Chez Spud

Despite the combined efforts of a vomiting bug, a queried broken leg and the combined forces of National Express rail and my inability to keep hold of vital travel documents for 5 minutes….I made it to London yesterday to meet with seasoned Blog Campers Bee and Blanca. Getting home again was a whole other story however which I will save for a different post on Family Spud’s Famous Travel Disasters.

I will just open brackets here to mention that there has been some kind of travel disaster associated with each of the 3 Blog Camps I’ve attended. The car park M25 did for me for Blog Camp 1.5 and I was 2 hours late arriving for lunch at Bee’s house. Blog Camp 2.0 was worse…8 hours late due to my inability to pack my bag in time for a stupid o’clock flight. Blog Camp 3.0 was better. I arrived on time, but left too early having misread my flight information. And then Blog Camp mini-meet brought all kinds of travel nonsense and ridiculous expense which I can’t even be bothered to talk about. Closes brackets.

I knew I was in for a joyous day when Blanca’s opening gambit was, ‘I’ve got a confession to make. But you can’t tell anyone!’. Secrets? Gossip? Confessions? And it was only 11.00am….bring…it…on…

Blanca unburdens herself of her secrets

We didn’t ‘achieve’ much. We went to Starbucks (natch), we battled with the tube to High Street Ken, walked in the sunshine in Hyde Park for hours, took a few photos, went to lunch, went for a Snog (more later), walked some more in the park and then it was time to go home. Not much activity really, instead we invested our energy in talking. Should you feel the world is missing a couple of million words today it’s because we used them all up yesterday. Sorry about that.

Books, films, families, husbands, sons, daughters, fiances, weddings, honeymoons, babies, blogging, bloggers, photography, food, the weather, cooking, secrets, secrets, secrets, holidays, work, sleep….nothing was off our agenda yesterday. We took a breather for a now traditional bloggers jump…oh look, all TWO of them off the ground at the same time. Result…

Things I learnt:

• Despite having lived in London for 17 years, I don’t know the way from High Street Ken to Hyde Park without using a map. What’s that about? I spent huge periods of that 17 years living around there. Embarrassing.
• I am so pleased the stress and hassle of planning a wedding is over for me. I’ve done it twice. That’s at least once too many. Poor Blanca! No wonder she was rather weary.
• Bee should probably have an eye test….
• There are so many people in London. I was quite overwhelmed with how many people were out and about, in the streets, in the park, in the restaurant. In a short year I’ve turned in to a country bumpkin with a touch of claustrophobia.
• I am totally intolerant of other people’s small children kicking off in restaurants, despite being the mother of small children. Wrong and bad of me.
• Blanca has a life plan. Beth and I do not. Interesting.
• By common agreement, 26 is a bit too young to get married. At the time you feel all grown up, but the 20s are all about change.
• We all miss being bored. Having huge, vast stretches of time with nothing to do, nowhere to go, no chores to do…just lying around reading books, or just being bored.

Blanca wanted to go for a Snog and who were we to deny her?  In fact we built the day’s geographic agenda around having a Snog. I had a chocolate mini-snog with strawberries, the others had a vanilla with, erm, stuff. Blanca enjoyed her Snog, Beth and I binned ours at the first opportunity having decided that a frozen yogurt dessert that ‘lacks fat, shuns sugar and has hardly any calories’ tastes revolting. What can I say? Me and Bee are in the environs of 40 years old…..Blanca is, what, about 17 or something? She likes Snogs, we like The Archers. It’s a generational thing…

When I (eventually) got home I was tucking in a sleeping Bertie when he briefly woke and whispered, “Did you have a lovely time with your friends?”…”Yes” I whispered back, “I had a brilliant day, thank you.” I said…”That’s nice!”, he said. And it was. xx

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Ssssssshhhhh….somebody, somewhere is getting this gift from me sometime soon….I can’t say who, or what it is….because I’m mysterious like that. Or, more to the point, the recipient might be reading and then it would be no surprise at all would it?

This is my offering for the Art Exchange project I blogged about a few days back. Make one gift, post it off, receive 36 in return…in theory. Even if I get one I’ll be thrilled.

I do feel a bit shy about my ‘offering’ because I’m such a beginner crafter. Also, the offering was immediately snitched by a Megaboy. Then the other Megaboy forced me to make one for him. I was going to make a third, non snitchable offering for the project but I ran out of supplies. So, in the dead of night, I snitched one back from the Megaboys and have posted it off. Let’s hope they don’t notice (slim chance).

To divert attention from my crap crafting I have gone all fancy with the wrapping.

Little bug clothespeg holding on a hand stamped, shaped paper apology for crap crafting:

Alternative view, hopeful that the lavender diverts attention away from crap stamping:

Crocheted flower embellishment. Oddly tied on with ribbon bow and stuck down with sellotape to stop it slipping all over the place. Pure class, that’s me…pure class…

‘Handmade with more love than skill’…that’s what it says on the card. Pretty much sums it up….I do feel sorry for the recipient! But it’s been a fun project.

Alas I can’t share the contents of the parcel because it would be too embarrassing will spoil the surprise. Sorry about that.

