Hope. Dream.

Throw your heart

out in front of you

And run ahead to catch it.

(Arab Proverb)

(from a gift book I was given once by my penpal Lorna - Hope! Dream!)

Royal Wedding day

Royal wedding fever hit us today. Everything went to pot as i stopped moving for much of the morning to watch the wedding! Loved it! such an amazing show of all things regal and British! Congratulaions William and Kate!

Above are pictures of the union jack biscuits we decorated this morning! The bride and groom that my nanny made for me when i was about 8 (i think). They was so much attention given to them when she made them. The bride has a pair of bloomers, a petticoat and the dress as well as a veil and a peal neck lace!! The bottom photo is the tiara that Emily made at preschool yesterday. She then went on to make us all - including Ian, a tiara each this morning!

How did you send the day?

Making things day

 We turned our attention to the Royal Wedding today and started making Union Jack bunting. now hanging in our dining room. Emily loved all of this, also found out they are doing a wedding party tomorrow afternoon in her preschool so she cant wait! Wedding fever has been unleashed in our house!

Picked up this "vintage" fabric in a charity shop today!! £2.50! bargain. Think I may have to make a skirt for me with it!!! I just love the colour.

Hope you have had a good day today.

simply five good things

This post is inspired by soulemama . I was short of time to think/photo ten good things as work overtook the last part of this lovely long holiday. So here are 5 good things. Of course besides my amazingly funny, beautiful, squidgy babies!

Chasing rainbows on our wallpaper

one well and truely licked out bowl (two spoons)

The first fresh strawberries of the year - kent ones too!

More homemade ice lollies about to go in the freezer

Tentertive seedlings sprouting through on the window sill.

"Oh, sometimes there's nothing like a list of goodness to start the day, to slow it all down, to plant us right where we are, and to carry it with us as we begin the week.

Do you need that today?

Give it a go - simply ten good things."



Happy Easter.

Lady spring is watching over our simnel cake. For those of you who have never heard of a simnel cake, it is a fruit cake with 11 mazipan balls on the top. One for each of Jesus' disciples - not Judas! I love making these cakes for school and our easter table and as gifts to others. This is cake number 8 and it is all our!!

We also did a bit of egg wrapping for tea

And i made another batch of bread, wholemeal this time. Really pleased with how they look. fingers crossed they taste as good as they look.The last batch was just amazing.
Oh and we finished the day listening to "christmas hits" as you do!!

Happy Easter all! wishing you a peaceful and loving rest of the year.

It's gonna be hot, hot, hot, thats what the weather man says!

For those of you wondering, the title is from a cool song we sing at school. I love it as it has great links to french too as we teach them the alternative word for each type of weather.

Anyway it has been unseasonally hot again here today.
lolly lickingly hot!

When Lucy retired for her nap this afternoon, Emily and i relaxed in the shade of the washing (as you do !) She drew and coloured while i had some rare readin time. - "you are your child's first teacher" - great read!

There was also a few moments of quiet folllowed by doggy feeding.

And how much fun can you have with a washing up liquid bottle and some water!!

And finally some snail watching!!
i hope you have all had a good day and are looking forward to the rest of the weekend as much as we are!

River cottage bread making!

Been thinking about making bread for a while and how i would like to be able to do it. Then the other day River Cottage Everyday focussed on bread. they had a bitch and bake group in a local community - how cool would that be my lady friends?

Anyway... i had a go this morning. Followed this recipe and i was chuffed with the results!

kneeding for 10 mins!

It went from this....

to this in 1 and half hours! Magic!

Proving for 45 mins

DA, DA!!
delicious too!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you?

Ian's son. What a delight to have him stay with us.

Come along now little one!

What a lovely day for a trip to the zoo.

Daisy chains

Saturday afternoon we went for a walk down the town, get some fresh air and get Lucy to have a little nap. On the way home it was requested that we sat down for a little while somewhere nice so we stopped and made some daisy chains in the sun by the stream

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine!

Peg bag

Knocked this up last night. i managed to get some of the polka dot spot material from Laura Ashley in the sale yesterday and a metre was only £9. So i have been wanting to make a super big peg bag for a while. My friend bought me the new Cath Kidson - Sew book for my birthday and I used the pattern to make it.
 
Other than that today has been taken up with the new carpet in the girls room and putting everything back. I will post pictures when i am happy with it all!!

X

Ladies who lunch.

So the rest of the the girls room was painted by 8:30 so we decided to take a little trip out for the morning. We travelled by bus which was really cool! I dont think Lucy has ever been on a bus so she loved it! Holding on tight to my elbow as we sat together on the seat.

After a little shopping we stopped for some lunch at a place recommended by one of my friends. It was upstairs in a health food shop and i have to say, it was just amazing, we loved it. You got the impression the food was almost entirely organic, and certainly home made. Silly things like the tables were all wooden and each had a cosy cushion on it. The menu was simple and the food was delicious. There was even a corner with wooden toy in for the children to play. It was so calming, warm and inviting. We had  a bean burger with beany sprouty bits on the top, as well as wedges and a chilli jam and the girls had a bottle of organic apple juice while i enjoyed a nice cup of tea. I loved it and would definatly go there again. So much nicer than Mc Donalds up the road!!

Little helpers

On Friday the girls are having a new carpet fitted in their bedroom so we started the clearing out process today. Such a lot of dust! i really hate dusting! Anyway much of their stuff is now in boxes in other bedrooms and the main furniture is also out. Just their beds and some books. The book thing was funny, as we were putting the books into large plastic boxes, Emily was in charge of passing them to me. She came across some books that she had not seen in a little while. "i'll save that one, i'll save that one too" so funny to watch.

When we had cleared things away i realised it all needed a coat of paint too :( so this is how we spent the afternoon!