It's a mystery, oh it's a mystery

(in a strange type squeaky/husky Hazel O'Connor type voice)

The first post for the quilt a long has been posted and it's all about the fabric requirements.  So it looks like I will need to buy some fabric over the weekend .......... oh the hardship that will bring, I will have to drag myself in front of my laptop to pour over sites.  Damn I was going to wash my hair too, that'll just have to wait!!

The last 2 days have been full to the point that I am drained of any energy.  I had plans to start sewing blocks together as I finally got all my fabric cut the other day, but I've just sat on the sofa and been a blob.  I can barely concentrate on catching up with my sky+'d programmes!

Bookwork

We bought our little man a Toy Story book last week.  It seems he likes it. 

Challenging myself

I have recently joined in with the Brit Quilt flickr group set up by Lynne from Lily's Quilts.  It's not something I would probably have done a year ago, maybe even 6 months ago but at the start of the year I decided I would challenge myself and do new things.

So I've joined in with the group, signed up for the Mystery Quilt and also the Quilt swap.  I really feel that I will need to step up the quality of my work for doing these things but that is part of the challenge right?

I've been reading some blogs tonight and reading about how quilting/crafting/creating makes people feel calmer and, I suppose, have more of a purpose.  It is really interesting to read how others feel about their crafting too and realise that you have a similar feeling.  I read an article about creativity a few months ago, think it was in Psychologies magazine, which said that sometimes people procrastinate about starting a creative process because they are anxious that the end product won't live up to their expectations.  I can certainly identify with that train of thought.  My challenge this year is not to let this anxiety stop me from actually being productive.

Picture doesn't actually relate to anything, just like the shot.  It was taken when we were at Killin the other week.

Still sitting

in the same pile as it was on Thursday - my fabric that is!

Thursday night was such a wonderfully warm, light night that I took the opportunity to plant up 3 hanging baskets, a trough and 3 plant pots.  Soon I will (hopefully) have pretty flowers decorating my back garden, including this just outside my back door.

It's a flowering lavender, which admittedly isn't much to look at just now, but hopefully it will give off a lovely scent when we step out of the door!

Gardening is not my strong point - I've lost count of the number of plants I've managed to kill off, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if any of the other plants actually developing lots of lovely flowers!?!?

Yesterday we headed off for a drive as the weather was so nice and ended up in Milngavie - the quilt shop I was hoping to visit was closed (again) so we visited Dobbies instead and had a lovely lunch.  But I did end up getting a quilting book in Dobbies for a complete steal of £4.95.  We got Euan a Toy Story book as he loves Woody at the moment and he's never been so quiet in the back of the car, it was really cute to see him holding this huge book and really studying it!

Today we did think about going to a local farm for special Easter open day but the miserable weather made up our minds for us.  So Pete ended up convincing me to drive to Corstorphine to visit Guitar, Guitar (otherwise known as the Sweetie shop in this house) and he came away with a new guitar pedal - I've no idea what it does but as he's gigging tonight and has it with him, I'll find out tomorrow how good a buy it was!  So after a complete soaking for me and Euan when we went for a little walk when Pete was 'having a wee shot' of the pedal, I decided I needed a 'sweetie' too.  So a drive back to Stirling and I now own a 1/4" foot for my sewing machine.  It was supposed to be my mother's day present, it's only taken me a month to get it.

So now I have no excuse for wonky seams! 

Frustrating!

This little pile of fabric has been sitting on my kitchen table (well on the table, then moved to the top of the fridge, then into the livingroom, then back to the fridge and onto the table again!) for the last week.  Waiting to be cut into little shapes but other things keep getting in the way of playing with fabric.

I'm very frustrated about it!!!! 

Hopefully tonight, all the planets will align themselves, the moon will be the right size and all will be right in the world so I can - finally - cut this pile of fabric into lots of little bits!

Quiet

Is how life has been the last few weeks.  Just after my last post I came down with an evil stomach bug that wiped me out for about 4 days.  It was one of the most unpleasant illnesses I've experienced, I barely ate for a week.  Partly because I just couldn't face food and partly because I was scared to eat as it knew I couldn't keep in for long.  Which is a quick way to lose weight if you are in need of it, just not a method I'd recommend very highly. 

So not much as been going on, just getting on with work (which is very busy - year end budget stuff, blah, blah, blah) and watching/listening to the dude grow up.  This was taken last Friday when we took a little drive up to Killen - rock n'roll!!!

listening - nothing at the moment, but I'm watching last night's CSI:NY

eating - nothing
drinking - nothing
wearing - red flowery shirt and black leggings
feeling - happy, it's been a lovely sunny day and we've spent it with family
weather - it's dark now but it was glorious today - warm and sunny
wanting - to have all the housework mysteriously done for me
needing - to have an early night
thinking - I'm quite tired
wondering - whether or not to make a cup of tea?

Scrappy Sparks

About a week ago I got an email from Sarah's Cards with an offer that was just too good to miss - a £75 grab box for £25!  Not one to pass up a bargain I grabbed at the chance to get one and I was lucky enough to get one before they all disappeared.  The concept is that all the boxes are different and you don't know what you get until it arrives.  So after stalking the postie for a few days, it arrived at the end of the week.  It's been an age since I have the joy of a pizza box being delivered and look at the goodies that were inside

 There is even a page all about boys!!  I couldn't have picked it even if I'd tried!?!?!

The purpose of buying this box is to spark my interest and creativity for paper based crafting as I have yet to make any scrapbook pages of my son - he's over 22 months and I've not made any scrapbook of him yet.  The rate I'm going I'll have forgotten all the little things before long.  It's definitely not for the lack of photos, I probably have thousands of his first year, not so much from his second year (that's what being back at work does for you). 

I've got lots of ideas running through my head - for scrapbook pages, for a couple of quilts for Euan, for FINALLY decorating our bedroom, for many, many things.  Just need to try to squeeze and few extra hours into every day to get it all done - easy eh!