Angel Jem's City Cottage

A; The tickle monsters, that's who! My chidren love to see themselves on the computer. Hey, DP preens himself in a glass window as he's talking so to be a star of screen, however small is a big thrill for them. Today (you may not believe this) I finally figured out that if I pressed the little button marked 'use my pictures as slideshow' as my screen saver, then all my memories are flashed up constantly and ever-changingly as pictures of my beloved kids (and everyone else) float across the screen. I guess I should have saved those risque pictures DH took of me on holiday to disc, eh? Oh, well, as long as the vicar doesn't come around when they flash across the screen I might be OK. Convincing Sarah that that is not the way to dress for a night out might be a different matter. Ho hum.

La Redoute, the home of french fashion, have Cath Kidston licenced products for the bed. Duvets, sheet, pillowcases and blankets in her distinctive roses on blue or white are all available to order on their website, here .

Waterlilies; Claude Monet . I have spent the day at work... I'm a supply teacher, so somedays I don't know until 8.30 that I'm going to work, but today was pre-booked. I like that, it makes arranging pick-ups so much more easier. The only disadvantage with work is that it interfers with crafting, but it pays the bills. Today my work was in a small school where the maximum class size was 22. It's in a nice area, with nice staff and I had a really good time. This afternoon, especially, I was with the reception. These children are aged 4 and 5, and so full of beans, but really willing to learn. My brief was to look at the painting, talk about the colours and let the children play with some chalk. The teacher's final words were "It doesn't really matter what it looks like as long as the children have had a good time." And how! By the end of their session, each child was covered in chalk, mostly all over their hands & uniform. It's a good job it bru...

Crochet is in, this weekend. Dolliedaydream has taught herself over the weekend and looks set to be off with the crochet bug, while away in Devon, Posy has the most appealing picture in her post today... You must go and see! Wouldn't you just die for a fireplace like that? It's gorgeous, Posy and if I were Alison ,I'd give you the award for the most scrumptious blog of the week! My own contribution to this crochet frenzy is a small square... it will be the cover on my bed when I have a chance to finish it, but for now, my knees keep warm!

I had a lovely weekend... away with my lovely husband!! His team that he supports (not premier league, but really local; does that count as the football equivalent of organic?) were playing in Gateshead. Well, I say Gateshead, I mean the International Athletics Stadium. Well, I say the International Athletics Stadium, I really mean the teams played on the pitch and all 300 supporters sat together in one small area of this 19,000 seater stadium. Such are the pleasures of supporting your local team (who happen to be the BIGGEST club in Knowsley; the perils of being too close to Liverpool) and while he watched the match, he said the best place to leave me was the Metro centre... well, I couldn't say no, could I? So I have had a lovely weekend of shopping; Borders, Leeds on Friday night, Metro Centre on Saturday and York City Centre on Sunday. Spent money? You betcha!! But I had a really good time doing it, and I'm sworn off shops/shopping and portals of unlimited consumption until...

You know when you've been caught out? Well, over in America, Capello does! Go see her blog for a really good chuckle!

Well, we had our first ever Girls Night In last night. Only 4 of us could come so that meant reduced numbers, but we still downed an impressive two bottles of wine (between us, not each) and spent a good few hours talking about life, love and little children. We also planned next time's meeting for February 22nd, and decided to read and discuss a book, the Kite Runner , author... I can't remember. which is a problem as I'm supposed to get a few copies of it to hand out to the girls who couldn't come. Oh, pooh. The party bags went down well, everyone giggled at the idea of love hearts but then admitted that they were a sure-fire favourite that they hadn't had for years. I love them, I have at least one packet a week and it is my favourite not-too-bad-for-you food treat. Guess I'll have to think of something else for next time... handmade soap, or little hearts from felt like Charlott e? I'll work on it; I've got three weeks, anyway.

This year is the 800th anniversary of Liverpool being granted its charter to be a city..... wowee! And next year we are the European Capital of Culture, plus this july is the 50th anniversary of when Paul and John met, so it's a big thing for Beatles fans. the council have got allsorts planned, go to www.liverpool.gov.uk/ to see the choices. There will be street parties and big events all over the city this summer so, for the next two years, Liverpool is celebrating! I'm a relative newcomer to the city, coming from a village 12 miles away. Liverpool has always been my local city, but I'm a small-town provincial by upbringing. However, I've lived in the suburbs now for 14 years, and I have to say, I like Liverpool. There's a fair bit of culture, a fair bit of social life and a good tradition of comedy and friendliness. If you've never been, why not give it a go in the next two years? Book a travellodge room and come for a couple of nights. See the two cathedrals...

