Today at Home.

Today was a day of many projects. Sewing cushion inserts.

Occasionally admiring the light whenever it chose to peep through clouds.

Beginning to sort through Hugo's room.

Not this bit though, I like how these are the things he keeps next to his bed.

Loving these roses.

Planning a teeny-tiny cross stitch.

Making a cake

( I will post the recipe tomorrow - it is the best gluten-free chocolate cake ever).

And spending some time with Bert.

Today was a very good day.

Days like this should happen more.

And the best thing is, I decided to have a good day and voila, it happened.

Lots of love, Kate xxooxxooxx.

Shoe Shopping with Boys...

There are very few moments, if ever, when a mother can wear the same shoes as her sons and not have to book them in for counselling afterwards (I guess the exception to this rule would be sporting shoes but that's not a huge possibility in this family). There are also very few times noted our family history where we have actually enjoyed a shoe shopping trip. Usually they are just as you would imagine - bursting bladders, dehydration, tantrums... and the boys aren't much better.

But today, oh today was so different. We ventured out into the countryside to visit a friend who has started up a business called Artisan Shoes. I have to point out that this shoe rave is completely off the cuff and no sly envelopes were slipped into my bag on the way out.

So, with a car full of Stef the Bride (who by the way, should perhaps realise the wedding is over and start wearing normal clothes - her gown is becoming a little tattered.) and our collective menagerie, we wove our way up to Catherine's house and began to paw through all of her shoes.

I broke down and bought myself a matching pair to the boys because they were so beautiful and comfortable and they spoke so sweetly. But with all the colours, it was like being in a lolly shop. I almost hit the weepy stage because I didn't know which ones to adopt.

I took some flowers wrapped in string to make up for the over-excitement.
And stuck a straw in to make it just right.
By the way, here is a little picture of my current hot weather project. Archie's jumper has really slowed down, I almost pass out from heat exhaustion just looking at it.

One last glance at the shoes... Navy blue for Archie because he is a big person now, red for Hugo because I still get to choose for him and purple for me because it is the only colour I don't have in my wardrobe.

Clean, fresh and new leather shoes.

Lots of love, Kate xxooxx.

Notes on a Chair Bag (and a little bit of embroidery).

First of all, a quick peek at my next piece of tapestry.

A nice 'light' summer project - Archie's jumper has been abandoned for a little while. It is very thick with a 3x3 rib and takes up a lot of space on my knee (almost eight year olds require a lot more knitted area!!!) and makes me feel very hot and bothered.

Now, many of you were wondering what a chair bag is. Well, here we go - they go over the children's chair at school and they keep all of their books and pens and secret things in there. Archie is very excited because this year he is graduating on to a proper desk where he gets to keep all of his stuff inside it. Sadly, when this happens the classroom loses something as it's so lovely to walk into a room and see all of the chairs covered with their colourful and highly unique bags.

This is the pattern sent home from school and I am sure they wouldn't mind if I posted the dimensions. It's kind of like sewing a back to front pillowcase where the right side of the overlap is sewn against the right side of the largest piece of fabric (a.) and the right side of the pocket is sewn against the wrong side of piece a. and then it is all turned inside out. Hmmm, maybe I should take photos for a proper tutorial but if any of you are desperate for your own chair bag, hopefully this will get you started. Whenever I make one (that's only been twice), I always think I should make a set for the table as they are so handy for magazines, cook books, pens and paper. Maybe some oil cloth ones would be good....
Yes, oilcloth would be good - Hugo was so happy about his chair bag it kept him company as he ate dinner and after the odd stroke, left saucy fingerprints and drippings of yoghurt on it. Uh oh - I am supposed to be having a cooking and picnic today but I can hear my sewing machine purring...
Lots of love,
Kate xxooxx.

Hugo's Chair Bag.

With Hugo beginning school in a week and a half, I decided that it was finally time to sew him his required chair bag. It seems like such a rite of passage and surely it was only yesterday that Archie's one was finished - how can I be sewing my baby's chair bag????

Archie gently reminded me that Hugo's name had to be on it so I pilfered some melty counted cross stitch grid stuff from my new Cath Kidston book 'Stitch' (her best so far) and found some embroidery floss.

The melty-grid stuff is fantastic, I've never used it before but it is very, very easy. When you have finished your work, you simply snip around it and then soak it in water. Voila! The font pattern comes from 'Made in France: Linen and Thread' by Monique Lyonnet.

