Down to Earth With a Bump

Happy Burgh-thday!

2012-01-30T16:04:00.014Z

Two Saturdays ago it was darling hubby's 40th birthday so to return the favour of him sending me to Chicago for my 40th, I took him to Burgh Island for the weekend. Being an avid Agatha Christie fan, it was the perfect spot as this was the hotel where she wrote two of her books - And Then There Were None and Evil Under the Sun; the ITV Poirot version of Evil Under the Sun also used the island as a filming location.
Grandma and Grandad came down to look after DC, so we had a lovely couple of child-free days. We set off fairly early on Friday morning and made a pit-stop at our favourite breakfast spot - the River Cafe in Axminster. I had my favourite of poached eggs and mushrooms on toast and hubby had the full English; best of all, hubby's breakfast was free since I had filled up my loyalty card on our last trip and was able to redeem it this time. Result!
Then it was time to press onwards through Devon to Bigbury-on-Sea, the small seaside village located on the mainland opposite Burgh Island and from where we were collected in the hotel's Land Rover and driven to the edge of beach where we transferred to the SEA TRACTOR!!!! We were so chuffed at having the opportunity to ride on this as it's only used when the tide is in; otherwise hotel guests are taken across the beach in the Land Rover. We had clearly timed our arrival to perfection as the tide had only just started coming in, so the water wasn't too deep/choppy/splashy and the trip over was very enjoyable indeed.

We checked in (having been upgraded to the Cunard suite!) and since our room wasn't ready, decided to head for The Pilchard Inn, the pub which has been on the island since 1365. Yes, that's right 1365, which makes it very, very old. Imagine the tales that have been told in that pub - tales of smuggling and piracy and treachery on the high seas! We had a spot of lunch and a glass of something alchololic; the roaring fire provided a great spot by which to settle in with a book for an hour or so - bliss.

When our room was ready, we headed back to the hotel and oohed and ahhed over the 1930s flavour of the decor and furnishings. The view from our balcony out over the beach and the village of Bigbury was wonderful. Then it was time for an afternoon nap - isn't that what every weekend break calls for?

In the evening it was time to dress up and head down to the Palm Court Bar cocktail lounge where canapes were served and we made our choices from the dinner menu, all very civilized, before heading through to the dining room: I chose scallops for starter, five-spice duck breast for main course and something totally divine which I completely forgotten for dessert. After dinner we went back through to the Palm Court Bar for petite fours with coffee/tea. The food was absolutely superb and it was a lovely end to a very pleasant and relaxing first day on the island.

The following day was hubby's 40th birthday and we started the day with tea/coffee and Buck's Fizz (the drink, not the 80s pop group) in bed.We wandered down to the breakfast room at about 10.15am (very civilized!); again, the food was wonderful - a great selection of fresh juices, yoghurt and cereals to help yourself to, plus a menu of lovely cooked options; I went for the American pancakes with caramelised bananas - delicious! - while hubby had some of the many options from the Full English.

Then it was time to walk off all that food and really wake ourselves up with a very blustery (and sometimes wet) walk across the beach to Bigbury, and back again. Can you see the paler streaks of sand on the beach in the photo below? That was where the drier sand was being blown across the beach by the wind - quite something to see (when we didn't have our hats pulled down over our faces to keep out the chill/rain.)

When we headed back to the island we decided that since we were all trussed up in coats, hats, boots, etc we may as well do a little more walking and explore the island itself. The views from the top were stunning - the sun even came out from time to time and we were rewarded with a rainbow across the bay.At the very top of the island is a 'Huer's Hut' - this was where the huer would live and keep a look out for the tell tale signs of pilchard shoals; when he saw one he would send out a 'hue and cry' to alert the local fishermen.It may not have all the modcons, but it's all about location, location, location!And here I am looking somewhat windswept, with the hotel in the background.When we walked back down to the hotel we had a look round the grounds, which include the Mermaid Pool situated at the far end of the island, down a set of steep stone steps.This is the hotel from the rear; our room was on the very far right corner - the last three windows on the first floor.Here's the Palm Court Bar from outside.And here it is from inside when we decided a spot of afternoon tea was in order after all that walking and battling with the elements!Isn't that a wonderful view? We spent a good couple of hours enjoying not just the food, but the calming vista too.And you can see the waves crashing in these two photos - very atmospheric.Even looking upwards we were rewarded with a stunning sight - the glass roof of the Palm Court.That evening it was time to get dolled up again as there was live music in the dining room (apologies for dreadful photo!). Once more, the food was fabulous - canapes and cocktails in the Plam Court, then I had a delicious starter which totally escapes me at the moment, followed by black bream and finished off with lemon tart. And once more it was back to the Palm Court to end the evening with petite fours and coffee. Another wonderful day on the island.

The following morning, our last, we feasted once more on a delicious breakfast - smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for me and sausage sandwich for hubby - before checking out and saying our fond farwell to the hotel and island.

Rather than taking the Land Rover back over to the mainland we decided to walk across and make the most of the fabulous sea air and wonderful views.

All in all a delightful weekend, very relaxing, with great food, stunning views and great company!

THE Chair

2012-01-29T14:40:00.008Z

Do you remember THE Chair? The one hubby and I first clapped eyes on and plonked our derrieres in back in November in John Lewis? The only chair that we kept going back to and saying 'ahhhhh' when we sat in it. The chair that cost an eye-watering £999.

Well, on Tuesday hubby had a brainwave; he phoned the John Lewis outlet store in Swindon where unloved and unwanted (ie ever so slightly damaged) items from JLs throughout the land go to live until someone takes pity on them and gives them a home. He wasn't particularly hopeful but asked whether they ever had THE chair in stock. The lady at JL said that yes, they did sometimes get THE chair and to call back on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday as those were the days on which they got new deliveries. So, the following morning hubby called and, you can probably guess what I'm about to say, they had actually had one of THE chairs delivered! And it was 50% off due to a few marks, so instead of £999, it was being sold for £499. OMG! Hubby immediately asked for them to reserve it in his name, called me (I was in High Wycombe and Reading visiting friends) and asked if I would make a small detour on the way home, via Swindon.

So on Thursday afternoon I hot-footed it to the Swindon "Designer Outlet" mall and gave the chair a quick once over to check for damage. Quite honestly, it was minimal - there were some scratches on the feet which can really only be seen if you lift the chair up or squat down to floor-level (not something I tend to do much of if I can help it), a small (VERY small) dint to the back corner, and a small scratch on the back cushion (you can just about make it out in this photo.)
So, quick as a flash, I said 'I'll take it' and the deal was done. Thirty minutes later there was a very large bubble-wrapped parcel in the boot of the car (thanks goodness for capacious boots) and I was homeward bound (with another detour via Bristol to collect my mum.)

And doesn't THE chair just look so at home in the snug? Hubby is one very happy boy; even happier because his parents gave him the money to buy the chair for his BIG birthday which he celebrated last weekend.

And here are both chairs, his and hers so to speak - my bargain JL purple chenille wingback number - reduced to £450 as an ex-display model and hubby's bargain Tetrad Totnes reduced to £499 due to 'damage'. That's two chairs for less than the price of one - got to love a bargain!

So, can I just recommend to anyone and everyone - check out the John Lewis Swindon outlet for anything you may have set your heart on at JL but can't quite stretch to. You don't even have to make a trip there, you can call up to see if they have what you're looking for in stock to save a wasted journey.

A new dining table, perhaps? (the one at the front caught my eye, reduced to £249)

Sofa or armchair?A new bed, wardrobe, or bedside cabinetsmattresses in all shapes and sizesFridge freezer anyone? (as long as you don't mind a couple of dints or scratches)Washing machine? Tumble drier?

Or a new light for that dark corner?

Toy Story

2012-01-28T14:09:00.009Z

Have I mentioned before my desire to find a toy cupboard of some sort for DC's room? Those of you with children/grandchildren will no dount appreciate the need for toys (especially those made of huge chunks of plastic) to be corraled somewhere/somehow (preferably out of sight...) in order to maintain some level of sanity and tidiness. In my head I had a picture of the piece of furniture that would do the job - so high, so deep, so wide, to fit the space where the bookcase currently resides, and not too ugly, if at all possible.

The photo below shows the bookcase which I was looking to replace (although since the photo was taken the wardrobe and bookcase have swapped places)

And here are a couple of old snaps of DC's room (while cardboard at the window was all the rage in fashionalbe abodes...) to show just how many toys were dotted about the place.

This bookcase (apologies for dreadful photo, it was just a quick 'reminder' snap that I took)from John Lewis made it on to my 'to be considered' list since it wasn't too hideous or too expensive (£99, so not exactly cheap, but not too bad if push came to shove), but that was if nothing from the 'vintage/antique/junk' era could be found before we drowned under a sea of garishly-coloured plastic toys, cute and cuddly critters, and hundreds of books. But still the hunt for 'THE' toy cupboard continued. Until Tuesday night.

Our nearest auction house, Lawrences, holds a general sale every Wednesday with viewings until 7pm on Tuesdays. Hubby suggested I go to the viewing on Tuesday night since in all the 9 months we've been living down here, I'd not been along, and auctions used to be a really big thing for me. So, with some grumbling, because it was 6pm and I didn't really want to go out, I trundled off. Well, what luck I did because there in the auction room was a cupboard that, if I won it, was just perfect. So I left a commission bid and kept my fingers crossed that £65 would be enough to secure the little beauty. I was away for the day of the auction but hubby called up to see whether I'd won anything (I'd left bids on three other items) and it seems lady luck was smiling on me since the lovely cupboard was mine for £10 less than my maximum bid (although it came in at about £67 once the fees were added). And here she is, in all her glory (no idea why the cupboard has become female).Snuggled next to her big brother, the wardrobeAnd, doing what she does best, providing a happy home for toys and books.Do you like our little reading nook? DC's not content to sit on our laps for bedtime stories any more, he prefers to sit in his own chair and read stories to us - cute! And the chair he sits in used to be mine when I was little.Unfortunately the toy cupboard wasn't big enough to hold the large collection of cuddly toys that DC has amassed, so they now live in a big canvas bag at the foot of his cot.Quite a transformation, don't you think? The room is so much tidoer, and feels so much bigger. It also means DC can see his toys and get hold of them more easily too. Big thumbs up for storage cupboards (and auctions.)

A Jolly Nice Day Out

2012-01-18T16:19:00.007Z

A couple of weeks before Christmas hubby and I both took a day off work and had our "Working From Home Christmas Party/Outing". Because we both work from home we tend to miss out on work-related parties and outings, so we decided to have one of our very own. And it was lovely.

We dropped DC off at nursery and headed straight for the River Cottage Canteen in Axminster for breakfast.

I had the most delicious mushrooms and poached eggs on toast and a yummy mocha which hubby tucked into a bacon sarnie. If you are ever in the area, I can highly recommend a trip to the Canteen; I've been three times now and have been very impressed with the food on each occasion. Plus the deli sells some wonderful cheeses, pies, meats, beers, biscuits, etc.

We then had a little wander round the town and found the antiques centre where I picked up the hostess trolley that now lives in the snug, as well as a couple of pieces of the cream and green kitchenalia hubby and I like to collect.

Then it was on to Exeter, for a bit of a wander, a spot of shopping and some lunch. We ended up spending just two hours there; much as Exeter is a lovely city with its amazing cathedral and green slap-bang in the centre, we weren't really in the mood for everyday, high street stores (although I was very excited to find Starbucks, and indulged in a seasonal Gingerbread Latte). Although I'm probably being unfair to Exeter, and there are undoubtedly lots of "one-off" shops to be found, had we taken the time to do some hunting; unfortunately, time was somewhat limited since we had to be back at nursery by 5.30pm to collect DC.

We were very keen indeed to get to our third and final destination of the day Honiton, with its masses of antique shops. As soon as we stepped onto the main street I turned to hubby and said "This is better". As you can see, we certainly weren't fighting our way through crowds of Christmas shoppers! The lack of hustle and bustle, compared to Exeter, encouraged a much more leisurely pace and was more conducive to strolling and window shopping. And a little bit of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over antiques that we mostly couldn't afford, like this gorgeous dresser.

And this beautiful painting of Lyme Regis. If it's still there when we've won the lottery I'll buy it.I also quite like the look of this rather patrician-looking gentleman who I thought might look rather fine hanging in the snug. What do you think? Could I claim him as an ancestor?!There are many, many antique shops to browse, most with large rooms of furniture, mirrors, paintings, decorative items, and all manner of treasure and tat.I love the colour of the walls in this room.And I was sort of tempted by this old camp bed - something to drag out for those unexpected guests?!We just had time for a spot of afternoon tea before heading back for DC. A thoroughly delightful works Christmas party and not a sore head to deal with the next day or embarrassing incident with the photocopier to worry about.

Snug as a Bug

2012-01-16T13:40:00.009Z

Apologies to those of you who are finding these return trips to the snug a little on the yawnsville side, please bear with me. It's just that this room is probably (along with the hallway), one of the spaces in the house that feels the closest to being 'finished' as any room ever could be. I'm not sure if anyone ever feels that their home is 'finished' as there are always tweaks to be made, furniture to be rearranged, things that can be replaced/recycled/upcycled, and other things that get used up/worn out/or returned to where they belong. Also, the snug is the room we have been working on the most since Chair No.1 was delivered. So, without further ado, may I present the snug as of yesterday: Here's the tv, sitting on a gorgeous pine chest. This is bad for three reasons 1) the tv is too low; 2) you can't really see how lovely the chest is; 3) you can't open the chest to store more junk in it. And, actually there's a fourth bad thing - the tv is eeeeeeeeeeeenormous; I bought it in 1995 before nano-technology meant we could all equip ourselves with televisions as thin as a sheet of paper; it still works, but since the UK went digital, it no longer receives a signal as we don't have a set-top box or whatever else it is that we need to get a picture. As I type it has literally just occured to me that it's actually pretty pointless even having the tv in the room. Talk about dumb and dumber.
Anyway, while in dumb mode, we shifted the pine chest and put the tv on this lovely cabinet that my great-grandfather made. Yes, you read that right, my very own blood relative on my mum's side, made this gorgeous, and very useful, piece of furniture. He also made a chest of drawers in our bedroom which I'll have to show you some time. I always remember this cabinet being in my grandparent's hallway, and Gramps kept his hairbrush in it so he could smarten himself up before leaving the house. When my Gran passed away I asked if I could have this as a momento of them and their house. Unfortunately it's taken a bit of a battering over the years and even more so since DC made an appearance (hence the scratches on the front); it definitely needs a trip to the French polisher (who whoever it is who fixes up these sort of things nowadays.)But look at the lovely (but blurry) carved detailingAnd lovely handles.
As mentioned in my last post of things that still needed doing in the snug, we also moved in the bookcase which had been displaced from the living area into the dining area by the Christmas tree. And which can no longer go back to the living area since we moved the dresser in there. Are you keeping up with me?!Here's the 'can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs' shot - ie the room looks a lot worse before it looks better.See the little table/trolley to the left of the bookcase? I bought that in an antiques/junk shop in Axminster in December for the princely sum of £20. It came into its own over Christmas as the 'treat trolley' - I wheeled it into the living area like Mrs Overall with both 'wings' up and both tiers holding the masses of chocolates and biscuits which we devoured over the festive season.And here we have the lovely bookcase crammed full of my 'to be read' collection. Rather a lot of books for me to get through, including the entire top shelf dedicated to cosy crime. Bliss.And moving around the room, here's my lovely chair...And next to it, finally somewhere to put my coffee cup and magazine. This little bookcase has been acting as a bedside table in the guest room, but after a bit of a swap around it now lives in the snug.With a few little additions:Inlcuding this gorgeous candle which smells wonderful and looks good too - bought it in a little shop in St Andrews when we were on holiday in Scotland in October 2010, and it's finally found a home! And, best of all, when the candle is all used up, I'll have a pretty little cup and saucer to use.Ah, here we are, complete with all the dust collectors I could need and a magazine to read when the urge takes me.And a final look at the room all tidied upcompared to the same view just a few months agoBut wait, have you spotted one of the things that is still on our 'snug to do' list? You can see it in this photoAnd again hereAnd hereYep, that's right. We REALLY need to change the curtains. Look how well the orange and yellow check goes with the purple stripe carpet... I'm dreaming of long, purple velvet drapes, swept back with jewelled rope tie-backs. Although they are some way off as the purse strings are tightly closed for the time being. And it may involve having to move the radiator from under the window, which makes for an expensive job.Oh, and what's this? Just as I had my bookcase all nicely full (I say 'mine' because hubby has his books in the bureau along to the left), I discovered another box of my unread books in the garage. And nowhere to put them. There goes the tidy snug.

