bigbucketgirl

Searching for calm.

Not much time to talk...lots going on here, more than normal, all good but we have found ourselves taking comfort from deep breaths when finding some calm. The good weather we've had has meant we've flung open the doors and windows and let the sunshine in. Everywhere i go lately in this house seems to have some yellow. Mellow yellow. Suprising where it pops up in a house where it's not usually welcome! I think its trying to tell me something. A mellow mantra. Mmmm.

I'm mellow enough for bed now...good night!

Snow angels.

"Mumma, QUICK....Robin Hood's making snow angels"
How creative my children can be with a huge block of 'sneaked from the shed' polystyrene. My house looks like a blizzard blew through.

The.stuff.was.everywhere.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed their Outlaw role play, immersed in costume, music and song. They re-enacted overthrowing the Sheriff and his bad men, and read from their comic that people used to eat swans! Play and learning...marvellous. They also learned a particularly valuable lesson. Having fun with fake snow means YOU WILL vacuum until every bead has gone! or until Mumma's vacuum chokes and cuts out. Ah!

Edited to put in photo that Flickr seems to have made vanish!? Oh and I'm still finding polystyrene beads around the house!

Out with the old.......

So Christmas 2007 is boxed up and ready to go up the attic, the house looks bare and strangely calm.

The tree has had its day and been dismembered.

The big ones helped me cut the branches off and bag it up, but the littlest one held his hands up in disbelief shouting "NO, NO, NO, TCHEEEEEE!" and "Me ights" How do you get a 2yr old to understand!

The cleaning had to be done and all festive notions had to be sent away. My teeth were starting to itch with the need to make new, clean up and welcome the New Year!

All was packed away when i had a feeling I was being watched. It took me ages to find DD's Angle! We've decided that since she did such a good job of evading being boxed up then she can stay around until next year. That and DH took the kids to the beach for a run with the dog and brought half a ton of sand home with them and the wet dog smell. I can't abide eau de damp dog.

What better way to raise the spirits than to don a new vintage apron! I'm finding it most delightful! It's knee length and is made pretty much like a skirt with pleats that make it twirl! It has a pocket already fuilled with lego, playmobil hair and a black plastic thing that I'm sure is crucial to something around here! I also have 14p in coins and half a fig roll. The apron has been broken in to life in this home!

I cannot for the life of me photograph myself wearing it...so this is the best you're going to get!

The holiday week or so has been so lovely but obviously has to come to an end. DH is back in work tomorrow and the kids go back to school on Thursday. Early nights all round and some floaty floral type scents to send us all to sleep. I'm ready for bed soon, a bath with bombs from Lush and i'm taking this to bed

with grand dreams of making this mat by the time Summer comes.

I'm not entertaining the idea of looking like the woman! Bikini's are never my thing!

Ok,. this sounds too much like a plan...it'll never happen!

He worked his magic...

He worked his magic...,

originally uploaded by big_bucket_girl.

The festive season came and was thoroughly enjoyed by all...and now we are getting ready for tonight and the end of 2007. We've had an incredible year...welcoming our #3 into our family and living every moment of it! I am so looking forward to the next year when we can build on being a family of 5 and enjoy all that it brings. Whatever that may be.
Thank you to anyone who may stumble upon me and leave me a comment or two. You are truly appreciated...and may we meet again in 2008!
"Cheers" to you and yours, "Blwyddyn Newydd Dda"
xxx

Will it or won't it....?????????????????

Oh. The website said confirmed, the lady on the phone said yes, it's on its way. Doesn't chase away those gloomy feelings of trepidation. Those feelings that are fuelling my adrenal glands to produce lashings and lashings of adrenalin. Oh. Everything else is here. We are ready to wrap. DS#2 is the one who may not have the "OOOH! after Santa has been. Oh.

I'm going to get RSI if i keep checking my order status! and because i'm not seeing despatched every 30seconds i'm feeling gloomier. Oh.

What is there to do but put faith in Woolworths if all else fails, and throw myself whole heartedly into tonight's Christmas Concert starring an angel (DD) and a villager (DS#1). Sherry and gingerbread before we leave for the church, (Sherry for me and the adrenalin) and home made spaghetti bolognese for supper on our return.

The end of the year is coming.....time to do is running out. The way I see it..the time to worry and obsess about what's not done is also running out.

There is plenty of time to read this though...wrapped under a duvet sneaking a gingerbread cookie.(Sneaking = eating quickly before Grandma comes over and sees us eating decadently on the settee in the living room! Horrors!)

So tonight I am going to wear a tinsel garland as a scarf and get with it.

I'm sure the sherry will help.....