I had to share with you my sweet pea posy I picked for a friend today. Another use for washi tape - wahooooo!!! My new tapestry that I am currently working on is peeping from behind... I gave it a little premature fashion parade in the frame to see how it would fit. All very exciting.

I love washi tape.

Lots of love,

Kate xxooxx.

Fat Stanley and the Tapestry.

After completing the tapestry last night, I decided to have a play around with a simple pattern for a little bunny knitted in once piece and using scraps of wool. And so, Fat Stanley was born. He is sort of the post Christmas and New Years Stanley, chubbier and perhaps slightly more happy.

I don't have time over the next few days to turn the tapestry squares into anything so it has been temporarily put into an Ikea frame... however, you know how these things work. It will probably be up on the wall for quite some time now.

In this photo the navy blue appears to be black but really it is a beautiful dusty colour.

Stanley before the end/beginning of year celebrations and after. In fact, if I am honest, it is a reflection of how I am feeling. I don't know if I told you the results of my Weight Watcher's jaunt but I ended up losing 13kgs!!! The last few months have seen me cope just with maintaining it but after Christmas/New Years/Wedding I am feeling pretty sluggish again and have to now face being sensible. The problem with teaching your body how to be healthy is that it rebels when you go through a not so great stage. So yes, back to listening to my stomach again.

Teeheeheeheee.

There he lies bloated and happy, dreaming of being able to roll on his side.
Lots of love,

Kate xxooxxooxx.

Fresh Crafts.

I haven't played with tapestry since I was a little girl. I still remember the first time I was introduced to it at the age of eight and we had to make a bookmark for Art and Craft using simple blocks of colour and stripes. As so many of you out there would have experienced as well, I was filled with the absolute awe and excitement that I had 'created' a piece of fabric. And added to that, one of the best moments in my entire school career happened (the following nine years never did top it). Miss Ed took me with my book mark hot in her hand around the school secretaries and then on to the school staffroom to show them my work. Can you imagine!!!

After a while I discovered cross stitch and then fancy work and so tapestry was forgotten for many years...

That is until Mum gave me Cath Kidston's new book 'Stitch' and it all came flooding back. I wasn't quite game to jump into a big project so I thought I would start small using squares of my favourite wools. Now of course I am realising that it is one fantastic way of using up leftovers as a little length stretches a lot further in tapestry than it does in knitting. And also, 8 ply wool is fine to use. Wahoo!!!

A little aside - Hugo is very chuffed as I bought him a brand new jumper in the post-Christmas sales. I think it might be his first non-hand-me-down jumper ever. And he can fit Ted-Ted in with him.

Tapestry is portable - here it is pictured at the beach. It had a lot of fun.

So too did the boys.

But probably not so much the crabs. You can just make them out as they cower in the mudflats, quaking with terror as their homes shake under the boys' thundering footsteps and searching little fingers.

Lots of love,

Kate xxooxxooxx.

Climbing the Walls... and trying to get back down again.

This afternoon I hit the wall... and then I started climbing it. Light is certainly starting to twinkle at the end of the tunnel but how long can four people be cooped up in a house with wet, windy weather and itchy crankiness. In all fairness to the boys, they are looking much better. I have just lost the plot though. EEEEEKKKKK.

As a result I grabbed the hammer... and decided today was the day to start hanging pictures up in the new room. I gingerly knocked against the wall with my knuckles to locate where any beams or noggins or whatever were and Hugo came into the room. He was obviously expected to make a report back to Archie so he shouted "It's just Mum punching the walls".

After the pictures were hung I was suddenly overwhelmed, filled with sickening compulsion (you know how it feels when you have done anything 'creative' in a while) and made the linen flower picture above. When it was done I felt good - very good.

Aside from that I have a new little friend above, Michael Mouse. He is also pretty nonchalant but doesn't realise that he is only a prototype at this stage... don't get too cocky young mouseman.

Time to tear the boys away from t.v. for dinner - hopefully the gory docco will give them a good appetite.

Love Kate xxooxxooxx.

Deer and Flowers

I just found this photo of a deer I printed on fabric and then embroidered around with blue flowers. It's so good to go back through the archives for fresh inspiration. My fingers still have a little bit of healing to do before I can get my embroidery needles out but I am beginning to form a few ideas in my dreaming space.