Mr C and I have lived in St Albans for nearly seven years now so I thought it fair to say that I know the place and surrounding area reasonably well. However, over the last few months I've realised that I actually don't at all! My knowledge is lacking somewhat when it comes to places to go with kids. I can do all the very obvious ones like the zoo and local children's farm, but when we just want to go out for a walk somewhere I kept coming back to the same places and I was soon getting quite bored with them. A friend then told me about Kiddiwalks in Hertfordshire which ... read more
Simple things in the garden
Give a little girl a garden full of things to collect and a bucket in which to put them and you have an hour of fun! ... read more
How to have a baby without it costing the earth
It seems I'm now the mum of a toddler. How did that happen? Fourteen months have passed by in a flash and I'm suddenly realising that there's a whole batch of new mums coming along behind me that I can share some of my experiences with, so that's exactly what I want to use this blog post to do. The press is full of articles about just how much it costs to raise a child here in the UK and it is true that compared to life before children our house now contains much more than it used to, but it is not necessary to buy everything on the lists that baby shops produce and there are ... read more
A return to Butterfly World
It's nearly two years since Mr C and I first visited Butterfly World, so having read Mediocre Mum's review of her recent visit I though it time we returned, with Little Miss C this time. I should start with a bit of a warning for anyone reading that isn't aware yet; the big dome hasn't been built yet. I know they said it would be ready by 2011, but it isn't and instead you have a big hole filled with wildflowers. Not quite the same. We did struggle a bit to work out exactly what they had done since our last visit. We think the playground area is new, but then ... read more
Reason for not blogging #649
Lightening strke taking out wifi. With things being so busy at home I'd been saving up posts that I wanted to write until a planned trip up north to stay with my parents. Sadly it was not to be though as on this visit there was a distinct lack of wifi internet access. The cause: a lightening strike two weeks ago which hit this tree in their garden (details from a nature viewpoint here on Mr C's UK Nature Blog) and also took out their phone line, wireless router, TV aerial amplifier and DECT phone. It just goes to show how powerful nature can be! ... read more
A studio update
There's been a lot of work going on down the bottom of the garden recently. Not of a gardening nature, but instead in my studio down there and it's looking very different to how things were a couple of months ago. Gone are all the old paint pots that used to sit on the shelves next to my sewing machine. Also, gone is the pile of old carpet that was in the corner until we found somewhere else to use it. Instead I have clear space, a second table and two bookcases to build. As of this afternoon I also have a vast quantity of yarn, machine cotton thread, buttons, zips, knitting needles ... read more
Flower Ring
One handmade ring from the current issue of Mollie Makes. Made from felt in a lovely turquoise colour this was a tad fiddly to make, but possibly because I wasn't using a sharp enough needle to stitch it together. This was just one of three designs in the magazine. I've plenty of felt left to try the other designs, and have a few ideas of my own to experiment with next. ... read more
MIA…
Apologies for being Missing in Action yesterday. I had one of those "growing older events" to celebrate... Chair in its new home, and cushion a birthday present from Mr C, purchased from We Love Cushions. ... read more
The chair that so nearly wasn’t
The first rule of shopping in second hand shops is that if you see something you like then buy it straight away as it probably won't be there when you return. I broke that rule yesterday and I so nearly paid for it today. As I left a charity shop with a friend yesterday I spotted a lovely looking chair in the window. Comments were made about how nice it looked and what a fair price it was being sold for. Ideas were exchanged about how you could put new fabric on the seat and back and then with a pushchair already covered in bags and containing a tired Little Miss C we went our separate ... read more
Not every blogger is perfect…
I read quite a lot of blogs, some might say too many, and one thing that does always come across from them all is just how perfect other bloggers' lives seem to be. Photos show homes that could easily be found in the pages of a glossy magazine. Mums manage to juggle a brood of kids with a full time job, setting up their own business, undertaking numerous crafty projects, baking cakes daily and keeping a perfect home (Oh, and blog every day too!). Vegetable plots where everything grows exactly as it should and there are no weeds to be be found between the lettuces. Life isn't really ... read more