World Snowman Day

Snow Bear

Today is World Snowman Day!

It is very appropriate as we woke to several centimetres of snow this morning, and so booted and suited went outside to build a snowman with our lovely neighbours. The snowman looked more like a snowbear we decided, so here she is!

 There are lots of lovely snowman ideas on the Teacher's Pet blog here .

I hope you are enjoying the snow wherever you are!

a BIG thank-you

Valentine Owl

I want to start with a BIG thank-you to all you lovely bloggers out there who commented on my Railway Children post , with 15 comments and my post and facebook post that should be £34 donated to the charity!
I also need to apologise for not being round much, but as you may remember I was on jury service last week (and this week coming), and I was fairly incommunicado. The good new is I took my small pair of wooden knitting needles in, so I could knit when I was in the waiting room. I'm also hoping to try and visit all the lovely blogs on this week's Handmade Monday and see what everyone has been up to.
My 'Ta-dah!' this week is Valentine Owl. I had this idea buzzing around in my head, so early one morning I had to do something about it! It involved me drawing lots of lines on a page from an old exercise book, and then counting and rubbing out, and redrawing and knitting and then re-knitting, until Valentine was finished. I'm really pleased with him, and when Pickle-Lily went 'aww' I knew it had worked!
Have a good week!

Busy and a plea!



busy!


Recently I have been bursting with ideas!
Pin cushions for Valentines Day or Mothering Sunday - how organised is that!
These were inspired by my constantly knocking my pin cushion off the arm of the sofa and wanting something a bit heavier, as well as being pretty!
I've also been busy creating owls for Valentines or Mothering Sunday, some of which I can share today with you.

Valentine owls

With another idea I've very nearly finished the proto - type, but I am already seeing some things I want to change! It usually starts with me drawing on bits of paper at five in the morning, because I have an idea buszzing around in my head and it won't go away! Then I have to cut and sew or knit, until I'm happy with it. I usually get Pickle-Lily's opinion and if she goes 'awww' I know I'm onto a winner!

Flower pot pin cushions

I'm joining in with Handmade Monday this week, and looking forward to seeing that everyone else has been up to, and then on Monday I'm on jury service for two weeks, so it will be interesting! What I want to know is - can I take my knitting with me?
Before I go. I would ask a small favour of all you lovely bloggers. My last post was about a charity called Railway Children (helping runaways) and Aviva have promised to donate £2 to the charity for every comment, so if you could quickly post a comment that would be another £2 to Railway Children. I'm doing this as part of mumsnet. Thank-you!

Railway Children

Happy New Year!

Finished rather late - hence the dark photo!

Generally I blog about what I have been up to or my latest makes, but yesterday I received a very thought provoking email from mumsnet. Normally I don't really have too much to do with mumsnet  as it appears to be mostly aimed at families with young children, and both mine are that bit older. But they are running a campaign with Aviva about a charity called Railway Children - who work with runaways. It is one of the the things that really scares me, and the figures they give are terrifying.

Did you know....
It's estimated that a child runs away from home or care every five minutes in the UK
In a recent survey, one in 11 teenagers aged 14 to 16 admitted to having run away overnight at some stage in their life
It's impossible to know the true scale of the problem: two-thirds of runaways aren't reported as missing to the police, and many are too vulnerable or scared to seek official help

It’s estimated 2000 children will run away over Christmas
(Taken from mumsnet)

Aviva are donating £2 to the Railway Children charity for each blogger post about this, as well as a further £2 for each comment. So today, I am joining in.

If you would like to know more see here

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

Pickle-Lily and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Little knitted robin

Thank-you to all our lovely followers and readers for your comments - and we are looking forward to 2013. I already have lots of ideas flying around in my head!

See you in the New Year!



Oh Christmas Tree

Paper strips tree

This week has been busy again - but amongst the organised chaos timetables, I have sat with the children and we have made tissue paper Christmas trees. It has been a delight sitting, chatting, cutting and sticking these. So easy, but so much care and taken by them in choosing colours and getting the right sizes. Very simply - tissue paper cut into strips and using a glue stick stuck on white paper.
I also thought ribbons or felt strips on a Christmas decoration, or why not use the paper hats from crackers to make multicoloured snowflakes, stars or just shapes on thank-you cards after Christmas.
Why not make one, these have been my oasis of calm in a week of plays, parties and pantomimes and still more to go!

90 cards

I know it doesn't look like 90!

This afternoon I made 90 Christmas cards for the children at school! I've always given the children homemade cards, and for my last 'full-time' class I knitted 30 little stockings. This year as I'm teaching three different classes I've made them all a card each. The pictures are from Dots and Spots wrapping paper, that I've cut out and stuck onto coloured card. I just love Becky's designs. Now I've just to write in the cards and do 90 envelopes!!!!

This morning Pickle-Lily and I visited our favourite garden centre - Cadburys, and it didn't let us down! Beautiful Christmas displays ...

Lovely things to buy - I loved the hyacinth basket.

And as a treat I'd booked an ice-skating session for P, which she loved!
This week has seen the last Christmas fair, and I have one order to post tomorrow. I've got a full week at school, but in between times I'm making Christmas gifts and reading all the lovely blogs on Handmade Monday. So now to write 90 envelopes!

Ice skating at Cadburys