Meeting Molly

At the Winter Festival there are 2 birds of prey being shown. My mum and dad brought Martha to see me at work and so we went to meet the birds as Martha is so keen on birds and animals. I held the barn owl which was lovely. She is the same age as Martha and was screeching for her lunch and stretching her wings. Martha was delighted to stroke her neck.

Working Week!

After a busy weekend when I worked Friday night at a pamper evening with stalls and Saturday and Sunday at the Save the Children fair in Leamington I got home and stocked up again for this week where I have been working at Coughton Court (National Trust) and their Winter Festival. 

Really am loving it!

Entrance to the courtyard

My view from my tent...hasn't been too cold (yet!) and local schools come in 

everyday to sing carols - just beautiful.

List for Myself

How can it be the 25th November...it seems only a week or two since summer, maybe 5 in all. 

How is it that next week we are opening the Advent calendar again? (we have a keepsake nativity one) 

How is it that the next 5 days are my busiest Phoenix days...starting this evening in Leamington I have 5 days trading which I am looking forward to hugely. 

How is it that my photos and scrapbooking are waaaaayyyy behind still? 

How am I going to fit everything I need to do into the next month and still have fun with the family?

How, how,how?

List to Myself

Finish tax work - yawn, so dull, so pitiful, so boring, so 'got to be done NOW'

Fiddle about with more bread recipes

Try to incorporate spinach into soup without making it into dark green but yummy gloop.

Order photos without delay to be ready to scrap and file into new retro boxes

Prep JYC pages - 31 at least!!

Make Christmas cake

Order photo stickers

Finish shopping for early Christmas deliveries (unusually I am behind with this)

Take cards to show Auntie Wyn

Spend Little Clothes Horse voucher (fairy tin?)

Transfer files and photos from old lappy

Order Christmas tickets

Empty boxes into new, shiny wardrobe

End of month figures for Phoenix

Fan sorted for Wolverhampton yet?
Pay heating engineer

Get extension/conservatory quotes

Thank you letter for Jolly Postman book for Martha

Letter to David

Plant pansies and bulbs

Read through life policy paperwork zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Go to Coventry Co-op for sleigh ride and to see Santa 

Get out and about walking

Rebound every day

Read 'Mark'

Make bat biscuits with Martha

Find two lamps for the lounge without needing to take out a mortgage

Tidy bookcases upstairs

Apply to Brambles and Bertie Rd

Open a/c for Martha

Make a gingerbread house (I vowed I never woulds waste a day like this again!)

Get new trousers

Move toy box upstairs and wardrobe into our room.

Breast Cancer Care Coffee Morning

On Tuesday Martha and I held a little coffee morning for friends, neighbours and people from church. It was a lovely chatty morning with lots of tea and cake. Martha's friends came too and she had a great time playing.

I sold my Phoenix cards and all profits went to the charity.

We raised £70 so I was very pleased.

I made a load of cakes and Martha helped too but my friend Julie came with a tray of the most beautiful cupcakes with the Breast Cancer logo on them - so lovely. She also brought mini Hello Kitty cakes for the littlies and they went down very well :)

I thought it was fab to hold a coffee morning and end up with more cakes than you started with!!

Martha and Lily tuck in!

Busy time.

This weekend was good but hectic with Mike's parents here to help with wardrobe fitting. We took Grandma to Nature Tots and the NCT second hand sale which was great as we got loads of books, puzzles and I got a few clothes for Martha. 

I was also doing Sunday Club, the story was Jonah so we had fun with a basin of water and various props before coming home for Sunday dinner.

We had some nice evenings together but it all seemed to fly past very quickly and before we knew it they were heading home again. 
In between this Mike and I have been doing our will so we have had lots of conversations about that and tonight it seemed to come together with the solicitor which I'm hoping means I won't lie awake thinking about it now! We did it under Will Aid which is a great initiative by solicitors for charity. You still pay the same but the charity benefits. 

Since the weekend Martha and I have had a play date with a home ed. family here in town and we have also baked lots for our coffee morning today. Martha helped with making the cupcakes. 

Wardrobes

Mike and his dad worked Friday and Saturday to build us some wardrobes. Martha had fun testing the shelves out. We still have to sort the doors but I am just thankful to have these - my first wardrobe since we got married! I thought by now I would have them filled but so far this week I have been too busy and then too tired to do so - soon though they will be filled with all our things :)

Outside in November

Despite the murky weather we have been having some days are bright enough to get out for a few minutes or even an hour or two to run, play in the sand, dance and giggle. 

We are making the most of it :)

Scrapbooking

I have been scrapbooking for a while but at first it was just a glorified photo album. As time goes on I am more interested in telling 'the story'. Along with blogging and scrapbooking, saving 1000s of photos on a hard drive, Photobox online, and a few boxes of photo files I also write a memory book every once in a while for Martha that records events and also her new words and songs and funny little ways. 

I am beginning to think I am obsessed with recording it all....just have to keep checking that we are living life and doing what we need to and choose to and not just madly writing it down. Mostly I think we are. I say to Mike 'we need to stop doing so many things, we are having too much life and I can't keep up with scrapping it all.' 

Every now and again I have a burst of making pages and that makes me feel a bit better but I am still trying to catch up all the time :)

I never really thought about putting photos of pages on my blog but I look at other people's so why not? I have done a few pages today inspired by Shimelle Laine as she has been doing a prepping weekend online for her Christmas class. I need to get caught up with the rest of the year before I can fully enjoy that. 

