Whenever I smell mixed herbs (the dried variety that come in little glass jars) I am taken straight back to the house my parents lived in when I was a young child and in particular to the bay window of the front bedroom where I used to play some sort of game where I created a den and imagined that I was on a boat sailing across the oceans to discover islands that no one else had yet discovered. I have vague recollections that I needed to take some food with me and when I asked my mum for some the only thing she gave me was some mixed herbs. Quite how I thought I was going to find new islands I ... read more
Archives for October 2011
Daddy’s slippers
And there was me thinking that Little Miss C was a bit young for dressing up. She proved me wrong though when she got hold of Mr C's slippers the other evening... ... read more
Counting my chickens… – Deborah Devonshire
As a child Chatsworth was one of those places that we visited quite often. For a while it was a bit of a family tradition to go to the farm shop on Christmas Eve to buy meat for Christmas. I remember many, many visits to the children's farmyard and also have such fond memories of the annual country show that I really hope I can take Little Miss C and Mr C there one year. It was at the country show that I was once served lemonade (lovely homemade stuff!) by the then Duchess of Devonshire (now the Dowager Duchess) and even at my young age I was struck by just how down to earth she ... read more
Off the needles…
I know I shouldn't have, but another knitting project found its way onto my needles this week. I'm afraid my little model was in bed asleep as I sit here writing this post so for the time being this photo will have to suffice. This is the Rosy Posy Hat from The fourth little Sublime hand knit book, but at the moment due to a complete lack of time it is missing the flowers that should be on it. The sudden cold snap made me realise that all the hats I made for Little Miss C last year no longer fit her and there was no way I could justify buying her a new one when I have a stash of ... read more
Holiday with toddler must-have items
It seems a while ago now that I wrote about our first foreign holiday with Little Miss C. We learnt so much in those few days about travelling with a little one and I therefore want to share wih you the three things that we took with us that I would encourage anyone travelling with a toddler to take. 1. Ergo Baby Carrier I'm afraid I don't have a photo of me using our carrier, but that's mainly because of the times it was useful. We flew with Easyjet from Stansted airport and I have to say that they were really good when it came to carrying baby equipment with us. We were ... read more
The Testament – John Grisham
There's been a bit of a book reading frenzy here in recent weeks, but my blogging about what I've read has fallen a bit behind. Apologies in advance therefore for a few back to back book reviews in the next week or so. John Grisham's The Testament was something I quickly picked up in a charity shop as a quick holiday read and that's exactly what it was. There wasn't much time in Madeira for lounging around by the pool, but there was some time to kill on the plane and also time once Little Miss C had gone to bed in the evening. I've always liked John Grisham's books, ... read more
Damson Gin
It's over two years now since we moved to this house, and I'm ashamed to say that for the last two years we've just ignored the potential harvest from the two damson trees in our garden. This year was different though! Firstly I made the effort to go and pick the damsons before they all became mush in the grass, and after washing them I put them in plastic bags in the freezer until I had a bit more time to get organised. We love damson gin, but have been finding it increasingly difficult to buy without going to farmers' markets and shops. A quick request on a few internet ... read more
Fabric numbers
There are so many unfinished sewing, knitting and crochet projects in this house at the moment that it's more than a little ridiculous - even for me! Here's a little sneak preview of one of the sewing projects though - the irresistible numbers from Meg McElwee's latest book Growing Up Sew Liberated: Making Handmade Clothes and Projects for Your Creative Child. You may already know Meg from her lovely blog, Sew Liberated, and as you would expect this book is crammed full of amazing projects for children of a range of ages. The non-clothes projects are all focussed on ... read more
VTech Toot Toot Drivers Garage
It's as if Christmas has come a bit early for Little Miss C this year. I came home from town the other day with her buggy weighed down with the Toot Toot Drivers Garage to review from our lovely local toy shop, Cuthberts. The Toot Toot Drivers range comes from VTech, and as you would expect from them combines bright colours and noises to attract the children, with interactive elements to help them learn through play. The vehicles are a lovely size to fit into small hands, and also talk and sing in response to pressing a button on them whilst the Garage provides a fantastic centre piece ... read more
Messy painting
Whilst Little Miss C had her lunchtime nap on Monday I decided that we should make the most of the good weather and so I set up for us to do some painting in the sunshine. Whilst she slept it all looked so beautiful. I'd laid out everything carefully, taped the plastic sheet down so that wind didn't blow it away, put paint in four different containers, taped the paper down and I even had a special pot for the water that she couldn't tip over and spill. Then the artist woke up... She was very excited to see what we'd got lined up for the afternoon. She's done some painting ... read more