Days gone by

I heard a song on the radio and sang along to it, remembering it from when I was younger. Then it hit me - the song was nearly 30 years old!!!! The funny thing is, it sounds better now than it did then for me.

And the song was..... Karma Chameleon by Culture Club

Brilliant song and after the initial shock, I continued to sing along to it merrily.

Then I started to think about other things I remembered from my 'youth':

Silver Jubilee 1977 (yes, I'm the one in the hat eating)

Wagon Wheels

Remember these? Wagon Wheels were absolutely HUGE but like most things have shrunk with age.

And not forgetting...

the haircuts (luckily not too many pictures),

brown clothes (70's) / fluorescent and power dressing (80's) / goth and

Doc Martens (90's)

raleigh chopper (I had a red one, inherited from my brother),

roller boots (rainbow ones),

leg warmers...

Lots of good memories.







Things I've made - money cuff

I like sewing; I like reading blogs with sewing tutorials in them; I like to bake...... but I can't make things up from scratch. So I'm sorry but there will be NO TUTORIALS on here.

What I will be doing is making things, using other peoples recipes and tutorials and seeing how they turn out.

I'm not the best at sewing or baking or making things but I'll give it my best and even if it turns out really bad or weird (yes I mean you Christmas Bird) I'll still show you. Because I know that I'm probably not the only person who makes mistakes with projects.

What I have learned through all the blogs I've read is that, with crafts (any crafts), you have to let go that feeling of having it perfect - CRAFTS ARE NOT ALWAYS PERFECT - it is the mistakes/changes that make it unique for you. So if you're a control freak, this could be kinda hard - you have been warned!!!

One of my favourite tutorials is from Christie at a Lemon Squeezy Home  - A Money Cuff

I've made a couple of these for Miss Bucket so that she doesn't lose her money on school trips or drop her purse at the disco and they have proved brilliant. All you do is wrap it around the wrist and secure it using the velcro.

This is the second cuff I've made for her.  She wasn't around to measure it so it was a bit wide and a bit long but I doubled the velcro closure and she loves it just the same. You can see the double cross stitching to the right of the picture below.

The only change I really made to the cuff was to sew a purse section as we found the small change would roll around into the corners and she would still have to search for it.

These cuffs do not take very long to make and if you are handy with zips there is another design that you can do but I recommend trying the velcro one first. I would agree with Christie that you really need to make sure all fabric pieces are the same size; I found, for me, that this is easiest right at the start - when you have cut your pieces put them all together and check, check and check again.

Thank you Christie for a brilliant tutorial.

A fun family day out

Yesterday we decided to go somewhere fun for a day out during the half term holidays. We tried to keep money low but knew that wherever we went it would cost us a lot.  Can you guess what we did?

 How about now?

Or do these help...

  

 

Yep, we went to Chessington World of Adventures and had a brilliant day out. We arrived quite early but still not early enough to be first (what time do these people get there to be first??).

Luckily we had taken most of our cold/wet weather clothes just in case and guess what, it was cold and wet. Of course, good old England - nevermind, we were prepared and we had a great time.

The park had enough different rides to keep a 4 and 8 year old happy and although some of the queues were a bit long, they kept moving enough so noone was bored. The only gripe that I have is that I spent most of the day with a wet bottom from the constant rain but that couldn't be helped.



Spot the mad woman who is cold, wet but happy!!!



We were there until about 6pm when the skies had gotten darker and with the smoke from the Vampire ride and the coloured lights and halloween decorations, it looked quite spooky but cool.

I must say that at times I felt a little old as most of the staff all looked still in their teens/early twenties but every one of them that we spoke to were polite, friendly and asked how our day was going - even seeming interested in our answer. I have nothing but praise for them all.

All in all a great day out but I was soooooo glad when we got home, could change out of the wet clothes and put on something ugly and comfy and veg out in front of Midsummer Murders. Sam xx

Random thought...

 Why is it that I'm always wearing black clothes when dusting (speaks for itself) or sewing things (the loose threads get EVERYWHERE)???!!!!

Days out

It's the start of the half term holidays and after checking the money situation we decided to take the kids to the cinema. We went to see Tin Tin and can I just say that it was absolutely BRILLIANT!! Even Mr Bucket didn't moan about it when we came out afterwards - a miracle some would say.

The film had enough of a storyline, explosions, action and adventure to keep everyone interested. The popcorn was hot and there were enough deals so we didn't feel like we had been totally robbed. There were only a couple of negatives; there was a flashing ceiling light in front of the screen that kept going off at odd moments and just when you wanted to tell someone it suddenly stopped. And the other problem was the adverts - 20 minutes of them. I know that everyone must make some money somewhere, but 20 MINUTES??? Bucket jnr was asking if the film had finished before it had even begun.

Afterwards a trip to McDonalds was 'requested' and they were doing the Tin Tin toys with the Happy Meals which the kids thought was great. Although everyone agreed that the restaurant was noisier than the film.

A nice day out but glad to get back home to my cup of tea and the sound of my kids annoying each other again.

A new day

I would like to welcome anyone who accidentally finds my blog, I've thought about doing one for a while and although it's still in construction at the moment ..... WELCOME!!!

Just to recap I'm a married mum of two, my daughter is 8 and is known as Nelson on her worst days (yes as in the Simpson's character - it's a difficult age) and my youngest has just turned 4. For want of a name let's just call him happy (he is this and more plus really cute).  My husband works very hard so that I can stay at home and look after the kids, the house and anything else that crops up.

I try my hand at most things; I love some crafts but not all; I bake and love the cake mixture - this does not normally get shared that much and I love, love, love to read. I'm going through a teenage angst/vampire/otherworldly thing at the moment - must be reliving my teenage years. I will clean but sometimes the dust gets the best of me and I hate ironing (that pile never gets any lower).

Today is Sunday and for once I have NOTHING planned - I might just stay in my pyjamas ALLLLLL day..... euwwww.... or maybe not.

The blog might change a little bit until I'm happier with it so if you're coming along for the ride hang in there, it will get sorted soon. Sam x