Picture the holidays - Bokeh

Today's prompt was to play with bokeh, I've never done that before but I like the results. The first two pictures are our Christmas Tree and the third one is the street light down the road.

Reflection

Christmas Biscuits

Big Monkey went on a school trip today and saw Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox at a local theatre. She thoroughly enjoyed that and I enjoyed that I didn't have to drive the usual long school run instead I took the bus and was there within 15 minutes. We brought one of her friends back to play and make Christmas biscuits. We had lots of fun cutting the biscuits and transferring them onto the baking tray.


She'll bring them to school on Friday as it's her last day before the holidays which is always "dress-up day". This year they can dress up for a specific country and bring a food. Austrian Christmas biscuits fit the bill nicely I think.

Picture the holidays

I've signed up for a photo prompt every day during December. I've kept up to date with the photos but not with uploading, so here are a few, actually all apart from the first two.

Today's prompt was to find beauty in whatever you have to do today, like scratching the ice off the car before setting off for work.


Then we had to take a photo of a view, a photo of Nature. My garden looks very sorry at the moment, the snow and ice came to sudden for the marigolds who had soldiered on until now with blooms. But the cottoneaster can always be counted on for some coloour this time of the year.


Then there was a prompt to think what always helps to calm you down. Well, a cup of Jasmine tea always works for me, especially when it comes in a cute little dress.


Fittingly on Friday when it was my anniversary,and I got this lovely heart bead we had to find a symbol of love.

The train set

I think I mentioned before how much Noah loves the train set we own. He can play for ages with it and it is always the first one he plays with when he gets up in the morning, comes back from nursery or any trip outside the house.


He concentrates really hard on fixing the track and keeping the train on the tracks which is really hard as Emily, the green steam engine doesn't fit on the brio track, she belongs to Thomas the Tank Engine which we don't have. She is the one he tried to nick when he visited the Transport Museum in Covent Garden for the first time. The attempt was spotted quickly and one red faced nanny had to back track to the museum and confess to his sins and buy the engine. It wasn't the worst buy, he plays with it every day and tries to make her stay on the tracks. Hopefully Santa sees the blight of this little boy and helps out.

Anniversary

Today is my 18th anniversary, impressive huh? This is what I made for my husband


I also made another card but I only just seen that it's totally out of focus, that happens when you rush things...

Book page ATC

Knee patches

You remember, Big Monkey needed a patch on her jeans. So I stitched one on and thought this is cute I like it. She liked it too. I made myself two patches for my jeans. Little Monkey spotted this straight away. He thought this is cute I like it. So he insisted on getting some too. He was so eager he was prepared to take the trousers off he was wearing that very moment to get some. Alas, he was already half way out the door to go to nursery... Poor Little Monkey. He had to wait until the next day to wear his new trousers with knee patches. Happy Little Monkey even though it doesn't quite look like it.

The annual Christmas photo session

How come it takes not more than 5 seconds and we have this?

Postcard swap

It seems I have signed up for a postcard swap. So I decided to do something different from what I normally do, just to surprise myself. It's paper with fusible webbing on top layered with fibre and embossing powder and some more fusible webbing.



Then I ironed the whole thing. That's normally the only time the iron comes out, for art and sewing purposes. I was quite impressed in how it turned out. Then I added some letters and that's that.


Fun and quick to do.

Mending

Big Monkey's school uniform consists of the school jumper and jeans. Hence her jeans get a lot of wear and sometimes that results into holes. Not surprisingly as they also sit on the mat a lot for work. This the Montessori Way.

Well, this time I thought I've got a bit more experience with sewing now so I'll try and add a patch. I used my new found knowledge on how to sew a nice edge around the design and used some bondaweb to get the patch onto the jeans.



The reason that the patch is not centred is because neither was the hole underneath.

December Daily

I've decided to join the December Daily that Ali Edwards does every year on her blog.

I found the lovely blue album with matching Christmas Paper so I've made my book all ready for December.


Ali Edwards uses lots of transparencies this year. I didn't have any and I don't think I'd like them with that album anyway but for the first page I wanted something different. So I used a sheet of velum and added painted circles I added with an old jar lid.


The paper I found had a sheet with numbers on, how convenient. I must have bought it for a special project that didn't happen. That paper must have been in my to do box for two years I think. Luckily I still like it a lot. The colours are very pretty and for a change it's not your typical Christmas colours.


I plan to add a sort of calendar on the back side of the divider page with the daily photo on the front of the page in the protector. On the back side I will add all the not so pretty parts like entrance tickets (they don't do them like the use to, don't they?) and the odd receipt.

Little Monkey does his own thing

The other day he took a liking to the little bin in the play room, the noise it makes when the lid closes to be precise. By the time I came back with a cut apple a whole pack of wet wipes have disappeared in there. Now, that wasn't alright, was it? Yes, he agreed, naughty. Right. So he jugged the dolls house furniture instead. Which is not a problem until the time it comes to empty the bin into the big bin for proper throwing out. Then we have to remember that this is still needed.

The following day he decided that Big Monkey should help him get dressed without any help from me. They found this:


Cute, no? A full 6 days after Halloween, which we don't celebrate in any case, he decided it's the day to wear a pumpkin outfit. I love the big squishy pumpkin belly.

My Birthday

It has been a while. Here is a photo of my birthday.


As you can see I had lots of help opening presents. Big Monkey decided which present to open and Little Monkey helped ripping them open. We also had the "it's-my-necklace-issue" again. I got a lovely bumble bee necklace that Little Monkey took a liking to. He gave in surprisingly quick though. But doesn't he look flash in his shirt? He wanted to celebrate from the moment we got up in the morning. He screamed, 'appy birday until it was the right moment. Big Monkey was equally excited but is much better at containing herself. She had to stay home from school as she had a bad cold. Still, that didn't stop her from wrapping the presents for Daddy Monkey.