Tomorrow is the first night that we hold a Girls' Night In. My friend, Paula (Hi Paula!) and I are having a few friends round for gossip & fun. we'll drink a little wine, listen to the Puppini sisters, talk about ourselves and plan some more nights in. So, to celebrate, I've made little parcels (I like parcels!) I used gift wrap to make the bags and filled them with pink and fluffy treats. Love Hearts are my favourite sweet because they take me back to my childhood. I found the shoe keyrings on sale straight after Christmas, ditto the lip gloss, while the pencils are incredibly cheap at Instore. Enough for a grown up girl's party bag, I think? At future meetings we intend to discuss some serious Chick lit. Any ideas? I like Warnings of Gales by Annie Saunders, or perhaps I don't know How She Does It by Alison Pearson. Nothing heavy or Boker prize winner. we also plan to have a chocolate tasting, a wine tasting and a cookie swap evening. I suppose we could have...

I love packages through the post, I love getting them, sending them and opening them, so when my friendly Scottish postman knocked yesterday, I knew I was in for a treat. Some of my post-christmas bonus got spent on an ironing board cover from Cath Kidston. I've lusted after one for a few years, tried to get one on sale and finally thought blow it, and ordered myself one last week. I love how the parcel comes in red stripes.. I love red... and when I opened it I felt like Christmas had come again. I couldn't resist taking pictures of the cover off the board... on the board... and how my ironing basket looked two hours later. At this point I feel obliged to tell you that my Darling Husband usually does his own shirts and never gets to the bottom of the basket. There must have been twenty shirts plus other bits in there, but I wasn't going to stop until I'd done them all... And this is Sarah. She loves the clean basket, too. I hope she's a better housewife than I'...

Saturday is Football Day... and I go to visit Ma (that's my mum to the grandchildren). Well, I took my wool with me, I needed to fiddle today, and I got down to crocheted flowers. Sally-Anne has a thing for flowers. They turned out OK, just a simple chain and then petals around the centre. I got some ideas from a free flower pattern search on tinternet & made my own from there. Anyway, I wanted to use one straight away, so I made a headband, like the ones that were popular in the early 70's and, I have to say, it's not bad. Sally looks cute in it. Quite a success. The picture is fuzzy, apologies for that, but the idea is there. Sally wants one for all her friends and acquaintances, but only after I knit a scarf for her doll.

I crocheted my way through the telly-watching last night. Criminal minds on Channel 5, I love it. The scarf is nearly done and here are the pictures to prove it. Then today there was no phone call. It's fun on supply, it's a win-win situation; phone call = money= living well this week, no phone call=time= opportunity to do something. So, I went to Borders to see if I could get the American Country Living magazine because, apparently there's a divine picture of red velvet cupcakes on the cover (see Brocante Home Chronicles for details) No luck. I did browse the craft books, because Valentine's Day is not far away and looked at the new(ish) Cabbages and Roses book and a couple more books. Anyway, the point is when I sat down at one of those squishy leather armchairs they have dotted around, the coffee table had about 3 or 4 crochet books. Now, I would love to meet the person who put them there because I'd like to know; is crochet in this year? Am I, so to say, hook...

So, I didn't start work until 1pm today. plenty time to fiddle a little and visit a friend. Nice cookies and coffee, Paula! You need to get a blog. Anyway, I had time to pop down to a local knitting shop, Knitwise on Smithdown Road, Liverpool. It's a little Aladdin's cave of good quality yarn. I wanted some Sirdar Firefly to crochet a scarf, one of those full-of-holes creations that stretches to the ground when an enthusiastic 5 year old grabs you. And, yes, the nice lady, Angie has some and, yes, it came home with me (red, of course) and, yes, I will probably go back for more because, at £4.50 it strikes me the scarf would be a perfectly acceptable home-made gift for the fashion conscious acquaintance... but... She also holds Stitch and Bitch meetings on a Tuesday night. My evenings are usually spent at home, I do go to a reading group (sadly cancelled tonight. Hope you're all well soon, girls) and I will be going to Girls' Night In next Thursday, but they are ...

