Today is a blue day ....

It's a Blue Blue Blue Blue World........



I'm feeling a bit blue today as I went back to work this morning after a lovely 3 week break. I did not want to go back - although I work with some lovely people I really wish I could stay at home - I have so many things I would rather be doing and none of them resemble compiling monthly performance reports. But needs must and one day who knows - but for the time being an office worker from Tuesday to Friday am I.



I decided to do a blue post today to show that blue days do not have to be bad days. I sorted out some of my photos this evening and decided to put them into colour categories and see what I came up with. These are some photos taken over the last eighteen months and show just a few of my favourite blue days.



This is the Plaza de Espana in Seville, we went here for my 40th birthday nearly two years ago. It was my first (and so far only) trip to Spain and I loved it. Also it was warm - not bad for February. We went to this plaza as Jamie was at the time obsessed with Star Wars and here was the setting for Queen Padme's palace. This will of course mean nothing to those of you who are not clued up with Star Wars but trust me, down to my son's coaching at the time I could have taken star wars as my specialist subject at Mastermind.

This is the luxurious (not) Hotel Start in Krakow. We stayed here on our bargain bucket weekend last Feb. It's a converted lunatic asylum and still had padded walls and doors in some of the rooms - thank fully not ours. If you check out Annas blog on 'all things lovely' - on the side bar - I'm not techie enough to have worked out yet how to put a link in a post. Anyway if you look at Anna's blog she tells you all about the converted mal maison prison hotel in Oxford which looks like a lovely romantic place to stay - well that is probably everything that the Hotel Start is not!! But we did have an amazing weekend while we were away and although I may never visit the hotel again you cannot deny it fits the bill for something blue.

This is Neil and Jamie looking out to sea at Lands end last summer. The weather was soooo hot and the sea and sky seemed to merge into one. We go down to Cornwall most summers as I am half cornish on my dad's side and most of his side of the family still live there. It's a great excuse to travel down there and we really love spending as much time as possible just bimbleing about enjoying exploring the county. Definately my favourite place in the UK - so far....

Finally my last blue picture for today. The Serpentine Lake in London. I grew up about an hour and a bit from London and spent many weekends in the City seeing the sights and wandering around the parks. I moved north when I was in my teens and since then have only been back to London a handfull of times. We took Jamie for the first time in November and he loved his day seeing the sights and visiting the Natural History Museum. My brother lives in Essex less than an hours drive from the centre of London and his partner is a true born and bred cockney and both love going into London to the museums, parks or a general stumble around so we have now promised Jamie that we will go there at least once a year so that he gets to see more.

Well I hope you've enjoyed this trip into my blue world. Pop around again sometime and perhaps we can share another journey into perhaps a different coloured corner of the world. Till then, take care.

xx

Happy things

hello again,

I really have got tons to do and shouldn't really be sat at the computer at all but here I am. I'm back at work tomorrow but last night despite being sooooo tired I slept really fit fully and ended up awake half the night. I suppose it was all to do with making sure we were all up in time to get ready for Jamie and Neil. It is Jamies first day back at school and he has gone in armed with his trombone, PE Kit, book bag and numerous favourite bits from Christmas for show and tell - talk about loaded up to the max - he could hardly carry it all. Also today is his first day back wearing his glasses so I spiked his hair for him this morning so that he could look (in his words) supercool - anything to give him confidence as he was quite nervous. After doing the school run I decided to nip into town to the market as I need to buy some felt to make a wall hanging like the one I wrote about the other day. I've been asked to make one for a birthday pressent for a friend so I'm feeling a bit pressured as I want it to look the same but different and better than the original. Anyway after a bit of material shopping I nipped into one of the local charity shops and bagged a real bargain.....

This lovely tall and cheerful vase really fits well in our dining room and I think looks so pretty full of the gorgous tulips my friend brought round at the weekend. The colours look really cheerful and are just perfect for keeping the room bright now that it's time for the Christmas tree to leave the building. The best bit of all was the price - a whole £1.75 !! I am feeling very pleased with my bargain.

