52 Weeks of Happy (5/52)

 

I've been pretty bad this week about photo taking. Partly it's been the weather and partly it's been me being a really scatter-brained Mummy forgetting to take my camera. For example we went on the loveliest walk on Sunday along a stretch of the Thames and I didn't take the camera. I was so annoyed with myself as it was a wonderful afternoon. So pretty and lots of memories to capture. It was a new walk to us so we're definitely going to be doing it later in the Summer and I promise to capture it next time. So yesterday afternoon when the sun finally came out I popped into the garden and captured a few images of how it's looking now. Problem is the camera doesn't really do justice to just how much better it's looking now than it did last year, hence all the fairly close up shots. So here in words are my happy things from the last week even though I don't have pictures to go with them all 

:: Making a Fathers Day gift for Lovely S with the boys. Little F painted a card and we also made hand prints of both of them which I put in a frame. ( I will take a photo to show you when it's on the wall as I'm really pleased with it)

:: An idyllic walk along the Thames. Sunshine, flowers, wildlife, fun, laughter and some seriously stunning riverside properties for Mummy to look at!

:: A day spent with my Mum and the boys. Dad was away sailing so we had a slightly more girly day together. Lots and lots of chatting and a lovely trip to the park plus window shopping in a lovely little town not far from here. 

:: Doing a lot of creating and getting my first sale via my Facebook page. I've been working really hard on Linen & Roses in the evenings and I'm loving it.

Hope you all had a good week. See you again soon. 

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52 Weeks of Happy (4/52)

My happy things this week :

:: Stitching some new brooches which are now available on my Facebook page.

:: A first peaceful cup of tea in the sunshine before the boys awake. 

:: My lovely garden coming into bloom. I am beginning to realise why people become obsessed with their garden. I'm loving mine as it slowly starts to take shape. I promise a full post soon to show you just how much it's changed since my last garden update. 

:: Working on a custom order of lavender filled linen hearts for a very lovely customer of mine. 

So many other things making me happy this last week. Lots of sunshine here in Buckinghamshire has seen us spending lots of time in the garden. Little H learning how to use his balance bike, digging in the soil, finding worms, lots of imaginary games. Little H discovering the garden, rolling and trying so hard to crawl, feeling the grass under his cute little fat feet, seeing the blue sky,  the fluffy clouds and birds for the first time. Lots of cuddles. A barbeque with neighbours. Yummy Sunday lunch with my in-laws. Lots of sewing and working on ideas for Linen & Roses. I love Summer. 

Have a lovely week. See you again soon. 

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52 Weeks of Happy (2/52)

 

:: Something rare, a Bank Holiday weekend filled with sunshine. 

:: Seeds to plant. The first time I've grown anything to eat from seed. Starting small. 

:: Drawing with Little F. The shapes are Mummy's creation. Not my best work but F is currently obsessed with shapes and I have to draw these simple shape people (Mr Maker inspired for those of you familiar with Cbeebies!) every time we get out the drawing things. 

:: My ever developing garden. I'm loving my hostas and alchemilla. Unfortunately everything is still a bit green and there is a lot of bare soil but there are flowers not far away. We're definitely making progress and I'm loving it. 

:: Picnics in the garden with my boys. 

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In bloom

 Sorry for the unexpected mini break. I didn't mean to be away quite so long. We had a lovely weekend. Saturday was spent catching up with old friends in London. It had been a while since I'd headed into the City. Having lived there for so long I had a bit of an anti-London thing going on for a while. I think I'm over that though now and am longing for another visit. We're actually so close, just half an hour on the train but with two little ones in tow it's not always so easy. In fact on Saturday we didn't go right to the centre but to West Hampstead. It was still lovely to feel that different buzzy atmosphere you get in London. My friend who was hosting the get together lives in a lovely flat down a pretty leafy street. She has no kids of her own but was brave enough to welcome 10 children ranging from 3 months to 7 years, plus 11 adults! It was such great fun and so good to all be together again. I've missed a few meet-ups recently due to baby producing but I hope to see them more often in future. 

Sunday was a chilly day but after the usual delicious roast cooked by lovely S we decided we all needed some fresh air. We're very lucky to have a beautiful park just a few minutes drive away. It is actually walkable but it's down a very steep hill and the walk back is hard work with a pram in tow. So we naughtily took the car and walked lots when we got there. The park eventually joins up with National Trust land so it's possible to walk for miles. 

