A is for......... A quick post

Inspired by these from La Redoute.......

I made this for Ella's bedroom door.......

Picnic at Southwold

Last wednesday, there seemed to be a gap in the copious amounts of rain we have been having, so Ella, Liberty (my sister) and I decided to visit Mum and Dad, who were staying at the Swan Hotel in Southwold, for a picnic on the beach.

Which meant I got to use my lovely pincic set that I got for my birthday, as well as my blue polka-dot wind-break that I made last winter (I think I was pining for summer hols!) that has been patiently sitting in my workroom, waiting for it's first outing.

The weather held out, the sun shone, and Ella paddled in the sea with mum, we browsed the lovely shops, and walked the Pier, and it was a relatively stress-free picnic. I say relatively stress free, the only incident was when we arrived ready to set up camp.

Dad and Libs had gone to get some more food from the deli, and the wind had picked up, Ella was wingeing because she was 'hungry', it was 'too windy' and the sand and her hair was in her face, so we gave her a packet of crisps, tied her her up in a ponytail and I managed to produce a menage of hairclips to hold down the rogue ringlets that refused to stay out of the way, simultaneously Mum and I where stuggling to get the wind-break up in the sudden blustery weather (mum holding, and me banging into the sand with a rock, mum saying she didn't think it would stay up because the sand was too dry and it was too windy, and me gritting my teeth not giving up- it will bloody stay up!) but eventually persistance paid off and the wind-break went up, stayed up, and worked, it was lovely and snuggly behind it and Ella stopped wingeing and Libby and Dad arrived with food and wine...........................and relax! (does any of this sound familar?)

This wednesday evening I'm am going to the Royal Albert Hall with Libs, and M+D - courtesy of Dad - to see Smokey Robinson live, I didn't know he was still alive, let's hope he gets through the concert! I will let you know how it goes :) Meanwhile see here for some funky dancing from the Miracles.

Battle at Kruger

Has anybody seen this amazing video involving a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and a crocodile.

Just about recovered.....

So it's 8.30 on monday evening and Danny and Ella are sparko on the sofa, so I can leave a quick post without Danny looking over my shoulder and teasing me about being addicted to the interweb (this coming from the man who comes home from work and sits down at my beautiful iBook [see picture below], to spend the next hour on YouTube!).

Father's Day/Mum's Birthday lunch went well, in the end I made some lovely asparagus tarts (sainsburys calendar) for the starter, and slow roast lamb, cous cous and harissa (sainsbury's magazine) which was very yummy, and looked really impressive with the lamb shredded and piled over the cous-cous on a huge platter with a sugar snap and pea salad (unfortunatley I forgot to take a photo before it got demolished, and it didn't look quite so impressive half eaten). I cheated a bit and bought the pudding - cherry frangipane, but I don't have to cook everything, do I?

Lot's of wine was consumed, and then after everyone left, and in our merry state, Danny, Ella and I meandered down to our local pub, for more drinks! God aren't we terrible parents!!

So this morning I was feeling a bit worse for wear, and I don't know how Danny managed to leave for work at 5.45am (I heard the door slam, I wasn't up!) because I struggled to get me and Ella out the door for nursery at 8.15am.

Although I forgot to take a picture of the food, I did remember to take some pictures of the table before everyone arrived (I'm starting to get funny looks from Dan, taking pictures of everything!) and I got to use my very new, very expensive cutlery that mum and dad bought me for my birthday, It's called 'Maisy' and it's from habitat, it's etched with a very pretty design.

Oh, and Ella found this snail in the garden, and fell in love with him because he was yellow, and it took all my strength not to fling it over the garden fence into the field, but instead, to put him gently on the outhouse wall, only for him to probably munch through my rubarb later on. Oh, what we do for our children!

Yesterday evening was beautiful.....

and after collecting Ella from nursery and picking up so milk from the village shop, it was still warm, so we went for a lovely walk with Lily through a field near by, the grass was nearly as tall as me, and Lily thundered through the long grass which sent the pollen flying visibly through the air like little puffs of dust, I seemed to be holding up well, given that I suffer from hayfever, but I should have really taken some tablets, cause as soon as we turned to make our way home for dinner, it all caught up with me, and I sneezed non-stop all the way back, which is really not easy to cope with when you have a dog in one hand and a 3yr-old in the other trying to make your way along a narrow pavment on a B road!

Anyway, shortly after the sneezing subsided, I had managed to sort out dinner, and was just sitting down to a nice cold glass of sparkling wine, when there was a surge in the electricity and then an almighty roll of thunder. I dashed out in the garden, collected all the chair cushions, managed to pull the day-bed into the out-house, and ripped off the washing from the line just before the heavens opened, and it pelted it down.

