WI haul.....strange but true!

I am yet to write a "haul" post as they're called, although I do love seeing what other people have been out buying.  I think the main thing that prevents me is that I don't often spend money on myself.  Not buying anything interesting anyway!  I'm not sure you'd be terribly interested to see the new deodorant I bought last week now would you?

At the last village WI meeting something a little unusual was occurring. Before you get too excited, there was no photography involved and no one was trying to saucily obscure their nipples with iced buns. Perish the thought!  I first noticed a kerfuffle (love that word) around one of the back tables when I arrived at the Village Hall.  I thought maybe they were gathered around The Cooking Cannon who was speaking that night, that perhaps he had a gaggle of admirers akin to Beliebers or whatever the beep they're called.  In truth it transpired that the recently deceased Lady Poshington-Posh (not her real name) of this Parish had left her sewing bits and bobs and material stash to the ladies of the Women's Institute.  I just think that's such a lovely and thoughtful thing to do!  This very sweet and terribly well to do lady had left all the things from her, frankly enormous, collection to be taken by anyone who took a fancy to them.  I nearly wet myself with excitement and joined in!

I am hugely pleased with what I brought home with me.  Here's a picture:

1 - I think this used to be a belt, but it looks really nice as a neck scarf, something I wear quite often as they make a plain black tshirt or jumper look so much more interesting.

2- This is a really light silky fabric with a wonderful intricate pattern.  There's quite a lot of it so I'm hoping enough for a summer skirt perhaps

3 - A really stunning piece of blue and mustard patterned silk.  Again there's lots of it, but I thought it might possibly be too light to make a skirt from this so number 4 would come in very handy

4 - A heavier gauge woven fabric in beautiful navy blue, hangs beautiful and doesn't crease.  Would be perfect for lining a skirt

5 - My FAVOURITE piece of fabric, two pieces of beautiful Blackwatch tartan.  I seriously, seriously love blackwatch tartan and I've wanted a simple pencil skirt in this material for such a long time.  I nearly fainted when I saw this on the table, there's just enough to make a skirt from it, provided there are no cock ups along the way.  This probably means I will have to get someone else to do it for me as I can't risk ending up with no skirt - or worse a mini!

6 - A little scrap of Liberty print material with little birds on, it's just beautiful, I couldn't leave it behind even though it was only the tiniest piece.  I thought I might attempt a Great British Sewing Bee style patch pocket or perhaps a false neckline on a top.

7 - Another little scrap of bright mustard almost velvetty fabric.  I felt the same was as I did about the Liberty print, it just shone out at me and I couldn't risk it ending it's days in a recycling bin.  I'm sure I'll find something nice to do with it.

8 - A wonderful long strip of tweed.  The fabulous thing about this lady is that she obviously had her clothes made for her and really invested in material.  This seems to be an off cut from a very large piece of tweed, I'd love to see what the original outfit looked like.  This will probably be used as a trim of some sort.  It's gorgeous.

9 - A little collection of elastic.  Anyone with a small child will know they pull their clothes about to the point where only adding extra elastic around necklines and cuffs can save them.  This will come in very handy!

All for the princely sum of £0.  That's right, no English pence.  I am thrilled.  I will try very hard to make something out of everything that I brought home and I will always think of the kind lady who left them to the WI.

Does anyone else have any little pearls in their fabric stash they'd like to share?  Or have you ever been given a marvellous freebie that has really made your day?

Love, love,

Magic Moments....#7

Happy Monday!!! I'm happy and chuffed to be linking up with The Oliver's Madhouse for this week's Magic Moment.

Today I wanted to share with you the tale of my two girls. Biscuit was always desperate to have a baby sister. When we told her another baby was on the way she was thrilled, but quite certain that it shouldn't be a baby boy. Obviously this worried us a little as we had no choice in the matter. We decided to find out what we were expecting at our 20 week scan. Biscuit came with us, together with a plentiful supply of lollipops to keep her quiet. She was a bit disappointed that the picture on screen didn't look like Dora The Explorer, but thrilled beyond words when she was told that a baby sister was on the way to join her.

Fast forward another 19 weeks to the day that Wiggles was born. Biscuit came to visit us in the afternoon, proudly wearing her new "Best Big Sister" t shirt. She came into our little curtained cubicle, kissed me, and asked if this was her baby? I said that it was and she knelt up beside the little perspex crib and whispered "Hello Sis, I've been looking forward to you!"

And I dissolved.

They've been firm friends ever since. I love these two.

 

Silent Sunday - 28th April 2013

17/52

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

Last week Wiggles had a fat lip, this week poor girl has a black eye gained from another adventure. She was watching the bath tub fill with water and she slipped and caught her cheek. Poor tot.

17/52 - another week another injury

17/52 Party Girl

Biscuit had been to a little girl's birthday party just before this was taken where they had their hair and nails done.  She couldn't have enjoyed it more if she tried.  I was telling her that I thought she looked a bit Madonna-like in this picture.  She took great offence as Madonna is the name of her little friend's dog.  Oh the youth of today!

Currently...#14

Happy Thursday lovelies!  It's time to join in with Ot and Et and  Harvesting Kale once again for Currently!

So I am currently....

Eating:  I eat a lot of mints.  I love them.  Mints of all shapes and sizes are my friends, it's pretty much an addiction.  My lovely friend LB gave the the biggest selection of mints as a birthday present the other day and I have been happily stuffing my face with them ever since.  I have been compared to a horse such is my love of minty things and I was surprisingly pleased with that analogy...

Drinking:  The other night we had home made pork and apple burgers and a lovely glass of cider each, it was so refreshing!  Unfortunately we'd had Man v's Food on the tv whilst we were making the pork and apple burgers and it was a little bit off putting.  Even though our tea was small and not at all revolting it was hard not to draw a comparison.  Biscuit has also taken to drinking a lot of pink milk lately, which I think is a good thing and I can see why she likes it, I tried a little the other day and it was delicious.  I have had a couple of glasses myself in secret since then, but I can't risk her catching me drinking it because I KNOW I'd be in big trouble.

Wishing:   I tend to wish for things fleetingly and then move on to something else.  There's not much I really seriously wish for, I think if you spend your life wishing you were richer, skinnier or whatever you should probably divert your energy into trying to achieve it rather than wasting time idly wishing you were already there.  Sorry if that sounds a bit trite. I did some pretty hard wishing for nicer weather and a bit of sunshine not so long ago and it seems as though that one has been granted which is lovely.

Loving:  Mr Husband's new blue black hair colour.  Poor lovely man is younger than me but had a lot of grey going on.  I don't dislike grey hair on a man, indeed on the right man in can look really attractive, but he doesn't feel ready to be in that place yet and I can understand that.  I've always coloured his hair for him if he's wanted me to, ever since we first met.  I have fond memories of colouring his hair in my old bathroom whilst we laughed at the Manic Street Preachers in the background singing Autumnsong with the lyric "What have you done to your hair?" , Actually it's a bloody good song, I just had to have a listen on youtube (click the link) and it still makes me laugh and takes me back to a haze of deep plum in that bathroom.  I must confess (and my love, if you're reading this I'm sorry ok) that I did once perform a hair colour switch by buying the same brand in a subtler shade and using the more suitable one, but in my defence it was just before our wedding and I didn't want to remember Cosmic Red courtesy of our photographs for the rest of our days.

Dreaming:  The other night I dreamt that Evan Dando of Lemonhead fame had moved into our village.  I made a complete fool of myself telling him that I was a massive fan in my youth and that I still harbour a small soft spot for him even now (again if you're reading this my dearest heart, once again sorry).  When I awoke I was slightly disappointed that Mr Dando had not in fact bought the little cottage next to the garage.  Though just to be on the safe side I thought I'd better learn from the experience so I have now prepared a plan to prevent myself from looking like an idiot should this unlikely scenario ever actually come to fruition.  The plan does not include me blabbing to Evan (I like to think that my investment in his musical career entitles me to first name terms) that I had a poster of him looking gorgeously long haired and with the eyes of a puppy dog plastered to my bedroom door for an undignified number of years.....yeah.......

Next week: Admiring, Caring, Loving, Cleaning, Creating


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Stuck in a rut - baby food ideas

I'm going to say something that's bordering on blasphemous: I am fed up of Annabel Karmel.

That's it, I've said it now!  Should I hide for fear of releasing of whole storm of mummy-hatred?  Probably not.  It's not that I hate her, I own several of her books, it's just that I'm bored of her, and that can't be good, right?  Actually I'm also a little bit suspicious of her; she has perfect hair, perfect clothes and a perfect smile, how can a woman who looks like that SERIOUSLY be an expert in feeding babies?  Surely, to truly be an expert in this field you should have weetabix in your hair, blueberries all over your dress, (usually in a place where you can't see them but everyone else you meet can) very smelly milky vomit on your shoes and a weary expression.  To be really true to life she should probably also be toting either a massive coffee or a gin and tonic.

I'm sorry to say this Annabel love, but I don't consider "Take banana, mash banana - feed to baby" to be a "Recipe".  It isn't.  Neither is "Add lemon curd to Greek yogurt - feed to baby".   I'm bitterly jealous of anyone who makes their millions coming up with such silliness.

I think her ideas are great for those early stages, but we are currently at that difficult stage when puree is out but toddler meals aren't suitable yet.  I have to confess that we've fallen into a bit of a lazy rut recently, especially when we have had a few days away and This Baby was fed largely on jars of baby food.  That isn't something I have a particular problem with, I highly rate Ella's Kitchen and I think their pouches are bloomin' marvellous, they actually taste of what they're meant to contain.  And yes, I've eaten some!  If she's gotta eat it, the least I can do is try it.  No, the problem I have is that there isn't really much choice out there for this weaning stage and we all know that eating the same thing over and over and over in an endless cycle can soon get pretty tiring.

So I decided that I needed to pull my socks up a bit on the baby food front, especially as I had noticed This Baby had started producing red tinted poo due to an overload of tomato based products.  Sorry for mentioning poo, it's a Mother thing, our post-partum conversations take an instant nose dive from slurry Saturday night debates such as "What's actually in a Mojito?"  to biscuit in hand, tea fuelled chats with friends that seem quite normal dispute starting with the sentence "I was studying my little darling's poo the other day....."   Some sort of conversational assassin sneaks in and takes over without our knowledge or understanding.

I would spend sodding ages messing about in the kitchen producing delicious nutritious meals for my oldest, I once faffed about for hours producing a homemade baby version of baked beans which contained cheese, chives and gold dust probably.   Would she eat it?  Would she heck!  She still wont eat beans to this day, I probably scarred her.

I'm looking forward to the day when we can share our adult means with This Baby and just give her a simpler version of what we're having.  We can pull that off sometimes now, chicken casserole, lentil daal, roasts and that sort of thing come her way, but some things aren't really suitable for one so little.  If something is too grown up for her I noticed that she just spits it straight back out, this often seems to be when something is too dry for her palate, she needs some kind of sauce to help things slip down comfortably.

So yesterday I went about producing her a sauce with a base of fresh tomatoes, red onion, herbs and a little broccoli.  This was then cooled and put into the freezer with a view to taking out a chunk and adding it a little of our meals so that's it's easier for her to deal with. &nbsp I didn't take pictures whilst I was making it, as I was too busy, well, making it.  I'm also not going to insult your intelligence with a "Recipe" because it really isn't one.  Just some food, suitable for a little tinker with a big appetite, smooshed up. But it looked good, smelt good and tasted yummy.

I also roasted some butternut squash with a view to doing the same, it's handy for making a sauce out of and adding to a little rice and cheese to form a risotto.

I've never been a particularly big fan of buying too much food that's specifically aimed at children, but after becoming an avid reader of Hattie's inspirational blog Free Our Kids I've really gone off the idea. I feel bad that I've fallen down this slippery slope and on this basis I'm going to try and limit the food based kiddie crap that we buy in future.  One thing in particular that really annoys me is the concept of children's pasta.  Pasta is pasta, right?  There's no such thing as children's pasta!  Just buy smaller shapes, or mash it up!  Don't pay an extra £1.50 for the privilege of being told that's it's the perfect size.

One thing that I've stumbled upon for This Baby that I wanted to share with you that I swear by, SWEAR BY  is Orzo, otherwise known as rice pasta.  It's a fabulous size and a really interesting consistency.  I bought this whopping great big bag from Tesco recently in the world food section for £1.  There is a Tesco Finest one as well, but it costs double for the same amount and in my mind it's a less authentic version...

It's ideal for her little mouth, bulks out a vegetable puree or a sauce that I've made and tastes really good.  In fact I was trying to get a fabulously arty shot of This Baby's bowl with her spoon in, but she was having none of that and whipped some of it it into her mouth impatiently.  Now that's a very good sign!

I'd love to hear any hints or tips that you have for this stage of weaning.  Any favourite recipes?  Any suggestions or foods you can't live without?  Please, please let me know .  Hopefully we'll be able to stay off the jars for a little while!

Love, love,

Magic Moments...#6

Good morning one and all, I hope you've all had fabulous weekend's?  Mine has been busy as a bee, but I still wanted to link up with the wonderful The Oliver's Madhouse and join in with the Magic Moments series.

When I was thinking about this post I was listening to a compilation album in the car.  It wasn't a bought one, not a Now 7000019 or anything like that, just lots of the songs we already love collected together in one place.  The track Made Up Love Song #43 by Guillemots came on and the lyrics were kind of inspiring:

"I love you through sparks and shining dragons, I do,
now there's poetry, in an empty coke can.
I love you through sparks and shining dragons, I do,
now there's majesty, in a burnt out caravan"

When I put the two things together in my head I decided that I would link THIS POST this week as a reminder that something magical can happen, or can find you on even the most mundane and ordinary of days.  It's all about perception really isn't it?  If Fyfe Dangerfield can find majesty in an empty coke can, I can find the magic moment in this.

Hope you all have Magical Monday's my pretties....

 

And here's a picture from our weekend.  I  know the two things aren't connected, it's just Biscuit hugging a bloke in a  Kingfisher suit, but who cares, it's cute!

16/52

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

16/52 - The Birthday Girl

16/52 - The Brave Girl

I managed to capture Biscuit enjoying us singing to her on her birthday, I'm quite surprised she enjoyed it so much, we're not exactly tuneful!   We had to relight and sing to her several times.  Once she even prompted us at the end reminding us to clap and cheer not just to take pictures of her looking beautiful.  Cheeky Madam.

Wiggles has been practicing her new skill constantly.  If she can pull herself up on it she will.  She's so proud of herself.  We've tried a little bit of walking with Mummy's help and she thinks that's just marvellous.  She's a daredevil make no mistake, which is one of the reasons I have purposefully not chosen a picture of her little face this week.  My poor little sausage took a tumble during a trying to stand up experiment and bit into the top of her lip with her two sharp little teeth.  And believe me they're sharp!  My poor girl has a fat lip.  We loved her and kissed her and squeezed her so tightly.  No parent likes to see their baby's blood.  Just horrible.

Renaming my babies...

This week has been one the busiest ever!  On Monday it was my birthday, on Wednesday That Baby turned five, on Sunday she's having a birthday party.  And the preparation that goes into a five year old's birthday party is unbelievable!  I've baked two cakes, one for her birthday and one for her party and iced them both. She had to have something to cut into and be sung to over for the big day, but it wouldn't be much of a party if she didn't have another to share with her friends.  As one of her birthday presents from us was two goldfish (Nuzzle and Scratch - the only pets she'll ever be allowed) she requested a goldfish birthday cake - not easy I can tell you!  Still I managed it and am fairly pleased with the result.

Today That Baby went down the big slide at the swings for the first time.  She's always been a cautious child and had been putting this off for quite a while.  She's been fine with the baby slide for ages, so we knew she'd be ok, but she wasn't ready for the really big one, and that was fine with me.  She attempted it once aged four but just got stuck with fright at the top.  There was a queue of children behind her and I couldn't climb up the front of the slide due to wearing slippery shoes and tights.  There is no way I'm taking my tights off in a children's playground.  Not for man nor beast!

Anyway, she seems to be getting so much older and grown up that it doesn't feel appropriate for me to refer to her as "That Baby" any more.  I know that she doesn't like it and frequently tells me that she's not a baby any more and that her sister is the only baby round these parts.

Since she was a newborn and we brought her home from the hospital we have called That Baby "Biscuit".  She used to have a wonderful sweet smell (and still does for that matter) that reminded us of freshly baked biscuits.  So I hereby re-dub my darling oldest girl Biscuit and this will be her blog name from now onwards.  This Baby's moniker doesn't really make sense without her older sister counteracting her so she too will receive a change of blog name.  She is often referred to in our house as Wiggles, Wriggles, the Wiggler or even sometimes just Wigs.  It suits her, she's such an active baby, even before she was born she used to dance about and make my tummy shake and throw some crazy looking shapes.  So, This Baby will henceforth be known as Wiggles.

And these are my children, my two beautiful girls, my moon and stars, my beloved little darlings.  Mama loves you babies!

Biscuit

Wiggles

Currently...#13

It's that time again! Together with Ot and Et ,Harvesting Kale  I am Currently:

Watching:  The new series of Game of Thrones. Monday nights are a BIG deal in this house!!! We have to have a ten minute warning, make ourselves some tea then sit and enjoy. I ask lots of questions and Mr Husband does his best explain things to me without raising his eyebrows at my stupidity...I was NOT expecting Jaime Lannister to get his hand lopped off, hahahaha :)

Looking for:  I am constantly losing my phone, my purse and my house keys so looking for them is fairly standard. This week we've also lost, looked for and found George Pig, the loopy things from That Baby's watch and the elusive second shoe...

Growing:   Apart from finally putting our potatoes in at the weekend the only things that have been growing around here are ourselves. That Baby and I both had birthdays this week so we've officially "grown" a year older. She's so proud of finally being five. She already seems so much older than she did last year.

Riding:  I have utterly failed on this point. I haven't ridden anything!!! I put This Baby on a hobby horse at a toddler group the other day if that counts? She screamed and she hated every second. Too small still.

Reading:  what with birthdays and party planning I haven't had much time for reading this week. I haven't even kept up with reading my beloved blogs properly. I think there might reach a point where you can commit to too many blogs to follow. I like to give my favourites my time and really get to know their authors. I've really fallen behind in that sense this week and it makes me feel terribly guilty. Catch up time next week!

Next week: Eating, Drinking, Wishing, Loving, Dreaming.

Join in?

She's a crafty one...

Every so often I get the urge to do something creative, if you've read my blog blurb you'll know that I'm a big fan of crochet.  In truth I don't have much talent, but I do enjoy it and I find it relaxing, so when the mood takes me I like to try my hand.  The main problem that I have is that I'm useless at following a pattern, it all comes down to thinking that if whatever I'm making isn't exactly the way the pattern says it should be, I decide it's gone wrong, lose interest and move on to something else.  If I "go rouge" and do things my own way I can't go wrong, only take a different course.  I find I finish more projects if I stay away from patterns...

So, I thought I'd show you what the crafty bug has had me doing lately:

This blanket is pretty much my nemesis.  It's been hanging around for a long old time now!  In actual fact this picture isn't exactly up to date either, I have since completed a third row, but I haven't sewn them together yet.  That Baby asked me to make her a bright colourful blanket to go over her bed, and this is the result.  It's my go to project when I have nothing else on, which is probably why it seems to be taking ages to finish, it's already huge!  I love the fact that I don't need to have specific wool for it and that I can just use up whatever is left over from a real project.

I recently finished my hot water bottle cover, another project that seems to have been hanging around for a while.  This was my first foray into bobbly crochet and I rather like the effect.  I'm pretty happy to have finally finished this, albeit just as the weather seems to be taking a turn for the better...

Ahhh, the bee and the chick.  I made the bee because That Baby asked for one, we used to dress her up in a bee outfit when she was little and I've always associated little fuzzy bumble bees with her.  This particular specimen also looks a little fuzzy because This Baby took a liking to it and she's given it a pretty good chewing.

The chick on the right hand side was a trial run of a toy that I wanted to make for my friend's baby when he or she arrives in June.  I like to have go at a rough copy first if I'm making a gift so I can get my head around what I'm doing, usually I cock it up somewhere along the line.  This particular chick has one massive wing and one tiny one, a bit like Nemo.  Still This Baby doesn't seem to care and she's given it a lot of love.

I was asked to make a pink strawberry the other day and this is what I managed.  Terrible picture quality for which I apologise. I can't say I love it and I'm not particularly proud of it, but I knocked it up in about an hour and my little madam was pleased as punch.  

Finally this is the chick toy I have made for my friend's baby.  I decided to switch materials to a bamboo/silk/wool blend as I wanted it to have a smoother finish and I'm pretty pleased with the result.  It has a rattle inside which was a pain in the 'arris to get in!

The problem that I have is that I tend to think everything I've made is crap and I find fault with it, so obviously I'm not JUST going to give her a home made crocheted chick as a baby gift, I'll make sure she has some proper presents to go with it.

What do you think?  Any favourites?  Is the chick an ok present, or should I just keep it for one of my own little ones?   Some feedback would be much appreciated!

Love, love,

Magic Moments...#5

Good Morning!  Good Morning!  Thank you for stopping by and thank you for reading.  I am happy to be joining in with The Oliver's Madhouse and the Magic Moments series once again.

Today I wanted to share a Magic Moment that is ALL ABOUT ME!  ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!  Ahem, sorry about that.  Got a little carried away there....

Today is my birthday.  I'm not going to tell you how old I am, not because it bothers me, just because I think it would probably be rather silly to stick my date up birth up on the internet where any Tom, Dick or Harry could thieve it and use it to take over the world.  Not that I'm suggesting you are that a Tom or a Harry and I  am quite positive that if you have the good taste to be reading this you are definitely not a Dick. Unless you are actually called Tom or Dick or Harry, in which case I sincerely apologise.  You get the gist though, right?

So!  Happy Birthday to me!.  But surely the fact that it just happens to be my birthday isn't a Magic Moment, I hear you cry!

Indeed not!  For this week's magic moment I'd like to take you back five years, five years ago today, on my birthday I was pregnant with my first baby.  I was four days overdue and the size of small cow.  As much as I loved being pregnant I hadn't had a great time of it and had been pretty seriously ill with Deep Vein Thrombosis during the later stages.  This meant that walking was difficult and even sitting still was pretty painful.  I had to inject myself in the stomach with anticoagulants twice a day and it wasn't a great deal of fun.  Still I am a pretty positive person and five years ago I was happy just to be out of hospital and free to waddle around my little flat.

I remember my birthday that year particularly clearly because at fifteen minutes past midnight my waters broke.  I was in bed, laying next to my lovely husband who was sleeping soundly. Obviously initially I assumed that I'd wet myself, like you do, before I realised that actually it might be something a little more exciting than a wee soaked bed.

I woke Mr Husband Sir up and he did what all men in the same situation seem to do:  he panicked!  Not because he thought our baby was going to make an immediate appearance in the bedroom, but because he'd arranged a birthday surprise for me and he was worried that I was going to miss it if we had to go straight to the hospital.

So, in the early hours of the morning on the 15th April 2008 I waddled my way around our little flat with a belly the size of small hatchback, completing a treasure hunt organised by my wonderful fella.  I hunted down clues and solved riddles that led me to my wonderful and thoughtfully chosen birthday presents.  At the same time I was also trying to keep a rolled up bath towel wedged between my legs to avoid dripping amniotic fluid onto our rented beige carpets.  Possibly one of the most memorable birthdays I have ever had.  It sounds dreadful, but actually it was pretty flippin wonderful.

Two days later our baby girl was born.  And that's a whole other Magic Moment!  Have a great day everyone!

 

Silent Sunday - 14th April 2013

15/52

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

15/52 - The wind in her face 

15/52 - My suspicious baby

Finally some sunshine! Everything is nicer when the sun shines on us.  Walking again.  I persuaded That Baby to stand by the beautiful bricks for me.  She was unimpressed and repeatedly told me that bricks are not beautiful and that I should probably realise that the wind was in her face.

This Baby was equally suspicious of the camera, I suspect she wanted to catch up with her Daddy and her big sister plodding away in the back ground.  But would you just look at those chubby little cheeks?

Currently...#12

It's that time again! Ot and Et ,Harvesting Kale  and I are Currently:

Entertaining:  It's a little far in advance, but I am planning to entertain fifteen five year olds at my oldest daughters birthday party next weekend.  That shizzle really takes some planning!  I've got to make sure they're fed, entertained and happy.  And perhaps most importantly that they don't wreck the party venue with their cheeky antics.  Yeeps.  I am not looking forward to this.

Holding:  my baby girl.  To feed This Baby her milk yesterday I sat in the chair in our living room which I was constantly pinned to whilst I was breastfeeding our newborn. I haven't sat in that chair holding her for a long time as it doesn't hold great memories for me and there are some negative things that I came to associate with it.  I had no choice but to sit in it yesterday as That Baby was creating a little wooden village on the other chair which must not be disturbed under any circumstances.  Whilst I was holding her across me in that chair I realised how big she'd grown.  How much more of her there was.  It made me both sad and happy at the same time. She seemed to be a newborn for such a short time and I feel like I wished that time away a little too much.  I am so proud of her and holding her in that chair yesterday made me remember how far we'd come.

Building:   It's the school holidays still so That Baby and I have been building a fair few things together.  Front room tents made of poorly blankets and cushions, stick dens in the forests last week, Crocklebog sculptures made from old egg boxes, and lots and lots of wooden brick towers for This Baby to gleefully knock down.

Smiling:  I was thinking about this theme as I walked home from work earlier, I was wondering how the heck I was going to narrow this huge field down to just one choice.  As I thought a woman I don't know was walking towards me talking on her mobile phone.  As she did I noticed she had the biggest smile on her face, you could just tell that the conversation that she was having was a happy one.  It was infectious and made me smile back at her.  She probably thought I was a complete lunatic.  But it did make me realise that probably the one thing that makes me smile the most is seeing other people's happiness, be they family or complete strangers.

Frowning:  I think I've frowned quite a lot today.  Not intentionally, but if I don't understand something, or it puzzles me I frown at it.  As if that's going to somehow magically make things clearer.  I think perhaps the thing that has made me frown the most this week has been the untimely death of our dishwasher.  It's completely lost all power for some reason and we can't for the life of us work out why.  We lived without a dishwasher for many years so it's not like not having one is insurmountable, but to let us have one then to take it away?  That's harsh.  Really harsh.  Roll on Mr Repair Man and his Friday morning visit.  I won't frown at him I'm pretty sure!

Next week: Watching, Looking For, Growing, Riding, Reading.

Join in?

Mostly...#4

I thought I'd bring you all up to speed a little bit with what's been going on around here.  Last week we spent a blissful few days on the Norfolk Broads, eating, drinking, boating, climbing - you name it! It was fabulous fun!

We spent one day at BeWILDerwood, I didn't really know how to sum this place up as it could be described in so many ways, so I must confess I got my google on.  I liked very much liked this summary which I found on Trip Advisor: "BeWILDerwood is a wild and imaginative adventure park with magical treehouses and hints of intriguing characters.  The setting for the book "A Boggle at BeWILDerwood" by local children's author Tom Blofeld, it's a wonderful and mystical place.  Parents are encouraged to play alongside their children, which makes for a fabulous and brilliantly exciting time for the whole family".  I just love the whole concept!  Plus there is nothing plastic there, no gawdy rides that eat pound coins, no flashing machines to dance on, everything is made of wood and requires imagination and a whole lot of energy!

