We're Moving Out Today

We're packing our PJs and heading to my Mum's empty house to hide from the mess, the front room is now fully gutted and it's now the turn of the landing/stairs/hallway so we're sellotaping the bedroom doors shut and making a run for it! The post title made me think of this, which I haven't heard in years and always makes me smile!

So there will be no posting going on here, or very little.

I thought I'd leave you with pictures of what we've been up to recently. We had hours of fun with hama beads, my OCD really loves this and I spent far longer than the children sitting at the table. It's a great activity that we can all do calmly together, Nathaniel's creations are a bit random but he enjoys playing along and we have to distract Sebastian as he likes to eat small things;


We had a bit of a coaster making session, there are many many more;

Nathaniel gets bored every now and again and demands "a quick huggle";

Sebastian, not eating hama beads;

Right, off to pack many pairs of pants and pyjamas and towels and to put the veg for tea in the big pan an stow it in the car for tonight.

The new windows amd door will be here at half eight on Monday morning so best get the man knocking the walls down ;)

Daisie xxx

Progress

Of sorts, it's all coming down and the dust is flying. The contents of the front are in the dining room, could have done with a giant shoe horn I can tell you!

When you open my front door you are now greeted by this;

A rather huge green plastic sheet and some original varnished wallpaper. But when you hold your breathe (because of the dust) and sneak behind the greenness you spy a wonderful chimney breast;

The bit under the arch which has been added when the gas fire was will be removed and the brick will be repaired and repointed and painted like the chimney breasts upstairs, I can't wait, this, for me, is the most exciting bit!

This is what is left under the stairs where our new entrance will be;

And this is the other side of the plastic sheet which will be beautiful bookshelves;

It's still very exciting and scary.

Daisie xxx

I Never Thought I'd Be Discussing html Code With My Eight Year Old!

See this little man;

He's not so smiley today. Teeth number seven and eight are causing trouble. He is grumpy, he is tired, he is loathe to eat, he won't cuddle, he won't nurse. He is one sad little bunny :( We sat down here through alot of the night, me expressing into a cup for him while he laid still and grizzled. He is a little brighter this morning, I am not after no more than three hours of sleep!

Anyway the reason I popped in is to point you in the direction of Elizabeth's little corner of blogland that she is grudgingly sharing with her sister. She took a bit of inspiration from the lovely Dotty Locket (please note, not Lucy) and is keeping a diary type thingie with book reviews and other such stuff bunged in here and there. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with (and how long it lasts). It would make her day if you'd pop over and say hi every now and again, gets a bit boring only getting comments from your Mummy.

Thanks, Daisie xxx

My Husband Bob

A madness has befallen the Davies household again, we are, as I have said before just thirteen years into our five-year restoration plan *coughs* and sighs and gives out loving vibes to my family home! We Simon have spent many a summer gutting and plastering and painting but this years' project is by far the biggest. It runs right through the middle of our home, the stairs and landing;


The hallway;


The porch;


And the frontroom;


We are blocking up the horrible double doors that were here when we moved in and filling the new wall with bookcasing;

We are going to open up under the stairs for access and to make the whole downstairs a more usable family space. I am shitting myself very excited as money and time allowing the house will be finished by this time(ish) next year. My lovely husband will have built a new home inside our 1920s stone exterior. He has completed a bathroom, a kitchen and three bedrooms (the last one he turned into two), you can read about the last DIY adventure here, here and here. He is wonderful. I do say 'we' but it is mostly him with me entertaining the children, driving to the tip and making good coffee.

Demolition will start in a day or two, the new windows and front door are due to be fitted towards the end of next week and then it's all systems go! Simon has the hard work to do and I need to find a suitable colour for the walls and several light fittings.......... wish us luck!

Daisie xxx

Umpa Lumpa Dumpidy Doo

My smallest son did the most amazing impression of and Umpa Lumpa last night during tea;

Amazing as he is Elizabeth did point out that his eyebrows are not white enough to look authentic!

