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

Sew Fabulous Fabric

A few weeks ago I received this gorgeous book I won from http://theflourloft.blogspot.com/ the girls had recently had this book published and were giving away 3 books to celebrate their book being hot off the press which they co wrote together. Ginny and Alice had their own company making all sorts of items using vintage and found fabrics they were approached at the Country Living Fair and asked if they would like to write a book and that's how Fabulous Fabric came about. Guess who was the lucky winner of one of their books? Me that's who!! It felt like winning Willy Wonka's golden ticket out of over 50 comments I was one of the lucky 3! Yes I am feeling very smug about it how lucky I am I? I was completely delighted and could not wait for it to arrive. When it did land on my doorstep I was not disappointed not only did they send me their book I got a beautifully wrapped parcel which inside contained this starter kit containing 8 different beautifully patterned fabrics, felt, denim, some tweedy woolly type fabric, some cards and envelopes for making handmade cards and some corsage pins.

They have written a little message inside the book for me and also sent a stunning handmade card sorry there's no photo I have misplaced where I have put it this morning (what a narna!) I've put it a little too safely away as I want to frame it for my summerhouse, den, studio, office oh dear I don't know what to call it now autumns here summerhouse just doesn't sound right!

The book is separated into 4 sections Home Making, Out and About, Let's Celebrate and Lasting Memories at the back of the book there are patterns for the 20 projects in the book. It also has a fabric focus tip for each project recommending what fabrics work well .

What I love about the book is that it focuses on using recycled fabrics it has a really good section of sourcing fabrics. I love the idea of reusing fabric I have saved a lot of Emily and Elliotts baby clothes so that I can use the pretty patterns again in a cushion or picture so that I can keep them and enjoy them everyday. I now have something new to hunt for in the charity shops usually I head straight for the bric a brac but reading this book has inspired me to take a closer look at the clothes so I can add to my growing collection of fabrics.
The 20 projects in the book are all ones I'd like to have a go at, there are ideas for using every last scrap of fabric and scope for putting your own personal take on each project. Here are a few of the pages I have photographed. The photographs really are beautiful it is a really pretty book that would make a lovely gift for someone who is creative or maybe a treat for one self ?

Above a cosy draft excluder using found tweed, woollens and boucles.


A patchwork floral fairy cushion

Child's artwork made into a picture

Flower Corsages


Handmade Cards

I'm really looking forward to rummaging through my fabrics and having ago at one of the projects but what to start first I like them all? I have some nice tweedy fabric in my stash from a pair of Emily's old trousers think I'm going to have a go at a winter style corsage for myself. A special thankyou goes out to Ginny and Alice for sending me your book I am going to get lot's of enjoyment from it and it's just the inspiration I need to get sewing again.

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.

It went ok!

With a sigh of relief I'm happy to say Emily started pre school this morning and it all went well. It felt funny to be up at the crack of dawn feed organise and dress them both to be out the door for 8.30 for our 10min walk to school usually mornings at our house go at a very slow pace Emily is always up at around 6.30 anyway but there is no rush to go anywhere so we are used to lazy mornings in our pjs. Not anymore! I have this school run for the next 16 years gone are our leisurely mornings Arrgh!!!! None the less I had everything ready they both had their porridge and there was no crazy dashing around and I even managed to wash the pots before I left. She was not keen to put her uniform on I already had guessed that this was going to be a problem as she's so used to wearing pink and likes to choose her clothes! So I got a little present for her to open ONLY when she had put her uniform on!

This worked to a certain extent she hurriedly got dressed very quickly to open her pressie then announced that she was going to get undressed and put some proper clothes on aarrgh after lots of wining I managed to distract her with a jigsaw! After that things went smoothly she told me she was a big girl and was not going to cry! We got to the nursery she took off her coat and hung it on her elephant coat hook and I sat her down at a computer to play a game ( she loves playing on computers and amazes me with what she can pick up)I told her I was going to talk to the teacher and said bye to her and she was fine didn't even turn around to watch me go she was just happily sat playing a game.

I just hope things will continue this way with no blips but you never no only time will tell but for now at least I can remember her first day with a proud smile.