I love Martha's expression as she looks at this cake!

This is our niece in January. I had lots of photos from this so copied an idea from 

Shimelle's 4 x 6 photo love demos. First time I have made a pocket containing a selection of photos. Loved that! and journalling all tucked in the back too. 

Asleep after a fun afternoon. She loves to wear a hat, this one is from Grandma's dressing up box. 

New for me too, secret journalling popped in behind the photo, a message for Martha one day. 

Love that Martha is wanting to read the Emma Bridgewater catalogue with Mike. I remember this day. We were very amused by her.

This one I love. Oranges, Martha adores them...they were a daily treat all last winter until they were past their best. We are just getting back into them again.

Visitors

On Wednesday Mike's aunt and uncle contacted us to say they were in the area so we promptly invited them for dinner. We hadn't seen them for over 3 years since before I was pregnant so it was exciting to catch up with them and for them to meet Martha. 

Even although I talked about taking photos while they were here we were simply too busy talking so all I have is a picture of the lovely roses that they brought for us. 

They are, I suppose you would call them, faith healers which is a fairly new part of their life and has happened since we last saw them so we were really keen to listen to them. 

Super-interesting and a fab night. Martha loved it too as she got back downstairs after dinner to join in again!

Hanging out in Starbucks :)

We go here way too much! Had to pop in after a slow and November-y Saturday yesterday and we had already been a couple of times in the week. 

The egg nog latte mix was 'out of stock' for DAYS but it was back yesterday and sorted out all my (tiny) problems in a nanosecond. Amazing stuff!

Also brought home a biscotti and had it with coffee and a glass of Baileys Biscotti version in the evening. YUM!

JYC

This year I have booked to do my first online scrap class - Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle Laine. I have been deliberating about whether to do a mini book (seriously how would that ever fit Christmas in??! I need a maxi book really!) or to use a 12 x 12 album which is what I normally scrapbook with (generally 2 a year excluding holiday/trip albums).
Anyhow instead I am using a John Lewis wedding album! 

I bought two albums in the JL sale last year both £5 (RRP was £25 and £35 respectively) and a little tatty. The one I am using I have ripped all the tissue protector pages out as they we creased and marked, hence the price. You can't see an edge at all where I have pulled these portions out. 
I can either make pages and then attch them onto the cream wedding-y paper inside (the size is just less than 12 x 12) or I can journal and embellish right onto the page - scary monsters!


The outside was mainly in good condition except for the corners so I have painted borders with Jenni Bowlin for Ranger Soap Powder dabber and attached ribbon and embellishment - just simple really. Am hoping they stick ok long term.


I am journalling for 31 days - from 1st Dec to the end of the year. Whilst we celebrate NY Day and are still doing holiday things I like to start my new year scrapbook off by detailing those events. 

 Roll on Journal Your Christmas - can't wait to start it!

Nature Tots Time

We had another great morning at Nature Tots, walking, collecting things and ticking them off 

( I Spy an Animal!) and visiting a bird hide where we saw tufted ducks, 

Canada geese, swans and a heron.

 Martha looking through the window in the bird hide.

 She got to use real binoculars and also they made some paper ones too. 

Gruffalo Bread

We had fun this week making Gruffalo bread, I'd seen someone make dinosaur bread once so thought this might be fun as we have been reading the book and watching it on You Tube. 
We went and bought everything - I chose Waitrose Love Life mixed seed flour - and prepared it all then measured and we made it together. Martha enjoyed kneading the dough and putting the prickles in his back - we used sunflower seeds. I used a few almonds, including one cut in half to make his "terrible tusks" although apricots might be good for his orange eyes, I just used almonds. 
It was a useful activity and Martha liked eating it too. 

 Vaguely resembling a Gruffalo!

Sparkly Bonfire Nights

The Kenilworth fireworks draw a great crowd. We walked up with friends to the war memorial and watched the display before heading home for a late dinner. Martha liked them but I think she enjoyed the people-watching even more!

My camera never takes a good firework photo...one day I will splash out and upgrade.

Martha at Abbey Fields out late!

Our friends brought these lovely miniature gladioli.

In the garden this evening, running about in the dark, twirling sparklers and breathing in the smoky November air - quite enchanting really. 

A sparkly evening!

Red Cups

The red cups at Starbucks are in and I can't even count how many I have had this year already. Plus I have tried egg nog lattes for the first time (the name put me off even though I love eggs) and they are amazing and addictive. 

The red cups are not even really coffee...the strong coffee hit isn't there...instead it's like drinking Christmas in a cup. 

We love books!

We love going to the library in town. There's a special wooden chair for children to sit in and read (often there is a queue for it)  We go most weeks and Martha loves it. The library is dangerously near to Starbucks so we often stock up on new books then read them over drinks and cake across the road.
There is a new system for encouraging children now too. Previously you collected a sticker every visit and when you got 4 you could claim a certificate now it is a bear paw stamp that you collect and you need 6 paws to get a certificate. You also get a nice folder and membership card for the Bookstart Bear Club. All in all lovely ways to instill a love of books in little ones. 

Kenilworth Castle

Martha and I met some friends and had a morning out at Kenilworth Castle. 

Fab weather, fun and chat, Halloween decorations, coffee and lavender cake in the cafe. Perfect!

Pie and Peas Party in Oxford

The children all loved dressing up for the annual family party in Oxford

My sister-in-law was a fab witch!

Mike & Martha have a swing.