Angels...x

Thinking of my Nan  and my Uncle who claimed their Angel wings on the 4th December it's been quite a few years now but they have never been far away from my thoughts...I learnt so much from my Uncle Ray he was like a Dad to me always there and it's because of him I can wallpaper, tile and lay wood flooring etc not only that he was a huge part of my life and an absolute inspiration.  I love you too Nan you were so tiny but strong and fostered children for years, it was lovely to spend time looking after you in your later years although you was very independent you always let me wake you up with a cup of tea :) you lived to a great age 97 and even battled cancer in your 70's I still smile at the time I visited you in hospital and you asked me to get your bottle of drink from the cupboard and right there in the hospital you had your own stash of Guinness :) much love for both of you, hope you both have a great party in Heaven today xx

Cat crochet

I thought to myself today that although I am working hard trying to pack everything I would have a little crochet break as it's been a little while since I could get into my creative side :(  I settled myself down in a little corner...went to get a drink and............

look what I come back too :/ Mr very cheeky cat! thought he would have a little go at crochet and by the time I had called my girls April and Lily up to see him and they got their camera's out to take a photo, Buddy the cat fell sound asleep..

Well it was certainly a good time had by Buddy, maybe now he is asleep I can catch up on some well needed creativity as now the Autumn weather is here there is nothing better then getting all the work in progress that piled up from last year ;) Speak very soon and hope you are all well.

Love LBF x

Just a quick little note

I have not gone anywhere, I am still here and will be blogging very soon.  I just have had a little bit of a chaotic time over the last months in a good way though :)  We are in the process of packing up and moving to the West Country as I have family there and I feel it is a lovely place for my children to grow in their years and the West Country has always been in my heart for a long time.  I am also home tutoring my youngest until we find her a primary school for her when we move.  I will be soon making some Christmas bit and bobs when this little bit of chaos calms so watch this space :).......

My daughter's Prom day

This is one of the reason's I have been so busy...

My little girl April left primary school so had her leaver's play and Prom all in one week and these are the picture's from her Prom, this little girl of mine is always wearing leggings or jeans and here she is in a dress that she chose herself awwwwww I was soooo proud to see her all dressed up for her prom. April is a shy little one and does not like to stand out normally but bless her she has been getting a little more confident. She had a lovely evening and I hope she has a lovely time in her new secondary school were she wants to earn enough grades to study to be a Vet unless she changes her mind like children do at this age do but her love of animals is very apparent.

Here she is with one of her cats Buddy.

Love you April as I love all my children and will always be behind all of you for whatever you chose to do in life just to see you children smile is beautiful xxx

Teacher's presents..

It has come to the time of year where the children give there teacher a present and this year the children said "Can you make something Mum" so that I have and as usual last minute with virtually no time to spare. I wanted to design my own too and have finished the first design here of my cup warmer or mug warmer whatever you like to call them :)

 

Not a great picture but I only had seconds to take one as my daughter wanted to give it to her art teacher who she said would love a first design, I will be tweaking it today to come out with my final design just in time to make some tonight ready and wrapped up tomorrow with chocolates inside for the well deserved teachers.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend we are going to see the Olympic flame go by at the end of our road on Saturday morning and then the rest of it lots of rotary cutting I hope. Bye for now I better go and get working on this cup warmer for the final finished design  LBF x

A little quiet :)

I have been very quiet this weekend for good reason...

Oh happy days when this arrived in the post, I have decided to do a small quilting project first so its all about squares for wash bags this weekend and looking around for cheap shower curtains for the insides. I have decided to get a move on and make some Christmas pressies as it will be on us soon enough and with the amount of children I have you have to think of these things in July :)

I also had a bit of shopping therapy and bought myself a bag as my other bag was well falling apart I know I should make one really but I kind of bought one for around £20 when I was going to buy a Cath Kidson one, so I saved a bit (well that's my thinking anyway around it).

I love my bag :) and believe me it is a much improvement on my old poor battered one :)

Hope you are having a lovely weekend I am keeping it short today as my squares are calling honestly I was like a little kid when it arrived.

Love LBF x

What a week!