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Oh me love this! I saw one of these on Emma Bradshaw’s blog and totally and immediately hearted it. A wee catalogue card with your own list of joy/evil complete with handwritten scribblings. It’s a thing of beauty, right up there with the Grudge Book. Make one for yourself here.

Also, announces by stealth, the Spuds are going on holiday soon. To someplace hot (which ticks off another of that bloody 39 before I’m 40 list which is visibly aging me by the day). It involves a flight in an actual plane, two small boys, 27 suitcases, a lot of swearing, muttering and murderous glances, 45 bottles of wine (outgoing flight only) and MrSpud’s ’swimming’ which looks like he’s drowning. That poem, ‘Not waving but drowning’? It was written especially for him, even though he wasn’t born when it was published.  Our 4 year old can swim better than him.

We don’t have a lot of luck with foreign holidays. Our first one was cancelled as MrSpud was loading the last of the bags in to the car, ready to leave for the airport, having got up at 4am. I noticed green pus pouring from Bertie’s ear (then 6 months old) and that was the end of our Florida jaunt. There are pitiful photos of me, cruelly snapped by our security cameras, sitting on the bottom of the stairs in the house, head in hands and crying. I wasn’t crying because I was missing out on a holiday, but because of all that wasted packing (which had taken weeks) and streeeeeeeesssssssssss.

Two months later we went to Kefalonia in Greece. I got pregnant by mistake. Bertie was 8 months old. The rest is history. We’ve not been abroad since.

So, with trepidation, we are attempting to leave the country in the hope of actually making it to our destination and returning without a surprise stowaway on board.

Watch this space.

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BS…BS…BS…BS??? Blue Skies….Big Smiles….British Springtime…Balmy Suffolk (or should that be Barmy Suffolk?)…Beach Strolls…no Bull Shit…

Spring has sprung, it’s official. Brilliant blue skies, sunshine, warm breezes, hanging out on the beach without wanting to cry after 5 minutes = the first signs of Spring and I’m giddy with it. I don’t think I’m alone…

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People Who Craft…I need you. I need various volunteers to make one item and send to a random stranger somewhere in the world and receive, in theory 36 hand crafted goodies back. Some of you can’t hide, I know you craft so I’ll be emailing you direct. Be afraid….be v..e..r..y afraid.

So people who sew, knit, crochet, stamp, art journal, paint, embroider, take wonderful photographs, scrap book, felt thing, make cards, mix wonderful oils or anything else…I need you. All you need to do is make one little thing and send it on. Fun fun fun.

Please email me if you’re up for it. But, people who are known to me and who make stuff…bad luck. I’m on to you.

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When I was a child my favoured gift would have been….toys

When I was a teenager my favoured gift would have been….clothes/shoes/make up etc

When I was in my 20s my favoured gift would have been…jewellry/perfume/handbags

When I was in my early 30s my favoured gift would have been…a boyfriend/husband/anyone to stop the voices in my head

Now I’m in my late 30s my favoured gift is such a surprise to me. I’dnot stopped to consider this until it hit me between the eyes yesterday, whilst not thinking about gifts as all actually. Had I been thinking about it, I would have expected my current favoured gift to be time alone, more sleep, more time with MrSpud etc etc.

It turns out that my favoured gift these days is ‘light’. As in light from the sky. I was driving to nursery to collect the boys yesterday afternoon and I realised how light it was compared with the pitch black of only a few weeks earlier. And suddenly I was beaming and light hearted (excuse pun) at the joy that the longer days bring. Even better….it gets lighter every day now for another 4 months with a bonus light boost when the clocks go forward and we settle in to the splendidly named British Summer Time.

As  Younger Person I was so blind to the passing of the seasons, the ritual of the year rolling by and the way that light ebbs and flows and its effect on me. But now, as a Slightly But Not Very Older Person, it suddenly means so much that I’ll happily give up the toys, clothes, shoes, make up, jewellry, handbags, boyfriends/husbands etc etc…for just a little bit of extra light in the day.

I’m such a cheap date these days.

[Unless MrSpud is reading in which case I still need diamonds as a pushing present[s] for those Megaboys I ‘popped’ out. I know I said that the new camera would cancel out the diamond debt but I was lying. What can I say? I’m just fickle like that….love from your wife xx]

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The Afghan is slowly taking shape. I’ve been making it for a month now and I’m pleasantly surprised how fast it’s coming along. Today we put all the squares on the floor to see how near/far it is from being ‘enough’. The tally is 55 squares done, 25 to go. I’ve set myself a target of completing the final 25 by next Sunday, because that’s the kind of crazy kid I am…I know how to live…

But then I think the really tedious boring bit starts. Look at all those loose ends that need darning in. On 80 squares. Scream. Then they need sewing together. Scream. And then I’ve planned to granny around the whole thing. THREE TIMES. Scream scream scream.

Much worse, I think I’ll have to block every single one of those 80 squares. Looking at them all laid out it’s very clear that there are ‘early’ (ie. beginner) squares and ‘late’ (ie. a little bit beyond learner) squares. The ‘early’ squares are pretty loose and baggy compared with the neat and tight ‘late’ ones. Loose grannies, gosh now there’s a thought…

So, crocheting bloggy people, talk to me about blocking please?

