The Swimming Lessons

Just coming out the other end of a week long swimming crash course for Chloe.  It didn't go just as well as I had a hoped (I really shouldn't get my hopes up so much) but it did go well.  She didn't pass the class which means she will have to retake the beginner class and pass it before moving on to the next level.  The sticking point ... putting her head under the water willingly and confidently.  It's what caught a couple of the kids out so she isn't alone in having to take the class again.

I feel awful for her at the minute because she's actually ok about her head going under.  On the first day she managed to put her face in the water by herself, only for a second though and she slipped off her aids a couple of times and went under too and didn't freak out, she just stood up, wiped her eyes and carried on.  What she needs to do is stand in the middle of the pool with her hands on top of her head, fingers locked, and bend her knees until she's under then stand up again and she just can't bring herself to do it and after a day of trying it started a hinder her in a couple of other things as well.  She did learn to swim a few lengths of herself but not the prone 3 metres she needed to pass, she could float on her back on the first couple of days but by testing day so great was her determination to keep her head out of the water, even the back of her head that she couldn't manage to float.  The one good thing though is that it isn't fear stopping her from doing it, she's just decided that she doesn't want to and that kid's nothing if not stubborn as a mule!

Rather than book the next set of lessons again straight away I'm going to spend a bit of time taking her to the pool myself and my brother is going to do the same and we'll try and get her to put her head under, then she'll start proper lessons after Halloween in school which she can "pass" and the leisure centre will accept that as a pass and let her take one of the higher levels at that stage.

The lessons at Ards Leisure Centre are fantastic though if anyone in the area is thinking about taking their kids to learn to swim, I really can't fault them.  The instructor, Shaun, is great with kids, understanding but firm and turned out quite a few little swimmers this week.  One girl in particular who sank like a rock, couldn't figure out what to do with her arms and legs, and tensed so much with the floats that she went down like the Titanic on the first day was knocking out widths of the pool by Wednesday and she wasn't the only one.  The kids were all great too, really nice and encouraging and cheering each other on when it came to things like jumping into the pool.

So now I need to find a swimming costume ... you have been warned!!!

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In other news I've finally set up a shop on Etsy and I've joined the lovely Crafty Folk Team over there who are kindly showing me the ropes and not getting annoyed when I ask yet another really stupid question that has a really obvious answer.  I'm learning, be nice to me:)

It's one of those things that has been on the to do list for ages now and I just never seemed to get round to it, but I sent the husband to bed with a beer and tv the other night, put my head down and got stuck in.  At the minute I'm duplicating across both shops but once I've settled in and have a better feel for the place I'll start to divvy up.

I've made a start adding a few listings to give me something that resembles a shop and I'll be able to carry on with the daily listing club in the Crafty Folk Team.

To celebrate my finally getting my finger out and getting some work done on the shop I'm having a little opening weekend offer.  You can use the code "OpenDay20" to get 20% off your order until the end of this weekend.  As I say I'm still adding stock a bit at a time so if there is something you've been after and I haven't got round to listing it yet, give me a shout and I'll pop it in there for you.   I'm nice like that:)

Kindle Case in Deckchair Stripe on Etsy

Kindle Case in Lemon & Lime on Etsy

Kindle Case in Aviary Birds

Summer Wrap Up and Shop Update

I never really did get the hang of Summer.  Some people are so organised and go into it with a handful of kids and plans for days out and holidays and trips to the beach and they do this with a clean house, a well stocked kitchen, a mountain of stuff in a rainy day box and with a camera in hand so they can show you how much fun their beautiful kids are having every day.  I fail on just about every level.  I end up running head long into it without so much as a notion scribbled on a napkin let alone a plan and my camera has been plugged in for use the last handful of times because I just don't seem to have gotten round to charging the batteries yet ...

Summers are disorganised chaos here, put it that way, but despite lots and lots and lots of rain we've still had plenty of fun.

I can't quite believe we're into the home stretch already.  Just two short weeks and Chloe will go back to school.  This week is the start of her crash course swimming lessons so even though it's tipping it down again ... oh aye it is .... I've actually got something planned, so there, neener neener and all that:)

She starts swimming classes in school this year and although she's pure water baby (it could have gone either way, I love the water, her dad ... not so much) and she's very comfortable in the water so should take to swimming, the last time we had regular access to a pool we didn't seem to get too far beyond this;

See, having far too much fun and none of us thought to maybe whip the armbands or rubber ring off her and see what happened.  With a bit of luck this week will give her a good start at least and then the school swimming lessons will take over and, save us all, I'll even dig the swimwear out and take her myself a few times.

