A Full Day's Work for a Toddler's Birthday, Quilt and Bed

Well, I did not achieve nearly as much as I had planned. Mainly because making the toddler's birthday present has taken me all day. it took me all afternoon just to peel the paper off the crayons; there was enough of it to fill my bin:




 Peeling crayons? So not fun. Plus, it's left me with sore fingertips from digging my nails underneath paper.











And that's not to mention the amount of time I spent sorting and organising the crayons according to colour and shade. The colour they look like on the outside is not the colour they colour in necessarily. Which means every colour had to be checked on paper.









Then they all had to be chopped up into tiny pieces. At first I tried using a sharpener, thinking that I would get a quicker melt that way and was therefore being smart. Turns out not, as the crayons kept gumming up my sharpener, and the shavings melted down into miniscule amounts. So I chopped the crayons after the tester one failed. The paper towel helped stop the shards of crayon from escaping.





See how awesome that looks?! I got about 13 tubs like this, all with different colours and shades in. Each got tipped into a heart-shaped silicone cupcake mold and stuck in the oven at 130 degrees c for about 20 minutes. Then they got pulled out, a skewer prodded around in each to ensure full melting and left to cool. They take about 45 minutes to an hour to cool and solidify enough to pop them out of the molds.

 And voila! Cute heart-shaped crayons, big enough for any toddler to hold, and impervious to the destruction that felt tips or narrow crayons suffer! And therefore totally worth the day's work they took, and my fingernails and so on. All effort completely worth it, as far as I'm concerned!

 The marbling is less obvious in these photos as it is in real life. I will put up a picture or two tomorrow with them all on, since a lot of them are still cooling.

Aside from that, I found the photos I'm going to use in my quilt blocks. I did not modify my top, or do any knitting, or get out for a walk. But I got the most urgent job done. the toddler can now happily turn 3 next Sunday with no worries on my part about finishing her present! And with that, I'm going to bed!

Love love xx

Creme Caramel, Reading, Birthdays and Tank Engines, Plans for Tomorrow Include a Walk - I hope

I made crème caramel today at the grandparents. Wanna see? I made five of them, but brought three home:

 See how delightful they are?!

And up close... so pale, if a little wrinkly!

And when you break in, there's all that deliciously perfect caramel goodness. Yes, they tasted amazing! I've never made it before, but the recipe was pretty simple and worked very easily. there was some fun in pouring the caramel into the ramekins, as it cooled a lot and so started to solidify;; which meant that I ended up with some spun sugar strands as well between the scraper and ramekin! They tasted pretty awesome.



I also find time to read a lot more of Atonement. I'm actually rather enjoying it, despite the negative story plot. The writing style is simple and very human. I haven't seen the film at all yet, but maybe once I've finished the book I'll buy it from the store or something. It is pretty cheap by now, after all.

I started making the birthday present for my toddler this afternoon. I'm planning to melt down lots of crayons I have no use for into new bigger, heart-shaped, easy to hold crayons for this little girl who dries and squashes pen nibs and gets easily covered in the crayon wax from her messy, liquid-y wind-up crayons. Hopefully these new crayons which are a rather solid wax and high-quality and easier to hold will be better for her new interest in drawing. So far I've just peeled the paper off a few. So tomorrow I'll be chopping them up and then melting them in the mold. I just have to remember to make sure there's a 'Thomas the Tank Engine blue' in there for her!

Aside from that, I want to adjust a top to fit me; and sort out the last blocks for the quilt I've been making since forever! I want there to be photos on the last five blocks, so I need to decide what patterns I'm doing, and therefore where I can have photos; and then I need to choose the actual photos. It's going to be tough - there are so many I could include...! And I want to fit a walk in as well... I'm never going to manage to do everything, am I? Ah well, I can aspire to do it all! Wish me luck!

