Full circle?

Things on the work front are still unclear but the more we hear, the more likely it is that our contracts won't be renewed at the end of March. We should know a little more before Christmas.

This uncertainty, coupled with all the usual life stuff and then a stinky heavy cold (and a MASSIVE scare when I thought I might be pregnant! - I'm not!!!), has forced me into my shell a little of late.

When I started this little blog, I'd just gone through a very unexpected life-changing year and was spending time at home. I was lucky enough to have a whole year at home discovering and exploring my creativity, inspired and supported by my new-found 'imaginary' friends in blogland, until I found a great little job and returned once more into the big wide world of work.

Now, I feel things may be about to come full circle. With the knowledge that my job may end, I've been exploring the jobs market........and the stalls seem to be pretty bare and uninspiring or at least not conducive to family life as we like it.

Once the initial panic wore off, my naturally positive inner voice took over and I'm slowly but surely formulating a plan. A working for myself type plan. A working for myself doing what I love type plan. A plan which, when explained to Mr Moog met with a most unexpected thumbs up!

So, if the new year does see the end of my job, I'll be ready with my plan.

In the meantime, I'm getting through notebooks at a startling rate!

Now for a little bit of a Moog family update.

- After worrying us all sick, my Dad seemed to rally again and is a little better.

- Mr Moog is going through the motions of organising wrist surgery, hampered by much to-ing and fro-ing with insurers. Grrrr.

- This little-old-lady Moog had a visit to the V.E.T, thanks to problems walking. Arthritis has set in and her back legs were starting to give way. At the grand old age of 15, these things are to be expected and up to now she's been a remarkably healthy little puppers.

She's now on anti-inflammatory drugs and, as of yesterday, has started having swimming lessons....or 'hydrotherapy' as it's otherwise known. She did brilliantly and did five whole laps of the pool, surprising not only herself but also the hydrotherapist! Everyone at the pool fell in love with her and no-one could believe how old she was, so she also got a much needed ego boost and a kiss on the nose :o)

Today, she is mostly snoring.

xxx

Imaginary blogging

Just like Michaela, I've written this blog post almost every day for about two weeks - it's just taken this long to get it out of my head and onto the page. Lots has happened since my last post, so maybe a quick run through would be in order:

- I managed to squeeze a little bloggy meet-up into a working day, last week, when I met the very lovely Quiltygal and her equally lovely daugther for coffee and fabric shopping down by the sea. So good to meet you Claire - hope the long trip home went without a hitch!

- One of my colleagues gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, giving me the most perfect excuse to break out the sewing machine and whip up a quilty playmat with all my favourite boyish fabrics...



......including a very sheepy reverse side......



.....and of course I couldn't resist a bit of baby knitting.



- An evening spent with The Girls and a big pot of glue led me to this:

which then led to some soapy action and this:

- Mr Moog received the results of a wrist scan and it's good news. The reason he's been in so much pain since his accident is that he has a fractured wrist!

Good news? Yes, because now he knows the pain wasn't imaginary and it takes us one small step closer to getting the whole thing settled with the insurance company. Still waiting on an appointment to get his befuddled brain looked at and then there'll be open surgery to pin his scaphoid bone back together in his wrist. Nice.

- My poor old Dad is fighting a chest infection and is showing signs of his brian tumour progressing again. Off to see him on Monday.

- Work has been busier of late and has even taken up my beloved Fridays off. Ironically, with three separate reviews being done by the powers that be, there seems to be a pretty good chance that my contract will not be renewed next year. I can feel a crossroads approaching.

- The beasties and I are now off school/work for a very timely half-term break. Chance to kick back, catch up with friends and family, and start to ponder the future.

xxx

My brother - the craftsman

My lovely brother has done something he thought he'd never do. He's gone on the webs!

In fact, he has his very own, very grown up website. The things this wonderful man can do with wood have to be seen to be believed.

Here he is - go increase his traffic people!

Oh, and check out the dragon chair here.

Happy carving xxxx

If crochet was an aerobic activity, I'd be so fit!

Every little moment that hasn't been filled with home, family and work just lately has been spent manically hooking. Hooking like my life depended on it. Hooking like I'm in training for the London2012 Crochet Olympics and am striving for a gold medal!

I'm hoping someone will soon discover that crochet and knitting are the best forms of fat burning exercise. Sadly, my increasingly ample proportions would seem to dash this hope - unless I'm just not doing enough of it yet, of course.......

This is my roundabout way of showing you yet more pictures of stuff made out of yarn.

First, there's a frilly ruffly scarf for m-i-l's Christmas present, started and finished in a few hours, using just one ball of the strangest yarn - a net-like ribbon of yarn. You need to open the net/yarn out as you knit and only ever have seven stitches on the needles, and it's a completely different way of knitting.



Then. there's the beast that has been dominating my life. The Flowers in the Snow blanket.
So far, I've made 150 of the centre circles and have crocheted 30 of these into the beginnings of a blanket. To date, a teddy bear sized blanket.



You may recall I planned to make this into a kingsize throw for our bed. I may have been a little rash there.

We'll see.

Luckily, it's prettiness is keeping me going for now.



Anyway, that's enough blogging for now. I have to get back to my training schedule.

xxx

Hooked

It would seem that knitting has taken a bit of a back seat this past week. I had an overwhelming urge to finish my big-granny blanket and when I get an overwhelming urge things tend to happen.

