Procrastination

It's just after midnight (00:12 to be precise) and I've spent a good 20 minutes reminiscing over my first few blog posts when my helper was very small. Scarily she's now in year 1 at school and the other two monkeys are nearly three and 18 months - yep,  over19 months since my last entry!!!!

Three children means there is no time at all to make anything, especially when tied to a full time teaching job.

The sister who had a baby is expecting her second in just over a month and the. If sister got married this summer and moved to Brunei with her new husband.

Battery is running low and I have a set of literacy books still to mark.

My guilty pleasure, I hope, will be coming back here to write some ramblings and hopefully start making again!!! If nothing else, my youngest still needs a teddy and my new niece/nephew will need a blanket.

Freedom!!

Maternity leave woohoo!!!!!!!!!

It has finally begun! 11 months of maternity leave and I'm still finishing off work (marking and submitting plans etc) but still... it's not the end of the world and will all be complete within a day or two (as long as I stop procrastinating).

I have recently found Pinterest and therefore have an ever growing list of things I want to crochet, sew, do etc. Surely this is an incentive to get my work finished ASAP!

Hopefully next time I log in I'll have some pictures of new makes!

Old Year Old Me - New Year New Me (well from Feb 1st)

Well I failed totally with those resolutions last year!!

We have had an enjoyable yet hard year and I am looking forward to 2013 a little more than I was a few weeks ago.

My sister's wedding went to plan and was the hottest day of the year (hence everyone looking a bit flustered and sweaty in most of the pictures!)

Then at the end of November my lovely father in law died suddenly. There are many things I regret never being able to say to him, but I'm sure deep down he knew how loved he was and how adored by both grandchildren.

Just before Christmas my sister (the one who got married) had a beautiful baby girl.

All of this on top of the Midwife, Health Visitor and Doctor telling me I'm trying to be too many people and do too much.

So.... from the end of January I will be on maternity leave (again) and I will hopefully have 6 weeks to clear my head, sort the house out, get into a nice routine with the two herberts and be happy in myself by the time baby arrives. A big ask I know, but I think once I have finished work I will have a huge chunk of my elephant eaten.

Right now I need to get on with some work so I can have a free day tomorrow to play before going back for the last 4 (hard) weeks.

'Summer' so far...

Eeek - I don't think I can stick to my resolution. As much as I want to give up the blog, I love coming and having a little look at the things I've done/want to do and I think I need to continue, even if it is sporadic.

So, onto things that are happening here - garden is looking great if a little wild. The Acidanthera look super, but no flowers yet - I'm hoping they'll bloom on time for little sister's wedding (I forgot to take a photo so will do so tomorrow).

Sweet peas are nearly all up, some are thinking about flowering, but I hope they hold on for a few weeks so as to be at their best for the wedding too. The only disappointment was the pack of seeds for the 'Apple Blossom' sweet peas. Only 1 seed germinated from the first packet, and none from the replacement packet kindly sent out from T&M. (That one plant is under close surveillance now!)

Not sure if I mentioned in my last set of posts, but back at Christmas we were given four gorgeous hens - two lovely brown/red Sussex and two Marans, a grey and a black. Here's a picture of my little helper with the chickens (taken way back in April) when the sun was out!

They've been really good girls lately and we're getting 4 eggs a day (one each) and some days 5! It's lovely hearing her talk to them and tell them about 'chubby' or 'chub' as the baby has been named.

Back to the gardening... I'm pretty sure I wrote about planting Freesias last time and I'm so excited - they're flowering a look/smell divine!!!!! I had a whole load of pretty pictures to add too, but the laptop is being super slow and it's too nice outside to waste sitting waiting for them to load. I'll try tomorrow instead.

I still have a pile of crafty things to do - I need/would like to make my helper a cardigan to match the bridesmaids dresses for little sister's wedding and I need to make her dress for it too (little helper that is, not little sister!). Poor Chubber still doesn't have a finished teddy, it still needs eyes/nose etc. The one of the left was made for my little helper and finished before she was born, Chubber is nearly 8 months old and his is still  featureless! If you look closely you can see in the picture there's also the start of a Blooming Flower (thanks to Attic24 for the pattern).

I think whichever Crafty Bum put the link to this amazing blog is both a genius and a pest - I can't stop looking at all the gorgeous colours and planning more things to make!!!

Chubber has started to crawl and is sitting up on his own. I'm so glad he's started this week; I don't feel like I'll miss so much when I'm back at work for the last two weeks of term. It's going to be a bit of a change for all of us and I'm not sure I'm looking forward to it yet.

Seed sowing and corm planting

Eeeek - it's well over a week since I made my resolution and because there was no nursery this week I haven't found any time to write with my little helper around. There are no pictures of the garden either because the weather has been awful!

I ordered some seeds ready to sow and they only came yesterday, so we (my little helper and I) have been busy in the greenhouse trying to keep dry this morning. We also put some of Grandma's 'special seeds' into big pots ready for Aunty's wedding in the summer - I'm scared I'll get these wrong though - 50 Acidanthera is a big responsibility!

My seeds that finally arrived are:
Sweet Pea 'King Size Navy Blue', 'White Supreme' and 'Apple Blossom'.
Cornflower 'Polka Dot Mixed', Stock 'Giant Perfection Mixed' and 'Appleblossom'

The Stock are in and one packet of the King Size Navy Blue. The other sweet peas will have to wait until I either have some more pots the right size, or until I get some canes up for them. The Cornflowers will go out as soon as I have weeded the patch where they will grow (hopefully at the weekend when my helpers are either sleeping or playing with daddy).

Resolutions!

As it has been well over a year since my last entry on here I need to decide whether to continue with the 'blog' or not! I always love reading other blogs and never manage to write my own.


So I'm giving myself a month and I'm going to endeavour to blog at least once a week (well that's the theory). If I have succeeded then I will carry on, if not - well I'm sure the number of entries will speak for itself.


There are quite a few projects I want/need to get started on and it would be lovely to document these. I want to grow flowers for my sister's wedding, keep up with the running that I have started again, sew more pretty clothes for my daughter, make things for my son (I didn't even know he was on the way when I last blogged!), enjoy the rest of my maternity leave and above all make it count!!!!!


So here goes...

Sunday Ramblings

We've had a busy few weeks here - almost a whole half term has been and gone at school since I last blogged (I need to remind my husband about his blog too, he's only written once!).

The weather has gradually improved this month; I even managed to spend a pleasant lunch time at school refereeing a netball match in the sunshine, although today it was back to cold and windy. My running has slowly improved too - I've managed to run 10 miles twice since Christmas (although I'm almost walking by the end) and today I managed 8 and could have carried on I think. Added to yesterday's 14 miles on the bike I think I'm in for sore legs (and bum) tomorrow!

I've got a pretty busy evening ahead - planning for school, a layer of papier mache for the pinata and then I need to get on with making my little girl's birthday presents!