Christmas Wishes

 

wishing you all a very Christmas.

xxxxx

 

 

have I got everything?

I have packed wellies, raincoats, tissues, cold and flu remedies, presents, a quilt commission to deliver and a donut.

what else could anyone need?

back soon.

.

as I kiss my children this morning and send them off to school, my heart gently weeps for those families who will never do so again.

seen when walking

this week when out walking I saw freshly fallen snow, decorated with animal tracks, and footprints.

 a farmer bringing his sheep down the lane, herding them on an off road bike, with the sheep dog balanced precariously on the back, his long tongue hanging out and his ears blown upright by the speed of the bike!

I saw fir trees delicately laced with snowflakes

and a lone set of tyre tracks where someone has bravely driven through the ford,

best of all I saw a huge holly bush, it's leaves tipped with snowy crystals and glinting in the winter sunshine.

dreaming of a liberty summer

2 years ago today we had weather like this!

This week it has been a deluge of rain, thankfully we haven't suffered the misery of flooding that is in some areas.

When faced with such weather it might be sensible to plan to winter clothes, warm scarves, mittens and socks. But no, I am distracted by liberty fabric, and dreaming of wearing another summer blouse.

Since Coffee Lady convinced me that I would be able to sew one, and showed me all her wonderful pattern alterations I have been loving this top, and wanting another.

So a special day out was planned, and fabric was chosen, and every so often I get it out and look at it, and dream of summer.

And then I go back to writing lists, and planning birthday parties and refusing to accept that it will be December at the end of the week. I am Not ready for December. Are you?

fizzy and sweet

Miss K had a sleepover during half term, on halloween in fact.
At 13/14 they are clearly feeling at that inbetweeny age when they're not children any more, and not adults yet either.
Don't want to appear foolish, don't want to miss out.
Not at all sure what we want to do.........
Don't want to play party games, very happy to play with pizza dough. .....
Don't want to decorate the house, but very happy to decorate cookies - ours weren't quite as neat as these
Want to have grown up party food, but not old enough for grown up party drinks, so we started thinking mocktails. Cocktails but without the alcohol. Miss K then proceeded to get carried away with smoothie recipes requiring weird and unusual ingredients (ok so maybe papaya isn't "that" weird, but my shop of choice doesn't stock them.....)
Anyway we were rescued from our dilemma by the offer of a bottle of Shloer berry punch

 

 

describe by Shloer themselves;   The limited edition conjures up the taste of autumn with hints of blackberry combined with grape juices; best served over ice with slices of pear and blackberries for a sparkling and fruity autumnal drink  

We served it with slices of orange and lemon, and ice and put it in fancy wine glasses, and the girls thought it was fantastic. I mean what's not to like really -
pink, fizzy, sweet, looks like a cocktail - recipe for a happy teenager really!

as for the parental view, well I personally found it too sweet *,  but I remember drinking it when I was a teenager (it only came in two flavours then - a "white" and a "red") and it used to be such a treat.  
*9.9g sugar in 100ml drink = 2 1/2 teaspoons of sugar.... but then again there's no caffeine in it, and it's a definite party time drink not an everyday kind of drink, so I can forgive it the sugar levels, and will no doubt be convinced to buy some more for her birthday party.

what's your favourite party drink ? cocktails or mocktails? or do you have a favourite drink from your childhood? I'd love to know.


just for the record, I wasn't paid to write this post, but we did receive a free bottle for review.

 

a week of wishes and thanks

I wish I could work out all the answers to the compounds words.

I'm thankful for Ali and all the photographers, it's been a fun week.

I wish I could see my blog friends more often.

I'm thankful for random excited texts about ukeleles.

I wished my camera was mended (ok maybe this one was more of a moan)

I'm thankful for the message on the phone that says it is! hurray, I have hated it being sick and was ever so slightly fearful it couldn't be fixed. Just need to go to the big city and collect it now.....

I wish my family would stop coming home with every cough, cold and sniffle that is at work/school.

I'm thankful that so far I have resisted them, and am drinking rosehip syrup just in case......

I wish that the entry dates for the Edinburgh moonwalk would be released, I am impatient to enter.

I'm thankful for the scalp cooler that is helping my friend keep her hair during her chemotherapy.

I wish that children came with an instruction manual, so that you didn't take a child to the hospital thinking it had appendicitus when it fact it was "non specific abdominal pain - take calpol and go to bed" .

I'm thankful to the neighbours who drove me and child to and from the hospital when I was busy being a neurotic mother........

I wish you all a very happy weekend.


what are you wishing for, or thankful for today?

confounded by compounds

Starting Today

The Compound Word Project.

created by Domesticali, fun for all to play.

except that I'm stuck already...............


pop over and see how well you can do!

remembering

lest we forget.

trick or treacle

sometimes when you are at the shops you just have to buy something because it makes you smile.

oh and because you still haven't made the gingerbread you've wanting for weeks....

the great cake eating competition.

I had lots of fun baking for Friday's fundraiser, and I chose all your recipes so it felt like you were there with me.

my friend baked these two incredible cakes.

 and it turned from coffee morning into cake eating competition! 

today

today I'm;

Loving the bright autumn sunshine, the crisp frost on the grass and the blue skies

Planning what to do with the 7lbs of blackberries we picked over the weekend.  Well Mr Driftwood and I picked them, Miss K impatiently wanted to know when the crumble would be ready, and J carried around several large sticks.

listing things on folksy and etsy.

sketching thistles and cow parsley and alliums which I want to embroider onto linens for some new designs of cards.

wondering what's for dinner.

what are you doing today? I hope you have some autumn sunshine. x

standing up and cutting out arrows

This week I have mostly been cutting out arrows and blowing up balloons - for a window display for the local Cancer Research shop for the Stand up to Cancer campaign.

