Attic24

Last day of March

Last day of March today, and I want to share this month on my calendars with you before I flip over to April. I love calendars, love the charting of the days, weeks, months, following the seasons, trying not to forget things. I am generally a very chaotic, last-minute, disorganised type of a person and having calendars around makes me feel like I am keeping track of life and not letting things slip by (although of course they frequently do).

The above picture is March on my Laura Ashley Kitchen calendar which I keep in my bedroom. I found last year that J and I often discuss holiday plans whilst sitting in bed with a cuppa early in the morning, and  having a calendar in the bedroom comes in handy. Plus I really love looking at the illustrations on this one, the  stitched textiles are lovely.
The picture below is my main writing-on calendar downstairs, where I try and keep track of birthdays, school holidays, things I have agreed to do and places I need to be. It was given to me as a Christmas present (after a very strong hint that included pointing and the words "please" and "buy"). The year was 2003, and I re-use it every year as I love the illustrations so much. I use a website called Printfree and each January I print out 12 pages of calendar months and stick them to the pictures so i can keep on using it.

Later on this morning we are off on a short four day holiday down to visit my parents on the south coast of Dorset. It's been marked on our calendar since January when we booked our train tickets, and we are very excited. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to being by the sea. Having grown up by the coast, I find I crave it. I feel a need to smell the salty air and hear the pounding of the waves, crunch on the shingle, search for sea glass, throw stones into the sea, stroll along the promenade and round the small harbour, up along the cliffs. Breathe it all in. Remember where I'm from.
So I shall be back at the end of a week, in a new month, and shall tell you all about it. Back soon x

School holidays part IV

The town where we live has many cafes, tearooms and coffeeshops, its that kind of place. We have lived here for 4 months and so far I think we have been to half a dozen of them. I really enjoy the whole experience  of visiting a nice cafe and settling down for a good cup of coffee and a bite of something delicious to eat. My favourite type of place has to be friendly, busy but not crowded, comfy, relaxed, nice to look at and deliciously fragrant.

The cafe in these pictures is one of my favourites and one of the first I visited after we moved. Its only small, but oh so perfect! The coffee is delicious, the food equally so, but it's the beautiful details that make it special. There are tulips in spotty vase on the tables.  Old, worn furniture, enamel jugs and fabric hearts (and you know how I feel about hearts right?). Textile pictures and knitted bunting with vintage buttons.

Every other Thursday the lovely lady who owns the cafe hosts a "Knit, Stitch and Natter" morning. When I was new to this town, I saw the poster in the window and thought how much I would like to join in, even though I technically don't knit, I figured crochet was close enough and i could certainly natter and talk yarn over a coffee. So one wet, cold Thursday morning in December I bundled my crochet Granny blanket into a carrier bag and nervously went along. I was made so welcome and enjoyed the most wonderful morning and now its something I very much look forward to twice a month.

But this week being School Holidays there was no Knit, Stitch and Natter and I had two Little People to take care of. But let me tell you, my children like cafes as much as I do. They beg to be taken and jump up and down with excitement when I agree.
So off we trot into town, just for the pleasure of being out and about and excited to be officially on a Cafe Outing for elevenses. We love that our favourite table by the window is free, the one which has old church pews with handmade cushions to sit on. And for Easter a spotty chicken has arrived on the table too, and on the windowsill some Easter branches decorated with hand painted eggs and little fabric chicks.
Cappuccino for me, organic lemonade for the Little People. Oh, and a date and oat slice as well to share.

We munch and sip and slurp and have a good look around. Take it all in.
Then the Little People get busy at the table while Mummy takes time over coffee.

On one side of the table, out come coloured pencils and a small sketch book. And opposite, Polly Pocket dolls dance and chat. And I sip my coffee and enjoy watching my children do their thing. They delight me, truly. They are the best little cafe companions.

School holidays part III

 

There are some things we do most weeknds, so familiar to family life that I don't often think to take much notice of the details, let alone photograph them. Visiting the local park is one such thing. And thats the nice thing about school holidays - its like one long weekend where there's plenty of time to enjoy these ordinary activities, to slot them into a relaxed day if the mood takes us.

Four-fifteen pm, and there it is :: that small space in the day when I don't quite need to start cooking right away and the Little People  hit with a whining "I'm Booooorrrred". A glance out the window and I see the sun is shining so without a thought we pull on coats, grab a football and go out to enjoy the park.

