It´s sunny

The weather has warmed up again, at last, so a few jobs done in the garden, especially pruning the roses, a clear up from all the recent high winds which decimated my pelargonium plant, ripping huge branches off. So I took loads of cuttings of them, so hopefully they will take.

I had left last years Basil plants that had gone to seed in their pots for them to dry and decided to harvest the seeds, goodness, talk about a good game played slow! The tiny flower pods were still quite closed and refused to yield their prize without a fight. I shook, rubbed, tapped and ended up having to open each pod individually, and there is another plant to go.....

I had a request from one of Rebecca´s friends to make something for the baby she was expecting. She has loved all the things I have made for Theo and really wanted hand made as none of her family do any crafting.

We knew they were expecting a little girl, so I started on a medium sized blanket for her and a couple of pairs of mittens and a little turban hat. All finished now, just need to post them off, especially as the little one has now arrived.

We had our supermarket delivery yesterday, I ordered 2 red peppers, they are absolutely huge. That is one draw back of ordering in this way, you can never tell what sizes you are going to get on the fresh veg.

The avocado is for scale!

Knitting a jacket for Theo and just had another request for another jumper, so better get on to it

Enjoy your weekend

take care

xcx

Birthday boy

We celebrated Theo´s first birthday last week

A year old where did that go, missed them so much this year but we put up a birthday banner and balloons and joined in on zoom.

 One of our presents to him was this fun combination of dens and tunnels, there are 2 dens and 2 tunnels, all interconnecting, 

It was a joy to watch as he scrambled through, giggling in delight and thought it great fun when both Mummy and Daddy crawled in too.

Then they made it into a ball park, even more fun. I´m sure this be delightful for the garden in the summer

Then came the birthday cake

Antoni made the cake topper and 1 figure using his 3D printer

I think the grin says it all here 

Would you believe it, Rebecca and I chose the same Winnie the Pooh birthday card

take care

xcx

Hello again

 Hello again,

Bit late, but, Wishing everyone a Happy New year, let´s hope it is happier than the last year.

Despite everything, we had a lovely Christmas day, we had two zoom calls with Rebecca, Antoni and Theo, so we were able to be in the room with them and watch as Theo explored his first Christmas presents, not quite the same without hugs and cuddles, but it was a lovely to join in and see them.

Theo´s music and sensory classes moved onto Zoom and I was invited to join in with their New Year´s eve party, wonderful to see Theo interacting with the music and activities, such a shame not to be able to socially interact with the other families in person though. Theo loved attending the groups and was learning social skills, another casualty of the times.

We had quite a stressful time trying to send our parcel of Christmas goodies over, we used Parcel2go and the service was absolutely awful, they refused to collect even though we had paid, then informed us the next delivery slot was 29th December! luckily we contacted a local service of man and van who was going over on the Friday and our parcel was hand delivered on the Saturday, excellent service.

Rebecca used the same service, but they ruined that and we didn´t receive her parcel until 30th December. The positive side was we had another christmas day, again with zoom.

Today is Theo´s first birthday! can´t believe he is 1 already, so hard not to dwell on the loss of his first year, daily video calls etc just doesn´t cut it, although seeing his wonderful grins and hearing his giggles on the video link is a joy. I know I´m biased, but he is doing so well, walking for 2 months already and now is trying to run! As soon as he sees us he grins and then waves goodbye and says bye at the end.

We shall zoom later and be able to join in his celebrations.

I was really busy during the last few months making all sorts for him, a Christmas stocking was requested

but I also made a large Christmas bag for him

A set of building blocks, with a custom made box to keep them in

Then a Christmas tree was requested, made from felt with felt shapes, the idea being that he could put his own decorations on his tree and leave the real one be.

It worked really well and he enjoyed the process

Hand made gift cards, Rebecca wanted keepsakes for his first Christmas

I managed to source an alphabet wall hanging, which I quilted, he can use it as a play mat too.

There´s more, but perhaps they are for another day. Stay safe everyone, take care, back soon

                                                                            xcx

A little catch up

Been pottering about, doing bits n pieces, sowing seeds, now we have been able to get some compost, some crafting, renovating, reading. We have been having more low pressure and torrential thunder storms, it always exacerbates the fibro, especially any added stress, so I have been struggling a bit.