Snug-ier and Snug-ier

2012-01-10T21:09:00.011Z

A couple of weeks before Christmas I made a trip to High Wycombe and Reading; while there I fitted in some time with friends, a couple of hours at the hairdresser and plenty of shopping. High Wycombe has a very lovely John Lewis which is pretty much dedicated to 'house and home', which certainly helps to focus the mind. I've mentioned before our hunt for 'the' chair and we're still lusting after the Tetrad Totnes (or two of them, to be precise). But at £1000 each lusting is about as far as it goes. But luck was on my side as I wandered round the furniture dept in JLHW, not that much luck that the Tetrads were on special offer, but enough luck that a rather gorgeous purpley-mauve chenille wing back armchair had an 'ex-display discount' label attached. And not only did it look good, it felt good too as I plonked myself down in it. I also plonked myself down in pretty much all the other chairs that were on display but this one had my name (and bum-imprint) on it, so I snapped it up before some other canny shopper grabbed it. And this week it was finally delivered. And it fits in the snug an absolute treat - the colour is just right to go with the carpet, the size is perfect, it still feels as comfy as it did when I first sat in it and absolutely best of all the invoice showed it was £200 less than I thought it was going to be, all down to the fact that between me snapping it up in mid-Dec and when it was delivered a piece of the back leg had been damaged. Yes, it's a bit unsightly, but it's at the back and out of view and a couple of coats of paint (or even a marker pen?!) should cover it up. And for £200 off, I'll take it!

In honour of the chair's arrival, hubby lit the fire in the snug for the very first time. It was absolutely lovely, and as the sun set and the curtains were drawn the room absolutely lived up to its name and was a totally cosy, comfy and snug cocoon where I whiled away a lovely half hour with a magazine while awaiting the arrival home from nursery of the whirlwind that is DC.

Yes, this room is still a work in progress: we have curtains, but they are orange and yellow check ones from our house before last and, strangely, they don't really go with the purple striped carpet, we still need another comfy chair in the room, we need to move in a bookcase from the dining area, move in a cabinet from my office for the TV to sit on, buy a TV that works, tile the hearth and fit a fire surround/mantelpiece, but it's definitely an improvement on a few months ago!

And the winner is....

2012-01-09T13:54:00.003Z

Me! What a lovely way to start the new blogging year.

TopChelseaGirl over at How Soon Is Now? has very kindly sent me the Liebster Award. Thank you!

Apparently "Liebster" is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. The Liebster is a way to show a little Blog Love to bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers and I fit in there about 10 times over, although for quite some time now I've been unable to see who my followers are (although I can see the number in my dashboard) and I can't see how many followers other bloggers have. Anyone know how to resolve this issue? Anyway, because of this I don't know if the bloggers I'm nominating have more than or fewer than 200 followers and I hope that my nominations don't offend!

The rules:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you (done!)

2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog (done!)

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog (done!)

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers. (fingers crossed!)

5. And most of all - have fun! (will do!)

So, without further ado, here are my five nominations:

Our New Life in the Country

where Sue inspires us to live more simply (and frugally)

Curlew Country

where Steph inspires us with her vintage finds and life in general

My Life in Flip Flops

where Jenny inspires us to buy a holiday home with tales of her place in Italy, knitting and life in Scotland

My Little Life

here Claire inspires us to read more with her book reviews

HenHouse

where Hen inspires us to embrace the 1940s, quilts and vintage finds

If you're not already a follower/reader of these blogs, I can highly recommend them.

Manna from Santa

2012-01-04T16:44:00.014Z

I know I'm a bit slow at getting round to posting this, and I know that it all seems a long way off now, but I hope you all (that's all three of you who read this blog...) had a lovely Christmas. And a Happy New Year to you "all" too! Here's hoping 2012 is all that you wish it to be.

Family W had a very cosy, quiet Christmas - the first in our new house. Just four of us for the entire holiday period - me, hubby, DC and Granny; although with the amount of food and drink we had, you'd think we were expecting an army to call round for their tea. Look at these delicious treats, all handmade by hubby (with a little help from DC).

We discovered that DC is still too young to 'get' Christmas and had to be co-erced into opening his presents - in fact after he'd opened those containing a toy tool set and a new guitarhe wasn't interested in the others (except for the trampoline, which he'd had a couple of days earlier as it kept getting in the way out in the garage once all the 'extra' Christmas food needed a home!) and it was New Year's Eve before the final gifts were unwrapped. I'm sure next Christmas will be a different matter entirely. Having said that, my favourite part of Christmas day was overhearing hubby going into DC's room first thing in the morning and saying 'Oooh, look, Father Christmas has been and he's brought you some presents' while holding up DC's stocking. And DC's reply 'Has it got chocolate in it?' He is his mother's son.

We also did something we've never done before - we went to church on Christmas morning. None of us are religious, but since we can actually see the church from our house and it's all of a one minute walk away up the path opposite, we thought it might be a nice tradition to start now that we are part of a new village. I don't want us to seem like hypocrites for attending church on Christmas Day and declaring in the same sentence that we're not religious, but for us it wasn't about the religious aspects, it was more about being part of the community and saying hello and 'Merry Christmas' to our neighbours.

Father Christmas was very good to me this year; he brought gifts in all shapes and sizes; there were edible/drinkable gifts: there were gifts that could be worn: such as this great scarf from my Mum and some upside-down pyjamas and socksgifts to be read (with head tilted to one side): I'm looking forward to baking something from 'Baked in America' and making something inspired by Kirstiecrafty gifts: 'treat' gifts: including a voucher for a beauty treatment or massage at a local establishmentand tickets to the Coronation Street musical!practical gifts:

as a 'tradition' from my student days, my Mum always supplies us with a very large bag of toiletries!and the much-coveted and hard to come by (can you guess what it is yet?!)Cath Kidston iPad cover!deliciously smelly gifts:including this fabulous Avoca candle from hubby - such good taste! The box is so pretty I think it may have to stay out on display.
decorative gifts, such as these Gemma Wightman tealight holders from my dear friends (and owners of Lazyhill Gallery) R & G, to match the gorgeous bowl they gave us as a housewarming present:

and this fab milk bottle from Vermont, USA by way of Bridport vintage market and hubby:

and some 'you know me so well' gifts from my lovely friends L &B: Cath Kidston and Hotel Chocolat - what more could I ask for?

and the contents of my Christmas stocking - again full of 'you know me so well' gifts, from hubby - US chocolate and crisps, coffee, peppermint bark and some lovely vintage knivesAs you can see I was thoroughly spoilt and I'll have a lovely time wearing, reading, devouring, admiring and enjoying all of the gifts while thinking of the kind souls who gave them to me.

Ok, Maybe a Couple More

2011-12-20T12:08:00.008Z

As requested by hubby, here's Robbie the all-singing, all-dancing reindeer (second photo is blurry because it's a mid-action shot!)
And here are the snowmen, whiling away their time on the windowsill at the front of the dining areaLong-legged snowman appears to have imbibed too many Snowballs (par for the course in our house at this time of year)Mr Tall Snowman is on Santa patrolAnd the snowmen are also joined by a modern take on the Christmas tree, a red perspex number courtesy of a Muji sale one year for the startling sum of £1. And here they are from outside (the view Santa would get if he came up the driveway, instead of down the chimney)And this is the hallway window - yet another snowman on Santa watchInside the hallway we have this plump little robin, from the Country Living fair last year (also available at John Lewis, apparently)And these gorgeous red paper stars (John Lewis, again!); wish I'd bought more now, although I suppose you can have too much of a good thing, and there's always next year...And here are the laser-cut wooden snowflakes we picked up from the Christmas market in Krakow for less than £1 eachHere's a shot of (nearly all of) the hallwayAnd here's the front door, looking suitably festive. And I'm pleased that the snowflakes can be seen through the frosted glass.I've just realised there are some more deccies in the snug as well, but I really think that might have to be it for DecorationWatch this year. It's time I was off wrapping pressies and eating chocolates...

Around The World in 80 Christmas Decorations

2011-12-14T09:54:00.016Z

Well, maybe not quite 8o, but still rather a lot. Whenever we go on holiday, hubby and I do our best to buy a Christmas decoration from the palce we're visiting. It's a great reminder when we unpack the deccies each year of places we've been, and it makes for a very pretty (albeit very mis-matched) tree. So, here's a little run down of some of the little beauties which have made it home with us and which help to transform the tree from this: by way of this:to this:Most of our decorations come from the USA because it's somewhere we've travelled a lot and also because the Americans know how to do decorations (even if most of them are actually Made in China...). Anyhoo, here are the US batch, starting with a rather fitting globeA pickle - who could ask for a more Christmas-y decoration?!

Unless you count the hamburger?!This is one we picked up (and had personalised) from a Christmas market in Central Park the weekend we got married

I got this one in Chicago this year because it made me think of our move to the countryside where we are constantly getting stuck behind tractors driving along the roadPug dog - next best thing to having a real one.From the Disney Store in Chicago, because DC loves 101 DalmatiansPilsbury Dough Boy, from somewhere in Vermont, if I remember rightly - hubby bought him for me as a surpriseNow, a quick hop over the border to Canada:Then moving on down Mexico way, with a cheeky little number in the shape of a pinataAnd a little further south, we have this somewhat startled-looking snowman from Guatemala (startled that he hadn't melted in the heat, perhaps?)And here's a little 'sorpresa' (surprise) from El Salvador Now, let's hop over the Pacific to AustraliaThen a little shimmy up to South East Asia, starting with CambodiaMoving on to LaosAnd on to Vietnam, where we found this little charmer in an airport gift shopThen lets shuffle a little further east to IndiaNow, let's move much closer to home with a whole batch (which seem to be mostly bell-shaped) from Europe, starting with SwitzerlandHungary

Serbia

Portugal Czech RepublicGermany (terrible photo, sorry)Oh, and here's a little card we picked up at a flea market in Poland - it's one of those 'moving' pictures where you get two different images when you move back and forth in front of it
And finally home - the first two are vintage baublesWhereas this one is a tasteful little elephant poo number (yes, you read that right) from the Natural History Museum in LondonAnd here's this year's addition, all the way from John Lewis in BristolAnd last, but not least for this tree, here's poor old Rudolph who gets shoved up as our tree topper each year, looking none too comfortable, poor chap

Oh yes, and I did say 'this tree' because we've actually got three trees this year - did I tell you we love Christmas?!

Here's the Starbucks tree. Sad. But true.

And here's our little fake tree in the hallway

And here we have, new this year, my incredibly twee but somehow growing on me, Department 56 Dickens Village

Oh, and the collection of special mugs and glasses that only get used in December.

Phew, I think that's about it for now; there are plenty more decorations such as the wreath on the front door, the snowmen on the window sill, the snowflakes in the entrance hall, but I'm not sure you could bear to see any more. So it just leaves me to say:

Merry Christmas to you all!

The Big 4-0 in Krakow

2011-12-05T16:56:00.009Z

Last week (where's the time gone?!?) I celebrated my 40th birthday. I know, I know, I can't believe I'm 40 either, and I'm pretty sure I only look about 21, and my brain certainly seems to think I'm only about 18, but the sands of time have been slipping through my hourglass and apparently I was born in 1971, so that makes me actually and really 40. Humph.

Anyway, to make things less painful hubby and I had a few days in lovely Krakow, while DC spent some quality time with Grandma and Grandad. Krakow's Old Town is choc-ful of beautiful buildings and brimful of restaurants, cafes and shops, so we had a high old time just wandering around, taking in the sights, eating, drinking, and generally relaxing. Best of all, we had afternoon naps - something which is unheard of at any other time due to a combination of work and a small child - and I managed to read an entire book (400+ pages no less!) and 4 magazines in the time we were away - total and utter bliss!

On my birthday eve, I indluged in a 'little' cocktail at lunchtime - such decadent behaviour! On my birthday I started the day with my favourite breakfast - American pancakes with maple syrup - fantastic!For lunch I had a Polish sausage from a stall at the Christmas market in the main square. A decision I lived to regret that night as it turned out to be the sort of gift that keeps on giving, if you catch my drift...In the evening we went to a fancy restaurant and kicked off the meal with a glass of something fizzy.
And the evening before we headed home I discovered a VERY aptly named little place - Coffee Heaven, which could also be called Cake Heaven. Deeeee-licious.As for the shopping, we were lucky enough that our trip coincided with the annual Christmas market where we bought: a wooden spoon (you can never have too many!)

Some fabulous lazer cut snowflake Christmas decorations - I may spary these white at some point, but for now they're hanging in all their wooden glory from cotton in the windows next to our front doorAnd a tree-shaped decoration that I thought DC would like to paint (when I have the energy to cope with a 32 month old + paints)

And there was a stall selling chocolates - how could I resist?

And a stall selling 'glass' decorations in all manner of shapes - we bought this one for DC since he loves guitars so much (yes, I know it's a cello [or similar], but I'm hoping DC won't notice)

Oh, and there was a lovely chocolate shop selling choc by the slab/chunk. I can't show you what was inside as I've already eaten it. Suffice to say it was delicious and I'd like to go back and buy more. Lots more.
And while we were in the old Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, we stumbled across a little flea market and picked up this little old glass bottle, perfect for our growing collection which lives in/clutters up the ensuite.
And while we on the subject of bottles - here's another specimen which hubby bought me for my birthday. Can you see what it says? 'F. Christmas & Son. Haverhill'. How cool is that?!

So, after the important food, drink and shopping photos, here's a few of the Old Town. This is the approach to Wawel Castle, set on a hill at the opposite end of the Old Town to the Market Square (Rynek Glowny)

This is the Cloth Market and Tower in the Market Square.

Inside the Cloth Market, which was ABSOLUTELY freezing, as it seems to act like some sort of wind tunnel and gets very little sunlight. BRRRRR.

Another view of the Tower. Note the gorgeous blue sky. We were extremely lucky with the weather - blue skies and sunshine all the time we were there. A Polish colleague of hubby's who we met whilst out there said it would usually have snowed at that time of year, so I was thanking my lucky stars that while it was cold enough to need a hat and gloves (and a thermal vest in the evenings - glamour!), at elast we weren't trudging through slush.

And all lit up at night

One of the many small parks that lie around the outer walls of the Old Town. As hubby said, if you squint, you could almost be in Central Park.

Back to the Market Square, and St Mary's Basilica, where every hour on the hour a trumpet signal is played from the top of the tallest tower. It breaks off in mid-stream to commemorate the 13thC trumpeter who was shot in the throat by an arrow while sounding the warning of an invading Mongol army - gruesome historical 'fact'.

All in all, a lovely birthday trip, made all the more special by a card from my darling boy and a fairy cake that hubby had secretly taken in his luggage. Ahhh!

Boxing Clever and Playing Hooky

2011-11-20T19:53:00.013Z

Last Saturday hubby whisked me away to glamorous Reading for a child-free day of shopping followed by an early birthday meal with friends. We even got to stay over in a hotel for the night, just across the road from where we used to live - weird.

Hubby doesn't love shopping like I do (I wonder if there are many people who love shopping as much as I do?) but he still managed a good few hours Saturday afternoon because we were looking for furniture, which is more interesting than clothes/shoes/handbag shopping when there's a new house to furnish. We spent a lot of time in Laura Ashley and John Lewis sitting in armchairs - testing the seats for comfort, the height of the back for head rest-ability, the arms for arm rest-ability and checking the price tags for (un)affordability. And after about 30 chairs we found THE ONE. Hubby found it first and then set me the task of identifying it, to see if our tastes/requirements in chair-age are the same. And yes, they are. Only one small problem - the price tag:

Ouch. In fact, double ouch since we'd need two of the chairs to save fighting over who gets to sit down, or to save broken legs when one of us has to sit on the other's lap.

On the Sunday, after a fabulous fried breakfast at The Gorge, we called in at the Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair on our way back home.
We wanted the sledge, but weren't too keen on the £65 price tag.There are quite a few things on our 'want' list that we are hoping to pick up sometime soon from an antiques/junk shop, fair or auction, for example a farmhouse-style kitchen table, some wall shelves for the kitchen, a small chest or cabinet to put a tv on in the snug, bedside cabinets, storage for the main bathroom, the list goes on. Luckily we were able to strike one thing from the list at Shepton Mallet on Sunday when we spied a wooden box which we thought would work well for storing our first aid stuff/medicines in the space above the loo in main bathroom. Obviously the ceramic white and yellow check handle is hugely out of place, but that's easily replaced, but the size of the box and the lovely wood were just what we were looking for do we snapped it up for £15.

Once back home it was time for hubby and his little helper to set to work with their trusty drills. First two holes were drilled in the back of the box and then two more when hubby realised he'd drilled the first two on the bottom rather than the top - oops! Then the box was held against the wall to decide where exactly we wanted it, and hubby used a pencil to mark through the holes in the box onto the wall so he knew where to drill the corresponding holes. Once the holes were drilled and rawl plugs fitted it was simply a job of using two screws to fix the box to the wall. Et voilà, storage in the bathroom. Now I just need to find a new knob to blend in with the decor rather than stick out like a sore thumb. I have something in mind and I'm sure eBay will come up trumps.

While the DIY boys were in the mood, hubby also put two hooks up - one in the ensuite and one in the bathroom to hold towels whilst in the shower or bath. Until now when having a shower in the ensuite we've had to leave our towels on the floor outside the cubicle and when using the main bathroom it's a case of draping a towel over the edge of the bath. But not anymore. Now we have towels to hand at the perfect height thanks to these pretty 'crystal' hooks snaffled during a 25% off promotion at Laura Ashley. So now it's just a case of tracking down a little 'crystal' knob for the bathroom cabinet to tie in with the hook right next to it and all will be well.

When One Becomes Two

2011-11-08T18:57:00.015Z

A couple of weekends ago we did a bit of work in the ensuite; although it's not a tiny room, it's still not palatial so we have to be careful that the fixtures, fittings and various decorative tat don't make the room feel cluttered or hemmed in. Of course, it helps that the room is painted white and that the tiling within the shower is mostly white metro (aside from the two strips of gorgeous green from Fired Earth).

This storage unit, which worked well in the bathroom of our previous house is a case in point of an item that was too big for this room; although it fitted into the dead space between the sink and the shower, it was too tall and overbearing. And we also wanted to fit our much-loved, auction find, wall-mounted cupboard in to the ensuite somehow and this was really the only workable space. Clearly, something had to give.So, after I cleared off the toiletries, hubby and DC man-handled the overbearing unit out of the ensuite and downstairs into the garage. Then it was time to set to work with the wall cupboard. First holes were drilled, then the little "helper" popped in some rawl plugs.

Then screws were screwed through the holes in the back of the cabinet and into the wall.

And, hey presto, a wall cabinet for some toiletries.

But what about all the other toiletries that were once stored on the hunk-a-chunka wooden unit? Hmm, where to store them? A-ha - lightbulb moment!! Since the wooden unit fitted in the space so neatly apart from heght-wise, why not saw it in (sort of) half to make it into a less obtrusive, but still very useful little item?

So, down to the garage go hubby and his helper and with a bit of sawing here, and a bit of sanding thereTa-da!!!! Two useful storage units/tables, for the price of one!The taller unit shows some saw marks to the corners, but as we're undecided what to do with it in the long run - paint it, add a solid top, put a tray/basket on top - we're not too worried for now.The smaller unit has fared better since the saw marks are on the bottom of the feet and don't show at all.

So, we trotted back upstairs with TWO smaller units tucked under our arms and popped one in the en-suite.

Much better. Not finished, but definitely a step in the right direction. And please excuse our delightful ply wood floor - the Cath Kidston floor tiles we ordered at the end of August - yes, August - have only just arrived and will be fitted in a couple of weeks' time - hooray!

One more little job to do in the ensuite, again with the aid of the little "helper". Can you guess what it is yet?!

The all-important magazine receptacle for easy access to reading material when on the loo! It's an enamel box of some sort that hubby and I picked up some years ago from an antique/junk shop somewhere in the Cotswolds when we were scouring the area looking for somewhere to live. We didn't find a house, but we did find this extremely useful item.

But what of the second storage unit/table I hear you ask? Well, fear not, it was put to use immediately in DC's room replacing the side table where his bedtime books live. Lovely table though it was, it wasn't the most practical for the enormous stack of reading material DC likes to have at his disposal:

But now this square table not only fits the space better, it also has two shelves for all those fabulous books. Much better.

And just in case anyone is in the slightest bit interested, the unit was from IKEA and is still available (in one large piece so you'll have to saw it in half yourself) at the bargain price of £39 http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/30203421/

Rewind: My Trip to the US of A - Chicago

2011-11-03T17:09:00.026Z

Way back when in the midsts of time (a.k.a five weeks ago) I went on a little trip to the USA. My mum and hubby paid for my flight to Chicago and NYC for my upcoming (this month, in fact - argghh!) 40th birthday. Am I lucky, or what?

Needless to say, I had a wonderful time and thought I should probably blog about it, before I forget what I did. Beware, this is a long post. Grab a coffee, sit back, and come with me on a trip round Chicago.

On the Wednesday afternoon I drove up to High Wycombe to stay over with my dearest friend L; this was a fab start to my sojourn as we met up with our mutual friend B and went to Yo! Sushi for dinner - yum!

Thursday morning (ayyyyyeee, it felt like the middle of the night) at 3.45am I crawled out of bed and drove to Heathrow. I'd booked the 'Meet & Greet' car parking service, which gave me probably an extra 30mins in bed and a lot less stress of trying to find their 'middle of nowhere' car park in the dead of night. Then I checked in and headed for the departure lounge where I continued my holiday eating-fest with a Starbucks coffee and blueberry muffin. The flight to Chicago was uneventful. I had two seats to myself, which was great and much more relaxing than being crammed in next to a stranger. The entertainment options were dire, so I spent most of the flight reading a clutch of the Hello magazines I'd brought along. Plane landed at about 10am Chicago time (above is the skyline of Chicago as we were coming into land) and I was in my hotel room in downtown Chicago by about 11.30am. Straight away I met up with a group of the people I'd flown out to meet and we headed out for some lunch. After that I headed for Starbucks (of course) and swooned at the sight of their new drink - Salted Caramel Mocha. HELLO???? Two of my favourite things - salted caramel + coffee - in one cup? And it tasted as good as I'd hoped. Needless to say, I drank rather a lot of those over the five days I was in the USA. Then it was time to hit the shops on the Magnificent Mile. First stop, Crate & Barrel, and first purchase, a pumpkin scoop for hubby - no home should be without one... And there the shopping floodgates were opened and I couldn't/didn't stop til it was time to come home on Monday evening.

A quick meet up with more friends in the afternoon, then I headed out for a light bite dinner - hot dog and cheese fries at Portillos (when in Rome...) before a group of us met up to go to a drag show. That's me on the right, in case you were wondering what I look like, as I'm not sure there are actually that many photos of me on this blog.I've never been to one before so didn't really know what to expect. It was a bit disappointing at first, but the acts slowly improved and by the end I was really enjoying it. Sorry there aren't any photos of the show but cameras weren't allowed. Then it was time for bed - the jet lag was kicking in and I was ready to drop.

The next morning Iwoke bright and early and headed out in the direction of the Mag. Mile once more, but ostensibly not for shopping; this time it was sightseeing. There are fabulous buildings a-plenty in Chicago, apparently due to the fact that the city all but burnt down in the late nineteenth century. One of the most famous is the Chicago Tribune building that has stones embedded in its walls from many monuments around the world - apparently the owner of the Tribune newspaper instructed his reporters to bring/send them back when they were overseas (not sure if this was done legally or whether they snuck up to edificies such as the Great Pyramid at Giza under cover of darkness with a chisel and mallet?!)

There's also an enormous and, dare I say, tacky statue of Marilyn Monroe in that 'infamous' pose which gives lots and lots and lots of people the chance to have their photo taken looking up her skirt. I'm not sure why it's there since she was born and died in LA. Does anyone know the Chicago-Marilyn connection? Am I missing something really obvious?

My sightseeing continued over the other side of the river as I walked through the Loop district, heading for Macy's - a girl has to shop in between all the sightseeing! I was very excited to see the El trains trundling round the overhead tracks, it was just like a scene from ER! My Macy's pitstop lasted longer than I expected due, in most part, to the fact their Christmas Dept had just opened, and I LOVE me some Christmas. Obviously I had to buy a few deccies, including this mega tasteful one. Impressive, non?!
After Macy's I headed for the Chicago Cultural Center to check out the world's largest Tiffany glass dome; it was lovely to see, but actually I thought some of the other parts of the building were just as stunning, if not more so.

After a quick stop to use the free internet in the center, it was over the road and into Millennium Park to see "The Bean" (aka the Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor.) Apparently when first suggested, the idea wasn't very popular but since it was unveiled it has been admired and visited by tourists and locals alike. It makes for some great photos, with the city's buildings reflected and distorted in its surface. And you can take self portraits - look, there's me with the Macy's bag!

After all that walking (and shopping) it was time to head back to the hotel for a little bit of R&R, before I headed out to dinner at Pizzeria Uno, one of several pizzerias in the city that claims to have invented the Chicago pizza pie. I had a mushroom and spinach version (please excuse dreadful photo - no flash on my iPhone) which I would probably have enjoyed a whole lot more if I hadn't eaten an entire side order of mozarella sticks before the pizza arrived. Luckily, this being America, they were more than happy to box it up for me and I enjoyed the leftovers later!

Later on it was time for a get-together with friends in the hotel lounge before we headed out to a karaoke bar, which most of us promptly left after one drink in order to find somewhere quieter where we could sit and chat over a Baileys and ice. And that was the end of Friday.

Saturday I wasn't up quite so early, but still early enough as I'd arranged to meet Tina in Starbucks at 9.30am so we could enjoy a day of shopping and sightseeing together. We pretty much followed the same route I'd taken on the Friday, with a walk along the Mag. Mile, over the river and into Millennium Park, where this time I got my photo snapped in front of The Bean.

This time I also got to see the Crown Fountain which I'd missed the day before; this installation features two 50-foot high towers which project video images of 1,000 Chicago citizens with water spouting from their "mouths".After that it was across the road to the Art Institute of Chicago shop (not cultured enough to do the Institue itself!) and then on to the Chicago Artchitecture Foundation shop, is there a theme developing here? Then finally we found the place we had been headed for all along - a knitting shop - Loopy Yarns. I bought a great pattern book for knitting an Afghan blanket, which I might get round to opening one day...After all that walking and shopping it was time for lunch - pulled pork sandwich with onion rings and fries. Shopping and eating, eating and shopping. Seems about all I did when I was in Chicago...One last shop - the Hershey store; not for the Hershey chocolate which I think is foul, but for the Reeses's peanut butter confections. OMG, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Reese's peanut butter cups, and even more than that I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Reese's peanut butter chocolate bars. I bought three and I've got half of one left, even though I've tried to ration it. I really need to get back to the USA soon! In the evening it was time to head out for dinner to a Churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse). I'm not a big meat-eater, so I went for the all-you-can-eat salad bar option. I'm also not a big salad person, so I expected to be a little bit hungry come the end. How wrong could I be? There was sooooo much to choose from (50+ dishes, apparently) that I only visited the salad bar once. Look at my plate: there was chicken salad, bacon, artichoke hearts, potato salad, mozarella balls, asparagus spears, haloumi, sushi. It was absolutely not like going to a Harvester. Here's Tina and I looking happy about the food.After dinner we headed back to the hotel lounge and spent time chatting and eating ice cream - there are a lot more flavouts of Ben & Jerry's available in the USA! And that was pretty much the end of my trip to Chicago.

And when I checked my bag in at the airport for my flight to NYC, look what got attached to it.

I wonder why??!!

House Renovations: Snug

2011-11-02T10:30:00.017Z

The room we like to call the 'snug' is at the front of the house, to the right as you come through the front door. Originally the room ran the full length of the house; this shot shows the end of the room looking out through the front window, with the door into the hallway just out of shot to the rightwhile this photo shows the other end of the room, with the window looking out onto the back gardenbut we decided when we went for open plan in the rest of the downstairs space that we would like a 'cosy', and preferably child-free, room where we could sit on a winter's evening with the fire on, reading our books and/or watching tv - a romantic notion, don't you think?!

Within days of the builders starting work on the house, they had stripped away the horrendous stone covering the chimney breastand built a wall to make the room much more 'snug'-like

Then it was a case of removing the rather over-sized Bath stone fire surround (currently residing in the garage until we get round to listing it on eBay) and the electric firefitting a new doorplastering the walls (doesn't the fire look tiny now?!)painting the room whiteand building a huge, ugly, concrete hearth. Huge and ugly in order for it to conform to building regs which state it must be a certain height, certain depth, certain blah blah and blah-di-blah.Then pop in a vintage (1930s or 50s perhaps?) grate found in the garage

oh, and box in some ugly heating pipespop some new skirting on and fit some new carpet in gorgeous burgundy stripes - Carousel Cord by Brintons. Hubby scored a major steal with this carpet after a little bit of research on the internet/via good old eBay. The RRP is £80 per sq.m - ouch, with a capital 'O'. Totally out of our price range. However, there was a company in Leeds (I think) selling it for just £25 per sq.m. as they could only supply narrowish widths meant for stairs and landings. Our carpet fitter assured us this wouldn't be a problem as any join would be easily hidden by the stripes; and he was right - we don't even know where the join is (there's only one as the carpet supplied wasn't all that narrow). It just goes to show how much money can be saved with a little time spent on the tinterweb.And then it was time to start moving in the furniture. This room is still very much a work in progress, and is also a little bit of a dumping ground for the time being. We've moved the bureau in, but that's about it; we really need to buy/acquire a couple of comfy chairs, a chest of drawers (or similar) to put a tv on, and some more book storage. Not to mention some curtains - I'm thinking burgundy velvet to pick up on the colour in the carpet and to make the room feel even snuggier! Oh, and we need a standard lamp, or side lamps and we need to hang some pictures. This will call for another post at a later date...

Bowl Me Over

2011-11-01T18:39:00.006Z

Just a small job undertaken in the house today for two reasons 1) hubby was working 2) it's one of DC's non-nursery days. The combination of these factors made it tricky to find time to get much done over-and-above the usual 'entertain small child and try to keep house from looking like something from Life of Grime while hubby works and I try to fit in an hour or two of work as well'.

But, as we all know, every little helps, so while DC & I watched Toy Story 2 for the brazillionth time hubby was able to sneak upstairs and hang this mirror in our bedroom. Until now it's been propped in the corner of the room, so having it hung on the wall helps free up floor space, means we can now see ourselves properly without having to crouch down and also makes use of this bit of dead wallspace next to my built-in wardrobe.
Today I'd also like to take a little time to say thank you to friends, family and neighbours who have kindly sent us 'New Home' cards. I suspect most of them are getting a bit fed up with us moving so often and are keeping their fingers crossed that we'll stay put for a goodly while.

Special thanks go to our dear friends R&G of Lazyhill Gallery fame who came for dinner a couple of weeks ago and brought us housewarming gifts in the shape of 1) a homemade lemon drizzle cake, 2) homemade salted caramel macaroons, 3) teatowels from their recent trip to France and 4) this GEEEE-OOORRRR-JUSSSS bowl handmade by Gemma Wightman, which I'd been coveting from their Gallery for quite some time - the photos don't do it justice (since we moved I can't find the battery charger for my camera so I'm having to take all photos with my iPhone); it's a chalky textured off-white on the outside and a glorious, glossy blue-green inside. Currently the bowl resides on the windowsill in the hallway, out of reach of small hands...Not only that, but R also made us a 'card' in the form of a little house with a bee inside - cute, clever and very 'made to measure' since it features a map of our village to front and back - how's that for personalisation?If you're ever down on the Jurassic Coast, you should definitely make a bee-line (see what I did there?!) for their Gallery - you won't be disappointed! And if you can't make it to Dorset, worry not as they are launching an online version of the Gallery very soon - you heard it here first!

Oh, and I've added a couple of photos of DC's blind in situ to the previous post, in case you're interested.

A Blind Leading the...

2011-10-31T16:35:00.012Z

Today's job around the house was to fit a blackout blind in Darling Child's room. Since we moved in his room has been sporting the latest in cardboard chic at the window - quite a good look, non?
Non, it is in fact a terrible look, especially with those toys shoved up against the cardboard to stop it falling down. What bad parents we are, making our no.1 son sleep in such squalid conditions.

And without cardboard:

We had the option of trimming the blind (think hacksaw, scissors, a steady hand and the ability to cut in a straight line) to fit within the window recess or not trimming it and fitting it outside. We went for the easy (read: lazy) option and chose to fit it outside the recess, figuring that if it didn't work (ie too much light still came in at the edges of the blind), we could always go for the more difficult, recessed option at a later date (ie, high summer when we risk hearing calls of 'Daddy, daddy' when the sun comes up at 4am [note, DC is a Daddy's boy - he rarely calls for Mummy first thing in the morning; I'm not sure whether to be sad or glad...])
Luckily, when the house was being torn apart by the builders, we had the foresight to ask them to leave up the wood strips that had been fitted by the previous owner in most rooms for attaching curtain rails; this made life a lot, lot simpler as it meant screwing into wood and not brick. So simple in fact that hubby didn't even need to get his power drill out, he was able to get the screws into the wood with a regular screwdriver.

After holding the blind in against the wooden strip to assess and mark out where each end plate had to go, it was simply a job of fitting them both using the two screws suppliedthen clipping the cord fixture in place and slotting the blind into the two end plates. Oh, and we had to unwind the blind and wind it back up the other way so that it unwound from the back rather than the front, if that makes sense?
And while hubby had his screwdriver to hand, he also fitted this sweet little coat hook that I'd bought last December from Anthropologie in New York (and which can now be bought in the UK and by mail order) - now DC has somewhere to hang his dressing gown.

