Knitivity

This is my longest ongoing knitting project and probably my favourite. Every year a few more figures arrive at the stable, and I'm almost there - just two shepherds and an ox to go.

A while back I thought I'd lost the donkey, so knitted another one, only to find the original in my daughter's My Little Pony House… and I'd forgotten how many sheep I'd made - a few have wandered out of shot (need another shepherd) - last year I found some fluffy white and brown yarn in a charity shop and got a bit carried away.

I used 'Knitivity' by Fiona Goble. Such a great book. The patterns are easy to follow and the knitting really isn't tricky. Probably the most time-consuming part is the robes, and you do need lots of different colours, which was never going to be a problem for me with my wool hoarding habit..

It's such a lovely thing to have - every year I forget quite how lovely, until we take the figures out of the box and set them on the hall table. Hopefully they'll be making an appearance for years to come.

I've a few old family Christmas decorations that are very dear to me - and who knows, maybe far into the future some small person will be asking his mum why Great Granny knitted so many sheep..

Sparkly Christmas decorations

You can't do kids Christmas craft without a bit of sparkle. 'Tis the season to embrace your glittery side… your glittery table...and your glittery floor…. and frankly I could do with a sprinkle of Christmas twinkle, because even though my three are practically hyperventilating with excitement, all I can think about at the moment is the mountain of stuff I haven't done.

But I made myself sit down with the youngest to have a go at a few decorations, and these were her favourites. Very simple to do - all you need is a yogurt pot (any size), some tinsel, paper, glitter, glue and thread.

Cut the rim off your pot - cut down about a cm or so from the top and then cut all the way around (don't worry if it doesn't look very even as it'll be hidden under the tinsel), then wrap the tinsel around the ring (a piece with shorter, sparkly bits is best)
Tie a knot when you're finished and cut to neaten off.

For the angel, use a cup about the same size as the yogurt pot to draw a circle on some plain paper, cut it out, snip in half and make a cone shape.

Use the other half of the circle for the arms, making them wider at the ends (see pic)

The angel is very similar to the figures I made for our Nativity scene last year.

If you haven't got coloured paper just colour some in. My daughter chose yellow for the hair - put a pink piece on top of whatever colour you like, draw a head shape and cut out the two circles.

Stick these two pieces together and use it as a guide to draw the hair. Cut out the middle so there's a space for the face and glue on.

I had some gold wrapping paper for the wings, but anything shiny will do - metallic pens, glitter, tin foil even. Fold a small piece and draw half a wing, open up and stick in place.

Now your angel is ready to be glued onto the tinsel.
Finally, tie a loop of thread through the circle.

A Christmas tree also looks good - draw half a tree on a folded piece of paper, cut out and add some glitter.

For baubles, scrunch up little bits of coloured tin foil (great excuse to eat Christmas chocolates!) and the star on top of the tree came from a redundant Rewards Chart…

Or you could try a star, and if you don't have a good stencil, then make one of these Easy Stars and add some glitter.

Bells, or snowmen would work well too, or just anything you fancy!

Early Bird

another school run photo, and when it comes to early morning skies, there have been some right stunners this month...obviously some pretty dismal, depressing ones too, but thought I'd focus on the good days, in a cup half full kind of way.

I know it doesn't get the best press, November - the first real icy blast of winter and fading autumn colour, yet for me it's more than just the dull inbetweener because it's my birthday month. Not that I get remotely excited about that anymore, but it's never a month I wish away either.

We pick up a friend's son a few times a week, and this is the sky view just past their house. Well, sometimes it is, when the clouds lift high enough to let the light shine through.When the weather's good there's that moment of anticipation as we turn onto the road heading due east, and get our first proper look at the sun rising behind the hills. Even more spectacular when the clouds catch the colours. For a minute on a chilly November morning it drowns out the racket in the back of the car and never fails to lift my spirits.
Hope ahead.

The Gallery theme this week is November

Mr Crocodile rolls up to the Zoo

Our homemade Zoo is getting pretty busy. This is the fourteenth arrival since the loo roll lion kicked the whole thing off in May. Never imagined back then I'd end up spending so much time thinking about how to make a hoard of animals out of the recycling rubbish...

The crocodile is an egg box/cardboard roll combo - you'll need one of the pointy cone middle bits from an egg box.

Cut it in half, then cut a section of the loo roll middle for the body. Use the egg box piece to measure this if you like, but it doesn't need to be accurate - bigger is better at this stage.

