Another blogging break, but this time due to a family holiday to Northumberland and Little Miss C's first holiday. A lovely trip where we were fortunate enough to have amazing weather for this time of year. The thing that stunned us most though was the autumn colours that we were delighted to see wherever we went. Even the trees along the sides of the A1 were beautiful! Nature's autumn show may not last long, but whilst it did it was stunning. The trip itself provided a lovely opportunity to catch up with my whole family and to spend some precious moments with them. LMC also had her ... read more
Winter pansies
With all the wet weather of the last 24 hours it seems hard to imagine that just a week ago I managed an afternoon gardening. Most of the time that we've lived in this house (over a year now!) I've been either pregnant or juggling a small baby. Neither completely prevented gardening, but when the garden was such a blank canvas that most of the work was heavy stuff it did mean that I didn't get to do much. Mr C has done a fantastic amount of work out there to turn it into (half) a proper garden with borders (have I told you all about that yet? Possibly not!) so I can actually ... read more
Autumn Clean
You hear of people having a Spring Clean, but I think I'm currently in the middle of an Autumn Clean instead! I've got a strange desire to tidy, clean and sort things at the moment. No idea why as it is very unlike me. One area that has got a lot of attention lately are my sewing and knitting stashes. They'd got a bit out of control lately with piles of yarn, fabric and threads all threatening to fall off shelves whenever I went looking for something. Some lovely (cheap) storage boxes from Wilkos helped and certainly look much better on my shelves than the precarious ... read more
Life
As some of you know, this blog's had to take a bit of a backseat lately due to family illness. Many thanks to those of you that have been in touch and the support you've been giving me recently. It really is appreciated. Life in the C household has not slowed down though and one of the biggest developments over the last couple of weeks is that Little Miss C's appetite has become so great that we've moved on from just milk and she's enjoying her first solid food. Baby rice, baby porridge and pureed carrot are the extent of her menu so far, but so hungry is she that she had ... read more
September
This is how September seems to have left me. Shattered. Where has it vanished to? I was still mentally at the end of summer and yet the realisation that today is October means that I'm having to adjust to it being autumn instead. Don't get me wrong, I do quite like autumn, but I'm feeling a bit unprepared for it. Next people will start mentioning the "C" word. Last year I felt unprepared as I was finishing work and had moved house. I have another excuse this year, but still think I need to start making an effort now so that I don't get caught out again. Money's ... read more
Get knotted hat
You may remember that back in August I knitted a first hat for Baby C. A second quickly followed, this time in a plain colour, just in case Baby C was not a stripe lover. Little Miss C has not (yet) expressed a preference in the stripes vs plain debate, but it just happened that the plain one was in my bag the other day when I noticed how there was that slight chill in the air and thought that I ought to wrap her up warm while we were out and about. I know I'm biased, but she really does just look good enough to eat! ... read more
Crafting for baby
Real progress has been made here now that I've got a little bit of "me" time again. The Ten in the Bed cross-stitch that I started back at the beginning of February (nearly eight months ago!) is finally finished. Well, I say finished, the sewing part is finished. I still need to wash it, mount it and frame it though before it can be hung on the wall in Little Miss C's nursery. I just hope that it won't be another eight months before this happens! This is the view that I have most evenings now that the sewing is complete. There's still a long ... read more
Homemade pizza
Finally I'm finding the time to catch up with various blog posts that I've been meaning to write for a while. Following on from the various meals that I planned I'm pleased to report that all were a success.One that we particularly liked was homemade pizza. It seems silly now that we hadn't tried this before now and since our initial attempt we've this weekend enjoyed the second batch.The recipe that I've been using for the dough is a Jamie Oliver one that I found online. I halved the quantities to make enough dough for just three pizzas (six ... read more
Wimpole Hall Farm
Grandpa's birthday gave LMC and I an excuse for a day out today, so we met my parents at the National Trust's Wimpole Estate up in Cambridgeshire. The weather was kind to us, despite the very threatening clouds, and we were able to have quite a long wander around with her buggy. The gardens at the hall were looking fabulous at the moment and the team of gardeners were certainly doing a fantastic job. The walled garden was also looking spectacular and their display of squashes was great. Lots of lovely autumn colours and combined with the slight chill in the air it made me realise ... read more
A return of evenings
After three months Little Miss C is now in enough of a routine that I can say that we're actually managing to regain our evenings a bit. After months of evenings where pretty much all I did was feed and try to catch up on sleep I've actually been managing to do some of the things I want to do. It's also given me the opportunity to finish the famous nursery cross stitch. I can yell you that there was a small victory dance as I did the last stitch. Seven months it has taken in total and I have to admit that at times I wondered if I'd still be sewing in the run up to LMC's 17th birthday! All ... read more