Echoes of a Dream

Quality time with number two

For the first time in a very long while I'm actually getting to spend the day with my middle child, Rohan tomorrow. Tom is off to Gloucestershire to sort stuff out in the house (that's taking ages to sell) and Amber and Raj are tagging along to stay with friends.

Rohan didn't want to go and said rather sweetly that he wanted to spend the day with me. Of course, I jumped at the chance because how many more times will I hear that from a boy who's going to turn twelve soon.

So I went out and got a few treats. He wanted waffles for breakfast with hot chocolate, whipped cream and marshmallows. All to be had whilst sitting in bed reading the papers/books I hope. Then there is a church fete in the village we might go to and after that he's been invited for a swim at a friend's house.

In the evening I thought we might watch a DVD that I found in the library:

and maybe munch these:

or his choice, these:

On Sunday morning I might suggest a walk and breakfast somewhere and then the others will be back at lunchtime. I'm not actually planning it like a military campaign (although it sounds like it). But he doesn't want to go anywhere in particular so they are just ideas. All in all I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with my boy.

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I must just tell you that I've booked our flights to the States now. Yippeee. We've decided to fly to Philadelphia instead of New York and we'll be going on August 15th. So far plans are to stay with Jodi who lives nearby, Georgia in CT and Wylie in Long Island. We're all so happy to be staying with these lovely friends again. Meanwhile we're thinking of anywhere else we want to go to that fits in with these places. Of course, we're madly excited and Rohan is already counting down the days.

Felting and summer holidays

The school are having a series of craft workshops this weekend and I suddenly find myself running a felting morning on Saturday. It seems that the lady booked for the job had to cancel at the last minute and although I thought I'd kept my crafting skills quiet, someone out there knew about them. The poor organiser was in a bit of a panic and I found myself saying Yes.

It might have been an easy option had I not got rid of a lot of my supplies before we moved. So this week found me trying to gather raw materials. Luckily, there is a woman in the area that dyes her own wool. This is what I bought from her:

It's all acid dyed - aren't the colours lovely? I found some bog standard plain colours locally and what with some of my plant dyed stuff I think we'll be fine:

More of an issue is what to make with the people that are coming. There are six, six year olds; two Mums and possibly a sixteen year old. I think I might make a flat piece with the little girls and then turn it into a purse like this one that Amber made years ago:

The Mums want to make a bag (in three hours?) but I might persuade them to make a camera case like this gorgeous one that I got in a swap from Marieke in Holland aeons ago:

Isn't it gorgeous? It's always admired whenever I take it out. I think the wool is actually my own plant dyed stuff. If they don't fancy a camera case then maybe a tea cosy:

This one is old and dirty now but I think they'll get the idea.

Lastly, maybe the sixteen year old can make beads and a necklace like this one:

I'm slightly wary about having a range of ages and abilities but some of the Mums are staying with their little ones so I do have some extra pair of hands. Wish me good luck though please. I haven't felted for years and have never run a workshop on it.

You might have heard about the sudden heatwave we've having down in the Southeast. Thankfully, it's a lot cooler today but it's been boiling for most of the week. Amber's been trying to find some outdoor pools to visit but none of them open for another week or two. As luck would have it there isn't one flat bit of lawn to put our paddling pool on either. So we've just been melting away trying to keep out of the hot conservatory which is just off the hot kitchen with the hot Aga in it.

The hot weather reminds me that we haven't booked our summer holiday yet. For the last ten years we've gone away with my sister and her family but this year they announced that they were broke (I don't think we've done anything to upset them!). I've come up with all sorts of ideas - beach on our own; France; Germany, taking the train through Europe but every idea has been poo-pooed. It seems that nothing is going to match up to our perfect holiday last year where we toured around northern America staying with new friends. I can't count how many times I've heard "Can't we go back to America?".

Tom and I finally managed to sit down last night to talk about it. I don't think he was anticipating having another expensive holiday this summer but he too did have to admit that last year was our best holiday ever.

So dare I put it into print - we're going to America folks. Yipeeeeeeeee. Oh my gosh I am so excited and I can't wait to tell the children when they get home. If you're reading around 3.30pm English time I'm sure you'll hear shouts and cheering from the children.

Now I need to get practical about this. A while back Jodi my friend in PA said we could come back and stay any time so that's the first leg of our trip sorted (Jodi, I'll call you later to beg/confirm). After that we're open to suggestions and ideas folks. Tom wants to spend some time by the water so any ideas would be appreciated. New York is a must as it rained when we were there last year. Are The Berkshires near by - and worth visiting? Any suggestions greatly appreciated ladies.

