Lavender Sachets ~ Sophie

Today I've been hiding from the rain. It's been constant and there are floods everywhere so I thought I'd stay home and start to make a few things for the fund raising event that my mum is organising for the Harriet Davis Trust.  We holiday in their house in Pembrokeshire with our boys and it's great :)

 

So in between allowing a lot of time for the school runs today, I've made lavender sachets and a scrappy bookmark.

 

 

 



A Little Different ~ Sophie

 

I'm knitting and reading things that are not my usual choices this week.

 

The knitting is a mesh triangular scarf which I'm doing with a yarn which my mum bought back from one of her crafty outings.  The colours in it range from browns, yellows and greens into turquoise and lavender.  I like it but I would have never picked it up myself as it's not a combination I would usually be drawn to.  This is excellent as my collection of greeny/purple scarfs is probably in danger of getting out of hand!  When I am knitting it up against my turquoise cardigan it looks great. 

 

I am also reading books which are a little away from my usual choices.  I tried a Terry Pratchett book years ago and couldn't get into it.  Someone recently suggested I try, 'The Wee Free Men' so after having it sitting around for ages, I'm giving it a go.  I'm still not sure to be honest!

 

The audio book I have on the go is called 'The Garden of Evening Mists' by Tan Twan Eng.  I am very excited to say that I chose this from my library's free audio book service which has been going for a while but I have been unable to access.  They have updated their system and it's now easy to use.  I am really enjoying this so far, it is incredibly atmospheric.

 

I also just finished listening to 'The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year' by Sue Townsend.  'Nuff said!!

 

Gaby and I started listening to this at the weekend......

 

 

 

.....I love Jacqueline Wilson's books.  We found this and more whist having a mooch around the charity shops the other day.

 

 

I was really pleased with myself until I got home and realised that I got rid of the cassette player in the kitchen!  We do have one in the house, just not where I'm usually listening to books, but they were a bargain!

 

I'm linking this post to Ginny's Yarn Along

 

Back Again! ~ Sophie

Half term finished,  poorly children all back to school, new laptop purchased.  Finally a bit of time and decent equipment to actually post on our blog :)

 

So a few little random things we've been up to....

 

Going to see Gaby's favourite author, Darren Shan, talking and signing his new book, 'Zom-B' at our local Waterstones....

 

 

Using up my mum's blackberries.  I made jam and blackberry vinegar this year (and crumbles of course)!

 

 

 

I have got into the Lifebook course I started at the beginning of the year again and have also joined another Art Journal/Mixed Media Group, Wild Soul Arts.  I don't know why as I'm really behind with Lifebook, but it seems like my sort of place!  Here's a few random pages I've done this year. 

 

 

 

 

 This is the first 'art' I've done since leaving school so my confidence is not great but I feel like I've learnt a lot already.  I'm definitely going to sign up for next year's course and maybe some other online courses too.  I'm enjoying it a lot.

 

We have started having whole days respite for the boys so in half term we went to see 'Skyfall'.  I think this is the first time I have seen a James Bond film at the cinema since I saw 'The Living Daylights' with my Granny when I was about Gaby's age.  We all enjoyed it and it's nice to have a longer day to do things. 

As usual, I also have several different knitting, crochet and patchwork projects on the go as well as reading 5 different books at once.  Hopefully this laptop will last and I will be able share them soon and keep things here more up to date :)

Doodle Card

A little doodle birthday card.  Not much going on here, we are all still poorly. 

I have done several of these cards now, inspired by one of the mini lessons on the Life Book course I'm doing.  I find them quite relaxing to do while the kids are all home as not much equipment is needed.  More may get done over the next few days as it looks like it's going to be a rainy old half term.

Be A Warrior.....

I love this. It sums up why I do yoga :)

I haven't been able to go to my classes this week as the children and I have had a nasty bug...and then they got another nasty bug.  I really miss it when I can't go.  It's fair to say I can become a little obsessed.  My first big yoga obsession happened when my twins were babies and I used to do Barbara Currie videos whilst they slept and Gaby was at playgroup. I probably should have been cleaning the house but there's no fun in that! I wanted to be bendy! Now I just want to relax and stay healthy.  It works so I keep going when I can. 

Last week, I started a Tai Chi class. I really enjoyed it and will be going back, bugs permitting.  A possible new obsession.....?

Veg Box Pesto ~ Sophie

Last month, Carers UK pointed me in the direction of a competition on a new Carers forum, Carewell. ( http://carewelluk.org/). The prize was a month of organic veg box deliveries from Able & Cole.  To enter you had to share a recipe on the healthy eating message board.  I thought it would be daft not to give it a go, so I shared my Roasted Veg recipe and was lucky enough to be one of the winners. Yay!

We have just received our last box. I am not one for advertising on blogs, but I have been really impressed with the boxes!

Today's box contained the wonderfully green cavelo nero and a great recipe for making 'Magical Green Pesto'.  The recipe is available online at http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/magical-green-pesto

I've been quite determined not to waste this lovely free veg, and as a result we already have quite a bit of soup in the freezer! This pesto recipe is also freezable, so I thought I'd try it out.  The colour is fantastic...

I now have 3 pots in the freezer, plus enough left for a snack......

it's delicious and very easy to make :)

Knitting More Green Stuff ~ Sophie

This is a bit of a test post on the iPad which suddenly seems to be letting me type posts having not done so in the past.  We have been without a PC for a while, which is why there has been a lack of posts here! A lot has been happening this year, good and not so good.  Bad stuff is that I had to make the sensible decision to hand the allotment back after my wonky hip got worse, but the good news is that this has made me get back to yoga class which I am loving.  We are also having a lot of stressful issues to deal with with our sons so yoga is of huge benefit to me in that respect too.  At the moment it's all about the knitting, yoga and reading so I'm going to link this to Ginny's Yarn Along. http://www.gsheller.com/2012/09/yarn-along-94.html. 

I just finished knitting the 'Hogwarts Express' shawl.  I am really pleased with how this has turned out and as I have never done any cable knitting before, I feel like I've learnt something too.

I've now started on a sleeveless wrap thing. I loved the colours of this yarn when I saw it knitted as a cardigan in our local wool shop, but I'm not so sure now - seems a bit 'old lady' so far.  I will see how it goes.  I'm reading 'Engleby' by Sebastian Faulks.  After a false start with the audio version from the library, I've now got a paper copy and am enjoying it so far.