My first award and the holidays begin!

I have been awarded the brilliant weblog award from Carol at 'Katherines Dream' it is awarded for text and photos. Thanks Carol for choosing me it is my first award and I was very excited to receive it! Carols blog http://katherinesdream.blogspot.com/ is lovely do visit her blog I always look forward to her posts.

The rules are I now need to pass this on to seven other blogs, so here's who I have chosen:

Natalie @http://summerbythesea.blogspot.com/ lives 5 mins from the sea has a interiors shop and enjoys knitting and sewing.

Vannesa@http://justoriginal.blogspot.com/has her own online shop which sells beautiful handmade home accessories and gifts all made by herself.

Sara @http://all-about-eden-saraeden.blogspot.com/ also loves to sew and has a wonderful online shop selling her handmade items, she loves Cornwall and enjoys photography.

Lisa @Periwinke http://periwinklepark.blogspot.com/ blogs about home life with her gorgeous boys and enjoys sewing and cooking.

http://lavenderhouse.typepad.com/ inspiring beautiful photo's lives by the sea with her family, I love her colourful creative style.

Anne @http://fabricandbags.typepad.com/ about her start up business designing and creating fabulous bags.

Faye @Country Chic http://thechiccountryhome.blogspot.com/ has her own online store which sells gorgeous french,country shabby chic style home accessories.

Sorry if any of you have already received this award!

Emily finished nursery on Tues and all the playgroups we regulary go to have stopped so were in full on holiday mode pj's on till dinner time ssshh don't tell!! In September she will start at the nursery where she will be going to school. She calls it BIG nursery !

While Elliott was having his mid morning sleep today Emily did some painting. Here she is getting stuck in.

This is her favourite activity stick a paint brush in her hand and she'll sit quietly for ages. She did ask me to join in and then said that mummy likes to paint walls and fences!!!! (I'm painting the picket fence in our front garden at the moment!) Then she said mummy can I paint the wall like you?!! Bless I love the little things she comes out with I did explain to her that this was a mummy only job with special paint out of a big tin not for little girls! I think I will let her have a go next time I do a bit of painting.

Weve had the 3rd barbecue of the year this evening it was lovely to sit in the garden on our deckchairs with a glass on wine!

Hope your all enjoying this warm spell of weather hope it lasts through the weekend for us all!

Sarahx

Bags of style

Look what arrived for me today a new bag I'd been eyeing this bag up for a while from here http://jojomamambebe.co.uk/

Isn't it lovely I think it's very Cath Kidston I just love the red with white polka dot's. I love red it's such a happy, vibrant. bold make a statement colour. Although my favourite colour is blue I think red is a close second. Anyway back to the bag it was a very reasonable £5 with free postage it's huge and has a zip. I'm going to use it as a laundry bag as my old pop up net thingy ma jig is broken. Or you could use it for storage or for your supermarket shopping. Just thought I'd share some bag love with you.

My other new love is this

Yes I've fallen head over heels in love with http://joulesclothing.com/ clothing. For ages their little catalogue kept arriving on my doormat and I would flick through it admiring their gorgeous clothes and put it to one side I never spend a lot on clothes if I spend it's always something for the house.

Whilst on holiday in St Ives I came across a boutique selling Joules clothes well I had to try some on and temptation got the better of me and I brought this dress for a just £30 I was surprised at the price thought it was quite reasonable.

Isn't it pretty I just love those seaside stripes and it's so flattering on. It's the same dress on the front of their catalogue I'd love the yellow cardie but I already have got a pink cardie that looks nice with it.

Back from hols I had a big sort out of my wardrobe and realised that I don't actually like any of my clothes. I don't know about you but I'm actually rubbish at clothes shopping I'm always on the lookout for pretty little tops but can never find what I'm after so end up buying something that is totally not me. Usually it's is from the supermarket as this is the easy convenient place to shop for clothes with the little ones. It's usually something that's in one season out the next, throw away fashion! That's exactly what I've done with some of my clothes they have either gone off to the charity shop or gone on EBay to raise fund's for more Joules clothes!

