Snowstorm of Activities

We had some more snow here yesterday in Ireland, must be a record, two snow queens in one season! No climate change around here, no siree! Dave was sick with a stomach bug all yesterday, slept for about 30 hours straight . Aisling woke up this morning having thrown up at around 5am. I’ve had 6 hours sleep and had an insane schedule for today which will all have to change. I’m feeling shivery now, like Dave yesterday and mommy’s just aren’t allowed to do that!! I am willing myself to be fine and escape the tummy bug by doing this post I didn’t manage to finish yesterday.

Plans for today involved my 60 length swim I worked up to in January, a driving lesson to pass the Irish driving license exam and unlearn all my bad habits, watching my friends kids while she had her parent teacher meeting, Aisling going home with a friend, Aine going home with a friend, picking up Aine and taking her to ballet, taking my friends daughter home to play with Aisling during ballet class…oh yeah…and then dinner. LOL.  Now I’ll be keeping Aisling home in case the bug travels to more schoolmates, seeing if neighbor can walk Aine down to school, no swimming, no lesson, seeing if Aine’s friend’s mom can bring her back to me in time for ballet…and another friend will be taking Aine to ballet…that is if she doesn’t fall victim to the dreaded bug!!

Anyway, I have been doing a bit of crafting over the last week…

I had a voucher for our local yarn shop since Christmas and couldn’t figure out what I’d do with it. Until I realized mom will be going through chemo soon. Chemo caps. Mom says she wants some fun ones, but I am also going to do half of them as hats she can wear again if she wants. Here are the hats I plan to do and the yarns I bought for them:

Noro Silk Garden for the Roll Brimmed Chemo Cap

Rowan Scottish Aran Tweed for a Floppy Brim Hat

 Stylecraft Gypsy colors for the The ‘No-Hair-Day’ Hairy Chemo Cap

All these patterns are from Head Huggers, a great organization.

Mom got bad news last week, the cancer wasn’t all removed with the lumpectomy, so she will have to have the full mastectomy and they can’t schedule it for a few weeks. She is holding up well though, there is still a good prognosis as it hasn’t spread to bones or any other areas as confirmed by MRI and bone scans. Please keep those thoughts and prayers coming though!!

I have been keeping very busy with the girls which is good, but also exhausting. Their social lives are getting complicated, I can’t keep up with who is coming and who is going, lol! We have kept up the swimming once a week together which the girls love, and a movie night on a Friday which means simple cooking or no cooking for me and a sweet treat for the girls and a movie or two…they love the traditions.  We cut out paper dolls last weekend, and I’ll always encourage craftyness with my girls!!

I did some crafting myself on Saturday before the bug descended on us! Barbara is a bag maker extraordinaire and walked me through making my first handbag, using some of the Japanese taupes I got in Birmingham, they are the Matsuda woven ones with textures and they are lovely!! I attempted to start a second bag on Sunday, but didn’t really manage with Dave out for the count and the girls making whirlwind messes behind them all day, and of course we were out for most of the morning in our short lived winter wonderland building snowmen and having snowball fights with the neighbors. After a rainstorm overnight, the queen is no longer with us! Our snow is always short lived here.

Here are some photos of the handbag I finished. It is a pattern Barbara designed herself. She has set up a new blog and is going to be selling some of her handbags, go over and have a look and tell her I sent ya, lol!

I even made a pocket with a slot for mobile, my shopping bag and a pen…lots of room in the main compartment too.

I am going to start on this gorgeous bag that Barbara adapted from a Japanese craft book.
These are the fabrics I chose for mine.

Hopefully the tummy bug will sneak past me, if I can shake the chills this morning. Maybe I can sleep sometime next year…or when they are 20?

Here are a few gratuitous girl photos for nanas and other interested parties: Aine’s new party dress, Aisling in trousers, a rare sight, and another photo of the snow queen being built…

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