A family weekend

It's been a great few days. Firstly the Sudeley castle fair was lovely. No sign of Liz Hurley there but I guess the wedding's over! I managed to pick up a great little mail box from the Caroline Zoob stand- totally crap picture, taken at night as usual......

I don't think the photo does it justice, it is lovely, honestly, although I have to admit my friend did say "£12 for THAT?" when I showed it to her. Each to their own, I say. The funniest thing was the lady who sold it to me (not Ms Zoob herself I presume) said "Oh, they're just fabulous, you can have 1 for each member of the family and just take them off the wall and carry them up to the study to sort out your paperwork". I wanted to say "Lady, I can't afford four, and by the way what's a study? - we just have a kitchen table"

Jack had a great time for about an hour, then he was ready to go, just as we were getting into the swing of things. So, I placated him with his very own...........fly swatter, he was thrilled although he did seem slightly too keen to whack me on the bum with it.

We had a great weekend with grandparents, the sun shone and all was well. Kitty helped her beloved "Poppy" plant his runner beans........

and I dug up a few of his plants to kill in my garden.

We spent Saturday at Churchtown near Southport (home of Louise Loves) which has beautiful botanic gardens. The children love the trains and boat rides there. We then went off to the beach at nearby Ainsdale to have ice-creams and play in the sand. Of course, virgin blogger as I am I didn't take the camera so alas, no photos.

Came back to, joy of joys - more books, namely the "Crafters Companion" recommended on so many blogs, and a couple of embrioidery ones - pictures to follow.

Gifts galore

Look what arrived in the post yesterday...............

I read about this on posy's blog. It looks a lovely book but I have to have time to sit down alone without interruption to savour it - highly unlikely in this house. Sunday mornings are normally my "alone" time, Ian takes the children swimming and I get a cup of tea in bed and an hour or so to myself. Nobody tells you before you have kids just how precious a bit of time to yourself becomes.

Another by-product of child rearing is the complete inability to retain any information. I used to mock people who made lists, now I'm one of them. And blogging needs its' very own list. So, I keep little notepads around the house to write down whatever I need to remember as it comes into my brain. Where do all theose brain cells go? Enough moaning, I would never be without them and love them totally (most of the time).

Another lovely gift I received was these little beauties.......

from my fabulous sister Sarah. Aren't they cute? I have them hanging in my kitchen. Don't you just love getting presents?

I've been looking forward to today for ages. It's the Spring Fair at Sudeley Castle, which is like a smaller version of the Country Living fair. Childcare had been sorted so I could go with a friend and enjoy all the stalls. However a bit of a spanner has been thrown into the works because no. 1 son has conjunctivitis (probably spelt wrong) and cannot therefore go to school. Needless to say he is thrilled to bits and will be coming with me, which means no gossiping with Maureen but also that I get to spend a bit if time with him without his little sister which is pretty rare.

We're all at my parents this weekend so I won't be able to blog, but I will take my camera in case anything exciting comes up.

Just one more thing. Jo sent me a comment and mentioned that anyone not registered as a google blogger had to register with them to send a comment. I'm hoping this has been rectified. Could someone with a typepad or other blog just send me a comment just so I can see if it's sorted. Much appreciated. Also, Jo, I can't get onto your blog from the comments. If poss could you let me know the http.// name.

I LOVE this room!

Finally, our kitchen is more or less finished so we have gone from this.....

to this..............
It finished on time, of course took at lot more money than the initial £2.50 we'd anticipated but we love it! It's the first home that we know we will be staying in for a long time so we decided to bite the bullet and create something we really wanted. The builders were fantastic and the whole project ran smoothly. Of course we'll never be able to go on holiday ever again or actually feed the children but who cares! This room has become the hub of family life, and it keeps the children from sitting on the cushions in the living room - am I the only one with a weird obsession about small people squashing cushions flat?

Here's another couple of views of it if you're interested...

