My sister’s ex-flatmate has a cat, a very lovely cat who had seven kittens. C was really not having much success with getting them rehomed and I finally managed to talk my lovely husband into letting me have a kitten to keep our last cat company. After chatting to a few friends I managed to find homes for six in total and I collected them yesterday. Unfortunately, someone changed their mind last night so I may have to keep an extra kitten. Bummer, eh? Two of them left me late last night to go and live on a farm and here are the rest:

As I’m sure you’ll understand, my life as I knew it has now ceased and I’m spending much of my time staring at them and making cooing noises. My eldest sat for the better part of three hours last night with three of them asleep on his lap. He’s going to be gutted when the other two leave on Saturday for their new lives!

Craft-wise, I haven’t done anything since wrapping up the Give a Hoot mittens. I’ve just signed up today to Apryl’s Owl Swap which I have around six weeks to work on. I’ve also been eyeing up the Make 50 things in 2009 craft challenge. A few of my friends have signed up to it and I love the idea in theory, but I know in practice how sporadic my crafting is. Actually, how sporadic I am in terms of meeting deadlines too – November’s NaBloPoMo attempt proves that! Anyway, the lovely folks on the Crafteroo forum have set up a 50 things Flickr group which I’ve joined in the meantime…

Posted under general crafty updates, swaps

Ah well. I should learn not to make unattainable targets really shouldn’t I? NaBloPoMo has really not worked for me this time round haha.

Things have been decidedly hectic here. I have started the new job which was offered to me at very short notice, I’ve been there for two weeks and to be honest I’m hating it. It’s public sector, and the change of pace from working for a charity is unbelievable. There’s no sense of urgency or importance, my training thus far has been woefully inadequate and when I complained I was told that as a manager I’d have to deal with a constantly changing environment and essentially that I should suck it up. Great. I’m sticking with it because to be honest the lure of having no debt by April is too big but it’s going to be a loooooong few months.

In other news, my sister and I’s business venture is still on the cards. We have some paperwork to complete but all going well we should have a decision this week as to whether we have got the lease.

I am still trying to craft but not really getting anywhere. I’m awake at 6am with the kids, spend all day having my toddlers run rings around me before collecting F from school, hubby from work and returning home for 45 minutes before going back out to work all night. I am a walking shell of a woman, I have no energy and even less time so things aren’t really panning out the way I had hoped. Plus, one of my beautiful namaste glass needles has been broken in a #2-related accident so I’ve lost the impetus to knit. Bah, I hope I get my mojo back soon.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the parasite likely to blame for my exhaustion and I shall be back soon with something of interest I hope!

Posted under general crafty updates

Why is it that you start making plans, and life turns you upside down in a flash when you least expect it?

As the more astute of you may have noticed, my NaBloPoMo effort hasn’t exactly gone to plan. I’d like to thank Virgin Media for this, as my internet access has been sporadic at best for over a week which is EXTREMELY irritating when you have things to do. That said, the objective is to have made 30 posts in November, so I’m sure with a few days of doubles we can have made that target. Irritatingly, with the new blog layout we somehow managed to remove the tracking code for google analytics so I have no idea whether this more frequent posting has made one iota of difference to my readership. Woe is me, indeed.

Yes, so where was I? Oh yeah – work. I finished working at my job last Friday (Hallowe’en) as my contract had ended and I have been looking forward to a few months off to be full time Mum. Or at least I was, until I received a phonecall on Wednesday offering me a job I’d applied for months ago. I have to admit I wasn’t really expecting to get the job because I’d definitely aimed higher than I have before, but when they eventually did offer I couldn’t say no because the opportunities it offers are too good for the family for me to turn down.

So why is this an issue? Well, my sister and I have been looking into a very exciting business opportunity which we would be starting from January 1st. I can’t talk about it too much because if this opportunity falls through then others may present themselves but it’s SO FRUSTRATING to have all these opportunities present themselves at the same time. What to do?

The last thing I was going to do was answer a few questions that have been posed by my loyal fans recently:
Elaine says, “I have a question, and wondered if you had any ideas…I’m looking for a really nice knitting bag, but don’t really want to make one. Do you know anywhere I could buy one?”
Well… I have to say that for things like this I really love handmade markets like Etsy. The knitting bag I use is a fantastic Namaste needle binder but that won’t have space for your projects. Can any other knitters offer an insight here? Links would be great too

Charlotte asks, “I love your new layout. How did you do it?”
I have to say here that Bob did it for me and I have no idea how. Isn’t it pretty though? I’m sure he’ll be able to point you in the right direction if you need guidance though.

Eileen remarked, “I’m thinking I might rejoin flylady, I never got past shining my sink previously though.”
Well Eileen, neither did I. The path to hell is paved with good intentions and all that!

I’ll be back tomorrow with some crafty stuff. Promise!

Posted under general crafty updates

As the stereotypical auld wifey statement goes, “Och the nights are fair drawin’ in” and as a result, our hens are moulting. As a side effect of the lack of daylight and moulting, our hens have also gone off lay so despite having a dozen hens we’re having to buy eggs. I’m not happy.

That hen is Buffy the Buff Orpington who has recently left our flock to live with my good friend Steven. I dropped her off last week and Steven has worryingly cast aspertions on her sex, so I’m waiting to hear if (s)he starts crowing. Oh dear.

In other news, I finished my contract at work on Friday and have decided to take a few months off to consider my future and to be a Mammy for a wee while. I don’t think I’d really realised just how exhausting work was for me, and with all the drama we’ve had going on lately I’m so tired all the time. My husband and kids need me alive and well! But plans are afoot for a new career path which I may share at some point over the month dependant on how discussions go. How cryptic, eh?

Posted under self-sufficiency

Okay! For my first post in the NaBloPoMo challenge, I’m bringing to you my eldest’s costume for hallowe’en. May I present to you, Sid Precious:

I have to admit, it’s not the best get up but it was good enough for him to win best costume at his school hallowe’en party. What you can’t see is the large spider’s web “tattoo” on his neck and the “antifa” tattoo on his earlobe. He also had “love” and “cake” on his fingers. Hilariously, the hubby’s Mum asked him how he’d got his teeth to be so realistically missing (both have fallen out very recently) and her face was a picture when hubby said, “Oh, we kicked them out.” (We really didn’t, social services).

Still… That’s two out of three years that he’s won best costume, and last year he was robbed by a cheater who wore a shop bought costume. Not that I’m bitter! Feel free to check through the archives for last year’s costume because it really was outstanding.

More tomorrow!

Posted under for the kids, with the kids