I am slightly stressed. 

I’ll spare you the rant, but here’s why: school breaks up in 20 days + end of term madness + have major deadline looming + the car has been off the road all week (someone forgot to book an MOT and renew the car tax) + walking everywhere + food shopping at corner shop + very elderly dog with failing digestive system (messy) + poor Henry’s had croup = stressed.

Granted, it’s safe, comfortable, middle class and largely self inflicted stress, but it’s still stress.

Everything’s relative in life.

Moving on…

I finally got around to finishing the pattern for my horse blanket and it is in my shop now:

I tell you, this project has been a delight from beginning to end- it’s my favourite so far.

When I was designing this I had a little brainwave born out of laziness.

To save myself from having to draw 6 individual horses in different poses I just drew one horse and then made it into a jointed template - puppet type thing.

Thus enabling me to make my horse canter or gallop or stand by simply re-arranging the pieces.

Easy peasy.

… and brilliant fun!

So, of course, the pattern had to include a jointed template too, which means that every quilt or blanket made with this pattern will be completely unique.

Pretty clever eh? Hope you like it as much as I do.

Anyway, my apologies for the complaining and the shameless shop plug.

I promise to do better next time.

I’ve got a free Hugo the dog cross stitch pattern almost ready.

Yes, Henry and I were thoroughly spoilt for our birthdays- which is just the way we like it!

I am now 39.

It’s just a number.

My Mums’ birthday is the day after mine and she is just twenty years older than me.

So next year, we have vowed to be somewhere exciting for our birthdays. New York, Paris, Rome? 

We’re not fussy, but we’re definitely not turning 40 and 60 in Britain either!

Anyway, back to being spoilt this year- my Mum made me this lovely bag for my birthday.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Now, last week was crazy busy.

I was up at 6 and on the go ’til midnight all week trying to fit everything in. Now I’m hopeless at relaxing at the best of times, and I’m pretty stubborn too.

So standards were not going to slip around here, no matter how much I had to do.

Everything got made from scratch at home; 18 family members sat down on Sunday to a hot meal (with veggie and child friendly options available too) and a choice of puddings…

the house was clean, activities, games, balloons, party bags were planned etc, etc, and it was all great. Really enjoyable.

And then I carried on this week in much the same way until yesterday, when I literally couldn’t get out of bed. 

I just lay around all day. Now, that is not me at all. I hate it- the wasted hours.

So I just lay there and watched Tony running around like a headless chicken instead (thanks Tony!)

But, this morning, I woke up at 4.30am feeling much better, the sun was shining and the birds were singing and I very nearly got up. I honestly did.

But instead I decided to learn my lesson, and turned over and willed myself back to sleep.

See? I’m obviously growing up…

Henry is 4 today and he’s as jolly and lovely as ever. 

At around 8.30 last night, Tony and I started work on Henry’s ‘Lewis Hamilton’ cake.

We only had to decorate the cake and the cake board because I’d cheated and bought all the sponges ready made.

We started with great gusto (and a glass of wine each) and ended up with this.

We are very proud of ourselves and are glad to say that Henry loved it! 

Shame it took us 4 hours…

I always start the week by writing a list. 

This weeks’ list was (and despite my best efforts) still is scary long.

There’s all the usual stuff on it plus Henry’s 4th birthday celebrations, my Mum’s birthday, my birthday, a friends 10th wedding anniversary party, a sing-a-long, babysitting and finally, the entire family are coming here for the day on Sunday.

And as if that wasn’t enough… I only have 20 childfree mornings left before the Festival of Quilts (there’s a separate book full of lists for that which just makes me want to weep).

Stressed? Who me? 

I’m very happy to say that Paypal have refunded me in full! 

All I did was log a complaint and a few days later my claim was resolved-no arguing or negotiating from me required. Impressive.

So, Paypal can still count me as a customer, all be it a more wordly wise and cynical one.

