An altered corner of my home

A while ago Andrew and I were discussing streamlining the kitchen and making sure that everything in it was useful or beautiful or both.
We had a shelf unit, very cheap pine, that I think I'd had as a student back in the day and that we used in the corner of the kitchen for the compost bin and the baskets of fruit and veg.
It was getting dusty and was hard to clean. You can see it above in the first picture.
So, a conversation ensued and we reclaimed it.
Now, when I say "we", what that actually means in this house, when it comes to designing shelves and putting them up, is that I put the kettle on and keep Mr Powertool happy with tea and he does all the work!
Well, I do the Frank-wrangling and keeping him away from the powertools bit.
I think Andrew did a fab job and love the clean lines and easy to keep tidy shelves.


~ during ~

~ and after ~ ta-da! ~

Yes, my life has come to this: I am very excited with about my new shelves!

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.

Winter Solstice

We celebrated the Winter Solstice yesterday evening with lots of candles, good food and gifts.
Frank was allowed to stay up late to play his new game and then we all went to bed at the same time, chatting quietly until we fell asleep, Frank first followed by myself and then Andrew.
These dark winter days are special to me as I love this season of introspection after such busy times outside all summer and autumn.

More knitting, reading and planning! Hooray!
In the next few days we will visit people and have people to us, exchange gifts and watch Frank's pantomime that he has been planning for a few days now.

Then it's head down and into the full-on festivities with family and friends.
I enjoy the Winter Solstice more than Christmas for its quiet sense of wonder at nature and peaceful family celebration.
I will be enjoying some screen free days this Yuletide and will be back in the middle of next week.
Peace and blessings to you all, and may the D-fairy behave itself this festive season!

Colchester 24

~ be here now ~


I have been really pleased to be able to take part in a lovely local project called Colchester24, a town-wide photography project that was open to anyone living in Colchester.
The idea is to record twenty-four hours in the life of the town by snapping pictures of your life and what you are doing from noon on Friday 21st October to noon on Saturday 22nd October 2011.
I submitted the following photos and will be very interested in seeing the collection once it is completed.
It makes for fascinating viewing looking back at the accepted submissions from 25 years ago, which, if you're interested, can be found here.


~ waiting for his porridge to cool ~
~ never not knitting ~
~ patching the door snake ~
~ the little chef ~


A happy weekend to you all.

Corners of my home - Reality Bites!

I love it when people post about the pretty little corners of their homes.
I find it inspiring and uplifting and really, honestly not at all guilt-inducing about my own home.
And on this note I couldn't resist the other day taking photos of my home in all its post-holiday glory.
Enjoy!
I guarantee it won't induce any guilt in anyone!The kitchen counter with

• one rubber glove; can't find its partner
• diabetes kit open and mid-use
• piles of books. leaflets and recharging cords
• basket of quinces from the garden
• tea towel flung and left
  

A corner near the fridge:

• there are cars, always, all over the house, and I love these little reminders of my boy. They are painful reminders when you tread barefoot on them too!
  

The hob:

• River Cottage Preserves book open to the left as I was making quince & apple sauce
• Spuds and soup on the hob.
• Dinosaurs on the counter; like cars there are dinos everywhere.
• And a globe pencil sharpener. What home is complete without a globe pencil sharpener?
  

In choosing to photograph my home in its real state I managed to find it funny that we were living so chaotically for a while.
Things are tidier today but that might change tomorrow.
That this is just how it is, suits me just fine.

Happy Wednesday! :)

Happy Wednesday!

Today is Ash Wednesday, and almost everyone I know is giving up something for Lent. Some of my friends are giving up Facebook, some are giving up Starbucks, and some are even giving up saying the F word. What about you, are you giving something up for Lent?

I've been thinking long and hard of what I'm going to give up for Lent... I want it to be something really meaningful. So, besides giving up shopping (unless it's free shopping, of course, *wink*), I will try to be more positive about life, I want to be a happier person, I want to be more at peace with myself and with life. I know that's not always easy, but I will really try, so please wish me luck! :D

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony".

