Tuesday afternoon crafting

Every Tuesday we go to my Nan and Grandad's for lunch. It's usually becuase we stop by on the way back from Toddler Group, but as it's half term Toddler's was closed (a lovely little break for me) so I got chance to gather some bits and pieces to take with me. We also had a test run of the small person's halloween costume. I wanted to know if I had enough bandages. Then she wanted to parade around to their house still wrapped up. Why not?

I sat there sewing and cutting in the midst of all the noise. It's always noisy there. They have the TV at full volume, then try to shout over the top of it, then Nan doesn't hear that someone else is talking and she starts talking over the top etc etc. I always leave there being able to hear the blood rushing in my ears! Anyway, this is what I crafted. It's for the small person to wear with her bandages.

Yesterday evening I felt the need to relax, the small person was already in bed and Rob was out at a shoot with another photographer friend, so I put on CSI, got my sewing machine out and made a bit of progress with my Chrsitmas gift tags. These tree ones just need the ribbons tying on. The stocking ones should reach this state later today when I've got my "housewife" jobs out of the way :D

What are you crafting today?

Look! Look! Look! Surprise mail!

It started out as one of those "Meh" days (you know, where everything is meh or makes you want to say meh?).

I wasn't feeling 100% Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday. A gift from the small person and we think her nursery friends (again). But I'm feeling better which leaves no excuses for not getting my regular household type work done (and boy does it need it). So, looking in on the kitchen and seeing heaps of washing in varying states of finished (some hanging to dry, some wet and folded ready to be dried when there is a space, some dry folded wanting a good iron etc etc) made me want to go "meh". Then there's the washing up which we never do on a Sunday evening (lazy, I know, but it is our family day, so we'd much rather watch a movie together. This Sunday we watched High School Musical 3). "Meh" The bathroom is always cleaned on a Monday, but looks remarkably worse than ususal. "Meh" I'm not even going to mention the small person's room, but lets just say we've had a long chat this morning about looking after toys. "Meh". So, all around, "meh".

Then the post came. To Mr Bogert, To Mr Bogert, To Mr Bogert, To Mr Bogert Photography, To Mr Bogert. It's always for him, but it's usually boring bills which he's quite welcome to. Then a last bit of post came through the door looking all decorated and mysterious 'cos it was addressed to little old me :D Yay!

Well I'm not expecting anything....

Inside was this pretty little oval box tied with yarn.....

Inside the box was this lovely hint of sheer greeny fabric....

Inside that was this little peak at somethig sparkly....

Removing the "sparkly", it was this lovely little braclet! Yay for me!

And I love it! It's so pretty and thoughtful (and unexpected).

There's no accompanying note or sender's address, but this is Mrs Woo :) I saw a photograph of this lovely little trinket a while back and commented on how much I liked it because I have a thing for dragonflies (no really, I do. They're pretty and interesting and graceful and such lovely colours. The real ones just better not touch me 'cos I have a whole different thing about bugs!) I have some lovely dragonfly things already (perfume bottle, brooch etc) and now I have a new one to add to the collection!

Thank you so much Felicia, you're wonderful and you've cheered me up lots :D

I'm going to wear it now to make my "Meh" day a bit more sparkly and bright (but I wont wear it to do the washing up or clean the bathroom ;D)

I've been interviewed!

This Friday (23rd Oct) I'm over on Made For You By Mrs Woo answering some lovely questions for her Fabulous Friend Friday. Go visit and get to know me (and Mrs Woo) better :D

Thinking of the answers I've given, I have come to the realisation that I am completely incapable of giving a short answer/description/discussion about anything. I wonder if I sound like that in person?!

And just because pretty pictures are always required to decorate a post, here's a sneaky peak at some Christmas gift tags in progress which will be making thier way into my Folksy shop (and onto my Christmas gifts) when they're done.

