Too Much to do...

WOW! 

It has been a while hasn't it? Doesn't the time fly when life gets hectic???

Well even now as I am writing this I am in a hurry as I HAVE to get to sleep soon for another busy day tomorrow, but I had to pop on and say hello. I have missed the blogging world so very much lately and all the gorgeous, inspiring posts but I promise as soon as I am more organised I will be back with vengeance :)

For now I will share with you the exciting news that my friend has had her baby girl.

Ruby-Mae made her entrance into the world on May 25th.

She is beautiful. I am totally in love already.

Becky is never quite organised...Late announcement hehe!

ooooo and I can show you the blankets that I had to keep hushed about...

I love the vintage look of this blanket. I used the old candy stripe bedding as inspiration. It was so lovely using other colours than just pink and white for a girl blanket and still having the same cute baby girl effect.

I even have one of her very first photographs and you can just see it peeking through...

Isn't she just ADORABLE?!?! How I didn't bungle her home with me I don't know.

So beautiful x

So I will be back soon and hopefully will start to become much more organised :)

Happy Sunday xx

A Sad Geek...

When in life did being a geek become the coolest thing???

When did knowing all the Marvel comic heros become cooler than knowing the latest pop stars whereabouts?

I do not know the answers to this. All I know is I AM THRILLED!

I never really liked boy bands in school(although I was a massive Spice Girls fan...I am not ashamed. GIRL POWER!) I never conformed to the "must have" fashion style, or the latest sports wear. I didn't care if a boy fancied me or if my cupboards were filled with no frills food and my charity shop school blazer lasted me 3 years because I would "grow into it"

I was cool. I was cool because I had the confidence to pull off all these high school faux pas'

Some people didn't. I made friends with a lot of these people. They became cool by association, with their winkle picker shoes, daft conversations, sad fan fiction obsessions, AWFUL hair cuts and clothes that had seen better days 3 people ago.

I know that sounds so deluded and I sound a little too self assured, but I only know all this because they have all told me. I loved each and every one of my friends, geek or swat, popular or wall flower. I didn't care.

One thing I couldn't stop though was the geek teasing! It was not cool to be a full on geek.

Glasses were NOT the one. Knowing all about Star Trek was not cool, being teachers pet did not do you any favours.

THIS HAS ALL CHANGED!

HOW?

WHEN?

WHY?

I have no idea. I think programmes like the Big Bang Theory have helped, along with a lot of celebrities admitting they are closet geeks and tweeting pictures of themselves looking cool in glasses.

I have to say I love the geek revolution. I can have conversations with my boys that I actually understand. Turns out it is cool to be clever, comic books are awesome and Enid Blyton is for girls AND boys!

My eldest goes to a high school where all the kids remind me of shaggy sheep dogs with their untamed hair and heads facing the floor as they scuff their no name shoes by dragging their feet.

All their blazers look like they grew into them a few years ago or have a few years left to reach that goal.

I see young girls unashamedly speaking out about their feminist views. They are no longer going to be objectified by boys or worry about being cool because the popular boy fancies them.

They are gathering on social media sites, not to discuss the latest lipstick shade but to discuss the art and culture they see around them.

Now obviously not all boys and girls are like this. I myself still love flicking through magazines and cooing over pretty handbags and dresses, and we all blush when a handsome chap or lady offers us a smile, but being who you are seems to be more OK now.

I know this is a very random post but each time I have conversations with teenagers I get so excited, mainly because I can have conversations with teenagers...I found this difficult when I was a teenager hehe!

So here is to all the people in the world.

Here is to acceptance and friendship. May it long continue.

And here is to my new, fabulous glasses...

Baby Showers and Spring Flowers...

Good Morning all you lovely people. I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend and have all been well. Sorry for my disappearance lately...I could tell you why but then I would have to add a moaning tag to the post and this post is far too pretty for that!

It has been a bit crazy in these parts lately, there have been family visits, school holidays, baby showers and men in uniform...yum!

Lets start with flowers. Nowadays I buy fresh flowers ALL the time. In fact it is rare that I go shopping anywhere and not bring some home with me. I love them. But this wasn't always the case.
Each time I am in my little kitchen snipping, and pruning a new bouquet or two and gently and precisely adding them to jugs or vases my husband always like to remind me of when we first met and the opinions I had on bought flowers.
"A waste of money, all they are going to do is die! I would rather have something I can keep!"
Yes! That was my opinion back then, but like I say to him now,
"that was before my depression hit rock bottom and I realised that flowers are a beautiful way to brighten up your day, natures very own anti-depressant!"

This is exactly why flowers are now so important to me. To walk up my path and have a cheery colourful bouquet greeting me in the window is uplifting and immediately makes me smile, even if I have had the crappiest day. I am home and my home is lovely and filled with the simplest, lovely things.