Love love xx

Evening with friends, Grandparents and Creme Caramel, QATWII, Supper and Knitting

So something really weird happened to me yesterday. I went round to the wife's to spend the evening with her, the boyfriend and a bunch of our friends - you know, chinese takeout, DVD, much laughter etc. And we ordered our chinese, drove up the road to collect it, paid for it and headed back. As everything got handed out, the wife's bf realised he should have ordered some sweet-and-sour sauce to go with his meal. So the wife and I headed back to the chinese to get some. She waited with the car whilst I went in and asked for a small tub of the sauce, which cost £2.00. The guy on the counter headed into the back and got a tub of it, and brought it out and handed over, just saying, 'Thanks.' I said, 'Are you giving it to me free?!' And he said, 'Can I have your number?' ... This is not something which usually happens to me - and certainly not something I'm prepared for!! I simply panicked and said something along the lines of, 'Sorry, my phone's at home and I don't know my number.' I didn't want to give it to him, but I didn't want to hurt him either, brave guy. The wife was concerned at the look on my face when I returned to the car, but simply laughed in my face when I told her. Then she of course told everyone when we got home, who laughed, and the wbf celebrated getting his sauce for free. I'm still not sure how to respond to this.

Anywho, I ended up only getting home at half 2 this morning, and getting to bed at 3, and then waking up before my alarm at 7:15, which means I only got 4 hours sleep. But despite that, I have visited my grandparents - who seem very well - and arranged to spend my Sunday morning  with them, learning to make crème caramel; and I have sewn the next block for the QATWII. This one is for a lovely lady who sent her starter block along with a craft magazine as a gift! She asked for gridlike blocks. So I came up with a design, and tried to connect the two a little by using similar colours. Wanna see? Of course you do!

 This is what I made. It's not perfect - things didn't line up exactly - but I tried oh-so hard, and I think it's okay.

And here is my square next to the starter block. What do you think? Okay together? I hope she likes it!








So all in all, not an unproductive day for someone functioning on 4 hours' sleep! And now I'm going to enjoy an extra simple supper of crumpets and... poached eggs, maybe? I think perhaps so! And then I'm going to do some more knitting on this baby blanket for this friend of mine.

Love love xx

One Week Left At Work, Knitting And Goodnight

I have one week of work left. Plus a couple of extra days in the summer, but effectively one week left. The girls have grown and changed so much! B has lost her first tooth, attended her first after-school club and learnt to cooperate with her sister (sometimes!) BB has been toilet-trained, grown more active at playgroups, and started socialising with other children her age in an amazingly grown-up way. B reads independently and silently; and she reads more challenging books to me. BB listens to longer stories, sometimes learning them so she can look through them alone; and she asks interesting and appropriate questions about the story. Both of them have started to understand the concept of jokes, and to try it out - often being funny simply in the ridiculous nature of their attempts ('Why did the horse cross the road? Umm... Neigh!'). It astounds me to think of what they were like last September when I met them, compared with how they were today. Sure, there have been ups AND downs - the squabbling, lazy pants-wetting and lack of road safety all spring to mind. But overall, I have found so much incredible joy in this job, and I will be sorry to say goodbye to them. I remember hearing each of the girls tell me they loved me for the first time, and it melts my heart. Such amazing little people, I can only pray that they grow up to be even more wonderful than they are today!

All that smushiness aside, I am exhausted! I've now been up for about 18 hours, and I am definitely ready for bed! I've spent my evening knitting more on the baby blanket I'm working on for BM. Pictures tomorrow. Hopefully I'll do some sewing tomorrow, too - either my quilt block for the person before me in the QATWII bee, or some pyjamas, or both. We'll see.And tomorrow night I'm off to the wife's to spend an evening with her, her boyfriend and some of our friends. But for now - goodnight!

Love love xx

QATWII starter block, toddler

I finished my starter block for the QATWII! Wheee! And I'm rather happy with it - it's worked out better than I'd expected. Wanna see? Oh, go on then!

 See?! And I don't know if you can tell, but there's a faint pink blush to the centre of each flower...? I did that! I'm really pleased with how the fabric paints worked out, because it's nice and subtle, but just adds enough to really look more like a scarlet pimpernel!

And a little closer, you'll see the stitched flower name. Maybe the pink flower middles are a little more obvious here? And if you look really carefully and closely, particularly at the lower flower, you might be able to see that in the very centre it's just faintly yellow... again, I'm really glad at how that's worked. It's not overly bright and poster paint-ish, but it adds a little more realness to the scarlet pimpernels (I hope)!




That's the only reason I have for posting, really. I've been at work all day which has been nice and lovely and fun but nothing to write home about. The toddler - who is turning 3 in about a fortnight!! - has developed an adorable habit of pointing out babies when we're out and about and saying, 'there's a baby. It's soo cute!' Obviously anyone who happens to hear this just oohs and aahs and ends up in a melted puddle on the floor, because it's just so darn adorable! I wish I could get across the tone of voice she uses to properly emphasise this. Just accept me telling you it's heart-melting!

