doing some mending

I have been slowly restoring my spirit with some mending both physically and metaphorically.  Mr Whizzme and I are taking quite a while to get over a respective ills and feel like an old couple in their retirement, shuffling around the house in comfy clothes, ugg boots, cups of tea.  I furthered this image by being regularly found in my favourite chair applying patches to jeans, embellishments to tops, darning socks and tights.
 For quite a while now I have had a growing pile of clothing that is too dear for one of us to part with, but needs some form of repair.  This pile has been my crafting solace over the past week, as my jelly head wants something simple to focus on, and my body has been rickety and slow in movement.  

Last night I had finally worked my way through the pile.  Today now there is more of a lightness in the Whizzme household, like emerging from hibernation.  Excitement that favourite clothes are now wearable again, relief that the jelly seems to finally have melted.

I can focus on a mother's daily chores tasks.  Actually now that I put it like that I'm not sure what I am so relieved about - washing, cleaning, organising.  However, a week of mending has also meant plenty of time for inspiration, idea generation and plotting, so it must also be time to start a new project then...

here's one I prepared earlier

There is little to show, in fact I am really just here to tell you that.  Mr Whizzme and I are both home nursing ourselves through colds and infections, and generally getting on each others nerves. Him with his cough, cough, coughing, his this hurts, that hurts, and me, well actually I'm a pretty good patient!  Miss Whizzme is still riding on a high from her 6th birthday last weekend, (Little sis I uploaded the photos here!).  The party did go very well, and the Butterfly lady was fantastic.  Finally I can stop dreaming about beetles, bugs and butterflies.  But as there has been a lack of craftiness to show of late, I thought I would whip out this little item I made a while ago. 

The Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Laundry Bag.

Take one thrifted pillowcase. Cut off the small flap of fabric in the pillowcase opening - divide in half to make two fabric ties. Make a slit a small way down from the pillowcase opening, wide enough for children to thrust large amounts of dirty clothes.  Sew around slit edge to stop fraying. Sew pillowcase opening shut, enclosing the two ties.  Tie to end of bed and alert child of its use.  Ta da.

The only trouble is it doesn't wash the large amount of clothes it holds. Bugger!

Apart from head a feeling like jelly, I am preparing myself for some more training this weekend.  Lucky I have a friend to do it with, and for support. There is also another friend who has been sewing, printing and creating up a frenzy of new goods...phew she makes me tired!

dispelling the myth

It has been quite humorous to hear from some of you about how I must have extra hours available to me because we seem to do so much. Ha! I am surprised you couldn't hear my mother laughing heartily at that suggestion!  For one thing; it is quite well known that I enjoy my sleep, specially in the morning.  I prefer to stay up late and watch crappy tv while I fluff around doing god knows what and then grumble that I have to rise before 9.  The other thing is, well, it all boils down to priorities.  This picture of our dining table, or should I say the table previously known as the dining table should enlighten you.

You see it became quite clear to me on the first day of school holidays (which also happened to be Good Friday) that having Mr Whizzme and Miss Whizzme at home together for days on end was only going to produce a riot of chaos.  My choice? fight it or ignore it.  I chose to ignore it.  There have been days when I have severely regretted this decision.  

I am happy to admit that I am quite the clutter queen with my collections of china and books and knick knacky things, but I do like them to be in. their. place.  I am a what I like to refer to as a pack stylist.  I live by packs.  Packs mean that things can be found - no matter what the occasion. Take my hand bag for example (I use this example as this seems to be quite the in thing in the blog world of late!)

Packs. Emergency pack, pack of wipes, pack of tissues, pack of pencils, small pack with meter change.  Easy to find.

Another example is the boot of my car:

Again packs. Medical pack, art pack, swimming pack, towel pack, shopping pack, beach pack, rain jacket pack*.  I'm sure you are getting the picture.

Anyway, back to the ignoring the chaos challenge.  By the end of Easter I was seriously fighting my urge to pack things away, but I held firm.  Well, I reasoned, Miss Whizzme and I were going to be away for a week anyway, it could wait.  Of course leaving a husband alone in a home with no supervision is just asking for trouble!  And then, we returned with a 5 day count down to Miss Whizzme's birthday party.  Therefore, I must confess that I then not only ignored the mess, I added quite liberally to it.  So, while maybe we might have benefited from having somewhere comfortable to eat our meals, and it would be nice not to have to leap over the washing to get into bed at night, overall I have really, really enjoyed these holidays.  

Tomorrow though, I clean!

Psst! if you want further details click on the photos to see the notes in flickr.

*sometimes the car boot also has an extra

Snapshot

yes it has been a while.  So long in fact, that catching you up with all that has been entertaining the whizzme household of late would be overwhelming to have in one post, so here is just a snapshot.

• Finally cutting into the Liberty, after inspiration from here.
• Easter at home: family painting on Good Friday, eating well, lamb roast on Sunday, Ravelry, Miss Whizzme making her own softie, catching up with an old friend on Easter Monday.
  
• Panda: counseling, and finally a survey online for those of you who have used Panda before.
  
• Down the coast with some friends: time spent drawing, gossiping, eating well, trampolining, more drawing, making sock puppets, laughing, more drawing, a little crochet.
  
• Back home: cleaning up the chaos, making items for Miss Whizzme's party, uploading, washing, reminiscing.
  

Once the newly turned 6 year old returns to school next week I am hoping that posting will resume on a more regular basis.  Well anyway, the best laid plans and all that....