Time for Show and Tell

A very happy New Year to you! The celebrations have passed (very sad to say), but we just have a spot of quiet time for me to fit in a little show and tell post.

I had some wonderful gifts. The Small Person chose her own gifts for me: a wooly ear-flap hat and a pair of My Little Pony pants :D I actually really like the pants. They're those boy shorts pants. I have all sorts of that style with different characters and pictures on. (My favourites are a lemon pair with robots all over!)

I had some books I need for my courses. I've started reading one: The Stories of English by David Crystal, and I'm really enjoying it, it's very interesting.

I had plenty of smellies, inlcuding one of my favourite perfumes, Cerutti 1881. There was also plenty of chocolate and some chocolate biscuit tins found under the tree with my name on :D

There were clothes, underwear, a beautiful brooch, a pub quiz game, a dvd, a few bottles of something rather tasty, a steamer and some pirex dishes, a slow cooker cook book and so many other things. See? Truly spoilt!

Of special mention is my lovely watch. Remember the one I mentioned back here? I love this pendant watch.

There were a few homemade items recieved. Heather cross-stitched each of our initials on an oversized jingle bell character for  the tree.

She also gave the Small Person a Fairy Sack which has been quite handy for taking toys to various relatives houses over the holiday. It is a blue drawnsrting sack with a quilted front. I do not know if it is hand made or not, but there is no label, and it's defintiely something I'm considering making a few copies of.

The Small Person was also given a new bag from Auntie Elly and Uncle John (Mr Bogert's Godfather and his wife). It is well made and has yellow butterfly buttons for decor. I don't think it is intended to be reversible, but we have been using it inside out simply because it has a lovely red with white spot lining that's looks very festive.

And of course, I haven't shown you the Smaller Person's stocking yet. Like I said before, it needs to be lined and padded (still haven't made up my mind about the finished result of the name on the cuff), so I will make sure it's properly completed for next time Santa stops by.

In keeping with our theme, he has the Dinsey character Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch). My stocking was going to be Stitch because he is my favourite, but when we were trying to choose an appropriate character for Zachary, Mr Bogert pointed out, Stitch is the only one that reminds us of Zack (at the moment). So I've given up my Stitch stocking for the Smaller Person.

I realised you wouldn't have seen 2 new creations for the tree from last Christmas either (due to my bloggy break). Each of the Small People painted a ceramic tree decoration.

Last but absolutely not least, a Christmas card. Other than the Small Person's (many) handmade cards, we only recieved one non store bought card this year, and that was from The Woo's. I don't know if Mrs Woo made them herself or bought them from another creative soul, but isn't this lovely?

Did you get any lovely hand made cards or gift this year? Did you make anything to give? I'd love to hear about them.

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.

Happy birthday, Nana!

Now, it's not that I forgot it's my Nan's birthday today. I hadn't forgotten at all. I had it in mind to go round for a visit with the small person today while Rob's at work. See, I was well aware of the birthday. I just forgot it's customary to give a gift and card. Told you I'd lost my mojo.

Well it must be slowly coming back because after an extremely quick stop at Dunelm yesterday (1/2 hour before closing time) I managed to get the bits and pieces required for our gift. Alex chose a lovely porcelain tea light holder to give her and I bought a feather filled cushion and some lace and fabric to make a cushion cover to go with it for her.

I used other bits I already had and once started, it didn't take too long to finish.

Nan seemed very pleased with it, so that's what counts.

Card from me and Bogert.

Card from the small person.

This weekend has been really busy. It was the Carnival in the town where Alexandra goes to nursery (and where most of our friends are from), so after finishing work on Saturday, the 3 of us went straight there. We browsed the stalls, had a go on the tombolas and we even found a dance school suitable for the small person! (she loves dancing and wanted to go to lessons, but we've been struggling to find one I can get to without a car, that caters for her age in the types of dance we thought she might like to try).

We sat in the old High Street to watch the floats go by. We had friends on 3 different ones, and one of them won overall first prize! They did Alice in Wonderland. I really wish we hadn't been in such a rush and forgotten the camera, because our friends were dressed as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb! So funny! After the last float passed, we headed back to the field to take Alex on some of the rides at the fair. She went on the tea cups, the merry go round, the car ride and went in 2 fun houses.

Later, we took Alexandra on her first ever trip to the cinema to watch Ice Age 3. She loved in and was very well behaved. In fact when asked what she thought about it all she said "I think cinemas are cool!". There we have it, a rave review.

Yesterday we met up with 2 friends at Coombe Abbey for a picnic. One is an old school friend of mine and the other friend is her partner. They now live up north, so we don't get that much chance to see each other. It was lovely to have a catch up and she makes and ace potato salad!

So today I'm back to my deadlines and the real world, and apart from this little trip into blogland, I've mostly been cutting out parrots and parrot feathers for the Noah's Ark costumes. Something which I really should get back to right now!

Sewing, sewing, sewing

I may have forgotten (as I frequently do) to mention that I help run a toddler group in our village. It runs every Tuesday morning, so that's where we've been today. I put all the mini craft projects together for the kids and today we made little lambs with cotton wool. Alexandra was a bit disappointed she couldn't show her Daddy her creation because he's away for work at the moment, so she's going to share it here instead.

She absolutely loves making, drawing, sticking and anything else creative. She's desperate to try sewing, but she doesn't quite have the skills yet to manage it. We've both been card making as well because it's Grandma and Grandpa's (my Nan and Grandad's) 64th wedding anniversary today (yes, really, that long. They are both nearly 84 and going very strong). They only live a few doors away, so we already dropped in for a visit and we'll be going back for dinner later. *EDIT - Alex swears that her card is a picture of a bus. I can see where she's coming from, but I think it looks an awful lot like Tick Tock from Return to OZ!*

I actually get my love of sewing from my Nan. She was a dressmaker and let me fill her entire back room with crafty things every weekend as I was growing up. I made all sorts, like dolls clothes, dressing up outfits, dolls houses, papier mache things, cards, stuffed animals, jewelery, it was endless fun. I think it's that freedom I had to create that makes me think now "yeah, I can try that"! She also taught me how to knit, smock and crochet. Then when I got married, she made my wedding dress and helped me make the bridesmaid's dresses. My wedding dress is definitely something I shall keep forever. It would be nice to hear anyone else's stories about anything or anyone that particularly encouraged your crafting either when you were younger or now.

Furry costumes are coming along nicely and I've sent 6 into the school already (that should please Mr man). I have now completed the leopards, the giraffes, the lions and the monkeys. (We already had existing giraffe, lion and monkey heads though). I'm hoping to get either the tigers or zebras finished this week too while Rob's away. The little tiny fluffy bits off the fur fabric keep blowing across the laminate floor and making me think it's a spider! With no Rob here to save me, I'm a big wuss.

I've been playing around with tiny cross stitch too. No particular reason other than I wanted something to do sitting watching telly and give me a break from the mountains of fur! I wasn't sure what to do with them, but I think I'll turn them into cards and gift tags for those new arrivals on the way. What do you think? I have another idea for the little tea cup, but you'll have to wait and see.....