super cute

I think not.  But do-able and do the job wristies. Done. 

I am ashamed to tell you how many times I started these again.  Six.  It is my attention to detail problem rearing its ugly head.  When a pattern calls for 20 stitches - it means it should be 20 stitches at the beginning, and 20 stitches at the end.  Not 22 after 2 rounds, not 24 after another 2, what the f***?!  How is that happening?!  Anyhoo.  They are now in my coat pockets ready to use, and doubtless we will now have a heatwave and I will never get to wear them, like I will never get to use my blanket.  Unless the boiler breaks down.   Or we move to Norway. 

Tuesday was St Valentine's day - a source of complete misery and humiliation for me throughout my teens, but now a pleasant and family based day where Oliver is really pleased that Mark and I exchange token gifts, like chocs and flowers and cards, and the three of us have a nice family meal.  This year I took full advantage of the Sainsburys meal deal buying 2 lots so we had salmon and dauphinoise potatoes with veg followed by hazelnut and choc torte-thing or white choc and raspberry torte-thing,  washed down with sparkling pomegranate and elderflower and sparkling cava for me.  No brainer cooking and waaayyyyy cheaper than a meal out.  Next year we'll dine on mince and slices of quince and eat with a runcible spoon.

I remember Valentine's day of 1998, when my then boyfriend,  (hereafter referred to as Knobhead), decided it would be a good idea (!) for us to go out for a meal with Mark, (now my Mark) and his then girlfriend, (hereafter referred to as The Nutter).  We knew Mark from badminton, and had socially met up with Mark and The Nutter a few times.  The evening was HID-EOUS.  Mark and I clashed horribly at that time, and the evening went from bad to worse.  I ended up not talking to Knobhead at all by the end of it, and there was a foul atmosphere between the four of us.  I recall saying the next day that I never wanted to go out with them again and that Mark was a complete bastard.  Ironic really as I married him the following year. You couldn't make it up.  Didn't see that one coming, for sure. 

Hey ho.  I am drawn to these, but so fear the mocking from Mark, that I don't think I have the balls for it. 

Laters.

December 2nd. Nuff said.

Just a quickie, better way post daily wherever humanely possible, or the days will just fall on top of each other and I won't remember sod all about what we've been up to.

A very early start to the day at 5am with Oliver in our room panicking because he couldn't breathe very well.  This has happened before a few times - a simple sniffle has led to a dash to A&E in the throes of an asthma attack.  This was the situation this morning, but being a little older than the last time, we managed to control his panic with calm words and a good measure of inhalers, and he fell back to sleep cuddled by Daddy whilst Mummy sat on the edge of bed watching him breathe for a while before slinking off to a restless couple of hours in a single bed surrounded by cuddly toys, pillows and remote controls.

Kim came over for lunch and cups of tea, which is always nice because she is a guest who doesn't mind me just sitting and crocheting while I bend her ear on every subject under the sun.  I have just taken a stroll over to Whipton to pick up 3 new balls of yarn for my lovely new blanket and I am hopeful of squeezing in a bit of Christmas journalling (my very boring A5 folder turned up today) before my next domestic duty calls.

Have worked out the piccy problems, so will be boring the pants off you with visuals on a screen near you soon.

Et voila!

Not quite the done to death 'ta dah' - but boy, am I feeling just a little bit smug today!  It has taken me four months to do, and it is the first real proper hobby I have embarked upon, stuck to and finished something 'real' and usable.  Hurrah for me. 

The granny stripe blanket - 87 stripes (a teeny rebellion in the final number there), edged with a deep shell of my own tweaking.  To fit our king size bed, and to drape artfully around the sofa.  Ahhhh.  sigh. 

We have had Halloween since my last missive: 

He was Darth Maul, for the non Star Wars aficionados.  And the annual pumpkin mess amid much cutting, scraping, puffing, panting and swearing. 

Would show you the bonfire night (Guy Fawkes night for the puritans) pics, but they are so crap, it is embarrassing.

There was a resources day with the home-ed group yesterday - a good idea,  where people bring in the things they use as educational aids/materials.  Always interesting and encouraging.  I have come away feeling freshly enthused.  Have felt like that about home-ed quite a bit lately.  I have bought a couple of sketchbooks for Oliver and I to use together.  I have read several times that it is a good idea to work alongside your child, so they will follow your lead in methods/means blah blah.  I am no artist, but think I am quite capable of expressing myself visually well enough to encourage Oliver to do the same.  We shall see. 

