Summer update

There has been some making.......


some updating.......


some treasure hunting............




a trip to the seaside.........


some celebrating - mum & dad's 35th anniversary..............


mum spent weeks planning a picnic, but on the day it was drizzly, so we decided to have it in their conservatory instead, as close to outdoors as possible!


and then last sunday at 4am, after spending all night up with her, Lily gave birth to the first of the pups, and the last was born at 8am. Mum came over in the morning to let me have some sleep, and then she took Ella home with her to stay for a few days, to lighten my load.


she had nine, 3 girls and 6 boys, but unfortunately I discovered that one of the boys had a cleft palate, the reason why he couldn't latch on, my sister came over on monday evening, and helped me feed him by hand over night, and the next morning we took them all the the vet, who said his chances were very slim, as it was quite a bad cleft, and it would be better in the long run to have him put to sleep. It was so sad, I was so glad I had libby to sob in the surgery with!
Over a week on and mum and the rest are doing fine, they've more than doubled in weight already. We have five families booked in to visit when they are 4 weeks old, so if all goes well we only have 1 girl and 2 boys leaft to sell, and they are only 1 and a 1/2 weeks old.

Seaside love

It's been a while but I have finally got round to uploading my photos of southwold, unfortunately about half are missing. I took them using my mum's camera, (because the battery pack in mine isn't holding it's charge anymore, and is always switching off) but when I put the SD card back into mine when I got home, they seemed to have disappeared, and they aren't on my mum's camera either.

I have finally given in to getting a new camera, so after a bit of blog and review reading, I have made my choice, and hopefully it is winging it's way to me as we speak, yippie!

But in the meantime here are some lovely beachy pictures from beautiful southwold....



I loved this one, someone had their children (or grandchildren) waving from a window painted on the wooden shutters of theirs.




We couldn't keep Ella out of the sea, although she never went in deeper than bottom level, we all had a paddle too, But Danny won the award for bravery (or stupidity) and had a rather chilly evening swim after too many pints of Broadside in the Nelson!


These are my lovely things that I brought home with me, some lovely stripey towels in pink/white and blue/white, two new baskets, the shopper was £11 and Dad bought me the lovely green one (such a lovely shade of green) for my vegetable patch (it's available online from Garden Trading if you fallen it love with it like I did and at a reasonable £13.50)


I couldn't resist this pretty rose enamel basin, although I'm struggling to find a place or use for it, as Danny keeps reminding me.


and here are some beach finds, (apart from the shell) a piece of wood, painted a pretty shade of pale blue, two stones with a hole right through, they are supposed to be lucky so I'm told......


as well as these lovely weathered bricks, they crop up all over the beach, I wonder where they came from, and what they used to be?


In keeping with this post's seaside theme, I've recently discovered a lovely new blog called driftwood shack, so if your hankering after some more seaside love, pop over and say hi.

Finally, thank you to all of you that have entered my blogiversary giveaway, I will be announcing the winner on friday, but remember, everyone who entered is a runner up and gets a little present so please email your addresses via the link on my 'about me' profile, so I can start sending your little packages!

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.