Take 5

1) I think that, somehow, I have very happy Charity Shop karma (goodness knows how this could have come about!). On Sunday, after some hesitation, I cut into a really beautiful, embroidered, linen table cloth. Before you all gasp in horror, it did have quite a few teeny holes dotted around. The plan is, predictably, for it to become a beautiful quilt instead:

One large circle for the centre

And 4 large triangles for somewhere around the corners.

Hopefully by the time it's finished I might actually have ironed it along the way!

Then yesterday, I had a very quick visit to a Charity Shop we just happened to be passing, and what did I find - a beautiful, bargain tablecloth. Bright, bold and cheerily vintage rather than delicately embroidered, but definitely still beautiful:

2) One last present from Maria's birthday I haven't got round to showing you, another circle skirt:

This is fabric from a Charity Shop find too. It's quite sheer, floaty fabric, and when I bought it I really didn't have a clue what I would do with it, I just loved the design on it. But after making the last 2 skirts, I realised how perfect this would be for one - both in terms of it's floatiness and because, though it's impossible to see from these photos really, the design is very suited to the circular cutting required.

I also had the perfect blue polka dot fabric for the waistband, this was some of my Mum's old stash.

3) No photos, but I have to share our after school excitement yesterday. You know it's something bad when your teenage son comes and finds you in the garden with a very worried look on his face and says:

"Mum, I honestly don't know how this has happened, but..."

Nothing good is going to complete this sentence! What I actually got was:

"... my snake seems to have got out of the tank and I can't find him anywhere!"

Since we have no parseltongued, glass tank vanishing Harry Potters in the house, it was pretty clear to me that this had happened because someone had not closed up said tank completely when feeding said snake the night before. But that wasn't a lot of help. Upon going up to inspect the scene of the crime, I realised that losing a snake in Theo's room, even though it is quite a large snake (well over a metre in length) was a complete nightmare. There were countless nooks and crannies where it could have been hiding in amongst all the debris. Feeling a bit daunted by searching in there, I thought I'd have a quick check of the neighbouring rooms - Sam's and Venetia's - and it only took a glance in both of them to realise it would be even more of a nightmare if the snake had slithered off to explore in either of those. So, Theo and I tried to think like a snake on the loose, and happily, after about half an hour of tidying/searching in Theo's room we discovered the snake under his sofa, hiding beneath all the scrap paper etc that was also under there. It took probably another half an hour or so to chase it around the room before we finally caught it and got it safely back in the tank - that snake is fast and can squeeze into pretty tight spaces! So, really, in hindsight our snake on the loose adventure could have been a lot worse, particularly since it had obviously escaped the night before - although none of us are afraid of snakes (especially this one which is a completely harmless corn snake), I think it might have been a pretty terrifying experience to wake up in the middle of the night to find an unexpected snake slithering across your face in the dark!

4) Still no groove found with posting photos, so a catch up here of a recent expedition with Sam. A very, beautiful, tucked away cove. After a short walk through some woods, it was a hefty drop of 240 steps down to the beach (and yes, I did count them - on the way back up!)

Catching glimpses on the way down.

For anyone local, this is Broadsands, between Combe Martin and Ilfracombe. It was a really lovely place for a swim.

Not a baking hot, sunny day, but perfect water conditions to swim out to some of the rocks, surrounded by deep water, and safely jump in. And in fact it was our first swim in the rain for the year, which always feels a slightly magical thing to do. 

We had the beach to ourselves the whole time, apart from a few visitors who arrived, and then left, by canoe. I did feel, at the start of our trek back up the steps (many of them very steep and uneven - so not great for young children), that canoe was definitely the best way to reach this beach!

But, even going on foot, it was definitely worth the effort. And happily someone had positioned a bench conveniently at the top of the steps!

5) Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes, and many different forms. I think young children are often the best to explore these many, many forms. They don't have preconceived ideas of what is an acceptable expression of their creativity. And if we can embrace and encourage their creativity, without trying to impose our own preconceived ideas and boundaries upon it, I'm sure they can teach us a lot.   We were lucky enough to have a fresh, new art installation created in our house at the weekend...

It took quite a bit of thought and some careful positioning to get just the right effect. Happily, since although it was very impressive and I loved it there were some health and safety implications here, it turned out to be just a temporary art installation!