52

Charlie, my lovely boy on his very first day of school. my how time flies.

Edie riding a pony, her first every go, she loved it!

Joining in with the 52 portraits project, taking a picture of my children each week. 

Happy days xx

52

The field next to the house has has a crop of barley in it and we had a little wander amid the field with the children after supper last night. They loved the tickly feel of the crop against their skin. The light was so lovely and soft.

Charlie: Always asking questions, so inquisitive to understand what things are and how they work. 

Edie: Loves a kiss and a cuddle, she is so affectionate.

Joining in with Jodi and her 52 weeks project. 

Happy days x

52, a portrait a week

I'm joining in with Jodi and her 52 Portraits, taking a photograph of my children each week. 

Make a Wish...

Learning about grass seeds.

Happy Days x

Sea Legs

The weather has been lovely here this weekend. Finally, it looks as though we may have a bit of summer on its way! Hooray!

We took the opportunity of the sunshine and calm weather to join my brother-in-law and his family on their boat. The children had such fun, we took a trip from the boat to explore a nearby beach, where we went on a mini adventure and made a rope swing with a buoy - such fun!

Before we had the children, Ross and I would canoe to the beach and camp at the weekends in the summer. Really fond memories, and now we're making new ones in the same places with out little family.

Happy days xx

52, a portrait a week.

I am super excited to join in with Jodi and the 52 portraits, taking a picture of my children a week. Time with small people passes too quickly and this is such a delightful idea. I'm a little late in joining in, but here is the first of many hopefully...

learning to fly!

Collecting stones!

Happy days x

Eden

We are so lucky to live so close to The Eden Project. At the weekend we spent a very happy day there exploring the biomes and discovering amazing plants and flowers. 

We visit regularly, as the Eden Project offers a fantastic deal for locals, so that you pay a really reasonable fee and get to go as many times as you like for the year. We love it as there is so much for the children to do, lots of running about, star shaped sandpits in teepees, not to mention the biomes, they even got to grind (roll) oats into porridge oats this time. Much fun was had pumping water in The Core, as well as running around The Seed, which is a stunning 70-tonne granite sculpture (of a seed!) in the heart of the core. The Eden Bakery is one of the children's favourite parts of our Eden visits, the food is delicious and the cakes and scones are HUGE!

It was bring your dog to Eden day on Saturday and Edie (who adores dogs), was super excited to see the pooches wandering around, the highlight of the day for her was watching a demonstration with a policeman and his dog, who was also called Edie!

There is a park and ride bus that takes you back from the Eden project to the car park, which for little ones is a little tough on their tiny legs after a long day of charging around, so we took the bus. Charlie thought it was amazing. When I put him to bed and asked him what his favourite part of the day was, he said "going on the bus!".  Simple pleasures.

Happy days x

It has been so chilly this last week. I know its been colder in other places (we didn't get snow), but we've still been feeling the chill. On Sunday we went for a blustery walk on the beach. The children wouldn't keep their mittens on and insisted on playing in the salty shore water, needless to say they got pretty cold, pretty quick and we didn't last long! We're so lucky to be able to hop in the car for less than 10 minutes and then be at the beach. 

We're finally getting settled in the new house, the novelty of the cows and sheep being outside is not wearing off, I love how Edie wants to "see the moos mummy" every time we try to go anywhere. Charlie is less bothered, but still gets pretty excited when he sees a pheasant wandering around the back garden.

Our little slice of the world feels pretty happy right now, I'm looking forward to a weekend of baking with the children, more blustery walks and as always a bit of  knitting!

Happy days x

Easy Cheesey and Spinach Muffins

This weekend I made these lovely savoury muffins, recommended by a friend as good eats for the kids. They were so easy and really tasty....I even took one to the office for breakfast today!

Cheese and Spinach Muffins

(adapted from Baby-led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett)

1/2 small red onion

175g (6oz) plain flour sifted

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp mild chilli powder

1 egg

110ml whole milk

125g (4 1/2oz) grated cheese

2 handfuls washed and torn baby spinach

Preheat oven to 160 degrees (325 degrees Fahrenheit). Heat the oil and gently fry the red onion  until soft. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon to drain oil and set to one side.