The park is particularly lovely at the moment as all the daffodils are out. They look really stunning. 

There's also a great playground so little F had fun on the swings and slides watched with amusement and longing by Little H. 

 

Something that's been occupying me a lot at the moment is the garden. 

 

My father-in-law came over with his jet wash to clean the patio and I've been re-arranging pots. Just need to get them filled now!

There's still not a lot of colour but we're really winning the war on all the weeds so it's all looking very neat and tidy. But there is one area that is starting to look pretty and colourful. There were already dafs here and a pale pink primula so I decided to turn it into a little Spring area. My Mum bought me another deeper primula and some cowslips last week and I've moved some forget-me-knots that I found in the soon to be veg plot. 

I'm pleased with how it's looking so far but plan to have a lot more in here next Spring.

 

Throughout the rest of the garden there are definitely signs of life. The roses we were bought by my in-laws for Christmas from David Austin at starting to come into leaf and grow. I'm hoping for a splash of colour with these. Bit by bit we'll get there. It's a slow process this gardening lark(unless you've got pots of money to throw at it!) but I'm loving starting to see the small changes every day.

There's been a little bit of sewing going on lately in odd spare moments so hopefully I'll be back again soon to share that with you.

Have a lovely week.

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Comfort

Don't you just love the simplicity of a plate of fairy cakes? You can go from a feeling that you might quite like them to this.......

  

Then this.......

This.......

And finally this......

Ready to go with a nice cup of tea this afternoon. That's what I call comfort. 

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Weekend bits and bobs

It's been a bit of a week around here. Little F came down with a yucky tummy bug a week ago and it's laid him low most of last week. To top things off he woke on Wednesday morning with conjunctivitis too! Poor little lamb. We've all been feeling just a tad fed up I can tell you. 

So in defiance of all this sickiness and the snow as well I got out the Easter decorations on Friday, braved the cold outside to cut some branches from our Elder tree and made an Easter display. I can't believe it's Easter at the end of the week. It just doesn't seem like it could be. We didn't have too much snow here but what we have had is hanging around and the forecast says we'll be getting more towards the end of the week. Where is Spring?

Because of the cold and the poorly boy we had a cosy weekend inside. There was lots of playing and snuggling and book reading. 

I love these little wooden fruits that my Sis bought Little F for his Birthday. He loves to give us all different fruits to pretend eating. Another favourite of mine are these cute wooden houses. Maybe it's because they remind me of this favourite place. I do like wooden toys best. 

Yesterday Lovely S made us a yummy roast chicken. It's been a struggle getting Little F to start eating again after the bug but Daddy's roast dinner and especially the roast potatoes are always a winner. I'm very lucky that Lovely S always cooks the roast on a Sunday. I think it is my favourite meal of the week. Just not having to cook myself makes it taste so much better! Of course we had to indulge in some chocolate treats as well. 

There was more stitching too to cheer myself up. I love to get my little tin of current projects out in the evenings once the boys are in bed. 

I'm obsessed with making these birds at the moment. I've got a number of them now to pop into my shop. 

I think I might add some to my Easter tree as well. 

We're having a very lazy start to Monday morning. I'm pottering doing jobs and housework but I have to admit that we're all still in PJs! We're not going anywhere. We don't have the car today and it's way to cold and snowy to be pushing the pram anywhere. So we'll take it easy. Keep warm and cosy whatever you're doing. See you soon. 

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Re-arranging

I've been doing a bit of re-arranging this morning. Despite the fact that we have snow forecast for later I wanted to give the mantle a bit of a new Spring look. 

I still had my little German Christmas houses out and suddenly decided that they look too Christmassy and heavy. I wanted the look to be a little lighter. I haven't changed that much but I added the sweet post card of a rose and the little china flowers. The larger one belonged to my Grandma and the two smaller ones were sent to us as a Wedding present from the lovely Jane Posy. (how I miss her blog)

I bought out my Cath K jug which had been in the cupboard for a while but which I love. I also popped my diffuser bottle, which is almost empty, into the tea light holder and added another picture roses at the other end. It just looks a bit lighter and fresher. We can at least pretend the Spring is here can't we? 

