24th September - 14th October

I've not been around much as things have been busy plus S was off school for one day not well, G had a birthday and then I managed to catch a bug which had been doing the rounds at work.

So from the past few weeks I have been 

Wearing - brooches to go along with the theme of the day. 

There was the Coca-Cola can for Crush a Can Day

and this strawberry for Strawberry Cream Pie Day.

Reading - the next book from the Maisie Dobbs series. This is the one I have enjoyed least so far. I have the next couple on my book shelf and the later ones are on my Christmas wish list. G is aware!

Enjoying - messing about with a fake felt beard for Lumberjack Day

My mum and sisters were coming over and so I asked them to wear their best check shirt and we each had our photo taken whilst modelling the beard.

A few days before hand it had been Elephant Appreciation Day so we went out in the garden and played the Elephant Game. 

Watching - talented people at the theatre. My birthday present to my friend T was tickets to see Women In Power. It's a new production, a collaboration by some very well known women and we were thoroughly entertained by the fabulous cast who acted, sung, played instruments and danced non stop for 90 minutes. 
The second trip was with G and some friends to see Austentatious. Each night the performance is different as each performance is improvised by the cast. They had us in stitches and I would thoroughly recommend going to see them if you ever get the chance.

Loving - that Rocky is settling in so well and finding his own favourite places. This was where he liked to settle down a few weeks ago. Lately he has made the top of the freezer his own, he likes to keep and eye on us and he is quite close to where we store his food!

Buying - little china treats from TK Maxx. I went in to look at the Halloween offerings and was very restrained and just bought one little bowl. 
Just the right size for chocolate based treats.
I was unable to resist adding to my mug collection with this slightly wibbly wobbly one. With the stars and Joy decoration it does have a festive flavour but, I will admit now that it hasn't been stashed away to be used later, it's been used daily since purchase as a little Joy everyday is a good thing I think.

Doing - a jigsaw. I found this one whilst having a tidy up. I think it was one of G's stocking filler gifts.

It's made up of 250 pieces and so G and I raced through it in no time at all and it's now sat in a bag ready for the charity shop.

The theme is sweets from the 1970s and although there were lots of things we recognised there were also quite a few we didn't.

Visiting - an exhibition named We March On all about the history of Southampton Football Club. I'm not footie fan but I still found it all very interesting. The Saints are G' team and so we went to see this on his birthday.

Wondering - if this is really what I look like? To mark World Egg Day a plan was hatched(!) between me and my colleagues that we would each decorate an egg in our likeness. Due to being unwell last week I completely forgot about it until a colleague sent me a picture of hers the night before we were due to take them in. I was feeling tired and not at all in the crafting mood but felt like I should make the effort. I'm glad I did, we all had a giggle and it made our Friday a quite eggscellent day.

An Ambush of Tigers

When the children were much younger books featuring Mog the cat and The Tiger Who Came To Tea were firm favourites.
I have a wonderful memory of going to see the stage show of The Tiger Who Came To Tea with T and S and us all joining in with some tiger aerobics. If you have young ones and you get the chance to go and see this show then do, you won't be disappointed.
To mark the birthday of Judith Kerr today me, G and S have each made our version of The Tiger.
Mine is on the left and looks a bit like an owl.
G's in the middle looks like a fluffy pussy cat.
S's on the right is definitely the most like the original tiger.

Three Quick Days

I have a couple of other longer posts to do to help me catch up from this past week but first up is the easiest one to share.

Thursday 24th May was Tiara Day and although a bit more crown than tiara in it's design, I popped this brooch onto the collar of my dress.

Friday 25th was Wine Day and so once home from work (and my last run of week 4 had been completed) I sat down with a glass of this, which I didn't really enjoy as much as I thought I would!

Yesterday was Grape Popsicle Day.  Now the weather has been very obliging this weekend, perfect for the consumption of ice lollies and let me tell you a few have been enjoyed but for marking this day I went with a quick and easy craft.
I bought a pack of these shaped book marks online a little while ago. With the aid of a tiny roll of sellotape stuck to the back of each one I added them to a length of pretty pink and white lace.
The dresser now has some summer bunting.

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

These crafts which get us sat around the table together are something we are all enjoying very much.

27th March is the anniversary of the death of Maria Von Trapp.

How to mark this date?
Find a mountain to climb?
Run up a batch of matching outfits from the curtains?
Befriend a lonely goatherd?

Make a kitten and mitten garland is what we decided to go for.
After all garlands are one of my favourite things.

S supplied felt tip pens so we could decorate the mittens and draw the whiskers and faces on the kittens.

G decided his cat was called Cuddles.

S decided hers was called Electrocution?!

