reading between the lines

The boys have been storming ahead with their reading since they started school in September. I've been making an effort lately to remember to read with them every evening and really it's a pleasure as they are doing so well with it and seem to enjoy it.
The funny thing is that this is my fourth time round with the Oxford reading tree and I should know all the books off by heart by now, although, in reality they're only just beginning to sink in. Although on some subconcious level maybe I was influenced unduely by this model of a family and ended up with a girl and two boys. At the moment Biff, Chip and Kipper, coincidentally or not, are approximately equivalent in age to Joy, Fergus and Freddie (ok there are probably some experts out there that know that Biff and Chip are actually twins, but look: Biff (the girl) is bigger than Chip)...
In today's adventure Freddie all learned about the perils of letting dad attempt to go shopping (he tries to be domesticated but somehow always gets it a bit wrong), in The Foggy Day. And Fergus read all about Biff's failed battle against the sexual discrimination imposed on her by not only her teacher, but King Arthur's knights, and the Magic Key itself, who turned her into a damsel in distress when all she wanted to be was a knight. Meh...
Yes, we had a brief discussion about this afterwards... the conclusion being that this was written in 1993 and possibly we have moved on a bit since then, hopefully...
And yes, the reading was fine!

my room

Well I haven't been literally hibernating all the time, but I have been doing quite a bit of sleeping and resting. Fortunately I got my room finished before I got the post-viral fatigue that I am hopefully beginning to come out of.

Here it is before... not sure if this picture shows off the full glory of its horribleness. I had to replace two sections of floorboard before sanding. I wasn't sure weather to sand or paint the floor until I had applied several thick layers of paint to the mural-clad walls, but I think I made the right choice...

Here is my lovely floor, which the neighbours objected to the noise of my little sander on a Saturday afternoon, in three 1-hour bursts. I can see hills out of the large south-facing window from my bed.

...and with some of my clothes! It was quite a job getting the chest in that alcove, but I have a lot of determination. of course it looks a bit smaller with the bed in it- I think I need another picture here...

Course I'm onto the next room now...

junk art

Well six weeks is over so I finally came out of hibernation and spent the spring equinox doing a recycled plastic bag weaving workshop. I had been asked to do this at a weekend of boater's workshops, but I'd been so busy and tired that I didn't really get my head around it till Friday, when I had two kids off school and one at school, so I spent the morning rushing round doing all the necessary...
It was so sunny in the afternoon that I had my shorts on in the front garden while I prepared and painted the chair frames that have been sitting around outside, gradually deteriorating and generally getting in the way. They had kind of just emerged anyway, as on Monday I had tidied up round the side of the house so it could be measured up for a new bike shelter.

Anyway, so, fornutately I had a willing helper to experiment with the weaving, in the form of Joy, who wasn't really that ill, but needed a bit of a rest from school, I thought ;-)



I was already and prepared by Friday evening and turned up with a car-load of stuff which I had easily acquired from the back of various shops: cardboard, plastic bags and bike wheels. Friends had kindly donated their spare carrier bags too. But the stuff ended up staying in the car till Saturday morning for one reason or another. I actually called in at the Lego-building workshop in the morning, which I am supposed to help out at, but didn't know about this one so it did kind of clash. It was sunny enough to put my shorts on when I arrived- fortunately, really, for doing an outdoor workshop. The wind did get up a bit later on though and I wasn't hardy enough to keep them on all day.

So, anyway, here I am again, doing crafty workshops for families... so glad I agreed to do it, it makes a change from being stuck in my box.

I had a useful and willing workshopee who spent hours on her chair- it is first strung across with jute garden twine. I perfected a great technique for cutting up bags into long continous strips, which I did several demonstrations of... people were quite inspired to think of ways of re-using all their used plastic bags. The chairs were just an example of a practical application, which I've been thinking about doing for ages!

Someone even asked me if I also weave yogurt, which, as you know, I do all the time!