I posted recently about how I’d lost my crafting mojo and I know loads of my friends were feeling similarly, so it made my heart really happy to see that my Saviour Amanda has come up with a productive way to beat the blues.

If you want to join in you’ll need to acquire this book which costs a tenner (inclusive of delivery) from Amazon with the first project being a skirt. You have until 20th March to finish the skirt and upload pictures to the flickr group.

If you fancy joining in, let me know! But please do also pop over to Amanda’s blog and let her know that you’re intrigued because we all know that comments are a blogger’s desire

For a wee injection of cute I need to share this awesome video of Nairn. Voila!

Posted under general crafty updates

It occurs to me that I have loads of blog fodder but I hold back on posting it for reasons known only to myself. What daunts me slightly is the aspect of permission – I have Bob’s permission to blog about him, I’m capable of making decisions for myself about what I’m comfortable blogging but a large proportion of my life revolves around the children who are not capable of providing informed consent. Part of me thinks that worrying about this is being hugely self-indulgent because nobody is going to remember what I’ve posted in five, ten or twenty years time. But. And it is a big but – is it fair to them that I make their moments so public? The kind of moments which are filed away by parents and brought out at 18th birthday parties or meeting-the-boy/girlfriend-for-the-first-time are the kind of moments that I could (and have) shared with the world without their permission.

So it’s something I’m working through because honestly they’ve provided me with some real fodder over the last few days. Plus I can’t blog about anything I’m crafting right now because it’s all for Christmas!

Posted under family

It’s Greer’s six month birthday today, and I swear with each child these milestones come faster and faster. I can’t believe that she has been in our lives for such a short period of time and yet we’d be so lost without her. She’s suddenly gone from the newborn stage to being a little person with a big personality, big smiles, big love and a big voice! Not sure who she could possibly have taken that from!

So to celebrate we got a lovely picture of the children all together.

and of course five seconds later got this beauty which I think I might actually prefer

Posted under family

I can remember being thrilled when I got my very own personal cassette player. I think I was maybe 9? And it took me ages to work out how to work the damn thing.

So how is it that Nairn (3y7m) knows how to switch on the TV, how to put on a DVD (*I* don’t even know how to do that!) and how to use my phone?! The result of the latter is that I flick through my phone only to discover photos like this:

Three years old and he’s already posting myspace-style close up self portraits complete with chocolate make up. *sigh* they grow up so fast…

Posted under family

LOOK!!

I posted a photo in my “A day in the life” stream, showing a project I haven’t quite finished yet and it was picked up and posted on OhDeeDoh which is one of my favourite blogs, ever. I am so honoured – thank you for featuring me!

The project featured is this table which I’ve découpaged for Findlay and Nairn’s bedroom. The kids’ Godfather, Dave, is moving out of his flat and has given me a few bits of furniture that he was going to throw out. He and I are hoarding kindred spirits, can’t see any crap thrown out ANYWAY, one of the things he gave me was an Ikea Lack table which had seen better days but which I decided could be given new life!

I used a vintage annual (the 1991 Bash Street Kids annual, for reference!) and a LOT of PVA glue to stick it down and then seal the top. I had a bit of a disaster with the top which I am hoping to resolve this week – I wanted a hard, clear varnish so that the paper would be safe if the kids were to spill something on it and when I asked someone in B&Q for clear acrylic varnish they gave me Ronseal. I didn’t think anything of it but when I applied it, it cracked the PVA. Disaster! I’ve now got some plastikote clear enamel but it’s been raining here today and I haven’t been able to get the table out to spray it.

I have also left one leg uncovered just now until I decide if I like the legs découpaged or not. What do you think?

Posted under interior decorating, me, site stuff

So I mentioned in my last post that Erica fell sick on Wednesday night. She was violently ill and didn’t perk up until yesterday (Saturday) morning and I jokingly remarked that this was the start of the September-April Sandlan sickness schedule. I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

Last night just after 11pm (when I’d already been sleeping for a while!) I woke up to hear what I thought was Nairn coughing. I strained to listen and discovered that actually he was struggling to draw breath so of course LEAPT out of bed with my broken toe* and ran through to find him just hanging off the side of his bed and burning up. Bob was downstairs so I shouted on him and asked him to bring up some calpol. We got Nairn sat up and medicated when he asked to go to the loo and as soon as I saw him in the light I decided not to even bother calling NHS24 and off to A&E we went.

