Echoes of a Dream

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 .........................

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 ............

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.

Coming up for air.

Well, here we are six days later. We've just managed to resurface and as I look around me I can't believe that this is now home. It feels as if we've just stepped into someone else's life and it's - strange.

The move went very, very well. We had a great company that did all the packing and all we had to do last Monday was to clean the house (and boy was it dirty once we'd moved the furniture out). Arrived here last Tuesday and the removals had dumped most of our stuff by tea time and then we spent the next few days unpacking. We both realised that although we're only in our mid forties we're certainly not as sprightly as we were were seven years ago because we were knackered. By Thursday morning the children's rooms were done and they were packed off to school so we could get on with the rest.

School was good even though Rohan burst into tears as soon as he walked though the door. "I don't like it. It's too big. I don't like the house either because it's not countryside" he wailed. Poor lad. The house is lovely (the landlady had given it a thorough clean by the way) but he's right we're not surrounded by fields and it's on the blind bend of a busy-ish road. But we're only renting I told him and after Tom took him into the woods at the bottom of the garden and showed him where the fields were he was fine.

I guess you'll want to see what the house is like. It's been extended quite a lot over the years so has a lot of rooms downstairs that lead into each other. At one end there is a large sitting room:

that leads back to the front door through this room:

that leads to this room:

that leads to the conservatory:

that leads to the (tiny) kitchen:

There are three loos and two tiny bathrooms and four bedrooms upstairs. Then at the other side of the sitting room there is a separate granny flat/annexe with a bedroom, sitting room/kitchen and bathroom. You have to go out of the main house and along to the front door to get in. At the moment all my craft stuff is there in boxes:

The house is lovely and sunny and has a sloping garden with a wood at the end:

We have been told that the wood is out of bounds but when you're used to roaming the countryside and you have that staring at you all day it's hard to keep away from it really.

As I said I haven't unpacked any of my craft stuff yet and I don't know whether I should. I don't want to work in the annexe as it's a bit dark (and cut off) and the two downstairs rooms are too small for a table and all my stuff. I was thinking about that last night and I wondered if not crafting would stop me blogging too. If I don't make anything what would I write about - how many more 'moving house' stories can you take?

I guess I just need time to settle, to get to know the area without the pressures of crafting and blogging hanging over me. I must admit that not having the computer on for the whole of the last week was liberating. It was wonderful. It meant that I spent more time with the children (which is very important at the moment) and I even started another book. But I don't want to stop blogging though because I love it. I love the community it creates. I love the interaction and even more I love all the new friends I've found all over the world.

So I suppose I'll just take it easy over the coming weeks. Tom goes back to work tomorrow and it will stop feeling like we're on holiday. I will start a new routine, do some more unpacking and suddenly it will all fall into place ....................

It's moving day

Well, it's nearly 11pm and I'm surrounded by boxes ans I still haven't packed an overnight bag for any of us yet. The packers/removals people came on Friday and packed a whole load of stuff that we didn't need over the weekend and they're back in the morning to finish off and load up.

We should be out of here by tea time or as long as it takes to clean the house. I've enlisted the help of an older friend who I'm paying to help us speed up the process. Tomorrow night we're staying at my sister's before we drive over to the new (rented) house. And that is it. Today was the last normal day in the house and we're off to start our new lives. I've had a succession of visitors over the week saying goodbye and although it's really sad leaving good friends, a beautiful house and a great village I know it's time to move on. Time to start the next chapter in our lives as I keep telling the children.

I guess it'll take all week to unpack but I'm going to try and have the computer up and running by the weekend so I'll take my leave from you all for a few days whilst I help my family to settle and get the children ready for their new school on Thursday. Poor Rohan keeps asking me "what if I don't make any friends?"

Thanks for all your words of encouragement and support concerning our move and thanks too for allowing me to get personal on this here blog. The comments and emails that I got were greatly treasured and helped me a lot. It's funny but a friend pointed out an article in The Times at the weekend about a book written by a Sikh man about his traditional upbringing in the Midlands. The article is here and you can bet that I've pre-ordered it on Amazon. How timely. (Do take a look at his book as he's a brilliant writer.) Another book if anyone is interested in the history of Asians and West Indians in this country is Black British, White British by Dilip Hiro. I read it years ago and it really helped me to understand my parents and more importantly about the expectations that West Indians had when they came to this country and why they were so disappointed. A great book for race relations - I wish everyone would read it.

