this week...........

One of the greatest stress busters...............bed dancing. Guaranteed smiles all round!

Children bring an unbelievable amount of joy into your life but boy do they make it guilt ridden and emotional at times. After a remarkably smooth transition into school life Kit suddenly started to cry every morning before going in and not wanting to leave me. I know, common sense tells me that how a child is one week will have no bearing on how they are the next but she was worrying us. Suddenly our happy, giggly little girl had become quite unhappy and clingy and wasn't really able to explain why. We think it's probably the realisation that full time school will be the reality for the foreseeable future, quite a lot for a four year old to take on board.

I have a huge problem with the age we send our children to school in this country. Both my children are summer babies which makes them very young for their year groups. Whilst Jack has managed pretty well Kit seems very little amongst her class. I really think that four year olds are too young to begin full time education, I'd be more than happy to have had mine at home for another year. Almost all of the children in Kit's class are tired, emotional and grumpy, why are we doing this to them at four?

Ok everyone, rant over. Still with me? Good, let's have some pics. Whilst having a crisis of confidence this week and feeling the full force of good old parental guilt, I thought I'd make an extra effort to be a nice mummy and not the ranting old bag I'm prone to be, and then I thought I'd take photographs to show the children when I revert to normal, to prove that it actually did happen..........................

Firstly, the good old no-bake cake making. One of the family favourites is good old fridge cake.........which was supposed to be the biscuit substitute for the week but only lasted three days. I mix a 100g bar of milk and one of dark chocolate, add a large lump of butter, two tablespoons of golden syrup, all the broken up biscuits from the bottom of the tin, smashed up, a bag of maltesers, again smashed up, and whatever nuts I have to hand, this week it was pistachios. Its truly delicious, go on......try it, the nuts make it positively healthy........

Next, cornflake cakes for the school cake sale. Always a firm favourite and ones that I vividly remember making as a child. Mum would keep adding more and more cornflakes, we wouldn't believe that the chocolate would cover them but it always did.

Of course we had to try the eggs, just to make sure they were edible. I'm glad to report that they passed with flying colours!

Jack's been creative with a few old loo rolls, making his own mini circus.............

..................before going outside to practice his fire making skills, under my watchful eye. Damp twigs do not make the most ideal kindling but to give him his due he perseveres

meanwhile, conforming to the female stereotype perfectly Kit stays inside practicing her stitching............after helping Jack to waft the flames to life that is.

My creative urges were satisfied with a simple little project, 60 bookmarks for the new cookery book we've produced for the PTFA funds.......

At this point I feel should own up to yet another guilty pleasure.................ironing. Yes, you did hear me correctly, I do actually quite like ironing. Oops, said it again. Before I come over as all 1950's housewifeish let me confess that I'm totally crap at all other domestic duties but ironing I'm quite happy to do. I actually iron very few of our clothes so it only takes a couple of hours in the week, so it's on with the radio and I can happily drift away. And when it's something as delicious as Kit's bedding I'm quite content.

So on that slightly sad note I'll leave you for now. Have a great week.......................x

sunny sunday...........

What a lucky lady I was this weekend. After breakfast in bed the rest of the family piled into our bed to watch me open my lovely presents which included this..........

...........and this, which I've had my eye on for ages..........

I was also handed these fab cards which will be treasured forever...................

Sunday morning means my regular car boot trip, the sun this weekend meant that it was huge and busier than I think I've ever seen it. It wasn't a particularly fruitful trip but I did manage to pick up this sweet little blanket which will be perfect for our camping trips later this year.


The afternoon brought a trip to one of our favourite NT haunts, Hidcote Manor, the most beautiful garden in nearby Broadway. As soon as we arrive the children are seized with the desperate urge to run in any direction. The gardens are set out in a series of rooms and are a delight to visit at any time of the year. Although it is always busy there's plenty of space and it never feels crowded. We followed our little guides on a very fast and furious trip around the different "rooms" loving their enthusiasm and delight at each discovery. Each time we visit, this long avenue just begs to be raced along and this time we weren't disappointed. Whilst we took a moment to catch our breath the two of them disappeared into the distance and then returned at a much slower pace.

We had a much deserved snack break on my favourite bench under the Wisteria which is a sight to behold later in the year...........


.................and we admired the gorgeous flowers, in particular the hellebores, tulips and primroses.

...............and we finished it all off with tea and chocolate cake in the cafe. Perfect, worth all the sleepless nights, anguish, guilt and mess that having children brings. Spending time with my little family is (mostly) the best thing of all.

