Stupid things happen in threes...

So maybe I can work out how many more we're due this weekend to stop myself from going insane!

This week, we got locked out, had no sleep and Phil has been in a horrendous mood since Friday morning. He's having a lie-in now so perhaps that'll help.

Yesterday I went to a horrid supermarket to get all our christmas preparation ingredients. Finn refused to go to bed and just clung to me like a koala for two and a half hours so I was still making the red onion marmalade at 11pm last night - but it's absolutely gorgeous so that's a good thing!

This morning I had to get up with Finn at 6am, although I'd expected him to sleep a little later as he ended up not falling asleep til 8.30pm and woke hourly for nightfeeds. So I was really proud of myself for wanting to get on and not waste that time. Pride comes before several falls, apparently... Chloe joined us (despite also having a late night - I predict her mood will be in decline by about 9.30am) and we decided to make the chocolate roulade to freeze for Christmas Day. As I mentioned, I bought all the ingredients yesterday. Except we didn't read the recipe properly and when Chloe had broken six eggs beautifully into the bowl with the sugar, not a trace of shell in sight, we realised the eggs needed separating and we only wanted the yolks for that bit. Which obviously meant the whole lot was useless for the roulade, and because I'd bought only the ingredients we needed (of course, who'd be so stupid as not to read a recipe properly?), we didn't have anymore eggs or sugar. And it's sunday, so the shops don't open til ten. So the melted chocolate will be hard again by the time we get to that stage again.

So, I took a calming down break. Which was interrupted by the cat doing an enormous poo, so the calming down break became a clean out the cat tray break. Not quite as relaxing, somehow. And then Finn poured a glass of water over the computer keyboard. Which was annoying but doesn't seem to have caused any permanent damage. So we gave up for a bit and had some more breakfast, then decided to make three sponges with the useless roulade mix, two to make a sandwich cake for my next training weekend, and one for our christmas trifle. So that was good. Until we came to put the mixture in the tins and realised the marg was still sitting in the scales. So we mixed it all again, and finally got the cakes into the oven. When Finn again sensed I was on the verge of feeling calm and filled the biggest nappy ever. And Chloe wanted to have an argument about unsuitable tv programmes. And the cat escaped and raced upstairs miaowing - although Phil seems to have slept through that too.

And there we are. The last of the sponges is cooking now, the children have both had breakfast, Phil has had a long lie-in (I know, a student would find that hilarious but 9am is a HUGE treat here!) and we may have time to dash to the shop before Chloe's riding lesson. This has been a ridiculous morning but we're all still standing, nothing has happened that isn't fixable, and I think I'm learning to cope a little better with stressful situations. A little. And I've lost count of how many things that was - definitely more than three. Can we get a break now?!

More photos :)

Although I can't actually find the ones I want, which are of some little baby toys I made recently I'll have to take some more of those! Anyway, this is a felted purse that I knitted, sewed together and then added a zip to. I've always been scared of zips (sewing them, not just zipping them, lol!), so it was a good challenge. It's a bit wonky, but I'm pleased with it anyway!

And some saltdough hearts I was really pleased with until they went soggy! Everytime we make saltdough, the things look gorgeous but then go soft. This time I thought we'd cracked it by painting them quicker, but we made these and some beautiful Christmassy star shapes for Finn's little friends, and they were soggy within a few days. I think my recipe must be wrong, it's from a craft book but says 2 cups flour to 1 cup salt - the kid's cookbook says 1 cup flour to 1 salt, so I'm going to try that next time.

And a picture of my lovely littlies - Chloe's got Victorian week at school this week so they've all dressed up for the week and rotated to do different activities with each teacher - yesterday was making scones, today is printing. And Finn at his favourite toy - he adores the piano and is already starting to pick out notes rather than just bashing at it. He's always singing and often drags one of the guitars onto his lap and sings along to his strumming. He's very musical already so I'm interested to see how much he'll teach himself just having the instruments around and copying daddy!

And I think Finn's about to wake up and the kitten is driving me insane by dive-bombing my fingers as I type so that's it for now. It's so lovely to be back!!

Introducing our new member!

Well, here's our new girl:

Clover the kitten - she's a black tabby but you can't really see her gorgeous markings here. I'm getting used to the new camera!! I had a funny revelation today. My new camera (birthday present! Hooray!) arrived today and I instantly got excited about blogging again, and about crafting again! I've been doing little crafty bits but not felt really into it lately - partly because of the bugs we're all snivelling with again, but also I think because I couldn't share it. The crafting and the blogging has become a part of my social interaction and because I couldn't take or share photos of crafty things, I felt a bit left out and down about it! I feel bad, too, because I've been reading other people's blogs but not posting on mine. Taking but not giving. So I'm giving again now, and I hope I'll be able to find the time to keep it up properly again. It's all been really manic with my training, ill children and christmas planning, but I feel so much more grounded if I check in here and analyse myself for a while, lol!

So, here's some of the wrapping paper we sponge painted today - we had tonnes of this paper from a delivery and I'd been waiting for a good day to start decorating it, so Chloe was off school with a heavy cold and today was the day. We did about ten sheets the size of this and we've only done half of the paper we've got, but it was great fun. Finn loved playing with the sponges but went for a nap after doing a little bit, which was lovely as Chloe and I got to spend an hour and a half playing with paint :)

So it's great to be back, I'll share more asap :)