Thursday 29 March 2012

Too much thinking, not enough doing...

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So how have you been? It's been a while. I say this like someone is reading...I've a feeling though I sit and waffle away to myself :)

Well it's been beautiful weather this last week and I have got some sewing done in the sunny conservatory with the sound of the birds tweeting and the sight of the neighbours cats pooing...hmm not so good.

I remember reading that cats don't like strong smells, I know when I've bought cat derrent before it smelt really quite nice, but they don't like it. So after cutting the grass yesterday I febreezed the trodden down path the neighbourhood cats have made along my lawn. Yes, really. I actually febreezed my lawn!  Before now I've tried, orange peel, which is good for a day or so then the smell goes, I've thrown down bowls of water with washing up liquid in...water was quite hot though and I killed the grass -oopsy. This was all when I was trying to stop them using the veggie patch as their loo. But I gave up with the veg patch as it totally put me off eating anything from it...and yes I did make a netting lid to go over it, but these cats appear to wear utility belts for any occasion and somehow managed to claw their way through, or possibly use the laser cutter they appear to carry with them, why don't they just carry porta potties instead! Anyway, the garden smelt lovely yesterday 'summer breeze' febreeze smells even fresher in the garden than it does in the house lol Anything has to be better than 'Eau d'catpoo'
The neighbours probably think I'm totally insane, as not long after the febreezing the grass I was then hanging a Union Jack bag from a shrub taking photos for my facebook page. I'm not insane, just errrm....creative *cough*. Infact they often see me hanging a variety of items from there, it's a pretty shrub and shows off the items nicely.





The opening of this blog makes it sound like I've been really busy. I have and I haven't. I've been uber busy thinking about stuff to make, quite a bit less busy about actually making it. Orders have quietened down of late, so I was going to use this time to make up stock, of which I had very little and I'm supposed to be having a stall at a little fete in a couple of months. But My get up and go basically got up and went. I did get a couple of orders through though and this spurred me on to keep making after I'd made the orders up. But alas today all i can think about is the things that I should be doing, rather than actually doing them.

A downside of the sunny weather is the realisation that my windows are in dire need of a clean. The sun has been shining through what looks like an opaque window, it is infact clear glass, just 'in need of a clean' clear glass. My plan of action today was, school run, get home, empty dishwasher, get ironing out of the way while the weather was still a bit nippy, then out with my bowl of soapy water and get those windows sparkly clean. So far in reality, I did school run, emptied dishwasher, looked at the ironing pile and gave a sigh, made some fimo hearts and ate a hot cross bun whilst they were baking. Hmm, the day hasn't gone quite to plan. (the hot cross bun was yummmmmy though).

Oh, I also washed up some glass jars for a new project, a new project that I've been wanting to start for ages but as usual never quite got round to it. I think it's because I know it means I'm going to have to find room for even more 'stuff' and my craft storage is slowly, well, rather quickly actually, taking over the conservatory. Now considering the conservatory is the width of my house and 15ft deep, thats a whole lot of space covered in 'stuff'. :(

As I thought more about preparing the things I need to wash the windows I obviously somehow ended up on here writing this to put it off a bit longer. I WILL wash the windows today though as the weather is supossed to turn rubbish again soon and there's no way I'm going out there cleaning windows whilst it's cold. Hmm, but then again, if the sun is soon going to dissapear, no one will see that the windows need washing ;) No Claire, they HAVE to be done. Its the school Easter holidays starting next week and we have a very busy 2 weeks planned, so nothing much is going to get done  and I don't even have tomorrow to rush round as I'm at hospital most of the day.

I'm off to climb the ironing pile and possibly wash the windows. I'm taking the kids to town straight from school to pick up Jacks new glasses so I'll not get anything done then either.

Please, please, please if anyone is out there reading this, do you have any tips on how to find your get up and go once it's got up and left the building? I need willpower and determination to make this work and I'm lacking both which I find very frustrating. ANY help much appreciated!

Hugs xxx

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Spring is in the air....which makes for a much happier Claire.

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Well, it's been beautiful the last couple of days, bloody freezing, but sunny all the same. I'm so thankful for some sunshine at last, it makes everything seem so much better.

I've had a productive week so far (that sounds more impressive than it is, as it's actually only Tuesday evening at the moment. ;) I think the productiveness is al due to the sunshine, I've been sat in the conservatory, sun shining, birds tweeting...next doors cat pooping grrrr, but apart from the cat, it's been lovely. It's been me, crafts, music and crafting. Lovely.

My Eco Bags have been selling well this week, so I've been decorating a few more of those to have in stock. I've also been playing with a new product today.

Last week I had a look round the market in town and I saw a stall which just sold stamps, I've had some stamp related ideas floating round for a while now, but not really done anything about them, so I thought I'd go and have a nosey. Once I had squeezed my way though the elderly men who seem to be almost closing up gaps so I couldnt get a look in, which of course made me want to look all the more, what were they hiding in there?!  I soon was drawn to a massive box of little packs of stamps, all labelled up with countries or worldwide mix, I asked how much they were, I know nothing about stamps so I had no knowledge to whether they were a good price or not, but they seemed ok to me so I bo ught a few packs.

So today I sat in the sunshine in the warmth of the conservatory surrounded by stamps and PVA glue. There's something about PVA glue that instantly turns me into a 5 year old, I just need to get my hands right in and go for it.  I covered several little trinket boxes in the stamps and got very satisfyingly gloopy in the process :) This has now now spurred me on to finding more reasons to get gloopy with PVA at any given time.



Tomorrow will be back to needle and thread and possibly some fimo making too. I have an incredibly short boredom threshold, so I really do need to keep a nice mixture of crafts going or I think I'd go stir crazy....well, more so than I am already.

This weekend I'm going back down South, where I am originally from, to meet up with some old primary school freinds. I've not seen most of them for decades, so it'll be interesting to meet up.

This however brings the dilema of the fact that my ever increasing self is now not going to fit into what I'd really like to wear...or just about anything else in my wardrobe, so I'm wondering if it would be ok to turn up in PJs? I could say it was all the rage up North :) We're meeting up at a pub that is near to our old primary school. I wish we could have a look round the school, so many happy memories were made in that school, luckily they aren't locked inside the school, but inside my head :)

I actually travel down on Friday, so I've got a long weekend away, which will be nice, but I'll also miss my boys lots as I'm going alone while the boys stop home with my hubby.

But for now I'm off to bed to dream of losing half a stone before the morning, this may mean I wake up and have chopped a limb off of course, as I can't see how else it's going to happen. It doesn't help that I made a banana loaf this week and it keeps calling me to eat it...damn that banana bread!

Hugs xx