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The other day, my friend (who goes to school in a different state) called and asked me where she can buy some furniture and home decor for her apartment. I told her to check out Crate&Barrel... whooops, that was the wrong thing to say because after all she is on a budget, haha. ;) So, then I said, "Um, hello, Ikea!". Nope, still the wrong thing to say because she said there is no Ikea where she lives (bummer, huh?) and she doesn't really have time to drive out to wherever there is one. I was racking my brain thinking of where she can look, when suddenly I came up with the perfect answer:

*come on, say it with me, I know you know what I'm about to say*....

CSN. ;)

I went ahead and looked for some stuff for her, and oh boy, did I find a lot. But, I had to narrow it down to what was really on her list.

Since her roommate just bought a new LCD TV for their apartment, I thought they might need to look at some LCD TV stands.

Ipanema 54'' modern TV stand, $649

I saw another one that I liked better, though.

36'' modern TV stand in Wenge, $799

I think this one will suit their apartment better since it's smaller and more sleek.

They also wanted to buy a new couch, but living room sets can be really pricey. Isn't it more practical for them to just buy a loveseat and maybe some arm chairs?

Calcutta loveseat in chocolate, $379

And of course, they need a nice coffee table.

antique walnut coffee table, $99.99

Another thing on my friend's list is a wall clock. She said that she hates not having a clock in their kitchen, especially when she's running late!

14'' classic black atomic wall clock, $34.99

That might be a little too pricey for a wall clock, though. But, I think it's nice.

Anyway, those are the ones she and her roommate will share the expenses for. She also has a separate list for her room. It's such a long one, so I chose to just share two of the things I showed her that she absolutely loved. ;)

Mod dot nursery lamp, $27

And,

Courtyard indoor/outdoor rug (price varies according to size)

I always knew it's fun to shop for yourself, but it's also so much fun to shop for someone else, especially because you don't have to think about actually shelling out the money. ;)

I hope you all have a fantastic rest of the week!

Good luck to everyone who is giving up something for Lent!

*all images and prices from www.csn.com*

Whimsy

So, it's mid-November and many of you are slogging your way through a month of posting every day. My thoughts are with you a lot over this and I am in awe of anyone that can do it.

For a little light relief I offer you a perfectly formed example of English Whimsy!

Brace yourselves for ..... drum roll .....

THE HEDGEHOG HOUSE!!!! I kid you not. We had considered chickens for a long time but decided that a) as Frank is a bit scared of them at the moment and b) Mr Muffinmoon doesn't eat eggs that we might be better off with a hedgehog.
OK, so it won't help us with omelettes or cakes or even company but how seriously COOL is it to have a hedgehog house in your garden?

And it only cost us Mr Muffinmoon's time as he is a master at cobbling things together from bits of wood lying around. We figured the hedgehog wouldn't mind so much whether Martha Stewart had been in to decorate.

It sits awaiting an owner towards the back of the garden and in the shade of our neighbour's oak tree.

We have covered it in soil and leaves and hope to report back with evening sightings of our hedgehog.

Happy Hedgehog Monday to you all!

Corners of my Home ...

... from a four year old's point of view. Dinosaurs, dinosaurs everywhere!

Plus a Halloween candle holder and the edge of a mini heart I made him (from this book) with a little pocket in it for "something of Mummy's".

He puts something of mine in it and cuddles it whenever I go out.

Drama queen that he now seems to be, this also includes when Daddy is putting him to bed and I am just downstairs.

A corner of the nature table. Just a surface with a few seasonal bits and bobs on it.

A wonky corner of the lounge.
We have culled many books but seem unable to lose any more.

Wood piled in the front doorway ready for those first fires of Winter.

The train set, of course. With dinosaurs roaming freely too, of course!

My knitting corner of the lounge, complete with needles, pile of messy magazines and D-Kit.

OK, so not a corner of the house but his Daddy's bottom. With dinosaurs, of course!

Frank and I are away visiting Sev in Henley-on-Thames for four days as of tomorrow.