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The shop has been quite tricky to manage this year too.  Way back at the start of Summer I was asked by Folksy if I'd like to be one of the beta testers for the new plus account.  Stupid question .... of course I would.  I figured it would be a great incentive to keep me on track and let me add lots of new stock ahead of Christmas.

Christmas is never a bundle of laughs for crafters, even if we're just making for friends and family as gifts we somehow manage to think we've planned a butt load of time to get everything done and still end up sitting hunched somewhere under the world's smallest table lamp, with the sewing machine on a towel so we don't wake the family at 2am.  I loved the idea of a head start!

 

And cue Summer when I typically get nothing done.

I have managed quite a bit though ... I've surprised myself, but then I've had a huge amount of help from my mum and dad this year as they've whisked Chloe away almost every weekend to let me get on with a few things.

I've really been enjoying making the Kindle cases over the summer, they're a great size so I can cut a few at night ready for sewing the next day, and they're easy to pack away if need be without anything getting so badly out of order that I can't find where I left off.  I'm looking forward to getting back to some larger projects once Chloe's back to school and I've more time and space to play with.

In the meantime I have been motivated by the plus account and have added lots of lovely new kindle cases.

Kindle Case in Coffee House Canvas

Kindle Case in Cherry Blossom

Kindle Case in Harlequin Kaito

Kindle Case in Honey Gold and Flambé Pink - New Season

Feel free to click over for a browse, these are only the very tip of an ever growing iceberg!

Girl's Brigade Ribbons - A Quicky Tutorial

It's nearly that time again ... the GB Parade! Everything else is perfectly manageable, the white shoes, the right socks, those awful PE knickers, no problem! Even the ribbons aren't a bother. Ribbons in the hair ... well that's different. Hair and ribbon is like oil and water, the two just don't mix. Even Chloe's mass of curly hair manages to shrug them off in no time. Mothers of straight haired kiddies, I feel your pain. The simple answer is to use a regular bobble or hair elastic and tie the ribbon over it, but the ribbon still falls out and you're left with a bobble which gets you marked down, so I've knocked up a quickie tute for making a ribbon think it's a bobble ... a robble or a bibbon even:)

Click to Enlarge

I went with the collage to save you getting scroll fatigue.

1. You'll need red and white ribbon in your preferred width, I've used 3/4 inch, and elastic a little bit narrower than your ribbon. I've used a 1/2 inch elastic.
2. Cut your ribbon into half meter lengths and carefully melt the ends with a match or lighter* to prevent fraying.
3. Cut a 2 inch length of elastic for each ribbon and again carefully melt the ends. You'll end up with a little singe on these, its just the nature of the material don't worry about it. Fold each length of ribbon in half and use your fingernail to crease the centre.
4. Measure 2 inches out from the centre crease of your ribbon and, folding the end of the elastic under slightly, pin the elastic in place at each end.
5. Place one end of the elastic under your machine foot and secure in place with a bar stitch.
6. Stretch the elastic out in front of your presser foot and with a long stitch length, zig zag stitch to the far end and add another bar stitch to secure. Trim threads.
7. The elastic will gather the ribbon a little.
8. Make as many ribbons as you need in whatever colours you happen to need. These will work just as well for things like Irish dancing, gymnastics, whenever you happen to need a ribbon for your girl's hair.

Then just tie the ribbons as you normally would. The idea is that the ends of the elastic should just get caught in the first part of the knot as you stretch to tie it, but not the bow itself. The elastic then tightens and grips onto itself, the ribbon and the hair to stop it falling out every five minutes. *Go easy when melting the ribbons, a bit of discolouration on the elastic is no big whoop but you really want your white ribbons white so go slow, it takes surprisingly little heat to melt ribbon holding it half a centimetre away usually works for me without scorching or discolouring the ribbon. Next up: Matching bow hair clips

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New in today

Kindle Case in Harlequin Aviary

Kindle Case in Kingfisher

Kindle Case in Red and Grey

 

Fist Bump

Woohoo!!

We've just found out today that Chloe's P2 teacher will be taking P3 from next year and we've got her again. She must have really liked her class this year, either than or it's my mad present making skillz.

Woohoo!!

I've said that already haven't I?