Hope you're having a lovely week :)

Crafting time

I think I have finally caught up on most things (apart from that huge pile of washing). Why does it seem to take longer each time we have a break for some reason?

There are still plenty of unfinished projects that need my attention. I'm finishing that Hen weekend scrapbook this week (if it kills me! See, this is why I wanted all the bits, pieces and photographs earlier so that I could have it finished before all these other things happened and I had less time. Oh well.) and I have made some progress this week.

I've also been sketching an idea I've had for a while. Well it's less of an idea and more of an urge that must be fulfilled in order to stop me going crazy! So far my sketches are close, but not quite right. In fact the first incarnation on paper was, according to Mr Bogert, "Freaky looking". Not quite the look I was going for, so I'll keep sketching until I get a Eureka moment, and then I might actually try and bring it to life (in a non Dr Frankenstein way, of course).

All my big plans for things I wanted to make myself for Halloween have flown out of the window. Just not going to happen. My lovely halloween wreath that's been floating around my head since last Halloween, will have to carry on floating for another year. The only thing I MUST do is finish the small person's trick or treating costume. I also need to plan with Mr Bogert what we're going to carve on our pumpkins this year. I love Pumpkin carving (not so much the smell of the goopy stuff as you scrape it though) and my friend who lives a few houses down from us has asked me to help her carve her pumpkins this year. She's never done it before, but she's having a little party so I'll be getting an email later with her plans on! Very excited! (Halloween is the second best holiday of the year and it means it's getting closer to Christmas).

Other craftiness that has been sitting on the back burner and now desperately needs my attention are the bits and pieces for Alexandra's Pirate Birthday Party. Invitations still aren't finished, fabric still hasn't even been cut for bunting and I really need to think of little extra bits of decor. I wanted to use streamers to hang from the cieling, but I can neither find any streamers or work out how Mr Bogert would reach a cieling that high. I also have the last few eye patches to finish for the goody bags (as I ran out of elastic) and most important of all The Dread Pirate Ali requires a Pirate Princess costume (and so do Mummy and Daddy pirate). I've definately got my work cut out for me.

So much to do, so little time. So I probably shouldn't be sitting here talking to you guys, much as I enjoy it, but I have far more pressing matters to attend to!

My "Little" sister is 20

When did that happen? (Well, Saturday actually). I remember when she had an awful tomboy bob, loved the spice girls and was still in primary school. I'm sure that was just last week. Anyway, I had thought I was organised but wasn't (as so often seems to happen lately) so I had to make a last minute card (which I don't think turned out too bad. What do you think?), wrap her present using nail scissors to cut the paper, and double sided tape to seal it, and it was finished just as she knocked on our front door to deliver cake. Mmmmm, cake :)

She treated herself to a new pet hamster which she let the small person name. He was going to be called "mouse" (as Alexandra is convinced that is what he is) but Auntie Steph wouldn't allow that. He was going to be called "Alexandra", but we had to explain he's a boy (not that you can tell. His cage is called "The Pink Palace". That's going to be one confused boy hamster) so she decided he should be called "Ratatouille". After a small discussion it was decided she actually meant "Remy" from ratatouille. So, welcome to the weird family, Remy :D

There's more to tell

Still along the lines of catching you up, last week at toddler group we had a lovely lady from Pretty Pottery come in and do pottery painting with the kids. They got delivered all finished and glazed at today's session. The small person and I had taken the opportunity to get a few xmas prezzies sorted, so as they are prezzies I can't really show them yet.

Feeling rather sorry for myself and not wanting to be left out, I did persuade Alex to return to the painting table and create a final mug just for little old me to surprise myself with on xmas morning. (I'm sure I'll love it ;D) So, I can show you that one....

That big blue splodge is actually her hand print, I just couldn't get a decent angle to show that part.

