While you were sleeping

These little creatures have all been sitting in my sewing basket for six months waiting for my attention.

Baby's foot had fallen off, Ellie's ear was hanging by a thread and little Bear had lost an eye.

So, tonight I sat alone downstairs listening to the gentle snores of those above me, and stitched them all back together, thinking of their respective owners (and owners-to-be) as I did so, thinking that this is what motherhood is really about, the quiet work behind the scenes. It seemed symbolic tonight that I had these three things ready to fix and that each belongs to a different child.

It's too easy in the bustle of the day to lose sight of my girls when they're right in front of me all the time, so it seems important every now and then to do something like this, for them, with them in mind; something that they will appreciate me having done without them needing to show their appreciation in any way other than to reclaim their lost toy/mitten. Tomorrow I will appreciate them even more because I've taken this time without them to concentrate on a tiny act of love for them.

Brentor Church, rocks & the sofa coming home

We drove to Tavistock to pick up a sofa on Freecycle, stopping on the way back to visit this amazing 13th century church in Brentor, built on top of this beautiful hill on the outskirts of Dartmoor. I'm not religious, but church buildings have such resonance and this one in particular is one those places that makes your skin tingle with awe.

Imagine coming out of a church service to this view!

Someone from the village climbs the hill every morning to put fresh flowers inside

A beautiful kissing gate

 And finally, a pretty little house I always admire on the way to and from Tavi.

The sofa has inspired a new arrangement in our living room, which suddenly seems a much more welcoming space!

Milly likes the new sofa too!

Hospital art

We took Tula in for one of her appointments last week (see my other blog tulalulabelle to find out why) and went to a floor we haven't been to before and found these two amazing artworks:

Some details:

Milly with her 'suitbag'

Sadly I only had my phone with me so the pictures aren't great, plus I felt a bit of a lemon standing in the corridor snapping away whilst nurses and doctors bustled past me... next time I'll take my camera, thermos and sarnies of course ;-)

There didn't seem to be any signatures or titles for either of the pieces, so I don't know if it was one seamstress or a group work, but the details on all of the squares was just fantastic. Milly especially liked this little robin! It's funny isn't it, how people stop noticing their surroundings after a while until it becomes odd to be seen appreciating something that to them is literally just wallpaper.

Talking of surroundings, we moved all our furniture round in our living room this evening and lordy, it feels fantastic! I'll get some pics in daylight, though I don't have any 'before' shots to compare, so you'll have to trust me when I say it really is so much better. We picked up a new sofa today on Freecycle, which is what inspired the change.

I say picked up, but what we actually did was pick it up and then fling it all over the road on the way home because Jude forgot to tie it down in the trailer. Oops! So it now has a rather fetching dent in the arm which I'll have to patch some day... Luckily no-one but the sofa was injured.

Elderflower champagne!

Here's my contribution to Green Friday at Raindrops and Daisies!

This is our homemade Elderflower Champagne, from an old recipe found here. Perfect for a sunny day in the garden :-)

Today's entertaining Milly challenge:

Home-made paint!

Mix up 2tbs cornflour and a dollop of shampoo and pour into a muffin tin

Add food colouring and mix

Then, take all your clothes off, go into the garden and paint everything in sight!! If you're two, that is ;-)

I'll post the results tomorrow. I'm guessing the food colouring might take more than one wash to remove...

[Bath-tub paints idea found here]


Edit: Just in case anyone has the crazy-assed idea that I'd be able to look after three under-fives whilst intoxicated - I'm not! Not only am I on 24hr breastfeeding duty, but our elderflower champers is only vaguely alcoholic anyway :-)

Flapjack making and a Milly meltdown

Look!

So I managed to...
rinse all the blackcurrants and red gooseberries I picked in the allotment, ready for um, jam or something...

The Methodists don't often write to me honestly, but they're threatening to close Jessie's wonderful Montessori nursery down by selling it above the price the nursery can afford to buy it at - hence a flurry of angry letters to them from unhappy parents!

finish our birthday cards ready to send...

and watch Milly have a mini-meltdown before lunch...

which she was eased out of by flapjack-making...

as well as go shopping to Trago (yuk), the supemarket and Mole Valley Farmers for Lucky's dogfood - actually all my least favourite places to be on a lovely day....

....but it was OK! And we even managed to be having a lovely pizza supper happily by the time Dad came home, hooray :-)

And this morning we found a little overnight visitor in the bathroom:

 I think he might be a Buff Ermine

(Milly's verdict on the flapjacks: "Don't like them." - Ah well.)