Pink stripey legs run, climb, balance, swing, slide, pause for rest.

Denim legs run, kick, run, kick, run, kick, jump, and run some more. Boundless energy.

And when the clock ticks round to 5pm I begin the persuasion to make our way home, back up the grassy hill to the trees. Pause to catch breath and look back at the view.

See what we can find along the way....ohh look Mummy, these are for you.

And an old oak leaf too.

I'm liking the way that blogging makes my eyes wider and somehow makes me see more, appreciate more. The little details that make up the whole. And it feels good to really like what I see of my ordinary day to day life.
Someone commented on one of my Flickr photos recently and said ::
"this is happiness.... that moment when you look at your own lifes ordinary "stuff" and LOVE IT!!!  Love those moments!"

I couldn't agree more.

School holidays part II

I enjoy baking and do it whenever the mood takes me, or when packed lunch/snack material is running low, but theres no denying the fun to be had when baking with children and we do it a lot in the school holidays. We have various biscuits, cookies and flapjacks that we make, but I think old fashioned iced buns are our favourites.

I have a very simple recipe which makes 8 buns, just enough to last a day whilst they are still lovely and fresh. One thing I don't much care for is dry buns, I like mine moist and light and freshly made. I whizz my bun mixture up in a mini processor, flour and all.

70g butter/margerine whizzed with 70g sugar.
Whizz in 1 medium egg and 1tsp vanilla essence.
Whizz in  70g self raising flour.
Dollop into 8 cupcake cases.
Bake 15-20mins on about 180C/gas 4.

My oven is a hot one, so I take buns out at 17mins when they are just about golden but still springy and not baked dry.

Allow to cool as long as the Little People will bear to wait, then decorate :: I make icing from icing sugar and lemon juice mixed, not too sloppy.

The children expertly take care of the decorating.

And we all take care of the scoffing.

School holidays

If you were to ask me whether or not I like the school holidays and having the Little People at home for a week or two, I would say without hesitation "Yes". A surprising number of my friends with small children tell me otherwise, that they dread these stretches of time at home with their offspring. I mean there are certain moments, around about day 5 or so when I long for them to be back at school and nursery. I begin to get slightly niggled by the constant stream of demands, crave a little peace and quiet, and long for my little un-interupted domestic routines. I like my itsy bits of the day when it is just me taking a moment with my own thoughts without the background noise of children. But balance this out with the freedom school holidays bring, the fact I don't have to make packed lunches, don't have to watch the clock, can enjoy the Little People enjoying their time at home. We bake, craft, play, read, make mess, stay in pyjamas all morning (shhhhhh don't tell J!). And that time spent with them at this age far outweighs the small niggles and extra noise and mess.
The above photo was taken at 9.37am yesterday morning. The Little People were playing happily upstairs and I suddenly noticed the light streaming in through the bay window, lighting up a corner of the coffee table and my beloved blanket. Time for me to sneak a small cup of coffee and enjoy that sunshiney moment.
Can you just see me, sitting, thinking, sipping, basking in the light and feeling all peaceful and serene?? I thought that it would make a lovely photo, the sunlight on one of my favourite little hand made mugs, capturing that moment of domestic calm. Yeah......well now. Looky at the BIGger picture of my coffee table as the camera zooms out, and Bang goes the serenity.

School holidays seem to generate a particularly huge amount of mess. This is what happens when we neglected to tidy up for a day or two. You can tell a lot about my offspring from this photo. Discarded clothes. Felt tip pens, Power Rangers colouring book, Disney Princess Sticker book. Magic Fairy wand, pink fluffy pen. Sketch book and diaries. Bits of lego, part of a plastic dragon. False monster-fingers. Polly Pocket furniture.
Actually you can also tell a lot about my attitude to tidiness and housework around here. I would say we  inhabit  a very relaxed, lived-in sort of home, and yes the children do tend to take over the place a bit at times but hey, thats the way I like it right now.
Yesterday J complained mildly about the above state of affairs and inquired why the Little People didn't do all these activities up in their bedrooms instead of taking over our coffee table. I said that there would come a time soon enough when they were older and would do everything behind the closed doors of their bedrooms and we wouldn't get a look in. Will no longer be able to witness the imaginitive play, the frowned concentration of sticker-peeling or colouring. Will no longer be attacked by false fingers and a monsters growl or turned into a frog with a wave of the magic wand. So for now we should enjoy the fact that they choose to be wherever we are, choose to sit and do their thing alongside us as we drink coffee, read the papers or crochet. That the coffee table is as much theirs as it is ours. Maybe we just need more of an end-of-day-tidy-up-routine, thats all.
Talking of which, I saw this a while ago and thought at the time what a good, fun, creative idea, so I think I might work on a couple this weekend and encourage the Little People to tidy their own things away. Instill some responsibility for their own possessions and for sharing the upkeep of the household. Sounds very grown up and  Mummsy and organised doesn't it, not like me at all!
Will let you know how it turns out.