And we are now enjoying our summer holidays from school. The girls finished school early today and we have been moving book cases and stuff ready for this summer's demolition/rebuild project (I'll be back to show you our battle plan soon).

The boys and I popped over to see my lovely friend Naomi and her very brand new baby this morning, he arrived via the sunroof (C section) in somewhat of a drama but both Frank and his Mummy are fine (if a little rattled). Nathaniel thinks that he's lovely and spent ages kissing and holding him. Nathaniel did say that it wasn't fair, I asked what he meant and he said; "Mee-omi has two babies and I only have one!" Funny little man ;) He told his sisters that when he is a big Daddy he is going to have lots of babies and is going to grow extra hands so he can make them fly;

Daisie xxx

A Little Outing

Firstly a picture to remind us all in the UK that the sun does shine sometimes but after three weeks of rain everyday it's a little hard to remember;


I bet if the hosepipe ban is lifted the rain will stop again :-)

Back to our little outing. The boys and I kind of gatecrashed The Mummy Bloggers Network party at The Manchester Museum. The gathering had been arranged for the launch of Warburtons Snackadoodles and I was invited by kelly who sent me some samples a while ago.

I ummed and ahhed all week, can I do it, can I go somehwere unfamiliar and meet people I don't know.... So Thursday night I printed off a map, scrawled directions on some paper to attach to the dashboard, I braced myself to step out of my comfort zone. We dropped the girls at school and hit the motorway. We found Manchester ok and the university and then did ten minutes of circling and following my gut instinct as the map sort of let us down. It was a bit scary but once in the car park I turned to Nathaniel and said "We made it!" He looked at me and raised his arms in jubilant relief and screamed "woo-hooo!" and then went all serious, touched my hand on the steering wheel and said "aren't we clever Mummy!?"

I was pleased to find we were in the right place when I met Cheshire Mum in the multi-storey and then met Sandy and Amy, it was so noisey and we all had children with us and there wasn't enough time for chatting but Eve and I managed to sneak off near the end and show our boys the biggest dinosaur called Stan. Nathaniel loved it even though he was very tired and a little over whelmed by the whole event, my apologies Eve, he's not usually quite so grumpy!

The museum is fabulous and we'll be going back as a family over the holidays (only three days left of school)!!!

And thank you to Warburtons for the coffee, fruit, snackadoodles and goodie bag (which contained some lovely stuff from the Cowshed, love it, can't wait to slip into a hot bath of grumpy cow, snigger)!

I did miss my Mums at baby clinic though, it's amazing how you get into a routine and build relationships with families, can't wait to catch up on all the community gossip next week.

Daisie xxx

When Is A Toilet Not A Toilet?

When it's something else of course;


The postman knocked (only once) and when I opened the door handed me a package and said "I've something else for you too." I got very excited, one because I always like post and two because I had a feeling I knew what it was. He walked back to his big red van (no black and white cat though) and said "We thought it was a toilet but then we picked it up and if it's a toilet it doesn't weigh very much...." I assured him it wasn't a toilet.

Inside were this lovely pair;


They have beautiful bodies and beautiful legs;

They arrived a bit dusty and very smelly but the covers have been in the wash, the bods have been standing in the garden (inbetween showers) for some well needed fresh air, the stands have been scrubbed clean and I think they're fabulous. An amazingly lucky and bargainous find on ebay late friday night when I had just stopped sewing and thought I'd waste a little more of my sleeptime in browsing. I exclaimed my delight and interest and said I'd think about it, like I always do and if it hadn't been for my fabulous husband just going and buying them (£40 the pair, can you believe it??!!) they'd be in someone elses house now.

Thank you Simon, I really need your decisiveness at times like these! Mwah!!

Daisie xxx

Thanks

Thanks for all the lovely comments and emails I've had over the last few days about my disasterous fair. It's in the past now, I shan't take it personally and I feel much much better. My temp has come back down and I have enjoyed sports days at school (even if we did get very wet) with the boys and Simon cheering on the girls. I am very tired but well on the way to recovery.

