Life is busy here as always, there’s a lot of e-mailing and texting at the moment, as I help sort out Father Christmas’s grotto and some social events at the school. I’ve decided to have a to do list, I’ve written it along the length of my very large calendar and the list is nearly to the bottom, but it makes me feel better when I’ve crossed things off and is a reminder not to sit on my bum too much.
Yesterday was Girl Lacer’s parent consultation, she’s doing ok, although her writing is better than her reading, which was flagged up, but from what I’ve heard generally that often happens, a child can be maybe good at reading but rubbish at writing or vice a versa or as with Girl Lacer not quite as good with her reading as with her writing and it’s the writing she adores. Other than that she’s doing well in maths and ’happy and works hard’ which suits me fine.
We had a busy time after school, first tap, as per usual then on into town to see the lights being switched on. This time Darth Vadar was doing the deed, which was ok, but I preferred the Cybermen last year, who were far more menacing. It was good seeing R2D2 though.
The shopping centre has new decorations, giant baubles that rotate and open to reveal little animatronic scenes within, they’ve staggered the bauble openings, so that only one bauble opens at a time, I predict lots of people bumping into each as they walk along staring at them.
Today was spent working on my to do list, sending off my remaining Swap bot items, so I no longer have any outstanding swaps, it’ll probably stay that way to. One of my swaps, was a craft in an envie, so I wrote the instructions for my sequined stars and provided the materials for it. So although my sequined stars are fairly obvious to make, here’s the instructions for anyone interested.
Make your own Sparkly Star
You need:
- 1 square of felt
- Sequins in a colour to match felt
- Embroidery floss to match felt
- A small amount of polyester fibre fill
- Ribbon
- Template (included)
- Pins
- Needle
- Scissors
- Fold your felt square into two, it should still be large enough to pin your cut out star template to the folded felt.
- Cut round the template, so that you have two felt stars.
- Sew your sequins onto the centre of one of your stars using one strand of embroidery floss.
- Using whip stitch (see http://www.holiday-crafts-and-creations.com/whip-stitch.html for a good description of how to do whip stitch) sew your two stars together, remembering to attach your ribbon in a loop at one of the points of the star, sewing through the ribbon and the felt to attach it. Don’t forget to leave a hole to stuff your star!
- Gently stuff your star with fibre fill and then continue to whip stitch the hole until it is closed.
- Hang up your decoration and enjoy!
The other swap bot was for some Christmas decorations I had kept back from listing on Etsy.
Today was the day of Boy Lacer’s postponed (because he was ill last time) parent’s evening, although I say parent’s evening, it was in the afternoon and they’re not even called parent’s evenings when they’re in the evening, they’re called parent consultations these days. Anyway, whereas I have two years of parent consultations with Girl Lacer under my belt, which always tend to go along the lines of “She’s doing well in this, this and this” and “She’s almost married to S isn’t she? How long has she known him?” (S is a boy in her class who she’s known since she was 2, although they’ve drifted apart a little since year 1). I always knew Boy Lacer’s parent consultations would be very different, for a start there were a lot more people involved today; the inclusion manager, the nursery teacher and one of the nursery nurses. There was a lot more planning involved, discussions of therapists, mutual shock at the current situation with the lack of occupational therapy and happiness with the physio (I told them how happy the physio was with how Boy Lacer had improved since starting nursery). And overall a lot of happiness from me, that he is so in the right place, the staff are so experienced and the whole ethos of the school is wonderful. Before seeing the place I’d have never of thought that a high academic achieving school would also be so excellent with their special needs care and I think that’s because they care so well for everyone and get the best out of everyone, without being a hot house or leaving the ‘weaker’ children behind. As I remind myself repeatedly, makes living in this shoe box worth while.
Of particular interest was their use of visual timetables, which I knew they were using but didn’t know how successful they were, the answer, very. They’ve had particular success with using visual symbols when washing hands with him (not one of his strongest points, washing hands) and have been using the symbol for coat with particular emphasis recently, as he’s reverted back to his old dislike of having his coat on (I thought he’d got past that, sigh). I’ve been thinking of introducing visual symbols at home, particularly for hand washing as well, so as they seem so successful at nursery, will definitely have to give them a go. Think I may need to get another laminator though, I broke the last one, whoops! But plain old paper is not going to last long in the bathroom.
