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Saturday 19 May 2012

Stitching and cooking

I have been lazy in updating my blog, however I have been busy here (well keeping myself busy) for several reasons.  One was regarding my first order, making an 18th Birthday cushion which my friend Jo and her daughter, Charlotte loved, especially as it was in pink.



Another one was due to making a cushion for my step-daughter Natalie who needed a boost.  She loves hamsters and sometimes whilst words cannot make things better for somebody a personal gift can say it all.    As Natalie has three hamsters already, the stitching seemed apt for her, however the look on Natalie's mother’s face when Steve and I took her home after taking her out for the day and being told I had got Natalie another hamster was a picture.....there was a massive look of relief on Sharon’s face when she realised it was a stitched one.

This one was a real labour of love, stitched over the weekend and  the cushion made up on Monday, however not without mishaps.  My aim was to put a ribbon around the edge; however I think I was too stressed in trying to get it completed on Monday and I had a right battle with it and decided not to stitch it on. 
It didn’t help that I had woken up that morning with an ear infection and had to get an emergency doctor’s appointment that morning.  It did get to the stage me in the doctors ripping the stitching off the attached ribbon on the cushion and putting the threads in my handbag with the other people waiting to see the doctors wondering what on earth I was doing.


Culinary Creations
We also seem to have a culinary master (or mistress) in the family.  Victoria has discovered the art of making pancakes and surprised me with her first effort.  It was so big it hung over the dinner plate.  Victoria's one is shown below and she was a bit gutted her one didn't turn out so big.  The day before yesterday she did cookies and tonight Victoria has been making cakes (chocolate) by herself and is now awaiting them to cool down so she can experiment with icing them with red, yellow, blue and green food colouring.  Pretty soon roast dinner?????  I will have to wait and see.   Just got to wait for Victoria to let me taste one now.....will probably be a long wait.


Multi-coloured iced chocolate buns




 

Wednesday 2 May 2012

One busy week with a very good ending

Storage Problems and Stitching news
I have a storage problem, my materials are now taking over the dining room and no matter how neat and tidy I pack everything away it’s taking over the room.  This has stemmed from re-decorating and de-cluttering the room, and now its hunt for storage solutions that works with the room.  Due to this not much stitching has taken place as the big cardboard box that I housed my curtain material in was sorted out and using my template for the cushions itself I cut out as many cushions as possible.  The end result was one basket containing the cushion material and another basket containing the curtain linings to use in making cushion inners.   At the moment I am currently looking for a cupboard to store all my stash or a blanket box or if anybody has any other ideas they will be gratefully received.

Funny how the contents of a large box.......


Can be reduced to this


I have though, started to make a couple of baby girl cushions and have a few more to make up along with an order from a fellow foster carer to make an 18th birthday cushion for her daughters impending birthday.


Chasing Ferrets
We did have a bit of excitement on Sunday after the heavy rain and gales, Evie our Labrador, especially.  To explain fully, our rear garden is split into two, grass one end and concrete the other.  Evie tends to stay away from the grassy end by a gate, and Steve heard her getting very excited outside and went to see what the matter was.  We discovered two of our neighbours ferrets running around our garden.  By the time our neighbour had appeared wearing protective gloves and whilst Steve was ensuring that they did not run into our house,  I had managed to grab hold of ‘Precious’ with my bare hands who was then used as bait to catch ‘Sparkles’ whilst Steve. 
Panic over, and with one jealous dog who would not leave me alone, peace reigned for 10 minutes before yet again another ferret was seen running around the garden.....this time it was ‘Timothy’ and I had to grab him as he was around my feet whilst I unlocked our back gate for Paul to take from me.  We were then hunting for another ferret in both back gardens before Paul finally found her in his shed in the open tumble dryer.   Peace did not reign after that as every 5 minutes Evie wanted to go outside to see if there were anymore out there before returning back indoors satisfied that there was no more ferrets running around.  Steve very kindly did tell me that I was safe handling the ferrets as they did not go for bad meat, which was typical of him.

Missing person Number 2
After the excitement the other week of missing person No 1, I had missing person No 2....this time it was our 17 year old foster daughter who had caught her bus after college in the next town and fell asleep.  She realised her error after waking up once she had passed her stop and was on the other side of town.  When asking her where she was she could only tell me she was near a large roundabout, and there are loads of them here.  Finally by powers of deduction and asking for other landmarks, such as a name of the road I was able to discover where she was and collect her.

And Finally.....
Today I received some good news on the job front.   I had uploaded a CV onto a major site here in England with my profile and got a telephone call today from an agency who are interested in finding me a social work position, so fingers crossed I may soon become a working woman.   I will miss my current role as a SAHM even though it can be hectic and extremely busy 90% of the time.