Feeling Festive!

A song for every occassion

My son is a song writer…..at 3 years old! (well 4 in January!)

It’s a very serious business writing songs, not to be laughed at… just this week we have been treated to such musical masterpieces as Robin Hood Under the Sea, Robin Hood and Halloween, The Princess Mouse Song, and my personal favorite Sad Pastry….when questioned about the song Sad Pastry I was told…Sad Pastry is sad because he is talking, and happy pastry is not listening..oh to be a child psychologist!

He also does very unusal covers of The Beats, Mirror in the Bathroom and Message to you Rudy by The Specials… I beginning to get a feel for Alpha’s destiny! Watch this space, I can’t wait for Sad Pastry the musical

Image found on Flickr

How do you eat an Elephant?

I’ll be honest I am a bit swamped, purely by my own making, and beginning to doubt that I will ever get there? not sure that there, is how i like to imagine it will be, but I’ll tell you my daydreams anyway…..(fade into dream sequence!)

I am a self-employed artist maker, and I feel confident enough to say that to people and charge real prices for my creations, and not constantly undervalue my own skills….lots of people can’t do what I can do, (I really struggle with this, as I honestly believe any body can do anything they put their mind to?) maybe that’s the problem lot’s of people don’t want to do what I do, and i should not feel I need to sell myself short because I enjoyed the process….work does not need to be no fun? blimey that’s a revaluation? Why is it so drummed into us that we should have to slog away at life….

anyway back to the day-dream, I can manage to work from home, I fit in making and selling with family life, my partner can go part-time and help with the childcare too, I have some product in various shops, I sell on-line, and also teach a few hours a week at a local college…and some private classes at local venues, I do craft fairs with my lovely friend Miss Pockets…. (you must check out her awesome new website) (I am quite jealous!!) and during the summer we head off as a family and do some family friendly festival where I run a stall and LP gets to hang out with the kids and have fun……

(fade out of dream sequence….quite quickly as there is a strange smell coming from the child in the other room??)

so the reality at the moment is, I am knee-deep in half-finished projects, nagging DIY jobs and not to mention the 2 children under 4! so maybe I just need to give it time?? I read this blog this morning and it made me feel like I just need to see all this as a process and i’ll get there??

as a very wise manager asked me once, How do you an Elephant? The answer…… piece by piece……..

So….

So I have been a bit crap, dropping the ball…..again!

but I have been doing stuff, honest!!

so….. let’s catch up….

Did I tell you about my new friend miss pockets?? well I feel weird saying new friend because we are like two peas in a pod that have known each other for years…. but what really happened is our boys go to the same preschool and we walked along the same bit of road everyday for a few weeks, me thinking ohh she looks interesting, and then we chatted and then we discovered the weirdest coincidences….mutual friends, some shared history….and the best bit a love of making stuff….she is without doubt my muse!! if you are allowed a muse when making felt bugs???  and she lives on the road behind mine….

so….i have been hanging out with her a bit, we did a mini festival that my dad puts on, we actually had our first stall……and we sold things…..and people liked them…..maybe this isn’t such a crazy idea after all?

so fuelled by our success we have decided to do some more craft fairs….watch this space!!!

In other news I have turned into a crazy spring(autumn) cleaning lady…I even started clearing the cellar, the shed has been emptied and the van cleaned out, the kids room has been gutted and various items have been discreetly taken to the charity shop while they weren’t looking….kind of bracing myself for the mountain of crap that comes in at Christmas…and then Alpha’s birthday in January….

and wait for it…..I have started running, yes you heard me right running….and I have to get up at 6am and sneek out without waking the children, and I am on my own 30 glorious sweaty minutes and i feel so much better for it…but I have had a horrible cold for the last few days, so I have had to lay off, but I think Tuesday I will be putting the running shoes back on again…..

so it was good to catch up, i’ll be back sooner this time…..

Can of Worms Glove Puppet

We found a poo in the playground!

Well brace your selves people I am going to be honest with you…..having children is not, I REPEAT NOT for the faint hearted or squeamish? if they do something, no matter how gross you have to deal with it…..

So with that in mind I thought I would share a few stories, kind of a sequel to my adventures in potty training post!

I went to collect Alpha from school the other day and he was in a different set of trousers, with his originals in a carried bag neatly hung on his peg…this is not that unusual, but I said light heartedly, Oh dear did we have an accident today? Alpha blanked me? the Teacher raced over to me and said in quite a nervous hushed voice “uummm, we found a poo in the playground!” she continued after a brief pause ” at first we thought a fox might have got in?  but then me checked the girls because they were wearing skirts and a poo is more likely to drop out? and then we remembered Alpha wears loose boxers so we asked if it was him, and he very dismissively said yes…!”  I had to start laughing, and I never though any conversations I had with Alpha’s teacher would start with the phrase “we found a poo in the playground!”

so then we get to the second of my poo stories for this post….I was having a bad day, and I was leaving LP to it, I was being grumpy, I had had enough of children and being demanded of! so Poor LP was trying to deal with a baby covered head to toe in chili, so she was carried at arms length into the bathroom, when I hear a yell from the bathroom, and LP had skidded across the bathroom floor on a rouge poo…..when questioned about it Alpha said “but I was having a wee like daddy?” let me explain a bit more! When Alpha started to use the toilet he insisted on sitting down even when he was having a wee, he has only just realized that you can wee standing up, and now that’s all he does every where and anywhere the fancy takes him, pants down willy out hey presto, only this time he had been taken by surprise by a poo too and that is how it ended up on the bathroom floor…..I can just imagine his surprise and he must of turned round mid wee to see what had happened!

and so we conclude this poo trilogy with todays adventures….My brother arrives, yey Uncle Alex and his 3 boys, so a trip to the fantastic newly refurbished park is in order, we pick up my lovely new friend miss Pockets (more about her another day!) and her little boy H, so off we go a convoy of little boys….we arrive the first thing Alpha does is drop his pants, willy out, wee wee in the middle of the playground, luckily it was only us there so miss pockets and I just chuckle about it, and are not quick enough with a camera phones….then a while later I spot the trousers coming down again and try to move him to the edge of the playground, only to be told as I am moving him “mummy I having a poo” Miss Pockets is rolling around laughing at me….. I then realize I don’t have any wipes, or nappy bags! so with the largest leaves I can find i move the poo piece by piece across the playground to the bin….and Alpha is absolutely oblivious to it!

