Happy Sunshiny Day

Yesterday was a wonderful and almost lazy day.  The first time in a VERY long time that I have had the space for a teensy bit of laziness.  Ava was at nursery and Chloe was having just a simply, happy, contented, easy baby day.  And what a gorgeous sunny day it was for a bit of garden lounger loafing.

I introduced Chloe to Ava's water table...she spent AGES splish splashing in there, then eating compost from the dangerously close, potted rose bush!  Allowing me a bit of Mummy time to crack open my 1st book in far too long.  This book was a freebie at last weeks Country Living Fair.  A few pages in and I am hooked already.

I took a little wander to go check out garden progress.  We started digging up the grass in this spot last April - I was heavily pregnant and it was darn cold and miserable and wet.  Last week I added a few plants to fill in blank/dead spots.  I think that we need to re-plant the Red Robin, she has a bit of a Leaning Tower of Pisa thing going on there.

We have a mish mash of all sorts of plants - mostly evergreen types that should hopefully last for ages and ages and fill out to gives us some decent bushy screening between us and our neighbours.  Amongst other plants there are: 3 camellias trees, lots of lavender, lots of hebe varieties (which we have had good - easy maintenance and not-so-easy-to-die - experience with in the past), paeony trees, viburnum burkwood whose flowers have a yummy jasmine fragrance, red robin standard, a rose bush.  I am aiming for an easy maintenance sort of country garden - hopefully it doesn't grow into a big mess!

The clustered pink buds and white flowers on the viburnum burkwood - I could dangle these from my ears, just so the lovely fragrance was with me all day.

One of the Paeony trees has a bud!!!  We had a bud last year, but it stayed as a bud....maybe we will be lucky to see a Paeony flower this year.  

Hoooooboy!  Fingers crossed!

Here is Buzzy the garden protector.

The young Red Robin leaves - all bright, shiny and red.  We rescued this chappy from the garden centre last year.  Her leaves were all covered in black spots.  Some spots still remain, but she is looking very happy otherwise.

And who do we see there? 

It's our friendly little Orange Breasted Robin.

Lately, she always comes to chat to me when I am out there.  She follows me from one side of the garden to the other, chirping all the time.  She get's quite close too, often less than a metre away from me.  I think she needs a name - what do you think?

A little further back there is a baby baby Silver Birch.  This little guy has been in the ground for maybe a year  and a half?  He is probably only about 70cm tall, if that.  We got him via a Country Living offer - pay for postage and they send you a tiny plant.  I don't think he had any leaves last year, so I was super excited to see his little leafy buds opening to show off some greenery for the first time.

And here is Daisy sunning herself...

Today is meant to be another lovely day - getting cooler from tomorrow.  Best we go and enjoy it while it lasts!  I need to go and make some Cloud Dough - 1 cup of baby oil with 5 cups of flour all mixed together - and clear out a bucket for it all to go inside.  Hopefully that will allow me some more sunny book reading time.

Enjoy!

A Little Outing

A friend and I went off to the Spring Country Living Fair in London yesterday, with Chloe tagging along for a ride in our back pack.  I had been counting the Sleeps until our day out.  I obviously don't get out very much.  It was worth the anticipation!  I want More!

I took a few pics - there was So Very Much to See, and just no way to take photo's of everything that brought on the Wanties.

Beyond Fabrics: they had some fun geometric prints.  I had to peel myself away from their booth!  I have wayyyyy too much fabric already.  Having surfed their website, it seems that they design some of their own prints. 

Bill Brown bags: love the earthy stripes and teeny bags!! 

Bread and Jam: the retro prints were just gorgeous.

  

Hogben Pottery:  was sooooo tempting

  

So very Very tempting...all those chickens and birdies and dogs...

 

Indigo and Rose - such lovely countrified snuggly goodies

These blankets were so soft and I love that you can flip them over as your mood changes - stripes on one side birdies on the other...or...or....or!!

Luca Designs: love this tyre-horse-swing!

The New Eden: gotta confess that one of those bunnies came home with us!  Ava has decided that it is a boy bunny...the name, we are not quite clear on yet, but the not-so-word "buzzy" is in there somewhere.  Every time I ask what the bunnies name is, it changes a little.  Buzzy has taken up residence in the garden and is keeping watch.

I don't remember who this booth was, but the work in there was just amazing.  The 2nd hanging quilt from the right had a price tag of £725 on it.  It looked like silk with hand embroidery.  Just beautiful.

Miss Patisserie: these are not edible cupcakes!  They are fizzy bubble bath bombs.  Ava just had one in her bath tonight.  They smell delicious and we had a lot of fun catching the floating gold stars.

Peppe: Oooooh boy!  A Serious case of the wanties here!  I have been wanting a garden seat swing for years - ideally with an arbour over it...but I am not fussy, an A-frame will do just fine too!  I know exactly where it would park in our garden....sigh.....  This one is especially lovely - a 3 seater, so enough length to lie down if the opportunity arose.

But...I would take a 2 seater too.....

Chloe was as good as gold.  My friend generously helped carry her at bit - 10kg baby plus back pack weight is a bit sore on the back and shoulders after a while.

We were at the fair for about 4 hours which included a lunch break and a crawl break for Chloe.  {We just let her loose in a quiet corner!  You should have seen the exhibitors face - they had a bunch of pot plants all neatly lined up - guess who made a bee-line for them!!  Little rascal.  Thankfully no damage was done.}  It would have been nice to have had an extra hour or so.  My friend had to fetch her little girl from nursery at a set time, so there were some booths that we just whizzed past.  Either way, I don't think that we missed too much.

