Who ate all the Mini-Eggs?.............

Good afternoon everybody and I hope a good Easter was had by all. Vast amounts of chocolate have been consumed in this household, purely for medicinal purposes you understand! Kit and I have been suffering from the dreaded lurgy this holiday which just seems to be leaving us now. It has not however stopped us from enjoying the few days off.

We ventured out on Saturday to give our new ebay bargain (99p!!) it's first outing. Don't you love it, it smells a bit suspicious but once you get over that it's fab! We stuffed the box with ham and egg (adds to the aroma beautifully!) sandwiches and chocolate cake, filled the flasks with hot coffee and went off to Minster Lovell for a picnic. We hadn't banked on how cold it was so we managed to sit in the car and eat our goodies before dragging the children down to the ruined hall in the bitingly cold wind only to immediately turn round and head back to the car for more cake!

Easter Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast after our garden egg hunt. We lit the fire and treated ourselves to croissants in front of it. Before you picture the idyllic family scene let me tell you it involved one very sulky 7 year old who was having a terrible time trying to stand his Easter chicken up for the photo shoot, whilst his father tried to hide himself behind the crossword! Never mind, I enjoyed my breakfast at least!

We had a lovely Easter lunch with friends, followed by another egg hunt and a very lazy and relaxing afternoon doing absolutely nothing, something I excel at!

Finally, today everybody is back at school / pre-school so I have the house to myself. It's tidy and there's nothing I need to do for the day so I'm catching up.

The garden is starting to spring into life. At last my camellia has flowered. Each year we get loads of buds which then seem to shrivel up and fall off before blossoming, however this year having moved it to a more sheltered position we've been rewarded with theses lovelies......

Tonight it's book group night. Last year six of us, three of whom I'd never met before, decided to start a small group. It's been a great success, it's made me read books I'd never would have chosen and although I haven't enjoyed all of them it's been great to discuss them with the others. I didn't want to be part of a high brow, literary group, I think there's too much intellectual snobbery about literature when really reading should be about pleasure. I did however want to challenge my brain slightly and I can confirm it still works! It's a very diverse group, so we each bring something different to the discussion including a lot of laughter about life in general. Tonight we're going out to eat to celebrate a 40th birthday so after a couple of bottles of wine there may not be much book dissection!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Memories.........

Sorry about the tiny photos, I had to nick them from the internet and cannot resize them for the life of me!

Whilst cycling through the park this morning on the way to pre-school, enjoying the sunshine with Kit singing one of her made-up songs behind me it suddenly struck me. Only a few more months of this and my baby will be at school. Why does life have to whizz by at such a pace?....................

Three ladies and a Renault Espace..........

Where do I start? Life has been totally mad around here for the past couple of weeks. Last week we had five people staying at the house for race week. Each year I say "never again" in the run up to the races when we're desperately trying to get the house ready, but then when everyone's gone the house seems very quiet and we're looking forward to next year! We wandered up to the race course after school on the first race day and watched the horses through the fences, the children were so excited to see them so close.



Everybody left on Saturday morning and we had a lovely relaxing day. We wandered into town and had some lunch, then we came home with a couple of dvds and a huge tub of popcorn, lit the fire and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Sunday was my day off and three of us drove into London for the Country Living show. Rather than park outside and tube it in we decided in our great wisdom to drive straight to Islington. I've never driven in the centre of London before, I apologise to Ken Livingstone profusely, I thought those lovely quiet (ie. bus) lanes were there specifically for 30+ novice London drivers! It was an experience, as you can probably imagine, we managed to buy an A-Z which didn't reach Islington, but we got there in one piece and managed to park right next to the show.

I didn't go mad there, I just bought a couple of things including the glasses below............

and these fabric flowers which smell gorgeous, like rose soap, I wish I'd asked the seller what she'd put on them...............

There were some fabulous stands, so inspiring. I thought it was a better show than the Christmas one and we'll certainly be back next year. I love the whole atmosphere, being surrounded by so many gorgeous things, there were some lovely vintage stalls.

