A long overdue Photo An Hour post! April 15th was the chosen day, thanks as ever to Louisa for hosting, I may not remember them all but I do enjoy taking part when I do.

6am Awake. Husband is already up, getting ready to go to work. Bub is still sleeping. I’m enjoying the quiet, whilst searching for a replacement clock mechanism online.

7am Morning cuddles.

8am Breakfast time

9am Today is racing by! 9am already?!Keeping the toddler amused with a cardboard box and some crayons whilst I tidy up*

*sit on the sofa a drink my tea

10am Apparently we don’t need to wear leggings today, Peppa Pig socks will suffice… I’ll distract her with a snack and some CBeebies and put her leggings on without her even really noticing. I win (this time).

11am Outside. We’ve chalked the patio slabs, been in the swing, gone down the slide, played hide and seek, bumbled around in the green house, played with the watering cans, and splashed in the resulting puddles, jumped off the steps, run around the pear tree, and counted the stepping stones.

12pm Bub is napping, I’m working on a little craft project for her birthday

1pm Lunch. We like apples, but "no not fruit!"

2pm No need for toys when you have flower shaped Post-Its, more toothbrush heads than you could use in a year, and a stone (like Macca Pacca).

3pm Hide and seek.

4pm Back outside.

5pm All together in the garden

I decided that I wanted a little craft project to do. It’s been ages since I’ve indulged in anything crafty and I just got the urge.

I needed something that I could pick up and put down easily, but what?

Sewing was where I landed and I spent some time pondering what this project could be. One day a random memory popped into my head of a stuffed toy kit I was given when I was about eight years old. It was then that I decided to make something similar for Bub.

I Googled ‘mole sewing kit’ and an image in the search results caught my eye - a kit that looked very similar to the one I had had. On closer inspection I realised it was the exact same kit.

I clicked the link and it took me to a blog. This lady was sewing the kit which she’d found at a car boot sale. But it gave me the exact name of the kit and I was able to Google that.

A few sites came up selling the kit but all where out of stock. Which isn’t surprising as they probably stopped manufacturing this years ago.

Some days later I was still thinking about this mole and I had a thought to try eBay. A couple of kits of the same brand where listed, but not the mole.

I wanted the mole.

I’d become a bit obsessed with the mole.

No other mole would do.

I had no choice but to abandon the idea and decided to browse other kits when I had time.

A few weeks later a notification popped up on my phone to say someone had listed a ‘Vintage Minicraft Ready to Sew Mole’. I’d saved the search! I don’t remember doing so, but there it was, the exact kit I’d had all those years ago.

It was £4.50. Obviously I bought it.

So why the photo of a lion? Well that was just to keep you guessing :) I found the lion kit languishing in my craft stash. I’ll be sewing him together too - after the mole.

Now I just need to make a start, but I promise to share the mole, who will no doubt be known as Moley, with you as soon as he’s been stitched into existence.

xx

Just a quick post to catch up with my Photo an Hour days. I missed February entirely, but I did manage some of the day in January (21st), not a great start to the Photo an Hour challenge of 2023!

9am. Just remembered it’s Photo An Hour day! We’re starting the day with a pom pom bath. No plans today, we’re making it up as we go along.

We'd been up since 7am, but it wasn't until I opened Instagram that I realised it was Photo an Hour! The first photo of the day might look like I'm living an Instagrammable life, but before the bath was over Bub had pooped. In the bath. With the pom poms.

Nothing says 'real life' like fishing poop and pom poms out of your bath with a jug!

11am. Painting. It’ll take longer to clean up than we spend doing it but it’s so much fun!

1pm. She sleeps

3pm. Snack time. Bub learned the word 'nak' quite early on, and now she stands at the cupboard and rattles the door (thank goodness for childproof door locks).

