A cup of tea and a well-earned magazine

I love to read.  I'll read anything in print, the back of the cereal box, a dropped newspaper on the bus, the small print at the back of a rail timetable... I'm serious!

Of course, I love to read books and always have one on my bedside table.  I'm currently reading "Scanning the Century - The Penguin Book of the 20th Century in Poetry" and have also got "Clash of Kings" by George R. R. Martin (book 2 of Game of Thrones) lined up.

If though, like me, you tend to lose yourself in a book, it's difficult to read one when there are other people around.  Especially if those other people are aged two, four and forty-six and require some attention.  In those circumstances it's nice to have a magazine to dip in to.  I like a magazine when I'm on holiday, for waiting outside pre-school if I've arrived early, for a quick five minutes while they are in the bath, and for long car journeys.  I have discovered though, that when I'm shelling out cash for a short-term magazine, I'm quite fussy.  I don't want to pay for articles about fashion, hair or make-up because they just don't interest me.  I definitely don't want gossip.

What that leaves me with are quite a few magazines which I enjoy reading (Prima, Essentials, Good Housekeeping).  I do like the cookery, gardening and craft sections, but I don't think I quite fit the target demographic.  They aren't quite the fit I'm looking for.

I quite like magazines about homes and interiors, such as Real Homes and Your Home but prefer a bit more variety in subject matter.

For a while I subscribed to Gardener's World but found that after you'd read what to do each month for a year, and not had the time or money to do it or buy it, you may as well just go back to your back copies each month.

I subscribed to The Green Parent for a while too.  I liked the philosophies, and unlike other parenting magazines, you weren't awash with adverts for plastic stuff, equipment, toys, formula milk, nappies and so on that you just don't need.  Once I'd got past the pregnancy, birth, cloth nappy and baby-wearing stage though, much of the magazine became irrelevant, so that subscription finished too.

So where does that leave me?  What magazines do I read?
I love these ones (plus I get Natures Home from the RSPB and Scouting from The Scout Association):

I subscribe to this one and love it.

this is another one that I splash out on every now and then for some brilliant inspiration

I adore this one, and splash out when I'm on holiday

Why fresh air is good for kids

We all know it is.  Nobody argues with this.  

Sometimes though, we let bad weather, lethargy, an inclination for screen time, and more and more fear of what might happen to them if we let them out without supervision, get in the way of giving our children the time outdoors that they need.  

So here are a few good reasons why fresh air is good for children to help us overcome those barriers:

LETS GET PHYSICAL!
Children who spend time outside are more likely to be active, getting at least the recommended one hour of physical activity each day, helping to ward off childhood obesity.

A study by Cambridge University has also discovered that children who play outside are less likely to become short-sighted.

Children who are outside are more likely to get enough Vitamin D, which helps in bone development.

GO MENTAL!
Time outside calms children.  All that running around or just being outdoors lowers the likelihood of depression and hyperactivity.


Children who spend time indoors playing on computer games have shorter attention spans (American Society of Pediatrics).  Playing outdoors is more likely to engage creativity and imagination.

INTERACTION
Children who play outside usually play together, increasing their ability to socialise appropriately.  They are also away from the negative influences of violent TV and computer games.

Sooo... get outside.  Whether it's a picnic, a game of football in the park, just taking some books out to a blanket in the park on a warm day, walking to pre-school or walking the dog... GET OUTSIDE!

Forming better habits... how am I getting on?

I posted here about how I'm trying to improve my life by making new habits.  I'm trying to introduce one new habit each week, and focus on it for five weeks.  So I'll have no more than five habits to concentrate on at a time (rather than trying to change everything at once), and each new habit will have five weeks to try to sink in.

Here's how we're getting on:

Habit 1 - was DRINK MORE WATER.  I decided to try to drink a glass of water every hour and a half or so.  I don't think I've managed more than about five glasses in a day the whole time.  But now I'm definitely drinking more than I was before.  In fact, if I don't have a glass of water every now and then I start to feel thirsty for one, so I think I've definitely established this habit.  I had it on my focus list for six weeks (I added one because I was rubbish at all my new habits in the run up to Christmas), and I'm hoping that I can keep it up while moving on to new habits now.