This week I do not seem to have sat down, it is Wednesday already and the days have flown by.  Last week we had the sports day and the rain did keep off  and there I was with my older daughter Emily and they completely forgot one of my children (the youngest) so she never got to participate in any races but she was ok as she decided to go on a bug hunt whilst it was all going on. My other daughter who would have loved to of been left out and just done one skipping race and came last with the skipping rope all wrapped round her legs bless her, she really is not the sporty kind of girl but boy can she do art.

This busy week consisted of my son Will's taster day at college,he has just completed all his exams for which we are waiting for the results in August. My older Uni daughter Amy moved house yesterday so me and my brother went an helped with that. This morning it is one of the younger ones taster day at her new secondary school she starts in September, fingers crossed she gets on fine.Today I have my COPD appointment with my nurse then a quick dash to pick daughter up in time from her taster day and work all day tomorrow so it really will be a thank god it's Friday on Friday.

I still managed to make a dishcloth in between the chaos and finish some squares for youngest daughter's heart blanket.

Ribbed dishcloth

So not all bad and I have been looking into rotary cutters and boards so I can get on with some quilting I hopefully will be able to purchase them next week.

Well that's it from me this week hope everyone has a beautiful end of week/weekend  love LBF x

Sew Happy

Yesterday I had that happy feeling, you know the one when your box of material and ribbons arrive?! I placed an order 3 weeks ago!!! from here and oh my was it worth the wait.  The 100 % cotton was really well priced and much better then I expected. Oh the possibilities....

 

            

                                                               

A school bag maybe?

   

                                   A cute kitchen curtain, a dress or a gypsy top for the summer?

  

                               

                                   I love these kind of decisions :)

and I will certainly be ordering more of this fabric.

I thought this afternoon that I would be taking my deckchair to my youngest girls sports day today and doing my heart crochet blanket in the sunshine for my youngest daughter, whilst watching them - well the weather has other plans by the looks of it and instead of sunshine there is a black cloud coming over and it's getting quite windy so looks like I will be ditching the crochet and grabbing my raincoat :/ never mind this is England and we are used to such weather.

Have a lovely day LBF x

A crochet win

While England never made it due to penalties (again) I for one was a little sad as I was happily hooking away at my first crochet garland whilst watching the footie, oh well I am sure I will find another excuse to go to bed all snuggled up early to watch something else..... Olympics anyone?! not long is it now....

I won though with my garland and finished it by Friday night, searched around for pins and put up in the kitchen straight away.... It will only be here a while as this is just a temporary arrangement try out kind of garland as I have other plans and if the truth be told my plans do consist of new flooring, new kitchen,new house....ok that is dreams not plans so I will just make do with what I have for now and just keep trying to make the house more homely which is going to take some time but you know what this is quite fun blogging on the way and reading other blogs too.



I hope a good weekend was had by all it was a nice relaxing one here lots of cuddles with my little girls, lots of cleaning up after them though too, lots of moaning about my bank as I bank with Natwest and anyone in UK could not have failed to hear about the Natwest crisis...but glad that is all more or less sorted now too, you do not realise how much you rely on banking until it is swept from your feet in an instant.

I must stop looking at the above kitchen picture and thinking how much better would my kitchen units be white..... Oh dear I feel a paint brush moment coming on but I have two painting projects before the kitchen one is I must paint my girls wardrobe white and the second me and my son decided how the big shoe cupboard in the hallway would look lovely painted. I will put some before and after pics up of this very much needed all over the house transition on a budget.

Oh and this weekend's loo roll I am sure you have been awaiting to find out what we had this weekend ;)

Bye for now LBF x

Garlands

Sooo I had a clean out of my kitchen at the weekend just gone and although it looked cleaner it also seems to be lacking something, I went out the front garden and picked some roses and put them in a pot

but still it's not right so here I am garland hunting on the internet for ideas.  There are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many different garlands I am going with crochet ones and have found a few different ones I like and started on a flower one last night and fell asleep with my crochet needle in hand but am hoping to have garland up by the weekend and best I do because I seem to be getting a list of orders...oldest daughter wants two and one of the younger daughters has decided on a star one for her room and a few others have shown a big interest :)

Here is the start..

 and talking about starts I treated myself to something today after work..

