Tessa's birthday

Last Saturday, T turned 7. I can't get over how much she has grown up in the last year both literally and figuratively, this year she is slimmer and taller than last.





We went to Brighton to celebrate, taking advantage of a free family railcard courtesy of a certain newspaper that shall remain nameless. We went by train and it was a smooth journey there and back, the trains might have been late but not enough to matter. All in all it was much easier than taking the car, and I shall probably do this again over the summer.

I am experimenting to see if I can add photos from flickr and eta I can't.

blanket in progress 004

blanket in progress 004
Originally uploaded by millhillmum.

Progress on my throw, this is my 2nd attempt, nearly 2 weeks in. My first attempt foundered on the rocks of attempted perfectionism when I attempted to rescue a dropped stitch by ripping back but the wool kept snapping, it was all mohair and the edges are done in moss stitch, the extra fluff on that yarn meant it caught on itself. So I had to buy extra yarn so I could continue, glad I did as the yarns I bought have been a bit more interesting but maybe not so tasteful.

blanket in progress 001

blanket in progress 001
Originally uploaded by millhillmum.

Yarn for the blanket, new wool is all fluffy and self striping, or purple. Wool my mum gave me is solid blue.

Isn't it great when shops do a good job

Yesterday afternoon, I placed an order with Mca Direct, didn't really think about where they are, they just happened to stock 2 of the yarns I wanted to order. This morning there is a knock at my door and my order is in my hands, it's only come all the way from Stirling which is approx 450 miles away. This is amazing only because for the last too many years anything not posted first thing in the morning will not make it all the way to London or all the way to Scotland without having to spend two nights in a post bag somewhere, but recently things have improved. My mum posted my cards on the 15th they arrived in london on the 16th, she posted a card to her mum from Perth to Stirling which still hadn't arrived on Sunday despite being about 30 miles from there. Anyway very pleased with the service from Mca Direct which stands for McAree Bros, a shop I actually used to go into when I lived with my Granny in Stirling many years ago. Doubly impressed that the delivery was free so really was not expecting the yarn till next week.

March work in progress with yarn

March work in progress with yarn
Originally uploaded by millhillmum.

These pictures were taken today, just showing off my current WIP, and some new wool i bought today to add to the blanket.

When you are feeling down...

you can pick yourself up by writing your CV.
Yesterday I told M I'd get round to cleaning the oven this week, in fact it might even have been 'tomorrow' that issued forth from my lips, and he said he got round it by rewarding himself with something nice afterwards. Now it looks as though cleaning the oven might be my reward for doing my CV.
Aagh, I know it's not that hard but it seems very hard when your self esteem is at zero, but finally this afternoon after cleaning and polishing in the dining room I finally sat down at the PC and started plugging away. This morning I had a quick look at monster and decided to steal some blurb from the agency adverts. My main problem is remembering what I used to do and using the right language to make it seem worthy. I have a bad habit of denigrating everything i have ever done. As a result I don't actually feel I have ever achieved anything, how could it be noteworthy if even a doofus like me can do it. So I started feeling down and now feel slightly more upbeat about it. The real hilarity is trying to remember the more obscure jobs I had back in the 90's - do they count? And how many words from Office lingo bingo can I manage to put in my CV? The real work is yet to come in the final details, 80-95% of the facts are down it's now a matter of presenting it in a more attractive manner but that as they say is for another day. now where is that oven?

a Day of Rest after a week of action

A day of Rest
Finally, we are having a rest day here. It's the final day of half term and it has been really good this time. Obviously the secret is to keep it busy.
Of course it seems a very long half term in that it actually started the Wednesday before last with J & T being off sick, Thursday was a snow day and Friday was an inset day.
So small round up of half term.
Friday - cleaned house, shopped and visited I
Saturday - children were all invited to a party which lasted all afternoon, giving M and I some much appreciated couple time where we were able to visit some tile shops but this soon became an opportunity to visit our favourite Chinese on Finchley Road.
Sunday - I think this was a quiet day with no rugby as J had a cold.
Monday - should have been a quiet day but actually involved lots of driving (in the rain) to Cricklewood and back and then to Harrow and back, but we went to ILVA in the evening and bought a new table ours is the Houston.
Tuesday - we visited friends in Barnet
Wednesday - I took the children into town to visit the Natural History Museum, followed by lunch at McD's at Picadilly and then a walk up Regents Street where we came across Hamleys, we visited a couple of other shops but J just doesn't 'get' why women like looking at clothes. We were very lucky with our tubes as there were no problems on the Northern Line so once back at Edgware I got some yummy food for dinner a deux with M. Children were packed off to bed early as they were shattered from all the walking.
Thursday - J had a friend over late morning and then we all went to see Charlotte's Web with I and O in Watford. We all really enjoyed it.
Friday - Friends came over to visit us.
Saturday - winding down now but we went to London Colney to get M a suit for Monday, various bits for me and the children, then home for lunch. After lunch seemed very flat till J was invited out to a friend's, I went to a jumble sale, sam slept and while T and M were out delivering J I lay down. Heard some knocking went down, I actually thought it was a dyno-rod van outside it was so bright but surprisingly it was a postman with a bright red van with a big box which was full of exciting goodies namely wool from my mum and lots of knitting needles.
So I now have a stash of wool, which is rather fun. I had a go with crocheting in mohair but it didn't work too well, I think I need a bigger hook.
Sunday - a day of rest for T, S and I as M has gone off with J for rugby but this week they are having a practice session at the Saracen training ground and then get to watch a match at Vicarage Road in Watford.
I actually feel like it's a New Year, and now is the time for me to make some resolutions.
So here goes:

I want to take S swimming at least once a week
I need to make time to make sure Tessa does her spellings every week. We bought her a special notebook yesterday and she has already asked me for 2 spelling tests so she is pretty motivated.

I want to try and go over the main rooms at least once a week. I always seem to be firefighting with the housework. I don't know why but I spend an inordinate amount of time tidying up everyone else's stuff before I can actually get to cleaning. Ideally I would like a house that was company ready all the time but that will never happen.

I would love to go swimming myself once a week, and I would like to spend more time gardening. This year I would like to sow some seeds at the right time and not 2 months late.

Now the hardest thing for me will be to actually stop reading about all the things I would love to do and start doing, so a little less time reading other people's blogs and a bit more time updating mine more frequently and then going to do whatever I need to do. In a moment's time it is tidying the hall that awaits, I tidied it last week but unbelievably other peoples stuff that actually has a home upstairs has started squatting down here and needs to be cleared out.

snow day

Our street in the snow this morning.

Happiness is....

a Snow Day.

Yes, we woke up to a white world this morning. DH had to go to work despite my mentioning the snow's expected arrival last night but apparently there was no work that could be done from home and he had to be in the office which is a shame as it meant travelling in by train but it was just too icy when he left for him to use his bike.

I have never seen J wake up so fast, all I had to mention were the magic words 'It's snowing! And I don't think you'll be going to school.' for him to be out of bed and getting dressed. Sure enough the school is shut which means that half-term just started for us.

The snow is expected to melt with rain that is due later this afternoon, but my neighbour thinks there won't be rain just below freezing temps which means more traffic chaos tomorrow morning.

We went up to our local shops this morning, and on the way back the children made a snow roll, which we managed to get back to almost our house, it is currently sitting in front of our neighbours house as it had gotten so heavy that we couldn't move it any further.

The only downside to the snow is that I can't make it to the post office today, I would have made it without the children but the youngest will get so cold on the way there so it will have to be tomorrow.

Can't believe it, but I have just ordered 2 books from Amazon Japan, only problem is I don't actually speak Japanese so should be interesting when they finally arrive in 5 weeks. Hopefully they will have lots of pictures.

This is Thomas at Ropley in Hampshire. He is helping me experiment with Picasa.

What a difference ....

a day makes. I feel a lot zippier and no there isn't much sun around but plenty of heavy rain showers and wind though. One difference is that all three kiddos went to school, a minor miracle with T as she is really not liking school at the moment, which really gives me a sinking feeling. So today the downstairs got a tidy and hoover and then my friend J joined me for lunch and a natter. Lovely to catch up as ever and momentous day I finally told her about my blog. I have been very shy about revealing my blog. I think I was hoping that it would be full of funny moments, insightful comments on life/politics and just recently having admired some beautiful creative blogs I was hoping to show off a beautiful house/gorgeous makes/gorgeous stuff. Perhaps I ought to go and take some snaps of JB's house to show off as mine as hers is so tidy and gorgeous despite having a baby. Anyway she'll be having a look see later on when I email her the address. And also I am going to delurk and add comments to people's blogs, although I have an urge to avoid sounding unctuous and too 'fluffy'. And perhaps my natural reserve makes me sound a bit unenthusiastic about things - I find gushing a bit much.
One of the things I often whinge about is that I have no time to myself which is not so true nowadays as actually I get at least 2.5 hours a day currently and possibly more, it's just that I can't really do very much in that time. Current plans include going swimming once a week in addition to housework. But going on a course at a local college is simply impossible as I don't want to pay for a childminder and evenings are out thanks to Michael's long hours and commute. I have been looking at crochet lessons and it seems hard to commit to 3 Saturdays in a row which eats into our family time. Even though that would avoid any childcare problems. One Saturday would be no problem but 3 seems too much. It's just that I really want to learn to crochet but I am not sure how much I really want to iyswim. I bought a book on crochet jumpers which really inspired me and I was also inspired by this blog, and purchased some wool and a crochet hook at the weekend. I had a go following some instructions, just one big knot, so I then turned to the internet which was rather more helpful and I started chain stitch with 2 hands but still couldn't work out how to use the hook, finally cracked chain stitch with the hook. But starting a 2nd row is just beyond me and to make any progress I really need a real life very patient person to show me. This is where paying more attention to my grannies when they were in their crocheting heydays would have been very beneficial.
But in the meantime well since Sunday, I have been a busy bee with 2 needles, will reveal all when project completed.