And I can also show you the plate she painted for Grandma and Grandpa (I'm sure Grandma will love the blue spider!) as they don't understand the internet. Alexandra has already spoilt the surprise anyway. When I returned with the box full of ceramics she asked if we could show Grandma hers, (whilst Grandma was in the room) so I said "There isn't anything in here for Grandma" and Alexandra replied "Yes Mummy there is. Grandma's plate. Look I'll show you...." Can't keep secrets with small people.

That's her lovely green handprint. It looks big, but these are actually small plates. Somewhere between the size of a saucer and a side plate.

That's Grandma on the left with curly hair and glasses, and that's Grandpa on the right also with glasses (I think he looks a little grumpy too!)

So yes, I have been to toddler group today, but minus my little one. She's not feeling very well, so Grandma and Grandpa agreed to sit with her (wearing face masks, so as not to catch anything) whilst I went and ran the group. I had no choice. I've got the keys, the books and the cash! We painted pumpkin masks today, but as Alexandra wasn't there, I don't have one to show. In fact not having Alex here with me felt like I'd lost an arm or something. I kept looking to check where she was, then remembering she was at home. I went to sign her name in the book before realising, no, she's not here. I even went to pour her a squash at snack time before placing the cup back on the tray and shuffling off away into the kitchen, hoping no one has noticed I've lost the plot.

Anyway, I'm back with her now, and she's feeling slightly better. The first thing she said when I walked back through the door was "I'm not poorly anymore. Can I have a kiss?" Hmmmmm, I'll kiss the top of your head because you still have the lurgy.

We have half term next week, so a break from toddlers should give me just enough time to sort out the handouts for dates in the run up to xmas, any craft bits that need sorting, a sign up sheet for the last day of term before xmas (this is so we have numbers for the tea party), and a request for donations for our stall at the xmas fair.

Something that I also need to tell you about is our lovely new decorations! Unless you've never ever been on my blog before, you will know that I live for xmas. That's the whole point of the rest of the year. To prepare for christmas and to make christmas more special when it get's here! So every year we each get new decorations for the tree and we're especially fond of Disney ones (can't imagine why! :D). When Mr Bogert was away on his business trip to Kansas City a few weeks back, he spent alot of time at Hallmark (one of their big clients) and so he bought me back a a Hallmark Disney decoration which I love!


Obviously because we knew we were going to Eurodisney we were hoping they would have decorations in the shops too. We've only ever been in November before when they're already into their christmas season and festivities, so we weren't sure if they'd have any in October, but they did! Yay! So we each got to choose our favourite.


The small person chose this Princess one. It has the Frog Princess from the new movie in. We've promised to take her to see it when it's released.


Mr Bogert loves these rustic looking ones. He already bought one from the same set a couple of years ago when we were in Florida, so now he's got a second one to match.


I chose this one because I love the "snow" and the mickey ears bauble shape. I couldn't decide between the Mickey or the Minnie one, and when faced with indecisiveness, I always ask Mr Bogert to make the final decision (otherwise we'll be there all day!).

This one was an added bonus one. We love "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and we just thought that as this holiday was a Halloween holiday and we'd met Jack and Sally, we should have a Jack head bauble to remember it.

So I'm really excited and want to decorate my tree. NOW! But I have to pretend like I'm a grown up just for a little bit longer.....

First of a few

First of a few posts that is. I still haven't quite caught up with what we've been up to. So, I finally listed my other hair bows that are ready in my folksy shop, You've seen my finished version of Snow White's Evil Queen, you know exactly what me and my girlies got up to whilst Mr Bogert was away, and you've seen what we've been up to with photography club. Now... how about Eurodisney?

Did we enjoy ourselves? Yes. Did we like where we stayed? Yes, it was basic, but served it's purpose fine. Did we see lots of characters? Yes and the small person got her picture taken and book signed.

