long week, lovely post

It has been a loooong week at work, people have been off ill and that has impacted on everyone's stress levels. So quite happy to get home tonight and find my first parcel of lovely smells. Sharing these with a lovely friend at work.

odd weekend

Well a bit of an odd weekend, we didn't go out to eat as darling hubby G was feeling rough, unfortunately this happens fairly often due to his Crohn's  we stayed in and ate jacket potatoes these suit us well when he's not well, the kids and i can have lots of different toppings and G has plain potato with olive spread . I spent some time with my friend C on Saturday we are planning lots of things for this year,  in previous years we have talked about doing stuff and not really gotten round to lots of them so this year is the year that we do things instead of talking about them. So far the plan is to take it in turns to chose the activity January's choice was C's and its a visit to Hampton Court so that's where we are planning to go next weekend. February's activity is afternoon tea out for C's birthday.  So March was my choice and i am trying to get a group of 8 people so we can go curling, slightly oddball idea but why not?.
So back to work tomorrow,  just hope this week is a little calmer than last week.

long week that ends with a few treats

Well that's it for this week, thank goodness by Wednesday I really thought I wouldn't make it to Friday evening, and I am definitely battered and bruised but I have made it through.  It is my friend C's birthday today so we had cake at work that absolutely helped us to make it, that and the emergency chocolate from our friends next door. So for C's birthday I am booking for an afternoon tea treat day in London,  something lovely to look forward to. Hopefully we will be able to go in half term. My gorgeous husband had an interview on Thursday so we are now crossing everything and waiting to hear, we decided we would go out as a family tomorrow to celebrate lots of little bits that don't really need celebrating but we do all need a little treat as a pick me up. I will try to remember to take photo's . I have also treated myself to some lovely hand sanitisers from eBay,  one of the girls I work with has some Bath and Body works pocketbac 's in a little holder that someone got her for Christmas and they smell yummy, unfortunately we don't have that store in the UK and they don't do international shipping so as we all use lots of anti bac at work i decided to treat darling daughter and I to some. They are £2.50 each so I can't get too many but am looking forward to trying them. If anyone knows of where to buy them cheaper please let me know.

come on snow, we are waiting

I so want it to snow,  we haven't had a good amount of the white stuff for the last few years.  I really love watching the snow fall especially at night, and walking when you don't need to  is fun. I obviously like to be prepared with plenty of food in the house especially as I have to make meals for my lovely mother in law.  So there is a small chance this weekend I am keeping my fingers crossed.  I hope that everyone stays safe in this weather. Of course another reason for liking snow is the possibility of a few snow days it is a great opportunity to craft and I don't feel guilty about not spending time with the family as we are still altogether.

TSNEM January done

So I  have been creative this weekend,  it feels good to start the TSNEM challenge and complete my first project. So my first arm knitted scarf is done it looks good, it certainly took me a lot longer than the you tube video tutorials, they vary between 30 Min's up to 1hour. I took about 2 hours but then I was stopping for cooking and then to go pick up my son from work. Although I found this quite a challenge I'm really pleased I persevered as K is so happy with the scarf. I am in the process of a second scarf as when I was shopping with my husband today he found some great chunky wool in Aldi, which he encouraged me to buy, so I did lol. This wool is black with a strand of grey and brown twisted together so I have mixed it with a ball of black lumio wool I will post pictures of the finished product tomorrow.
Sad times back to work tomorrow.

TSNEM January 2015

We have tried something new this month yipee. So arm knitting was the challenge we decided on and today was the day, so this afternoon we spent about 20 minutes watching you tube video tutorials.  I finally found one that made sense to me 
Arm Knit Infinity Scarf (Cowl): http://youtu.be/wEK_pifMC2g

I found this video really simple to follow. I haven't finished the scarf yet as i had to go pick up my son from work, so I am going to try to pick it up after our meal but here are some photos and a 

 from earlier if i can work it out I will post a short video later

Researching arm knitting

TSNEM so after a long day at work I have spent a lovely long time researching arm knitting , youtube  and pinterest have lots of different tutorials so I have highlighted a few to watch on Saturday when K and I are going to try to create either a scarf or blanket.
So if anyone has any good tutorials please let me know.

TSNEM

Just found this great idea

http://swoodsonsays.com/2015-project-try-something-new-every-month-tsnem/

I really want to join in as I have promised myself to spend more time being creative and this will spur me on.

I'm thinking about arm knitting as January's new thing, I have not been able to get my head or hands around knitting so this could be a winner.

last day of hols 😦

Well it is the last day of the Christmas holidays and I am so don't want to go to work tomorrow. I have had a busy day, as always on a sunday I met with my 3 friends for coffee, or tea for me today☺ we all talked lots about our break and christmas, as we all work at different schools we all know we have to go in tomorrow. I have a training dayand they have pupils in, not sure which is worse. I have not done any crafting today but have been creative ish inthe kikitchen, I have bulk cooked 3 different meals, and frozen 12 meals. I would have liked to do more but ran outif time. So my mil has chicken and pasta, bolognase for jacket pots and shepherds pies for her freezer and I need to fill my freezer next. As my family are all quite awkward to feed, G has crohn's so is mostly dairy and fibre free,A has allergies to nuts, peanuts and sesame and last but not least darling K is on a high calorie diet. I generally eat whatever is left from all their meals lol. I do like to only cook 1 meal and adjust for G as poor old thing can only really tolorate well cooked carrots, peeled potato'sand mushrooms, otherwiseIhahave to cook 2 different things and I am bored by the whole thing. It really is not fun to try to find food they can and will eat. I have started a pinterest board to try to encourage me to branch out from the same boring things I always cook. so this week I am going to try 1 cheese and potato bake, 1 half with onion and 1 half without. 2 sausage casserole, in the slow cooker 3 roast gammon, using the last of the Christmas buys 4 chicken and dumplings, in the slow cooker 5 meatballs and pasta, in the slow cooker I will update how it goes. I am also going to try to shop at lidl and aldi this month so will see if it saves me money or not.

Fabric yumminess

Fabricland is a place to lose time in, I spent a very happy hour looking and touching fabrics. I am pleased to say I very nearly stuck to my budget that G had set me. £20.54 p. G had said £20 so I was close.

Now all I have to do is find some projects to use them with.

Fabric shopping later today

I am off shopping this morning, Kingston upon Thames.
Yipee it has the lovely John lewis one of the best places to gaze at yummy wools. We are also going to go looking at fabrics in fabricland, G has set me a limit of  £20 , but I have a vague agreement that if I find something really lovely I can go over budget. At least thats what I  heard😊. I will try to post pictures later of what I have bought assuming that I find something lol .

Sewing day today

A sewing day today with my friend C

C is hemming curtains and I am having a quick go at the armband if it goes ok I will post pictures.

Well a very hysterical afternoon was had, no sewing armbands as no time, but a blind hem was completed using my new sewing machine, a very odd looking foot, and lots of laughter. I am slightly ashamed to admit that even with the pictures in the instruction manual I was still unable to correctly fold the fabric to use the blindhem stitch. All I can say is thank goodness for pinterest as after a quick search I found an idiot proof guide with photos. Thankfully once we had pinned the hem it only took about 15 mins to sew.

running armband

a friend wants a running band for her phone, looking forward to making this find it on my pinterest sewing board Visit Chris's profile on Pinterest.

new year, new blog

new year....2015 new blog.... creative space new sewing machine.... singer confidence 7471 new plans.... enjoy more creative time new projects.... pinterest here I come