catching up 3: craftyness

And now for the third installment: what we have been up to on the crafting front.  Well, me mainly.  And this might be more than one post...

Firstly a couple of presents for friends' children's birthdays:

A cross between fuzzy felts and Mr Potato Head.  The recipient liked it though.

And a crayon roll, I love these and H has already put in a request for hers.  I particularly like the flowery/fruity fabric, so much so that I used it on another project:

This is a sandwich wrap, something I've been thinking about for a while now and I finally got around to making one (well, two actually, otherwise the kids will fight over who gets it).  I'll go into it more another time.

 

My birthday present from C was a day's dyeing course with Debbie of DT Craft and Design, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I'm now hooked!  The top picture is a sample I bought home from the day and knitted up into wristlets - I'm very chuffed with the double x pattern that's come out, couldn't do that again if I tried!  The second picture is some wool I dyed the other day for a Christmas present - excellent fun and even more personal than buying ready dyed wool.  I love it.  I love playing with colour - just need to buy some more dyes now... and some more wool... roll on Christmas!

catching up 2: family

So, another post on what we've been up to over the last few months.  Today - family.  Well, children mainly.

Crafty activities, involving paint (lots of paint)...

...and other exciting things (those are pipe cleaners stuck in universal meds bottle bungs, of which we have a lot, and twirled around a pencil with Daddy's help to make great hair).

Not to mention a bit of building...

...and several birthdays (two down, one to go, and that's before Christmas).

 

And finally, hair long enough to go in pigtails - so cute! (I know, I'm biased.)

Catching up 1: apples

Wow, it's been a long time since the last post.  I am a lot more pregnant than I was!  I haven't been feeling great which is why there hasn't been any posting, but I have been squirrelling away the photos ready for when I do start posting again.

So here are the first few.  I've tried to theme them, so today it's...

Apples.

We have two apple trees in our garden, planted about 3 or 4 years ago, and this year (like last) we got around 50 apples off each tree.  They're supposed to be cordons but have gone a bit mad because I keep forgetting to prune them.

These are our first apples, I can't remember quite what variety they are but I think they're Discovery or something similar.  They are an early variety and are sweet with a pink blush to the flesh and the children love them.

These are the second lot from the later tree and they are definitely a variety called Sunset.  I love them, they are very much like coxes in flavour but they are a little sharp after eating the others for a month or so!

We got some beauties off this trees this year, and I am inordinately proud of them (especially considering I don't actually do anything and the apples just arrive - I can take no credit whatsoever!)  I particularly love the fact that for at least two months in the early autumn we are completely self sufficient in apples - we get through a lot of apples most weeks - and it saves us quite a bit of money too.

My Grand Plan (I have a few of these hanging around, they will happen eventually... I hope...) is to remove the privet hedge down one side of the garden and replace it with a fence and fruiting cordons, mostly apples but maybe the odd plum and pear in there too.  The other, slightly shadier, side has fruit bushes down it which are a little overgrown in places but do give us a reasonable crop of soft fruit (redcurrants/blackcurrants/gooseberries/blackberries) and I have a black elder ( variety Black Lace) which I love and which we can make pink elderflower cordial from.  All these were planted back before I had kids, so come to think of it it must be the apples' fourth season because they would have been planted before I had Hannah.  Actually it might be their fifth, I lose track these days.