Hot Chicks and Cool Chicks

Well it sure is hot here! Tropical hot, sticky and humid. When I walked out of an air conditioned Marks and Spencer's today the hot air hit me like it does when you step off of a plane on your holidays. It's here to stay for a while so I am determined to enjoy it while I can and have already earmarked a few trips to the beach after school this week. The beach is a 10 minute drive (to Westward Ho!) or a 20 minute walk to our local and uninhabited beach so it is lovely to just be able to pop down for a picnic supper and late afternoon swim. Mum regularly gets the bus after work and has a few hours on the beach as there is a 15 minute bus service. I feel so lucky to live here. Devon is very beautiful. Jasmine and her friends camped in our garden last night. They walked to the beach and lit a bonfire before coming back to the bottom of the garden to sleep under the stars. I love it that my kids can do this safely. I am just so glad I moved here when we did so that she can do this sort of thing. She has swam in the sea so much this year. When we lived in London it was a huge trip to get to the beach followed by a long journey home often stuck in traffic jams.

Nature is a wonderful thing isn't it? Here in our garden we are surrounded by it, (well not just in the garden actually, sometimes nature happens in our house. Paul was serenaded on his own guitar by a tiny baby mouse who had crawled into the guitar and was strumming it as it tried to climb out). We have a little swallows nest just outside the back door. They have built their nest on top of our electricity meter in the back porch and have had 5 baby chicks who spend their time with their beaks open waiting for their parents to feed them delicious morsels. They are gorgeous and I spend ages watching them from a safe distance in my kitchen peering through the back door at mummy swallow returning time after time in her shiny dark blue silk cloak to feed her tiny babies. Everyone is entranced by this from the hardened, 'whatever', teenagers to little Lizzy who says 'ahhhh baba bur' whenever she sees them.








And then you have the chickens who think they own the place. Just look at this one strutting around without a care!




The roses are out around the door and are as gorgeous and sweet smelling as ever despite the fact that I did not prune them properly this year as I thought Paul might be dismantling them to paint the front porch.




I don't know what variety they are but the smell is to-die-for and they are a shabby chic pink, my favourite!



I went to a boot sale today and got some great treasures. Firstly Homepride Fred and a tin featuring him along with a vintage nutmeg tin. Perfect for the pantry.




Some vintage Sanderson 'Chatsworth' fabric, some lace and a soft toy pattern of a bunny rabbit.




Two vintage chair cushions for the garden, some old champagne glasses, an enamel casserole dish (in my favourite red), a vintage bread board and a Meakin bowl.




.........and finally, my favourite purchase, some button drawers, complete with loads of buttons (that I don't actually want as they are all too modern for me) so that I can sort my vintage buttons out properly. My buttons are currently stored in big glass sweetie jars which looks nice but is a nightmare when you are trying to find the right button for the right project. I love these and they go with the rest of my haberdashery shop fittings. A good days hunting.


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Another week has whizzed by in this busy household. Jasmine has now left school, completed her exams and had her prom. I have stopped breastfeeding and The Leg has had the plaster removed. The result of this is I now have a teenager at home in between school and college who hangs around the house spending much of the day in bed and most of her waking hours cooking up exotic dishes in the kitchen. I have a baby who spends all night in her cot (unlike her 6 year old brother who is still firmly wedged in the bed between Paul and I and has no intention of moving, ever) and who sleeps soundly through the night. My boobs are getting smaller and are less tender than they were thanks to a marvellous homeopathic remedy I used. The Leg, unplastered, has got worse! We spent a fun day at OceanFest last Saturday but his calf swelled up to the size of his thigh and was very painful. He is still unable to drive or do very much really, except lay on the sofa drinking beer and playing playstation games, and I now have to help him with his physiotherapy. This is the longest bloody healing process I have ever known. Still, we had a great time at OceanFest, the weather was perfect. Alfie had a go at climbing the climbing wall, skidding on a body board on a water slide and designed his own surfboard for an exhibition. We ate Mexican food and sat on the beach listening to Ska music. Oh and I bought not 1 but 2 cowboy hats for less than the price of a Monsoon one!