I attended an amazing breastfeeding coneference on monday and my eyes have been opened further and my brain stretched with more social and scientific eveidence to support my cause and the work I do. Anyway that's that for here, more info to come on the other side (so to speak), maybe see you there?

There is an exciting engagement on friday if I can pluck up the courage to go..........

The ironing pile is scary after being ill and the bathroom is somewhat of a danger to public health so both are on today's to-do list.

Lots of people have contacted me about the bunting;


And the glass bead bracelets;


They are now available in my folksy shop.

Daisie xxx

Oh The Shame

The cloud cover was a bit dark and looming, it put people off, a really quiet morning as I chewed on paracetamol and shivered in a hot/cold sweat. Elizabeth came with me to set up and was an absolute star. Later Simon came down and brought his Mum and the rest of the children. We had a picnic lunch together and then my Mum and Dad arrived.

This is what my little offering looked like;


The bunting looked really really good, lots of people came and admired but no one bought any to take home;

Francesca turned into a butterfly;

And Nathaniel turned into a scary lion (although we thought he looked more like a tiger);

And the shame; I only just covered the cost of my pitch and that was only because my Mum and Mum-In-Law bought things. I wish they'd just take the things they like.

Daisie xxx

My Poor Mushy Brain

I am ill, I have the highest temp I have had for years and I feel like I could just lay down and cry. I didn't though, I soldiered on into the night to get everything ready for the fair today.

I am tired, can you tell?;


Can you spot the mistake? It took me a while too. I'd machined half the panel before realising that it was on upside down! My poor poor brain! I just didn't have the energy to unpick this baby last night. But it is atleast saveable and I can congratulate myself on not sewing the front to the back on any of the t-shirts I finished last night, yay me!!!!

Anyhoo, I am up stupidly early because I was frying my husband just laying next to him so have sneaked down for a cup of tea and some paracetamol before the children surface.

It's rained overnight but I can see some blue sky poking through so am keeping my fingers crossed for good weather and a good show today.

Daisie xxx

Ouchey Ouch, ooooooh And Ugh!

Francesca has been at home again today (she stayed in her PJs yesterday too), she has a very high temp, sore bones but nothing specific, lots of love and sleep seems to have made her much better. Nathaniel has been the same this week. There has been an outbreak of 'slap-cheek' at school, it's a viral infection and the usual reaction is becoming very very red down one side of your face, hence the nickname. It spreads like wild fire. My girlies have had it before. I wonder if this is what they have just without the red reaction? And today, after a week of administering paracetamol, cups of water and endless cuddles at all hours of the day and night, I seem to have it. My bones hurt so much. Francesca said her ribs hurt when she breathed, I assumed it was tired muscles from coughing but I have not been coughing and it hurts to breathe. I now feel very sorry for the pair of them in retrospect :(

But on the plus side of our poorly pyjama clad situation is lots of little helpers for the fair on saturday (have I mentioned it :));


My pictures seem to have been jumbled? So here is Francesca modelling the new hair slides we made this morning, Nathaniel turning the handle on the bigshot, francecsa choosing buttons and me burning my finger, bloody hot glue gun!!


Here threy are (some of them, we made twelve altogether);

I dug out the braceletes I made that didn't sell on Folksy and thought I'd try them in person, maybe someone will fall in love with one if they can hold and try on;

And this is how much Francesca likes the hair slides;

Unfortunately, I ran out of binding before I ran out of pretty triangles, no time to order some and expect it to come before saturday :(

I have a number of t-shirts stabalised and ready to sew, all my bags and t-shirts need ironing, I need to find all my little tags and get them stamped so I can price up items and really all I want to do is go to bed. Think a hot cup of tea and some paracetamol is in order.

