Sarah Youde

A relaxing kind of week :)

I have been dreading this week because Mark was going away for a few days and it is surprising how quickly you become used to having company every night, even when you have spent the majority of your marriage spending weekday nights alone because your husband commutes to work and stays away during the week.  It wasn't just that Mark was going to be away but also because Charlotte has gone away with the school, on a residential trip.  For FOUR days (and three nights).  She's only 8 and I miss her because I know she is a big la-la and so accident prone - I think I stopped every teacher in turn and asked them if they would look after my little girl.  I hope they don't speak to each other about it, my hope is that they think I have asked them because they are the special one!

On top of that my Mum has left too! She lives across the road and I see her every day but she has flown out to South Africa to see my sister (who lives there and is 50 on April 4th *snigger*).  So you see Ben, Amy and I are a little lost this week.

I have mostly been doing a bit of sorting, new wardrobes tend to require a complete sort out of your 'stuff' don't they?

I have also been having a bit of me time...

...and admiring the flowers in my window (which my brother bought for my Mum for Mother's Day but I have acquired on account of Mum buggering off to SA).  A few quiet cups of tea, a bit of nail painting (interuppted and thereby ruined by untimely delivery of my groceries!) and some hooky happiness in the form of pillow finishing (the one to match my Flowers in the Snow blanket).

I have had some lovely moments with little Amy.  She has been doing little dances for me all the time and it made me realise that, perhaps, she has been wanting to do them for ages but that Charlotte always takes over / joins in.  It's lovely to see her doing her own thing and being so sweet with it.  Amy is a little lost at bed time though, she is not used to going to a room by herself and getting to sleep without her big sister!  Actually, Ben has been a little angel too, apart from trying it on a bit when he should be going to bed - I am sure he thought the bedtime routine would be discarded if Charlotte was away.  Ben misses Charlotte too, I can tell.  He would never admit it though!

Rainbows and Hearts are the room!

The rainbows and hearts blankets made by me and my Mum are in the girls bedrooms.

Here are a few pictures of them in-situ to give you an idea of how they look and the reason for the colour choices :) 

Don't they look pretty?  Amy and Charlotte love them!

See how happy they are.

The room is so much easier to keep tidy now that we have sorted it all out.  It looks like this all the time now.  In fact, it looks even better because they have a nice roman blind now and the wall has been painted pink (it was still plaster when this was taken as we had the wall batoned to combat the damp problem).

The wire below the TV is also a thing of the past as it has been hidden behind some trunking (is that the word?) which has been painted to match the wall.

I love their little room!

Blooming flower cushion and a bit of decorating

I finished my blooming flower cushion a few weeks ago but I haven't managed to blog it so I have finally taken a few photographs so that I can share.

I loved making this cushion, it was so easy and the cushion inserts (12") that I bought from Abakhan Fabrics are the perfect size for it, they are feather too so really soft and squishy :)

Ignore the errant blue thread, there is always one end which gets away and needs to be sewn in later isn't there?!

I am going to make another one of these later on to match my bedroom because I think it would look gorgeous nestling amongst all the other cushions on the bed.

Talking of beds, we have got a new one.  Finally!  It is memory foam and we splashed out on the memory foam pillows too.  It's heaven but I have found that the new bed makes me really warm so it is taking a bit of getting used to.  I am not sure that Mark is too fond of the pillows yet as he woke up the other morning and said he may as well of bought a breeze block and stuck a pillow protector on it!

I love our new wardrobes in our room too, it is lovely to have the floor to ceiling sliding doors especially as one of them is a mirror and I have been meaning to buy a floor length mirror for ever.  I am not sure about the reflection I see it it but the oak and mirrored doors are certainly gorgeous.

We have got new wallpaper and paint and as soon as Charlotte and Amy's room is completed Mark is going to finish ours off.  I can't wait.  I will share a picture when it is all done - it's going to look lovely. I need to get a little french dressing table and some wall art to finish it off,  I may make a mixed media canvas for the wall by my bed :)

Speed Scraps - Meeting Mickey

'What?' I hear you ask.  Sarah has done a layout?  Well, yes I have and not only a layout, I have done a video too :) 

So, without further ado - because I am tired and want to go to sleep now (I am writing this post at night to be published before the school run tomorrow, I am not going to bed at 8am!) - here is my first Disney themed layout.  I will be doing more Disney layouts because I have tons of photographs but 'Meeting Mickey' is, I think quite appropriately, my first layout about our trip to Florida.

