Gnomes For Your Homes

 

See my shop at At Gnomes For Your Homes

I sell hand felted Christmas gnomes (or tomten) that would be perfect to sit on your shelf all year round. Each gnome has been handmade and felted, inside and out, starting with a wool base. I add white or hand dyed Wensleydale locks for his beard before adding a flesh-coloured Merino nose and cheeks. More locks are added to make bushy, wild hair. The pièce de résistance is the tall hat that I felt using hand carded and blended mixed fibres (such as super soft merino, tussah silk, baby llama, Ramie, Bamboo, Banana, Linen, FireStar and Angelina (sparkly) fibres. At the end, He gets feet and a wood disk so he can stand. Voila, all done. Each gnome is inspired by colours and textures that I come across in my life. They are all very special.

The new

Because I am American, I read the occasional parenting book.  I am sorry that I ever came upon the "What You Need to Know" books or any of the books on playful parenting, and attachment parenting.  Oh yes, the tides are changing and I am going French...or "Old School".

Why do I let a 4 year old dictate everything to me?  Why do I have to feel bad if I have to say "No"?  Why is letting a child act like a moron OK because "he is just a child"?  NO MORE.  From now on I mean "NO" the first time and I mean it because "I am the Chief" God-damn it!

I will admit that all of this finally hit me while reading two parenting books on how the French raise children (French Children Don't Throw Food and Why French Children Don't Talk Back).  I was finally inspired by a parenting book, not filled with guilt and self doubt.

The easy way to explain the philosophy is good, old fashioned "I am the boss, you are the child.  I make the rules, you do not."  And that is pretty much it.

What is funny is, isn't this how you were raised?  I was.  There were no "buddies" about it.  I don't think I have ever heard my mom apologize for a punishment or any "no" she dealt out.

This isn't the first time I have received this advice, however, I remember hearing it as soon as I had the Sprout.  I remember hearing that I don't revolve around the child.  I remember hearing my dad ask me "why do you let him do that to you?" when the Sprout decided he wanted a different flavour of Oatmeal then the one I gave him and I gladly made a new one.

For some reason I have felt that I needed to negotiate everything with the Sprout.  Guess who always wins?  He does.  Why?  Because I am lazy.  However, what kind of a child am I giving to society if he doesn't treat adults with respect?  Don't I want a child who is respected by adults as well?  Of course.  So why am I raising him like a dictator?  Why am I negotiating with a terrorist?  That is very un-American and of course un-French.

Unfortunately, because he is 4, it is going to be harder than if I had been that way from the get go.  But oh it will be so worth it.  Right now I am dealing with smiles and laughter at my new found authority, but slowly he's getting it.  Just don't back down.  Oh, please don't back down.

"I am the CHIEF!"

Two pages

I have two pages finished.  I have hand stitched both pages, it is really fun and I never get around to using the sewing machine.  They just need to be polished off and put onto the page.  (Both pages were made using the diagrams and patterns from imagineourlife.com)

 The post page was the first:

The toothbrush was the next:

Reading quietly

All of a sudden I have become hooked on Quiet Books.

I have had a flash memory of a fabric, hand sewn book that had little activities in it that my grandmother had.

As I was researching little colouring pages of ducks for the "5 little ducks" song, I came across the world of Quiet Books.  I have become incredibly aware that I will have to keep the Sprout entertained for 10 hours on a plane and 3 hours in the airport in five months.  I have been researching travel kits for kids and the Quiet Book would be one perfect addition.

Awesome felt books that you sew together for your little one to play with and KEEP QUIET while learning!  There are some really cool ideas and the best part about felt is that there can be allot less seam sewing and fraying.  The down side is that good felt can be pricey...not as pricey as making a quilt though.

There are two sites that I love and one in particular that I have been salivating over.  The Quiet Book Blog is a really good resource but Imagine Our Life is really cool.  Pinterest is a really good place to find ideas for the Quiet Book pages.  The first page I am doing is a mail box.