In a bowl add flour and chilli powder. Beat the egg and mix with the milk and gradually add to the flour and fold together. Don't over mix. add the cheese, onion and spinach and fold carefully until mixture combines. Divide into muffin cases, or grease a muffin tray and put mixture directly into the tray.

Bake for 16-20 minutes until golden and springy to the touch!

These are delicious warm from the oven, but can be frozen once cool.

Happy days x

Littlenestbox - Modern Decor for Kids!

A couple of very close friends have had babies recently. I have been dying for this to happen to buy them presses! I am totally in love with the utterly gorgeous work that the lovely Charmaine creates in her London Studio - such amazing home decor for your bubas - superb handmade goodness to brighten up your nursery!

"Hello Little One" Giclee Art Print by Littlenestbox 

I am so pleased with the print, its perfect. There are so many more like this in her shop as well as simply gorgeous mobiles and cloud pillows. I'm hooked. 

Butterfly Baby Mobile

Cloud Crib Mobile

She even has some totally unique Christmas decorations (that you can make yourself - I just love a bit of DiY!)....how amazing will these look on a tree?

DIY Paper Christmas Ornaments

You can find Charmaine's shop and many many more wonderful things right here.

Weekend Snaps

Bears do like Bananas

Spinach and Cheese Muffins

"Oh no!" said baby bear as she threw the bowl on the floor..

Happy days with the banana eating bear x

Whizzing Weeks

What a week - so many exciting things happening inspite of mega sleep deprivation courtesy of a poor little teething Edie Rose - dear little duckling...


3 Happy Things...

The boy is 3 whole years old today! Woop Woop! We managed to get this far and he is awesome! Truly! We will be eating lots of cake this weekend in honour of this momentous occasion. Cake is always a happy thing...especially when you let your 3 year old decorate it himself - lots of sprinkles involved - as well as a lot of eating mini-marshmallows as part of the decorating process).

Lumi boot cuffs and clutches are now featured on Via-Cornwall - big smiles!

And I've had some really MEGA exciting news...which can't be revealed just yet, but for the time being this will do for a happy thing... Lumi Slate Grey boot cuffs made it to the US frontpage on Etsy.com yesterday thanks to this fab treasury created by Kristy from SAStudio

Happy days indeed x

Geeky snaps and Rhubarb Cupcakes

The weekends whizz by far too quickly for my liking! Its gone already! 


Loving these pics of the babes wearing my glasses (that make me look like I should have a fake nose and mustache attached to them!):

 


Apart from taking geeky instagram pics of the children, I made rhubarb cupcakes with our rhubarb from the garden. A proud moment indeed - I have been trying to grow rhubarb unsuccessfully for ages - and now its in full flourish! 


I used this lovely recipe on Sugar and Spice and all things Iced and I just changed the way I made the rhubarb purée (details below) and they turned out just deliciously!

Rhubarb Purée:

2 cups chopped raw rhubarb

1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

3 tablespoons water

Simmer all ingredients in a pan until the rhubarb has softened to a purée. This takes around 5 minutes. Allow to cool before adding to the recipe.

Chasing Cables....

I have wanted to be able to knit cables for ever. Now I have started, I can't seem to stop. A highly addictive activity, good job it only involves knitting needles and no elicit substances, can't be that bad for my health!

Lets talk about Mustard. Another favorite colour. Mustard Fold Over Clutch, Mustard Boot Cuffs, Mustard Heatbands and now these rather delicious cable knit Wristwarmers with a Mustard Trim...... I think this is more of a Autumn/Winter shade, but I really this colour - I think it works pretty well as a clutch! In the shop this weekend soon, slightly delayed because of my....

...poorly babes. A week of poorly babes. First little Edie Rose and now the boy :( Dear little dumplings, its just horrid to see them so miserable...the ONLY plus side is they LOVE to cuddle when they're under the weather, now that is one of my absolute favorite things x

Crochet Cowl crazy indeed...

Mustard Chunky Cowl

Olive Chunky Infinity Cowl

Spring Green Knitted Cowl

Olive Chunky Mini Cowl

As i said, I've gone a little crazy on the cowl front! Here are the contenders so far, they're all in the shop now... I'm half way through a navy version of the mustard one and started a denim blue version of the Olive infinity cowl (I think its my favourite so far)...

