Next Steps

The last week has been full of the usual ups and downs of family life. Thinking about it, I can't actually remember much of it, except for A Lot of Extra Things to do with the fact that Little Man's off to Secondary School in September. There have been forms, more forms, emails, trial mornings, trial days, meetings, more meetings, uniform buying, and even uniform labelling - go me! organised! His transition, as a child on the autistic-spectrum has been very well managed, I really can't fault either school, but boy is it time-consuming! Despite all this Big School related activity I still simply cannot believe that my boy, my baby, my first-born, is about to finish his time at Primary School. It can't be possible. Surely it was only yesterday that he was dragged forth, 15 days late, into this world, with the hugest widest eyes I have ever seen, eyes that flitted back and forth between his Daddy and I, back and forth, back and forth, for an eternity it seemed, taking it all in, committing every little detail to his amazing brainier-than-brainy brain. He is ready, I know he is, even with the Asperger's and the anxiety, I know he has grown out of Primary School. I know he is ready for this next step. But still ........

And so, I find myself having not blogged for over a week now. Tut tut, that will not do, no not at all. Pull yourself together woman and get blogging!

The only way I can remember what else I've actually done with my week (apart from watch Wimbledon that is ....)  is to look at the stuff lying around the house, and the photos on my camera :) So without further ado, here's what I've been up to in the last week....

I've started a poncho from the Drops Design  Raspberry Smoothie pattern (its free, thankyou Drops Design :)

But I'm very sorry Drops, I am not using your recommended yarn, because I bought some James C Brett marble chunky ....

.... which is gorgeous colours, but, try as I might, I cannot make myself love it. Serves me right I suppose. The colour changing of this yarn is so clever, it's done (I think) by twisting two biggish strands of differing colours, each of which changes colour at a separate point, and gradually. Maybe that's how all colour-changing/self-striping yarn works, but the two strand business confuses me. I struggle to see the stitch definition and just end up in a huffy puffy fuzzy mess.

I do love the colours though ....

It has worked up brilliantly quickly, I was thinking "autumn" when I started it - hence the colour choice - but for once I may finish something early, miracles really do happen :) I'll blog about it again come autumn, hopefully you'll all have forgotten about it by then, and I can pretend to be fabulously ready for the start of a new season ;)

So what else.... I've been running up a quick pencil case type thingy whilst flicking through my new Simply Crochet magazine. Well, the pattern was a sort of made up one, not from the magazine, and the two activities of crocheting and magazine-flicking-through were not exactly simultaneous (or simultaneous at all in fact), but the photo of it all together looked rather lovely I thought..... cover-girl-lady looks very happy, doesn't she - that's how crochet makes me feel too :)

The pencil case thingy (very vague, I know) is for a stationery swap that I'm participating in. I've made it to fit a set of lovely colouring pencils, but whilst it looks rather lovely (if I do say so myself) it's totally impractical due its flap closing design, all the pencils can easily fall out. However tarting it up any more than I already have (photos coming to a blog post near you soon) will make it be sent out eeeeeeven later than it already is. And I'm guessing that the recipient won't exactly be stuffing it in a school-bag or similar, so maybe it will actually be quite perfect :)

And whilst on the subject of stationery swap, I've also made a fabric cover for a notebook. Here are a couple of photos of it so far .... laying out supplies .... ooh goody I do like choosing fabric, with buttons and ribbons to match .......

..... making a little patch pocket for the front ...

 ... attaching the pocket to the unfinished sleeve ...

... again completion photos coming soon! These fabric covers are fairly sraightforward to make, a great use of smallish pieces of fabric, and they make a simple notebook look really really special. I'll be making some as teacher presents for the end of term I think.

And finally. I really hope you're still reading as I have some Very Exciting News ..... I've decided to bite the bullet and see if I can sell some of my craft stuff. This idea has been knocking round my head for a while now, and in the last couple of weeks two different people have suggested it to me in all seriousness. Honestly my head is buzzing with ideas, I am having to do a brain-dump each night to get any sleep at all! So exciting! I know it'll be hard work, I'm not in it to make mega-bucks, but even just making enough to fund my craft-supply-addiction (most-notably yarn it has to be said) would be just fine by me.

If anyone has any advice or tips, dos or don'ts, please feel free to share :) And I'll raise a glass to our collective success - cheers!!