Some advice?

I have spent too much time online and not enough making. Enough is enough! I really want to make something beautiful (yet quick)tomorrow - and have around 3 hours to play, including evening. What can you guys suggest? Share pictures of what you would make/have made in 3 hours? Can be Sewing, crochet (although I'm not super speedy),or anything needing most basic supplies and a glue gun. Share your inspiration please?

Tuesday 10 Spring Colours

Linking up again with Lena 

from Mom2Memphis and Ruby, 

and this week the co host is Jennifer

 from Queen Bees Hive

The theme:

 Spring Colours. Cant do colours without photos, right? Plus - I am showing off my beautiful family (again!)

Spring has well and truly arrived here in the South of England, so my pics are all from this week:

So - In my eyes, through these particular photographs spring colours are:

1. Pink

2. Blue

3. Yellow

4. Green

5. Orange

6. White

7. Purple

8. Red

9. and 10 Ok - cant separate colours from these last two shots that are different from the other 8! 

Cant wait to see what other bloggers have done :-)

Hospital, polymer, and the beach

Its been a funny old week really.  Two hospital appointments with Lucas, going to the Isle of Wight for my day job, having beautiful sunshine and going to the beach:

and lots and lots of polymer clay play:

and this afternoon after a our weekly Friday  library date, Isla and I bought this lovely box for my beads, and had a super time arranging them:

(It is worth noting that my Covert Robin gift is almost finished, and just visible in this box ;-))

Linking my Isla beach photo up with Our Reflection photo challenge this week, as fits really nicely with the theme of  "Something Sweet" I think - Isla, the beach, the sunshine, our last term of 'our time' before she starts big school in September. Days to be remembered, for sure.

15 minutes

Mornings have been a struggle, a chore, and quite frankly a pain in the arse for a while now. Only school mornings - those times when I expect something of the children, and myself, and always try to get Lucas to school on time and never quite make it - or if I do, its only just.
So - I got to thinking what are the problems? What do I have control over? What can I do as the grown up?

The 'issues':
Lucas isn't good at looking after himself quite frankly - he is blind, missing the whole middle of his brain, and therefore can't achieve simple tasks like buttons, zips, and so on. Add to this the fact that he has Aspergers (making him have to do every little thing in the same order without fail), and having Sensory Processing Dysfunction (meaning that socks can take up to 20 minutes to 'feel right'), plus the huge amount of medications I have to give him - which he takes like a dream, but it all takes time!

Isla just doesn't do mornings at all! She sulks, cries, wont eat, wont get dressed, needs holding all the time, is refusing to wee. Almost all the time she is an absolute joy - mature, funny, helpful, incredibly self-reliant - but sadly the times she isn't are when I am at my most pushed and frazzled (yes, I know there is a connection!). 

Me - I panic and stress. I lose my rag. I am also incredibly clumsy, and knock over drinks, trip down the stairs. I am also incredibly bad at time keeping just for me - never mind when challenged in this way!

What can I change? Lucas - not in a million years, quite honestly! Isla - time will certainly change mornings for Isla, but if she is like her Dad, not that much! Me - I have always been a short tempered stress-head, and will always be a short tempered stress-head!

It turns out that today it was pretty simple! - just getting myself out of bed 15 minutes earlier this morning turned from the picture painted above into this:

Now, I am a realist (some of the time ;-))I know this wont always work so effectively, but just for this morning I enjoyed being a Mum getting her children ready for school to the best of her abilities, and they went to 'their places' way better prepared and centred than normal!

Hurrah me today - go Team Sar!
Roll on tomorrow :-)

Tuesday 10 - Shoes

Linking up for another Tuesday 10. 

Hosted by Mom 2 Memphis and Ruby

Co hosted this week by 

Absolute Mommy

Dream shoes numbers 1 to 5

and Reality shoes - numbers 6-10. 

I actually own these, and wear a selection of them every single day.

