Thursday, 15 December 2011

It's begining to feel like Christmas





















With the room decorated now we've been able to take a step back, Tem's had chance to catch his breath, and decorate for Christmas.  Along with the hanging decorations & tinsel from previous years, I found a lovely star for the top of the tree at the local charity shop & we have a lovely Robin in a snowy window which my Grandma sent for Meira last year.  I also got my sewing machine out today and made a draft excluder for the dining/kitchen door. A simple enough thing to make but a good achievement for me as I've not sewed more than a button for quite a while.

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Dining room all decorated

Light up, paint & paper all on the walls and even a Christmas tree, Yay!

Friday, 2 December 2011

Decorating & days out

Well its been a little while since I posted so I'll try & remember all the little things we've been up to.  Firstly the decorating has leapt forwards, the walls are plastered & sanders, the ceiling is papered & painted, the coving is just awaiting another coat or two of paint, the woodwork (bar the wall with the radiator) is sanded, sugarsoaped and rinsed. So this weekend we're hoping to finish the woodwork, cleaning & painting, finish the coving, and get the lining paper on the walls.

M & I had a lovely day out with Uncle Tom & Daisy Dog in the week, we went to a local canal where we spent 3 hours walking, eating lunch, getting muddy and spotting ducks & canal boats, it was such good fun.



Saturday, 26 November 2011

TTBS November Moodboard

TTBS November Moodboard by Zoe Hodgson
TTBS November Moodboard, a photo by Zoe Hodgson on Flickr.
A bracelet I made after following this blog, though the page link is not for the November Moodboard you can find the link on the lower left of their page http://tacklethatbeadstash.blogspot.com/2011/11/stashbusting-beadalong-progress-week-6.html

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Christmas Lights

On Sunday Meira, myself and my Mum went met up with T & R to see the switching on of the Christmas lights.  It was so busy we could get into Town Hall Square so we saw the lights come on whilst we were looking around the Christmas market.  Meira had great fun listening to the SV Strings & Flute busking and also watching the fire jugglers.

We havn't had such a great week as Meira has not been very well, first it was teething but then she picked up a heavy cold and this lasted for about 10 days.  Then on Friday night she developed an rash as a reaction to something, it appeared on and off till end of Sunday though it didn't bother her.

Over the weekend Tem was able to get the chimney breast in the dining room plastered, after a fiasco with the first bag setting before he even got a few trowls on the wall, and the coving chalked in though that he had to do by hand as the nozzle broke!

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

A two week catch up


We brought the Dolls house down from Meiras bedroom as she has really started to play with it, carrying our little role plays like knocking on the doors and shopping for food and going to bed, it is lovely to watch.














Tem got a bit of time this last weekend to do some more to the dining room so the ceiling has been papered and I think this weekend the chimney breast and right-hand alcove will be plastered.
and still on the house theme this is our bargain mirror (£30!) which looks lovely hanging on the previously blank wall in our living room.








Meira and I have been getting into the Christmas spirit and making some felt and button hanging trees to give to family to hang on their Christmas trees.  Meira picks out the buttons for the trees and I sew them on, after 3 or so buttons Meira is bored though and either happily plays with the buttons or pulls my arm to go and find something more interesting to play so they are taking a while.  I'm determined not to 'take over' though and to continue letting her pick and help.










And these are some Christmas tree earrings I made for a friend,  I had been playing around with the wire and made the tree shape, minus the beads, which she saw and asked if I would make something similar into earrings for her to wear at work, so I did and here they are.  I am really pleased with how they came out.

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Last week was half term here which meant that a few of the groups we normally go to weren't on so we had a couple more play dates and walks around the town. Meira went to Tem's Mum's on Thursday to celebrate Diwali and had a fantastic time meeting new people and wearing beautiful clothes which in her own words made her look like 'Princess Meira'. I should have some photos soon so I'll add them when I get them.

On Saturday we had a visit from Lynn and her Dad, Pat. Lynn brought Meira a box full of books, the photo here of Meira reading was about a third of the books. There are some lovely titles here which I remember reading as a child.

On Sunday Meira and I made Pumpkin soup, yum. Earlier in the week I bought a pumpkin and used half to make a sausage and pumpkin casserole which Meira enjoyed, turns out she's not keen on soup. Last night I turned the remaining soup into a lamb curry and after some patience and cunning from Tem she emptied her bowl. It's becoming hard to tell now when she's playing up for a reason or just because she can!

I had time to do some jewellery making at the end of last week, though Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday she didn't nap so as she drops her naps I'll have less time to play. But I do have a new medium to play with, Resin. I have seen some lovely clear bangles with items and pictures imbedded into them and after some research I found it is something I could have a go with at home. Do I orders a small amount of resin and a mold and I made a bangle with clear resin and red glitter. It worked really well for a 1st try, and even better as a lesson. I learnt that your drying surface needs to not only look flat but to actually be flat, I learnt that the type of mold I used doesn't give you shiny sides (which I wanted) and that if you file a rough edge with glitter in it you get an even rougher edge where the glitter comes away. I have ordered a second mold made from silicone which should ensure I get a shine to my finished surface, it is also a different shaped bangle so I'll have two to play with. 







