The Fair has come to Town

It's that time of year again, Hull fair has arrived for the week, well arrived for last week, it's actually all packed up now. I've written on here about the fair before and it's rather interesting history and royal charter here.

We didn't go, but Imogen went a couple of times with her friends and Adam and Holly took the children.

Apparently little Zack was quite taken with the rides and didn't want to get off when the ride finished! He's grinning away in this photo, sitting next to big sister Izzy.

I've been doing a bit of sewing. I thought I'd have a go at making a simple bag for Zack to keep his stacking cups in, one of his favourite things is to put them in, take them out, put them, then out again... you get the drift. I bought the spiderman fabric in a pack of fat quarters in Hobbycraft.

I thought a drawstring bag was the way to go, but I didn't want to just sew 2 pieces of fabric together as I'm trying to learn more about sewing. I decided to make a drawstring bag with a squared bottom

I lined it too. Much easier than I imagined it to be and that means there'll be a few people getting little lined drawstring bags for Christmas!

Holds all of Zackary's cups and he loves undoing it and pulling it tight again. I tied all the cords together to keep them nice and short and not dangerous to little ones. He is never left on his own, but you can't be too careful.

My wonderful husband has brought me a cup of tea upstairs, so I can stay in bed and do some blog reading.

Take care
xxx

End of the Holidays

We're ready to start getting back to the normal routine. We have Zack tomorrow and Imogen starts 6th form college on Wednesday. It's been a wonderful summer, but I'm definitely ready for autumn to start creeping in and for a bit more routine (it completely flew out the window during the summer).

One of the days we had Zack and big sister Izzy (she's only 9), we took deep breaths and took them to a local soft play place. I have to admit, these are not my favourite places to go, I find the noise quite deafening and they always seem to feel a bit claustrophobic despite them often being in enormous rooms, but I was a good nanny and off we went (OK I did take my book with me too as Imogen was supervising Zack and Izzy). Zack loved the ball pool and climbing on and off Thomas here.

We stayed for a couple of hours (ok, may have been an hour and a half), then left as Zack was falling asleep on his feet. Izzy was very keen to do some crafting with me, she really is the most creative little girl and loves making things. We cut out some birds from some felt she chose and Izzy sewed a couple of the wings on. It's been put to the side for when she has some time here again and I think we're going to fill them with lavender for Izzy and her mum's wardrobes., but it's a secret so can only be done when mum's not around.

Have to show you these cute little photos of Zack.My son sent them to me as he was trying the dungarees on Zack, but they were unfortunately too small. They were Imogen's, they're reversible and the other side is covered in brightly coloured cats. Imogen wore them when she was over 2, she was always very tiny, but at just 12 months they don't fit Zack... he's a big boy! I love his face in the second picture!

I've also spent some time sewing and made a dress for my Luna Lapin.

The instructions were very good, I've never made anything like this before and had to reread it a few times and unpick the collar a couple of times before I got it right with the binding, but it added to the sense of achievement when I finished it.

Imogen's had a busy summer with her NCS (national citizen service), a week in the peak district, a week staying on a university campus and a week working hard to raise funds for the RSPCA. She also had her GCSE results and enrolled in college. As a reward for doing so well and because we felt we hadn't seen much of her we took Imogen to Meadowhall where she was treated to some new clothes, we had tea out and went to see a film (I couldn't remember the last time we went to the pictures). We had a lovely time, really enjoying each other's company.

Some good news for my parents too, my dad finally received a date for his heart operation. He had a few tests to go through and goes into hospital later this week for the surgery. So pleased it's going to be done (a new heart valve), but also very worried for them both.


Take care
xxx

Busy Bunnies

We celebrated our wedding anniversary this week. We don't really do anything special, I like to think all our days together are special, but this year it fell on a Thursday, which is a Zackary day.

I thought Zack would enjoy helping me do some tidying up. We went into the kitchen where I used my long handled dustpan and brush and I gave Zack the small one. I swept up and Zack marched up and down the kitchen loving his new responsibility.

After all the sweeping, Zack used Andy's new bucket to put all his toys in and out of. It really shows how there's no need to buy children all these fancy toys when he was in his element with a brush and a bucket?

I've been doing a spot of sewing over the weekend. I bought myself some lovely grey felt especially to use with this

Isn't she a cute little bunny. All the pattern pieces were full size (I really don't like it when things need enlarging or changing) so I just used some tracing paper to copy them and cut the pieces out of the felt with pretty fabric for the inner ears and soles of her feet.

I really enjoyed just sitting and stitching, all the seams are oversewn so they're visible, but I found it quite therapeutic.

 I think she's turned out really well. She has buttons for eyes and buttons at the tops of her arms so they can move up and down as she gets dressed and undressed. I thought she looked quite cute as she is so didn't sew a nose on her as I didn't want to spoil her.

The next step is to make some clothes for the little bunny and there's even a pattern to make a little armchair for her, but we'll have to see. The clothes need machine stitching, so they may take me a while.