 I went for naming mine Milly.

I used sellotape to attach them to a piece of string and the garland is now decorating the mirror in our hall way.

A Trio of Pandas

This is what was keeping us busy the other evening.

Paper plates transformed into panda faces for

Panda Day.

Fun family time.

Strawberry

Today is Strawberry Day. A weird date in the calendar to be celebrating a summer fruit but who am I to argue?

I found something for all three of us to do together.
Using heart shaped balloons we each made our very own strawberry.

First up we have S wearing her new Harry Pooter PJs and deciding going cross-eyed was the best pose for this photo. 

Me with my attempt. As you can see I also wore my CK strawberry brooch today, a happy splash of red against the black and grey.

Last but by no means least G with my strawberry on the left and his on the right. He doesn't normally wear a hat indoors just in case you were wondering!

As you can see from this photo the birthday balloons and banners are still up, to be honest they probably still will be for a couple more days yet.
We've been busy with all kinds of birthday related things so I've got a little bit of catching up to do from the last few days. 
Nothing new there then!

Cards

This first card is one of many G received today because it's his birthday.

His mum, sister and family friend J all came down from Salisbury.

T picked them up in his car from the train station and drove them to the local pub where we were meeting for lunch.

Then it was back home for birthday cake.

The second card is one I made for World Card Making day.
At Christmas time there are two adults and two teenage children to whom we give money.
I could just go and buy some money wallet style cards and pop the dosh inside, but I like to do something a little different as seen here and here.
This is my first attempt at sewing a felt stocking onto card. I plan to pop the note inside along with a small bar of chocolate.
I only have 4 to make and I thought a little forward planning now will help me towards plumping for the final design.

My Weekend

This past weekend was spent a lot closer to home.

It began with a cuppa and a catch up with my friend G.

There was lots to chat about and as usual we could have nattered the whole day away.

One job which really needed doing was tidying my wardrobe and chest of drawers. It didn't take long to sort and with some kind of order restored I took the opportunity to count how many cardigans I have. 
I admit they are my weakness. 
I counted 50. 
Excessive?
Perhaps, but I love them.

We weren't sure about going to the car boot on Sunday morning due to the overnight rain but decided we'd pop along to see what was to be had.
G picked up a stash of records which he was thrilled with and my best buy was this tin for 50p.
It's going to be one of the items in my mum's advent box of gifts. I just need to decide what treats to put inside. I'm thinking shortbread.

A short while was spent in the garden, filling up various pots with daffodil bulbs,

before spending some time indoors with glue and glitter. Our boss is retiring at the end of this week and she is having a bit of a do on Tuesday evening. Colleagues who have worked with her for a long, long time want to decorate the room where it's being held with some of photos of her from over years. I volunteered to make some glittery pegs to hang the photos up with, I thought this would look more fun and festive.

Time with friends and family, odd jobs completed and of course the start of Strictly all added up to a gentle weekend to savour.

Allsorts

Friday was a day made for Violet Beauregarde because it was Bubblegum day. I chose to mark this day by wearing a pink cardigan and pink necklace to work. The plastic baubles in the necklace reminded me of gobstopper sized balls of gum.

 

We had a couple of options for things to do over the weekend and decided to start Saturday off with a walk. Our destination was Lakeside at Eastleigh. Despite it being quite close by I've only been there once before. This was with my sister and T when he was 3, so quite a while ago! We walked around the lake, the edges  of which were populated by patient fishermen.

The lake is bordered on one side by a small wooded area which is where we spotted this tree. The opening at the bottom most surely be someone's front door. Could it be for a family of squirrels, like this little chap who was scampering around.

I love the texture of these stone gabions providing the border around a herb garden. I remember first seeing them on an episode of Grand Designs.

Back home I used the excuse of it being Ballet Day to make a ballerina from my Pinterest board with S. S went for a blue multi layered tutu whereas I chose the more traditional look for my green one. The blonde ballerina was made by S for a work colleague who loves the ballet and asked if S would make one for her when I told her what I was hoping we would be doing.

Sunday morning G, T and S all woke up not feeling 100% with sore throats and the potential for colds to be brewing. Plans to go out were shelved which was fine as I had plenty to do indoors.
I wanted to complete a couple more crafty ideas from Pinterest to decorate the dining room in readiness for Valentine's Day. The first involved using the hearts from a couple of packs of cards and red ribbon which I then strung across the mirror.

I bought a dictionary from a charity shop specifically to cut up and use for this next one. I cut out definitions of words such as nest, love, embrace, depend,  and adore and using a craft punch cut out a heartshape from each. I then sellotaped them to a length of twine and hung this one from the dresser.
Both simple but effective.