Little House by the Sea

When it all gets too much !

2012-01-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

Stuff that is !
We moved from our teeny tiny house some years ago into what seemed a HUGE house with lots of storage, two gardens, garage and a monstrous attic. Fast forward some years and way too much stuff later and we have a house in the shape of a barrel about to burst at the seams. There is literally way too much stuff cluttered on most surfaces and just dont mention the drawers, garage or attic (shudder)
Now I am not for this minimalist clap trap, no offence but I just dont cut the mustard there. But I just cant be doing with all of these things and lets be brutally honest with ourselves, Do we actually NEED it ? The answer is most certainly NO I DO NOT !!!

I have set myself many a challenge this year for different things but the first one I am acting upon is the Great 2012 De-Clutter.. No cupboard, box, garage or handbag (not that I actually have that many) is safe. Stuff will be re-homed if possible or sent to the lovely ladies who run a local charity shop to be used by another raising money for a great cause close to my heart. I dont have any photos right now but I will document the shamefull amount of "Too Much" I have and let you know how it is going. I think it will probably take the rest of the year.

Dare you join me ? Go on I dare ya!

Busy as a Bee

2012-01-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

The last week as seen me inspired to finish off those craft projects that you start and for one reason or another you just dont get round to finishing, you know the UFO (UnFinished Object)

Well I seem to have plenty of them right now. Well firstly I needed to finish my Father in Laws birthday present, he recently commented that he would like a crochet blanket to keep him warm on an evening as he always feels cold. So here you are, its more than big enough to put over his lap on a cold evening and it keeps you super warm. It looks smaller here but its on a king size bed. Perhaps not the best colours but this is what I already had in and we are been frugal here in this little house right now.

Friday saw me behind this little love, that was until somehow the foot fell off and it all jammed up. I managed to get it all apart and fixed with the aid of a trusty screw driver.

This is what I have been making, you may remember this post some time ago. Well I never actually got round to finishing the quilt and it lay in a box for however long. Friday was its lucky day and out it came to be finished into the lovely snuggly quilt. Sorry for the poor photograph but it proved a little tricky to get a good shot. Anyway this is to be for her 13th Birthday in a few weeks and I am wanting to embroider a name tag for the back but cant decide upon a name for the quilt. Any ideas ?

This is a quick card that I made for a friend of my Daughters for her Birthday recently. I haven't made cards for years despite the amount of card stuff I have in drawers, cupboards and boxes. It was nice to just sit for afew minutes and get this done, I might even have to make another soon.

Well I have to dash as Sunday evenings get rather busy here. Thank you for reading and please leave a comment to tell me you have been.

2nd January

2012-01-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

Hello again, the picture above shows some of the rather lovely gifts sent to me as part of the Advent Swap by Rachael at http://www.sewrayme.co.uk/ , please do have a look at her website and look at the wonderful things she is making. Thank you very much Rachel, I hope that you liked the things that I sent you. Oh yes there was chocolate in the parcel but it didnt last long enough to be photographed !

Today was a glorious start to the year with blue skies and the sun was shining, we headed out just before lunch to blow the Christmas cobwebs away and have a walk. We went to Beamish Museum where they were still decorated for christmas. How I would love to live in these houses, I could just spend all day tucked up beside the fire in the rocking chair.

I just love how these rugs are made from fabric scraps, I have all of the original tools to make these that belonged to my Great Grandmother and hope that one day I will be able to find the time to make on of my very own.

Perhaps it was a good thing that the fire was not lit or I might have pulled up a chair, it was very cold.

There were checstnuts in the bowl on the table.

The parlour was all set out in its very finest.

I am enjoying getting back to blogging and hope that I can keep it up. I have some crochet projects to show you when I post next.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T08:52:00.000-08:00

Hello, I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and I wish you all a very Happy New Year.
I have not had the blogging bug recently but over the last few weeks have been thinking about the blog and miss been over here. I have however been reading lots of your blogs.

I recently took part in an Advent Swap and my partner was Rachael from http://www.sewrayme.co.uk/ , I will post pictured of what she sent me later, however thank you so very much Rachael. Do pop over to her blog and have a look at some of the things that she is making, a very talented lady.

I havent made any New Year resolutions as from past experience I dont keep up with them, however there are afew things that I am going to try and do this year.

I must try and have the house more organised, so 2012 will see the start of a HUGE de-clutter. My home is literally bursting at the seams.
I must address my issues with food. I enjoy food and cooking (mostly eating) but find that the busier I become the further down the list of priorities cooking and more importantly eating becomes. Dont get me wrong I cook for the children and they eat healthily, but I am in the habit of snacking or missing meals altogether. I should take lunches to work with me but run out of time to prepare them so end up either with a supermarket sandwich (blech!) or a biscuit from the tin in the staffroom. This means that by the time I get home I am starving and snack again. For evening meals quite often I just cant face anything and end up with toast or cereal. I have ALOT of cookery books and even have a subscription to Good Food magazine but feel completely uninspired.
I will take more time out for me before I completely burn out, enough said there.

Anyway I fear that this is becoming a list so I am off to finish off the lovely dinner I prepared this morning and sit at the table with my lovely family and enjoy some food.

I am actually looking forward to getting back into the blog, I have been reading yours even though I havent really left comments.

Blessings x

A cup of something warm

2011-09-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

I just thought that I would share a quick recipe to warm your soul.

Hot Caramel Apple Drink

* A mug of apple juice (or more depending on how many your serving)
* Caramel Syrup, how much depends upon your taste.
* A dash of vanilla

Put in a saucepan and heat through. Serve in your favourite mug.

Lovely Jubbley

(certainly not a drink to give to your diabetic mother !!!)

Handmade Christmas

2011-08-28T03:16:00.000-07:00

Shhhhhhh I hate to admit it but I have been thinking about Christmas. "It is still August !" I hear you cry.
Well the truth be told I love the seasons of Autumn and Winter, there is nothing more cosy than snuggling down at the end of the day when it is cold outside and this generally leads to Christmas.
During the last few weeks we have been out and about and I have seen things that would make lovely christmas presents for our nearest and dearest, but it also made me think about what I would like to do for christmas presents this year. I have decided to try and make as much as possible this year, I have actually already bought a couple of gifts but I may try and make a little something to go with them too.
We give gifts to quite alot of family and some friends so I am going to start with the family gifts (cant post them on here as family will read it, but might post the odd sneaky picture).
I also have lots and lots of card making things. Years ago I used to make cards by the dozen but havent made one in ages. I thought that I would also make a start on the christmas cards too. So according to the countdown I have looked at there are 118 days until christmas, there is plenty of time !! Ha Ha, better get my skates on I think !

Are you planning for christmas yet ?

Treasure Hunters !

2011-08-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hello, although I doubt that there is anyone left reading this it has been so long since I last updated. I did try to start another blog as I felt that perhaps my time here was done but I kept changing the name as I couldnt decide on it. However after some soul searching I have returned here, its like coming home ! The above picture I took in a local park yesterday, to remind me that the sun did infact shine during the Summer of 2011, however brief.
My children are growing at a fast rate, the eldest is already taller than me and take a shoe size two bigger. The ten year old takes the same shoe size and will soon no doubt be overtaking me in the height department. Its strange to see my children who I nursed in my arms grow taller than me, it doesnt take alot I guess. There are good things in little bundles as my Gran would say. ha !

Anyway Now that they are growing they dont want to do the same things we have done over previous summers, the eldest skulks around in a pre teenogre way most days and is easily wound up by little brothers who know which buttons to press to get what reactions. I am trying to get them out of the house at every opportunity to burn off their energy so was super excited when I discovered GEOCACHING . Basically its like treasure hunting with GPS. I used my mobile for the GPS and off we went with the dog in tow. Once we arrived at the location we then have to hunt out the "treasure". This is the best part as it was in quite a busy place with lots of people about. However find the treasure we did. Inside were little items that you can exchange and a log book to record your find. The box is then carefully wrapped back up and put back in its secret hiding place. The kids thought it was great fun. My only concern was what people would be thinking as we rummaged around for it, but then again my Hubby tells me I think too much. Ha ha !

If you are looking for a free activity to do with the jkids this summer then I highly suggest you have a look into this. I would probably try to look for a cache somewhere I didnt know next time but as this was out first then the local park was a good place to try it out.

Accountability

2011-07-28T02:14:00.000-07:00

Right now my house looks like it could be in either "How Clean is your house" or "Anthea Turners Perfect Housedwife" TV shows, and I mean the before part of the show not the after. I have neither the motivation nor the inclination to do much about it right now. However I really need to do it. Yesterday I had the perfect excuse after a phone call inviting me out on a shopping trip, well to say I was out of the house in a flash is an understatement.

Well I thought that if I blogged about it then it would have to happen as I would be held accountable , if you see what I mean. If the great wide blogging world knew that I needed to do it then to save face I would have to get it done. I would show some before pictures so we can compare the after but I would be too ashamed to do it. So you will just have to imagine what it looks like, ha ha ha !

When I was washing the dishes the other day (dishwasher is broken) I was thinking about the people out there who would be greatful to have dishes to wash or the people who would be greatful to have food on their plates to feed their hungry families. So everytime I grumbled about the pile of dishes, and there seemed alot, I gave thanks for the food we had eaten and the fact that I could stand there and wash them in my own cozy home.

I have alot of books on the Amish and the Shaker way of life, Oh my goodness how I admire these people especially the women. They take care of what can be huge families with limited modern things that most other families wouldnt dream of not having. They make do with what they have and still have time for the family. Granted few of these women actually work outside the home and with grown up daughters at home they also do their part to keep the house in order. I am sure it is not an idilic life and it would certainly not be for everyone, but I enjoy dipping into these books from time to time.

Anyway, I shall get going I have lots to be getting on with. I shall be back later in the day to update on how it has been going. If you would like to share some top Housekeeping tips then please leave a comment and I will reply as soon as possible.

God Bless.

Crochet and knitting

2011-06-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

We have been spending lots of time with delicious wool and cotton recently. My son, like most boys his age is not a fan of getting washed, I mean a biy is just "meant" to be dirty, right? Well when we were in a wool shop recently he was telling the lady that I had been knitting dishcloths and she said that knitted face cloths were nice to. Upon seeing his interest I showed him the cotton and the above is his new, only for him,lovely and sof face cloth. He asks for it all of the time now, a bath is not complete without it. I am now a convert, it is incredible just how soft these are when you put them in the water. I intend on making one for each of us, probably more. As you can see it is just a crochet granny square but the first round is crocheted into a star. It is the first crochet pattern that I have been able to follow so I am quite pleased with it.

Here is my daughter finishing off a knitted dish cloth. Again these are fab. They scrub off even the most burnt on food from the pan, trust me I burn alot of things, Ha. Just basic cotton available from most wool shops. I think I paid about £1.20 for a ball of this. I am not sure how much the face cloth cotton cost me, but there is loads left to make some more.

Change Your Life

2011-06-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to change your life ? I mean I know if we had unlimited amounts of money or no commitments we could just do what we wanted, live our dreams so to speak. But what if your dreams mean living in this when infact you are living in a 1950's style box of a house, your out at work all day, running to kids clubs at night, driving a gas guzzling car and generally too exhausted at the weekends to do anything.
For some time now I have thought about the changes I would like to make in order to live a more simple life where we have the time and energy to stop and smell the roses. I thought about it but didnt really put much effort into anything else, perhaps it was because I was too tired by the end of the week and it seemed the "simple" option just to do the same things we usually do.

There are some things that have to stay the same, sadly there is nothing that I can do about these things for now. But I am so inspired to see what we can do in our current home to bring a few simple pleasures to our home and lives. I hope that you join us on our journey.

Living the Good Life

2011-02-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

What a lovely end to the week, we have had such a lovely time this week that it is a shame that it is back to the "normals" tomorrow.

My Hubby bought me a magazine today and inside was a pattern for these cushion covers, I am not sure that my knitting skills can manage these right now but I will have a go as I love them. I need cushions so watch this space.

I have spent some time this afternoon in the kitchen felting some lovely wool from a kit I was bought some time ago, this is going to be made into purse.

Ymmy cupcakes have been made by the children.

Allotments have been dug over.

I am refreshed but sad that my little ones will be back to school tomorrow and I back to work.

Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment.

S x

A Chocolate Brownie and Fruit Smoothie kind of day !

2011-02-22T09:03:00.000-08:00

Today has been a lovely day with my little family, treasuring the small stuff and just spending time together. There are days (and there are many) when little is done other than the basics we need to do to get through the day. We only get time once so it is our duty to spend it wisely and without regret.

We made Chocolate Chip Brownies today, perhaps not totally healthy but the joy in the childrens faces as they measured and mixed was worth it, such fun was had and I keep telling myself that as they were homemade they are not full of preservatives and other nasties and so in my mind qualify to be somewhat healthy.

To boost our vitamin intake we made fruit smoothies, they tasted a little tart to be honest due to the addition of the lemon so I had to add a little vanilla sugar to the mix to encourage my son to drink it. He drank most of it so I was a happy momma . He will avoid fruit if he can, although he is getting better at trying new fruits and is choosing another smoothie recipe for another day so this is a step in the right direction.

How I am enjoying this time with the children at home, yes there is bickering but there has been time spent together doing nice things. It gives me chance to reflect, I think about where we have been and where we are going, challenges that lie ahead and how once I close the front door and we are in the warmth of our home it does not matter how fast paced the world is outside, we choose to live our simple slow paced life together.

What are your plans for the day ? I would love to know.

Taking Control

2011-02-21T01:50:00.000-08:00

Gosh, I cant believe that we are near the end of February already, where has the time gone ? With the best of wills, life seems to get more and more crazy and Iam sure that someone has taken afew hours out of the day as I dont believe that there are actually 24 hours in a day , maybe only 16.

