A more green and simple life

A toy society christmas

2009-12-20T09:16:00.001-08:00

This weekend people all over the world have been leaving little toys for others to find as part of the toy society Christmas drop for 2009. I left this little fellow outside TESCO after doing my shopping today, hopefully someone found him and it brought a smile to their face.

Weird creatures

2009-12-19T02:26:00.000-08:00

These 2 strange creatures are for Joe and Maisie for Christmas .It was my first go at trying to combine different materials and textures. As usual i didn't use a pattern, just made it up as I went along...and as usual due to my way of working there are bits I'm happy with, and bits that could do with improvement. Anyway hopefully they'll like them.

3 little monkeys for 3 little monkeys

2009-12-18T02:23:00.000-08:00

Three new sock monkeys to go in the baskets of goodies I'm putting together for my nephews and niece this Christmas.

Chipper's been at it again!

2009-12-17T02:10:00.000-08:00

Here's what Chipper's been up to recently...
decorating the tree in his own unique way!
That'll teach him...
mountaineering up the tree
and a spot of skiing.
He's also written notes on post-it notes and stuck them all around the place, and told the kids about the elf on the shelf website which had lots of fun games for them to play.Maisie has been waking up earlier and earlier each day though as she's so excited to find out what he's been doing so we've said tonight we're going to ask him to just sleep and if she can stay in her bed until a reasonable time tomorrow then he can have some fun again tomorrow night. Fingers crossed it works, because the bags under my eyes are more like suitcases at the moment!

The latest from Chipper

2009-12-12T03:11:00.000-08:00

Andy was a bit traumatised when he woke up Thursday morning to find Chipper had played a little trick on him! Joe and Maisie on the other hand thought it was hilarious.

Joe and Maisie have been asking Chipper lots of questions about snow via his journal, and Maisie has asked him a couple of times whether he would like to have a snowball fight with the toys again like last year... and last night he gave in , though he insists the bears started it!

A new sock monkey

2009-12-11T01:50:00.000-08:00

I've made another sock monkey- this time , for my brother who has a bit of a thing about monkeys and also batman- hence the bat symbol and cape. It's going to be part of his 30th birthday present in a couple of weeks time.

snow angels

2009-12-09T01:29:00.000-08:00

When we came down stairs this morning we found a trail of little footprints in the hallway- Joe suspected a reindeer- thank goodness he was wrong! We followed the trail and it lead us to Chipper Twinkletoes, and in his journal it explained that he had been making snow angels with "some white powder stuff " from the kitchen cupboard , and he hoped I wouldn't be too cross. So we took him with us and followed the trail back to the kitchen and found this...

Joe and Maisie showing how Chipper must have jumped off the work surface and made his way back to the christmas tree.

Good job I was planning on hoovering today anyway!

Another sock creature/ blanket cake

2009-12-08T04:12:00.000-08:00

Following the great response from Jasmine when I made her "cake" ,I decided to make another for my friend Sarah's little boy Jack. I'm really pleased to say he was delighted too and took his sock creature in to school to show everyone.

Elf antics

2009-12-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

Well chipper is on fine form again.On Sunday morning we came down to find him taking a stroll in the lego city Maisie has been busy building over the last couple of weeks. Loos like he felt at home there.(That reminds me... really must get round to replacing the skirting board)

Then this morning we caught him red-handed polishing off the last of the biscuits! Judging by what he was holding it looks like he just couldn't decide between custard creams and bourbons... so decided to have both. Wondering how he got up on the worksurface? He climbed of course!

He's arrived!

2009-12-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Lots of excitement in the Ellis household today... we've put up the decorations, but more importantly Chipper Twinkletoes our Christmas elf returned! Being the generous little fellow that he is , he brought elf costumes for the bears, which was a big hit. He seemed happy to be back and we can't wait to see what he will get up to during the hours of darkness.

It's that time of year again!

2009-12-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

If you've been reading the blog for a while you may remember that this time last year we had a little visitor come to stay- Chipper Twinkletoes, one of Santa's elves. No I've not gone mad- you can read about it here. Anyway today we got a letter from Santa to say he's coming back - yipee!!!

Dear Joe and Maisie,

I can’t believe it’s December again already, where does the time go? So it’s a year since my little friend Chipper came to stay with you, you know he still talks about all the fun he had at your house.. I’ve been trying to work out which elves to send to which children this year, and Chipper is very very very keen to come back and stay with you both- infact he’s driving me nuts going on about it. I hope that it will be Ok with you if he returns again this year.

I will tell him to get his things together for the journey and then I’ll send him on his way in the next day or so. I know he has a little surprise he wants to bring for you both,. I don’t think it will take him too long to pack, as he’s very keen to get going on his journey.

Please be patient as it might take a few days for him to reach you- it’s a long way after all. Enjoy your time together.

Santa

Who knows what he'll get up to this time...