We actually managed to get on just about every ride. We only missed the hollywood hotel lift thingy and the Swiss family Robinson's tree house. The small person went on her first ever rollercoaster, "Big Thunder Mountain". She was just tall enough. She was a little freaked out with the dark bits though, so we tried to make it more fun by shouting "Woooo!" and "Weeee!". She joined in, but didn't sound wholly convinced. When we got off we asked her if she enjoyed it. She said "Yes, it was OK, but I don't want to go on it again!" then there was a brief pause and she said "I hope I will be OK. That ride nearly made me wee wee."! Funny :D We also had to ride on Small World about 7 times, Dumbo about 6 times, and flying carpets another 5 times.

The 2 worst things about our little trip were the price of everything (mainly because of the exchange rate) and the disorganisation in comparison to Florida. They didn't fully inform you of show times and parades, and some of the shows were part in French, and part in English, which was a bit odd. Same as the signs. If you wanted to meet a character it was pretty much a free for all. There were so many pushy rude parents aswell. One Italian lady shoved in front of Alex when she was waiting patiently to see the wicked witch from Snow White, and started shoving her kids autograph book in her face to push her back. Mr Bogert got cross and told her she'd pushed in and to get the book out of Alexandra's face, she said she had been there first, Rob said she quite clearly hadn't, so she turned round and said "Well I have 2 kids so I'm more important" ! Unbelieveable! The Witch heard all of this though and made everyone move back so that Alexandra could get through and have her picture taken. It must be horrible for the people playing the characters aswell though. All the pushing and shoving and rudeness.

Eurodisney just wasn't the same as Florida. I guess we didn't expect it to be, but Disney isn't just about the characters, it's about getting this overwhelming exciting feeling like you're 7 again and everything is colourful and fun. You just don't have that feeling at the Paris park, so you can have a good time, but it just falls ever so slightly short. Next time we'll wait longer and save to go to Florida! :D

Having said that, I think the next big holiday on our list to save for will be Lapland. Got to get it in before the small person starts to question the existence of magic ;)

Mr Bogert's photography club

Ok, not actually his club, it's the villages, but my very clever other half dreamed it into existence, so credit where credit's due. We had our second meeting of the club this Monday evening just gone, and I learnt something that stayed in my head :D There is hope for me yet!

Mr Bogert said that even if he didn't have the photography club he would have still taught me what he knows. I pointed out that it would be highly unlikely he would put together a powerpoint presentation with printed handouts just for little old me.

Our club in action

I'm really enjoying it, and we're getting to know new people too which is great. Mr Bogert set us all an assignment from September to bring to this last Monday's session. We had to photograph something from the local area where we live. Being completely overwhelmed with "other stuff" (lets just leave it at that) we didn't take our pictures until the Monday day. Naughty naughty. I promise I'll make an earlier effort for this next one. Our assignment for next time is to take a picture (or pictures) of greenery but also exploring depth of field (I think shallow depth of field).


Here's my piccies from the last assignment. Most people are from our village, which meant we had alot of photos of the church. But it was interesting to see different perspectives.

Our village church

War memorial cross in the churchyard

Mr Bogert also serves on the village hall committee, and they asked him if we would display some prints along with the art club at the Christmas fair. Yay! He's asked everyone who wants to take part to submit 10 photographs we like of our own work for the club members to vote which to use. One final print chosen from each person wishing to take part. I'm really looking forward to seeing what pictures everyone submits.

I'm slowly catching you up on what's been going on at the Wishes household. And well done Mr Bogert on making a really good idea a reality. See, I knew you were wonderful when I married you :)

Listed!

Finally got the medium sized crochet bows listed in my folksy shop. Halloween and Christmas specials included :)

Looks like I'm slowly catching up :D

So cold......

Our house is like a freezer. When we bought the house just over a year ago, we knew exactly what we were getting because it used to belong to my Nan and Grandad. We bought it from my Dad and Uncle after my Grandad passed away. Anyway, the house has no heating. None whatsoever. It used to have storage heaters but they were taken out years ago.