Oh, I'm so excited. Must go and look up flights (even though I should be getting ready for tomorrow).

A little corner - forever English

The bluebells are finally out and I've spent most of the past week trying to find somewhere they are growing in abundance so that we can go and enjoy them.

Well it seems as if I was wishing a bit too hard because lo and behold I seem to have a carpet of them right under my nose. On Sunday I went to the wood beyond the house to gather kindling and I kept going to see how far I could get and look what I came upon:

A vast swathe of them:

Yesterday, Rohan had a friend round who suggested that they pick some flowers for their Mums and he came back with a huge armful of them. So now I have bluebells everywhere. On the table, on the mantelpiece, in the sitting room and on the nature table:

Poor Rohan he'd picked his Mum some flowers and the first thing she said was "Oh, thanks but you're not supposed to pick bluebells" in a slightly hysterical voice. Mum of friend came later to pick up her son and said the same thing and then Tom walked in from work and said "lovely bluebells but I thought you weren't supposed to pick them". I looked at Rohan and thought he was going to cry. There he was having picked his Mum some flowers and he'd committed the biggest crime against nature. Since then I've been going around saying how lovely the flowers are and what a nice thought it was. I can just see him married one day and his wife saying "you never give me flowers". It's my Mum's fault he'll say - the one time I gave her some flowers she ............... Well, that'll be one of the things he'll blame me for!

Did I ever tell you that I love old cars and buses. Especially the old Routemaster type buses that they had in London and that we grew up with in the Midlands.  The London ones were red, the country ones were green and in the Midlands we had very dark aubergine coloured ones. Anyway, there was a vintage bus day going on in these parts last Sunday which we took the boys to. There were old London buses:

When I lived in London in the late 80's I used to travel on the number 19 to Battersea and the 137 to Streatham to seem my sister. Those were the days.

There were green country Routemasters and this gorgeous little number built in the 50's:

We rode a few of them to various destinations and bought a few memorabilia and this little book that I'm reading at the moment:

I know all the arguments for getting rid of these buses in London but I do think it's sad. Very, very sad. You might be interested to see this that I found in a Google search.

Amber was right when she said "It's like taking yellow taxis out of New York. London isn't the same without the red buses". We're so sentimental, us lot .........................

Cooking up a treat

There is nothing like the casual, off the cuff invitation to some new friends to come over and sew one morning to get you to start frantically unpacking your craft stuff. This week I found myself inviting three gals over next Tuesday and when I got home I realised that I might just have to unpack some of my stuff if we're to achieve anything other than drinking tea and talking all morning.

Firstly, I moved the cookery books into the conservatory:

 

which freed up this cupboard on which I slowly started to dump some of my stuff:

Then I emptied the dresser bottom but didn't quite get around to moving anything in there. I did however, go through all of my boxes in the annexe and I retrieved what I might need in the short term and repacked other stuff. At one point I did wonder about chucking this 'other stuff' out because if I don't need it in the short term am I just hoarding it (and the answer sadly, is Yes).

That job took me a couple of hours over two mornings and I must say that it's nice to have some of my stuff in the main house. Should inspiration ever visit me again I will be ready.

Meanwhile I'm enjoying my non-crafting and little blogging life. Most days I've had supper started way before the children get back from school which means I can sit with them and catch up on their news, do jigsaw puzzles with Raj and look vaguely at Amber when she asks me Maths questions. All this happens after we've had tea of course and (sadly for my waist line) most days I've managed to do a spot of baking. On Monday it was muffins:

I kid myself that these are healthy because they have carrots in them but the icing more than makes up for their wholesomeness. It's Philadelphia, butter and icing sugar and even if you halve the ingredients in the recipe you still end up with enough to spread on digestives biscuits afterwards. As you can see we fight over these.

On Tuesday it was Cowboy Cookies - a recipe given to me by Jodi in PA. They are yummy. I love the mixture of oats, coconut and chocolate chips and luckily the mixture makes 36 biscuits so they can last a couple of days:

Today Amber came home and made Macaroons from a Nigella recipe which really are the best ones I have ever eaten. Why? Because they have cardamom in them and she cooks them at Gas mark 6 for ten minutes so that the outside is crisp and the centre chewy. They are divine:

Here's the recipe if you want to make some yourself. You'll need two large egg whites, 200g ground almonds, 200g caster sugar, about a quarter of a teaspoon of ground up cardamom pods (the inside black bits) and 2 tablespoons of rosewater.

