Shorties And Longies

When I was looking on Filth Wizardry for the robot craft, I saw THIS tutorial on how to make shorts out of tea-towels. I haven't done much sewing lately and so I decided these would be non-precious enough to break me out of my sewing slump.

And here they are

 

 

The tea-towels were 3 for £1 in the pound shop, and I went for colour rather than size, which was a bit of a mistake. They are a bit too small, but for the boy who would happily be naked all day, they were fine. I am now going to look for some larger terry toweling vintage tea-towels, because how cute will that be? (I remember having orange and yellow terry shorts in the 1970's myself).

Meanwhile, since the sewing machine was out, I made these.

 

 

 

I made them in the same way as I made the shorts (from Filth Wizardry link above), and I think they are so cute. Oscar said he would like them to be shorter. I have some cute mushroom fabric, so after a cup of tea and a square of chocolate I think I may oblige with a shorter pair.

 

 

If I thought I could make myself a dress out of it without looking like Baby-Jane, I probably would. lol. Sewing slump over.

Valerie
xxx

Crafternoon

We have been seriously lacking on the craft front lately, what with all the illness and upset, but I guess its fair to say we are slowly getting our mojo back. So, we had a bit of a craft afternoon.

First we tried some home made lava lamp experiments.

 

As per the instructions from The Crafty Crow , we mixed 2 parts water, 1 part cooking oil.

 

 I quite liked it like this

 

We were totally out of food colouring as instructed, so we used some watered down glitter paint instead.

 

It looked quite pretty but even when we added the seltzers it didn't do much.  Later in the day, after a shopping run, we tried again with denture tablets and green food colouring.

 

It did do more of a lava type thing, but it wasn't 'spectacular'. I guess Oscar enjoyed the mixing, so it was worth the very minimum effort it took.

Spiderman has made an appearance in our house  (Netfix has the 1960's Spiderman cartoons), and Oscar has a Spiderman action figure. We decided it would be cool to make some 'EVIL' robots to do battle with Spiderman, so I went back to an old post on Filth Wizardry (love love love Filth Wizardry). 

We printed off some of her robot sheets (see above link), and coloured them in.

 

For our robots we used

• Ice cream cone wafer boxes - For the bodies


• Plastic shot glasses - For the eyes, with googly eyes stuck on


• Aluminum Foil -  Wrapped and glued around the bodies


• Pipe cleaners - For the arms

We used a mix of PVA glue and the glue gun to stick them down. I also wrapped some clear tape around them to make them a bit tougher (toddler play is rough)

 

 

And finally, while I was in the pound shop I picked up a 6 pack of foam sheets (for £1 obviously). Oscar was running out of time (energy) before his bath so I quickly cut out some shapes for him to stick to the tiles.

 

 

 

I used water soluble pen to draw the shapes (in about 5 minutes flat), because I think they will be better with no pen lines. The pen did run down the tiles though, but its soluble so it will come off (I hope). 

All in all, not a bad day. Oh and in case you were wondering, Oscar went to bed at 9 : 45pm last night, and got up at 6 : 30am today. We are all still fairly tired.