After the meeting, I went buoyed up into town, Boy Lacer was at nursery and Girl Lacer back at school (temperature now absolutely fine, weird). You know how it is when kids are ill, even for just one day, you of course need to get into town that one day and of course you can’t. And of course I couldn’t go into town this morning as I was waiting in for a delivery (which was late, so I could have gone), so I had to squeeze in a quick trip before pick up. I try not to go shopping in my afternoons off, as I really need that time for working, but it’s nice to go shopping occasionally on my own. Mr. Lacer lets me escape sometimes at the weekends, but town is normally crowded at the weekends and almost deathly quiet by comparison on the weekdays, but Christmas shopping seems to have hit town and it was crowded today as well, almost couldn’t fit in all the shops I needed because of the queues. Still, managed to get what I needed plus a pair of very cheap M&S jeans I’m planning on making over Sublime Stitching style.
So, busy, busy, busy. Learnt today as well, exactly what the nursery is responsible for at the christmas fair and as a nursery rep, that therefore means I have to be one of the people organising it and it’s the grotto, shudder! This means getting lots of volunteers, organising wrapping the fake presents, organising the gifts and haranguing three dads to ‘assist’ Father Christmas. Poor Mr. Lacer, married to a rep, I bet you can guess who I’m thinking one of the three ‘assistants’ will be! Still, extremely glad to be giving something back!
I’m reducing my Swap bot list down further and this was one of the few remaining swaps on my list. Based on a pattern from Squawfox.com, it’s a softie Christmas tree.
I’d highly recommend this pattern, it’s free and highly adaptable. I chose to make mine in green felt and add red and white buttons, but you could easily make it in fabric or embellish is with ribbon, ric-rac or embroidery.
Girl Lacer is off school (again – she’s had so much time off this year). Her class is like Ground Zero for the swine flu in her school and although right now she’s playing raucously with Boy Lacer, she’s sniffing and although normally, I, ‘heartless’ mummy would send my sniffing child to school, because of the swine flu, I checked her temperature just in case and it was 38.5C, so fever, just about. I don’t know, if it wasn’t for the swine flu, I heartless mummy wouldn’t have even bothered checking her temperature, she looks so relatively healthy and I would have put the sniffing down to a mild cold, which it still could be and if it is swine flu and it stays this mild, well she’s very lucky.
Anyway, so not having to do the school run and the kids’ otherwise occupied, I settled down with my laptop and opened up my NaNoWriMo, I had left it a key scene, the bad guy, who currently has my heroine in his control and I had to work out what she had to do in the key scene of the book and although I knew roughly what happens in that scene and I knew what my heroine would end up doing, I didn’t know what the bad guy would want her to do and writing this blog post, I’m realising that I’m also missing a whole lot more set up for that scene, which could be to do with me writing in first person, maybe I need to write it in third, sorry, thinking aloud here. So, as you can see, my plot structure has been holey and I haven’t expended as much thought as I would have if I hadn’t be racing to this end of November deadline. Thinking about it, the ‘not knowing what the bad guys are doing’ is a problem I come up against with my completed first draft of my Egypt story, I think it’s hard if you’re writing from the child’s view point all the time, to get enough of a sense of danger and build up if you never see what the bad guys are doing behind the scenes just because the child is not there to see. I’m solving the problem, at least in part, with the Egypt story, by planning on writing a prologue, with one of my characters spying on the bad guys. Maybe I need to introduce some spying in my failed NaNoWriMo, but isn’t that in danger of being a bit too much cliched plot device?
Anyway, what really scuppered my NaNoWriMo, is that it’s set in the 17th Century and as much as I’ve done quite a bit of research, it’s not enough. The section I was approaching in the novel, involved a court Masque and whereas I have researched Masques, to write those scenes properly I needed to refresh my memory, do more research, immerse myself in it, just like I had to do when I got stuck on a crucial scene in the first draft of my Egypt novel, which after stopping writing to spend about three weeks on research, when I went back to writing, boy did that scene fly. So I couldn’t do all that research into Masques and finish the darn thing by the end of November. So bye bye NaNoWriMo.