Hope you have lovely weekend despite the snow. 

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Red and Pink

Who says pink and red don't go together. Personally I love the clashiness of this combination of tulips bought for me on Saturday by Lovely S and Little F. They're really cheering up the dining room today which I need as I've got a poorly sick big boy to look after. Hope you're having a cheerful Monday. 

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Little dream house

Today I'm feeling like a would like to shrink down and go live in this cheerful little bird house my Mum bought for me the other week. 

It's going to hang from my Easter twigs along with all my little eggs. With two weeks to go do you think it's too soon to put Easter decorations out? I feel it might make me feel a little jollier than I currently do and you never know, it might actually make the sun come out and temperatures rise. 

Today I've been trying hard to get on top of some of the housework and washing. So so difficult with two little monkeys keeping me busy! The Mothers Day chocs are almost gone as a consequence! Looking forward to a cosy weekend with some friends coming over tomorrow afternoon for tea and cake and later pizza (which is turning into a bit of a Saturday dinner habit much to the joy of Little F). Hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing even if the sun doesn't shine. 

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Garden hopes

The opening pictures are not pretty today I'm afraid but I wanted to share them because I want to remind myself just how far we have come with our garden and hopefully by the summer I can show even more progress. 

The first three photos here show how our garden looked in August 2011, approximately 4 weeks after we moved in here. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of how it looked on the day we moved in as I didn't get my camera out quick enough before Lovely S went to work on the jungle! But what I can tell you is that only about half the amount of grass was visible due to the amount of growth that over hung from all borders. Most of it was pretty ugly greenery. Certainly nothing much worth saving. 

Last year we started to make progress but it was frustrating for me as my pregnancy meant I couldn't be hands on. Lovely S enjoys dealing with his lawn and doing the basics of the weeding and plant care but I'm the one who is really passionate about planting. I am so excited to get out there this year and start turning my garden dreams into reality. 

On Sunday I had a brief hour when both the boys were napping so I took the opportunity to get out there and start assessing. I swept the patio first then did a spot of weeding along border. 

Here are two butlers sinks that Mum and Dad gave me. I'm hoping to remove the concrete treatment as I actually prefer the original look. These will be moved down close to the shed as the garden gets sun there all day long. I plan to plant one up with herbs and the other with salad leaves. 

This border down the left may not look like much yet but it is the one we have done the most with. We've planted a number of evergreen plants to give it some structure all year round, including the box balls which I love. Everything is quite small at present but I hope through this year things will really get going. Looking at the picture below I'm thinking that I seriously need to do something about the lawn edging. I love to see a nice crisp edge to a lawn. 

I still can't decide what to do with the shed. Do we paint it? Do we leave it? Do we keep it?Do we knock it down? It's not really in the best state close up but I do like the focus it gives the bottom of the garden.The wall is looking a little sad as well with the selection of random pots sitting on it. These pots are definitely coming off. I think it will look better bare with larger pots sitting in front of it and flowers behind.  

The bird table has been moved a lot but I popped it here on Sunday. I think eventually it will be in the border in front of the patio though. This border below needs some serious work. We have put some box in here too and there are now three roses. One of the roses is one that my in-laws gave us as a first Wedding Anniversary present. It has never done well as it lived in a pot for a while as we knew we would be moving and wanted to take it with us. When we moved it was a while before it was planted because of the state of the garden. In the end my Mother in law just plonked it in somewhere just to get it in the ground but it wasn't really the right place and last year it didn't thrive. So my Mum moved it to this border for me at the end of last Summer. I'm hoping it's going to prefer it's new home as it will get a lot more sun. It has two new friends in the shape of two David Austin roses that Mother in law bought us for Christmas. They went in bare rooted in November and are showing signs of springing into life right now. There are two more in the other main border. I can't wait to see how they all do. I miss the beautiful roses that we had in our old house. 

The patio is looking fairly bleak at the moment. Most of my big pots are in the garage as is the bench that usually lives out here. We really didn't make much of the patio last year and this year I want so much more from it. 

I want to paint these railings outside the back door and I have a vision of pots of geraniums on the steps outside my kitchen door

So that is where we're at now with the garden. The sun has been shining today and I'm imagining how this garden is going to progress over the Spring and Summer. I can't wait to share it with you here. I have such hopes. 

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