my name is schwarna and I am a fluffaholic....

Busy evening spent sorting out the nappies for library hire kits....oh my gosh when you see it al in one place there are a lot...too any to photograph in fact. Hubby was less than impressed lol. so now we have

2 newborn kits, each with around 20 nappies and accessories
1 small kit
4 medium kits

2 large kits
xl kit plus night nappies

each kit has around 18 plus nappies and accessories, liners, nippers wraps etc so as you can imagine that is a whole lot of nappies.

now we just need some extra wetbags in medium and large to complete the kits, until something new comes out at least.

Some scary german art from the first world war that is now hanging above a door in the royal engineers museum. A lovely home ed mummy had aranged a eork shop for us on Why we remember. The girls really enjoyed looking around and it was especially poignant as it was my grandads old regiment and when he died earlier this year my nan donated his medals to the museum.

stop yelling at my kids

This is the challenge some friends and I have set ourselves. Somewhere in the last few months of chaos, illness, depression, baby bits and toddler tantrums I have turned into my mother.  It's hard to stop yelling,  especially when you feel like you need to in order to be heard above the constant whinging, screaming and general hulabaloo.  A friend posted a link to a 30 day challenge Stop yelling at the kids so far we are on day 3 and I haven't managed it yet, however, I am trying and certainly am much more concious of my tone of voice and certainly shouting less. It is not helped by the ginger ninja also being mr shouty man and making situations much worse when I am trying  to deal with things calmly. We have had talks and ironed out some issues, with coping mechanisms for him so hopefully things can only improve. Watch this space.

Also, we are looking at more ways to try and save some money whilst improving our eco credentials too. Cue lots of recycling for crafts etc and hopefully some home made christmas presents. (a work in progress as many of you know I am not so crafty as I would like and lack many skills) I have joined some local mummy friends in a sewing circle which I hope will spur me into action...so far I have cut and pinned 2 taggies and 1 baby shoe prototype and shredded a couple of old sheets to crochet a rug with. Unfortunately I am finding it almost impossible to crochet with despite my giant crochet hook.

And some random pictures from the last month x

Seasons turn ....

and as summer draws to a close to make way for cosy nights in with warm fires, fluffy slippers and a good book I thought I would post a few pictures of the summer that was.

storm clouds are gathering

In my mind at least. I am struggling still beneath the cloud of depression. I usually cope by being out as much as possible but don't always have the energy to muster the troops....too many arguments over shoes, car seat straps, car windows make it hard work.

There have been lots of adventures. Crabbing, rock pooling, beach combing,

 walks, parks,

 gardening and boot fairs plus cake making, family visiting and ice cream eating.

there is a burger, bacon, salad etc hiding in there too.

 Even a bit of nanny baby wearing (first time ever)

 Mostly just us as we have been partially in quarantine as Tinkerbell had impetigo....highly infectious, started out looking like a couple of gnat bites under her chin but quickly spread across her neck and chest....looked like awful infected cigarette burns at one point :-(

Munch has been away this week to camp. I went as a child and so did my brother. She has come back bouncing around and talking everyone's ears off about all her adventures and what a great time she had. She also became a christian which is a big decision for her. I hope she finda the strength to continue her journey when alone in a crowd.

awesome flongies

I haven't done a product review before but felt I had to spread the word about a lovely work at home mum. I recently won a competition to have 2 pairs of fleece trousers/nappy covers custom made for Blu. After a few conversations to discuss measurements and ideas the lovely Lynsey at Babe Be Eco started making up the agreed design.

Lynsey sent us pictures of the fabrics before/during and after cutting to double check we were happy with it every step of the way. She kept us constantly updated with progress and sent us pictures of each stage of the process to ensure we were completely satisfied. They arrived in around 2 weeks ( amazing considering she had co op orders and other projects to complete).

The flongies are awesome. Exactly what we wanted. The perfect night time cover for cloth nappies, they fit over our tots bots fluffles and wee notions night nappies. They are beautifully soft and fit perfectly. They are very well made, stitching is very concise and neat and the trousers are well finished. Hubby and I totally love them and I will definitely be buying some more soon.

How cool are these?

They totally rock and I will be sending anyone who asks about fleece straight to Babe Be Eco

Allotment chaos

I was so happy to finally get an allotment. Phase 1 of our plan to be more self sufficient looked like finally becoming more of a reality. Unfortunately it also coincided with our Blu  being a very hungry monkey and the ginja ninja's health taking a turn for the worse. So not quite as expected.  Mum and I had been trying to keep on top of it but she whil full time and whenever I try to go down Blu  screams the entire time. Cue chaos .....the allotment began to take on an Amazonian appearance.

Our allotment is one of the smaller ones, only goes as far back as the blue plastic fencing and sadly has no shed or storage on it either. We have ben gathering wood from a friend of ours to build some raised beds and storage but it has taken a while to collect it all together. Mum and I managed to get some cleared though. Blu even slept for a short while in the sling which allowed me to dig up most of the potatoes (yes there were actual vegetables amongst all

 that foliage. We still didnt manage to get any new veg beds built but we did clear 10 ft by 25ft ish space. We put weed control fabric down and weighted it with some of the wood for now.