all by myself....

Bob and HWMBO(I) have been out for the day... other than my sewing lesson I have been by myself all day. I am really ready for them to come back now. I quite enjoy my own company but there comes a point that I don't know what to do with myself anymore. I work from home most of the week and while I am quite happy in my own company, I do like having people around me.

Not a lot  to report on the sewing lesson... I've cut out a pattern, used an over locker, made bias binding and piping, covered buttons and sewn the main parts together but its not quite finished. Another lesson has been booked for two weeks time where the top / dress will be finished and you shall be wowed (or not, but polite and encouraging!)

I could write about how I did my literature search for my dissertation, or started writing an assignment or updated my portfolio but I can't imagine for a moment that makes for interesting reading.

I sat on the balcony, in the sunshine with a cup of tea and hooked away happily to myself...

Purples, blues, pinks, bit a aqua. Colours that Bob claims the girl cousin will love (feels a bit like Chinese whispers but with yarn colour choices).  Rows and rows of trebles and just changing colours when I feel like it... lovely.

The weather is glorious here - after what feels like months and months of snow and ice. I walked Blackberry and Crumble yesterday on the moor across from Bobs school. I wore a tshirt, no coat and trainers instead of the boots that have been a permanent feature since October and it felt so good. I love standing up here and trying to spot our house... It's down there somewhere. (Sorry, the photos aren't brilliant, they were only taken on my phone.)



I continued to be wowed by comments and love following the links to where they came from, and having a nosey around other peoples Internet spaces. Thank you for visiting and commenting.

I have another hour on my own, in which I shall run around and do things like emptying the dishwasher, putting a load of washing on and generally trying to make it appear as though I have in someway been domestic while the boys have been out...and then there is a cold lager in the fridge and a spot in the sun with my name on it...

friendships...

I have had a truly lovely weekend. Bob is back, the sun is shining and HWMBO(I) and I have made a joint attempt on the ironing pile, and while there is still some left, it is no longer a risk to any passing small children. I've started a new crochet blanket for my niece and am embracing the pink. We had a bar-b-que yesterday (burnt the first lot of sausages and had to drive, hell for leather, to the nearest supermarket to replace them, but we will gloss over that.. and the ending of my recent foray into vegetarianism) and Bob picked me some bluebells (private land and accompanied by the daughter of a policeman, I don't think they broke any by-laws.) Oh, and the neighbours came home and their rabbit (who we were looking after) had neither escaped or died. These are all good things.

I have no photos of the weekends activity, but here is a picture of the wrap I am making for my lovely cousins wedding in Septemer... (the black, top left is Backberry's tail, I dont know how to crop a photo yet...)

I am LOVING this blogging lark and have pottered around and read beautiful writing, funny writing, tender writing and have been welcomed into a community of intelligent and entertaining women. I've experimented with the stats and have added a new counter which give slightly more realistic figures and I didn't advertise my last post on face book straight away to check that all the people reading this were not just my Dad. And people are reading this, and commenting and it's SO exciting.

Is there a plan b, wrote about friendship  and referred to her friend. Reading both their posts, it struck me that I am so very lucky to have the friends I have (and not to have to sieve grobblies out of my flour), and that these relationships take care and nurture. Beginning new friendships, as a child or adult, can be really tough and I count myself as privileged to have old friends and new. Old friends who I don't always make enough effort to keep up with, but when I do see them, or speak it's so easy to slip back into our old patterns.

I've recently been lucky enough to make a number of new friends, following a house move and a new job and am so grateful to these women for the part they play in my life. I am historically awful at playground chatting and I forced myself to try harder and the rewards have been wonderful. Telling someone that you like them and consider them a friend is always scary but hearing it back and knowing that they value you back is really rather brilliant.

oh, and in a quick update, the dettol + baby oil is not really working... its needs thought.

my pencil case

Can we talk about one of the things that makes me happiest again? We are going to need to break this down into manageable chunks, the master topic is stationery and the joy and delight that the right pen / pencil / notebook can bring but today, I'm going to spend half an hour just thinking about my pencil case.

Here it is...

I love this pencil case. It was bought for me in the very early days of our relationship by HWMBO(I) when the poor chap was under the impression that I was the sort of girl who would get good use out of an expensive and luxurious makeup bag. The  man took the news well that I would rather use it as a pencil case and in the intervening 12 years I have received a steady supply of beautiful stationery related gifts (7th wedding anniversary in a few weeks - modern American, for 7 years you get wool and / or stationery - frankly my perfect anniversary).

There is something lovely about sitting in a lecture or a meeting and knowing that in this little bag there are lovely things that make me feel grown up and in control. The 15 minutes or so I spent a couple of weeks ago making sure the fountain pens were full of ink (from a bottle, lovely, lovely) and there was lead in the propelling pencils were so happy! 