In such a good mood I thought I'd tackle the supermarket for some food - I hate supermarket shopping and try to stick to local small shops but needs must today I'm afraid. Anyway the good things kept on coming because down the medicine isle - lemsip, tissues, calpol and ibuprofen duly purchased was this little gem - pink vaseline for lips. How could I have never seen this before?? Has perhaps my snobbery of avoiding big shops meant I've deprived myself of this?? Well no longer, I now have just slightly chapped lips but at least they are pink and rosy and incredibly girly - I feel about 12.

Just one more happy thing around today and that is my favourite ever mug. I love drinking coffee (I cannot stand tea - sorry to all the tea addicts out there) out of this mug and when I am at home I never use any other mug - I dread the day it breaks as it surely will although I will then have to learn mosaic because I just could never get rid of it. My mug has magic mum on it and bright sunflowers - I defy anyone not to smile when seeing such a mug but more importantly it was bought for me by my lovely brother and sister in law on the day Jamie was born and as such is just the best mug in the world. I may be ever so slightly obsessed with it but who cares at least I'm obsessed and happy I suppose.

Well thats all for today I really must get on with things and it's almost time for the return leg of the school run - just enough time to have a lovely coffee before facing the cold. Hope you enjoy your day too. have fun xx

The Last Day...

hello,

well it's bright and sunny and freezing here today and also it's the last day today, the last day of the holidays with both N and J back at work and school tomorrow. I get a days grace because I don't work Mondays. Tomorrow I plan to take the decorations off the tree and packed away again till next Christmas, and I suppose I should try to get the house looking sort of normal again (I'm not really a housework person so I'm not really looking forward to a day of tidying) before I go back to work on Tuesday. We've a great Christmas break this time, I don't work during the school holidays so me and J have had pleanty of time together but this time for the first time in 10 years N managed to have the whole holidays off too. Usually he has to go into work at least couple of times between Christmas and New Year but this year he was off from the 23rd till tomorrow. We've had a really relaxing holiday spending some nice days with good friends and family but in the main it's just been us three and it's been fab.

Yesterday we went to the World Museum in Liverpool, we've never been before but will definately go again. It was really good. The bonus being that it is free to get in and there is 5 floors with loads to see and lots of 'hands on' stuff making it really interesting for little 8 year olds too. The fact that we spent 6 and a half hours there without once being urged on to hurry up and the word bored never even mentioned and still not seeing everything has got to be a good sign. Personally I thought the planetarium was the best, N loved the eqyptian gallery and J loved the bugs bit - the more creapy crawly and horrible the better. There's a picnic area on one of the floors so you can take packed lunches which is a good idea - or would have been if I'd realised, but even so we bought some sandwiches and drinks from the museum cafe and the price wasn't that extorinate (cheaper than 'costa' coffee anyway) and were ok. Anyway it was a really good day out and I would definately recommend it for something to do. One thing though was the NCP car park near the museum is expensive ie £10 for 7 hours so next time will do a bit more research and find somewhere cheaper.

Today we are having a very chilled out day, J got Narnia on DVD for Christmas and as you can see from the photo below - Narnia is being re enacted with the help of lego and toy soldiers, N is reading and I am going to have a go at crocheting some granny squares in a minute I think. So all is well at home, shame its back to usual from tomorrow.

take care xx

HAPPY 2009

Hi,

Happy New Year, I hope you had a lovely eve and hope 2009 brings us all the good wishes we hope for.

We stayed in last night with my brother and sister in law spending the evening with us. This is a bit of a tradition now where we have a family meal, Jools Hollands on the TV in the background and usually a game or 3 of cards (we are nomination whist adicts when we are together - very competative and me and my brother going instantly into childhood brother and sister mode whenever we play - but it is all in good fun and is a really good laugh to play in a group of people).