Et voila, 30 minutes later and DC had a much, much nicer room. It does look like a lot of light is coming in around the blind, but these photos were taken on (an unseasonably) sunny day at 2pm, not normally a time when DC would be asleep in his room.
Now it's just a case of finding a neater, nicer way to store his toys. But whatever mess the room may be in, at least it's better than it was six months ago...

We've Got Hang-Ups

2011-10-30T19:48:00.009Z

A little more work was accomplished this morning in the hallway, in the form of hanging up some gorgeous vintage French coat hooks which we bought just yesterday from the Vintage Bazaar at the Cheese and Grain in Frome.

Apologies for the upside down view, I've tried uploading this photo several times now and it keeps flipping over for some reason known only to Blogger and/or the computer.

We've been in desparate need of coat hooks since we moved in, as our (rather large) collection of coats has been piled on the bench in the dining area - not a good look. But we've been hmming and hawwing over 1) where to hang the coats and 2) what to hang them on. Before moving in we had envisaged hanging coats on the right side of the hall (as you come in the door); although actually before that we had envisaged hanging them in the boot room, but the boot room fell foul of the budget and has yet to be built. So, back to the hallway. We envisaged the right side of the hall, but that was before we put this little console table and mirror ensemble together and decided we quite liked it there. The other side of the hallway is a no-go for coats due to the window/radiator combo. So, what to do? Then hubby came up with the plan of hanging them under the stairs, behind the door into the living room. Armed with the measurement at the widest point, we headed to Frome in the hope of finding a coat rack of some description, but there were none to be found at the Bazaar or in any of the vintage/antique shops in the town. But, Fate intervened when we made a return visit to the Bazaar late on in the day, ostensibly to buy an eiderdown that we had been debating over. Said eiderdown had been sold, but what we did spot were these little beautiesVintage, French coat hooks; £39 for the three; hubby offered £35 and they were ours. Definitely not the cheapest way to hang coats especially when, as hubby pointed out, you can't even see them once the coats are on them, but we like them and we especially like that it makes the dining area a LOT tidier. And I really like the fact that the lowest one is for DC and he can probably just about reach his own coats now - cute!

And now for some action shots. Man + power tool.Always good to have a little helper to push the rawl plugs in.

House Renovations: Hallway

2011-10-26T20:02:00.015+01:00

Long time, no write. Apologies as always. Now, I was going to document the house renovations floor by floor, internal and external, but I'm wondering if room by room might be easier, so here goes with the very first 'room' of the house - the hallway. This is the original front door
And the downstairs loo:
Which didn't stay long.

Then the original door was taken out; and it took a loooooong time for the new door to be made and fitted.This shot is taken from the living room, across the hallway through to the doorway into the 'snug'; here you can see the new internal door of the snug.A-ha, at long last the new front door is being fitted; you can also see the parquet floor and the patch to the right where the downstairs loo used to be and there were lino tiles on the floor.Another shot of the new front door (no letter box yet) and the old flooring.
New front door, again, but this time with letterbox cut.These two shots shows the latex laid to level the floor before the new oak was put down.
This is what the stairway to the first floor looked like when we first viewed the house.Here's the stairway with the new bannister being fitted and the old carpet on its way out. Understairs cupboard under construction.

And, finally the (nearly) finished product.

We need to tidy up all the wires for the phone/internet, possibly by building a small cupboard behind the chair.Please excuse the grubby square of carpet in front of the door - there to protect the floor/act as a doormat while we decide on exactly what to have there - a doormat cut into the wood floor, or one that sits on top? Decisions, decisions!

Chicago bound

2011-09-29T06:27:00.004+01:00

So, here I am at 6.30am in Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport and I have a little time on my hands before my flight to Chicago departs. Finally, a little free time that I can't use to do much else (put the washing on, just do a little more work, catch up on Holby City or Torchwood, pack a box for the move) except perhaps read one of the seven magazines I packed for the flight...

This will have to be a catch-up post sans photos as I'm not au fait enough with technology yet to know if it's possible to add them from my iPhone.

Anyhoo, today I'm off to Chicago all on my ownsome to meet up with a group of friends for three days, then it's on to New York for just over 24 hours all on my ownsome (except for the credit cards...) My darling hubby and mum bought the flights for my upcoming 40th birthday - isn't that a fab pressie? I'm a very lucky lady indeed. A bit of rest, relaxation, sightseeing and, most importantly, lots of shopping! The last time I visited Chicago was when I was a student in 1992; I can barely remember it - I wonder if things will have changed?! NY is a little fresher in my memory as hubby and I were there last December and this is about my 14th visit to the city that never sleeps.

Anyway, in other news we are VERY close to moving in to our house. The builders will be round there for just a short while today before the cleaners arrive to give it a once over. We've already started taking some furniture round, plus hubby has lugged 40-odd boxes of 'stuff' that we haven't unpacked since we moved into the rental house back in April. Clearly those are 40 boxes fill of essential items... I did comment to hubby that perhaps we should just throw them away without opening them as we've managed to live for 5 months without whatever is in them, but it's difficult to let go of so much potential tat!

I promise to upload (lots of) photos of the house renovation, but it can be such a mind-numbing task. Dies anyone else fund uploading photos to their blog a real chore? In fact, it's not so much the uploading, it's the dragging and sorting into the right place that takes such an age.

I also need to tell you about our trip to Geneva, plus visits from friends, days out in Lyme Regis, Barrington Court, Bridport vintage market, West Bay and much, much more. But, for now, I will bid you adieu from Heathrow.

Busy, busy, busy

2011-09-27T14:55:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, I feel like I've neglected this poor little blog because I just don't seem to find the time/energy to be writing regularly at the moment. Hopefully things will change soon once we move into the new house, but currently I'm juggling work, looking after DC, the housebuild and life in general.

Two weeks ago hubby & I had a couple of days in Geneva (he was working, I was relaxing) and I've not had time to blog about that; then in less than 48 hours I shall be jetting off to Chicago and New York for a few nights, ON MY OWN!!!! I really hope that when I get back I'll get the chance to start blogging again more consistently.

Fun on Friday (and Saturday) (and Sunday)

2011-09-11T14:13:00.010+01:00

On Friday morning, leaving poor hubby hard at work, Granny, DC & I headed over the border into Devon (it's only 8 miles away, so not too arduous a journey) and on to the little town of Axminster. Although we've driven through and round Axminster many times on our way to and from Lyme Regis, we'd never actually stopped before. The main reason for making an actual stop-over in Axminster was to have a bite to eat in the River Cottage Canteen; hubby and I have eaten at the actual River Cottage and we've been en famille to an open day there as well - both visits were very enjoyable and the food was delicious, so a trip to the canteen was definitely called for.

First though, we had a little wander round the town, all the while trying to keep DC in check as he picked up and examined what seemed to be the entire display outside an ironmongers (ie dustbins, plant pots, sweeping brushes), ran into the newsagent next door for chocolate buttons, rubbed his hands along all the dirty windowsills he could find and generally acted like a two-and-a-half year old... By the time we'd got half way round Granny & I needed a drink; DC was in his element since the cafe we chose had an outside area with a hose and pile of logs for him to play with, and when the drinks arrived he was able to 'help' by adding the milk to my coffee and stirring vigorously.

Finally, we made it to the River Cottage Canteen, where Granny enjoyed a very tasty ham roll and I had the most delicious tomato and pesto soup with courgette and croutons -we ate in the front section of the canteen which serves more of the deli food, rather than at the back where the more substantial fare was on offer. DC had a few sips of soup and then decided he was so tired from playing with the sugar bowl/vase/tomato ketchup pot that he had to lie down. At that point, I popped him in his pram so Granny & I could spend too much money at the deli counter buying pies, pasties, cakes, beer and cider. Below are a cheese, potato and onion pasty and a pork pie; I also bought a butternut squash pie for me and a steak and ale pie for hubby, plus some cakes which got eaten before I had a chance to take a photo!And then it was time to head home - a fun trip was had by all and the food was as good as I'd hoped it would be. YUM.

On the way home from Axminster, DC fell asleep so I was able to leave him in the car with Granny and have a quick whizz round an antiques/junk shop which we've passed several times but have never had chance to visit. I'm really glad I had the chance to have a look round as I think this could become a favourite hunting ground for all sorts of tat that we really don't need. And some that we do, such as this apple rack - hope it's still there the next time we get to call in.

Making the most of a willing babysitter, on Friday evening hubby and I drove up to Bristol to see Duran Duran playing a rehearsal show; I was so pleased to have been able to get tickets for this since it was a small venue with a capacity of just 600. It was only a short show (1hr 15mins) and we arrived about 15mins late unfortunately, but it was still a really great evening and I was able to wriggle my way quite close to the front for a good view of the lovely John Taylor and the posturing/pouting Simon Le Bon (and his little paunch.) It seemed so weird (and slightly 'am I really here?'-ish) to be seeing them "in real life", having been such a fan when I was young, with a bedroom covered in posters and the lyrics to their songs constantly in my head. I was pretty sure John Taylor would spot me in the crowd and realise I was the woman of his dreams, but there was a rather annoying man in front of me who kept waving his arms and blocking John's view at all the vital moments. Oh well, maybe next time...

Although Saturday dawned grey and blustery we decided to be brave and head for the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival. And I'm so glad we did as we had a fantastic day - there was cheese, cheese and more cheese to sample and purchasethere was cake, chocolate, fudge, coffee, liquers, beer and cider to sample and purchasethere were crafts to admire and purchasethere was music to listen and dance to, there was Punch & Judy to laugh and shout atand there was an old school friend of mine to meet up and chat with. All in all, a rather grand day out!

On Sunday I had to work at the gallery, but when I finished at 4.30pm I whizzed along the coast to meet Granny, hubby & DC at West Bay.It was blowing a gale when we got there, but it wasn't cold so we braved a walk along the harbour and had lots of fun laughing as the wind blew our hair here, there and everywhere.We managed to find a shelter where we were able to sit and enjoy our fish & chips before retiring to the pub for a drink and some ice cream (for DC)

All in all, a very busy and enjoyable weekend.

House Renovations: Internal, Upstairs. Part I

2011-09-04T12:16:00.045+01:00

Less than five months after work began and the house is pretty much habitable - we have a kitchen, we have bathrooms, we have running water, we have new doors and windows, we have painted walls and woodwork, we have a boiler and radiators, we have electricity and lights!

The August Bank Holiday weekend marked a whole year since we bought the house, so it's about time we were moving in really!

There are so many photos to share from the upper storeys that I've decided to split them into several (probably four) seperate posts - provisionally 1) bedrooms; 2) hall, stairs, landing; 3) bathrooms 4) offices. So here we go with Part 1- the bedrooms, in no particular order. This is destined to be DC's room - it's at the back of the house overlooking the garden. We removed the built in wardrobes and incorporated the space that they took up into the master bedroom next door; apart from that and a new window/radiator/door/plug sockets/light fitting/wall colour, not much has changed.

This room is the larger of what are destined to be two guest/spare bedrooms. They are both at the front of the house, looking over the front garden (obviously), the pretty Victorian cottages opposite and the church beyond. We removed the sink and built-in 'wardrobe', had extra insulation added to the internal wall, new crittal windows fitted, plus the usual new radiator/plug sockets/light fitting/door/wall colour.

And this is the smaller of the two bedrooms at the front of the house, destined to be a guest/spare/play room. We removed the built in wardrobes and incorporated they space they took up into the new bathroom; we also removed the built-in bookcase; again, new crittal windowns plus door/radiator/light fitting/plug sockets/wall colour.Last, but not least, the master bedroom, with ensuite. This was formed by adding an extension to the rear of the house [part of the two storey extension that also formed the kitchen], and knocking through the old airing cupboard (brown door to the right of the picture below), bathroom and separate wc. The doorway into what was the wc is now the doorway into the master bedroom, overlooking the back garden. Doorway through to ensuite, with built-in wardrobes either side Phew, finally done - it's taken me four days to sort the photos for this post - Blogger is hard work sometimes!

The Start of Our Apple Empire

2011-08-17T14:17:00.006+01:00

The seven apple trees (six cookers, one eater) in our back garden are absolutely laden with fruit; one tree was so over-laden in fact that one of its boughs had split and was half hanging off. Clearly it was time to take action, so on Sunday afternoon we trooped round there with a trug and a few bags and started picking. Unfortunately, DC got bored quite quickly and then had a bit of a hissy fit when Hubby wouldn't let him play with the saw that was needed to remove the broken bough. So that brought our apple picking to a swift end. Still, we had filled the trug and one large carrier bag and left hundreds of apples on the trees to soak up the afternoon sun (that was Sunday, today they'll be soaking up the pouring rain and making the most of this delightful "summer" weather). Then it was time to head to the pub for the weekly Sunday afternoon entertainment which, this week, was belly dancing, accompanied by lamb kofta and veggie kebabs cooked over the fire pit. Hubby got chatting to the chef there about apples and on Monday took a large trug along to the pub and agreed to swap them for some beer and a portion of their fantastic triple-cooked fat chips - result!

Then this morning I called in at our village shop with several kilos of apples and they are now on sale there;not only that, but a request has been made for Hubby to take a sample of his apple chutney along and they may start offering that for sale as well. I foresee a happy and prosperous retirement (and many trips to the local hostelry) all funded by apples...

2011-08-08T14:10:00.002+01:00

Of course someone who feels they don't have enough time to do any/all of the things they need to/want to/must do should definitely join Pinterest. Or at least they should sign up for the waiting list to join Pinterest, because they can spend the time that they are waiting to become a fully-fledged member browsing other people's pin boards rather than getting on with all those other things they need to/want to/must do.

Of course if the car had started like it was supposed to and I wasn't waiting for the AA to come and jump start it (flat battery in car that is only 4 months old - great), then I wouldn't have sat back down at my computer to do some more work and my brain wouldn't have started flitting about and taken me to look at a couple of blogs in between actual work and then I wouldn't have clicked on a link and I wouldn't have decided that I really needed to find out about this Pinterest thing that everyone is talking about.

So now I have a whole new thing to add to the list of brazillions of things to do.

Brazillions of Things

2011-08-07T20:53:00.002+01:00

Do you ever have one of those days/weeks/months/years when you have so many things that you need or want or have to do that you just don't know where to start? And the trouble is that no matter which 'thing' you start on you know you don't have time to finish it in one sitting so you can't decide which of the many things you should start, but not finish, and by the time you've thought about all of the things that you can't finish, even more time has gone by and there's less time in which not to finish even one of the brazillion things that you need/want/must do.

I'm having one of those days/weeks/months/years at the moment. So, instead of getting on with all of those things I'll just write a little blog post moaning about not having time to do any of them. That's better.

Other People's Children

2011-08-01T11:27:00.004+01:00

We all know that other people's children are not particularly interesting, and are even less interesting if you don't have children yourself and therefore can't appreciate the intense feelings of love, despair, happiness, tiredness, joy, sadness, etc, etc, that having a child/children can bring. Therefore, you have my permission to skip this post as it is all about my little boy. I'm writing this post because I want to be able to remember these two little incidents that made me laugh.

The background to both of these stories is the same - darling child (aka DC) loves, loves, loves cleaning, mopping, wiping, brushing and generally tidying up. Strange but true, and I'm sure he'll grow out of it at about the same time as he could become quite proficient (and therefore helpful) at it.

Incident no. 1: I had just had a shower and washed my hair when DC came trotting into the bedroom. He exclaimed over my wet hair 'aaah, uh oh, ayeee' and went running off in the direction of the kitchen; moments later he was back with a tea towel and ordered me to sit on the floor so that he could use said tea towel to help pat my hair dry. Bless.

Incident no. 2: DC had been playing in his paddling pool in the garden and thus was trouser and nappy-less. Once he got bored with that he came into the house; after about an hour I was beginning to think it was probably time to get a nappy back on him in order to avoid any little accidents. At about the same time I heard an 'Uh-oh' and round the corner came DC. He took hold of my hand, walked me into the hallway and pointed to a little puddle on the (thankfully wooden) floor. 'Uh-oh' I agreed, as did hubby. DC quickly ran off in the direction of the kitchen at the same time as hubby dashed into the bathroom to fetch some loo roll and begin the mopping up process. By the time DC was back clutching the tea towel we knew he'd gone to fetch, the puddle was gone and all was right in the world. Except DC didn't agree, he was almost distraught that there was no puddle for him to mop up and there were tears. Once he recovered from crying (after just a few seconds, I might add) he realised what he needed to do. So he stood there in the hallway screwing up his little face and trying with all his might to squeeze out another wee. Luckily for us all he managed was a couple of little parps, which made us all laugh and made DC forget what it was he was upset about. And off he went to find some toys to play with.
And that is the end of this little post about my darling boy and his funny little ways.

