Washer Woman

The Washer Watcher in action!

 The weather has been pants lately, adding to the frustration of not being able to go out wandering as much as we'd like is the ever growing stacks of wet washing with no where to go. Drying indoors just isn't glamorous, unless.......
You spend a rainy day totally re vamping your washing room, whilst avoiding all other housework!

I started on this little baby airer. It's been with me for years now, a bargain find in a Nottingham junk shop. I saw an idea recently in a magazine for tying ribbon around the joints but I thought I'd go one better and replace the tapes with fancy trimmings, from my collection.

Here is the finished article laden up with Joels 'real' nappy's

...drying off in front of our lovely blue Rayburn

I also got my lovely selection of old tins out of storage and set them out along the high window sill. I used some of Joel's building blocks to spell out WASH

Hanging from the ceiling are these fabric print paper lanterns which used to block a street front window at my old house.

and our traditional big airer. Where would we be without it!!!

The finishing touch was covering Myrtles crate with some bright red, spotted oilcloth. The Orla Kiely Tesco bag for life is perfect for emptying the machine into as I can carry it over my shoulder to the line whilst holding Joel. Much better than a wash basket.

So all in all I am very pleased with my efforts. Who said utility can't be pretty?

Birthday Boys

One thing which has kept us very busy since our trip down south was planning for Joel and his friend Rory big birthday bash!

Rorys mum is planning her wedding so I took the lead on the boys do. After a couple of weeks of planning the big day came, we'd chosen the local village hall as the venue, sent out Mr Bs beautifully designed invites

We requested no gifts as we wanted as many people as possible to share this special day and didn't want it to cost our friends to attend. Birthdays are about get togethers not spending money.

I baked lots of buns (adult and wee sized ones) as well as some extra chocolaty cornflake cakes (oh my they were VERY good) this was my first try at baking, I figured as a mummy it's essential to at least get buns right. Mr B and Uncle M were on hand to help decorate them.
Unfortunately in all the rush to get things made I didn't get to photograph the fab eats and layout before the party started. I can assure you they looked and tasted fab!

Joel with his cousin Sophie. Rory and the two Mr Bs are in the background

It was a brilliant day, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the boys were wiped out come 5pm. It's been the fastest year of our lives and quite rightly deserved a massive get together, I can't wait for next years shin dig!

Good news

The news is so depressing at the moment, it's making me feel so sorry for all the people who have had their lives turned upside down in the cities. I am glad that we live in a lovely rural area. Last night Mr B and I thought how lucky we are, in so many ways. So I thought I'd cheer us all up over the next few days by writing about the nice things in our lives.

Mum and Son fun on a Camel at one of Kendals playgroups.

I feel that Joel and I have really hurled ourselves into the world of mum and baby socialising, something essential for keeping your sanity! We had a slow start on this as the total shock to the system of having a baby, teamed with physical recovery and problems establishing breastfeeding meant we didn't really surface from Oakbank until some 6 weeks after he arrived. Before we knew it we had lots of places to go and friendly faces to see. Yet this wonderful world of play sessions and interaction only exist during term time, thus assuming all mums have more than one child! This leaves new mums who have built up networks of support and activity suddenly stranded. Who would have thought that when your children aren't yet at school the timetable has such a hold over what you do?

With this in mind I decided to take over the local baby/toddler groups booking at our village hall, Tots Tuesday Summer Club was born. I've managed to get enough mums each week to cover the hire of the hall (it's a non profit group) without doing any advertising. We have loads of space for little people to travel around (by tummy, crawling, bum shuffling and walking, however they like) a kitchen for the all important brews (I serve the tea from a hatch!) and a fab outdoor space (though unfortunately it's in full sun at that time of day so not ideal for new skin) It is small scale but I've really enjoyed it, I love making up groups and clubs and partys so am already thinking of my next venture :)

Happy Holiday

It's been a very long time since my last post about our trip to Dorset. Life seems to have been so hectic since getting back, the time away was lovely and relaxing though, especially for Mr B who is all 'work, work, work'. I'll get you up to speed on what we got up to.

We rode on an open top bus from Westbourne (where we were staying) to Swanage. It was a lovely sunny day and lots of other people had the same idea as us. Mostly retired folk as the schools hadn't broken up yet.

The bus went really fast, it felt like a rollercoaster ride for OAPs!

Joel liked smiling at everyone and at one point some of the ladies sat opposite us took turns bouncing him on their knees.

It was a long journey, including a ferry crossing, Joel nodded off after a while. It was so nice to share the moment with Mr B. We will always remember this moment. His warm bady snuggled between us asleep on an open top bus :)

So much love for this boy xx

When we got to Swanage we went straight on a steam train to Corfe Castle. It was ace!

The decor was all original wood panelling

Joel liked crawling back and forth between us across the table. He is NEVER still.

Another day we went to the New Forrest, it was so beautiful and so special to see it for real 34 years after my first postcard was written there. There were wild ponies running across the roads. We also saw Deer and a huge Ants nest (hard to tell from this pic, but) it was covered with millions of Red Ants!

We spent a couple of days in Bournemouth, it was so nice. A proper old fashioned sea side town, with amazing formal gardens running through the middle of it. There was an old fashioned Balloon ride too, we didn't go on but enjoyed watching it rise up above the buildings. Isn't it pretty!

Joel thoroughly enjoyed himself, we stayed out late most days. Usual routine went out the window with regards to bed time but we figured all the fresh air was so good for him it didn't matter.

All in all it was a brilliant time for us, so nice to get away from house chores and for Mr B to get away from work and spend quality time with our little treasure.