chicken pox update

so i think we have turned a corner with the chicken pox now. most of them seem to be scabbing over and she is not in as much pain as she has been. This really is an awful illness and it is really upeseting to watch you poor baby in so much pain, unable to even lay down. She has had hundreds of spots, everywhere!
 Lots of TLC on tap and a few days in doors with the occasional trip to the park when we could see no one was there!

Emily now has chicken pox

My poor brave girl now has chicken pox too. Exactly 2 weeks after Lucy had it she cam out in a few spots and now she is really covered. All over her face, neck, back, belly, legs and minky. She looks so poorly and my heart is bleeding for her.i was nearly crying when i was putting cream on her yesterday, my beautiful baby girl. It is making her very restless at night and is itching all the time. we are using a combination of everything to help her through it, virasooth gel (this is really good) piriton and calamine.

She has it a lot worse that Lucy and it is on days like today that i really wish i was still breast feeding her!

Recent makes!

I am very proud of this one. This is the first piece of clothing i have made for Emily, and i am really pleased with it. The pattern is from this beautiful book Making children's clothes and i have a few more projects i am looking forward to getting my teeth in to.

The picture does not show it off very well but it is basically a smock top in a gorgeous green butterfly pattern with a matching flower on the front. Emily loves it and very proudly says "mummy made me this"

Amongst other things i have also made some more baby booties (these ones are heading for maz - sshhh)

And a personalised taggie blanket also for marie and maisie.
My head is actually spinning on a daily basis with projects to make. mainly because there are so many birthdays and babies at the moment. I have also made another crayon roll in blue stars for Aden my nephew and an appliqued t shirt for Eli. (forgot to photo that though before i wrapped it)

recent days

In recent days we have hid away as much as i could stand, because of the chilcken pox which have cleared up now, and enjoyed the sun. Doesnt Lucy look beautiful in this floppy sun hat she was given for her birthday from my friend Julia.

There has been eating our dinner in the garden.

Swimming in Grandad's pool. Well dipping our toes in as it is still very cold.

Playing on the beach! So many pebbles to pick up and throw!

And relaxing in the garden in the paddling pool! As you can tell, we have had some good weather this week!

cutting waste.

so this morning while cleaning the kitchen, i was compelled to really reduce the amount of waste we put in the green wheelie bin that goes straight to landfill. Our council are actually quite good with recycling and we have a blue wheelie bin to put plastics, metals and paper etc as awell as an extra black box for glass. the two bins are alternated and tomorrow it is green  bin day.

Here is my challenge - like my life is not challenging enough! - to reduce the amount of waste in the green bin in the next 2 weeks. At the moment it is about 3/4 full and will be emptied in the morning.

How am i going to do this, well first is food waste. Lucy really makes a lot of waste food, as do we all really so last year i invested in a bokashi bin - well 2 actually -. the idea is you put all food waste, cooked or raw in this bin with some special bokashi bran which helps it to drain off. the bucket has a tap at the bottom and this is the great bit about it, you can tap off the rotted down liquid and dilute it as feed for your plants and vegetables and my word is this stuff good. you leave the full bin for 2 - 3 weeks and then tip it in your compost bin. It accelerates the rotting process and makes lovely compost. I often fall off the bokashi wagon and have to be spurned on to get back off. It is smelly and then sometimes i run out of bran.... anyway we are all systems go for that.

Everything else is really about careful buying and planning. Keeping an eye on the fridge and not over buying. Planning what we will eat and when. Trying to buy things in less packaging. Recycling everything that can be in all bins in the house not just downstairs. We already use washable nappies most of the time, i just need to be a bit stricter with that. Now we are also recycling our crisp packets at school and sending them to the philipines to be made into bags.

So i will keep you posted as to how we are doing and let you know the results in 2 weeks.