It’s not wasted though, I had written the beginning of this story over and over again over the years, so at 15,900 words, I’ve now got more, even though I suspect I’ll have to rewrite every single one of those words, I’ve got something to work on now. So I’ve now got a decision, what do I do with my limited writing time? Go ahead and research Masques? Go ahead and edit the first draft of my Egypt story, which has been rested long enough now? Or a work on a non-fiction idea I’ve had, which I’ve been told is a very good idea and I should definitely work on it? I think much as I’d quite like to immerse myself in some Masques, it has to come lower down in priority than my Egypt story, work on what I’ve already got, so to speak. So Egypt story versus the non-fiction idea? Once again finishing what I’ve started sounds like a good idea but the non-fiction idea is calling me a bit because being sensible, I think the non-fiction idea is far more commercial than the Egypt story. Hmmm, I don’t know. I’d quite like to do something which I actually had a chance of getting paid for, if anything so I could finance a year’s membership at the gorgeous London Library, so then I could go and immerse myself in Masques far more easily than I could do by just using my grotty local library. Like I say, don’t know.
After my week off writing, preparing for my craft stall and Etsy shop, I’m now back doing NaNoWriMo, I knew it was a mistake trying to do both and I know pretty certainly now that I will not make 50,000 words by the end of the month (I’m currently on 15,900, whereas I should be over half way). Specially now there are now two cases of swine flu in Girl Lacer’s class, so it feels like an inevitable very short amount of time before it hits us to. I’ve also hit that middle of the story duldrums, you know, when you’ve set the story up and you just have to get your character through A, B and C before anything else exciting can happen. I also don’t like how by doing NaNo, much as word count is normally on my mind anyway, now it’s rampaging at the forefront and it’s effecting my judgement, now it’s almost not “Is this sentence, this plot point any good?”, it’s “How many useless words can I ram into this scene” instead. But on the brighter side, my NaNo is a story that has been circling in my head for literally years, one that I had written the beginning of over and over again and I’ve got way beyond that beginning now, I know my characters and other than being artificially constrained by time, I still like my story, so it has progressed, but what I’m writing to me does not even stand as first draft quality, it’s draft 0.5.
In other news, Boy Lacer had his first physio appointment since August today and he’s doing pretty well, still not running and jumping yet but possibly I think maybe as good as he’s going to get. Still, he learnt how to climb down a ladder today, which is a relief, a boy who can climb up ladders but not down is always a bit of a worry!
The physio has been moved and it’s now quite a long bus journey away, consequently we were late getting there and late getting back to nursery, the hour long appointment now literally taking up the whole morning, leaving as soon as we drop off Girl Lacer and coming back just in time (or not) for nursery. Still can’t complain too much, wasn’t the physio’s decision, she doesn’t drive either and now has to take the same bus we had to take. Found out something interesting as well, despite being told otherwise, Boy Lacer’s occupational therapist is still working there, so why hasn’t she seen him for a year now? Could really do with some OT.
You know, I sort of like having just the Doctor Who specials instead of a series just because the level of excitement and anticipation before each special, it’s like having Christmas early. Plus they seem to put so much more extra welly into each episode and this episode, The Waters of Mars, had lots of extra welly. Great premise, an event that the Doctor just can’t change, water zombies, a great scary script with lots of typical Russell T Davies bits (and that ending with the Captain), which I will so miss and top class acting from David Tennant, playing the Doctor going slightly mad (as would you wouldn’t you, eventually, the last of your species, that much power over life and death?). It’s all working out towards an explosive Christmas special (and is that Donna I saw in the trailer!) and I have a feeling that Davies and Moffat have been talking to each other, using these last few episodes to set up possibly a tantalizingly much darker Doctor, now that would be good.
Now don’t forget Dreamland starting 21st November on the red button and online.
