Author Archives: HHaricot

There has been a lot of blowtorch use in this house this week, it has smelled A LOT of hot metal . It is mostly in the loft, so I don’t go up there to take pics, but DH does do the blowtorching in the bathroom, so here is an example

. He says the loft stuff is done, and now can turn attention to the bathroom itself, both plumbing and the wiring. so things are moving along

we also asked for some tile samples, and unfortunately they got quite broken in transit but am tempted by the cordoba one. DH doesn’t like the turquoise.

our hallway is starting to look like a sublet builders yard… this is for the fake wall. our bathroom wall which w started taking tiles from was in poor state underneath, and after some discussion on the best way forward, the plan is a fake stud wall in front of it…

We had a very happy phone call with Sb today. I asked her about school, and whether it is getting more bearable, it it does seem to be. She got 15/20 for her art homework – which is apparently good – and had revised hard for her maths test, but unfortunately it has been put back to after half term. she enjoys maths, art, music [in that order] thinks science is ok, and is busy learning the chemical formulae. she has enjoyed basketball, came 11/52 in 1500m and things seem generally to be looking up at school. She has had some low level bullying it seems, but not terrible and on discussion with maman is going to just try and rise above it.

She is understanding lots of French now, but not speaking confidently yet or reading well. I passed on the suggestion of reading a book she already knows, so she is going to get some asterix and start with that. She is missing reading, but took to the suggestion of wordsearches, and has even developed her own wordsearch. Generally life is settling in, so hopefully we have done the difficult months, and is now on the upwards path so they will be going to paris and cote d’azur for half term – sounds fun and she enjoys art class, climbing and scouts and also had fun at drama, where she mimed eating a sweet off the pavement and being sick . not had any clarinet lessons tho, but goes to orchestra. Also not playing the rocrder as the lady music teacher that does chorale does recorder in her music groups, but they have the fun african music teacher and doing a lot more with rhythm and music. Having sent her her grade 6 ballet cd, she has admitted she can’t work the CD player!

I am hoping for some photos from maman of scouts, and then I will add them, or if SB takes any I will borrow them too

Monday DH was feeling v much under the weather, so an in day with bookish stuff and general BB playing.

on the tuesday BB tried a new art group, and seemed to like it. part of it was putting emotion into art, but with faces [which i photographed] and with line marks – which i didn’t. the other part was a point zero idea, where they receive no feedback at all on the work done and it is collected into a portfolio. SHe seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. I will only get to see the point zero work at the end. It is going to be a weekly thing for 6 weeks.

Wednesday we may have met up with people but I was feeling far too under the weather to drive anywhere, and prob best not to share germs too widely. TBH I mostly laid down on the sofa, and BB therefore had far more than usual screen time, but a lot were factish programmes, mostly about animals. We did go out tho, to the park and the lake to feed the ducks, so felt good to have some fresh air, even if i did need to lie down afterwards! BB scootered there, and indeed scootered all round the lake. the heavens opened as we neared home tho, so both soaked!

BB did some trashpack art – in fact did quite a few pages with what seemed to have a comic storyline, but i didn’t take a pic of te rest, and now I can’t find them! and then she made herself a den.

SHe has got back into the swing of judo – with a bit of persistance and even coping with having to wear SB’s old gi as hers needed a wash. [she shouldn't leave it on the bedroom floor]

thursday was another in day, with some work and some builders mate – she loves helping with the DIY currently, and can’t help but feel practical skills are a good way for her to go. So we are going to call this vocational learning . Cubs night, always loved. Friday was conservation, which she loves and swimming club, which she isn’t quite so sure about after all. I think it is all the ploughing up and down lengths and feeling exhausted!!

so there you go, a quiet week

Hmm! I think it is my week for it. There might be an element of doziness!! This morning, whilst coaxing and cajoling BB to leave the wonders of splegg on minecraft and clean teeth/get dressed, I noticed a man come down our drive in a wheelchair. I sighed a bit, cos I was also in my jimmers and went to the kitchen, couldn’t see him from that window, so went and opened door. initially i couldn’t see him, but he was the other side of my car out of his wheelchair and peering in the drivers window. At that point i should have perhaps screamed thief and rung the police. Instead I asked if he was allright – ie is he leaning against car having asthma attack, needing a glass of water [i know, d'oh!] he very politely said he was ok, just needing a rest, got back in his wheelchair and wheeled off.
I thought it was ‘a bit odd’ and got me and BB dressed and abluted etc. Then this eve, I read of car crimes in the area, think ah – lightbulb! and ring the police. Needless to say, they think it prob was pre-criminal activity, had i left handbag in car [which i often do] then it would have been a smash and grab, but i had a flimsey material bag in there, so he was prob trying to decide whether crappy paperwork or worth a steal. also if keys in car… we need to lock up at all times, keep car empty and expect a return visit – and RING if we see it. i think they thought i was a bit dozy!