House Renovations: Internal, Downstairs

2011-07-28T20:55:00.027+01:00

I have taken soooooooooooooooooooo many photos of the renovations over the last three months that I've decided to split them into two further postings - downstairs and upstairs (or should it be the other way round?!) Anyway, here we have downstairs, in all its glory;

so come on in and shut the door behind youDon't go upstairs yet, we'll save that for another postDo you need the loo? Better be quick, it won't be there long.Turn right out of the hallway, and into the living room (here we are looking towards the front of the house)

Plug the fire in, and warm your toes. But, again, better be quick before it's gone.And be careful, someone's thrown a wall up there so you can't walk through anymore.This is the other end of the living room, looking out to the back gardenIf you turn left out of the hallway, you come to the kitchen; I'll pop the kettle on before it's too late.OK, too late for the cup of tea, in fact it's too late for anything in the kitchen, which will now become the dining areaPerhaps we can use the sink in the utility roomUh oh, that's gone too. Making way for the extension and the site of the new kitchen.OK, I think that's enough for today. Next post will show how the upstairs is coming along.

House Renovation Update

2011-07-17T21:02:00.004+01:00

Sorry it's taken me such a long time to get round to posting about the work that's being done on our house; for some reason since we moved to Somerset I feel as if time just slips through my fingers - not because I'm busy with work or anything as bad as that (!), but because there's so much to do, see, enjoy, experience and explore. We are enjoying life in Somerset so much and I'm so glad we made the move.

Anyway, back to the house. Would you believe, we bought it nearly a year ago? It was August Bank Holiday that we completed on the sale; then it took us several months to get round to finding an architect, then agreeing what we wanted (and could afford) to do, then finding the builder and waiting for him to be free to start. So that took us to the end of April and, as luck would have it, the start of the build coincided with our move to the village and a rental house just around the corner. We had debated whether to stay in Reading while the build went on, but we are now so glad that we made the move sooner rather than later, not just because we love being here so much, but also because being (almost) on site every day has really helped the build along; we are able to answer queries from the builders, electricians, plumbers, burglar alarm man, carpenter, roofer, etc, etc, almost straight away - so no delays can be blamed on us (so far!) It also means that there are no nasty surprises waiting for us as we pop round pretty much every day to see what has been going on, and if there is anything that seems not quite right we can get it put right (as an example, we noticed the electrician had put the plug for the 'summer pack' on the heated towel rail in the ensuite in the wrong place, next day it was a couple of feet further along the wall, in the right place and all was good in the world).

So, here's a big batch of photos that show the work that has gone on so far, externally at the rear of the house; I'll have to do a separeate post to show the internal changes, otherwise I'll be here all night uploading the photos!

Olympic Tickets Update

2011-06-22T11:57:00.002+01:00

We found out today which tickets we were lucky enough to get.

On Saturday 4th August we'll be off to the Olympic Stadium to see all of this: Women's 10,000m Victory Ceremony, Men's 400m Hurdles Semifinals, Men's Shot Put Victory Ceremony, Women's Discus Throw Final, Women's 100m Semifinals, Men's Long Jump Final, Women's 400m Semifinals, Women's Heptathlon 800m, Men's 20km Walk Victory Ceremony, Men's 10,000m Final, Women's Discus Throw Victory Ceremony, Women's 100m Final, and Women's Heptathlon Victory Ceremony. Phew. All in the space of 3h 15mins, apparently! Our eyeballs will be rolling in our heads by the time that's over.

The following Thurs & Fri we have tickets to see the men's hockey semifinal no.2 and the women's hockey bronze medal game.

Having spoken to friends who got no tickets at all in this first round of the allocation, we know how lucky we are to have got our hands on six so we'll have to make the most of them!

The Drive To/From Nursery

2011-06-16T14:36:00.007+01:00

I wanted to share with you some photos that I took along the route to and from DC's nursery Tuesday and today. The difference from our old 'commute' is immense - previously we would be stuck in traffic at some point, without fail; now traffic is a rare sight, until we get into Ilminster itself and even then we're unlikely to pass more than 15-20 other vehicles, let alone get stuck in a queue. There's not even one set of traffic lights between here and the nursery. Instead we have winding country lanes with lots of "tunnels" (as DC likes to call them) where the trees meet overhead, huge vistas where the land literally drops away and it feels like the whole of Somerset is laid out before us, gorgeous farmhouses to covet, and moos (cows), baas (sheep) and neees (horses) galore to admire and point at along the way.
This is just one of the many reasons why I love living in Somerset. Not to mention that the sun is always shining (except when it's raining...)

Ilminster Midsummer Experience

2011-06-11T13:31:00.009+01:00

This morning Family W took a trip into Ilminster to enjoy part of the Midsummer Experience - a four-day event featuring such things as a Classic Car Rally, Banner & Penant Display, Scarecrow Competition, Food & Craft Fair, Church Fete, Treasure Hunt and a Saturday night party in the square. We went along to the Food & Craft Fair plus Church Fete, which happily coincided with the monthly Antiques and Vintage Fair at the Arts Centre.

Our first stop was the Vintage Fair where we ummed and ahhed over several items including a lovely pine kitchen table, a pine plate rack, a large wooden box, etc, etc. I spotted this lovely old pharmacy bottle and considered how much I would pay for it - £10? £15? £20? I asked the lady running the stall how much she wanted; £4, she said, but before I even had a chance to say "I'll take it" she changed her mind and asked for £3. How could I refuse?! Hubby bought a similar bottle in clear glass, also for £3.

Then it was off down the hill and into the thick of things at the Food & Craft Fair: We didn't get far before DC was collared by the photograper from the local rag to pose with a balloon and a happy smile - in return for a balloon the small boy will do almost anything...

We didn't find much to take our fancy among the stalls, but in the charity shop for just 50p I managed to pick up this old game of skittles which I hope DC will enjoy playing; if not, I shall enjoy admiring the box and it's slightly battered, and clearly much-enjoyed, contents. Is it from the 1950s do you think, or is that wishful thinking on my part?

Then it was on to the church fete where we spent most of our money at the cake stall - DC had a fairy cake and when that was gone demand "more cake", so he ended up scoffing two. A well-balanced diet, I think you'll agree.

After a bit of running around in the churchyard it was time to head back up the hill to the Arts Centre for a cup of coffee (me), a cup of tea (daddy) and a bacon butty (supposedly for daddy, but mostly eaten by DC who thought it preferable to the breadsticks and hummus I had brought along for him. Can't blame him really.)

This afternoon we are off to see an ex-work colleague of hubby's who is visiting her parents on their llama farm about 5 miles away -should be fun!

Olympic Tickets

2011-05-31T20:27:00.002+01:00

Well, £366 has been taken from our bank account by the Olympic ticket people; either that or we've been swindled by someone pretending to be them...

I wonder what tickets we've got? How exciting! We applied for sailing at Weymouth (now that we live down this a-way); tennis at Wimbledon; men's hockey; some athletics (can't remember which), and possible either the opening or closing ceremony. I've got a terrible memory, so it's all going to come as a pleasant surprise when we find out exactly which tickets we've been allocated.

Anyone else seen money disappear from their bank account (for all the right reasons!)?

Lyme Regis, and Some New Chickens!

2011-05-30T11:29:00.004+01:00

Last Saturday Family W took a trip to Lyme Regis. It was a gloriously sunny day, but with a stiff breeze that necessitated the wearing of layers - strip them off in the sun, pile them back on in the shade, on, off, on, off, a typical "summer" day in Blighty. I'd forgotten just how steep the main street (Bridge Street) is in Lyme, and we managed to park off yet another hill at the top of that one, which did my calf muscles no end of good (although it didn't feel that way at the time) as I pushed the pram along. Pity poor hubby though who had DC perched on his shoulders most of the way.

Our first port of call was Absolutely Cupcakes where hubby & I chose a vanilla (him) and raspberry ripple (me) cupcake; DC didn't get a look in. Bad parents. Or good parents, from the point of view of preserving his teeth and waistline. Then it was down the hill, round the corner to the Blue Lias Gallery for a bit of a nosey at the "competition", and over the road to the beach. Obviously the first thing we had to do was get the packed lunch out: then it was time for a stroll along the prom to the sandy section of the beach where we tried to persuade DC to have a little paddle; but he was having none of it - every time a wave came even barely near lapping his tootsies he would scarper leaving Mummy to pretend that having icey cold sewage between her toes was fun. Clearly the child is a lot brighter than he makes out as only days later Lyme Regis was reported as having the 6th worst beach for water quality (read: sewage content) in the UK.

Feeling the need to recover from our dip in the Channel, it was time to stop for ice cream at a fab little 'kiosk cafe' called Pinky; DC had a little tub of ice cream while hubby had a lemonade and I had a delicious hot choc. Next time though I'm going to make sure I have room for one of the fantastic-looking sundaes that were being paraded past us to the other tables - yuuuuuuuum.

After all the fun beachside, we made our way back up the steep, steep hill with a brief pause along the way to buy a Gazillionaire's Shortbread from Mulberry Manor. I wish I'd taken a photo of it (and the shop) so that you could all join me in drooling over the delicious-ness; possibly one of the nicest of these types of cakes I've had in a long while, although VERY VERY sweet.

On the way home we made a small detour in Axminster to visit Axe Valley Bird and Animal Park where we bought two new chooks to keep poor old Gail company. May I present Betty (grey/black) and Fizz (red/brown). Gail has established the pecking order already, with poor old Fizz languishing at the bottom; but there is very little fighting going on and they all seem to be getting on well. So far.

What's the Buzz?

2011-05-16T13:57:00.004+01:00

Last Monday I started my new job at Lazyhill Gallery in Abbotsbury, which is owned by my very good friends Rachel and Gordon. They have decided that I can be trusted with the stock - all of which is handmade in the UK - and with the customers, once a week. So, if you happen to be passing by, or if you're in the vicinity and it's Monday, pop in and say hello! But don't ask me any tricky questions about where the bus stop to Lyme Regis is, or whether it's possible to drive down to Chesil Beach from here, because I'm afraid I don't know the answer. You can, however, ask me what 'giclee' or 'collograph' means.

Lots of lovely things - cards, prints, ceramics, jewellery, bags, scarves - from Snapdragon, Sumptuosity, Cowboys & Custard, Rupert Blamire, Mary Sutton, Stop the Clock Designs, to name but a few of the wonderful designers, crafters and makers who are stocked.

On a completely different note, how's about this for lucky timing. On Friday afternoon DC & I had gone to the swings and were set to meet hubby in our local tea room, Dorothy's, for ice cream/coffee/cake. DC & I got there at 4pm and waited and waited and then we had to leave because DC was being a complete tinker banging his toy cars on the table and shouting and I was getting very embarrassed and more than a little flustered. As I dumped DC uncermoniously in his pram with a sharp "No ice cream for you, young man", who should appear round the corner, walking side by side with a lady in a beekeeping suit, but hubby. As he was making his way to meet DC & I so hubby had come across the bee lady collecting a swarm which had made a home on the side of the vet's practice. Hubby asked what she was going to do with the bees, to which the lady said she wasn't sure but she'd have to get rid of them somewhere. Well, what luck as hubby had just set up his hive and was in need of a swarm; so off they trotted down the road, hubby, the bee lady and the swarm of bees to the hive at the bottom of our garden, and we now have the beginnings of a honey-making production line!

A Week With Granny

2011-05-09T16:23:00.008+01:00

On Sunday of last week my mum came to stay to help out with looking after the DC who was only doing a couple of mornings at nursery as part of his settling in period.

On Tuesday, mum, DC and I went to Sherborne, which is now only about a 30min drive away. Such a lovely town, with some great shops. And, a fab bonus is that my cousin Christine and her husband Charlie live there so we got to spend time with them (although only briefly with Charlie as he was at work). We walked down the hill and stopped for ice cream at the deli visited by Daniel Craig at Christmas when he was staying in the area - perhaps I touched the same crackers as he did, or bought the same sausages. Then it was time to walk back up the hill and drive home.

On Wednesday and Thursday DC went to nursery for the morning, giving me the chance to do some work and Granny the chance to recover from all the football she'd been having to play. The drive to nursery is a little more scenic than it used to be, and there's certainly a lot less traffic than we used to have to contend with - the drive now takes 15mins max whereas it used to take about 25mins and that was only if we made sure we'd left the house by 7.40am at the latest. Now we can set off any time and the drive takes the same amount of time.

unless we get stuck behind a tractor...
Thursday afternoon DC and I went to the lovely swings in the village; DC enjoyed the swingsand the slide (try not to lose another tooth, sweetheart...) while I appreciated the gorgeous views out over the surrounding countryside. As we walked back through the village to meet Daddy and Granny at the village tearoom, we happened upon this horse and cart delivering some stone for a roof repair - when we moved down this way, I had no idea we were moving back in time too.

On Saturday we had a lovely day in Bridport and Abbotsbury and then on Sunday we went to the antiques fair at Shepton Mallet, where I bought three French chrome (?) storage tins; saw lots of other lovely things but couldn't spare the hundreds of pounds needed to buy them all...

DC thought his first visit to an antiques fair was cooooool.

Catch-Up: THE Wedding and the Frome Vintage Bazaar

2011-05-06T14:50:00.019+01:00

We celebrated the Royal Wedding by joining some of the villagers in the local pub to watch the ceremony. The only problem was that DC, being just two, didn't really have much interest in watching the tv (would have been different, of course, had they been showing back-to-back episodes of Chuggington) so our viewing wad slightly interrupted and curtailed. And even now, over a fortnight on, we've still not had a chance to sit down and watch the highlights recorded that evening (worse still is that the recording clashed, missing the first 30mins which was probably the best bit where all the 'celebrity' guests were arriving. Looks like I'll have to wait for a secondhand copy of Hello to arrive from Granny before I can disect the outfits). For what it's worth, I thought Kate's dress was pretty, but nothing special and sort of an odd shape at waist/hip level, and I thought her bouquet could have been a little larger or just a bit more 'wow' - it seemed a bit lost amidst the grandeur of it all.

After watching what we could of the wedding we made a crown for King Arthur! And doesn't he look absolutely delighted to be wearing it? Not.

He was a bit happier the next day.

In the afternoon it was back up to the high street for the Street Party, complete with live band, skittles, tug-of-war and a hog roast - this is what village life is all about!

On Saturday we went to Frome for the Vintage Bazaar. I'm so pleased that we can go to these now that we live much closer (we're now about a 45min drive away); also I'd never been to Frome before so it was a great chance to explore a town that I've seen featured on other blogs (most notably HenHouse).

The Vintage Bazaar was great and we spent nearly two hours at the Cheese and Grain browsing the stalls as well as refreshing ourselves with a hot drink and a cake each. Hubby bought a wooden trug and I bought a printer's tray in which I will be able to display countless tiny dust-collecting items plus a seersucker tablecloth which reminded me of my Gran's house - all we need is a bowl of pickled onions on the table and I'll be transported right back to the 1970s. Bliss!

After the Bazaar we had a good old wander round Frome, and in particular Catherine Hill where there are some wonderful vintage, antique and retro stores, as well as interiors and clothes shops and cafes galore. Cheap Street, which has a water course running down the middle and is apparently one of Europe's best-preserved Medieval shopping streets, is also lovely, again with some great shops and cafes; I was particularly taken by the frontage of this glorious bookshop.

Then it was time to go head back to our lovely village.

Just Like Being on Holiday!

2011-05-04T12:57:00.009+01:00

The start of our first full day in Somerset was spent meeting with the architect and builder round at our actual house. The builders had started work just 24 hours earlier, but already the old conservatory and a number of intneral walls had been demolished, along with the removal of the patio doors and a very large downstairs window.

We then took DC to his new nursery for what should have been a mummy-and-daddy-accompanied 30minute taster session, but what turned out to be a 'go away mummy and daddy, I'm having so much fun why don't you just leave me here to play and come back in a couple of hours' session. Needless to say, we didn't need telling twice and took advantage of a little bit of free time to check out a nearby supermarket and then walk into Ilminster for a browse round the shops and a coffee and cake in one of the cafes.

Ilminster has a few of those shops that time forgot, including the fabulous R.A. Dyer, whose windows were decked out in red, white and blue to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Inside, it's exactly like a very old fashioned department store, all creaking wood floors, wood and glass display cabinets full of proper handkerchiefs, and racks of clothes suitable for demure ladies and gentlemen who still wear suspenders to keep their socks up. We bought DC a new pair of wellies (for his new countryfied life) and were given a hand written receipt while the lady went off to the cash desk, situated in a little wooden booth all of its own in the centre of the store. Fabulous! Here's hubby in the shoe 'department':

I wanted to take more photos inside, but it's one of those places a bit like a library or fusty old museum where you feel very self conscious whipping out a camera/mobile phone and snapping away. Maybe next time.