The house is also only double glazed on the 2 front windows, but there is some sort of draft coming through one of them, and the front door is the original 1985 wooden one complete with large gap you can see down the street through (Ok, slight exageration, but there is a drafty gap) There is no pipework to have radiators put in, so what we have done since we moved in is have and electirc (fan/blower) style fire in the living room (which my wonderful DIY god of a husband did all by himslef. And it works.) and buy 2 electric supposedly "eco friendly" plug in heaters. They work great, but as we discovered last winter, they cost a bomb to run.

So is it mean and miserly of me to be sitting here with all 3 heaters turned off, wrapped up in many layers, making my daughter wear her dressing gown and ug boots over her clothes, typing with my handmade wrist warmers on, drinking hot drinks all day? Probably. Just a little. I'm sure I'll thank me when the electricity bill comes in.

Anyway, that has nothing at all to do with what I've been doing. Ignore my cold rambling self. Mr Bogert was away with work not last week but the week before. I thought I would get muchos crafting done. Not to be I'm afraid. I still had to go into work (my lovely grandparents watched the small person for me as I couldn't get her to nursery) and I had a big burst of energy that I threw at our insurmountable washing pile, and I nearly won too. I'm sure the white washing pile would agree I put up a good fight. I also did major cleaning works on the rest of the house, and it was all clean and shiny for about 3 hours. But I did enjoy those spotless 3 hours, even if they were shortlived.

My lovely girly friends (minus a couple who couldn't make it and one who had to leave early with the kids) - thanks for a great time girls

On the Saturday some of my lovely old school friends came round. We had a good old fashioned sleepover. PJ's madatory (even for those going home and not sleeping at mine). We watched Penelope (I love that movie), had a chinese take away, made banana splits with tons of sprinkles and things, and talked. ALOT. In fact, we're not quite sure how we got 4:30am, because we're all sure that we'd only been chatting for a couple of hours. The small person then woke us only about 4 hours later :( So tired. But happy tired. Had a great night with some fantastic friends that I'll always be very thankful for, then Heather (yes, potato salad Heather) brought Dogtanian with her! Yay! I love Dogtanian. So we sat in the conservatory watching that and drinking hot tea. "One for all and all for one, Muskehounds are always ready. One for all and all for one, helping everybody.........."

Suey looey

Mrs Monty

"Potato salad" Heather

Lisa Kim

We were still singing along to the theme tune when Rob returned from his work trip and joined in. More happiness :)

So as you can see there has been very little time for crafting. I did however sit up until about 11pm on that Sunday night finishing the Snow White Evil Queen costume, and I'm glad I did because Alexandra loves wearing it and acting "evil" (which to her means alot of pointing, cape flapping and frowning until you have a double chin). It's not up to my usual standards as I was rushing it, but it looks OK.

Also Heather (yes, it's the same Heather. She pops up alot here doesn't she?) and her lovely fella, brought me lots of lovely scrummy fabric. Yay! What am I going to make? Lots of things! Yay! The crown for the small person costume was made from a bit of one of the fabrics. It was like it was made for the purpose. Bad point of all this? Rob gets home. "What's all this in the bedroom?" Me - "It was already here" (this was said in a sort of hopeful way rather than an actual statement) And Mr Bogert's reply? He just rolled his eyes and went back downstairs. Good job he loves me.

Back baby!

Just dropping in quickly to say I'm back, but it's taking me a while to get back on top of everything (not least the enormous mountain - yeah, I said mountain - of washing). There will be a longer post (hopefully tomorrow). For now, will a picture of the small person's finished halloween costume tide you over (and buy me some forgivness)?

Good. You're so understanding :)

That's right. The Evil Queen from Snow White! MWAH HA HA HAAAAAAAAA!

Shop update

The large bows are now in the shop, thanks to these 2 lovely models. (Medium bows are coming soon, once I get chance to list them!)

Yup. That's attractive.

Also watch this space to see some goodies coming coming my way! Yay!