Silent Sunday - 8th September 2013

36/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013.

36/52

36/52

Both enjoying a bit of September sunshine in the garden this week.  I was hanging washing up and took my eyes of Wiggles for all of a nanosecond, next thing I knew she had climbed up into a nearby patio chair and was sitting enjoying her drink in the shade looking quite the grown up!

Biscuit was busy protecting my washing from the ash generated by a neighbours bonfire using her fishing net.  She played this game for quite a while, despite the fact there was no ash to be seen.  She swiped at butterflies too (thankfully not catching any) and generally had a good time playing.

Friday Treats....#2 - Pig Juice

Good evening lovelies! 

Friday seemed to come around very quickly this week, and because we're here again I wanted to share Biscuit's Friday Treat with you all again. Now I did mention last week that I try and get a variety of things, so this week I went for something she wouldn't be expecting! 

Friday Treat: Peppa Pig Bubblegum Flavour Toothpaste.

Price:  99p

Reaction: Surprisingly excited. Bubblegum flavour is very appealing to small people! Plus the toothpaste is pink which she was particularly pleased about, stating that it "looks like pig juice" Erm....

I've only ever had minty toothpaste, has anyone tried out different flavours before?

Have great weekends!

Love, love, 

This weeks curry was Lamb Madras with mixed lentil daal. It was very nice, peppery rather than hot. I'd say a good 7/10.

Currently.....#24

Thursday is upon us again so I'mjoining in with Ot and Et and Harvesting Kale and am Currently....

Growing:  Too many courgettes!  We are inundated.  If I have to eat another courgette any time this year, I will turn into one I swear.  I've tried cake, rosti, pickles, grated, all the variations.  I've taken to giving them away to anyone who will stand still near  me for five minutes now.  I think it's my only hope.

Buying:  Christmas presents!  I know, I know, the C-word again.  But I can't help it, when I see a bargain, a girl's gotta buy.  Today I bought some gorgeous Disney Princess Pyjamas for Biscuit and I intend to squirrel them away until the big day.  She'll be chuffed to bits.  As long as I don't forget all about them....

Earning:  Exercise based brownie points!  I am not on a diet, but I have reassessed what I eat a little, and decided that I need to be more active.  I'm trying to cut out the rubbish food and exercise a little more each day.  That way I don't feel so guilty if I scoff something illicit.

Judging: Hmmm, a toughie.  The only thing I can think of that even vaguely squeezes into this category is that I like to pretend I'm a Great British Bake Off (a UK baking competition on the tellybox) judge once a week and assess who's been fabulous and who's been rubbish.  I base this purely on how their food looks. Mr Husband once got an email from Mary Berry (don't ask) so I am of the opinion that this pretty much qualifies me for the role.

Embracing:  Buffets!  I know I've said before that I have a mortal fear of them, but our lovely friends L and The Beard get married on Saturday and they're having not one but two buffets.  I am reliably informed by L that this will be a nice buffet, with no stinky egg smell and frequently replenished food, unlicked by small children.  I'm embracing the whole buffet thing and I'm hoping that this will be the beginning of a whole new buffet scoffing chapter in my life.  It would certainly make things easier.  I can't tell you how excited I am about their wedding, it's going to be fabulous!  L shared the story of her proposal with me the other day and it's just so sweet.  The Beard decided after a spell away travelling alone that he wanted L to be his wife, despite previously being quite opposed to the idea of marriage.  He proposed the minute he got back home, sob.  I love a man that realises when he's been a right wally.  Congratulations chaps!

Next week: Needing, Reading, Wearing, Picturing, Expecting.

Join in?

Making our house a home....my coffee table wishlist.

 Our sitting room is a strange one. In a former life it was a dining room, it's a long rectangular shape and this bothers me.  I feel like it's like it's always going to look like a room designed to house a table and I can't seem to get away from that idea.  When we decorated we tried really hard to make it seem less rectangular, I wanted to give the room a focus, but I was determined that the focus would NOT be the television (a pet hate) so we bought a fire in the hope that it would draw the eye.  To a certain extent that worked, then we tried adding rug to make it feel cosy, but it's still not cutting it.

I decided that the answer was a coffee table, we always used to have one, but it seems to be an item that disappeared when Biscuit was small as we were always concerned she'd bump herself on it.  She's grown up enough to be careful now and thankfully Wiggles is heading in that direction too.  To me a coffee table makes a room into a Sitting Room.

John Lewis is always my go to website.  Our wedding list was held there so it's always the place I visit first.  And, rather handily, John Lewis have a wide range of coffee tables on offer.  So here is my coffee table wish list:

1 - I've always adored Ercol furniture so I'd love to have this table.  My Grandparents had Ercol everywhere, its so beautifully made, it reminds me of being a little girl.

