French Knots

Come on you whites.....

First a bit of background. About a hundred years ago before children my husband took me to a few football matches, they were ok and I enjoyed myself. Until one day when we went to an away match at Blackpool, there we were standing in the drizzle in the uncovered away end behind the goal when it happened......I suddenly became infected with whatever it is that makes you a fan. I cared passionately about the ridiculous decision the referee had just made and joined in with the others loudly chanting what we thought of him and from then I was lost. I too got a season ticket and the two of us would go to all the home games. The season I was pregnant with my daughter was my last and culminated in defeat at Wembly in the playoff final, which was a bit inconsiderate considering I was about eight months pregnant and just climbing the stairs to my seat was like the effort involved in a full season in the Premiership!

So I'd not been to a game since...until Saturday, now it's my daughter who has a season ticket and goes with my husband but we decided to take My Little Helper to his first game. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it, the game was excellent, we played really well and each of our 3 goals was well celebrated! I came out on an adrenaline high. It was a great way to spend the afternoon as a family although I think My Little Helper liked the snacks I had packed in the rucksack best!

My white hollyhock finally has a flower just in time, before the end of summer . It has dug deep and battled against the opposition and I'd have been sick as a parrot if it too had succumbed like the courgettes to the munching slugs. Sorry bit of left over football passion there!

As the seasons are starting to change I feel a bit blah and uninspired as to what to cook. I feel like we've been eating the same things for ages and could do with a refresh - lasagna, frittata, chicken kebabs, what do you enjoy cooking?

and the winner is.......

Well me really thanks to all the lovely Birthday wishes I received! Thank you to everyone, I had a lovely day and indulged in plenty of

It was very moreish and rather rich, full of digestives, walnuts, chocolate and more chocolate!

My Little Helper was the impartial adjudicator for the draw this morning and using his excellent ' hold the sun hat in your mouth so your hands are free to have a good rummage for the winning name' method  

and as you can see he picked Alice ! I'll get the pincushion in the post to you soon.

The sun hat was to hand as we have had lovely weather this week, we've been sunning ourselves in the park, eating lollies and ice creams and yesterday we had the water slide out in the garden so it seems my birthday wish for sunshine was granted. A bit of extra sun before the summer holidays are over has been wonderful.

I also had a lovely surprise when Laurie over at Old School Acres  gave me a Rocking Girl Blogger award! Thanks Laurie, I'd like to say I'm glad I haven't lost it but I don't think I ever had 'it' in the first place !

Between all the cake eating and indolent sun enjoyment I have squeezed in a bit of crafting

some bunting using checks and stripes that I have been hoarding for some time now and a pair of repurposed jeans. As I nearly developed RSI cutting the jeans due to my blunt pinking shears I had a final birthday treat of a new pair, which cut through jeans as if they were chocolate cake!

Have a lovely weekend and thanks again for all you comments, I really appreciate each one.

Birthday giveaway

As it's my birthday and I've had some lovely gifts I thought I'd share

Please feel free to leave a comment and I'll pick a winner next Friday for the pincushion I made this week . Actually I'll probably get My Little Helper to draw the name from a sun hat ... as I'm hoping the sun will return next week.

Perhaps it's the curmudgeon in my coming out as I'm another year older but has anyone else been irritated by the number of different fonts used in the titles and articles of Coast this month? 4 different fonts in a single sentence seems excessive and doesn't sit well to my mind.

Anyway I'm off to bake a chocolate cake, using my new scales and while it cooks I'm going to have a nosey through my new book.

Have a lovely weekend!

Fabric goodies

Had a trip to Ikea as I am running low on picture frames and they have some wonderful striped fabric in. It's available quite a few different colour ways and thickness of stripes and is a great weight for the price

These are my favourites but I think I'll be going back for more. We are going to redecorate the playroom and I fancy making some striped curtains as part of the makeover.

I've also been lucky on Ebay

Lovely Alexander Henry yellow birds, just the right shade of yellow not too acidic

Michael Miller funky Christmas trees....just planning ahead

and a terrible photo of some lovely Kaffe Fassett pansies ( could go and take another one but the camera has a bag on for some reason and doesn't want to hand it's photos over, these few shots have taken half an hour to prise from it's grasp!)

Lovin' the postman and as it's my birthday this week am hoping he'll bring me some more tempting treats!

Summer sun

More lazy days in the garden, these last couple of weeks have been so good but isn't the summer holiday going quickly?

My Little Helper found this camera at the jumble sale the other week for 20p and has enjoyed taking photos of interesting things he comes across - the taxi driving down our road, the plane flying over the garden, a man standing in his front garden and the girl on the till at the local shop! It doesn't have any film in at the moment but makes a satisfying click with each picture he takes.

I've managed to squeeze in a bit of crafting

 

I had the idea in my head and sandwiched some thin wadding between the layers of fabric and stitched the channels to hold the needles, a present as I'm not a knitter. But I'd like to learn, along with how to crochet ....perhaps next year.

We took The Big Sister over to her Grandma's yesterday and will pick her up again next weekend. We'd only got 10 minutes away before her brother said he was missing her, ah bless! I must remind him of that next time they are screeching at each other. She went to her first football match with her Dad this weekend too as a season ticket holder and seems to have had a good time. She commented that the crowd was very noisy and she thought the team needed to focus more next time ( we lost!)

