Pockets of prettyness and mama made monday

When you are constantly surrounded by things to do, everywhere you look, it is difficult to find pockets of prettieness that just are ....

i have been autumn cleaning when and where i get the chance and this really does free up my mind to be more relaxed and allow time to notice the things i love, to be me a little more.

Anyway here are a few photos of little pockets of prettyness around my home.

Mama made the bunting and the cross stitch picture 

Mama also made this mobile from a local willow tree and scraps of material at home. The dummy fairy delivered it tho;)

i bought this when Emily was born, we could not believe our luck when she was born and she was a girl!!

Mama did not make this but my word it was tasty this evening!!

Beachside

I love being by the sea. I cant describe it , i just do. I love the quiet and the fresh air, the sound of the sea coming in on the shore and the prospect of calmness.

Wednesday was beautiful here. The sun was giving it one last go before it hibernated for the winter and we lapped it up. We actually went to the "beachside" as Emily says twice.

plooooop!!!

and mummy got to take a well earnt rest while everyone played with their buckets and spades!

Noah's Party

What a lovely day we have had today! Our friend Noah had his 3rd birthday in his grandad's woods and i think it was the best party i have ever been to. "Right up my street" as Ian said.

Once we had found the privatly owned woods we were met by Anna (noah's mum) in a truck to take us up to the site in the back of it! In the back of a truck - how cool - Emily and the other children loved it - deliberatly banging their heads as we bumped along!

We were then free to explore! They had made a tightrope between two trees to climb across...

Emily loved this! especially as it bounces up and down! Lucy loved it too!

There was a campsite with a bell tent and wood burner! A hand made bench for us all to sit on. And of course a campfire

There was a great swing from one of the trees. A tyre but made in a way i had never seen. Very high as some of the adults tried!

There was some delicious home made food for the children and the adults and a gorgeous owl cake!

Happy birthday Noah!!!

After lunch we all sat around the campfire to sing songs with Anna's dad playing the guitar. The children had cut up logs to bash together along with the beat.

Then all of the children were given a gorgeous wooden guitar!! Hand made by Anna's dad! they are great and Emily loves hers! so does Noah! We had a treasure hunt in the woods, followed a compass and found the treasure buried in the ground. Beautifuly sewn canvas bags with a wood pencil and note pad!

All in All a very memorable simple day that must have taken ages to organise but we loved it!

Happy birthday Noah!!!

I'm Famous!!!

I posted a few weeks ago about the fact that i had been asked to be on the reader panel for my beloved Green Parent magazine and well, here i am!!!

I was lucky enough to test (and keep!!) some really lovely products. The raw chocolate really was great - i love chotolate! and the eye cream and baby bath products were fab too. Organic of course!
I do love this magazine! available in some whsmiths and waitroses as well as subscription on www.thegreenparent.co.uk . Happy reading

Tuesday's treasures - clay animals

These little characters have joined our family this week. They came from a lovely craft stall at the hop festival. Lucy obviously espacially loves the "Ducks" Emily prefers the hedgehog and my secret favourite is the mouse. Because they are so small they are really robust so i can see them being a regular play - i hope so!

Mama Made Monday

This week i will be mostly making Damson Jam!!

Hop weekend

This weeked was the hop festival in town. A fabulous celebration of all things kent including morris dancing, beautiful craft stalls and of course hops and their produce!!! iykwim!!

I love this weekend. Since having the girls i tend to go down early to have a really good look through the craft and produce stalls. It gets so busy later on in the day it is hard to get a buggy about and we live just that little bit too far away to expect Emily to walk all the way.

So we went down early Saturday and Sunday and it was great.

Emily loved the tap dancing people!

Shire horses pulling a cart!

A quick ride on a lady bug!

We had time to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and a nice cup of tea.

And some cake of course!

The hop festival has loads of great memories for me. A bit more restrained in the last few years. There is some great music on different stages at different pubs and venues but it is not really that child friendly and i did not have the energy for it (another sign of age!) Ian of course went out and got wasted on saturday!!