A weekend in Bruton...

...this weekend just gone we travelled, not too far, south to a beautiful little town in Somerset, called Bruton where Johnny's grandparents live. We went to celebrate both Johnny's Mum's and Uncle's birthdays. It was a lovely family gathering, it's great that Milo gets to see so many generations of his family.

The weather was perfect (I even got my first touch of sunburn this summer!) there was some croquet playing, duck feeding, fruit picking and lots of delicious food.

Unfortunately my camera battery ran out just before the sun decided to shine, so it may look a little overcast, but the sun did definitely come out to play.

We stayed in a very grand bed and breakfast, I don't have any photo's, but it was stunning.


Milo was beautifully behaved all weekend, despite missing most of his naps and staying up too late! All in all it was a very wonderful weekend!

A New Blog...

...I have started a new blog over here. It is about my adventures on becoming a mama.

I'm using typepad, to be honest at the moment I'm not that all that sure I'm totally impressed by it, but we'll see how I get on, and maybe if it works I'll transfer this little blog over there too. I'll be sure to keep you informed.

xx

Growing...

...herbs in pots...

I painted these pots at my mums shop on my last trip home and she kindly brought them up with her for my surprise birthday visit. The herbs I planted at the beginning of the year were transferred outside and have either been eaten by giant slugs or just not made it!

...my little green monster...

who just wants to sit or stand (or a combination of the two) all the time! He's growing up so quickly...he learns something new every day...amazing!

Excuses for absences....

Oh I have been a very naughty absent blogger the past week, and as for crafting 365...well I am failing terribly!

So what is my excuse? It was my birthday on Tuesday, and just as I had finished putting Milo down for his morning nap on Monday, there was a knock on the door, I was expecting the postman but when I opened the door I discovered two very lovely little girls (my nieces) my mum and my sister!!  They had driven all the way down from Norfolk to surprise me!!  It was a good job I was in!

Then of course Tuesday itself was full of birthday loveliness provided by my super wonderful boys and my first night out without the smallest of them since he was born!!

As for the other 5/6 days I missed, well...I was just slack I guess!!

So today I shall be updating a few of my crafting 365 days, but not all of them I'm afraid to say, and tomorrow I am off to Cambridge for the weekend, so more blogging shall no doubt be missed, but I will try my hardest to achieve some crafting on those days.

Happy Friday xxx

Organising and helpful little hands...

So I haven't really done so well with my crafting 365, I'm only 2 weeks in and have already lost 4 days!! I will try harder, promise!

I've mostly been organising and tidying my many crafty bits and pieces, to create an area that is easier to work in when I have such limited time.

This morning we've mostly been putting beads into saleable sets. I say we as I've had a little helper sat upon my knee, when I say helper I really mean distractor and chaos creator! Those little hands were very cute, until he swept a whole load of beads off the table and onto the floor. Oh how he laughed!! I have enough of a problem keeping the beads off the floor when using my own clumsy hands!


All that hard work really wore him out though...

Baking and a Birthday...

...I may have been a bit rubbish at keeping up with my crafting 365 the last couple of days but that's because we've been a bit busy here. My poor little boy had his second round of jabs on Monday, he was super brave and it was much less emotional for me second time around, but he was still a grumpy babe for the rest of the day. When he wasn't sleeping (in my arms, wouldn't stay down in his cot) he was screaming! It wasn't much fun, but I know how important it is for him to have them and it's only one day.

Over the weekend I made some crumbles with some fruit which otherwise would have ended up in the bin. Unfortunately we have great intentions and buy ourselves loads of fruit, but so rarely do we manage to consume it all before it turns. So to save waste I've started to try and put it to good (although not as healthy) use.

Then as it is Johnny's birthday today, yesterday I knocked up a cheesecake. I say knocked up as though it was the easiest thing in the world! It wasn't!! I've never made a cheesecake before and it's Johnny's favourite thing, so I dug out a Nigella recipe for chocolate cheesecake and headed out to get the ingredients super early. Milo went down for his afternoon nap and I got on with the baking, all was going well until I got the part that said 'add the sour cream', err what sour cream? Somehow I had managed to completely miss that part of the ingredient list!! As Milo was sound asleep there was little I could do but put everything to one side and wait. At 4 o'clock we headed out to quickly grab the sour cream, well the shops of Cheltenham obviously don't feel that it is important stock to have, because after trying all the nearest and slightly further afield shops I ended up miles (well sort of) away at waitrose, who did supply me with what I needed. Having thought we were only popping out Milo was safely snuggled against me in his sling when it started to rain and got heavier and heavier!!! So we returned home an hour later soaked to the skin!!

With the cheesecake finally assembled it appeared from the oven just as Johnny returned from work, so birthday surprise slightly ruined but hey ho.

However, although it looks like a rather unappetising quiche, it tastes lovely, and I'm glad I went to all that effort so my lovely boy could have his favourite dessert for pre-birthday and also birthday celebrations.

A trip to the seaside...

My absence this time was due to a lovely trip to the seaside to visit my mum, sister and nieces. We had a wonderful time and despite a few amazing storms the weather was pretty good too.

Weybourne Beach, Norfolk

All the travelling, attention and fresh sea air has very much tired out my little boy mind!! I don't think he's slept this much since those first early jaundiced days!


Happy Friday to all, I hope that your weekend is full of sunshine. xx

My Big Bummed Babe...

After a disapointing start with cloth nappies (I just didn't do enough research and purchased some really bad ones before Milo was born) I decided to give them another go.  I got myself some bargain motherease from, ebay a selection of wraps and we're up and running, so far very successfully, no leaks!

However we are experiencing one rather big problem!  Nothing will fit over that bum of his!!  We've gone up a vest size and that's fine but unfortunately even the next size up trousers just are not going over that nappy!

So this afternoon I will most definitely have to stitch up some super sized trousers for my little boy, in preparation for our trip to the seaside at the weekend, where I am truly hoping it will be just a little bit cooler than it is here...please!

P.S. I do appreciate that with the pink background and all in the above pictures may hint a little towards girlyness, but I assure you Milo doesn't mind...he even has a pink sleeping bag!

Little fingers and toes...

I'm going to try not to become all about posting photos of my lovely new babe, but to be fair it is about the only thing going on in my life at the moment! So until life begins to settle down and I find time for more crafting (will there ever be time again?!) here are some more pictures of my newest favourite person.


xxxxxxxxxxx

Introducing....

Milo Darwin Thom Patterson-Brown

He was born quite unexpectedly and quickly on the 7th April at 8.54am weighing 7lb 3oz.

We are all very well, healthy and happy, if not a little tired! I'll probably be absent or sporadic in posting over the next few weeks as we continue to become accustomed to each other and enjoy these first few special moments.

More pictures here.

xxx

Still growing...

I don't know if I'm really getting all that much bigger anymore...but I certainly feel it!! I've only put on a pound this week...so I can't be getting that much fatter!! However as the end approaches I'm starting to feel more and more impatient! I know I should be sitting back and enjoying the last few weeks of solitude...relaxing and preparing...but I want this all done with now!! There are only 2 weeks and 6 days left until my due date, so really not very long at all...of course it could be longer, there's no saying he's going to come on time, but then again he could come tomorrow!! Patience has never been my strength!

It's one of those, rain, sunshine, rain, sunshine, rain, spring days here, and I so desperately want to get out for a walk, but I'm too concerned I'll get stuck in one of the rain bits! We have this horrible plastic roof on our kitchen, so when it rains it's so loud and it feels like you're in a caravan or a tent...I love it...perfect for doing very little but curling up on the sofa and reading a book.

All my brain seems able to process or show any interest in at the minute are pregnancy and birth books, I just cannot get into any fiction at the moment. So currently I'm reading 'birth skills' by Juju Sundin. I got it out of the library on Monday and I'm really enjoying it, I've found the things she talks about and the ways of blocking the pain make complete sense to me. It's really interesting, however I guess the proof will be in the testing so I'll let you know how I get on!

xx

Starting to rest and prepare...

As my due date draws nearer, I'm starting to finally realise what is happening! Yes it's true in approximately 3 weeks and 2 days I will be having a baby a real life little person to look after! As a result I probably won't be around that much over the following few weeks...I do seem to have a renewed energy recently, but it's more focused on cleaning and tidying and doing selfish things for myself! I may also be slower to respond to messages, I'll still be about checking in and reading other's blogs, I just may be a little more laid back and slow!

There are so many different feelings and emotions you go through when you are pregnant...it truly is as many will tell you a 'rollercoaster', if I tried to list them all it would take all day...but I'm happy to say that at the moment the main feeling I have is one of a calm, thoughtful, relaxful state.

I have a few pictures to share with you of yet another baby blanket!



It's still a work in progress, that like most things I'm working on slowly and thoughtfully. I'm using Rowan Calmer yarn (the website is down and the moment so I can't post a link) which is 90% cotton and 10% polyester, it's not the softest yarn in the world but it's quite thick and chunky (although that may partly be down to the stitch I'm using).

The stripey hoodie I posted about last week is so so close to completion now...all that's left is for me to stitch on some buttons. I'll post pictures of it in all it's glory when it is truly finished.

Happy Monday xxx

Growing...

Herbs from seeds...

Beautiful flowers in pots left by the previous occupiers of out little house...

Me...

Making more baby things...

...and doing very little else.

I have become so incredibly lazy the last few days. I know it's down to being pregnant and all that jazz, but I still feel very very guilty about it. Johnny is lovely and tries to encourage me to do just nothing but sleep, but there is so much to do! Granted if the baby were to decide to make an appearance today he would have clothes to wear (all washed and folded and put away in size order!), a bed to sleep in (again all washed and ready to be made up), transportation (both in the form of wheels and seat - but not yet sling), nappies to wear, toys to play with (if he so desired), and a million other things he probably doesn't need. My hospital bag is packed (almost) due to the fact my mum and sister posted me one already made up, I think they were starting to worry I would never get round to sorting it out myself! So in fact there probably isn't all that much to do now...but I feel like there is!! I can't even think of anything off the top of my head, except perhaps little things like a bit of hoovering and clean the bathroom....but I still feel like every moment sat on the sofa watching terrible daytime television and crocheting is a wasted moment!

Well not entirely wasted as this was what I produced from yesterdays sofa lounging...

Approximately half a baby hoodie in red and white stripes...I love the colours and the style of the stripes, although Johnny is calling it the jester hoodie. I got the pattern from this book, that I bought a while ago. I seem to have altered the pattern slightly, unintentionally, but it still seems to be working out OK!

It calls for some duffel style buttons, so I'm planning on making some up out of polymer clay today for it...but I can't decide whether to have stripey red and white, or solid red and white alternately or just plain old red ones...

I have to go out today to post some items, which is wonderful, because it is so beautifully sunny and springlike, and it gives me an excuse to leave the house and enjoy it.

Happy Wednesday xxx

P.S. 4 weeks today til my due date!!

Chocolate and Baby Blankets...

I'm still working on a baby blanket a started a million years ago (well maybe not that long ago, but all the way back here anyway), I knitted up the squares, but well they are not the squarest of squares so I begun to edge them in crochet and then kind of forgot about them! That is until yesterday when Johnny said I was absolutely not allowed to begin on anything else for the baby until that blue blanket was finished! He can be such a meany sometimes. So anyway I continue to edge those squares I did.

All was going well until I discovered that I hadn't started out with white and two shades of blue, but an off-white creamy colour and 2 shades of blue!!! I was distraught but Johnny pulled me through my anguish and attempted to tell me it didn't matter...I'm still not sure it doesn't look a bit silly as the original creamy yarn used in the main blocks looks slightly yellow when positioned next to the more recently purchased white which lines the dark blue, but hey ho, these silly mistakes seem to happen more and more in my pregnant state!

They're still not attached to each other but they are ready to be!! Now only to decide how to do it and in what colour...that could well take another 3 months at least!!

On a completely unrelated note I made the most ridiculously chocolately chocolate cookies on Friday, they are amazing, but the fact that we still have some of the 12 I baked left just goes to show you how intensly chocolately they are!

They are from this book I picked up at a bargain price many years ago, I have made these triple chocolate cookies before but think I forgot how insanely rich they really are! The recipe calls for 90g of milk chocolate 90g of white chocolate and 300g of dark chocolate!!! I didn't even use that much, as I couldn't find any white chocolate that wasn't nestle I used 150g of milk chocolate and as 300g of dark chocolate just seemed crazy I only used 200g!

I indulged in them still warm with some hot chocolate and family tree investigating on Friday afternoon, and lovely it was indeed!

Happy Sunday all...I'm probably going to go and sleep a lot...after weeks of complete inability to sleep due to kicking, overheating and being purely uncomfortable, my body seems to have developed an ability to ignore all these things and has decided all I really need to do is sleep, it could sleep all day and all night if I let it. xxx

Some Zesty Baby Treats...

After the massive closing down sale of my favourite place to by yarn, a couple of months ago, I now have quite a large quantity of lovely expensive rowan yarn to use up. One of my favourite finds was a bag (10 balls in total) of the wonderful milk cotton in, the colour I have just discovered is called, "fruit salad" (I think I love it even more now!). I also have to share with you the fact that those 10 balls of yarn cost a grand total of £11.50!!

Despite the fact that Johnny has some horrible aversion to orange as a colour, I have crocheted both a baby blanket and a baby hat, with the above yarn and I still have more than 5 balls left!!

I used a stitch I hadn't done before, with the blanket..it's very simple double crochet chain double crochet, putting double crochet into the gap where the chain below is, and I think it works really well as a baby blanket because it's nice and light. Then I just did a few rows of double crochet around the edge.

The hat I managed to knock up pretty quickly and easily (whilst delighting in watching Heston cook up incredible wonders!)...working completely out of my head...in about 20 minutes! The only pattern I had for a baby hat in crochet was done flat and then stitched together rather than in rounds, which seemed a bit silly to me, so I just used the basis of my oversized beanies, but made it much much smaller!!

I'm not really quite sure how big a new born baby's head is exactly and some of the hats I've bought for him look scarily huge, but I think I've got it close to right! We'll just have to wait and see I guess...5 weeks today!!

Happy Wednesday xx

Baby things....

As I have no craftiness of my own to share today and we went and purchased our pram yesterday I can't help but think about baby things...so I thought I'd share with you some of my favourites on etsy at the moment.

Set of Three Sweater Balls

By handmadepretties

algiers, 1932
By tollipop

The Adam

By BabyThingsByJessica

Happy Monday xxx

A Trip to London....

As I mentioned last week I took my niece on her first visit to the bright lights of London this weekend. She LOVED it!! And so did me and Johnny. It was the first time I had taken her away before and got to spend a whole 3 days in her company. She lives in a little town in Norfolk, so it really was quite a cultural change to what she's used to..

I could go on and on and on about what a wonderful time we all had, but I'll try not to ramble on too much! We didn't get to do all the things I had planned but we still managed to fit quite a lot in considering we were only there for 2 and a half days. I lent Bethany my old camera and I'm afraid to say that her pictures are a million times better than my own, but I don't have any copies of hers to show you, so it's my, not that great ones, I'll be sharing with you today. What particularly amazed me about the quality of Bethany's photographs is that they were all taken from the height/perspective of a 6 year old, who most of the time couldn't even see over the walls and barriers and therefore had to try and position the camera in between holes and crooks to get a good view!

So the first day we went to The Tower of London Bethany wanted to see the crown jewels and Tower Bridge. As it was half term that was lots and lots of queueing to be done but fortunately most of the queues moved along quite quickly.

A quick note...if you do plan on going when they ask you if you would like to gift aid the ticket, say yes, it only takes a few seconds and you get given a free 12 month pass!

I enjoyed it because I find it so completely amazing when you consider the age of some of the buildings and you really consider all the many many historic events that have taken place there, it was reasonably expensive, but as everything else we planned to do over the weekend was free I didn't mind paying, I think maybe if you were on your own or with older children learning more of the history would be great, but we still enjoyed it.

Johnny came down on Friday night after work, we went out for dinner and then retired to our hotel...to rest ready for our busy following day.

Saturday...

We went to The Natural History Museum and the The Science Museum, both of which were two of my favourite places when I was a child and I wasn't remotely disappointed on visiting as a grown up. I really could go on forever about how wonderful both museums are, how wonderfully set out they are and how amazing all the staff were, but I'll just show you some pictures instead.

We didn't actually go and see the dinosaurs until Sunday because the queue was so so long on Saturday but we arrived at opening on Sunday and walked straight through which was great.

We also took a trip to Oxford Street and more importantly Hamleys on Saturday evening...my plan was to take Bethany to see Buckingham Palace, however Johnny didn't really want to go, so offered this choice to Bethany "would you like to go to Buckingham Palace, or would you like to go to the biggest toy shop in the world?". Well I think you can probably guess what her response was!

After Hamleys we took a stroll down Carnaby Street had dinner and went down to Piccadilly Circus to get the tube back, so although I didn't get to show Bethany Buckingham Palace, Cleopatra's Needle or the Tate Modern, we still did quite a lot and enjoyed every single second of it.

Sorry if I did end up rambling quite a lot, I just truly did have a wonderful wonderful time!

xx