Now on to something that has really brought a smile to my face. My best friends bump!

I always think when someone so close to you is expecting you travel with them on each step of their journey. You comfort them when they are going through dreaded morning sickness that makes them look like death.

You call them fatty as the bump grows larger and larger. Moan when said bump doesn't kick on demand, and gently try and persuade them to add your name to bumps when they arrive...no? just me then?!?

Obviously as a friend or sister you can't go through everything with them, it is their journey and it is happening to them, but we get all the fun bits and can make the journey a little more joyous and exciting.

That is why I love the idea of baby showers. A new concept to these shores but a fab gift from our friends over the pond.

And of course I jumped right in...no silly games though, we are all far too interested in cake to be bothered about games :)

This is the fat one...no this is Becky and she is positively blooming and nowhere near as fat as I was hoping thinking she would get ;)

We went with cute pink tea party and it was a big success. We had a fabulous time, cooing over baby clothes and little gifts, baby names and bump.

I love my friend and I was so happy that I could do this for her, and hopefully it will be something wonderful she can treasure. A very pretty and yummy step on this journey xxx

Happy Sunday xx

I Had a Plan...

Yes, indeed I did! I had a plan to plan a speggtacular Easter...

I have not fulfilled this plan. This plan did not come go to plan.

In fact it went the opposite. I have done practically nothing to make it wonderful, other than buy a daft amount of hollow chocolate eggs, eat a daft amount of hollow chocolate eggs and then replace said hollow chocolate eggs.

I am currently lay in bed trying not to nod off again today. I am hungover and I hate it.

You would think at 31 I would know that a few drinks by the chiminea on a lovely Spring evening is never a good idea.

Long story short?

The friend left after a couple of cocktails slurring her words insisting that she was leaving sober, the man spent most of the night hugging the toilet and whilst I was in charge of it, said chiminea crumbled! Other friend then says, "is that a mobile phone melting above the tea light?" Yes, yes it was. My mobile phone! 3 drinks people. 3!!!

NEVER AGAIN...NOPE! I MEAN IT!

I will have a one glass limit from now on!

Anyways, other than the disaster that was last night we have had a wonderful first half of the Easter break.

The kids have been busy enjoying all this glorious sunshine, the new pup Reggie has settled in wonderfully and I can't believe it has only been a week.

I have got lots of washing on the line and have read 3 chapters of my book. So all in all I think it has been very productive!

I haven't even been organised with photo taking so here is a random lot :)
Enjoy x

Easter Bonnet...bunny style.

Park fun x

More attempts at growing stuff. You never know we might actually get a strawberry and a tomato.

Green fingers crossed.

Today was a little productive. A carrot cake was baked, a chocolate bunny was prepared and some chocolate Easter nests were created by the bugs of the house, but all that can wait for now x

There are many more Easter type pictures and I do take them of the older bugs but they are not very active...ergo not that interesting in pics hehe!

Hope you are all having a great Easter Break.

Happy Saturday xx

Talented Friend...

When it comes to family I definitely pulled the short straw. I won't go into details but lets just say it is not a harmonious, loving group of people, But, when it comes to friends I have pulled every long straw there is. 

I have so many people that I call friends, and they are. We are all there for each other and we have happy and sad times together. I have too many acquaintances to count, but you know what else I have? Best Friends! Yep! I said it. I took you all back to school and playing with your girlfriends and whispering to each other that today, "You're my best friend really, not Sheila!"

But I have them. I am 31 and I have 6 best friends. What makes them best? They are my family, not by blood but by friendship. ALWAYS there. Always making life so much better. I can only hope that in some small way I do the same for them.

One of these very special people is Hazel. Hazel is a creative force that has gone above and beyond friend duties.

Last year my eldest was due to start high school, because we had moved and I wasn't happy with the catchment school for a number of reasons I had to wait months for an appeal(we lost the appeal but magically one of the best schools in the area managed to find him a place...nothing to do with his high academic achievements!) during these months Hazel and her husband drove miles every Friday after being in work all day to tutor Jacob. Hazel is a dab hand at French, Spanish and was excellent at English Lit, lang and history! Her husband Edward is training to be a science teacher in secondary school. How lucky am I???

On Christmas night I ended up having to go to hospital for a crappy episode with the bipolar. This has been the worse episode in years. I had to go and stay with my brother in Manchester a lot, I was sleeping all the time, drugged up and feeling useless. Not able to do anything for myself.

Guess what this lady did?

No! She didn't rub my shoulder and say everything would get better, she didn't avoid me so she could avoid an awkward conversation. She came over one night, unannounced I might add, and with her she bought a MOUNTAIN of home cooked food! Days of work and effort cooking and baking for my little family! My freezer and fridge were filled. Homemade curries, pies, fruit crumbles, naan bread, shepherds pie. So much awesomeness! I also had a pile of goodies just to cheer me up(including her AMAZING mince pies with her own mince meat)

Awesome!!!