I've just undertaken a brief audit of contents, and, oddly (proving my potential as a blogger) taken a photo of them...

The lip balm, the chewing gum, the pebble and the crochet hook should really live somewhere else but I love that they are in there. The clear plastic thing attaches papers together using metal clips and is reassuringly mechanical. Two different propelling pencils (different size leads - there are times when this matters!) - the same company used to do a mustard yellow one for wider leads that my Grandad used to use to do the cross word, haven't seen one in years.

For those paying close attention, the silver and grey pen fourth in from the right is a retractable fountain pen - a marvellous thing that I didn't even know existed until the fateful evening I discovered it (after a glass of wine) on ebay and it was purchased (who knew it would cost so much to ship something from Japan!)

My only disappointment is the highlighter - not that it doesn't do exactly what it says it will do, but I object to its florescence. Non-fluorescent highlighter pens are terribly hard to come by and Bob has voiced objection to my 'borrowing' all of his yellow felt tips.

Any way - there you go, my pencil case happiness. Just popping upstairs to change my clothes because in the half an hour I've been doing this the weather has changed beyond all recognition - but that's a topic for another post.

things that make me happy...

A quick note... Bob, and He Who Must be Obeyed appear to be sticking as names... So from here on in the boy will be Bob and the husband will be HWMBO(I) - the I in brackets standing for ironic...

There is a thing doing the rounds of blog land currently, bloggers taking time out and reflecting on the things that make them happy. This is a good and sensible thing to do - to proactively reflect and look for happiness. It's much too easy to be miserable, and usually the things that make you happy are pretty straightforward.

So, five things that have recently made me happy...

1. Walking the dogs yesterday morning with Bob and HWMBO(I) on a local estate yesterday (think small country house and lake rather than council), managing to be out of the house for a couple of hours when it didn't rain, and remembering to take travel mugs of tea with us so we could drink them while we walked.

2. The smell of the wild garlic while we were walking. It made us want garlic mushrooms for lunch, so we foraged for ingredients (in the local supermarket) and ate EXACTLY what we wanted. I love it when that happens.

3. The two brightly coloured owls were gifts for my parents - a birthday present for Dad and one for Mum so she didn't feel left out... They were delivered yesterday, along with Bob who is staying with them for a few days. When I pointed it out to mum that her owl had a pebble in it, so it would stand up on its own, and this therefore meant she must not throw it in case she broke something, she reminded me that she rarely throws her toys... (Dad pointed out that in the previous post referring to the owls I'd spelt denile wrong..., I will ignore this for the purposes of KEEPING THE BLOG REAL)

4. Visiting new friends of my parents on their beef farm. Their 2 small boys  (3 and 4) were delightful and it was lovely to be reminded of the happy chaos that comes with small children. Bob was shown around the farm, including where the bull semen is kept in nitrogen... Confident that there would be questions,  HWMBO(I) and I promptly left him with his grandparents. I happily have no photo of bull semen to share.

5. Putting a border on a baby blanket for an upcoming niece or nephew... Don't know what variety we are getting yet as 'its' parents want to be surprised. I accept this but it makes the whole blanket production difficult. GENDER NEUTRAL IS REALLY HARD.

There you go, half an hour of focussing on good things...

he has a secret identity, and his name is Bob...

It plays on your mind blogging. I can't say that I have done things differently as a result of having the blog (for all of the 24 hours) - however artistically you take the photo, cleaning the house and sitting in my pyjamas writing an assignment are not going to be blog worthy, but the blog has come up in conversation a few times and I have been reading others blogs from a slightly changed perspective.

I showed my 10 year old what I'd written and he said I was funny - that pleased me. I probably only have a couple of years before I move from the funny category to embarrassing so I should make the most of it. We then had a conversation about what I should call him on the blog to preserve his privacy (although given that most of the people reading this will be friends visiting from facebook this seems slightly unnecessary). I was thinking along the lines of Tiny Tin Bird (from Little Tin Bird) or Little Man (from Attic 24) but he has very clearly told me that he wishes to be known as Bob. My husband has told me that he wishes to be known as he who must be obeyed. This is, however a blog, and not fiction so we will have to give this further thought.

The blog statistics are interesting. My first post had 56 views. These can't all of been me (a good few were, but not all of them). There were 10 views from America,1 from Spain and 1 from France. Who are these people - if you come back, let me know. I have vowed to stop being a lurker on blogs - if I read something and I like it I should let the writer know - as my niece would say, its only doing your manners.

I am a vicarious reader of blogs - of all sorts - I've not bought a magazine for years; quilting, crochet, food, life and I'm not clear what this bog will add to the masses that are already out there - I can't imagine that I'll add a great deal to the considered opinions, recipes, tutorials, beautiful photos of fulfilled family life. Maybe it will just be a place for my musings...