From Imagine Our Life

I have it all cut out, I just have to sew it.  Isn't it cool?

Happy New Business Year

Yes, I am procrastinating.  I have one more assignment to do before my Kindermusik course is finished, it needs to be done by Sunday and it is the budget assignment.  It will be weird to complete as I have decided not to do Kindermuik at the moment, but they have provided me a good base for setting up a business and how to run a music and movement session, which has been helpful.

Starting up Little Sprout's Music Studio has proven really difficult.  I didn't think it was going to be easy, but I didn't realize how easily I take two steps back before going three steps forward.

There is so much free advertising, but the time it takes a huge amount of time to set it all up, and then, you are just one fish in a sea of millions.  Facebook, Twitter, Meet Up, Linked-In, google places,  etc., not to mention free websites such as Blogger and Wordpress.  And then the loads of sites you can pay for like Facebook, Google Adds and local sites.  I can see why people pay others to build sites and set up their social networks.

I have absolutely no money for my business and there is no way I can get a loan.  At first I was using my job at Costa to supplement some of the starting costs, but then I quit (yes, I finally quit), so I have left myself rather poor.

The ups and downs of starting a business has left me quite a mess.  One minute people are happy to help and talking of ways they can help and saying how great you are and then the next they don't really have the funding or have the funding but need to push you a head of what I am ready for pushing me to make decisions that I regret later.  I was not ready for the roller coaster.

I am still working on getting a space to do a Little Sprout's class.  I have found work with a group called Weeny Boppers at a nursery and I also do one at a children's play centre, but these are not Little Sprout's and so my business isn't getting out there.  I still do the library, but again, they don't really want me advertising paid classes.

I am still pushing on, and have bought some new instruments and other items that would allow me to do a class without having to borrow anything from anyone.  That feels pretty good.

Gerrrr

My little tiger.  The Sprout had his face painted at my work yesterday.  We were raising money for charity.  He sat very still, I was very impressed.

three

The Sprout's third birthday has come and gone.  It was really fun because he is finally old enough to realize that it is HIS birthday.  Family came over, we opened presents and had cake.  We also did the inevitable ..cut his hair.  Nanny lined up with the scissors and the curls fell to the ground.  I will let you know that the Sprout wanted his hair cut.  He kept telling me "Mommy, Nanny cut hair?"  So, I had to let it happen.  He looks like a little boy, and it is really hard to get used to.

He has grown so much this year that you really can't write it all down at once.  I will sum up what he is like now.

He talks, and asks "why?" with a Yorkshire accent.
He runs and jumps and hops.  He is good at kicking the soccer ball.
He sings.
He can be bossy and still throws tantrums.
He can sit still for short periods of time.
He understands a little too much.
He is almost fully potty trained, we still have some accidents.
He really likes cars, trains, and air planes and luckily he got all three for his birthday.
He has friends.

He is going into pre-school next week.  He has been slowly introduced the past week and he is very excited as all of his friends are there.

On Sunday, we are going to have a small birthday/Halloween party with pumpkin carving.  And yes, we have the famous Halloween tree.

This year I am going to take the Sprout Trick-or-Treating.  He is going to be a monkey.

That is about it.  Happy birthday Sprout.

School

Can you believe that I am thinking about going back to school?

I can't believe it myself, but this time it is directly related to job training.  I really hate my job.  I really LOVE my little nursery singing group, and after a short talk with my volunteer supervisor, it was realized that I would be really good at teaching music to nursery children.  He said that he would love to hire me, but the government doesn't want to fund me (the reason I have this volunteer position in the first place). Unfortunately, short of getting £6000 for a music franchise or passing out fliers, the best way of doing this would be to get some kind of Childhood Education Certification.  The certification takes about 2 years, and the tuition all depends on if you study on-line or at College (between £450-£6000).  In either situation, you also have to do around 400 hours of work in a childcare setting which is allot, but fair.  So far I have undertaken about 16 hours with my class, so I am on my way.