We celebrated being together with homemade lasagne courtesy of Neil (he is a fantastic cook - I may have mentioned that before) and lots of wine - far too much wine actually but I am feeling remarkably well considering. We are very lucky where we live as we are on a bit of a hill and not too far in the distance is the river ribble. Although we can't actually see the river from where we live we do have a fantastic vantage point to see all the fireworks that are let off at midnight along it. It's great really because loads of the pubs of Preston seem to have a New Years Eve firework display and we get to see a fantastic show for free from our garden - as long as you can brave the cold. We may have to apologise to our neighbours today though as J was allowed to stay up this year and helped see in the New Year playing his trombone!! This is a child who has been learning to play for only 6 weeks so we are not exactly talking Glen Miller just yet. Also and most endearing I find is that he can so far only play a few notes and can't play a complete scale yet as his arms are not long enough to move the slider bit far enough. But hey we all had fun.

As promised in my last post here are photos of the cushions I've made for my God daughters. Sorry the photos aren't the best but my camera is playing up so I've used J's instead and can't get used to it yet. But I am quite pleased with the cushions, especially for a first attempt.

Anyway, today is a chill out day in our house today, we are wrapped in blankets cos it's a bit chilly and watching Doctor Who, and I'm about to roast some Chestnuts - we have the maldon sea salt ready. We may get round to a bit of crafting later, J has a paper aeroplane book he's dying to try out so that should keep me and him busy. Tomorow I'm going to try to find time to go on a bit of a felt hunt as I've been asked to make a penny rug similar to the one photographed the other day. Yippee a chance to buy some nice bright felt without feeling guilty. I do so love guilt free shopping.

Take care and enjoy the holidays

xx

The inbetween bits

Hello, again thanks for stopping by. The weather today in Preston is cold, quite cold, the canal is lightly frozen - not too many skidding ducks to be fed this morning .

Does anyone else find the in between bit from Christmas to New Year a bit unsettling? I find I spend a lot of time thinking about the things I should be doing but don't really do anything about it. All this makes me feel in someway unsettled - that feeling that I've somehow forgotten something does that make sense?? Possibly not - I must admit that I've always been a bit odd....

Anyway, so far today I have done very little. Both big and little man (aka Neil and Jamie) have gone to face the shops as J needs glasses and his very first pair are ready for picking up this morning. I feel a bit nervous about it and hope that he copes well with glasses, I know he is a bit anxious about walking into school next week with glasses on but I've done my best to reassure him that the days of continuous name calling for glasses wearers is long gone and these days it's trendy to wear glasses (crumbs how old do I sound). Nonetheless I am also nervous for him as J is not despite appearances a rufty tufty young boy and apart from being one of the loudest children in the world is actually very very sensitive and my protective mothers instinct is definately kicking in. Please don't think I am specaphobic, both Neil and I are as blind as bats without our glasses so really it was inevitable that J would need to wear them one day and I'm actually quite suprised he's managed 8 years without needing them. Oh well deep down I know he will be fine.

I've been working on two cushions for my God daughters which are to be collected on Friday morning as late Christmas presents. Hopefully they will be finished without too much stress by tomorrow and I will be able to put the photos on here. My God daughters are gorgous, they are the children of my oldest friend from school. She lives near Birmingham now so we don't see each other as often as we would like but like all true friends despite the lack of regular contact we regress back to our school girl behaviour instantly whenever we meet. My friend adopted her daughters 3 years ago, when they were 3 and 4 years old and it has amazed me how well they settled in and became part of the family. I cannot imagine them not being part of all our lives and I find it really heartwarming how children can just adapt. J just accepted that one day my friends had no children and then suddenly they had two - no questions asked. I love the way that kids just get on with things as far as J was concerned it made the visits so much more fun as he had instant playmates and that was that.

