A use for spare buttons

A heap of lovely buttons. Some vintage, some new...

A frame...

A bit of sewing and ta-dah!

In other news, it is only day two of the Easter holidays and the children are driving me demented already. The noise levels are ear-splitting from getting up until going to bed and, for some unknown reason, the Boy has decided that afternoon naps are for wimps. At least it has stopped raining (for the moment at least) so I can chuck them outside to play. Thank the Lord that the Mr is off work next week, that's all I can say!

Two

My gorgeous baby boy is two today. Not a baby anymore, I guess.

Here he is at one day old...

He was supposed to be born on 27 March (I was booked for an elective c/s), but he decided to try and break out 2 days early. Due to what has become known as "Cadbury's Creme Egg-gate" the hospital wouldn't do the operation that day (the 25th) and I had to wait until the morning of the 26th.

Aaaahhh, yes, the trouble a creme egg can cause....

The anaesthetist was trying to establish what time they could carry out the section. The conversation went something like this...

Him: What time did you last eat?

Me: Lunch at 12:30

Him: Anything since then?

Me: Oh yes, I had a creme egg at around 2:30

Him, in a scandalised tone: A creme egg?!? At 2:30?!? Well we can't operate until 8:30 tonight then.

Me: Oh. (but secretly thinking errmmm, I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant, it's 2 days after Easter and there's chocolate in the house. What do you think was gonna happen?!)

In the event, an emergency pushed me back until the next morning, but everything turned out ok in the end.

And here's the birthday cake - Nigella's Birthday Custard Sponge.

that's Alan the duck off to the right there!

The recipe can be found here. I've left off the 100s and 1000s - they're so girly since they took the artificial colours out , don't you think?

A moment of panic...

...that's what I felt when I thought I'd broken the food processor at lunchtime. I think it is the kitchen appliance I could least live without*. It gets a lot of use in our house making cakes, pizza dough and bread dough; slicing, grating, chopping and batoning veg; pureeing soup - you name it, it does it. I managed to unwedge the lid from the bowl with the aid of a trusty skewer and get on with making this...

And then I used it to make a cake (more about that tomorrow).

I'll be using the processor again later to make a curry paste (Madhur Jaffrey's chicken in a red pepper sauce since you ask). Like I said - it gets a lot of use.

On the crafting front I hooked up a coat hanger cover last night using a tutorial from Dottie Angel.

I had to amend her instructions (I needed 76 chain to get 13 shells and had to add an extra row of (US) single crochet), but that may be due to differences in tension or me not understanding her tutorial correctly. None-the-less I am happy with the way it turned out - I can see a lot more of these being made.

*not counting washing machines and cookers of course ;-)

IKEA

My Wednesday morning normally consists of a trip to the gym but The Boy has scuppered my exercise regime for the moment having been banned from the creche due to officially The. Worst. Nappies. I. Have. Ever. Seen.

So, what to do, what to do? We are going stir crazy, we stayed in and played yesterday, it isn't fair to go to playgroup and pass on the germs...... I know, IKEA!

I needed a frame for this lovely Jane Foster "Birds at Play" poster that I picked up in Habitat a few weeks ago. My daughter is itching to get busy with the felt-tips and colour it in so it's a good job it's intended for The Boy's room. The 50x70cm frames were a bit thin on the ground, so I just got this simple black one. I think it looks ok. You can see more of Jane Foster's work here - rather nice isn't it?

I managed to pick up a few other things whilst in there - it's the way they trap you into the maze-like showroom isn't it? It forces you to see and buy lots of stuff that you wouldn't otherwise. Anyway, some colourful plastic beakers, a bud vase, a second frame and a little train set (someone has a birthday coming up) found their way into my basket.

And a trip to IKEA isn't complete without a trip to the Swedish food shop. It's practically considered a crime in our family if you don't come home from IKEA armed with a couple of bags of Bilar. The Daim are for the Mr and I couldn't resist the Easter themed marshmallows.

Did you know that the Swedish for marshmallow is "skum"? It makes them sound so appealing doesn't it?!

Colourful squares

Ninety of them now. And only 2 the same.

You are all going to be sick of this blanket by the time it's finished, but I laid out the squares this afternoon to see how it looked and I couldn't help but share it. It's so pretty isn't it?

Somewhere in the exporting/uploading process the colours seem to have got a bit muted - in reality they are more vibrant.

Edited to add: if you're interested, you can see the colours better over on flickr

Mothering Sunday

Homemade Mothering Sunday cards from the children. I don't have any great expectations regarding Mothering Sunday - I'm not bothered about being pampered, I don't want an expensive present or to be taken out somewhere posh for lunch. But I confess that I would be greatly disappointed if I didn't get a homemade card.

I am having a very nice afternoon though - E is out at a birthday party and Z is napping, so I have a couple of hours to myself and some peace and quiet. Bliss.

Dressing up

This week at school has been Science week. Lots of fun has been had learning about tadpoles and planting bulbs and flowers (the school is lucky enough to have some green space) and, apparently, yesterday my five year-old learned how to make fire. Hhhhmmmm, I'm not sure how much truth there is in that, but hey-ho.

Anyway, tomorrow the children can dress up as, I quote, 'a creature from a habitat or as an actual habitat' and E decided she wanted to dress up as a ladybird.

So out comes last summer's red t-shirt and 6 small black felt circles...

a trip to Leon's Fabric Superstore for some black cotton and some red net to whip up a skirt and a pair of wings...

an alice band covered in black ribbon with pipe-cleaner antenna...

and there you have it - a ladybird!

Five

E was five today. Five! - like most parents I am wondering where all that time went.

So, we strung up the buntings and happy birthday banners...

had pizza and smartie-studded chocolate cake for tea...

and opened a whole heap of birthday presents...

And the favourite present? Why a hobby horse of course!

Weekend sunshine

Isn't it a joy to see clear blue skies...

and spring flowers?

It inspired me to tidy the garden and plant up some containers...

and to make a batch of pastel coloured fairy cakes.

Any excuse!

The ends

Don't you just hate sewing in the yarn ends?

Surely it is the least pleasurable part of any project. At least it is the stage at which many a project of mine stalls - either that or the sewing together. I try to crochet over most of the ends, but even so there's a couple per granny square that have to be sewn in. I have learned from bitter experience that it is Best To Do It As You Go Along.

66 squares completed now, only (only!) 130 to go.

And that means that I'm going to have to go yarn shopping. And that is, surely, one of the most pleasurable parts of any project, isn't it?