Attic24

Sunday Snippets

:: Crocuses on my desk (yes, yes, totally LOVING flowers on my very own desk) ::

:: Little Man's scrumptious weekend baking (yes, of course I sampled one) ::

:: Little B, sitting himself on the coffee table to watch television (yes, he climbs)  ::

:: Darning in the last ends on my Japanese Flower Scarf (yes, I did say LAST ends) ::

:: Taking a moment to admire my pins (yes, that is a rather congested pin cushion) ::

:: Using the pins to block out my Flower Scarf (yes yes yes YES it's finished!) ::

:: Loving an early bedtime (yes, am about to hotfoot it there now, 9 pm) ::

Hope you enjoyed some happy little snippets in your day ♥

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Cold outside :: Warm inside

Dreadful weather we're having here this week, drip, drip, drip. Yesterday I sat and pressed my nose against the back window and peered out into my very sad looking back yard. My summer bunting is limp and soggy. My terracotta pots are sodden and full of dead things. The washing line has a gathering of rain drops. Not very inspiring really is it?

I've found that the best way to handle this time of year and this sort of drip-drippy weather is to point blank refuse to actually step foot outdoors. Turn away from the windows and concentrate on the warmth and cosiness within. Stay home. Light candles. Wear fluffy socks. If you can possibly pull it off, this strategy works a treat I can tell you, you will hardly notice how dire the weather is.

I baked yesterday, for the first time in what felt like ages. It was absolute bliss. A good part of that Bliss came from my brand new apron, purchased on impulse during a rare shopping trip to The City at the weekend. Do you like it?? I love it. Love love love love love it. Oh yes I am proper in love with my Sale Purchase from Cath Kidston. I've wanted a CK apron of my very own for a long time, but have always felt it to be Too Extravagant seeing as I already have a rather lovely Portmerion Crazy Daisy apron which I love very much. So now I've got two lovely, lovely aprons to dither over on baking days. Ho hum well no not just on baking days cos I do in fact wear an apron every single day when I'm cooking dinner. So I shall be dithering every single day then as I try and decide between textured roses or crazy daisies. The roses are winning hands down at the moment, they are just so pretty!

It was very cold outside yesterday but very warm inside, my oven whacks out quite a bit of heat when it's on. I steamed the kitchen window up. I wonder why the sight of a steamed up window makes me feel so utterly, completely happy and content??? I honestly sighed to myself with pure pleasure at the sight of my steamy little window, the kitchen all warm and smelling of freshly baking cookies. It was quite a monumental moment in my day.

I made oaty sultana cookies from a recipe I found floating around in the kitchen on a scrap of paper. I had scribbled it down way back last year when I was Milk Tankering with Little B and obsessing over all things oaty, do you remember? The scrap of paper simply had written on it ::

100 flour

75 sugar

75 butter

50 oats

So I figured it must be some sort of cookie recipe. Doubled the quantities, threw in a handful of sultanas and baked them in a moderate oven for about 13 minutes. They were surprisingly delicious.

Waiting for the cookies to bake, I sneaked in a quick cuddle with Little B. He was slobbing about in his sleepsuit (his mother is rather lazy in getting him dressed for stay-home days, tsk tsk) and quite happy doing his own thing, but I do like to scoop him up for cuddles. Just cos I can. Oh my, he is growing so fast. So so so fast. We will soon be entering Toddlerdom and his true baby days are almost at an end. Kind of happy, kind of sad, you know where I'm coming from I'm sure.

As well as Little B being about at home, I've had the other two here with me as well this past week. It's been a mixed blessing as I've loved having them home for this extended holiday (almost four weeks, yes  f o u r) but there has also been a lot of sadness over their school being unable to re-open at the start of term. It flooded you see, and it's been really hard coming to terms with both the damage to the old Victorian building itself and the lost contents of the classrooms. It's a small community school and everyone feels quite devastated really. But the children were finally able to go back today even though the school is still far from recovered, and they were ready to be going back.

I missed them today actually.