I since purchased another three tops from the little catalogue and it's left me wanting more I just feel so much better wearing these clothes I have a smile on my face deciding which to wear instead of just grabbing some t-shirt. I just love their attention to detail little different coloured buttons, some embroidery here a bow there. Pretty tea dresses and lot's of 50's inspired clothes I love that style and their descriptions in the catalogue. For my Jo Jo dress ' you'll look perfect in this dress as you don the bunting out around the village green'! I know I won't be exactly doing that more like pegging the washing out on the line with Elliott tugging at my dress! But it's the lifestyle concept that they paint that's so appealing! Even the labels are nice!

Yes I am smitten I've never been interested in clothes shopping much I don't know what's come over me but I think it's worth spending a little bit extra on something that is going to last a lot longer in the long run and they have a 50% sale on at the moment if your tempted! Go on go look I know you want too!

Sarahx

Driving lessons, days out and antiques in the park

Finally I've got round to updating my blog. It's been on my mind- must do a post but time's been passing me by. Lots of things have been happening here since I last posted, amongst them the most positive thing that's happened is I'm now officially a learner driver and I've had 3 driving lessons to date! I've been putting it off for ages and it feels really good to have started and get over that initial fear. I'm determined to see this through to the end now. I did have a few lessons when I was 18 but that was 16 years ago so it's like starting from scratch. It really will change my life for the better being able to take the kids out wherever whenever instead of being stuck at home. I'll be able to go somewhere different instead of our usual walk to the village round the same old shops and back and this is a BIG incentive. I'll be able to zoom off to those car boots at the crack of dawn without feeling guilty for dragging Steven out of bed on his only proper day off!!

Other things that have happened are playgroup outings as we approach the summer hols, the playgroups all have a little outing before they break up for 6 weeks. Oh no what are we going to do with ourselves for six weeks? I like the usual routine of our get togethers I like to keep busy I'm going to have to find some other activities for us. We've just started swimming with them so that's a start. So far we've had a trip to the Monkey Forest this is the only place in Britain where you can walk amongst 140 barbary macaques roaming free in 70 acres of beautiful forest.

It was quite worrying at first to have a bunch of overly excited 3 yr olds to have monkeys come right up to them but luckily the monkeys were very laid back and not at all bothered by our presence and the whole place is overlooked by keepers to make sure there's no monkey business going on!

The second trip was to Happy Hens. We've been there a few times and Emily and Elliott love it there. It's a child friendly farm- they had a tractor trailer ride and fed the animals. This week I'm meeting with another group for a picnic in the park weather permitting!

On the thrifting front I spent a lovely morning at Kedleston Hall Antiques in the park this is a large antiques fair held in the grounds of the hall. I could have filled a car full with all the things I wanted but lots of things were quite expensive. I just got a few things including a wooden trug for the garden, some vintage wooden cotton reels with pretty labels. This £3 tray, I really like the decorative handles.

It's now been painted in Farrow and Ball Parma Grey. The tea towel was £3.50 in the Cath Kidston sale.

Some blue and white china, I love it's almost faded pattern the dish was £4 and the little jug a pricey £8 but I thought it was worth it as it's so pretty.

Two deckchairs one £5 from the fair and one £2 off ebay the following week, modelled by Emily and Elliott! I ordered some lovely deckchair canvas from Ian Mankin and set to work on painting them.

Mmm notice a bit of a blue theme going on with my purchases can you tell it's my fav colour! I've not quite got used to the deckchairs yet I keep gingerly sitting down thinking they're going to collapse on me, but they seem to be very sturdy I'm sure I'll get used to them if I ever get the chance to sit outside for more than five minutes without it raining!!

I've also been busy painting shelves for my kitchen but they're not quite finished yet. Not a lot of sewing going on in fact zero but I have lots of plans of things I want to make for an etsy shop so hopefully I'll be making a start on them soon when I put down my paintbrush! Bye for now,

Sarahx