on a roll....bringing back elevenses...

just over a week later and I'm back again...what's going on?!

Well, following on from my teacosy sucess last week I went one further, this week I made two teacosies and found a good cause to raffle them for...


...last Sunday morning I hosted a "Tea and Talk" event in support of the Mental Health Foundation...that's my kind of fundraising, none of that sweaty running about or (God forbid) dangling upside down from a length of elastic above some whitewater rapids...no, no, no give me elevenses (much underrated in my opinion) in my kitchen with a bunch of friends and a tableful of tea and cake anyday...

The full spread...mmm

...and just LOOK at this maple, chocolate and walnut swirl my friend Bert (Bert the Baker, nice ring to that actually) made for the occasion...particularly delicious heated up was that one...swoon...

with only 3 days notice lots of people turned up, ate cake, drank tea, bought raffle tickets from the ever eager Ms Reva and contributed £117.07 to this great cause...

here's the teacosy winning team, Amarapuspa and Jill with their prizes

I've also set up a Justgiving page and I'll try to put a widget on the sidebar in case anyone who wasn't there fancies throwing a few bob into the pot, as much or as little as you like...I might even run an online teapot and cosy raffle for those who support the cause that way...oooh, yes, now that might be a good idea...what do you think? Fancy a teapot and cosy to call your own?...

hmmm....that took a while...

...I know...I know...it's a joke...veritably...

...however, I AM still alive [apparantly]...

...and I even knit something last week : a pretty orange eco-wool tea cosy to keep my friend's tea...ummm...cosy...now Ms Bester wants one, but without the spout and handle holes, to wear as a nice bobble hat...sounds good to me

it's proving a funny old year...I'm hoping things will settle down soon and I'll be able to get back to crafting and connecting with my much missed crafters blogosphere...fingers crossed...

in the meantime...this is post 97...about a year ago I promised to make something nice to give away at post 100...watch the space as they say [at this rate of going you've only got a couple more years to wait!!! ]

long lost annie XXX

(from the sublime) to the ridiculous...

ok, so there really was no sublime...but this is getting ridiculous...it's JANUARY!!! I posted last in OCTOBER...blimey, how did that happen?

well, stuff has been going on, as always. Big changes afoot chez Milkwood. Am sure I'll you all about them in due course.

The crafting has been hit as a result of the energy demanded by the changes, but I still have some things to show (as I should, I've had 3 bloody months!)

First up - my dear and darling friend Gail had herself a dear and darling third child, a beautiful little girl called Maya. So obviously it was an opportunity not to be missed to indulge my love of all things cute and cosy and rustle her up a baby quilt...


isn't she adorable? good god, I'll be coming over all broody next, and that would NEVER do, believe you me...

Then came Xmas (Happy Xmas all!) and I went a bit crazy making neck warmers for the ladies in my life. All from ultra gorgeous, warm and snuggley Noro Kureyon

One for Granny Margaret, another for Granny Una and a third for my lovely friend and colleague Mia, who much to my delight wears it every day in our chilly office (well, whenever I am there anyway, for all I know she rips it off with relief the minute I leave for the day - but I hope not)
Cute aren't they - I got the pattern from the woman down the wool shop, but apparantly you can get similar pattern on Marths Stewart's website - don't say I never tell you anything...

Oh, and I finally finished the Stolen Moments wrap, which I am very happy with...my one quibble with it is that it (the Big Wool I knit it from rather than the wrap per se) moults a lot all over my coat (one of the guys at work thought I was covered in cat hair - it's GREEN - huh? what kind of cats do they have in Sydenham then??...) and (oh, there appear to be two quibbles) it has gone very bobbley very quickly. Sigh.

Is very warm though and I LOVE the colour...(is a bit, um, greener, in real life)

Ok, I will make no promises about my return...but I hope to be back sooner rather than later...

Hope you are all doing ok out there in blogland and sorry again I've been so useless of late...

the shock...

...of finding I hadn't blogged since July...and it is now October...OCTOBER!!!

Jeez I feel like I was dead or something. But I wasn't. Not really sure quite what was going on...oh yeah, real life (I think they call it) bloomin' 'eck it doesn't half get in the way of bloggin'n'craftin at times...

Anyway, here I am, back to some sort of bloggin'n'craftin half life at least...sorry about the hiatus...I'd promise it won't happen again (but you know what, I bet it does)...

Ms Reva had a birthday during that self-enforced silence...girl turned 7


We had a number of celebrations and I made her a cushion, well we made it together really, though she didn't know it was happening. Best sort of mum'n'dottir crafting where no-one quite knows what's going on. Happens a lot round here.

She stuck all these bits of fabric from my scrap box onto a square piece (from a sheet we had in our holiday "hut" in the 1970s - aaaah, those were the days) one day while I was busy doing something else and one night while she was busy doing something else (sleeping to be precise) I appliqued them all down exactly as she'd put them, added a back and a label (for I suffer from an acute case of labelitis) and an internal cushion and a crafty birthday pressie was born.


The look on her face on the morning of the day was priceless, and the sight of it on her bed every day better still.



Gotta do more of that sort of stuff. I love it.

Realised tonight this is my 95th, or 96th post. Now I know that's fairly pathetic over more than two years compared to all those prolific posters out there, but it does mean post no 100 is approaching (sometime in the next decade that'll be) and so I'll have to start thinking about a suitable giveaway for the traditional celebration. Unless fashions have moved on so far since I was around last of course that that is now passe. Hmmmm...watch this space... (ahem...if you have the patience of a saint that is)

Hope anyone who found their way back here again after my very impolite silence is well and enjoying life and all that Autumn (can it really be) has to offer...

21 go down to the sea...

annual summer camping trip time again...our largest group outing to date...11 adults and 10 kids all went down to Dorset for a weekend of fun, frolics and fossils...

...chesil beach in the mist...

we managed to celebrate two birthdays

with home made cake...now a pre-requisite for any camping trip for me I'm afraid

...fit in some walking...

there be a baby in that there purple scarf refashioned into a sling apparatus

we visited some rocky beaches

the girls jointly invested many weeks pocket money in an inflatable

(versatile that scarf!)

and my lovely friend Jane (one of the Birthday Girls) even made a dress over the weekend...
a rather small dress, but a dress, nonetheless

go camping...it rocks!

random photos of those pesky smallfry...

random pics of the smallfry, just because...


running through a doorway in the tudor part of Hampton Court Palace where we had a lot of fun thinking about King Henry "the Horrid" (as Esther christened him) - what a brilliant place for a day out with kids, from the palace with its kitchens and twisty turny corridors, to the maze which we had to lose ourselves in twice it was so much fun, to the formal gardens, the rose gardens (with a scent so beautiful it made us all stand still) and gorgeous wild areas in which to picnic...


had to include this shot of my wonderfully disaffected looking 6 going on 15 year old - doesn't she do sullen well? Fabulous [shivers at the thought of how well-practised she'll be by the time she actually hits 15]

it just took a bop on her trusty spacehopper to wipe that sulk from her face (how long will that grass last in the face of such bop-hopping? anyone's guess...)

ack, this one doesn't do sullen. Yet.

post sugary fudge making the old ritual of "licking the bowl". I did it with my sister (fighting over every last scrap of sweet goodness) and hopefully their kids will do it too...that old cycle of life eh? my mum would be proud to see me upholding the old traditions...

crafting? it'll be back soon, I promise...

midweek musings : smile

Breathing in, I calm my body,
Breathing out, I smile,
Dwelling in the present moment,
I know this is a wonderful moment

Thich Nhat Hanh: present moment, wonderful moment