postcards and birthdays

I thought I would share some of the postcards I bought for myself from the Museum of Childhood last week. I like to buy postcards of nice things to put on my pinboard by the computer for me to look at as I sit here, much better than bare wall dont you think?

The top one above is of six cardboard dolls with wooden legs, designed by Hilda Cowham from 1914/15. I like that they have names: Demure Dora, Little Miss Folly, Mademoiselle, Motherly Molly, Nurse Nora and Saucy Sally!


Next is this fish, I am sure we had one of these, or someone did, in my childhood. I can remember the feel of it in my hand, it felt smooth and comfy to hold, snug. anyway, it is a plastic bath toy fish designed by Patrick Rylands in 1968.


I also had to get this one of Jemima, from Play School, a tv show we used to watch in the 70's. nice to see her again.

I did also buy some Miffy cards, they are some you can colour in yourself and I have a plan for them, when I get around to it (best not to hold your breath), I am not being very productive craft wise at the moment.


Yesterday was Andrews birthday, here is the yummy cake I made, chocolate in the extreme, thanks to my friend Lucy lending me her cocoa powder. do you know, in the little town I live in, which does have limited shops, but by way of food shops it has a marks and spencer, an iceland, a somerfield, and 3 health food shops, you cant actually buy cocoa powder?? How rubbish is that?

Is it only me who bakes? tsssk.

some random London images

We had a fun time in London, went to Hamleys and Liberty, Cheshire street, various parts of Bethnal Green including the Museum of Childhood and Duke Of Uke Ukulele shop (hubby likes his Ukuleles, oh yes). Chinatown (it was new year), Covent Garden, Tate Modern plus a wander along the Millenium walk to see all the touristy sights. pretty hectic for 3 days in the capital. Didnt get to Marlebone street, next time. More pics on flickr.

No miffy pictures yet though as my battery ran out so I had to just take stills on the new DV recorder, which is as yet incompatable with our computer, we need another lead or something, dont ask me.

Visit to my brothers house

Went to see Uncle Andrew and Auntie Jen last weekend. we had a lovely time with them, we visited Oxford on Saturday, and went to a farm park place on Sunday).

They have guinea pigs which the children loved (and a stone path in the garden which the children liked even more!!


Andrew bought us the most fantasic cookies from here, the smell was delicious all around this tiny stall.


and Esme is highly amused by this photo of two pigs bottoms. they are playing football, believe it or not!

Hooray for half-term!

We have been counting down the days, Esme in particular, until this saturday (today, though it is early hours so still tomorrow really) until we go to visit Uncle Andrew and Auntie Jenny, My brother and my Sister in law. Esme made this countdown poster nearly 2 weeks ago, the day after she packed her bags to go. She asked me to write the days in the boxes she had drawn out. I took the photo a few days ago but have not had time to blog it before now.

So, we are off to Bicester for the weekend, then going on to stay a few days in London. We are planning then to go visit Miffy here and also go here. I am also looking forward to a little shopping, I would like to go to this street, also this one. I would also like to go to Covent Garden, Liberty and the list goes on!!!

now all I have to do is squeeze in a little sleep before we leave tomorrow morning bright and early. See you in a few days!!!

dodgy haircut

guilty party

Snow and cookies

we had almost constant snowfall for 2 days!! now I know that for much of the world this isn't a lot, and many people have been snowed in for the last 2 months, or rather not snowed in, but living with snow and carrying on just about as normal. Well that doesnt happen here, in the UK I mean, a few flakes of snow and everything grinds to a halt. Thursday we woke up to about 3 inches, all the schools shut, people were bulk-buying bread and milk and more or less going crazy.

Anyway, it is so nice to have the kids home from school for a few days. We got more snow on friday and did all the snowy weather stuff that you have to pack into the few days a year of snow, like make snowmen, have snowball fights and go sledging with Daddy.



I have been poorly too, perhaps one snowball too many, sent me to my bed at tea time Thursday evening. I am feeling a lot better now, but Laurie has been ill with an ear infection today (trip to the hospital as its saturday for the emergency doctor, uurgh). Hopefully we will all be over these bugs soon.

