A trip to London...................

On Saturday the day arrived that I had really been looking forward to for months I went to London for a day trip of shopping and visiting The Christmas Country Living Fair. I was up bright and early to catch the 7.00am train to London I packed my sleepy little family into the car still in their pj's and I kissed them goodbye. I remember many fond farewells like this, when I was 18 ( 15 years ago I lived in London for 3 years whilst at stage school that's another story I'll tell you another day, I was seeing Steven at the time my now husband) so it felt quite surreal visiting London again after all these years. I arrive in London at 9.00am to find that Kings Cross has changed very much no longer is there just one grotty cafe now there's posh glass fronted shops and cafes including a Paperchase and a mini Hamley's.

I hop on the tube and head for Portobello Road market I really enjoy the hustle and the bustle of the market exploring the quirky stalls selling a vast array of clothes antiques and bric a brac I hover over a Bakerlite phone I've been wanting one for ages but decide to save my pennies for something else. I'm excited about the rest of the day and there's so much I want to pack in to my day it feels wonderful to have a break from my day to day routine and do something different that's just for me. Next stop I head for Stanley Street to the Cabbages and Roses shop how I love this wonderful company as I make my way there I have a pleasant walk through South Kensington admiring the wonderful white 4 storey houses nosing through their windows and admiring the perfectly trimmed topiary trees placed outside every door and the pretty wrought iron railings how the other half live eh! I arrive at Stanley Street to find a perfectly formed immaculate but very little shop this was not what I had imagined I was expecting I large shop with beautiful rooms adorned with Cabbages and Roses covered furniture and wallpaper like this so I'm a little disappointed I browse through the shop ohhing and arr hing at the small but perfectly displayed items.

Next stop Cath Kidston a short walk away on King Road I'm spoilt for choice in there I have to buy something I spend ages looking at every item I can't decide what to buy eventually I buy this sticker book which contains over 200 adorable stickers for home , office and everywhere in between.

Times a ticking by but I love the Kings Road I've never been here before the shops are great Graham And Green, Designers Guild and lot's of gorgeous individual shops I keep thinking I must be on my way to the Country Living Fair but I cant walk past these shops every one is tempting me inside with their beautiful window displays. After tearing myself away from Kings Road I eventually arrive at the fair at 2.00pm, I am shattered but oh so eager to explore I get some rest bite in the cafe and then head for the stalls I circle each level not to miss out on anything I marvel at it all. All my kind shops under one roof I'm excited to look at the stalls Caroline Zoob, Jan Constantine and Susie Watson whose Internet shops I love to browse and do pretend shops at! I spend a stupid amount of time staring at the Suzie Watson stall but again I don't buy the trouble is if I had bottomless pockets I would go mad but I don't.

From Caroline Zoob I buy one of these a kind of vintage looking mail holders I love it it's going to end up by the front door no more post and paperwork will be cluttering up my dresser! From Dot Com Gift Shop I buy these,

this
and this

Some polka dot paper napkins, a snowflake cookie cutter, a dotty beaker which I'm using as a desk tidy and a wonderful dove shaped paper garland which a noticed in cl magazines Christmas issue last year which I'm so pleased I got my hands on , see the smallest things make me happy! From two other stalls I also buy this twig heart for my garden room

and this Greengate table cloth which I've folded to use as a runner for the bargain price of £10 I absolutely love it it matches my colours perfectly in my through room it's my favourite purchase of the day.

Another purchase were these two candle votives sorry for the dodgy photo there so pretty when their lit. I also buy a Christmas present for Emily a pretty dress for a dolly. I stay till the end 6.00pm I am dead on my feet I browse the posh shop's at the station and head home on the 7.00 train I am so grateful for the sit down on the train and I'm eager to get home to my home and family who I'm starting to miss it has been such a fab day and I can't help feeling that it is something I would love to repeat year after year.

Ps The garden room is finished so my next post I'll give you a tour!

Sarahx

Embracing Autumn

Hi all yes I'm still here, I know I'm a useless blogger I'm just finding it really difficult at the moment to find time to blog which really annoys me. Smack my hands must try harder to update my blog and I have lots of catching up to do with everyone apoligies all!!