Before I go I have to mention this film. We watched it this weekend after seeing Kristin Scott Thomas nominated for an Oscar (or Bafta, can't remember) for it. It was superb, you have to see it!

See you later in the week, let's see if I can make it two posts this week.............

crochet paradise...............

.............well, how fantastic has this weather been?! After a frantic two day post weekend clean (kids, mess, food, toys etc...) the house is more sparkling than usual and I had an hour to sit out and enjoy the sun with the afternoon play and a bit of this..........

...............another round cushion in the making, this time as a gift for mum, It was so fantastic to sit outside, listen to the birds and enjoy the sun on my face. Isn't it great to be outside again, the children are barefoot in the garden once more, filthy feet are the order of the day.

As usual the garden is not looking at it's best. Having neither gardening skills nor knowledge means that plants do not thrive in my care, there are bare spots aplenty where there should be flowers. However some of the bulbs I planted in autumn are beginning to show and today I noticed this little lonesome beauty nestled amongst the weeds.............

..........more of which are dotted around the house, courtesy of good old B&Q which had a great offer on.

............and of course, the hyacinths keep on going, this one is particularly fragrant.

Did you notice that new mug up there?............yet another to add to my rather large collection, along with the Portmerion one I bought last week it's fast becoming a firm favourite, it's the perfect size for my cuppa. We had a girls only shopping trip to Bicester Village last weekend and of course the first stop had to be the Cath Kidston outlet store, from where said mug was purchased along with a couple of other goodies, including 3 metres of the most gorgeous dress fabric.........now all I need is a seamstress to run me up a tea dress.

I also bought this bath bar, much to Ian's delight. As he put it :: "Will that be going in the bathroom cupboard along with the other two you bought which drove you mad?" No, no, no, this one will be different, it's light and won't chip the bath every time the children knock it off. Besides how lovely my soaps and new flannel look on it. So I have to remove it and replace it every night, no matter, it gives me pleasure to look at it, this is the PERFECT bath bar and here it will stay....................

..........(if you look closely you can catch a glimpse of our horrific shower and revolting loo in the background - yeuch!)

Enjoy the sun everyone..........................

and then the sun shone...........briefly

Our yearly race going guests arrived today which means five days of cooking breakfasts for five people every morning, by the end of the week I'll be happy never to see another sausage. It also meant we had to do the BIG clean up over the weekend. This generally only happens if we have visitors and normally can be confined to only a couple of the rooms, however having the entire house full of people means that we have to clean the whole lot, no mean feat when it's usually only treated to the odd blowing away of dust and half hearted hoovering. Possessing a crap hoover which will only work with a hand held attachment means that I do most of my cleaning on my knees, and yesterday, whilst the sun was shining, this gave me a whole new perspective on my clean and shiny(ish) rooms. I rushed off to grab the camera to catch the moment and to remind me that sometimes the house can look pretty nice, even the horrible bathroom............


..............what you can't see is the completely foul, cracked toilet with duck tape trying, and failing, to stop the drip, or the mouldy old shower cabinet. This picture makes me love my grubby old bathroom a little bit more, I've no choice really, it'll be another year before we can update it.

Now this room, our bedroom, I do love, especially when it's cleared of all the usual family stuff. It never looks like this, there's always a pile of washing to be put away, numerous children's books and toys lying around, and all the other detritus we can't find a home for seems to gravitate towards here and stay for months. Now it's calm and peaceful, but for how long?...........

A peek into Kit's room. I like this "through the door" view, it means I can hide the mess behind said door, isn't blogland a wonderful, make believe place, you can pretend to have a lovely tidy home because nobody can see round the corners!

Finally a glimpse of our sitting room. The console table was dragged up from the basement sewing room single handedly by me which involved lots of muttering, bad language and mild panic as I realised how heavy it was. It used to be a dark brown but looks so much better in the pale pistachio colour. Notice yet more hyacinths waiting to burst forth............

So there you go, another post about not very much at all. I'm just pleased to have a tidy house, enjoying that clear brain feeling and kidding myself it'll last - hah! I give it three days at the most!

See you all soon...............x

things I'm loving right now.............

a fab new enamel bucket and mop, hopefully this will entice me into cleaning the kitchen floor more than twice a year................then again, maybe not

a gorgeous new mug to add to the never ending collection

some lovely new owl stationery from Paperchase

enough sunshine for a garden picnic

beautiful and very pink primroses

Hope you've all had a great weekend, just a quickie tonight because blogger is seriously confused and is beginning to drive me mad, back soon x.....................

collections............................