Been a bit Eeyoreish too with the pain, and found I didn´t have any thing to say,

 which as they say, if that´s the case then don´t say anything at all lol.

I found an old bar stool looking very much worse for wear so after rubbing down all the peeling varnish and getting it back to basics, I painted it a nice bright colour.

It´s hard to believe that its been a year since we had to pack up the family home and move MiL to her care home. We did it on the back end of the visit for her 90th birthday and managed to collect bygone treasures and childhood memorabilia. One of the treasures she said I could keep was a  wood and wire Victorian bird cage. We had the stuff shipped back in February, so why I had a sudden whim to sort it out I don´t know.

I think I used several pots of elbow grease as it was so rusty with layers of dust and grime.

Wirewool, a soft dremil wheel and beeswax.

I haven´t decided what to put inside it yet, a nice candle maybe, certainly not a bird thats for sure.

Whilst sitting quietly and trying mind over matter, I started on some coasters for the courtyard table, made 3 so far

I was given an old pair of riding boots, so after Chris drilled some holes in the soles, put some gravel in the bases for drainage and stability, topped up with compost and planted them up. They fit in nicely with the theme

Theo has been enjoying his toys, especially the crunkly book, so I´ve added to his collection by making the fins of the fish crunkle, with a couple more pentagon balls.

Then made up my own pattern for a little owl

I thought I would start another book, maybe with little pockets to put shapes in, but I wasn´t in the right frame of mind so instead I went through the materials stash, folding, straightening and even ironing, it was a win win because I have ended up with a neat and tidy cupboard and found a few long forgotten treasures along the way.

Been taking cuttings from various established plants, honeysuckle, jasmine, geraniums, rosemary, they have 2 chances lol, then I did the trick with the end of the celery, it worked lol

A gentle day today me thinks, we have a skype call later this afternoon to wish MiL a happy 91st birthday. Then to morrow is Rebecca´s birthday, so although we speak or video call every day it will be lovely to catch up with her on her special day.

take care

xcx

Toy making

Trying times, we have had a couple of scares, firstly with MiL who is in a care home. We were told by the home that she was not well and they suspected covid, they told us they had given her antibiotics but she was confused.

I immediately rang Mum and had a lovely 37 minute conversation with her, perfectly lucid and perfectly normal.

24 hours later we find out that there are 3 Joyce´s in the home and even though we identified Mum and the family connection, they got the wrong one.

Terribly unnecessary worry and we complained about the lack of attention and questioned their policies.

Then Shine (DiL) was sent home from the care home where she nurses as her immediate colleague had contracted the virus and she had similar symptoms.

She self isolated whilst waiting for test results, which I´m happy to say proved negative.

Phew, and breathe!

I have continued to make toys for Theo, he has grown and changed so much and it´s been so difficult to contend with the fact of not being able to visit. 

I tried to incorporate lots of different elements, such as rattles, crunckles, plush, colourful fabrics and different shapes.

Chris made the support for the mobile using dowl, which he sanded and polished and made it in such a way the arms can be dismantled for posting.

Such a difficult thing to take a good photo!

I used pentagons to make another smaller ball

and a squishy cloud that rattles, a plush butterfly and one that crunkles

A cloth book, using wadding to give it some thickness and the (washed) inside packaging from a box of cereal, just the right sound

The material was a mix of dolphins, cat, ducks and dragonflies, so I added some shapes to match the pages

These multi sensory toys seem very expensive to buy, so I was quite pleased to use items from the stash to give him a variety.

In the meantime, I finished off his hooded jacket, but I wasn´t very pleased with the result, especially as the hood seems to be rather big, but at least it will give him another thing to wear. This jacket was from the same pattern as the last one that just had a collar but it seems to be a little too short. Don´t think I shall bother with the pattern again. Have to have a look through Revelry and see what I can find.

There was enough yarn left to make a pair of bootees too.

One of Rebecca´s friends is expecting a little girl in a few weeks, so I sent along a lilac pair and a light grey with sparkly speckles

The first parcel took nearly 2 weeks to arrive, but the second only took 4 days, I also popped in a bar of dark chocolate so Rebecca had a little something to open too.

