Twinkles and Sprinkles

:: After a couple of interesting days at work, it’s time to return to the rest of the weekend routine, so while MrGT is snoozing away on the sofa, I thought I would share some images of the last couple of days with you :: Firstly the ‘undressing’ of the Christmas Tree, from a local church, which was adorned with fabulously spangly things produced by the artists that I work with ::

:: And also the paper chains that criss cross the studio (just slightly) above everybody’s heads, made from the yearly accumulation of unfinished or unwanted work ::

:: And lastly the beautiful Christmas Cards that my eldest daughter has made to give out to her friends :: I am constantly amazed by her ability to create things : A little silly I know given my career path! But all the same : A four year old with sponge shapes, glitter and glue just before bedtime and after a long day could have spelled abject disaster ::

:: With a little direction, and a sprinkling of encouragement, she managed to maintain attention long enough to make sixteen of these little beauties, and then she dully fell asleep with glitter still in her hair  - ahhhhh ::

:: Having just talked the little girl up, I just found her bedraggled form on the stairs landing :: Utterly distraught! :: So there am I thinking stomach upset, virus, cold, nightmares and Lord knows what it turns out that she just needed the loo, and as a girl who is still yet to be dry at night, she was dumbfounded that something as trivial as needing a wee has roused her from her slumber! Incidentally not roused her that much as she fell off the toilet after falling asleep! :: Is this the face of things to come – can I finally kiss the bedtime weepants goodbye? Okay not kiss, but you know what I mean! ::

:: I will take her timely awakening as a cue to leave the world of blog behind, and make my own way up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire :: maybe I might get a few rounds of MrGT’s Christmas hat knitted… So goodnight all, sweet dreams, and make sure that you go to the loo before you fall asleep or you too might take a tumble off the porcelain *hee hee* :: xxxxx

mistletoe kisses anytime!

:: As previously mentioned time has been rather on the scarce side of late, so I have been erring on the side of short and sweet projects, and in my mind you can’t get shorter or sweeter than this ::

:: The pattern is taken from this delectable book, which I have mentioned before now ::

:: I’ve also been indulging in some flower making, and when enough have been made then, they will inevitably be backed onto some felt and turned into brooches for friends presents :: They are lovely as embellishments, but I always find that if I go to add them onto my work they are always snipped off as I just find it all a bit too much for my tastes :: but as objects in themselves they are just divine ::

I’ve finally embarked on the making of this years Christmas Cards, and if any of them are ever to make their way across the other side of the globe, I had better buck my ideas up and get them finished…there’ll be more on that glittery festive little beauty later….I’ll share them with you when I’m good and ready thANKyou! The sheer simplicity of our cards this year almost makes me want to laugh out loud, and for those of you who know me – they’re not Christmas Trees or Stars either, which are two festive motifs that I have gotten rather a reputation for – hee hee ::

: The Tallest has arrived home from Nursery with a list of names, and the decision has been made that if she wants to send them she can make them in true Growing Things tradition, she’s got an eye for creating things, but when something is as repetitive as making cards can be we are after something that is simple but effective and can be done in a jiffy so that she doesn’t get bored :: Time for the potato printing to be outed me thinks! :: A weekend project for her so that she can give them out at the beginning of her last week of the term ::

:: It’s been a beautiful day today, the air has been crisp and dry, the sun low and dazzling, and in amongst all those things that have been troubling our little family of late today saw my much lax of late thankfulness of all the beauty around me return :: The winter sun has managed to rejuvenate and restore my enjoyment of my (formerly!) simple life and all the incidental things that make it my own ::

:: So on that strangely philosophical note, adieu, see you anon, and here’s hoping that the next two days (*work*) are as interesting and inspiring as the last two have been ::

GT xxxxx

Whites, Coloured and Pinks?

I had to laugh the other morning when looking up at the Sheilamaid and seeing this…

we have discovered another category for laundry in our household…Pinks…we have never intentionally gone out to put our girls into pink, but it just seems to creep up on you. The Tallest will always pick it out by default and I don’t think it’ll be long before the Smallest has something to say about what she wears each day!