A big sigh of relief

2009-11-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

After the big shock of my brother-in -law having a stroke last week,I am extremely pleased to be able to say it looks like he's going to be OK. He still has to have a brain ultra sound, and has been told he can't drive for a month, the doctor's don't know what caused it and want to try and find out. But the great news is that the brain scans showed there were no blood clots in the brain or neck, and he's been told it's highly unlikely to happen again.He said it was a big wake-up call for him, it made him realise that his job, that he's been very unhappy with and stressing about for some time, isn't that important. A terrible thing to go through, but I do believe things happen for a reason, and maybe it was necessary to enable him to re-evaluate what's really important.

Gratitude

2009-11-25T12:23:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I read an interesting post about gratitude at pepper stitches it just reminded me how important it is to focus on the positive. She links to someone else's blog who writes thank-you notes to the things/ people etc that she is grateful for - could be an interesting idea to try. Having the thoughts in writing could be a really good thing to look back at on those grey days.

Today I am feeling very lucky that I am in good health. We had a phone call this afternoon to say that Andy's brother has had a mini stroke- he's 36! He's been sent home from hospital this evening with medication having had a brain scan and has to return tomorrow to speak with the consultants about the prognosis. His wife is 7 months pregnant with their first child, and had to stop working at least for the time being because of her blood pressure. Neil was due to start a new job next Monday. Now everything is up in the air for them.I have everything crossed that things work out ok for them.

Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

Can't believe it another of the little toys i left out with the toy society has been adopted. Fantastic! You can read about it here

This has made my day

2009-11-22T08:28:00.000-08:00

One of my toy drops has been found and the findee has sent a message to the toy society, you can read it here. It is a lovely message and made my day. I'm all fired up to create some more. I guess I better finish the cuddlies I'm making for Joe and Maisie for Christmas first, though I might be able to squeeze a couple in at the same time.

I think this is getting a bit addictive

2009-11-18T08:24:00.001-08:00

Ok this is drop number 3. I think I'm addicted!, This little fellow was left on a shelf outside the toilets in Dartington, not a particularly picturesque location but hopefully he will be found soon.
I got a message via flickr to say someone found the 2nd toy I dropped which was very exciting.

toy society drop number 2

2009-11-15T10:25:00.000-08:00

This drop was a family affair, and Andy as a toy releasing virgin was particularly excited.

We were going into town to get a few things so it was the ideal opportunity- or so we thought. Actually it proved more difficult because it was so busy. Initially we left the little fellow on a bench then retreated to a safe distance to watch, we didn't tie him down and a gust of wind blew him off so we had to move in to rescue him. We chose a bike rack as the place to leave him, we did a little circuit around and came back but he was still hanging around- hopefully he was found before dark!

My first toy society drop

2009-11-12T05:21:00.001-08:00

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I am very excited as I've just completed my first toy society , toy drop! I was flying solo as the children are at school , so there was no one to hide behind this time. I've left him tied to a road sign as you can see, I hope someone finds him soon as the weather has turned horrible, but he should be ok in his little plastic bag. To take the "location shot" I had to quickly wind down the car window before making my get away, it was just like being on surveillance! Felt quite giddy afterwards can't wait to do another one. I hope the recipient emails the toy society to say they've found him, that would be like the icing on the cake.

The toy society

2009-11-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

I've just found this and am so excited - the toy society, so I'm not the only one that's making toys and leaving them in random places to be found, it turns out it's happening all over the world. Yipee... all that happiness being spread, puts a big smile on my face.I'm going to have to make another sock creature to be released soon.

calorie free blanket birthday cake

2009-10-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

For my friend's daughter's birthday next week.I've made a reversible fleece blanket. I bought 2 cheap fleeces and joined them using the no-sew method I'd seen . It's really easy, you basically measure and cut a fringe all round then knot the 2 layers together. I knotted 3 sides then left the 4th open to allow me to applique her name and some stars for decoration. She's not a girly girl so I've gone for bright colours rather than pinks. She really wanted me to make her a stripey sock creature like one I made for Joe, so I decided to present it with the blanket as a "cake". Hope she likes it.

Nest building

2009-10-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went for a walk around Saltram, we collected lots of twigs and brought them home to make a nest for Joe and Maisie's finger puppet birds.I thought we'd be able to make a free standing nest, but this proved trickier than expected, so we tied the twigs with raffia and placed them in a bowl.

It's now on display in the lounge, and I think it looks pretty cool.

Ooglies

2009-10-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

Joe and Maisie love a programme on CBBC called Ooglies, it's inanimate household objects brought to life with googly eyes. Here's our ooglies on location...

A new addition to the family

2009-10-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

My brother, Mark, and his wife, Laura have just become very proud parents for the first time.
Joe and Maisie were very excited about meeting their new cousin Amy.

And both were very keen to hold her....and to try out her baby gym!They found it hard to believe that they were that small once, I've got to admit I do too!

Belly dancing

2009-10-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

Just been to my first belly dancing lesson- it was fab! Can really feel it in my stomach muscles and i think my hips and back will be stiff tomorrow, but it was great fun, will definitely be going back for more next week!