Hmmm, as I was typing that last paragraph I had a flash in my brain telling me that I have already done a Disney layout, that it was for the Four Ways Challenge in The Scrapbook Magazine.  I think I might have used a Disney photo for that layout.  I may even have used THE SAME photograph!!  Oh dear, I have a memory like a seive, perhaps I did!  I will have to wait for publication to find out :)

And here is the Speed Scraps video.  Enjoy :)

 

Happy 10th Birthday Ben

Ben is 10 today!  How mad is that?  Double figures at last and he is so happy.

He had a lovely day, despite 'not having fun' at school.  We have just got back from a total pig out at Pizza Hut and he has gone to his room to watch his new tv (thanks Mr Tesco for clubcard vouchers!).  As I said, one happy little boy!

Happy birthday little man, we love you lots!

Rainbows and Hearts Blanket - Ta Dah!

I have finished the Hearts and Rainbows blanket for Amy!  I know, I can't quite believe how quickly this one crocheted up although I did work on it a lot because I wanted it to be ready for her when the girls room was finished and I have done it.  Mum is making the same blanket for Charlotte, we are having a stitch-a-long so that they both have them at the same time.

I have used Stylecraft Special DK for this blanket because I think it is such a great value yarn, it's acrylic so washable (great for kids!) and yet it doesn't feel really cheap and is a good choice for making blankets that don't cost the earth. 

The pattern stripes are made up of a shell pattern which gives the blanket a beautiful quilted effect and makes it feel so snuggly and the hearts are just adorable!

The pattern for this blanket is a little smaller than the size Mum and I decided to make for the girls, it is 12 hearts wide on the pattern and we have made it 18 hearts wide, so it is a third wider.  We also slightly changed the beginning and end of the rows and added a deep scalloped border (Again from the Around the Corner Crochet Borders book - we chose border #5).  In fact, we added two rows of white double crochet and one row of purple double crochet before the 3 rows for the scallops that the pattern demanded; this made it a six row border - we must be mad - but it really was worth the effort!

I have used purple for the edging rather than the obvious choice for this blanket (pink being the dominant colour) because Mum is doing Charlotte's blanket with pink edging as it is her favourite colour.  Amy's favourite colour is purple and I thought doing the borders in different colours may save me a lot of aggro in the future because I will be able to determine whose blanket is whose quickly and easily!  The girls bedroom is painted pink with pink and lilac bedroom furniture, they have a hot pink chandelier and a 32" TV on the wall.  Honestly!!  I want to move into that room.  I am going to crochet some bunting to go somewhere in there to match the blankets, that should look pretty :)

I can't wait for Mum to give Charlotte her blanket and to put both of the blankets in their bedroom, it is going to look so pretty.  All I can say is they are very lucky little girls, I would have loved one of these when I was a their age.  I would love one now actually - get your crochet hook out again Mum :)

Washi love and a bit of a sort out

I had to buy some washi tape because, you know, it is so pretty!  Also, I thought it would tie in very nicely with my smash book and the tapes that I have from the smash book range.

I have piled the new washi tape up right next to my momiji's which have finally found a home in my craft room.

I have been looking around my craft room lately and getting really aggravated that the top of my expedit unit has been full of 'stuff' but not in a nice way so I have had a little re-organise and although the top of the unit is still full of stuff because there is only so much storage you can fit into a 10 ft square room it looks a lot nicer / neater.  I have stored my scrapbook albums up there and added a few bits of art work to pretty it up.

I hate mess but I also hate sorting it out!  We have had a few weeks of the house being upside down due to new wardrobes being built and I am trying to summon up the motivation to get cracking and sort the house out.  I am starting tomorrow!

At the weekend Charlotte went out to play and came back covered in blood and minus one of her front teeth (a second one!).  I cannot begin to tell how distraught I was, Mark had to calm me down because I totally freaked out.  It was devastating.  Luckily the dentist was open on Saturday (it is one open one Saturday a month) and they were able to fix Charlotte's tooth and although she broke close to the root it is as good as new.  However, even typing this, I am feeling sick.  It was truly awful and I am heartbroken that my beautiful girl has lost most of her front tooth!  She was so brave, I don't think she realises quite what has happened - no matter how many times we have told them to look after their second teeth because they don't grow back I don't think 8 year olds can comprehend that.  I just keep telling myself that it could have been worse, at least she still has a tooth there.

Charlotte has gone to school today telling everyone who walks past what happened.  She is fine, thankfully but she is going on a school trip for a week at the end of March and I am dreading it because she is so accident prone!

Away From it All

Mark and I had a lovely time away in Exeter last Friday night.  It wasn't far to go but definitely recharged our batteries having that one night away together.  Totally alone and without any children to get back to we spent the afternoon wondering around Exeter city centre, admiring Exeter Cathedral and discovering a few pubs!