Do you wear the shoes of your dreams? 

Sad to say, my answer to this question is a great big fat "NO!"

Scrapstore and Mothers Day

I went with Lerryn (Jelly Bean Boom) on Friday to the Dorset Scrapstore, which is an amazing place which takes material donations from local businesses and offers them to people for the bargain price of £5 per bin bag full. I absolutely adore the place, its ethos, and the spark of creativity it ignites within my belly (anyone else get like this?!) and was very excited by my treasures:


Not sure Iain was as delighted by my "bag of crap" as I was though?! - Poor Mr Sew now we are four!

Today was Mothers Day here in the UK (not sure if it is the same in other countries?), and so the chids and I have been creating:

Handpainted repurposed jar with Scrapstore flowers

Polymer clay Keycharm for Mother in law with chids fingerprints

Polymer clay keycharm for My Mum with fingerprints

Scrapstore flowers

and more. I <} these - can you tell?!

Full gift for my Mum including handmade vanilla and anise soap, Isla-painted jar,  plus the other bits :-)

I had a lovely mothers day too. Gorgeous card from Isla (received the minute she made it on Monday last week!!!), picnic lunch, and a Slimming World breakfast in bed - 1 slice of wholemeal toast with low fat butter, a banana and a cup of tea - strangely delicious!

Polymer clay play

So, after a visit to The Craft Junkett last weekend, and falling head over heels in love with Polymer clay jewellery thanks to Mango Fizz Creations, I started a Pinterest board, and promptly ordered a starter pack of Polymer clay (Fimo). It arrived, and Isla and I had some fun. 

We made this stuff, plus some secret mothers day things ;-)

The blues and greens collection:

Blacks and whites: (my favourites - love the swirly humbugs)

 Reds and oranges: These are better in real life - hard to photograph!

Pink and white: (same is true for these)

The Randoms:

Check out the amazing little ones at the front - pure chance, just using all the bits left on the board, and they are somehow the best?!

Islas sweeties: Think she took the idea of 'lollipops' too literally maybe.

And the ones I couldn't resist: and have already strung (and worn the green)

I had so much fun with this, would enjoy some Isla-free time to experiment and finesse, but what possibilities!

Linking up with The Train to Crazy:

Tuesday 10

Linking up with Mom2MemphisAndRuby  and Our Reflection for this weeks Tuesday 10

Theme: 10 Favourite photos.

(I chose to choose 10 of my favourite family photos - they aren't all actually spectacular as photos, but they all say a lot about us!)

This is a sling I made for Isla and I, and we are sheep farming!

Love Isla and Iain together in pics - she is a real 'Mummys girl', but when I'm not there, she adores him.

Love that Lucas is leading the way!

This was taken just after Iain and I met. We married within 9 months, true love really exists!

Again, see how much she adores him?

Lucas isnt an especially sporty boy - but he can really boot a football!

She looks so calm and sedate - whilst her hair is bonkers ;-)

This was tiny Lucas. This photo was on the cover of a magazine.

This is the kind of thing my boys do - a lot! Lucas' smile says it all.

Love Lucas in guyliner!!! He had his face painted at a party, and we couldn't get it all off. Think this may be a good future look when he is a famous rock star!!!

Photo Challenge 3

I will not be defeated!!! So - Lena from Mom 2 Memphis and Ruby won last weeks photo challenge from Our Reflection, so I am having another go!! The theme is childhood which is both very easy and very hard - whose childhood? What do I want my photograph to say? If I wasn't so old, then I would have digital photographs from my childhood which would totally rock, but I am - so I will have to use the chids! My contenders:

And my entry:

I chose this one because of the timeless Radio Wagon, the light, the colours, and the seriousness of both Lucas and Isla's expressions - to me childhood is fun, but also needs to be taken seriously - as a parent, one of my biggest jobs is to respect my childrens concerns and thoughts, even if they may be a little bit...well...childish, I suppose ;-)