The boy and I got busy planting more bulbs in the garden today, he loves digging for worms, watering things and pottering about, another thing ticked of the to-do (plant bulbs that have been hanging around for AGES)...

I'm off to London this week to say farewell to my lovely sister Lulu who is moving to Berlin on Thursday...I'm mega proud of her  and her lovely man and I know they are going to have the most AMAZING times in Germany, but I am going to miss her like CRAZY!! Thank goodness for living in an age of Face Time and Skype :) I am so looking forward to some girlie time seeing her and my other sister and my mum - its going to be mani's and blow-dries galore :)

Crochet, Pinterest & Sleeping Children!

1. Crochet - The shop is being loaded up with more items daily, my boot cuffs were even mentioned on the Crochet Confections Daily over the weekend - yey!

2. Pinterest - the British Sellser on Etsy Pinterest Boards have some lovely things on them, as well as a couple of my items, yippee.

3. Mega sleep had by all - at last, proper rest, its quite remarkable how one good night's sleep can utterly change the way you feel - ahhhh :)

Boot cuffs, baking and boredom...

Well, a lovely productive weekend is being had so far.

1. Friday spent baking lots of delicious things with the boy for a lovely afternoon tea with my lovely grandparents (who brought beautiful daffodils and they really made me smile!) ... Booster bars and Banana cake, as well as a big batch of freezer meals - I'm going to love coming home from work knowing that that's another thing not to worry about next week!

2. Boot Cuffs - headbands, ear warmers, fingerless mittens and pyjamas, all things aded to the Etsy and Folksy shops this weekend :)

3. Boredom - an odd one, but definitely made Ross and I smile at 3.30 am when Charlie wandered into our room and told us he was bored... sleeping at night not exciting enough then Charlie? My word!

Happy Saturday!

1. Blustery beach walks - we had a proper blow out on the beach today - kids LOVED it, especially Edie - there were loads of dogs (she loves them) and she just ran around woofing away - such a joy to watch!

2. It's the simple things that make you happy - I had a rare and cheeky lie in today - slept until 8am - now that is what I call bliss!

3. Stocking my Etsy shop - I am determined this year to give it my all, added more items today, some little girls crocheted headbands. Looking forward to adding the boot cuffs I'm currently trying to perfect the pattern for over the next couple of days.

Happy Days :)

Naptime Crafternoon Delight

1. Hooked on small shoes - It's official, crochet is my my new favourite craft thing. Trying to perfect a little pattern for little shoes, here is a sneak peek of one little lonely shoe...now to make the next one :)

2. Organisational Nirvana - oh yeah, I feel smug, freezer cleared out and inventory taken, this should help massively with meal planning, is it one step to far though?!

3. Getting messy - Playdough and Painting for Charlie and I this afternoon while Edie napped like a trouper! He loved it, me too. We made play dough from a recipe made with blackcurrant tea to colour - AMAzing!

2012 - Week one, nearly done!

1. Resolutions...running (so far so good), not sweating the small stuff (because that's not what is important in life) and reaching for the stars...why not?

2. Amazing DiY'd Honey, Brown Sugar and milk face mask. I stumbled upon this delicious recipe for the mask here, it's divine. My face feels utterly lovely, like I've scrubbed 20 layers of winter away.. Easy, cheap, homemade goodness :)

3. Weekend fun - looking forward to a nice quite bit of weekend fun with the family, gardening, baking, a nice long walk and happy times with the babies! Perfection.

Monday January 2nd 2012 - New Year Brilliantness!

Today's Three:

1. Start as you mean to go on - LOVELY (?!) morning run, got to get the fitness thing sussed this year! It was so worth it after I had done it! Felt great - brilliant start to the day, now just to make sure I continue with the sentiment...

2. Crocheting - simply addictive, that is all!

3. Christmas - last mention, I'm sure its still ok to, (the tree is still up) has been such wonderful Family time. I'm back to work tomorrow and can't believe how quickly the time has flown(!) it has been so amazing to have time off to spend with the children doing nice things, beach walks, the zoo, the aquarium, long woodland walks etc... Rather sad to wipe the message from Father Christmas off the Blackboard wall though...