Thoughtful Sunday 2!

"..whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,

whatever is pure,whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think on these things."

Paul in Philippians 4:4

Thoughtful Sunday!

"And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness and truth"

Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

21 yesterday!!

This gorgeous little person turned 21 yesterday and I can hardly believe it.  This picture was taken on her first day of school aged 5 and of course she just had to take teddy and 'sheet' with her for security - it was all pretty terrifying after all!!  Check out that uniform!!  Now she is a beautiful young woman studying menswear fashion design at Central St. Martins in central London and for the first time really since she left home in early October, it hit me yesterday that she had moved 'out'!!

A tradition in our family at 21 is that we produce a book of funny photos from baby to now and we all get a chance to write funny quotes or memories of that time and then present it to the birthday girl on the day.  So I have been busy putting this book together for daughter no.4.  By the time she came along we both finally had cameras and so there were a lot more photos of her than anyone else in the family.  It helped too that she didn't seem to mind the camera!  So I had lots of photos and bought a lovely big plain brown book from Paperchase, sorted through stacks of photos (no, unfortunately I am not as organised as I would like to be with all my photos scrapbooked in theme, person or date order!!), and then stuck them in, stamped a few designs on the pages, stuck favourite quotes on the blank sides and wrote funny quotes.  I loved it!  It brought back so many happy memories of having a large family and doing so much together.  Isn't it wonderful to have photos to remind us of all those moments we have forgotten because time has marched on?  Here is a peek at the cover and first page:

We went out for a lovely meal together as a family to a place called Ping Pong in the centre of London and had delicious Dim Sum and Shona opened her gifts and cards from us all. On her main present, which was a large art book she had particularly requested, I tried my hand at making a rose out of ribbon for decoration and was quite pleased with the result:

So a happy time was had by all.  Daughter no. 4 had to get back and work most of the night on a project which is being presented today and others had to get back and do various things so we didn't stay too late.  There will be more celebrations once she comes home for Christmas and of course we have daughter no.3 celebrating her birthday (which is on Christmas day but which we never celebrate on that day because no-one wants birthday cake then!!!).  Well, time to put some some Christmas decor before my dear friend comes for pumpkin spice coffee and date slices tomorrow!!

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect

but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind 

plays with the objects it loves."

C G Jung

Craft crazy

Well, there is fabric in the living room and in the dining room and in the bedroom!  There is wool in the living room and in the bedroom.  There are half finished projects in the living room and the bedroom.  There are some projects finished, packed up and posted!  I've been a busy bee not only with the day job but with other exciting things like:

This is a special package for my penfriend in France who I met up with again this year.  There are some handmade earrings (alas, not by me!) made by Circle and Dash.

These are made with handmade paper and are gorgeous - sorry I didn't take a picture before I wrapped them but if you go on the website you can see the range and they change them each season too.

Then there was the package I posted for my friend in New Jersey USA, containing (amongst other lovely things) this:

I have really enjoyed making these Sarabooks.  It is such a shame that they are now discontinued by Paperwishes.

In addition to this I have been making bags:

This was actually a pillowcase (I think handmade in fact which I picked up in a charity shop) and then this:

which I am particularly pleased with.  It is using a pattern out of Sew Pretty Homestyle although I found the pattern extremely hard to decipher and ended up doing my own thing.  I would be really interested if anyone has tried this and if so, how they found the instructions.  The little crocheted flower was fun to do and I hope to do more of these for other gifts.  Last but not least here are the finished handwarmers:

They are very soft with the added interest of Possum fur!!!  I shall put the link in here tomorrow for the supplier as it is upstairs and I need to get this finished before I turn into a pumpkin and the clock strikes midnight!!!  But there is just enough time to show you another little project that has begun!

Well I do like variety!  So there has been a little crochet, a little knitting,  a little sewing, a little quilting (more of that soon), a little papercraft you see.  So despite my tardiness at blogging you now know that I have been busy here in my nook in South East London and I am enjoying it immensely!