I finally finally got round to making the pistachio cookies that African Kelli sent me the pistachio mix for so long ago this week. I had been holding out as I kept forgetting to buy pistachio nuts. so I finally remembered, then went back to print off her recipe...only to find it has no real nuts in it! lol. Anyway, we made the cookies and they were really yummy, and a crazy pale green colour (doesnt really show on my pics). I even forgot to photograph them until there were only a few left, the kids and hubby wolfed them down pretty quickly, so these arent the best looking of the bunch, but hey, you get the idea.



There hasnt been much crafting going on, between being ill and caring for everyone else, and with Lucie having a few very grumpy tantrumy days and evenings, some weeks fly by without a moment to spare it seems. I do have a few works in (very slow) progress, hopefully some will be completed and able to show soon.

mini eggs and updates

will someone please take these mini eggs away from me!!! I cannot stop eating them, I have munched through nearly the whole bag, and it was a big bag!!!



I bought them on offer last week, 3 for 2, to put away for easter baking with the children, but the packets were calling me and I had to open one. I hope I will be able to resist the yells of the other bags.

I have been updating my sidebars tonight (while munching mini eggs) and have swapped some of my links. I plan to keep refreshing these every month for a little variety, so the ones you see now will be there for February. I havent forgotten you other people who I have moved, I will still visit, but I have so many bookmarked as favourites that this will keep more to mind I hope.

we have had a lovely weekend, went to brecon yesterday and mooched around fabric, antique furniture and second-hand bookstores. today has been much colder and Country File tells us that snow is on its way, I do hope so!!

first cake-meet

today I have been mostly eating cake.

I have a group of likeminded (cake-inclined) friends, we all have children at school together, and we are in the habit of going for coffee and cake quite often. We do do other things too, last year we celebrated thanksgiving (mustering up all the American-ness we could), with 5 families getting together and each family bringing homemade dishes to share. And as food was plentiful, there was enough for everyone to take some home and not have to cook for at least the next day or two! Before christmas the suggestion was made that we could do it again, but with cake, all bring a homemade cake, spend the day in great company, get some new recipes, and just have a lovely day. Things got too busy before christmas, but it seemed such a good idea that we planned it for today instead.

There was six of us, plus a sprinkling of toddlers for good measure. I made no-nut chocolate brownies from this fantastic book. The other cakes shared were (from the top then left to right in top pic) red velvet cake(recipe found in blogland), pear and cashew nut cake, chocolate orange cake, yogurt cake and lemon cake. lastly I also took soda bread as I thought we might need something not so sweet and sugary (my idea, who'd have thought it!). here are the cakes about 5 miinutes after the first photo!!

Of course it would have been rude not to have at least tried each cake, so we all ate quite a lot. what was left over we divided up and each got a variety to bring home for our families to enjoy. My stomach is still rather full. but what a lovely way to spend a day, we have already made plans to do it again next month (the start of something big??!!).

cluck??

not much has been happening round these parts. one child has been sick, but other than that life has just been pretty humdrum. So I will share some recent shopping finds (because theres always something new in that department). I am not sure what fairy story these new russian dollies are telling, if any, but I thought they were cute and the shop is closing down, so they were half price too. There is a grandfather, a grandmother, a chicken and an egg. any ideas? oh, just thought is it the one where the couple get a hen (or goose?) that lays golden eggs so they will be rich forever?? its all a bit fuzzy though, anyone know any more of the story? here they all are


ok, now you know the kind of person who spends all her remaining money on a new purse, well that is me.


I treated myself to this yesterday, even though I was going to get one before christmas and was talked out of it by my friend Julia. (mainly when she found out how much they were!!!) anyway, I am not going to disclose that as my mum reads this blog and she will surely tell me off. I kept seeing it, and if i had not bought it yesterday, it would bug me forever every time I see it there in the shop.

And it is pretty sweet, it even has cute lining, look, and pom pom trim, and ribbon...



lastly I wanted to share this with you all, I saw it today in Caerphilly and had to buy a bar just to try. and it is nice, very weird, but nice all the same.


