Fairy cakes and lettuce

Don't worry it's not a new fad diet (although maybe it could be?) - it's just what I'm showcasing today. Today being Wednesday so no school and therefore no ability to sew.

The garden is coming on nicely. Little boy is unfailing in his enthusiasm for watering and checking the plants. The girls are slightly more ambivalent. Any drops of water that happen to fall on them can turn into a complete catastrophe unless it is approaching at least 30°c or if they have the 'wrong' shoes on! The more water that falls on little boy - the better.

The girls have rekindled their interest in the plants though since they noticed little boy eating raspberries - straight from the plant. I could be wrong but I doubt they'll be hiding behind the tree to sneaks lettuce leaves. I tried to get a photo of the ripe raspberries but by the time I got there they had all gone!

This afternoon we had friends over for 'goûter' so we made, and iced, fairy cakes for the occasion. I'm still trying to work out how little boy managed to ice and decorate twice as many cakes as each of the girls...(the firm grip on the hundreds and thousands may go some way to explaining it).

Hello again!

I'm back. Three weeks of feeling, at best, fairly low, and at worst, down right grim sort of sapped all sewing and creating out of me.

Now though, the sun is out, the cherries are ripening and 26 school "spectacle" outfits later I am ready to get on with some sewing for me. I have three dresses in mind (never being one to do things by halves) and I have also decided that I need some shorts.....

In the meantime here are some pictures from a walk at the weekend.

The vines

the cherries

and the poppies.

Short trousers and a skirt (and a lack of inspiration re a heading!)

You may have noticed things have been a bit quiet round here. A combination of lots of other things to do, potty training little boy and generally loosing the desire to create lovely summery things whilst the weather is so bl°°dy wet and cold.

I have though managed to rustle up two little items. First up a "pantacourt" for biggest girl. If you are in any doubt as to what a "pantacourt" is she can give you a mini lecture on the word, explaining in a very simple (and slightly condescending) way the origins of the word. She is, though, very pleased with herself for working it out!!

The said "pantacourt" are made from the same blue chambray as little boy's shorts and I added a Liberty bias round the bottom

and to the ties at the waist. The back is elasticated but the front can be tightened or loosened with the ties (biggest girl is getting bigger now and you have already heard about my aversion to total elasticated waists after a certain age).

The back has two patch pockets and on one I added a fairy iron on transfer.

Next up is a present for biggest girl's friend whose birthday it was last week. A purple cotton skirt with elasticated back and tie front

and Liberty bias binding at the hem.

I would just like to point out that although both of these items have blue tones they in no way reflect my political inclinations. Thought I should just say that, it being polling day in the UK.

There are girls.....and there are boys

So, way back, when little boy first learnt to move - shifting around the floor before he finally began to crawl - his primary motive was to get hold of the ball hidden at the bottom of the toy box under dolls clothes, tea sets and polly pockets. It was a pretty strong hint that despite two older sisters and a mum that looked after him the majority of the time he was, beyond all doubt, a BOY.

Since then there have been many occasions when the difference between little boy and the girls has been evident (the climbing - onto chairs, onto tables, over barriers, over walls ...., the assumption that anything remotely round must be a ball (tomatoes, apples, stones you name it, it can and will be kicked) and the almost primate glee when football is on the tv....to name just a few).

Most of the time though I, as I suspect most parents do, treat the children more or less the same despite the difference in sex. I propose the same activities and they stamp their own individuality on it as would two or more children of the same sex. Cycling in the garden comprises of the two girls riding up and down the terrace avoiding any obstacles and one kamikazee nutter hurtling down towards the terrace from the top of the garden aiming gleefully for anything or anyone that gets in his way. A play doh sessions results in two neat piles of dough formed into little cakes or pizzas and a huge pile of as much dough as possible in the shape of a ball and painting can deliver two "works of art" and a very wet and covered in paint little boy!

Of course some of these comparisons are slightly harsh as little boy is younger than the girls but one activity that the girls have always loved, from being very small, is cooking. I suspect they like it for slightly different reasons ( a love of helping and being grown up for one and a love of cakes for the other!) but love it they do. So last Friday afternoon when I proposed to little boy that we would make a cake together I was caught unprepared for his "NO". Not to be defeated though I told him we would make a chocolate cake (little boy really loves chocolate). But even that couldn't convince him. He just wasn't having it.

I persevered anyway thinking that eventually he would join in (even if just to lick the bowl) but little boy had different plans. You see it had been raining and we have builders working round the side which means that a great big digger has been driving up and down our drive numerous times a day. That coupled with rain makes for big muddy puddles which is exactly where little boy planned to spend his afternoon and no amount of chocolate krispie cake making was going to stop him.

So little boy spent the afternoon getting as muddy as possible, the delight only increasing when he realised that riding his bike through the puddles caused splashing and a wobbly effect on the rider. The girls came home from school, tiptoed round the puddles whilst screaming that Luca should not come near them at any cost in case he got them dirty, helped me clear away the cake making detritus and then ate the chocolate krispies.