My Little Workie Man

Nathaniel is loving the renovations, he likes to help, he has his wheel barrow, which was put to great use the day we filled the skip, he has his own 'measure' and 'level' and likes to poke his screwdriver into holes. He also likes to climb ladders;

Which is very very scary!!

Work has slowed down somewhat beacuse Simon is back at work. We are boarded out upstairs and my FIL has replaced the old bathroom door (that was cut at an angle at the top to fit the badly made hole many years ago, because we have taken the wall down we could make a square hole for it, looks much better), most of downstairs has been battoned out so the walls will be straight with proper corners, no more slanted bookshelves for us!! With the walls to finish, plaster and a new floor to lay we're not expecting to start decorating until the October half term holiday. Simon will plod on doing bits after work and during weekends. It will be worth it (she says repeatedly as she rocks in the corner).

Yesterday was a relaxed affair, Elizabeth and I are planning a late night cinema adventure together later in the week so we just had friends visit and we made cake yesterday. Prue Leith's amazing chocolate and orange cake;

And for the non human chocolate eaters amongst us an orange sponge with orange buttercream on top;

Seb has his first slice of birthday cake and enjoyed it although he lacks finesse;

There have been some crafting activities but they are for presents so I'll share them at a later date.

Daisie xxx

Not More Cake!?

We have had a lovely sunny weekend, more titivating of the bedrooms, book sorting, crap disgarding, the usual really but hopefully that is an end to all things DIYish (for a while at least). The bedrooms all look fab, most things are back where they belong and we can once again spread out into all of our house!

Saturday saw a lazy breakfast of croissant and coffee, even the girls joined in;



A quick trip out to get a new basket liner for the hanging basket at the front of the house and some screws for shelves and the children managed to blag a table and chairs for the garden out of Simon but at £2 a piece I didn't feel robbed. They spent a pleasant lunch outside;

Nathaniel pottered aorund and 'helped' while Francesca and I planted out some seedlings we had kindly been given. We filled in gaps in the border and filled a basket and even managed to fill her window box with trailing fusia and other pink delights. I will show you some pictures when they all come in to flower.

Today we have been visited by my parents and brother in advance of tomorrow's celebrations. I have made many cakes;

I have made lemon sponge buns for the children in creche and the other ladies that will be on my course tomorrow. I have also made a huge vanilla sponge that will soon be smothered in green icing and if my artistic skills are anything decent will become a dinosaur. Hopefully.

Just some tidying and icing and balloon blowing and a quick wash of the floors and then we will be all ready for the morning!

And before tomorrow's pictures just go and have a look here, blimey, how quickly a year passes!

Daisie xxx

A Week In Pictures

School holidays, hurrah! A little bit of crafty shopping with children in tow, always good for inspiration!

A visit to the park;

With one big and two small Swirls;

A grown up art class with small girls in tow (little man in the creche). Some silk painting for their new rooms;

I managed to have a play at marbeling the silk and embellished it with some salt which I didn't get the time to do last time;

Not a fab finished item but it was fun to experiment and I had to help lots while Elizabeth created this amazing peacock;

And Francesca designed this princess by herself and I copied it onto the silk in gum so she could add the colour herself. I think she looks amazing;

Especially her puckered up, ready for a big kiss with the prince lips!!

I bought some wooden clothes pegs and took them apart and painted them and then put them back together again, complete madness! My fingers were sooooo sore!! I added lots of yummy wooden and felt bits from my stash and now have nearly 100 fancy pegs;

Great for pegging wellies together, the girls have used some to make clips to hold their pictures together and I have stuck some magnet to one and it's now on the fridge with lots of useful lists!

Then we made cake;

Catching up with friends and doing some long awaited decorating....... pics to follow......

Daisie xxx

Happy Birthday Francesca, 5 Today!!

I don't have nearly as many pictures of the girls on the computer as I do of Nathaniel.

Here are the ones I managed to find of my smallest girl:

Francesca aged only a few weeks asleep on two year old Elizabeth;


Francesca aged about six or seven months dressed in her football gear (how fat was her face?);



Francesca and me summer 2005;

Francesca in a supermarket trolley sometime 2006;

Francesca last week ready and waiting to have her hair cut;

This is the very pink cake we had to eat tonight;

Happy birthday my baby girl!

Daisie xxx

My Life Is Brilliant

My life is pure (ok, stop choking on your coffee!).

I've had a brilliant day today. We all managed to get up and washed and dressed and out of the house on time for school and I didn't shout once! And what is even more remarkable is that I managed to dry my hair rather than sticking it to the back of my head wet!!

Nathaniel and I stopped by the children's centre to wish everyone a happy new year and to pick up the fliers for boobie club which starts on Wednesday. It has been a long time coming and I am really pleased that we can start supporting women in our community to breast feed their children.

Nathaniel has been lonely today and kept going to the stairs to shout for his sisters or his Daddy.

But the upside of this is that I have my cooking buddie back now that there is nobody doing something more exciting in the other room;

I have vaccummed all of upstairs and sorted through the children's drawers and stored away all clothes that don't fit at the mo but may fit one of them in the future, done two loads of washing and hung them up to dry, prepared tonight's tea and done tomorrow's shepherd's pie and put it in the fridge, made the beds, snuggled my son and played boo for far too long and have baked some 'Mummy has really missed you today girls' cupcakes;

And all the while I have been doing this I have been bopping and singing away to music of my own choosing (hence link in title). A little Blunt, a little Morrissey, a little Madonna and the best bit is that Nathaniel is not old enough to object or pass comment as are the rest of my household, hurrah!!

