Bobbity Bobbity Bob, Here Comes the galloping Major

All change again tommorow. The real world beckons once more and so at an hour we'd all rather be snoozing through, we'll be up and about off to school and work. I've been going to bed later and later this holiday, I just don't feel tired at 1am, I rarely have. Miss Rosey had me in training this morning and dragged me from bed at 7am. I was up to wave my man onto the oddball express that stops outside our cottage. Being fascinated by people he certainly has a whole lot of strange folk to enjoy listening to and watching every day. He tells a good tale and has us in stitches when he gets home. 

Anyway's back to 7am. I found out it's quite a good time to be up when there's no need to leave the house. I nearly finished the dress I've been making here and there and so I'll show you that at the end of the week.

This past weekend has been mainly about tidying and yarny things. Last night I dressed the hyancinth bulbs in their jacket (pattern from here). Mr B, who is most supportive and encouraging of just about everything I make and do, made a sarky remark on the way past the fridge about yarnbombing and wondered if I might be doing the taps next.

I always feel the need for early spring bulbs once the Christmas things are packed away.

As much as I adore Christmas and sprinkling extra stuff about, I'm always glad to be clearing it all away on 12th night. There was a heck of a lot of dust to get shot of which had been stockpiling under the cards and decorations.

In the middle of cleaning up I got distracted by having a fiddle with the settings on my camera. It took a while to undo whatever I'd done to get effects like this.

Then back on to cleaning and clearing. For once I've decided to have only a few things on here. This is my minimalist look.

Now that's the excitement of the cleaning up done, which to be honest I did enjoy doing. I like switching off and whizzing about. Around all of this I came by some new books on Saturday. I spent vouchers and used up some of my shop profits on three books that I felt I just couldn't put back on the shelf.

The first one is already a favourite of mine. It's called 30 minute knits which really depends on your speed (I'm a slow knitter, but a quick hooker, I'd only say that out loud here). The 30 minutes is neither here nor there anyway as the main joy of this book is it has tons of absolutely gorgeous tiny projects and I want to make nearly all of them. Most books only have a few things that ring my bell.

Late on Saturday night I gave into the charms of this wee teddy and whipped up one for our home. Bobby Bear was born on the cusp of Sunday morning. Laziness stopped me looking for finer yarn hence his booby eyes. Little Bun got very upset on Bobby's behalf when I said I was going to cut them off and start again. I was told to apologise to him for being rude about his eyes.

I'm now fiddling about with another project from the book which will hopefully be finished by the end of the week (everytime I have a spare 30 minutes I guess).

The rest of my book choice will get good use over time. The Vintage Pattern Selector really impressed me too. I love making clothes now I've found the bug again, but I've always hated searching through pattern books. I know what style I'm after and rarely find what I want. I've always preferred to dress in a mix of handmade and clothes from the past. Now I have girlies who are after this look aswell and as Miss Rosey and I are too tall for most clothes, making your own is really the way to go. This book has everything in it from tops to jackets, dresses and skirts all inspired from the 20's onwards. As I've been asked to come up with a circle skirt and a full net petticoat this book might help me on my way to making this happen.

My other book is Quilting Step by Step. This is by far the bestest ever quilting book I've seen to actually help me understand how I can make quilts out of complicated shapes. Most books that explain stuff really clearly do it in a really boring way and I give up. This one is straightforward without too much guff. I've never got over scan reading from my days of marking 500 A'level scripts just before christmas so I like to cut to the chase. There's also tons of really useful illustrations that show you how to cut the shapes out. I feel ready to get braver with quilting.

However, and that should be a big HOWEVER, I've a ton of started last year, started before that year and started just at the beginning of this year things to finish before I let my imagination run away with me. I'm determined to finish the Bubblegum blanket and then get back to the Dots & Spots blanket I started an age ago. I'm now on row 5 of the Bubblegum which makes it 50 squares made, 70 more to go. 

Now at nearly midnight the real world is tap tap tapping on my shoulder. So I'd best be off to iron the uniforms and get my work bag ready. See you later in the week.