An assortment of things.

This post is going to be an odd assortment of bits and bobs, I think. I can tell, because even now, as I am typing, I have no real idea of where this is going to go.
I just know that a post is overdue and I have a few photos to share, so I shall just make a start and see where we end up!
So firstly, a few pictures of our new member of the family. She travelled home with us last Tuesday from our friends where she wasn't really fitting in terribly well!! I think their words were unhandleable, which I am sure isn't a word!!!, and maybe even vicious was used too!! So, me being me, I lifted back the covers on her run expecting to see some kind of white sticky up eared rabbit, with pink eyes and big pointy teeth!!!
Instead I was greeted by this little lady...





Well, I say little but she is rather a large bunny and looks a little like a bear!! But she is gorgeous!!! Totally, 100% gorgeous!!
Anyway, I picked her up and she seems to really like me!!! So she is now, as you can see, happily pottering around in the garden and we are now a two rabbit family!!!
What on earth happened to my no useless pets rule? !!!
Yes, I know we could breed them to eat, but I'm really not sure we could eat such cute fuzzy bunnies.
Now if they were white with sticky up ears and pink eyes......




A few crafty makes coming up.
First up is Jonathan,s spinner (fishing tackle used for catching pike)that he made from wood and off cuts of catapault elastic!!! Ingenius!!!





















This is David wielding his shield that he made himself.



His own idea (inspired by a computer game with roman soldiers), design and pretty much unaided...just a little help to work out which way to fold the tin foil around it as we only had one piece just big enough left!!
This is the handle on the reverse.




















And this is a face flannel I made for Rob's mum in Cornwall.




It has a cat in the centre, just in case you couldn't tell!!! I also made some soap sacks that did turn out well in the end. I will try to get a photo of those on here but I forgot to take pictures before I posted them. Doh!!!
I have had some little labels made up to sew into my handmade things. You know the type. Like school name tapes but pretty!!
I'm thinking of setting up an Etsy shop but not sure how to go about that...maybe Ebay would be a start?
And of course, someone had a birthday didn't they!
Here he is blowing out his candles on his caterpillar!!!

He had some lovely presents...photos to follow another day! My little man is 4!!!
Oh yes, and we now have a 5 bedroom house!!
Following Tom's accident the other evening, when he fell through the high sleeper on to the top of William, he has been evicted by William to the bathroom!!!
We are currently converting it, but it makes quite a nice little cosy room for him!! Don't worry, we still have a bathroom. I haven't quite managed to convince Rob to build a compost toilet and solar shower!!!
LOL!!

Bad weather and feeling poorly can be good for some things, I guess!!

So, with the weather being so miserable here and me feeling poorly, it has been a week of crafting.
My socks are now finished and I have rellay been enjoying wearing them. So comfortable and cosy!! I have been sneakily buying some wool for me to knit up once I have worked down my list of projects! I finally understand the meaning of 'wool stash'!!!!
But instead of casting on for Rob's socks (the first priority item on my list!), I have been making these...


The wool was a little dark perhaps for the top but I'm pleased with the effect. I've never really done anything with two colours before.

This egg was made up as I went along using the same principle as the banana...turned out ok, but now they want a whole set!!!

2 sausages so far and one fried egg, also of my own design, made up as I went along. Really pleased with this!!!
And the two older boys have also been making things....not knitting but sewing.
Jonathan made this drawstring bag for his marbles from the bottom of the leg of his old camo trousers....


And Tom has re-vamped this strap for his car, by sewing a loop on to one end and a hook on the other! He wants to test it out for strength one day soon before he takes it off roading!


And this of their own free will!!! And self taught, pretty much.

And here's what we have made!

No, I'm afraid I haven't already whipped up a couple of knitted bananas, although I feel like my brain is mushed up like one!
Today, I spent all day making this wee fellow under the scrutinous eye of David. He had a particular idea of what he wanted him to look like and it turned out just as he hoped! Phew!!!