Oh, and Buzz Lightyear zoomed in to inspect my work and no doubt found it lacking (insufferable little know all that he is). “Buzz Lighter”, that’s what Diggy calls him….generally followed by his battlecry….”To infinity…and….THE END!!!”.

That’s actually very deep for a 3 year old. Move over existentialism….

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Thanks to The Domestic Sensualists via Julochka via Julochka’s grandmother for the gift of Banana Bread. And a special big thanks to Julochka’s daughter, Sabin, for her inspired addition of vast chunks of chocolate to the recipe. Such insight at the tender age of 9! Banana and chocolate go together like, er, banana and chocolate. Yum.

Lesson One of the the Day: I am more capable of baking than I thought. But I did have a little ‘helper’ so perhaps it was the 3 year old’s supervision which made all the difference?

Bertie went for a bike ride with MrSpud this morning. As in, both Bertie AND MrSpud were on bikes…that feels so grown up to me. Won’t be long before they can all push off for the weekend camping/mountaineering/deering doing etc etc while I recline on the sofa with wine and a trashy magazine for a couple of days. Bliss….

While Bertie and MrSpud were off jollying, I stayed home with Diggy to make the cake and then indulge in a little light crafting. First of all we created the above masterpiece with stamps. And, just when I was really getting in to it, he changed all the rules and told me that “the fun part is taking the stamps off and making them in to a cosy nest for the birds”. So he pulled all the stamps apart, made his “cosy nest” and told me off for being “too noisy” anytime I attempted to sneak in another stamp on to our picture. This continued for another 20 minutes until he decided to use the “jellies” (stamps) as decorations. Scream.

Lesson Two of the Day: children play, create and learn in ways which really should be a surprise to me anymore. They pretty much NEVER use a toy, implement, ‘thing’ for its intended purpose but spin off in to a truly creative place. I need to learn to unclench and go with it.

This wonderful bracelet arrived in the post today, a gorgeous and thoughtful gift from Shannon at An Enlightened Heart. There’s a story behind this bracelet and what it means to me but, suffice to say, it’s a perfect gift. I’m embarrassed that I don’t have a better photo…this one doesn’t show the gorgeous red heart bead embellishment and heart shaped clasp around the back. She’s so clever, her work(wo)manship is stunning. But it’s her warm and generous nature which makes this something I will treasure forever.

I’ve had a number of lovely gifts from bloggers in recent months. I haven’t blogged about them because I haven’t wanted to embarrass the senders but,  what the hell, they’ll get over it. So, in the hope of not missing anyone out, thank you to Ali at Inner Rambling of a Mid Life Mama, to rxBambi at A Day in the Life of a Would Be Bambi, Janet at Are We There Yet?, Blanca at Cuttings on a Blog and Vancouver’s Enviro Girl at The Misadventures of VEG for your lovely, thoughtful and wonderful gifts. Plus all the Blog Campers, of course. You’re all in my Best Book forever. The rest of you? Consider yourself grudged

Lesson Three of the Day: I’m feeling the love, man, feeling the love…..man, I LOVE feeling the love. Man. Etc etc etc.

Here endeth the lessons. xx

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Last Sunday was a busy busy busy day for Megaboy 2. Much of the day was spent dressed as an elf, because you can never be ready for Christmas too early can you? Then there were models to make…

Puzzles to be puzzled…

Most excitingly, there was a Big Boy’s Bed to be made with a lot of “help” from those Megaboys…

Phew, exhausting…time for a quick cuddle and kiss…

and a little sit down…

No time for sitting around all day though! Onwards….time to make ‘mud cake’…

All these things take a lot of concentration you know. Like this…

and this

and this

Bless my little boy, tongue out with the effort of it all. Reminds me of when he was a baby and he constantly stuck his tongue out like this…

Ooof what a busy day, very tiring for a little boy who couldn’t wait to sleep in his Big Boy’s Bed.  So much so that he got in and snuggled down before I’d got chance to put his pyjamas on him. Sweet boy of mine xx

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Well a bit over a year but let’s not split hairs shall we?

Year Two of the 365 Photo A Day project is, frankly, a bit of a challenge. I’m really struggling to get enthused about it and it’s feeling like such a chore at the moment that I’m thinking of giving up. Gasp. I’ve been 365ing since October 2008 and that’s a lot of photos.

One of my self-imposed rules for Year Two is that I am allowed to take photos of the same subjects as last year, but they have to be totally different. Today’s shot is narcissi in a jug by my kitchen window. I’m quite liking it. I even, gasp, ventured in to Photoshop to process it and round the corners. That’s today’s shot.

Rewind to January 2009 and here are the same kind of flowers, same place in my kitchen. I remember being quite pleased with that shot at the time. Today? Not so much. Not in focus, weird processing, bizarre light and a stupid crop that’s not even a ‘regular’ size. Frankly, it’s pretty ugly.

I wonder what next year’s narcissi shot will be? Will I still be 365ing in 2011? Please, no…..make it stop…make it go away [sobs silently, rocking, in a corner....]

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