The perfect antidote

Well, I've discovered the perfect antidote to the working week...................

playing in my sewing room of course!

Sewing together all my varying strips of selvedge with a plan to turn them all into a quilt one day (no guessing who my inspiration has been for this!)


and making spidersweb blocks


using this fantastic tutorial


and inspired by this crafty monkey.


I've also cut out a dress for a new Kinder Doll for my friend's gorgeous little, soon-to-be-3-year-old but no sneak peeks of that yet!

And today I reluctantly dragged myself away from the sewing room (and the children away from the TV/computer/toys/books*) to go to the allotment where we dug up bag after bag after bag full of potatoes, harvested even more courgettes (zucchini) and accidental marrows, had a huge bonfire and picked all the sweetcorn...........


Totally and utterly


Delicious!


So why do I have to go back to work tomorrow????

There's so much else I need/want to do instead!



* Mr Locket was as gorgeous as ever and just said he was happy to do whatever would make the rest of us happy. He is fabulous!

Well I Survived

Thank you all for your lovely and encouraging comments on my last post - I'm sorry I haven't had time to reply to you all individually - this working malarky certainly cuts into my blogging/email-ing time!!!

So I've made it through my first week in the new job and it's ok but isn't filling me with joy!!!

But I suppose few jobs really do ;o)

Hopefully it will get busier and more interesting as the term progresses and next week should be fairly eventful as the students will all be arriving.

But I'd much rather be playing in here


or snuggled up under this

or this

reading a nice book, or knitting, or stitching

and generally doing all the nice things I like to do with my time!

But I need to earn some money so I suppose I'd better just get on with it!

Roll on pay day!


I finished the two quilts above over the summer holiday and hand quilted them both. The Amy Butler one has a panel of linen near the top with the quotation "Live, love, laugh and be happy" from "When the red, red, robin goes bob bob bobbing along" which seemed like the perfect motto for life in general

and I quilted it by drawing round a dinner plate over each block of 4 squares and then overlapping the circles. I used one row of overlapping sideplates for the top section and left the linen un-quilted.

Although the stitches are uneven and the fabrics are a bit puckered, I love the effect of the quilting - I just need to improve my technique.

The smaller quilt was made with 2 charm packs of Urban Chiks Swell

and I quilted this in a cross-hatch pattern - again I love the back almost as much as the front - and again, it's wrinkly and uneven, but it still makes me happy!

One day I might be brave enough to try machine quilting...............but don't hold your breath!

The New Girl

Ok, so tomorrow is my first day in my new job.

Ladydi asked for a photo of me so here I am*.


A bit empty headed as always!

But do you like my new red shoes and bag?

I really do! In fact I'm quite excited about them - and I'm really NOT a shoes and bag kind of girl! Give me a pair of imitation crocs and a handmade bag and I'm happy. But I do REALLY love these red shoes! They make me very happy!

But I have to confess that I'm rather nervous about starting work again.

And my coping strategy when feeling nervous is to be prepared! (But I'm no Boy Scout!)

I was prepared for my interview and rather astounded the interview panel when I turned up with a file of research that I had done for the post (nothing major, just stuff I thought I should know)

And so that I feel super-organised and prepared for tomorrow I came up with this design yesterday:

My very own
"fit-everything-in-that-you-could-possibly-need-except-the-kitchen-sink-folder-wallet-pocket-notepad-thingummy"


All in gorgeous Kaffe Fassett fabric that I bought from Ring-a-Rosie's on Friday when I had a little meet-up with Charlie P (and Mr P of course - but more on that another day)

There are a million pockety things and it can fold back on itself so just the notepad is at the top.


I'm really pleased with how it turned out because I had to figure it out by myself.

The only problem is that although I am very organised and have lots of info on this new job, I haven't actually, erm, read it all yet!

Still, I'll LOOK like I know what's going on and that's what counts isn't it?!?!?!

P.S. * I asked Daisy to set up my outfit like this as it is what she always used to do when she was about 4 or 5 and had decided what to wear the next day including jewellery and accessories! And that's not a very messy bed - it's a blanket laid on the floor so my new clothes didn't get messy!

Random things.....

This is going to be a totally disconnected post about random things that have happened lately.

First of all............

I'm on a diet

But doesn't my lunch look yummy?

