Wight Weirdos

A Tidy Room

Susan — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:49:05 +0000

Well a tidy fireplace area anyway.

We had some lovely flowers for Burns night so they are making everything look brighter as is the home-made book with daffodils on the cover.

Amazon World

Susan — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:23:40 +0000

We were very lucky to be given a few Tesco vouchers that needed to be used up and as there are not many places to go to with them on the Island we opted for Amazon World with a friend.

Jonathan really loved looking at the birds and even sketched a few. We liked the wintery tree skeleton feathers adorning one of the birds, and Jonathan liked sketching the little ones.

I liked the stripes around the parrots eyes.

Jonathan thought that the fish might eat his finger!

We also had a chance to stroke an armadillo and saw a ping-pong ball of a tortoise egg.

Leap Year Blanket

Susan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:31 +0000

Facebook is to blame for this – I followed a friend around and landed on a group about making a crochet leap year blanket. The idea is that you make a square a day and turn it into a blanket – I was hooked! now I I know what I am like and I would start off very enthusiastically and make more than one square a day and then maybe one or two every three or four days then one a week or two and then give up. So I decided that I would commit to making one square a week and if I did more it would be a bonus.

The other thing I know about myself is that if i left it to the end of the year to put together I’d never do it, so it’s being pieced togther as I go.

the colours are just made up from what I had to hand and what I fancy adding. i also have done rather random sizes as I don’t tend to take too much notice of what wool should be used for what sized hook or for what gauge.

So the whole thing is a bit of a random, hotch potch of things I have ready to use up and things I like.

The other thing that some people are doing is making special square for special occasions, so having spent a lovely Burns night with friends I decided I’d have a go at my first square with a meaning. It’s not finished yet but you get the idea. I also make so diddy diddy squares with the same colours to act as grouting between big square – I think perhaps making all the squares the same size might have been a better idea!

Needed A Day Like This

Susan — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:24:19 +0000

Martin had been saying for a couple of weeks that he needed a holiday so at the end of November I decided that even though we didn’t have time to have an actual holiday we could manage a night away. We could do the Saturday night, we have no duties at church the next morning, there were no kids activities going on that we need to get people to and from it was just a case of finding someone to have the children and a hotel with a swimming pool that we could actually afford! Luckily we have good friends and after a couple of false starts the children were farmed out to various friends (thank you Elaine and Andrea).

So we had all day Saturday and Sunday morning to ourselves to fully relax in. We had been feeling pretty stressed again, particularly Martin and a grabbed afternoon in the pub the previous Saturday had only highlighted to us that we had moved away from the ideas of including plenty of idleness in our lives and were heading towards manic over business and ineffective activity yet again.

So when we got into the car to head out on Saturday morning and the track playing in the car was Needed A Day Like This by the lovely Paul Bell we really felt we were doing the right thing.

No alarms today
No phones to ring I’m just…
Waking up with the sun and my love
No work today
No bills to pay
It’s just you and me my love.
And today, the world just melts away

I needed a day like this
I needed a day like this

No demands
And no firm plans
We’ve got all the time in the world my love
No plots to hatch
No trains to catch
It’s just you and me my love
And today, the world just melts away
And today, the world just melts away

We had lunch at the always tasty Chale Green Stores and then headed out towards Sandown and our hotel. We were passing the Botanic gardens and decided to stop there for an afternoon walk.

There were brilliant colours and amazing textures and we relaxed, chatted and took photos.

We headed to the hotel (Melville Hall) where there were two unexpected bonuses – a four poster bed in the room and much more impressively an outdoor hot tub. We nipped straight into the hot tub (it was closing shortly) and lay in the hot water watching the stars gradually come out and feeling very very relaxed! We didn’t feel in need of a restaurant meal and it was a nice evening so despite the time of year we headed out to eat fish and chips on the beach. Back to the bar for a drink and a couple of games of crib (only a couple we won one each and weren’t going to risk marital disharmony by playing another).

We were very impressed that the hotel room also had proper wine glasses and more importantly a tea pot!

We headed down to Quarr Abbey for morning tea and cake and after an exceptioanlly long wait got a very attractive set of drinks and a somewhat disappointing slice of shortbread. Nerissa assures me that their cakes are lovely though so we’lll have to go back and try again another day!

So we were happily relaxed when we got back to the kids and determined to make sure we had some time each month when we spent at least an afternoon to ourselves just relaxing with no agenda.

December Catch Up

Susan — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:30:58 +0000

A few of the other things we have managed to do this December have been:

Watching the amazing Bloodstone at Jubilee Stores (we even persuaded Jamie to come and watch Morris dancing )

Cookie Exchange:

The Learning Zone Christmas Party:

Family Christmas time:

Christmas Crafts

Susan — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:11:01 +0000

Despite being quite ill over the last couple of weeks we have managed to get some things done. There has been a fair amount of crafting.

I loved these easy but beautiful paper Christmas stars:

We had a houseful felting Christmas stockings in all manner of colours and patterns:

We managed a snow-flake Christmas wreath that even Martin contributed to:

Jonathan, Rebekah and I threaded some natural decorations, some we hung outside but Rebekah put hers on her little tree in her bedroom:

I wanted to do so much more but unfortunately haven’t had the energy to do it.

Gingerbread Houses

Susan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:42:51 +0000

We had what my girls always refer to as a “proper” home education morning. This involves being in a hall with a group of kids from a wide range of ages and families and to do something that people of most ages can enjoy and probably the chance for smallish boys to find some sticks and run a bit wild at some point. So making gingerbread houses at Rookley Village Hall with a group of about 12 home-educating families was just perfect. The creation process took quite a while – Ruth and Rebekah took quite a bit longer over theirs than Jonathan.

As Rebekah was sticking hers together a certain someone came and along and volunteered to eat a sweet which had “fallen” off!

And here are some of the finished items, these ones have amazing extras like a strawberry patch and giant mushrooms.

Ruth and Rebekah made lovely ones and Jonathan’s was made to eat straight away.

Learning Zone Christmas Grotto 2011

Susan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:31:32 +0000

We had a grotto last year at Fort Victoria and it was such good fun we did it again.

The woodland skills people helped with the grotto and cosy fire area, as did a few other volunteers.

There were decorations to make and lanterns to hang – once I’d set fire to my hair lighting some of them!!!

The grotto was ready – Rebekah was taking photos and Jonathan was being attacked by little girls – people listened to Sue Bailey tell stories and sang songs round the camp fire.

Where did you get that hat, where did you get that hat?

Susan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:10:32 +0000

I have been knitting a new hat – it’s a sock head hat that I found on Ravelry. The ribbing took me about 8 attempts to start but once I got beyond the first 6 rows or so it was very easy- lots of plain knitting so good for knitting while I’m watching murder mysteries or Merlin.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Susan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:00:16 +0000

We (Jonathan and I) wanted to make a lovely felted tree like the one posted here. I hadn’t taken into account the fact that her felt was “thick felt” whereas my felt is just normal ordinary felt. So our tree was very very very flat. however we are resourceful people (aren’t all home educators) and we rescued the project by using beads!