Okay, that's all, I promise!

Love love xx

Pictures, Bread, Quilt Block, Socks, Nut Butter, Knitting

I didn't realise later would mean the next day. Sorry. Here are pictures, as promised!

Beautiful bread:

 Sorry - I realise now it doesn't look as beautiful as it did before I grated chocolate all over it then tore great hunks of it off to gobble down in satisfaction. But I didn't take any photos before I did that stuff, so you'll have to use your imagination. It looked a little reminiscent of this

 I made a loaf of it the other week with the wife, but we followed the instructions exactly and it turned out like lead. This time I just added an entire sachet of yeast, and I chucked all the ingredients into the breadmaker and got it to do the dough bit. Then I rolled it out and up and so on.







Then my block for the Quilt Around The World II:


It isn't finished yet. I still need to edge all of the appliqué and do some fabric painting fun on it. But they're supposed to be scarlet pimpernel. and yes, I know they aren't scarlet. Neither are the actual flowers, apparently! But they are native to Britain, which is what I wanted.

 This is the first sketch I made, when I was getting a feel for the scarlet pimpernel. I'm not very good at drawing, so sorry about that. But I used this to then trace onto greaseproof and position everything; then onto bondaweb.

and there's a flower up close. I'm going to put a sort of fabric paint wash fade thingy into the centres of the flowers in pink to mimic the actual flower. Then, once I've done that and appliquéd it all, I can send it onto the next person who is, incidentally, my mum. This is why I feel less bad about not getting on with it. I should be doing it right now, but I know my mum knows what I want, so I've been lazy. But I need to finish it and get it up on flickr for the other members to find out what I want - which is a neutral background (any greys, black, white or cream) with a flower that is native to their own country. I don't' care about flower type or colour, or how they put it on the background - appliqué, paper piecing, whatever. Just a native flower on a neutral background, with the flower name and a signature block to go along with it. Now all I need to do is finish it, and work out how to use flickr! Should be easy, right?!

and some beautiful socks:

When I visited my sister ages and ages ago, she set me up with some needles and self-striping yarn and instructions for making socks. I finally finished them! They're blue and stripy and cosy and comfy and warm and I love them oh so very much!

 Especially, can I just say, I love the triangle detail that comes with the joining of the heel flap to the rest of the sock! Not too bad for a first pair of socks, eh?










And one last thing:

 

 Some mixed nut butter. This is roast almond, pecan and walnut butter. I didn't just make that piffling little amount - I made about a jarful. But I promptly used most of it in some no-bake energy bites rather like these. I really like them, as shown by this being the second time I've made them! They taste really good, and I can pretend they're healthy!

I'm going to vanish now and either sew a little on my block or knit some on a baby blanket I'm making for my pregnant friend. Pictures of that will come at some point, but not right now!

Love love xx

Rain

It chucked it down yesterday. It absolutely rained as hard as it could. I was in the kitchen, baking bread in my pyjamas. I looked out, then looked back at my bread dough. Then I looked out at the insane weather outside again, and made an insane decision. I pulled my wellies onto my bare feet, tucked my pyjamas into them, and headed out. straight into the rain. I ran around the side of the house, and into the back garden, among the overgrown lawn. I jumped, I danced a little, I saw that the peas were ready for picking and so I picked peas. I admired the poppy which was starting to burst a white one open. And I laughed. I laughed! Out there, my hands filled with mange tout pods, my curls all soaking and limp, my pyjamas drenched and my feet scrunched inside my wellies, I laughed. It was insane and ridiculous and stupid, but I laughed anyway because in that impulsive moment I felt deliriously happy. I was reminded that though we take things for granted, like the weather, we can find happy in the most dull and boring of happenings - like rain in England. I was reminded that the rain makes my flowers grow, that it makes a delicious sound as it hits the ground, that it is wet! And I was reminded that we can stay inside and grumble about the weather if we want to - and nine times out of ten that is exactly what I will do - but that it's far more fun to go out in it and laugh in the face of it.

I made beautiful bread. I have a finished pair of socks to show you. I have a partially finished quilt block to show you. Pictures will be up later. But for now I'm going to go and cook, or sew, or paint, or something. And I'm going to smile a little whilst I do it.

Love love xx