Thankyou Paypal.

And thanks for all the kind words about my photo. My head is rapidly swelling!

I’m currently re-vamping my website.

And as I always enjoy putting a face to a name myself I have reluctantly decided that I should have a photo of myself on there. 

So today I have had my photo taken (and then subsequently deleted) far too many times. 

I don’t like having my photo taken.

I have rarely seen a photo of myself I was happy with. Is this just vanity or am I very self-critical? Are they the same thing?

Anyway, here goes. This is the one I kept…

 As the daughter of a policeman I value honesty highly.

I am honest.

I am raising my boys to be honest.

And that is why I am so incensed and upset by what happened to me yesterday.

My Paypal account was all but emptied by some low-life, who decided it was okay to go phishing with my Etsy sales money. 

It seems that I entered my security details onto a fake Paypal site.

Apparently, you must never click through to Paypal (or any other online banking/ security sensitive site) via an email, but should always type in the URL yourself.

Don’t get me wrong- I’m not blaming Paypal here. They have strict guidelines and security procedures in place and will probably refund me. But still… 

Go and change your security details and passwords immediately. Don’t just read this and then forget. Go and do it now.

These people are opportunists and I unwittingly gave them that opportunity. Make sure you don’t.

Be warned.

I, for one, am going to learn this lesson fast.

I am surrounded by old things here, which is just how I like it.

Whilst ‘wasting’ my sunny Sunday afternoon putting the laundry away I noticed this cardigan and remembered that I hadn’t shown it to you.

It is a fine wool cardigan with a cream satin trim, which fastens with hooks and eyes. It was a real bargain- only 50p. 

When I got it home I sewed an old lace doily onto it and then wore it all winter.  It’s very Dottie Angel, don’t you think?

It hangs in my wardrobe on another thrifted treasure of mine- a wooden coathanger from a dry cleaners.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to get one of those instead of a hideous, tangly metal hanger? 

And the last old thing is that little patch of wallpaper in my bedroom.

I love that wallpaper, but sadly, that’s all that’s left of it now.

I’m going to try and save it when we decorate, I’m not sure how yet, but I’m certainly going to try.

Henry (nearly 4) has not been sleeping at all well recently.

The poor boy’s been having nightmares and sometimes just wakes up for no reason at all. 

And then the other night he started talking about the dream lumps (the what?)waking him up.

He said “The dream lumps come when you are sleeping and hurt your tummy and even your leg. They are very not good”.

And then he pointed to his mattress and said that the dream lumps lived there… 

so I tested it myself and yes, it’s true, the poor child has the world’s most uncomfortable mattress.

Mystery solved.

I took Henry to the local bed shop today where he tested several mattresses and completely independently chose the most expensive one in the shop! 

Naturally I made him test them all again but he still came to the same conclusion- so I bought it for him.

Well, what else could I do?

We certainly don’t want the very not good dream lumps back.

Here’s hoping for a full nights’ sleep at last…

Well, thankfully our half term holidays are finally over.

We had to cancel a trip to Devon (due to our very elderly, sick dog) endured some challenging behaviour from our, no! his sons, had lots of rain and a tummy bug.

Enough said.

And now it is June already and I have an enormous deadline looming in a matter of weeks and panic everytime I see my ’to do’ list.

So, I have basically stopped looking at it and made this instead.

And I enjoyed every stitch of it.

I’m so glad lots of you like the peacock quilt. I think it is wonderful. I only wish I could see it in real life.

But isn’t it a shame that the very talented and quirky (she must have been quirky don’t you think?) lady who made it is unknown. So label your quilts girls!

I studied the tiny picture in the book (Enduring Grace, Quilts from the Shelburne Museum Collection. Celia Y. Oliver. ISBN1-57120-022-3) and came up with this version. Henry likes the french knot eyes.

Don’t worry, this will probably be the one and only time I am up to date with the medallion quilt a long!