Tony and my Dad took the boys to the airshow this weekend. They had a ball.

Joe took his camera (last years’ birthday present) and came home with 109 photos.

Surprisingly, most were worth keeping and some of them were even like this:

That boy is awesome.

Items found in the washing machine this week

What can I say?

I live in a house full of boys. Boys with their beloved pockets.

These little scraps which were deemed precious enough to keep safe for the day, really do reflect my boys’ interests and personalities.

And, at least one item up there, leads me to suspect that it’s not just my little boys at it either…

There is a great ‘Organised collections’ Flickr pool (wave ‘bye, bye’ to another hour if you click on that!) which I found via Camilla Engman.

Here, as promised, is your free Hugo cross stitch pattern.

The chart is for 45 x 36 stitches and you should be able to print it out from this page. I stitched a bigger green border to mine.

And when it was finished I stitched it onto my sewing project bag.

My sample is worked on a really large scale Aida using knitting wool, which is cheap and cheerful, but had a tendency to unravel and knot. So you need to cut your lengths no longer than 12″.

Alternatively, you could use the wool specifically designed for the purpose…

there is no need for you to be a cheapskate (like me) after all.

I found cross stitching so soothingly repetitive and easy that I got quite addicted to it and just could not stop.

I’ve also recently become addicted to this album (I got mine for my birthday)- what a voice. 

Here it is, the finished dandelion.

I’m pretty pleased with it.

I think it would look good on a linen cushion.

I may have to make myself one in fact, for my new bedroom… or a quilt, now that could be lovely.

Or maybe embroidered onto a smock blouse? or a little girls’ dress for a Japanese craft magazine look. 

You won’t believe it but, I have never actually seen a Japanese craft magazine in real life.

The shame of it. I must put that right soon. 

The pattern and ‘iron on’ transfer for my dandelion will be in my shop shortly.

Sadly, the rest of my morning will be spent loading the washing machine as Joe had to go to school in Henry’s socks today.

Which did not go down particularly well with anyone concerned.

How can we be out of clean socks again?

I have the house to myself tonight, the boys are already in bed and I am itching to get a little project I designed today started.

Actually, I am literally itching. Joe has had nits and now my skin is crawling. It’s no good. I’ll have to check my hair yet again!

Right, I’m back.

I’ve been developing (doesn’t that sound grand!) some ‘iron on’ transfer stitcheries for a while now and this morning I finally got everything in place and working- it’s been an extremely long process, which I have no intention of boring you with. 

But today it worked. 

And my head is full of possibilities and imaginings… could be a late night.

Here is my first stitchery design.

I’ve been thinking about weeds and how pretty they actually are.

About how I should notice the beauty in everyday things more often (that blog certainly helps with that).

This to my mind, is a beautiful dandelion. 

I drew round the real leaves, there is no point in re-inventing the wheel.

It’s ready to be blown. Do your children love to do that too? They must do.

I wonder how many generations of children have blown dandelions?

Right, I’m off to sit and stitch in front of a cheesy film, with some white wine and birthday chocolate and when Tony gets home I will say in all honesty (but not with a straight face) that I have been working all evening.

Bliss.

PS. Naturally the car failed it’s MOT, the parts took 4 days to arrive and then 2 hours to fit and cost £279… I better had start thinking dandelions are beautiful. They’ll be no roses round here for a while!

I am slightly stressed. 

I’ll spare you the rant, but here’s why: school breaks up in 20 days + end of term madness + have major deadline looming + the car has been off the road all week (someone forgot to book an MOT and renew the car tax) + walking everywhere + food shopping at corner shop + very elderly dog with failing digestive system (messy) + poor Henry’s had croup = stressed.

Granted, it’s safe, comfortable, middle class and largely self inflicted stress, but it’s still stress.

Everything’s relative in life.

Moving on…

I finally got around to finishing the pattern for my horse blanket and it is in my shop now:

I tell you, this project has been a delight from beginning to end- it’s my favourite so far.

When I was designing this I had a little brainwave born out of laziness.

To save myself from having to draw 6 individual horses in different poses I just drew one horse and then made it into a jointed template - puppet type thing.

Thus enabling me to make my horse canter or gallop or stand by simply re-arranging the pieces.

Easy peasy.

… and brilliant fun!

So, of course, the pattern had to include a jointed template too, which means that every quilt or blanket made with this pattern will be completely unique.

Pretty clever eh? Hope you like it as much as I do.

Anyway, my apologies for the complaining and the shameless shop plug.

I promise to do better next time.

I’ve got a free Hugo the dog cross stitch pattern almost ready.

Yes, Henry and I were thoroughly spoilt for our birthdays- which is just the way we like it!

I am now 39.

It’s just a number.

My Mums’ birthday is the day after mine and she is just twenty years older than me.

So next year, we have vowed to be somewhere exciting for our birthdays. New York, Paris, Rome? 

We’re not fussy, but we’re definitely not turning 40 and 60 in Britain either!

Anyway, back to being spoilt this year- my Mum made me this lovely bag for my birthday.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Now, last week was crazy busy.

I was up at 6 and on the go ’til midnight all week trying to fit everything in. Now I’m hopeless at relaxing at the best of times, and I’m pretty stubborn too.

So standards were not going to slip around here, no matter how much I had to do.

Everything got made from scratch at home; 18 family members sat down on Sunday to a hot meal (with veggie and child friendly options available too) and a choice of puddings…

the house was clean, activities, games, balloons, party bags were planned etc, etc, and it was all great. Really enjoyable.

And then I carried on this week in much the same way until yesterday, when I literally couldn’t get out of bed. 

I just lay around all day. Now, that is not me at all. I hate it- the wasted hours.

So I just lay there and watched Tony running around like a headless chicken instead (thanks Tony!)

But, this morning, I woke up at 4.30am feeling much better, the sun was shining and the birds were singing and I very nearly got up. I honestly did.

But instead I decided to learn my lesson, and turned over and willed myself back to sleep.

See? I’m obviously growing up…

Henry is 4 today and he’s as jolly and lovely as ever. 

At around 8.30 last night, Tony and I started work on Henry’s ‘Lewis Hamilton’ cake.

We only had to decorate the cake and the cake board because I’d cheated and bought all the sponges ready made.

We started with great gusto (and a glass of wine each) and ended up with this.

We are very proud of ourselves and are glad to say that Henry loved it! 

Shame it took us 4 hours…

I always start the week by writing a list. 

This weeks’ list was (and despite my best efforts) still is scary long.

There’s all the usual stuff on it plus Henry’s 4th birthday celebrations, my Mum’s birthday, my birthday, a friends 10th wedding anniversary party, a sing-a-long, babysitting and finally, the entire family are coming here for the day on Sunday.

And as if that wasn’t enough… I only have 20 childfree mornings left before the Festival of Quilts (there’s a separate book full of lists for that which just makes me want to weep).

Stressed? Who me? 

I’m very happy to say that Paypal have refunded me in full! 

All I did was log a complaint and a few days later my claim was resolved-no arguing or negotiating from me required. Impressive.

So, Paypal can still count me as a customer, all be it a more wordly wise and cynical one.

Thankyou Paypal.

And thanks for all the kind words about my photo. My head is rapidly swelling!