Being together and new places #R2BC

Welcome to the feel good linky! Life in lockdown has its up and downs but hopefully we all have some reasons to be cheerful? Thanks for everyone who joined in last week. For anyone new to the linky we have a few relaxed instructions: 

 

What do you have to do? Simple: 

1. Link up a post about something that is making you happy or grateful. It can be a list, photos or any way you fancy 

2. Add the #R2BC badge (at the end of this post) onto your post or blog so that people can easily find the linky and join in too if they want to 

3. Share the love. This is the really important bit. Please don't just link and run, comment on at least a couple of posts and why not share with #R2BC too? 

I'll stop by all linked up posts to comment and I'll share on social media too. 

Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful for this week: 

1) Lots of evening walks

My son and I have fallen into the habit of walking after dinner and before bedtime. He says it is his favourite moment of the day. Kendal is so peaceful at that time of night and its still light as we approach mid summer. This is Stramongate Bridge and Kendal weir:

2) New Places

As well as familiar places we have walked in some new ones. My parents took us on a walk around Skelsmergh and we also went up to Fisher Tarn reservoir:

3) Celebrations

The relaxed rules meant that 6 of us got together to celebrate a couple of June birthdays. My daughter laid out the deck so that each household was socially distanced. We brought up a Chinese from Ruby's and my daughter had baked a birthday cake:

Getting Crafty: Cloth Kitty

One of my resolutions for this year was to learn to knit, somehow I am currently being side tracked into learning to sew! This came about due to a combination of factors:

1. someone posted about PomPom makers and I thought now there is an easy craft to do with my children!
2. I followed the link on their blog and ended up on the Clothkits site and duly added PomPom makers to my basket
3. Being a child of the '70s I grew up with a wardrobe containing a wide variety of Clothkits clothes made by my mum (she didn't have a huge budget but had the time and skills required to sew). So I decided to browse the site to see what 21st century Clothkits looks like.
4. At this point my 8 year old starts peeking over my shoulder and spots the Cloth Kitty doll kit and asks to spend some of her Christmas money so can learn to sew so doll was added to basket

Fast forward a few days and we get a parcel from Clothkits. My daughter is very excited about the doll she is going to sew (with help from mummy) and cancels all plans for Saturday so we can make a start. Once I have looked at the instructions I realise that maybe I am going to struggle as the doll itself is fairly simple to sew her clothes come with instructions for bias binding, gathers and shirring elastic. For a woman who's worst subject at school was needlework this is a daunting prospect!


Nevertheless I cut out the required parts of the doll (having even ironed the fabric first - shock horror!) and set to. I demonstrate the sewing technique to my daughter and then pass the leg over to her for her turn. Her enthusiasm is quickly dampened after a few finger pricks so inevitably I end up doing all the sewing of the doll. It does turn out that my daughter is a dab hand at stuffing the doll though:

Note essential wooden spoon