But then again it was rather wonderful to put Little B down for his afternoon nap and hear the sound of Complete Silence. I spent a delicious hour hanging out on the Edge of my blanket :: that there blue row is the final granny row before I begin working the edge-of-the-edge.

Soon be time for a long overdue Ta-dah post for this blanket and I absolutely, totally, utterly cannot wait.

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January 2011

This beautiful rose is sitting right in front of me as I sit at my rather messy dining table tap-tapping on my laptop, it's really beautiful (the rose, not the messy table) and I am happy to be starting the year with a jug of fresh flowers in the house.

I love this time of year. Love the feeling of optimism and excitement that comes over me when I ponder on a whooooooooole fresh-new-exciting Big Fat Year stretching ahead. So much time! So many possibilities! So much fun to be had! Lots of potential hooky time to be found in three hundred and sixty five days you know.

I tossed out my old calendars a few days ago and with much joy and anticipation I replaced them with my new ones. I'm back to just two (five was a bit excessive last year), and they are both wonderful. I'm really looking forward to sharing them with you as the year unfolds, they bring me such a lot of pleasure. Yes, I'm easily pleased as you well know by now.

So the above image is January from this year's Laura Ashley calendar, this is one amazing calendar folks, I love it! Each of the twelve images is completely made up from intricately cut and collaged fabrics, they are so clever. Makes me want to do careful and clever things with fabric, I do quite miss my sewing from time to time.

And here is January as seen in the ever lovely calendar that comes free each year with Ideal Homes magazine. Gosh, this calendar has never, ever failed to lift my spirits and every month of the past three years has been beeeeeeeutiful in IH-calendar land. The photographs are stunning they really are.

And of course I can't talk seasonal and calendar-ish things without also bringing in the current state of the weather, that would never do. I took the above photo on New Years day, and it's pretty much been like that ever since. The bitter cold, bright icy weather of last month has gone and we've been left with much warmer air but also a lot of dull grey/brown. It is January after all, and we do need to expect a certain kind of wintry dullness at this time of year I guess. My Attic view is still beautiful though, isn't it? It looks peaceful and sleepy to me.

So....today is day five of the New Year and I've already managed to clock up many, many hours of hooky time this year, hooorah! I've had such a happy time this past week or so, sitting in various places (at the dining table, on the sofa, on the other sofa, in the Big Chair, and best of all in bed) hooking my little heart out. My hook has been h*o*t, I've been working like the clappers on my sweet flower granny blanket trying to get somewhere near to The End of it. I really want to finish it so that I can move on to new things, my creative mind is going crazy with new ideas and the stack of Future Projects is worryingly high for the 5th day of the year.

Ok, we need to have some jug appreciation now if you don't mind. Isn't this one an absolute beauty?? A surprise Christmas gift from a good friend, I am very much in love with it. Smitten actually. It's such a  happy little thing! Such good looks, such a colourful personality, bags of charm too. And it looks so at home here on my messy, colourful table.

Oooo what have we here?? A rare photo in my dim kitchen, this is the small area to the left of the sink which is given over to the coffee machine, dishwasher tablets and empty milk bottles. It's not very pretty here in this corner of my kitchen, but it is light because of the little kitchen window and the back door. I've put my newly purchased amaryllis bulb here for the time being, and I'm really excited to have one of these in the house again. It's a whole two years since the last ones were here. Have you ever grown an amaryllis?? The rate at which they shoot skywards is astonishing, a true natural marvel. And then there's the flowers, my goodness, such beauty. Wonderful stuff to start the year with, I can't wait.

Ahh yes, something else we've started the year with, a certain cheeky Little Monkey celebrated his very first birthday today.

We spent the morning with lovely friends and neighbours, a chaotic mixture of Mums, babes, toddlers and Little People, but it was such good fun. Little B being such a sociable wee fella, spent the entire morning crawling about the place with a big beaming grin on his face. He loves a good social gathering. At eleven o'clock we lit his candle and sang him happy birthday, then allowed him to sit and smother his entire face with slices of chocolate caterpillar cake. He was very, very happy with that arrangement.

He is very well loved our Little B, and many friends remembered that today was His Day. He seemed to be genuinely thrilled with all of his gifts, lots of new and delightful things to play with.