It brightened my day, which was spent mainly not in their company, away at work, so whenever I had a moment to reflect I thought about my pink experience this morning and the two lovely little beings that made it all possible…mmmmm…xxxxx

A Month has Passed

The reason that I haven’t been posting…again. Is that my computer went kapoot. Then the laptop that Dad lent me went kapoot, so that was that. Apart from travelling 10miles to Mum and Dads just to use their computer, or booking a session at my local library (try that with two children in tow!) So I have been offline for a little over four weeks.

I’ve not sat idle in that time, and have been busy out and about in the van, to festivals with the family. The allotment has been taken in hand, and I think that I am just about on top of it again.

I have been making plenty of presents and cards for friends and family, and the Tallest has been joining in in that respect too. Thinking about the things that I made, I really should take some pictures so that I can post them up here. Although that would be a little difficult as a couple of the things has found their way over to America into the arms of my Sister who just celebrated her birthday recently.

So I’ve a small list of things to do in regards to the blog but now that I have a fully functioning computer thanks to my Brother in law (how did he manage that all the way over in Florida?!) and my Dad I have no excuses for getting myself organised.

Watch this space.

All work and no play makes MrGT a dull boy…

He got up with good intentions as always this morning, but as I got the Girls up and ready this morning, about to embark on our fortnightly sojourn to a ‘larger’ shop than our local co-op to stock up on fruit juice and toilet roll, I found him sitting on a stone contemplating his navel over a cup of tea.

‘I’m not happy about that last slab…maybe I should wait until Mr Next Door gets back from his weekend away, I wouldn’t want to ruin it just because I rushed to get it finished’

The sun warm on his back, and his eyes heavy from the past four days worth of 10+ hours in the garden, it didn’t take much persuading to convince him that what this family needed was an afternoon out.

So, we treated ourselves to chips from our local shop (who fry separately so their chips are GF) amd sat on the village green to eat them.

Went to our favourite dog walking beach and played in the sand until the Smallest got tired and couldn’t settle herself for a nap. Had an ice crean.

And even stopped off by the river (Oh the beauty of living betwixt the sea and the broads) to allow MrGT a well deserved couple of pints.

Both the girls were pooped, so they took no persuading to go to bed and a very relaxing evening has ensued, I have all my domestic chores to do and they won’t be done till the morning now. Normally this would niggle me and I would get up and do them but in the spirit of the day I’m having a day off too. It’ll keep…

Nothing like a bit of sun to keep the work at bay.

Err…I’ve changed my mind…can I have my garden back please?

The mini digger has gone now, but the distruction caused is still widely evident. I don’t have a picture of the pad for the conservatory that Hubby and Mr Next-Door did the day before yesterday, but needless to say that it is the possibly the only part of the garden (now) safe to walk on!

Its taken shape surprisingly quickly, but I think that has more to do with the fact that Hubby has been putting in 12+ hour days, he’s determined that before he starts work again next week that the girls will have at least part of the garden secure and safe to play in.

We are very limited for space, so our first priority is to make a good play space for the children, second somewhere for Hubby to work on his many and varied projects and thirdly the plantlife.

I guess that if I was to be honest I would have liked the coldframes and greenhouses to be second on the list, but as we have the allotment they do already have an outdoor space dedicated to them.

Its been great to get shot of ‘Steptoe’ corner, we all have them, ours was behind the (no longer existing) coal bunker, buckets, cans, trolley wheels, various lengths and grades of steel…you get the picture! It was the one part of the garden not easily seen through the kitchen windows, and therefore the one place that the Girls will naturally migrate to, it’ll be great to not have to shoot out of the house everytime one of them is out of sight.

Of course as Hubby would be quick to point out these are all worthwhile and useful things that are just waiting to fufill their pre-ordained destiny and finally take form in the useful manner that was always waiting for them! But they’ll just have to wait to have their moment somewhere else thats all!

Slow on the uptake

Once again I realise that I have slipped up withthe regular postings I had no idea that it was a good two weeks since I posted anything.

It can’t be that I haven’t done anything for two weeks, but there you go we all tend to neglect things every once in a while, maybe people thought that I had given up posting for lent?! But no, I have just been rather tardy in that department.

Checking the camera for pictures, it seems that I stopped posting just after i had a mole removed off my back, I have recorded it for prosperity! But I don’t think that people need to see the stitches that I got.