He is a Peter Pan waldorf style doll, and can also double up as Robin Hood!! Most handy!!
These are the collages, inspired by what we saw on Tuesday at the Sealife Centre. David's first...

And William's...

I did a fair few of the drawings but the colours and ideas are their own.
And this is Merlin having a cuddle the other day. He looks so cute this way up...and is pretty much immobilised!!!

A bright idea!

I have to share this...
I made it today in about 10 mins from an old lampshade that was damaged and 3 pieces of A4 card!! It was one of those moments when I was trying desperately to think how to make a new cover for it rather than throw it away. I know that you made a beautiful material one for a table lamp recently, Louise and that got me to thinking. This lampshade was originally made up from the sturdy wire frame and six plastic panels that were like frosted glass with roses embossed on them. So I thought that material covering was perhaps not the way to go. And then, inspiration struck!! The card was some animal print ones that Granny had sent up from Cornwall and so I cut six new panels from the card using the old plastic piece as a template, popped them into place, and voila!!!!

I'm really pleased with it!! As is David, whose room it now illuminates!

Winter as it should be....woolly socks and hot water bottles!

Isn't it beautiful today? We woke up to a bright moon in a starry sky, with a wonderful frost that has made everything white.Hoar frost. All day. We braved the roads in the car for a walk in the woods first thing this morning. The journey was bright and beautiful...the sun shining across the fields and hedges. Glorious. It wasn't sunny in the woods. In fact it was downright freezing, but still beautiful!
This is how winter should be isn't it....cold and frosty.
We came home and lit the fire. Cosy in the living room we had scrambled egg and toast for lunch.
Just how winter should be.
The boys all have thermal leggings to wear when it is like this. In fact William has worn his since September as trousers generally, but David and Jon got theirs for christmas. A necessary for outdoors folk at the moment!!
Something else the boys got for christmas...my homemade fleece hot water bottle covers...one each for Will, David and Jon.

These are David's socks that I knitted for christmas also....

And here is William modelling his pair just as I finished them this afternoon!

I hope to cast on for Tom's later on. He had neither a hot water bottle cover, or thermal leggings as he seems to have his own central heating system!!! But everyone gets cold toes don't they!!

Pictures of our crafty makes...

The last few posts have been lacking in photographs so I thought I would make up for it today, although there are still a couple more to do another day!!!
This one is our season table with the initial wintry feel to it.

Lots of hand made decorations this year...Rob made a wreath for the front door and we had some real greenery above the mirror in the living room. These snowflakes were an idea I 'borrowed' from Hannah, and we liked them so much we made some in different colours! If you look closely in the first picture you can see some of the paper chains too.

A two tone pink one!!!!

And a much smaller one for the tree in classic seasonal colours....

These are the home made edible goodies we made....truffles, iced gingerbread biscuits, lebkuchen and Jonathan's favourite, peppermint creams!! We packaged them up seperately and in different ways. I enjoyed making the little boxes and bags too!!

This is the celebration ring that I made from clay inspired by the wooden ones from Myriad. They are a lovely idea, but sooooo expensive So, failing to persuade Jonathan to make me a wooden one, I fashioned this one from the air drying clay we had. We used it for all three of the birthdays we had before christmas using the numbers that I made from clay to decorate them. William and David helped to paint those. I need to find some candles the right size for the holes that I made. We used cake candles in wooden holders that Rob made out of a length of Hazel, but they burn down too quickly. It made a nice centrepiece for the table on the day anyway, though.

The baggy Waldorf doll I made for my friends liitle girl designed to be a bedtime companion. A very soft squashy body ideal for cuddling.

The very simple Waldorf first doll I made for her wee one. At 5 months she is teething and so I'm hoping this will not only give her something to cuddle but something to chew on aswell!!!

And this is the traditional limbed doll I made for William. He has dungarees made from bits of old jeans, a t shirt from one of my old t-shirt's sleeves and his hat is an odd sock of David's!!!! Quite pleased with him as a first attempt at this style, although his head is a little elongated...it should be a little rounder.