Awwwwwwwwwwwww, how wonderful it is to observe a sleeping baby, I never get over the huge lurch of my heart when I gaze at my Littlies as they sleep. This is a very tired Little Birthday Boy taking his afternoon nap, snuggled under his very own granny blanket, do you remember it?

Gosh, it's been an emotional day. I've been reminiscing a lot about the day Little B came into the world, it was not plain sailing I can tell you, and I still remember it as if it were yesterday. This first year has been long and difficult in many ways, but oh my, there has been such incredible joy and happiness along the way too. I'm looking forward to this next year enormously.

Right then, I think I've rambled on quite enough for one evening, there suddenly seemed a lot to say about the start of January didn't there?! I'm off to sit a while on the sofa now and get a little giddy over yarn and hook. I'm working on The Edge you know, and it's a very exciting place to be.

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My Monday

:: A beautiful bloom from my Mothers Day bouquet ::

:: a bag full of yarn, making me happy ::

:: my coffee table, affording you a little sneaky-peek of a new hooky project I'm working on ::

 

:: Polly Pocket found sitting in the Big Chair ::

:: baby Anabel resting amongst the ripples ::

:: a jug of fresh daffs, bought this morning 20-for-the-price-of-10 ::

:: sweet pea seedlings growing happily away on my kitchen drainer ::

:: trying to drink a cup of tea, reheated three times due to distractions of the Babyish Kind ::

:: above mentioned Babyish Distractions, oh so snuggly today ::

:: mmmmmm baby cuddles, did I mention I did lots of baby cuddling today? ::

 

:: sitting on the sofa admiring my spotty-dotty socks ::

Multi-tasking

Been granny-square making this afternoon, busting that stash and building those piles.

Am almost done with the making (eight more squares to go, plus twelve half-squares), then it'll be time to stitch it all together.

I had a go at laying all the squares out earlier to get an idea of how they are going to look patchworked together, and I have to say I think this is gonna be one Sweet little blankie.

 

Something else thats very Sweet indeed is the business of Multi-tasking. Much to my delight, I discovered this afternoon that I can very effectively Multi-task if I Prepare in Advance, if I get myself set up right.

On the sofa, squishy cushion behind my back. Little table to the front with cup of tea and scissors, cushion underneath on which to rest my arm. Yarn and hook to the left, Little B right there resting his sweet head, doing his thing.

And hey=presto!

I can simultaneously apply myself to being a Milk Tanker and a Hooker!!

Oh Happy Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's hoping you all have a great weekend, whatever tasks you have in mind :: have fun!

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Things are Good

Hello my lovelies....just bobbing into the Attic to say a quick hi-de-hi to you all and to let you know that Things are Good here.

My days and nights seem to be extremely loooong and very full at the moment (as you would expect) and many of my usual day to day pleasures have simply been buried under the demands of new Motherhood. I can't remember the last time I did any crochet, I simply have not found a way to fit it in just yet, but rest assured it won't be this way for long.

Some things continue to bring me much needed comfort in times of need :: a simple jug of sweetly scented hyacinth stems, good chocolate, endless cups of steaming hot tea, some delicious magazines to get carried away in. The usual Good Things that rock my simple little boat.

J returned to work today after doing a rather fantastic job on the home front last week. He learnt to work the oven and the washing machine. He went forth and purchased food and cooked us nutritious meals. And today I missed him.

The Little People and I managed to get out of the house on time this morning and in good spirits for our first school run with Pushchair Addition. It was cold and grey and foggy, but I really enjoyed being back in the Real World again, breathing in the cold winters air, stretching my legs after what has felt like a long time closed up indoors with my feet up. It felt Good.

 

And well....the rest of the day was fully taken up with caring for Little B. H'e's a very time consuming Little Bundle for sure.

There he is look, a little peek of him as he sleeps snuggled in amongst a bed of colourful Hooky Goodness. His daytime naps are taken in the Big Chair in the light of the bay window as we are trying to clear up some mild jaundice and I am told that daylight is the thing to do it.