On Thursday we drove down to see our dear friends R&G in at their wonderful gallery - Lazyhill - in Abbotsbury. Hubby took DC to the Children's Farm while R & I nattered and chattered and generally gossiped the morning away; we then all met up for lunch at the glorious Abbey House; the sun was shining and it was great to sit outside and catch some rays while enjoying crab sandwiches washed down with old-fashioned lemonade. After DC woke up from his nap, we made a move to head back home, but took a slight detour on the way and stopped at the Hive Beach Cafe which is set right on the beach at Burton Bradstock. What a fantastic spot on a gloriouos Thursday afternoon, and how lucky we felt knowing that this is now just a short drive down the road for us, and popping along on a sunny afternoon after nursery/work is exactly the sort of thing we can now do. This is why we made the move!

The Start of Our New Life in Somerset

2011-05-03T15:20:00.006+01:00

We enjoyed a couple of relaxing days in Wigan with Grandma and Grandad. It was lovely to be reunited with DC and he seemed genuinely pleased and excited to see us too, which was a great feeling. On Monday we went to Cedar Farm Gallery where they keep a few animals - sheep, chickens, pigs - which always amuse DC, and they have a great selection of craft shops (Julie Langan's workshop is there too) a cafe, and a coffee shop. On the way back we stopped off for lunch at the fabulous Yours is the Earth cafe/deli in Parbold, and we then dropped hubby off at the Honda garage to pick up our very brand spanking new car. Ooooo, how we likey likey!
On Tuesday morning we went into Wigan to make the most of our vicinity to the high-street stores which we might not find out in the countryside! First stop was the O2 phone shop where I swapped my contract from Orange due to the latter not having much signal strength in deepest south Somersetshire; then it was on to M&S where we piled the trolley high in anticipation of there being no food available in rural parts... The final stop was Starbucks, in anticipation... you get the picture! Then it was time to load up the cars, say goodbye to Grandma and Grandad and set off for Somerset. Now that we take a new route home from Wigan, we were able to call in and se Granny in Bristol on the way through, a good opportunity for DC to play football with Granny and for us to have a drink, a bite to eat and a bit of a rest. Then it was onwards and southwards, and time for DC to see his new home (for the next six months or so) for the first time. Luckily he didn' seem too fazed to find his cot, toys, clothes, teddies in an entirely new setting, and he went to bed and his normal time with the minimum of fuss; he woke once in the night with a little shout out to us, but once reassured that Mummy and Daddy were nearby went back to sleep til 8am the following morning.

Welcome to Somerset!

Somerset, London, Wigan

2011-05-02T14:40:00.010+01:00

Thursday morning the removal men were back with us bright and early, and by 9.30am we had packed the last of our bits and bobs, said goodbye to the house and Reading, and were on the road to Somerset.

By about 3pm the removal men had us unpacked and were gone, leaving us to enjoy the peace of our new (rental) home in the lovely village of Hinton St George. Hubby and I worked hard over the next few hours to get as much unpacked as possible and to get DC's room ready. We did a great job (if that doesn't sound immodest) and had a lot of clothes, kitchen items, furniture and all sorts of other things in the right places by the time the evening came round. We also had the chicken in her run in the garden of the house we've bought which is about a 2 minute walk round the corner. At 7.30pm we walked along to our local pub The Lord Poulett Arms where we had a fabulous meal. But by 9pm we were flagging and had to head home; we watched Coronation Street on the laptop (Sky only got fitted the following morning) and then headed to bed.

Friday we did more unpacking, furniture moving, had Sky fitted (VERY important!), etc etc and we also had to do a little bit of re-packing as at 2pm we left the tranquility of our new village to head back into the fray and drive up to London for a wedding (but not THE wedding!) Took about 3 hours to get there and we checked into a lovely hotel right opposite the Victoria & Albert Museum - what a brilliant location! We literally threw our bags in our room and headed straight back out again; we had a wander round the museum and then made the most of the glorious weather by sitting in the museum's John Madeski Garden (not a football in sight).I then left hubby enjoying his book, a cuppa and a scone and went for a bit more of a look round the museum and in particular the shop. Once we were both fully refreshed in mind and body we took a walk along the road to Harrods. It was about 7pm by this time and as we headed straight for the foodhall, I remarked to hubby on the chances of Harrods having any 'yellow labels' (ie reduced price food); well, would you believe it, it was 'buy one, get one free' on the cake counter and it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it?! We then took a walk around the rest of the foodhall areas and were sorely tempted by the smells coming from the pizzeria, but at £16 each, we decided to forego the delights of a Harrods pizza. We also decided not to partake of this particular brand of tea; hubby has decided to stick with Yorkshire for the time being.With our mouths watering we headed a little further along the road to Harvey Nichols with the intention of enjoying some fare from Yo Sushi, but along the way we were sidetracked by the Champagne Cocktail Bar and, since we were enjoying a child-free weekend, it seemed a shame not to partake of a cheeky drink - yum! We did manage to limit ourselves to just one cocktail each and then enjoyed some delicious Yo Sushi offerings. By 10pm we were happy to head back to our hotel.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny yet again, and we headed out early to enjoy a little more of London before we had to head off to the wedding. We walked up to Hyde Park and through to the Lido cafe next to the Serpentine, a lovely spot to enjoy coffee and cake on such a glorious day. On the way back I dipped a toe in the Princess Diana Memorial water thingy - absolutely freeeezing!

Then it was time to get our gladrags on and head to the wedding which was being held in the Orangery at Holland Park; what a fabulous place, especially on such a lovely, sunny, blue-sky day. Once the ceremony had finished we gathered outside on the lawn to enjoy champagne (lots of it), canapes and afternoon tea. Then we went off on a two-hour Routemaster bus tour of London, which was great; we learnt lots of interesting facts (did you know London postcodes are plotted outwards from Trafalgar Square?) and saw many places we'd never really noticed before - Westminster Cathedral, for eg. We then had a couple of hours free (we spent them in Costa as a torrential rain storm cut short our plan to have a little walk) before heading to a lovely French restaurant for the six-course wedding breakfast. At about 11pm we snuck away feeling pooped, and leaving the rest of the guests to party (til 4am, apparently!)

On Sunday morning we made a quick visit to the V&A to buy DC a little gift, and to Patisserie Valerie to buy cakes before setting off on the three-hour drive to Wigan, where DC had been spending some quality time with Grandma and Grandad.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

2011-04-29T14:08:00.024+01:00

Hello Hello

Unbelievably, it's a week and a day since we made the move to Somerset! Where has the time gone? It feels like we left Reading months ago, not just 8 days ago as we've crammed so much in to such a short space of time.

Final Goodbyes
Picking up from where I left off, I had a few more 'fond farewells' to say. Firstly, and most importantly, to my most bestest and loveliest friend Liz, who I have known since we both worked together on a Sunday in John Menzies in Reading railway station in the early 1990s - oh, the glamour of it all. We bonded over many a bag of Cadbury's Mini Eggs which mysteriously split open and had to be consumed... Our final farewell was in the slightly more salubrious setting of Yo Sushi. I shall miss my Friday evenings with Liz and B :(

On Saturday hubby, small boy & I took our absolutely, definitely final trip over to Henley; while Sunday morning saw us at Basildon Park; even though it's only about 8 miles away, we'd never been there before - isn't that always the way? It was a glorious sunny day and we got there before the crowds for a lovely walk in the grounds and a cuppa and a cake in the tea room.

In the afternoon we strolled over to the lovely Caversham Court for a final cuppa and cake from the tea shop (can you see a theme developing?!) and a play on the grass.On Monday I did my last dropping off trip to nursery (hubby was doing the dropping off for the next two days), and took the opportunity to pick up a last Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks. I think our nearest Starbucks in Somerset is about 12 miles away. Sad, but true that I have looked it up.

On Tuesday I went into town to have my hair done (do they have hairdressers in Somerset, or do you just go to the nearest farm and get someone to lop off your locks with a scythe?), to have a last look round the shops (sob sob, so long John Lewis, it's been good knowing you [nearest JL is now just over an hour's drive away in Bristol]) and to say goodbye to a couple of former work colleagues, Estelle and Trevor, over a slice of cake and a cold drink (where has this heatwave come from?!) at Bill's. Then hubby & I went to pick up small boy from his last full day at nursery; here he is playing with a tyre in the way that only a boy can.

On Wednesday things got really hectic; hubby took small boy over to nursery for the last time and the removal men arrived to start packing up all our worldy goods.At midday I drove over to collect darling child from nursery and drove up to the service station on the M6 toll road (my glamorous life) to meet Grandma & Grandad and leave the small boy in their capable hands. By the time I got back home the removal men had finished and the house was pretty much bare, except for a matress for us to sleep on, a kettle, two deckchairs and the tv.

In the evening we had a farewell drink and bite to eat with a few friends in our lovely local, The Moderation.

Then Thursday came and it was time to load up the last few bits and bobs (plus the chicken), say goodbye to 201 (so good we bought it twice)and set off for Somerset!

More Fond Farewells

2011-04-15T14:26:00.021+01:00

Less than a week now til we move; we've been cramming in even more goodbyes as we visit places and see people for the last time. Sob. On Saturday morning we whizzed over to Cliveden for a couple of hours, while Sunday morning saw us making the most of the sunshine with a trip to the park in Henley and a stroll along the river. On Tuesday DC & I went to Bounce (softplay) at the local leisure centre for the last time, swiftly followed by our weekly 30mins of singing at Rhymetime at the lovely local library. Wednesday morning, after dropping DC at nursery, I paid another visit to Henley for a coffee and a little wander round before meeting up with some mum's from my NCT group at the River & Rowing Museum (so busy chatting that I forgot to take photos!) Thursday I had to make a flying visit down to Somerset to sign for our rental house; also popped into our actual house to see what a dreadful mess it is for the last time before the builders start on 26 April - thank goodness! And today it was DC's last trip to toddler group. More photos and more goodbyes to follow!

Starting to Say My Goodbyes

2011-04-09T14:03:00.018+01:00

On Friday we (finally) exchanged on the sale of our house in Reading. It's now less than two weeks til we move to Somerset. I'm excited about all the adventures and experiences that our new life in the village will bring, but I'm also very nervous and a bit sad to be leaving behind people and places that I have known for a long time, and even people and places that I've only known for a short time!

I first came up to Reading in October 1990 to attend University; I've not lived in Reading itself since then, having had a couple of years down in Hampshire, and several in Henley, but basically I've lived within a 15-mile radius of the town for more than half of my life. I think it's fair to say that a lot of what and who I know is based in this area, so it's understandable that upping sticks and moving just over 100 miles/2 hours by car away is a little daunting.

So, I've been starting to say my goodbyes to the places I enjoy visiting, and the people I enjoy spending time with. On Wednesday, after dropping DC at nursery, I took a stroll round Henley in the early morning sunshine and enjoyed a leisurely coffee in what was once my local Starbucks.

A walk along Bell Street, a bit chilly as the morning sun had yet to peep over the tops of the buildings:

A look left down towards St Mary's church which stands just across from the River Thames Turn right onto Market (or Falaise to give it its proper name) Square, heading up towards the Town Hall.Looking back down Market Square, with the churh tower in the distance.Cut through the alleyway at the side of Market Square, through the car park and into the lovely Waitrose where DC had his very first outing, aged just four days.Then jump in the car and head home along past this lovely old house which looks out on the the river

and round the corner past the offices of the local rag, the Henley Standard (or Sub-Standard as it is jokingly known); looking quite tropical, don't you think?!

Friday evening it was time to say goodbye to one of my very good friends, B. Along with our joint friend Liz, who B has known since they were both burgeoning bumps in their mummies tummies, I have spent the majority of my Friday evenings with B since first meeting her and Liz in the early 1990s. When we were young and fancy free our Friday evenings would be spent drinking and dancing til the small hours, then along came husbands and children and our Fridays have become a little more sedate and tend to revolve more around eating out or at each other's houses, or going to the cinema.

Good to see B doesn't look too sad at the thought of me leaving...

The Whole Tooth, and Nothing But the Tooth

2011-04-03T09:55:00.006+01:00

Offending tooth, top middle The Wednesday morning trip to the dentist left us feeling much relieved that the tooth wasn't causing DC any major discomfort - having seen the dentist prod and poke with DC not even flinching, that much was evident. With the dentist's words of 'nothing to worry about, just wait til the adult tooth grows through' ringing in our ears, we felt like a huge weight of worry had been lifted from our shoulders. But, little by little, the worry-weight started to come back - is his tooth really going to look like that for the next 4-5 years til the adult tooth comes through? is he really going to have to eat by pushing food into the sides of his mouth and not biting at the front? are we going to be on tenterhooks just waiting for him to knock it again? etc, etc. So, on Friday we got an appointment at the emergency dentist who specialises in children; by this time the tooth looked different yet again, sort of swollen and boil-like (sounds odd, looked odd!) This dentist was pretty adamant that the tooth had to come out, and we were really rather relieved at this diagnosis. So, after a trip back to our original dentist for a referral letter and a trip back to this dentist to deliver said letter, we got a phone call that very afternoon to say that DC was booked in a week later at 7.30am at the Royal Berks to have the offending tooth whipped out. Hooray! We then had just one more trip to the dentist to sign some forms on Monday morning and then it was countdown to Friday.

Friday morning, 7am and we were on our way to hospital. By 9am we were in theatre where I cuddled small boy while he had a needle put in the back of his hand (which had already been numbed with copious amounts of 'magic cream'); within seconds of the needle going in and the anaesthetic being pumped through, he was sound asleep in my arms. I popped him down on the operating table and hubby & I were quickly chivvied out of the room, told to go and get a coffee and come back in 25-30mins. So off we went to the cafe for drinks and a sausage sarnie for hubby, reading matter at the ready. The time flew by and we were back on the ward a few minutes before DC was wheeled in in the arms of a nurse, just coming round from his little sleep. For the next 30mins or so he was a bit teary and upset, probably caused as much by a feeling of 'where am I? what just happened?' as much as the discomfort of having an operation, but not long after 10am we were back in the car heading home and the distraction of being out and about did the trick and we had no more tears. Home by 10.30am, small boy tucked up in a blanket, cuddling his favourite teddy, drinking milk and watching Chuggington. 11.30am small boy running round the house, eating pureed lunch and acting as if nothing had happened.

The fact that Friday happened to be April Fool's Day wasn't lost on us; I was very tempted to phone Granny and tell her DC had been fitted with a lovely little set of falsies, but I didn't.

Without offending tooth, but with big gap.

Cliveden. Twice in One Week!

2011-03-31T09:35:00.017+01:00

I've not been to Cliveden since hubby & I celebrated our third wedding anniversary with afternoon tea there in December 2008, and now I've been twice in one week. On Wednesday afternoon my friend Trevor & I went for afternoon tea; it was Trevor's idea as a sort of celebratory send-off for me; usually we meet in the Costa inside Waterstones, so this was a bit of a change!

We had delicious finger sandwiches - salmon, cucumber, beef & horseradish, chicken; yummy cakes - chocolatey ones, fruity ones, macaroons, fruit cake; and scones with jam and cream. All washed down with coffee for me and Earl Grey for Trevor.Tea was served in the Great Hall and we spent a lovely couple of hours ensconced on a squashy sofa eating, drinking and chattering away.

Then on Sunday, we made a visit to Cliveden en famille, although this time not to the house, but to the grounds. DC had a whale of a time playing with his football - letting it roll down the steps and chasing after it (great way to burn off his energy while we watched from the top..)while hubby & I enjoyed a little breakfast-y snack outside the orangery:Then we hop, skipped and ran along the parterre to enjoy the fabulous view back to the house, before heading off through the water garden to the picnic area. The weather was fabulous and since we arrived at 10.30am on the day the clocks had gone forward we had the place almost to ourselves for quite a while. By the time we were ready to head home at lunchtime, it was getting busy so we were very pleased to have got ourselves up and out before the crowds.

Tooth Update, and Other News

2011-03-24T10:46:00.002Z

So far we've taken small boy to see two different dentists. The first didn't really have much to say except for the scary mention of anaesthetists; her colleague, however, who we saw yesterday was much more reassuring. He poked and prodded small boy's tooth quite firmly, and small boy didn't even flinch, he was a little superstar in fact - opening his mouth wide when told, biting together when told and generally being in awe of the big blue chair, the bright lights, etc. The lack of flinching on small boy's part, coupled with the fact that he is eating, drinking and behaving (or mis-behaving) in his usual manner suggested to us and the dentist that the tooth is causing him little or no trouble. It simply looks a mess. The dentist wants us to get it checked regularly but is not keen on removing it or doing any work since putting a toddler under sedation is not an easy task. We left the dental practice feeling much better than we had 24 hours earlier. Just a pity then that small boy then proceeded to bump the same tooth twice in the course of the day at nursery...

In other news, it's exactly four weeks today that we move to Somerset. EEEEEEEEEEEK!

Small Boy Has An Eventful Weekend

2011-03-22T14:42:00.002Z

Sounds like an Enid Blyton book, but it wasn't all quite as lovely as that, I'm afraid.

