Mimi's salt dough decorations....

... have turned out quite well. Watched Kirstie Allsop make some last night on her Homemade Christmas programme. Will be watching the next instalment tonight (although poor Dr Green would rather stick pins in his eyes) so there should be more goodies for us to make over the weekend. Will avoid glass blowing baubles for now though!

Link to salt dough decorations instructions

Hectic weekend

Had a lovely time at the Stitch and Knit Fair yesterday. Managed to buy some fab goodies - fabrics, patterns etc - so will be busy this week creating. Dr Green managed to keep it all together in my absence: nursing a hangover and looking after Auntie Rachel and the kids. Well done hubby.

Now gearing up for a few days of mayhem as the builders are here tomorrow. Yippee!

Have attached a picture of Boris the bear, made a couple of weeks ago. I've used some of my old grandma's buttons for his joints and eyes so he is kind of special.

Barbie Girl (and Boy)!!

Best 3 pounds we've ever spent!

Girls just wanna have fun...

.... but they're a bit too tired at the moment to get off the sofa.

The boys are away so Mimi and I are catching up on a bit of girl time. Had a spot of lunch at mums, then went to the gym for a swim in the outdoor pool - rather nice if you kept your shoulders under - and stopped for refreshments in the cafe.

We'll be tucking into a homemade curry later and a bit of tv watching.

photos

Cakes

and

Mimi

lovely jubbly holiday in Majorca

Oh, we had such a wonderful holiday in beautiful Puerto Pollensa. This time we did very little, just lazed around the pool for most of the day. The kids had a ball - snorkelling, water aerobics, jumping on lilos (and chicken chucking(!)) - and Dr Green and I just soaked up some rays. Now have to wean Dr Green off of crosswords and soduko.

Read a fab book that was recommend by a friend - Dear Fatty (Dawn French's autobiography) - which was easy to dip in and out of, very funny in a belly laughing kind of way but awfully sad in places.

Great entertainment in the evening - a big slap of cheesey dance routines, and even cheesier shows. In particular, a rather stroppy Rod Stewart soundalikee called Rud!! Stewart, a reptile show (Jake had a huge yellow python crawling around his neck, yuck) and an Iranian magician (who Mimi ably assisted).

The photo is of the kids eating their obligatory after dinner Ben and Jerry's ice creams on the beach. We had some pretty tasty meals out in particularly beautiful settings. We just love Maxims and La Piazza on the market square.

Thank you very much Rachel The Sister In Law for house/chook sitting and for having to suffer the freakish gang of 4 vs wood pigeon incident!

Oh dear, have a sickie child

Poor old Cakes was ill at school today and had to come home at lunchtime. Since then he's been projectile vomitting (think Exorcist here) all the way home and for the rest of the day. He's feeling quite poorly and sorry for himself (and rightfully so).

Fingers crossed he's better tomorrow (and let's hope that Mimi doesn't catch it as my nerves can't cope with the drama of it all).

On a positive note, have lost 5 pounds this week on the latest diet!!!! Let's hope I can stay away from the booze and chocolate this weekend.

Mimi and Holsky do the Hoedown Throwdown!!!!

Prepare to be dazzled, here come the girls!!!!!

blimin' marvellous weekend

We've enjoyed a fabulous half term week and am feeling a little sad that the kids are going back to school tomorrow (yes, I'll get over it as soon as they're through the school gates I know). 

It's felt like a proper break with the sun shining and the kids (our kids and friend's) running around the garden and in the pool the past few days. We've managed to fit in sooo much - Hannah Montana movie (surprisingly watchable!), NATM 2 (gets the thumbs up from Cakes), bowling with the Rookes (including a Mimi meltdown when she came last (again) OOPS), the beach, Marsh Farm, swimming and much more. 

Started the school hols with a trip to the Natural History Museum in Oxford. It's amazing - particularly all of the wonderful objects stored in beautitful old style cabinets  - very Indiana Jones.  A big big big thank you to The In-Laws for a lovely weekend in the Cotswolds and for looking after us so well. 

The fun continued into the weekend - mojitos at Fi and Simons on Friday and The Warrens came over last night to watch the BGT final. Another very boozy affair! 

Here's some photos from Mimi's birthday. Enjoy the sun!

Have been really busy over the past couple of weeks so not much time for blogging.  However, the sun has finally come out and I'm feeling energised at the mo (won't last long).

Dr Green is golfing today at Woburn. Weather is great here so let's hope he's doing OK (and managing to stay out of the water, ha, ha!!)