What I find so funny is that I have always wanted to do teaching.  I have always been good at music.  This would have made so much more sense to have done 15 years ago, but no.

Rain, rain, go away.

Rain, rain, rain. That is all this Summer has been. July 4th began three days of intermittent downpours that brought a seasons worth of rain all at once. Floods everywhere.



On the plus side, I have been doing allot of dancing in the rain. The air has been quite warm, but doesn't reach above 70 degrees often.  Our back garden is a swampy jungle, but this has not been a good year for the garden I had started.  The strawberry plants are huge and trying to produce strawberries,but they rot before they turn red.  The peas were successful, but then the snails got to the pods before we did.  Our corn is tiny and the leaves are shredded.  We have two corn plants growing inside to see if we can get something.  I am still waiting on the success of a cauliflower plant and some slow growing onions.

My sunflowers, on the other hand, are blooming and are at least 5 feet tall.  Our fushia bushes, which were tiny last year, are huge and bushy, and the roses are finally full of blossoms.



But let's talk about snails.  I am amazed at the quantity and size of this years snails.  Today I found a snail whose home was 1 inch in length. and about that in height.  I do not come from a place where snails are common place.  I am used to huge slugs in mass quantities, snails are almost a welcomed guest.  My mom is an amazing slug hunter.  I have this vision of her in her garden impaling slugs without a second thought.   Last year, after dark, I would go snail hunting.  I would smash any snail of a small to medium size and throw large snails over the fence into the road.  I felt awful.  So this year I put out poison.  The only problem is that you are left with hundreds of snail shells all over the garden and then I still feel awful.  The recent rain has made it difficult to keep the poison around, so the Sprout and I routinely scour the garden collecting snails and throwing them over the fence.

This Summer has been a total bummer in terms of weather.  It is a good thing that so many cool things (the Jubilee, Wimbledon, and the Olympics) are happening to detour us from the weather.

4th of July pictures

 

 

 

 

 

Rosebery Gangs

The 3-9 year olds in the neighbourhood are looking for new recruits.  The warmer weather has brought all the boys out to the street to ride their bikes and have water fights.  The Sprout looks longingly at them all.  You can tell he wants to play, and they can tell he is watching them.

We keep getting little ones coming into the garden (without asking may I add) to show the Sprout things and asking if the Sprout can play.  I am very uncomfortable with the situation because I do not come from a neighbourhood background.  I don't know how to interact with other people's unsupervised children and I am shocked by the shear number of little boys who want to play with the Sprout.

The Sprout still doesn't communicate through speech very well, and though the majority of the children are from households of 3-4 children (so they know what it's like to have little siblings), I don't like that he can't fully say what he means. I also don't know these children, but I know the kind of parents who are raising them, and though the wars between the parents of the children don't keep the boys from playing together, I am still wary of the kind of people the Sprout may be interacting with.

This is all the next stage of single child mom jitters.  It doesn't help that this is not the way that I made friends when I was little.  It also doesn't help that the children play on a road that taxis use as a shortcut.  More than that, the age range really freaks me out.  The Sprout is 2 1/2 and I just don't think he is ready for playing around in a group of boys ranging from the ages of 3-9.

Recently there has been an increase of birthday parties.  We went to one last week and we are attending one this Sunday.  This is more like it.  Children the Sprout's age, from his nursery class in fact, running around together for a set amount of time surrounded by their parents.  The only thing that would make this perfect would be if it was outside my house.  I am not a fan of the "playdate," but it would be nice for the Sprout to be able to play with other kids.

The Sprout singing

http://youtu.be/D0k6StM3IRc

 The Sprout singing along to Bob the Builder Theme





http://youtu.be/2PCgsXwj3sM

He also likes to change his elephant.

Hands up

It's been two months since my last entry.  This was not intentional.  I just didn't have anything to say.  Now enough has piled up.