And HUGE?

(This is today's scrumminess)


And the diet has really worked as I have lost 12 1/2 lbs in just 4 weeks

shame there a eleventyhundred more pounds still to be lost :o(

Another recent event (as in, yesterday) is that Fred has now moved up to the Junior School


which seems really strange as he's "my baby" and surely can't be old enough for Juniors?


Good job he really loves it already and is very happy to be at school with Daisy again.

And Dot was very happy as she didn't have to start school yesterday until 11.15!

But she is less happy today as she has been off poorly with a streaming cold (but fortunately no sign of any piggy tail!!!) And yes, I really mean that she was unhappy to miss school! That's my girl!

On the Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August we travelled our furthest from home in the last 7 weeks and went the 70 miles to Holy Island.


where they were having a Viking exhibition in the Priory grounds

(although we were too tight-fisted/broke to pay the entry fees and so watched from the cliff tops!)

Amazingly we actually bumped into one of my brothers on the island! I had forgotten that they were having a holiday up there over the weekend. It was lovely to see him and his family, especially as we haven't seen them for a while.

We had lots of fun walking round the island, being shot at by the children,

being taller than the castle,

and lolling about on the boat-launching-thingummy

before bumping into my brother again and going off for a cup of tea!

Meanwhile the allotment has been badly neglected this summer as the Little Lockets have pretty much refused to go anymore! So I have one nice photo for you........

and one awful one that shows just how bad it is looking at the moment :o(

I'm feeling completely overwhelmed by it all again. Stupidly I think I prefer it when it is barren and empty - at least then the weeds are manageable!!! ;o)

But I am going to leave you today with a beautiful photo of a different subject matter entirely.....


I just love this sandy-I'm-wearing-my-brand-new-beret-on-the-beach-girl photo!

Well................

I GOT THE DOG*!!!!!

Hooray for me!

They even said when they rang me that they were "very impressed with me"!

so how many times do you think I have repeated that in the few hours since it was said??? ;o)

And it's no little dog..........

It's actually quite a big hairy dog in terms of hours (30 per week compared to the 16 I was doing previously and the minimal amount I was doing before that)

But is new and exciting and I'm excited.

It's back at Newcastle University where I did my degree and my incomplete PhD studies and worked as a very part time lecturer and then full time secretary.

I was there for over 8 years and it just feels like home.

I'm so glad to be going back!



P.S. sorry for the lack of photos - I was trying to upload some witty dog pics but my brain and computer let me down and I'm rushing as I'm going out with some friends to celebrate my birthday and my new dog of course!

* dog = job. This is Moogsmum's fault. When I rang her last year and squeaked down the phone that I had got my last job she misheard and thought I'd said I'd "got a dog" - so the name stuck! All her fault!

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeee!!!!!

Forget about Dot's birthday!

Mine is FAR more important!!!!

Ok, only kidding - I honestly get far more excited about the childrens' birthdays than I do about my own but I still had a lovely day with some lovely presents including this stash of books


(and I have to say that the two craft books are absolutely gorgeous)

All these goodies

(plus some gorgeous Amy Butler fabrics and other treats that my friend Jane has just given me today)

As my birthday treat we went to Corbridge for the day because I really NEEDED to go to RE as I had never been there before. I wasn't disappointed - it was gorgeous:


and these are the treats I bought myself with some of my birthday money


The tin mug is from a little cookshop and I bought one for Mr Locket too, while the HUGE pink French cup and the old printers blocks came from RE. (Poor Mr L couldn't even begin to understand why I would want them!!)

One of my main presents was a new camera that my lovely mummy and daddy gave me money towards earlier in the holiday as I had broken Dot's camera that I used all the time by getting sand in it at the beach. Unfortunately on the day that I bought the new camera we went back to the beach ................................. hmmmm, after a few weeks and a few further beach trips my lovely new camera is no longer working :o(

So I apologise for the appalling quality of these photos that were taken with the cheapest digital camera I could buy so that I can still take pics while my lovely camera goes to hospital. One thing is for sure, using this new cheapo camera makes me REALLY appreciate my other one!

Anyway, I must leave you now and go and sort documents, iron clothes (!!!!) and bite my fingernails even further as I have a "dog" interview first thing in the morning! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrghhhhhh!