Sunday, 12 May 2013
Saturday, 11 May 2013
19/52
A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013.
After her last ballet class Biscuit stopped off at the supermarket on her way home with her Gran. This is how she came out! She's only ever had her face painted once before (it creeps me out a little bit) but she loved it so, so much. It had to stay on all day, she had to visit as many friends as possible to show them and she had to bid the flowers goodbye when it was finally time to wash them off. Chuffed isn't the word.
Wiggles has worked out that there is something strange at the end of the bath, she's not strong enough to turn the taps on, but she plays with them, gazes at them and sometimes tries to scoff them if she can. Simple things!
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| 19/52 Biscuit's flowery face |
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| 19/52 Wiggles Tackles Taps |
After her last ballet class Biscuit stopped off at the supermarket on her way home with her Gran. This is how she came out! She's only ever had her face painted once before (it creeps me out a little bit) but she loved it so, so much. It had to stay on all day, she had to visit as many friends as possible to show them and she had to bid the flowers goodbye when it was finally time to wash them off. Chuffed isn't the word.
Wiggles has worked out that there is something strange at the end of the bath, she's not strong enough to turn the taps on, but she plays with them, gazes at them and sometimes tries to scoff them if she can. Simple things!
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Spud Watch!
Hello to you!
Do you remember the seed potatoes? The long forgotten seed potatoes from days of yore? Well my friends, something happened. The weather was sodding terrible! Frost, snow, frost, snow, sleet in April, ugh! Not potato weather that's for sure. Monty Don made us promise, PROMISE not to put our spuds into the ground until the weather had taken a turn for the better, so unwilling to ignore the great Sir Monty of Don that's exactly what we did. Wait. We waited until the seed potatoes had become so flippin sprouty I started to get worried that we'd be digging spuds up in the house. Eventually I cracked and decided that they had to go in the ground, frost or no frost. Thankfully the weather lately has taken a little bit of a turn for the better, but in an ideal world we'd be past the point of ground frost and I'm not sure we're quite there yet in Blighty, so keep your fingers crossed for me.
So here's how it worked:
Carefully load seed potatoes into the bottom of "the big buggy" and push them up to the allotment. Refuse to let anyone else push the buggy in case the tubers get snapped off rendering them useless.
Do you remember the seed potatoes? The long forgotten seed potatoes from days of yore? Well my friends, something happened. The weather was sodding terrible! Frost, snow, frost, snow, sleet in April, ugh! Not potato weather that's for sure. Monty Don made us promise, PROMISE not to put our spuds into the ground until the weather had taken a turn for the better, so unwilling to ignore the great Sir Monty of Don that's exactly what we did. Wait. We waited until the seed potatoes had become so flippin sprouty I started to get worried that we'd be digging spuds up in the house. Eventually I cracked and decided that they had to go in the ground, frost or no frost. Thankfully the weather lately has taken a little bit of a turn for the better, but in an ideal world we'd be past the point of ground frost and I'm not sure we're quite there yet in Blighty, so keep your fingers crossed for me.
So here's how it worked:
Carefully load seed potatoes into the bottom of "the big buggy" and push them up to the allotment. Refuse to let anyone else push the buggy in case the tubers get snapped off rendering them useless.
Volunteer to be on "Baby Watch" whilst Mr Husband and Biscuit locate tools and generally get prepared. "Baby Watch" is also a good excuse to take lots of photographs. Apparently this can get quite annoying. Bah! I blog, therefore I photograph. Live with it.
Prepare the ground ready for the seed potatoes to go in. Essentially dig lots of long troughs which are not easy to photograph. Like this:
Allow small children to assist. They love it. And they're handy.... Speaking of hands, notice Wiggles' little pink fist getting in on the act in the bottom left hand corner there....
Instruct husband to dig. Biscuit helpfully points out where.....
More of the pointing. Remove seed potatoes from beneath the buggy ready to go in the ground....
Carefully place the seed potatoes, rose end up, into the freshly dug troughs. Be careful with those tubers!
THOSE TUBERS:
Insist small child does ALL the hard work. How else will they learn?
Space them out according to the growing instructions, this will vary a little depending on the variety. Ooooh look, there's my shadow!!!
Wiggles gets involved. Although she was easy confused by a picture of a potato compared to an actual potato...we've all been there....
Cover up the seed potatoes with soil; gently! And don't stomp them down.