I am enjoying my Mini Music Makes group.  At the beginning of May I took over the group because of cut backs in government funding.  I felt very strongly about the cancellation of the group, even though the Sprout and I had never attended it.  I instantly volunteered to head the group and it has proven to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.  Every Wednesday I go to the library and sing with 20+ toddlers and their parents.  It is really fun.  If anything, I get to sing and be the centre of attention for 30 minutes.  The only thing that makes me sad is that the Sprout does't come with me.  The Sprout sings, but on his own time.  He isn't much for large, structured groups and he certainly doesn't enjoy sharing me.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee was really special.  Although we had to watch it on TV, it didn't take away from the festivities.  I have really enjoyed seeing England be patriotic.  There is bunting and Union Jacks everywhere.  Everyone is dressed in the red, white and blue.  I hope this continues though the Olympics.  The Sprout loves his flag flying monkey shirt.

Yesterday I had Carpel Tunnel Release surgery on my right hand.  It has been a challenge not to use my hand, but the pain keeps me in check.  On the plus side, I got to sleep until 11 am today.  I don't know when I did that last.

On the Sprout front, he is growing by leaps and bounds.  He is talking more and more, some of it still complete gibberish, but he says enough to get his point across.  One of his more important developments is that he has begun swimming solo during his swimming class.

Easter Fun

I forgot to mention my Easter projects. 

My Seasonal Tree is still going strong.  We were able to decorate it appropriately for Easter.  Now I have to think of how to decorate it for a period of time with no holiday.  I was thinking fimo and felt.  Caterpillars, peas, strawberries, gardening tools and lady bugs would be good decorations to make.

Another item I have begun making obsessively are these little felt birds.  They are so easy and once I was able to feel my finger, I wanted to be able to make something simple.

Easter

Another candy holiday is upon us, Easter.  Easter and Valentine's Day seem to be "sugar holidays" in my mind.  Mixed chocolates, jelly beans and (in England) HUGE CHOCOLATE EGGS.

In England, it is customary to give everyone a huge hollow chocolate egg that is filled with one kind of candy or another, like a huge chocolate egg filled with M&M's or a huge chocolate egg filled with smaller Cadbury eggs with the goo in the middle).  This is a far removed tradition for me, as because I am American, any hollow chocolate item means really bad tasting, cheap chocolate.  In England this is not the case, they take their chocolate seriously and therefore all these chocolate eggs are worth eating.

The thing is, when you are a little kid, you may end up with 3-4 eggs (or more!), because EVERYONE gives you one.  When I was little, my Easter Bunny gave me a basket full of plastic eggs filled with jelly beans and M&M's, some of the little solid chocolate eggs (yummy chocolate), and maybe a Cadbury Egg.  There was also a soft toy, a little bit of cash (the GREEN egg) and the hard boiled eggs we decorated.

This is the first year we have taken the Easter Bunny on board.  Knowing that the Sprout would get at least one chocolate egg, I had to steer away from the chocolate.  I went with some jelly beans and gummy candy in plastic eggs (it is hard to find plastic eggs here).  We also got a stuffed toy and a spade for the garden (the Easter Bunny wants the Sprout to plant him some lettuce).  Of course, within an hour all of the jelly beans and gummy candy was gone, and the chocolate hollow bunny his great nan gave him (Smatries) had been gutted.  Needless to say I have a pixi on crack running around the house.

What I would really love to do, is make my own hollow chocolate Easter Egg as our holiday tradition.  it would be a fun thing for all of us to do and to give them to each other.

Road trip essentials

Past blogs on the road and me being alone and what i can't live without

I won't lie, I like to road trip alone. LOVE IT as a matter of fact, and I know that I have blogged on this before, so this will not warrant a large answer to the Plinky.com question. This list is based on the many a lone road trips I have made.



Besides all the safety car check list stuff:



1. Camera



2. Music, including back up music for when your radio decides to die in the middle of nowhere.



3. Tent and camping equipment.



4. Good old fashion map. No GPS for this stuff. I have never gone in for a GPS for a road trip, it ruins it. I would rather be fighting with myself than with a stupid machine.