Notice the plates (see 1st blog)

So we're mortgaged up to the hilt, thank goodness charity shops are still cheap. Finances can be quite tight when only one of you is earning but fortunately neither of us are into flashy cars or expensive holidays. This year we shall be dragging the trusty tent out of the shed again and wheeling our way over to Wales with friends, praying for good weather. The children love it and to be honest if the sun shines on us there's no better feeling than sitting in a blanket under the stars with good company and a few glasses of wine.

Of course if it pours down that's another story completely!................

My favourite spot

This is one of my favourite spots in the house. It's where I sit to read, sew and generally laze about. I definitely need some practice taking pictures, although I did take this at night which doesn't help. (notice the pram wheel in the background - I think I need to think more carefully about setting the shot up before I take it)

Today has been written off as a "getting anything done" day. I ended up on the phone for hours to my sister and a good friend who moved away a couple of years ago, therefore totally neglected any form of housework apart from a cursory swish of a sponge around the bathroom to make me feel better.

We've all been laid up with a horrible sickness bug over the weekend, so there's been plenty of bed covers being washed and little pale faces looking mournfully at me, and that was just Ian! We're over the worst now and life is back to normal. Jack is back at school so it's just me and Kitty at home "Mummy, why our house on pooter?" - she's a novice to blogging as well as you can tell., not that I ignore my 2 1/2 year old to read blogs you understand!

I've spent far too long poring over blogs this evening which I will pay for at 5.30am with my little wake up call. They are just so inspirational, one in particular I found tonight which I'm sure many of you have come across is treefalldesign, I am amazed by the talent of so many bloggers, it fires me with enthusiasm. I just have to work out a way to get the kids and the hubby out of the house for a couple of weeks!

Tomorrow I will try to take some decent photos, but for now I have to get on Amazon to order "Crafters Companion" - I keep reading about it, trouble is I might just have to order another one at the same time to get free delivery. Decisions, decisions..........

My latest finds

These are the latest treasures found at the local car boot (not a very good photo). There happened to be a lady with a van load of fabrics and bits and pieces from France so you can imagine I fell upon her with great delight.

The aprons are so gorgeous and useful too, what more could you ask for?

The weekend has been a delight in many ways. Firstly we had fab weather which always helps, we had friends around all weekend, and yesterday our son was in his first scout parade with his fellow beavers which made us so proud, although he did have a bit of a wobble when he had to walk at the front of the parade!

Today I took our daughter for her first look at pre-school, life is moving on too fast. This is the first time she'll have been in a nursery type place so she was a bit nervous but I tried to remain upbeat for her, although inside I really don't want to let her go!

Many thanks to Suzie for her first comment on my blog. I'd been waiting with baited breath for that first one, so phew I'm glad it arrived. I think I may be in danger of becoming addicted to these blogs, every time I go on a new one there are 20 more to look at. There's also so much for me to learn - eg. how do you put a blog link into your post, and how do you put picture into the books you're reading section, any suggestions will be gratefully received.

My first posting!

This feels a bit weird, deciding to write about yourself on a computer, especially if your knowledge of computers is as limited as mine - ie. about dinosaur level!

I thought I had to give it a go, seeing as I've been spending hours looking at other peoples lives on blogs it only seemed fair to add mine. No doubt you'll see a fair few typing errors along the way, bear with me, I haven't been at work for a long time so I'm a bit rusty with new technology, I think I'm probably the only person without a mobile phone on the entire planet.

So.............I'm 36 (nearly 37 - how did that happen?), I've got two lovely children of 6 and 2 and a very patient and understanding partner of 11 years, Ian, who doesn't mind spending his life surrounded by others peoples cast offs, although he draws the line at "dead people's plates"- his words not mine.

I love fabrics, tins, plates, sewing, making, drilling, cooking, dancing with my children when no-one else is looking, walking in the countryside, shopping, eating and the odd glass of wine that we all deserve at the end of another long day. I have no ambitions to be rich, famous or powerful, basically because at heart I can't be bothered, I'd rather be folding fabrics and counting buttons!

Here's to the start of what I hope will be a happy blog...............