Anyway, with this in mind I decided to stop procrastinating and actually get going and get things done. I have a mental list of the things that need to be done and it is getting bigger and bigger, so I hope that by taking baby steps I can work my way through the list. Well thats the plan anyway.. ha ! I am wanting to split these goals into two parts, the first is for the house organisation and the second is doing the things for me that I dont get round to doing, things that I enjoy or want to do or for health reasons.
So first on my list is out of the way,
1. Stop procrastinating (done)
Number 2 is to get the kitchen sorted, this is todays job.
I am also trying to eat more healthy and do some more exercise.
Through life been super busy I am tending to eat whilst on the move, thats if I get round to it.
There are many days when it gets to dinner time and I have not eaten or had a drink or something like that, so I need to take care of myself a little better.
I am going to go food shopping this evening and I will be putting more healthy items in the trolley. I will post about that tomorrow.
Another thing on the list for me is to try and blog more often.

Right I am off to get started on the kitchen then I need to take the dog out for a walk (this counts as exercise, right?)

By the way, the pictres above were taken last summer. The top on is when sailing around the West Coast of Scotland, then the British Superbikes at Croft and Hawes in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.

Thrilled

2011-01-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

Its how I am feeling with this little lot right now, THRILLED... For ages I have wanted to be able to crochet, but due to a lack of time I have been unable to commit to giving it a fair try. I managed a granny square which you can see on one of the previous posts but there was something not quite right. Thank you for your comments and suggestions, yes I was adding some etra stitches in so it was looking a little strange. Anyhow, I think that I have got it right now, have a look at this.................

I have been practising and here is my granny square...
Its not perhaps the best colour but when I went out for wool I only wanted something to practise with so bought this. The wool wont get used for so I have decided to keep on going until I use up all of the wool. We always have a need for blankets in the car so I plan on it been kept in there. I am pleased with it though...
And I have also got the sewing machine out again.

I started this quilt ages ago, you can see here but it never got finished. I have felt really motivated with doing some crafts recently so I got it out to finish. I have all of the squares sewn into strips and I am about half was sewing the strips together. Some of the squares are not quite lined up accurately but I think it is looking so pretty that it wont matter and besides, I have seen worse sewing in some of the so called designer shops for a pricely sum. I also doubt that my daughter will care as she snuggles up in it. I had it in my mind to give the quilt a name as I quite liked the idea, however when I am seeing it sewn together I am not sure if the name I wanted will be right .. I will have to see when it is all done..

What craft projects do you have on the go ?

GOD Bless,

S x

Looking Ahead.

2011-01-10T07:33:00.000-08:00

I am looking forward to the year ahead. There seems to be so much I want to pack into twelve tiny little months that I am not sure it is possible. This time of year is usually, for most, a time of new promises and fortunes. A time when we are sure we can do it all differently, they are sure that this year is the year. I don't normally like resolutions, particularly as I only keep to them for a few weeks before they become a distant memory and best forgotten.

However this year, I want to focus more on my little family in our little house. I am too aware that the children are no longer babes in arms, they are growing up faster than I ever could have imagined possible. They are entering a phase in life that is so enjoyable, my daughter appears to be joined at my hip. I didn't expect this at eleven, but she seems to want to be with me and join in with the things that I am doing. My son is the funniest little man, he entertains us with his dancing and jokes.
I want to remember these times and soak them all up before they are getting us to drop them off round the corner from where they are meeting friends for fear of embarrassment. I am sure that this time will come all to soon.

It seems the thing in the blog world to choose a word for the year, I find it hard to settle on just one. Maybe it should be FAMILY or CELEBRATE.... What do you think ?

Do you have a word for the year?

Crochet !

2011-01-02T14:15:00.001-08:00

Last year, probably around June I bought myself a crochet magazine complete with wool and was determined to crochet. My Mum showed me how to make a Granny Square, I tried but rather quickly gave it up as a bad job and never really thought about it again (apart from my Mum asking me if I had had another go and been completely envious of both her and Melanie and their crochet talent). Anyway, I cant claim it is my work but here is a picture of the Granny Square Mum made for me.

Today having looked at more of Melanies work I thought I would dust of the crochet hooks and have another go. Here is my version of a Granny Square (looks a little odd if you ask me but I think it is on the right lines).

Here they are both together (I dont know why blogger has rotated my pictures)

Ok so here are my questions for those of you who crochet.

Is the tension on my square too tight ? It doesnt look as neat and fluffy (technical terms here) as the other.
As the wool was free with a magazine I am sure it would be really cheap wool, would it be better to get a better quality wool ? (although I am sure that my Mum used wool from the same pack so would it be down to tension and lack of experience?)
How do I know what hook to use ? Again as this was free wool I dont really know what type it is and have not been knitting long enough to be able to tell the type from 100 yds.

If you are still there and havent fallen off to sleep with the lack of excitement please pop over to Melanie and see what she made herself for christmas, tell her to keep posting (more often,ahem) and you never know I may be inspired to make another granny square within the next 6 months, you never know.

Happy New Year !

2011-01-01T12:18:00.001-08:00

I hope that your Christmas was magical and full of joy.

This is what we have spent most of the day doing today. We are soaking up every last drop of Christmassy fun that we can. I have enjoyed spending time with the children doing whatever it is they are doing and playing this game under the light of candles and the tree was just perfect.

GOD Bless.

Peppermint Bark !

2010-12-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas ! I recently saw some Peppermint Bark but the price was a little out of my price range (£30). So what else do you do on a cold snowy day ? Make your own. Here is what we did.......

You need 2 packs of either dark or milk chocolate, two packs of white chocolate and some peppermint candy canes or similar sweets (how many depends on how much peppermint you like to eat, you can also add more or less chocolate depending on how big the tin is you are going to put it in).Chop up both of your choclates but keep them in separate bowls for now.

Put the chocolate in a bain marie or microwave to melt it. Start with the plain/milk chocolate first as you want this to set in the fridge before you do the white chocolate.

Whilst you are waiting for the chocolate to melt you can get your willing helper to crush the candy canes for you. You need the bits to be quite big and chunky though.

Once you have meted your chocolate your need to put it in a tin lined with either foil or greaseproof paper. It then needs to go into the fridge and you need to start and melt the white chocolate. When the milk/dark chocolate has set in the fridge you need to pour the white chocolate onto the top of the set chocolate. (tip: let the white chocolate cool before you put it on the set chocolate as it will melt it).

When you have put the white chocolate on the top you need to tip the baking sheet to cover the top. Whilst your chocolate is still runny you need to sprinkle the crushed candy canes on the top. Put it into the fridge to allow it to set.

When it is set this is what it will look like. Take it out of the tin and remove the paper/foil. Chop it into bitesize pieces.

(tip: it will be quite hard to cut as it is cold so I would get the strongest member of the family to do this for you.)

Serve.

Yummy yummy yummy !

I would store it in the fridge to keep it fresh and stop it from melting, although I suspect it wont last very long as it is so yummy.

Gifts From Heaven

2010-10-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

Whilst talking to my nine year old son the other day he said the following to me.

Before babies are born they live in Heaven with God. When the baby is ready to be born GOD looks down to earth and chooses the perfect parents for the Baby and sends it. GOD chose you and Dad to look after me.

This year has been an emotional rollercoaster for us due to my son going to hospital for open heart surgery. So yes my Dear, you truly are a gift from GOD. I could not be more thankful that GOD listened to my prayers about you.

Does it get any better ?

2010-08-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Playing with Lego in the drive which has been freshly decorated by ones sister with chalk, and eating a big bowl of ice cream.

I sit here now quickly updating on here because this is a moment I want to remember, remembering when they were playing out in the sunshine, no arguing, no games machines, just plain and simple playing with eachother.

Thank you for your comments on my last blog post, I am going to do a post on simplicity for me but I feel that as things have been complicated recently it may be more of a slow process to get things back to the way I need them so it may turn into lots of blog posts on the subject.

Simple

2010-08-11T02:50:00.001-07:00

If I were to ask what what "Living a Simple Life " meant to you, what would you reply ?

Would it be living in a Hobbit Hole and having nothing to do with other people ?

Living like Tom and Barbara Good ?

Or do you just like your modern comforts ?

Answers on a post card please !
(there is no wrong or right answer, I am just pondering )

Things he wishes he had known !

2010-08-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

Here are six things that my hubby wished he had known before we got married.

1 Ladies absolutely, never, put petrol in the car. This is a Mans job.

2 I am impatient. I love to sew but I want it finished NOW. I love it when he decorates but
I want it finished now. Ok so now you see what I mean.

3 I hate anything that crawls, creeps, shifts and scurries and it is his job as the man to deal
with such uninvited visitors.

4 I am completelty anti feminist. There are things which are for ladies to do and other such
things are deemed as mans work.

5 I will at all costs avoid touching raw meat. YUK !

6 And probably the four words he dreads hearing the most "I have been thinking"
These four words are sure to make the hairs stand up on his neck. Ha ha ha !

Having said all of this, he has known me since I was eight years old so perhaps he knew about these silly things beforehand.

All Change

2010-07-30T03:08:00.000-07:00

This post will probably be a long ramble so please feel free to skip over ;-) but it comes straight from the heart, no editing, changing or deleting allowed.

Recent events in our home have made me stand back and look. When did I get so busy that I didnt have the time to stand back and just look. Look at the beautiful family I have been blessed with, my Husband and children. Look at the things we have, they may not be the latest and greatest but they are ours and we have worked hard for them. Look at the things that are important in life.

It saddens me to think that I have changed so much over the years, from the carefree stay at home Mum who would welcome you at the door with paint in her hair and funny yummy children running around behind her. The chaos you would come into was so much fun, the house may be a mess but there was lots of giggles and laughter and there was always a cup of tea and some freshly baked cakes (iced by little people of course) to be shared.
Now you come into our home and the chaos is still there but for me it is not a nice chaos. It is the type that consumes you, takes away the very soul that made you the funny mummy. You no longer have the time to do the fun stuff with the children as you are always dashing here there and everywhere, the house is a mess but not with toys and laughter, there is work stuff on the table and school papers pilled up waiting to be signed, ironing waiting to be done and Mummy just doesnt have the time anymore. I guess the point I am trying to get across is that although these things are normal in most families these are the things that take over my life and we seem to have forgotten to have some fun.

I am sat in the kitchen right now and I can see craft kits that the children have left here, waiting for the day when I dont say "I dont have time" or "Later".. I can see the dissapointment in their faces when I suggest that whatever I am doing at the time is far more important. Yes there are times when we just cant fit it in, but surely we should be making the time to be with our children before they decide that you are just too much of an embarresment to be seen walking down the street with and they get you to drop them off a street away from their destination.

Now I am not going to beat myself up too much at my personal failings, i dont think that it would do anyone any good. I just want to make some changes along the way. I think that it is important to spend time with your family and enjoy them, let them know that they mean the world to you. Not by buying them stuff but by been with them when you can and making it fun , quality time. My son is currently sat inside the biggest box you ever did see and he is having so much fun.

So right now, starting from today, this house is changing. yes there is still day to day house stuff that needs doing in order for us to have clean clothes and food in our bellies but the focus is going to be more on family.

If you are still there and not gone to sleep, I thank you. I am looking forward to this next journey in life to getting back to been the old me, I hope that you will join me in stepping back and looking at what is really important to you and your family.

GOD Bless.

Hello

2010-07-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

Well I cant thin of a suitable title for this post so that will have to do for now.

Well the last few months have gone in a blur, they are not the kind of months that I would want to repeat. Things have been kind of difficult here in this little house, we are all ok praise the Lord, but there were times when I had to rely on others to get me through the day. I am not trying to be cryptic but I am just not really ready to talk about some events on the blog just yet.

Anyway, there has been a serious lack or crafting of ANY type happening here and this makes me a SAD bunny. This is something that I hope to change and update you with some Yummy crafty candy very shortly.

I had a lovely trip to a local WI with the ever so Vintage looking Melanie (pop on over to her blog and say Hi ). Well I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, a talk on vegetarian cookery and fab compan with lovely new friendships been formed. Melanie is sure that she is the one to teach me crochet, well she must have the patience of a saint because many have tried and failed before her.. ha ha ha ha........

Well if you are still reading this, infact it has been so long since I updated you probably have given up on me, I hope that I will be able to update more often about what we are up to. I am looking forward to the summer and all of the fun and adventures that this brings with it. There are only afew more week until school is out and the real fun begins.

Thank you for leaving your comments, I love reading every single one of them.

GOD Bless.

It doesnt have to be perfect.

2010-01-15T04:40:00.000-08:00

I am my own worst critic, honestly I can quite easily pull myself to shreds in a matter of minutes. I am the first person to urge people to try things and tell them all of these wonderful things about themselves but when it comes to me I am not quite so positive.
Is this good for the soul? I doubt it and I am sure it is not good for others to watch you beat yourself up over something quite ridiculous.

Sooooo following on with my Blessings theme I think it is time that I took some time out to be me. Who is me? Well if you ask my Husband I am a cross between Barbara and Margo from The Good Life and Alice from The Vicar of Dibley. My personality changes between the three depending on how Hippy/Green/Eco I am been, how Snobby (me a snob???? NEVER) or been just plain stupid and ridiculous, it can change apparently at any given moment and does quite frequently. Well just for the record he is a cross between Victor Meldrew and Gregory House, misserable, bitter and twisted to the core and you know what I like him just the way he is (ha ha ha).
Anyway in an effort to stop punishing myself for all the millions of things I do I am going to try and be a little kinder to me. I am going to take some time to do the things I want to do and be the person I am Barbara/Margo/Alice....I guess you can bee all three, you dont just have to choose one and stick with it.. We can have different personalities and quirks and still be a good person. I read a quote on another blog recently and it has really stuck with me.