Chocolate with lavender. it has real lavender essence in it, and good dark chocolate. it is really lavender-y, and pretty nice. I wish I had had my camera with me too so I could have taken some pictures of the castle, we had lunch in a cafe opposite and I had a direct view of the castle, complete with geese and passing horses, fantastic!

Diwrnod Santes Dwynwen Hapus

or happy Saint Dwynwens day, to those of you who dont read welsh! here in Wales this is like the welsh version of valentines day, Laurie came out of school and presented me with a heart and told me he loved me and his Daddy, ahh.


earlier today I had needed some retail therapy (I tried to just get away with having just cake and coffee, but could find no one to go with, so shopping it was!) and I bought these chickens for a fantastic bargain price in the sales. I am so pleased as I have liked them for ages, I first saw some on holiday in West Wales several years ago. So, now I have 3 chickens all of my own!! I dont think I will be able to let them remain free-range in my garden though, as their wire feet will rust, although their bodies are pretty waterproof. they are (fairly) made from recycled and over-run plastic bags and food wrappings, aren't they cool?? They say they want to live indoors. I got a few other bargains too, including some fab bookends which you can see here or here (not a direct link, but look for boy/girl bookends under stationary). That website has some nice blackboards and other bits too, I wanted to buy the apple shaped coat pegs, but there were only 2 left and they were both damaged. Had lunch in a nice little salad bar/vege food place, healthy , but made up for with the rocky road bar for dessert, though I did have to share with the baby!!!!!

house shoes

sometimes it is just nice to start and finish a project in one night. none of that WIP business to have hanging over your head. So last night I made myself this pair of house slippers. I found the pattern at the Craft: pattern podcast on friday, and totally loved it. I used fabric I had close to hand, choosing heavyish weight cotton rather than the suggested denim.


and they fit!!

I am not much of a slippers girl, I like to be barefoot, and now I have 2 pairs as my mum bought me some pump style slippers for christmas too, but both those and these new house slippers are just nice to slip on for a bit when its cold and my toes feel icy. That is why I didnt worry about making them too sturdy, for occasional use prettiness wins the day.

Esme wants me to make her some now, another evening project for me.

nice slow day at home

The weather is still terrible here, so much so that I kept the children home from school today, they have colds and we have to walk to school, they would have been so wet and windswept by the time we got there, that I took one look out of the window this morning and thought, nah. I would rather stay in than go out in that, not to mention the falling/flying debris, roof tiles, bins etc out there.


So we have had a lovely slow day at home. The children helped bake the soda bread hedgehog above (that looks a bit like a mouse) for lunch, then this afternoon we all sat and made pictures using this idea (a bit loosely).

First the children and I coloured in a sheet of paper each, we used coloured pencil crayons rather than the suggested ink, these ones, which are so lovely and chunky and smooth to use. I just said colour it in, and they did the rest. I did help laurie as he asked me to about halfway through when his arm got tired (he did the pink, I did the red).


then we cut up our sheets of paper (Esmes was the multicoloured, Lauries the pink and red and mine the green) into bits. this was good as well for the children to practice cutting. Next, we glued them onto white paper. here are the results.

This one is mine, you saw it before up top


The children gave theirs titles, so here is "Monster" by Laurie


"In the night" by Esme


"Mummy lying on the sofa" by Laurie (when do I get to do that???)


and "the Mushroom House" by Esme.



we cheated a bit as we used colours and shared each others shapes and papers, but it was fun and we all enjoyed it.

rainclouds gathering

The rainclouds are gathering again here.

Esme drew these little cloud characters along the top of one of her pictures at the start of this week, I love all their little faces.

borrowed a dog...

today the weather was lovely, so this afternoon we decided to go for a walk. we took our neighbours dog, just because she was outside when we were setting off and looked like she wanted to come!! So, please meet Wendy, our new (borrowed) dog. Esme said on the way, now we are like The Simpsons because we have a dog and a cat. hmm. It was pretty muddy underfoot, especially if you happen to be a tantrum throwing roll in the mud one-and-a-half year old (naming no names).


Wendy was returned home several hours later looking like both she and her pink leather diamond studded collar and lead needed a bath. why do dogs come in white??

