What's on my crafting table?

Well, as I mentioned, I've been trying to get a few of my own bits an pieces done inbetween being ill and having fun with the small person.

I have been making bunting. I have 3 complete sets of mini christmas bunting ready to go, but need to make a second set of the red and green. These are about 54" long, and the flags are about 2" wide at the top. They're perfect for above doorways, across mantles, across shelves or other items of furniture (ends of beds etc) or even around trees. They will be going into the shop in November ready for Christmas.

I also want to make some normal sized bunting, so I have some baby boy and baby girl cut ready to sew up, and I'm planning on cutting a larger version of the red and green christmas bunting.

I also have these sitting ready to sew. They are part of the super hero capes that Alexandra will give away at her superhero birthday party at the end of the year. Thought I could at least get a start on the ones I know will be coming, the rest I'll have to add the letters to the back once I have the replies.

Whilst everything else has been getting done, my crochet blankets have been neglected and I really must get those finished in time for when little wish arrives.

Finally, this weekend I've promised my sister to get her invitations finished for her party. She's got ages, but she's worrying (and irritating as little sisters so often are). More on those when they're done.

Catch up time :)

Phew! We've had a really busy few weeks!

As an in depth review of all the time that has passed and how we've filled it would take absolutely forever, I've voted for the simple option of a whistle stop tour of the highlights of the past few weeks at the Wishes household....

Last day of term at Toddler Group

This was both a relief (cos I'll get a break) but also very sad. Sadder this year than past ones because it will be the last time the small person gets to go. I've been taking her to this group since she was 10 months old and now she's too big :( There were other goodbyes to be said aswell, and all of our little leavers got a card like last year with the rhyme which reads:

Although we're sad to see you go,

We know it's time for you to grow.

You've made new friends, had lots of fun,

but now your time with us is done.

A new adventure is on it's way,

as you start at big school to learn and play.

We also had to say goodbye to Christine who has been helping us from the Children's Centre. She has a new job, so we'll get a new helper in September. The kids all got to decorate biscuits as planned. They had initial biscuits for their names and also stars and hearts. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the biscuits because they were all gobbled up too quickly!

Alexandra's Pre-school Summer Concert - The Princess and the Pea

I finally got to find out where a Mexican comes into the story! When the Prince goes travelling in search of a Princess he goes to the 4 corners of the earth, and apparently, Mexico is one of those corners :) My little Mexican performed the best little dance you've ever seen, but the Prince still didn't believe she was a Princess (shows what he knows!). The whole thing was lovely :) Mr Bogert was on camera duty again, so we got there early to take the portrait pics of the kids in their costumes. I love this bit, because you really get to see how everyone is dressed up. I filmed the concert as best as I could (the chairs were a little close to the action) so that my mum, nan and grandad can watch it, they were on holiday at the time. The whole performance made me realise 2 things: 1-Alexandra is a born performer and we really should enrol her in some dance classes because she'd love it. 2-I must make a Princess and the Pea play set to get it out of my system!

My mini birthday celebrations

The night after the concert, Mr Bogert treated me to grown up cinema time (Mother in Law babysat) and we went to watch Eclipse (not as good as the book) and we had a giant popcorn tub and drink to share and a mini tub of ice cream each (Mmmmmm, Cherry Garcia......). The next night which is normally Mr Bogert's manly bonding pub night, I got to go :) But he additionally surprised me by taking me, his best friend and his best friend's fiance out for a meal to a gorgeous Indian restaurant I've been wanting to go back to for ages. Yummy!

The small person's Pre-school Graduation

This was so sweet. I love that they do this for the kids moving up to big school. They all looked so proud :) The kids make their own mortar board hats with the nursery name on and they each go up to the headmistress when they're called, shake hands, get a reading book and a certificate that has a photograph of them on the other side (dressed in a robe and the mortar board). Again another sad moment. My little small person isn't so small anymore. She has to go to big school :( I asked her if she'd mind very much stop growing and she just looked at me with a mix of sympathy and "my mummy's so silly" look, and said "I can't stop growing Mummy. I just like wheating my food". Mr Bogert was on camera duty again which is good for me because it means we've got pictures of all the kids Alexandra played with at this point in her life and we can show her when she gets older.

My birthday BBQ

Yes, my birthday did get dragged out across the week, but hey, I'm not complaining. We kind of do this every year. It works well with my birthday being in the summer. All of our friends come over and we eat, chat, drink, the menfolk do silly things like this year competing with each other to see who could do the most repetitions of weight lifting. It turned out to be one of the wives! :D My lovely friend Heather managed to come all the way down here (from up north) to see little old me, and we gave her a birthday cake because it's her birthday 2 days after mine. Her and her Andy stayed the night.

My ACTUAL birthday

This was the day after the BBQ. Heather and Andy were still here so they had some breakfast and watched me open presents. Look what Heather made for me.....