Habit 2 - was FEED THE FISH.  This one wasn't for me, I already remember them.  It was for the children to try to establish this habit as part of their morning and evening routine again instead of us doing it for them.  It's not sunk in yet, but we've been quite out of routine with Christmas and New Year holidays, so I'm keeping this one on the list for at least another week and a half.  Bug keeps telling me "No.  You do it."  (she's two and can be exasperating!), but I'm persevering.

Habit 3 - was TEN MINUTE TIDY UP.  In a normal working week we insert the "ten minute tidy up" (with timer) just before it's time to get ready to go out in the morning.  This way they've had breakfast and a chance to play, and they have to tidy or clean for ten minutes to get the house looking ship-shape before we go out.  They seem to enjoy the challenge, though again, it's hard going with Bug.  It's not really fallen into a routine yet because of the holiday period, so I'm glad we've got another fortnight+ to keep working on it.

Habit 4 - 50 SIT UPS.  I'm fitting this somewhere into my day on most days at the moment.  I can't say yet that it's making any difference to my stomach tone, but at least it's a few minutes exercise that I wouldn't be getting if I wasn't doing it.

Habit 5 - DAILY BLOG.  I'm not trying to post every day, about three times a week is what I'm aiming for.  But I am trying to check in on the blogs that I follow, comment on other blogs etc every day.  Not always managing it, but trying.

Habit 6 - TABLE TIME.  This is our newest one, and since it's holiday time, hasn't really had a chance to develop yet.  We used to have "table time" as part of our routine, and the children both enjoyed it and got something out of it.  At 5pm when I start making the dinner, the children come and sit at the table.  Depending on how much attention the dinner requires, we do workbooks, colouring, drawing, reading, writing a daily diary or board games.  Just before dinner is ready at 5.45pm they clear up.  I think the Summer holidays is when this routine slipped by the wayside, so I'm keen to reintroduce it.  I think it's a good time to spend developing reading and writing skills, art skills, and concentration, as well as meaning that I don't have to worry about what they're up to while I'm making the dinner.  It also sets a good precedent for homework time once they start school.

How to be free - DEPOSE THE TYRANT WEALTH

I’m writing a series of blog posts exploring the books “How to be Free” and “The Idle Parent” written by Tom Hodgkinson.  I enjoyed a lot of the ideas expressed in these books, and think that exploring them further will help me to explore the principles behind my own way of living and parenting.

Chapter 27 – Depose the tyrant wealth – WANT LESS

Having plenty of money offers the promise of freedom.  Freedom to do what you want, not to have to work, buy what you like, live where you want etc. etc.  In reality how many people have this much money?  Only a very small percentage of us have so much money that we can live with freedom, and even then there are disadvantages… the more money you have the more ways there are to spend it, on more expensive cars, a bigger house requiring more maintenance, charitable institutions, the health club, the golf club, private schools and all the trappings of a wealthy lifestyle.  The money soon disappears.  In the meantime the rest of us continue working towards this aspiration “to be rich”, in the meantime sacrificing the freedom which we strive for. 

Would it not be better to try to alter our lifestyle so that we want less?  Get rid of some of our stuff and rather than buying the biggest house that we can afford, buy a small one that’s “big enough”.  Just because you can afford two cars (can you?) doesn’t mean that you need two cars (or even one).  Be thrifty, reduce your need for and dependency on money, and you will have more freedom to work less, do what you want etc.

How does this match up to the ink-spots-and-grass-stains life?

It’s worth acknowledging here that Tom isn’t talking about real poverty.  There are people out there who haven’t got enough to feed their family for the week, who don’t spend on “extras”, who work hard and still can’t make ends meet.  Because we live in a time at the moment where the cost of food and fuel and generally living has increased far more than earnings.  It’s nice to think that we can all reduce our wants, our needs and our spending, but not everybody can.

We can.

