Jubilee!

It's Jubilee time here in old England. I'm not a massive patriot, nationalism can lead to terrible things, but I do think it's good to have a sense of who you are and where you come from. I'm happy to be a subject in a monarchy, it's archaic and antiquated but that's no reason to go republic in my mind! I even went to see the Queen when she started her Nationwide tour here in Leicester. I've got pictures but my phone died recently so they may be lost forever! :(

Anyway, we've been celebrating with various friends and relatives all weekend. I think the children are exhausted! Today we had a BBQ with our neighbours. We all live practically on top of each other here and share a somewhat communal garden. Well, I have my own separate one but the rest of them share and my children play on their trampoline!

  My attempt at tissue paper pom poms (recipe here). I was pretty happy with them. I just wish I wasn't so short then I could have hung them myself...a bit more artfully...

 Yes, this filthy child is mine. A dirty child is a happy child after all! The hat has been slightly chewed by one of the neighbours dogs! We had a lovely afternoon, everyone brought something to throw on the BBQ, I also did a bit of baking. Apparently these taste like an angel crying on your tongue. I sure hope that's a good thing!

To round it all off, I found a four leaf clover, everyone tells me I will have good luck, but really I consider myself pretty lucky as it is...

God, I make myself sick sometimes! ;)

We made quills

The weather here has been pretty miserable of late. That coupled with a real lack of funds can lead to pretty bored children...
So in an effort to entertain the children for free I took them to the local pumping station museum. I know you're wondering how the mechanics of sewer engineering can be entertaining for a small child but really it is a local history museum with lots of buttons to press for tiny fingers and a fake flushing poo for bigger ones. Charming, I know, but I'm not five. Apparently its brilliant! I bought Patrick a cheapo plastic plane and that kept them entertained for a while.

 We arrived a little early and found it closed as it was a Sunday so we decided to take a stroll. We went down by the canal. I love it down there as there are plenty of old industrial buildings to admire and mourn, that coupled with the abundance of nature makes for a pretty enjoyable walk. I gathered myself a large bunch of lilac and Patrick found two feathers so...when we got home..

 Bless them! You can practically taste the concentration!

Patrick even did some secret spy letters with lemon juice (sorry, invisible ink!)












It kept them quiet whilst I arranged my lilac. A good day...with no rain! Hooray!

KCWC...Fail!

Why am I so honest! I could toatlly have faked it by posting outfits I made ages ago ;)
Well, I'm kinda glad that's over! I've had such a busy couple of weeks. I really should have thought about commiting to an hour a day sewing for children during a week where I am camping for the weekend and attending wedding. I did manage an hour a day for 5 days but when we went to Shropshire it fell by the wayside. I was hoping to get some embroidery done but I didn't get far enough along on the project! In fact. I have nothing to show for it as pretty much all my time was taken drafting patterns and making toiles. Dullsville! Next time, I will be more organised in the run up and not decide to join in the night before it's due to start.


I did manage to get my dress finished for the wedding though...

 I'm pretty pleased with it. It is cotton, fully lined with inverted pleats. It's not the best picture to be honest but I don't know any photographers!

I have some other creative results for the week...coming up in another post...

Kids Week Clothing Challenge

Crikey! I'm not sure if I'm ready for this! The deal is, sew 1 hour a day for 7 days and make some kids clothes with 100's of other people acting as your virtual cheerleaders...doesn't sound too rough as deals go...

Following the success of the Itty Bitty Baby Dress I made for Eliza I might try another of those, except my niece falls in between the sizes on offer so I'll have to draft my own pattern.


And then, if there's time I'm going to try to upcycle an old long sleeve top into a pair of pyjamas for Ted using this for the top and this for the bottoms to help me along!


Well, we'll see anyway!
Wish me luck
xKatyx