5. Water and nibbles and a plastic bottle...trust me.



6. The ability to not care if you get to where you were going. That is my favourite part.







It has been so long since I have been on a lonely road trip that I might have to force one on myself, however I think my husband might object.

Big boy

We have taken the plunge into potty training.  In the past few months we have been doing it on and off, but yesterday marked the beginning of "hardcore" potty training.  The Sprout is helping by refusing to wear a diaper, which is a bit annoying.

Yesterday, he spent the whole day naked and did quite well.  He even pooped.  Last night he refused to wear a diaper to bed, so I loaded up his mattress with towels and cloth diapers.  He was dry for most of the night, which was impressive and when he woke up, the bed wasn't as wet as I had expected, or at least the layers had done their jobs.

Today was a bit different.  The Sprout had to wear clothes as we had to go out in the morning.  We went through 3 pairs of pants before we had a poo and then he refused to wear clothes any more.  It seemed that when he was wearing clothes, he had no interest in using the potty.  It seems that we need to work on wearing clothing, at least underwear, and using the potty.

Again tonight he refused to wear a diaper to bed and before he fell asleep, he had already wet the bed, but I don't think there is a need to push it.  I am just happy we had to buy a new washer/dryer, which is the most awesome thing ever.


Other big boy things:

I must also add that the Sprout has become quite the little helper around the house.  He loves to sweep up messes and help with the vacuuming.

We have been keeping up our seasonal tree and have just started decorating it for Easter.

The great dilemma

My first local organic meat box

I watched Food Inc. on TV the other day, and it had an effect on me.  All documentaries about food have an effect on me because it is one of those issues that surprises me.  How can the government get away with letting companies wash our ground beef in ammonia?  How can the government justify allowing junk food to be cheaper than fruit and veg? And the biggest question, why do we tolerate the horrible treatment of pigs, cows and chickens (and farmers) so that we can have cheap meat?  The answer, because the people don't know about it, or think about it.  The consumer lets it happen.  I am completely guilty of this.

A couple of years ago ordered veg and fruit from Able and Cole, a box scheme that delivered to my door.  All the items were locally grown and organic.  It was not cheap, but I thought what the heck, it will also allow me to eat seasonally and make me eat vegetables I never eat.  Eventually I got tired of throwing away veg that I didn't eat and I was tired of the cost.  But instead of buying seasonally and organically from the supermarket, I went back to buying the bargain veg, fruit and meat.  I even went back to buying non-eco friendly soaps because, I will say this, they work better and could get my new baby's clothes whiter and softer.

Now I watch a documentary explaining the horrible factorization of our food and it makes me angry.  The way that a few huge corporations can swoop in and put the farmer under their thumb is amazing.  There was only one woman who bucked the system to let the film crew into her chicken farm because she decided she didn't care anymore.  It was awful.  The documentary mainly focused on meat because it is one of the hugest shocker, but they also mentioned corn and the way it is farmed and utilized.

For this week's shop, I decided to go back to the box scheme.  I was surprised that Riverford Organics had a Meat Box.  It was pricey but I decided to give it a try and opted to get the Quick and Easy Meat Box for £29.  It came today and I am excited to eat it, however, I cannot buy this every week.  I got onto Supermarket.co.uk, my favourite shopping site, and decided to see what this box would cost at the supermarket.  Tesco was the cheapest (not ASDA.  I tend to stay away from Tesco but if it's cheaper, so be it).  I could get everything but the pork for £10.  One problem with this is that I don't know if the meat comes from UK farms and whether or not they are "ethical" farms.  These animals may still be on a feed lot, but are fed organic corn.  I know that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has had problems with Tesco and the fine print of their organic meats.  Never-the-less, next week I may venture into the world of supermarket organic foods.

Bumpy Ride

Wearing Wellies

Not wearing Wellies

Everyday is a roller coaster with a toddler.  There are many times of awesome fun, funny, cute and horribly frustrating moments.

