This last half term my daughter and family had a week in Finland. Now I cant pronounce or spell the exact place but it was about 90 minutes away from Santas Village.
A friend of my daughters has a log cabin in the woods by a lake, now the cabin is basic, it has a compost toilet, there is no mains electricity, no internet service etc., but the really wanted to go.
She didnt know how the boys would cope as there was no TV either, but they took plenty of travel games, books to read etc. the pictures I was sent were stunning.
Once they got the log burner going the cabin was very toasty, the lake is where they took cold dips and then ran straight into the sauna attached to the cabin.
Their days were filled with walks and a good hike where they observed the beauty of the area and the wild life.
The day before they flew home the visited Santas Village. They booked to stay overnight there as the airport was close by.
They had a fabulous time, they saw Santa and visited the reindeer, and the best photo of the year was my daughters selfie with a grinning reindeer.
She said it was the best time, the boys loved it and didnt mind they didnt have the normal facilities.
… youngest granddaughter, Olivia, was competing in the National Cross Country Relay Championships this weekend. Ohh myyyy was it busy and very very confusing! lol. In her race there were 30+ schools competing with each school having 3 competitors….
Making 90+ girls in total for just that race, and the race started and finished in different places! … and there were 10 categories, making 900+ competitors!
Add to that officials, parents, grandparents, siblings etc etc ….
You can imagine just how busy and confusing it was! lol luckily I managed to be in the right place to see Olivias race both at the start (I couldnt even spot her in the 30+ starters! lol) ….. but luckily I managed to almost get to the finish line in time!
Shed already crossed the line and was making her way out and off the course when I got there!
Thats the last time I spotted her there, despite searching amongst the crowds I never spotted her again! lol Even her Mum and younger brother (I never found them either) never spotted her in the crowd either! lol Luckily my son, her Dad being a runner too was more clued up on how things went and so we knew shed be ok! lol
This week would have been my mum and dads wedding anniversary. They were married in 1956. I remembered that I brought home their wedding album when we cleared out their house. So I sat and had a look through all the photos.
Tucked in the back of the beautiful padded album were some of the cards and telegrams that they received. It reminded me that, back in the day, the best man would read out all the telegrams during the reception.
I love this picture of mum and dad looking loveling at each other. Mums dress was so beautiful.
It was made by my nan, and the bridesmaid dresses were made by my aunt. Dads mum and sister. My SALE ends at midnight tonight! (GMT) with 20% off of ALL my designs!
… had another fabulous, fun day with our youngest grandchildren this week. Olivia age 13 and Austin who is 10. From the moment they got here to the moment 5hey went home they never stopped! lol. I was sooo shattered but we all had a fabulous day!
As its Halloween we had fun with some scary games, its amazing what you can do with a colander, spaghetti and a large spider.
We carefully pulled out 1 piece of spaghetti at a time … till the spider fell from his web! We made frighteningly scary balloons with frightening faces and baked the undead mummy jam pudding …. Plus lots of other things.
Ohhh boyyy … was I tired when they went home … but wed all had a fabulous, if scary, day!
The other week at RAF Benson where my daughter and family live, the new Padre (Vicar) of the church on the camp announced that she was going to have a special service for families and their pets at the church.
There were no limits to the kind of pet people could take so Harry decided he wanted to take a Shetland Pony who he has become best friends with.
Bink and Harry have developed a bond. He belongs to one of my daughters friends who has a few horses and as Harry and Bink had this bond she was fine with him taking Bink to the service.
Now Harry doesnt ride Bink as he doesnt like to be ridden, but is happy to walk or trot along with Harry leading him.
The service was said to be good, and apart from trying to pinch Harrys cake after the service he did show himself up by pooping.
But it was taken in good spirit and thankfully precautions were already in place in the event of any animal having a little accident.
So very happy and proud of my daughter. She has just bought a house! Well technically her first house. She first brought a townhouse in a complex which was joined to another. It was quite small so time to look for something bigger.
After searching, doing many inspections, getting Mum (me) to do searches looking at flood/bushfire/heritage overlays, and finding something in her price range she settled for this place down near Manly beach.
Lovely big yard for the dog (once the fence gets done) and extra bedrooms and best of all no fees and rules from a Body Corporate.
She can now add what she wants and paint things to her liking.
She has already arranged for the fencing to be done and is doing some small renovations before moving her furniture in.
One big plus is the beautiful sea breeze which will go through out the back patio on the very hot days.
Very welcome the other day when the temperature was 38 deg C.
