The many faces of bo ...

Please excuse the self indulgent bubba admiring, paging through the little man's photo archive yesterday I was struck at how his personality is emerging through all his different facial expressions ...

Frustration


Delight


Double delight


Shouting with joy


Shocked


Curiosity


Grumpy


Who me?


Suspicion


That's funny


Crumbs


Toodle pip
J
x

Easter holidays retrospective

We've had quite a few little trips out here and there over the past couple of weeks and each time I've thought, oooh I must blog that, and then never got round to it. So I'm doing a retrospective to catch up :)

Trip 1 - en familia 'Yorkshire branch' visiting Salts Mill in Saltaire. Lovely architecture and tall towers for photo posing ...



Highlights of the day were a fabby art shop with lots of lovely notebooks and pencils to covet and delicious cake in the Salts Mill diner served on very cool crockery. We very much wanted to take a little something of the flatware home with us but common sense prevailed and we took the moral high ground. Consequently, all we came away with was this little card which held our receipt...



Lowlights of the day were being ripped off at the very scary chip shop by being charged 10p extra to have our take away chips in a tray (I know we should learn to lunch in a higher class establishment) and then getting caught up in football traffic, cue wailing baba! His timing is perfect.

Trip 2 - shopping spree to York. Breakfast at Bettys - R showed a fondness for Bettys cinammon toast, he's developing very expensive tastes...



I managed to finally buy new trousers (ones without elasticated waists - huzzah!) and get a treat from here. Apple and almond face scrub and a tube of their fab hand cream - because I'm worth it.

Trip 3 - seaside excursion to St Annes for some bucket and spade action, ice creams and charity shop bargains galore - £3 for a big bag of pale turquoise wool, kerching, a quid for a giant cone of sock wool, double kerching :) This time I'm going to make something for myself!

Here's R enjoying the sand ...



Trip 4 - A spontaneous outing to a distant garden centre to acquire some potted herbs for the herb bed. Pointless detour via Berriew to visit the Andrew Logan sculpture museum ... closed :(
And a very worthwhile detour to Montgomery for delicious lunch here ...




The apple pie has been firmly established as a 'pudding memory' to be talked about for years to come :)

All this and I've got a double day trip coming up this weekend and then goodness knows what birthday jollies to look forward to the weekend after. Crikey what a busy April! And have you spotted how food based all our activities are? Lunch here, cake there, ice cream here, a bit more cake there -but what is a good day out without food huh?

Toodle pip
J
x

A duvet day

Despite the nice weather here today and the urgent need to weed the veggie patch and put the seed potatoes in, I decided to shun the wellies and spend a happy hour or two creating with my sewing machine. Well, in fact the sewing machine took the minor part as it felt like I did more ripping of seams and unpicking than I did of actual sewing :( I was working on transforming a recent charity shop bargain - one of the Monsoon curtains I blogged about here - into a duvet cover for the little man's cot.

Here's how it turned out...



I've just got the two bottom seams to hand finish this evening. The darned machine turned poorly on me at the last minute with just two bits to go ... so I've shouted at it and left it to sulk in the corner! Here's hoping that it feels better by tomorrow as I have more Bank Holiday sewing plans up my sleeve.

Toodle pip
J
x

Pasg Hapus!

Which means Happy Easter in Welsh!

I suspect we might have a few smeared happy faces this week ... little man has had his first tastes of choc choc.



Where's my Easter egg?

It has been a while since my last post and we have been busy bees here at the patch. Another trip up North was completed to see my family (which should have felt like a holiday but didn't as it was so tiring!), work has been a bit bonkers for me and to cap it all we've been sleep training the little man. The bags under my eyes are not a pretty sight!

Being away from home meant I was t'internet-less for the best part of a week and I got back to literally a gazillion blog posts to catch up on ... I hadn't quite realised how many I now follow. Have I mentioned that I'm totally obsessed with reading blogs these days! Most of them make my own efforts look rather pitiful and I'm often green with envy having had a little peek into these people's lives, homes and craft creations. Him indoors keeps threatening to ban me as he says it makes me seem very dissatisfied with my lot in life ... can I help it if I was meant to be more rich and talented than I actually am?

I think some general blog improvement is required round here. Having started out this thing as more of a personal record of stuff that goes on in my life, I now feel the urge to become more part of the community out there - it looks like a lovely friendly place to be. Any tips from fellow bloggers most welcome!

Toodle pip
J
x

Come rain, come shine

What ever the weather the little man gets taken on a walk every day, sometimes just the once but usually at least twice - once during Daddy's shift in the morning and once during mine on an afternoon. I find it is a good cure for the dreaded afternoon grizzles and the blast of fresh air does everyone good. Today we decided to document our favourite route ... the Talybont loop.

Ready for the off ...



Round by the pretty church ...



Up the lane ...



Past a house I'd like to live in, the one on the left. Sewing room on the top floor, window seat in the bay window, greenhouse out the back (you get the idea!) ...



Over the bridge ...



To say hello to the fishes in the stream ...



We get very excited when we say hello to the fishes ...



Then past Mummy's other dream house which is in the process of being renovated and stripped of its character. They pulled down a victorian glass house/conservatory that was on one side of this cutie ... next the plastic windows will go in ... grrr!



I think it is the symmetry of the place that I love. It is how you would draw a house as a child and I think it would definately suit some roses round the door ...



Then is is a quick scoot round to the playground ...



For a quick swing swing ...



Before it is back home for a well earned cuppa and a sit down. Phew!

Toodle pip
J
x

I'm a lucky lady

Just a quick post to say I got a lovely pressie today from t'other half - a no specific reason, just an 'I saw this and thought of you' pressie. The best kind!



It is a book of cute Japanese baby makes - little toys, clothes and storage thingies designed by Aranzi Aronzo. It has things like a nappy holder with appliqued poo on it! Erm ok :) Maybe not - but some of the other designs are fab. It looks really fun and a bit bonkers, especially with the translated instructions.

More things to add to my long to make list. Which reminds me, enough of playing computer and on with some knitting!

Toodle pip!
J
x

Sowing the seeds

I grabbed a quick half hour in the garden this afternoon. Things are starting to sprout (including the weeds!) and things are looking a little less soggy and bleak out there.

The first plant to be called into active production this year, as usual, will be my favourite - rhubarb.



I have three active plants and if the harvest is anything like last year I'll be stocking the freezer and no doubt be calling upon the Nigella archives again to help me use up the crop in something other than rhubarb crumble. Rhubarb ice cream anyone?

Then I popped these little beauties in - just cheapy supermarket ones this year...



Can you see where I'm going here? I have a vision of a colourful sweet pea pyramid cascading gently next to the path and providing me with daily batches of lovely scented blooms to put in my various little jugs on window sills round the house. Well a girl can dream can't she? Last year slugs ate most of them and the rest got toppled by strong winds but this year maybe my luck will be in!

I also planted a batch of salad leaves, leeks, beetroot, courgette and thyme. No photos as they are just pots of mud at the moment - Dave calls pots of mud my speciality as I'm awfully good at them and every sowing I usually end up with several duds!

Toodle pip
J
x