Handmade with Love

If you've ever made something by hand as a gift, and cursed over the tricky bits, wondering if it will even be appreciated or worn, then take heart from this:

As this beautiful little smock dress was originally made by my aunt for my older sister, over 30 years ago, and worn by her, then me, then my younger sister, by my reckoning M is the fourth one to wear it.

Not only has all that careful hand-smocking survived years of wearing, washing and subsequent storage, but it's now once again destined to be a often worn, much loved addition to a little girl's wardrobe

Both my children are very fortunate in having family members and friends who make them lovely things, just as I was. P starts at a school-based nursery later this month and I wanted him to have a school bag to mark the occasion. As my time was pressed but my mum said she was 'between projects' I asked her if she could make the Messenger Bag from Oliver + S 'Little Things to Sew' (sorry, tried to add a link here but it didn't work out).

She could and she did. The combination of Liesl Gibson's attention to detail with curves and binding and inner pockets, with mum's attention to detail in choosing a plain, hardwearing denim outer and combining it with a brightly patterned lining, and leaving off fastenings so it's easier for P to get into means that this is going to be another much loved, much used item.

Look What Mama Made!

More Mama love in this post I'm afraid! This delightful chicken (from Anna Maria Horner's gorgeous book 'Handmade Beginnings') was meant to be among the presents my parents gave to M for her first birthday. When I conveniently got a nasty bout of tonsilitis in the week leading up to P's birthday, my lovely mummy flew to the rescue, driving 5 hours up the motorway to look after the littles and in the process ran out of time to sew the chicks in time for M's birthday the following week. As a result, the finished birdy, complete with six chicks with Velcro wings to nestle safely under their mummy's wings, arrived today in the post, no less special for its tardiness. It must be a good week for chickens, as our dear old hen Penelope has decided that she will honour us with a precious few of her rarely laid eggs- three in a row!

Baby Shower Knit

There's a baby shower happening this weekend that I can't be at, so it was time to get the needles out so that I could at least send some handmade love by post. I fell back on what's becoming an old favourite, 'Aviatrix', a free pattern on Ravelry. An evening or so's knitting in Rowan Handknit Cotton and a vintage button adds up to a bit of old-fashioned loveliness for eagerly awaited baby girl.

Blea Tarn

Sometimes you just need to get out and breathe. This was very much the case today, after a tough week that had left us emotionally wrung out and rather uncertain about what happens next. The thing about going out walking is that once you're there, with sandwiches and fruit for lunch in your rucksack, it doesn't actually matter how much money you have (or don't have). The heavens will open on anyone's head, prince or pauper. In actual fact, while the rain was almost horizontal as we toiled up to Blea Tarn (hoorah for our new-old veg-oil powered Jeep! Potholes? Who cares?) and lashed at the windscreen as we ate lunch in the car, it actually more or less held off as we walked, played hide and seek and in some cases paddled round the tarn and back. Wind swirled around the Langdale Valley, threatening to bring the slate-grey cloud down onto us, but for some reason the sun decided it would keep smiling for just the right amount of time. With tired babies and soothed souls, we headed for home.

Good Eating

Like a lot of families, heck, like a lot of people, we're finding things tough financially at the moment. It was never really the plan for me not to be working at all while the children were babies (much as I know that's what some people choose to do) just as it was never really the plan for C to be made redundant, or for us to have to move house, three times within two years, with all the attendant expenses. On top of this there's the rising cost of living and just as food gets more expensive, we've two little people who want to eat more and more of it!
Still, we know we're still better off than most of the people on the planet so we breathe in and tighten the old belt a few more notches. That said, I refuse to eat dull uninspiring food just because every penny has to be watched at the supermarket. So it's even more cooking from scratch, more poring over recipe books and more building of skills in making everything go further.
For example, on Sunday we bought a Freedom Farms chicken (we just can't stretch to organic sadly) and had a family roast. That evening, C stripped and chopped up the carcass so I could make stock, which I then froze in measured portions (the measuring was, I thought, remarkably forward thinking of me!). The next day, keeping some cold chicken aside for lunches in the week, I used the meat and leftover gravy to make pasties, using the River Cottage 'Everyday' cookbook for guidance and a rough puff pastry recipe and had enough filling left over to make a few baby meals for M. I have to admit to being a bit of a fan of the River Cottage books, although I do find that 'Everyday' is pushing it a bit as a description for a lot of recipes, at least on our budget.
While I was in the baking mood, I also made some olive focaccia bread, from the same recipe book, and some hummus using a recipe my sister-in-law gave me. Today this was added to Tabula Kisir (recipe from guess what? That book again!) which is a lovely tabouleh type thing with bulghar wheat, fresh herbs, tomatoes, peppers etc, and made a really rather superior lunch for an otherwise ordinary Tuesday. The bread is all gone, but the hummus and Tabula will do us for the rest of the week I think.
Given that we stayed more or less within our miniscule budget this week, it's gratifying to have such good eating going on.

At the Farm

What could be better than a day at your Grandparents' farm? A day at your Grandparents' farm with your best little pal alongside you, checking out the tractor, feeding the lambs and playing in the trees.

Simply Ten Good Things

Responding to Amanda Soule's challenge, here are ten good things...
*Tokens of appreciation from friends
*New shoes all set to take him through summer
*Skyping with family
*New shoots
*Creative desctruction in the garden
*Enjoying one extra long weekend, and knowing there's another one at the end of the week.
*Four generations of girls
*A bicycle now made for two
*Successful sewing attempts
*Growing relationships with Grandparents

Easter Saturday

This Easter Saturday we...
Made a clutch of these 'baby sock bunnies' from this blog entry
Headed to the woods, transformed by bluebells and decorations...
...and a toddler-friendly, ground level treehouse.
Some of us took the opportunity to go exploring...
...while for others it was just a lovely chance to socialise.
Then, watched by some curious onlookers...
We hunted for eggs (and prevented a certain little person from overfilling his tummy straight away, so that we saved a few for later- and maybe for Mummy and Daddy!)
Happy Easter!

Real Sunshine and Mock Smocking

With the unexpectedly warm weather continuing- it's like Nature is trying to apologise for the hard, cold winter- we took to the garden yesterday. Having near enough burst my lungs inflating the paddling pool and given thanks for a hosepipe in the garden to save me lugging buckets about, I settled down to finish off some handsewing.
Proper smocking is something I'd like to learn, but for now I'm contenting myself with mock smocking using shearing elastic. A slightly late birthday present of a sun top for a little friend of ours in Cardiff was made in a similar way to the first of two sundresses I'm making for Maeve from some Liberty print and other fabric acquired on a recent trip to see my folks. I'll expand- and reveal- more when the full ensemble is complete.

Writing again

Ten or so years ago, had you asked me what I wanted to do, I'd have answered 'Writing'. I did the temping that paid for the journalism course, did the course, got the first (terrible) job in journalism, moved onto the second, got promoted...and kind of fell out of love with it all. It wasn't the writing, it was the media world surrounding it, where I was a fish out of water, far too shy and rubbish at networking to succeed.
So, instead of a sideways move into PR or something similar, I jacked it all in and retrained as a primary school teacher. Suddenly I was a fish in water (I know, I don't think that's a real saying either). I loved it. Never looked back to journalism, unless it was when I was writing press releases to promote the school, or teaching newspaper writing in Literacy lessons.
All was great, then, until the world's finances went belly up, DH lost his job, we moved up here for his new job so I had to give up my old teaching job, DD arrived and...now that I'm looking to go back to my beloved teaching I find myself with no connections in a part of the country where teaching jobs are few and competition is fierce.
Amid the gloom of job-searching, though, there's been an unexpected development. A friend was printing a job application out for me and noticed my writing background. He asked if I'd be interested in a paid (!) writing project for the group he works for. I went along for a meeting and got the gig. While working out what I should charge, I contacted another old friend who's a successful freelance writer and editor to ask for advice, and she asked if I wanted her to put some other bits of writing work my way. I said yes and the other week I submitted my first invoice as a freelancer. Someone want to go back and tell myself ten years ago that I'm here, sort of networking and actually getting a (albeit very small) pay cheque from writing?!
All this leaves me with a whole bag of mixed feelings. I hate the idea of not going back to teaching, so I've not written that off. I love writing and can't deny that it has the potential to fit well around the commitments of young children. But then again, I was looking forward to having a job that expanded my social horizons a little...but we need the money and there isn't much doing on the teaching job front just now. I've decided to just go with the flow and not look to the future too much at the moment (gosh, that's hard for me to do, I'm a natural worrier).
Flow is an appropriate word at the moment. The paid writing projects seem to have turned on a tap and I've now found myself volunteering to write for free for a new local magazine, plus I'm fired up with a new idea for a children's novel. Maybe if I just gave up sleeping I'd have the time I need for all these words...

Spring part one

After a long weekend away of glorious sunshine, family, friends, barefoot running in the garden and a trip on a steam train through the forest, the weather today is reminding us that Spring is a fickle creature. It's grey, damp and chilly, but we're not having our enthusiasm for the season squashed that easily. For the next post or so I'm going to write about how we're celebrating and anticipating the return of the sun.
Today- planting. We have word that sowing is well under way at the farm, despite an expected influx of new gimmer sheep coming with unexpected baggage- unborn lambs! We thought that a bit of sowing was in order here too. I had hoped that this Spring we'd be getting a full on vegetable garden underway, but I'd reckoned without a new house that generates a lot of jobs, two babies that also generate a lot of jobs, plus a garden that needs a lot of stripping back and tidying up. So this year the priority is to get rid of lots of the concrete and paving, get rid of all the junk that's stuffed behind various structures, establish a compost heap, extend the amount of grass there is, construct a hen run (and get more hens!) and get the veg patch cleared and prepared so we can either put a green manure in over winter, or maybe get some winter crop veggies.
Just a few jobs then- and it's not as if the house is by any means finished! Anyway, in the meantime, in the sunshine of last week we planted the sunflower seeds Aunty Katy had sent for P, because we can pop them in a corner somewhere once they're big enough. P loved the kinaesthetic experiences of handling the seeds, dibbing holes in the soil, poking in one seed at a time, sprinkling on water...I think we could have seeded a whole field of sunflowers! If we get some success we can save the seed heads for birds next winter- maybe even for the hens.
Hopefully the humans round here won't be completely deprived of veg from the garden, either. While at my parent's at the weekend, P continued his gardening education by planting some borlotti beans to bring home with us. If I get around to having a sort out in the greenhouse and installing some tomato plants, there'll be some soup on the go!