Mix the almonds, sugar, cardamom and egg whites together and knead with your hands to make a thick paste (or use the flat beater of your mixer).

Sprinkle some rosewater on your hands and roll into little balls - size of smallish walnuts. Place on baking trays and squidge slightly. Stud the centre with whole blanched almonds if you wish. Bake for 10-12 minutes at gas 6/200C/400F.

This recipe comes from her book 'Feast' which I received last Christmas. I decided last week that I was totally bored of cooking the same thing over and over again. Do you ever get like that? I love cooking but the chore of doing it every night gets you down sometimes. So I decided to try some new recipes from Feast. So far we've had Ritzy Chicken Nuggets which weren't that popular. One pan Sage-and-Onion-Chicken and Sausage was much better as was Meatballs and Couscous. Tomorrow it's going to be Blakean Fish Pie and sometime I'm keen to try her Involtini which is stuffed aubergine slices in a tomato sauce. I'm sure that last one will produce an "Ugh what's that?"

So, guess which dish got the thumbs up this last fortnight and the 'is there any more'? None of the above sadly but pancakes and bacon and maple syrup followed by cherry slice. Both of which took me minutes to produce. So why am I slaving over the stove each night ............

PS Amber wants me to point out that none of the above refers to her. She has a more sophisticated palate than her brothers.

Keeping fit ........before it's too late

Well, the children went back to school yesterday after a lovely three week holiday. We explored our new county, had cousins to stay and old friends from Gloucestershire. Amber and I shopped. The males played golf. We all played tennis (some of us very badly) and a good time was had by all.

I went off to a Yoga class yesterday morning and stretched parts of my body that I didn't know I had. It was hard work (because I haven't done any Yoga for twenty years) but definitely worth it. Then, keeping with the 'I must lose weight and take exercise before it's too late' mood I went for a brisk hour-and-a-half's walk this morning with a friend. We met at school and walked through the fields and along a disused railway line and it was so lovely. The bluebells were just coming out, the sun was shining and there was a slight chill in the air. It was bliss. Are you impressed? Bet you wouldn't have been if you'd seen me afterwards slumped on the sofa with my feet in a basin of lavender water.

It's funny, Amber has been asking me what sort of Mummy I'm going to be this time. Apparently I was an earth/waldorf/crafty Mum in Gloucestershire and she thinks I should reinvent myself here. She thinks I should go out more, have more dinner parties, glam it up a bit more I suppose. Maybe I'm going to be a fitness fanatic! (I've decided to see about tennis lessons as we have two courts over the road and it seems to be a good way to exercise plus it's a sociable sport).

On another note, do you remember aeons ago that Amber was given a book called 'Knitting for Peace", in which was mentioned the Mother Bear Project? Well, I made a couple of bears for it ages ago and got some Mums to join me and so far I've collected about half of them (the others are being finished off by various parties).

Here are the ones I have so far:

There are about twelve here and I'll be posting them off to Minneapolis in the next few days. From there they will go to orphan children in Africa. If you take a look at the link above you can see just who gets these bears and why. It's a great idea and a great project to support and I'm really pleased that we were able to participate in it. If you have any spare wool hanging around why not have a go yourself - the bears take hardly any time to knit (the pattern is on the website I believe).

Still finding my feet

A real, real quickie today because we have friends from Gloucestershire due in about an hour and I still have lunch to finish off, potatoes to put on the hotpot for this evening and Amber will be calling me in a while to bake blind the pastry case for the Raspberry Bakewell Tart she's making .......... huge intake of breath.

Sorry I haven't been around for a while but I was at my parents last week and then the w/end just went in a blur. Did you hear that it snowed on Sunday? It wasn't anything like the amount you get over the pond but it was quite a few inches which is a record for us. The garden and woods looked glorious:

The boys had their youngest cousin Ravi staying and the three of them spent hours in the garden. There was sledging, rolling down the hill, snowball fights and because that ended in tears many hours later they didn't get the chance to make a snowman. Never mind - they had fun anyway.

Yesterday I had to meet my sister halfway between her place and mine to hand over Ravi as it were. One of the best things about moving here has been the fact that I'm just over an hour away from my sister and I've already seen her more times than I had in the last few years. It's lovely for the children too.

Last night I did the first bit of crafting I've done in ages. It's one of Betz White's cupcake pincushions from her new book and I made it as a gift for this friend that's coming today. She was so helpful at our leaving party that I wanted to say thank you. I'm really pleased with result and the fact that it only took minutes:

Whilst I was sewing Rohan came up to me and recounted a conversation that he'd had with Raj earlier in the day:

Raj - "Rohan, why doesn't Mum go on the computer as much as she used to?

