Tuesday 1 May 2012

Dinosaur on the stairs.

There's a dinosaur at the top of my stairs, he's been there several days looking down wondering solemnly if anyone is every going to play with him again. He irks me a little, why leave him at the top of the stairs why not take him down where I can toss him equally unloved into the play room? Or carry him back into their bedroom where he can fall down the back of Small Boy B's bed never to be seen again.?

Today has been one of "Those Days" Small boy B wet his bed so came into mine in the early hours and wet that too, nothing like 2 lots of wet bedding to start you off on the wrong foot. My lovely friend and her equally lovely little girl came to visit and brought pain au chocolat which lifted my spirits and Small Boy B went out to visit my Mum. So all good, but when they all left Small Boy T turned into a demon. Not something that happens often with him but the hour it took to persuade him he really needed a sleep was fraught to say the least. Now I am left with half an hour before Small Boy B returns and instead of doing anything constructive I waste it, while breathing deeply, on Facebook.....guilt ridden, while Cbeebies still chatters on in the back ground as I am too lazy to get up and find the remote!

Then on a quick trip upstairs to fetch some more wet bedding I am struck with a thought, the one that keeps me sane and also makes me a little sad, my Small Boys will grow away before my very eyes and dinosaurs on the stairs will be a thing of the past.

Friday 27 April 2012

Yarn Addict!!

My name is Lousie and I am a yarn addict. 

Well I suppose there are far worse things to be addicted to, I love it, the colours, how it's appearance changes from when it arrives in a skein, to what it looks like balled up and then finally knitted or crocheted. I cannot draw or paint and I love that I have finally found something creative that enables me to make beautiful things.

But and there is always a but isn't there? As with most other area of my life *thinks briefly about the spare room littered with boxes half stuffed with out grown baby clothes* I start many a project, I get off the ground at a furious rate and then, normally about half way through, another pretty turns my head and off I go at a total tangent. So I thought I would share some of the things I have started this year and later we will have a little update to see what actually got finished. Some of the photos were taken a few weeks ago during what may turn out to be summer!

Firstly this lovely scarf http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/feather-and-fan-scarf-10 in a Luscious Little Somethings yarn club wool and silk blend called Selkie, This one has grown a bit since the pic was taken :) 



Next up Evie Pants Longies pattern in Knittybots hand dyed organic merino colourway Night Light. 


Now finished and modeled by the beautiful Small Boy T,


Next up a Shawl http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cloudburst-shawl in Noro in various shades which is lovely and bright but also matt.


Up next the Neat Ripple from the brilliant attic24 http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/neat-ripple-pattern.html you will find so many lovely things here that you may get lost and never return. Anyway this is a blanket for a very lovely lady who has just had a baby and it is what I really need to work on before the teeny little chap grows up and leaves home, It is supposed to represent the seaside and I have given it the original title of Seaside Ripple...It is made from a 100% cotton yarn.


Since taking the photos above I have started and finished (get me) these for another fairly new little girl person also Evie Pants and Knittybots this time in Riley's Rainbow.

I also Low water immersion hand dyed these in the microwave with Dylon


And started one of these http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/benedick--beatrice-vest pics when the Seaside Ripple is finished. I also have many granny squares that will one day be a Leap Year Blanket but that as they say is a story for another day........

Memory.

My memory is not very good, it has never been brilliant. I am a butterfly and flit about from one thing to another often having many unfinished projects on the go at any one time, so I understand why things struggle to put down roots. Also as I have mentioned before I live with my Mother in Law, who has many stories to tell, often without point and about people I don't know. These ramblings fill important spaces in my head leaving less room for the important stuff. My children worry me constantly and this also takes up lots of my thoughts and block out other things I am expected to remember!

One such worry at the moment is Small Boy B hating going to nursery, he goes to school in September and I am filled with dread, according to staff he is fine when I leave but he hates the parting. He should by rights be comfortable there he has been going since he was a year old.

So in an effort to put a positive spin on nursery I started a little game in the car on the way to swimming last week. I would tell them something I liked about work and they in turn would tell me something they liked about nursery, the person who could think of most things was the winner, Small Boy B entered into the spirit of it and Small Boy T being the younger and quieter of the two didn't really get a word in edge ways.

This week feeling a bit rubbish we played my favorite in car game, simply called "Quiet" the idea of the game is you say nothing. The winner is the one who stays silent the longest, it's a great game, feel free to steal it. As we passed the exact place in our journey where we had played last weeks "Things I like game" Small Boy T shouted at the top of his voice "I like Mummy, I like Swimming, I like bouncy balls" Now that is a good memory!.............but not a good way to win "Quiet"

Incidentally Small Boy B still threw a proper wobbly when I left him at nursery this week *sigh*

A deeper understanding

Today I am poorly, not very poorly, but full of one of those colds that makes you feel as if your head is in fact cotton wool, your nose is blocked but at the same time dripping, you find just breathing an effort. On top of that it's Friday, Fridays are great days but they are at the end of a week filled with work and childcare leaving me and both small boys just the wrong side of tired. To top it off at 10.30 we have swimming lessons, taking two under 5's swimming on my own is for me a bit of a challenge, I have been doing it for a year and am not much improved, the children however are at least learning to swim. SO I am a little less than keen this morning and I mention to my partner that I don't really want to go. He in turn has an alternative for me, put the fire on, find a movie that will keep both small boys entertained and snuggle up on the sofa. This comment leaves me with a much deeper understanding of why he finds looking after his sons a bit of a challenge at times! However if anyone knows of this magic movie that will keep a 2 and 4 year entertained for a couple of hours please comment below, maybe it is me that has missed a trick!!...........*Wanders off to trawl Amazon just in case*

Saturday 31 March 2012

Now I can mess about with bees!

So the weather has been fantastic for March and there are bees in the garden, it's a little garden and as we house share with my Mother in Law it has a bit of a more mature lady vibe going on. Small boys love the garden, I love the garden, small boys play in it, get tired and hungry with only small amounts of input from me. Mil finds small boys being in the garden a tad more stressful.

This week as a change from worrying about them damaging the plants and breaking the pots her main concern has been the bees. The bees are nice, fat and fluffy and very slow, totally fascinating to small boys. So there have been several long talks this week between small boys and Mil about the danger of said bees.


Today, while small boy T was napping, small boy B and I made this http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1403641/chocolate-and-banana-cake and while I was clearing up the carnage that always happens when I bake with very small children, small boy B disappeared into the cupboard where we keep outer clothing and tonnes of other crap. He appeared a few minutes later wearing mittens, odd mittens, but the fact he managed to find mittens in the place where everything we don't really need, but are to scared to bin in case we miss it, goes to wait for us to change our minds, is pretty damn impressive. He skipped happily into the garden. To my question "Whats with the gloves?" the reply came, full of pride I might add, "Now I can mess about with bees!" Now that I thought is a very good name for a blog.........

The cake by the way is delicious, easy and a great way to use up the bananas that no one in this house will touch.
On the subject of bees, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, I loved this book muchly.