So what do you do on a hot afternoon when you are too lazy to put the paddling pool up??

Nice Matters

Goodness, I've never won an award before! Suzie Sews has given me a Nice Matters Award and I'm really chuffed. It's an award instigated by Bella Enchanted to celebrate blogs that create good feelings and inspiration. I think nice is a good thing to be, even if teachers at school always derided the word and told us to find a better one. Ask Oxford defines it as ' pleasant, agreeable, good natured, kind and satisfactory, not sure about satisfactory' but the other are certainly good things to be. My blog is not a heavyweight discussion sort of blog ( as if you haven't noticed) but more of a record of my new found life which is certainly ' pleasant, agreeable, good natured, kind and satisfactory' !

I now need to nominate 7 more people for the Nice Matters Award which is tricky as I read and enjoy so many wonderful blogs that brighten my day and inspire me.

Ok here we go Raspberry, The Flour Loft, Dollie Daydream, Cupcakes at Home, Kittythimble, Uncommon Grace, Petalsoft.

That was hard as I'm not quite up to par this morning - The Big Sister had a friend to stay for her first sleepover last night. Luckily My Little Helper is a great sleeper and can sleep through anything! The girls had a great time, toenail painting, hair plaiting, film watching, popcorn eating and giggling ......but not much actual sleeping. They had a good time and I can here them chatting and giggling upstairs now, I remember staying over at a friends when I was young and the excitement of a glimpse into someone's home and life. Better go and make them some breakfast to counteract all the sweets they had in their midnight feast 

Lazy days

The wonderful sunshine continues and we are enjoying the slow pace of sunny life. Breakfast in jimjams, a bit of sewing, a bit of baking and lots of playing in the park or garden. The flags have been thoroughly 'painted' and the afternoon spent at the park with friends. Each day I appreciate it all more and more, not being stuck in the office with a phone constantly ringing and email pinging with the stress rising....no I don't miss it at all!

The weather inspires a different way of cooking too and I've enjoyed reading some of the 101 Summer Meals which were mentioned at Not Martha. She always has interesting links and ideas, in fact at the moment she has a great post about making Sun Jars which I'd like to try. I think I've rediscovered all my old favourites now after the PC meltdown and probably quite a few new blogs to enjoy too as Bloglines now has 110 feeds! Oops! I like it and wonder why I didn't use it in the first place even though it does sometimes tell you about the same post quite a few times ( if you understand my very technical jargon!)

I've managed to fit a small amount of creativity in, a couple of tshirts for an auction to help Krystal a young Mum who is fighting breast cancer. I've also made a pin board for my work room because that will help distract my eye from the piles of stuff that still need sorting out in there wont it? It's reached that stage where it's easy to stop the makeover and just live with it - the walls are painted , the furniture moved, a new table bought for my sewing machine and lots of the boxes up on the shelves. I do want to finish it and make it a calm and ordered space but have mislaid my motivation for now, perhaps it's in one of the boxes!

I've pinned up a few bits and bobs, including a postcard my friend Kate which she sent me about 20 years ago when we were students. A hoarder.. me..? Also look how good my new pincushion looks! The pin board was a real budget project as the plywood was free from the local timber merchant, from their skip, and the cork tiles were lying around in the shed. I love the colours and paisley swirls of the fabric against the pale greeny blue of the walls.

Thank you for your sympathy over the run of expensive bad luck we have been having, I don't want to tempt fate but this week so far, hush, don't say it!

Ah well, off to enjoy another lazy day.......... 

A lovely (if expensive) time

The first week of the summer holidays has been wonderful, sunny and warm everyday. We have been hanging out in the garden enjoying the sun on our faces, the children have played in the paddling pool, built dens, pirate ships and castles. Really relaxing with just the occasional trip out to the shops to stock up on lollies. We're making the most of it in case it starts raining again next week!

The Big Sister decided she wanted to learn to use the sewing machine, which was pretty nerve wracking for me ' dont go too fast' 'watch your fingers!'..... ok chill out let her do it.....

large enough for lots of groceries! Well done darling.

We have also done some baking 

and made some homemade yoghurt

which of course the children didn't like because it wasn't pink and full of sugar. Also pictured some finds from the jumble sale on Saturday. I like the Pyrex plate, it's not what I'd usually go for but the graphic design appealed. We also got the sheet which was transformed into a bag plus several old embroidered tablecloths.

And why expensive - recently we had the 'pink digital camera wrecking the computer' incident, followed by 'balding dog needs £100 blood test to diagnose why' then the roof over the bay window started leaking and finally the washing machine has died and cannot be repaired. Great! So when I took the other dog to the vet yesterday to be told he needed £180 of dental work it was not well received. At a time when we are trying to live more frugally we could do without shelling out the best part of a grand. My meal planning and spurning of ready meals has cut our grocery budget in half and of course we are eating healthier meals that I enjoy having the time to prepare but if life keeps throwing big unexpected bills at us it'll take more than that.

Never mind the sunshine shining and we are going to cut up magazines and decorate shoes boxes with the pictures, sticky fingers are always a mood lifter.