My backside barely touched the seat before we were taken through to the resus department. I think turning up with a small grey child with bright red cheeks who has breathing difficulties tends to be taken pretty seriously. Unfortunately, we were taken right through to the exact same bed that Bob was in after his heart problems so that added another dimension to my worry. Anyway, bearing in mind this was 20-25 minutes after he’d had his calpol his temperature was 39.8C (103.6F) so he was immediately stripped down and dosed with ibuprofen. Half an hour later his temp was down to 38.1C (100.6F) but he’d developed a barking cough. The Doctor examined him and decided to give him a dose of steroids to try and help his airways open up a little then we were moved to a side room so he could get to sleep. After singing our way through such classics as ‘The Quartermaster’s store’ ‘Little bunny fou fou’ and ‘On top of spaghetti’ he finally conked out only to get the fright of his life when I raised the side bar on his bed. I settled him back down and asked a nurse to keep an eye on him so I could run out and get my phone from the car.
I’d just phoned Bob to update him when the Doctor came in to check on him, confirming that he has croup. His breathing had settled and he wasn’t squeaking anymore so we were allowed to go home. There was another little girl in with croup at the same time and a twitter friend who lives locally was telling me that her friend’s little boy has it too so it’s obviously doing the rounds.

It’s funny – I always worry when I take the kids to A&E or the GP out of hours service that perhaps I’m overreacting, and even last night I did until his temperature registered so high. I guess it just shows that instinct is the way forward?

*Nairn was playing postman yesterday and brought a 2 litre bottle of sparkling water up to me in the bath yesterday. Our neighbour has a wasp nest in her garden so our house has been full of wasps and I’ve had all the windows wide open to make sure they get out as easily as they get in. I went to get out the bath and realised the window was open so wide that all my neighbours would be able to see me so I pulled the plug out the bath, wrapped a towel round me, leant over to close the window and knocked the bottle of water onto my toe which broke with a very loud CRACK. It’s rather ouchy, to say the least.

Posted under family

So, dear reader, I have a dilemma. I have been baking and cooking away lately but haven’t managed to blog it because SOMEONE had misplaced the memory card for the camera…

Findlay says, “It wasn’t me…”

Nairn denies all knowledge

Erica looks at the camera and shouts, “CHEEEEESE”

Whilst Greer looks cute

So in the meantime I’m afraid you’ll need to make do with photos from my phone. Luckily we have now located said memory card so when I’ve blogged up the camera photos we should be back to normal service. Well, I say normal because knowing my terrible children and messy house I don’t doubt that something else will go missing soon!

Anyway. Today I’m going to show you another wee taste of my childhood. My Nana and Grampa are children of the war era and so had a fantastic ability to eke dinner out on a budget. As classic Scottish weans* we’d get mince an’ tatties and if we ate all that, we might get bread an’ butter pudding after. What a treat that was! As I was the eldest grandchild it was my job to help my Nana and I can remember standing on a stool at her kitchen sink when I was probably about Findlay’s age, peeling potatoes and turnips and being allowed to help bake in return.

Thus, I decided last week that my kids should have some bread an’ butter pudding. Admittedly this was influenced in part because we were skint and had very little food in the house, and in part because I had about 20 million eggs needing used up! Nana always told me to use bread that was a little past it’s best, but bread doesn’t get a chance to go stale in my house so I used an outsider on the bottom layer.

You will need:
6 slices of bread
Butter
Raisins
Cinnamon and/or nutmeg to taste
2 egg yolks
2 tbsps sugar
3/4 pint milk (or more if it’s not enough to cover your bread)

Preheat your oven to gas mark 5 (375F). Butter the dish you’re using to make your pudding in, then butter the slices of bread and cut them diagonally in half. Cover the bottom of the dish with bread slices then sprinkle over a small handful of raisins. I really like cinnamon so at this point I sprinkle a teaspoonful of cinnamon over the top but I know my Nana prefers nutmeg – do whichever suits best or leave it out altogether. Repeat this layering again before topping off the dish with bread. Do NOT put raisins on the top of your dish because they’ll burn in the oven, and nobody likes a burnt raisin.
In a saucepan, mix your milk and sugar together and heat until the milk mixture is bubbling. Make sure you stir regularly to help the sugar dissolve and ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan but be careful not to let the milk boil. Beat the egg yolk quickly in a jug then add the milk, whisking gently to combine. Pour the mixture back into the pan through a sieve and simmer for five minutes, stirring regularly. Pour over the bread slices and leave for at least half an hour, gently pushing the bread into the custard occasionally before sprinkling the top with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Pop in the oven for half an hour until the top is a golden brown colour. Serve with custard or vanilla ice cream.