She's not everyone's favourite teacher, some consider her a bit iron fist for their little kiddies but I think she's absolutely brilliant. Chloe sometimes has a habit of being offered an inch and taking a mile so having a teacher who makes her expectations known in no uncertain terms is perfect for us.

I found her teacher in P1 was a bit airy fairy with an attitude that kids should learn in their own time and there wasn't any rush, so the kids took their time and entered P2 a fair bit behind the other two classes. In one short year all that malarky was well and truly fixed.

What makes it even better is that our current classroom assistant will be moving along with them too. She's the fount of positive reinforcement and works perfectly with the teacher, I don't think I've ever seen a better team and it means Chloe gets the best of both worlds, a firm handed pat on the back if you like. She needs the strictness to make her sit down and concentrate on her work but she likes a bit of praise for a job well done when she's finished too.

Hopefully we're looking forward to another great school year.

Last week of term

I'm amazed at how fast it seems to arrived this year. Mind you, bunging a holiday into the middle of June probably didn't help me be any more organised than I usually am, but sure.

With the last week of term comes the usual panic about what to get for the teachers. I've loved Chloe's teachers this year and I mean love them. You can only really appreciate what it is to have a truly wonderful teacher in your life when you've suffered a not so great one and we've been there.

But this year has been great and we want to say thank you to her teachers, but what to get.

Nothing too big obviously, there's only so many presents a house can hold and I'm sure our wonderful teachers have houses crammed to the rafters by now. Nothing too clichéd like pens and books and what have you.

Chloe really wanted to give them bracelets to match the necklaces we brought home from her holiday for them and so I obliged and made them to match but jewellery, as lovely as it is, doesn't really scream "you're a fandabbydozy teacher and I love you".

So I went trawling t'interwebs for some inspirations and found this gorgeous set of flash cards over at Urban Bliss.

As luck would have it I also happened to have some magnetic printer paper handy, so a little bit of resizing later and we have three sets of cracking little fridge magnets for our absolutely brilliant teachers.


I really hope they like them.

The quick as a flash holiday recap

There'll be more, I promise, but I'm still tired, still ignoring the laundry and still enjoying being home with my husband.

We baked in the sun, me more than anyone else but sure what else is new.


We played at the beach and carried half of it back to the apartment.


We relaxed in the pool.


We got bored of relaxing and had water fights instead.


We fed the lizards vanilla wafers in exchange for photo ops. Probably not their natural diet.


We walked up them thar hills.


Almost to the top!


And in amongst the few dozen or so very long walks, park visits, zoo visits, pool days, beach days and a few other days I'm having to look at the photos to remember, we found some time to just chill out.

What a difference a few days make

Sorry, I know that last post was a bit grumpy.

It was panic, maybe, at least I think that's what it was.

I'm all better now though, I promise.

All my outstanding orders are cleared and I was even able to just faff around with a couple of new things yesterday.

I made a new cuff bracelet and I'm really trying not to keep it for myself ... might have to make another one though:)


We had mad hair day on the last day of school. I even found the time to customise Chloe's shop bought wig with a big blue bow which she told me made the wig cute but not mad, so I flung every drop of glue and sequin I could find in the house at the thing until it was deemed suitably mad. I know you can't see the bow but my lovely husband doesn't take photos with me blogging in mind. He'll get there though, won't you husband?



Chloe's really starting to rub off on me as far as the holiday goes. She is so excited and now we're down to our last 3 sleeps she'll be nearly impossible to contain. So I'm just going with it, letting her rub off on me and getting a bit excited myself.

It helps that I've found the time to iron everything and the cases are packed, well except for the couple of things that are still drying after being hammered by hailstones on the line yesterday. Do you think the weather knows it's May?

Anyway, the point is I feel much better now. I'm all cleared up and don't have that panicky feeling that I won't get finished in time and I'll let someone down.

Now the only thing left to do is get Chloe back for her last day of school on Thursday and try to find some way of tiring her out enough to get her into bed really early on Thursday night because we have to get up at 3am for our flights on Friday morning and I don't know if I've mentioned it before but Chloe getting out of bed early in the morning makes Kevin look like a precious little angel. Does anyone have a treadmill I can borrow?

Growing Pains - The "Mummy Needs a Nap" Edition

Oh the sick, evil, twisted irony of growing pains, I remember them well! The irony being that I always was and still to this day am a short arse and now my poor wee girl is suffering with them too. She's as much of a short arse petite as I was and yet I remember those pains being absolute agony and Chloe doesn't seem willing to let them pass as "mildly uncomfortable" either.

