Monday 22 October 2012

Taking Time Out...

I have to make a confession... I have at times been a complete workaholic and thrown myself into my career without thinking of the effect on myself or my family. These past two weekends I have made a conscious effort to take time out for myself and as a family unit and I really can say I relaxed.

Family time has always been important to me and I have always taken time out for that but the problem has arisen when I have failed to take time for myself or if work has encroached on family time...

This weekend I went to Frugal Queen's house to make a quilt! You must understand that whilst I love knitting, all embroidery and crochet - I have not really ever used a sewing machine! There I was off for a whole day quilting!! I packed the car and set off the 5 miles that lie between our houses... Upon arrival I was met with the most friendly of responses which continued all day. I was joined by 3 other wonderful ladies who I had never met before and then the five of us set off on our quilting adventure. A wonderful day with real laughter and fun. Everyone was so relaxed and 'at home'.

I feel that as British we are often too scared to say 'I am proud of that' but I am really proud of the start of my quilt that I had achieved by the end of the day! I will try and post a picture later but at the moment the camera is not playing nicely!

After such a lovely day on Saturday I was really looking forward to a family day out on Sunday.... I had recently been sent a Groupon offer for the Monkey Sanctuary in Looe... we have lived on this side of Cornwall for over two years now and up until yesterday we had never been to the sanctuary... it was lovely and really important place. You are not encouraged to interact with the monkeys as they are rescue animals and therefore they are trying to de-imprint the animals.... They are so gorgeous though and it is hard not to blow kisses at the various species.

I have a day off tomorrow and intend on having some guilt free fun tomorrow too! :)

Until tomorrow
V

Sunday 14 October 2012

Racing for Wildlife

Today was the day that DH had to face his first 10k run! He has recently re-started running and whilst he is a fit and healthy person, when he suggested a 10k run I was a little worried!! He spoke to DS who told him in no uncertain terms 'Daddy I want you to make money for the animals!' - melted my heart and sent DH on a quest for a charity to make money for... he found the Race For Wildlife in Penzance and swiftly filled in the forms and paid the entrance fee!!

At 7.30am this morning we set off from our moorland home en mass and travelled to Penzance... now you must understand here that DS has a love affair with Penzance like nothing I have ever seen a 4 year old love!! He adores the place (mainly stemming from the fact that his beloved trains end their journey there!) and we frequently have to visit there. He was about to have his perfect day but more of that later!

On arrival at the venue we had to park and then walk about 1/2 mile to the beginning of the race at Trengwainton Gardens (which are beautiful to visit)... the walk to beginning of the race was gorgeous on this glorious October morning...

 
 
 
 
DS strolled on ahead of all of us... he was a boy on a mission!
 
 
 
DH was getting ready for the 10K aheard of him!

 
With the sounding of a single gun they were all off...


We went for a walk around Trengwainton Gardens whilst waiting... there were beautiful flowers all around...


And secret passages...

 
and more gorgeous flowers like this agapanthus!

DS decided to stroll through the Autumn leaves... don't you just love doing that!?


The beautiful lane that we walked down to the finish line...

 
Well done Daddy!!

Then we went for a walk on Marazion beach... beautiful weather especially for October!
 
Barefoot on the sand!
 
 
 
 The sunshine on the water was amazing!


Playing on the sand with Grandad is the best thing sometimes!


Followed by a building of a model St Michael's Mount!
 
All in all a fantastic and wonderful family day that was completed by the best part (according to DS) - the train ride home where we had to be met by Nanny and Grandad who had driven the car back from Penzance!!!!

Saturday 13 October 2012

New Beginnings...

I apologise for the length of time between posts... I have been very busy here with moving!

We have been talking about a new move for a long time... two years ago we moved back to my childhood home county of Cornwall. Dear Husband (DH) fell in love with it straight away as did my then almost two year old little boy (DS) - I had always been in love with the county... although growing up on the wild North coast was very different to the tamer south coast. We moved into a really lovely house but it was rented... the whole time that we were there I was haunted by the fear that we would get notice that the landlord wanted to sell etc... I also felt haunted by the fact that we were pouring money into another person's pocket each month at an alarming rate! We began to have converstations with my parents who were also not happy in their house and so began The Plan!

We decided that we could begin to look for somewhere to live together... there were stipulations that were put into the mix from the beginning... we would each own half of the property and that there had to be separate living areas. We began the search one (very rare!) sunny July afternoon and were crossing houses off our short list at a rapid pace.... too small, not enough space, small garden, main road.... and so the list went on! We were soon nearly out of hope for the afternnon and we drove around the corner to see this:


We all fell in love straight away and the long and short of it is that it is now ours after a long arduous battle with solitors etc... We moved in over the last weekend of September and had amazing friends who came to help us! We have been living out of boxes for two weeks but there seems to be some kind of normality descended on us now.

The living arrangements are perfect... company when we want it and privacy when we want that... bills beginning to be less due to splitting down the middle and most important DS has all of us under one roof! He loves it and splits his time between the lounges choosing where he wants to be at that moment!

As well as all this new moving I had also been desperate to learn to crochet because of this ... I wanted desperately to make a version of this and so decided that I would learn!

I went to the local wool warehouse in Saltash which has wool from floor to ceiling as I wanted to see the widest selection of colours that I could together to make my choices. I chose a selection of 6 colours plus a base of cream.

I then began to crochet... after a few battles with the hooks I began to produce something that resembled a crocheted circle!

This is the result now...


And here....


I am now waiting for some more so I can then make them into the first stripe for the blanket as I think I prefer the 'mass makeup' method.

I will keep you updated... until soon xx