We don’t seem to spend nearly as much as others on nights out for example (what are those?), on holidays, on make-up and cosmetics, on home entertainment, on childcare and education.  But we do spend more than we need to.  We live in a nice big house in a lovely area.  We have technology, more than one car, toys and books etc.  We could definitely reduce our outgoings so that we need less money.  The less money that we spend on a monthly basis, the less we’ll feel the need to work, and the more likely we are to take the leap to the big dream…

Quilted place setting place-mats - TUTORIAL

Quilted place setting placemats – tutorial

First decide on the layout of your place settings.  I used an A3 sized piece of paper and laid out a plate, cup and cutlery and then drew around them.  Do this in mirror image as well.

Choose your fabric.  Use a plain fabric for the place setting side, but you can use any pattern on the other side.  You’ll need your A3 size of each, plus some wadding.  I made six, so needed 6 times this much.  Measure the perimeter as well, as you’ll need to buy bias binding.  You’ll also want some co-ordinating thread for the quilting, and some contrast thread for your place setting.  Cut out the fabrics to the right size.

Baste your plain fabric to your wadding to hold it in place.  Draw over the design on your mirror image layout with chalk.  Then press it face down on the plain fabric so that you have a chalk image the correct way around.  Use back-stitch to hand sew your place-setting design.

Now baste the other piece of fabric on to the other side of the wadding.  Depending on your design you can hand or machine quilt this.  I used a machine to do simple diamond shapes.

Trim the edges of your fabrics and wadding so that they all line up.  Pin your bias binding in place and sew it on.

Trim all loose threads and pull all basting out.

Enjoy your very own personal quilted place setting place-mat!

Crafting gifts - crochet cushion

I first picked up a crochet hook this time last year.  I'd bought a book "First Crochet" by Lesley Stansfield, and took it with me to Mum's so that she could help me master the crochet chain.  Then I posted back in March about a dolls hat I crocheted and in August I crocheted a little bag. I've been alternating big knitting projects with crochet, but when I made the bag in August I knew that I had finally got the hang of double crochet.

In view of Mum's support and inspiration in all things crafty, I decided back then that I was going to make her a crochet cushion cover using double crochet for Christmas.  It's one of the next patterns in the Lesley Stansfield book.  I altered the colours to suit mum's sitting room, and towards the end of November, when I'd only got the hood left to do on C's jumper I put the knitting aside and got on with the crochet so that it would be finished in time for Christmas.

I'm pretty delighted with the result, it came out really well, with even stitching, no stitches lost randomly on the ends of rows and the outcome looks very smart.  It was also quite cheap to post!  The cushion pad to go inside was quite tricky to find, as it's not a standard size, but John Lewis came up trumps.  I think I might make one for my sitting room next!

Toddler Activity Cards

When reading parenting forums, particularly amongst Stay-at-Home-Mums you'll often come across a plea for ideas of simple things to do with toddlers.  Things which don't take much effort, minimal resources.  We're talking about easy activities to allow parents to spend quality time with small children who don't have the attention span or skills to play involved games.  Sometimes these activities can be used to distract a child who is about to lose the plot, who is demonstrating that dreaded attention-seeking behaviour.

When C was little and I was heavily pregnant with Bug I compiled one hundred simple activities and made a set of cards.  These cards have been in a stack on the bookcase in the sitting-room ever since (nearly three years now) and whenever I could see that the children were needing some direction I would just grab the top card on the pile and try to do the activity.  Now that they are older (four and a half and nearly three years old) they are pretty good at using their own imaginations for independent play, and if they are struggling I'll get out the colouring books, or a card or board game, or simply change around the toys on offer in the sitting room, but there are still ample opportunities for these five-minute activities to distract and redirect, to build skills and interact.

In short, these activity cards have been awesome.  So here comes my commercial idea... Could I print these out on nice card with an attractive design on the back, and sell them on my website or craft stall?  Would people pay £5 for a set of 100 "Quick And Simple Activities for Toddlers"?  What do you think?

