My Ruffle Beach Bag

Well, its not often that I blog twice in one day.   But as I've just finished this, I need to show you.  It started life out as a cloth Lidl bag - a bit ugly and only for emergency use.  You know, when there are no bags in the car boot because they are all in the kitchen drawer.  


The girlies came back from their dad's with some new 3/4 trousers (from the market - so cheapies) that their Aunty had bought them.  There was no way they were EVER going to wear them, so into the charity box they went.  Then, I came across this tutorial and had a lightbulb moment.


The bright summer colours put me in mind of a beach bag, and as I find it really hard to source material here - and it is so expensive to order from overseas.  I decided to have a go.  Resulting in....

As this is my first ever real effort at sewing anything, I am really pleased with how it's turned out.  Especially as I also taught myself to plait with four strands.  Google it - there'll be a tute that works for you.

Girlie #1 hates it obviously -sighs.

So, it WILL be accompanying us on every single trip to the beach.  Especially when we go with friends!!

And here it is again loaded up with two big beach towels and plenty of room to spare.


Next sewing project is going to be some quilting, if I can just pluck up the courage to make the first cut into the material - oops.

Tempus fugit...

And it's another whole month since I've blogged again! You would've thought that with having the girlies away at their dad's it would give me more time.  It appears that the opposite is true though.

I have however been a very busy bee, tackling jobs that I wouldn't usually have the time for whilst they are here.  All the hunreds of books I removed my book case - they were double and triple stacked have been sorted and I have kept those that I would definitely read again.  The excess are all going to be car booted when we've finishd clearing out the toy room.  So, not only did I get rid of the detritus, I also arranged the keepers into rainbow order!  Look how pretty.

I also made myself a headboard, from some old picket fence posts and painted it.

And a close up, really pleased with how it turned out, and I'll be able to change the colour as I please.

I just need to get some paint now for the bedroom walls, I'm thinking of a nice light bluey grey, something along these lines

Going for a bit of a beachy theme I think.  Shame the wardrobe and chests of drawers are all to new and nice to paint up.  What do you think?

Next up was this old chest of drawers, that has lived many years in the shed, mostly use for keeping tools and crap junk in

 

 
 They don't look too bad from this pic, but up close they are quite scratched and a bit ropey
 

So far these have been rubbed down and undercoated and are awaiting their top coat, of which I am in two minds - eek.  My first thought was white surround and rainbow drawers, but the girlies aren't too impressed with this idea - they think it's babyish :(  And I will probably go with a dark (Grecian) blue instead.

On top of all this, I started my spring cleaning and going aginst the norm I started in my bedroom.  Well, the sitting room has just been repainted so it's really only washing the sofa covers there, and I decided to put myself first for once.  The kitchen has been done too - just the infernal windows to clean and next up are the girls bedrooms - once I pluck up the courage to get in there!!!

So, I have beeen very busy, just not blogging. 

The €5 Shelf

You may or may not have seen my recent tweets about some drilling that was going on in my sitting room.  Following the recent decorating, the wall above the television was looking rather bare.

You can just about see it here

A piece of an old wooden gazebo, was chopped to length in the garden.

The original plank is pretty ropey as you can see

Sanded down with child labour :)

Another piece was cut into fancy bracket shapes

It was all varnished

 

The following day, once the varnish had dried, these insubstantial looking brackets were attached, along with some plates on the wall

And ta-da a new shelf for the sitting room for the grand total of €5 the cost of the hanging hooks and plates.  I'm so very pleased with how it's turned out.

 

Just need to sort out some suitable decorations for it now.  I'm starting to get there now, some new cushions are probably next up, just need to dust off the sewing machine.

Silent Sunday

Window to the Soul

I decided to join in with The Gallery on Sticky Fingers today - subject Eyes



This is a picture of Girlie #1 taken about 2 years ago.  I still love it and keep meaning to print and frame it.  I'm sure it will happen one day.

Click on the linky below to see other entries and link up. 

He's nearly here...

And I'm so not ready for Christmas yet. It's been nearly three weeks since I last posted and there has been such a lot going on. 

Unfortunately we lost Coco dog, which was pretty upsetting, and surprisingly he keeps popping up in my dreams. However, he had started to become a bit aggressive, so maybe there is a bit of a silver lining in there somewhere. 

Both girls were on crutches at the same time, and we have had numerous doctors, vets and dentists trips.  Culminating in an overnight stay in A & E with girlie 2.  She had stomach pains and they kept her in over night on a drip, to make sure it wasn't appendicitis.  I turned out to be a reaction to her painkillers and they have now been changed and she is recovering well.  If only I could say the same, I have a very hurty shoulder from spending the night in that blue chair you can see in the background.