Glue a pointy piece onto one end - don't try and glue it completely flat, concentrate on getting the sides to stick, but leave the top proud of the body. This will be the top part of the croc's head. And don't worry about the extra bits of card sticking out below - these can be snipped away once it's dry.

I think the tail looks better if you cut a curve into the other egg box bit before gluing it under the body - this time you want it to fit snuggly to the cardboard roll , though again don't worry about edges not meeting up at the bottom.
Paper clips help to hold everything in place while it dries.

When it's ready, cut away the hanging down bits so it sits flat, then paint your croc - remember to paint some spare card too.

For the teeth, cut a thin strip of white paper that wraps around most of the head section - use a black pen to draw a zigzag pattern. Snip each end into a gradual point and glue in place.

For the eyes we coloured some paper with a yellow highlighter pen and used a good old hole punch.
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Put one of these on the spare green card and draw around it - so you have a small piece that's curved at the top and flat at the bottom.

Make two, glue on the circles, then you may need to cut more of the bottom edge off, so they don't stick out too much when you push them into slits (made with nail scissors) close to the top of the croc's head.

Cut out feet (do one and use as a template) - fold at an angle (see black lines below) and stick them on underneath so they point forward.

Then just draw on nostrils and some markings......and there you have it!

I've put the croc in the turtle's pool, but he could do with one made from a larger ice cream lid!

For a stealthy. swimming croc, forget the feet and cut more of the sides away...

...or just use a head....

Linking up with Kids Get Crafty

Many more projects like this in my craft books, 'Make Your Own Zoo' and 'Make Your Own Farm Animals'

The Gallery: The turquoise trouser suit

I think it's fair to say my fashion sense has never been that great...

I remember loving this smart little nylon number - not sure who got it for me though - definitely wasn't my mum because she couldn't bear it.

I don't know why she didn't just make the suit mysteriously disappear. I've tried this a few times, but annoyingly my daughter has a knack of finding whatever it is before I've squirrelled it out of the house.

On the day the picture was taken, my cousins were coming to stay, and I was determined to show off my trouser suit. Of course as soon as mum caught a glimpse of turquoise, she told me in no uncertain terms to change - I point blank refused and was sent to my room…she really must have hated it!
When I heard the cousins arriving, I sneaked out and climbed through a small window at the side of the house, casually joining everyone outside by the car as if nothing had happened - and I was pretty certain mum would be too busy to make a fuss.

But she did make a point of taking this photo. Even though she knew it would be years before I actually got the point….

Now I have reasonably regular clothes battles with my 6 year old, which she usually wins - but I do take photos of her more memorable outfits.  For later.

Plenty more classic photos over at The Gallery - the theme this week is A Younger Me.

Revisiting Day 115: Two Minute Silence

I can hardly believe it's almost a year since my husband came home. The time's gone so fast - a hell of a lot faster than the year he was away…funny enough.

The 18th November: that was the day. Especially significant somehow, being so close to Remembrance Day. 
The countdown seemed to go on and on and ON, and then, there he was, standing outside the door, as if it was the most normal thing ever. Exhausted; thin; with a few more grey hairs. Such an unforgettable moment. 
Such a wave of joy and relief.

I've been looking back over a few of the posts I wrote during his Afghan tour. Some still choke me up; not because of the words, but because I remember how I felt at that time. Emotional. Tired. Holding on.

This poem is from roughly a third of the way through the year. I'd seen a notice in a local shop window about plans to hold a 2 minute silence for 6 young soldiers killed in Afghanistan. The meeting place was by a bus stop in the middle of the village, so I took the kids along. 
Apologies if you've read it before, but with Remembrance Day coming up, thought it was worth revisiting.  
Lest We Forget.

Day 115 - Two Minute Silence

We join a line at a bus stop

No ordinary queue.

A small gathering of strangers,

all here for the same reason;

to remember six young men 

none of us knew,

killed in a place we can't imagine.

Their pictures pinned to the shelter wall;

smiling, confident, brave.

A quick snapshot

that every soldier knows

might be his last.

The one we see when they are gone.

Two minutes of silence,

Two minutes for them.

I steal a glance at my eldest,

head bowed, just nine;

Half the life 

of the youngest soldier.

I think of the family's grief and pain,

the sadness that must weigh them down

and engulf everything.

 I think of the impossible road ahead;

the gaps that will never close.

And I pray in these darkest hours

there's some comfort in knowing 

they died with friends,

doing a job they loved.

However hard to understand.

The church bell breaks the silence;

time moves on again.

The kids walk slowly to the car,
my thoughts caught in a distant place

as they count the days till daddy's home.

Linking up with Victoria's 'Prose for Thought'