Jenerally Speaking,

Mummy to children

This year has started with transition. The transition of our family, or the transition of me, at least. From Mummy-to-Babies to Mummy-to-Children. The past four years, well, five years really, have changed me. I transitioned from teacher and wife to pregnant woman and then mother. I have changed and learnt more than I imagined I would. I'm a different person than I was before. Better, I think. It's been the most intense, exhilerating, exhausting and joyful journey I've been on. 

And now my children are baby and toddler no longer. They're children. And I am transitioning again, from Baby-Mummy to Child-Mummy. And I'm enjoying it. 

Our activities, conversations and relationships are different. Lots of creative play. Master R still adores imaginary play, and now Miss O joins in, taking her role as puppy (Roly, in 101 Dalmations) or snowman (Olaf, if we're playing Anna and Elsa) or Dory, if, like this morning, we're enacting Finding Nemo.

On this evening, Miss O having gone to bed first, Master R and I filled the tuff tray with toy stuffing and started out playing with snowmen and penguins. We came up the idea of making snowmen, and I fetched some pins, ribbons and socks. 

Before we knew it, we had a whole family of snowmen, each with individual faces, scarves and some even with hairstyles! It was such fun, playing and talking with my boy. He's so articulate and thoughtful. His mind is always creating characters and stories. 

After that, we played some new board games, Master R, Rachel and I. Master R found this one hilarious. I was relieved he wasn't upset when he tipped the Ark. Instead he giggled each time. It was a magical evening. So simple, but so precious.

We went on an adventure on the second day of this year. Off and out with a packet of biscuits, welly boots and some warm coats. We explored a bit of wild space next to the A14. Ran up this slope and admired the view from the other side. Explored through the woodland, chanting "we're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one..." Miss O kept crying "Aden! Aden!" and "Splash splosh splash splosh!" 

We found this fantastic climbing tree and everyone had a go at climbing the ladder-like branches.

These little explorers balanced on tree trunks which lined a path, stomped on molehills and ran themselves silly. They arrived back at the car wind-blown, rosy cheeked and ready for another biscuit.

Miss O is becoming increasingly ingenious. Or perhaps she's just getting old enough to demonstrate her ingenuity. Couldn't reach as high as Master R, to roll cars down the roof, but no matter. There is always another way!

On this day, she decided that this sticker was the perfect accompaniment to her outfit! Hilarious girl. She loves using this doorstop tortoise as her "baby".

And one week into this 2017, our boy turned four. He was so excited. He really gets Christmas and birthdays now. The anticipation was great and he was so happy on his party days. He surprised us by asking for a Bob the Builder cake. I thought he'd go for Paw Patrol or Thomas the Tank Engine or something. He doesn't even watch Bob the Builder very often. He's got four books about it. Well, it's clearly made an impression, and luckily Auntie Becka volunteered to make the cake and some Mum friends kindly lent me some toys to decorate the top. I helped... I smashed up the bourbon biscuits to make the "mud". About a whole packet, when it turned out we only needed a couple of biscuits worth!

And this was very exciting! Now it's time for him to transition from his beautiful wooden balance bike to a pedal bike of orange metal. It's going to take some work to master the skill, and he's rather unsure at the moment. It seems like a lot of hard work to him and he says "Don't ever let go, Mummy". When the days are warmer we'll spend time at the park, where there's plenty of soft grass to practice on. 

Lazy lunchtimes. I cherish them on a Saturday morning. Before swimming we pootle about together. 

Cosy afternoons in the lounge. The sun is going down a little later each day, which I'm relishing. Bring back the sunshine, I say. We made a "Pingu" (Miss O's favourite cartoon - the episode with bowling makes her giggle aloud). Master R was in charge of the feet.

Some out-of-season trees. 

My little chefs, hard at work making some banana loaf. Which, disappointingly, we put too much baking powder in, so it leaves a bitter aftertaste. It's ok with custard though, or dunked in tea. We'll use self-raising flour it the future.

