Winter's here

Thanks to Domesticali and her rave reviews of Bend the Rules Sewing, I bought the book. How glad I am. Not only does it have fantastic inspiration for simple bags that i can adapt but it also has inventive ideas for quick and easy things to sew with a difference such as a pixie hat for children. Having a little pixie of my own called Martha I decided to make one. I am so SO pleased with the results and have had lots of comments around the village from other mums. Mainly because i keep going "look at her hat I made that". For some reason I am more excited about this then i am with bags. It was a tad fiddly around the pointy bit but basically very easy to make. I have already thought of ways to adapt the pattern to make a few more funky designs. Babies can carry off anything in a hat and my poor daughter will be wearing them all.

I now really really need to tidy up my sewing room as I cannot see the carpet (this is no joke) so that i can make the puppet theatre for Oliver's friend.

And a bag is finished

In between clearing up vomit, washing endless loads of laundry, shouting abut the state of the house which i had spotless only 5 days ago, I have made this. It is another basket bag, but they do seem really popular. Both the handles, fabric and metal bits and bobs come from u-handbag. I really like this even though i am not a big lover of the colour pink. Being a red head means that pink is not worn too often.

Anyway just recently at my cousin Danielle's wedding, which was absolutely fantastic by the way.

I managed to pinch this lovely fabric (see picture below) It had been used to dress up Martha's high chair for the wedding breakfast. As the latter part of the year is upon us, and posh parties are looming, not for me obviously but other people that have a life outside nappies, i thought it would make a lovely flower pin for an evening bag. An idea mainly pinched from Lisa at yes you've guessed it U-handbag Click here and you will see her latest bag for the Sewing World December issue. I am a big fan of this magazine but my ignorant husband describes it as the kind of magazine that is featured on "have i got news for you".

On another note. Oliver who is 4 1/2 has started to ask questions about God. They say Grace at his school - the village school being linked to the C of E church St Georges. I have no faith unless you can include worshipping glasses of white wine and gin and tonic. However i appreciate it is something that needs explaining to him so that he can make up his own mind in years to come. My friend has taken her daughter to church this morning as her daughter who is very bright has been asking questions for sometime now.

I really do not want to do this for the purely selfish reason that i do not want to go to church. This may seem hypocritical when you learn that i got married in church and Oliver has in fact been christened. Although when does the subject of religion veer that far from hypocrisy.?? All during my Philosophy degree the subject of religion and the existence of God has always been one that i have stayed away from as I could never reach any conclusion. I still can't. My husband does believe however and it is for this reason our marriage was held in a church and for this reason we got Oliver christened. As for Oliver saying Grace before his lunch at school this is not something that bothers me as if we remove GOd from the equation, all children in affluent parts of the world should be taught to say thank you for food before they eat it. we live in a part of the world that has so many riches when large chunks have so little. I want my children to grow up saying thank you for the little things and remembering how lucky they are for the choices they are given.

My sister-in law has suggested getting a big book on all the world religions and explaining them to him in simple terms so that he doesn't get his horizons narrowed by just learning about one religion i.e Christianity. A concept i whole heartedly agree with. But how to do it without confusing the poor thing i do not know. Has anybody else faced this crossroads before and found themselves in a similar situation??

Is there anything worse than vomit

First day at school

The schools are back. The weather has changed. The germs are flying freely and seem to be stopping on my children on their way around the area. Is there anything worse than clearing up vomit. The conversation has changed in the playground to who has been sick last night. Once upon a time i used to have a brain, i even managed to get a Philosophy degree and yet now i find what intellectual capabilities i have left discussing the minutia of regurgitated food. So my creative rut has been replaced by a vomit induced void.

Bag attack again

It seems like a lifetime since i have made anything pretty with my sewing machine. Creatively i have been through a very dry period. Nothing to say on my blog, not sewing, still managing to read but only because the book club is forcing me to. So i have decided to get myself out of this pit of inactivity as i have birthday presents to make plus stock to get together for a handbag party and a craft fair, both planned before Christmas.

Maybe it is the calm of having Oliver at school that has caused my creative lull or the fact that i have worked so hard recently that once i stopped i could not get going again. Or it could be that i have become addicted in quite a serious way to Facebook. I am constantly playing scrabulous on it. For those of you who don't know it is online scrabble. So, I come into the spare room, to look through fabric or to write my blog and then i spend my time looking at facebook, looking for the next word. Consequently I am finding it hard to say anything constructive which does not involve trying to get three letter word scores. Maybe i need help.

I have been reading other peoples blogs of course and one that i really enjoy is Lucy Lockets. It is so much fun to read and even has music playing on it. How cool is that.

So, my next three projects are two bags made out of the following two fabrics which are just yummy

No idea why the pictures are different sizes

and a making a puppet theatre for Oliver's friends birthday. Hopefully it will go as well as Alis

Neglect

It seems like an eternity since i have written in my blog. I had the best intentions of selecting 5 blogs for blog07. But you know i just didn't. Life just sort of took over. Oliver starts full time school tomorrow so i have been busy getting things ready. PE bags have been made and they are fantastic although camera has gone missing since the banquet last week at the sow and pigs so no photos yet.

Taking Oliver to school. It is a big thing. He is ready. He needs it. It is the correct order of things. But, he is my baby. From now on he will be forever moving further and further away from me with his attainment of knowledge. I will miss him. Somehow I have managed to produce a really lovely boy whose company i really enjoy and I will miss him. But i am also excited. Excited that he will be learning to read and write and will be able to write down the fantastic stories he conjures up with his imagination. Excited that when Martha sleeps i can have a break to sew, tidy, read and even complete the book clubs book. Julian Barnes Arthur and George is the one we have just discussed and it is a phenomenal read. It goes into my top 20. But with school he takes one step further into the age of independence. I am also left with Martha who will be bereft without her brother. Entertainment will need to be found. I have lots of projects on the go and in my mind so baggy photos to follow really soon once i find my camera - i was drunk the last time i used it.

On another note at book club we discussed briefly things that we dislike - we were talking in relation to children and mine were considered strange

1. I hate children being called kids. A kid is a baby goat. I did not give birth to goats.
2. I do not like small children wearing black shoes
3. I have a hatred of trainers in small children
4. I do not like small children being dressed up in wedding suits etc. They are young and should not be made to look like adults

Am I on my own with these weird and wonderful obsessions?

Wish me luck tomorrow. Is anybody else facing the same dilemma??