I have a secret to reveal. One that I'm slightly embarrased about. In the last couple of years I've become a bit of a fan of one particular daytime TV programme. I've thankfully managed to avoid the Jeremy Kyle style shows, but instead have a bit of a weak spot for soaps and in particular the BBC's Doctors. A bit of background if you're not familiar with it - Doctors is a lunchtime daily drama all about the goings on in two partner Doctors surgeries set in the fictional town of Letherbridge in the Midlands. There are several doctors working there, along with a couple of ... read more
Inside the pages, vintage style
Old magazines completely fascinate me. The adverts really are from a time gone by and many of the articles leave me wondering what life was really like when housewives would sit down with a cup of tea between chores read them. Last year when I was at the Knitting and Stitching show up in Harrogate I found a lovely stall specialising in secondhand books and magazines - particularly ones with a crafty slant to them. One magazine that found its way home with me was a September 1957 copy of Pins and Needles. This is described as "Christine Veasey's Magazine" but despite a while ... read more
Cables, of the knitted variety
Here's a sneak preview of my next knitting project. This is the cable yoke of the Top-down Baby and Child's Cable Yoke Jacket designed by the wonderful Cotton & Cloud. As recommended I'm knitting it in Jamieson's Shetland Heather in shade 517 Mantilla. The pattern starts with the cable yoke that you can see above. Not easy to kit, especially when you start it, but once you're in the rhythm it's not too bad at all. You then pick up stitches from the two edges of the yoke to do the hood and then the body and sleeves. As the rest of the ... read more
Win a VTech Counting Colours Vacuum Cleaner from Cuthberts Toys
There's many a joke that can be made about "training" your children to help with the housework. To be honest it's when Little Miss C is capable of making me a cup of tea in a morning that I'll be really impressed! Joking aside though, little children do love copying what mummy and daddy are doing and they want to help with everything too. If you're parent you'll know that this "help" isn't always as useful as it could be. LMC's efforts to help me sweep up leaves in the garden resulted in the piles of leaves being spread around again with the ... read more
seven days
A weekly photograph capturing one of the magic moments of the last seven days. ... read more
A castle with a slide?
One thing that Little Miss C likes to do before going to sleep at night is have a debrief on her day. Before her language developed into proper words and phrases she would often "chatter" for up to an hour in her cot before falling asleep. Now she will often talk about her day whilst having her evening bath and it's fascinating to hear what things she has picked up on as highlights of her day. Yesterday we were in Lincoln for a family meal to celebrate my mum's 70th birthday. LMC was obviously excited to see her garndparents and auntie and uncle, but that's not what she ... read more
Bossypants – Tina Fey
It's fair to say that the only real thing I knew about Tina Fey until recently was the impressions that she did of Sarah Palin during the run up to the 2008 US Presidential elections. She did such a good job that footage of her went completely global, and some news organisations even got so confused that they included a clip of her in a bulletin whilst saying that it was Sarah Palin! My knowledge of her pretty much ended there though. I knew she'd been involved in Saturday Night Live (SNL) and that that was where her Palin impressions started, but I didn't know that ... read more
Review: BigJigs Farmyard Crossing and Fruit & Veg Train
I have frequently written and spoken about why I love old fashioned toys. They are often made to last in a way which some modern plastic toys are not and I also love the simplicity of them which I think encourages children to use their imagination whilst playing. There are some companies that do this really, really well and in my mind BigJigs are one of these companies. All their toys are made to last and also beautiful to look at. I was therefore thrilled to be asked if Little Miss C and I would review something from the BigJigs Road and Rail range, especially since we bought her ... read more
The old fashioned Brownie Guide
As I mentioned a few months back finding all my old Brownie and Guide badges ended up sending me on a bit of a journey back in time as I remembered more and more about what it was like being in the Brownies and Guides in the 1980s. One major part of this has been getting hold of a copy of The Brownie Guide Handbook version that I had at the time and boy has that proven to be a fascinating read! As a child I was obsessed with this book. It covered everything I wanted to know, not only about the Brownies and how to achieve all the badges that I so desperately wanted on my uniform, but ... read more
seven days
A weekly photograph capturing one of the magic moments of the last seven days. ... read more