A Little Project.

I am in between ideas at the moment so I thought a small scarf of granny squares would help keep the joy in my heart. Once again, Lucy of Attic24 came to the rescue with one of her amazing patterns - she has something for every weather.
We visited one of Hugo's friends this morning and took along his Princess and the Pea set. Hugo decided he didn't want to make the prince so I had a go instead, using a photo of one of our best friends Tim. Tim is a prince in real life too and Hugo was thrilled with it thank goodness.

So this morning was spent in a sunny corner of a friend's house while she painted, I crocheted and the kids played. I could have stayed there forever.

However, I have lots of jobs calling me including putting elastic into freshly made shorts, making dinner and clearing out a huge amount of junk from a room in order to prepare for some renovations. I had better go and have a look for Hugo as he has escaped into the garden with the ipod...

Saturday Morning.

Here are some glimpses of the morning:

Hugo performing some much needed surgery on my arm.

My niece's stripy tights.
A present wrapped up for Archie to take to a party.

The present prior to wrapping. Apparently Archie and his friend are mad on bluetack at the moment so he thought some red plasticine would come in handy (????).

I am breathing in the silence that has fallen on the house after a busy morning. Archie is now at the birthday party and Hugo is having his weekend nap. A cup of tea is brewing and my hot water bottle is waiting to be filled. On the table rests a new pile of books from the library and there is a cat on my bed purring. I could go on but I am sure by now you have guessed my plans. Have a good weekend, xxooxxooxx.

Cakes and Vests.

I would be putting in more words today but I have come down with a cold and am going to quietly slink off to bed instead. For the moment I will let the photos speak for themselves. XXOOXXOOXX.

My Creative Space.

Today my creative space is anywhere I can find a splash of colour and a bit of inspiration. Yesterday I had new (and mightier) lenses put into my glasses and since then I am astounded by the crisp lines that surround everyone and the depth of colour of EVERYTHING. I feel like I am on some sort of chemical high. Last night I was looking at a jar filled with buttons on the kitchen table. This jar has been sitting there for a week and I was astounded by it. The glass had a texture to it I had never noticed and the lustre of the buttons made me feel as though I was looking at a dutch masterpiece.

Aside from that it is all sewing for me at the moment, the sewing of costumes and of presents. I have a little Cath Kidston cowboy mug to pop into the stuff-collecting-bag made for one of Archie's friends and pictured in the top photo. I love that car fabric soooooo much it was a little hard to cut into.

For more creative spaces hop over to Kirsty's.

Grilled Mouse on Toast.

Our friends recently caught a mouse (by accident) in their toaster. Kim put his bread in the toaster and Delphine heard a 'Squeak, squeak'. When Kim popped up his toast a little (and slightly crispy) mouse came up with it.

Hugo has been obsessed by this story and has been telling it to anyone who has been to our house over the past two days. He has been at home with a cold and so has missed out on a couple of days of pre-school. This morning, so excited about telling his friends at pre-school, we decided to make a toaster and bread from cardboard and I crocheted a mouse for him - why is it so much easier to make a last-minute crochet mouse at night than get school lunches and packed?

Off to pick him up soon and I can't wait to find out how his story telling went.

p.s. can you tell how much I am relishing in my boys' ability to stand up and talk before their class??? It certainly wasn't my favourite thing.

Good stuff for boys... and girls.

Such a firm favourite.
Archie's leather pouch and Hugo' little blue lamb.

Soon to be a ninja butterfly.

Fabric soup.

A boy with a teeny, tiny cold.

Over the weekend I have been thinking a lot about crafts for boys and the expectations we have of what they should be and what they will like.

Certainly, my boys think in ways that are so different to me that everyday I am taken by surprise. For instance, on Friday I was looking at a photo of stink beetles with Archie. He told me they had them at school in the bushes. I asked him if he said "Uggh" whenever he spotted them. He looked at me as though I was crazy and said, "No! I rub my hands all over them to get their good smell". Mmhmm.

On Saturday, Hugo was snuggling with Archie and sucking his (own) fingers. Archie informed Hugo that if he kept doing that his teeth would end up sticking straight out and possibly curl around and up his nose. I thought possibly this might be a quite a confronting statement but Hugo, with delight crowed "Really?". Once again, mmhmmmmm.
So yes, they think along very different lines to me and enjoy examining the innards of things I would usually look away from both literally and metaphorically, but still and to my relief... we have a shared aesthetic that I am so grateful for.
Archie loves having a Cath Kidston floral doona (duvet) cover which he says is like sleeping under a garden - and he likes gardening. Hugo, a very testosterone fuelled boy loves fairy tales and princesses and they both think that pink is a good colour... they just wouldn't wear it around friends.

So with our combined interests, my level of creativity gets a boost with ideas like ninja butterflies and circus themes and Noddy and dinosaurs and crocheted rabbits with their entrails exposed ( I haven't done this yet) and skeletons and flowers and beetles and all sorts of other things that I never would have considered without them.

Wings and Cloaks.

I have been thinking a lot about wings and cloaks. They are very good things I have decided and will be spending more time pondering them. Anyway, off for a Saturday bath. xxooxxooxx.

Princess and the Pea.

I don't know if you have noticed from my blog but I have two boys. Who I adore. And who I wouldn't change for the entire world. Except that we always seem to do more boy oriented craft projects.... which is fine.

However, when Hugo became obsessed with 'The Princess and the Pea' (the Lauren Child version), I knew that I had to harness the energy and make something beautiful with him. Five mattresses down, Hugo informed me that I had to make 24 so we are not quite as far along in the project as I thought we were. Still, I am pretty happy to be in the middle of a Princess and the Pea craft-a-thon.

Have a good weekend!!!

A new Crafting Book.

This is my absolute and utter favourite sort of thing to find in the mailbox.
Especially when it contains something like this...

With projects like that.

It is so much fun involving the kids on craft projects now - before it always seemed a little bit like work... my expectations have changed a lot along the way and now I find it much easier just going with their flow rather than my guidelines - I know this comes naturally to most people but it took me a little while to get used to it.

And as for me right now, I am going to have a little nap (I only manage to sneak a couple in per week now which is pretty sad for a dedicated napper) and then make some angel wings out of liberty for the rabbity creature above.

On a Monday.

This morning we have been busy with school runs, swimming lessons, reclaiming old pin cushions, pressing the previous evening's knitting efforts and generally tidying up. Fortunately Hugo decided to pitch in and announced he would like to clean the windows. He immediately had a bucket of hot, soapy water and a window washer in his hands and then he happily spent a good half an hour scrubbing the freshly painted swirls that the dogs leave behind with their shaggy coats. I came along after and scraped the water off. I like that...

More sewing to do for Archie's school play but it is all progressing thank goodness. I will give you a peek later on in the week.

Don't Try this at Home.

Archie and Hugo play so well together that I really can just sit on a comfy chair and tune out...

Don't worry too much, Jonno was compelled to do a mock up when he was teaching some archery to the boys.

My Creative Space...

My creative space comes once again in lots of little moments; Buttons in a box.
A spider hanging it's web on the line to dry.
A tree knitting it's own web!!!

Labels reminding me to make stuff to then attach them to.

And Archie doing some fine garden planning. Note the gate to the side and bulbs planted in the corners.
I hope this week your house is teeming with creative spaces too.

For more, hop over to Kirsty's.