Tonight Oliver will be attempting to swim 800m during his swimming lesson, which I am impressed with.  I love watching him swim - he now looks like a real swimmer when he streaks up and down the pool doing front crawl.

it never rains, but it pours.

Well, it's pouring now, that's for sure.  It's half term this week and it's been raining heavily all week.  Personally, I love the rain - it keeps people inside their own houses and not outside in the great blue yonder annoying me, and I love the cosiness of indoor life anyhow, so win-win for little old selfish me....

It isn't too bad for the boy though too, since he likes a fair few indoorsy things too.  We have started to play Gin Rummy together (is that how you spell it??? never had occasion to write it down before) and it's a pretty cool means of getting him to write figures and add up disguised within a game heh heh heh.  Also starting watching our way through Lord of the Rings again, but he has got twitchy and nervous about it (again) so we have stalled halfway through the Two Towers, annoyingly.  All that viewing allowed me to crack on with my big granny stripe blanket, and I am happy to report that I am on stripe 81.5, so a completion date is almost in sight.  I have had to order more yarn (which I do sooooo love to do) to carry on with Oliver's stripey too, and I reckon his is about a quarter ways through.  Think his will be around the 75-80 stripe mark. 

Last weekend saw my little angel head off to cub camp for a weekend of cubbyness and independence.  I think he enjoyed himself - he had a hard time coming to terms with the fact they didn't have the promised disco on Saturday night and instead had a camp fire, but apart from that I think it was a success.  These times away from home, and particularly away from me, are good for him, but I often have to close my eyes and breathe deeply and swallow hard when faced with the misery of his absence.

And so to finish, some cub snaps taken 'en camp':

hooky love (just for you Kim, tee hee)

Before I forget, here is my latest show-and-tell blanket, colours chosen by Oliver:

I had serious misgivings over these colours, and fought bitterly for a multi-coloured stripe.  He originally wanted just three colours, but grudgingly conceded to add in the blue.  I thought it would be very dull.  Shows what I know. And it is for his bed after all....



The granny stripe for our bed is 20 stripes away from completion!  Tres exciting.  Then it's just all the ends to sew in and three or four rows all the way around the outside to finish off.  Onwards and upwards.

Oliver continues to enjoy the social aspects of the home-ed groups he attends, and seems to really enjoy the tutor-led subjects - spanish and science.  These are small groups and I think he is getting alot out of these.  There is talk of a french group starting, using conversation, games and songs mostly, so think that would be great too.  At home he gets on with maths and english stuff (english less willingly, I must admit), but I am trying hard to work on spelling and writing by getting him to work on presenting english in a different way.  His cousin (of the same age) produces the most brilliant handwritten magazines and books on subjects she is passionate about, and inspired by this, he did actually spend time creating a comic strip type story with speech bubbles, which is fab.

I do have other blitherings to share, but really feel to lazy to tappety-tap anymore.  I'll leave you with a pic of Oliver and the first of  his daily activities.  Bloody Pokemon cards.  These are my personal pet hate of toys - loose cards.  I like them stored in boxes, in types.  Oliver likes them stored around the house in random piles and strewn across the usable floor space.  ha ha.  bless.

So, here we are then, the start of the Autumn 'term'.  That is, some things that we do kick off again - Cubs, HE group, regular education at home (?!)........  I love Autumn.  I love that wintry feel which creeps in around late afternoon - that nip in the air that says the cold is a-comin' and the smell of bonfires gradually creeping into the chill of the night......oooh, lovely.  I love the wrapping up warm, the cosy afternoons, dimpsy evenings and life in the great indoors.  The falling leaves make it harder to spot the dog poo on a walk however.  You can't have it all.

Current crochet progress:

on my 58th stripe of the granny stripe blanket:

and I have completed 5 big squares for another blanket:

I have had to order in another 'yarn' pack as I will be running out soon - oh frabjous day.

Oliver back off to Cubs:

He didn't get 'Seconder', which he was expecting to get (literally second in charge in the pack) since his 'Sixer' (head pack honcho) had gone up to Scouts and the current Seconder moved up to Sixer.  Instead they moved Oliver's close friend into the pack and made him Seconder instead. Gulp. I could hardly sleep that night (I didn't find out til I arrived home from work late) for worry and anger over Oliver's upset.  It seemed so unfair.  Through a couple of emails to the Cub leader, understanding was restored, and although the position remains the same, Oliver was happy with his leader's comments and I am happy that he is OK with it.  More than anything though, I was pleased that Oliver's disappointment was focused on him not getting the position rather than on the fact his friend did get it.  That seems wholly sensibly proportionate to me, and I recall that as a child I think I would have been eaten up with jealousy and bitterness in such circumstances so I am so happy Oliver is not of that ilk.