December 6th and 8th were Fiestas here and Girlie #2 had the 5th off as well, so we got into full on crafting and decorating mode.  The remit from school was to make a Christmas ornament from a loo roll roll.  So with one of her friends from school, they came up with these.

I of course had to get in on the action too and came up with this

Secretly quite pleased with it - shh!


I've managed to do all my overseas shopping, thank you Amazon.  And will hopefully start. Oh yes start my "real" Christmas shopping this weekend.


Wish me luck

¿My Girlies or Mis Hijas?

This week I'm linking up again with Windmill Fields Expat Blog Hop. 

This weeks subject is Parenting: bringing up a multilingual- mulitcultural family. 

Well, we arrived here on April 16 and got the house as live able as we possibly could, the girlies were only 1 and 3  so I wasn't particularly worried about finding a school for them.  My knowledge of the Spanish language was limited to 12 hours of one on one classes - so pretty non existent.  I knew that I wanted to get my children into the normal education system and didn't want to go down the International school route.  For one the nearest school was a 45 minute drive away, and I also wanted them to have local friends.

Prior to coming here, we had embraced both Dora the Explorer and the BBC's Muzzy in a big way, so Spanish wasn't completely alien to them.  However, the thought of them starting school without any language was a bit alien to me. I endeavoured to find them a playgroup or nursery, where they could get a grounding in the language before they started school.  The first "Guardaria" I came across left me reeling in horror, accustomed as I was to British standards.  It was basically a room full of 0-3 year olds, left to their own devices.  Not for me. 

Luckily whilst shopping at one of the nearest Hypermarkets, I spotted on the other side of the road an "Escuela Infantil".  Joy of joys, they had an English teacher too, and if I could come back in an hour, she could see me!

After a tour of the baby room, the middle room and the big kids room I was ecstatic, this was more what I was used to.  They were duly enrolled and started two days a week on the first of June.  Girlie #1 (3) attended June and July - August of course they were shut! - and Girlie #2 did a whole year extra, which was increased to 3 days a week once her sister was in the "big" school.  Here, I later discovered that they could actually start "proper" school at age 3 - oh the shock.  This although not obligatory, was considered the norm, as it was both cheap child care and meant that if your child went for these 3 years, they would be at the same level as their peers.

They have both done incredibly well at school, and so far I've not had any reports from their teachers as to their lack of vocabulary or language skills.  They are now 11 and 13.

At home, we've always spoken English, and generally watch television in English.  Although the odd Spanglish word or sentence does get thrown in now and again.  Some words just sound better in the "other" language.  As their speech was competent, I didn't pressurise them with too much extra homework in English.  At 5 years old, Girlie #1 decided she would like to learn to read in English and retrieved Peter Rabbit from the bookcase.  She started

"peh - teh - rr"

"Ah, that's not exactly correct, in English, P and E together is 'pea'"

"pea - tea - rr"

"Oh dear, the word is actually Peter, let me think about this one and we'll come back to reading English another day!"

So, thinking about how I learned to read, I hurriedly "Amazoned" some ladybird, Peter and Jane books and we started again.

They are now fluent in the two languages, prefer to watch television and films in English, but read in Spanish.  However, they wouldn't miss out on a trip to the cinema with their friends.

Girlie #1, now she is in the "Instituto" doesn't like speaking to me in English in front of her friends, and prefers me to speak in Spanish too.  They come home with hilarious tales of mispronunciation by their Spanish English teachers.   Which has convinced Girlie #1 to become an English teacher - that and the long summer holidays!  She actually told me last night - Yes, I'm going to show them the light!!!

I'm also a little concerned of the portrayal of Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh as Pirates!!!  I mean they were god fearing sea captains and favourites of royalty!!!


There also seems to be a bit of debate about who actually won The Battle of Gravelines in 1588 too!

Culturally we flit between the two, adopting the customs that we like the best and fit in best with our lives.  We don't go to bullfights, but love the processions of the Moros and Christanos.  We will eat Cottage Pie one day and Paella the next.  I love taking my girlies out in the evenings - and occasionally 'til sunrise, but school days they are in bed "early".  We eat a big traditional Christmas Day lunch, but go to welcome the Three Kings too.

Basically, we try to fit right in with whatever is on offer and take each day as it comes.

I'm also pleased to say, that when they swear, it's all in Spanish too.  I'm obviously not such a potty mouth as I thought!