Now I want a dedicated craft room even more so that it can sit above my work desk :D I had lots of other lovely things aswell including some ace new weighing scales, a garlic crusher (you have no idea how much easier this makes my life) and a shiny colander which when it sits on my kitchen counter, makes the room look finished (It makes sense to me). I also had lots of money to go towards our bathroom project. Can we get a new bathroom installed before the baby arrives? Probably not, but Mr Bogert's going to give it a damn good go!

The rest of the day was spent at a pre-wedding shoot Mr Bogert had booked. (He asked me if I was OK with this, but as you can see, I had plenty of fun over the week, so I was quite happy for him to work on my birthday) The lovely couple actually invited me and Alexandra to go along and meet them and their family (parents and kids) and have dinner at a restaurant with them. I thought that was so nice of them. They really are a lovely couple and the food was yummy. They've even invited me to the evening reception of the wedding! I might be a little too large by then though.....

More boat building

The boat building has been an ongoing thing in between all these other activities. I must admit, he's done a pretty good job (not that I'm an expert on these things) and he and his boat partner took it for a test paddle this last weekend. Not only did it float, it moved as it was intended. He's still got a few modifications and some painting to do, but it's looking good. He's also made his boat partner want to build his own boat now too. Mr Bogert in all his enthusiasm suggested exactly the same design so that they "can attach the 2 together, add a sail and have a catamaran". Boys.

Other

I have been making Folksy plans. Hopefully I'll be able to restock my shop by September, I've even pre-made a few xmassy things to go in around November time.

The small person was ill for most of the first week of the summer holidays, but she's all smiles again now, so we're well into our summer activities (more on that in future posts), but Mr Bogert is now unwell. He occasionally puts in an order for room service, but what's bothering him the most is he can't finish those modifications on his boat.

So I think that's all of the highlights, and here we are back at present day. Expect some crafting show and tell and some great kids holiday activity commentary in the coming posts!

*It should be noted that this post was written before "the hiccup" (see next post) hence the delay in posting it.

Finished!

Yay! I have now officially finished work until after the arrival of little wish number 2. Let's say it again, Yay!

My actual maternity leave doesn't start until the end of this month, but I had some annual leave to take anyway, so that's me done :)

I have actually also managed to finish the bed spread (For Alexandra)! I know, only about a year in the making (someone should sack me really) but it is now done. I still have the curtains to do but must admit I've been putting it off because the thought of that much fabric to handle isn't particularly pleasant.

On another crafty note I have FINALLY started making something for squigglepop (not such a mean mummy now). I have started 2 crochet blankets, but I can't show you them until after baby puts in an appearance in October because the colours of the yarn will give the game away. Sorry! One is double crochet which I will edge like this one here, and the other is a granny stripes pattern which I'm really loving. I wasn't so sure when I started it, but now I'm quite pleased with it.

Alexandra has just had a new top made by mummy from a gorgeous small lemon and white check cotton (seen below). I've been wanting to make something like this for a while but finally sat down to draw up a pattern for it on Friday day. The pattern took me about an hour and is only ledgible to me. That's fine, I can work with that.

I'd actually had a search through my fabric stash and was disapointed to see just how low I am on pretty cotton prints (I've left mum with instructions to keep an eye out at car boots when she goes) but there was this lovely check in my drawer which I could just imagine into a pretty summer top (if only it were that easy!).

So, Friday evening (Mr Bogert was away "team building") I sat down to actually make the top. I used a lovely soft white muslin to line the bodice and instead of fiddly french seams, I just used the zig zag to edge all the seam allowances (which still looks very neat). I took me about 2 1/2 to 3 hours in total. I was making it up as I went along. The fastenings are press studs with white buttons for decoration. Once I tried it on the small person it need a little bit of tweaking under the arms (which I will fix on the pattern for next time) but I was really quite proud of myself. I just kind of sat there and though "Wow, I actually made that". I think it's just been so long since I've made an item of clothing that wasn't fancy dress!

It was ready in time for her to wear to Joshua's 3rd birthday party (small person and the birthday boy above). Joshua is my godson, my cousins little boy and we had a fantastic time at the party. They hired a big birthday cake shaped bouncy castle :).

The whole time I was making the top I was imagining it worn with these white linen trousers that she has. We topped it off with a crochet hair bow in cream (not yellow, because the colour was too strong with the pale top) and she looked gorgeous. (If I do say so myself!)

So, if I made a top like this again to sell in my foksy shop, would you buy it? Would you expect to see the seams finished like this

Or would you expect them to be finished diferently? How much would you want to pay for something like this (to fit a 5 year old)?

