Froggish sewing

The week before last found me packing for our visit to the Isle of Wight...I had decided to make the children goody bags to open in the car - they were filled with magazines, notepads, puzzles, bubbles and for Zebra-girl a beautiful handmade doll that I had secretly bought for her a couple of months ago at a fete. However, as I was dashing about assembling wellies and suncream at 10pm it dawned on me that as my children love soft toys more than anything else the lack of something to cuddle in Dinosaur-boy's bag may have been a crushing omission...which meant packing had to be abandoned and instead I set about some stitchery. Dinosaur-boy had been pretending to be a frog for much of the week, picking out green clothes and jumping, leaping and ribbiting his way through the last days of the walk to school, so I instantly thought of one of the old bean-filled frogs that Liberty used to sell in the 1980s (I wonder if they still do). I picked out some green Heather Bailey fabric that seemed quite froggish and then sewed faster than I have ever done before and a short while later a small amphibian was born.

I have mainly been making things lately for the little shop that Mr Teacakes is designing for me and so have spent far less time sewing things just for fun or without the feeling of self-consciousness that comes from knowing that one's stitchery may be viewed by someone other than family or friends...I have become slow and perfectionist, redoing things several times...so how liberating it was to sew just for my little Dinosaur imagining him delightedly pulling the frog from the bag early the next morning in the car. I wonder if anyone else feels this...do you sew in a different way when what you are making may potentially be sold? And that's a big 'potentially' because the idea that I may be merrily sewing together a small factory-worth of goods only to sell nothing isn't lost on me (but perhaps it is a win-win situation after all, for at least I would be left with a bag to co-ordinate with every possible outfit)....but I suppose it's like that in the initial stages of doing anything.

Anyway, our holiday...we have all returned very much browner (for the weather was perfect and sunscreen had to be plentiful to avoid being charred) and refreshed. Evenings were spent playing Boggle, drinking wine and for me, reading The Time Traveler's Wife, which was so hard to put down and a book that I completely fell in love with despite the writing being slightly more edgy than I had anticipated (and I realised that it also felt like a long time since I had read a book - I have tended to stick to the weekend newspapers which can be dipped in and out of and fit better around the busyness of everyday life...but I must make more time for books, as papers are not a substitute. My mother has lent me Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach which I am hoping to start tonight).

We stayed on a farm with beautiful views and amazing surroundings. Across the road we could walk up this path (above) and reach a place that on one side had breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside (shown below, and there was such a wonderful burnt sugary smell in the air as a combine harvester did whatever it is they do to whatever crop it was that I was standing next to here...perfect...so much fun to have one's senses assaulted by such lovely things with no idea of what they are, and that is the unique joy of being more of a town girl for 51 weeks of the year, I feel)...

and on the other side stunning cliff-top views of the sea...

Ian was beginning to look somewhat frazzled by working so hard recently and staying up very late in front of his computer every night had left him looking pale and dark-eyed, so how lovely it was to watch (from the comfort of the picnic blanket) as he did what he does best...that is scrambling around, swimming in stone-cold sea, making strange sea sculptures and climbing in inappropriate places on cliffs...all while delighting the children with his foolish ways.

The other piece of loveliness was that the farm cottage we stayed at had a magazine basket stuffed with every edition of Country Living dating back to 2006...you can only guess at the many happy hours spent leafing through those....

I have been tagged by various lovely people and so will hopefully post those this week...