This week we have decided we really should sell the house. It is a beautiful house but is sooooo big with such large grounds that we need lots of help to maintain it. This is costly and on Thursday, when Paul and I looked around to see the cleaner, gardener and general handyman, we said to each other 'this is mad, we have staff'. I think it's time for us to have a smaller house with a bit less land to maintain. Although we cannot have a house with less than 5 bedrooms as there are too many of us now and I need a room for my fabric. We had a valuation which was astounding really and we realise that we have a gem of a house in a perfect location. We cannot move too far away as Alfie's school is perfect, Paul's business is in the village and Jasmine is about to start college in September. There is absolutely nothing around at the moment. Oh I hate this house selling malarkey.

*Oh bugger I have just asked Flower Girl if we should sell the house. She said 'definitely no' !(2 shakes of the head)*

I have booked a week's holiday for us in Port Isaac again this summer. I took the children last year and it was one of the best holidays I have ever had. The weather was perfect, Port Isaac is beautiful and as it isn't too far away, Paul can come and visit if he gets time in the busy holiday period. I have booked a gorgeous little cottage within walking distance of the harbour. Mum will join us for the beginning and hopefully my friend Lisa will join us with her daughter Holly, which will be great for Alfie as Jasmine is taking Jack, her boyfriend.



Today is the village fete and we will be visiting for the 'legendary cream teas', I can't wait. I will report back. Pin It

Pretty in Pink

So here she is, my pretty prom princess and her gorgeous friends. The girls are her bestest and oldest friends Fran (in brown) and Sam (in cerise).

Their chaperones are (from left to right) Mike, Harry and Jack.

Jack is Jazz's new boyfriend.

Fran, Jazz and Sam.

Sam and Jazz.

Fran and Jazz.

Pretty pink dress.

The Limo.

Jazz and Alfie.

Jazz and Lizzy.

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Hey Boobie

I can't stop, I'm in the middle of weaning but I just thought I would pop by and say hi and give you a quick, update of what is going on around here. I'm having a wonderful weekend. The prom was wonderful (blog post and photos to come I promise) and today we all went to OceanFest on this beautiful bright and sunny day (we seem to be having plenty of those lately). It was great fun and I will blog more about that soon too. The only blot on the landscape is the weaning Lizzy off of the breast. That is painful for both of us. She is coping so well and is still the bright cheerful baby that she has always been (thanks to the help I am receiving from my amazing mother) but you know that she is wondering what the hell has happened. I, on the other hand, am coping less well as I feel as though my breasts have been removed and replaced with two very large melons, very large, very sore melons! God they are HUGE! I normally have quite little buzwabs but right now they are of 'Jordan' proportions. Seriously, I took a photo of them to show you but I will not post it for fear of having your eye out. Still I know it is all for the brest, sorry, best and soon I will be able to fit into my pretty, LITTLE bras once again.

Night night, see you in the morning X Pin It

Catch up

I can't believe so much time has passed since I last blogged. As you can imagine it is still hectic here. The Leg is still broken, Jasmine is in the middle of her exams, the house is being repainted, I'm selling fabrics and taxiing here there and everywhere! Jasmine has one exam to go (tomorrow) and then she has her Prom on Friday. This has meant months of preparation. her dress was ordered from USA, a beautiful pink-silk-georgette-full-length-off-the-shoulder number, her jewellery handmade, matching bag purchased, sparkly shoes, her hair and makeup session booked, diamante added to dress and shawl as she decided her dress was too plain after all, Limo booked to arrive here to pick up her and 5 friends and a drinks party organised for friends and family of the 5 kids to see them off. I will be posting photos so don't worry you will see my little pink princess in all her glory! We didn't have Proms in my day, I wish we did, I think it's a lovely way to finish of your school days.

Friday is a big day, apart from the Prom, The Leg is having his plaster removed and I am going to give up feeding Lizzy!!!

Alfie had his school report which was absolutely brilliant, loads of A's and B's. His first 2 weren't so good. The first one that he received from his private kindergarten was so awful and negative that I cried. The teacher he has now really seems to get him and has nothing but praise. The only thing she said that he does wrong is to talk too much but that whilst he was capable of working and talking others were not and that he could distract them. He had to write what he liked best about school and what he thought he was good at and not so good at. Here's what he wrote:

I rily like playtime. I hav it evryday it is so fun.
Most of all I like lunchtime it rily fils my tumy up.
Numresy hmmmmmm wel I like that but not the best.
Litrisy I don't like becous it is too hard for me.
I want to get betre at all my work