We are very much looking forward to the Wind in the Willows exhibition at the River and Rowing Museum there.

I will be back here next Friday and wish you all a very good week.

Celebrating his two year Diabetes birthday!

So, 10th October is a memorable day for us.

It is Frank's diagnosis day and we have taken to celebrating it as his Diabetes Birthday. This is our first year of doing this as even last year we were too freaked out still to feel like celebrating.

Now though, it feels different, and I am aware of wanting Frank himself to be involved in celebrating.

I spoke to him about it yesterday evening as I was putting him to bed and said we'd make a cake. He said chocolate would be "the best, 'cause it's may fay-vrit and it needs chocolate buttons in a circle and berries in stripes".

Who am I to fly in the face of such good taste?

So, as we drank our Smoothie Sunday smoothies we made a sugar-free chocolate cake from this book.

It rose really well and tasted fabulous.

I covered it in a chocolate ganache made from double cream with melted 80% Green & Blacks in it and then my little artist got to work with his decorating.

He did a great job and enjoyed two pieces today! Some family and friends popped in to help us eat the cake and we still have two slices left for tomorrow.

In putting Frank to bed this evening I suggested one was for him and one for Daddy.

His reply?

"Maybe I could have both as it was my cake?" delivered with wide, innocent eyes and a cheeky smile.

Hmmmm ....

Hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

The August Project

We have set ourselves a BIG task.

August is our month for sorting the house, the garden and the summer house.

Yikes!

We are planning to go away to the Netherlands in September but have made the commitment to stay home this August and clear the decks for the year ahead.

In all honesty we have been kind of frozen since Frank's diagnosis and have only recently been glimpsing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Nobody bounces back from this kind of diagnosis but some people seem so able to use its force for good so much more quickly than me.

I don't envy them that, I just accept that I have taken as long as I have needed.

Now it is time for me to be a bit creative and to be more IN CONTROL than I maybe felt before.
So, here is the list with photographic evidence of some progress (and going public with it makes it more likely to happen!):

This August I will:

• Get a seasonal book basket organised for Frank and sort the Nature Table
  



• make use of all the herbs, flowers and veg in the garden (see basil for pesto above. Pesto in fridge as I write. Courgette soup in freezer. Fresh herbs and flowers from garden in various vases. But no time for complacency as the quince will need care and the sunflowers will need to be used for the birds and the fig will need the fruit using.)
  
  



• Help in any way I can as Mr Muffinmoon and Mr B put up the pergola (in reality this involved me making tea, cold drinks and soup from courgettes from our garden and Tom's allotment. Oh,wait, I did help hold it steady a bit whilst they did some bashing with big hammers. It was all very Witness.)
  
• Clear out all the junk in the summer house and get it set up as a sewing studio for myself (this is almost done!! Yay! Photos to follow when it's complete).
• Reorganise the pantry so that I can actually see most of the food that we have in the house (getting there, slow progress being aided by actually eating the food; a cunning plan!).
• Sort the mass of shoes and jackets hanging in the hall and just have the ones we need there. Put others away until Winter. (Mostly done).
• Preserve as much food as I can find time for (lots of jam already made, soup made and frozen, plans for more such jolities ...).
• Sort and minimise Frank's toys and games and puzzles that litter the house and seem to have no real place. Less is more for these things and he seems to mostly play trains, paint with his watercolours, do some crafting and use his Lego. The rest gets left to trip me up or pierce my bare feet! Long way to go on this one, don't hold your breath for photos).
• Dig over one side of the garden (actually this can continue right into Autumn) for growing herbs and veg next year.

OK, this might explain why I have been absent for a few days. All the above and some weird growth hormones playing havoc with Frank's numbers at night and keeping me up to give him water and change a flooded bed far too bleedin' often. I have also been in major sorting mode as I WILL NOT BE BEATEN by this.

*********************************

So, my friends, the truth is "out there" and I am now officially accountable for regular reports of progress.

Oh, and a requested recipe for the date slices we had a few posts ago is coming up soon in all its wholewheat datey glory.

Stay tuned...