Well were well into autumn now and I'm really enjoying the new season. I'm enjoying the cosiness in the house, snuggling up under a throw on the sofa having the lamps on. Putting the heating on which feels like a real indulgence and lighting a few candles! I wish we had a real fire though I'd love that were going to convert ours when we have our extension I'm very jealous of those of you who have one I'll just have to be patient and wait. Also covering up my lilly white legs and wearing cosy clothes is a real bonus I really don't like getting my legs out and the more covered up I am the better!

So it was a beautiful warm day yesterday here in Derbyshire so off we went for a walk in the woods. We headed for Ambergate the village where I grew up and for shining cliff woods and off we went on our little adventure. We made our way through crunchy leaf paths and some very soggy muddy paths. We did a circular walk we just followed our noses I got a bit worried at some parts as there were different paths and we were just guessing at which direction to take and felt a bit lost, being stuck in the middle of the woods with a 1 and 3 yr old would not be a good situation to be in would it? But we did take the right route and was ok! We saw lots of squirrels, acorns and chestnuts and even a few mushrooms! The sun was creating a dappled effect shining rays through the towering trees just stunning. Every so often we would see a drift of leaves falling from the trees onto the wood floor which was covered in a carpet of orange red and gold leaves. Halfway through our walk we were rewarded with the sight and sounds of this brook running down through the wood and on our way back we stumbled upon about six houses that are actually in the woods what a fascinating and very private way to live it must be very spooky at night though. Not my cup of tea I've watched Blair Witch too many times!

Emily managed to walk most of the way and Elliott travelled in style in the backpack after doing a bit walking too. At one point Steven was carrying both of them with Emily on his shoulders! It was great to get out and enjoy the great outdoors hopefully depending on the weather we will do something similar this weekend. Sorry for the dodgy photo the next one is better I love the photo of the tree.

Looking towards the end of the month I'm starting to think about Halloween and giving the pumpkins a go in the CL magazine also I've got my ticket for the Country Living Christmas Fair next month how excited am I . I've never been to one before so I'm really looking forward to it.

Hopefully I will be here more often from now on, the summerhouse is coming on well and will hopefully be finished soon Steven and my dad have been working flat out on it so will be posting some pics of that. I've also been the very lucky winner of Ginny and Alice's book 'Fabulous fabric' which deserves a post of it's own so thanks girls I LOVE your book!

Have a good week all!

Sarahx

Our girly treat!

I mentioned a couple of posts back that I was going to take my daughter somewhere special as I'm very aware that this will be my last year having her at home with me before she starts school full time and I just thought she deserved a nice treat. I also feel that she has very little one to one time with me as Elliott will have that when Emily starts school. She's just started at a new nursery too and has been doing very well and taking it in her stride I was worried we were going to have tears but she's excited every morning to go and her teachers are very pleased with her and say what a lovely little girl she is this week I collected her one morning to see her clutching this



The teacher had given her star pupil for sitting nicely at story time and gave her a ring and a wand how lovely is that? As you can imagine I'm so pleased that she seems to be settling in well it is a lovely little nursery attached to the school I think she will be fine there.


So her special treat was to go and see The English National Ballet perform Angelina Ballerina!

I love the embroidery on these shoes she wore I bought them for £5 Monsoon sale a year ago and I've been willing her feet to grow into them and they finally fit!

Before the show we has a little bit of girly shopping we went to all of Emily's favourite shops including this one her absolute favourite The Disney store so she's already shown me lots of things she wants from Santa which includes the entire Disney Store oh dear!!

Then we stopped off at the Thornton's Cafe for some delicious chocolate mouse cake and headed for the theatre.

This was Emily's first time to a theatre and didn't really know what a ballet was until last night. There were lots of other little girls all dressed up in pretty dresses chattering away in anticipation of seeing Angelina!
The Ballet was gorgeous it was an hour long with a 15 minute interval adapted from the Angelina Ballerina story books, Angelina is putting on her own show of Sleeping Beauty, act 1 is the rehearsals and act 2 is the actual performance. It was a cast of nine dancers the costumes and sets were amazing and it really brought the story to life I kept having a sneaky peek at Emily's face and she was smiling away and mesmerised by it all!



