messy life

June 26, 2015 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)60 Comments

Sorry to have absented myself for so long. Lately life has felt a bit like my project bag here – a big old tangle of things with lots coming unraveled at the same time! Life is sometimes a bit messy and I've not felt that I've had much of any interest to share with you here on the blog.

Mxedbag

On the positive side I've been resting my elbow (which is much improved by the way – thanks for all of your good wishes), and working on a new pattern which I'm desperate to share with you but need to work on a little bit more before I do.

Inbag

Recently we've had a tantalising taste of summer weather and I've so enjoyed being out in the garden with my knitting and my radio again. Everything is growing so well (I'm watching the first of the courgettes swelling daily and they're almost ready to pick). We've had some beautiful sunsets too, which have amused Toby while he's been bouncing on his trampoline – it's hard to get him to stop at bedtime now that the evenings are long and lovely.

Sunset

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Glory

Hattie Hen has gone broody (very unusual for a hybrid breed I'm told) so she's just sitting on her imaginary clutch of eggs. I keep moving her out of the nest box so that at least she is visible to the other two and in the late afternoon they often go and sit with her in the corner and keep her company. Hopefully she'll get bored of sitting soon but for now we're down to two eggs a day.

Not much else noteworthy has been happening on our patch. Hopefully I'll be back soon with some news of a new pattern, knitting projects and the usual unfocused mix of family life – the happier moments at least!

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PS: I'm trying an experiment and am currently replying to comments that are left directly here on the blog – not sure if I'll be able to keep up with it but will do my best 🙂

Thanks for dropping in to visit, see you soon x

Puffed out

May 21, 2015 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)72 Comments

Firstly, thanks so very, very much for all the wonderfully kind comments on the previous post about Tobys hair. I was so touched to read them and wish I could share them with Toby and have him understand all of the lovely compliments you gave him.

Secondly, sorry to not have been around much recently. I seem to have done something to my elbow and it's needed some rest as even typing for more than a short while has been a bit painful. Scraping down the chicken run every few days probably hasn't helped but I think making these puffs may be the main cause…

Puffs1

A couple of weeks back I decided to start a cushion to match the blanket that I'm slowly working on (see below) and I've always loved Alicia's Sunshine day afghan, so that seemed the perfect choice of pattern. Once I got going on the puff making I became a bit hooked on them and made lots in one day. The following day I paid the price for my puff over-indulgence with a very sore elbow and it's taking ages to feel better.

Needless to say this project is now having a snooze at the bottom of my knitting bag. I really like how it looks and hopefully I'll be able to pick it up when my elbow doesn't hurt so much. In the meantime small bursts of knitting seem to be OK, which is a relief as I'd get incredibly grumpy rather quickly if I wasn't able to knit!

And here's where the crochet blanket is up to so far, but with my sore elbow it will be a while before it gets much bigger.

Blanket2

Blanket

In other news, the garden is blooming. My squash and courgette plants are now in their permanent home and growing fast. The kale and broccoli are all doing well under the netting but the poor bean and pea seedlings have been decimated by slugs who come out to munch on them each night. Still most things are faring better and the chives are exploding like little flowery fireworks.

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Chives

Viola

Woodruff

Garden

The chickens are happy and laying an egg each most days – evidently I need to make more things that use eggs as we've built up quite a stock! You'll see there's a particularly large egg in the middle which I'm pretty sure is a double yolker as we've had a few already. I've not yet been able to work out which of the ladies is laying these but I don't remember having any with our previous hens so these are special.

Lotsofeggs

Eggs

The weather this week has been all over the place, sunshine one minute and huge cloud-burst downpours of rain and hail the next – not fun if you get caught out in it but the rainbows after the storms have been especially bright and lovely.

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Rainbows

Next week is school half term break but I hope to be back with some knitting news once we're back into our term time routines again. Until then, thanks for visiting and best wishes for happy times x

autism

The haircut

April 30, 2015 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)122 Comments

Toby has never liked having his hair cut. In fact since he was old enough to need it, haircut time has been a source of considerable stress for both him and me. We've only ever attempted to have it professionally cut twice (and neither time ended well) so it has always been my job to do the best that I can to keep his hair at a manageable length. When I was at school, if someone had a particularly bad haircut we used to say "you lose a fight with a lawnmower?" and if Tobys classmates could talk I'm sure someone would have said this to him several times over the years, as I have not been a very proficient hairdresser.

At the weekend hair cutting time had arrived again, as it had got really long and Toby had to keep brushing it out of his eyes. I started off with my usual grab-and-snip technique, concentrating purely on not cutting him rather than the aesthetics of the cut. But because it was so long I was doing a worse job than usual so I decided to try the electric clippers H uses on his hair, just to neaten the back and sides. Toby really wasn't keen on letting me anywhere near him with this buzzing thing in my hand and it took both H and I to keep him calm and gently convince him to let me have a go – it did help him to see Daddy get a little bit of a trim too. The trouble with clippers though is knowing where to stop and with the sides and back really short the long top looked even worse, so the only way forward was to do the whole lot. There were a few moments when I thought we'd not manage to get his whole head done but eventually we were there and Toby went in the bath to rinse off all of those pesky little ends that always stick everywhere.

Thehaircut

Anyway, the reason I am telling this story is not to recount my own part in it but to tell you about Tobys reaction to first seeing his new hair in the mirror. I so wish that I had filmed it and preserved the moment because he was so delighted and it was a wonderful, tear-jerking moment. He never takes an interest in his own reflection but when he saw himself in the mirror after his haircut he laughed and clapped and jumped up and down with delight. He's been positively preening ever since and he's enjoyed everyone telling him how handsome he looks. He even got to stand up in assembly and show the whole school his smart new hair. It's been so lovely to see him so pleased with his new appearance and watching him looking at himself in the mirror is priceless. I even managed to get one picture of him without his hands all over his face. I do so love my special boy x

Tobyhair