Greetings!

I have been trying, over the years, to make my own greetings cards.  Here is a very simple one I made recently with washi tape.  I've seen lots of similar ones on the internet:-

Here is one I made with felt, my favourite material in the whole wide world, which took a bit longer: -

I decided a while ago that I would no longer buy greetings cards because they were so expensive.  This was a pointless promise.  I love buying them as much as I love making them.  It's a bit like deciding that I won't buy a coffee from Costa, and both things cost about the same amount and bring me unreasonable and unbridled amounts of pleasure.

See you in Paper Chase.  

Spidey

I was going to post a picture of the beautiful cushion cover I'd crocheted.  But I've not crocheted it yet.  Here is what I have done.  Tadah!

I know I need not explain to you what this is.  Why yes, it's obvious.

And Spidey was delighted.  He now has a sarong to wear. . .

. . . and when he gets tired, a cozy blanket.

Readers, there really is no end to my creativity.  I amaze even myself. x

Snippets of the week. . .

Bits of my week have looked like this.  Happy weekend x 

What shall we have for lunch?

Here is what I had for lunch a few days ago:

It was absolutely delicious and very healthy, as you can see.  It was totally worthy of this photo opportunity and blog post.

I also love the following things on a regular basis:

- spaghetti hoops on toasted bread which has had the mould cut out of it
- half eaten and left over fish fingers possibly smeared in tomato sauce off my son's plate
- half chewed semi melted penguin biscuit (same source as above)
- assortment of left overs from cling filmed bowls in the fridge
- free coffee from Waitrose, end of a French stick and two bags of Quavers

These things weren't worthy of a photo opportunity and are therefore not getting their own blog post.

Bon Appetit!

New project

At the beginning of last year (2013) I kept trying to crochet.  After a few weeks I discovered that I had an excellent aptitude for making all sorts of different knots.  Such was my frustration, I signed up for a few classes at The Sheep Shop and finally. . .  finally. . . I managed to make a small flower, or a small star and something else very small but very decorative, which escapes me.  Now, it's already 2014 and it's already March, but very slowly something is happening. . . 

Can this be appearing before my very eyes?  It's hard to be sure. . . I'll let you know.

Little holiday by the sea

We have just returned from a lovely little holiday by the seaside, where we. . .

. . . went beach combing. . .

. . . made sculptures. . .

. . . returned a starfish to the sea. . .

. . . admired the lights and the creatures at Brighton's Aquarium. . .

. . . ate lots of these. . .

. . . and even more of these. . .

. . . and a few slices of this!

Hope you had a lovely half-term too.

It's Valentine's Day . . .

. . . and we went from this. . .

 . . . to this. . .

 . . . the little boys got these. . .

 . . . and I got a beautiful heart too. . .

Happy Valentine's Day

Wherever you are x

This week. . .

This week one little boy has been poorly and in hospital. . .

(The bars on the cot are up because he kept insisting they were raised so he could 'hide' from the doctors and his medicine. . .)

But today coffee/squash and chocolate biscuit hearts in our village teashop made us feel much, much better.

Singing in the Rain

 

It's very difficult to keep singing in the rain this week.  With two small boys who need at least six miles of exercise a day, it can feel as though the walls are closing in on us after a while.  It's all very well having the right gear for spending time outdoors, but when it's wet and there's an icy wind, it's just no fun for anyone after about half an hour.  Still, our home isn't flooded and our river has only burst its banks where it should (the water meadows).

I'm not sure in which direction to take this blog; I suppose I'm still finding my voice.  Should I talk about domestic details and my family, or post about craft projects, or other things entirely?  Should I be funny, or serious, or both?  It seems everywhere I look someone has done it before and is doing it so well. But who cares about that?  Well, I do.  But I'm going to have to ignore those feelings of inadequacy and just keep going.  I will keep singing in the rain. Till I feel happy again.  Ha!  