Edited to add: 'Tis the season to be jolly, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. And because I am ecstaic, elated and basically on cloud nine..we'll throw in a few more..Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

Have you guessed? Well..it's HERE!

I think the poor guy from ParcelForce thought I was going to jump into his arms with glee. I swear i saw him bid a hasty retreat down our drive..looking over his shoulder nervously! Haha! 'Tis the season to be jolly.....(Oh and its even more beautiful in the flesh than online and its orange, and its grey and GORGEOUS!) Our little man is going to be cooking to his hearts content! I'm going to have to go now and fan myself down with my debit card which has taken a hammering over the last few days and if i'm not careful then it'll start to smoke!

'Tis the season to be jolly, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

Weather for dancing

This wet, drizzly, dreary, cold, very cold weather has had an effect on me. Bizarrely though, it's a positive one! I feel energised and ready to go. I want to dance around and feel quite desperate to cartwheel. (I can't cartwheel so this is worrying!) There is a jaunty spring in my step..bring on the festive season!

The warm jumpers and cardigans, the scarves that can be worn all day long, indoors and out, the stripey over the knee socks, the sound of the kettle boiling for hot, hot coffee. All of it is making me want to do more and more. Of course reality hits hard when you're not expecting it..and the fact that it's December in 2 days is really rather scary.

Denial can be a wonderful thing! Yes, I told myself there is plenty of time to make another advent stocking garland. Christmas is ages away. Ah. Reality took my breath away with an upper cut when it dawned on me that actually advent calenders aren't for Dec 25th! So I have committed myself to 25 stockings in 2 days. Ok!?

Thank you for your thoughts over my last post and my manic weekend.  We've all lived to tell the tale and did some serious laughing to compensate for the odd occasion when things were a little tense! The kids scored well at the fayres....games and books galore. They also won again, and again, on various tombolas meaning we won't need to buy soap or tomato soup for months!

We are all enjoying the runny noses and barking coughs, because of course with symptoms like that...we get the Olbas Oil out! They contain a special mixture of pure plant oils, with ingredients including clove oil, eucalyptus, juniper berry and cajuput. Oh how my kids LOVE Olbas! The TV adverts make us all laugh as they feature noses with legs. Its pretty much how i feel..a nose with legs that want to dance the night away.

I have a book to read though...There was a book stall at one of the fayres but it was SO disappointing. Modern, trashy novels or ancient diet books were everywhere. The childrens books were tatty and torn, and not one vintage one in sight. As we left we passed the recycling bins and something caught my eye in there. I'm not worried about poking around in bins so I had a good rummage and found this gem!

I'd never seen Little House in the Big Woods before, and I opened the front cover and fell in love with the first page..

'Each day has its own proper work,' Laura's Ma used to say.

'Wash on Monday,

Iron on Tuesday,

Mend on Wednesday,

Churn on Thursday,

Clean on Friday,

Bake on Saturday,

Rest on Sunday'

It conjured up a sense of calm and order. It also made me slightly concerned that we seem to be living in perpetual Mondays and Fridays! The real problem of course is that if i don't manage to find Tuesday around here soon, then we won't be needing a tree for the festivities, we will indeed be wrapping tinsel and lights around the laundry pile. (But at least it will be clean!)

Time to go...I'm on my own tonight and need something to occupy the dark hours so there have been a few blogs lately mentioning the Winter books that they are reading and I've enjoyed going through the lists to see what is out there. We have books in our main living room that are rotated through the seasons and I thought I'd share them with you, so my job tonight while the little people are asleep will be making a list! (makes me want to burst into song.."he's making  a list, he's checking it twice...etc!)

One more night until DH comes home. Its been a long week. He is away working. In a five star hotel, with fresh pancakes and waffles for breakfast. And 6 course evening meals. And a swimming pool. And a spa. And a gym. And...Do i sound jealous? Am i hiding my green eyed monster?! I know he's working hard, and I know he's missing us...oh but it would be good if he could bring those waffles home with him. (or take the hint that I'd really like a waffle maker for my christmas present!)

Sleep well. Sleep safe.

Colour #1

14thnov2007 071, originally uploaded by big_bucket_girl.

We are redecorating our dining room and I cannot for the life in me decide which colours to use, so I'm on a bit of a 'Nature knows best' kind of hunt! It's going well...too well. There are so many fantastic colour combinations at the moment that I fear I may not decide before the End of Year festivities. That will be too late! At the moment the main colour is blue and it's SO cold! I am not envisaging a blue festive season! (Whilst i am still being chased by worms then I thought I could post a photo quickly from Flickr rather than post.)

When in doubt.....pull it out!