My brain was totally fried after the trip.  My eyeballs were overdosed on eye-candy.  My legs were aching.  My back was sore.  It was a lovely day.

Have you been to the CL fair?  Who was your favourite exhibitor?  What did you buy?  Share, share, share!!

.....Hmmm...I need to plan another outing like that...

Enjoy!

This Week with Pictures

While Ava was at nursery, Chloe had a ride in Ava's car seat - so teeny tiny in that beeeeg seat!  She loved it in there, every time I looked at her I got a massive grin.

***

We had an outing to our local garden centre.  All I wanted was a Rosemary plant and Real, Proper spinach seeds.  Not the naff salad leaf spinach or the leathery chard leaves we get so easily in the shops here .

The centre has changed hands since we were last there.  Among some of the changes, they now have these enormous metal sculptures for sale.  The gorilla's price tag was something like £1500, my brain glazed over, so I can't remember the exact number - either way, it was a small price tag with a humungous number on it.

I love these garden gazebo bird cage things - just needs doors on it!  To keep the kids in or kids out, you ask?  Doesn't matter as long as it buys me some Peace and Quiet!!

These massive giraffes are just lovely.  The picture gives no idea of their scale...but, the smaller one was wayyyy taller than me.  The animals are hollow and made of metal disks all joined together loosely on their edges.  Rather lovely.  Will have to take a close up next time.

Ava loved the miniature pink table and chairs...

...and playing in and around all the garden furniture.  She doesn't normally get free wandering time when she is out with Chloe and I, so she was having a great time running around the plants and under planted arches - pointing and jumping and hiding from us.

****

I had some sewing time and made a start on a kitty (AKA teddy/dolly) sling from the Oliver and S book.

***

We took the pram for a walk and visited the Rose Garden in our little town.  It was a bit barren and twig looking, but there were loads of men digging and clearing and getting the garden ready for spring.  Lots of the roses were full of new leafy sprouts.  Exciting to think that in a few months it will be full of lovely flowers again.

***

We planted some seeds - Calendula, sunflowers and carrots (and spinach seeds in a pot outside).  The seeds are already sprouting!  [yup, that is a window sill sans wood plank - but then, we still don't have cornices or skirting boards or, or, or .....]

***

Last night we had a 1 1/2hr long baby screaming session, with some windy burps.  Finally finishing with a massive barf all over my shoulder, back, chair and floor - poor Flower Daddy had to clean it up off the floor.  Yeugh!  Was that the not yet visible first teeth talking?

***

Aside from the on-going disrupted nights and the the toddler rivalry that we are experiencing at the moment (I swear that it is making me greyer and wrinklier by the day!) it was a goooood week.  Some sunshine and warmer days with brighter mornings and lighter evenings; a gigantic and bright moon a few nights; a little bit of blanket crocheting progress and a teensy bit of sewing...

Have a good weekend.

Enjoy!

Not So Fuzzy Felt

When I was a kid I had a few fuzzy felt kits - you know, the fuzzy boards that you put felt shapes on and created different pictures?  I remember ambulances, people, heads with faces and also just plain old shapes that you could do your own thing with.

From Olive Rose Vintage on Etsy ~ I had this one!

Anyhow, with that in mind, I thought that we could do something similar with foam shapes in the bath.  I started out with the thought that I would just cut out plain and simple shapes, but then got carried away and starting cutting cars, clouds, birds....

You really don't need very much - foam sheets and scissors.  I decided to draw on the foam, so also used permanent, water proof, non-toxic markers for roof tiles and birds eyes.  Then I just snipped away, adding a few lines and dots here and there.

I also ended up making 2 boys (just blue bodies instead of pink)

Ava had loads of fun with them on the floor after I was finished (or rather, when baby sister woke from her nap interrupting us).  'We' have also played with them in the bath every night since I made them a few days ago.  Not really making pictures out of them, but just pasting on the side of the bath and peeling them off...then pasting on me and peeling off...then pasting on little sister and peeling off...you get the idea, I am sure.

I think that I might just make a few themed bags of foam shapes - themes like:

• underwater - octopus, fish, bubbles, coral, boat
• farm - tractor, lorry, trees, animals, scarecrow
• town - I think that this might already the start of that one

Enjoy!

Freebie Friday - Housey Pouch

Freebie Friday = cute, hooky, housey pouch with pretty flowery turquoise fabric reverse

This is a pretty little yellow lined pouch - big enough for your fancy smart phone, pack of tissues and mini-purse.  It has a pretty paisley ribbon on the side with a hooky clasp.  You could attach your keys to the clasp, or clip it to your pram or shopping trolley, or if you are a real geek (no judging here) - clip it to your belt loop!

Fancy a chance to win this little pouch?  Then you had better leave a comment on this post!  Tell me what you would stash in your pouch and what you would use the hooky clasp for.  I will pick a random someone at some point on Friday, 9 March.

Freebie Rules:
* Just leave a comment!
* Leave your e-mail address in your comment.
* Only ONE entry per person.
* Open to ALL readers - friends & family included.
* Freebie ends, Thursday 8 March 2012 at midnight in London, UK.
* Winner will be selected via the random.org nifty gadget and will be announced on Friday.

Good luck.

Enjoy!