To round the night off we had a ride on this an enormous big wheel which was outside the theatre.

I was quite nervous as to whether Emily would be ok on it but she pestered the life out of me to go on it and insisted she was not scared so after checking that 3yr olds were allowed on it we hopped on. We has a lovely time cuddled up together staring out over the night sky and city lights Emily loved it it was one of those happy moments that I'll never forget.

I am so lucky to have a beautiful caring 3 year old and I'm really loving the little lady she's growing into. This morning we woke up to beautiful clear blue skies on our walk to nursery she nattered all the way about Angelina and hasn't shut up about it all day so I think she really enjoyed her treat and hope she will remember it I certainly enjoyed spending some mummy and daughter time one to one and doing some really girly stuff.

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

Midsummer Fairy Party

For as long as I can remember I've always had a thing about fairies. When I was little we lived in a bungalow. It a had a fantastic big garden that led from the bungalow up a hill. As you made your way up the garden, you passed three lawned areas with various beds and borders. At the top there was a little gate that led into the woods. From the woods there was a natural stream that ran down the side of our garden. As you can imagine this was my playground and to me a quite magical place where fairies lived! I had hours of fun being away with the fairies! I also loved the Flower Fairy Stories with the beautiful illustrations by Cicely Mary Barker. I managed to pick this book up for Emily for just 50p at a NCT sale which I'm looking forward to sharing with Emily. She has a great little imagination and I'm all for anything that encourages it.I also have a few Fairy ornaments. This one, 'The sewing Fairy' is my favourite. It was given to me by a friend, the cotton reels look so real! Sorry it's a bit blurred think my hands shook when I took it.

When I was handed a leaflet from Emily's nursery saying 'Midsummer Fairy Party' supporting the Wish Upon A Star Charity I decided to take her.

So last Saturday we had a lovely girly time getting dressed up, she even had her nails painted pink like mummies which she's been wanting for ages! This is the best picture, trying to get a three year old to sit still is a hard task believe me so this was taken whilst watching the tv! The tiara is mine which I wore on my wedding day! Better to have some use than being stuck in a dusty box.

So all excited we arrived to find lots and lots and lots of little girls dressed as fairies and adults too it was a lovely sight to see! We even came across some goblins too!

Unfortunately it drizzled the whole time which was a shame as the organisers had put so much effort into it. Luckily I had Emily's pink wellies but lots of little girls had pretty dainty shoes on that got wet poor things! It was cold too so Emily's wings didn't last long as she wanted her coat on!! As we made our way round in the fairy meadow was a marquee full of fun and games another marquee of craft stalls, a fairy post office, bouncy castle and fun fair ride we even met a real unicorn!

After having lots of fairy fun having goes on all the games and getting wet feet on the bouncy castle we were grateful for some warmth so off we went inside for a fairy banquet in the banquet hall. You can just see Emily 4th on the right! Afterwards all the children screamed and laughed out loud at chuckle chops the clown.

Emily really enjoyed herself despite the awful weather and it was a great way to spend the afternoon with her.

Thought I'd show you what I brought back from our holiday in St Ives before I end this post. I got some more bits and pieces for my seaside shelves in my bathroom. The little beach hut, the boat painted onto a piece of driftwood which was made by a St Ives artist, some shells and the mini lobster basket also got a big one for the floor in my bathroom (not pictured).

These are tea towels! I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out all I've done is just pin them up with drawing pins and then rolled them up and tied some ribbon round them took about 5 min's!
They're from a lovely shop on the harbour in St Ives specialising in French home interiors I could have gone mad in there but it was very expensive and my budget only stretched to tea towels £3.99 each.

Finally this picture was a bargain we went into St Ives early on the last day for a full English breakfast overlooking the harbour and I spotted this in a shop window for just £5.00. It's actually a print of Padstow should have been £20 but was reduced because of a tiny mark on the frame.

My bathroom now looks complete with it's seaside look and I'm really pleased with how it looks it just needed a few more bits and it really reminds me of happy days in Cornwall.