Silent Sunday

365project Week 8 2013 - It will do

I am laughing at my own ineptitude.
But it is late, and like most things this week, it will have to do.
I am referring to the lopped off heads of my husbands ancestors in the top right photo of this weeks collage. May their souls forgive me.

The theme this week then is 'it will do'.

A hat that refuses to stay out of his eyes, but it will do.
Lopped off heads of The Rusts c1900, my husbands Great Grandparents, Grandmother and Great Aunts and Uncles, but it will do.
A mini treat - new fridge magnets, but it will do.
It is midday, they are still in their PJs but a musical accompaniment to the Princess's reading will do.
Not a lot of sun at the park but it will do.
No time to ice my friend's birthday cake, but it will do.
Not a beautiful landscape view while I drink my coffee, but this ceiling will do.


Linking up with the Queen of 365, The Boy and Me. Do pay a visit.

Saturday is Caption Day

It has been eons since my last satcap and my only excuse is that my kids just haven't been funny recently.
I will always blame the tools and never the workman.
But they were feeling mischievious today and here they are.

Tempting as it was to leave them while I got on with the shopping, the senior managers having a meeting at the top of aisle 8 looked like they would stick a barcode on them and sell them on a BOGOFF.

Have a splendid Saturday and caption at will.

Silent Sunday

365project week 7 2013

I've been making things this week. Handy Mummy. That's me.
And the Princess has been very complimentary about my creations too. I would go so far as to say she has been gushing. She must be after something.

I have made:
Pancakes.
Hula Hoops monsters.
Art out of milk cartons.
Icicles (I didn't actually make these, but I did make a fire, which counts.)
A pink frothy birthday cake for The Mr and the Princess to share. And I made them smile.
Some crocheted wrist warmers.
And a heart for my Mr who is my rock.


Linking up with the Queen of 365, The Boy and Me. Do pay a visit.

Pinaddicts and Crochet Monsters

About 5 months ago, I was getting organised for my eldest's birthday party and had an idea to make crochet monsters instead of party bags (a pet hate but that's another blog post). I was inspired by these creations from craftiscool.

Wind forward to 2 days before the party and I realised that I had something close to 20 guests coming and only 5 monsters made. It was not going to happen.

I improvised and made ghost lollies instead. 20 happy party guests.

Wind forward a bit more and I find myself preparing for my daughters birthday party. Now where did I put those crochet monsters?

Twelves party guests, one week to go and 5 already made. The maths seemed to work so I got crocheting, sewing and embellishing with buttons. I would have taken photos as I went, but I was kind of in a rush *mops brow* so forgive me.

Essentially, the body is made up like this:

Chain 14
SC into 2nd ch from hook
work sc into each chain stitch back to your 1st stitch.
3 SC into 1st chain stitch
Turn and sc into each stitch of the original chain for 12 stitches.
3 SC into the 13th stitch and then SC into each stitch.
Continue to SC for 15 rounds.
Slipstitch last stitch to finish.

I added hair by chain stitching long loops of about 15 chains per loop and then slipstitching into the top to make a loop.

I added felt mouths or eyes, stitched on buttons and added some embroidery for extra detail. I left them open at the bottom and stuffed them with mini bags of sweets. I thought they could be used as an egg cosy, a puppet or as a secret sweet stash (but don't tell the parents). You could always stuff them and sew them up and they would just be cute friends.

Taa-daa.

I am joining in with Pinaddicts where your inspiration comes from Pinterest and you have a go yourself. Pop over and check out the other craft-a-holics being inspired.

Oh and if you like the monsters and fancy one ready made I could be persuaded to make one for you. Email me, yeah. x

365project Week 6 2013

When you are looking at the world through a (wannabe) photographers eyes, you see detail, and colour and contrasts that you wouldn't have noticed before.

The problem with that is you are easily distracted and forget that life is still going on around you, that your husband was mid conversation with you, that the children have turned feral instead of eating lunch.

Must pay more attention!

I mean, look at these photos.

It took me ages to arrange the crochet monsters soduko style
I stood for a fair while to get the best vine detail against the most interesting stone work.
I waited patiently for Misty to get into the right position on her coordinating bed.
The Wee One just wouldn't play with his playmobil the way I wanted to get the best photo.
The Big One had a massive rush of blood to his head while I found my iphone.
Getting the folds of my new blinds just right took an age.
The Big One kept moving his hand. Tut!

See photography is a patient art. So the world will need to be patient with me.

Linking up with the Queen of 365, The Boy and Me. Do pay a visit.

Silent Sunday

New Crush

Oh dear. I have found a new crush. But I have (mostly) given up on an old one, so that makes it okay. I can only have room in my life for one crush at a time afterall.

Firstly the ex-crush.