Ripple

Oh you were too kind yesterday, indulging my Hill-love, and I thank you enormously for that. Now I think for the time being I'll stop staring out the window and concentrate on something else. So today as promised, here's something altogether more colourful, creative and inspirational. Yeah, thats more like it, back on track and not a hill in sight.

When I first learnt to crochet last summer, I used a little book to teach me the basics, and I wholeheartedly recommend it if you'd like to learn. I spent a few evenings with a ball of yarn, a hook and this book. There were a few curses and hissy fits, but all in all I can honestly say it is not a difficult skill to learn if you really want to do it badly enough like I did. I went up and down in rows practicing single crochet and double crochet, learning how to hold the yarn and hook and create the tension using my fingers. Not too tight and sweaty. Not too loose and holey. Even tension is the key and the thing that takes the most time and practice to get right.

The picture above is the beginning of my current crochet love, started around a month ago. There is a whole heap load of Ripple inspiration to be found in Blogland and Flickrville, and  it didn't take a lot to convince me to begin one of my own. I so badly wanted to join in the Ripple Along, so much creativity and colour and ripply movement there and I wanted in. My personal favourites that have inspired me on my own quest to Rippling happiness are here, here, here , and here. Beautiful aren't they? Can't you feel yourself being drawn in and itching to give it a go? Yeah!! All you need is some yarn, your fingers and a little magical stick of metal with a hook at the end. Easy peasy.

For me, the yarn is where it's at, the texture of the stuff and the colour range available. No yacky cheapo stuff for me I'm afraid, and no mucky, dingy colours either. I chose to invest in Rowan Cashsoft yarn for my ripple which is a mixture of Cashmere, merino and microfibre. The colours are scrumptious, and the yarn itself is beautifully soft and very snuggly and blankety. It makes my eyes water paying for it mind you, at £4.75 a ball with the whole blanket needing oooooh maybe 25 or so balls? Hmmm, note to self,  better not tell J that exact truth eh.

The pattern is one that seems to be popular amongst ripplers and comes from Jan Eatons book pictured above, its the Soft Waves pattern. I don't own this book, but managed to order it from the library. 60p well spent in my opinion. There is also a very similar version of this pattern in this book which was mentioned recently on the Posie Gets Cozy blog. Now I do own this book and drool over it a lot, the photography is beautiful.

I haven't worked out the order of colours in advance. No, no. I don't do complicated charts or stripe generators. But I did spend a considerable amount of time sat on the floor of my local wool shop with ALL the Rowan colours pulled off the shelves and spread out around me, selecting an initial palette to work with. My idea was to mix soft pastels with a few zingy brights to perk up the waves and I think it is looking OK so far.

Although the bright raspberry pink colour was a new addition bought after the first colours were chosen. Before this colour came along, the whole thing was not quite as perky as I wanted. It was just not quite bouncing as it should. And I like perky and zingy and bouncy, makes me smile.

Twenty Four stripes done in about a month or so, which is about a quarter of the way. So by that reckoning my warm, snuggly wool blanket should be finished in time for high summer. Timing was never my strong point, but an Eye for Colour, yup, I'm not bad at that one.

Easter weather

Good morning and welcome to the Attic24 Hill Watch. This is a summary of the weather over the last five days of the Easter weekend. Could be described as Changeable.