I always enjoy making and giving handmade presents. They always feel more special somehow.Jonathan and David loved their socks and Jonathan wore them every day for about 5 days!!!! I wish I had taken a photo of them on the first day he wore them, as they are now a little worse for wear! Photos of those and the hot water bottle covers I made coming soon!!!! I just need to start earlier next year!!!!
Receiving homemeade presents is always lovely too...some lovely hand knitted dish cloths from Hannah and a lovely little knitted elephant for Will. He's gorgeous xx

Creative morning...

Two posts in one day, eh!
We have been having a creative morning...displacement activity again Bmf!!! Anything but actually get all the camping stuff down from the loft and pack our bags!
So I made these... Now, I'm sure that Sarah you are thinking that they are your fantastic templates, but actually I just used the idea and drew my own!! I've drawn ten but just not got round to cutting out all the fiddly legs yet before laminating them. I love ladybirds!!! Willie wants a set with froggies and lilypads now too...I'll have to have different slant to that one though.
And Tom made these....

QSL cards for contact information for his CB He found a programme on the web to use and then added his call sign and everything. The rough bit of paper in the top right corner is covering the postal address!

So, I have some of Will's trousers to put tighter elastic in, a sleeping bag fleece liner to make for Will and David's bed socks to finish.....eek

But I want to make some alphabet cards, flower and butterfly cards...they are addictive!

I have just been to say goodbye to a good friend of mine who is moving up to the Lakes next week...well, I say good friend because that is what he feels like, but it would be more accurate to say aquaintance, as he was the estate agent we bought our first house from 5 years ago, and sold it with 2 years later! His daughters went to school with mine and although they weren't really friends, we have always enjoyed each others company. There. I hope that is right, Simon, and that is how you would put it!!! But I will miss him...and obviously I am green with envy that he is moving to such a beautiful place!! But I wish you all luck and hope it works out for you...keep in touch!!!

It has left me feeling a bit odd. More unsettled than usual...best not walk down the canal this afternoon then, eh!

I have just discovered another HE family that live VERY near to us (maybe it isn't such an abyss after all) and have siad we will meet up when we get back from hol..... see I am trying to put down roots!

Trailer, tree cards and tweetie pies.

This is Tom showing off his bike trailer which he has evry right to be proud of! He used the other one as a model and then welded this one together from box section, using the same design, even down to the spring on the tow bar to absorb the impact of the bumps. On it is his homemade CB aerial...made from tent poles and a length of wire...which actually works!!! I couldn't believe it!

And this is my set of tree/leaf cards that I made using a template from a fellow blogger and home educator. I bought a set of pdf files which she then duly sent through to me which has lots of lovely Montessori resources to print. But typically, when I buy anything, there was something which didn't go quite right!!! A couple of the pictures were showing on the screen normal but were printing out with a second, smaller version inset on the main picture...ugh Why me? I tried evrything: printing all the pages again, printing just the afflicted pages alone, using the other laptop, she sent me the file through seperately but still it didn't work!!! Then she very kindly redid the the ones that were causing the problem as a new file and sent it through. Then it worked fine!! How lovely of her. Thank you Sarah!! But how totally bizarre! Here they are...ready for taking to HE camp! Notice the use of another Soap Nut bag!!! Any donations gratefully received...I have lots of ther ideas to make now ;-) And on a sadder note, this is the sight that greeted me this morning when i went to check on the Pekin who is sitting diligently on the Quail eggs.

Poor wee thing. And I don't know why!! It obviously hatched over night and got too far away from mummy to keep warm, but notice the speck of blood? Did the Pekin take one look and say that's not one of mine and reject it? Did she peck it? Then I realised that there are only 5 eggs left under her....there should have been 7. No sign of shell, or anything. Do we have an intruder? No room for a rat to get in but a mouse could. But they don't take eggs do they? Or as Tom suggested...a snake? In our garden? After a quail egg under a hen?