Take care
xxx

The Fairies are Staying, Birthdays and Burglaries

 It's been a quiet week for us, Imogen was away for the week in the Peak District having fun with the NCS (national citizen service), which I heartily recommend for any teenagers who are 15 to 17. Adam and his family were also on holiday for the week near Great Yarmouth, so no babysitting duties for us either.

We had a lovely day out during the week, went for a drive to Scarborough. We visited the most enormous fabric shop, which left me feeling very spoilt and went for a lovely stroll to breath in all that good for you salty sea air. The views are amazing in both directions.

We passed this rather large gentleman on a bench looking out to sea.

Andy posing for scale

I tried to take a photo of the information next to him, but you have to enlarge it to read it. It tells you a little of who Freddie was, born in a mining village, went to war and how he went into Belsen concentration camp on his 21st birthday and saw horrors that we can't even imagine, how every year he cried on his birthday as he remembered those poor souls and grieved for their dreadful suffering.

It's also been a big week for our little grandson, not only on his first holiday, but he also celebrated his first birthday... gosh that went quickly! I embroidered a bib for him to wear while eating his birthday meals, but we saved his presents for when he came home so parents wouldn't have to take them all the way there and back in the already packed car.

Little Zack had no idea of course that it was his birthday, but had a wonderful day playing with mummy, daddy and his big sister and was exhausted by bed time.

Unfortunately on Friday morning before leaving to come home, my son had a phone call to say they'd been burgled during the night. We're so upset for them, they came home to the whole house being upside down from all the cupboards and drawers being emptied out. All their electrical goods were stolen, but the worse thing was Holly's jewellery. It's probably worthless as it's mainly costume jewellery, but it's priceless to Holly as it belonged to her beloved nana who sadly died last year. What an awful end to their lovely family break, but they're going to remember it as the holiday that Zack turned 1 rather than the holiday when they were burgled.

I've had time to spend in my craft room and made a little toadstool house for the fairies to come and stay in when they visit. After baking the clay, I glued it on a large stone from the beach. I did enjoy making it and definitely want to experiment and make more.

Also a little seahorse (I do love seahorses), just need to thread some of my gorgeous velvet blue ribbon through it so it can be worn as a pendant.

 I'm so glad the weather has cooled down a bit and we've even had some rain which we badly needed. It's been a funny summer, but a good one.


Take care
xxx

Birthday Lap Quilt and Slimmer of the Month

I've noticed there are a few of us out here in blogland following the Slimming World plan to lose weight and adapt to a healthier lifestyle. I thought I'd share with you my latest success as I joined Slimming World at the end of April and have been following the food plan since then

I go to a lovely group with really supportive people and I have to say a rather wonderful consultant who always fills me with inspiration each week. This was my third slimmer of the month award, I'm getting a wardrobe full of certificates!

Thank you for all the kind wishes for my parents. Mum's home from hospital and trying to take it easy while also caring for my Dad, if you ask them, they say they're 'muddling through', it's not easy, but they're coping.

On a lighter note, it's Dad's birthday today so I thought I'd show you the lap quilt I've made for him.

It's brushed cotton so lovely and soft. I bought the fabric in a pack from Hobbycraft and thought it would make a lovely lap quilt for my dad when it gets cooler. I sandwiched a layer of light wadding in it so it's not too heavy. It was posted at the beginning of the week so arrived in plenty of time for Dad's birthday today and he says he loves it. We also sent him the full box set of The Detectorists, a lovely gentle humoured series set in the English countryside that I know he'll enjoy.

Take care
xxx

Firsts and Lasts

It was Father's Day last Sunday and it was our sons first one! I bought some light air drying clay during the week and managed to get Zackary to press his hand into it (the hard part was to then distract him with something else as he thought it looked like fun and wanted to play with it). When it was dry I popped some backing paper behind it, Zack's name and into a shadow picture frame it went.  Adam was very happy with it and Holly made sure he had some other lovely things too.

We decided to all go to the coast and had a lovely walk along the front followed by fish and chips sat on benches looking over the water, so no cooking and no washing up to be done, so both fathers (Adam and Andy) had a lovely day. I managed to get a quick picture of Holly holding Zackary, no one else stayed still long enough to get any more pictures.

I've been spending some time playing with my sewing machine. I think I've got the hang of using the inbuilt alphabet, I do need more practice though to learn how to change the sizes of the font and position on the fabric.

I really enjoyed playing with it, found it quite exciting, so many possibilities.

As well as Adam having his first Father's Day, Imogen had her last day at school. Exams are finished and she is now officially on holiday until September when she goes to sixth form. I'm going to find the photo of Imogen's first day at school and put it next to this one taken on her last day, what an amazing young woman she's grown into, it's gone so crazily fast!

Still my baby girl though, falling fast asleep in the car on the way home from the seaside on Sunday after all that fresh sea air.

Just to finish off, here are a few photos I took this afternoon when we drove to the coast again. Zackary was so tired and past himself, but just wouldn't or couldn't get to sleep, so we put him in the car and went for a drive, he ended up sleeping for an hour and a half and was full of smiles when he woke up.

Take care
xxx