CK Love

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I had the pleasure of going into my first Cath Kidston shop whilst we were in Winchester at the weekend. I have to say, I don't love all things Cath. I'm not too much of a fan of the very floral designs, but I do have a thing about spots. I was really taken with these gorgeous egg cups. The ones we have are a boring grey marble type of thing, which I have never particularly liked. These, however, really caught my eye.

I also fell in love with these really cute glasses. I could only buy two, as the pennies wouldn't stretch, but I will certainly be adding to them. In fact I love the whole dinner service, but I know I won't be able to get everything I want, so I'm going to set myself a realistic goal of owning a breakfast set of this design. What a wonderful cheery way to start your day!

Hope you are all enjoying your day. I am crocheting like a thing possessed at the moment, desperate to get my current project finished. My hands will never be the same again!!

M x

Weekend Break in Wiltshire - Day 2

Another glorious day for our time away. We headed off to Stourhead, a beautiful National Trust property about an hour's drive from where we were staying in Swindon. I had heard so much about it because my parents love to go there. Well, we weren't disappointed.

We didn't go into the house because we really wanted to see the beautiful gardens and walk round the lake. We'll save the house for a return visit.

It was hard to edit the photos because I loved them all - so here goes!!

Stunning isn't it. It would make a beautiful setting for a wedding.

I've been having a totally self indulgent week. The children have gone to stay at my parent's house for the week. I've been catching up on TV programmes and films, doing some crochet and a little (very little!) bit of card making.

My plan is to get the border finished on my Dream Blanket - I haven't touched it for weeks and weeks. The border is so boring to do and the blanket is really heavy now. Well the end is in sight, but today I got sidetracked by starting a new project which I will share with you soon, and hopefully the Dream Blanket too.

I've had a Twilight Fest today and watched all three films back to back - Emily thinks I'm mad, but I was in heaven!!

I will also have something very exciting to share with you over the weekend. I'm still slightly disbelieving that I have agreed to it. Can you guess what it is?

Hope you are having a great week, enjoying the sunshine.

M x

Weekend Break in Wiltshire - Day 1

We have just had a lovely weekend away in Wiltshire and the weather was glorious. It was wonderful to be able to walk around with no jackets on, we were very lucky.

Our first stop was Avebury Stone Circle. The last time I went there was over ten years ago, it was a bitter January day and I had raging earache - ended up in Swindon Casualty, ear infection! So not such happy memories. However, our experience on Saturday soon put pay to that! The sun was shining, the children were happy and I had no ear pain!

After an ice-cream, we headed off to Winchester. I've never been there before, even though I used to live in Salisbury and it is not so far away. We really enjoyed it, great shops, particularly this one! Edward spotted it way before I did, and it would have been rude not to pay a visit! I've never been in a CK store before so it was definitely a must. I did make a couple of small purchases which I will share another time.

The Council Offices and The Great Hall - beautiful buildings. Edward enjoyed seeing the Round Table.

Winchester Cathedral. Very nice, but not as impressive as Salisbury (although I am a bit biased!!).

Then after a quick bite of lunch, we headed off to Stonehenge. I had been here a couple of times. Mark has seen it and so has Emily (on the way back from her Year 6 trip to Torquay), but Edward had never been and was keen to go. It was, of course, heaving! But we still managed to be able to take lots of photos. It never fails to impress me, although from the road side it is not as imposing as you think. A different story close up.

We had a lovely day, and were pretty pooped by the time we got back to our hotel. After a short rest we headed out to Pizza Express for yummy meal. And then an early night.

M x

Mini Break in Durham - Final Day

Well, after three jam packed days up north, it was time to pack up and come home. We have all had such a fab time, and our appetite has certainly been whetted for a return visit. I like the fact that everything is pretty close together and it doesn't take too long to get anywhere. I would love to come back and have a cottage or caravan near the beautiful coast and spend more time exploring this lovely part of the world.

Anyway, back to the final day. We packed up the car after breakfast and headed off. Our first stop was at a scrapbook shop on the outskirts of Durham. We had a bit of trouble finding it, and I was all set to give up, but Mark was determined (silly man - he must have known I would spend money on more craft stuff!!), and we eventually located it. It's called The Scrapbook Shop, and is a lovely shop packed full of paper crafting goodies - why can't I have shops like this on my doorstep?! The lady was lovely and we chatted whilst I made a couple of purchases. I even signed up for the loyalty card!

Our main destination before home was Leeds, well Horsforth to be more precise. Mark hasn't had the opportunity to show the children where he grew up. We stopped there for about an hour, had a look at his parents' old house and the ones that both his grandparents lived in. We had a bit of a stroll into the town to get some provisions for the journey home.

Traffic-wise, we had no hold ups until we got to Stevenage and then had to go all round the houses due to a road closure - heigh ho and c'est la vie!

It was nice to get home and find that Mum had done all the washing and ironing - what a star! (I hope you are reading this Mum!!).

There are no photos to add to this posting today (cos I didn't take any - ha ha!!).