Thursday 20th (morning) :: Rain and mist

Good Friday 21st (late afternoon) :: Glorious sunshine

Saturday 22nd (early morning) :: Sunrays and a light dusting of snow

Easter Sunday 23rd (morning) :: 3 inches of snow 

Easter Monday 24th (Early morning) :: weak sunshine, snow still on the hills 

Ok, please forgive my current obsession with the view, it's still pretty new to me and after living for the last 8 years in an extremely flat part of the country, I am thrilled by the sight of these hills surrounding us and the way the weather and light plays out across them. To me it really is magical.
Tomorrow I will not mention the weather or the hills, I promise. I'll show you something more colourful and inspirational, so please don't run away?!

Snow

Ahhhh so you thought this was going to be a homemaking crafty sort of a blog didn't you? Bits of crochet and baking and pretty corners of rooms. I didn't tell you it was actually going to morph into a weather blog did I, and that I would become a mad face at the window of the Attic24 Weather station.

This was the view we woke up to on Easter Sunday morning. Ohhhhh the excitement of an overnight fall of snow, and not just a thin sprinkling of the white stuff, but a whole generous powdery-soft three inches.



The Easter Egg hunt I had carefully planned was postponed and we scoffed breakfast double quick. Yanked on wellies, hats, gloves, scarves, coats and headed off up the road to the park. Shrieks of excitement, snowballs flying,  running all the way.

We weren't the first to arrive (even though it was only 8.30am), but the park is large and there was plenty of snow to go round.

Enough to roll a huuuuuuge snowball down the hill and make a good size snowman with a big fat tummy. He stood as tall as me (5ft 3 on a good day). Little Lady became very attached and kept hugging him and licking him ewuuugh!

And when toes and fingers finally got too cold we headed back home for tea and hot cross buns.

Happy Easter

We love these mini eggs in our house, to me they are Easter.
The Little People asked if we could make some chocolate nests, and I happily agreed as I adore the smell of melted chocolate, although it does make me want to stick my entire face in it. Chairs are dragged into the kitchen, little aprons are put on, spoons gets ready to stir. And when the cereal/chocolate mixture is all dolloped into little cupcake cases, the battle begins for the Licking Of The Bowl. Hands and spoons a blur. Chocolatey faces and sticky fingers.

And the end result is a very chocolatey, eastery treat. I used All Bran to make the nests because I didn't have time to go and buy rice crispies or cornflakes. But I think it worked out quite well and looks sort of twiggy and nesty. And it contains fibre :: clever Mummy making a healthy snack for herself the children.

First Day of Spring

Above is the view from the Attic24 window :: the hills behind our town are the start of the Yorkshire Dales and they are magnificent in displaying the weather. They sparkle white and frosty in the winter, and on a bright, sunny day they glow with the mixed greens and browns and purples of heather heath and moorland.
Yesterday was the first day of Spring, a day I look forward to with much excitement each year. Sadly the weather decided it was not going to play Spring at all and did a horrid wet grey thing instead.

Can you see the raindrops streaming down the window? Have you noticed how the state of the weather doesn't really bother children as much as it does adults? I was quite miffed yesterday at having my first day of Spring mucked up, I wanted to go and tiptoe round the daffodils or something suitably spring-like. Little Lady carried on doing her thing against the pattering of the rain, making tea and reciting nursery rhymes for Poppy Doll. Very Important Business.

My table is looking quite Springy though don't you think? I love my new table runner and the tiny tete a tete's which I bought a couple days ago to replace the fading grape hyacinths. We have been preparing for Easter this week, hanging window decorations and decorating an Easter Tree.

It was great fun to make this with the Little People. They watched delightedly as I painted the branch in the back yard and got white paint in my hair and all over my hands and clothes. They were curious when I used plasticine and pebbles to secure it in place. Laughed when it tipped over and pebbles scattered everywhere. Followed me up to the Attic to watch me make a gingham ribbon and button flower for the pot. And then it was HIGH excitement when it was finally time to go down in the cellar to Get The Box which contain all our easter decorations gathered over previous years. We like the ceremony of decorating:: the joint opening of the box lid, little fingers diving in to find wooden eggs, fluffy chicks, felt flowers. The exclaiming, the re-discovery from previous years.
And then theres the hanging of the lovely bits and pieces on the branches, carefully selecting a place for each, taking turns and standing back to admire. Waiting excitedly for Daddy to come home so we can show him what we've made. Home life at it's best.

HAPPY EASTER everyone.