I am resting up when I can during the day and going to bed ridiculously early in order to cope with my new job as round the clock Milk Tanker. It's not a bad job. There are some very lovely snugglesome perks.

Like I say, Things are Good.

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Views

I took the above photo last week, on Monday 4th January :: the views from my Attic window have been extraordinarily beautiful just lately, the wintery white countryside and the glow of morning light have combined to make everything look so magical. 

Last Monday, on the morning that these photographs were taken, I got out all my new calendars and began to contemplate the business of being in a new month and a new year. I started to write my customary January Calendar post (which will come soon), and set about telling you a little of what I was feeling at the time. I was pondering the fact that I had only two more weeks before Baby-day (I had an elective cesarean section booked for 18th January). Was thinking about how huuuuuuge my belly was and how tired I was beginning to feel. I never got chance to publish my January post that day, because I was taken unexpectedly into hospital with very little time to prepare.

During that previous weekend I'd been very busy exhausting myself with tidying, arranging, sorting and nesting in the little bedroom that we've made into a nursery. I made and hung curtains. I filled drawers with little tiny vests and sleepsuits, with nappies and muslin cloths. Arranged a chair with crochet blankets and cushions. Stood and looked out of the window at the familiar view of the houses and rooftops that make up our street, and thought how beautiful it is to see a patch of golden sun streaming in through a window to light up a room.

And I tried to feel ready. Ready for Bump24 to become a Little Person.

As it turned out, I had no choice but to be ready a whole lot sooner than expected....and in so many ways I am really glad that I was spared the extra waiting, the extra days of plodding. But my goodness, the past week has been so stressy at times! I'm trying not to dwell on the negatives, trying very hard to apply my usual upbeat take on things and to concentrate on the Good. I keep telling myself that what took place in hospital (which was at best a challenge, at worst an anxious tear-and-snot fest) is in the past, and what is happening right now is sooooo much better. I am home, and I am slowly on the mend, and I have the most gorgeous new baby boy to fill my heart with joy.

My View this week, which you can see above, is mostly being taken from the sofa. Due to my blood pressure still mucking me about I'm spending huge ammounts of time with my feet up, snuggling with Tiny Man under soft ripply waves. Not moving from one hour to the next. Feeding, snuggling, sleeping, cuddling, marvelling at little teeny tiny feet and teeny tiny hands, at the incredible softness of baby skin.

And I've been using my enforced feet-up time to read too :: reading through your wonderful messages of congratulations which have poured into my little blanket-wrapped sofa-world has been AMAZING. Thank you all so very, very much. AmAZing I tell you.

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Baby News

Hello my friends :o)

As you can see from the above picture, this past week has been rather a busy one for us here at Attic24!

I'm very happy to tell you all that Bump24 has indeed landed, and we are now a family of five. Our little baby boy was born on Tuesday 5th January, weighing a healthy 7lb 12oz. He was delivered by cesaerean section 19 days early due to some sudden concern about our health, but thankfully we are both safe and well. 

I'm sorry that I've not been able to keep you posted as I had intended, but things kind of bowled along rather rapidly out of my control last week. We came home from hospital on Friday and I'm so-so-so glad to be home! Still feeling a little fragile and very tired, but taking it slowly and enjoying getting to know my new little Teeny Man.

Thank you for all your concern and kind thoughts during my unexpected absence, and I promise to be back here in the Attic very soon to tell you more.

Love and hugs to you all

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The Perfect Project :: Part II

Hello!!!!
Well now.....I think I might just about have recovered from the aftermath of my last post,  my goodness, I can't tell you how awesome it has been to receive so very many well-wishes and congratulations, so much surprise and joy and happiness from you all.

I had been really looking forward to sharing my baby news with you, and had an inkling that your response would be quite something. But I didn't realise it would all be quite so MUCH!!! So very many comments, so much feeling, in such huge quantities!! I have to confess that I almost came adrift for a while back there, I became so overwhelmed and engulfed with emotion that truthfully it was almost too much to take on. I felt like I was being swept along on a giant emotional wave, unable to get my feet back on the ground.