Mimi and Cakes are frazzled after test week last week and have been struggling to get out of bed all week. We plan to do lots of lazying around next week. Will pop to the gym if we get a nice day and use the outdoor pool. They are both keen to watch the Hannah Montanna movie too (yippee!!). Other than that, there'll be plenty of playing in the garden and maybe a trip to Hadleigh Castle.

Have finished making a summer dress for me which actually looks quite wearable. Will post pictures soon. Next project is a wrap over skirt when the kids are back to school.

Thanks Rachel for the dress and the mac - both fit beautifully.

Looking forward to seeing the In-Laws on Friday.

 

New clothes for Mimi

Mum and I have had a lovely day shopping for holiday clothes for Mimi in Bas Vegas. Very successful. She now has an entire gorgeous new wardrobe - thank you mum!!!

The tiler is coming tomorrow to tile the kitchen. Then it's more or less finished. I'll post pictures so that you can see Dr Green's handywork.

Will go swimming tomorrow - well, that's the intention at the moment. Must have a last minute push to squeeze into that tankini as not long to go now.  Am committed to doing 1 hour full-on exercise every day from now until the holiday. Also, no booze or chocolate/cake during the week. HOW VERY DULL!!

Busy sewing

Not much time for blogging recently. Have been busy catching up on some of the sewing jobs I didn't get a chance to do before the Easter hols. I have now made a couple of cushions and some bits for my sister's bedroom (see photo). Also, have made Mimi a dress which doesn't look at all bad (blowing my own trumpet, yes, but I'm chuffed to bits with the result - even though she blends in with the curtains now!!!)

Had a very busy weekend. Cakes had a fab time sailing for four hours down at Old Leigh on Saturday, then on to the Cubs 'Renewal of Promise' (camp fire and songs) on Sunday. Mimi had an attempt at a sleepover on Saturday evening but got cold feet and was returned to us in her PJs at midnight. 

Looking forward to seeing the In Laws at the weekend!

Kids kept busy

Mimi and Cakes have had a full on entertainment programme this holiday. Yesterday, Cakes went with Grandma to the cinema to see Escape to Witch Mountain which he absolutely loved. It's a remake of a film that I went to see as a little girl (and, yes, it was a talkie!).

At the weekend we met Rachel The Sister In Law at the War Museum in South London. Mimi is covering WW 2 evacuees this coming term so she's now armed with lots of facts. Must go back to the museum as we missed the 'in the trenches' and 'blitz' experiences.

Cakes has been out with the cubs today for 5 hours - trekking across fields and building fires. Even cooked his own lunch and had a face full of charcoal to prove it. Exactly what little boys should be doing. Next weekend he's down in Old Leigh for the initial part of his sailing badge.

I've been out in the garden for most of the day, shifting stones from one end of the garden to the other. Dr Green has built a rather large flower bed which we will use to grow even more vegetables and flowers to cut for indoors. Photos to follow soon.

The kids are off to friends' houses tomorrow so I will fit in a quick dash to the shops for party/holidays clothes.

Belated Happy Anniversary wishes to David and Judy. X

We've all been to the zoo today, zoo today

What a beautiful day weatherwise. We've just spent 4 and a half hours at Colchester Zoo and everyone's had the best time.

Attached is a clip of Mimi's version of the "compare the market " advert. She's got it down to a fine art.

The chocolate brownie diet...

... is going well. Am also really enjoying Cajun Squirrel crisps (Cake's favourite at the mo). As you may have gathered Fat Fighters is off the menu this week. It would be more of a 'waddle of shame' than a 'walk'.

Anyhow, we have booked a week's holiday in Spain for June! HOORAH!!!! Can't wait to warm up around the pool and do very little apart from play with the kids and indulge. Maybe lovely Sister In Law Rachel could come and house/chicken sit(?).

Dr Green is out tonight on a stag night. This involves (aside from the very obvious throwing up tomorrow morning) a trip around the Circle Line, disembarking at 14 stops and drinking a pint at each!!!! Claire Bear and I have a trip to Ikea planned for tomorrow so will leave him to suffer on the sofa in peace.

Have made Cakes an outfit for Greek day at school tomorrow - although it looks more Casper the Ghost than Zorba. Will post a photo in the morning if I remember.

Feeling frazzled!

Am just tucking into a nice glass of red, along with some chocolate cake that I baked earlier. Purely medicinal. I'm feeling quite worn out (need more calories) but a bit wired (just so much to think about).

