Soft landing and a calendar cushion

Home life has settled down at last, after all the excitement of him getting back. The days now have a gentle rhythm to them. Not to say there haven't been a few bumps along the way....the morning routine went a bit haywire at the start - I mean, you'd think another pair of hands would speed things up during the mad rush before school, well not straight off as it turns out, we were all over the place! Things eventually calmed down by the end of the first week - just needed time to get used to each other again.
And I have to admit, I am still adjusting to having company 24/7 (as lovely as it is), after being on my own for so long. From nothing to all and back. The story of my life. Maybe a post for another day?

I can see my husband slowly unwinding too. As well as being relentlessly tough, his year away was so regimented and ordered - everything done pretty much straight away and people listened....realisation's dawning that if he expects things to go like clockwork here, he'll drive himself insane!
And the house is lit up like a belisha beacon. He seems to have forgotten how to switch a light off.

Talking of lights - sparkly, twinkly fairy lights - I'm going all out this christmas, no holding back! It's going to be christmas with jingly bells on and lashings of multi-coloured glitter.  I was such a misery last year as he'd just gone to Afghanistan - time to make up for it I think. So to kick things off I made an Advent calendar cushion...

Not sure it'll catch on, but any project that makes a dent in my huge wool supply is fine by me. The cushion's made out of an old jumper I couldn't bring myself to throw away (so soft, but holey - sooo soft though)

This is such a quick and easy knitted cushion cover, and the sleeves make a good pair of fingerless gloves. Old patterned christmas jumpers would be great for covers, wouldn't they?

The tree itself is a large knitted triangle and the little square pockets were quick to do, but the numbers took a while. Don't look too hard - I chain stitched them on and they're all kinds of sizes.

I put some chocolate buttons wrapped in tin foil in each pocket, and the cushion is now sitting at the end of my daughter's bed. It's going to be a bit of a test - more self-control needed than one hanging on the wall or safely on top of the fridge. We'll see...

But this has got to be my favourite Christmas thing so far. It's the picture my 5 year old drew at school for those cards you feel under a great deal of pressure to buy, you know the ones I mean?

Poor old fairy.

Ouch!

Day 170 - Pushing my luck?

My husband found this in the garage when he got back from his last 6 month tour of Afghanistan...

"SURPRISE!" I said. And he was.

You see my husband had never shown the slightest flicker of interest in owning a camper. But I'd managed to convince myself that he just didn't know he wanted one. And as he stood there, struggling for words, I knew it was going to be ok: the cards were stacked in my favour - I had just looked after the children for 6 months; he was hardly going to turn round and say, 'take it back'.

Anyway I couldn't, because I'd bought it on ebay.

All things considered, he took the news pretty well.

Looking back on it, it was a bit mad - but coming up to the end of a tour, you experience such an overwhelming mixture of relief, tiredness and elation: it's a giddy combination.....

So an absolutely perfect time to do something rash.

And in my head I had this lovely romantic picture of family camping trips, based I'm sure on childhood memories. We always had a camper. I'd learnt to drive in an orange and white VW.

I did check out the old VW's first, but they were very expensive, even in poor condition. When I saw our Toyota camper-to-be, she had a VW look without the price tag, AND she slept five. So I packed the kids into the car and we headed off to Mold in Cheshire to take a look.

It was a lot further away than I thought.

She did look lovely though, but as her owner ran through the essentials, I felt a wave of panic, because it suddenly struck me just how little I knew about campers (or anything with an engine) and I wasn't sure what to ask or what to look for.

Obviously this sensible moment of doubt had vanished by the time we got home, so based on some rather sketchy advice from my mum's partner ('She's a steal! Toyota's go forever!') I placed my bid, waited nervously, and won.

I did some tinkering before my husband saw her. New curtains - the first and only ones I've ever made, and I recovered the tatty old seats with A LOT of help from a friend.

We have been lucky with Betty, as she came to be called. It could have been a disaster. If I was ever to do anything like this again, I'd take someone with me who knew what they were talking about.

She is over thirty years old and needs to be handled with care. Flat, straight roads are fine - sometimes we reach heady speeds of around 50mph - but Betty hates hills.

Unfortunately we live at the top of a very steep one. She usually screeches up it in second gear with everyone shouting and willing her on (and praying there isn't anything coming the other way)

So it probably won't come as much of a surprise to hear we don't stray far in Betty. Having said that, we live right on the south Wales border, and there's no shortage of beautiful places to explore.

My husband has learnt to love her. I think. And we both like the way the pace of life seems to slow down as we trundle along. Sometimes you need to go slow to appreciate what you've got.

We have had a good laugh about the Betty-buying-episode over the last two years.

And now, here we are again.

Except this time he's gone away for TWELVE months....and I've got a few ideas....