...

This has just grown and grown on my friend V's allotment.  Only one fruit but Cinderella need look no further for transportation.

Treasures still abound even when you are poorly.  And Mummy insists on taking you to get the compost from the church compost heap that is now ready.  Thankfully one of the church wardens is in the allotment association & gave us heads up to a free heap awaiting removal.

Magic leaf suspended in mid air & dancing around like its alive. 

A much better day for baby boy.  Seeming quite bouncy really.

Projectile

How I wish this were a post about bean bags, balls & other thrown things.  Although that might be a strange thing to blog about.  No, I have another one down.  The youngest Keepapi has his first vomiting bug.  He looked very surprised at the whole event really.  I would have been laughing if I wasn't covered.  So, grounded once again & mooching around at home.  At least the laundry will keep me occupied!

 These grapes were picked off our fence, escapees from next door's vine.  There are about as many again that hubby picked.  Any ideas what to do with them all?  Baby likes to eat them, when they stay down, but even he's not going to get through all these!

hello my old friend

I am reacquainting myself with my sewing room after a few months not making my way to its door.  Silly really as I will be loosing this space soon enough when Bini needs her own room & the boys start sharing. 

Earlier this year I revamped it, although there are a couple of jobs malingering on the to-do list.  I tried to increase & organise the storage (always an issue!) whilst creating surface space for us to sew on.  Oh & it needs to be a spare room aswell!  Tintin has now joined the storage needs for his sock dolls & has been allocated the 'larder compartment' which he's nearly outgrown already. 

I have been doing up a 1950s kitchen unit with glass fronted doors.  I adore these units, I have one in the kitchen too.  The doors I was going to put some vintage fabric in, but discovered that I had stapled through to the other side!  So now I have to repaint the door & might go back to the glass.  The pull down shelf only had one sliding hinge & I am struggling to find another one.  Any ideas?! 

My plan had been to make the kitchen unit Bini's sewing space but her great grandmothers sewing machine is now on another surface. I love this machine.  In the picture is a head scarf that she decided to make recently on it.

Ahhh its good to be back!

crafting errors vs learning opportunities

Note to self: Do not make things for children that are asleep & can't try them on.

This little fellow took shape last night on a felted jumper hat.  I used the pattern from the lovely Amanda's book Handmade Home, for infants/toddlers.  Turns out that my baby has a rather big head...

My other son is totally in love with the bird & just wants to have it in his bed. Bless.  I guess I will have to make a few more hats with 'wella bird' for all my children.  I am wondering about making the failed hat into a pocket for the tank top I am thinking of making the baby with all of these. 

Have I collected enough felted jumpers yet?  Somebody stop me.  We have a couple of Jumbles & Give n Take days coming up so who knows what goodies will find their way home.  Question. Do I have a storage problem or a hoarding issue?

Highly Recommended!

Oh my goodness!  I went to the Parish Council Allotment/Tennants meeting last night where they gave out the awards for the best kept allotments.  We got Highly Recommended!  I actually wooped when the Chairman announced it.  Then embarrased myself in front of the whole gathering by doing a happy dance.  The Chairman asked what I might have done if I'd won!
To be honest, I felt like I had.  I was so excited!  I give myself a hard time for not being as far along with the master plan as I hoped.  It was judged not by the council this year but the neighbouring town allotment association.  So a bit of external validation was a good thing!  I have to remember what we have come from:

This was March 2008.  Before the ditches were dug. We are the bottom plot of a gentle slope of heavy claggy clay.  It was a quagmire! My first year (2007) I tried to grow without doing drainage. Big mistake. So the second year we went back to basics & dug ditches & put up rabbit fencing.  When I say We, you understand who actually did most of the hard graft, right?!

My Hero! With alot of help from my brother too.  I potter around & my boys do the hard work.

This was us the next spring 2009.  The apple trees in tractor tyes & raspberries went in. My husband put in an asparagus bed, which is his baby.  Beautifully manicured.  Hopefully we will get some harvest from it next spring.

This was taken last week.  Unfortunately I forgot to take any at the time the judging happened.  It did look pretty but I just didn't think we were far enough cultivated to get a commendation.  Tintin was very excited about the competition & I had to keep saying to him that we weren't really in the running. Apparently we weren't doing too badly after all!