Practise Been The Person You Want To Be.

Think about it, who do you want to be?

Blessings!

2010-01-08T07:23:00.001-08:00

There has been alot of talk in blogland about choosing a word to focus on for the coming year. I liked the idea but have found it hard to choose just one. There are many many things that I need to focus on right now that I found it almost impossible to choose only one. However the word that I finally chose is BLESSINGS.
Why this word in particular? Well there are many people or things that bless us every day but sometimes we just have to take a step back and realise it, "Stop and smell the roses". I mean sometimes it can be the little things we do that mean so much to someone. My eight year old son stood in the kitchen this morning and washed all of the breakfast dishes for me, a small and random act but what a blessing to both him and I. It meant there was one less job for me to do and for him it meant that I was able to do some fun things with him and he was so really proud that he had actually helped me. This year I want to focus some time on the blessings we receive and give to others be it something as little as watching the sun rise over the snow dusted fields (truly a blessing from God) or the kind actions of people.

We have had a lot of snow here recently and in some ways the country has come to a stand still. Whilst this has been in someways an annoyance and of course dangerous, I have enjoyed the slower pace of my life that it has brought with it. Most of the childrens clubs were called off so there was little running around and we were able to snuggle up inside the warmth and watch the snow fall from inside. We didnt go out much to play as the children have been getting over coughs and colds. I did get out for some walks with the dog and we enjoyed the solitude and silence of walking through fields of snow or sugar sprinkles from heaven as I have heard it called. Although it is hard work on your legs and your dog just runs and jumps in it without an issue.
I had a hankering for baking pie the other day, not just any pie but a hot, vanilla, sugary, apple and blackberry pie. Truly, truly yummy. There is a tiny weeny bit left but I doubt very much if it will last untill the morning.
Thank you for calling in at the Little House today and for you kind comments on my last post, I truly enjoy reading them. Keep warm and safe during this winter weather.

GOD Bless,

S x

Sparkley and new

2010-01-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

Not only do we have a new day but also a bright, shiney, sparkley new year. I dont normally care much for the New Year celebrations but for some reason I have looked forward to this one. There are no resolutions in this house but I feel it is certainly time for a change, really a chance in pace.

I have never wanted nor needed the "Rat Race" but have somehow found myself peddaling at 100 miles per hour down "Burn Out" lane. My days are far too busy and I literally have been hitting the ground running from the moment I get up. Breakfast is a thing of the past or it eaten, bowl in hand whilst walking around the house getting things ready to head out of the door. Lunch ???? Not sure what that is.. Sometimes I get to eat during the day when I am working bt then I can hardly claim it to be nutritious. Dinner on an evening is something lovely and scrummy cooked for the children but if DH is not home to actually cook I just end up snackng on rubbish. The lack of food and far too much crammed into the day has left me exhausted and run down (there I admitted it... ha ha ha) not to mention the two weeks I spent in my bed ill with the flu.

I really must make an effort to eat properly and take control of my days so that life is a little slower and I am sure that the health benefits of this will be great.

I have PIF's and another gift to send out that should have already been done some time ago, to you lovely people I apologise and will get onto it as soon as possible.

I hope that your New Year is shiney and sparkley and filled with magic.

S x

Wishing you.....

2009-12-31T01:36:00.000-08:00

Did you all have a good Christmas?
I have not been able to blog for a little while for many many reasons. The main one is that life just got busy busy busy. I prefer to keep things running smoothly and at a slower pace but we were right up there recently with over booked schedules and not enough hours in the day. My christmas shopping was done the weekend prior to christmas, good grief we didnt even get the tree up until the Tuesday before christmas day. Anyway we must not dwell on these things.

I dont do New Year resolutions, but I am going to try and blog a little more (that is if anything worth blogging about actually happens..ha ha ha..) I do have lots of wishes for the coming year and will share them with you as the year goes on.

So I wish you all a safe and Happy New Year.
GOD Bless,
S x

One Hundred and Forty

2009-11-13T02:48:00.000-08:00

Squares cut out to quilt with.

I asked my dear daughter what she would like for christmas and the reply was

"Something to make my room look nice"

Now this is actually an improvement on previous years where she has just asked for "A surprise".

Now some of this fabric I bought to make her something with years ago and we are talking at least 6 years. It has been put away in the hope that I could think of what to make, only seeing the light of day when I would open the box, look, drool and stroke said fabric and put it away.

Some of the fabric flew all the way from Sunny Australia and the talented Levin as part of a swap, I wanted to use it for something special and couldnt think of anything more special than something for my daughter and some of the fabric is from thrifted embroidered table cloths supplied by Grandma. I am not too sure if I have too many squares but having laid the fabric on top of a normal quilt it looks slightly bigger (thanks for the idea Mum) and taking into account the seams I think it will be ok. I dont think there are any hard and fast rules about quilt sizes are there?

There are 41 days until christmas so really I need to get cracking as there are afew other things I want to make for christmas gifts also. I am still feeling a little under the weather though and dont think that my head will put up with the sound of the sewing maching just yet, so I will have to wait a little longer.

Right Now

2009-11-11T04:50:00.000-08:00

This is where I am at. It is dark and miserable and I am feeling Yuck!!! I am sick of watching day time TV and even though I dont think I slept a wink last night, I just cant sleep right now.

I have so many christmas projects that I want to do but I just dont have the energy today. I have been thinking of what to get people, especially those people who already have everything. I so badly wanted to be organised by December 1st but there is no way that that is going to happen now. I heard the other day that a shopping centre nearby was so busy at the weekend that you couldnt get parked. Now I love to go christmas shopping and look for lots of lovelies for the lovelies in my life but I just dont seem to be able to face fighting to get parked and look around. I think that internet shopping may be the way forward.

How are your plans for christmas?

A Day in the Life

2009-11-04T13:08:00.001-08:00

6:30 wake from sleep, shower and get ready for work.

7:00 Get children up, make sure they wash with water (apparently it burns !!!!) and brush teeth make sure they are dressed.

7:50 Run around looking for swimming costume you forgot needs to go to school today.

7:55 Dash out of the door to drop children at school for eight, only to realise you have practically
ZERO petrol.

8:00 Kids dropped off, dash to petrol station.

8:30 Run through the doors at work in the nick of time. Lots of worky stuff during which
time you manage to shovel something into your stomach that resembles lunch.

2:50 You leave work (late, running)

3:00 Collect child 2 from school and run back to the car at great speed.

3:10 Arrive at swiming pool to colect child 1, dash to supermarket as you intend to eat at some
point, call home to collect another swimming kit and deposit child 1 back at swimming pool
for yet another lesson.

4:10 Get back home and start to prepare dinner

4:45 leave house to go and collect child 1

5:10 Arrive back home, finish dinner, try to eat it whilst burning your mouth as it is too hot, getting indigestion for eating too quick.

6:00 Desposit child 2 at club.

6:15 Arrive back home and take dog for walk.

7:15 Collect child 2 (******************)

7:30 Arrive back home to get two tired children bathed and into bed.

8:00 Clean up kitchen, sort washing, answer phone .....................................................

9:00 Collapse into chair and wait for hubby to return home from work.

So to the person who complained at me today for something I had not had time to do but was not all that important.......

WHATEVER !!!!!!!!!

Am I really Bovvered???

I am tired and this is just one day, I could tell you about the rest but you would fall asleep.

Thinking

2009-09-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

I have just been reading some interesting posts over at Green Twins Mummy .
It got me thinking about just how much money we spend on foods and other stuff at the supermarket and how much of that money and food we actually waste every week, You only need to look in the press for an article on what the latest figure if for family waste.
6.2 millions tonnes of food is thrown away in the UK every year, this averages about £420 per family for the year. I dont know about you but I dont want nor can I afford to throw this kind of money away, you may as well put the pound notes through the shredder.

Anyway it got me thinking about how much we could actually spend per week and still have lovely home made food on the table every night, nice meals that were nutricious and lovingly made but perhaps they were costing that little bit less. How much can our food bills be reduced and less food be thrown away whilst still filling little tummies with something good at the end of the day. I dont want to compromise on the quality of our foods but just be a little bit more "savvy" with what we have to spend.

It is a challenge..........
how much can my family of four survive on per week, with ZERO food waste and packed lunches every day for me and Hubby to take to work? Can we meal plan for the week so that we know what we are having for dinner and not rushing out to buy something last minute? Can we be that organised? Ha !!! I think we will have to wait and see.

I have done my food shopping for this week but will be starting from the weekend..
I have tonnes of cookery books, including a couple with war time recipes and one beloved book which is an Amish cook book. They are full of ideas of how to make your meals stretch further and to make the most of what you have got.

This post has gone on for far too long and when read back will probably make po sense at all but I just had to get my thoughts down so they didnt get oushed to the back of my mind.

I also need to make up two packed lunches every day for my Hubby and I.

The Dales

2009-09-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

During the school holidays I was lucky enough to go and stay with one of my older sisters for a week in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. It was so nice to kick back and relax as much as you can do with five children between us This is not her house in the picture below but is one that brought back many happy childhood memories of visits to stay with our "Nannie" as we used to call her. I remember the bus drive with my Gran like it was yesterday.

It couldnt be anywhere but England.
I was holding my nephew up to look over the bridge at the water .
"You wont drop me will you?" he asks
"Of course not, silly"
Now when I was little I can vividly remember my Dad doing the same thing and I was convinced that he would drop me even though he was sure he wouldnt.

Autumn Days.

2009-09-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

Do you remember singing this when you were at school ? I do and I used to love it, I enjoy it more now hearing the sweet voices of my children as they sing and hum the familiar childhood verses.. I am loving Autumn, I love the smells and taste of the damp air and the sound of crisp dried leaves beneath my feet. I think that along with winter and its promise of Christmas, Autum must be one of my favourite seasons of the year. Which is yours?

Autumn days, when the grass is jewelled
And the silk inside a chestnut shell
Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled
All these things I love so well

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Clouds that look like familiar faces
And a winter’s moon with frosted rings
Smell of bacon as I fasten up my laces
And the song the milkman sings.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Whipped-up spray that is rainbow-scattered
And a swallow curving in the sky
Shoes so comfy though they’re worn out and they’re battered
And the taste of apple pie.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Scent of gardens when the rain’s been falling
And a minnow darting down a stream
Picked-up engine that’s been stuttering and stalling
And a win for my home team.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Autumn Days by Estelle White

Lots of fun.

2009-08-13T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hello, firstly a Thank you to April over at Cupcakes make the world a better place for the lovely gifts she sent through the post as a Pay if Forward. What did I recieve ? Lets take a look,

A lovely drawstring bag ( I love pink), a Vanilla Cupcake Yankee Candle Tart (smells wonderful, I have to keeping picking it up to have a smell) and a cross stitch of my name with magnets on it. Oh and a cup cake post card. Thank you so very much April.

In a bid to increase the fruit consumed by the children we decided to make smoothies. My son is not what I would call a fussy eater but there is a huge list of things he thinks he does not like, when he tries to taste them he puts them on the tip of his tounge and then claims to dislike it. So we decided to make Old Fashioned Lemonade, I admit that this was probably too bitter for little taste buds but my daughter loved it. I didnt really follow a recipe but we squeezed the juice from three large lemons,

Squeezed the juice from one orange.

Put this in a jug and added some honey disolved in water (honey syrup)for some sweetness.

Then we put in cold water until we got the taste we were looking for. You can add more or less honey syrup or water until you get a taste you like.

Serve with lots of ice and a slice of lemon or orange.

We also made a smootie using fresh strawberries, one banana and one orange peeled and cut into segments. You whiz it all up in e blender and here you have a delicious healthy drink. We made up a second batch and have frozen them into lollypops for the children. My son turned his nose up at first as the drink appeared to have bits in but he eventually tasted it and loved it .

This was taken this morning when we took the dog for a walk on the beach nearby. What a lovely way to start the day, the kids collected sea glass to add to the collection.

Colours

2009-08-07T05:50:00.001-07:00

Oooo would you just take a look at the colours of these fabric swatches I got from here , you can send for five free swatches if you follow the link.

How can they fail to bring some sunshine into a dull day, I have no idea what to do with them yet but I love them. Perhaps I can put them to some use in the bathroom when we get it decorated. I have lived here for six years and hate hate hate the bathroom but these little stripes of candy may just add a little something to the smallest room in the house.

Talking of colour I took this picture of the sky when we were at the beach the other day. I like the colour of the sky, it is so nice to look up and see the beautiful blue perhaps with the odd fluff of cotton wool floating on by. Lets hope that the sunshine is here to stay.

No trip to the beach would be complete without the obligatory bucket and spade hastily cast aside for the finer things in life.... ice cream.. Again I am loving the green of the grass . My son asked me why I was taking a picture of an ice cream, only a blogger would understand.

Talking of children here is a snippet of a conversation I heard between my two the other day,

Daughter " Mam you used to go Horse Riding didnt you? Do you still have your riding gear?"

Me "Yes it is in the attic"

Daughter " Will Dad get it out?, I could use it."

Son "It will be no use for you"

Daughter "Why?"

Son " They used different riding gear in the Victorian times"

What the ???? At only 34 I am sure I was not around during the Victorian times, perhaps my Great Grandparents were but not me, IAM YOUNG !!!!!!!!

Procrastinating

2009-08-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

Oh why is it that I have put off and put off doing things until they have piled up beyond belief. I think if you were to knock on the door right now I would hide behind the chair for fear of actually letting you enter the house. Honestly there is so much stuff everywhere that you may never see light of day again in an attempt to make it out of the door. My house is yet again fit to burst and I have all the time in the world at the moment in which to actually do something about it. Bleurgh !!!