There were climbing frames, rope swings, boat trips, walks, yurts, slides, zip wires, den building forests, tree houses - you name it! I really can't recommend it enough, it's such a lovely place to spend time and the staff are wonderful and friendly.  They have a story telling corner and when we went in summer a couple of years ago they were putting on an excellent little play outdoors to tell the story of BeWILDerwood.  The only slight downsides were that on the day we went it was freeeeeeeezing!  Though the staff were lovely and let us use a beautiful little party tent to feed This Baby her lunch, so we were able to warm her up.  Plus there were lovely little bonfires dotted about where you could thaw your hands!  The other downside (and it's not much of one) was that I was carrying This Baby in her sling, so couldn't join in as much as I would have liked.  Next time we go though - look out!    

                       

Anyway, I'm not going to carp on about our time away, regular readers will know that we had a great time, I just want to mention this place in particular.  

In other news: That Baby has taken to drawing and painting in a BIG way this half term!  She went with her Gran to Art Group this morning, happily armed with her box of paints and a new set of brushes.  It's really lovely!  She sets up camp wherever she can and sits beautiful drawing, colouring and narrating to herself whilst she does it.

This is what she came back with this morning, I KNOW I'm biased, but I do think it's on the excellent side...

This Baby seems to be developing in leaps and bounds, she can now crawl faster than the speed of light (that's how it feels anyway) and is completely unafraid of any adventure.  She's taught herself to climb up stairs now so I can't turn my back on her for even a minute -the little tinker!  She's also taken to lifting up her arms in the air and kneeling up so she's as tall as she can possibly be when she wants a cuddle.  If you're cuddling her and you're eating something that you haven't shared she gets her eyes as close to your mouth as she can so she can see what your nibbling and work out if she wants some.  It sounds revolting, but it's the cutest thing.  I love seeing her assert her personality.  Her top front tooth is coming and has just broken through her gums in a tiny, sore looking dot. She's taken it so well, despite her face getting pinker as the day goes on she hasn't complained or lost her appetite - but more on that in another post!

Thursday is going to be an exciting day as my very best friend ever is coming over for tea and cake and she's bringing with her my bridesmaid dress and That Baby's bridesmaid's dress.  I suppose I will technically be Matron of Honour as I'm already married myself, but I'm not sure I like that term!  Anyway My Best Girl gets married in May to the loveliest man and I am so excited for her.  

Next week is my birthday and then two days later That Baby's birthday.  We have a party planned for her on the Sunday which she is so thrilled about.  Unbeknown to her we're also collecting her from school on her birthday and taking her to a local garden centre to buy her the goldfish she's been hankering after for an age.  She will be so pleased.  She's been coming up for names for her fish-to-be  for an age.  So far Nuzzle and Scratch seem to be winning!

So that's a little life update from me and mine!  I hope you are well and happy dear reader.

Love, love,

Magic Moments...#4

Good Morning one and all!  Once again I am linking up with The Oliver's Madhouse and the Magic Moments series.  This week I'm keeping it short and sweet though as I'm still catching up on myself after a few days away.

I just wanted to share something from those few days that warmed my heart and made me smile....

The friends that we'd gone away with have a little boy; Woolly, who is That Baby's best friend in the whole world.  They adore each other.  They never fight, they never fall out with one another, they just get on.  We came home from a parents evening once after being told by their class teacher that they needed to spend a little more time apart, so they could grow other friendships!  They are getting slightly better at this now, but you see the point I'm making...

Anyway, last week I loved watching them looking out for one another, listening to them having funny little conversations about what they'll do when they're married and debating whether they were building a nest or a den with every cushion they could find...it was lovely. It made me think back to whether I had such a good friend at their age. I don't think I did. We moved around a lot and I was an unsettled child. The bond they have is wonderful.

Bless 'em, I don't imagine they'll ever get married, but I do hope they'll always be good friends....because having a friend like that is pretty flippin magical, right? However young or old you are.