A New Peg Bag

So my old peg bag had seen better days particularly since having a little helper to hand me the pegs it has ripped and been patched too many times.  So on an impulse during Little L's sleep this afternoon I got out my sewing machine and had a rummage through my material.  

None of which was particularly inspiring so a chose a piece of old oilcloth.  How hard can it be to sew???Well having finished said peg bag I have a new appreciation of why Cath Kidston oilcloth bags are so expensive.  The sides seams were easy, with right sides together the oilcloth goes through the machine easily.  But a couple of seams were wrong sides together so oilcloth outwards and the machine does not like that.  The feed doesn't work so you have to keep pulling it out as you sew.

Anyway the finished article is better than the one I had before and considering i had a helper for part of the task I don't think it looks too bad

Cars, cake and a sunny day

We have had another busy week here, family visits, swimming twice, Liverpool shopping and Ikea plus our normal walks and park visits.  On Sunday we headed to Ormskirk Motorfest with various family members for a day out.  The day started out cloudy but by the time we were there the sun was out and it was really hot with blue sky.  This is a local free event and it really is worth a visit even if you aren't that into cars there is something for everyone.

A brass band

Cute cars

Classic cars

Fast cars

A parrot

And there was a vintage market.  Lots of lovely things, vintage, handmade things, buttons, cloths.  I spotted Noddy and grabbed him before anyone else could. 

Oh I nearly forgot the cake, we had a picnic lunch in the park which was full of cars and stalls.  And of course a cake was needed for afters and yes I had my first mince pie of the season not bad eh in August (only 17 weeks till Christmas).

 Little L had a lovely day but unfortunately is now upstairs crying as she is late to bed and over tired (wish I could go to bed!)

How to be a stay at home mum?

On Sunday we had our great friends S and B and baby J around for the day.  They recently had a baby (the recipient of these by the way Zoom Cardigan and Bootees ) he is utterly adorable and I certainly can't remember Little L ever being that small and wobbly headed.  Anyway we got chatting about the dreaded when are you going back to work???  And B being very honest said February and admitted that she is dreading it and would do anything not to return.

Having had over two years of going to play groups etc with Little L I have heard this many times but when it comes down to it most people do go back to work after their maternity pay dwindles down to the minimum.  And whilst they say they really don't want to go back to work they do and parcel off baby to Grandma or Nursery.  When we decided to have children after many years of thinking about it we knew that one way or another I would be a stay at home mum.  And so far I am but that didn't happen by accident or by some kind miracle, it has involved years of saving, scrimping, thinking ahead and now sacrifices, some might say of, no foreign holidays, no new cars, very few new clothes, no fancy phones, no nights out, freezing in winter, eating on a tight budget and many more things.  To lots of people this might sound pretty depressing/boring but it's worth it to know that Little L gets the best care day in day out i.e. from her Mum (I'm no super mum but mummy is better than Grandma or some randomer at a nursery).  And they do all go to school when they are four so you can go back to work then.

So a question could more people be a "stay at home Mum" if they really wanted to??  Or are some sacrifices in quality of life/luxuries a step too far to take??

At the moment I am trying to sell stuff on Ebay and need to get my ass into gear and sell some hand made wares on the internet.  But for now we are all very happy with our arrangement, skip diving and eating smart price beans ....... only kidding.

Swimming

Over the summer holidays all the usual toddler groups etc stop so we have five whole days to fill each week.  One of the things we have been doing is swimming.  Little L can't swim and apart from going whilst we have been on holiday every year since she was born that's about it for pool activities.  But our local Sure Start Centre (if you have a little one and don't know about these find out they have great playgroups, activities etc) had got funding to offer free swimming lessons and daily sessions at our local pool.  So an offer not to be missed.

I can't say that she likes the lessons much and does cry a bit but there are parts of the lessons like the songs, jumping in (with mummy holding her!) etc that she does like.  So we will persevere.  We went yesterday just for a general splash and she really enjoyed it.  So hopefully this weeks lesson will go a bit better.

I think it is important for her to learn to swim before the compulsary primary school lessons because I hated swimming lessons at school (I couldn't swim) to the point of being ill and I definitely don't want her to go through the same.  I did learn to swim at school in the end but it was very traumatic.  I did consider trying to get her Daddy to take her to the lessons (as he is a very good swimmer) but I think he would give in when she cried!!

Camping in the Lake District

This last week saw us embark on our annual camping trip to the Lake District.  We decided to go to the little village of Hawkshead and stayed at a campsite 10 minutes walk out of the village.  We hadn't stayed at this campsite before and so were a little apprehensive as to what it would be like but we couldn't have been more pleased.  The toilets and showers were immaculate, we had lots of space and as three families we easily found a good spot together and there was some animal entertainment for the children - a big pig "Salty Sue", cows and sheep of course.

Our first full day was a bit of a wash out in that it started raining about 7pm the evening before and rained solidly till tea time the following day but we made the best of it with wellies and waterproofs and headed off for a day in Ambleside.  Not many photos that day as it was just too wet.  However after tea we did manage a walk down to the village to the park.

The next day we had a lovely walk at Grizedale forest.  The walk was moderate but turned out to be a bit more scrambly even for our robust pram so Little L was carried in her pram like the princess she is.  But the walk was lovely and we got to see lots of the sculptures and ended up at their brilliant play park.

Some other walks were done and we managed to get some lovely sunny days as well.  The children had a great time playing together and as we packed up and set off on the final day Little L just pointed in the boot and cried "Tent".

No more camping trips for this year but we do have another holiday to look forward to in September I can't wait.