Mid-week Meanderings

Hello, greetings to all of you, welcome to all those who have just found my ramblings, pleased to meet you all xox

I love it when I can pick flowers from my own garden, well, court-yard garden to be precise. I can only grow flowers and vegetables in pots but that's fine, I manage to grow a decent amount of veg / salad and flowers to make little posies and pop into my old bottles I collect and place them all around the house. The above picture is of some of my garden pot grown beauties that Alice picked on Sunday and she knows what pleasure they give me and I hope her and Andy too.

So, how is your mid-week so far? I've had one mad month of all my insurances coming to an end at the end of March, my car MOT and tax and 101 other "grown up" things to do. I've always said I wasn't very good at being a grown up and just hate anything to do with pensions, tax, insurance, cars etc and my lovely husband Andy is most tolerant with my stubbornness and generally does all the investigating, calculating and negotiating which I am eternally grateful for. He does make me smile at how thrifty he is and refuses to pay anyone more money than is necessary. I definitely agree with him but must say that I am a little naughty and tend to bury my head and not look into cheaper insurances etc. but this makes us a good partnership I think :0)

This Weeks lesson for a certain 10 year old started on Saturday when I found myself nagging on Saturday morning about the lack of discipline in picking her clothes up from the floor! I wasn't an angel growing up but I don't recall developing this bad habit... so Alice and I came to a handshaking agreement that if I sewed her a washing bag for her to hang on her door handle she would promise to pick her clothes up and put those for washing in the bag and any others would be neatly folded and placed back in her drawers / wardrobe. 

This is what was created up in our attic (which we call the snug, where I sew and she paints and we're generally creative / chill out together.... No boys allowed thank you very much daddy!)

Really easy peasy sewing of a rectangle, I hand stitched the seam to thread the pretty ribbon through and hey presto a washing bag for all those dirties and once it's full she gives to me to pop in the washing machine. A lovely case of "How to train your 10 year old" !!! her enthusiasm for picking up clothes off her floor has never been greater, lets hope the habit lasts :0) ...teenage years here we come!

"All good bags have a badge on mummy" Oh OK then I replied xox 

Thank you for all your comments on my lovely vintage knitting needle find in my last post. I had to put those 4mm pink ones to the test ASAP and found them so comfortable to knit with, smooth, silky and easy with some Debbie Bliss DK yarn. I planned to make a 'mug hug'  from a pattern I saw in one of my knitting magazines I indulged in last month and I wanted to teach myself a couple new knitting stitches too which I was pleased to master but when it came to hugging any of my mugs this baby was not complying ( conclusion = we only have fat mugs in this house, hee hee) and then I saw the perfect jar that needed a hug...  one of my jam jars that I store needles, scissors, tape measures etc etc in.

Here it is... ta da!

No chilly hooking / knitting implements in this house thank you very much! They are as snug as a mug hug.

Well that brings me to the end of this post and I will say cheerio and wish you all a peaceful rest of the week.

I will end, showing you a little peek at some granny square fingerless gloves that I hooked up for my friend Janice's sister who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Unfortunately her and her 4 teenage children lost everything in the earth quake and devastation that hit Christchurch last month. Janice asked me if I could make her sister, Anne a pair of fingerless gloves( basic pattern found here) as she is the kind of person who always looks after others more than herself and with Autumn approaching she thought it would be lovely for Anne to have something for herself. It's been a privilege and real pleasure to make these and it's the tiniest thing I could do. Sending love across the world to all those people trying to re-build their lives xxx