We are coming upon 28 months (or about 2 and a half) and lately the fun moments have been out-shined by the horribly frustrating moments.

The Sprout, like any toddler, is a handful and I fear it is bringing out the stressed and frustrated side of me that I really don't like.  We have been struggling for power for awhile and my little Sprout is a worthy adversary.  He is one of the most head strong people I know and would rather not go outside than put on his jacket or boots.  All of these battles make me furious and frustrated because I know they are upstaging my enjoyment of this period or the enjoyment of 5 minutes ago.

It finally snowed, meaning it is cold and wet outside.  The Sprout usually sports his skull Wellies proudly however, for some reason, he wants to wear his canvas space shoes (also beloved as we have them in 5 sizes now).  Wearing these shoes would mean cold, wet feet.  After 20 minutes of me trying to sound like a calm social worker who is stupidly trying to reason with a 2 year old, admittedly, I gave in.  Richard had his Nan on the phone, who now thinks we are degenerate parents who lets their child do whatever he wants.  I just wanted to go outside and play in the snow.  I figured, when his feet get cold, he will know what I meant.

I guess his feet don't get cold, because later that night, he still wanted to wear his canvas shoes for moon gazing and a snowball fight.  We fought and I held firm and he took off his hat and shoes and sat in the living room.  About 5 minutes after the stand-off, he brought in his boots.  We could now enjoy the moon and a late night snowball fight (he didn't have a coat on, but I didn't feel like making it a big deal).

Here is the question I pose, do I have to stand firm when every fibre of my being doesn't care or even doesn't believe in the fight at hand?  If no one is going to die and I don't really care, why do I have to pretend to care.  If I know his arms won't fall off from frostbite, why do I care that he doesn't wear a jacket?  I can get one for him when he realizes I was right.  More than that, why should I fight when it makes me a worse person?  Why should I ruin the moment if no one is going to get hurt?  Why should I end up the mother everyone stares at in the Supermarket because I have just called my child a horrible brat and the on lookers aren't sure if I'm going to give the toddler a smack (this has never happened as we don't go to the Supermarket. However, I have seen these parents many times and now I know why they have acted this way in public.  People without kids...shut up, you don't know).

To me it isn't exactly about letting him do what he wants.  He is still sent to his room when he hits, his pens are taken away if he uses them inappropriately.  If he decides he wants to be carried on a walk, we don't get to stop at the park (we actually did this, it was the most horrible thing to stay strong on). This is about the little things.  If I know he will wear his coat when he gets cold, why should I care he doesn't want to keep from getting cold by wearing it?

Should I be allowed to parent the way I want?  Most of the people who have had kids say no, and I hear you.  But I am tired and I am especially tired of these toddler years (which everyone says I should cherish because they don't last long) being ruined by small things.

Redundant writing

I love this.  The Daily Post prompt was about redundant writing errors, and I love this because my blog is full of them before I edit, and even then, redundant writing errors slip in.  It made me realize how wordy our everyday speech.  Richard always says "basically" before he describes something in less than basic terms and it always drives me crazy.

The Daily Post wrote:

An added bonus of blogging on WordPress.com at the present time is that occasionally your blog will come under close scrutiny by an Automattic staff member, who may choose to reblog one of your posts at a time when he’s in a rush and short on ideas of his own. He might not even collaborate together with you, choosing instead just to provide an example of the point you make in the blog post in question. Of course, one of the basic fundamentals he would need to keep in mind is that when using another blog’s content as a source, it’s polite to refer back to the originating blog.
How many redundancies did you find in that paragraph? Count them and then compare the ones you found to the neat lists Lisa J. Jackson, who writes for the scrutinized blog in question, has written about here and here. Did you find them all? Can you come up with others?

I went to Ms. Jackson's site and read about common redundancies and it amazed me how common those mistakes were made and how, at first glance, they seem perfectly acceptable.  That is until you think about it.

Why would you say "added bonus," or "close scrutiny"? They mean the same thing.

Anyway, this was just something to think about and another thing to worry about as I write.