From mess to less, and it didn't cost a penny! The day before yesterday, the kids school bags looked like this; Yesterday I corralled them and put them in a cardboard box I had lying around; It's effective, but it's not pretty. Today, I emptied a basket with toys (junk/charity or a new home) and... Joy of Joys! It looks quite good. With a little judicious rewarding (home points and/or sweets) the 3 darlings will remember to put their bags into it. Now, do I need to make a cloth cover to hide it away permanently? On an unrelated matter, I told yesterday how I had got Not Buying It by Judith Levine and inadvertently caused a furore on another website. Apparently, independent retailers are unable to get this book for another 2 weeks because the Big Boys of the corporate world have swallowed up all available supplies. For example, Mostly Books are an independent bookstore who have to wait 2 more weeks for the book. I am so sorry! And it's not even my responsibility. Howev...

The wonderful thing about getting better after a cold and blocked nose is that there comes a time when you can smell again. I walked into the house today after shopping to smell these beautiful hyacinths (thanks Mum!) They've been blooming for a couple of days while I've been ill and I've actually complained to DH about their lack of smell. Being male and a realist he said it was a good job I couldn't smell them, as they would probably have set off my hayfever. Men, huh? And the shopping! I had a bit of a non-essential day, I'm afraid. Aside from food, including a rather nice Twinings green tea with pineapple and grapefruit, I (had to ) get this stuff. The Country Living magazine is one of my favourites, and cheers me up every month. The chopping boards are red and blue, same as my kitchen. Red for meat, blue for something else, probably. The two red dishes are pottery and I bought them because I'd seen the rectangular ones on Nonnie 's blog the other day. T...

I am on a mission to sort out this house. This is/was my craft room. I think it was useable for all of a week last summer, when I got in there and made birthday cards for the rest of the year. Then we had a visitor and a big bag of junk to put somewhere and no where else to put it... need I go on? The will to start over being subsumed by the need to do some work and get on with Christmas, it got left. New year, new me, as the saying goes and I'm on the move. The previously titled "Family room" is now called the "sitting room" and this, previously titled "craft room" is now the "toy area". Yes, I know, pigs will fly before this room is perfect if I truly think 3 children aged 8,6 and 4 will even remember which room their (junk) toys are stored in. And the name change will probably not stick. OK, I'll come clean. It still looks like this inside. A lot of de-junking to go then, but the question is, do I de-junk their toy area and then set...

I was supposed to be out tonight, but I'm full of cold and not feeling too well. Instead, I've been puttering in the boys' room and moving furniture. Why is it I always want to rearrange things when I'm ill and then I'm surprised when, shivering and tired, I fall exhausted into a chair? It's like I only get inspired when I'm in the throes of a fever. Never mind, it's a grey Saturday and I'm alone with three children while my DH goes to football. At least the flowers I bought last week are still cheerful. I hope they make me feel better, too. Hopefully after bedtime I can sit in peace and watch a comfort film. Something soft and fluffy like You've got mail . Or perhaps Outbreak . I always used to watch that when I wasn't well before I had kids. Watching a lot of people with Ebola fever had the effect of making me feel better. Strange, I know. Or, if the DH has to watch Match of the Day (it is Saturday after all) I can read my past copies of Ma...

It's a dismal day here in Liverpool. I'm nursing a cold, and setting up webpages, blogs, etc. Why does everything have to take so long? All I want is to see my name on the net? Is that so wrong? Anyway, I'll have to load some more stuff on the net soon. I'll see you again tomorrow.

I have been wanting to start a blog for some time now, at least a year, and never seem to have settled down to it. Well, now I am. I hope to be a good neighbour on the internet and to find some new friends. So, who am I? Well, my name is Jo, I'm a married mother of three, supply teacher, crafter, reader and creator. I like making things like painted boxes, toys, knitted blankets and tapestries. I'm a Jack of all trades and master of some. Anyway, onto the pleasant stuff; Why Angel Jem? Well, when I get my little craft industry set up, that's the name I am goimg to call it. I like angels, they remind me of fairies, my family nickname is the Christmas fairy and my initials are JEM so I sign my artwork as Jem.All in all, good enough reasons to call it Angel Jem. The 'mess to less' bit is even easier. My house is a bombsite. This is after a years de-cluttering, you should have seen it before. I am hoping by putting my (literally) dirty washing out onto the ether to sham...