The cathedral is as gorgeous as ever although I was really disappointed in the evening that the council (or whoever is responsible) haven't made more of a feature of this landmark.  I was expecting it to have spectacular lighting at night and it just hasn't got it.

We went into a couple of Wetherspoon pubs but they were awful!  Great cavernous places with no personality, truly uninspiring.  One of them seemed to be an old courthouse but had been remodelled and has ended up looking like a workhouse hall, such a shame as some chesterfields, nice lighting better decoration could make so much more of such a beautiful place - the stained glass windows are stunning!

Then we found The White Hart which is a 17th century coaching inn and we loved it there!  We are definitely a couple who prefer the more old fashioned kind of pub where you can buy bespoke ales and relax in a warming atmosphere!

After a few relaxed drinks in the afternoon Mark upgraded his old iPhone 3G (hand me down from me!) to a very fancy iPhone 4S.  I wasn't bothered about upgrading from my iPhone 4 to a 4S until I saw how fantastic Siri is!  I really need to upgrade now.

The Royal Clarence Hotel is lovely!  I cant explain how much I love it there, from the old fashioned touches:

To the fabulous restuarant:

To the Champagne Bar where I enjoyed a couple of delicious cosmopolitan cocktails!

There is even a pub next door to the hotel which, if you like, will put your purchases on your hotel bill so I presume it is also part of the Royal Clarence Hotel!  Truly a wonderful time away.

But also, it's lovely to be home :)

Reasons to be Cheerful - Parts One, Two and Three!

Hello!

I am feeling very happy today for a number of reasons.  Firstly, because I have just finished drinking a lovely cup of hot chocolate and have relaxed on the sofa for the evening with my crochet basket at my feet, ready for when I have finished this blog post and also because I have finally finished my crochet Happy Flower.

I saw Lucy's flower on the Attic 24 blog and literally stalked the blog until the pattern was available.  I was actually crocheting it in parts as Lucy was uploading the pattern (she uploaded it in three parts).  I love it.  Although I crocheted it immediately and then stiffened it by painting the back with PVA glue as Lucy recommended it then sat in my craft room waiting to be strung together for a good few days, but now it is done and it is just soooo, well, HAPPY.

It looks so pretty hanging in my craft room.  I have plans to make some crochet bunting for my room too so that is going to add to the cosiness.  I also now have the comfy armchair and a fluffy rug in there so it is looking a little less 'officy' and a little bit more like a real retreat for me.  I keep telling Mark that it is MY craft room but he kind of likes it in there too.

This is the corner that used to have a tall worktop / unit  but that has now been removed to make room for cosiness!

Tomorrow Mr Youde and I are going away for the night without the kids!  So that is another reason to be cheerful (part 3).

We are not venturing too far but we will be spending the night in a lovely hotel in Exeter and we have booked into Michael Caine's aBode restaurant to sample a bit of fine dining.  We have stayed at the hotel (Royal Clarence) before and I think we ate in the restaurant too but that was before I (we) knew anything about Michael Caines and his culinary brilliance so we definitely didn't savour the experience.  Although, I think I ate my weight in his gorgeous créme brülée.

image source: google.com

 I can't wait!  It is going to be great to get away and spend some time together.

 

#Smashing

When I was in America I went to Michael's because it had to be done.  I am sure you know, but in case you don't, Michael's is a MASSIVE craft store.  I was so overwhelmed by the amount of 'stuff' in there that the only thing I really brought back was a nice stash of the Smashbook products.

I bought it so that I could do a Smashbook about our Florida trip, I thought it would be a fabulous way to document the trip and enable me to include all the tickets and other paraphernalia that I brought back with me.  I went to a crop recently and it was the Smash products that I took with me along with some Florida photographs.  Unfortunately I managed to forget to take all my collected tickets etc with me but I did manage to make a little start on the book and it was such great fun.  I can't wait to have another go at it.

Firstly I used some Smash Tabs to divide my book into sections relevant to our trip so that, although this is a Smash book, there will be some sort of order to the pages.  I love how they look, especially the candy stripe tab.

I thought an obvious place to start would be the first page so I used this photograph of the fabulous Minnie and Mickey Mouse topiary at The Magic Kingdom as a starting point and just 'smashed' some tape and other stuff in there.  I was a little annoyed at having forgotten my ephemera of the trip but I can add that later on.

The only other page I did at the crop was this one which is the first page of the Hollywood Studios section of the book. 

I really enjoyed playing and I am itching to get back in my craft room and add some more pages to the book, this time with all my collected bits and pieces too (and paint, sprays and other products that I didn't have with me at the crop)!