On Saturday, Granny & I took small boy for a walk along by the river (Thames); we had lots of fun kicking a football, running about and picking up twigs and when small boy tired of such fun, we bundled him in his pram and walked along to the park. Once there small boy got very excited and insisted on going on the bigger slide, not the baby one he is usually hearded towards by me. Still, he's just a day short of being two, I thought to myself, and he really is quite adept at climbing the steps and hurling himself down the slide, so I let him carry on. Uh-oh. What a mistake that turned out to be as, on his third (or was it fourth?) slippy-slide down, he came down feet first on his tummy (if you can picture that), landed with a thump at the bottom and smacked his face right on the end of the slide. ***shudder***

My first thought as I rushed to gather him up (apart from 'why did I let him go down the slide that way round?') was ''Oh god, he's broken his nose' so I was actually pleasantly surprised (if it's possible for anything to be pleasant in such circumstances) to see just a small amount of blood on his bottom lip. Then it dawned on me, as we mopped up the blood and tears that there was actually a large amount of one of his front teeth missing. Bugger.

I was straight on the phone to the emergency dentist who advised taking small boy to A&E first because of his age. So Granny and I hot-footed it home with a not-particularly worried small child who was busy sitting in his pram drinking milk, bundled ourselves in the car and drove the 10mins to the hospital. After being assessed by the triage nurse we then spent the next hour with small boy running around, chattering, eating and generally bouncing off the walls in a "look at me, I'm perfectly well, what on earth is my over-protective mother doing here with me wasting the doctors' time while there are some properly poorly people waiting to be seen" kind of fashion. Five minutes with the doctor who advised taking small boy to our regular dentist and handed over a tube of antibiotic cream (meant for conjunctivitis, according to the leaflet...) for the small cut on his lip (about which said doctor was "not overly concerned") and we were back outside in the spring sunshine with a small boy who just wanted to go home and have his lunchtime nap.

As it happens, small boy's tooth really is in a bad way, but he is showing no signs of discomfort and is eating and drinking normally, and behaving in his normal boisterous manner, thank goodness. We went to the dentist today and have to go back again on Thursday. There was much talk of "pulp", "anaesthetists", "not something that can be done on the NHS", "concern for adult tooth", etc, etc. It doesn't sound good, but at least he seems unfazed and isn't in any pain. At the moment...

Such a Busy Day

2011-03-14T13:13:00.011Z

A couple of weekends back Family W had an extremely busy day.

We went to the zoo and saw the lions Then we saw the changing of the guard at the castle

Then we walked along the pier

Then it was off to the races for a little flutter

Then it was time for a little history lesson at the archaeological dig

Before a quick round of golf

A whizz past the airport

and, finally, a zoooom down the helter skelter and round and round on the carousel.

All before lunch.

We were exhausted!
(In case you're wondering/worried, small boy hadn't just fallen off the slide but was instead sulking because I either wanted him to stop doing something he was doing or start doing something he wasn't doing - I forget which...)

It's Like the Oscars, Only Better

2011-02-28T17:29:00.005Z

An award? For moi? Why, thank you. Gush, gush, sob, sob, I'd like to thank my...sniff... parents... my...sniff....husband...my....oh golly I'm getting tear stains on my Dior (Galliano to be au courrent...) dress.

Sorry, I'll pull myself together and say a proper thank you to Tracy at Mad About Bags for nominating me for the Stylish Blogger Award

The rules are that I have to thank Tracy (which I would anyway, even if it wasn't one of the rules, because I'm polite like that!); tell you seven random things about myself; nominate 15 more bloggers; and let those bloggers know they've been nominated. So, here goes

Firstly, thank you, Tracy, for thinking of me when it came to giving out this award!

Secondly, seven things about me

1) I live in Reading (I was born in Bristol, came to Reading in 1990 to study at uni and sort of got stuck here) with hubby and our little boy who is soon to turn two (where did that time go?!)

2) In seven weeks time we'll be moving to a small village in south Somerset - ayyyeeee, I'm nervous!

3) I work from home, for a publishing company, which offers me such a huge amount of flexibility in how I plan (or don't plan) my days

4) I studied Ancient History at university and have an MA in Ancient Social and Cultural Studies

5) I love coffee (has to be proper coffee, none of that nasty instant stuff) but don't like tea one little bit

6) I'm always late. I get sidetracked so easily and always think that whatever needs to be done before I need to be somewhere will take less time than it invariably does. This is a bad habit.

7) I'm addicted to buying books. But you probably already knew that.

Now for 15 blogs to nominate

My Life in Flip Flops

Oh dear, this is taking me so long that I fear I'll never get this post published, so I'm going to stop there and have a think of some more blogs to nominate next time. Until then, have fun!

Obsession Continues

2011-02-27T16:03:00.009Z

Avid readers of this blog (who am I trying to kid?!) will know that I have a bit of a problem. It's regarding books. I just can't stop buying them. And last weekend was no exception. Before Christmas I'd seen this book in Waterstones. I know the old saying advises against such a thing, but it was the cover that caught my attention. Surely judging a book by its cover is what most people do? If I ever write a book (and there's a book in all of us, don't forget!) I'll be sure to have some (a lot of) input as to the cover design.

Anyway, last Sunday Family W were having a wander round Henley-on-Thames and we took a little look in the Oxfam Bookshop (of course.) And what should I see on the shelf, but the book from Waterstones. And not just that one, but several others from the series. What's a girl to do? Even though I've not read any by this author, the cover got me, and I quickly snapped up all five.

Now my bookshelves are even more crazy-full than they were before, (below are the books I bought in New York still struggling to find themselves a spot)even though I'm doing my best to read as quickly as possible and cramming in an extra hour a week by reading while on the treadmill at the gym - multi-tasking at its best. I'm just making no inroads whatsoever. Top shelf are my 'read' books.

Last time I wrote about my groaning bookshelves was back at the beginning of September; at that point I had 131 unread books, now I have 180...

Oh well, never mind. There are a lot worse things to be addicted to than books.

Test Driving

2011-02-24T09:48:00.005Z

Hubby & I are on the hunt for a new car. We figure when we move to a small village where there's about one bus a day, as opposed to one every ten minutes where we live now, we'll probably have to become a two-car family. Our current car is a ten-year old Ford Focus estate known as Monty. Monty will still be a valued member of the family, but he probably won't be as well-loved as the new car will be.

Yesterday we took one of these not-so-little beauties out for a test drive, the Honda CR-V:

and we really rather liked it. Obviously the Honda garage pulled the top-of-the range model out for us to take a spin in, so we were wowed by the leather seats, panoramic glass roof, sat-nav, iPod docking thingamijig, etc, etc. We also like the fact that it has 4WD which kicks in automatically when needed, which is something we think could come in handy on those country lanes in rural Somerset-shire.

Today we are off to test drive one of these, the Nissan Qashqai:

Don't you just love the name? Who came up with that? Did they realise it sounded like 'cash cow' and thought it would be just the perfect moniker for a car that has become extremely popular?

Do any of you own either of the above cars? If yes, what do you think of them? Would you recommend?

The World From a Different Perspective

2011-02-16T11:09:00.011Z

Our darling boy has had/still has various obsessions in his short life thus far - we have endured a 'thing' about doors which meant no fingers or toes were safe in the vicinity while he merrily swung doors (internal doors, external doors, gates, cupboard doors, washing machine doors - you name it, if it came with a hinge, it was sent a-swinging) back and forth. For the most part, that particular obsession seems to have run its course, with the exception of the washing machine door which still gets flung about on a regular basis. And, talking of washing machines, that was another of his obsessions; whenever it was on he would stand there for hours watching the clothes spin round, sticking his head in the door, opening and shutting the soap powder drawer; even now he loves to turn the switch to 'off' while the machine is trying to clean the copious amounts of dirt/dried food/vomit out of his clothes (and ours), he also likes to 'help' put the dirty clothes in and get the clean clothes out. Bless.

There are two current, on-going obsessions; one is with phones in all shapes and sizes - mobile phones, cordless phones, old-fashioned phones, toy phones; the other is with cameras.

Firstly, let's talk about phones or, as DC would have it, 'daddies'. Yes, that's right, a phone in this house is called a 'daddy'. Confusing, non? Let me explain. When DC was even younger than he is now (and he's not yet two, so that's quite young) and Daddy used to phone us, I would always point to the phone and say 'It's Daddy' while I was talking. Poor little sausage. I obviously didn't make things clear that the dismembered voice on the other end of the contraption was 'Daddy' while the contraption itself was a 'phone.' We're getting there slowly and now phones are sometimes called 'tone' and sometimes still called 'daddy.' Luckily for Daddy, he is always called 'Daddy' and not 'tone'. The obsession with phones also means we can't walk past a phone box without him having to go in and play; he got a bit upset the other day when somebody actually wanted to use the phone box he was playing in - I literally had to drag him out and then he lay on the pavement sulking for ages and I had to pretend he wasn't mine.

Now, on to the camera or, as DC would have it the 'cheese.' Ah yes, a camera is called a 'cheese.' Again, my fault because every time I point a camera in his direction I say 'Say cheese.' And he does. And holds out his hands for the 'cheese' to be handed over so he can play with it. And, therein lies the explanation behind the title for this posting because, while playing with the phone, DC has also worked out how to press the 'taking photos' button. And here, for your viewing pleasure, is a selection of photos of the world as seen through the eyes of a small boy and his cheese:

This one is entitled 'ear and microwave at home'
Here we have 'ear and back door'This is 'swirly wall, Abbotsbury'Here we have 'phone box, Bridport'And here is 'wall, tree, berries, ear'Here is 'pavement, location unknown'And finally 'bib on floor of hotel room, West Bay'. Nice play of light on floor, don't you think?

A Weekend in Somerset

2011-02-10T13:27:00.003Z

Tomorrow Family W are off to Somerset/Dorset for the weekend. We've a VERY busy Friday ahead; if all goes to plan, it should look a little something like this:

8.30am: leave house with car packed to gunwales, including small child, if we can squeeze him in
11am: appointment to view potential nursery for small child in Ilminster
12noon: meet architect and windowman (plus my mum and other visitors) at the Somerset house to discuss where we are at/what happens next
1.30pm: very important part of day's schedule - lunch in what will be 'our local' pub, The Lord Poulett Arms
2pm: (think we'll have to nip out from the pub for this one) appointment to view potential rental house in village so we have somewhere to live while our house is being demolished/extended/generally titivated
3.30pm: appointment to view another potential nursery for small child in Crewkerne
Then, head to West Bay where we are booked in for two nights at the lovely West Bay Hotel; am hoping they still have the wonderful scallops/garlic/bacon combo on the menu that I drooled over last time.
And reeeeeeelaaaaaaaaaax.
8pm: meet up for dinner at said West Bay Hotel with our lovely friends R&G, who run the fantabulous Lazyhill Gallery in nearby Abbotsbury.
Later: sleeeeep.

Luckily there's no real timetable to stick to on Saturday, so I expect a spot of pottering in Bridport (weather permitting) and then a trip along the coast to Abbotsbury will be in order.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

A Pleasant Hour

2011-01-28T16:49:00.003Z

New magazine which plopped through the letterbox just this lunchtime? check.

Mug of coffee (Starbucks Christmas blend)? check.

Box of lovely biscuits? check.

All sorts of rubbish on the Sky+ box ready to watch? check.

House to myself while hubby and DC go swimming? check.

All is good (for an hour or so!)

What would be on your 'check' list if you had an hour to yourself?

Catch-Up Part III: Christmas

2011-01-25T21:07:00.013Z

At some point in the run up to Christmas, not on one of the days when the snow brought the country to a standstill of course because we didn't get any post then, I came home to find a parcel on the doorstep. When I opened it, I found a whole selection of gifts of all shapes and sizes wrapped in gorgeous bright red paper:at first I admit I was a bit confused as to where these had come from but then I opened the accompanying card and discovered they were from my Secret Santa!!! How exciting!!! I don't know if anyone else finds this, but I find it quite rare now that I'm older to get a gift for Christmas or birthday that is a true surprise, but I knew these gifts would be, especially because I had no idea who they were from. My Secret Santa gave me the opportunity to find out who they were, but I decided not to find out until after I'd opened the pressies (which meant waiting til after Christmas - ie, ages!)

So, we left the last catch-up when hubby had finally managed to get home after a Planes, Trains and Automobiles-type nightmare. Our original plan had been to travel up to hubby's parents in Wigan for Christmas on the Thursday but we were a little nervous of what on earth could still happen with the weather so we decided to leave on the Wednesday instead. The snow in Reading was pretty much gone by the time we left, but as we travelled further north the snow on the ground grew thicker and thicker until in Wigan it was about a foot deep and showed no sign of melting. This made for plenty of sledging fun for the family over the following few days!

On Thursday my mum, who was joining us for Christmas, caught the train from Bristol to Manchester. I travelled in to Manchester to meet her and was able to enjoy a couple of hours before her train arrived having a look round the shops and savouring a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha - yum!

On Friday (Christmas Eve) hubby & I popped into Wigan and had a little time to ourselves while three grandparents kept an ear out while DC had his lunchtime nap.

In the evening DC got to put on his new pyjamas.

And then the big day itself arrived and there were gifts galore, food and drink a-plenty (I couldn't get enough of the Advocaat Snowballs!) and much time spent sitting in front of the TV. A typical Christmas, really!

Sold to the Lady at the Back

2011-01-19T12:40:00.003Z

We've sold our house!

Well, when I say 'sold' what I mean is we've accepted an offer from a very nice lady who really, really wants to buy it. And she's sold her house to people who are cuurently renting, so there's no chain from her side, and there's no chain on our side since we've already bought our place in Somerset so, fingers crossed, everything will work out just fine.

We are so pleased at how quickly things have come together - the house has only officially been on the market for two weeks. Now comes the slow, painful bit with solicitors and local authority searches and banks and mortgage cos and endless pieces of paper and tedious questions about boundaries and certificates for this, that and the other.

Still, it won't be long til we'll be living in the land of the combine harvester...

A Crafty New Book

2011-01-13T14:51:00.006Z

I've had a WhSmith gift card burning a hole in my pocket since receiving it for my birthday at the end of November. This morning I had a few minutes spare in the Henley-on-Thames branch of Smith's after dropping DC at nursery. I ummed and ahhed over the fiction section, even going so far as to pick up a few novels and read the back covers. But a little voice in my head said 'What about the 100+ unread books already on your shelves at home?' So I put them back. Then I dithered around a bit more before chancing upon the 'craft' section (approx 2 shelves worth.) Cross stitching? Maybe. Card making? Maybe. Flower arranging? No. And then, tucked away between some big, burly hardbacks, I found this little gem

I know it's not exactly seasonal, but I thought if I knit one figure a month then by Christmas I'll have a lovely little nativity scene. Then I can set about teaching DC how to play the part of Joseph in preparation for all those years when, with his angelic looks, he's bound to be chosen as the leading man. Alternatively, there's always the back end of the 'ass'.

A mother can dream.

Thinking of Installing Revolving Doors

2011-01-12T09:47:00.002Z

We had some fabulous news yesterday - planning permission has been granted for the work at our house in Somerset! Phew, that's a weight off our minds. Would have been a bit disheartening to have it refused and have to re-do and resubmit the plans. So, it's full steam ahead. The architect now has to draw up the building regs and the structural engineering plans (or something like that!) and then in mid-February he'll be putting the building work out to tender with a view to everything starting at the beginning of April. (Which seems ages away - why can't these things go more quickly?!)

So, that's the news on the Somerset house. As to the Reading house, well that went on the market officially last Tuesday. The estate agent had been very quietly marketing it before Christmas and we had three viewings in December. This week has been really full-on though - second viewing on Saturday, two viewings on Monday, one yesterday and another today - hence the need for the revolving doors! The great news is that the man who had the second viewing on Saturday made an offer! The bad news is that it's £5k below the asking price (which isn't that bad really), but he has yet to sell his own house so can't actually do anything until he does. But it's a start!

So, if you know anyone in the market for a lovely house in Reading, here's the link!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-17795625.html

Catch-Up Part II: Post NY, Pre-Christmas

2011-01-05T11:43:00.010Z

Take a deeeeep breath after that mammoth NY post and let us continue our journey back in the midsts of time....

My flight home from NYC was uneventful; attempted to watch Made in Dagenham but drifted in and out of consciousness and the film wasn't interesting enough to stop me. Landed at about 9.30am Tuesday morning and I was home by 11.30am - the joys of the M4 at non-rush hour.

We had arranged with Grandma and Grandad that I would collect the small boy from the service station on the M6 Toll Road (fear not, they would be there too, he wasn't being couriered and left to fend for himself) on Wednesday lunchtime, but it turned out Grandad was busy that day and they asked would I mind if they kept the little darling for an extra day. Would I mind?! Another whole day to myself to recover from jetlag, unpack, do the washing, do some work, and generally potter? No, I didn't mind at all. That's not to say I didn't feel a little bit guilty, especially when I found out that the little chap had been suffering from tonsilitis (albeit much, much recovered by this stage.) Typically he managed to fall ill while we were away (do you remember our last visit to NYC, when small boy accompanied us and we ended up in ER?), but G&G chose not to tell us as they didn't want us to worry and the miracle that is the antibiotic had him returned to his normal boisterous self within about 24 hours.