I am going to start patchwork I remember years ago (MANY) doing hexagons with Laura Ashley fabric but things have come way on from those days and I am very much looking forward to making a patchwork quilt and am really trying not to run before I can walk with it but I doubt I will stay composed and will dive right in with a quilt and older daughter has put one of those on her list too.. Oh my.

Have a great day and enjoy the sunshine why it lasts as it will tip down tomorrow. LBF x

Rainy Blues?!...

I am not sure whether it is blues because of the rain or I am having a flare up of an ailment but today was declared a pyjama day where I have literally done nothing except the basic tidy around and just read lovely blogs all day :) I had quite a weekend you know which began around friday-ish the night before I did not sleep as I had found this swelling on my cats belly and he already has a metal leg due to a very nasty car accident so I very much keep an eye on this cat called Buddy. After about just 2 hours sleep that night due to worrying I phoned the emergency vet and raced down there for the appointment with my youngest daughter Lily in tow, we waited anxiously only to find out that the cat has just got podgy lately can you imagine the shame ha ha! the vet saw the funny side of it and so did I once I had caught up on lost sleep.

Anyway about these blues I was a bit worried today that my getting my house together was not happening as quick as I wanted I am not your usual very neat and tidy blogger here due too lots of children,a rabbit, a dog, the now four cats, numerous health problems and a bit (lot) of disorganisation on my part. I was a little down and dreary until a friend said to me today, you are a single parent of 6 with a zoo who can sew,knit,cook,crochet,paint, tile and wallpaper so I thought with a smile she is right and Rome was not built in a day and I have changed the once very ashamed of bathroom to the I love the bathroom :) and I tiled the floor myself even solved the dreaded cistern part with confidence so bye bye blues and hello self sufficiency.

 There is the charming cat in question who decided he wanted to get in the camera act I am almost certain he is grinning at me like the spoilt cat he is.I am loving them spotty towels I picked up from Primark yesterday.

 I do love to have a nice toilet roll for the weekend we have plain white all week but on a Friday I have started this happy bog roll theme it keeps the kids amused anyway :)

 Ideally I would love to live in a cottagey beach house but unfortunately it's smoggy London for us but hey ho we can have a bit of beach in our bathroom.

 Another beachy happiness for our new bathroom.

 I love these storage baskets to keep all our potions out of sight and mind and that's it really I may have not done much but one room is finished so not so bad one room done and five more to go ..... now I will stop feeling guilty and blue and go grab those crochet needles.

Little seeds

A little late I know most of these seeds should have been in by April but I have planted them all the same and now I have the wait and the excitement of watching them grow. I am waiting with anticipation on my sweetcorn, french beans,chilli peppers,rocket,lettuce, tomatoes, squash, various herbs, cucumber, courgette and not forgetting baby corn too :)

I am really trying hard to be a little more self sufficient this year and get a more homemade home feel.  I really need to get some strawberry plants this weekend so I can make some lovely strawberry jam or at least pack the kids in the car and go strawberry picking.

A little project I am working on at the moment...

I am crocheting a billion (it seems) heart squares for a bed throw for my youngest daughter and I am almost certain when my oldest sees it she will want one too.

Anyway must get on with some housework as the children are on half term which = a very messy home :(

Love LBF x

The beginning......

Where do I start and where do I finish? I have set up blogs before but never seem to get past the first few months before it lays neglected like my freedom that I have never had over the years bringing up a young family and a few little furry animals. I am not complaining as I have loved my little busy (hectic) life but you know over the past few months as my little children have turned into bigger children I have had this unusual occurrence in my life...... A little bit of breathing space...yep a little old ME time so I have decided to dust off my sewing machines, reunite with my crochet and knitting needles and get cooking and have a little fun blogging on the way.

I have brought up six children of whom I am a very proud Mum, I have a bichon frise dog, a lop eared rabbit,two cats and a kitten. My children range from the ages of ten to twenty. I love all sorts of craft. My house is in need of decorating with all the wear and tear of us lot but I am getting there and I have even put a table in my bedroom to fit my sewing machines etc... and created a little work space so I can make our place a lot more cosy.

Looking forward to blogging and reading blogs, Love LBF x