Or did she stand on them and they broke and so she ate them? Which is a much more likely story I think.

So only 5 possible left...I have risked moving her this morning into a solid box that Jonathan made for his ferrets before, so that nothing can get in, the babies can't go too far and so I can just lift the lid to see what's going on. She seems to have settled back on her eggs again fine.

And we're going away on Saturday morning too...why is life so tricky sometimes?

Another little creation...

But the idea was 'borrowed' from another blog, and I can't remember whose...sorry! I am so pleased with it! It startedwith Jonathan making the little playing pieces from wood for me a few months ago!!! Then they saton the windowsill for ages, while I tried to find some material to re cycle for the bag...I found a pillow case that had 2 different coloured sections so thatseemed perfect. Then the pieces sat on top of the folded pillowcase for another very long time. The task of making a little drawstring bag was just a little bit daunting, and as Louis prevents any evening sewing at present, it was going to have be a daytime project. So not much hope of concentrating on it eh!!

And then this morning I had a brainwave!!! The soap nuts that I buy for the washing machine come in lovely little drawstring bags!!!! So all I needed was to cut out some squares from felt and sew them on.....so pleased with it!!

So here we have a noughts and crosses game to take in the car and on holiday with us!!

My hugely talented, yet totally modest husband's creation and other photos...

This is the birthday card that Rob drew for me whilst I was in the dining room pressing and sewing Will's jumper... Isn't it great? I love all the little details...obviously personal to me, but I thought that you would all appreciate it. Louis on my shoulders, chicken as a roll mat, carrot bullets, duck grenades, spade weapon with pile of MUD !!!! Ok I'll go to compost, but thats it! It's fab isn't it. Trying to persuade him to do a series for greetings cards...what do you think?

And here are the ducklings, out in the sunshine the other day....they have grown so much! Two weeks old now and I struggle to hold all four in my hands together now to move them!

Tom is now constructing his own CB aerial out of some old tent poles and wire reclaimed from a skip...following some instructions found on the internet. His other CB aerial has managed to put out a signal string enough to be heard 45 miles away!!! He has been learning the CB language and has been communicating with a number of people. It's a good job that he sensible enough to know who to talk to and who to avoid!!! A lot of his 4x4 mates have them so there is a kind of network I guess. Everyone knows everyone!

Tom is off today with Scouts/Explorers for St George's day celebrations. They needed to make a sedan chair strong enough to carry an Explorer...so instead of a wooden one, Tom welded one together from box section and then spray painted it. I have no photo as yet...but I'm hoping there'll be some later on to share with you all. He really is doing well with the welding. The other day he used his trailer that he has made for his bike to take 2 bales of hay down to the field so I didn't have to get the inside of my car covered in hay! I just wish I'd got the camera out.....it really was brilliant to watch!!

Jonathan's riding lesson was a huge success too.....he got to go out in the cross country paddock and Bob and him did brilliantly. Huge tree trunks, tyres, solid walls, poles over a dip and the bank....all like he had been doing it for years!!!! The only hiccup was the ditch...Bob was not going through that for love nor money...not even following me!! So practice needed there but the bank was fantastic!!! They work so well together...a real team. Always brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes when I watch them jump. I do hope that we can get him in to a competition some time. His teacher said that he would certainly be capable of it.

David is after a pair of bed socks to take to HE camp next weekend so I'd best be off and get the wool out....now the question is, to machine, or not to machine?!

Drum roll please....

Now I'm not one to boast, but I'm so pleased with this...

I made this on the knitting machine we were given by a lovely lady that Rob works with. It is a very old machine...the magazines that came with it were from the 60's and hasn't been used for a VERY long time. It has laid redundant in her attic since her children are now grown up with children of their own!! I have never used one before, and I didn't get a demonstration from her, just the original instruction booklet. I had a few practice sessions getting to grips with it. I followed the book for a while, as it does a real step by step approach which just doesn't go fast enough for an impatient person like me!!! I wanted to knit a jumper, and I wanted to do it now!!!

