I dont do mornings.

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

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

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

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

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"

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.

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.