Rohan - "Because the computer was next to the kitchen before and now it's upstairs in the bedroom I suppose".

Raj - " I'm glad because I like it when she's downstairs".

Sooo sweet. It did give me some food for thought though. I know I was obsessively crafting and blogging before and my excuse for doing it in the daytime was that the children were busy playing. But it did take me away from the family I guess. Here I have no sewing room, my things are still unpacked and the computer is in our bedroom and it seems too much effort to go and use it. So it's turning into more family time for me now and hopefully more time for myself too but in a different way from before. I've been saying that I want to take more exercise for ages so I think I'll find a yoga class, walk more and try and lose some weight. I won't disappear from my blog though and I think you'll understand that I'm still trying to find my feet in this new phase of my life. Must get back to the kitchen first though ............

Catching up on books

We seem to have had a visitor filled first week of the holidays so far so it seems a bit odd to wake up this morning to an emptyish house with just me and the children. Tom who also had some time off started his new job this morning and we'll be waiting eagerly tonight for his first impressions.

Last weekend, despite the weather we went exploring in Sussex. On Friday we took in a National Trust property called Standen which is a beautiful example of the Arts and Crafts style. The house was designed by Phillip Webb for the Beale family who used it at weekends and holidays. You can read more about it here and here. If you look in Google images there are some pics too although they don't do it any justice. If you're into William Morris's designs then you'll love this place.The only pics I managed to take were of some Delft tiles in an outhouse - sorry:

 

After that we decided to go down to the sea but didn't last long as it was so cold. Still it was pretty invigorating for a (short) while. This chalk cliff face is known as the Seven Sisters:

Other than a bit of sightseeing I seem to have been madly reading over the past four weeks. It's almost as if I'm making up for lost time. I didn't seem to find time for reading whilst I was crafting and blogging like mad in the old house. So far I've ploughed through quite an eclectic mixture.

First off was Sathnam Sanghera's book "If You Don't Know Me By Now" - a beautifully written account of this Sikh boy's childhood in Wolverhampton. It's about coming to terms with his culture, his father's illness and most importantly about trying to live his own life as he wants to despite strong pressure from his family. I laughed and cried my way through most of the book. Tom's reading it now and I'm definitely getting copies for my siblings this year. Definitely worth a read ladies.

After that I found this on the shelf and as Amber and Rohan had enjoyed it I thought I'd try it too. It's "The Land of Far Beyond" by Enid Blyton and is a children's version of the Pilgrim's Progress. The story is about a small group of adults and children who live in the City of Turmoil. They're nasty, vindictive, horrid people until one day when The Stranger arrives and fills their hearts with love and happiness momentarily so that the burdens in their hearts are shifted on to their backs. To remove these loads they must journey to The Celestial City but on the way they are met with many dangers and difficulties. There is a brilliant account of the book here. A must read for everyone of any age I'd say.

Then this caught my eye in the local library - "Colour Bar The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation". Seretse Khama was the first leader of independent Botswana and this book is about his six year exile from that country because he married a white girl. It was a bit of a shocking read. I'm not naive enough to think politicians don't lie but I was shocked at how much lying went on to keep this man out of his country and away from his rightful leadership (pre 1966). All because Britain didn't want to upset South Africa because they wanted uranium from them. The thing that really came out of this book though is this man's strength of character. How he retained his dignity and self respect despite everything and how he never seemed to rise to anger over his situation. Amazing.

Of course I had to read "The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" after that. Did anyone see the film last week? I thought it was great.

Somewhere in between I picked up "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons. Can't believe that I've never read this book. It seems to be a parody of Thomas Hardy and is very, very funny.

I haven't got anything on the go now so I guess I need to get to the library or the local bookshop to pick up something to take to my parents for the next few days. Hope you're all having a great Easter break .......

Happy Easter

Well, I managed to find some of the things for the Easter table. Didn't manage to do any new eggs this year and I guess we'll be too busy this weekend with cousins but never mind we have plenty of eggs from last year. I picked the branches hurriedly from the woods and voila.

Sadly I did not find any of the knitted chicks, the hare, the bread hen or even Mother Earth that I usually have on the table and it's pissing me off because I seem to have looked in every box. Where the heck are they? I suppose there'll turn up somewhere, sometime. Annoying though because I love those little things.

