A hunting we will go

Not since I was a child have the Easter holidays meant so much as I feel they do this year. Joel is at an age now where he can fully appreciate what's happening and so far there has been plenty.

We started the holidays at our good friends Easter party. Fresh air, digging, chasing, watching horses go by, moving with the sun, making baskets, eating butties and buns and (of course) hunting for eggs kept a gaggle of little'uns and big'uns happy.

That same weekend we met our great nephew for the first time. I'd forgotten how to hold a tiny baby so let Mr B hold him for our picture. Joel wasn't feeling very sociable and tried his hardest to sabotage the picture by blowing a raspberry, it was taken just as he laughed at his own joke so smiles all round.

A brilliant Easter parcel arrived from MD (Cuncle) which brought about the arrival, and fascination with, Lego in the form of a mega sticker book (Joel loves "ticking")

It was fascinating watching him stick people in line with the perspective of the images and where there were shadows denoting where the stickers should go he attempted sticking it face down, really carefully. It was cool. He's cool.

Gagga bought him a new trike, an early birthday present as if the weather is anything like last years waiting until his actual birthday would mean no triking. He spent most of the day carefully stacking items in the back of it, so proud of the results he said "Mummy take my picture"

Joel and I caught up with an old pal, who I hadn't seen since getting married. We visited Canopy The Woollen Woods, a woodland art installation of wildlife made from wool and felt.

It was great fun exploring the woods looking for critters. The work had been made by people from all over, they are still taking submissions so its a constantly evolving and growing piece.

Joel was obsessed with who might live through this door. He shouted "Hello. Are you in?" through it and said he could hear someone coming down the stairs inside.

I said that maybe an owl lived there but had got too fat to use his front door, Joel found that a plausible answer and low and behold if there wasn't a big fat owl sat in the branches!!

Weirdly seeing this little door tied into an idea I had just the day before, confirming to me it was a good one. I will keep you posted on it.

Oh and I got a new job which I start on Tuesday, eeek first job in three years. Excited, nervous, tired...all of the above. Again I'll keep you posted!

Scary Beary Museum

Yesterday we had an animal blast. The week had got off to a shaky start when Joel took a tumble on a play ground, climbing as usual, and managed to split his head open. We were playing on our own but two lovely mums dashed over to help us back to the car (it was obvious hospital attention was needed). I'm pretty squeamish but did well to remain vaguely calm and collected. After some crazy driving and even crazier singing (to keep him awake) and a long wait at the hospital our brave little rascal was glued back together again. 'Quiet Activities' were suggested on the head injurys leaflet, not an easy feat with Joel.
Racking my brains for what to do I was chuffed to find that Kendal Museum (just down the road) was offering free entry at the moment so yesterday morning we headed over and met our good pals there. Its a really old style museum, rammed full of lots of weird and wonderful things. It offers, amongst other things, an enormous collection of Taxidermied species, many displayed in antique cases. Its very dimly lit giving it an eery feel, great!

Soon after arriving I could hear Joel (toddlers do leg it off in places like this) shouting "Hedgehog, Hedgehog!"I just thought he'd seen one in a case and carried on looking at stuff when there he appeared carrying a stuffed one! Here he is posing next to it with his "ouchy finger"(prickled)

This moose head was mounted high up above a stairwell so I was unable to photograph with any scale reference but it was massive. Just like the one in Return to Oz.

They had a lot of free childrens activities too, these exploratory boxes were great with fossils, butterflies and even a dragonfly inside.

The John Hamer collection of minerals had a staggering 2000+ examples. This reclusive character spent his time potholing and collecting minerals, the entire collection was catalogued and moved from his house when he passed away. Its great to see someones lifes work giving so much pleasure.

Minerals displayed in a Victorian lamp table 

A hand drawn diary of his finds

Raaaaaah! Downstairs we found this guy, teeth and claws at the ready! Joel posed for a picture with him, just after I snapped this he stepped back onto the bears mount and it rocked forward a few inches over him....

..this would have been the view! No wonder he shrieked and ran to my legs saying "Mummy I scared of the bear!!"

Oh we do like to be blown along the seaside!

Belated Happy New Year to all HTB followers, I just don't know where the time has gone since I last wrote on here! Anyway lots to catch up on so I'll start.
One day before Christmas KEB booked a day off (to coincide with one of my Joel free days) and we headed down to Morcambe for a very cold and windy day at the seaside.
We stopped off at the West End charity shops first, bagging some great loot at crazy prices. I paid just £1 for this lovely embroidered picture and had been after one for ages.

I also got Joel a few blasts from the past in the way of toys for his Christmas stocking. This one in particular went down well (sneak peek at Christmas too)

We walked past this lovely stained glass window, imagine if all the businesses now had fancy windows like this. Wouldn't that be nice?

In one shop window there was an old Wurlitzer Organ in need of renovation. The colours of the keys and use of language on it were lovely. 'Symphonic Presence Ensemble' was luring my finger in through the glass!

We lunched at the rather marvellous Midland Hotel. It's somewhere we'd both been itching to go to since it reopened in 2008, left derelict for many years this landmark piece of Art Deco architecture is now restored to its full glory, and oh what a glory it is!