For anyone lucky enough to be unfamiliar with growing pains, they're a pain sometimes cramp like in nature which occurs in the muscles of the legs and arms, usually in the evening or at night when the child is tired and probably already a bit grumpy, they can occur earlier in the day but often because of a fairly fast paced or "on the go" sort of day with lots going on and tons of places to be.

In short they cause almost no problems during the day leaving kids to run and skip and hop and jump and play all day long and crumple in "agony" almost at the very mention of bedtime resulting in most parents (my own mum and even with 20/20 hindsight me included) thinking their kids are faking or laying it on a bit thick.

It's been going on for about ten days now with it either keeping Chloe awake until almost midnight or she's fallen asleep a bit earlier than normal only to be woken out of a sleep in pain for a couple of hours at half past daft o'clock. She's not been at her most reasonable for the past couple of weeks, neither have I for that matter.

I'm actually dreading the next couple of days, tomorrow her class is walking to the library in town in the morning then on Wednesday and Thursday night Chloe's in her class play. She'll need to go back to school at 7.00pm both nights, the play begins at 7.30pm and then she can go home at 8.00pm, so that's two fairly busy days considering that 8.00pm is already a good half hour past Chloe's usual bed time routine. I know she's six now and most kids stay up a bit later than that, but I've said before that this is her bedtime routine and we don't mess with it. She knows when she wants her shower and jammies and to curl up for the night. She just never has been a night owl, the kid loves her bed. I just know both nights are going to end in tears by the time we get her home and ready for bed the pains will have kicked in and it'll be a rough night for all involved. Thursday will definitely be worse than tomorrow.

And speaking of her being six now, the whole lack of sleep thing meant that the poor child's birthday passed as something of a non event. She did go to soft play hell with a few friends in the afternoon but she just couldn't seem to be bothered with the whole thing and didn't want to go running around with her friends. I'm fairly certain it's the lack of sleep catching up with her, we're just hoping now to cruise into the weekend and she can go to the cinema with a friend on Saturday and have cake and popcorn.

I just hope these growing pains realise Chloe isn't destined to be some great six footer and clear off sometime soon because there just isn't enough caffeine in the world:)

Killing dead things

Nine times out of ten if you hear me say that I've been killing dead things all day, what I really mean is that I've been doing all those stupidly annoying little jobs that build up over time, keep me out of my mind busy for an entire day working through them and leave me shattered and worth tuppence, slouched in a chair come 10pm and someone else could scour the house for hours on end and not be able to tell what I'd been up to all day. The things that need to be done and are a nightmare to do but make no visible difference whatsoever. Think renewing car insurance!

Every now and again though, I'm talking about the little jobs that matter to me and only me. At the end of the day I feel completely satisfied knowing they're done but they make no difference whatsoever to anyone else.

Like I finally sat down and recycled all this year's Christmas cards into tags for birthdays and Christmas this year. It might not be much but it makes me happy.



And I finished two more circle skirts and a little dress for Chloe to wear when we're on holiday in June. It's a bit dark and miserable to take photos of the skirts now, but I managed the dress earlier.


Besides a circle skirt is a circle skirt is a circle skirt, if you've seen one ...

And not only that, but the repair basket is only half filled now instead of overflowing! The hubster's work trousers are sorted, I've finally taken up two pairs of my own trousers (they've only been waiting a year or so) and I've let the hems down on Chloe's school trousers too. She's grown 6 feet since the start of the school year (she has, I swear she has judging by the number of hems I've let down since Christmas) and we still really need those trousers. It's just a wee bit too cold for a skirt just yet and Chloe hates tights with the venom only a five year old at the head of the bathroom line with 30 kids waiting impatiently in line behind her can muster.

So I'm done for the day and it's high time I treated myself to a nice hot brew and a curl up on the sofa with a good book for a while.

Reasons I love you - #1

Because even though you're five and should know better, in fact probably because you're five and do know better, you still call nostrils "snotrills" and I think you might be onto something.

Passing the buck

So I'm getting more than a little bit concerned about our upcoming holiday (if you missed that post by "our" I mean Chloe and I, Robert will be living the life of a bachelor for a fortnight).