So the moral of the story is, always remember the wipes and nappy bags, and always look before you step especially in the playground!

Grandma in Berlin

My mum likes to travel, she has been pretty much everywhere, there are a few places left on the list, but a lot of the world has been ticked off already…you can read more about some of her travels here

Her and her husband (Evil Stepdad) (P.S. he’s not actually evil) they go to a new capital every year for their anniversary and this time it was Berlin….

and guess what she brought Alpha???His very own Trabant!!

All the talk of Berlin it got me thinking about a film I love, Goodbye Lenin watch it if you get a chance…I think it’s got just the right balance of charm, politics and comedy….Enjoy!!

Happy Thursday Let’s Talk soon XXX

Some things I like…..

I love this lady, it could be Ena’s great grandma…..

I have just watched a brilliant program thanks to very fashionable sister-in-law….. it’s still on the iplayer….

I have always loved the early 20th Centuary….the design and art of the time is very inspiring, but also it highlights how a social situation has such an impact on creativity….

well it has inspired me to use this space to share some of the things I love, as well as the things I do and feel…..

so here we go…..early 20th Century design, Bauhaus… (i used to day dream I studied at the Bauhaus, under all those fabulous artists and designers…) Just look at that chair, perfectly at home in a home of today, that is the beauty of it, how many other things would still look that contemporary when they were actually designed 85 years ago….

and the craziness of Dadaism has always had a special place in my heart… I love that they challenged their world, and the boundaries of what is art and what isn’t, half the stuff in the tate modern would not be considered art if it were not for these guys…..

anyway, that’s enough for now, to be continued………

Falling off the Wagon

Yesterday Alpha came running down stairs looking stressed and then blurted out “Mummy, I have done a poo on my ukulele!” and completely unfazed I marched upstairs and proceeded to clean the poo up, muttering something along the line of, I bet George Fornby’s mum didn’t have this problem….
it was several hours later that I managed to laugh about it, and then it dawned on me, I really should start blogging this stuff again…..or these gems will get forgotten, then I had a little think about the last post I made, and realised I couldn’t actually remember when or what it was, and come to mention it when and what was the last thing you made, and…..oh dear?? I have fallen off the wagon, been derailed, I have stopped doing all my stuff, how did that happen, and no! stop being cross with yourself, that’s not helpful, just get back on….so here I am getting back on!

see you soon

Spinning Plates

Well I am beaten, defeated, I give up…..or that’s how I have been feeling, not like me actually, I am normally a stubborn fighter who when she gets knocked down thinks ok let’s try another angle…but like everybody I have moments in my life where all I want to do is stay in bed and eat cake, and watch films that make me cry….

So how come I got here? well I was thinking about it, I am not depressed, I am actually poorly…..LP instructed me he had booked me a Doctors appointment in a very matronly manner this morning…so I dragged my feet and swollen fuzzy head up to the doctors and he looked in my ears and said in quite a high voice, that’s am impressive about of mucus oozing from behind your eardrum, that must really hurt!!!! So it is official, I am actually Ill….and you stop when you are ill, you do stay in bed, and watch films and read magazines, and stay in your PJ’s all day and feel a bit sorry for yourself, so I am allowed. still I can’t help but feel guilty and impatient to get back on with it…..

and then I thought well I’ll use this time to plan, make some lists, work out what DIY jobs I should do in what order, and what is the next sewing project, and I would really like to retake the photos for my Folksy shop, and sort of do a relaunch and actually schedule when I am going to work on it , like a real job, and then I should be taking Iona to playgroup and cooking nutritious meals with lovely fresh ingredients and being a better partner and trying to make sure I look nice and maybe make some clothes, because sorry this body was not designed to wear Jeggings, no matter how in they are!! and then I have to entertain my son in the afternoons and make friends and maintain those friends and be a good sister, daughter, mother, partner…oh and feed the gold-fish…

Here I am again spinning plates, you just about manage to get the housework one going, then some parenting, and maybe the odd DIY job plate that stops and starts, and my making amazing new friends one has been spinning really well, but then I took my eye off the starting a craft business to build up over the next few years one and that came crashing down, and then I did a DIY job, but the housework one fell off because I wasn’t watching it….and sometimes for a few seconds they are all spinning at once, and do you know what you do, you think well I can manage that maybe I should start running, or learn a new language? and you think you can have it all, but the truth is you can’t because it all…. is never quite enough…

or something happens like you get ill and all your plates come crashing down and you have to start again, and I am not scared of that…but maybe I am just expecting a little too much of my life right now, and actually having 2 amazing but still both under 4 children is quite a big plate to keep spinning, the DIY can wait? and I should sew when I feel like it? and it’s OK some evening to just have a bath and listen to the radio…I shouldn’t feel bad about it, or like I am wasting time?
So how many plates can I manage and does less plates make you happier? or will I always want to spin one more plate than I can manage?? I’ll keep you posted!

How about you guys? Any tips on how you keep all your plates spinning?