Other stuff, I got these books in the library sale the other day.


I like Kate Atkinson, but havent read this book, and hadnt heard of the other two but they sounded readable, I paid £1.10 for all 3 of them, pretty good huh? And yes, I know the library has books you can borrow for free, but I always forget to take them back in time and have to pay fines, so really it is better to buy them!!

random buttons

I love these little buttons, they always make me smile, whenever I see a cute button I have to buy one or two for my collection. (yet another reason why anthea turner will never make me into a perfect housewife...have you seen that woman and her show???!!!)

I have no idea what I will do with these buttons, of course, but I just enjoy having them.

And look, I have sweet owl buttons, how adorable!! my owl love continues, today I found this, as I have been playing on flickr, updating my long neglected photostream and visiting some of my contacts photos. - I wasnt even doing an owl search. So I have bought the pattern on etsy and it will be winging its way to me (no pun intended!) through cyberspace hopefully as I type, lets hope my crochet is up to the challenge.

owl obsession

I don't often get obsessions, I am not very faddy, I tend to flit about many interests at a time, fads are more my husbands thing, as I like to tease.

Anyway, I think I am developing a thing for owls, an obsession maybe. the other night I had a vivid dream about owls, which I only remembered after thinking my winter tree needed an owl. So, above and below are pics of my first needlefelted owl, he is only about 2 inches tall and comes complete with button eyes (I couldnt work out how to needlefelt eyes). I think he is sweet, and liked how quick and satisfying needlefelting turned out to be (can you see he has wings too?). I had been scared to try it, although I have had the 'gear' for a while, as my sister in law here and also here, who is soon to start her own blog... gave me a needle and some wool last summer.


I would share with you some of my other owl finds as some are pretty cute, here, here and here. And how did I miss that one of the month of softies last year was birds, but had so much owl cuteness??? I must have been asleep or something (for a whole month!!) .

Yesterday in town I also bought an Oilily bandana for the fabric, some of which I have already covered my smallest diary in (the diary that has been uncovered since its beginning in september as I hadnt found fabric I liked enough), and look what the design is called...

more crazy milka goodness

My friend went to Austria over the new year holiday Skiing, and bought me back these choccy bars. They are pretty yummy!! They seem to be representing decades through their flavours; vanilla pudding for the 50's, Raspberries and icecream (sundaes??) for the 60's and some sort of noisette/nutty thing for the 70's. We have only tried the Vanilla one so far, actually, being pretty chocolated out after christmas!! She also got me some mini kinder bars (what, those were for the kids? oh. ).


I have been attempting needle felting for the first time tonight, will show you tomorrow (dont get too excited though, I am not very good at all ), but I am too tired now, hubby has been hogging the computer all night.

because I am missing my christmas tree...

I had one of those metal trees from Ikea, like many people I am sure, they are pretty funky, but I never did anything with mine, I had a red one because I like red, but it never seemed to do much, it was too wide to sit on my mantle-shelf, and just got in the way really. for a long time I thought it would be good to cover it, to wrap it with fabric, as it always looked a bit plasticy, a reminder that it was pretty cheap, but its been one of those things I just think about.

Today we took the christmas tree to the recycling centre, to be turned into little chips or something, it was a bit sad as it was still looking good and hadn't lost many of its needles, but christmas is over and tradition dictates it must go, along with all the trimmings and other bits that brighten our houses. So, last night, in the knowledge of this, I wrapped my little ikea tree to put up instead, it can be my winter tree and maybe I will keep it through the year and redress it from time to time.

I used fabric from one of my old broidery anglais wraps, it was getting old and had a small rip on one side, so i didn't mind tearing it into strips. I really like the result, I have draped it with a ribbon and paper rose garland I bought before christmas, and added a robin from my decorations, I had wanted an owl, but I have no owls and the robins redness makes me smile. The tree is actually very white but it looks lovely in the warm glow of artificial evening lights, so I kept these photos rather than make some daytime ones.


It is sat upon my shelf where I had the nativity scene, but usually where I have family photos, so next I must bring those downstairs again and see which fit and which look nice with it. hope you like it. if you have an Ikea tree, why not make it pretty too?