We ended the day with a late lunch in a great eaterie in Islington called "The Elk in the Woods", very trendy, animal skulls all over the walls (why??). Fortunately the vegetarian amongst us had her back to them!

Back to normal today, quiet house, the smell of hyacinths everywhere and a Cadbury's creme egg. Bliss!.................

Nearly done.............

Thank goodness it's nearly over! Ian and I have spent the last two weeks frantically cleaning out our two basement rooms in order to have the new carpets put in. Last years floods caused a bit of damage down there so we've had it redecorated and re-carpeted. Now I'm not much of a carpet person, much too dirty and clumsy, but it's been a bit of a revelation. Kit and I played down there last night and it was actually comfortable to sit on the floor. I'm so used to floorboards that it felt quite nice to be on the floor and I could actually get up without groaning like an eighty year old!

Anyway we went from this........................

............................to this. This is our new spare room, and I have to say the floods were a blessing in disguise for us. We couldn't have afforded to redecorate down there but now we have two lovely new rooms without the hideous carpet. It's been quite stressful because the basement is the dumping ground for all our junk, and believe me there is a LOT of it, since we don't have a loft here. That junk has now been distributed around our house, and we've nearly finished.

This is part of my new work room. My lovely other half (what do you call an unmarried partner - boyfriend is too young, partner too business like!) agreed that I could have the room for my sewing and it is lovely. No more clearing the kitchen table before tea, I can't wait to get started. I've been painting all the furniture down there, including a very overpriced Laura Ashley console table that I'd gone off (sorry Mum!). I've had to agree to one bike being kept in there but I'll work on that one.
I've now got dedicated fabric storage, no more precarious piles everywhere..........

The photos aren't brilliant, I had to use the flash and it washes out all the colours, but believe me it's colourful!

So now I'm in relaxation mode. Ian's away tonight so I've got homemade rice pudding in the oven (makes him want to vomit) and I'm sipping (gulping) Lidl Devon cider because we've no wine, as usual. I know how to live!

Have a lovely weekend everyone, thanks for all the lovely comments about my gorgeous niece.............

Welcome to the world.......

This gorgeous little bundle arrived on Saturday 1st March at 10.10pm weighing 8lb 4oz. Say hello to my new niece Olivia. Mum and baby are doing brilliantly, my sister is such a natural mummy, Olivia is a lucky, lucky girl! Her new dad is thrilled to bits too. So starts a new life............ Needless to say Jack and Kitty are thrilled with their new cousin and lots of kissing and cuddling went on during our visit. It was sad to leave them knowing we won't see her for a couple of weeks. They both made cards for her but only Kit would let me take a photo of hers, don't you love the hair on her baby!...........

I received these in the post this week. I ordered them from applehead after seeing them on another blog (sorry, can't remember which one). They are so cute, this one is my particular favourite, I love the red polka dot dress. I love the fact that you discover things through other peoples' blogs that you wouldn't otherwise know about.

I treated myself to this button box from good old Cath Kidston a couple of weeks ago. Mum and I spent a relaxing hour sorting all the buttons out and it will really help not having to root through jars to find the right button in future.

Mum found this little shelf unit in a charity shop for me, a coat of paint and it's a great place to put just some of the old tins that litter this house. I have so many, but all of them are used. The problem is that I forget which one holds the particular thing I'm looking for so I waste so much time looking through all of them. It's hard work being a compulsive hoarder y'know!

This is the ferry which capsized near Heysham and then floated into Cleveleys where it is now beached. We went to have a nosy on possibly the coldest and windiest day of the year. Jack was fascinated, the picture doesn't really show how big it is, but the waves were lashing against it and it was a pretty strange sight.

Finally a plea for some advice. I 've finally mastered Bloglines (I think) but I can't leave comments on blogs straight from it. Is there a way to do this or do you have to go into the blog separately? Any help will be very gratefully received.

Also, I've been tagged to do the archive meme, I haven't forgotten I promise, I will try to get round to it asap!

Have a great week everyone, I'm endeavouring to catch up this morning..................