Whilst wandering aimlessly round the house last week, a skill I particularly excel in, I happened upon a few of the little collections going on around here at the moment................

Crochet..........it's everywhere. From the squares for my niece's baby blanket (must be finished next week, and boy, it's taken a long time) to the round cushion inspired by posy and now requested by nearly every family member, to little crochet flowers dotted around the place, the house is being taken over by baskets of yarn and every evening I'm to be found in my favourite armchair, glass of wine and chilled chocolate to hand, crocheting away. I think Ian finds it slightly disturbing and I have many times been likened to an old crone sitting at the gallows - NOT the image I like to think I'm portraying!

Bulbs..............oh, the joy! Flowers I can actually grow, why has it taken me so long to discover this? Now they're everywhere, you name it I shove a collection of £1.26 Lidl bulbs in and a few days later, flowers galore - pure bliss, and an extra place to push in a few crocheted flowers.

Beads..................hanging from the pretty rose hooks I bought in TK Maxx. The perfect spot to keep them, I can see them, admire their colourful sparkliness and it makes choosing one each day soooo easy. I'm a cheap jewellery fan, I have no diamonds or gold. I always have a favourite on the go, this is the one at the moment, isn't it fab?.............

Stuffed toys................obsessed is the word I'd use for my children, they can't get enough of them. can hardly get into bed because of them, all the old bits of crap that no-one else wants, we bring 'em home and squeeze them in. For a person with a bed making obsession it gives me palpitations. I have to fold the duvet around them because under no circumstances am I to MOVE THEM! I don't know how they sleep with them all but it makes them happy, which in turn makes me happy so I have live with the untidy beds (deep breathing, telling myself it doesn't matter, only looking at the bed with one eyes open - I've tried it all)

So, there you are, a brief glimpse of our overly cluttered house, see you all soon.....................

creeping in, full of apologies...............

............what can I say? For a while there I lost my blogging mojo, no idea why. Blogging does take up a lot of time and I wanted to claim back my old life for a short while. It has made me realise just how much space blogging fills so from now on I will keep it up but just not as regularly as before (hah! I hear you say, I was hardly reliable anyway!) This seems to be a common thread amongst many bloggers at the moment, so I know I'm not alone.

...............bit of mosaic inspiration there from Lucy, one of the many ways I've been wasting time recently!

So..........what's been happening in the VH household? Much the same as ever apart from the FANTASTIC snowy days we enjoyed a couple of weeks back. Much sledging and snowballing took place but I'm so far behind the rest of you that I won't bore you with too many photos, although I can't resist a couple. I love snow with a passion, waking up and seeing that glow through the windows fills me with glee and we had the added bonus of time off school. We managed to find a part of a nearby hill that no-one else had discovered and had a whale of a time. We even dragged a very pregnant friend and daughter along to join in, thankfully it didn't induce early labour, my nursing skills aren't up to much!

I've been filling my child free days with crochet (one baby blanket nearly done), coffee (with my new whizzer) and cakes, half hearted housework, a bit of helping in school and completing orders for a few people. Much the same as ever really. We're half way through the half term break right now and we've had a house full of children for the last few days. Jack and I are grabbing a few moments peace by the fire whilst Kit plays with one of her school friends. Needless to say Jack is engrossed in his latest library book, and at the same time pestering me to play on my new laptop (yippee, now I can watch tv and blog!)

We had a fab weekend with friends from Dorset, hence lots of noise, food and just a little bit of alcohol. Sunday we walked it all off through the (unexpected) rain and when they left we settled in by the fire with "101 Dalmations" and pancakes - the perfect way to end a lovely weekend.

At some point in the week Kit will no doubt ask me to "play schools" with her, a request which I'm reluctant to admit does not fill me with joy. It involves me sitting on the hard floor whilst she tries to remember all thirty children in her class so she can take the register. This has to be done whilst trying to hold three different coloured pens which regularly drop on the floor and have to be retrieved, which invariably leads to the losing of the place in the register and starting all over again. Call me a meanie but I can think of a few other more pleasurable ways to pass an hour, selfless mother I certainly am not!

Meanwhile Jack will be up in his room shaking the floorboards with the latest musical acquisition, no doubt much to the delight of our neighbours. Every Saturday he trips up the street to have lessons from one of the neighbour's sons and then comes home to practice and make sure we're properly awake. I have to admit to feeling a little bit envious, how cool it'd be to be a 38 year old drum playing mum, unfortunately possessing no rhythm makes it slightly challenging for me so I end up sitting there looking a bit dumb and not really knowing what to hit next.
Back soon............................