(Picture above is of a work of art, called, I think The Blackbird Sings.  Follow the link to look at the artist's work.  You'll be glad you did.)

Special birthday

We thought long and hard about what to get my mother-in-law for her 70th birthday. In the end, her three sons and their families all bought her different things instead of one big present.  However, we also wanted to give her something special together to mark the occasion when we celebrated over afternoon tea.

I came up with the idea of a jar that we could fill with reasons explaining why we loved her, one reason for each year of her life.  This isn't particularly original and I have seen it done in different ways before.  However, it was simple and inexpensive and she was overjoyed with it.  The reasons weren't all incredibly meaningful either; some were light-hearted and funny and others reminded us all of things from childhood, which seemed so small at the time, but are ever so important when you look back on them.

All you need is a jar, some ribbon, a printer, a pencil around which to wrap the strips of paper with each reason on - they curl nicely this way and look better in the jar - and a glue stick.  Of course you need to come up with the reasons as well.  That was the fun bit.  And it's never a bad thing as a daughter-in-law to concentrate on all the reasons why you really do love your mother-in-law!

Thursday: Snippets of our days

It seems to be very popular right now to take pictures of little, inconsequential things.  I, for one, love this type of photography and find it far more interesting than smiling photos of happy families, although I'm not averse to seeing these kinds of pictures either.  But isn't it refreshing when looking through, for example, a wedding album, to see photos of details that might have been missed by the bride and groom on the day; a discarded buttonhole, champagne waiting to be poured, you get the gist. 

Every so often, I grab the camera and run round the house snapping away.  When we eventually get round to putting our photo albums together, I hope to include lots of pictures like the ones above, as well as the millions we have of us grinning away at the camera like all those other happy families.  (Although we are going through a stage at the moment of resorting to blackmailing one or both of our children to smile, but that's another blog post.)

So, here are my own inconsequential photos of our everyday life this week.

Favourite books

I love to read.  I always have.  I need to read a bit every day.  Even if it's just for two minutes before my eyelids droop and I have to turn out my light.  Most of my favourite books however, aren't the ones I've read as an adult; and I've read many.  Don't misunderstand me, I've read some of these books tens of times I've enjoyed them so much and, I fully intend to read them again.  However, if I had to write a list of my ten favourites (I can't possibly limit it to five, or even, gasp, one!), most of the titles would be the books I read or that were read to me when I was a child.

I think this is because when I re-read Apple Pigs now, it's not my voice I'm hearing, but my mum's.  When I re-read Snow at Blackberry Farm I remember that the year I loved that book, it snowed so hard that when we were stuck at school because of a blizzard, my dad turned up with his friends and an army of four wheel drives to get us home.  When I re-read The Tiger who came to tea I think about all those times I had tea with my mum and my brother and we counted off the days till my dad came home.  And when I read The Enchanted Wood, I remember how my dad and I chose the book together and I climbed back into the car afterwards (an Austin Allegro, no less), me clutching it carefully in its brown paper bag.  This is why my childhood favourites will always be my all time favourites.  What are yours?

Evolution

Soon it might be possible in our house for little hands to go from left to right. . .

Ikea (left) Heals (right)

Sometimes, it's hard to know whether to smile or be sad.  Maybe both at the same time.

Posters for pennies

When I was decorating my sons' rooms, I kept looking online for posters that we could put in those wonderful, economical, large Ikea frames.  I found a lot of artwork that I loved; colourful, vibrant and perfect for either a boy or a girl. The trouble was that we had very little disposable income and even though some of the prints were very reasonably priced, we really needed to spend very little money on things that weren't necessities.  One day, I know I'm going to love being the owner of lots of original art and prints, however, until then. . .wrapping paper!  Have you ever noticed how beautiful it is?  Or am I the only weird one who refuses to buy the gorgeous stuff because I can't stand the thought of it being ripped to shreds in seconds?  And it can be very cheap.  Which means you can also switch it around and swap it whenever you like.  