This weekend we were very productive. We erected an extra wardrobe in Master R's larger room, which is being gradually transformed to a sleeping-and-dressing-and-reading room for both of them. Having moved all their clothes into one location, we then dismantled the chest of drawers and wardrobe in Miss O's nursery, and the cot, which neither of our children have used very much, and certainly not at night-time! We talked about the weekend, while I was pregnant, that we put together that furniture. But I didn't feel sad. Life is moving on and I'm excited for our next adventures. 

Then, in the space of about 40 minutes, we put together three Kallax shelving units and transformed the nursery into a playroom, for all their toys. 

It isn't finished. There's pollyfilla on the wall to be sanding and painted over, and new curtains and blinds are needed (I'm thinking actually, of moving those from Master R's room over, once we've redecorated the bedroom in soothing natural colours). But already we all love this space. 

It makes such SENSE to have all the toys together in one place, and all the clothes and books in another space. Our small people have been enjoying playing together in their playroom, rediscovering toys which have been re-organised and relocated. 

Our ultimate aim for the bedroom is to create an unusual sleeping space with bunks beds, but asymmetric, so that we create a little reading snug under the higher bunk. That's my dream, anyway. That, and a swinging chair hanging from the ceiling in the corner by the window! But that can wait for a while. Miss O still happily sleeps in our bed each night and for her naps, when she consents to nap. Already she's in the awkward phase in between needing a nap and not. The last two days her sleep has been utterly buggered, which resulted in her having Ready Brek for dinner at 4pm and going to bed at 5:30 today! 

So here we are, in 2017, being Mummies to children. Two wonderful, charismatic, determined, entertaining small people. What an adventure!

Dear Baby O

Dear Baby O,

You're having a tough time at the moment. Being seven and a bit weeks old is hard. This Wonder Week is really bothering you. You are finding it unusually hard to fall asleep. Once you're asleep, any little thing can wake you. You want to feed all day, mostly for comfort, but that makes you sick quite a lot. It is Difficult with a capital D. 

Despite this, we've had a lovely family day. A successful shopping trip this morning saw us coming home with our very own BBQ. The warm weather and the fact that we finally have some patio furniture (an early birthday present for Rachel, who will be 30 later this month), inspired us to take part in some outside cooking.

Your big brother was VERY interested in the BBQ. As Rachel was constructing it, we were explaining (as you do, very carefully, to a two-and-a-half-year-old) that it would have fire in it, which is hot and dangerous, so he'd have to be careful. He wondered how we might put it out and suggested we might use a bucket of water. So, when Rachel moved the constructed BBQ outside, he dragged a stool over and stood on it, with a bucket of water (filled from his own water tray), ready. Totally ready to put out the fire ... that we weren't going to light for another two or three hours. It took a lot of persuading to convince him to stand down!

Today we had aimed to get lots of tidying and sorting done in the garage and garden, but you were needing almost constant contact, little one, which made that tricky. I confess I was frustrated that we were constantly being interrupted because you were squawking for cuddles, or milk, or just so you could vomit all over both of us. But I can't stay grumpy when you smile at me. I just can't. You're too, too gorgeous. And it's not your fault you're especially needy this week. Your brain is undergoing HUGE changes and I can't imagine how bewildering that must be. 

Eventually, the garage was fairly tidy, although I only managed to sweep one corner before you needed me again. So I sat on our new chairs and sang to you whilst you fidgeted and fed. I enjoyed the sunshine as Rachel and Little R watched over the cooking burgers, pork belly and sweetcorn. All around the garden, toys and garden equipment were scattered chaotically, where Little R and I had flung them in our tidying and playing.

We did enjoy our first family BBQ. Little R, whose lack of nap was catching up with him, nibbled some salad, but refused to sample the meat. When he declared himself full, we sent him inside to carry on listening to his music CD. Within minutes, he'd conked out sitting up on the sofa, so Mummy Rachel lay him down among the cushions. He's currently asleep, still fully dressed on top of his bed. He's still not quite ready to cope without that midday nap!

I fed you, Baby O, while eating salad and pork belly one-handed. Then I passed you over to Mummy Rachel so I could eat my burger at long last. You projectile vomited all over yourself, Mummy, the new chair and the cushions. Oh dear. 

While she took you upstairs to commence the clear-up operation, I put my feet up and enjoyed the last of my burger. 