I went to Taunton with mum and the kids on Saturday to buy a pair of jeans that I had spotted that weren't available here. I haven't been shopping in Taunton since last summer, it's not a place I go to as a rule, I tend to prefer Exeter. I was brought up in Taunton but I didn't really like the place and I have to say that my opnion hasn't changed. I have no love for it and found it hard to believe that I ever lived there, it felt strange and disconnected from me. We met up with Paul's mum and headed for Starbucks (where else!) before having a little retail therapy. Jasmine enjoyed going in a few shops that we don't have here. She is enjoying looking different from everyone else these days and doesn't want to have the same clothes as all her friends. I got my jeans, boy fit, slouchy jeans, very flattering. I also found a new friend. Meet Flower Girl. She is a unazukin doll who helps you make decisions. You ask her a question and she nods her head once for yes, twice for definitely yes, shakes her head for no, twice for definitely no. She is going to come in very useful when making life changing decisions such as 'Do I really need another pair of jeans?' and 'Should I cut my hair?'.



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Ritual Feasting in Appledore

The Appledore Arts Festival was fabulous. There was loads to do, see and taste on this gloriously sunny day. This year the festival's theme was 'Ritual feasts'. Alfie spent a lot of time making things and there are a few photos of him on this post, head down, making stuff! He was in his element and there simply wasn't enough time to do everything. The day started at the cafe Jasmine works in with a cappuccino.

Then Alfie did a painting of a rainbow with some wonderful sloshy paint (spot the gorgeous lady in the cerise top and cowboy hat?).

Then he designed a T-Shirt. He drew a great picture of Spiderman free-hand while all the other kids used stencils of shapes. He was very sure of what he wanted to do.

Theeeeeen he painted a tile to be fired in a Raku kiln.

The Leg hobbled along too, although he spent little time with us and eventually went to see our friends David and Sophie, ending up in the pub with David watching football (it was all too arty for him!) Here's a picture of The Leg, Alfie and I. The boys are enjoying a bowl of fresh prawns.

Lizzy swung on a swing. Here she is saying 'wheeeee'!

And she climbed aboard a ship with the big boys and girls!

We went to see an installation in The Old Glove Factory. This was a fabulous exhibition by Sandy Brown who made huge beautiful ceramic sculptures.

(That gorgeous lady in Pink again she gets everywhere!)


The view from The Glove Factory window is stunning!

Alfie spoke to a clown.

We all got blessed by The Green Man (rather roughly I fancy, he shoved a bouquet of flowers in our faces and rubbed it hard!)

And a rather surreal moment when The Green Man spoke to the clown addressing him 'Hello Yellow Fellow'.

We ended the day with Jasmine joining us for Cream Teas in a beautiful Garden that was open to the public for the day. Perfect!

There was so much more to see and do. Different musicians all along the quay, lots of yurts with wonderful workshops going on for children and adults. One thing I wanted to do, but we ran out of time, was a huge teapot and cupcake was being decorated with mosaics made from old broken plates. It looked lovely. I think I would like to make one for my garden one day!

Next year I think I will try and go for more than just one day, it was fabulous!

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Now I wouldn't have posted this normally, as I am sure you have all done youtube to death, but this one is a gem, sent to me by my sister Roxy. Pure beauty in a man!

Enjoy x
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Sunny Daze

The sun is shining. The sky is a cloudless blue. It has been this way since Sunday and when the weather is like this you are unlikely to hear from me. I find it hard to come indoors of an evening and sit at the computer when I can sit outside in the warm evening sunshine eating supper and then watching our little sparrows come and take pieces of bread from under our noses. I do come in eventually and then check out blogs in the commercial breaks of Big Brother (I know, someone's got to watch it) before climbing the stairs for an early night. The Leg still has me running round ragged and I have never been more tired in my life. We have 2 weeks to go before the cast comes off and then he owes me BIG TIME. I'm going to lay on the sofa while he waits on me hand and foot, hehehe, yeah dream on Donna!

One thing I did yesterday was get Lizzy her first pair of big grown up shoes from Clarks. they take a photo to commemorate this occasion. My baby is growing up! She adores her shoes and spent the whole afternoon holding her feet saying 'Shoooo' to anyone who looked at her. She her mummy's girl, that's for sure, I love new shoes.



We are off to the Appledore Arts Festival today. Jazz works in a coffee shop/art gallery in the town and as I dropped her off yesterday I saw the goings on at the festival. I have lived here for 6 years and have never been so today we are all going. I'll report back. Pin It