pancakes :: snow :: a quilt

In an attempt to record and share more of our days (because they are so immensely fascinating, you understand!) I am going to try to post often in the same way as Heather, whose daily posts have been a wonderful source of beauty and out-breaths recently.
We have taken to having pancakes for breakfast every Sunday and that little routine sees me jumping out of bed before the boys to pad downstairs and mix the batter, so it can sit for a while before we start cooking.
We each have our favourite topping.
Frank goes for agave syrup (although having read about it recently I will be removing it from the pantry soon) and Andrew and I go for lemon juice and maple syrup.
We get two pancakes each (big, thin ones like crepes) from a mix of 4floz oat milk, 1 egg, 4oz spelt flour, pinch salt and 1 tbsp oil.
It leaves us rather wanting a little more but that's no bad thing.

And the table always groans under the weight of Lego. Every meal!

We had snow last night.
About five inches and it drifted so in parts of the garden it was quite high.
Straight after pancakes we headed out, all layered up, to throw snowballs at each other and get thoroughly cold.
Today was the day when I realised I have a hole in my wellies and my feet were very cold very quickly.
My lovely blokes longjohns worked a treat though!

And in the late morning I managed to complete my first ever quilt. Here you can see it on the big bed, although it is for Frank and his little bed next to ours.
The fabric was from the V&A stall at a Knit & Stitch Show two years ago and is all based on fabrics from the V&A archives.
They are beautiful and I am so glad to have been able to keep them together.
You can see in this picture how we sleep.
Frank sleeps directly next to me in a little bed (Andrew cannily took a saw to a regular single bed and made a kind of Frankenstein's monster of a bed!).
Frank didn't used to sleep here, except when he was tiny, but I never rested well with him away from me.
This way we all sleep better and I can check on him frequently because, let's face it, the deep sleep we all used to enjoy pre-kids and especially pre-diabetic kids is AWOL for a while.
It works for us, for now.
He learnt to make snowballs today.
And throw them.
His little snow suit is one brought back from a Finnish flea market by a friend.
We rarely get this much snow but this suit is fabulous when we do.

Tomorrow the Wholefood Kitchen starts for Andrew and I.
Will post more on that in the morning.

Soulemama and me

A while back the lovely Sarah asked me in the comments section what projects I had ever done from Amanda Bake Soule's books and how I found them.
I fully intended to let her know there and then but just didn't get around to it and then um, forgot.
So here , right now, is my reply.
And, Sarah, sorry for the delay!
I have two of Amanda's books : Handmade Home and The Creative Family. They are both fantastic and very inspirational. Amanda really does strike a great and sane balance between the desire to be creative and the reality of making things whilst being surrounded by children and having little time and limited resources.
Some of the issues facing parents who want to craft/create is that they have so little time, even to shop for the stuff for projects. Handmade Home addresses this by emphasising using stuff we already have: old sheets, towels, tea towels, children's clothes that they have grown out of.
The Creative Family is jam-packed with ideas for bringing just a little more creativity into the life of a family. Small steps and introducing some ideas slowly have been great for Frank and I. (Andrew loves the idea of it all but it tends to be me that does this kind of stuff).


Scarf from Handmade Home. Made for Sev's birthday. Hidden behind Frank (he wouldn't leave her side for the photo call!) are some vintage buttons, courtesy of my Great Aunt Dolly.

Wall hanging with pockets for Frank's room from Handmade Home. Made from old blankets and bits of fabric I had at home already. It is hanging from an old curtain pole! And just above it the DREAM banner made from an old army blanket and some felt, also from Handmade Home.

Bunting banner. I have made loads of these, as you all know! They are such a great way of using up old fabric and people love receiving them as gifts.
From the birthday banner idea in The Creative Family.

Bath mat from Handmade Home. This was made from an old pale yellow towel I already had (it is around 25 years old as I remember having it when I was a student!). The floral material is an off cut from some curtains I made years ago and never threw away. Many people have commented on this and asked where I bought it.

Pillow Case dress from Handmade Home. Made for my sister's littlest girl, Nancy.

In all honesty, I have made other things too. I just forget to photograph them!
The Family Heart from Handmade Home has been a great hit with Frank, who puts a piece of my jewellery in its little pocket whenever I go out.
And the Silky Eye Pillow has been made many times as gifts for friends and to use the fab lavender I managed to bag from a friend of a friend's garden last summer.

