Santa can I have a little more time please?

Ok, so just exactly WHERE does time go?  You think you have all the time you need; I planned lovely craft mornings, afternoons by the fire, movies, hot chocolates, and enjoying the excitement in the build up to Christmas.  For one reason or another, we haven't achieved that, and my little plans haven't evolved. Still, with 7 more sleeps to go, there might still be time.............

Finally finished! 

We have got quite a few things done however, including the letters for my fire place; I started these last year as a gift for someone, but they were so time consuming and fiddly (and ok I did procrastinate a little) that there is NO way I am giving these away!  I am feeling quite relaxed about Christmas, however I would just like a little more time to enjoy the season as its totally our favourite time of the year, and it's all passing just too fast!  Here's what we've been up to.....

Enjoying Crispy Creme (yum)

Finishing Christmas Pressies

Amazing photos by Lily

Frosty mornings!

Knitted a coffee cosy for a friend 

Tucked up my new baby

Have eaten LOTS of mince pies!

All that glitters

The past three weeks have seen some new challenges come into my life - they're not really for sharing on this blog, but let's just say that events and surrounding emotions could easily have been from an EastEnders episode.

A couple of the things I have learnt from these experiences however, are firstly, facebook, blogs, twitter and such only allow people to see a tiny part of what is really happening in our lives - and only the bits we want them to see, and secondly, it really is the little things that matter: laughter, sharing, wine, good coffee, cuddles, saying sorry and most importantly - time with friends and family.

The past 18 months has been a real journey for my family and it's not always been easy.  Homeed is the road that we are currently on, and I am having to learn (and un-learn) so much; using the blog helps me to see not only what we have done, but to formally process (lots of) the thoughts in my mind.  When you choose to step outside of 'mainstream' choices, it can be a lonely and scary place; I still have the same concerns as parents with children in main stream education (will they be ok? am I doing the right thing? am I a good parent?), but I am certainly not questioning the choices of others - I am too busy worrying about my own choices for that!  This blog gives you a snippet into my daily life; I don't tell you every-time I cry (well sometimes) or when my wobbles have me googling local schools, or when I actually miss the school run.  I tell you what's going well, what we are up to, how we have reflected on things, or changed things, or learnt something amazing together.  Those are the bits I want to share as that is what keeps me going: even on the really bad days, sending them back to school is not necessarily the answer (we've tried that one).

This time last year, I was not in a good place with homeed and I have realised that whilst we have had some tough times of late, actually we (I) am in a much better place; we still explore the option of school, and we still change regularly how we work our weeks.  Homeed is not perfect - but then again, neither is school.

So in-between the tears, angst and working things out, today we officially 'started' our Christmas holidays with a trip to see Peter Pan on Ice followed by hot chocolates and cake.  We have also started on those Christmas Crafts............

Snowmen Nails!

Glittering snow flakes

Tree hearts

A festive robin

 angela x

“All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions” 

Leonardo da Vinci

How to make unique/vintage shorts.

First of all you need a pair off shorts what ever kind of style you want but it looks good with denim,I choose some old high waisted shorts. Then you need to pin the shorts of how high you would like to cut them, I also then ironed along the bottom to create a clear crease to cut along!

 Next I sketched a quick design of how I sort of wanted them to look (this is a very bad sketch but its just to give a quick idea!!). My design is a bit of a twist on the american flag!



Thirdly I cut just under the creased line , then using  the sewing machine we sewed a line a bit above the crease all the way around the leg so that when we frayed the bottom it doesn't fray all the way up the leg! (if you don't have a sewing machine you can hand sew all these steps).

Fourthly I cut a square shape out of material that would fit in the pocket then after pushing it in  I sewed a lose running stitch to hold the material in place ready for sewing it with the sewing machine! (if you are sewing by hand you do not need to do the lose running stitch!) Then we sewed it on the sewing machine.

Then I cut out another piece of material that would fit in the main section of the leg, we then again sewed a lose running stitch and sewed it on the sewing machine.



After the step above its fraying time!! To do this you make small slits as close or a far apart a you would like at the edge of the shorts below the crease and stitched line. then using your finger just pull where the slits are to make the strings become loss they should become frayed after a while. If you want to shorten the frayed strings  you can just trim them with some scissors.

 Finally I put them in the wash on a quick wash and they came out like this! They will be fine being washed agian and agian! if you would like the back pocket detail to please scroll down!

First the back pocket look first you need to cut a line along the side you would like to be open as you can see I have cut along the left hand side. Next I chose a piece of material and cut a square then tucked it into the pocket! I then sewed along the sides of the square on show and sewed back the flap. 

Thats all the steps thanks for reading and enjoy making them!!!!! If you would like the fabrics they are from tatters in staines. 

Lily xxx