I could hear you and Mummy Rachel chatting through your open window. 

So even though we didn't really all eat at the same time and you and your big brother definitely need to work on your socialising skills, I enjoyed our first family BBQ. It was uniquely ours.

On a side note, your big brother did some photography today. He puts the camera strap around his shoulders and asks for help to find the on button. Then he chooses carefully what to photograph. He took several photos today, but my favourites are these two. 

"Mummy's frink."

"Now from der top."

He's so definitely the son of a blogger - he sees me taking bird's eye shots all the time! It's a great image, too! Very artsy!

I hope you start to feel more settled soon, Baby O. Right now I've passed you from my lap, where you've been feeding and fidgeting for several hours, to Mummy Rachel's. You're not comfortable or settled. We'll help you as much as we can with lots of cuddles and comforting. It is tough being a baby. 

Love from Mummy

A Dab of Glue

The last time I reported on the progress of our chest of drawers in the "cloakroom", it was looking like this. Neatly painted, but not as vibrant as it could be. 

It's taken me a fair while to get around to ordering décopatch paper of appropriate colours and a little longer to make a start on the décopatching. 

But last night I needed a distraction from my painfully spasmy ribcage (thanks to advanced pregnancy and a nasty cough), so I settled down to some therapeutic gluing and sticking.

I'd expected only to get half done, but it was actually a speedy job, while we watched Britain's Got Talent. 

I've had to paint a couple more of the knobs and switch them round, because the blue knobs were getting lost on the décopatched drawer. 

NOW it looks properly funky!

I'm tempted to décopatch the top of it too - what do you think? Too much?

Patchwork Chair Cover #3

 Another project has finally been crossed off my to-do list! Little R moved from his high chair to a booster seat on a kitchen chair several months ago. Since we only upcycled one... two kitchen chairs for ourselves three years ago, this required us to sweet-talk Grandpa into sanding another down and varnishing it for us. Rachel didn't have the time and I can't go attacking a chair in the garage with a sander and varnish while pregnant. That'd be a tad irresponsible! 

Happily, Grandpa was kind enough to oblige and the only step that I needed to do was to create a patchwork cover for the seat. This I managed to do over the Easter weekend at Mum's, while I was on my big finish-my-WIPs-mission (I nearly finished his Roman blind, made a start on his curtain tie backs and DID finish his monster bottomed trousers and some knitted cotton dishcloths, so I did quite well!). 

Step one was the hardest of all; drawing a diagram to decide how to lay out the patches. I found this not unduly taxing when I made the first two covers. But back then, I wasn't pregnant. I'm really finding the left side of my brain has genuinely packed up and gone on holiday this pregnancy. I'm much more intellectually hampered than I was when I was pregnant with Little R. My vocabulary is limited - I often pause partway through a sentence trying to recall a really quite basic word. Often I have to abandon the search for that word and explain myself a different way. Or kind people rescue me by suggesting what I might mean! I can barely remember any of my pin codes, which has caused some heart-stopping moments in shop queues. And I'm clumsy as heck. I literally cannot carry an object from A to B without launching it into the air or dropping it onto the floor. I'm just generally feeling pretty stupid. So this nearly reduced me to tears. I eventually managed to plan out the seat cover, but while cutting and stitching the fabrics found a glaring error whereby several centimetres had gone missing. Luckily my blagging skills are still in tact!

As I carefully measured and cut the pieces of fabric, I laid out the fabric on top of the seat (which I'd cleverly taken to Essex with me). 

 It looked fairly complicated. And rumpled. 

 So I gave all the fabric a wee press. Much better. 

 Mum walked in, raised her eyebrows and asked how on earth I was going to join those parts together. But that's actually the easy part. You just look for two pieces that join together and sew those together. Then another pair. Or a three. Each time I'd sewed a seam, I nipped over to the ironing board to press it flat.  

Gradually, you join together the twos and threes until you have an entire section.

And before too long, I had the entire cover in one piece. That was when we discovered that due to my calculation boob, it was a bit too small to attach, so Mum had the clever idea of sewing some bias binding all the way around the outside. Genius.