I have fallen out of lust with twitter. *gasp* It is too time consuming, time swallowing, time warping. I have a quick peak and before I know it an hour has gone by and the toddler has desconstructed the DVD player. I lose time to twitter and don't feel any richer or wiser after I come out the other side. I don't feel like I have achieved anything. That can't be right can it? There is a small group of tweeters that I have built relationships with and would miss, so I cannot give up twitter completely. So, twitter, can we just be friends? I am sorry. It's not you, it's me.

*pauses to get over old crush*

Right. Now my new crush.

It is pretty, it peaks into lives and shows me lovely cakes, smiles, colours and feet, a lot of feet. There is also a lot of lunch inspiration, should inspiration be what you are after. It scratches my photography itch, it fulfills my voyeuristic tendencies. I can chat, I can like. So it mostly hits the spot. It doesn't sap my day into a constantly flowing stream of 140 characters, It brightens my day. It makes me smile. It has easily slipped into my life and when we link arms we are in step. It inspires me, not just in terms of lunch, but in creative ways where I can imagine myself recreating what I see.

My new crush has a name: Instagram. Or IG to it's friends.

I know many of you have been there, had your crush, and moved on. I know Instagram has been around for iphone generations, but as a newbie iphone owner, I am bedazzled by it's wonder and am happy to stare adoringly into its square window on the world.

It doesn't seem to have a share button which means I can't show you the many lovely photos that people take, but maybe it does and I just haven't found the right button yet. But that's a thrill too: the bit where you are still exploring your crush and discovering it's pleasures ;-)

So on this Valentines night, I'll be sipping the fizz and savouring the sweetness of Instagram.

Come and say hello ;-)


http://instagram.com/fivegoblogging

Art

As a child, I was always happiest if I had some paper and a pen. I would draw, scribble, doodle and colour. Oh to colour, with a rainbow of felt tip pens. That incredibly happy feeling I would get when I had new felt tips, the richness of the colour, the luxury of pouring colour on to the page without having to go over and over the same spot because the ink was drying out, trying to suck more ink through the mashed up point of the pen (yes, i did get a multicoloured tongue and it did taste vile, but I was an artist, and artists make sacrifices).

Actually, as it turned out, I wasn't an artist. I was remarkably average if truth be told. I probably hit my peak at about 13 and anything I attempted to draw on paper after that, still looked I had drawn it at 13.

But through the years I have yearned to reignite my 'talent' and purchased watercolours, oils, pastels in a misguided belief that perhaps my artistic career faltered at 13 because I just hadn't found the right medium. No. Still remarkably average.

The Big One was given an art project at school and wanted to draw a pyramid. This had also coincided with his newfound knowledge about shading. I remembered I had a box of pastels hidden at the back of a cupboard and I offered them to him to use.

As I opened the box, his face lit up, he sighed at the beautiful array of colour offered to him. He picked up a pastel and drew a line on the paper for the first time, snapping it in two. I gasped. He had broken the pastel. I breathed deeply to calm my anxiety. He had broken the pastel. I forced myself not to snatch the box back from him. He had broken the pastel. I reminded myself that they had been in a cupboard for at least 10 years. He had broken...

I let him carry on. Those pastels are now his. The younger two children are not allowed to even breathe over them. His rule. Not mine.

I hope he will continue with his art. He loves it so much. It is the only thing that he concentrates on. He enjoys putting pen to paper as much as his Mum and even if it turns out that his talent peaks at 13 too, he will have enjoyed creating his master pieces.

Incredibly, with all that colour at his disposal, he drew a panda.

Silent Sunday

365Project Week 5 2013

Hello my dear readers.

How are you today? Enjoying this crisp wintery sunshine? Time to get out there, wrapped up warm obviously, and snap some signs of spring, a few rays of wintery sunshine, some rosy cheeks perhaps. Well that's my plan anyway.

I am a fervent snapper on my iphone and poster on Instagram (my latest crush) but I feel the need to get the big one out and take some 'proper' pictures. Of course, you could be quite cynical and suspect that I am trying to up my photographic game in time to influence the votes for the MADS, but you would be quite wrong. I just like taking photos and I am vain enough to think that they are mostly quite good. I hope you like them too ;-) *cough* *MADS* *cough* *Best Photography Blog* *cough*

Meanwhile, *ahem* here is the week that was week 5.

Digging out the mop only to be mobbed by little feet.
Training my youngest model and my snapping finger.
Me myself and I, semi hiding, somewhat faded.
Jelly tots loaded jelly as if jelly wasn't enough.
Spoils of market day, a mango, bananas and a fruit loaf. Delish.
The Misty Moo, ears perked up and poised to pounce.
Me and my iphone. Bonded.

Hope you have a lovely week :-)


Linking up with the Queen of 365, The Boy and Me. Do pay a visit.