Ray of Sunshine

Tough cleaning and totes

Oh boy its been quite a busy day, I finally got around to doing a total declutter of my bedroom. Now its not quite finished but im a good way there, now the reason I need to get it very organised is because my bedroom is also my sewing room. There is no room for me anywhere else :0( what with me having such a big family.

My little ones have been helping me as they do love to watch or join in making things, last year we had fun making tutu's, this year and last its totes and I have lots of other things cut out ready for action.

 

Girls tote bags

  

 

  

I love that these tote bags are a nice hard-wearing denim on the outside and I choose what I thought my two little ones would like inside, they are also reversible.

I am going to make myself a knitting and a crochet one of these now I have so many projects on the go.

With love

Paula x

Craft clubbing with the kids

Well over the last few days the children have had their eyes on me. I have been baking and sewing and knitting and card-making. Normally they watch too much television or play too many ds games for my liking. This holiday has certainly been a breakthrough. They like to draw colour and paint read etc but I have been waiting rather impatiently for them to be ready to pass on my craft skills to them.

Today was that day :0) we set off to our local hobby craft centre to have a look around and see what we could find....

Felt is always a good start

  

I also bought a toy I have wanted for ages (as it was half price)

 

and my little man who is 8 got straight on his own design

 

We will have lots of fun with felt over the week.

Then we had the knitting club, I had three little ones to teach, little Miss Red aged 8,little Miss Mouse aged 6 and little man 8. First I tried to teach them casting on needle method (the way I as taught) well we kind of gave up on that... so next thumb method, fantastic now we were on our way. So now they can cast on how about knitting ?! ok Miss Red picked it up quite easy then decided she done enough for one day,Miss Mouse was just happy to cast on 100's of stitches and little Man, oh my well that has caused a little dilemma as he is left-handed I managed to teach him to cast on but im going to have to knit tonight left-handed to be able to teach him tomorrow. Oh the joys of parenting :0)

 

Can you see what else I bought next to the childrens knitting needles ???

 

Oh yay crochet needles, I am determined I am, I am ,I am!! Will I finally learn ?!?! lets just wait and see :0/

Paula x

This weeks hopes and dreams - make buttons for my mum, make a big button for older daughter one button wonder cardi, lots of crafting with the kids, get excited over overlocker coming this week, use overlocker,check car insurance tracked through quidco,use money saved through quidco for more craft materials, cook from scratch to save money, make own bread , oh yes and crochet crochet crochet - thats enough for one week ;0)

Dishy Wishes

Its been a lovely quiet Saturday here, half my children were with friends and my younger three were happily watching films :0) This morning the postie delivered my peaches & creme wool, so as any nutty crafter would I got my needles at the ready and knitted two nearly three dishcloths.

 

These are so much fun to do and will look great in my cleaning box,folded by the sink or to give as little gifts. Ha ha dare I give one each to my kids, actually yes too right I will, infact I may well make them with their names on :0)

 

 

Happy Easter, have a lovely chocolaty day x

 

Blanket project

Ok so the children are off for another week yet and my crafty skills have somewhat shifted a tad to virtually nothing.  Well when I say nothing I mean... extremely busy but in another kind of way. I have one daughter living in her cinderella dress all week, another who has her entire wardrobe of clothes on the floor where she has changed so much. My son is correctly wearing a mr messy t-shirt and my teenagers are constantly cooking and leaving huge loads of washing up and running off saying I will do it laterzzz YEA RIGHT!. Oh yes and not to forget that my oldest daughter now lives in the bathroom.

Hmmm so you see I have to switch off from it now and then to keep sane, so thats how come ive started the blanket project, just a square at a time when I get a few minutes, and just when I thought I had found peace my cat decided she very much liked my wool and while I was knitting away there she was twisting all the different colours wools and patting them with her paws.

Still against all the odds I got my first blanket square done :0)

 

There is a strange quietness in the house while the simpsons are on so I think I will start square number 2 then I will only have around 115 to go LOL

Have a lovely evening

Love Paula x

Little Miss Red

I will have to make this a quick input today as there is not much time in rayofsunshine house. With all my little lot on half term computor time is very limited.

Yesterday was a lovely day as it was my little Miss Red's 8th birthday, I cannot believe how quick the years are flying by it does not seem 8 years ago my little red was born. I was thinking last night with a smile at the time I went with my children to the O2 last year as they had a huge sand area where all the children and parents :0) can play. Well my little Miss Red had a little country companions small soft hedgehog that she could never be without, whilst playing very happily lil red decided to bury her hedgehog called Mo, unfortunately we did not know where :0(. Very soon it turned into a bit of a kafuffle which saw one of the workers and my brother and my little lot searching for hours through tons of sand with a shovel trying to find this dam hedgehog lol...oh the drama...lil red was very upset. Would you believe after us looking for what seemed like forever a little girl came along at nearly our hometime sat with her shovel and flicked it up in the air PHEW what a relief that was.