This lady is also incredibly talented. If you haven't had a chance to have a gander at her blog go say hi :)

For my Birthday a few years ago she made me this

ALL by hand I might add.

For my 30th I got this

and these

even creating a cake recipe and naming it Emmatines after me!!!

For my last birthday I also got something so cool and very needed.

A few years ago Hazel bought me a recipe journal so I could write and store my recipes. The man decided that it was fine to clean around it and getting it wet...it got ruined long story short lol.

So Haze made me this...

All her own art!

Photographs of her kitchen and mine. 

Look at the detail. So, so talented. I am always in awe of her drawings and art work

Because I enjoy a good tipple ;)

I finally managed to start sorting and adding to it yesterday and it made me so happy.

I feel blessed to have this unique lady in my life and I am so unbelievably lucky to be able to call her my friend. My best friend hehe!

Love you Lady xxx

St. Davids Day Awesomeness...

A belated Happy St. Davids Day to you all.

We had a fantastic day. We went to one of my all time favourite places. The museum of Welsh life, better known as St. Fagans.

It is just on the outskirts of Cardiff and it is a place filled to bursting with everything you need to see and know about Welsh life through the years.

The place itself is a collection of buildings from all over Wales that have been painstakingly dismantled brick by brick, each brick logged and numbered and then re-erected in St. Fagans. Many of these incredible buildings would have been demolished and lost forever if it wasn't for this great place.

We met up with our awesome friends. The wonderful Hazel from Little Welsh House, her husband and her two fabulous rescue dogs Millie and George. 

#NOTE: PHOTO HEAVY BLOG ABOUT TO COMMENCE... 

Awesome trees that have been trimmed back making them look like Whomping Willows(Harry Potter)

Beautiful part of the castle gardens

Signs of Spring

Bara Brith...I will share recipe. It is DELICIOUS!

A few hundred year old farm house. They were painted red to keep away evil spirits.

Gorgeous Hazel with the bugs and the dogs. Doesn't George have the best photo smile???

Sheep bum!

Welsh cake making in a traditional farmhouse kitchen. Welsh cakes are yummy(like drop scones) and smell divine.

(we had already enjoyed some of Hazels welsh cakes at our picnic nom nom)

Sitting room in Farmhouse. I love the fireguard. It is so intricate and beautiful.

Dream House!

Where bakes are made in a traditional way

This street of Miners Cottages is one of my favourite parts of the museum. I will take you along on the journey through time.

First home is 1805. Look how sparse it is. To think that these were built for families is incredible. There is a lounge with a stove for cooking and a table for eating. This back bedroom and one bedroom upstairs. They are so small.

1855 There are more decorative items building rather than just the essentials. 

1895. This is already so incredible how the designs and rooms change and become so much more homely and vibrant.

1925. Photographs on the wall are a symbol of the effects of progression and scientific advancement. Reminders of the Great War on the mantle.

1955. Awesome original roller skates. Imagine the fun the child(or adult) that wore these had whizzing around laughing and screaming with joy.

These pictures are from the out building, some of these were made from old air raid shelters. Talk about making use of space. I would love this in my back yard. It is absolutely gorgeous. I could quite happily move in tomorrow.

The house of 1955. Times have definitely changed dramatically. These were no longer just somewhere to live, they were homes that could show off the disposable income that people were now acquiring.

1985 Have you noticed the even more extreme changes? Modern times require modern layouts...including a bath! OK it is in the kitchen but it is a bath. I think this house just shows how small these cottages really are and how ingenious the people living in them were to make the most of the space throughout time. Always adapting to the needs of the time.

 The next group of photos is my second favourite part. This is a prefab. Prefab stands for prefabricated. They sprung up everywhere throughout Britain after the war. They were cheap and more importantly quick to erect. They were essential as so many families had lost their homes in the bombings of the war. Left homeless these buildings were so needed and appreciated.

Originally built as a temporary measure many of the families they were built for spent the rest of their days in them and many still stand today as family homes.

How gorgeous is this room? The stunning furniture, the quilts, even the knitted horse on the bed.

Not too sure about the curtains but I am definitely in love with everything else. Look at the detail on the floor...don't you just love the hat and scarf too(I like how even back then it was clear that the bedroom is the womans room...dresser for her, wherever there is space for him!)

That tablecloth! I think I need to go a hunting!

I think there a few of you that have just fallen for this kitchen! 

I appreciate how much effort goes into the detail of all the properties at this magical place.

Each part and each building is a trip back in time. You can imagine the people, the faces the work.

We took so many more photos and there is a fair I want to share with you but I think this post has come a long way and taken you through enough year hehe.

I hope you have enjoyed our little tour together. I have enjoyed making you a part of our day. 

Happy Sunday x