*Wean means child, literally “wee ‘ane” or “wee yin” meaning “little one”. You’re a wean until yir Granny tells ye itherwise!

Posted under baking, family, recipes

Summer holidays here in Scotland started at the end of June, so I’ve had to come up with entertainment not only for Haud it and Daud it* but for Findlay too. LUCKILY Cbeebies has been repeating ‘Dick & Dom in da Bungalow’ over the last few weeks, a major feature of which is their sublime highbrow feature, “Bogies“.

This is the result after one day of watching the aforementioned programme.

Most excellent. This is day two – excuse the sofa missing a cover, that’s a story for later**

To be fair, they actually seem dramatically better behaved whilst playing, ‘Bogies’ than they were the other day when we were stuck inside due to the rubbish weather. People ask me, “How do you do it with four kids?” Simple, my friends. I leave the house otherwise my living room ends up like this:

*Haud it and Daud it – a very Scottish way of saying, “Those two eejits”

**Erica decided she wanted pants on the other day and kept sitting on her potty. Unfortunately she decided to pee standing on my sofa so the cover was in the washing machine. Why didn’t I buy a wipe-clean sofa?

Posted under family

A couple of weeks ago I received a very interesting email from a representative of Baker Ross, a company I was vaguely aware of through my previous voluntary work with the Beavers. The Lovely Chap explained that he was trying to spread the word about the products they have available for arts & crafts and offered to send me some goodies in return for a review. Well, being a canny Scot I’m never one to turn down a freebie Only problem was, what to choose?

Bob & I spent ages flicking over the site to try and pick. In the end I had a list of – well to be honest, pretty much everything they stock! So I emailed Lovely Chap back and told him that I’d be thrilled to review for him but he’d need to pick for me and last week a package arrived containing half a dozen mini canvases, a pack of Giotto Decor pens and this set of woodcraft kits.

So! I opened the package, looked at the canvases and Bob & I said almost simultaneously “Handprints!” You see, my babies are not really babies anymore and it’s really hitting me. I have the ubiquitous penmarks up my living room door showing how they’ve grown since we moved here four years ago, but I’ve always wanted to make a more permanent reminder.

Look at the difference between them all!! The girls (Erica is a UK6G) managed to fit their hand and foot on one canvas but the boys needed separate ones (Nairn is a UK9G, Findlay is a UK12F), which meant I didn’t really have the fallback of spare canvases if we made a muckup! I did find with Erica it was a bit of a squeeze because her feet are so broad but we managed.

On the whole it was pretty easy – Findlay being older was able to listen to my instructions not to move his hand or foot once it was on the canvas. Nairn and Erica had clearly done similar at nursery by the professional way they slapped their hands and feet down. Then it was Greer’s turn. What a bloody nightmare. First of all I had to feed her so she’d let me paint her foot without screaming the house down. Then, once she’d finished feeding I sat her up to put her foot on the canvas and she spewed on me. I cleaned us both up and painted her hand only for her to decide that she was keeping her hand squeezed as tightly into a fist as possible so I decided to do a fistprint. Started painting the outside of her fingers and she opened her hand up! ARRRGGHH! Hence, Greer’s prints aren’t as neat as I’d have liked but that in itself is a little story to tell her when she’s older

Next time I think I’d use paint pads like these though. The orange, purple and green paints I’d bought when Findlay was a toddler (so at least six years ago now!) and they were very watery hence the resulting prints not being quite as crisp as I’d like. Findlay’s red prints were done with paint the kids got at Christmas which was quite viscous and perfect really for the purpose. The only drawback with this was getting paint out from in between toes and fingers – as you can see, Findlay just loved this part!

Now I just need to paint my hall so my lovely reminders of my tinies can go where I can see them!

Posted under family, with the kids

Nairn loves to draw. Seriously. One of my biggest household expenses is on rolls of lining paper which I tape to the laminate floor in the living room for Nairn to make big collages on, but most of the time his sketchings are unintelligible Jackson Pollock-esque explosions of colour.

So I really wasn’t sure how to react when I walked into the boys’ bedroom to find Nairn had created this (as always, click the picture to get a bigger version. You really need to see the bigger version to appreciate this fully):

I asked him what he thought about his picture…

He explained it all to me, inside the circle there’s the eyes, nose, mouth and hair. The big circle is the ear. Hmm.
This is how pleased I am to see it on my (newly painted!!) wall.

Posted under family