Harvest for the home

The other day I was a bit bored in the kitchen and decided that, even though I'm not religious, I wanted to celebrate the harvest. My mini bounty consisted of windfall cooking apples from my mums garden and bargain pomegranates from the supermarkets 'oops' section (wrinkly, injured or unloved products) It was grey and rainy outside yet colour radiated from the fruit, arranged on my lovely vintage cake stand. A moment to just stop, take stock and appreciate what we have. Not just in terms of food but the aesthetic quality of life, even on the dullest of days, can brighten the home and enlighten your heart.

Bags of Fun!

I was given a lovely little project a while back which I haven't had the chance to tell you about. When our friends got married in September I was asked to organise party bags for all the children attending, along with snack bags too. Organised fun at it's best, in a bag!!

I got all their names and ages so I could tailor fill each bag to best suit the little guests. I found some really good stuff on the indoor market, brilliant joke/party stall which seemed to have stock from about 20 years ago (in a good way though) funny masks, squidgy toys, bubbles, fortune telling fish and whoopy cushions to name but a few of what I used.



This bag was for a 7 year old girl.



This bag was for the brides 7 year old nephew.

I kept the snack bags on the healthy side with home made heart shaped vanilla choc cookies, natural corn crisps, cheese, fruit and raisons and some delicate little round sandwiches made with half brown and half whites slices of bread. Fun.

There were some new babies there too so I gave their mummys some bubbles, a light up wand to keep baby entertained along with an energy giving biscuit (which I wrapped in baking paper and stuck with pretty tape) for them to munch during the speeches, feeding your baby starts with feeding yourself.

Charming!

For the last few years I've had something on my list of things to get sorted, finally last month it got done. My Grannys charm bracelet (a present from my Grandad) had been sat tarnished and tatty in it's original box for around half a century.

          

I'm sure you'll agree that it was money well spent getting it all cleaned up and the charms re soldered on. Tradition is that a new charm would be added at each Anniversary/Birthday/Christmas. I doubt my Granny (at the grand age of 95) can remember which was bought when but there is no doubt a story behind each one.

I couldn't wait to wear it out somewhere and did so the first chance I got, to a lovely dinner with Mr & Mrs B to mark (that) Mr B's return from America. We had a really nice evening out thanks to Millie and Nick taking up their roles as 'Best Auntie and Uncle' by babysitting, we left them a nice vege cottage pie in the Rayburn to take the winters chill off the evening. Full tums all round. Lovely friends X

Mr & Mrs B

No not us, well not just yet, our friends got married and became Mr & Mrs a month ago.

It was the first wedding I'd been to since I was a child, and what a lovely one it was. The ceremony was at the most divine little village church in the heart of the Lake District, the bride looked amazing in her 1950's length dress and dinky glittering Cinderella slippers. The groom was not to be sniffed at either, suited and booted he looked proud as punch. I think us girls had a smile and a sideways tilted head for the majority of the day, well worth the cricked neck though, whatever your beliefs are it was a wonderful moment, thank you for letting us share it with you x

Grandad B's Birthday Bash

Mr B's Dad was 70 last month, we wanted to mark such a special birthday with a family party. He has 3 children and a fair few grandchildren (Joel being the youngest) who are rarely all gathered together in one place.

Instead of making a birthday cake we made birthday muffins and arranged them in a 70. Half were strawberry cheesecake and the others were triple chocolate, I got the recipes from a great little baking book by Good Housekeeping. It meant everyone could eat one flavour and take the other one homefor later.

The North Pom made this pom pom garland (dubbed 'the new bunting') in colours to complement our kitchen. The colours looked so good you can now order them yourself.

I finally got to make good use of my bargain birdy glasses (£2 for 12 at a really soggy car boot sale) when we did a champagne toast to the tune of 'Happy Birthday!'

Snapshot

It's been a busy few weeks since I last posted, many a blog is queued up in my 'drafts' folder but I'm not sure if they will see the light of day now. Probably best to give you an abridged version of recent life.

Joels first encounter with Swans, he didn't believe me when I said they were birds. Well who would?

Lakeside fun

I've been slowly adding to my china collection, these 4 cups cost 50p and they are really old.  No saucers but they will be perfect for serving puddings in

Joel got some molars, nasty things.

I spotted this baby Toad in our front garden just the other night, he was diddy! Remember the difference between frogs and toads? Frogs have webbed feet and Toads have toed feet.

We ate blackberries straight off the brambles, they were warm in the evening sun. Joel loved them but got frustrated when I couldn't find them fast enough.

My love of all things miniature continued with an investment in this delightful little knife, perfect for topping my morning eggy weggs with

We were glad when the summer hols were over and groups were back on.