This morning I went out to survey the damage (I say damage, cause this time last year I came home from work after we'd had a thunder storm and gallons of rain, to discover that my window box full of red ivy geraniums, that had been in full bloom when I had left them that morning, had got so top heavy with rain, that they had flipped off the window sill and on to the ground, and all the stems had boken, and that my one peonie bloom [one, because some child, that shall remain nameless, had broken off several buds previously] that had only open two days ago, had been massacared, its mass of apple blossom petals in a pile on the ground!) but to my delight everything had survived, and looked beautiful with little droplets of rain sitting prettily on everything. So lovely that I decided to take some pictures to show you.....

Now today I have to decide what to cook for dinner on sunday, has I have invited Mum, Dad, sister Libby, and my Brother William (doubt he'll turn up though) for Father's Day/Mum's Birthday lunch. Any Idea's for a summery menu? I'll have a look in CL and Sainsburys magazine for inspiration.

Aaaaahhhhh!

The culprit.......
Lily is moulting and it's driving me bonkers! No sooner have I cleared up one lot of her fluffy bundles of white hair that collect around the skirting board and under the kitchen table, than another collection appears, does anyone else have the same problem?

Yes I know if I brushed her properly then it might not be so bad, but Lily has a penchant for dog brushes, and I don't seem to have any left! I suppose thats another thing to add to my long list of things that need sorting out.

Any way on a nicer note I'm going be sending off my first swap today to Jane, and on sunday it's fathers day, and monday it's my mum's birthday so I've been buying lots of lovely presents, which I love doing, and mum wants me to make her a sketch book holder wrap thingy, like the piggy one I made, in this lovely gingham check......

- we're both a bit obessessed with the colour blue in various shades. Mum has just retired from teaching, and has gone back to rediscovering being arty again (she has a MA in ceramics from the Royal College of Art) and is doing some lovely sketches of St Paul's Cathedral and painting various ceramics she has at home, mainly in blue, which I shall be posting soon.

and for Dad, I've bought This lovely pen from Joanna Wood, because he's a writer and he collects silver 'Kings' pattern cutlery......

The traveller returns

We enjoyed a big family gathering on sunday, to celebrate my Bollywood film-star cousin-George's home-coming from his around-the-world gap-year, lucky for us the weather was gorgeous, and after the BBQ we tucked in to this fantastic homemade cake made by Susie and her girls Katy, Alice and Lily......

Ella was on top form after recovering from chickenpox - back to nursery on monday, thank god!

and Mimi's (my grandmother) garden was blooming beautifully.....

and we shall be eating David's left-over rice salad for the next week.

Shameless plug

Ok, just spoken to Phillippa (my sister-in-law), and she is thinking about starting a blog too, but in the meantime she has asked me to plug her business, Zia Koko (which I work for).

So here's the science bit - Together her, her mum, and me, make beautiful, but affordable made-to-measure curtains and blinds, and other stuff (if we get asked to, so don't be shy!). We can make them in your own fabric or we have a wide selection of top quality fabrics to choose from, including our most popular line at the moment, our luxurious fully lined and interlined handwoven silk dupion range, showing here.........

and here........
and here.........

She's such a slave driver!!! So just have a look for my sake, and tell her I sent you.

Sketch Book Wrap

So several hours later and here it is...................

.

I'm in love with this pig fabric.......

Old Rocker

Since spying this in a magazine last year, I have been longing for one.......

But since they cost over 3 grand (over $6000), I have a funny feeling I will have to wait a while.
They are made by a lovely company in england called OddLimited who based the design on their great aunt's swinging sofa that they had inherited.

Car Boot Finds

Last sunday I went to my local car boot sale, and I bought a lovely pale blue spot and stripe reversible double duvet cover with two pillowcases for a £1 ($2 approx) which I will cut up and make something with, and a lovely vintage pin tin also £1, along with some plants.

Talking of vintage tins, look at this fantastic cigarette tin I found last year.........

I love the tag line

"The Aristocrat of Cigarettes"

'How derrribly, derrribly British!'

I want, I want, I want!

Isn't it gorgeous!!

I will have a figaro, one day.

What Postie Brought

After wondering what I was going to write about in my first post, this morning I had the answer. It was like christmas when I opened the door to Mr Postie today! Here is the contents of the many parcels I received.

My first order from Kitty-Craft

some cute crochet cherries and strawberries from Susa

these gorgeous indian beaded embellishments from SweetKate

and this lovely fabric from Janells

Aren't I lucky! Now I've got to decide what to do with it all...... I've been inspired by this lovely lady, Mollychicken, and I think am going to have a go at making something like this

so watch this space...........