Well...anyone notice I was gone? I've been gone for nearly 2 months! Wow. That took a lot of self control and sheer determination not to be back sooner. (Translate that as... I was so close to buying another lap top and a whole new internet connection thing!)

It seems I had a worm. Well that's what my computer kept telling me. It came to visit just after my delightful DH spent an hour on a football forum. ALL HIS FAULT. I blamed him for everything. And everything else!

(Old, old photo but we recreated the look today..!)

Still, I'm not wanting to hang around here too much...just incase the worm is going to come back and bite me on the backside. Nasty little blighters those worms! Anyway..yes I'm rambling..because i'm trying to speed type and i'm perched on a filing cabinet because i'm too scared to get off incase the worm gets me...and my back is in agony..and there's loads that i wanted to say to...claire at reddymade(can't link from up here!!!) ...i wrote to you yesterday, and kristy at vintagepleasureI'm with you on the care package thing....half term is this week coming so we will be busy xxx and you, and you and you!

OK, lets see what happens when I try to post...Oh yes..the treatment for my worm attack seems to have been simple. this is why I'm sure they are lying in ambush...i pulled the mains lead out and left it out for the last 2 months. Convinced the worms were rampaging, breeding and devouring my files. I pulled the plug on them. Like salt on slugs. Today I had to turn it on...because i rearranged furniture..and it looked like it was gone...so i HAD TO read Amanda..(does soulemama need a link!) before I did anything...and it let me read a few more before i jumped on here to try...

Last thing...I've been able to read blogs on my phone(!) but I'm not sure how to leave comments without sending my phone number (scared.) so if all else fails..I can still read you and be inspired and warmed by seeing what you are all doing....OH! and is anyone going to the craft/stitch/knit thing in the Cardiff International Arena on the weekend?

Take care...(oh how i hope those worms are D.E.A.D)

Can't think straight for the silence...

Silence is golden. The big 2 are back in school, so me and the little one went to the beach. It was one of those days when I think everyone else knows something I don't!. The beach was deserted. Just me and my camera shy little man. So what do i do when he won't say "Cheese" or dives head first into the sand to avoid the camera....I take a photo of my feet. My happy Croc clad feet. (I also took about 50 shots of the little man in various guises but they are the kind of photos that only parents find cute!) I felt my shoulders un-knot, I flicked through a newly thrifted sewing book from the 70's and we shared an ice slush. It was close to paradise..but there were a few things I could have done with...namely DS#1, DD and of course DH.

So, I have a mountain of laundry to wash, a K2 size mountain of bedding to iron, toys to tidy and cupboards to clean. But...my little one won't be little for long, the sun may not shine tomorrow and the silence is unsettling. Other people are hearing my big 2 chatter and laugh, sing and whine! Can they only have been back at school 2 days!

F is for Friends

A quick one this..Dh is away for the night on work so I can hog the TV for Project Runway with a box of Cheerio's. (He just doesn't get that programme.)

F is for friends.

The kids didn't choose this one from the dictionary but through their actions! Just before we went to town for essentials today, we read a post about a brave little man who got a little too close to a bee nest. Ah!

On our travels we called into one of the charity shops as they had put a new batch of kids books out. They do a 3 for £1 offer in there, so we had a healthy rummage and came away with 16 'new to us' books. There were some fabulous finds in the haul, stories of meerkats, cheetahs, buglitastic bugs and of course we had to find one about a dragon. The kids were idly chatting and trying their hardest to occupy DS#2 who was in his pushchair(poor thing!) when they spied a book that they wouldn't normally go for. Today however they had to have it. They shot me down with looks of fury when I noted that we were up to a tally of 16 with this extra one. I know my place and paid for all 16.

The book was about bees. They were thinking of the little boy on a blog.

DD "If we put his name on a parcel will it get to him"

DS "You have to put an address on"

DD "Oh there's no time for worrying about things like that...LOOK! Mumma. We have to get him one of those!"

Now admittedly, if you've just been stung and traumatised by a bee, I'm not altogether sure that you'd want reminders given to you as gifts..but the kids hearts are in the right place. Big, full, generous hearts so perhaps it wouldn't be sooo bad. That and the fact that the balloon was part of a shop window display and NOT FOR SALE. DD was not impressed with that and is plotting a plan! I can feel a storm brewing...

If you're wondering..Yes I had my camera to hand and yes, I did feel a complete prat for taking a photo of a chemist window in broad daylight (especially as the crow who'd refused us a balloon was staring through the said window at me!) But as I said, my kids have got hearts of gold. So I indulged them!

Friends. Never met them, never likely to, never matters. Look forward to seeing them every day, like the same stuff, do the same things, all that counts.