In just four days (evenings) I went from 9 completed squares, each comprised of twelve rounds of grannying, to 25.....all sewn together and with a border of five more granny rows!



The colours were chosen with the help of my favourite Cath Kidston handbag and although my squares are not entirely square this little blanket makes me very very happy indeed.



Of course, one thing tends to lead to another and I decided I should finish off my hexagon blanket that has lain neglected for months.

Somehow I just couldn't face making another hundred or so hexagons to make it bigger, so made a management decision to leave it as a small but cosy lap blanket with a few rows of pretty edging to make it look a bit more 'done'.



This is also making me very happy indeed.



Naturally, with two 'big' projects finished there was nothing else for it but to start another.



Flowers in the snow.

I could be working on this one for some time.......the plan is to make a cover for our kingsize bed. Forty circles done so far, of which four have been made up into squares.

I reckon I may need about 400.

Like I said.......this could take some time!

Before I head off to make the most of the children being away at a stayawakeover, I must point you to Trashy's blog. If you fancy getting together for a fabulous sewing retreat with a whole bunch of lovely bloggers next autumn, then please let Trashy know right now.

She's looking for enough of us to make it into a fabulous northern hemisphere version of Sew It Together that our southern bloggy buddies enjoyed this year. So go over to Trashy's blog right now and say 'yes please' on her poll!

Happy weekend :o)

xxxx

Friday

I couldn't think what to call today's post but finally decided that the wonderful word 'Friday' just about sums it up. It's been a mad busy week all round so there's a certain amount of relief that today is indeed Friday.

In between the madness I treated myself to little moments of calm, most of which were spent in the kitchen.

The sloes are now in a lovely big jar, getting to know the gin and the rosehips have been turned into four small jars of cough-soothing syrup.



I've never made rosehip syrup before and it was incredibly easy. I used a recipe from my River Cottage Handbook. Here's the recipe I used if you fancy having a go.

Monster has had a bit of a week, which started with minor surgery for a very poorly ingrown toenail, followed by a return visit for 'wound dressing' and then a whole day out with his year group to the Southampton Boat Show. He had his first full day of the term in school yesterday - just eight days behind his rather disgruntled sister.

He's been in need of cake all week and somehow I just didn't get round to baking until today. Poor child has had to have fruit or yogurt instead. Can't wait to see his little face when he gets home and sees a tin full of rock cakes :o)



I've enjoyed a visit to the farm shop to stock up on some wonderful seasonal veg. I couldn't resist a beautiful red cabbage and came straight home to try out a recipe from the Abel & Cole Cookbook - red cabbage braised in balsamic vinegar. Very very easy - all you need to add to the shredded cabbage is half a mug of balsamic vinegar, half a mug of sugar and a mug of water. Bring it up to the boil, then simmer it gently for an hour - making sure it doesn't boil dry. Absolutely delicious!



I also bought one of these - mainly because it's so pretty - but I'm not sure what to do with it! Answers on a postcard please.




I needed a very simple knitting project to relax with in the evenings this week. I trawled through all my patterns and mooched through all my lovely sock wool and still hadn't a clue what to do.

Then I unearthed my basket of scraps.



Yarn held double and 4mm needles led to some very satisfyingly quick sock knitting. Sock 1 took a few hours. Sock 2 is well on it's way but this is secret knitting, to go into Minx's Christmas stocking, so finding time to knit it without old eagle eyes about is proving a challenge!



We're discovering the harsh reality of life that is later bedtimes for the beasties. Mr Moog and I get all misty eyed and nostalgic for the days when we actually had an evening - babies fed, bathed and in bed for 7pm......

......sigh.

xxx

Strange

I have a secret. Something I've learned to keep to myself after years as a 'northerner' living down south.

Having been met with sheer amazement, nay abject horror, when mentioning this particular quirk of mine to the native southerners, I now keep my mouth well and truly shut when it comes to the mention of that very dirtiest of words......

.......autumn.

It's not so much the word itself that causes folk to step back in fear, more the statement that I happen to love this season more than any other.

How could I love the end of summer? The cooler days? The darker evenings? The damp mornings?

Well I do. I love all those things about autumn and more but by far my favourite things are these:

We reclaim our forest from the summer crowds.
We can take poor old Moog out for forest walks without her wilting in the heat.
We don't have to sit in queues of summer traffic for hours on end.
Foraging for freebies from Nature's larder.

The unique smell of the forest in autumn.

Today, Mr Moog was adamant that we should not waste a glorious autumn day at home, so off we headed to a very secret bit of the New Forest where we knew from past experience there were treasures to be found.

We came home laden with rosehips - now steeping in readiness to make rosehip syrup; sloes - a bit early but now in the freezer to immitate an early frost, ready for turning into sloe gin; and of course, blackberries - now bagged up into five generous portions and sitting in the freezer, ready for winter puddings.

Naturally, we had to test some of our harvest just to make sure.



Blackberry and apple crumble, made with homegrown dessert apples, and served with delicious Mackies vanilla ice cream ( BOGOF at the Co-op right now!).

So now, I'm going to say it. LOUD. AND. PROUD.....

I LOVE AUTUMN!!!

xxx