Things have been a little chaotic here of late, the Tallest spend all of last weekend with her grandparents, so that I could swop the bedroom round, after I finally came to the realisation that the Smallest was waking every time I came to bed, to try and feed, after one night in another room she slept the whole night a solid 12 hours for the first time in her little life.

The Smallest has also been unwell with a chest infection, which has caused excess mucus and her to vomit anything that  she ate or drank, but we seem to have turned a corner last night although she woke every couple of hours (probably very hungry) she managed to keep the last two breast feeds and a drink of water down, and is still sleeping at the moment, so hopefully this will be the turning point.

Hubby has been out busy with cars, and has given us a family car which was destined for the scrap yard! After a weekend of welding and repairs it passed its MOT last week. I sometimes wonder if Hubby isn’t single handedly responsible for saving all the ‘knackered’ cars in our area, he seems to return home with a new one every month, to be ’saved’ and turned out into pastures new for a friend or a friend of a friend!

So things have certainly not been slow, I have just neglected time to sit down and post.

There will be things to record soon as it is seed setting time, and the potatoes are chitting nicely, and the onion sets are ready to go in as we have had a good succession of dry days and the ground should be a bit less muddy that it has been in recent weeks.

Also our small back garden needs some serious sorting out and and area dedicated to play reorganised as the Tallest has outstriped the playspace she had, so some rethinking needs doing, involving laying some turf as pea shingle isn’t that nice for her to play one and I should expect that by this summer the Smallest will be on the move too.

So all in all not a case of nothing doing just a case of doing nothing on the posting front. I think I need to put a reminder in my diary!

Safe and Sound

Just a quick note to say ‘Hi” to my sister and her family who have arrived safe and well at her MIL’s in Pennsylvania. Hope the journey wasn’t too stressful and you are enjoying the snow!  Thinking of you starting out on your big adventure. love your Big Little Sis xxx

…and another!

Oh the fun just never ends does it!?

Hubby scalded himself with the steam that was supposed to be helping the Tallest with her croup. Scalding three of his fingers from tip to knuckle, we did all the appropriate things, running it under cold water etc. but Hubby had no idea how incredibly painful this could be and it was only a relatively minor first degree burn. After giving him some painkillers and making my way to bed leaving him with his hand in a jug of cool water, it was midnight before it felt comfortable enough for him to relax and come to bed. (he did it at around 7pm)

Accidents happen, but after this last episode I think that we both have a new found respect for what boiling water can do. In a way we are lucky that the Tallest actually witnessed this, and it has served to re-enforce the no touching rule for the woodstove.

Its good that there are some positives from rather unfortunate events.

One thing after another…

Croup,

We’ve had viral gastroenteritis, coughs and colds and now just to top it off, the Tallest started up with Croup, we’d all had a very long day taking my sister and her family to the airport to wave her off on Saturday, as she has emmigrated to the US, and we got home thinking that an early night would be in order to set things straight.

Oh no. From about 9pm she started coughing, and it got progressively worse, and by about 2am she had that classic barking cough with rasping breathing between, and was understandbly getting a bit distressed. I rang NHS direct, who have always come up trumps before, and was informed that an ambulance was being sent for her, to cut a longer story shorter. She climbed into the anbulance with hubby at about 3am.

Once at the hospital she was given some steroids and monitored – her heartbeat was a bit high (understandably) and she had a slight fever, but once they kept an eye on her for a little while, I had a phonecall to collect them a little after 5am.

She never went back to sleep after her trip to hospital, and all attempts to get her to settle were met with great resistance, it took a walk on the beach to see the diggers (they are dredging the shipping channel near us) and digging plenty of holes. A trip to the recycling centre, and lunch before she finally gave in and fell asleep at 2pm, she’d been awake for more than 12 hours – I have no idea were she managed to find the energy.

During the day her cough is not croupy and dry, and she is generally quite perky, but last night she started up again, but armed with some good advice I was able to stop an attack before it even fully woke her up, and between us we got a broken but better nights sleep.

She’s pretty tired when she gets up, and is having a lay down on the seatee this morning, last night was better than the one before, and hopefully tonight will be better again. But my goodness, no one prepares you for the almighty noise that comes out of your child!

Posts may not be as regular as they could for a while as an unwell child doesn’t take to Mum dissapearing onto the computer during the day, and I’m currenly not getting much of a chance during the evening either! I’ll get something on her though I’m sure.