Aside from the resin I had time to make a few jewelled presents for Christmas and a couple of birthdays happening before then, and a few other pieces, which I've put photos of here, which are as yet not for anyone in particular.  It will be 2-3 weeks before my new resin mold is delivered so I'm working on different wire wrapping techniques, as shown in the white earrings here, and I have some non tarnish copper wire now which I can practice with more cheaply than with the silver plated and it really sets of some of the beads I have which were loosing some of their beauty by being next to the silver colour.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

More weekend fun

Tem thinks Meira has got my organising trait, I was sorting out some of the odds and ends which come out of his work pockets, screws, drill bits, wall plugs etc., into some organiser boxes and Meira was helping.  Infact the boxes you can see her playing with in the photo she emptied and then rearranged putting them all back in, mostly keeping different colours together.  The second photo is Meiras footprint, we made some more play-dough at the end of last week, it was just self-raising flour and water mixed together and Meira loved helping to mix it, we mainly cut out geometric shapes, followed by moulding apples, pears and sausages, all at Meiras request.  She makes a good pear and sausage shape.

I also did a bit more knitting so my scarf is getting longer, its now 16" or 41cm depending on how you measure.  And I set up a Facebook group called Made by Zoe (http://www.facebook.com/groups/239906382734600/) so I can show my Facebook friends what projects I'm working on and what I've made, like some of the jewellery I have put onto here, though I probably should show some more on here I'm being cautious not to put on any made for Christmas presents.  I have put a photograph of a mini beaded Christmas wreath I made using a 'How to' leaflet I got from Beads Direct in my last bead order.  I'm really pleased with it, it does need some ribbon to hang it from but it was a great project to use up some plastic beads I had laying around.


Baking with Meira




 On Sunday Becky came over and we made some cupcakes with Meira, it was very messy and great fun!  In the first photo you can see Becky pouring flour into a bowl so Meira could spoon it into the bowl on top of the scales, it took a while to get to the right amount but it was good to see Meira doing it herself, with a little help.  She loved the mixing part, and when it came to pouring the mixture into the moulds (putting it into a jug and pouring worked best with Meira helping) she pointed to where it need to go.  Her favourite part though seemed to be the tasting, both of the mixture from the bowl and of the flour, sugar, and cocoa powder on the table.

Monday, 17 October 2011

A bead week

My wonderful husband gave me some of his hard earnt overtime money to buy myself some more jewellery making components. I had so much fun choosing what I wanted, and both websites I used (www.beadsdirect.co.uk & www.sanctuarybeads.co.uk) were so quick in delivering them I didn't have to wait more than two days for it all too arrive.  Some of it was ordered with Christmas presents in mind, some because I needed it (clasps & headpins) and the rest because they are beautiful beads.  I had great fun creating the necklace you see here on the first evening and I'm really pleased with it, so pleased infact I put a photo onto my Facebook page and I was chuffed with the number of people who liked it.  The past two evenings I have spent going through all the bracelets and necklaces which were almost finished, but due to either not having enough clasps or my attention being on a new idea, and completing them.  So now I feel all up to date with my jewellery and free to start a new piece.  I was too tired last night though so I picked up my knitting, if I apply the same determination to complete I may have a new scarf by Xmas :-) It will be the first thing I have knitted since making Sindy scarfs as a child, and as its now about 25cm long (16cm wide) I think it has a chance of being ready in time.

Oh yes, and this is what happens when you give a toddler a box of plastic beads to play with ('Oooo, pretty Mummy'), they don't stay in the box for very long.  You'd think I'd have this sussed by now wouldn't you?!

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Messy play



These are from a week or so ago, we had a very creative day with the lovely sunshine we had that week.   water play in the garden in the morning followed by cornflour and water in the afternoon, which was followed by more water fun when I brought the washing up bowl to her to wash off her hands and feet in.  All great fun.
 


Saturday, 1 October 2011

Fun with stickers

Meira loves stickers, although she's not too pleased that they loose their stick and mostly don't come off from paper again.  We haven't got any at home so today Meira and I made some using some plain white labels and colouring pencils. She stuck them to a picture we drew, to herself, to me and onto her cup.  We then used then to attach wool as hair to a picture of a princess and it gave me an idea.  So I made a spider and a bird and attached them both to a length of wool so the could fly.  I had fun with this, Meira was more interested in taking the wool off from them then using a sticker to re-attach it.  We've had a very fun morning.

Thursday, 29 September 2011

Fun in the Garden



What lovely weather we've been having this week, and Meira and I have been taking advantage playing out in the garden and taking (pushchair free!) walks down to the park.

















Echinacea flower for Grandma to see.