This is a photo of a penny rug I made as a wall hanging for our lounge. It took a couple of months to make but I love the colours. Every day I look at it and smile, I think it's hard not to smile when there are bright colours around. I love colour, I love the way that something as simple as a colour can make me feel happy. When I look at magazines of homes I always think the neutral colours make homes look spacious and clean and calming but I know I could never live like that myself. Neil and I tried it once - pre child - to have a neutral minimilist home, we painting the walls cream, had our wooden floors and leather sofa and not much else. No books or magazines lying around and everything in its place. It lasted about two months, we just couldn't keep it up I remember the last straw being me trying to work out what to wear - nothing too bright or bold in case I didn't 'blend in' with the room - how bonkers is that!! Anyway it had to change so now we have bright coloured rooms with flowers, J's toys make the house looked lived in (well that's one word for it) and books around ready to be read. I love our home it feels like us and whenever I think that perhaps cream would be calmer I remind myself of the day I tried to match my clothes to the sofa - how's that for a reality check!!!!!!

take care and have a fun 'inbetween' day xx

Starting Again

Hello,

I've decided to restart my blog after nearly a year of browsing and lurking around into other peoples lives via their blogs. It's been so much fun reading and seeing how others have spent the last year. It's a bit like people watching via computer I suppose. Anyway, I've decided to come out of the shadows and join in the fun again. The problem with this is it becomes a bit of an obsession and I find that I end up spending far to much time on the computer but then never mind such is life I suppose.... Anyway it gives me the excuse to get some much needed practice with my camera.

So a quick think back over the last twelve months tells me that not that much has happened and the year somehow merged into a mass of work work, school, work, shopping, cleaning and in reality not much else. Hopefully this will not be the case for the next twelve months. My man and I have decided that the last year we spent far too many evenings talking about work and far too many weekends running around chasing our tales catching up on the shopping and/or housework that we never seemed to have enough time to do during the week.

We have decided to buy into the Country Living campaign to reclaim the weekend and as such try to limit 'chores' to the barest minimum. There are some wonderful places within an hours drive of our house and we fully intend to visit as many as possible throughout 2009.

I also fully intend to get my act together and concentrate more on my sewing with the aim on perhaps trying out a market stall or an etsy shop, But I have said this every year for as long as I can remember so don't hold your breath on that on. Also January 1st looms every year with the aim of losing weight once and for all but again I would suggest not holding your breath on that one either......

So tomorrow I will pick up my camera afresh and share a little more about my life in lovely Lancashire in our little terraced house on the canal banks of Preston. Till then take care and bye bye x

Back to Reality

hi,

this time last week I was wandering round Krakow in Poland having a fantastic time. It really is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen in the world. Such a shame we had to come home really, I love being on holiday. I had a lovely birthday and got some really nice presents including a yankee candle (i really love them, this one is a 'clean cotton' fragrance), and two really nice cook books specifically for cookies so looks like I'll be doing some baking in the coming months. Over the weekend we ate lovely food, drank the most delicous warm cherry wine and toured around one of the prettiest castles I've ever visited.

We loved the medievel squares of Krakow's old town and were amazed at how peaceful the Kaziermierz district (the old Jewish quarter) was. I suppose that somehow I expected the Jewish quarter to be more depressing given it's history but strangely it was quite the opposite. It was very thought provoking and there were lots of reminders of the war everywhere you went, from memorials to run down buildings that can't be touched until relatives of the jewish families who owned the properties can be traced. But, everywehere in this area had a calmness and peacefulness that amazed me. Just goes to show that despite everything sometimes human spirit still wins out.

Anyway, having said that just how fabulous is today's weather. It really feels like Spring has come. I really hope we have a nice summer this year after the wet one of last year. We seem to have loads of plans this year: plans for the garden, plans for camping, plans for delicous picnics, nice gentle walks and the plans go on and on and on. Funny though that all of my plans when pictured in my mind are accompanied by endlessly bright sunny days, warm comfortable evenings and I am off course at least 2 stone slimmer and wearing a beautiful and flattering wardrobe throughout.

One of my plans that's having to be slightly delayed is the launch of my etsy shop. Despite my hopes to have it up and running by Feb 10th, the speed of this year has got the better of me. What with virus's, a mad work shedule and weekends away I've just not enough time to sort things out or do as much as I'd hoped so I'm setting myself a much more realistic target of April, and this time no more delays. April it will be!!!!!

Off now to catch up on all my favourite blogs to see what you've all been up to while I've been away.