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And Amanda has a new book out next month. I am twitching for it already.
Tomorrow we are running a cycling event to raise awareness of Type 1.
Back soon with photos from that.

Off to breathe ...

Hello again, peeps!

I took your advice and took some time out from the electronic world.

My lovely husband also came home early from Scotland. It was a mixture of knowing I was struggling and being a bit fed up with the wind howling in his face and the rain making him wet and cold.

It is good to have him home.

Thank you all for coming to my aid with kind words and support (even you, Amy!).

It was very much needed and much appreciated too.

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We are off camping tomorrow.

This is our summer holiday; a week in our beautiful tent down on the Devon coast and then a couple of days on my sister's farm in Dorset on the way home.

This could be my week:

Fresh air, sunshine, Devon cream teas, days on the beach, Plymouth Sealife Centre, the Devon Moors and wild ponies, reading, clotted cream ice-cream, knitting, local markets and sleeeeeeep, precious sleeeeeep.

Then again, this is England, so it could be :

Rain, wind, hail and sleet, trench foot, soggy sandwiches, rain, caterpillars in my salad (this happened to me in the Cotswolds last time we camped!)and no sleep.

However, I am hopeful.

Our campsite is one mile from a beach called Hope Bay.

Want to join us?!

In preparation for the trip I ignored all my lovely husband's ideas of packing early and took to sewing instead.

Each of us now has a nifty bag for the trip.

Andrew's bag : be.

Frank's bag : Frank Budd Loves Sea Creatures (his exact words when asked if he'd like "create" or "Frank" or something short and snappy!).

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And my bag? Well, you've seen it before and I am only doing what you told me to.

Back in about ten days with oodles of photos and, no doubt, some real Devonian quality cellulite from all the clotted cream teas!

Love to all, and may your next ten days be fabulous and full of good times.

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P.S. Look! I didn't mention the D!!!!

Jen told me this time would come and it has.

I call friends and don't talk about it all the time.

I meet people in town and I don't mention it!

Life goes on ...

Randomness ... and a winner

Easter weekend has been amazing here and mostly because of the weather.

Hardly a cloud in the sky and hot, hot, hot.

The garden is already out of control and I can almost see the veggies growing. The chard from last summer is going to seed but as it's shooting flowers up so quickly I am letting it do so as I am fascinated by its strength and speed.

We have nettles you could lose a giraffe in and my chives are suddenly flowering in a big and blousy way.

Love it!

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I managed to finish this little sundress made from a pillow case that I picked up in a charity shop a while ago.

If I use the word "vintage" it will seem very desirable indeed!

I am going to send it to my sister's little girl, Nancy, who has the great red hair to go so well with these colours!

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We had Andrew's older children, Sarah and Tom, over today, along with their lovely Mum, Sue. Frank and all the rest of us enjoyed an Easter egg and Lindt bunny hunt in the garden.

I was just clearing up outside and found a couple of tiny, foil wrapped dark chocolate eggs that had been left in the sun.

I tried to pick them up very gently but they kind of exploded in my hand!

I was a chocolatey mess for a while there.

Rather befitting of the great chocolate festival that Easter has become.

Interestingly (and I am aware that I am playing fast and loose with that word here for some of you!) Frank's BG numbers have been in the low teens but holding steady, which is amazing as I have tried to make no references to him NOT having nibbles of chocolate today.

I just wanted to let him be.

To let him eat chocolate if he wanted to or leave it if he wanted to.

He isn't so bothered but I fear telling him he shouldn't and then seeing him really WANTING it because it's forbidden.

We'll see how that pans out in the future, hey?

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We also have a winner of the "breathe" poster.

As I only had five people interested I threw a dice.

Twice number six came up (!) and then came number two : Annicles.

So big congratulations to Anna.

If you could let me know your address I will pop it in the post to you as soon as I can.

I really hope you'll love it as much a I love mine.

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Also Andrew was just telling me that T1D friend he has adores the rather talented Tim Booth and met him today.

I was reminded of how much I love "James" and how I used to play this song at top volume in my classroom at the end of a long day, and only, I assure you, once all the kids were gone!

My, how it cleared the energy and brought joy rushing back in.

And we all need that.

What songs do that for you, I wonder?

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And my final act of randomness in my most random post to date is this:

I'm now off to watch "Ghostbusters".

Why?