Welcome back, sunshine!

Coming in from the garden today, I went to shut the door and discovered a red admiral butterfly had found its way into the kitchen and needed ushering out. Yes, we may have a few cold and wet days to come in fickle April, but today it was definitely promising the Spring and Summer warmth that had tempted this creature to spread its wings.
Trying to console myself for the fact that I'm going to be limited to the domestic sphere as far as work goes for the time being (although I have got some paid writing work to do from home), I gave in to the housewife within and set to with running errands, tidying up and, since it was the perfect blustery, sunshiney weather for drying, two loads of washing. There had to be some consolation to be had in being outdoors with the sun on my back, hanging washing, with one baby kicking her toes in the fresh air and yes, removing her hat as quickly as I put it back on again, the other (big now!) baby scampering around on his bike, while our venerable hen hurried from one to the other of us, on the offchance of a snack. Yes, it beats being in an office.


Back indoors, I've decided today is the day to tackle the sun room. All winter it's been a chilly, unlit at night place to scurry in and out of to fetch toys and books. As a result it's become more than a little- ahem- disorganised. With the sun out, however, it turns into a gloriously light, comfortingly warm little nook where I want to spend time with the children. So, supervised by Penelope the hen, it's getting a Spring clean.

Post bag of goodies

Just for a change, the post brought nothing but goodness today. No bills or junk, just bits and bobs we'd ordered from the internet, good news and letters. My bits and bobs were the yarns above, ordered from Deramores and Texere Yarns. There's the requisite materials to finish a couple of sweaters I've been working on. In theory they're for P, but given his distrust of all new clothes, in particular when they're knitted (could be down to his sensitive, eczema prone skin, could be just two year old attitude), they may not get a lot of real wear. No matter, as their other purpose is to try out patterns I've written myself and hope to publish, one way or another.
The pink, blue and cream yarn is the stash I need to use first, however, as I'm hoping to knock out a couple of my Union Jack teacosies for my Folksy shop in time for the Royal Wedding street party frenzy at the end of this month. We'll see whether that works out, but meanwhile I need to gird my knitting loins for all that intarsia.
Also in our post bag...news that P has got a place at the nursery school we hoped for. This means from September he'll go there each morning- I think he'll really love the social interaction, while it'll also mean M gets one on one 'mummy time' that hasn't featured much in her life to date. I think we'll all enjoy it.
We also recieved a lovely 'goodbye' card from our friends at the Steiner playgroup we used to attend in Lancaster. We had to stop going because it was just getting untenable to drive all the way there each week, with rising fuel costs. We do miss going, but I'll treasure all that we learned there.
Lastly P had a postcard from my parents. A while ago I asked his grandparents and great grandparents if they could send him the occasional card or letter, as he was so interested in the post being delivered every day as well as the written word in every form. It's worked really well- he loves getting the letters, as well as going through the tin he keeps all his correspondence in. I'm often asked to read the same letter to him over and over again. When we can get ourselves organised, I help him to 'write' back to people who've written to him and I'm hoping that in this way I can nurture the old fashioned but beautiful and valuable habit of handwritten correspondence in him, and in time M as well.

Family life

It's been a week of ups and downs. The ups have included some fairly unexpected opportunities to go back to my previous incarnation as a writer. This will bring in some welcome money and is so far proving to be very enjoyable, as I'm remembering what I enjoyed about producing copy to order. The downs, well it was one big down really as I failed to get a job doing what I love- teaching. I am trying to be philosophical, however, and see that these two opposing kinds of fortune are both pointing to me spending a bit more time immersed in family life, rather than being pulled back to the outside world just at the moment.
With that in mind I wanted to share this family moment from today- P's first ride on Daddy's bike. Despite my mummy-wobbles about it, I've given in to the idea of a 'jumpseat'- a little saddle with a safety strap, attached to the top tube of C's bike, so that P can hold the handlebars and ride with him. I agreed to it for several reasons: I trust C's experience and safety riding bikes; I know that P will love it and that it will open a new world of possibilities for going out and about with P in the saddle and M in the buggy; it will help P's development as a cyclist himself; we bought a new and better fitting helmet for P's rapidly growing bonce.
Guess what? He loved it. We went for a ride/walk at Rampside, marred only by the filthy habits of some irresponsible dog owners who don't pick up after themselves.
After that it was home for a spot of cake decorating- tomorrow is not only Mother's Day but also my mother-in-law's birthday so some whipped cream cheese icing and edible gold stars (I know! How fabulous!) were in order to finish off the lemon sponge P and I made yesterday. Just got to work out how to transport it to her now...