Mojo Monday

The Monkeys are invited to another party so I need another card. Time to check out Mojo Monday again for some inspiration.


I made this one first but when I glued the number 4 on a piece of the backing paper came off. That won't do, so I had to make the orange one.


They turned out well I thought, I'm beginning to enjoy making cards

A special Birthday Treat

As it's been Daddy Monkey's Birthday last week and mine will be tomorrow we gave ourselves the big treat of spending the weekend away. Without the little Monkeys! We went to Bath which doesn't offer much for little Monkeys. We had a very posh Dinner and we visited the Bath Spa Thermae.
This one doesn't even allow Children under the age of 16! It does have a roof top pool, however. You can have a look here and see the pool. You might have to wait a bit until it turns up again. That pool is really spectacular. It was freezing when we came up, somehow we managed to walk up the outside stairs rather than find the lift or indoor stair case. But it was worth it, the water is warm and when we arrived up the church bells started. A very nice touch we thought.

Mojo Monday

Tomorrow is Daddy Monkey's birthday so I thought I better make him a card. I'm not terribly good at those so I need someone who is. Like these people here. Except even with a lovely sketch as this it took me several attempts to produce a card suitable for a big birthday as Daddy Monkey's.
But I think I did, I really like this one. Good that Daddy Monkey always keeps his cards forever. And look, look I used the German stamp!


I even managed to make two pretty cards.


Impressive, no?

How could I be angry?

If he looks at me like that?
Even if he hands me the contents of his nappy nicely rolled into beads first thing in the morning when I hope for a lie in?

At least I still think it was a good idea

Yesterday I read Green Craft magazine and I saw the little seed pots they used as little gift bags. I thought oh, I like this, what a clever idea. They do look familiar though? Why would that be?
Maybe because I made something very similar for Big Monkey's birthday party as goody bags?


Yes, that could be it...

Toddler wisdom - Part2

Little Monkey likes what his big sister has. So when she asks for more juice, he wants more too. Regardless whether his cup is still full or not. Until now he had to accept that he would not get more juice if his glass is already filled to the prim. But not anymore. This morning he thought he had come up with a glorious solution to this dilemma. He simply pours his drink into his bowl once he's eaten his grapes. Voila, an empty glass for more juice just like Big Monkey's. Clever, eh? Except it didn't work! That is so disappointing. Daddy did not fill up Little Monkey's glass again. He just took the bowl and poured the juice back into the beaker. That's not what Little Monkey wanted! Time for a tantrum? Little Monkey wasn't sure if that situation actually validated a proper toddler tantrum or not. He had to have a serious think about this. But he got distracted after a few seconds and forgot everything about the tantrum and his drink.

Trains, Trains, Trains

Oh, how he loves trains! Little Monkey adores trains, whether they are tube trains, steam trains or regular train. Big trains, little trains, Thomas the Tank engine, Brio, Lego - he loves them all. Nothing better than sitting in a train and riding along. Nothing is more interesting than the promise to go on a train ride.


He hangs out of the window so he spot the locomotive. Once he has to get off he stands in front of the train and stares adoringly at it. This is in Exbury Gardens, where the Rothschilds collected rhododendrons. Well, one of them had a "disease" incurable but not fatal as the train driver told us, it's called train obsession. Oh, no I thought, Little Monkey got that! Maybe he will grow out of it? But so far he shows no signs of healing. I don't think we can do what the Rothschilds did... build a proper narrow train track with a steam engine in our back garden.

Signs of Autumn

Look a ... toadstool? Is it a toadstool? I don't know. If you do let me know please. I call it a "Fliegenpilz" and I think it's so so pretty. I have to confess that this is the first time I've found one. Several grew where we found the cows in the forest. They never grew in the woods where my grandparents lived when I was little.

Here are the cows in case you're wondering. We didn't have those either. In the forest I mean, obviously there were lots of cows in the fields.

Autumn in the New Forest

Last weekend we took a little trip to the New Forest to see some Autumn Colours. The leaves haven't yet changed completely but we were very lucky with the weather. We had lovely sunshine both days. But best of all there are wild ponies roaming the National Park. Big Monkey was delighted. She took great delight to comment the sight of each pony to everybody, even Little Monkey joined in. Even though he was terribly busy collecting stones. Especially really big ones.

Children don't make you happy...

I recently read an article about the fact that having children doesn't make people happy. Apparently the sleep deprivation, the stress of dealing with screaming children, toddler tantrums, school proplems make parents unhappy.

But really would you find an alien in your bathroom without children living in your house?

Or a Lego zombie between your flower pots (and spiderwebs)?


You wouldn't have a door for fairies to visit your garden either, now would you?


You wouldn't fill your washing machine with load after load of teddies, horses and bunnies so they can sit on the radiator for a day or two, right?


I don't know about you but this makes me happy, just for starters.

Confessions of a inquisitive mind

The journaling reads:

I have emptied nearly all of a brand new 900g box of rice krispies onto the floor
I start singing at the earliest possible moment each morning at around 5.40 am
I have stuck 3 beads up my nose so we had to go to A&E and wait for four hours
I said mummy hurt me even though she only closed the fridge door
I always say yes even though the answer clearly should be no
I normally scream before anybody even realises I didn't want that
I need to cry because nobody peels a banana the right way, there is no right way
I push my big sister because that makes her squeak really loud
I don't ever listen but that's because I always know best anyway

Ah, the joy of having a toddler to share life with...