On my searches for suitable patterns etc, I came across a site suggesting making toys using household items, some are not suitable at the moment, but one was taking an empty tissue box and stuffing either light scarves or little socks inside that can be pulled in and out. At the end of the day he doesn´t know what toys are, just wants different stimulus.

Thought I would try an owl next, so off to look for some patterns.

take care

xcx

Dinosaurs

Gosh, I´m slacking, didn´t realise it was so long since I last posted.

We have been having inclement weather these past few weeks, but we have managed a few garden days when the rain has stopped. Never seen the Bernia mountain so green or the grass on our terraces so long. All our efforts on taming the wilderness are still happening but you turn round and a tiny green hue of weeds are back again. 

The roses seem to like it though and the Iris I planted a couple of years ago actually flowered this year.

The daisies in the courtyard brighten it up, some of them had self seeded in strange places so I repotted them together to make a nice splash of colour

Unfortunately some of the rain has been ´dirty´so the pool is in need of some tlc and the courtyard became a skating rink as green algae coated the tiles, yuk!!

There was nothing for it but to scrub it off

This area is about 84 sq ft, took me 2 days to complete it but so much better

I am trying not to look at the rest of the courtyard, it´s a much larger area, probably 5 times the size,

little by little I suppose.

I have been doing all sorts of different projects, Chris wanted a face mask, I found a pattern which incorporated a pipe cleaner for the nose piece which made it quite a snug fit so he was happy.

Rebecca wanted some wall stickers for the nursery and decided on a dinosaur theme, so running with that I thought a mobile would be nice.

Searching through the stash I found suitable colours of felt

They are all about 3.5" with this larger one for the centre

I embellished them with components I wouldn´t normally use, ie buttons, but thought it would be ok as it will be well out of Theo´s reach.

Then decided to make a couple of larger ones

Whilst on a roll, this cube was next but I added a rattle inside

Each side has a different motif

Chris is hoping to get to the post office tomorrow as we haven´t collected our mail for several weeks, so hopefully they will accept a parcel and it can make its way to Theo.

Got a little jacket to stitch up now.

take care

xcx

Activities

I know I´m saying and feeling the same as everyone, gosh it´s hard not being able to be there physically for family and friends.

Finding positives, however small each day is a way of getting through this nightmare.

Rebecca is on the severe, high risk register so they are both isolating for the 12 weeks, luckily Antoni was working remotely anyway, only travelling into the office once a week, which of course has all stopped now. Rebecca has just received a second food parcel with all sorts of essential items fresh veg and a few treats. The 2nd one also included personel wash items , little bottles of shower gel, shampoo, soap etc, including 2 toilet rolls! As she hasn´t been able to get a supermarket delivery slot until 12th April, she was so surprised, but delighted and felt quite blessed as this has not only helped and take away some of the worry, but has given her a lift. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all those who are helping with this service along with those who are donating.

We have daily video time which is helping both of us and she sends daily photos and video of Theo.

He is growing so fast and is quite free with his smiles and gurgles, although he also likes exercising his lungs which is a little daunting for a new Mum trying to figure out what is wanted.

During one of our calls, Theo was intrigued by the video and hearing my voice, he started smiling at me as I was talking to him, we thought it might be a fluke, but no he did the same the next day, aww bless.

We have also been extremely lucky in that our neighbour asked if we needed anything from the supermarket so we were able to top up with some fresh veg and a fresh chicken. I have been quite inventive in the kitchen and managed to get 7 meals out of the chicken, plus making fresh stock from the bones. I have been experimenting with different spices to ring the changes and give different tastes to the dishes.

We have been quite active in the garden, taking advantage of the very rainy weather we have been having, it has made weeding possible having loosened the soil from being like concrete.

I think we may be able to tame the jungle wilderness. Its raining again today so hopefully with better weather tomorrow we can do some more.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a 5 minute gardening video suggesting that you take the whole seed compartment of a pumpkin, loosen the seeds a little and plant it in its entirety in a pot. Well, give anything a try, this is the result, they need transplanting now.

Something has already had a nibble though

When its been pouring, I have taken the opportunity to just sit, recover a bit from the gardening and

make a jacket for Theo with little cat buttons. 

I also finished off a little vest top

It has a moss stitch at the top which gives it a different look

Well take care everyone, stay safe

xcx