Valerie

xxx

Yawn Yawn Yawn

Last night Oscar fell asleep on the floor about 1 foot away from the table with his dinner set upon it.   It was 5 : 45pm. I try to get dinner out as early as possible so this doesn't happen, but this is the 2nd time in as many days. At around 12 : 30am I was just getting to sleep (I am having one of my periods of being exhausted but not sleeping well), when Oscar woke in his own bed and started to cry. Duncan carried him through to our bed (but Duncan was actually still doing work downstairs). When Duncan came to bed some time after 2am Oscar was still awake, crying over a hang nail and asking for a drink of milk. This of course meant that I was awake. I am guessing we finally got back to sleep about 3am, only to be prodded awake at 6 : 30am. "Wake up Mummy, its morning"
 I REALLY struggle with tiredness. I know most people don't do particularly well with it, but there are some people who seem to manage to keep going, a little slower, a little quieter but without too much complaint. I envy them, I am not like that. I have been known to cry, shout, faint, mistake a tired day for the onset of severe depression, throw up or literally fall asleep where I am standing. My Mum told me that one of the big clues that I had a heart condition was my unnatural sleep activities. I could be sitting playing on the floor then I would suddenly slump and be fast asleep, little toys still in hand. I have seen children fall asleep fast (who don't have a heart condition), but apparently you could recognise this as not quite right if you saw it. I guess it started a lifetime intolerance to being tired (or something?). Oscar has a bit of a complicated sleep relationship too. There are days when he is SO tired he can hardly move and spends the day whining and literally lying about the place. He never seems to have bags of energy, and any bursts of big activity are offset by huge periods of exhaustion. I cant remember there being such a huge contrast noticeable with the other kids. If Oscar's heart checks out ok (appointment next Tuesday), then I think I will have to look a bit more closely at Oscar's / our routine.
The roll on from this pattern is of course, it's 2 : 30pm and Oscar is fast asleep. There was no chance of him making it through today without a nap. This means bedtime tonight will not be before 9 : 00pm, in fact its most likely to be about 10 : 00pm. So in essence, any routine we may have had is out of the window. I know some parents abolish bed time completely and let their kids flop down when they want to, but we are just not able to do that. We appreciate out 2 hour slot in an evening between Oscar's bedtime and mine (and Duncan going back to doing work). Ah well, it will sort itself out in the end I suppose. I have parented teenagers, I know that all too soon I will be dragging him out of bed for lunch and sitting up waiting for his key in the lock. Ok, scared myself there, I am off to take a nap so I have the energy to do dinner, bathtime and the long evening ahead.

 

Valerie

xxx

PS - Duncan, if you are reading this on the bus home from work, sorry babe there was no way he was staying awake.

Monday Moan

 I have  realised that the worst day of my week is a Monday. Over the winter especially, there is a long week ahead, with no Daddy, and little chance of outdoors play, and it sometimes seems like a giant mountain to climb.
Today hasn't been too bad though, by other Mondays standards. Even despite having my monthly reminder that I am not pregnant (2nd period since Ellie was delivered), its not been too bad.
I am now about to bore you with housekeeping, so please feel free to skip to the photo at the end. I have a great housekeeping book (yep there really is a book for everything), called HOME COMFORTS. This is the only housekeeping book you would ever need, since it covers the very basics (hand washing dishes) to more complicated stuff (the production of fabrics, natural and synthetic and how to care for them). Anyway, I don't get paid to do book reviews, but I think its good. I have had the book for years but I re-read parts when I need a wee push to get things sorted out. So, in the last 24 hours I have

• cleaned out and re-folded the linen cupboard


• sorted a bag of clothes for the charity shop


• sorted out old handbags for the charity shop


• sorted out a box of books for the charity shop


• done 4 loads of washing


• made up my meal planner for the week


• made a pile of odd plates and cups for the charity shop


• varnished the floor in the lower hall (Duncan cleaned it first)

and had tonight's dinner in the pot well before dinner time (veg and tofu korma).

I have also managed to finish Oscar's new hat (pictures after blocking), and play a game of dominoes with Oscar using his new fantastic DOMINO SET (I thought he would just start with colour, but actually, he is counting the spots as well).

And finally, in other news, my baby had his hair cut on Saturday and he HATES it. Every time he looks in a mirror he whines and says 'its not longer yet'. I think it will be a loooooooooong time before we get him back to the barber.

V
xxx

Day Of Rest?

 

Day Of Rest?

 

Moments On Friday

: :  Oscar decides that 5:45am is an excellent time to start the day

: :  I upload some photo from my old blog onto FLICKR. They make me smile and feel sad at the same time. Just where does the time go?

: :  I have an overwhelming urge to knit a new hat for Oscar. When was the last time I knitted anything for my boy? I cant remember. I download a $1 hat pattern from RAVELRY and start knitting immediately.

: :  I am amazed at the weather, its different every time I look up.

: :  Parcels of lovely arrive in the post.

: :  I think I figure out the lifted trouser leg phase.

 

wet grass

: :  I overhear a conversation in the kitchen, where Aimee and Oscar are playing with home made play-dough

O - I am going to go and show this creature to Daddy,
A - Daddy isn't here, he is at work,
O - I thought I heard keys,
A - No, he isn't home,
O - Oh, maybe it was from TV,
A - The TV isn't on,
O - Oh
O - I miss Daddy,
O - That's why I hear keys

 

: :  I fire off an email to Duncan

" Can you bring home mandarin's for Oscar and an A5 sketchbook for me? (a cheap one)"

: :  Duncan fires one back

" I will certainly try"

Have a lovely weekend.

V

xxx