Mark has decided after seeing a nutritionist to try a period of wheat and dairy free eating.  First a pricey shop at the local weirdy food store:

Muesli is homemade by my own fair hands (toasted and everything, I'll have you know) and in addition he must have homemade vegetable soup daily.  Fliparooney.  It requires a fair bit of thinking ahead, although I enjoy the challenge of cooking good, wholesome stuff.  I am very interested to see if he loses weight, because if he does - I'm in for that.  It doesn't seem too beyond the pail.

What else, hmm. I managed to pick up Gastritus earlier in the week and endured two days of stomach ache and headache.  It really doesn't look too unbearable written down, but boy, the last few days have been well miserable.  Thankfully friends and family have been able to ensure that Oliver hasn't been too badly affected by my maudlin weeping and wailing and taking to my sickbed, and he has got out to do his normal things.  Thanks to them who know who they are....  And actually, that is a big bummer for the HE family - if you fall ill, you are stuffed.  No shunting your kids off to school and falling into bed for the day, getting a fellow school-run-mum to take your offspring home for fish fingers and chips til the hubby finishes his day at the office.  Phew. Another load off....

As I say, you can't have it all.

Laters.

Following on from last weekends barny over Match Of The Day, I have started to make some accomodating adjustments....

First the barny:  Football, per se.  I find it an incredibly tedious and objectionable sport to follow, given that the players behave appallingly, the fans behave appallingly, there is neither respect nor discipline on or off the field and they are paid disgustingly disgraceful amounts of money to play and still behave like boorish louts.  That aside, I have no 'objection' to Mark watching and enjoying it other than it starts in August and runs until next May and that MOTD is televised Saturday night, Sunday night and then there are the incidental matches, the International matches and the Cup matches.  So, last Saturday, the first day of the Premiership (that's the First Division in old money), I exploded into a tirade of how unfair and unreasonable it was taking over the TV in such a way for 10 months of the year.  I won't bore you with the finer points, but needless to say, it is all my fault for getting rid of the TV and sofa in the 'back room' whereupon said crap football could be enjoyed in peace and isolation.  This TV weighed about as much as me, was wider than me and consequently needed the ugliest corner unit in the world to house its giant-ness (I also got rid of that).

So.  I have moved Oliver (home eddy stuff) into the 'craft room' my craft room, in which I no longer do any crafting.

I will move the computer from it's little corner in the back room onto Oliver's old desk (on the other side of the back room where there are no electric points (worry about that afterwards) and in the resultant spaces from moving the computer will go a comfy armchair (worry about buying one of them afterwards) and a flat screen TV onto the bookcase in the space where Oliver's home eddy stuff lived.  Simples.  MOTD squabbles sorted.  Footballers are still massively overpaid tossers though. 

Oliver made a spell book by crafting a clay tile and attaching it to a hardcover book.  It's very cool. 

And work continues on the Big Blanket. 

I am technically half way on my stripey one, although I reckon it will need to be a bit longer for that real snuggle effect. 

And I still cannot leave comments on blogs.  Apparently it's something to do with 'cookies'.  I really don't even know what computer cookies are, much less know how to sort the problem.  I might end up starting again with a new blogger profile.....

WiPs and Summer so far

No apologies offered for the month long lapse in blogging - those moaning at me for NOT blogging (ahem) see me on a regular basis and I have already bored the tits off you with tales of my life.  Serves you right for logging on for another dose then ha ha.

At the end of the last school term, Oliver was unexpectedly awarded 'Cub Champion' (at Cubs, obviously) which meant he got a medal

and a prize (belt torch - not pictured) and gets to wear this gigantic woggle for the whole of next term.

That should slow him up a bit til he gets used to the extra weight tee hee.  I wasn't there when he was awarded it, but apparently it is awarded at the end of every term to the Cub who has excelled in behaviour, etiquette, kindness and helpfulness.  I am ridiculously proud of him, and for any 'normal' parent - this equates to a fantastic school report.  It is another indication that we have chosen the right path for him thus far, and that we are doing OK with him - unhappy kids do not excel at kindness and helpfulness. 