The thing is Chloe is very independent for a five year old, you could never describe her as being clingy or attached to my apron strings. She's also very familiar with the area we live in and the town as a whole, because I don't drive most of our time together is spent locally so she always knows exactly where she is. If anything this has made her even more independent and I'm confident enough in her ability and the fact she has some common sense that I let her have a lot of free reign, or at least what she considers free reign.

I let her go into shops by herself while I wait outside and I don't make her stay within arms reach of me while we're out and about. She's always in sight but for instance I'm fine with sitting outside The Streat having a coffee while she plays in the square with whatever kid she's just met for the first time. Plus we've more safety nets in place than I could even list here, if we were to become separated Chloe knows exactly what to do and where to go depending on what part of town we're in whether it's the statue in the square, my old office or any one of dozens of shops staffed by people who know her and know my number.

Giving her so much leeway also makes it a lot easier on both of us when I have to take it away for one reason or another. Like if we're at the museum, obviously they don't want kids tearing all over the place and because it's a one off thing Chloe's happy enough to stay within arms reach without being frustrated or getting an attitude. She always knows it will be business as usual once we're home again.

The problem, and I know this is a complete cop out, is that I've always passed the buck when I need to reign her in for while, "the museum don't allow kids running around", "Kids have to stay with their mummy in the supermarket, the manager says so!". You get the idea. It never started as intentionally lazy, we just genuinely only visited places with rules about kids to begin with, but sometimes for the sake of a quiet life I have stooped to blaming someone else for her having to stick by me.

I know, trust me I know!

Only now we're off somewhere for two weeks to a place neither of us have been before, we won't know anyone from Adam and I can hardly tell her the entire country wants her to stay close, can I? She just isn't that gullible.

I've tried explaining that she'll have to stay a lot closer to me than she's used to, and we've had lengthy conversations on the subject where she'll spend a good 30 minutes agreeing that it's much better and much safer to stay close, only to walk away after we're finished talking and casually fling a comment like "sure the pool's not far away", or "Aimee's been before, I'll stay with Aimee" over her shoulder. Aimee's 8 by the way. I've visions of much frustration and tantrums on both our parts. I may need a holiday to recover from this one.

Oh 'eck

OK, I know it's been almost a month since I last posted, but I have excuses. Don't I always come armed with excuses?

For starters it was January and January is not the lovely quiet month everyone says it is. I've been lied to, I've lied to myself. I have to try and remember what January is like so it doesn't bite me next year!

I've had all the ick things to deal with like tax returns (never as bad as I think they're going to be) and paperwork to complete because Bob's out of work (worse than it really should be), but we've packed in the fun stuff too ...

Countless bike rides around the Floodgates


Trips to the duckpond



The birds really aren't walking on water, it's just frozen solid.

And I've been a busy little beaver making new stock.



I've even booked my first fair of the year, so I've been making like a woman demented for that too ...



Totally Bazaar is run by Decadence Premier Vintage Fairs, the same great organisers who bring you Frock Around the Clock each year. It'll take place on Sunday 3 April 2011 and starts at *11.00am at the Holiday Inn, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast so if you're in the area feel free to drop in for a natter.

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On top of everything else we've been kept really busy by school things too. First there was the Exploris visit, a really fun day for the kids in school but it did come with a ton of extra homework. I don't mind homework but Chloe was being a bit of a nightmare about it, then she came down with tonsillitis and that explained everything. Obviously then once she was better and back to school we had a mountain of homework to catch up on, but at least it's finished now.

We've had two sponsored events to take care off and then there was pirate day!. Have you tried finding a pirate costume in the shops in the middle of January? It can't b done, so another thing went on the to do list and it had to be made from scratch. I've photos and I'll show them to you but they're on the camera and I just haven't had a second to deal with them yet.

I've a stack of foodie photos too and I will get round to posting the recipes at some stage, it just won't be today because today I'll be mostly making birthday presents for my mum and dad and finishing 3 skirts for Chloe so that I can drop them in the suitcase ready for pressing and packing before the holiday. I know it's not until June but I just like to know these things are done, then I don't have to think about them again. It's my own fault really, I cut the fabric and pinned it all and set it on the back of a chair where I could see it. Every. Single. Day. So it has to be done today, for my own sanity.

And at some stage in amongst everything else I'll manage to squeeze in my 30th birthday on Friday. I might sit down for a coffee or something instead of carrying it around with me like the cup's attached to my hand.

* You really have to love an organiser who appreciates that loading the car at 6.00am on a cold Sunday morning in April is not a big ol' bundle of giggles and let's us have a lie in!