 

It is amazing just how long it takes to cut out some arrows and find black balloons.



 

Mr Driftwood has been doing a science demo, "a meet the scientist", or what the university likes to refer to as "engagement with the public".

I'm more at home with scissors and selotape.
and cake. I can bake cakes. which I will be doing for a coffee morning I seem to have offered to hold. Please excuse me for the next two weeks if I panic about cake. and having enough tea cups.

looking back on five years of photos

quilt roll

 

Our camera is not working at the moment, and I've been feeling a little like I can't blog without it.
I realised that so much of what I write about it is because of something I've seen, or want to capture, or when I can't find the right words, I'll use a picture.

snowy birdhouse

Today is the 5th birthday of my blog, and I was going to take some celebration photographs, but instead I found myself pouring over the photo archives.

driftwood

which told me a huge amount about my blogging over the years,

roses

there are a lot of pictures of roses, of quilts and of cake

footprints in the sand
 

of exploring

tissue lantern

and celebrating

socks

and crafting that I've been inspired to make.

friends

but none of it would be there if it weren't for all of you.

thank you.

 

deep blue sea quilt

down at the bottom of the deep blue sea

catching fishes for my tea. 1, 2, 3, wheeeee.

my children used to love that nursery rhyme when they were babies, and when I needed to make a quilt for a friend's new baby it popped right into my head and wouldn't leave, so I made a deep blue sea quilt and I hope he has lots of fun playing on, in and under it!

retracing my footsteps

The children are both back to school, (thankfully the poorly one was better by Monday, thanks for the get well wishes) and the professorial house guest has left (having had a lovely time at the pub and learnt all about English beers!), and so with a little quiet time and by mentally retracing my footsteps I have managed to account for some of the lost time of the last few weeks.

At the end of the summer I was lucky enough to meet up with some blog friends. Lisa wrote the most delightful post about her trip to Alnmouth, I feel like I've been reading Lisa's blogs for ever and it was lovely to finally meet her, and her boys, who I recognised immediately. Lisa had come to meet Thimbleanna, who stopped off on her tour of England in Barter Books, which is the perfect place to sit, and chat, and feed your children giant cookies. It was a real pleasure to meet them both, and the time flew by far too fast. I was treated to the cutest ever bunny - who is inexplicably upside down! and a charm pack of gorgeously festive fabrics, must start planning a little project.

The plan for the next meet up was hatched over a glass of bubbly at Kew Gardens,  and after what seemed like months of planning The Coffee Lady and her lattes came to play. Realising we hadn't taken any photos we had a  "workshop" photoshoot,

which in reality was more like several days of tea, laughter, lego, fairies, food, wine

 fabric, cat worshipping, mahoosive scones, and even the odd cup of coffee!

Now I've found those 3 weeks, I'd really quite like to go and relive them all over again.....

next year perhaps....

last 3 weeks

if anyone knows what happened to the last 3 weeks of the holidays please let me know.
I lost them somewhere.

I thought things would return to normal when school started,
but I had an ill child at home all day today.

we have a visiting Professor from Chicago staying with us.

he has been taken to the pub quiz.

apparently this will be an important introduction to English culture.

I think it is a very thinly veiled excuse to go and drink beer.............

not that I would want to go, there is paralympics on tv. It is truly the most inspiring viewing, I am in awe.

anenomes and ammonites

When you've been holidaying in the same place for many years there comes a reassuring pattern of activities, 

places to rediscover,

favourite things to see and do,

(for me this includes much paddling in rock pools, I love how sometimes you discover one that is as warm a as a hot bath!)

and lots of hunting, for anemones and ammonites.

and for that special photograph that sums up the magic of a perfect summers day.

olympic gold medal standard yarnbombing

"So Why are we going to Saltburn mummy?"

"to see the yarnbombing of course!"

"will there be ice cream?"

"knitted ice cream?"

"no, real ice cream!"

honestly you'd think the seaside was about fish and chips and sand and icecream.............
it is clearly a celebration of all things knitted and olympics.
I couldn't decide which I liked more, looking at the knitting, or listening to the reactions of all the people on the pier, which ranged from delight to sheer bemusement! As in the actual olympics I couldn't decide which event I liked best,  but this one is most like how I enjoyed the games!

check list

rock buns baked - check
tea bread baked - check - I blame Laura for my addiction to tea bread........
sock knitting packed - check - sock knitting on the beach is traditional
fossil identification book packed - check
plans to visit some seriously impressive Olympic yarn bombing made - check


looks like we're ready for a few days away
and this year I don't even mind if it rains everyday, then we'll just watch the olympics, except then I had better remember to pack a box of tissues, the emotions are running so high, I just can't describe it.
back soon
xxx

london 2012 yarnbombing

When you are the only house in the street to have any Olympic decorations you really have to make an effort.

So I proudly present my Olympic yarnbombing.

I thought it might have produced some baffled looks from the neighbours, but I guess they are getting used to us...........

It feels like the Olympics are being brought into my living room through other bloggers, it was a joy to see Stephanie's photos of the wildflowers which are to die for,  and Nancy's tales of the opening ceremony have made me tell everyone I know that "I know someone who went to the dress rehearsal".

Now please excuse me, I might have to make a few more crochet flowers to calm my nerves, the men's road race time trials have started.......