I said the planning was the hardest part. But the most infuriating, rage-inducing part was, as usual, attaching the cover to the chair. For some reason, whoever produced these simple kitchen chairs decided to make the seats from mahogany, or possibly diamond. It is an absolute %$*&^@# to try to get a staple into. Mum's stapler wasn't up to the task. We tried tacks, but they were huge, and were in danger of ripping the fabric, causing fraying So we use some upholstery tacks that Mum usefully happened to have. 

Even those kept bending over sideways. It was a nightmare. I was trying to hold the tacks in place with some pliers, Rachel was trying to hammer them in straight and without bending them, and we were both striving not to swear in front of our toddler. It was a CHALLENGE. 

We eventually got it attached by hook and crook. Looks bloomin' smashing underneath, doesn't it!?!

We could only get three of the four screws back into place to reattach the seat to the chair base, because one of the screw holes had been covered by multiple layers of fabric. Ah well, three will have to be enough!

Little R is happy with it, and it looks very cute, so I'm very pleased we persevered through the difficulties. 

I'm happy with the fabric choices too. I didn't have enough of the fabrics I'd used on our chairs to do a chair which completely matched, but I got some lovely foxy themed fat quarters from my good friend Mandy for my birthday. They go really well with the shades of green and brown I've used on our adult chairs, and bring in some orange, which features in our kitchen too. 

See? Little R's is more childish and colourful than ours, but they clearly belong together. 

Three beautiful kitchen chairs. Aah. Job well blagged. 

(But already, I'm dreading trying to fit the fourth cover on the next chair, when this Little Baby is big enough to require his or her own chair! I must invest in an uber-powerful stapler by then. Or a nail gun.)

A splash of paint

We've had rather a blissful weekend here. Yesterday was a busy day of productivity - shopping shopped for, wardrobe in Little R's soon-to-be-big-boy-bedroom filled with shelves and all my sewing stuff moved in (there's a LITTLE space for his clothes to move in later), garden hoed and tidied, rabbit hutch cleaned, DVD's parcelled up to be sold and various other jobs ticked off very satisfyingly. I LOVE days like that. It was also a momentous day, as Little R had NO NAP. This was a conscience effort on our part, because for the last week he's been falling asleep too late on in the afternoon and then being impossible to rouse, so bedtime has ended up getting far too late. He coped admirably yesterday, and was ready for bed by 6:30, which left us with the whole evening to relax... and get a few more jobs done. He's coped today without one also!

After the business of Saturday, Sunday was a day of leisure. We went to Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm, which Little R simply ADORED. He's been going on about cuddling a lamb for two weeks and today he FINALLY got to fulfill his wish - he was delighted. And he fed goats, pigs, cows and sheep. He was in his element, splashing in muddy puddles, chasing chickens and leading us hither and thither to see all the things that interested him. 

Among all this fun, I still found time to tick another job off my list that I've been longing to do for months. In August, we replaced the tatty wicker chest of drawers in the downstairs facilities with this simple but tidy wooden one. I had plans to decorate it, but what with morning sickness and work I hadn't managed to get round to it. Until today! 

I tipped everything out of the top and bottom drawers, ready to add a splash of colour.

Did you spot these, perched on top of the chest? We picked them up on Saturday during a particularly productive trip to Homebase. 

Little R was my little helper. It was his first experience of furniture painting, and he did an excellent job. He understood that he needed to fill all the spaces with paint and I left him to fill the middle while I did the tricky edges. I do so love it when there's a job he can help with. 

Soon we had one "ight bue" and one "gark bue" drawer drying up on the table. Next to my beautiful amaryllis, which is now flowering. Rather irritatingly, it's grown so tall that I have to stand on a chair to really enjoy the full effect!

Admittedly, Little R's efforts did lead to this being a slightly sloppier job than I'd usually manage, but it was worth it to see the pride on his face. 

Rachel, meanwhile, had become inspired, and painted these two knobs. She had a plan. Oh yes, just wait and see. (You've guessed already, haven't you? It's not the most mysterious DIY project in the world, I must admit!)

 Ready for the ta-da?

Here it is:

Ooooh, it is cute. Rach pointed out it'd be perhaps more suitable in Little R's bedroom than the downstairs toilet, but I LIKE cute things, so there!