Anyway, I'm getting all preachy now - must have got second wind. Cross your fingers for a painless departure from here and the children not getting too upset ...............

I'll leave you with some random pics of the beautiful village that I'm leaving:

and my lovely kitchen:

and how will I survive without my Aga:

Gotta drag myself away now ladies ............................

The last goodbye

For once I'm really lost for words ladies. I cannot tell you what you a lovely weekend we've all had. On Saturday night we had a crazy time with our friend Abbi who'd come back from Uni to see us off. We played silly games, tricks and you should have seen us playing the chocolate game. Do you know that one? It's the one where you have a bar of chocolate on a tray and then you roll a dice. When you get a six you have to don a hat, a scarf and gloves and then cut up the chocolate with a knife and fork and then try to eat it. Meanwhile the others are still rolling the dice and soon as someone rolls a six they practically tear the hat etc off the other to have a go themselves. We decided that it was a bit hard for Raj with gloves so we missed that bit out which meant that the game went much quicker. It was such fun though and I haven't been so hysterical for ages. Gosh I do surprise myself with my childishness sometimes.

On Sunday I did start to worry that I was being far too laid back about our party but a friend assured me that that was fine. So we just had a nice relaxing normal sort of day.

Then the hour finally came and we went off to the hall which had been transformed by a couple of friends - the main one being Lucy who has such great ideas. She'd stood up branches in christmas tree stands and draped fairy lights over them and put bunting over the ceiling. Night lights everywhere and posters biding us farewell too. It was so lovely. Sadly I didn't take many photos but I'll show you the few I have:

People arrived pretty promptly and brought food with them. The children stood behind the bar and happily served soft drinks whilst the adults helped themselves to wine. It was great. I had friends from school, the village, old friends from London and an ex-boyfriend and his parents. Only person that wasn't there was my sister sadly.

Then the caller started and we were off. Boy some of those dances were tiring and one or too a tad complicated but everyone managed them. They did one specially for us named after the county we're going to live in and it was a hard one and we all laughed about it and said perhaps we should move. The children were fantastic - all of them. They danced and managed to hold their own - there must have been about 40 of them. The caller said we were the best group he's had in thirty years for all joining in. I do wish I'd managed to record a snippet of music to show you how lovely and folksy it was.

I got around to chatting with most folk and only got tearful twice. A lot of people went around nine and the hardcore were still there at ten thirty. And all too soon there were a handful of us left tidying up which only took and hour as friends had been washing up/clearing up all evening.

Came home stayed up till one with Abbi reminiscing. It's funny we've known this girl since fourteen and she's now nearly twenty one and she's been on holiday with us, in and out of our house, stayed the night, been so comfortable with us that she's even shared her moods and strops with us and I guess I underestimated how much we mean to her. I guess it's cos she's so English and doesn't readily show her feelings. But I was touched that she came all the way back from Uni and she gave us the loveliest card where she must have written at least a hundred things that she'd done with us over the years. So it was sad saying goodbye - sad for her because we won't be here when she comes back for her hols. But she's promised to come and stay at Easter.

So what happens after a great evening? You wake up in the morning and think what a crazy thing to do. To get all your close friends together and have a party just to show yourself what you're going to miss. Might have been easier just to slope off!

Seriously though, wobbles over, I'm OK now. I will miss all my friends but I do have to hold on to why we're going. Did I say this before - that I'm finding moving a lot harder this time around because the children are older and I have to hold them and deal with their emotions too. Every other day Rohan tells me he's not leaving and that he loves it here. Then there's the fact that we haven't sold our house yet ..........

Oh well, I'll just keep thinking those positive thoughts. Meanwhile I'm off to Mum and Dad's for a couple of days.

PS There's some interesting stuff about Ceilidhs here.