Anyway moving on to something a little more important here are my kiddlets moments before asking,
"Please Mummy, I will look after it"..
"Of course cherub just open the gate and we can stuff it in the back of the car with the dog"

Please note the horse riding gear my Princess is wearing, I was convinced she was due to go to the stables today, it was lucky I rang on route to check only to find it is not actually today at all. Opps silly Mummy.. Still we had a wonderful walk with the dog and we got to see ponys at the same time.

As you can see the daft dog was happy.

Grandma's Peppermint Creams

2009-07-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

Mt Grandmother used to mka ethese using a handwritted recipe from a book owned by her mother. They are easy peasy to make and I actually let my eight year old make them whilst I snapped away with the camera. You can easily half the recipe if you need to and you can always substitute the raw egg whites for the dried eggs you can buy in the supermarket and you will make them up as directed on the pack .

1lb of icing sugar ( I think this is confectioners sugar in the US)

Few drops of oil of peppermint

Whites of two medium eggs

Few drops of oil.
Few drops of food colouring.

Whisk the egg whites until they are frothy.

Add the icing sugar and peppermint oit to the egg whites and stir until it forms a thick paste.

Add a couple of drops of green food colouring if you like.

Kneed onto a surface covered with icing sugar and either roll out and use cutters to cut or roll small pieces into the palm of your hands and place onto a greased baking tray.
Leave them for a couple of hours to harden.

Eat and enjoy.

Your dentist wont thank you but the children sure will

( I will be sending mine off to brush their teeth the moment one passes their lips)

Winner Winner

2009-07-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry that it has been some time since my last post, things just got kind of crazy. However we are now finished with school for the summer and now let the fun begin.

I used one of those random number generator sites and the winner of my giveaway is

Marit

So if you can email me your address using my email address on the top right of the blog I will get your parcel sent off soon.

I appreciated all of your comments and apologise for not replying to them but it has been very busy here recently. Hopefully now we are in the holidays things will calm down and this means we have much more time for the fun stuff.

4th July and a giveaway.

2009-07-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th July to my American friends.

Why is it that in England, we celebrate nothing. I mean St Georges day passes without anyone noticing, Remembrance Sunday is of course remembered by some, to name but a few. I can remember as a child having street parties for things and certainly during my Grandmother and mothers time people would remember and celebrate event. But in modern day England "Certainly not" unless it is Christmas when people rush out to buy all sorts of crap and junk to get themselves into debt over. Halloween is kind of celebrated but only by children out alone in the dark wearing garish masks knocking on peoples doors for money and not sweets. Most of these children are teenagers who have gone into the nearest shop and bought a £1 mask. (sigh!!).

We have no national days, no special celebrations, remembrances or partys..

WHY ????

Because we are British ... (bleurgh)

OK so I am not feeling all too patriotic today, perhaps I should go out and buy a Union Jack to display, oh but there are rules about those too. grrrrrr..

Ok so as I have American relatives, who granted I have not seen in years (but my Mum keeps in touch with)... am I aloud to celebrate things like Thanksgiving and some of your other fun stuff. Can I be made an Honourany (is that spelt right???) American for the sake of my children who will grow up not having fab celebrations apart from their birthday and christmas ( yes I am probably one of those who dashes around getting stressed buying crap ;> ..... )

Now my English friends if you can prove me wrong then please do so and tell me what we celebrate over here.. Is it just that living way up north we are not civilised enough to know about these things, is there a whole party scene going on that we dont know about and the county dont tell the rough and ready Northerners for fear of invasion.. OK so I am kidding please dont send me emails!!!

BUT please do tell me what as English people we celebrate for our country. Please leave your ideas, links or suggestions in the comments and I will enter all of your names into a hat for a fab giveaway. I am happy to post overseas, please leave your ideas.

2009-07-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

The children and I have been enjoying afew days away. It was truly wonderful and we cant wait to go again. I have wanted to take them for ages, I have been before but didnt have children at the time and I think it is so different when you have your own children with you. Magical.

We are looking forward to the summer holidays, only two weeks to go. Although I have nthing planned at the moment I have lots of ideas of places to take the children and things that we can do at home. I have been searching the web, blogs and the huge amount of activity books I have collected over the years to come up with some cool things to do. My daughter is now ten and I wonder how much longer she will want to do things with me, I know it wont be long before she would rather be out with her friends doing their own thing and Mummy will be the taxi or the personal bank supply. LOL....
I have decorating that I need to do also, My daughters room needs to be done an the front room also needs to be tidied up. Then there is the BIG DE CLUTTER I have planned (shudder) we have lots of old toys and books that have been dearly loved but surely it must be time for them to be passed on to someone and then there is the forest (garden) that my house sits on. It has become so overgrown recently due to lack of time to do anything with it that the dog and children could get lost in the long grass.

I hope that there will be lots happening that are worth blogging about and not just the usual day in day out stuff.

Take Care.

I dont do mornings.

2009-06-13T00:47:00.000-07:00

Urgh at 6.30 this mornng I heard the pitter patter of tiny feet coming through the bedroom door.... WHY is it I cant get this little man out of bed during the week when we have to go to school/work ? But as soon as the weekend comes he is up at the crack of dawn. Mamma is tired and doesnt want to get up so early so she sends him back to bed and peace continues in the house for all of 20 seconds. Can you imagine how LOUD a toy aircraft carrier can be at 6.30 in the morning ( you need to imagine the noise of planes landing and taking off and those noises that ships make, honestly why do they make toys so bloomin loud) so cue : cranky Mummy, Daddy goes off to work and we get out of bed....

I have to stay in all day today waiting for some mail that will be delivered between 9.00 and 5.00 , the sun is shining but stay in we must. I cant go out to the garden as I cant hear the door and I NEED this package today. I dont think that the house has recovered since the children came last week for my sons birthday so there is plenty to be done but I just dont want to do it. Ha.

We are looking at changing things around here a little.
We moved here 6 years ago and at the time I thought that this house was huge compared to our last home but the walls are fit to burst with stuff and it feels oh so small now. They say that the bigger the house the more stuff you fill it with, boy this is so true. In our last kitchen I had a set of drawers, cooker and one double floor unit on one side with the fridge, above this was one double wall unit. On the other side I had the washing machine and a double floor unit with the sink in it. The kitchen was tiny tiny and you could only fit one person inside, if you opened one of the cupboards the door nearly touched the cupboard opposite. Now my kitchen is huge in comparison with lots and lots of storage but the cupboards are fit to burst, I try to sort them out but find that the stuff inside is stuff I want to keep.
The childrens rooms are another story, they are jam packed with stuff and it was only afew weeks ago that I had a huge clear out and took a boot full (volvo estate, so you can imagine how much ) of stuff to the charity shop and yet I feel that there is still so much. I also know that if I were to risk life and limb and climb into the loft that there are piles and piles of stuff up there too.
I am off to get some work done and kick the kids off the TV.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sarah x

Camping

2009-06-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

During the half term holidays we took a family camping trip. I love camping, there is nothing like sleeping under canvas for the night. I dont mind the bugs and creepy crawlies ( unlike me at home), I dont mind the coolness of sleeping under the stars, I am a happy camper as long as I can go and get a nice hot shower to scrub up at the end of the day. This was our base for the week, not the best picture but hey ho !!
Beautiful walks along beautiful beaches. This is what we practically woke up to every day. The beach was right next to the camp site.

Looking the other way. I went walking here on a morning and found it the most wonderful way to start the day. It was so warm when we were away, we were just so lucky. It rained once during the night but as the tents were pitched on sand under the grass it drained and dried up real quick.

Pretty sky's at night.

Happy Puppies.

Happy children going for pony rides along the beach. Well you just HAVE to ride on the beach. The camp site had a riding school and it just so happened that Little Miss packed her riding gear and twisted Daddy around her finger to pay for two lessons (not to mention the lessons she has weekly at home, alas but what are Daddy's for?)

Goodness she is nearly as tall as me, how did that happen?

Oh and yes please take note Mum and Dad, I am actually walking along the beach WITHOUT SHOES.. ha ha ha

I dont think that my poor Dads back has ever recovered from having to carry me onto the wet sand when we went to the beach as kids. I absolutely 100% cant bear the feeling of the sand on my feet. I am no different now but Andrew refuses to carry me anymore, I mean comeon I just dont understand why!!

Well that sums up our little camping trip. I have a busy few weeks ahead of me but there will be lots of fun also. I just cant wait t show you the pictures.

What are you all up to?

Sarah x

Happy Birthday Little Fella

2009-06-07T13:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my not so little boys 8th birthday, I cant believe that he is eight already. Where did the time go? We had a house full of little boys on Saturday, running around and keeping me on my toes.
We bought him the "bestest" present ever. Click here to have a look as the batteries have run out on my camera after taking lots of pictures at the park today. I am exhausted and worn out after a long weekend, so will be back later in the week.

Sarah x

Rose Swap

2009-06-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

I was lucky to join in with Melanie's Rose Swap recently and was paired up with Vanessa. I was blown over with the kindness Vanessa has shown me when I opened her gifts. Just take a look at what she has sent me

This is a beautiful rose box, the kind that you may put photos or cd's in (although this is destined for greater things, not sure what yet though)

The flash is not working on my camera so the pictures look very dark but here are the goodies inside the box.

A pretty rose jug, rose flavoures chocolate (yummy) rose tissues, rose drawer scent bag, rose ornament, rose petals for the bath, rose soap AND.......

The prettiest necklace that I have worn every day since. It is so me...

Girlie and pink.. after all folks a girl can never have too much pink or lip gloss (that is what all the girls in my family get told from their dear old Aunty..lol)

Thank you to Vanessa for her kindness and it you follow the links above to her blog you will get to see much better pictures of the things she has sent for me and you also get to look at more of her stunning pictures.

I have enjoyed taking part in this swap and thought that perhaps we could organise another one maybe a "Pretty in Pink" swap..let me know what you all think.

Birthday Gifts

2009-05-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday gifts to take with us to see special people tomorrow.
My homemade gifts challenge is proving challenging but I am enjoying making them. I think it has motivated me somehow to get the sewing machine out or whatever gift I make and getting on with it instead of putting things off and dashing out to the shops at the last minute.
I do owe a gift for my Daddy but as he is understanding he wont mind waiting until it is made.

I am going to tuck little people into their beds and then wait for Hubby to get home, well atleast there is a man who sometimes appears at the breakfast table and I am sure he lived here once over but for some reason someone called "Work" seems to be taking him away from here.
On a good side I get to have the remote and watch my TV without moans of "What are you watching this crap for ?" ha ha ha..

"Magic"

2009-05-17T11:56:00.001-07:00

My son asked me ages ago to make him a cape fit for a Magician. I just so happened to have the perfect fabric for it so just needed to get some plain black for the outside. I used an old Asda cape we bought for Halloween a couple of years ago as a template to get the right size. The only problem was the purple fabric stretches and slips around so I found it difficult to sew and so is not quite as perfect as I would have liked but hey the magician is happy so that is all that counts.

Here we are and every self respecting Magician knows he has to wear Ben 10 jarmies with his cape.
Even with magical purple sparkly stars

The purple fabric has gold sparkly bit on and they are quite bumpy in texture, not sure that my sewing machine fully appreciated them and its protests were heard.

Happy Magicians all round.

2009-05-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

I am sat here this evening on my own, everyone is tucked up warm in bed apart from me. There is no noise or distractions just me, the dog and the lap top. I had a conversation with my Mum today (on my beloved phone) and she was telling me that my uncle has aksed if I would like to have his oil lamp which belonged to his late wife. This got me talking about my childhood, I used to go with my Dad for a walk that seemed such a long way for such little legs (but was infact just up the road) to go and get parrafin to be used in the lamps at home. I was only born in 1975 so I am not exactly old, LOL.. Our home didnt have any electricity at all so we relied on these lamps for light. Now when I see a lamp or smell the smell of parrafin I am yet again about 5 years old walking with my Daddy. I cant wait to get this lamp from my Uncle, it has certainly come to the right home and will be treasured and used forever.

I feel the urge to add more simplicity into our life, I think that things have got a little crazy around here recently. I feel that the children are in need of more quality time with their parents to learn and experience things that with the day to day busyness of our life are getting put to one side. I want to teach them things that they wont learn in school, I want to lay back on the grass and watch the clouds float past, to cook, bake, sew and tell stories to one another. I am all too aware that my daughter is getting older and I want her to look back on these days and say "Yes, we did that". My son needs to get out of the house on a daily basis, he has so much energy and he needs to work it off. He loves bird watching so we need to spend more time just sitting back and watching.
Both of the children like to help out in the kitchen so we have been cooking up a storm. We decided that on a Wednesday evening the children could cook dinner (with supervision), I may change the day later but it is fitting in quite well at the moment. On Saturday I am going to teach my daughter to knit, I have tried a couple of times but we didnt get very far but this time I know we can do it. I will be back later with pictures.

"Operator"

2009-05-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

Just look at the loveliness that is my new toy.. It is the real thing, not a replica but an original 700 sesries telephone complete with the original "Ring, ring" of childhood days. I keep drifting back to my Nanny's house, sitting by the fire watching... probably Emmerdale, listening to the tick tock of the clock when the phone "Rings".. He he he... My parents also had one but it was one that hung on the kitchen wall. The sad part is that I keep ringing it from my mobile just to hear it ring...

It takes forever to dial a number on it, no speed dial and it is SO LOUD when it rings.. Oh but so much fun. Can you still dial 100 and get the operator?

Here is a picture of my Belle, I think that she looks a little dazed in this photo but she has just tasted her very first frozen ice pop so was probably on a sugar high or something.

In other news I have shrunk my Hubbys newish expensive wool jumper. Do you know what the bad thing is? The first thing I thought when I took it out of the wash and realised it would fit a barbie doll was "Oooooo project". I mean what kind of wicked wife would see the good side in shrinking ones Hubbys lovely jumper? Especially when the project would be of some kind of crafting thing.
Thank you to the lovely Melanie for this award.. I have to nominate seven blogs but this is the hard part if you ask me. There are so many wonderful blogs out there that i find it hard to narrow it down.

Periwinkle

Green Twins Mummy

Cakes make the world a better place

Smilernpb

Faerie Nuff

I Wanna Be Crafty

And I am going to send it right back to Melanie (probably breaking the rules but since when have I followed the rules?) Ok I give it to these blogs as they inspire me in so many different ways.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

2009-04-26T10:45:00.001-07:00

Early morning walks along the cliff edge whilst my daughter was at her riding lesson. There is loads of wildlife near here, mainly lots and lots of birds but we were lucky enough to see a fox...

Inspiration

2009-04-25T02:55:00.000-07:00

Don't you ever just need a little inspiration? You know when you look around you and see the piles of things (read..Crap) that you accumulate and hoard and keep F-O-R-E-V-E-R. You dont know what to do with this stuff and the house is all messy because you are out all day at work and the kids have homework but all they want to to is play and your daughter is bugging you about getting ready for a party in five hours time and you really should make some time to just play with your kids but you have a list as long as a roll of andrex of things to do.... sigh.... Sometimes you just need a little inspiration........
I used to be one of those Mummys who did stuff with the kids, all that crafting stuff and cooking and baking and we had trips out and all sorts of stuff. Now by the end of the week I am exhausted and want to sleep until Monday when I go back to work but then I am annoyed that I wasted the weekend... Ok so tell me what kinds of things you do to keep your children entertained, what do they enjoy and what kind of stuff do you do for family time.. Any ideas greatly appreciated..

Okay rant over with..LOL..

We did enjoy the half term although not all of the activities planned were done but we had fun all the same. I have some lovely pictures on my daughters camera but cant find the cable that connects her camera to the computer so they will have to wait. Anyway here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Lovely walks along the beaches near our home, It is so nice to be able to hop into the car and drive down to the beach. I could walk but I am far too lazy for that.. ha ha ha This is not the closest beach to us but only a short drive away..

Rock pooling on the beach, sadly they were all empty as word had got out that we were going and all of the little creatures made sure they could either hide in the depths of where I was unwilling to put my hands ( well you never know what might run out from under the seaweed )or swim back out to sea.. I am sure I could hear them laughing. Next time we will get them..
Little purses made for little girlies to take to sleepovers. Lovely sleepovers at Grandma's house with lots of sewing, quilting and hiding the remote control from Grandad and forcing him to watch Sponge Bob... ha ha ha....

50 Things about me.

2009-04-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

I found this over at Cakes Make the World a Better Place and thought I would join in on the fun. Feel free to join in but let me know so I can pay you a visit.

1. Are you wearing a hat?No.

2. Bottled water?Sometimes, but I usually drink it from the tap.

3. Do you have a crush on someone right now? Err no not right now.

4. What kind of computer do you have?Fujitsu Lap Top

5. Do you prefer writing in pen or pencil? Pen, but if I am taking notes I will usually use a pencil

6. Who was the last message in your inbox from? A friend from the US telling me about her children.

7. What’s your favorite season? I like them all but will say either Autmn or Winter

8. Does your best friend have a boyfriend or girlfriend?No

9. Do you like Tea? Yes I like a cup of tea but also enjoy herbal teas.

10. Favorite radio station? BBC Radio 2

11. Type your name into Google. What's the first site that appears? An article for a Sustainable Community Workshop.

12. What’s your favorite song at the moment? I think it would be something by Nina Simone.

13. Coke or Pepsi ? Neither.

14. Favorite subject in school? History or French

15. Last concert? Well I took my daughter to see Girls Aloud but a concert for adults would have been either Hayseed Dixie or Marilyn Manson.. Ha bet you were not expecting that. LOL.

16. Next concert? None planned but love to see live music of all sorts as you can see above.

17. Last magazine you bought? Your Home

18. Last book you read? "Hello Fatty" Dawn French

19. Do you prefer cats or dogs? Dogs

20. Is there someone you want to punch right now? Next question, better not name and shame...

21. Favorite sports team? ?????????????

22. Country you most want to visit? USA........

23. Are you a Blogger addict? Probably

24. When do you shower? In the morning.

25. What’s your dream job? Either to be a baker or own my own little Tea Shop.

26. What kind of car do you drive? Volvo

27. What word in the dictionary best describes you? Crazy

28. What’s your blog address? You are reading this so you know..

29. Worst TV show at the moment? Well I dont really watch much telly but Iam going to say the Moto GP as that is all that is on our at the moment and it is on until about October....sigh.....LOL...

30. Are you a better talker or better listener?Listener

31. What your favorite colour? You mean there are other colours than pink.. I didnt know that.

32. What is your favorite animal? Horse

33. Are you afraid of the dark?No.

34. Is there something lacking in your life right now? No.

35. What do you miss most about childhood? Not been afraid to fall off the horse, it hurts when you get older.

36. How many times did it take you to pass your drivers test? Passed on my second test.

37. How many kids do you want? Trillions

38. Are you good painter? No

39. Can you cook? Yes.

40. Are you a cheapskate? No..

41. What would you do with a million dollars? Buy a house in the middle of nowhere with a HUGE fence around the land, get a shotgun and sit on my porch.. No I am not anti social.

42. Have you been to Disney World? Does Disney Land Paris count?

!43. How man days a month are you online? Most of them

44. Last time you went bowling?February for my daughters birthday.

45. Hot or cold weather? Somewhere in the middle

46. How many pairs of shoes do you have? 4 or 5 something like that, Iam not into shoes. The best are my DM'S the best pair of shoes ever and they are PINK!

47. Are you a shop-a-holic?No - I hate going shopping.

48. Where were you yesterday morning at 10:30? Watching our motorbike been taken off the back of an AA truck outside the house.

49. Are you afraid of the dentist? Oh I hate it, terrified. Although I am actually a trained Dental Nurse.. I dont care as long as it is not my mouth. I do go though.

50. Were you bored or entertained by this survey? Entertained.

Sigh !!!!!

2009-04-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

Poor hubby didnt get very far before the AA had to bring him home, at least it was just a breakdown.

I am back to work on Monday (sigh!!) I have had two weeks off and feel much better for it but just dont feel like going back yet. Boo hoo......

Easter Swap

2009-04-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

I recently took part in the Easter Swap hosted by Pixiedust and my swap partner was PJ over at Snailgarden ... Here is a picture of the goodies kindly sent to my from PJ. I cant thank you enough, I love them all.

Beautifully wrapped

Lovely goodies

Cute card

Thank you for such wonderful gifts.

I naturally sent a parcel in the swap but only took a photograph of the mini quilt I made, if you want to see what else I sent you will need to go and visit Snailgarden

Pay it Forward

2009-04-14T01:31:00.000-07:00

I am taking part in a Pay it Forward.. So the first three people to comment on here will receive something from me in the post soon, all you have to do is continue the giving and offer the same over on your blog. I nearly forgot I will need you to email me your address, my email is on the top of the blog page.

Sarah x

Hi there ...

2009-03-22T02:58:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all of your kind comments on my last post. I try so hard to kick back and try and spend more quality time with the family but the days are flying past too fast for my liking. My job is becoming more and more demanding, I want to climb the ladder and progress and for the first time ever I am actually doing something I love and something that I hope I am good at. I hope that once my two are a little older that I will get to University. The problem with my desire for more in the working sense is that I feel that my hard work catches up on me and I am tired and cranky. This means that time at home is precious and I have no idea what crafting is, it is something that I read about on other blogs all of the time but never actually get around to doing any myself. The children are benefiting from me working as it pays for all those little extras, like the new Wii game bought for a little boy yesterday and the new clothes from Monsoon (Sale!!!) for the little girl and those rather expensive horse riding lessons and and and.......... But sometimes I do feel that life may be a little easier if I was at home all day like I was only a couple of years ago.

Anyway this is not a blog for a pity party !!!!!

My daughter was Ten recently. I cant believe that Iam the mother of a ten year old. This time next year I will be getting her ready to go to the Comprehensive school, they grow up so fast.

Someone once told me

"Savour every moment, they are not babies for long".

I never understood what that meant until recently, sigh !!!

At the end of September last year I packed my little girls off to France with the school (yes aged nine and on trips to France). This was a strange time for me as she was so far away. She did however have the most wonderful time and was so lucky to have seen the places she went to. She took some disposable cameras with her as the school requested no digital cameras incase they were lost. well my daughter lost one camera and they dont take the best pictures anyway. The teachers from her school made a disc and slideshow for every child and she came home with this on Friday with literally hundreds of photographs on. It was so nice to sit with her and see where she had been to, they all looked so happy to be there. What an experience.

Because I prefer to add a picture to a post here is the cushion we made for my Brother in Laws birthday recently. The children drew pictures to give him and we put them together to make him this. The fabric on the outside is actually blue but shows up as black on the photograph.

There has also been some home brewing going on over here (forgot to take a picture of the wine)Apparently it is good ( not much of a beer drinker myself)

Happy Mothers Day to all of you wonderful Mamma's out there. I hope that your day is filled with joy.

S xxx

Pondering

2009-03-07T04:58:00.000-08:00

Oh what a couple of weeks I have had. I have been so busy with work and home that these few weeks have flown by in a flash. I have been thinking about the future of this blog and have at times felt that I dont have the time to commit to keep it running and then there are days when I see my life in blogs "Oh I could blog that" or "That would be a good picture for the blog" and all that. There doesnt seem to be much happening here that is worth the time spent on the computer blogging it.

I have decided that I will keep blogging but will only probably post once a week. There I have said it !!!!!!!
This means that I can spend mre time with my family doing all of the wonderful things that I would like to tell you about on here. So no I have not fallen off the face of the earth.. I am still here and will be reading all of your wonderful blogs as much as I can.

Scenes from the day

2009-02-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

Just afew scenes from the day. I am enjoying some much needed rest and relaxation this week. We are on half term holidays so this gives me a whole week off with the children. We have had bloggy meetups with Lucy and Lisa at a local Museum, this involved Hot Chocolate, cake, giggles and laughter. Thank you girls, I had the most wonderful day and cant wait until next time.

Catching afew moments/stitches on my Buttonberry Kit.
Drawing lovely pictures for a special uncles 40th birthday at the weekend.

The want me to stitch these into pillows if I have the time between now and Saturday.

Somtimes I wonder why I so publically announced that there shall be no shop bought gifts this year for birthdays (apart from the books I have stashed away for my Daughters birthday next week). I hope that you are having a good week whatever you are up to.

By the way, the photograph above shows the cardigan that I knit for my daughter, all finished and been worn to keep her snuggly and warm.

A walk in the park

2009-02-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

It has been quite a good day today. After Horse Riding we went out for a walk with the dog. It was beautiful but I am more than ready for spring to come. The woods were so bare and very very muddy. Role on spring.

Last night when the girls ventured out for a dog walk at about 4.45 pm we went out of our usual route and we went into a park not that far from here, we were in there for about 10 minutes before we decided to head home for hot chocolates. Well nobody told us that they locked the gates to the park and we were stuck inside. Nobody knew we had gone there, there was nobody at home expecting us back. Silly Mummy had forgotten her mobile phone and every single gate we went to was locked.
It is a beautiful park but there are lots of trees and bushes and it is kind of in a valley so you just disappear down into the dark and it was 6pm by now.We walked over to a playing field where there was light from the streets and had to climb over the gate. My daughter went first and I then had to lift a black labrador puppy up and over the fence (much to her disgust and protest) and then get myself over without impailing myself in the process. We then had a long walk home as we had come out at the far end of the park. SOOOOOoooo should you ever go for a walk,

Dont forget your mobile phone and dont get locked in the park.

Love is !!

2009-02-14T06:49:00.000-08:00

Its just been the girls today, the smallest member of the house included.

The boys have been out for the day so it was the ideal time to have some time for the girls. I cant think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning than in the kitchen wearing our aprons and listening to some gentle music (ok so my choice was classical but when you are nine years old all you want to listen to is the Mamma Mia soundtrack)

Just for the record, all I did was supervise and make sure that no precious little fingers were burnt in the oven, she did the rest herself. We decided that as it is Valentines Day we should have pretty pink cases for the cake and for the butter icing we pureed some strawberrys and added them to the icing giving it a delicious tasting pink.

Love is...... letting your little one lick the spoon.

Didnt you just love been given the spoon as a child?

When I made her that apron it was HUGE, it now looks so tiny on her she has grown so much and just look at those long hands and fingers, perfect for the clarinet. She didnt get them from me.

All iced and ready to be eaten.

Lovely yummy fairy dust sprinkles to add a finishing touch.

I have also been given some awards recently,

This was from Faerie Nuff

And this was from Faerie Nuff

and Blueberry Heart and Debbie

Thank you to you both very much, I am sorry that it has taken some time to get them posted but gosh I dont know where the time is going at the moment. Blessings to you all.

Now the rules,

The authors say that blogs who receive this award are exceedingly charming. This blog invests in proximity in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandisement. Our hope is that when ribbons of these awards are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Please give your kind attention to these writers.

Now I have to deliver this award to 8 bloggers who will then choose 8 more and include the above cleverly written text to the body of the award.
Here they are,

Thank you all so very much and both of these awards are for you, I am sure you might have already received them from other kind bloggers. You dont have to select eight blogs to send them to if you dont have the time.

