Domestic Excitement

I wasn’t going to pop by tonight as I’m desperate to get on with my shawl for the CFTC makealong but then I felt the urge to ramble on to someone about my exciting day.  Note: my exciting is probably very different to what one may usually think of as exciting.  I think I’m just going to carry on in list form as I’m too tired to make sentences and paragraphs flow seemlessly from one to another.

1. Our camera has arrived, woo woo!  I must confess it is very good.

2.  We’ve had hang- your-washing-out weather!  Love it.

Which has also meant that little T. can play outside.

3.  We’ve had a new addition to our dining room (squeal).  Our home is a small victorian house that lacks storage space so I’m forever trying to find ways to maximise what we have and make our house feel more homely.  Our dining room is a walk-through room to get to the kitchen thus often feels like a dumping ground/play room/dining room.  I’ve been wanting a sideboard of some sort in there for a while but there’s not the space.  Until we found this…

…It’s a repurposed media unit that’s had a new lease of life.  And it fits perfectly under my favourite painting!  So happy.

4.  Knitting time.

We’ve switched up our routine so that we all have dinner together at 6 when the husband gets home from work (T. and I used to wait until the kids had gone to bed).  This means I have an entire evening to play with!  A whole evening.  Amazing.  And with that, I am off to do some more knitting, woo woo!  (As an aside, the above photo was taken during naptime knitting.  I try to scoot around tidying up at the end of each day).

Right, know I’m defo off.

Fridays and flowers

It’s been a great end to what has felt like a long week, despite us having had the bank holiday Monday.  I blame sleep deprivation.  I was so ready for Friday to come.  Friday is little T.’s nursery day which means that baby A. and I get some girly time together and I get to take my day at a slightly slower pace.  Although I did have a rather long to-do list, which was still rather long by the end of the day. The day started well with baby A. treating me to a 2 hour nap!  It was glorious.  I sat and knitted the whole time.

Even better was that I’ve finally got to the stripy section of my shawl! Stripes make me so happy. When she woke up we had some lunch together… (well, I ate lunch whilst she gnawed away at her muslin…)  before heading out down our local high street so I could buy a few bits and pieces; including some fresh flowers for our living room and kitchen.  There’s a new fresh flowers van so I had to check it out.  The choice wasn’t the best but I think I did ok… I love that portmeirion vase (I have the matching teapot and sugar bowl too). And these brighten the time I spend washing up no end.

For baby A’s final nap before collecting little T. from nursery I thought I should probably be sensible and remind myself about the logistics of weaning A. onto solids.  Not without a cup of tea, in my favourite mug.  I think all hot drinks should be drunk out of large mugs, especially Cath Kitson mugs. It’s only been a little over 18 months that I weaned T. but my memory is failing me.  Tomorrow is the big day for baby A.  She’s showing all the signs of being ready, she’s just shy of 6 months and this mama needs the sleeping to improve!  I had been dreading weaning but now I feel rather excited by it. Before I knew it it was time to pick little T. up from nursery.

Now evening is upon us.  Thus I am off to have some quality sofa time, in my PJs, with my knitting needles and a couple of balls of yarn (yay for stripyness). Hope you guys have a great weekend.

Over the hump

Goodness me what a week it’s been!  Baby A. continues to wake every 1.5-2.5 hours overnight and Little T. has decided to be more challenging in the day.  How is it that children can be so unbelievably adorable one minute and absolute terrors the next?  My I’m glad it’s almost the weekend.

Fortunately it was the husband’s birthday on Tuesday so naturally I had to make cake.

Lemon Drizzle cake it was, as per his request.  The remaining cake has been the perfect pick me up during the succeeding days.  Obvs the cake didn’t last long.  Luckily tomorrow is Little T.’s nursery day so I may well find myself in the kitchen making another, very much needed, cake.  Shame.

The evenings post the little ones’ bedtime have been very welcome.  When I’ve had the energy I, naturally, cracked on with my shawl.

Progress is slow as I can barely keep my eyes open beyond 4 rows at a time but progress is still progress.

Oh how I love relaxing at the end of a long day with my feet up and my favourite dressing gown on.  Tis the glamorous life of a stay at home mum.

CFTC Make-A-Long

One of my favourite knitting blogs is Crafts From the Cwtch (great name but being welsh I’m probably biased).  Anyway, commencing May 1st (tomorrow, eek!) Sarah is hosting a make-a-long.

I’ve never participated in a knit/make-along but it sounds like fun and the project is a transitional shawl.  The challenge is try a shawl pattern that will develop your skills.  I have zero shawl making skills since I have never made one so my pattern options seemed endless.  Originally I was going to go for this pattern.  However, after participating in the ravelry CFTC MAL discussion this pattern, called Colour Affection, captured me.  I’m a little apprehensive since it involves short rows, increases, and working with a number of different yarns.  Plus, my latest projects aren’t going too well.  Luckily, I love a challenge!

Despite the MAL kicking off tomorrow, I’ve only got one of three varieties of yarn chosen (above).  I’m not entirely convinced by my choice; that’s the difficulty of ordering online.  My local yarn shops are at least a 30 min drive away so Love Knitting is my best friend.  I digress.  I suspect that my potential other 2 colours will convince me that I have made the correct choices.  I intend on buying the rest of the yarn on Saturday when we visit my inlaws in West Wales.  I’m hoping they can have the little ones so I can deliberate over my options at a leisurely pace.  In the meantime I’m going to get my head around the pattern and practice some of the new techniques.  Happy knitting!