That is extreme for October so with a hot summer ahead I think we will be going over often to enjoy that breeze.
Todays designs are pretty floral and lace designs. Check out all the designs in this series.
Its spring, and I love how the garden is waking up and bursting into colour. The first of my roses is out, and the poppies in beautiful colours wave their heads in a welcoming greeting.
The bees have woken up and the buzz around the flowering apple blossom can be heard as I walk past.
A beautiful time of the year. Spring holds the promise of things to come, summer fruit and a signal to get planting those tomato plants out for a real taste of summer.
As some of you may know, I am a Watercolour Artist, so when I saw liquid charcoal, I thought thats for me.
Having never got on with ordinary charcoal, always got it all over my hands, liquid charcoal, used like watercolour, sounded just up my street.
The subject I chose to try it out on was a Japanese Geisha. I painted the main body of the work with the charcoal and added for extra interest just a few touches of colour using water colour paints.
Hope you like her!
…. Had a wonderful day with our youngest grandchildren this week …. Its half term and theyve got 2 weeks school holiday …. Soooo weve already started the Halloween crafts ready for next week!
Well you cant have too many ghosts and ghouls can you! lol We made ghoulish ghosts for them to decorate their windows and Scary wobble balloons … and played a making faces game Id made and decorated with funny faces ….
Which was fun! We will have more ghoulish fun next week too …. Just watch this space! Lol
We hadnt passed the post box with the toppers in a while, but the other day we did, and I was delighted to spot a new one!
Its all decked out for Halloween: a witch, Dracula, a zombie, ghosts, and a pumpkin. Spooky, fun, and festive.
It really made me smile. Happy Halloween! I wonder what the next one will be?
Our Harry loves his sports, his gaming, getting mucky, climbing trees and more, but one thing he does really love is getting stuck into some crafts.
So, when the opportunity came to have a go at painting ceramics at the community centre on camp he wanted to go.
There were a selection of pieces to choose from and Harry selected a cottage with a traditional witches hat as the roof.
He didnt want to paint it in the obvious colours of orange, black, green he wanted to paint it in pastel colours which I thought looked lovely.
The concentration was intense and for an 8 year old his painting was fantastic.
So mum now has a special ornament to bring out year after year.
My beautiful Dolly. Caught her nicely with her tongue hanging out! Not very often does she sit long enough to get photos.. she will be 10 this year and although shes slowing down a bit she still looks like a puppy .
This photo was taken just a week after her groom so she still looks clean and tidy. HahaThat doesnt last long.
One of the sewing Facebook groups I belong to hosts a monthly challenge, using a different designers bag pattern. This months one, called the Take Note pouch, is proving to be very popular. Not only is it a free pattern, but it is also a quick, easy, and fun sew.
I have already made two, and some members have made even more! I made one for me, using a William Morris design fabric, called The Strawberry Thief. The other one is a pencil case for our youngest granddaughter, and I couldnt resist using this fun hamster run fabric.
I also added a pretty Daisy zipper pull, as that is her name.
Our resident plovers (masked lapwing) have finally had their babies. Weve been waiting since September to see how many there would be this year but these little bubs have only hatched in the last week.
Doesnt appear they hatched all at once as one is noticeably bigger than the next one with the last one so teeny tiny.
They lay their eggs in a divot in short grass so that they can easily see predators and we really thought maybe something happened as there is a couple of cats that roam, so to finally see them in the back yard we were so happy.
The parents are very protective and will cause quite a ruckus if people approach but the pair round here dont attack us and really dont bother about us.
There is one of the parents that will actually follow me round when Im out on the mower to get grubs and bugs in the cut grass.
They are not however so tolerant of strangers and will swoop although contact is rarely made.
They do have spurs on their wings which arent poisonous but a direct hit is very rare. This week my items are both pretty Christmas designs.
Last Sunday my grandson Alfie had his second official boxing match at a club in Leamington Spa. His very first fight several weeks ago he lost by one point, so he has been training exceptionally hard for his second one.
He has been getting up very early before school and going for a run, he has been eating healthy to maintain his weight of 42kg.
He was third on the boxing programme so thankfully didnt have to wait too long. At this stage rounds are only about 1.30min and he went 3 rounds, the final bell went and the results were in and it was unanimous Alfie had won his first ever fight.
We are all so proud of him because he put the work in, his coaches were very pleased with him.
What is nice the camaraderie between Alfie and his opponent afterwards, a great sign of sportsmanship.