Time Flies!

I thought I'd get round to posting a bit more often, but it seems I'm as slow as ever. However, I am delighted to say that those manky old bulbs that I bunged in at the last minute have decided they'd rather live and give me a spot of colour in one corner of the garden, than die, even though I was sure I hadn't planted them deep enough for them to flower.

Spring flowers always make me want to smile! One of our Priests popped in for a cuppa last night, after doing a "heavy" shift at the school, hearing confessions - (unfortunately, I don't thing he got a lot of customers.) He said that his mother always loved gardening, and how civilizing he thought it was to  have a well-kept garden. It made me think maybe I should overcome my reluctance to do anything with this one since we are mere tenants. I have been silly really, thinking like that, since we've never stayed long enough in any place for me to reap the benefits of my endeavours (in terms of the overall picture, although I have seen some wonderful plants develop). Maybe I should make an effort to get this one up to scratch, so that even if we move on, someone else will have the benefit of it.
Trouble is, finding the time!
I've just discovered in the last few days a new article of clothing, that every modestly-dressed young miss needs for her trips to the park - "Skorts" - a mixture of skirt and shorts, and today I made up a pattern for a pair and completed them so that my friend's little girl would have something to wear in the garden.

All cut out and ready to go!

Is it a skirt?

No, It's a skort!

 Been knocking out Mantillas too, just in case anyone wants one - there seems to have been a proliferation of ladies starting to want to cover their heads at Mass, so I've been asked to make a few...

I like to make them nice and big, so that they don't feel like a doily stuck on the top of one's head!

Maybe after Easter I'll start digging the garden, and getting rid of the nettles, eek!

The Monkey Donkey!

We moved, had lots on the go, no time or inclination to blog, 'till now...

So, here we go again.

Sometimes you just feel like a bit of an









You spend so much time trying hard to do the right thing, but in the end haven't got a clue whether what you're doing is the right thing, or not. Take the case of a home-educating mother with one son. He's about the age when he could go to school, his Dad's got a job at a very good school, but... because he was home-educated he got really into tennis (a great outlet, and if that mother is going to supportively watch any sport, tennis would be the one) so much so, that he's become quite good at it. The school does not specialise in tennis. He doesn't want to give it up. So we carry on home-educating, and getting stuck in the rounds of tennis training, tennis competition, until that mother begins to feel like a real donkey. So she carries on, carrying him around on her back* through the leafy counties of Southern England (and doing a bit of sewing in between times) in the vague hope that he will get some kind of education from the books that get pushed in his direction, when he hasn't got a racquet in his hand.

Is the plodding along worthwhile? In the great scheme of things, who knows? But Providentially (so it seems) the tennis monkey is improving, having won two tournaments last weekend, so maybe the home-schooled boy will improve too, and in the long run, maybe the donkey will cheer up...



















*Actually it's a nice little red car, Deo Gratias.

Miss Moppet Comes to Life

Been having fun lately – I started with this,

and wasn’t sure what it would turn out like, having not made a stuffed doll for rather a long time…

But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the pattern I used enabled me to make this,

Isn’t she sweet, and I’ve got a sweet little girl in mind to give her to…. must get her in the post!

New Business, New Friends ...

I have been busy for a wee while, very much enjoying a new direction in life, making modest clothing for (at present) little girls. It came about from a chat group of several homeschooling mums who were all complaining that it was hard to find decent well-made clothes for their children - there is plenty of "tarty" stuff around, or clothes with revolting logos on, but not a lot of nice traditional, well-made stuff available. So I invested in an overlocker, and got sewing. It's been fun, and hasn't turned into a sweat-shop (yet!). The business is dedicated to Madame Martin, Therese's mum, since she worked from home too.






In the meantime I also managed to make a few items of clothing for some new friends I've made - but, as we are constantly being taught in the spiritual life, we must not cling to our friendships too much, and have to follow the path of detachment (and, the Good Lord knows, we've been trying to afford a detached house for years, but he's not giving one to us .. hmmm, but, digressions aside) so I needs must send my little friends on to the Sisters of the Gospel of Life in time for Christmas, so that others may benefit from their friendship, and have hours of fun dressing and undressing them ...






















By the way, if anyone fancies the dress at the top - it fits an 18 month to 2 yr old - it's waiting to be bought!

Of Knights and Fair Maidens

I recently received a lovely medal in the post, from a dear homeschooling mum friend who has six boys. The envelope was rather large for the medal, which she had told me she was sending, so I was intrigued as to what else there might be in it. To my surprise, out dropped a relic from the dim distant past..




















A pair of chainmail Knight's trousers, which were somewhat past their "sell-by" date, along with a plea for something to be done about them!!! The fabric had not been easy to sew the first time round, but was now ripped apart at the seams, along with a few other damages caused by hearty warfare...





You see, when they were first made, it was to dress one little Knight of Our Lady, who, being an only child, and not having a great deal of contact with many other Knights, did not have a lot of opportunities for jousting, and armed combat, and the like; so I knew that despite the rather delicate nature of the chainmail, they would hold out for a while, long enough for him to grow out of them.
















They even survived the occasional lending to a sweet little maiden who needed to dress up as Joan of Arc for an All Saints party...


















So I hoiked out the old sewing machine, and got to work on repairing them, with the following rather good result (even if I do say so myself). Whether they will survive the onslaught of battle for long is another question, but since they will now probably only fit the youngest son of the six, and since the family's latest addition, to the shock, surprise, and delight of all, is a little girl, the trews probably don't need to survive much longer - (unless of course she decides she must be Joan of Arc)!




















Whilst the sewing machine was out, and since the household must be rather lacking in bonnets and bows with all those male siblings to the new baby, I thought I would turn these...

























into these.










Note the distinct lack of pink - it will take a while for mum to be weaned off blue...