But I've recovered myself a little now, and am hoping today to elaborate on The News a little, to tell you some of the things that I've not been able to share with you during the summer months, to chat with you a little about this new direction my life is taking.

You may (or may not) remember that in early June, on returning from a fabulous week holidaying in Bruges and the Lake District, that instead of my usual bubbly post-holiday tales, I ended up writing a somewhat downhearted post, a bit of a whinge-fest in fact. I remember that I really wanted to share my holiday with you that day, yet I felt miserable and moody, and not my usual self at all.
Well, little did I know at the time of writing that post that my odd feelings were being caused by pregnancy hormones. That the extreme tiredness I began to experience during that week was not in fact down to the post-holiday laundry and the weeds ganging up on me, but down to a little baby beginning to grow.

And let me tell you, this particular baby-growing activity was totally, hugely, completely and utterly unplanned and unexpected. To use the word "Shock" doesn't even seem to touch upon the way J and I felt when we discovered in early June that we were expecting another baby.

You may remember how erratic my blog-writing was throughout June, oh I was really struggling for a while back there. I am lucky in pregnancy in that on the whole I do not suffer. I don't get sick. Yes, I get tired, and yes I do have some raging hormones to contend with, but mostly I am my normal self, albeit a little more weary and tetchy. But this time around, I felt so emotionally weighed down all the time, so negative, so hugely burdened with shock (both mine and J's) that I was far from my normal self in fact. It's hard to put into words now, but when we discovered I was pregnant it was as if our whole world came crashing down around our ears. I mean, we were so unprepared, so completely floored by the news, it threw us into something of a blind panic. And it took a fair while for us to stop panicking and start accepting this new direction our lives were taking.

I really did think that my baby-days were well and truly a part of my past, that our little family of four was balanced and complete. As much as I loved and cherished those years when my Little People were teeny and hugely dependent on me, I have also begun to love and cherish my new-found freedom and me-time during this past year, and to harbour ideas of beginning to work again. And then there's the age thing too :: I'll be 41 when the baby is born, and there will also be a fair sized gap between the Little People (who are age 5 and 7, born 20 months apart) and the new Teeny Person. The dynamics of our happy family will be well and truly altered, and J and I both worried about this enormously.

However, I would say that finally, after a tough few months we are pretty much there with the acceptance. And very recently, I've even begun to feel some welcome little twinges of excitement, as (I am hugely glad to say) have the rest of the family.

I am now 21 weeks along, and very much looking and feeling pregnant, as you no doubt noticed by my bump!

Bump24 (love love love that!) is due 24th January 2010.

Many of you asked how I managed to keep it a secret for so long, but truthfully, I was not in any way ready to tell you before now. I needed to wait until I was well on my way, until I'd had my 20wk anomaly scan (which was on Weds last week and was great). And most importantly, I needed to wait until I was well and truly out of Denial, and Happy with what was going on. I could not possibly have told you the news until I was Happy about it myself.
And I am. We are. Happy about it.
Pheww.
I can't tell you how glad I am to say that, and know in my heart that it is true.

Well my lovelies, I think thats about all for today, thank you so much for being here and for all the fantastic enthusiasm you always show for the little twists and turns of my daily life. Your words to me in the last few days have just confirmed what a fabulously generous and caring place Blogland is, and how amazing it is to be a part of it. Reading all your comments (which has taken some doing) has been totally amazing in every way possible, and you have truly touched my heart with your words.

I can't thank you enough.

Oooooooooooo I almost forgot..........before I dash off to collect my delicious Little People from school, I just want to quickly give you a little bit more info about the baby blanket yarn. As you know, it's from the US and is a Jil Eaton yarn called MinnowMerino, a worsted weight, single ply 100% merino yarn with a "micron count as lovely as cashmere".

And it really is utterly Scrumdiddlyupmptious.

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The Perfect Project

Attic24, my precious little patch of Blogland, is now 18 months old, and during that time I sure have shared a lot of stuff with you all. Oooooodles of it.