It's such a fun film and I just heard Bill Murray say,

"Back off buddy, I'm a scientist".

It's going to be a great evening!

Self-portrait - yikes!

With the boys off in London for the Circle-D meet up last weekend I had a whole day to myself.

Whole days alone for me are a massive rarity and for a while I was full of the gazillion things I'd get done and rather dizzy all in all.

However, eventually I decided to use it to catch up with my long-overdue "the art of living cheerfully" tasks.

There have been some lovely tasks and I was woefully behind but not stressed at all really.

I was just aware that I wanted to do these things for me and I'd fit them in when I could.

We have been living in chaos whilst the dining room floor was sanded and varnished and I think I mentioned that Andrew was working two jobs for a couple of weeks so I let the "cheerfully" stuff slide a bit.

Saturday saw me having to attempt a self-portrait.

I SOOOO did not enjoy this as is evidenced by the first rather awkward photo of me.

I look like a woman in her forties.

How did that happen?!

I was also to write about what makes me beautiful.

You what now?

Couldn't think of a thing.

Completely stalled.

I do a great job wih my family but often feel like I am lurching from day to day without being fully present in the moment and any thoughts of myself are fleeting and quickly pushed aside to make space for cooking, tidying up and talking about sharks and whales!

This task will have to wait for another time.

Once I'd cringed enough at having to take photos of myself I finished my muffinmoon banner that now hangs in the summerhouse where I am hoping to do some sewing this summer.

Happy Tuesday to you all!

At My Table

Last Autumn I went to the wonderful (and oh-so-bad-for-the-bank-balance) Knit and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace in London (affectionately known as Ally Pally).

I left many pounds lighter in terms of money and many pounds heavier in terms of great fabrics and yarns.

Three of those fabrics were small pieces of end of roll cuts that I wanted to make something for each of us with. I thought about tote bags but we have lots of those and I wanted these fabrics to be seen regularly.

So, last week, on a rainy day and with the sewing machine out and ready I decided to involve Frank in some fabric stamping action and make personalised place mats for our meal times.

I had some leftover linen and we stamped our names on small pieces of it with our new alphabet stamps and once they were dry I ironed the letters to fix the ink.

Frank then chose the stitch pattern to attach the labels to the place mats and helped me press the right buttons on the sewing machine.

An hour later we had three funky place mats for each and every meal.

We see these mats three times a day.

Or rather, whenever I lay the table. Husband forgets them, much as he has forgotten to wear his apron since Christmas.

Hmmm ....

I love these!

They cheer me so much but I am also beginning to understand the issue of lovingly slaving over things that others don't value. I don't expect people to weep with joy at every meal but to put things to use would be good.

Having a child with Type 1 is like this.

I can tell a hundred people Frank's cool HbA1c and only one percent will have any clue of the work that went into it!

But, being creative in any way (writing a blog, poetry, knitting, cooking, sewing, eyeshadow colours, basal tweaking etc etc) is so good for the soul.

I now recognise that I NEED it.

In some form or another a day does not feel right and my spirit does not feel sustained unless I have gone some way towards creating something.

I truly believe we humans are driven to do this in some form or another.

So, here is Frank's place mat with the fabric he loved as he loves camping.

This is also a typical meal for him, by the way. I might bake and make carb-bomb foods sometimes but more often than not he won't eat them unless it once moo-ed or bleated or clucked or oinked or it's bread or potatoes!

He didn't eat his carrots this day as they were grated and not whole.

And here is Andrew's place mat.

He's not on a strict diet but hadn't got home from work before I took the pictures!


And mine is Red Riding Hood.
I love the fabric even though as a little girl (and even now) I found the story highly suspicious with all the "little girls shouldn't strike out alone in the woods or the wolf will get them and they'll need a big man with a big axe (yeah, right) to save them" nonsense.
I was an early developer as a feminist, clearly!
Maybe I love this fabric because she is looking at that wolf as though she's about to slap him on the nose and tell him to behave himself!

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Thank you to all of you who sent positive and encouraging comments about the pump. We are looking forward to getting to grips with it and are suitably scared too.

We have had a few too many mild but still scary hypos this week and whilst it's good to see lower numbers, too low is not good.

Time for some creative basal tweaking (is it me and my addled brain or does that sound like a euphemism? As in "Hello darlin', fancy coming back to my place for a bit of basal tweaking?"!!).

Love to all and happy Wednesday.