As usual, too much on the agenda today. Have been food shopping, baking, sewing blinds, entertaining friends and kids, childminding, school parent interview and the usual housework/washing etc etc. Need to slob on the sofa now and switch brain off for a while.

A week sunbathing in the Canary Islands sounds ideal at the mo. However, Dr Green has a week off in the Easter break so we'll probably continue the mad run around with trips to London, museums and National Trust properties. (Photo is of the kids last Easter. We found some great little coves in Dorset, tucked away from the main beaches).

Once the garden is sorted and it warms up, think I'll get the kids to school, slump on a sun bed and start reading all the books that are piled up in the study. Heaven!!

Bulbs, blossom, bl**dy foxes, blinds and beamers

The spring bulbs are out and there's tonnes of blossom on the plum trees so it's about time I ventured into the garden to start the great Spring tidy up. Enough faffing around with the vegetable patch and chickens, I need to get stuck into a bit of garden maintainence.

Also, we didn't put the kids toys away last summer so they have taken root on the football pitch and are now covered in fox wee (NICE!!!). Maybe I'll leave it for Dr Green.

Have just finished making my little sister's bedroom curtains. Next step is a blind for her en-suite. I'll post pictures when it's done as it's a really nice floral Laura Ashley fabric.

Have not had a chance to drive the beamer today, however, we are off to Cake's tutor later so Mimi and I will don the shades and go for a cruise to Sainsbury (and, yes, that's about as exciting as it gets for us!!!!)

Busy weekend

It was lovely catching up with Jon and the kids on Saturday. Had a wander down to Old Leigh for lunch al fresco.

Took the new car for a trip to The Cotswolds - wouldn't expect anything less would you? Thanks to The In-Laws for looking after us. Here's another picture of the new car and Cakes in his Gramp's sports car.

New CAR!!!!!!!!!

It's here!!! The new car has finally arrived. How v exciting. Dr Green has spontaneously combusted. (It even has a button to switch the engine on - I'm very impressed!).

What a lovely (but cold) weekend

Have had a fab weekend. It all started with a girlie shopping trip to Bas Vegas with Rachel The Sister-in-Law. She was on an obvious mission to spend some pinkles. Rachel The Sister-in-Law very kindly babysat - thank you again - whilst Dr Green and I went to the rugby club quiz night. As far as we know, we didn't embarrass ourselves and even managed to score well on the arts and literature round. I think our team managed to finish up somewhere around the middle. Does anyone know the name of the woman who chucked paint at Mandleson last week? Nope, nor did we.

Saturday was rather nice too. Took Mimi and Belly Button to the gym for a swim whilst Dr Green finished off the kitchen cabinets. Will post pictures soon, promise. Cakes had a party invite for bowling and supper at an American Diner. I'm liking these more grown up parties. Less manic running around, hyping up on party food/very loud party entertainers.

Today Dr Green and Cakes took a trip to The Emirates to watch the Arsenal win 3-0 against someone beginning with B (Burnley, Barnsley). Mimi and I have been to the farm. She has had a great day with the ponies, spring lambs, tiny piglets and petting the rabbits and guinea pigs. Had our first picnic lunch of the year - blinkin' freezing. Just had to have a portion of chips from the farm chuck wagon to keep warm. Will get back onto the WW diet tomorrow...... probably.

Am loving low fat hot cross buns...

... but they are rather moreish and there are too many hot cross bun eating days to Easter! Managed to lose 2.5 pounds last week so fingers crossed for this week's walk of shame.

Esmeralda has delivered an egg a day for the past few days. At last, she's earning her keep. She just needs to encourage the other two (slackers) to do the same.

Am itching to get out in the garden and do some more veggie planting. However, it's really cold here again so am staying indoors and turning up the heating (and eating hot cross buns).

Have a lovely trip to France the in-laws!

Ooh, it's been a long week...

... and it's fat fighters weigh in tomorrow (commonly referred to as the 'walk of shame') BUT I've managed to stay off the wine and the chocolate all week!!! Can only usually manage to give up one or the other.

Dr Green is cracking on with the kitchen. Hopefully, will get all the new doors and cupboards in situ this weekend. That just leaves the tiling and the floor. (How is it when one room is undergoing works the whole house is trashed?)

I've dusted off the sewing machine and made some tea cozies with matching hearts. Am now chomping at the bit to create more stock.

Only Tuesday...

...and Dr Green has been working from home today. The chickens have been outside for a bit, after we patched up the fence AGAIN. Had a mad escapee last week - Esmeralda managed to get into nextdoor's garden and it took a good 15 minutes of arm waving to direct her back through the hole in the fence into our garden.

