Friday 30 November 2007

Productive


Today started out interestingly. All week I have had a nasty cold/flu-y thing, and I am just getting over it. Anyway, Esme has come down with it too, so I had decided not to send her to school today. We still had to walk down the hill in the wind and rain though, to take Laurie to school and Lucie to Meithrin. When we arrived at school his teacher came round the corner of the yard, surrounded with children. 'No school today' she told us, 'the classrooms have flooded!!'. (at this point I am wishing I had stayed in bed) Luckily a friend offers to walk Lucie round to Meithrin and another offers to collect her later. So we walk back up the hill, with one sick child and one sad-not-to-be-at-school energetic one.

Things went well after that though, the children played happily together, and because I didnt have the littlest one around I was pottering around and decided to get out my sewing machine for some projects I have ongoing. Now, they are ongoing because my machine needs a service, and only works when it feels like it. When it doesnt feel like it the bit under the foot doesnt feed through, and it is disasterous and tangly. Today though, it chose to work!!! Hurrah!

So, all in all the day turned out pretty good. The childrens birthday projects up top begun and finished, and this little project for my friend Julia nearly completed (its a surprise, thus the vague and dodgy photo!), just needs a little bit of hand finishing...and only a month late for her birthday!!!

Thursday 29 November 2007

vintage stocking swap


Last week I received some amazing post! I recently took part in the Vintage Stocking Swap over on flickr, and the person sending to me was the lovely Bridget. I have sent my parcel to Maria but I was a bit late sending out, it is on its way now though Maria!

I was so excited with my stocking, absolutely full to overflowing with goodies, look she even had to put some in a little box for me too. I took photos of the stocking and the detail she added - a vintage silver teaspoon with my initial on it!!


After this I became so interested with the contents that my camera was laid aside, so I will have to show you the goodies another day, if the sun ever comes out here in rainy Wales again that is.

Sunday 25 November 2007

London

Last weekend was very exciting! My sister in Law flew over from Northern Ireland, and on the saturday we caught the train to London for a weekend away. It was the first time I have ever left the children overnight, (they were with their Daddy) and it was really nice.

We spent Saturday afternoon walking around Marylebone High Street (funny video I just found), a great place to spend a few hours. We had lunch at Eat and Two Veg, which again I can recommend.



Early evening we braved the short but very busy walk along part of Oxford street and round to Liberty, where we browsed fabric and trimmings and buttons, before stumbling into their cafe for coffee and cake. We did have to put up with some most disappointing lemon cupcakes, they were solid and heavy and could probably have done some damage if thrown at a wall, which is all they were good for. It was nice to sit down though!


We stayed at Jurys in Islington overnight, then on Sunday we went to the Country Living Christmas fair. We met up with another Sister in law, and had a lovely day the three of us walking around the stalls, mostly browsing. One of my favourite stands had to be Made in Hastings, it looked beautiful and had so many nice things for sale. The fair closed at 3pm as it was the last day, and we JUST got round in time!




We had time for a quick meal in Wagamamas before it was time to head back for our train. We did have to spend longer than planned on Paddington station, due to a last minute platform change on the train we were supposed to get on, but our wait was eased by KrispyKreme donuts.

It has taken me all week to recover, I think, but we must do it all again soon!

Thursday 8 November 2007

bonfire night week


On Monday I tried making toffee apples for the first time. They were delicious, I vaguely followed this recipe (I didnt watch the video so I dont know what its like, I just read the recipe) but I used Muscovado sugar instead of soft brown, and "butter me up' (!!!) instead of just plain butter, because that is what I had to hand. I also used red apples, which gave them a fantastic colour. They were good, The kids loved them, and Hubby declared them the best toffee apples he had ever tasted. I think the 'fake' butter, with veg oil in too, kept the toffee a little soft, and the muscovado sugar made them taste like treacle toffee. I shall be making more of these!

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Awol


Bet you are wondering where I have been (I am kidding myself someone still reads this), I have been awol a while haven't I??! Well, I have some excuses. As well as my normal excuse (general laziness) I have two other good excuses.

The first is that last week we were in Cornwall on holiday with my parents. We stayed in a little place called Polruan, which is near an only slightly bigger place called Fowey. The two are connected by passenger ferry (a 12 seater boat) and a small car ferry, both of which we used a lot. Its a really pretty place, the photo above is Readymoney Cove (which sounds like it is from a James Bond film or Famous Five Book), where we spent several afternoons searching about in rockpools and generally having fun.

My second excuse, is that I have been rather more tired than usual, due to the fact that we are getting a new one of these in April!


I am feeling a lot less sleepy now I am 16 weeks pregnant, and thankfully the morning sickness was fairly short-lived too this time round. We always hoped to have 4 children so we are really pleased, and I just love babies, they seem to be everywhere right now, I can hardly wait!!!