2 -  This table was made in India and you can tell, I love the authentic feel it has and the dark wood.  The shape of the legs is just beautiful and it looks sturdy enough to be around my children, plus it's reasonably priced.

3.  I love the retro feel of this table, how cool are those angled legs?  Plus being able to hide more unsightly items in the closed section underneath - like remote controls (Wiggles' favourite toy) would be perfect for us.

4 - This table is gorgeous, I think it looks antique, without being too fussy. I love the contrasting colours of the wood around the drawers.  I can picture Wiggles having a lot of fun opening and closing them all.

5 - A very stylish table, the glass top would mean it wouldn't look too obtrusive.  I think this would be a great table to have if space was limited.

6 - I think this has to be my favourite table of all.  The two top panels slide apart so you can use the space underneath for storage. Our sitting room is constantly stuffed full of small toys and this would be the perfect place to hide them when the girls have gone to bed to make the transition back to an adult room.

Do you have a coffee table? Which is your favourite?  

This is a sponsored post

The Active Life.....#2 Blackberry Picking

 

I'm linking up with Aanie at The Active Mum, again this week for her Active Life linky.  We like to do something outdoors with the children together every weekend.  To me it's as important as sitting around the table to eat together.  This weekend we decided to go blackberry picking.  If you asked Biscuit before we left the house if she'd like to go, she'd say no, hands down!  But once we're out she's more than happy.

We headed to a nearby nature reserve with lots of hedgerows so I knew we'd do well.  Biscuit loved helping me get right into the bushes and collect the blackberries.  They're a bit like treasure to her, one for the basket, one for her, one for the basket, one for her.

Wiggles initially sat in her buggy and watched us all, but soon decided that wasn't for her so she squeaked and squawked until we let her out.  She certainly knows how to get her message across, despite not being able to talk!  Once free she belted up and down the path behind us at high speed, occasionally stopping to stick her nose into the basket to check progress.

Mr Husband is lovely and tall, so he was in charge of picking all the really plump fruit at the top of the bushes that no one else could reach.   

Look how well we did!

Originally we were planning to make a blackberry and apple crumble, then this changed to jam.  In the end we made neither due to not having quite the right ingredients, neither of us wanted to blight our weekend with a trip to the supermarket!  Instead we shared out our haul with my Mum and Dad and we all just ate fresh blackberries.  They were delicious!  A great way of getting some fresh air and have fun.

Have you been?

Love, love,

On a funny little, slightly related side note I found the book above on the floor yesterday, it was presented to my Mum for "Punctual and Regular Attendance" at her Sunday School in 1953.  How cute is that?!  I thought it was appropriate....

Magic Moments.....#11

Good Monday Morning my lovelies!

I hope you all had marvellous weekends?  I am very happy to linking up with the gorgeous Jaime at  The Oliver's Madhouse for Magic Moments again.

I thought I'd share with you some bits about the WI Garden party we were lucky enough to attend last week.  I've not been a Women's Institute member for very long, so this was my first garden party.  I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, I was pretty sure that there wouldn't be any vodka, so not exactly my usual kind of party, bet hey, in for a penny, in for a pound!

The ladies had insisted that I bring both children along, which was fine with me, as they wanted to meet them.  So we all donned our pretty dresses and headed off.  It was held at my friend's lovely farm and involved cake.  Lots and lots of cake, and a bring and buy stall - where I was lucky enough to get my mitts on a brand new ladybird backpack for Wiggles which will come in very handy!

The garden party was lovely, very sedate!  We all sat in the sunshine and drank tea from beautiful vintage cups, which in itself was a magic moment, but not what I wanted to share with you.  Nope.  In fact the magic moment wasn't even watching my lovely friend The Farmer's Wife expertly milk her very compliant goat....

In fact the Magic Moment I wanted to share with you was when the very sweet and very kind Farmer took Biscuit with him to collect the eggs from their chickens....

She was, understandably, a little cautious to begin with as she wasn't sure if chickens could bite or if they had teeth.  You have no idea how long the chicken's teeth conversation turned out to be, but that's another matter....

Anyway, she dutifully followed all The Farmer's instructions and popped her head into the first chicken run.  Which was empty.  I could tell she was upset at the lack of eggs but she carried on to the second chicken run.  Again, empty.  Uh oh....

She stuck her head into the third and final chicken run and made one of the happiest sounds I ever have heard, yelling "An egg Mama, an EGG!!!!"  It was lovely, she was thrilled to bits.  

Of course I insisted on taking a photograph, which did make her a bit cross (see above) because she was convinced that my camera might somehow break her one and only, very precious egg, but nevertheless I promise you she was very, very pleased with herself.

Who'd have thought a simple egg could bring so much happiness....