It's been quite a productive day. Have painted a shelving unit for Mimi's bedroom. The plan is that she will display some of her 'treasure' purchases from Battlesbridge (antique centre). Have also made some more stock for summer fares/the website. Will post some photos soon.

Dr Green has started on the kitchen. In an effort to tart it up a bit and get some more cupboard space, we are changing the doors, tiles and floor and replacing some of the shelves with storage cupboards. Will post a photo once it's all looking gorgeous. Have also been baking cookies and making monster scotch eggs (think canon balls) for my hubby. Feeling rather virtuous now so will join Dr Green on the sofa to watch the footie and tuck into a large G&T!

RIP Tommy the Hamster

Oh dear, Tommy the hamster finally popped his clogs last night. Broke the news to a very upset Mimi this afternoon AFTER she'd spotted the empty hamster cage in the garden. (Not particularly subtle!)

On a more positive note, I have patched up all the holes in the fence so that the chickens can roam free in the garden. It's been a cracking day weatherwise so I've enjoyed having the chooks keeping me company whilst tidying the garden. Will crack on with sorting out the vegetable planters this week and get some seeds going in the propagator.

Roll on the Spring!!

A very beautiful Tiger Lily

Here's a lovely photo of Mimi all decked out for a 'book character dress up' at school today. This little outfit was knocked up in an hour and was sourced from stuff we had to hand. Even the large seagull feather!

(She had originally decided to go as a witch - this would have been sooo much easier as we already own various bits of witchie attire. But, as usual, nothing's that simple with my daughter.)

PS: have been to fat fighters, oops sorry, Weight Watchers this morning. Will be grouchy old bag whilst on the diet so best avoided!!

Frozen chickens

OMG, sooo much snow today. It looks wonderful - abit like Narnia - but my poor chooks look frozen. Am tempted to bring them, huddle them up in a blanket and put them next to the radiator. However, the other chick blogs tell me that they can quite comfortably handle this weather.

Dr Green home from work at midday as London is at a standstill under 3 inches of snow??!! Can't wait to pick the kids up from school so they can chuck some snow around and make a snowman (Jake Frost #2!).

Chickens!!

We are now the proud of owners of a rather spectacular chicken house and, mostly importantly, three gorgeous egg-laying chickens. Went to a really good chicken farm near East Hanningfield where the chap was particularly helpful. We've gone for a clear Sussex (Ezmeralda), a chocolate Peking (Tallulah) and a mid-brown hen (Cecilia). They seem to be settling in nicely.

Dr Green nearly had kittens this afternoon when he spotted an egg in the nesting box. It'll be fritattas for breakfast, tea and dinner! Only kidding, we plan to use the eggs for baking mainly. But with the chooks producing around 20 eggs per week I need to see what egg-citing recipes Nigella has on offer.

Chinese New Year with the neighbours

Well, it's been another manic weekend. Thanks very much Mad Bad Sarah and Big Stu for a really lovely evening. Wonderful food and particularly great company (I concur with Rachel that we are truly blessed to have such lovely neighbours! ). Dr Green has met his match with usually Laid-Back Ad's scary ultra-competitiveness... very funny.

Fabulous food, lots of wine and all finished off with the obligatory Singstar session. The perfect evening. Just look at our beautiful gaggle of girls all dressed up.

pretty pictures...

Here's what I've been making this week. I'm trying to create some more stock for the website and we'd also like to do some more fairs this spring/summer.

I've had soooo much fun selecting the fabric for this pair of pictures (the other one is a castle in similar colours) that I also produced a couple of smaller train pictures in lovely navy, red and yellow ginghams. They'll be on the mydaddylonglegs.com website soon.

Dr Green's working from home today..

.. so I'm steering clear of the sewing machine and pretending to do stuff in the kitchen. As long as the extractor fan's on and there's clinking of pans, he's none the wiser!!

Made some lovely little pictures yesterday out of a few scraps of fabric. Will pop some piccies on tomorrow (Dr Green's back at work!!).

I'm a bloggin'!!!

Well, I'll blame this on my mad bad neighbour (Sarah Loves Cats) who's been happily blogging for the past month or so. She's right though, I definitely need a distraction from housework (kids'll trash the place when they get home anyway), baking (I'm back on the diet AGAIN) and trying to personally prop up the UK economy with mindless retail therapy.


So, keep your eyes peeled. Anything could happen!!!