Blessings,

Sarah x

Treasure.

2009-02-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

I won a giveaway recently from Debbie, here are my treasures as I took them out of the box.

Beautifully wrapped

Here are some of the treasures I received I i thought I had taken a photograph of the rest but cant find it). Thank you Debbie, I love them all. You are very kind.

Life seems to have been fast paced here over the last couple of weeks. The days fly by into weeks and here we are already in the second month of the year. Work seems to take up most of my time and energy recently, it is difficult getting a happy medium I think. I love my job and want to work but Oh life would be SO much easier if I where at home during the day. I could get all of those jobs done during the day that I am either running around doing late at night or they just dont get done. I was a very lucky Mamma to be able to be at home until both of the children went to school, I went back to work part time and within a year I am near enough full time. I know this fella below would prefer me to be at home,

Here he is fixing his beloved at the weekend, she is all dolled up ready for the roads with new shiney parts to show off with. However whilst I praise his efforts and am certainly NOT a feminist in any way ( Ilike to play at houses if you know what I mean) , I would like to point out that it was ME, a woman who went out and fixed it. Yeah you heard right it was me. All it took was a hammer and sheer Girl Power to get this beauty ready. Hahahah !!! OK OK so I was wearing gloves to protect my girly soft skin from the nasty dirt and grease..

Here is my poor Princess, she had gone out for a walk in the snow and came back with blood pouring from her little paw. Poor thing must have stood on some glass and was cut to shreds. Thankfully she is OK but I just cant understand why people throw glass bottles around.

Crafts and Birthdays.

2009-01-19T07:51:00.000-08:00

I have been off owrk today (as ordered by Hubby) as I have an awful cold and I guess sitting in a room with 25 children wouldnt help on the road to recovery.
Anyway whilst I have been sat here wallowing in self pity I have had the chance to surf the net for some blogtastic ideas to craft.

My crafting has become none existent recently although I did sew together the cardigan the other night and as it is the first thing that I have knitted which is not a blanket I am pretty pleased with it. (will post pictures when I can be bothered to find the batterys for the camera).

I was thinking earlier this year to try and make all gifts this year for birthdays and other occasions. There are so many wonderful ideas out there and I feel that most of the shops are full of what can only be described as ....... Well you kinda get the idea, right?
I am hoping that I will get the time to do this and think that it is best to try and plan ahead for what I need so that there is no need to dash out at last minute to get a gift.

I am still thinking about the soon to be 10 year olds birthday. We cant decide what to do.. It is still work in progress, although after today I think I may have some ideas of things to make her. I will just have to have a trip to the fabric shop, oohh the things you have to do to keep them happy .....

Right, off for an early dinner then off to swimming lessons. My son moved from swimming one to swimming two after christmas. we went to his first lesson last week at level two and the instructor said she wanted him moved straight into level three as he was doing so well. He has come on leaps and bounds, he was unable to swim a stroke in September when he started and was terrified of the water and now we jump in and swim and go under the water.

"We dont say Can't

2009-01-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

We say can't do it yet"

You see this is the kind of thing I hear myself saying to children on a daily basis. I tell them that there is nothing they can't achieve if they really want it. I firmly believe that if they believe in themselves then it gives them a wonderful confidence.

Now WHY on earth do I not take my own advice? It is so easy to have a pity party and think "Oh I can't do that " or "Its ok for them, look at what they can do" " I dont have the time" blah blah blah !!

I have been on self destruct recently and enjoying my own pity party, it is not pretty.

So I have got the sewing machine out, dug out the knitting I started nearly a year ago and shamefully only needs sewing up, have ventured into the deliciousness that is my crafty cupboard and dusted it all down. I cant wait to get started now.

P.S Thank you for all of your comments on my previous post. I have been given some wonderful ideas and will let you know what we decide on.

I need your help.

2009-01-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

It is my daughters birthday at the end of February and she will be ten. The problem I have is what do you buy a ten year old girl wh has everything she wants? Now before you think she is spoilt (in having what she wants), she never asks for anything. I have just asked her what she would like for her birthday and apart from the usual reply of a horse (whatever!!!) she would like a surprise. I also asked her what she would like to do for her birthday, er yeah she also wants a surprise..
She would get a surprise if we did nothing and bought her nothing.. SURPRISE !!! How cruel..hehehe
So if anyone has any ideas or advice as to what I can get her and a special way we can celebrate her birthday I would be very grateful ( so will she as she may get nothing if it is left to me !!)

Christmas and New Year

2008-12-31T07:43:00.000-08:00

I hope that you all had a wonderful christmas. Just catching up with afew pictures from the last couple of weeks. Sorry they are a little blurred. We have been

Snuggling by candlelight
Watching he brave people swimming in our Boxing Day Dip (truly mad mad people)

Watching the lights twinkle on the christmas tree.

From our little house by the sea we wish you all the very best for the new year.

S xxxx

Simple

2008-12-15T07:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the children and I had the most wonderful day out enjoying lots of old fashioned christmas cheer. Sadly Andrew was unable to come with us as he was home sick and spent the day in bed with flu...

When we came home and the children were tucked up in bed I decided it was about time that I made a start with the christmas cards, I had out it off enough.

What better way to get off to a good start... Candle light, cards, pen, ink and a wax seal for the envelopes.

We bought the pen and ink today as the children were wascinated by it. I normally use a good quality fountain pen that my Gran bought for me years and years ago but have never really used one that you need to dip in the ink, it was fun to try.. It makes you think about what you are writing as you need to concentrate so much on getting just the right amount of ink on the nib and all that. The candle light just added that extra touch.... The wax seal has the initial of our surname on it and looks sweet on the back of the envelope...... Simple.....

2008-11-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

We have been enjoying som lazy days here recently, kind of stopping to smell the roses. It is about time

Christmas cakes have been made
Dods have been snoozing

And beautiful walks have been taken. We have had the most stunning weather this last couple of days. It has been so very cold and icy but once you have wrapped up it is just so nice to be outside. The water here is frozen solid, it is so quiet that if you drop something on the ice you hear the strangest of noises.
The air smells of cold and fires, I love the smell of fires.

I have finally started with some christmas shopping. It is going to be a fairly modest affair this year but as long as time is spent together it really doesnt matter to us. I am not going to list gifts on here just yet as I know that family read this blog.

Another idea I wanted to share with you ( I cant claim this to be my own idea, borrowed it from another blog)

My children have got a chocolate advent calendar which was bought for them and also one of those fabric ones that you put a gift inside the pockets (which was made for them). Rather than use the fabric one for chocolates I will put a little note into each pocket with an activity on it, it could be making popcorn, baking, watching a movie or anything. I think that this is a wonderful idea as my children wont remember the chocolate they had but will the time spent with their family. I will blog mre about it in the next few days.

Thank You

2008-11-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

Thank you to GTM over at A Life Full Of Blessings

for this award.

The rules are that I need to nominate 5 other blogs. Here you are,

http://eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/

http://warmpiehappyhome.blogspot.com/

http://faerienuff.blogspot.com/

http://cakemakestheworldabetterplace.blogspot.com/

http://lucylocketrecycledherpocket.blogspot.com/

(click on the links above) This is for inspiring me in many different ways, for this I thank you.

I also wanted to thank everyone for their advice regarding the last post. I have a few ideas now and will update them later as it is getting late now. It can be hard to stand by ones life choices at times, especially when they may not always be what is classed as the norm. However I have always said it would be rather dull to be normal, who wants to be the same anyway?

I know that I feel squashed and trapped in what we class as "normal" and feel the need to spread my wings and be the real me.

I look around the school yard when I collect my children from school and dont want my children to be the same as everyone. I know that it is harder for our children as I know only too well how cruel children can be when someone is not quite the same but I have always told mine that they should stand up for what they believe in and be proud. Anyway, enough it is getting rather late and I am very tired.

GOD Bless,

S xxxx

Simplicity

2008-11-23T02:59:00.000-08:00

I am hoping that my dear blogger friends would give me some advice. As you have probably read I am on a quest for some simplicity in our lives. I feel the desire to stear away from some of the modern consumerism and other stuff that modern day living pushes us towards and although this is something that has always been with me, that desire has for some reason become such a greater priority right now.

We have made some changes and TV free was one of them. I set the family the challenge to watch no tv for a week and it was a complete breeze. I could be quite happy to turn in the TV and never have one again. The children were not concerned at all and if I am honest I thought that they would miss it. They rediscovered long lost toys and games that they had forgotten about and just played for hours and hours. There is nothing more entertaining than listening to the giggles of children having fun. We still have the tv and we can watch it but I think that it gave us all a little more appreciation of the other things we have in our lives. Where we go from now? I dont know the answer to that right now, but I know that it will include much more fun.

Right now, I am hoping that some fo my blogger friends will help me here. There are no right or wrong answers as everyone is different...
What does simplicity mean to you? Is it staying at home, avoiding consumerism or whatever?
Can you share your ideas and perhaps give me some more ideas.

Also as we head to what can be the most expensive time of the year I need some ideas for Christmas presents, mainly for my children age 9 Girl and 7 boy. It is hard to try to be simple with the children over christmas but I am lucky in that my children never ask for anything, so this avoids some problems but it also makes it difficult to get them things that they would like. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Amish Apple Butter

2008-11-21T12:47:00.000-08:00

This is so yummy that you must run into your kitchen, put on your apron and some wonderful music and make some.. The house smells wonderful and although it may take some time it is worth every little bit of the effort.
Peel and core the apples.

6 pounds of apples

1 Cup of apple juice

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

quarter cup cider vinegar

2 cups dark brown sugar

Peel, core and chop the apples. Put them into an ovenproof dish. Add the apple juice and bring to the boil. Simmer and cook until the apples are cooked (about 30 mins)

Press the apples through a strainer into a bowl. Return mixture to the pot adding the cinnamon, vinegar and brown sugar.
Bake in the oven 350' for 3 hours.

Place in clean jar and refrigerate for up to three weeks.

Make it look all pretty.

TV free

2008-11-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks you for your kind comments and emails about my previous post about change. There is nothing wrong (thankfully) but I have felt the need for change for some time but didnt know what or how to do it, I just needed time to figure out what it was.

There is nothing huge planned, we are still living in the same house and will still go to the same jobs but it is just all the rest that has been looked at.

One of the things that has been a bug bear of mine is the TV. I HATE Tv, it is full of absolute junk and either old hasbeens or wannabe celebs. I think you can guess I dont watch alot of TV..
Anyway, this week I set the family a challenge of NO TV for a WEEK !!!!!
We started on Monday and I can honestly say that it has not even been switched on since. Nobody has even asked or commented that they miss the idiot box. We have done other things and I a so glad of it, the house seems a whole lot calmer without the constant noise. When we decided on this week we didnt realise that it was Children in Need on Friday, so the children are been allowed to watch an hour of it on Friday and that is it.

I will let you know how we get on with this. Another thing that is been looked at is Christmas, I think that it will be in another post though.

A day out.

2008-11-12T12:46:00.000-08:00

This has to be my most favourite place to visit, I love it. I drag my children around showing them things, showing them how life used to be. They even love to go now. You literally step back in time.

I want a kitchen like this, I want to sit by the fire and cook bread and cakes and drink tea. This lady actually had bread baking in oven. Smells wonderful.

Need to take a trip to the grocery store?
Did I ever tell you that I am obsessed with the smell of Coal Tar Soap and Carbolic Soap? I should have included that in my earlier tag. I cant pass Coal Tar sopa in the shop without picking it up and smelling it. I have it in the kitchen and just love the smell of it by the sink. I used to hate it as a child when we had it at home.

Fancy some fabric to make a dress?

Just look at the fabric.

Wouldnt you just love to shop here. It reminds me of my home town in a way. I thik that it is the canopy on the left that looks like the indoor market place.

My daughter took this picture to give to Daddy so that she can show him how she would like to have her bedroom decorated.

I told you they were as obsessed as me, what other nine year old wants to have her bedroom modelled on a room of the 1900's?

TAGGED

2008-11-11T08:52:00.000-08:00

Tagged,

Ages ago I was Tagged by Faerie Nuff and shamefully have only just gor round to posting it (bad blogger I know)... Anyway here it is,

Link to the person who tagged you.

Post the rules on your blog.

Write six random things about yourself.

Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.

Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.

Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

* If I go to the shop to buy a bar of chocolate I will feel it to make sure that it is not broken.. If it is I will have to look for another bar as I cant possibly eat a bar that has been broken. I have no idea why this i but it is just the way I am.

* I am a mean Mummy ans let my children sort out their own arguments ( I can hear one going on upstairs right now...he he he)

* If I had my dream job I would be working in a museum, I would want to work with the children who visit for the day.

* I love to bake and will spend many a relaxing hour it the kitchen.

* My sister used me as an example in her Counselling Portfolio when she was doing some work on people with OCD. I think that it is perfectly normal to want to have clean hands and wash your hands a gazillion times a day. I mean if you had my job and you saw where children put their hands you would wash too. hehehehe

* I love to read about the Amish way of life. I dont think it is an easy idealistic way of living but there is something about it that interests me.

Ok so I am supposed to link to six other lucky duckies, but y'all know I am a rule breaker and now the argument upstairs has turned into tears for the benefit of Mummy to hear and come and see what is happening... Oh the joys of parenthood... If you want to join in then please do so..
I am off to be a peacekeeper...

Bonfire Night

2008-11-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

Firstly..... Happy Birthday to my big sister, I hope that you have a wonderful day and evening.
Love ya lots !!!!!!

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

On the 5th November 1605, Guy fawkes was caught in the Houses of Parliament with barrels of gunpowder to blow the place up. He was sentenced to death and was executed. The day has since been remembered and is used as a warning to others that treason will not be forgotton.
Fast forward some years and most children will only think it is the day to set off fireworks and have a bonfire, I dont even think that children make a Guy these days. Although it is quite a horrible thing to get a child to make a figure of a man (Guy Fawkes) out of clothes and stuff and chuck it on the bonfire to burn to death. We used to get children knocking on the door in the run up to Bonfire Night asking "Penny for the Guy"... Perhaps this has now been taken over with the commercialism of Halloween and trick or treating, I dont know....

I have lots to catch up on but havent got around to downloading the pictures so that will have to wait and I have also been tagged by the very talented "Faerie Nuff".. Stop by her blog and have alook at what she has been making..
Whatever you do this eening have a wonderful but SAFE time.

Sarah x

Its all about to change !

2008-10-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

You may remember a little while ago I posted about changes... Well this family is changing...
I rush around, run here there and everywhere, skip meals, spend a fortune on petrol, often get to my evening meal and realise I have not had a drink all day and many other things (Hubby is just as bad ) . Well today is the day it STOPS...........

I once heard a saying "If Mamma aint happy, aint nobody happy".
Well this Mamma aint happy, OH NO SHE AINT.

Dont you sometimes feel that the days fly past and suddenly you realise you didnt have the time to sit with your little ones and listen to them read, you get them to rush their homework on a sunday evening because you have been too "busy" to do it with them earlier. What impression does it give to our children when we just dont have time, I dont want to say "Mummy doesnt have the time" anymore.. It is an easy trap to fall into, dont you think.

I want to take a side step and jump off the rollercoaster and spend as much time as possible nurturing my children and giving them the time that they deserve. I want to take more time for me and do the things that I like, I am sure there are some and I have just forgotten.

There are changes happening around here and it feels good.

Let me introduce...

2008-10-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

Here is my little Bellatrix, also known as Belle!!! She at times does resemble her name sake and is a little madame but generally we are getting along OK. Isnt she just a darling????

She is now eight weeks old and I think that she is starting to settle in. She has howled and howled but for the last few days she has started to settle down and is fitting in quite well.

My son wanted to call her Tinkerbell but I couldnt see Andrew shouting "Tinkerbell" in the park, neither can I hear him shouting "Bellatrix" which is why we settled on Belle.

I think she may be turning into a pampered pooch !!! Have you seen the stuff you can buy for dogs these days?

I have been so bury recently and there has been very little for me to blog about. We have spent today in the kitchen baking yummy cakes. I got to spend some time with my dear daughter and we listened to some Andrew Lloyd Webber in the background. Most of the goodies will be sent on their way with Andrew to work in the morning but we shall keep some for us.

Here is what we made, the cakes are to be made into Fairy cakes and so will need to be iced, Marshmallow Crispie cakes and Snickerdoodles (very moreish)

Changes

2008-09-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

At last the sun has started to shine, it is so warm here today. I wont complain and will drink in every last drop of sunshine we get until the weather changes back and we are yet again in Autumn and then winter.

The week has dragged as Andrew has been away, we went to the airport to collect hime on Friday only to see Ant and Dec come off his airoplane. The excitement of collecting Daddy was soon replaced with excitement of the Ant and Dec kind (fickle children !!!).

Having a week on my own (with children of course) has given me time to do afew jobs around the house that have beenneeding to be done and also given me much time to reflect. With the change of the seasons come changes, so what better time to make afew changes to your lives or homes for the better.

I have afew up my sleeves and nothing too big but just a gentle reminder to spend more quality tie with the children and now that the dark nights are here what better excuse to get back into the habit of family movie nights or games nights.

I have also had the chance to sort through some craft things and get out the things we need to make this years christmas cards. I have some in mind for friends and then others that will be sent to close friends and family.

Thank you all for your sweet comments, I really do treasure them all. I will try and reply to you all soon.

Out of the mouths of babes

2008-09-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

Picture the scene..... Mummy helping her dear 7 year old boy to do some homework. He wants to join the school gardening club and has to fill in a form to say why. One of the questions was "What would you do first if you joined the club?"....... I asked my son and his reply was

"I would dig a tunnel out"....

Not alot you can say to that is there?
Although I had visions of the Great Escape Film....

In other news my Sister and her friend are planning a Fairy Ball , so I have to plan a Fairy Cotume for next May... Cant wait, it just HAS to be PINK !!!!!!!

Treasuring Autumn

2008-09-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

Melissa at The Inspired Room is hosting 20 Little Things to Treasure in Autumn, follow the link to have a look and perhaps join in.

Here are mine,

1 Snuggling up under a blanket

2 The smell of Jacket Potatoes cooking in the oven

3 Sitting with only the gentle flickering of candles for light

4 Pumpkins

5 The cosiness of dark nights

6 Bonfire Night

7 The sound and smell of fireworks

8 Bonfires

9 Toffee Apples

10 Kicking leaves when walking through the park

11 Walks along the beach

12 Yummy stews cooking

13 The smell of the cooler air

14 Blankets on the beds

15 Hot chocolate

16 Coming inside to a warm house

17 Apple picking

18 Lots and lots of cake making

19 Wrapping up warm

20 Loved ones

Cozy toes allotments and a giveaway..

2008-09-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

I am realy pleased to say that I have finally got my much desired allotment. I have wanted one for ages and have grown disheartened about the small (read miniscule) patch we have been using in the garden. I am not sure of exactly how big it is so will have to get it measured but it is HUGE, more that big enough for us so we are going to share it with a friend. We are allowed to keep live stock on there and there are alreadu alot of people keeping chickens and geese so I think that once it is sorted then I may look at getting some chickens.

It is very overgrown and will need alot of work done to it before we can even think about what we are going to grow, however the main point it that it is now mine, ALL MINE !!!!!!

Autumn is well and truly on the way, you can smell it in the air. This next week I intend to get the beds sorted with their extra blankets and sheets, I may even sneak a hot water bottle in their also. I love to snuggle up with a hot water bottle to keep me warm, I actually have an old stone hot water bottle that I used until quite recently. The stone gets incredibly hot so it needs to be wrapped up in a towel or something otherwise it is far too hot to handle.

I have been adding little touches of autumn into the house this last week. I know there is no real need to decorate for the seasons but I love the warm colours and the only thing I have actually bought are three gourds from a flower shop today, everything else was found in the house (its amazing what you can find). Thank you to Periwinkle for helping me to find them.

I cant wait to get some pictures of the allotment and I will show you some of my autumn decorations soon.

I have also recently received an award from the lovely Pixiedust , but shamefully never got it posted on here. Thank you Pixiedust and sorry about the delay.

I am supposed to nominate 7 blogs for the same award, I will be thinking and posting them soon.

I have nearky written my 200th post, so to celebrate I will be having a giveaway very soon.

Autumn Thoughts and other stuff

2008-09-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

For me once we get into September we are in Autumn, I dont know if it is officially Autumn but for me it is. I have been browsing some blog candy recently and love the way that in America lots of people will decorate for the season, whilst in good old stiff upper lip England we just dont. Now I hear you moan and remind me that I have this "THING" or obsession (call it what you will) about going to America and if i were able to travel anywhere in the world this is where I would choose. HOWEVER I love the idea of decorating for the seasons and have decided that i will try and include some Autumn (or Fall) decor into this house.. Hoorah !! any excuse to decorate !!!!! Do you decorate for the seasons?

Here are the cakes I made the children for when they returned from school this afternoon. I thought that we should celebrate the very first day back at school and what better way to do this than to eat cake? I love cake way to much as my hips will tell you, but what can you do? WHAT CAN YOU DO ??????

Have you seen this? I was yet again looking at blog candy and came across this link for a show that was on English tv called Time Warp Wives... Did you see it? I didnt but was able to watch it on 4 on demand, I want one of these houses and those cars I need one of those cars... (sigh !!)

Basically these people have chosen to live in the 30's, 40's and 50's and their homes, cars, clothes and lives are as close to the lives of those who lived during that time. One issue the couples raised was that todays society have very poor morals, they feel that back in the 30's, 40's or 50's people had a better sense of what was right and wrong and did more for other people. They have taken these values which are seen by some as old fashioned and applied them to their lives and they say that they feel much happier for it.

I agree with alot of the things they said and would love to have my home authentic to the 1940's (yes yes I hear you moaning again, my other obsession). It may have been because my Grandmother lived with us when I was a child and heard endless tales of the war time and how life was different then and that I love history. I dont know but take a look at these links and tell me what you think. Have a look here and here .

Summer

2008-08-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

Well I can honestly say that the last few weeks have beena wonderful break in many ways. I have tried to blog afew times but deleted it and thought I would wait a little longer, although I did catch up on your news.
We have done lots over the summer regardless of the weather, if you let the weather dictate what you did then you would do nothing. We did have afew days camping and the above is the view of the lake from the camp site. It was wet but we were warm and were able to keep dry. The kids had a great time which is what matters to us the most.
We return to school in the morning and I guess we are back to our usual routines, we have to fit in Brownies, Tennis and Swimming lessons and no doubt endless activities at school. I have bathed my little ones this evening and tucked them up as snug as a bug in clean bedding with a little love note tucked under their pillows. They are sooo excited to be back to school and for my little one this means the excitement of going to a new school and been at the Junior school, what happened to my baby?????
I baked and iced some cakes for them to enjoy when we get in tomorrow evening, I thought we could celebrate our back to school together. I am not sure I feel like celebrating going back to work but I dont think that I have ever turned down the chance to eat cake.
We are heading off to the best time of the year for me, I love Autumn and Winter.. the house is warm and cosy and we get to snuggle up together and have reading time and enjoy hot chocolates. There have been days recently when it almost feels like the seasons are changing but it still feels a little too warm, it wont be long though.
Well it is nice to be back, take care...

Taking a break

2008-08-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, just taking a break from blogging. I need to be spending a little more time with my family and enjoying been at home. I will be back soon.

Enjoy the summer and have fun with your little ones.

Sarah xx

Summer Living !!

2008-07-29T01:37:00.000-07:00

When you live in the North east of England you learn that the weather does not lways last and you have to make the most of the beautiful days. We have been lucky with wonderful weather but the last couple of days have been covered in thick fog. One of the joys of living on the coast I guess.

As we ended week one of the school summer holidays I have been trying to make the holidays special for the children so that one day they will look back and say "Remember when !!!". I am lucky that I work in a school so get the same holidays as the children and this means that I am always here for them as though I were still at home full time.

Here is a little fact about me, I HATE the TV.. Goodness, it is just hours and hours of rubbish and repeats. I never have it on during the day and can honestly feel my bloodpressure rise when Andrew comes home from work and switches on the news or some other stuff. I would be happy to be a no tv family but I dont think that it would go down very well to be honest. I am lucky in that I am not subjected to football as he doesnt like it, however I am subjected to lots and lots of motorbike racing every weekend. I will be so pleased once the MotoGP and Superbikes are finished, although I would put money on them repeating the whole season for your viewing pleasure. BLEURGH !!!

On Saturday evening I sat in the garden with the above whilst my children splashed in their pool, it is so nice to take time for yourself but I did enjoy listening to them playing and laughing together. I am lucky that they get on well, although they do have their moments together.

I love that Tea Cup, I cant bring myself to drink tea if it is not in a Tea Cup and has been brewed in a pot. It just does not taste the same.

We were going to an airshow on Sunday but had a change of plans so went to the river instead. We had the most glorious day, the children played and swam and I hid under the shade of a tree.
I have made three picnics in the last week, dont you just love a picnic? There is something quite special about having packed a picnic and setting off on an adventure.

Christmas in July !!

2008-07-25T03:01:00.000-07:00

I am a member of a Christmas forum and we decided to do a Christmas in July swap. The idea was a kind of secret sister, you wouldnt know who was sending you a parcel until it arrived and it was not the same person you were sending to. The parcels were to be opened today as it is the 25th.. Here is a picture of my Gifts waiting to be opened.

And here is what was waiting for me inside

I now have the perfect evening planned, I am going to watch my movie, eat my choccies and either drink the hot chocolate or have a glass of wine. Oh and errr Hubby will be sent to the pub !!! Thank you to my swap partner.

Water Play

2008-07-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

Today we had a trip to see a friend from work who had gone camping for the week. The weather has been beautiful recently and it didnt disappoint today either. The kids all had a wonderful time and we tucked into a picnic down by the river. My daughter took her very first river swim today, yes Mum I hear you gasp however reluctant I was I decided to let her have a try. I was stood right by the edge of the river ready to rescue at any moment. She did well but soon decided that it was to cold and came back. PHEW !!!!!

There was also lots of this going on.

CANNONBALL !!!!
Apart from my sunburn (which is not that bad I guess and I was sat in the shade and still got burnt) we had a wonderful time.

Mondays trip to the beach.

2008-07-22T02:31:00.000-07:00

Monday we had a day at the beach planned. My sister and her friends from a Toddler Group were having a coach trip to the beach near us and as we have not seen each other for ages it was the ideal time to get our buckets and spades and head to the beach. It was a beautiful day and the sunshine was a welcome change to our recent thunder storms and rain.

I like this picture as it shows the beautiful clean beach and you cant really see it in the picture but there was a mist of sea spray hovering over the water and it looked really pretty.
The kids enjoyed jumping over the waves as they crashed in. My son was not bothered about the sea this time, he just kept digging and digging in the sand.

My one year old niece was NOT happy with her first trip to the beach. This little girls is normally runing around their house keeping up with her two brothers. However she was more than happy just to sit on her Mummys knee or on her Aunties. There was no way that these little feet were going to go anywhere near the sand. I just love baby feet, so had to take this picture when she was sat on my knee, just for a change !!!!