Scattered across the weeks and months and seasons there have been hundreds upon hundreds of photographs, thousands upon thousands of words. Over three hundred posts have made the journey from my rather scatty brain and out into cyberspace to reach you.

And in return, you have repaid me with your own words. Oooooodles of them. Over eleven and a half thousand comments to date, each and every one of them read and enjoyed. Yes, it's a time consuming job these days, but I promise you I do read each and every word you write to me. Always. And I am always thrilled to hear from you each and every day, whatever you have to say, I read your words and smile and feel thankful for your friendship and enthusiasm. It touches my heart, makes me very happy indeed.

Anyhow....to the point....(don't I just ramble on sometimes, do forgive me)....

You may remember sometime last week, at the end of this post, that I showed you an armful of rather scrumptious looking yarn?? And remember I told you that there was a Story behind it? Well today The Story unfolds.

See that fantastically wrapped parcel up above there, with its jaunty striped paper? Well it was sent to me all the way from the US, by a most lovely lady called Emily. Now I've never met Emily, and she has never met me. Yet through the fantastical world of Blogland, she pops in to "see" me most days in the Attic and as a result wished to send me "a little something" by means of a thank you.

It still seems a little unreal to me, that someone would wish to thank me for doing what I dearly love, ie blathering on day after day about my rather ordinary ideas and thoughts, experiences and excitements. But there you have it. I am not one to argue with the world of Blog and all the generous delights that it brings.

But oh. My. Goodness. This perfectly wrapped gift was Generosity on an unknown scale for me. Opening this box was like stepping in to my own personal fantasy world! So many beautiful colours and textures and ribbon-wrapped goodies!!!

There was much gasping. Much exclaiming. Much oh-my-goodnes-ing. It was utterly overwhelming, in the best sort of way possible. I do believe I swooned a little.
 
 

Emily's parcel contained a couple of fabulous crochet books...

...haberdashery of the most delectable kind...

....but bestest of all it contained yarn.

Fabulous, scrumptious, delicious, heart-skippy yarn.

In the most amazing colours.

This is yarn that I've never encountered before, a chunky merino wool that is wooly, yet adorably soft. Oh, sooooooooooooooo Soft!!!!!

Words cannot describe how this yarn feels to the touch, it is an utter delight.

I've lost count of the number of times that I've scooped this yarn up and carried around the house with me, not wanting to put it down. It just begs to be cuddled, to be loved and adored and fondled. And I have loved doing just that.

But eventually the skeins of yarn were wound into balls (a delightful job that J and I shared one Sunday afternoon), and my bag was once again full of yarny goodness, waiting patinetly for a project.

But not any old project.

Oh no no no...it had to be the Perfect Project.

I did not want to rush it.

I pondered it.

I continued to cuddle-love-adore-and-fondle the yarn.

Pondered some more.

Considered a scarf.

Decided against.

And then.......I HAD IT!!!!!!!!!!!

The most Perfect Project suddenly sprang to mind.

The time was right.

It would be Perfect.

I emailed Emily straight away to tell her of my plans, and she was as excited as I was.

And so, a few weeks ago, I embarked on my Perfect Project and began to crochet...........

...........a ripple blanket.

I sat in bed with BB one morning and began to ripple.

Ripple ripple, ripple ripple.

Delicious.

The more I rippled ,the more I fell in love with the yarn and the colours.

Did I tell you how soft this yarn is??

How cuddly and lovable and adorable it is to work with?

It's just fabulous.

Perfect even.

Perfect yarn for the Perfect Project.

The above photo was taken this morning, and I would say I am almost half way there with this ripply project.

But oohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Silly me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't actually told you what the Perfect Project actually is, have I?

What these ripply ripples are to become?????

Well.........a blanket thats what.

A ripply blanket.

But not another Big Blanket, thats for sure, cos this one is much smaller.

A small, neat kind of blanket.

Neat and baby-sized.

Yes, I am making my first ever baby blanket......................

 

..............for an Attic24 Baby.

Like I say, the Perfect Project.

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Edited to add :: more details to follow, I am quite overwhelmingly emotional at the moment, so will tell you more very soon I promise. I just can't manage it today!

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