So, Tuesday & Wednesday were spent as detailed above, working, washing, sleeping, unpacking. Then Thursday I drove up to the lovely Norton Canes service station and was greeted by a small boy with an enormous smile on his face - clearly he was pleased to see me and I was more than chuffed to see him. We then spent the next 45mins running round the service station in high excitement.

Clearly, all the running round led to exhaustion when we got home.

The following day, Friday 17th, we had two Christmas events to attend - the Rhymetime Christmas sing-a-long at the Hexagon - look at that face! Clearly not impressed.and nursery's Christmas party in the afternoon. Cocktail sausage anyone?

I was getting very excited by this point as hubby was due to fly home from San Francisco overnight and was expected home about 11.30am on the Saturday. Unfortunately the weather has other plans for hubby and his flights. Firstly, he got to San Fran airport on Friday afternoon (US time) to find the airport mired in fog and his flight to LA cancelled. As a result there was no chance of him getting his LA-London flight later than afternoon/evening and, therefore, no chance of him getting home on Saturday morning :( With it being the run-up to Christmas lots of other flights were full so the best the airline could offer him was a flight to Houston the following day, with an onward connection to London. So hubby trundled back to his hotel and small boy and I settled in for another night and day without daddy.

Saturday 18th dawned and small boy and I got up at about 8am with plans to drive over to Henley or perhaps walk into Reading and have a look round the shops for any last-minute Christmas items we may have missed from the extensive list. But just as the weather had other plans for hubby and his flights, so it also had other plans for us. When I looked out of the kitchen window, this is what I saw

and our front path looked like this:

Eeek! Snow. Dastardly white stuff. Switching on the TV, the BBC news channel confirmed my worst fears - the entire country had ground to a halt, airports were closed, people were panic-buying, roads were gridlocked, children were happily building snowmen. There was probably close to 2 or 3 inches of the stuff in Reading, but it had stopped falling and the gritting lorries came out very promptly and cleared the roads, so actually very little of the town ground to a halt. That wasn't to be the case elsewhere though. I logged on to the Heathrow website to see that the airport was closed and thus nothing was taking off or landing. They kept promising it would open within 6 hours, but then that changed to 'Sunday' and I had a sinking feeling about hubby's chances of getting home.

To cut this long story a little shorter, this is a summary of what poor hubby ended up doing in his quest to get home:

Saturday 18th: flew from San Fran to Houston. Discovered onward flight from Houston-London Heathrow cancelled. Booked on same flight following day, spent night in Houston airport hotel.

Sunday 19th: headed early to Houston airport to find out situation. Flight to Heathrow cancelled again. I was frantically tapping away on the internet trying to find a flight from anywhere in the USA to anywhere in the UK that had an airport that was open (ie anywhere but Heathrow!) We came up with these options: fly to New York and try to get onward flight to somewhere in UK - possibly Manchester; or, fly to Orlando and get flight from there to Gatwick. Hubby went with second option and managed to secure one of the last seats on a flight from Houston to Orlando (in first class!) for that afternoon and then an onward overnight flight from Orlando to Gatwick. The only problem was he had just 30mins between his internal flight landing and the Gatwick one departing. Cutting it fine was an understatement. And then the flight to Orlando got delayed due to some issue with the air con on the plane. And the minutes ticked by and we thought all was lost for him getting the onward flight until I logged on to see that the onward flight was also delayed - praise be! In the end hubby got to Orlando with many hours to spare as his flight ended up being delayed til about 5am the following day (Monday) when it should have left at about 7pm on the Sunday evening. Poor hubby was absolutely shattered when he finally got on the plane but was chuffed to find he was sharing it with just 40 other people, including the crew! Plenty of room to stretch out and sleep. And so, finally about 90 hours after he first started trying to get home, hubby landed at Gatwick airport about 6.30pm on Monday evening just before the snow shut the airport for the night, and he got home at about 9pm. I was VERY pleased to see him, as was his little boy when he woke up the next morning.

And take another deeeep breath!

Catch-Up Post No. 1: New York

2011-01-03T12:24:00.016Z

Let's rewind a little; take a stroll down memory lane with me to a distant, pre-Christmas world; all the way back to Friday 10th December. Yes, it's not that long ago really, is it? But can you remember it? I'm trying my best so that I can tell you all about our trip to NY, but my memory isn't what is was and things are a little hazy already. Anyway, here goes:

The alarm went off way too early - even DC doesn't get us up at the ungodly hour of 5am anymore! We drove to Heathrow, parked up and were settled in Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in T5 enjoying an early breakfast by 7am. Our plane departed at 8.20am and I made the most of the in-flight entertainment by watching Toy Story 3 (excellent), Eat, Pray, Love (very enjoyable, makes me want to go back to Bali) and Tamara Drewe (dreadful, but still watched all the way through.) We landed at JFK about 10.40am NY time and hurried as fast as our little legs would carry us to the immigration area - we've learnt from experience that the queues can be very long so it pays not to dawdle when disembarking! Not too long a wait, then it was a case of grabbing our bags and heading for the airport train. We'd decided that since it was just the two of us we'd get the train/subway rather than spending $100 on a taxi. Seems we made a good decision as it didn't take too long, was very little hassle and only cost about $20 each.

We were at the apartment we had rented on the Upper West Side by about 1pm; we pretty much just dumped our bags and headed straight to the nearest Starbucks to refuel and decide on a plan of attack. One Pumpkin Spice Latte and a Peppermint Choc Brownie later, I was ready to hit the shops. First stop was Harry's Shoes where hubby treated me to a fab pair of *Ugg* Adirondack boots for Xmas:

Then it was onwards and downwards block by block from 83rd Street along Broadway to 71st Street, across a block to Amsterdam and back to the apartment to deposit our goodies. Then we walked down Columbus Ave to Alice's Tea Cup for a spot of afternoon tea to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. Feeling slightly sluggish, we stumbled into a taxi it over to Bloomingdales for even more shopping (from the Clinique counter mostly, and the lady there was very generous with the freebies!), then it was a taxi back to the Upper West Side and 'dinner' (ie bar snacks) in the local Irish bar before crashing out about 10pm.

Saturday 11th December was spent shopping again, but this time in Greenwich Village and SoHo.We managed to visit the Apple Store without buying anything, although we did look longingly at the iPads... Old Navy was a different matter - I came out laden with goodies for myself and DC; same in Lucky Brand. We fortified ourselves with some lovely sweet tartlettes and a drink in Pain Quotidien before pushing on through the crowds. We got the subway back up to the Upper West and went for dinner in Sarabeth's - yummy meatloaf, then on to the cinema to see the latest Harry Potter installment. I must admit I fell asleep, but didn't think much of the bits I managed to keep my eyes open for, it feels like it's lost the "magic" if you'll pardon the pun.

Our plans to meander through Central Park on Sunday 12th went out the window when we awoke to pouring rain, so we started the day with a very leisurely brunch in Cafe Lalo. (Apparently it features in You've Got Mail, but I've only just found that out when I googled the link to put on here!) Their brunch menu is somewhat amusing - I had the 'Irish Breakfast' which I'm pretty sure if I was in Ireland would have consisted of a good old fry up, but here was a bowl of porridge (or oatmeal) with honey and fruits. The 'English Breakfast' consists of steamed eggs with herbs plus a scone with jam and cream - which is, of course, exactly the sort of thing us Brits like to start the day with.

Afterwards hubby went to get a shave while I had a manicure and we reconvened in my favourite bookshop in NYC - Barnes & Noble @ 82nd and Broadway. Then it was a quick subway ride down to Lincoln Center so we could do some more shopping... Is there a theme developing here?! Hubby got a few things in Banana Republic then it was on to Gap where I got a few (more) tops for DC; then we called in at Duane Reade so I could stock up on Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and other sweet delights, before we walked back up to the apartment so hubby could pack his bags ready to head to the airport for his flight to San Francisco.

I walked with hubby to the subway stop and then made my way, lonely and alone, to the nearest Starbucks to seek solace in a White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha and a good book, while gazing out the window at passers-by struggling against the wind and rain - nice weather for a weekend break... Then I went back to the apartment to get ready for a night on the town. Well, a meal with a blog-land friend who I'd never before met in person - how adventurous! Caught the subway down to 14th Street and finally found The Standard Grill, in the oh-so-trendy Meatpacking District. My friend, Catherine, said the last time she'd been there, Bono was there too and this time I'm pretty sure Bob Hoskins was on the table next to us - it's a celebrity hotspot, clearly! We had a great time, chatting away as if we'd met hundreds of times before and going home time came far too quickly.

Monday 13th December, all alone in NYC. Just a credit card for company. Dangerous. Very dangerous. My first stop was Rockefeller Plaza where I picked up some gifts in a great card store - Christmas-opoly anyone? Before heading to Anthropolgie for more goodies and on to Saks for a make-over (!) at the Clinique counter and came away with a few items and some freebies (the photo below shows the result of the Bloomies + Saks + airport duty free counters, plus the freebies...)Then it was up 5th Ave, with a small detour to Gap, and along 57th St to my favourite stationery store, Kate's Paperie. Funnily enough, I didn't actually buy anything. Then it was over a few blocks to Columbus Circle and the Time Warner Center where I plundered the shelves of Williams-Sonoma (I got hold of some fantastic Star Wars shape pancake cutters for hubby) before settling in for a coffee and cookie in the Dean & Deluca cafe inside Borders; I needed to refuel before perusing the 'cozy crime' shelves. Then, laden down with bags, I caught the subway back up to the apartment. It was time to start packing. Took a while to cram everything in but when I realised there was still a bit more room I decided to take a trip to Barnes & Noble for more cozy crime. This was the result.

And then there really was no more room in my bag and it was time to leave the city that never sleeps and head to the airport. The End.

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays!

2011-01-02T14:34:00.004Z

Ayyyeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I'm so behind with my blogging!! I just haven't had the time to sit at the computer and indulge in a bit of wittering. Firstly there was New York, then came the snow which left hubby stranded in the US and me home alone with the small boy and a snowed-in car, then hubby finally managed to get home and then we headed ooop north for a week over Christmas and then we came home and I fell into a post-Christmas stupor and now here we are, 2011 and I've so much to catch up on! Deeeeeep breath.

Anyway, this is simply by way of saying - I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and here's to a healthy and happy 2011.

I promise to do some retro-blogging very soon to catch up on what happened in December, if only to get it straight in my own head.

Secret Santa!

2010-12-09T12:32:00.003Z

I finished making the last item for my Secret Santa parcel last night; now everything is wrapped and ready to go! I can't tell you who will be receiving the parcel as that would spoil the surprise, but suffice to say it's going to a different country without going overseas... I hope the 'lucky' recipient enjoys their gifts.

Lending a Hand to the Global Economy

2010-12-08T09:01:00.002Z

On Friday hubby & I celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and where better to celebrate than back in the city where we got married - New York! Yay!!! And we are child-free for the entire time. Yay again! (much as I love the little blighter, shopping til you drop with a buggy and toddler is not such an easy feat.)

So, tomorrow afternoon DC is toddling off to Grandma and Grandad's and then very early on Friday morning we will wend our weary way to Heathrow to board a lovely BA flight for the city that never sleeps. It's pretty much a whistlestop tour and a bit of an odd one because on Sunday evening hubby and I will be going our separate ways as hubby flies off to San Francisco for business and I stay in NYC for an entire 24 hours ON MY OWN!!! Well, on my own WITH A CREDIT CARD. And an empty suitcase.

Birthday Haul

2010-12-01T14:23:00.006Z

'Twas my birthday on Monday. Don't tell anyone, but I turned 39. Also known as 34 because when I turned 37 I decided I was going to go backwards in years and see how long I could get away with it, so when I was 37, I was actually 36; when I was 38 I was 35, and now I'm 39 I'm only actually 34. Get it?!

I had a very lovely day indeed as I decided to do absolutely no work whatsoever (the joys of working from home, flexi-time!) So, while hubby took DC off to nursery, I sat in my pyjamas, drinking coffee, watching Ugly Betty on Sky+ and flicking through Christmas catalogues.

Upon hubby's return I opened a very fine stash of birthday presents, many of which had been sent from Cath Kidston, which I thought was remarkably kind of her. She must be a very busy lady, even more so at this time of year, but how nice that she realised what I would most like and delivered it to my very front room.

About 10am I summoned up the energy for a shower, after which I toddled in to town and had a very pleasant few hours wandering round the shops, buying a few Christmas pressies plus some new gloves and hat for DC to ward off the Arctic chill (he already has some but hubby felt an upgrade was required.) A leisurely stop in Starbucks for a venti Peppermint Mocha, before a little more shopping and then, treat to end all treats, I got the bus home! Oh yes, that may not sound like much, but I always walk home from town - but not on my birthday, no sireeeeee. Then it was over to the health club for a back, shoulder and scalp massage - blissssssssssssssssss, before returning home to a roaring fire and still another hour or so of child-free peace.

But the best moment of the day came when DC arrived home from nursery clutching his very first piece of 'art' (word used in loosest sense, for I am not one of those mothers who sees a spark of genius in everything her child does), or at least the first piece that nursery thought it safe to let him come home with.

What luck that DC had got me this lovely wire heart for my birthday, so that I can display his art in all its glory...

After DC had gone to bed, hubby cooked me a birthday request dinner: toad in the hole with cauliflower cheese, followed by strawberry shortcake birthday cake.

All in all, a tippity-top day. I'm a very lucky 33 year old.

Tidy House

2010-11-20T20:29:00.013Z

That makes a change.

We're putting the house on the market in the new year but decided to use the opportunity of DC and hubby being away for the weekend to get the estate agent round to take photos. On Wednesday the cleaners came and made us all spick and span, then on Thursday hubby & DC toddled off for a long weekend 'oop north'. I spent the rest of the day tidying and stuffing things in cupboards/under beds and plumping cushions and packing away dust collectors and generally prettifying the house. Then on Friday morning the estate agent came round and took photos and in the afternoon we had our first viewing, even though the house isn't officially going on the market until January! Apparently the lady who came round really loves it and wants to bring her parents round next week to give her a second opinion (they are lending her the money, hence their interest.) How wonderful would it be if she decides to buy the house? Mostly because it would mean we won't have to keep it tidy for much longer because, believe me, it's hard work. But it is lovely being in such a tidy, clutter-free house.

The living room

The kitchenThe room where I work and DC plays (would probably be the dining room for anyone who doesn't work from home/need a playroom for a child with too much brightly coloured plastic)Main bedroomNurseryNo photos of the third bedroom because, although tidy, it's not pretty. And no photos of the garden either because it's foggy.

Country Living Christmas Fair

2010-11-18T19:36:00.015Z

I'm amazed that it's a whole week since hubby & I made our way to wet and windy London for a (separate) day out. We travelled together as far as Baker Street, where hubby alighted from the tube for a visit to the Cabinet War Rooms, while I carried on to Angel and then battled through the rain to the Business Design Centre - luckily not far from the tube station - for the Country Living Christmas Fair.

I was very excited to be here and spent a good few hours perusing the stalls, buying a few bits and bobs and making the most of the free tasters in the food section - I didn't need to buy any lunch!

Would you believe that I forgot to go to the cashpoint before I went in?! My heart nearly stopped when I realised I only had just over £10 in my wallet and could see pretty quickly that it might not go very far. Luckily, most of the stalls were equipped to take credit/debit cards but in the end, I only needed to get my card out once as, although there were lots and lots of stalls selling many, many lovely things I did find that there wasn't much I wanted/hadn't seen before. While there were plenty of hand made, original items there was also a lot of "same same" high street fare - Cath Kidston, Gisela Graham, East of India, Susie Watson, so my hard-earned cash stayed in the bank. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed my time at the fair and would definitely go again. And, I expect you'd like to see what I came home with:

This robin was my first buy - he was on one of the very first stalls I came across (can't remember the name of it though.)I picked this lovely little metal tag on the same stall for just 50p - could be used as a tree decoration or a gift tag. Wish I'd bought more now. Always the way, eh?I thought of DC when I saw these - they combine two of his great loves: tissues and buses. Strange but true.And these fairy cake cases were a small gift for hubby, who is chief baker in the W household and a great lover of all things Christmas.And my last purchase of the day was this lovely heart for just 3.50 - bargain!

More Exciting-ness

2010-11-10T12:27:00.003Z

Tomorrow I'm off to the Country Living Christmas Fair in old London town. Hubby & I are having a day out together, separately. After we drop DC at nursery we shall catch the train into London together and then go our separate ways, me to do girly shopping and oohing and aahing at pretty things and him to do boy stuff, possibly at Imperial War Museum.

That reminds me, I really must go to the cashpoint...

I wonder if I'll spot any fellow bloggers there? Is anyone else going tomorrow? Say hello if you see me!