Schools OUT !!!!!

2008-07-18T06:31:00.001-07:00

I am so happy that it is the last day of term, I tell ya !!! I couldnt get out of that school quick enough today. The last hour really dragged but eventually the time came for me to put down my pens and paper, say good bye to the children and skip my way out of that building. I love my job dearly, however one of the perks of working in a school is working term time and having lots a holidays. Now if this rain will ever go away we can enjoy ourselves a whole lot better.

I just have not felt like blogging recently, I dont know but there seems to have been lots of things happening and when I get home from work I just cant be bothered to do anything as I am so tired. Now we are home I am hoping to spend lots of time with my own children doing lots and lots of nice things. I hope that this means that normal service will resume and there will be lots of blogging to do.

Happy Independence Day

2008-07-04T05:34:00.000-07:00

For my dear American friends.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend,

I will be thinking of you all.

GOD Bless,

Sarah x

Catching Up

2008-07-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

I am sorry I have not blogged in over two weeks but life got busy and I have been enjoying just ding things at home, although i have been keeping up to date with your blogs. It is funny how a break can refresh your mind and you can overcome bloggers block and come back with plenty to say. I have received many complaints about the lack of blogging (Sorry Mum) so I had better colect my thoughts and get back to it.

24th June was my Birthday, I had the most wonderful few days (yes I managed to stretch it to afew days). The day before I went and met my Mum and one of my Sisters for lunch. I took my camera but didnt get any pictures. The 24th I spent time with my family and we went for a lovely meal with friends.. Here are some of the goodies I received...

My Mum made this for me. I have wanted one for ages and cant seem to figure out how to crochet. I cant wait to snuggle up on the cold evenings or when we go camping. I love nothing better than to snuggle up with a blankie.. I tool this picture of it on my bed but will keep it until the weather cools or we go camping.
Here is a picture for my Mum, she said she hadnt seen my bedroom since we decorated it. I love this room, right now I think that it is my favourite room in the house. It is such a calm and peaceful room.

A view from the other side.

This is our new dresser.

Did I tell you how much I love this room? I could sit here all day and just relax.

The people who know me will know that I have an obsession with all things Amish or reading about the Shaker way of life and also about how I plan one day to have a small house or even a log cabin and live in the middle of nowhere with only my thoughts for company (oh and perhaps a hubby and children, but you know what I mean). Anyway, one of my presents was the above book. OH MY GOODNESS how I love this book. I saw the TV series and enjoyed it and the book is just as good. I love the simple way of life. Dont get me wrong, I know that these people had it hard and they worked all day and life was very difficult. It is the simplicity that attracts me, how they made do with what they had. Yes my home is full of gadgets that are supposed to make life easier for me and I do like having them. But I think that we could all have a look at our lives and see what changes we can make to make our life a little easier or simple. There are lots of things we could change, what would you do?

I love to listen to music, smooth, soft and calming music. this was my gift from my Hubby.

My sister made me this. She does not like sewing but took the time to make me this. Thanks K....

My other sister bought me this as part of my gift. It smells almost good enough to eat but is a candle so I guess I should not. Thanks T and family for this.

Thank you to Leigh for her card, I forgot to take a picture but will soon and thanks to April for her mail.

I had a wonderful few weeks and hope to get back to the blogging. I will have to get some pictures of my knitting and I have lots of other posts in mind.

Fathers Day and Kitchens

2008-06-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Fathers day to all the Dads, Daddys and Papas out there. The children took their daddy breakfast in bed and then we got the craft things out and had a little craft session o make their gifts. I remember that as children my Dad always liked the homemade gifts and cards and kept them and I think that they mean more to our family than the shop bought stuff. We printed out the DAD template, cut it out and stuck oictures behind it before sticking it t the card. My son drew the house and we cut out the windows and stuck more little pictures behind. I think that these are going to be taken into wrk to be kept on his desk.

On Saturday night once the children were fast asleep in bed I decided to make the long overdue pelmets for my kitchen windows. The kitchen is quite dark and when I made curtains in the past it made it look even darker...... Soooooo I bought some blue fabric years ago and it has been sat waiting for such a project as dressing up my kitchen windows. All that I need to do now is get a blue blind to go behind it and get rid of the awful blinds that the previous owners left. The embroidered table cloth on the table is one that my Great Grandmother made and the Orchid was a present from Andrews parents and so far I have managed to keep it alive. I can keep plants going in the garden but House plants seem to die off pretty quickly for some reason.

Here is a view the other way to the utility area of the kitchen, I think that I need to get a picture or something on the wall over the sink. For once I think that the kitchen is finally starting to look right, I have changed my mind with it lots of times but I think that this mights be here to stay.

A fairy came into my Garden and left her Magic wand
I think that she also had a snack on my plants.

A WEEK !!!!

2008-06-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

Apart from saving a post for my sons birthday at the weekend but not actually completing it and posting it, I have not blogged for A WEEK !!! How terrible is that?

I have been so busy for this week, we have had birthday parties to plan, day trip to the local environmental festival, my poor car had to go into the garage for three days and all of the other things that life throws at you.

I dont know about you but I am so ready for the summer. I want to sit out in the garden and watch my sweeties run around and play in the paddling pool, day trips out, picnics and homemade lemonade. The summer in England does not last for long and even sometimes only for a couple of days, but I sure look forward to when it arrives.
I was thinking today about all of the fun things I would like to do with the children over the summer and I am starting to make little plans in my head of ways to keep them occupied and happy. They both enjoy spending time doing crafty type activities so I can see me spending some time trawling for ideas to keep away for when the rain comes.

I was browsing earlier and came across some American sites and there seems to be many more celebrations and Holidays over there than we have here. I think that it may no longer be the "British" way to have street parties and get togethers that were once just a normal way of life. I think that perhaps people no longer care for these traditions and see tham as "Old fashioned" and just cant be bothered. I mean most people will tell you something about Saint Patricks day but have no idea about St Georges Day. Okay so i will get off my soap box now.
I love to celebrate things, birthdays, anniversarys and holidays. I rarely need an excuse to have some sort of little party with the children and the best parties we have are the "Just because" parties. We have them for no other reason than "Just Because" and will make a special tea or picnic to have together.

What do you look forward to doing over the summer? Do you have any special plans or little things that you simply must do because it is summer?

7 Today

2008-06-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

There is nothing more important to me than my family. I love to hear them chattering and see them playing, when they are at school the house seems to empty.. Well today is my dear sons birthday and he is 7, so here are seven things about him.

* He is a very keen cook and loves to be in the kitchen making something. Move over Jamie Oliver, hee comes "Little Chef"

* I secretly love the way you still sit on my knee for a cuddle. It doesnt matter where I am sitting, if you come into the room you will always park your little self on my knee for a cuddle. You promise to do this always.

* You tell me that your best friends are Mummy, Daddy and your sister. I think that your family is special to you.

* You are a nature lover. You spend hours looking out of the window watching the birds and have such an enthusiasm about all things that live in the world.

* You make us all laugh with your silly made up jokes, eventhough we have bought you joke books you prefer to make up your own.

* Sammy is your most treasured toy and friend. He is very loyal and puts up with your bad moods when you kick him out of bed and quickly forgives you when you creep out and tuck him up safely beside you.

* A shy boy who looks after his Mamma !!!

Happy Birthday Sweetie, Love ya round the world and back !!!!!!!

Nothing says "Home" like

2008-06-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

Homemade Pie

I was at work today trying to teach some year 4 children about the Vikings and all I could think about was my need to make "Pie"... Not any pie, Strawberry, Rhubarb and Apple Pie..... As I skipped out of work when I finished I dashed to the supermarket and bought the ingredients, all British I add......

I like to bake with the children but sometimes it is nice to just get on with it on your own. The first thing I do is put on some music and tie on an apron (this is an absolute must). Our Grandmothers would have worn an apron all day and have had different ones for different occasions. Aprons are like a uniform for me, when I one I am ready for my task in hand. I even have an apron that I wear when I am gardening, I will show you another day... I admit that
I am not a feminist and have quite a traditional view when it comes to my home.

Here is my pie just waiting for the pastry crust.

Looking all pretty waiting for cooking
In all its glory straight from the oven.

My house smells wonderful.

YUMMY !!!

My Garden

2008-06-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

I love my Garden, dont you think that when you are in the garden you drift away and can be anywhere? I doesnt matter if you have a city garden or a country cottage your garden can be your sanctuary. I like the country cottage type gardens that you see on paintings in very nice antique shops, roses climbing over the arch and foxgloves swaying in the breeze with a rickey garden fence just waiting to welcome you. One day I know that I will own such a house but until that day I have may garden and make it my own.

One of the things that we have i our small garden is a little vegetable patch. Last year we had great success growing from it and hopefully this year will be the same. In this corner you can see tiny white turnips growing and purple sprouting brocoli. In the back you can just see the beans and the frame.

These are our peas, they are only small yet but hopefully they will grow. I think that we are a bit cooler up in the North than our Southern friends so it may take a little longer.

We also have some strawberrys growing at the front of the house in the glass porch where they get full sunshine and the glass makes it very warm in there. This was tonights supper and they tasted the absolute BEST EVER.... So yummy.

Here is my Strawberry Tea set waiting to be used. The plate is large and holds lots of lovely ripe strawberrys whilst the jug and pot holds your cream and sugar. I dont think that we will get enough strawberrys for filling up this dish but once the pick your own opens I will be there in a flash. The strawberrys you can see here we kindly sent to me by Summer by the Sea in a giveaway so they will have to do until the real strawberrys are ready. Yum Yum !!

Home

2008-06-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

HOME :::the house or flat/apartment that you live in, especially with your family:

The topic for the following month of blogs is HOME..
I am going to try and post everyday and hope that it will include many posts about my home and what it means to me. I have lived in my current home for five years and I think that we are finally putting our own stamp on it. They say you have to live in a house and get a feel for it, but seriously five years is a long time.

For the last five years I have had the most awful carpet in the main room and dining room, well today it finally came up and was disposed of. It truly was the most hideous carpet you have ever seen. So we have plans for new flooring and maybe afew well choosen accessories to give the room a life and I am afraid to admit this.... The piano has to go. It is beautiful but neither of the children play it now and it is too big to have sat their collecting dust, so sadly we will be selling it..

What does home mean to you?

Sarah x

The last day of May

2008-05-31T13:00:00.001-07:00

I climbed Mount Everest and conquered it... YAY!!!!

The feeling when you get to the top is amazing.. Truly!!

Ok so my Mount Everest was actually Mount Ironing and it is done. I know that some of you people dont believe in ironing but it just had to be done. It was spreading and spreading and taking over the house.

The last month has been hard trying to post every day and I have only not posted once which is not bad really. I wasnt going o do it again but the topic for this June is Home, Home is something that is very important to me so I may just have to post again for June. Please forgive me if I dont get it done every day.. The days I work are pretty dull as I am sure you wouldnt want to hear about my day at work but I have afew ideas for Home...

We are hoping to go camping in a couple of weeks time and have spent the day looking at various tents, ours is just not big enough for the four of us. It is amazing how much stuff you end up taking and I am talking essentials NOT the tv or DVD player. It has been a super week been with the children and now we only have seven weeks to go until the end of term and then we have the summer holidays.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Sarah xxx

Show and Tell Friday

2008-05-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

Please call over to see Kelli's Blog and her Show and Tell Friday

Here is my show and tell for this week.

My Mum made this bear by HAND SEWING as a gift for my Daughter.

It is fully jointed and is the most beautiful thing. She sits in my Daughters room keeping an eye on her. She even has a little Tutu, Ballerina shoes and flowers in her hair.

My Mum is a truly wonderful crafter.

I hope you like my show and tell for this week.
Sarah xxx

Mini Quilt Swap

2008-05-29T12:18:00.001-07:00

Today I received my Mini Quilt Swap from Sally-Ann at Dotty Designs , just look at his lovely parcel waiting to be opened.

Here is the beautiful quilt I received.

And lots of other goodies

Here is the back

Sally-Ann it truly is beautful, Thank you so very much..

Sarah xxx

Little House by the Sea

When it all gets too much !

Busy as a Bee

2nd January

Happy New Year

A cup of something warm

Handmade Christmas

Treasure Hunters !

Accountability

Crochet and knitting

Change Your Life

Living the Good Life

A Chocolate Brownie and Fruit Smoothie kind of day !

Taking Control

Thrilled

Looking Ahead.

Crochet !

Happy New Year !

Peppermint Bark !

Gifts From Heaven

Does it get any better ?

Simple

Things he wishes he had known !

All Change

Hello

It doesnt have to be perfect.

Blessings!

Sparkley and new

Wishing you.....

One Hundred and Forty

Right Now

A Day in the Life

Thinking

The Dales

Autumn Days.

Lots of fun.

Colours

Procrastinating

Grandma's Peppermint Creams

Winner Winner

4th July and a giveaway.

I dont do mornings.

Camping

Happy Birthday Little Fella

Rose Swap

Birthday Gifts

"Magic"

"Operator"

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Inspiration

50 Things about me.

Sigh !!!!!

Easter Swap

Pay it Forward

Hi there ...

Pondering

Scenes from the day

A walk in the park

Love is !!

More goodies in the post

Treasure.

Crafts and Birthdays.

"We dont say Can't

I need your help.

Christmas and New Year

Simple

Thank You

Simplicity

Amish Apple Butter

TV free

A day out.

TAGGED

Bonfire Night

Its all about to change !

Let me introduce...

Changes

Out of the mouths of babes

Treasuring Autumn

Cozy toes allotments and a giveaway..

Autumn Thoughts and other stuff