Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

Two years ago I packed my carpet bag and headed off to Oz for my Mary Poppins mission. I wrote about it here , here and here . Mary Poppins is originally from Queensland you know and although I missed out on a The Mary Poppins Festival , I did get the chance to spend lots of time with my gorgeous niece and welcome my new nephew into the world. So what would be the ideal gift for a very special little nephew? I know a quilt because I've only got a week to make it. Nothing like putting the pressure on, but I did it. I can only give a few hints of the final piece because I know that my sister will see this and I don't want to ruin the surprise. Here's a sneaky peek Hmm what could that be? A three eyed monster? A bird? Just to add a sprinkling of mystery and a touch more suspense, the big reveal will be on 4th February which is the little man's 2nd birthday. Oh go on then, one more quick look...   Posted with Blogsy

  I love my new shelves. They are rather like frames for all our precious Halloweenland crafting. My ancient crocheted pumpkin and the world's smallest pumpkin make ideal shelf buddies.   Topped with the ghosts of parsnips gone to seed in an orange vintage Tupperwear beaker. Add Halloween bunting   And finally some candles to complete our Halloweenland for 2014.   Posted with Blogsy

Yes that's right, it's that time of year again. The train of terror has terminated at Canterbury West unleashing two delightfully fiendish ghouls on no. 17. The kiddies love Halloween and there is often talk of costumes, crafts and delicacies from the start of October.   Skeleton girl is a great fan of Tim Burton's gothic and dark animation, delights in scaring her friends with frightful tales and practices her horror film make overs throughout the year. She practically squeals with delight at anything that sends shivers down her spine.   Zombie boy is a little more sensitive to the potential threat of the undead. It's not that he's frightened or anything, he just feels like putting his fingers in his ears and burying his head into an adult. He's still more than happy to get involved in the Halloween crafting though and I imagine there will be a lot more spookiness to come this week.   Posted with Blogsy

  Our Pink Ladies WI had it third meeting last night and as bag printing was voted as the most popular potential activity earlier this year, that's what we did. Although I was a bit of a reluctant president, ideas and creative solutions are one of my strengths and in my head the idea that we could combine doing something for a local charity and bag printing / making in the same event started to unravel, with numerous possibilities. The best thing about our WI is that it is totally community based, by the people for the people and as a teacher it is a dream to inspire learning without the constraints of funding, drowning in paperwork and the forced engagement of the disengaged. Infact our fabulous treasurer and secretary are so brilliant, that I don't even have think about the spirit crushing implications of money. And what with our local business owner and director of Espression Art Cafe Vice President hosting the event, I'm pretty much free to get on with the designing,...

  For the last month or so, every time I've needed an egg for a recipe, I have carefully pierced both ends with a needle and blown the egg out, leaving the shell intact. This is not as easy as it sounds, you really have to blow until your head hurts and that's without the accidental oversized holes and breakages. They were a labour of love. I actually enjoyed choosing which spring flowers to paint on each egg after I had coated them with a few layers of pastel coloured acrylic. Cherry blossom is one of my favourite spring flowers: our front garden is currently blanketed with drifts of pink snow. Altogether I painted eight eggs with my favourites: cowslip, daffodil, primrose, bluebell, forget-me-not, rosemary cherry blossom and a Helen Dardik inspired "Happy Easter" egg. And the best thing about my frugal Easter tree is that everything was reused, rescued or recycled apart from the few pence I spent on matching beads to make them look more like a set. Wishing you a...

It's been quite a busy morning so far and it's only shortly after 9am. I never dreamt I would be so domesticated when I was younger. I used to watch my mum busying around with her home making and wonder whether there wasn't a million things she'd rather be doing. "I'm going to work when I'm older," I'd think to myself, "you won't find me tidied to the kitchen sink!" It's funny how we change our opinions as we grow up. I'd much rather stay at home than go to work any day and there a quite a few things that I observed my mum doing that I quite enjoy. For example I love cleaning the windows, especially on bright spring mornings purely to see the grime removed and the sunlight streaming in. (I might do that later). So far today I've walked Sherlock, taken him to the allotment to water the kale I planted last night, checked and watered all the seedlings in the garden, put on a load of laundry, made some bread dough for our pic...