So I made a pair of bed socks using the same pattern I used for Will's socks before and an elf hat. Both in DK which the machine didn't seem to really like..not sure if it was the thickness of the wool or the quality??? So off I went to the wool shop and bought some beautiful baby soft 4 ply. (I still have the lady's voice ringing in my ear's about her friend who had had her carpel tunnel syndrome operation and was back to normal, knitting, crocheting and everything. Well, good for her. I am pleased. So has my brother by the way, but I am still suffering from the last two NHS blunders to trust them again, so soon. I think it will be a while before I let them loose on my right wrist!!!)

Lovely lady though, and she said she would be happy to go through her catalogues with me to order in whatever I wanted.

And so I created this jumper for William. Mainly while they were in Cornwall at granny's but I finished it off yesterday. Although I followed the pattern in one of the old sixties magazines, I had to change the neck slightly and it fits!!!!! Just a button to add and a couple of loose ends to sew in.

AND HE LIKES IT!!!!!!! Yay!!

And this is one of our new arrivals.....

Four out of the 6 eggs hatched, so we now have 4 little Khaki Campbell ducklings in the kitchen. They are just sooooo cute!!! I love ducks. I just hope that at least one of them is a girl...fingers crossed.

We also have our little Pekin sitting on some quail eggs...that will be interesting if they hatch! And Jonathan is trying to hatch some pheasant eggs under the Silkie but I'm not sure that she is totally committed!

Louis is settling in well as Survival Family canine companion.I have been for lots of canal walks with him and am now brave enough to let him off the lead as long as there are no other dogs. Too dangerous. Not sure he can swim yet!! We went to our favourite local woodland yesterday afternoon, and had a good mooch about. He was great, off the lead and just being doggy! The boys found some clay pigeons that were intact and used them as targets for the catapult. Will wanted a bow and arrow like Jon so daddy made him one but without the string! Louis was so muddy at the end that we gave him a little bath when we got back...he seems to enjoy them.

Tom has been doing a bit more CB stuff...I can't say much about it as my knowledge is very limited!! But he is trying to persuade us to let him put up a huge aerial for a home base, and looking in to Ham radio rigs......!!!! He also read a whole book today while waiting to see if he could get anyone to talk to!!!

I have been reading Hiding Out to David and Jonathan recently. I can't even remember how I found it but it is just the sort of adventure book that boys love!! We are nearing the end and I am thinking of reading Swallows and Amazons next, or maybe The Little Grey Men...or even Robinson Crusoe or Swiss Family Robinson...oh, how do I choose?

David and I have been doing a Bald Eagle lapbook and although again it is a pre printed affair from Homeschool Share , an American website that has lots of free printable lapbooks, it has been enjoyable and we both like making the little mini books. David is growing in confidence with cutting out and his writing is getting more regular. He can easily write down what I say now when I spell each word, or he can copy more quickly than before. He is also less hesitant when trying to fit it in smaller spaces. Progress my friends, progress.

And my veg patch fence is completed....the patch is huge! In fact it is no longer a patch and is more like a veg garden. My broad beans that I planted last autumn are just starting to flower, so I assume that it means we will soon have broad beans for dinner, and the shallots that I gap filled with between the onions are already starting to sprout. The potatoes are all up and will need earthing up soon, and even the Potatoes for schools bags are doing well, despite being planted out before their shoots were 2 cms long. No signs of carrot seedlings yet, but then they were scarified by Louis on a number of occasions before the new fence went up!! The runner beans are all doing well in the 'greenhouse' and I think I saw Courgette seedlings trying to push up through the soil in their pots earlier today. A bit behind on my tomato plants though I think. Didn't plant those seeds until last week. I'll have to buy some plants from the village plant sale if they are a no show.

Off to bed now. Too many late nights and early mornings recently. Shattered.