Movies for Mother's Day

In recent years our tradition has been for Mum and I to watch movies together in the afternoon on Mother's Day, any classic movie, or new movie that she doesn't get to watch because Dad won't like it.
Here are some of our favourites to watch together:

Classic: Gone With The Wind, Jezebel, I'll Be Seeing You, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Now Voyager, South Pacific, The King and I, Mrs Minniver, Goodbye Mr Chips, How Green Was My Valley, and My Fair Lady.

Foreign: For Rosanna, Il Postino, the Three Colours Trilogy (Blue, White, Red, please watch them in that order), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Kolya, Pavillion of Women.

Everything Else: Steel Magnolias, Hanging Up, Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, The Joyluck Club, The Notebook, The Lake House, Vanity Fair, Raising Helen, The Banger Sisters, and The Other Boleyn Girl.

TV on DVD we love: Ghost Whisperer, Charmed, Gilmore Girls, ER, Everybody Loves Raymond, Brothers and Sisters, The Tudors, and Ally McBeal.

Easy Mother's Day Projects

This knitted purse is as easy as knitting a scarf. Yes it is. You cast on more stitches than an ordinary scarf as some width disappears when you stitch up the sides, but it is a short scarf folded together (right sides in) and a large wool needle easily makes the seams, and the handle is simply plaited wool sewn into the seam.

These were wire hangers I revived from the shame pile in the bottom of the closet. Lovely sparkly and fluffy, fuzzy wools did a nice job. Though the photo doesn't do them justice. Your kids could easily make these for mum or grandma.

These balls of wool were left over from another project, one is very fuzzy and frizzy and not easy to knit, the ball on the right plaits up like chenille, so that is what I did, I plaited the chenille wool into a cord. Four strands plaited together, with a loop formed by my toe at each end. I prefer to plait from my toe as I control the tension, moving my foot further away from my body the longer the plait becomes, my leg is just the right length!

You can see the chenille wool does not look like a plait when it is done, it looks like a cord or one very thick noodle.

The loops are important, you simply hook the loops over the wire hanger top, and I twist two plaited cords around and around the hanger leaving no wire visible. If you have not made the plaits long enough it is no problem to tie off the ends of two plaits and then start again with another pair, you can even tie the new plaits through the loops of the old ones.

I finished the chenille hanger with a bow tie with champagne crystal drops on the ends.

The other hanger, which my mum prefers, has the chenille base, with plaits of rich fuzzy plum wool wound around it, for a stripey effect. The tops of the hangers can be covered with shorter plaits tied around the neck, worked up to the very end of the hook and brought back down to tie around the neck again. Trim the ends off close and you will never see any evidence of the knot.

The hangers are very cheap and easy to make.

I will be continuing with a series of mothers day posts, including a Gilmore Girls Tribute, Books for Mothers, Mothers Day Movies, Home Day Spa ideas, and perhaps some baking.