The blues were chosen to tone in with our duck pictures, which decorate the intense yellow walls of our smallest room. 

It's certainly cheered that dull pine up and makes the chest match the rest of the room. Now, my original plan was to décopatch the middle drawer with patterened paper of yellow and blue (I do have rather a habit of décopatching random items of furniture - see here, here and here). But I'm wondering now if that'd be a step too far.

 What do you think? Yay or nay?

Edit: I DID eventually décopatch the middle drawer - see here.

Homecrafted Christmas

 Christmas... I do love it. I love the anticipation of waiting for it to be time to get down the decorations from the loft, turn on the Classic Christmas CD that we always listen to and put up the decorations. 

This year we had my homemade Christmas bunting to hang for the first time - I'd bought the fabric last year and even cut it into triangles, but I didn't find the time to sew it together until the New Year. It looks cosy and colourful, swagged (is that a verb?) around the lounge. 

But for me, the Christmas tree is the highlight. This year we didn't need to dig into our collection of gold and red baubels, which I bought cheap as a University student to fill my humble shared tree. We finally have enough unique Christmas tree decorations to fill the branches easily. 

What I love most, is that each decoration has a story. Some have been bought at various places, and we can remember the tale of where and when. There are the two we bought in the closing down sale of The Pier, a shop we used to love to visit in Norwich. There is the fluffy Father Christmas we acquired on our disastrous trip to Reykjavik. There is the little mouse in dungarees and robin we got this year at Blackthorpe Barns. 

The best ones, however, are the ones we have made ourselves. Starting with the very oldest, a hideous specimen that I made when I was 10 at Brownies. I remember making him. I was really pleased with how my skiing pinecone (where DID they get that idea?!) looked... until I drew on the face. I had not got the hang of drawing faces yet. Oh dear. How odd he suddenly looked. 

Disappointed with his strange look (and, to be honest, the fact that he is a skiing pinecone, and therefore not inherently Christmassy!), I've always hidden him deep in the branches of the Christmas tree so he's practically invisible. But he has to be there. It's tradition. I had to take him with me when I left home and I still nestle him deep in the tree, mostly out of sight. Although this year, an intrigued Little R keeps pulling him out to chat to him.

I like to look at my childish handwriting on the bottom. I was in Year 6, and my teacher at the time was very keen that we all join our letters with viciously spiky joins. I didn't like it at all - I prefer to write with smooth, curved joins. I used to rebelliously do my entire page of handwriting that way, knowing I'd be sent back to my desk to repeat the entire exercise again, this time spikier. It was a battle of wills between my teacher and I.  I always wonder whether I wrote the neat, joined named first and then got bored labelling the second one, or whether it was the other way round. 

Anyway, moving on. There are also a whole range of knitted creatures who peep out from our tree branches. The fairy, clown, Christmas tree and elf were all knitted when I was a teenager. I've made the little snowman and mouse in the last couple of years. 

There is also a reindeer (I also made one for my Grandma a couple of years ago) and a couple of knitted miniature mittens that Rachel's made.

Next, chronologically, are the ceramic decorations that Rachel and I painted during our little Christmas break at Center Parks many years ago. 2010, I think it was. We both got the flu. Swine flu, we think. I've never felt so ill in all my life. We spent the whole trip dosed up on Day Nurse, struggling through all the active, outdoorsy activities we'd booked. I remember I kept having to put down my paintbrush to blow my sore nose, again and again. But they turned out well! I painted the gingerbread man and stocking, and Rachel did the snowman and reindeer.

There are three crocheted star/baubel decorations a la Lucy of Attic24, which I love. I later adapted that design to make my dresser knob covers. 

And last year, I made LOADS of felted decorations, for Little R's friends.

I was so proud of how they all looked, but I only had the time to make ONE for our own tree. I planned to make more this year, but morning sickness and time got the better of me. I haven't even got around to adding a ribbon to this one. Epic fail.

Inspired by my selection of felted creations, my Mum make this gorgeous little house that year too, during my FIRST day back at work. It was the first day I'd left Little R, to go into school to plan for my return to work. 