Anyway, I managed to make this out of 'All Year Round' last night. It was a bit fiddly but worth it:

and that's about it I think with regards to Easter decorations.

So here we are on Good Friday which would not be the same without hot cross buns and that's about all I've done this morning. Thankfully, I can show them to you as they look quite presentable.

Hope they taste nice too!

Other than that I want to wish you all a Happy Easter. Hope yours is as good as ours is going to be - restful, relaxing, lots of family time and too much chocolate ........lots o'love.

Unprepared

Why, oh why is Easter so early this year (don't worry I do know the reason). We haven't had a moment to paint any eggs or to set up our easter table yet.

Usually we have at least a week off school before Good Friday to do these things. I thought that we might have managed a bit this week but with it being the end of term tomorrow there have been class plays to watch, Class 8 projects to look at and listen to - and the whole week will be gone in whirl.

We'll wake up on Friday morning and the cousins will arrive and it'll be Easter good and proper.

I had so many good intentions especially after going to a 'how to celebrate Easter' talk last Friday and the sight of this Easter Garden was very inspiring:

But alas I haven't even managed to go and find some moss yet. Sooooo, I think Easter will have to be a bit low key this year. We've still got plenty of eggs from last year and we'll decorate the seasonal table with what we've got and maybe make a much smaller Easter garden on a dinner plate. I need to save my energy and thoughts for feeding ten for four days I think.

Another thing that seems to have taken my time this week was trying to find my stuff for a mini market that was held at school this morning. It would have been far easier to have unpacked everything as I said I would than to have to ransack each box, tip contents out of baskets to find things. You can imagine the mess that I created to say nothing of the extra work. In the end I could only stay for forty minutes as Rohan's play was on after that but I did take fifty pounds which was nice. I also found a lot of brooches and silk squares that I forgot I had so for those who have asked for either or both here they are:

 

and

All of these brooches are £5 ($10) each. The silk squares are £6 ($12) each:

Please email me if you would like to buy anything or wish to have a closer look at the silks.

I also found this bag hidden away (not sure if I have shown it to you before):

t'other side - it's a gorgeous deep purple colour:

Can't decide whether to sell it or keep it (I have far too many handbags). It's £60 ($120) if anyone is interested (it's fully lined with a lilac cotton fabric and has a flat base).

Now, I must brave the cold and go and find some branches to hang those eggs off (and find the eggs and chicks and nests and yellow cloth and hare of course).

Two years - can you believe it.

I was going to sit down this morning and whitter on about all sorts of random things when I noticed on Typepad that I've been blogging for two years now. Yes, two years. I started on March 5th 2006 and I can't believe that I'm still going.

In that time I've turned into a hoarder magnifique, tried lots of new crafts, improved my knitting, discovered Japanese craft books and started and loved plant dyeing. It's been an amazing two years in which I've gained masses of self confidence in my crafting so much so that I started selling on Etsy and Ebay. The blog also gave me something that I did for myself where I wasn't Amber's Mum or Tom's wife I was ME. But more than that it's given me lots of new friends all over the world and the most amazing holiday ever to America last year (where we stayed with complete strangers, now friends that I knew through my blog).

I love being a stay-at-home Mum but I do find it very lonely. Maybe it's my upbringing but for me the nuclear family sucks. I was brought up in an extended family environment and there were always other adults and children around. I'm at my best when surrounded by family, when my house is full and I prefer going on holiday with my sister and her children. The more the merrier. So blogging has in some ways filled that hole in my life. It's given me a community that I grew up in but don't have anymore.

I have 'met' some amazing women online who've become dear friends. I've also loved the interaction, the sharing, the advice giving, the support and friendship that goes on in blogs. It's made me realise that even though we've all had such different upbringings we're essentially the same underneath. We all want to be good mums/wives/daughters/citizens whilst struggling for some sort of creative life for ourselves.

So I want to thank all of you who have ever left me a comment. Thank you for reading my ramblings and admiring the stuff I make. Thank you for encouraging and supporting me. Thank you for all the advice you've ever given. Thank you for sympathising when I've needed it. But most of all Thank You for just being there and dropping by. In my turn I hope I've given something back to you - maybe a bit of encouragement to try something new, a laugh or just another view point ......................

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I've noticed in these two years that people change their banners with alarming frequency. I've had the William Morris picture at the top of my blog for the whole duration. I wonder if it's time to have a change myself - a makeover as it were. Trouble is, the picture seems to go so well with the name Echoes of A Dream. Maybe it's new home, new life, new banner time.