Oliver went off to the beach with his friend (and mother and her friend who I don't know - 6 kids in all) on Monday.  This meant I had a day to myself, which should be a good thing, but I am finding that the time I am apart from Oliver I spend in a state of tense anxiety imagining all sorts of horrible things happening to him.  I now seem to have reached the stage where I have some warped belief that my irrational and barely controlled panic will somehow keep him safe.  What a twat.  You'd think that all this worry would cause me to be thin, but no.  I actually joined the gym on Monday to tackle some of the ever growing layers of blubber.  I had an induction with a little boy called Chris, who seemed to be labouring under the mistaken belief that an hour of 'cardio' followed by a weights session was a suitable workout for a 43 year old has-been.  In my head I was already replacing said '60 minutes' with '5 minutes' followed by a quick sprint round the weights..... I am optimistic that I will be more muscle-y at the end of my 6 week stint.  Thinking of participating in some of the classes too, although I am a bit scared I might throw up, I am that unfit now.

The three of us went off to Bicton a couple of weeks ago to see 'The Bohemians', a Queen tribute band.  It was all very civilised, and the music was pretty darned good. Here followeth some pics;

See this flower bed -

See that squashed section?  That was Oliver that was.....

We are the Champions.....

And so to crochet.  Crochet, crochet, crochet.  How I love thee.  I have stumbled upon a craft that I can actually do, and is actually useful.  I am working on  a couple of blankets (WiPs - works in progress for you non-crafty types), a granny stripe, inspired by this post on  the Attic24 blog.

So excited by my progress with this, you wouldn't believe.  It actually covers the width of our king size bed quite comfortably, although this is to be the one which hangs around the living room. Or on Oliver's bed in the winter.

And these are my squares so far inspired by this blanket, which is the one I want for our bed.

Bought 4 lovely 'new' bowls on a charity stall yesterday for £1, which sit happily alongside everthing else in my crockery cupboard which doesn't match, just how I like it. 

Aren't they pretty?  And that is not a bowl of pretentiousness - it really is Oliver's breakfast.
Mark and Oliver have joined the Model Boat Club with the idea of  doing something together.  Think Oliver is not as 'into' it as Mark, as Mark is very hands on and good at anything he puts his mind to, but I am hopeful Oliver will be swept up in the enthusiasm of it all.  In any case, it can't be a bad thing for him to trot off with his Dad for a couple of hours and be socialising together and with other people. 

Eduaction-wise - Oliver does not get the summer 'off' as a lot of home-ed kids do (since our timetable and routine is sooooo flexible and varied during 'term' time anyway), but I just want to tick over with some back to basics with reading (library summer reading scheme) and spelling, (phonics stuff) and the odd maths session.  Last night I was told about 'First News', the weekly newspaper for kids, (Thanks Corinna - sorry, don't know how to spell your name!), so dashed off to Sainsburys where I got a copy, and  - lo!  This is Oliver, voluntarily reading the newspaper.

Incroyable.

falling in love...

...with You Tube.  More on that in a minute.

I have always wanted to crochet.  I love the big crochet blanket which was given to me by my Nan (granny square blanket) some years age - but she didn't make it.  She didn't know how to crochet, I think my Great Auntie Mabel (Nan's sister) made it.  So the art of crochet, by sheer dint of the fact my Nan couldn't do it, has always seemed like an unattainable and much yearned for skill in my eyes.  But - lo!  Looming on the horizon in home-ed world was Lisa B - who I barely know, but with her gentle northern voice and kindly patient manner, sat with me for half an hour a couple of Wednesdays ago and showed me the rudiments of a foundation chain and double crochet. 

That night I sat down in front of You Tube and started working on granny squares.  Here is my progress thus far:

I have to say, I am ridiculously pleased with myself.  This is the most funnest and satisfying craft I have ever partaken of.  I love the simplicity and speed of hooking up loops of colour and the beautiful, quick results.  Oh happy days. 

I will be purchasing a yarn pack today, which I spied a link to on someone elses blog, to make either this blanket blanket, or this one, depending on whether I can master the ripple stitch or not.  I am so chuffed that at last I can make something pretty and useful!!!  Last night I had a little test of the granny stripe, and guess what?  I followed a pattern!!!  Yep, a real live pattern with abbreviations, asterixes and everything!!  Three cheers for me.

So, in short, Lisa B is who I want to be when I grow up and You Tube is the way to learn practical tasks in the 21st century.  Going to try a spot of open heart surgery next.