I know there must be people out there who love wrapping paper as much as me and not for what it was actually intended.  Come on.  Announce yourselves!

What's in a name?

Some day I am hoping that all the people who avidly read my blog (I can dream), will wonder where on earth I got the name "Teddy & Goo" from.  Well, I was deliberating for a long time about a name and it would not come to me.  There are so many good names out there, so many that do just the job with exactly the right amount of whimsy and originality.  One thing I want to do on this blog is to have bursts of being original, but also, to give credit where credit is due - see my previous post, for example.  And I could not think of a name that felt right. Then, this Sunday we were walking along the thicket, which is a wooded pathway between a town and a village near where we live and I started yelling at my children to get going.  "Teddy, Goo!" I shouted.  And then, of course, I had it.
'Teddy' is my first son (not his real name, but a nickname) and 'Goo' is the name that my first son has given my second son and which we've all ended up using (at times and normally when it's just us four).  
So, "Teddy & Goo" has been born.  

Cuckoo

Here is a felt picture I made a year or so ago for the daughter of a friend.  The clock is set to the time of her birth.  I found a photo on the internet of a cuckoo clock (Lark) and I thought it was so beautiful that I used it as the basis for my creation (which is felt sewn onto a canvas).  I am not sure who is behind Lark and their cuckoo clocks but they are inspirational works of art and I absolutely love them.  I get all my materials from paper-and-string (paper and string) where I find a lot more of my felt inspiration.  Sarah's was one of the first blogs I ever followed and her kits can now even be found in John Lewis.  I think my next project is going to be something for the boys however.  Look at this:

It just has to be done!

felt-superhero-art

Lemon Drizzle Bars

Alas, they are no more, poor things

On Friday afternoon, we made lemon bars from a very simple recipe.  I got it from Home Baking (80 recipes for delicious home-baked goodies) and I haven't baked anything from this book which hasn't tasted delicious.  Here is the recipe:

For 12 bars
2 eggs
175g/6oz caster sugar
150g/5 1/2 oz soft margarine
rind of 1 lemon (finely grated)
175g/6oz self-raising flour
125ml/4 fl oz milk

• oven to 180C/350F/GasMark 4 and grease & line an 18cm/7inch square cake tin
• eggs, sugar, margarine in a large bowl and beat well until smooth and fluffy
• stir in lemon rind, fold in flour lightly and evenly
• stir in milk
• spoon mixture into tin and smooth
• bake for 45 - 50 mins or until golden brown and firm to touch

For syrup

140g/5oz icing sugar

50ml/2 fl oz lemon juice

• place sugar and juice in small pan and heat gently, stirring until sugar dissolved (don't boil)
• prick the cake all over with a skewer and spoon hot syrup over the top
• leave to cool, then turn out of tin, cut into bars and dust with icing sugar

I used demerara sugar because I ran out of icing sugar.  I also used unsalted butter instead of margarine.  I let my one year old crack the eggs, turn on the mixer and lick the spoon, but don't worry:  He adhered to all appropriate safety procedures and his tongue is incredibly clean.

2014...

The plan this year is to do lots of small things that don't cost much but are a lot of fun and very lovely; here are a few that spring to mind. . .

• decorate so that lots of our walls are bright and white
• grow red poppies in the garden
• grow vegetables in the patch
• plant sweet peas
• go to Bruges
• learn how to felt
• build a den in the conifer
• and give O time to paint 

I think that's enough to be getting on with.

Painting by O, untitled 

A New Year

I have been wondering how to go about doing this blog for a long time.  I have decided that this is the year I am going to throw myself into it, capturing the snippets of everyday loveliness that all too often I ignore, wallowing as only I can, in a plethora of doom.  Wish me luck.  Everyday loveliness can often escape me, even though there's a lot of it about fluttering, often, right before my very eyes.  We'll give this thing a go and see where it gets us.  I'll stop admiring other people's blogs and try and create one myself.  

Magical Winter Lights at Anglesey Abbey
December 2013