Now that I'm off, I've got several things to focus on. Getting ready for Squigglepop, getting small person prepared for starting school but giving her lots of fun things to do over the summer, restocking my folksy shop (because after October I may not get much time) and finally, helping Mr Bogert get his photography paperwork together and doing a bit of ringing around on his behalf. Looking forward to all of it! :D

I'm afraid I can't stay any longer and chat (or fill you in on other activites we've been up to) because the post has just arrived and a book that Mr Bogert ordered for me on Thursday has popped through the letter box. (And I'm excited and impatient! Must go flick through it!)

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

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!

Lots to show

I've just listed these bags in my folksy shop (which I think I'm getting the hang of!) and hasn't my little model done a lovely job!

Happy Birthday to my Grandad for yesterday. 84 years young. Alexandra decided she was "the birthday giver" and took great pride in handing over our handmade cards and she sang happy birthday :)

I'm still loving making these. Every single one of this rainbow of bows is destined for a hair band/clip/barrette. I just need to order some blanks. I made the large size originally, but I've experimented and now have 3 sizes.

The small person's hand painted mug from the coutry show arrived! Yay! I love it, but alas, I can't keep it. It's destined for Alexandra's Nanny's birthday present. Good job I've booked the same company to come into toddler group in October then, isn't it?

This is Nanny, so I've been told.

This is the sunshine with legs standing in the mud :D

This is my latest play around with crochet. I went into work early (4:30am) on Saturday and then they had me covering the special delivery cages (not nearly as cage like as it sounds) where you get a mad flurry of activity, then it all goes quiet. Thank god I always have a bit of crochet in my bag. So this is the result of a dull lull. I'm super proud of my bobbles, can you tell?

Sunday we were at Rob's first wedding fair. Here I am looking all smart and serious on Rob's stand :D It was a small fair in Coalville, but it was nice, nothing went wrong, we met some lovely people from the other stands, and there was interest in Rob's work. We remember from when we were planning our wedding, we never booked anything there and then at a fair, we went for ideas, information and to bring it away to discuss and decide together at home. With that in mind, we weren't really expecting any actual bookings on the day. I fact, speaking to everyone, only the suit hire guy and chair cover lady got actual solid bookings on the day (3 for the suits and 1 for the chair covers). Fingers crossed we were liked enough to get some enquiries or bookings. There were 4 brides that we thought were very interested for next year.

And finally, meet Winnie and Wilbur. These are both hand appliqued felt just a bit smaller than the size of a saucer. I had to do something halloweeny :)

So I've been quiet but very busy. We have the car back and it's working lovely now. Lets hope it stays that way for many more miles. At toddler group today we had the black and white photographer in. I love her pictures of the kids. I always buy the ones of Alex because they're always so nice and natural. (She just told me today that I get 50% off for being the organiser! Bargain!) She doesn't pose the kids, she just snaps candids whilst they play. We get the proofs back next week. Excited already!

Better late than never

Here's the good luck card that the computer just didn't want me to show you yesterday:)




Have you ever had one of those days (weeks, months, years) where everything just goes so horribly against you, you want to cry? We've just had one of those. We must have THE worst luck ever :(


Mr Bogert hasn't been graduated that many years, so we're still overcoming the student debts (including his overdraft) which also means we have completely demolished any savings we ever had. We were however trundling along nicely, until the bank decided to reduce his overdraft limit without any notice, so that not only left us very short on cash (and several things had to go unpaid), they also wanted to charge us (and they have), then as these things are never lone incidents, he got caught doing 5 miles per hour over the speed limit and fined £60 (yes, his fault, but in his defence, it was down hill), then our rent (we have a shared ownership house so pay part rent and have part mortgage) was put up by £120 per year, then yesterday the car coughed, splutered and refused to move. The garage has said today that it's going to cost just under £1000 to fix :( Has to be done because he needs it to get to work and there's no way we can afford a new car :(


As there's very little I can do about any of these things (my mother in law is helping us out for the time being so it wont result in anything as drastic as being thrown out on the street!)) apart from feeling a bit down and like we're always clawing to get to normality, all I can think of is Disney. Stupid I know. 2 things spring to mind. Meet the Robinsons and their "keep moving forward" and Finding Nemo and "Just keep swimming". That's what we shall have to do.


I'm being optimistic that the wedding fair is going to bring us some luck (and business) on Sunday. One good thing to come out of this is I have finally set up my own Folksy shop. Something I'm a little excited about, and something I'm also slightly terrified by. You know when you get that little voice in your head say "what if I'm not good enough"? Yeah. I got that one. I've wanted to do it for a while, but had plenty of reasons to hold myself back (being a big scaredy cat being the main one), but this has kind of pushed me with the "well it can't hurt" mantra going in my head. So far, I've only got to listing the 4 cards shown in the last 2 posts, but hopefully this weekend, I can list some of those many bags I've been making for no reason. Let's just hope.....


Nothing else can go wrong, right? And we're due some good fortune surely?