Give the (now empty) egg boxes to mucky muddy little Wiggles to play with. She spent ages enjoying these. I have no idea why we buy her brightly coloured bits of musical plastic when old cardboard will do....
Mark out the potatoes so you know what is where. This means you'll quickly and easily be able to tell which spuds you'll get to harvest first.
Plus they look fairly impressive, like little garden-y sailing boats.....
And then wait! Wait for those cheeky spuds to start sprouting.......
Edge of your seats, right?
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Want to play a little game.....?
Trust me, this post is not going to be anywhere near as terrifying as watching another Saw movie, in fact it's going to be lovely!
I was most honoured recently to have been tagged by one of my favourite bloggers Amy at Cocktails in Teacups in a lovely game first created by Bella of How Does It Feel To...
It's aimed at reminding ourselves why we started blogging. It's a great idea, because its all about the very thing we all have in common.
It's simple to take part, you just list five reasons/inspirations for starting your blog. Here are my five:
1. I read a lot of blogs before I started my own. A LOT! I found them so inspiring. I tend to favour a blog where I feel an affinity with its author, so I favoured blogs like Tigerlilly Quinn, More Than Toast and I'm Only Saying What You're Thinking. I love an insight into another family's life.
2. I wanted to write. I wanted to have a place to say what I wanted, share what I wanted and join in with the blogging fun I could see happening around me. I sort of felt left out! Before I started my blog I'd never officially "followed" another, or commented on one. I wanted to be a part of it. People kept telling me I was funny, that I should write "a column or something" and I wondered if I could do it. I wanted to see if I could pull it off, without my readers doing out of duty because they know me and felt like they had to.
3. I wanted to "meet" new people. I already had conversations that involved me saying "I read on this blog that...." Now that I've started blogging myself, and I've got to know my fellow bloggers a bit better I find myself saying "A friend of mine....." I've said before that my world got a little big bigger when I started down this road and it really is a lovely thing. My fellow bloggers are amazing, creative, inspirational people and its great to a part if it. Plus there are so many people I can turn to for advice, opinions and suggestions that its amazing. I've met some brilliant, inspirational people that would have otherwise passed me by. Wow.
4. I know everyone says it, and it's a bit blah, blah, blah, but I did want to record our lives somewhere. I could never keep a diary going, but somehow blogging gives me the encouragement that I need. Even though I've only been doing this for such a short, short time I already look back of some early posts and I can barely remember them. I'm so glad that they're sorted here for me to look back on. I really enjoy the link ups that I take part in for this reason too, Magic Moments, Currently and The 52 Project really highlight the good things that happen to us day to days.
5. I wanted to stretch myself and focus myself and feel a little bit special. I'm not really sure whether this paints me in a good light, but it's the truth so what the hey! Sometimes it can seem like every man/woman and their dog is a blogger, but really, in the grand scheme of things it's quite an unusual hobby. I wanted to try something that's completely new to me. And I'm quite proud with how I've managed to get my head around all the technical stuff, created badges, got my page looking the way I want it etc, etc. I'm not very technical so I feel like its been quite an achievement and I've learnt a lot just giving it a go.
I'm not going to tag anyone in particular in this, but I would be chuffed to bits if you'd like to give it a go....comment below if you do and leave me a link, I'd love to read your post.
Over and out!
I was most honoured recently to have been tagged by one of my favourite bloggers Amy at Cocktails in Teacups in a lovely game first created by Bella of How Does It Feel To...
It's aimed at reminding ourselves why we started blogging. It's a great idea, because its all about the very thing we all have in common.
It's simple to take part, you just list five reasons/inspirations for starting your blog. Here are my five:
1. I read a lot of blogs before I started my own. A LOT! I found them so inspiring. I tend to favour a blog where I feel an affinity with its author, so I favoured blogs like Tigerlilly Quinn, More Than Toast and I'm Only Saying What You're Thinking. I love an insight into another family's life.
2. I wanted to write. I wanted to have a place to say what I wanted, share what I wanted and join in with the blogging fun I could see happening around me. I sort of felt left out! Before I started my blog I'd never officially "followed" another, or commented on one. I wanted to be a part of it. People kept telling me I was funny, that I should write "a column or something" and I wondered if I could do it. I wanted to see if I could pull it off, without my readers doing out of duty because they know me and felt like they had to.