Oh yes we did

I know what you're going to say ...

It's only November!

It was Halloween five minutes ago!

You need locking up woman!

And maybe I do, but where's the fun in that. So here it is, Chloe's first "It's only the middle of November and you're mad you are Christmas Tree".



You never forget your first Christmas tree or at least I didn't forget mine. It was tiny, about two foot tall and all the decorations and lights were permanently attached to it so 'putting up the Christmas tree' for me meant taking it out of the box, demangling the branches a little and plugging it in. Not much I know, but it was mine and I was the boss of that tree. It stayed in the box in the bottom of my wardrobe and it was up to me when I put it up in my room, usually the middle of November.

I can't in all honestly take any credit for Chloe's tree though. My mum first mentioned it a week or so ago that she was going to keep an eye out for a little fibre optic tree she could keep in her bedroom and Robert remembered the spare one we had in the roofspace.

The spare one was my first Christmas tree, I was 17 and working in a job that paid a pittance. I walked to work for two weeks instead of taking the bus so that I could buy that tree. When we moved from Belfast to this house and I bought The Biggest Tree Ever™ I just didn't have the heart to get rid of the old one.

So now it's Chloe's tree, even if it is seven years older than her already.



Robert even took her out last week to pick the decorations for it, pink and purple tinsel and a stack of resin decorations, plus a few of my own. The little wooden nutcracker decorations are the set I bought 12 years ago:) You'll notice though that Robert being Robert, he couldn't resist wrapping up one of her stocking fillers and putting it under the tree to torture her.

Do you think she'll still remember her first tree when she's my age? I hope so.

Time to start using night cream!

Because that is a very early birthday picture painted by Chloe with my age on it!

I'm 29:(

Snippets and why kids shouldn't eat crackers in bed

• Nothing beats lying on the grass, eating ice cream except maybe lying on dry grass, eating ice cream when it isn't raining. Still good though.
  
  
• The peas are in and we've been picking and munching away on them. A single pea has yet to make it past the back door though and Chloe will only eat them if they're still in their pods. I'm glad I bought those delicate little plants instead of the woody big boys that taste like monkey nuts.
  
  
• I've a website now, kind of, well it's getting there and for scatter brained little old me I think I've done alright so far.
  
  
• I've cut my hair again. It is very, very short even by my standards. I'm plucking up the courage and waiting for whoever it is that is going on holidays and left their luggage hanging around beneath my eyes to come and collect it before I chance any photos.
  
  
• My old faithful camera is very nearly knackered. I do not like the husband's canon as much as I did when it was merely a back up instead of my very soon to be only option.
  
  
• I wonder how hard it is to fix a digital camera!
  
  
• My mum's dog, the rottweiler, has taken to sleeping on Chloe's trampoline when he thinks no one is around to see him. Unfortunately twice now he's being doing that walking in circles thing that dogs do before lying down and he's obviously gotten up a bit too much speed and started to bounce, not been able to control it and vomited all over the thing. Hasn't stopped him climbing in there though.
  
  
• When do sunflowers flower? Our plant just seems to like making more and more leaves and if it gets any taller we'll have to go upstairs and look out a window to see the flower if it ever does make an appearance.
  
  
• Children left unattended after their bath are more than capable of sniping downstairs, grabbing a box of cheesy crackers, climbing back into bed again and eating half the box all in the length of time it takes to rinse out an average sized bath tub.
  
  
• Cracker eating in bed will result in me having to endure the husband's dirty looks as he tries to wipe the cracker crumbs from the bed at half past midnight before giving up and plodding off downstairs in a sulk.
  
  
• I slept in that bed all night, didn't feel a single crumb.
  
  
• Sometimes I think I live with the princess of princess and the pea fame.
  
  
• It occurs to me that if the "princess" had a hairy chest and hands like shovels, whether or not she could sleep in a bed with fresh produce would have been the least of the prince's worries.
  
  
• And seriously how convoluted a plan was that whole pea under a gazillion mattresses thing anyway. Surely an easier way would have been to tell her she'd let herself go a bit. If she runs off crying then she's the delicate (if a bit high maintenance) little flower for you, if she lamps you one round the side of the head then it's probably time to start hanging out in singles bars again.
  
  
• I thought bullet points were supposed to focus the mind and stop people prattling on endlessly about complete nonsense.
  
  
• I probably shouldn't do too many posts like this.
  