We planned to have a relaxing Sunday to give Mark a chance to recover from all the driving, but no. Lucky us, Emily and some of her friends descended upon us in the afternoon, so it was rather chaotic. Will stayed for dinner again - it's getting to be a habit!

That's enough for now. Toodle pip!

M x

Mini Break in Durham - Day 3

We decided that we would head straight off after breakfast to see the Angel of the North. I've always wanted to see this sculpture, I know a lot of people don't like it, but I think there is something fascinating about it. I was really surprised when we got there, because it wasn't as big as I thought it would be, still very imposing, but smaller.

We drove on to Corbridge to see the remains of a Roman settlement near Hadrian's Wall. The weather at this point was vile - bitter cold and raining - marvellous summer weather! We didn't see much of the children while we were at Corbridge as they were too busy playing their own game amongst the ruins. There isn't any of the Wall at Corbridge, so we drove on further, eventually stopping at Steel Rigg to satisfy Mark's need to see it.

It was well past lunch time at this point, so we drove up to Alnwick where we had fish and chips (well Mark did - we had other things!) and I got to visit Barter Books. What a great bookshop, shame it's not more local cos I would be in there all the time!

Finally, with much nagging on Edward's part, and only because the weather had brightened up, we went to the beach. Mark had discovered a lovely beach called Druridge with 6 miles of sand and backed by sand dunes - fantastic! Edward was the first one down on the sand and digging. He was the only one who braved swimming in the sea - very cold. We spent a very pleasant hour and a half there.

After the beach, and still full from lunch, we popped in to Tesco on the way back to the hotel to grab some sandwiches and snacks. We weren't in the mood for Pizza Express as we had originally planned. Mark had a pint in the bar whilst the children and I watched television in the room. Edward was thrilled to stay up late and watch programmes he would generally not be able to watch at home!

M x

Mini Break to Durham - Day 2

On our second day, we decided to visit Beamish, which is a folk museum spread over a couple of acres. There are four main areas, the Home Farm, the Colliery Village, the Town and Railway Station, and the Manor House. Whilst you can walk between them, it's quite a distance, so you can get either a tram or a bus.

Typically it was raining pretty hard when we got there, so yet again it was on with the raincoats. It did ease up whilst we were in the old school in the Colliery Village thank heavens, otherwise it might have been quite a difficult day.

Emily and Edward had a go at some maths in the old school, working out pounds, shilling and pence. Emily got the hang of it straight away, but Edward found it a bit confusing.

We went down a mine, which was a bit freaky. It had a very low ceiling, so you had to bend practically in half. Just as well I was wearing a hard hat, because I would have concussed myself with the amount of times I hit my head on the ceiling!

Edward had a go at a few crafts, including making a prodded rug and a peg doll. Emily is obviously far too mature for such pursuits!!

This is the Town where we visited the sweet shop (spent a little bit of money!), had lunch in the tea room and had a good look around all the shops, as well as the railway station.

We then caught the tram to the Manor House. No photos I'm afraid because the battery died. It was a lovely old house, even allowing for the dead animals hanging up in the smoke house. We didn't have time to go to the Home Farm, so we have decided to visit another time. Edward was a bit disappointed because he wanted to see the forge, but there just wasn't enough time for everything. We had been there since 10am and it shut at 5pm.

We decided to have a cheap meal and ended up in the KFC near the Premier Inn.

Next installment tomorrow, or maybe Wednesday, as I am in London tomorrow.

Cheerio!

M x

Mini Break to Durham - Day 1

We've just got back from the lovely North East and have had a fantastic time. Again, I am going to blog this trip in stages, as uploading the photos frazzles me at the best of times, so day by day may save the nerves!

We left bright and early on Wednesday (7.00am on the dot!), and had a good journey up to Middleton-in-Teesdale, just stopping for breakfast en-route. We stopped to visit High Force waterfall, which is pretty spectacular. Emily decided to wear her joke spectacles for pretty much the whole trip to see how many funny looks she got - I suggested she stop counting because pretty much everyone stared at her! We took two photos of her every time - one with, one without!

We got to Durham in good time and headed straight for the city centre. We decided to grab a quick bite to eat, then head off to the cathedral. Durham is a beautiful city, quite small in the centre, but very nice. We found the Cafe Rouge on our way to the cathedral - our meal for later that evening.

This tower has 325 steps to the stop, I know because I climbed every single one of them, even though I nearly keeled over as a result! Emily persuaded me to do it and said I would be really proud of myself (which I was - eventually!). OMG it was hard work and we had to pay for the privilege! I was so dizzy by the time I got to the top that I couldn't really take in the views - hopefully Mark has got some good photos. Going down was also not such a pleasant experience for me because of my fear of falling down stairs - why do I put myself through these things?!

After a further mooch round the city centre, we went to our hotel, where we freshened up for our Cafe Rouge meal (nice food, nice people - terribly slow service), courtesy of Tesco vouchers. We were all pretty shattered by then after a really long day so it was off to bed.

Further installments tomorrow!

M x

Mark is chuffed - England has just won the Ashes!