3. I wanted to "meet" new people. I already had conversations that involved me saying "I read on this blog that...." Now that I've started blogging myself, and I've got to know my fellow bloggers a bit better I find myself saying "A friend of mine....." I've said before that my world got a little big bigger when I started down this road and it really is a lovely thing. My fellow bloggers are amazing, creative, inspirational people and its great to a part if it. Plus there are so many people I can turn to for advice, opinions and suggestions that its amazing. I've met some brilliant, inspirational people that would have otherwise passed me by. Wow.
4. I know everyone says it, and it's a bit blah, blah, blah, but I did want to record our lives somewhere. I could never keep a diary going, but somehow blogging gives me the encouragement that I need. Even though I've only been doing this for such a short, short time I already look back of some early posts and I can barely remember them. I'm so glad that they're sorted here for me to look back on. I really enjoy the link ups that I take part in for this reason too, Magic Moments, Currently and The 52 Project really highlight the good things that happen to us day to days.
5. I wanted to stretch myself and focus myself and feel a little bit special. I'm not really sure whether this paints me in a good light, but it's the truth so what the hey! Sometimes it can seem like every man/woman and their dog is a blogger, but really, in the grand scheme of things it's quite an unusual hobby. I wanted to try something that's completely new to me. And I'm quite proud with how I've managed to get my head around all the technical stuff, created badges, got my page looking the way I want it etc, etc. I'm not very technical so I feel like its been quite an achievement and I've learnt a lot just giving it a go.
I'm not going to tag anyone in particular in this, but I would be chuffed to bits if you'd like to give it a go....comment below if you do and leave me a link, I'd love to read your post.
Over and out!
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| I have no idea why I added this, I just found it and it made me laugh... "Joelene, Joelene, Joelene, Joleeeeeeene!" |
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Magic Moments....#8
Happy Bank Holiday Monday my lovelies! I'm sharing the magic and linking up with The Oliver's Madhouse for this week's Magic Moment.
It's a simple one.
Wiggles, my little whirlwind trapped inside a baby is eleven months old this very day. I am barely clinging onto "this time last year I was pregnant" and remembering things we did whilst she danced around like a baby lunatic in my tummy. I can't believe a year has passed already, and that we have such a happy, clever and mischievous little girl.
She's growing up fast. On Saturday morning I went into her bedroom to get her up. She was stood up in her cot in her little baby sleeping bag shouting "Hiya! Hiya!" with a cheeky grin on her face.
I may be a grumpy old bag in the morning, but face me with a greeting like that and I can't help but smile.
It's a simple one.
Wiggles, my little whirlwind trapped inside a baby is eleven months old this very day. I am barely clinging onto "this time last year I was pregnant" and remembering things we did whilst she danced around like a baby lunatic in my tummy. I can't believe a year has passed already, and that we have such a happy, clever and mischievous little girl.
She's growing up fast. On Saturday morning I went into her bedroom to get her up. She was stood up in her cot in her little baby sleeping bag shouting "Hiya! Hiya!" with a cheeky grin on her face.
I may be a grumpy old bag in the morning, but face me with a greeting like that and I can't help but smile.
Saturday, 4 May 2013
18/52
A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013.
Wiggles is always up to something, she's happiest when she's messing about with Mummy's posh cushions, shaking the curtains (cream raw silk, what possessed me?) or getting sticky little paw prints on the television. I am happiest when I'm chasing after her whipping her away from the things she's not allowed and blowing raspberries on her tummy.
Biscuit is sporting her much loved hair plait. She was getting pretty fed up with me telling her that her hair was too short to be put into a pony tail as she REALLY REALLY loves ponies (because the two mean the same thing?). We've found the best of both worlds with her little mini plait. She's happy, I'm happy. Although I know she doesn't really look it in this shot. Trust me, she is.
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| 18/52 - If she could talk she'd say "Yes, I'm touching your posh cushions and no I don't give a hoot!" Little tinker xx |
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| 18/52 - I love the shape of her eyes, she loves her big girl's plait...... |
Wiggles is always up to something, she's happiest when she's messing about with Mummy's posh cushions, shaking the curtains (cream raw silk, what possessed me?) or getting sticky little paw prints on the television. I am happiest when I'm chasing after her whipping her away from the things she's not allowed and blowing raspberries on her tummy.
Biscuit is sporting her much loved hair plait. She was getting pretty fed up with me telling her that her hair was too short to be put into a pony tail as she REALLY REALLY loves ponies (because the two mean the same thing?). We've found the best of both worlds with her little mini plait. She's happy, I'm happy. Although I know she doesn't really look it in this shot. Trust me, she is.