Day 2

Today's prompt for the photo a day challenge is 'in my hand' and not long ago I hung up this new tea towel which had been in my hands for longer than I would have liked!

A bit of an unusual design for a tea towel I thought but pretty even so.

From the days of the year website we learn it's Children's Book Day as it is Hans Christian Andersen's birthday. 
T has never been a reader which saddened me as I have always loved books and I always hoped my children would develop their own love for them.
Of course we did read to him when he was younger. How many times I had to read Bob the Builder stories, this was his favourite character when he was 3 years old and we first became a family. He still has quite a pile of the Famous 5 adventure stories which he G read to him at bedtime when he was a little older.
He then progressed to listening to stories on tape and CD at bedtime, things such as Dr Who and Stormbreaker.

Although not an avid reader S does enjoy settling down with a book now and then. This is her current read, JW has always been popular with both children due to Tracy Beaker.
S also has her own little collection of stories on tape too, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Tilly Beany have been listened to more times than I can count.

One of my favourite books when I was young was Little Old Mrs Pepperpot and I was thrilled to bits to find the exact same copy as I had back then at a car boot sale last year. S is now discovering her too.

1st April

I need to get back into the photo taking habit and so I thought I would try and join in with fat mum slim's photo a day challenge. 

Today's prompt was 'something purple' and I decided to go with a ribbon wrapped bead from one of my bracelets.

Another website which I thought may provide a bit of inspiration is daysoftheyear.com.
According to the website today is Batman day and to mark that I downloaded some free printables and without further ado here is Cat Woman, Batman and The Joker.

Stanley Dog Cushion

One of the teacher's at work is due to go on maternity leave next week.

She was S's teacher in Year 2 and during that time we had a few conversations about our shared love of all things produced by Ms Kidston.

When an email was sent out to us all a couple of weeks ago announcing a baby shower to be held just before half term I knew I wanted to make a little something but seeing as my craft skills are quite basic I wasn't sure what. 

With the help of a CK booklet, which was given away in the Telegraph newspaper a couple of years ago, I decided to use the Stanley pattern and stitch him to a cushion cover.

I bought the cushion and it's cover from Store21 and used a selection of felt and fabrics from my limited craft supplies to bring him to life.

For my first attempt I am absolutely delighted with the way he looks. 

I hope he'll be loved in his new home.

Chichester

The main train station in our City is at the start of 6 weekends of engineering works. This means that some destinations which are normally a change of train and longer journey time away can now be reached more easily and from our local station 10 minutes walk away.

G wanted to go to Chichester as he had never been. I used to go there Christmas shopping with my mum and sisters. We would alternate one year going to Salisbury with Chichester the next but it's probably been 10 years since my last visit.

Just look at the blue sky above the Chichester Cross.

The cross cuts across the four main roads in the city centre and decided to turn left into East Street where we saw this clock. Anyone for a paste sandwich? Shippams was founded in Chichester, never knew that.
As we headed further and further down this route we noticed there were lots of people walking in the opposite direction and the reason why became clear when we spied a car boot sale being held in a car park. Of course we nipped in for a nose round, my buys feature at the end of the post.

After a little light browsing we stopped off at M&S to buy some sandwiches and made our way to the Cathedral. This was our view as we ate lunch.

You can't keep a 9 year old sat down for too long on a sunny day and once lunch was eaten S was up and playing with the skip ball she had bought in the Poundshop. You can't see it very clearly in the photo but she has her tongue poking out to help with the concentration!

We walked along the Cloisters admiring the workmanship and the beauty of the wood

We saw this very modern looking gargoyle which I have since found out is modelled on a recent Dean of Chichester.

Another wonderful shot of the blue sky from the opposite to where we sat

and this was the view to my right

and to my left.

Outside the west front is a statue of Richard of Chichester.

From here we walked down to Priory Park where S spent some time in the children's playground. The park is set in a really lovely spot and a small cafe was under construction. Maybe we'll return in the school hols for a visit.

I spied a Susie Watson shop on our way back to the station and lingered by the window long enough to take this photo and say I would like one of everything should anyone need to know!

Here are 2 of my 3 buys from the car boot. The other is a set of measuring cups for my sister which were proving really difficult to photo so I gave up. This top is for her. I think she'll probably wear it with a long sleeve top underneath. I would have liked it for me for sadly it is too small. This was 50p and will form part of her birthday present in October. 

This top is for me. Stripes are my second love next to polka dots and I like the pink and grey combo. I paid a pound for this one. Happy days.

World Book Day

S wanted to dress up for the latest World Book Day but with something that was less costumey.
We raided our wardrobes and with her brown trousers and my pale blue jacket we formed the idea of Peter Rabbit.
I stuck some cotton wool onto a piece of cardboard and stapled this to the waist band of her trousers for her fluffy tail.
Although not true to the original Beatrix Potter illustrations S was very taken with the blue sequinned ears we spied in the 99p shop and so they completed her outfit.

Paper Patterns

Question : What do you do with old paper patterns when you can't sew but you love the vintage artwork?

                     Answer: You make them into necklace pendants of course.

In this post a couple of years ago I described the fun I had along with my sisters when we used to play at fashion shows and beauty contests with the models cut from old Simplicity and Style pattern books. Given the happy memories attached to these drawings and the fact they are just too attractive to be hidden in a drawer I wanted to make something with them.
I found these silver and glass pendants for sale on ebay and placed the glass rectangle over the picture I wanted to use to see how I wanted to trim it down to fit.

I really like this middle figure but unfortunately I couldn't use her because the shop stamp was over her hair so I used the black and white picture on the pattern itself. Not quite as pretty as the colour drawings but lovely just the same.

                                  This is my favourite of the three. 
You can still see the glue on the lapels of the dress because it hadn't quite dried out and become clear when I took the photo. She has such a sweet face and I love the colour and style of her hair.

They were so quick and easy to make and I love wearing them, I'm definitely going to keeping my eye out for more patterns in the charity shops and car boots.

New

Snippets from Sunday.

A visit to the park so S could try out her new vtriker scooter, her birthday present from me and G.

Very welcome swathes of new spring colour.

                  New battle wounds on the trees from the recent storms.

New (to me) tank top. S needs a costume for World Book day on Thursday so we made a quick stop off in our everything £1.99 charity shop and found the perfect brown top for her and this for me.

Once home again and settled with a hot chocolate S asked me help her learn something new. A friend of mine gave S a learn how to knit kit, it may be a long while before the scarf is complete but she really enjoyed learning something different.