"I can do it myself"

This moment, a Friday tradition, a time to cherish, to remember, to honour its importance.
To stop and give thanks, a time to feel blessed.

Inspired by SouleMama http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/

Wash Wednesday - 1

Even Peter Rabbit and Pat need a spin in the washer sometimes.

Gardenmama http://gardenmama.typepad.com/my_weblog/ hosts Wash Wednesday.

Book Sharing Monday - Thomas and the Prize Pig

O is our first Thomas the Tank Engine fan, L & K were never keen.It never ceases to amaze me how he knows all the engines and their names, matching numbers with names and colours of engines despite supposedly not knowing either.

This little board book is a favourite, a simple tale of taking a pig to show at the Country Fair.

Yesterday, as we headed to a local Country Fair, O knew exactly what to expect and happily told us all the animals he'd see there.His list came from his little book, right down to Dora the runaway pig !

We saw 4 lovely little pigs , which I forgot to photograph ! I blame the heat, it was 37 degrees, we are more use to dodging showers at these events.

This handsome fella was my favourite, O's was an alpaca who shared his name.

O had a fantastic day seeing all the animals from his book and more, hubby won a whole ewe's cheese after correctly guessing how much milk 3 sheep would give at their morning milking ( 4.1l spot on guess ! ) we had a wonderful picnic and all caught alittle sun.

Heres to more Summer Days.

Take a look at more people taking part in BSM

http://canadianhomelearning.blogspot.com/

Concentration

This moment, a Friday tradition, a time to cherish, to remember, to honour its importance.To stop and give thanks, a time to feel blessed.

Inspired by SouleMama http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/

Rainbow Sewing

I have very kindly been allowed to join a crafting swap group based in America.
Themes are posted and when one takes your fancy, you sign up to make 5 items ( all the same ) plus an extra as a Thank You to the person organising the swap.In return you receive 5 different items, all hand made with love.
The theme that inspired me was "Rainbows"

I made 6 tissue/cloth holders, using this wonderful, easy pattern

http://www.ehow.com/how_2337635_sew-cloth-tissue-holder-purse.html and this fabulous fabric.

I popped 2 cloths ( my trial pieces ) into the holders.

I hope they see passed my wonky lines and feel the fun I had creating them.

Another May "to do" crossed off.

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I have added a "Blogging Week" list in the sidebar, am missing inspiration for Tuesday and Thursday, any suggestions ?

In the Dye-Pot

Dying with Kool-Aid was fun http://abigsmile4.blogspot.com/2009/09/great-day-to-dye.html
but my real goal was natural dying, arming myself with tons of wise words from blogs and forums, I finally gave it a try.

I soaked my wool, then added it to a pot of water with alum & cream of tartar, this is your mordant, helping the dye fix to the wool, gently heating.
The dye was made using Brazilnut wood chips, heated and soaked for a day.
When the wool was ready, I added it into the dye pot and cooked again gently.
Left to cool and then hung out to dry.

Great info on natural dying here -

http://simmy.typepad.com/echoesofadream/ sadly Simmy, no longer blogs but has left some great advice and gorgeous pictures of her projects.

http://www.sewanee.edu/Chem/Chem&Art/Detail_Pages/Projects_2003/Lawrence/html/Lawrence.html

http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-dye-yarn-with-sun-dye.html this looks like great fun and excellent for involving children.

This was so much easier than I thought and there is really so much help and advice available.

And now, I am knitting it up, into a Pebble Vest for my boy.
Having knitted so many of these for friends new babes, I was delighted to find a sized up pattern on Ravelry.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/railyuh/pebble-henrys-manly-cobblestone-inspired-baby-vest

I am nocton4 there, please feel free to "friend" me, I'd love to see your projects.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful yoghurt help, what a great community.

I am working my way through the links and will be giving it another go later in the week, will report back.

Trying to make Yoghurt

Fulfilling this May plan is not as easy as I thought it was going to be !

I have brought 1l of milk to the boil ( twice now ! ) and then let it cool to around 50c, added a generous spoonful of yoghurt - shop or from previous batch ( I wish ) and mixed with alittle of the milk, slowly adding in the rest of the milk and stirring.

Then lid on my 1970's yoghurt maker, it was a 50p car boot bargain ( although with the organic milk and yoghurt I'm wasting, not looking so much of a good deal right now ) and left.

I did have a peek at it and all was looking well.

However, both attempts have resulted in a curdled mess, swimming in a yellow, straw coloured liquid !

Help ... please.What am I doing wrong ? any tips would be much appreciated.

How are your May plans coming on ?

Happy weekend to all x