Nathaniel snoozing now so I am just catching up with other blogs and scoffing a big prawn sandwich, mmm!

Some ironing to do and I want to walk up to school this afternoon so the girls can stomp back in the snow, well, sort of a light crusty dusting to the pavement, but this is exciting stuff when you are only 4 and 7! Poor Simon peeled his eyes open this morning hoping there would be at least four foot of the stuff! Poor disappointed boy :-(

Daisie xxx

Party

Blimey (think I started with that yesteray, must find another clean expletive!) what a lovely day. Am very tired due to much smiling, being kind and patient with other people's children, and not snapping at Elizabeth as she whizzed round the house on a cloud of excitement.

This was last night's birthday cake, a lemon and orange sponge with orange buttercream icing;


I saved the cake 'proper' for the party today. Elizabeth, with some help from Clant, decided on having a Dalek. She wanted it to be blue and here it is;

The plunger and eye could have been better but I was rather pleased with the 'bobbles'. It all tasted rather good too!!

Here are the porcelain trinket boxes and picture frames that the girls painted at the party;

I will bake them in the oven tonight and deliver them one day next week. The girls also made bead bracelets and designed some cards, they are all lovely girls and very artisitic and talented!

Swirly made an Adipose for Elizabeth, needless to say it's brilliant and she loves it;

I didn't realise until it was too late that I hadn't photographed all the girls with their super duper party bags. Here are my girls' bags;

They turn into nifty little rucksack type things, ideal for kit bags for when they go back to school;

Daisie xxx

Vomit and Cake

A big thanks for the lovely comments, Francesca is fully recovered now and eating like a horse to make up for the two days of poorliness. Nathaniel on the other hand is very ill indeed! He is hot, being sick around ten times a day (soon after he eats anything). He is a miserable boy and it's very sad to be his Mummy and not be able to make him better. His neck is swollen today so off we went to the docs today to be told it was ...................... wait for it ...................... a ...............virus! Getting to the doctors was a mission in itself. I phoned at 8 when the surgery opened. Yes, they would see him today if I could go now. Cue quick get dressed, gather lunch boxes, book bags etc, throw children in car and call KaeKae's Mummy for help!! The wonderful woman sorted my girls and took them to school/nursery for me, what a star!

This is the cake Francesca and I made as a thank you;

Crafting has taken a bit of a back seat this week as am mostly rocking a small boy, cleaning up sick and washing (millions of) clothes! There are some more baby knits going on and the birthday project is nearly complete. I have an idea for a pair of tired jeans that were on their way to the charity shop but.............

Daisie xxx

A Little Cottage.

Here are the walls;


Here are the windows;

Here is a little house;

Looks like Swirly was right! I have knitted a tiny wee cottage tea cosy for my mother-in-law. Am really pleased with it. I had to buy a teapot for her as I measured her everyday pot when we visited at the weekend and the walls I had already knitted were too small! Note to self; measure pot before starting project next time.
I have put the pot in it's cosy and put it in a straw basket, the tag simply says; "A little cottage for your little cottage" Hope she likes it.

Here it is with her other present and a cake that Francesca and I have made for later. Francesca complained that there was only one candle but I fear it may be a fire hazard if she had one for every year (she is 21 after all!).

I made her card with a peel off stained glass window circle that I have coloured over acetate and then mounted on torn handmade paper square. I would show you but it's in the oven drying, ran out of time as usual!!

Spaghetti bolognaise is awaiting her arrival. Good food, cake, hand crafted presents, am I the best daughter-in-law in the world or what?!

Daisie xxx

Is The Tooth Fairy Coming?

What a day! Must first tell you some slightly frightening and equally exciting news, Francesca has lost a tooth! I panicked at first and thought there was something wrong when she announced her gap. The hole is fine and clean and pink and she doesn't remember the tooth coming out and it's not sore, I know it's a bit early for her second teeth to be coming but I am convinced that is what's happening (will ring dentist on Monday to check anyway). She was only eight weeks old (stupidly young) when the first two teeth came through! The tooth was definitely there when we had lunch but had gone soon after when the girls were making a 'den' on Elizabeth's bunk bed. We thought it would be very funny if Elizabeth got bitten on the bum during the night, ha ha! But we can't find it and wonder if the tooth fairy will make an appearance tonight or not...?

Breakfast was brilliant. I opened the can and found this;

Chopped it up, rolled it and turned the dough into this;

Baked for fifteen minutes and then served with hot coffee;

They went down very well, everyone enjoyed them. Will be doing this again some other weekend. Or because it was so easy Simon may be doing this anther weekend?

I have been card making and general crafting this morning and have made the chicken in a different colourway. I cut all the pieces from brown card and layered them up with foam pads to give the wing and the tail a fuller look. Am rather pleased with the finished card, hope our niece, Kirsty, is too as she turns 21 this weekend!

I also finished my purple knitting project (the one that hurt my finger) today and it is sewn together and stuffed and looks brilliant (even if I do say so myself)! I will post a picture of it tomorrow when it has been delivered to the birthday girl.

Simon is still marking, poor baby, but the end is in sight! The house smells good as I am baking a lemon and orange cake for Tara's party tomorrow, pics to follow as I always like to show a bit of cake!!

Daisie xxx