A change is as good as a holiday...

So the saying goes...

However I think I beg to differ.

You see, my ironing board cover looked like this.  It was old, tired, stained, brown and well, let's face it...U.G.L.Y.  Super ugly in fact.

So I decided to whip up a brand spanking new cover.

Delightfully dotty but apart from 2 of the cubs saying ohhh and ahhh, nothing else changed!

The ironing was not miraculously done by a bear cub 1, 2 or 3.  Nope it was me...while Beauty and the Beast was on - ah I love Walt Disney movies.

So I don't think the change in ironing board covers is anywhere near equivalent of a holiday, despite the change from drab to fab being very welcomed.

Oh and I put a layer of Insul-bright in under the foam and wool padding (freshly washed and smelling oh so clean) and I think it makes a difference.

Slowness

Oh dear, where has February gone?  More to the point, what sewing have I done?  None...I miss it and hopefully this weekend I will be able to sit at my machine and get something done.  For the first time in about 6 weeks I purposefully did not bring home any school work.  I am determined to get something done so that I can post it before the end of February - the last thing I want is to fail in my attempt to complete OPAM this year.
I did manage to finish the Rosalie Quinlan stitchery I started last month but can't claim it as a OPAM finish as its not fully complete.  I just cant decide what to do with it now.  Do I frame it, do I mount it on canvas or do I turn it into a pillow?  Decisions, decisions, decisions...

A slow time

I always find the first month, (give or take a few days or a week) that school goes back the toughest in terms of my own personal time.  There is so much to do to set up a classroom for the year ahead, name tags, desk tags, birthday cupcakes, theme displays, testing and analyzing results, meetings twice a week minimum, new children to get to know and new parents to get to know.  Don't get me wrong - I love teaching but it really does limit my crafting time every now and then.

So last weekend after spending time at school on Saturday morning painting my back wall and then doing 3 hours of corrections I put on a D.V.D. and stitched.

Then on Sunday, I got up and did another 4 hours of school work and then some ironing (o.k., lets face it, I did 2 hours of ironing so you can work out that I hadn't touched the thing for at least 3 weeks - argh!).  After that I rewarded myself with 2 more movies and about 3 hours of stitching.  Oh it was bliss.

I haven't stitched like this for a very long time and I have found it so relaxing  given that everything else around here is mad and crazy.  I know it wont be long before I'm in the swing of things again, that my own kids find their pattern with school/home/hobbies/sports and the whole of my world allows me time to quilt - I miss it so....

So if there is anyone out there in the same boat - let me know as I'd dearly love to hear from others in the same return-to-school-funk that I'm in.