Have you ever wondered what happens to the words that are no longer used? They become classed as obsolete, confined to only the largest of dictionaries by lexicographers (those guys whose job it is to compile dictionaries.) As new words are created to fit with our new fangled lifestyle, old words are inevitably pushed out and lost. You can't really be a literacy teacher without spending a large amount of your time thinking about words but it wasn't until last week at Ally Pally when I saw a collection of endangered knitted specimens that I started to worry about their fate. Some might say do we actually care but I'm with Safia Shah and I'll happily join the campaign to bring words back to life especially if it involves knitting them.   Who better to involve in such a virtuous adventure than my own child, along with a friend, especially as they were off school today due to teachers striking. The girls embraced the idea of saving these dejected words and with very ...

I am sure that I am not the only one who doesn't want to get old. I am not talking about getting a few wrinkles, stiff in the morning and becoming forgetful, that's just life. I mean that old where you are isolated and cut off from society. The time when you seriously can't afford to put the heating on and you survive on the tiniest portions of lunch. I like old people, they just know so much and I think that it is very important to teach my children to respect them. I always to talk to my elderly neighbour and it is a joy although there is a real sadness in his eyes when he talks about the wife he has lost and how his ability to keep on top of the house and garden is dwindling. Last year I knitted two hats for this Innocent Smoothie's Big Kni t so it hasn't been too hard to improve on that. Just in case you have never seen them, Innocent Smoothies wear little hats during the month of November and for each one that is bought, Innocent Drinks donate 25p to Age UK ....

 This year I wanted to do something a little different for advent. I know the children love them, but I do find it a challenge to get excited about the chocolate advent calendars they have pestering me for since the end of Halloween. I feel like our advent should be a little more creative, possibly even challenging and although Josie's idea of a murder mystery is a bit gruesome for the festive season, I think there are elements that might work. my husband is even keen to get involved. Last month I had a lot fun posting photos on instagram as part of #amonthof from #mycreative space so I am having a go at this months project , starting with the letter "A" which in our house was for advent, angels and art. I intend to make a little stocking each day and place a clue inside for the advent mystery along with a Christmas related activity or challenge. Today's stocking was a granny square crochet one and inside was a clue that read "In a cold dark room sit...

I am passionate about education and I love to learn and inspire and support learning. It's my day job but it's also the way I live my life. Learning new skills and finding out more about blogging is such  a delight for me. This week the weather has turned truly autumnal and not only the mornings but the whole days have been filled with swirling mists. This is mushroom weather and with that dampness in the air which clings to the delicate spider webs like diamonds and looks stunning. I am unable to walk past a web without admiring nature's perfect crafters. Imagine being able to produce your own yarn and spin your own house / food trap. I left for work early especially to take photos of these treasures of fog and drizzle for fear that the sun will be out again by my next day off. I could not  bear to miss the opportunity to study the intricacies and uniqueness of each web. The collage above has been made using a few of the new apps I have learnt about thanks to blog...

There are so many things that I would like to spend time doing that I often think I don't really have time to go to work. I have asked, on several occasions whether I can become a stay at home mum but this occupation is not conducive to our current life style, beside I like my financial independence and I did have to do years of studying and hard work for my career. The grass is always greener but there is no harm in dreaming. One thing I would like to do is to work harder at my blog, mostly because it's something that I enjoy and secondly because I am a bit of a wannabe writer / full time crafter. Pip Lincolne is someone I would love to be, if she ever felt like a life swap and as part of her blog school, this post is my over due and late homework. The task was to list your favourite blogs in a post which for me was just too numerous to even start to think about. Instead I am listing my favourite blogs by women that I would like to swap lives with in order to discover whe...