Our summer is over and a new start

So it seems our summer is officially over and so the weather is trying to tell us too. This is the horrendous weather our back garden suffered last week, non stop heavy rain followed by thunder and lightening and then huge hailstones!Lovely! Emily starts at a new nursery on Friday she's doing mornings at the primary school nursery where she will attend in a years time. So uniform and new shoes are ready waiting.I just hope that she will settle in well and be happy there. I have everything crossed for no tears and upset. It should be good for her they try and include the nursery as much as they can with the school so hopefully when she starts school it won't be such a huge experience for her. I have been reading about everyone's little people starting at school in blog land and I'm very aware that this will be me next year so I plan to treasure every moment of my last year with her at home. That's why I have a very special surprise for her next week were having a mummy and daughter night out so will blog about that soon!

Looking back at our summer holidays we've all enjoyed each others company most of the time. Of course there's been tears and tantrums and pulling my hair out moments but all in all we've kept ourselves very busy and the summer has passed us by very quickly.

We've had jigsaws,games,building blocks dancing,singing,reading,biking,paddling pool fun,baking,playing with friends,painting,drawing,chalking on the patio,donkey rides, swimming picnics and lots more.

Daddy's had a bit of time off so we've enjoyed some fun days out to the Sea life Centre and Alton Towers. Also walks in the peak district this is Dovedale about 30 min's drive from our house it's a very beautiful valley with a river running through it. The fun bit is crossing the stepping stones. It was very busy so unfortunately there are lots of people on the photos.

I've also won a award. thank you so much to Jane from the blog http://jane-petticoatlane.blogspot.com/ Jane is quite new to blog land and her blog is a great read and she never fails to tickle me go check her lovely blog out.
I'm a bit late with this award and I think it's been passed on quite alot so I'm going to pass this on to everyone who reads my blog as you all really make my day.

Quick update on the summerhouse sorry no photos I don't think pictures of soil and wires would please you! We have been plodding on with the electrical side so I won't bore you with that. I have picked up a junk shop chair for it which I am making a loose cover for so will keep you updated when I have something to show.

That's all for now be back soon with news of our girly night out!

Sarah x

Painting, painting and more painting................

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my summerhouse and garden it has just reminded me of what a lucky lucky girl I am to have a space of my own and has really motivated me to crack on with the painting. We have a fab garden but to honest it really has to look after itself this year and it really is looking a bit dull and unkept. We were very lucky to inherit lot's of mature plants and trees when we moved here I do have high hopes for my garden when the children are a bit older I hope to devote more time to it.

This week I've started the painting and what a mammoth job it is! I've been painting every evening after I've put the little one's to bed and have painted until dark in all weathers sheltering under the veranda in the rain! I do enjoy painting and find it quite relaxing I love to see the end transformation but this is going on and on and some nights I've had to force myself to do it. Anyway enough of the waffle here's some pics what do you think?

Less posh shed more nice summerhouse me thinks!
I love the little veranda I'm looking forward to taking a break on here with a cuppa and a magazine!

this shows the side of the summerhouse where there is another window.There's still I reckon another weeks work of painting to get the outside completely finished. Then we can crack on with the inside. My minds been buzzing with what we are going to do with the inside. Here's what the inside looks like at the moment. It's really hard to photograph as it's quite small! Oh dear not very inviting is it there's a huge amount of work to do in here were going to insulate everywhere to make it warm and line the walls in tongue and grove. It's all going to be done on a shoestring budget so I will be searching ebay and freecycle for furniture. I've managed to pick up a heater on freecycle so far. I'd like an old comfy chair to reupholster and I'm after an old table to use as my desk, there is a handy shelf in the roof space where a plan to stack my material out of reach of little hands!

As for the decor I've decided to go out of my safe zone of pastel colours and go for bright bold colours . I've been really inspired by colour since starting blogging especially by two of my favourite blogs http://attic24.typepad.com/ and http://lavenderhouse.typepad.com/ who both use colour so beautifully in there homes. I'm hoping to inject some real fun colours into my summerhouse the tongue and groove will be white but all my accessories bright colours. Here's some pages from magazines that have inspired me.I love the chair in the above pic and have searched everywhere for something similar but nothings turned up. I've also picked up these folders I love them they were great value to from Asda. I have heaps of paperwork to sort out so these will be ideal.Hope you all had a good week the weather has been miserable hasn't it but I hear that it's going to clear up and we will see some sunshine this weekend I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Hope whatever your up to this bank holiday weekend it's a good one!
Sarahx