I love them all. I love how our collection is slowly growing. It's a tree full of memories, as well as festive cheer. Would you like to see the whole thing in its glory? I'll have to see if I can find a photo of the whole tree, actually... hang on...

Bad luck! I haven't taken one! I've only got photos of Little R adding decorations in his pants. No good. I'll have to take an atmospheric photo on Christmas Eve, twinkling in the darkness and add it. 

Christmas begins...

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Little R, 

Last year, being nearly one, you were big enough to try to put the decorations on the tree. You earnestly pushed them in and were delighted if they happened to balance on a branch. This year though, being nearly two, you had the necessary skills to hang the decorations on properly, and you loved it. "More one! More one!" you kept demanding, until they were all on. You even took direction and listened when we suggested you not put two ornaments on the same branch. The tree looks marvellous.

Well done, our boy. 

Little R's Little Cushion

 

Another day, another crafting ta-da! This was the simple little project I was working on while I dillied and dallied about making the flowers for my wreath. 

Little R's little chair, which he loves so much, needed a little cushion all of its own.

So I chose some colours from my selection of "lounge" colours, and made a very little ripple. A very subtle ripple too, as it turned out, since I forgot to do two increases and two decreases for each hill and valley. It worked just find with only one though. 

 

Long enough to slightly overlap and button up at the back, and simply double crocheted together at the edges.

 

Simple-pimple, and it fits just perfectly on his chair. 

 

He was quite interested to see that his previously white cushion had turned all woolly and colourful.

P.S. And how cute are those bear slippers?!

Colourful Crochet Wreath

Well check me out! Uploading photos of an ACTUAL CROCHET PROJECT instead of photos of my little man! I had a bit of a panic this evening when I couldn't find the photos I KNEW I'd taken of this project when I started it in September. Turns out I started it in August. That's how long it takes me to complete anything these days! Shocking.

Anyhoos, this wreath started out as a long, narrow strip of lovely yummy colours. I had fun working on my randomness. Sometimes, when you want to create a jumbled up effect, you have to repeat a colour very soon. That's the key to true randomness... I think. 

Yum, yum, yum. (The yarny goodness, not my toes!)

By the way, I must apologise for the dodgy colour and lighting levels ih these photos. They were taken in the evening, which mean the lighting was poop. I've tweaked them this way and that to try to make them look bright, but they've ended up looking quite odd. Trust me, they're better than the dark and dingy originals!

Soon enough, my colourful strip was wrapped and stitched around my polystyrene ring (which I bought possibly and entire calendar year previously - I know it had been in the cupboard for SOME CONSIDERABLE TIME).

I was very happy with it at this stage. So I'm afraid that's how it was left for a while, propped on various surfaces around the lounge. It took me AGES to finally come up with some...

... little woolly blooms! This took about a month. Honestly. And you know why? Because making up flowers and leaves requires me to actually fetch a pattern book from the shelf/Attic24's tutorial list and concentrate for a while. So in the meantime, I'd got distracted making a simple ripple cushion, which involved absolutely no pattern reading. It's not that I struggle to understand a pattern. It's just easier to pick up a project you don't have to think about to take out and about, or to do while watching some TV of an evening.

The flowers and leaves really made it zing for me. It's simple and quite plain. It's not a true Attic24 wreath, because it has so little embellishment. But I love my colours so much I wanted to enjoy looking at them. Maybe one day I'll make a busy-busy-busy wreath, but for that I'd have to put a limited range of colours on the underneath bit, otherwise I couldn't bear to cover them up!

It is currently brightening the patch of cream wall behind our television, at a quirky angle so the flowers aren't exactly at the bottom. I do like a bit of asymmetry sometimes. I have no photo of that because of lighting and dusting issues. By the time the cobweb situation had been remedied this afternoon, the lighting was too poor to even attempt a photo. You're going to have to believe me when I say it looks rather lovely. 

And it feels rather splendid to finally have a crafting ta-da completed! Hurray me!

Sorting

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Day two of our stuck-at-home week and Little R helped me to wash all the cutlery, then, once I'd washed the cutlery drawer, he sorted the cutlery back in. I might have helped... a little. 

P.S. Wondering how I got my cutlery drawer so FUNKY?