After a hectic week, I’m having a lovely relaxing weekend, cosied in with a good book, whilst the wind and rain blusters outside, I’ve just managed to finish a book I’ve had on the go for ages, not for not wanting to read it, just lack of time.
Mistress of the Art of Death
This is an excellent book, very atmospheric but with the right amount of detail (i.e. not overladen with research from the author). I particularly liked the very believable characters, my favourite was Henry II himself, although he did not feature much in the story, when he did, there was a very real feeling of a normal man with a very great deal of power, a man hampered by the murder of Becket and struggling with the power play between monarchy and church. All in all a great read, will definitely be reading more books from the series.
So, you know that Etsy shop I’ve been talking about opening for months now? The one that I said I was going to open in the summer? Well I officially opened it today, a few months late and on a Friday the 13th to boot, but I have plans for this one! Called Mrs. Lacer’s Attic , which for anyone who reads this regularly will know, is a bit of a joke, as I live in a tiny ground floor flat, hence no actual attic. I’m going to be stocking principally hand embroidered pieces, it’d be tempting to say actually that they will be all hand embroidered, but I don’t want to limit myself. Currently there are only two pieces in there, but more will go in over the weekend. It will just be embroidered art pieces, mini cushions and maybe a few Christmas decorations for a while, as after a whole week frantically preparing just this lot, I need some time now to make my own Christmas presents, but in the New Year, like I say, I’ve got plans! Including doing something that my mum used to make (the blanket covering the table in the second photo below, was something she gave to me, it was nice having something linking my crafting enterprises back to her (although she didn’t make the blanket in question)), although done my own way, something which may become my speciality and I’ll leave it as mysteriously as that.
So, I marked the opening of Mrs. Lacer’s Attic with my very first craft fair where I’ve actually made the stock (I’ve been doing craft fairs for the last two years, selling children’s books). It was at my kids’ school, so although I knew it was a bit of a risk, at least the cost of hiring the table was going to a cause literally close to my heart, that along with using what I had already in my stash, made the fair tonight not too financially risky. Anyway, when I set up that stall, something I had done with the books, loads of time before, seeing my own stuff on the table this time, I was suddenly rather proud.
But when it came to actually selling, hmmm, I sold two Christmas decorations (two of the stars with eyes, which are my personal favourites and Girl Lacer’s). I didn’t, to be honest, expect much, the amount of effort put into hand embroidering pieces like that, meant I had to price the items relatively high, making them not really impulse purchase material. Still, lots of people actually liked my stuff, the skull mini cushion and the angler fish were particularly popular with the discerning 9 year old crowd, unfortunately the discerning 9 year old crowd doesn’t have that much cash. Lots of people were impressed, in particular with Gordon Brown, that the lines making up the picture were sewn rather than drawn, nobody was particularly desperate to go home with him though! Which, much as I only sold two Christmas decorations (and as Mr. Lacer said, who’s thinking about Christmas decorations now?) and none of the embroidered pieces (which were a bit too expensive for the event), I am pleased that people did seem to like them and considering as I was making them, over the last week, I was, in my more paranoid moments, imagining people rolling round on the floor and laughing in disbelief that I ever thought it was sellable, that is progress in itself.
And I had a nice night, it is possibly rather sad that I have come to link Christmas with selling stuff, but I find there is a lovely communal feeling at craft fairs and it’s nice seeing the same old faces again, it was also nice this time, considering it was at my kids’ school, how many other mums I knew or recognised, were there manning stalls, I like that Alan Sugar spirit. Christmas craft fairs also give me a chance to indulge in one of my favourite bits about Christmas, mulled wine. Now I was very late to mulled wine, I only started drinking it when it was on offer at the craft fairs when I started them two years ago but mulled wine is now intrinscially linked to the whole thing. I love how it varies so much and how you can ‘tell a good school by how strong it’s mulled wine is’, honestly, the two best schools in the area, I’ve tried both their mulled wines now and it’s strong stuff, far better than the stuff at the historic house Christmas fair I also did last year, which was only slightly stronger than Ribena.