  

A Quick Fix

Eww, I've a horrible case of mummy guilt at the minute.

Those of you who put up with me regularly will know that I've been prattling on about redecorating Chloe's room since Christmas!  It still hasn't happened and she's making me feel downright awful about it.

She gets a look on her face like the Little Match Girl every time we have to put it off for yet another week.  I could give a list of reasons why we haven't got around to it yet, like money but in truth we have all the paiint and bits and bobs already bought then only thing we need to buy is new carpet.  It's not exactly the biggest room and I'm not minded to buy the very best Axeminster for a five year old's room so it won't cost much.

I could say we've been busy but in truth we just haven't tried as hard as we could have to find the time to get started.

I could say that I'd rather do it on a weekend when she can stay in my mum's house overnight because I don't want her sleeping in a room which smells of fresh paint, but the problem with that excuse is that we've had a few weekends like that this year and she could just as easily sleep iin our room for a night or two instead of her own room and it's the Summer holidays and if I were to throw up a two man tent in the living room and give her a sleeping bag she'd be over the moon.

I've got no excuse other than a shortage of time rather than a complete lack of it and an abundance of laziness on my part.

To ease my guilt I opted for a quick fix ...

I bought two huge sheets of decals to brighten her room up a little.

You'll have to excuse the awful photos, it's been a bit grey and miserable here but trust me, her room is really bright and cheerful.

I managed to get them all on the walls while she was at my mum's house because decals are really just glorified stickers and the only thing kids love more than putting stickers on it pick pick picking them back off again.

And all for the grand total of £4 and 20 minutes of my time.

We will get to decorating her room as soon as we can but in the meantime she's happy and I no longer have to wince each time she gives me "the look".

*I don't really know what's going on with blogger at the minute, but it just refuses to centre images*

And that was June, everybody put your hands together for June

and I'm not even sure I quite remember June coming on stage, let alone doing her bit and sauntering off again.

Can you believe the Summer holidays are here already? It feels like no time at all has passed since I took Chloe to school for the first time.

No time at all since I was telling her she'd grow into her pinafore and we were out buying new school shoes. Now the pinafore has been relegated to the "no longer appropriate" pile (wow she's grown) and her little shoes finally gave up the ghost last week when the strap just fell off in her hand. I know it's typical isn't it that her shoes would break the week before the end of term.

She's had her easing in day with her P2 teacher and she can't wait now to start moving up the school.

Obviously she's looking forward to the prospect of a couple of months at home with mummy too...


You can tell, right?

It's been a bumpy year what with her reading being a bit all over the place but it's not all doom and gloom as we finish the year. For a start I was talking to another mum this afternoon who said she's had the same thing with her son and that an awful lot doesn't seem to have stuck with him this year, but we're just going to concentrate on working with them over the Summer and most importantly, being consistent with them.

We've had Chloe's report card home from school and there's actually quite a lot of really good news on there. She loves maths for a start and it seems to come pretty naturally to her. We had been told in the P1 updates that only a small number of children had been ready to move on past counting to tackling small sums and Chloe was one of them. When we're walking anywhere together she'll even ask to "do her numbers" as we walk and she can easily manage small sums and has no trouble with answering "what's one more than" or "one less than" type questions. She also has a very good grasp of money for a child her age, but some of that is probably to be expected because she only ever sees me dealing with cash, not cheques or cards so it's drawn her attention more often and quite a lot now I let her handle her own money when we're out shopping. Best they learn about money and how quickly it can disappear from a young age, hopefully she'll appreciate it more.

She loves art, music and drama, something which I'm really seeing in her in the past few weeks and she's been described as quiet yet very confident. Happy to let others go ahead, but not afraid to make her own voice heard when need be. It's been lovely to watch her do little dance routines and sing loudly, not only for me, but wherever the notion happens to take her, coffee shops, town square, middle of Tesco, she doesn't care where she is or who's watching just as long as music is playing. It's great to see after the whole ballet debacle, Chloe's more of a swaying finger snapper.

And the reading hasn't been a complete wash either. It isn't something she particularly enjoys doing (I wonder if there are any early reader books with fart jokes). The problem is that she doesn't really like it and she's become very nervous at the thought of reading, getting something wrong and being told off for it so she just refuses to it. Of course if her teacher can't see her read then she has to assume that she can't do it, I get different results at home. It isn't helped that Chloe thinks her teacher shouts. In fairness she doesn't shout, she's just a lot louder than Chloe is used to. I'm softly spoken around Chloe because I never wanted to have to shout to get her attention, my mum's softly spoken (for the most part) and her first two teachers were both very quiet as well and she just hasn't been able to get used to the volume at all. Chloe hears loud and automatically thinks she's being shouted at.