Daisie xxx

A New Obsession

I made some bunting last week (that the girls mistakenly thought were fancy pants) for Evi's birthday. I have been meaning to make some for ages, I promised Francesca when she moved into her pink room, but things keep getting in the way. Now I have made some I can't stop, it is so simple and so very effective. A large roll of binding tape from good old eBay and a few bits of pretty cotton from my stash and look what I've got;


The process is so repetative and soothing, the only ball ache hard bit is poking out the points with my crochet hook to make them nice and pointy. To be honest I can't believe how easy it is and am now kicking myself for not having done it before!!

The theme of the fair on Saturday is 'All The Colours Of The Rainbow', I plan to hang all the bunting across my stall inside the gazebo like a fancy floating ceiling. I just hope the rain holds off and the sun shines.

Saturday 10th, 10.30 til 3.30, Gawthorpe Hall. Maybe see some of you there? Make sure you say hi!

Daisie xxx

Bag Lady*

I have had a really productive day today, I have sewn together these shopping totes that have been cut out and waiting for ages;


They're all made using bits from the scrap box at my local fabric mill, so not one piece cost me more than 75p! Bargain bags!

And instead of googling and finding a tute or two I just cut and sewed some yummy fabrics to these amazing plastic handles I got at the scrap store when I went last week;


I'm not entirely sure if I like them or not, I am more pleased with the one on the left then that on the right but I may just cut them off and try again. Maybe even look for a pattern or something......

All the manic bagginess is for The Gawthorpe Festival next saturday (blimey that sneaked up quick). It was a great day last year and am hoping this year will be as good, if not better. If anyone is near and fancies saying hello it'd be great to see you :)

Daisie xxx

* not to be confused with the one and only Bagladee, Emma.

Novelty Knickers

My girlies are so funny, when they came home from school this afternoon this was on the table;


They're funny knickers! Yeah! That's neatly folded bunting;

Admittedly the bag needs an iron but am quite pleased that I had my head out of the toilet long enough to sew it all up ready for Nathaniel's friend Evi's birthday at the weekend. I had run out of little magic blue pills and my migraine was so far advanced by the time the surgery opened for me to get some more it took all day for me to feel better. The boys have been a dream though and I have managed to puke alone and lay down inbetween without too much being asked of me, thank you Cbeebies!! A lesson learned, when I take the last one of this box I will be getting some more in pronto!!

I have managed some other sewing but am struggling with still having no way to view my pictures until I pop them onto the computer and the pics I have taken are so full of other crap stuff that it's hard to see them in a good light. Will try harder tomorrow and get back to you!

Daisie xxx

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I have spent the last three/four weeks collecting, washing and sorting used school uniform items for a 'Uniform Swap' The centre manager and the Head Teacher were quite impressed with my idea for a swap. It went out on the school news letter (every child takes one home on a friday afternoon) asking parents to donate any items of good school uniform that no longer fitted their child and then return last friday and collect a new uniform for their child in a different size.

I save some things for Francesca but even after she has had wear from them many garments are as good as new. I do pass things along in the playground but some people are far to proud to accept donated clothes (god knows why, my children would be naked half the time without hand-me-downs!) and it's often the families that need the help most that don't accept. By making it a big community event there was no shame in rummaging for new uniform.

It was all clean and folded and laid out nicely so didn't have the 'jumble sale' feel, if you know what I mean;


I had two small helpers;

Friday afternoon was a success in that we got rid of nearly half of what had been donated and recruted some new families too (by sending invitations to children at Nursery School that will be attending our school next year) but our centre is on the small side and storage is a problem so the centre manager and I dragged what was left out into the playground on tuesday afternoon and we had lots more takers;

There is now only a small bag in the shed and we hope to continue this as a rolling programme, parents/carers will continue to donate as and when and we will bring it all out (with a plentiful supply of carriers) every half term (six times a year).

Why not do it at your school or playgroup, share and share alike, be kinder to eachother, your purse and our envirnment?

Daisie xxx