Anyway I was glad we had a lil sun so we could at least peep out in the garden.

 

Little Miss Red and sister Little Miss Mouse and their shoes (lol)

 

I will pop in now and again for a little bit of blog therapy over the holidays.  I am off now to snuggle up with my littliest three to read our Naughtiest girl in school books.  Oh what fun it is to relive those childhood Enid Blyton books :0)

 

Hope you are having lovely Easter hols too

Love Paula x

P.S I am sneaking knitting in while they are asleep will reveal all when its finished, everything else on hold but overlocker on the way so my sewing work will start soon :0)

 

For My Mum

I knew what I wanted to do last night I was just not sure how I was going to do it. Let me explain........ My mum has always been there for me, but not just there for me no my mum goes that extra mile and beyond. If I have any worries she is there in a flash. Just recently she came and stayed whilst I was not well, walked my kids to and back from school, sorted our dinner, cleaned house, fed the animals, even put up with my teenagers :0) My mum loves flowers and I wanted to get her some but I also wanted to give her something to keep, and there it was right on my sister's (skippinginthemeadow) blog, a jar jacket.

So there I was with this idea around nearly 11pm, well I started it straight away and finished my jar jacket around 1am, and of course used some of my latest button craze too.

A closer peek..

 

Love you Mum

   

Your very special

 

Love Paula x 

Four Seasons

I would like to start today by saying thankyou for all your kind good wishes on mine and my sister's blog, it was very sweet of you.

Today after feeling much better, I decided it was time to get back in the swing of crafting. I had a great start the other day practising with my buttons and wanted to make some more, so today I did. I have lots of uses over the coming months for these buttons and over time you will see how....

SPRING

 

and whilst we are on the subject of spring some of my children have been busy too..

   

SUMMER

 

These also happen to also be my favourite colours :0)

AUTUMN

 

I was inspired by my daughter's favourite hedgehog Mo for these buttons and cannot wait to make her something with them.

WINTER

   

Ooooo the fun I am going to have making things for christmas, I can even use these for my card making.

Well thats my craft work for today, I hope you are all well I am going to have a blog reading evening and catch up with you all. Have a lovely weekend.

Love Paula x

Bunnies and buttons

Hope you all had a nice restful weekend.

I had quite good time making my first polymer clay buttons

     

I am looking forward to making some more. I thought as Easter is approaching it would be a good time to show you our rescue rabbits. We have four lop-eared rabbits called Cookie, Biscuit, Horlicks and Cocoa, me and the kids love having them around and are glad we was able to give them a nice home.

Here they are..

Our little sweetie Cookie has a lovely personality and just loves hugs and strokes.

Biscuit is a very handsome fella, but is still nervous but lets me stroke him at food time lol.

 

  Horlicks and Cocoa are very cute and cuddly and ive had these since birth.

 

Wells that was our weekend looking after and loving our pets, lots of craft and no dreaded HW so I am off to try and get a little neglected HW sorted now.

 

bye for now

 

Paula x

Busy as can be.

Well Rayofsunshine house is full of busy bees and the weekend has not started yet.We have a HUGE list of things to be done, like sewing up cardigan, finish knitting teddy, knit another rabbit for a teacher thats leaving, make buttons and do quite a bit of baking. Oh yes and the endless housework that never really seems done EVER!

Anyway at the moment I am at list stage, you know? the one where you sit there with a pen and paper just writing about things, have another drink eat another biscuit or cake and nothing really get done does it :0) Well craft and art wise it does but housework errmmm no it kind of gets in the way of my sewing/baking/craft etc

Oh well lets see how far we get on Monday, Will I finally spring clean my bedroom and look in my sons room and find him some matching socks? or will I just finish my craft things and ignore the dread HW, im not sure about you lot but HW is seasonal here, when the sun is shining the house is quite nice and tidy but when its raining like now I ignore all around me and grab my latest WIP project.Hope you all have a lovely weekend

 

Love Paula x 

Delivery Delight

Oooooh dont you just love it when the postman arrives with a delivery. I had a good look around Kemps wool website the other day and ordered some patterns and wool and they have arrived. Im sooooooo happy I will be starting on the little girls cardi for one of my little daughters straight away. ( will put a photo up when done). My book order from Amazon also arrived so it was a double delight.

 

Lastest cooky book

 Ok well thats me kept out of trouble for today I will be reading new cook book and knitting.

Oh and to my sister - there is a Honey,Lemon and Yoghurt cake recipe in that book could it be like the missing recipe we have been looking for since that dreamy Lemon Yogurt cake from our childhood. I will let you know I have bookmarked this cake to be made on Sunday.

bye for now

with love

Paula x