Crafting away in the background

I haven't posted much here about my crafting just lately.  Some of that is because the things I've been making are secrets, and I don't want the victims (oops, I mean "happy recipients") to know what I've been making for them.  I have also been making something which isn't a secret, but its taken me a very long time, with breaks in the middle to make the other stuff.  I finished it over the weekend, and here it is:

This is my first ever attempt at cable knitting and I am very proud.  As you can see its pretty enormous on C.  Mum suggested that the first time people do cable they tend to make their knitting tighter than usual, and also I didn't know how long it was going to take, so I made it for age 6-7, even though he's still only 4.  Never mind, at least I know he's going to have a nice woolly jumper for a few years!  There are a couple of mistakes, but I don't mind and I don't think he will either.  I certainly wasn't going to unpick my knitting again, I already had to do that to the front when I was about thirty rows in, and to the back at about fifty rows in.. grrrr...

Details:
The pattern is Design 2377 from Hayfield "Arans for Beginners" booklet.
The yarn is Wendy Aran with 25% wool, shade 696 "Oak", I bought 400g at £9.95, and still have plenty left.

How to be Free: THE REIGN OF THE UGLY IS OVER; LONG LIVE BEAUTY, QUALITY, FRATERNITY!

I’m writing a series of blog posts exploring the books “How to be Free” and “The Idle Parent” written by Tom Hodgkinson.  I enjoyed a lot of the ideas expressed in these books, and think that exploring them further will help me to explore the principles behind my own way of living and parenting.

Chapter 26 – The reign of the ugly is over; long live beauty, quality, fraternity! – HAIL THE CHISEL

Things used to be more beautiful.  When you start mass-producing things, you start to think about the bottom line, and convenience, and the quality and beauty of a thing is diminished.  Tom talks about how clothes have become plainer as time has gone on, more plain and less embellished.  (Has he been to Primark lately?  There's plenty of embellishment going on in there.  In fact, it's the rich who choose, simple, plain, less embellished "classic lines").  Yet again here Tom blames the descent into plain and ugly on the puritans for whom decoration and colour were frivolity and to be frowned upon.  So to counter this, avoid ugliness, and learn and embrace crafts.  Only buy beautiful things, only make beautiful things.  Avoid plastic at all costs.

How does this match up to the ink-spots-and-grass-stains life?

In some ways I disagree with this.  While I do agree that individuality is beautiful in its own way, and that nothing beats true craftsmanship for real quality and beauty; it's also true to say that not everything handmade is either beautiful or good quality (depends on the hands!), and that mass producing decorative items mean that many more people have been able to afford to think about how their home looks, and put their own identity on it, rather than being stuck with what they could afford, which would have been practical and simple rather than necessarily aesthetically pleasing.  It's really only now that we have had the luxury of seeing and choosing rococco ornate that we have chosen to go back to the simple, rustic look.

Saying that though, I was struck yesterday by a beautiful and well made piece of furniture which had just been installed at the pre-school, and which was a bespoke item hand made by a local joiner.  Definitely better than anything we could have got from our friendly scandinavian furniture warehouse, but probably considerably more expensive.  Not everybody can choose to go the handmade route.

I definitely do crafts, and I choose to make things where I can.  But making things takes time, and buying hand made crafts costs money.  Once I'm established on the crafting scene, perhaps I'll be able to exchange practical and beautiful handmade items with my fellow crafters.

Advent Activities

December is fast racing past on route to the big day so I thought we'd do a little catch up of some of the things that I've been doing with the children on our Advent route so far:

• made Christmas cake
• made Christmas pudding
• made Christmas cards
• posted Christmas cards
• went to Christmas market at St Enoch Square in Glasgow.
• wrapped and posted Christmas parcels to far-flung family
• put up and decorated the Christmas tree
• made mince pies
• went to the Scout District Carol Service
• went to the Christmas Theatre production for children (3-6) at the local theatre ("The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot" - I think they got the target audience a little wrong, but...)
• made cakes for the Pre-school Christmas party
• made snow flake decorations
• some Christmas colouring and activities (free from the library)
• Christmas stories (from the nativity story to "Father Christmas Needs a Wee")
• went to Winter Wonderland pre-school activity session at Dundee Science Centre

Still a few more things to squeeze in before the big day, but we are still mostly anchored to the ground, and rather than hindering me in Christmas preparations, I've enjoyed involving the children.