She's perfectly capable of reading, she just doesn't realise it and she has trouble letting go of her nervousness. I know from my own personal experience that pride will kick nervous's ass from one end of the street to the other and when Chloe feels proud of her reading ability, she all of a sudden wants more and I can see her start to enjoy it.

She read today for her P2 teacher and she practically glowed when she ran from the building to tell me and she was joined by one of her friends who told me they'd each read a page in a book and Chloe was brilliant and she almost looked like she might cry, the pride was swelling inside her so much. Today was like a clean slate for her, a fresh start for her and Chloe seemed really happy to be able to show off what she's capable of to a new teacher.

Now it's just a matter of keeping her interest over the Summer and making sure that she's proud of herself and her abilities. A little bit of pride goes a long way.

To Let

One small, green fingered, occasionally cheeky but easily bribed child suitable for planting vegetables


There comes a time in your life when you just have to admit that you just aren't very good at something. For me that something is gardening.

I'm good at the grunt work like weeding and turning over beds and getting everything ready to plant, but the planting itself is a wee bit of a problem.

Although not a problem that Chloe shares, she's obviously inherited her granny Freda's green thumbs. A woman who could probably have grown deep sea coral in her own back garden if the notion had ever taken her.

I've never been so glad we let Chloe do much of the planting in our own garden this year because it's really coming along well.

This is a pot of what should have been micro salad leaves, designed to chuck in a pot and start eating in 2-3 weeks (we're impatient). Instead, after Chloe had planted the seeds, we waited 2-3 weeks and the salad counter at Sainsburys appeared. We've eaten salad every day for at least three weeks from this pot now and it's still growing like weeds.



The potatoes she planted have went absolutely bonkers. They're very nearly as tall as me and just about to flower. The two bags filled with Robert's slightly less impressive attempt are buried somewhere in behind that monster up front.


And the peas. Keep in mind that these are even last years peas, peas which I did plant last year and not one single thing grew from them and she's managed to get them to grow. There is a third pot in behind these two with one pathetically lonely little plant in it. That's the one I planted, with this years peas, or I should say that's the only one of a dozen I planted that bothered to show up to the garden party.


Watercress! A tiny little tuft was brought home from school growing on a piece of soggy kitchen roll which had been stuffed into a little cardboard egg box. As soon as Chloe arrived home that day, she walked into the garden, scratched a hole in the dirt alongside a palm tree (which should have been sent to mum's house) and planted it egg box and all and look what happened! It's hard to tell from the photo but the cress is at least a foot tall and probably just as wide.


Herbs. I'm chuffed to bits with the parsley. I use it often and always wanted to grow it in the garden, but I've tried again and again and it always dies within a couple of weeks of planting. I even went so far as to call Robert out for "wasting money on it" at the garden centre and behold what a parsley plant in the hands of Chloe will turn into. And trust me this plant has been pillaged by me since it went into the ground and I still can't keep up with the rate it's growing.

We'll have to start having parsley on our breakfast cereal at this rate.


And the leftovers. Robert took an empty salt cellar from the house and filled it with all the leftover seeds from last year. He still isn't entirely sure which seeds he put in, but we dug over a patch of dirt and left Chloe to shake the seeds in at random, figuring that we'd know what they were if they started to grow.

There's mint, and it's growing so I'll have to get up there today and rip it out. That sounds terrible but we already have two large pots of mint and if we leave it in the ground it'll take over. Mint is about the only thing I can grow successfully so that should give you some idea of its hardiness and determination to grow!


There is definitely rocket which has been pillaged again for salads. We have thyme. I have never been able to grow thyme, not even when I've bought a plant and just moved it from one pot to another and Chloe can knock out bucket loads of the stuff with year old seeds.


There are also more lettuce plants in the mass of green too, not to mention sprouting broccoli (another of my failures), spring greens and I think what looks like the beginnings of a couple of dwarf french beans, all from duff old seeds.

I'm not bitter though, because I get to eat all of these wee lovelies. Now I just have to bide my time until she wakes up, a nice pancake breakfast for daddy and daughter and then I'm sending them out into the garden, because I really think that this year might be the year we manage to grow proper carrots:)