The rest of the day followed a familiar path. Teatime at 5:30pm, some playtime and cBeebies until 7pm, then up to bed for teeth cleaning, a nappy change, some bedtime stories (One Ted Falls Out of Bed being a particular favourite), and then the lights are dimmed to drift off to sleep. At which point I get ready for bed, potter about for a whilst chatting to Andy, tidying, updating my grocery shopping order, adding to my meal plan etc, before going to bed myself to read, only to fall asleep before I finish a page.

Hello, I’ve been pondering how to start a blog post after such a long absence, and I decided to just start.

So here I am, back again. With good intentions of posting at least a few times a month.

All that’s left is for me to decide what I’ll be posting about. I used to witter on about my wardrobe, or rather the clothes in it and the outfits I made from it, and share to-do lists that never got entirely ticked off.

But these days I don’t have the time to write a to-do list much less tick things off. And my outfits are few and functional.

So I’ll be just writing. Capturing thoughts and ideas, memories and moments. My blog has never followed a schedule so perhaps it won’t feel all that different?

I’ve missed my blog, and the blogs I used to regularly read. They both feel like old friendships that I’ve been neglecting, much like some of my real life friendships (and my poor cats)! I hope to be more present here, and IRL.

What have I been up to? Everything and nothing. There’s almost too much to share. Too much time has passed. Let’s just say parenthood has been all consuming in the best possible way, but it has paused a lot of what made up my life pre-Bub.

The housework, DIY, and garden have all been put on the back burner, in fact I feel that I should probably be ironing or something similar instead of sitting here typing but I felt the need to do something just for me. So here I am, it feels good to be back.

I hope you're well, take care, more soon.

xx

Another Photo An Hour post, albeit an incomplete one. October 22nd was the chosen day, thanks as ever to Louisa for hosting, I may not keep up to date with them but I do enjoy taking part.

6:30am small bed invader. Not sure what the day holds but it’s time to get the day underway.

7:30am another small bed invader. Bub is downstairs with Dada (as she currently calls him), I’m enjoying a hot cup of tea. Really should get up and make porridge for the little one to smear about the place…

9:30am dressed. If you point that camera at me, I’m going to point at you. We’re breakfasted, bathed, dressed, and now it’s time for some mischief and bed bouncing.

10:30am climbing? This is not a good development…

11:30am little one is zonked out, I’m wondering why the heck I didn’t make myself a cuppa before I sat down. Rookie mistake!

12:30pm lunch.

1:30pm want to keep a toddler quiet for 10 minutes? Put a box on the floor.

4:30pm back from visiting a friend for a cuppa, trying to organise my office, not achieving much.

I missed a few months of Photo An Hour. In May I forgot, only remembering at lunchtime, and in June we decided to have Bub’s 1st birthday party on the chosen PAH day. There was just too much going on to take part.

The 23rd was the day chosen for July.

7am. Morning cuddles. And, if I am interpreting the sounds from the kitchen correctly, a cup of tea is on its way.

8am. We've breakfasted and played outside. Now for some supervised book time.

(Book time has to be supervised so that we can prevent Bub from destroying all the books. She likes to chew on them, peel off the covers, and reduce them to single pages and use them as stepping stones - and this is just board books, what she does to paperbacks is criminal! She really enjoys her books so I spend a lot of time with her and her books everyday, which I love!)

9am. Bathed, dressed, now playing with post-its and books. I’m trying to get dressed whilst preventing the bedroom (and books) getting trashed by the tiny person.

10am. Whilst Bub is having fun exploring our bedroom, I’m sorting out bits and pieces. It’s mutually agreeable.

11am. It sleeps. And while it does I’m pottering about undoing all the destruction it created this morning. There is a lot of tidying in motherhood.

1pm. Went to see husband at work. The agricultural education is underway.

2pm. A walk and then a bit of a sit. Must stay hydrated.

3pm. A quick stop at the yard to pressure wash the car.

4pm. Home and in the garden

6pm. Peeking. Trying to keep the lounge cool by closing the curtains. And trying to stop this one climbing into the back of the sofa.

7pm. Just popping the tractor in the garage for the night.

Thanks to Louisa for hosting. See you soon.