hmmmmm

at work i have to periodically change into different shoes, leaving mine behind in the changing rooms. They weren’t in a locker – TBH really things rarely if ever go missing, I have left my handbag there many times. A fortnight ago it all changed, I came out to find my shoes missing. searching, and friends searching – no avail! message left – did someone go home in the ‘accidentally’ no response. SO concluded, somewhat shocked, they had actually been nicked!

would you nick these shoes??

anyway, having bought replacement and a spare, they returned 2 weeks later, no note! Odd things!

I have been looking at gifts to buy BB for her birthday, and it reminded me just how much we have loved djeco crafts over the years! So I thought I would start on a craftly resource post to break up the ordered blog titles that are starting to appear with a pattern!

I first fell in love with djeco when my dear sister Vivien was ill. Djeco sells beautiful, guarenteed to be loved craft kits which were perfect to do with all our children together, so we could be companionable and loving without talking, as words led us to places we didn’t wish to explore. The early pictures of us djeco crafting tear at my heart. At the time, I just couldnt see the unspoken misery in my nieces face, as it just mirrored that of my own. Thankyou djeco for giving us something to occupy our time, making beauty. I remember my sister loving all the art that she was then given. As time moved on, we have tried most of the kits, in happier times as well!

I think for all round value and delight the true art ones are best as they teach you something new as well as being beautiful to look at. My favourite remains the ‘Klee’ set. But the sand and glitter art kits are very well thought out and a delight to do to. My favourites being the mandala and mask sand sets and the animal glitter. For an easier craft for filling in rainy sunny days, or taking on holidays, I think the mosaic and the scratch crafts are unbeatable. There are lots of mosaic, sand art and scratch card crafts around but these are better quality and work beautifully. I like that the djeco grafts aren’t all girly girly. I have 4 children to cater for, only 2 of which are girly, and the other 2 prefer to just do something that works well. SO over the years I have bought the dragon gouache, various of the felt tip colour in, paper crafts and they have all been loved. The only djeco craft I struggled with was the beautiful chalk art, as I found the pens variable. I bought from Playmerrily, and they no quibble swapped this out for me, thankyou. I loved the oil crayon kits too – you can see the jungle themed one in our art corner above.

SO here is my art gallery of djeco. Those of a similar age to me know exactly what tune to hear as you look…

Here we are back in 2010 doing 2 of the mosaic craft kits
the lion one which E and BB loved doing that one, and M and SB had a great time doing the fish one.

Over the years we have bought most of the mosaic kits. they are easy to do

we have loved the sand kits and then, later, the glitter kits

the sewing kits also have been fab for us

we have found the art ones fantastic, using all sorts of different art media – my fav the Klee set

gouache sets

the scratch kits

felt tip colour ins

and the very frou frou paper kits!

So take a recommendation, djeco craft kits, beautiful and delightful we still have some to do on our shelf come that next rainy day

we had a bad week for leaks, the new cold water tank had a leak through the girls bedroom ceiling – argh. And the current bathroom had a much much bigger leak through the dining room roof, which i did think was going to fall down. it didn’t, bue we are going to need a new dining room ceiling when the bathroom is decommissioned.

However, setbacks and emergency diversionary plumbing aside, we have moved on in the general organisational background plumbing so soon this phase will be over . so here are a few pics, including that of the plumbers mate coming out from the loft

i did enjoy hearing plumbers mate arguing with the boss , she’ll be doing this on her own one day

today we had a happy phone call from sb.She has had a good week. some teasing at school from ppl laughing at her speech – said to tell v who would sort it at school, but her friends Iloe and Mia are lovely. says nanny has sent some lovely cards, she enjoys climbing, art class, maths, orchestra, chorale and scouts. other lessons are starting to make some sense tho school as concept is at best boring . aerobatics is weird and she doesnt like english and basketball . this weekend she was camping with scouts which she enjoyed, but says the tents are really old fashioned – think they were proper canvas ones . climbing is def her fav thing. my new improved writing was better, but she thinks i should type and print her letters!! humph

she and FrB clearly had a photoshoot and put the pics up i liked this one

oh, its acrobatique not aerobatics