Life has been very busy these past few days. Saturday was spent at the 'Make it' show in Farnborough where I managed to spend almost £90! I also met up with some cyber friends from the just Bex forum which was brilliant. (My next job is to work out how you add links from here to other sites). On the Sunday, 16 family members met up to celebrate my father-in-laws 70th birthday. It was a great day and was one of the few times we have managed to get everyone together.

I had planned to spend my days crafting before going to work each afternoon but with so many bugs going about I have been forced to do hard labour in 3W this week. Thankfully the teacher is a slightly barmy Welsh woman who likes to sing and dance though I am not saying she can do either well!!

I will write when I have some crafty things to share. (Which I hope will be this weekend).

Tada! The chicken is finished.

She is stuffed with plastic pellets and has wadding in her head with a few drops of a nice smelling oil. If I was doing this with a lighter fabric I probably wouldn't add the oil in case it stained but as this has a slightly shabby look, it is fine.

I will post pictures of how I made her later.

What a lovely day I had yesterday. My darling husband took me to Ikea and we bought loads of dark brown Christmas decorations for 49p a box. I also managed to pick up a white quilt cover and 2 pillow cases for £5. It has a small diamond design in the fabric but apart from that it is completely plain. I will take the cover apart and make it into a table cloth as the dining room looks very dark this time of year and hopefully it will make it feel brighter.

The best bargain though was for work. (I run an after school club). I have a room within the school that is just for the club so I have purchased some very kitsch fairy lights in the shapes of flowers and leaves to put up around a display board. And the price - £2.50. There were some heart shaped baubles that I thought the children might like to use closer to Valentines day. However it has been pointed out to me that they look like bottoms if you hold them upside down. I'll let you know if the children think the same.

I have managed to make a couple of cards this week as a friend at work will become a mum next month and I want to make sure I have a card ready. I have got to make a card for another friend who is getting married but I have some ideas for that one so that will be nice to sit down and create.

The poor fabric chicken is still in pieces and will probably stay that way for a week or two as I am too busy to sit down and finish it.

It was back to work last Monday and the shock to the system has nearly killed me. I have got used to staying in bed until nine. The alarm ringing at 6.45 has been horrible. The good bit though is getting to play the morning game with my son. It is played by opening the door to his bedroom and shouting morning until he responds by saying morning back. He is less of a morning person than I am and his usual response is not morning!

I have not been able to do much creatively today as the electric has been switched off whilst my OH has been pottering in the garage. It is slightly better than before. It will only take about 15 minutes to get the bikes out now instead of the usual hour workout!

I have started hand sewing a folk art chicken. If it turns out then I will post the pictures. They have been taken with our new camera. (Late Christmas present). We spent a lot of time last night playing with all the different settings. It has now been switched to Auto and that is probably where it will stay for ever more.

The only other thing I have been doing today is chatting with the parents on the phone. Dad has started getting into the 21st century and e-mailing. Mum decided to send me a long letter by e-mail that is now floating in cyber space somewhere as she pressed buttons when dad wasn't looking. Between dad and myself we can just about switch on a computer. Mum isn't quite as advanced as that. Dad wanted to know how to send a picture via the internet so a good chunk of our conversation was spent trying to work out what buttons to press to make it happen. The picture at the top is what he sent me. (A garden shelter in the grounds where he works. Now being restored to its former glory).

Well that is number 1 ticked off my things to do this year. Create a blog! I doubt I will add much as I spend so much time reading other peoples I won't have time for mine. What I would like to do is add something crafty each week. So far this year all I have created is 'a mess'!