We ate in their bar which had incredible decor and views sweeping the full length of Morcambe bay over to Grange and beyond.

"Come and play with us Billy"

After our swanky pit stop we found a real treasure of a haberdashers/art/craft/gift shop set over several floors (up some rainbow stairs) tucked down an alley. Don't you just love it when exploring a windswept coastal town pays off.

Here's KEB with Father Christmas, we looked under his robe to see what he was wearing only to discover he was a butcher! Fancy that.

We had a great time. I love being a mum but its so nice to spend time with friends without Joel too.

A day out with MD

A week ago I went to visit my oldest friend MD, not the oldest by birthday but someone who I have known since we were at Art School together when we were 19. My goodness that's a long time ago now! We had a really nice day. He lives in Liverpool, a great city to visit anyway but having a good friend there is an added bonus. It was a surprisingly hot day (well they all are in England) so we headed into the city for an early lunch at Leaf, a cosily decked out cafe bar, which had a tea menu so enticing it swung our thoughts of straight from the fridge drinks to a cup of hot amazingness!

We would have eaten sooner but we were distracted by so many great things to see. This Yarnbombed tree was so bright and cheery, we saw lots of people having their pictures taken with it.

The Bluecoat had a strange medical exhibition on, we didn't enjoy that much but did stop and admire this miniature model of the place next to their collection box.  I love these things, especially when they need dusting like this one!

A project called Tickle The Ivories was on, which meant Pianos were located on five streets in the city, free for anyone to hop on and play. We saw two and they were both being played, one good one not so good, but that;s not the point. It's a sound you'd never hear on the street (unlike more portable instruments) but also it's something which not many people have space for in their homes. Mr B might have hopped on one if he'd have been with us.

As well as Pianos on the pavements there was also Ping Pong tables set up all over the place as part of  Ping.

It was lovely to see all sorts of people having a game. Some were on their lunch, some in between shopping and some after school. It was fab, however I'm rubbish at it so didn't have a go. Their website is lovely, well worth a look.


MD gave me my first taste of a LEGO shop. It was good, very good.

MD had been collecting Olympic figures, which come in a foil pack, sort of like a lucky dip idea, which I loved. However, the staff are so well acquainted with their product that they can feel each packet and identify what or rather who is inside.

No need for buying doubles or triples was the supposed bonus of this skill but I thought no need for a surprise either though. Whatever happened to swaps? I did get them to find me a Sherlock Holmes for Mr B though so I guess it has it's benefits.

May 19th- Ticket to ride, eat and party!

After our frolics around Kendal town we boarded a 1955 AEC Regent 3 Double Decker, courtesy of Cumbria Classic Coaches. I'd not seen the bus, Peter, in real life at the time of booking but he did look rather gorgeous with his red leather upholstery, polished mahogany and wooden boarded floors. Once he was all decked out with flowers and our colourful guests onlookers couldn't help but smile and wave as we did a victory lap of the town.

Personalised bus tickets with our names and wedding date on along with a picture of our bus

We managed to all squeeze onto the last seat!

Once we arrived at our local village hall we were hit by the full impact of our decorations, the day before had been so manic there was no time to just stop and breathe and appreciate what we had created with the help of  so many kind friends.

A riot of colour strung from each beam

Decorations that make you want to climb on a table and cuddle them! Super poofy poms by The North Pom

Ooh look you can see the pretty line of my dress straps here, and of course the fabulous hall!

Thrifty finds like charity shop tablecloths, mixed with family linens, home made table numbers and floral arrangements in jam jars and our neighbours silverware made exciting and interesting table tops. Oh and each table had a different bottle of Barrs pop on it!

The food was labelled up with rosette style labels to give a village fete feel to the buffet. Along with paper pinwheels we had made at one of our maids meetings

Mr B kept these specially brewed and designed beers a secret until a couple of days before, what a fab idea and they tasted delish!

MD said some lovely words- "I think about why we are here today and I can't help but wonder... I think about love and what it means to find love. I marvel that amongst the five billion people on Earth, on this rock that hurtles through the infinite space of the universe. Of all the possibilities, the stupefying odds of what is and what could be. That two people as special as these have found each other. That they have a child as perfect as Joel and a love as strong as they do. For that I am grateful to be a witness here today, I think we all are." Beautiful x

We begged and borrowed table lamps to fill each window sill with to create an eclectic and atmospheric  lighting display for the evening.

An old friend offered her artistic skills making photo props for  our photo booth, she'd admitted to reading one too many Mr Men books in the run up to the wedding.

We re-used hen party decorations 

Wrote our seating plan on the foyer windows in glass pens

Bought a few cute drinks accessories from Etsy and Mr B designed beer mats with us as kids on them, an idea we used from our friends wedding last year

This old suitcase belonged to Karens Auntie, the paper bunting was from the hen do and the wooden printers letters are Mr B's. So the whole lovely card drop cost us not a penny to set up.

We walked home under the stars in the wee small hours, me with this picnic rug wrapped round me and Mr B carried our suitcase of swag. Chatting about how lovely our day had been and stopping for a kiss, or three.