Parting is such sweet sorrow

Friday was a very sad day at SLP towers. We lost our deputy editor and our news editor as well as three reporters thanks to the voluntary redundancy process that was dumped on us in late January. I came home and cried! It was so sad to see them all go and the office will be a very different animal from next week. There are still three more members of editorial who are due to leave in the next three weeks so by the time we get to April it's going to be fairly horrific. However, two new reporters are going to be recruited and I've been given the chance to go full time which I have accepted. So it's not all bad by any means.

I know this is a good step for me as it's going to be excellent experience. However I'm just really sad that Paul (dep ed) and Lawrence (news ed) won't be there to help steer the ship. Without them I'd have really floundered over the last 18 months. They cracked the whip but were always really fair and never seemed phased by the copy they got from me! They also were really excellent at making constructive criticism - in short they were very good at their jobs and the SLP is going to be all the poorer for losing them. But because they are so good I'm sure they will have no problems finding other work.

The rest of us will soldier on and I am sure it'll be OK. It'll just be different and I've got the best possible opportunity now. The only downside is not being there for my kids as much as I'd like. Tom starts school in September and Lucy goes into Year 3. I'm sure they'll cope though.

so, could be the start of an exciting next few months. Onwards and upwards!

A stitch in time

I can't remember exactly how old I was when I learned to sew but it must have been about the age of eight. My grandmother was a prolific seamstress and made an entire collection of clothes for my Sasha doll one Christmas.
I've still got the outfits in a box somewhere as they are absolutely beautiful. 
I was lucky enough to go to a school where they encouraged crafts such as sewing and pottery making but encouragement from my grandma was really helpful.
(I even made a skirt which I still have!)
Now my seven year old daughter Lucy wants to learn how to sew and I've tried to teach her. At seven, she still has little fingers which aren't quite as dextrous as an adults' so I looked around for a kit to get her started.
Just before Christmas I happened to be in Brighton and saw in a gift shop something which fit the bill perfectly. It was a rag doll made by Felt Craft (I've since found out you can get them from www.dotcomgiftshop.com)
Nicole is a delightful soft rag doll, which you can create with this simple to use sewing kit. The  kit contains pre-cut felt, fabric, buttons, stuffing, needle, velcro and easy-to-follow instructions. Although Lucy says she has funny eyes, the finished doll is very cute and Lucy was very proud of her achievements. 
It has meant she now has the sewing bug and this week made a small felt bag for her teacher. She cut the felt, threaded the needle, added some decorations, and sewed the whole thing all by herself. And very proud she was too!
It's a great skill to have and now she has plans to make clothes for her dolls and bags and purses for her friends.
It's taught her how to concentrate and she has let her imagination run riot in terms of designs and things to make. Brilliant.