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So, I’m at the end of another strange week, after a week of Mr. Lacer being off for half term, followed by a week of us all being ill, followed by this last week of non stop crafting, I’m curious about when exactly things will get back to ‘normal’. This next few weeks coming up will have more of a family focus, with a slew of appointments connected with Boy Lacer (and one for Girl Lacer to), including a speech therapy appointment *keel over in shock*. There was one very apologetic speech therapist ringing today apologising about Boy Lacer falling through the gaps after his last speech therapist left and they admit they’ve lost his rather thick file. Once again though the kids’ lovely school shines through, as just as the speech therapist realised that Boy Lacer had been missed out and was about to ring the school about him, the school’s inclusion manager was on the phone ringing about him, now all the school has to do is wave their magic wand over the occupational therapist, Boy Lacer’s occupational therapist had also left and the appointments just disappeared, so on the school’s suggestion, we went to speak to our GP about it, we got a letter a few weeks ago, Boy Lacer is back on the list, a list with a 12 month wait.
So, other than quite a few appointments, I also need to do something about the tip of the flat, which wasn’t exactly tidy after half term or the week of sickness and I haven’t exactly had a chance to do anything about it this week either. This week has shown that if I’m determined to build up a business from home, I have to organise my time, including how I control this flat, a lot more rigidly, because even just from a purely business perspective, this will be where I work, I need to know where my materials are etc. etc. and I don’t want to have to pick my way over toys on the way to my work table. Just everything being more organised will mean more time, which will mean more time to work. You should have seen me trying to juggle, not particularly successfully, what felt like three million things at once, as I was trying to prepare for tonight, today, culminating in me discovering that the mouse had got into the wardrobe drawers and had gone and chewed holes into literally the most expensive piece of clothing I own (honestly that mouse has expensive tastes, always goes for Boden and now for Monsoon as well) – this is the point where I mention to any future customers, that all my fabric is kept off the floor in wall mounted cupboards, always has been, I’m not that disorganised. This of course was the piece of clothing I was about to put on, I ended up wearing a grey M&S jersey dress and leggings, the mouse doesn’t like M&S, too ‘cheap’ for it. So once I’d got dressed in something, I then had to struggle out of the door, bulging bag in one hand, fake Christmas tree in the other, leaping over the building blocks that Boy Lacer is obsessed with at the moment, as Boy Lacer chooses that moment to go all chauvinistic on me (I know not really, it was just a change in pattern) “Mummy can’t go to work! Daddy goes to work!” he screams. Amazing I got out of the door.
Anyway, I also have to decide next week whether I’m going to continue with my NaNoWriMo, which I haven’t touched in a week (I’m coming to the (rather obvious) conclusion that I can’t do heavy bouts of writing combined with heavy bouts of crafting at the same time). I am now rather behind, but strangely optimistic that I might still be able to make it. I have to decide something though, continue with it, go back and edit my completed first draft of the other project (which is slightly daunting) or work on some nonfiction projects, hmmm.
The last lot of sewing for the stall, yeah! Now I just have to sell the stuff, a slightly nerve wracking prospect. Luckily I have two years of experience doing craft fairs, having previously sold children’s books and I know that sometimes you can just have a dud fair but dud fairs were easier on the ego when you personally haven’t designed and made the product! Doesn’t help, thanks to lack of time, I am not 100% happy with every piece, oh well!
The final pieces in my opening collection were finished yesterday, eight pieces in six days, not bad! Although by the end of it I was searching round for ideas, the heavy use of brown was not intentional, but it just worked out that way, it lead to a conversation with Girl Lacer in front of the floss display in John Lewis a few days ago,
Me: So I’ve done the man, the scary fish and the deer and they’re all brown, I feel like doing something in a different colour, what else shall I do?
Girl Lacer: A dog?
Me: What colour?
Girl Lacer: Um, brown?
Anyway, here they are, I quite like Gordon (inspired by the fuss about the poor man’s letter writing skills earlier this week) and the chocolate labrador (inspired by the large number of very cute chocolate labradors that live near me), the hissing cockroach was more a case of me thinking it would be a good idea, as opposed to actual inspiration and consequently I don’t like it so much.
