Number Crunching!

Yesterday was all about keeping the little one calm! He has a sleep deprived eeg today so was only allowed 6 hours sleep at the most! so to be honest, we stayed at home so as not to overtire him for when it come to a late bedtime!
We played with lego and small wooden furniture making a home for the angry birds!
Whilst I did general tidying up he played some more and then the three of us watched a movie - Ratatouille!

We did some home school work! I'm trying to keep him interested in numbers and school whilst we have the big holidays!

The highlight of the day though of course was me having a delivery for the shop and these been part of the box contents!

I'm sure you can picture them all over my living room floor! they are the sea you see! he is very imaginative!

Everybody do the Dinosaur!

On Monday we went along to Irchester Country Park, (we're so lucky to have a handful of really well looked after parks near to home)

They had a ranger rex roaring photo trail for the kids, so for £2 we went off to find the clues
A picnic is a must when out with friends so we fueled ourselves first and then off on the trail we went!

The prize was to dig out your own dinosaur when at home, we were lucky the downpour of rain started just as we were leaving!

 This made me chuckle!

Maze to City Farm!

On Sunday we headed off to a quirky maze in Leicestershire called Wistow Maze, to say we were a little deflated when we got there was an understatement! It wasnt quite as 'great' as what we were expecting or led to believe! It looked more like something out of a scene from ET!

Plus at £20 for a family of four ticket we in all honesty couldnt see the value in it so left to find something else close by, and thankgoodness we did!

We found a fabulous farm quite literally in leceister city! called Gorse Hill City Farm, its run on donations so was only £6 for us to enter we then bought animal feed cause you cant not feed the goats, sheep and pigs can you!
Anyways amazingly they had a lot of owls there which you could hold, Jack went straight for Willow who nibbled away on his hand but Jack assured me it was ticklish, so proud of him for doing this as sometimes he does shy away from this sort of thing!

Whilst I was busy working away in my little shop on Saturday, the boys went off to London and walked their legs off as Riley announced when he came home!

Next time I shall certainly be joining them, I adore this photo of my babies

Just because

 the photo turned out super pretty and it made me smile

 

do not close your screens! yes i have cut off the stems with the stains! I dont like them lol

Instagram Catch Up

Since finding out I will be running the shop by myself I can honestly tell you I've been bogged down with some sort of fog! and it doesnt seem to be lifting! I think its because the summer holidays are upon us and that needs to take precedence over everything, I mean the boys are only young once right!
This fog feeling has left me feeling majorly out of sorts and my anxiety has reared its ugly head, I am fighting it but its taking its time to do one!
Yesterday we had a chill out day at home, I lay down on the bed for a moment and the pooch decided to join me and give me a much needed cuddle

To change my wandering thoughts I've started reading this book, a friend suggested it and so far so good!

Today hasnt been much better! We did go out and about and do some needed jobs in town and I got a stock of paper and crayons and crafty bits and bobs to keep the boys entertained whilst working in my shop with me!
Its amazed me how a £1 stamp set kept my little one happy for a very long time!

A new heir!

I will admit that I waited with huge anticipation for this beautiful baby to emerge from the steps of the hospital, I cried, I'll be honest (must be hormones obviously)
There are lots of negativity about the royal family, I dont mind them at all!
I love how happy William and Kate always look, but seeing them standing on those steps, and remembering his mother doing just the same, brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat, it just reminds you how precious life really is, whoever you are and whatever family you are born into

I wish William and Kate all the joy of parenthood and welcome to the world little heir to the throne

Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge

Its official

the summer holidays are upon us

Adjustments!

The last few days I'll be honest I've felt numb and cloudy! Odd way to express how I feel but its the best way I can
My shop partner has decided for personal reasons to leave our little shop
It was a little sudden so I've had a lot of adjustments to think about especially with the school holidays starting this week, I think i've come to a good conclusion, I just need to tweak a few dates and then I'll be set and ready to go

The shop is now in its second year of been open and I have always had lots of plans of how to keep pulling it forward and getting people to notice us (as we are a little off the beaten track!)
I'll of course share all progress and ideas as they happen
After feeling at a loss I'm now looking forward to the future of me and my shop, my partner and my friends have been so supportive I cannot thank them enough

It kind of feels like day one again which I suppose isnt a bad thing and I'm loving it just as much now as I did 12 months ago

Onwards and Upwards x

off to market

Today was market day
We had the local radio treasure hunt choose us as clue number 3 so we on air for a few moments, which to be honest made our little market go a little crazy! so my feet are aching so much after not sitting down!
The cream teas went down a storm! I mean come on, after looking at this photo would you have passed on my cream tea decor x

I treated myself to a few goodies too x

Bird Seed Favours

As a thank you to our sellers on our party night we decided to make up some bird seed favours to give out as gifts, I decorated them with yarn and gave them out in glassine bags (as it was a rather hot evening so I didnt want them melting in their bags)

These were so super easy to create, all I used was wild bird seed and lard

I let the lard melt to room temperature and them placed it in a bowl. I poured in half of the bird seed and began to mix it all together with a wooden spoon

Once it was all mixed together I put a small amount into a heart cutter shape and pressed down very well so no loose bits were showing

Then with my hole maker (i couldnt find a straw so i used this old syringe) I made a hole for the yarn to go through, gently slide the heart mould over the mixture, I used my spoon to hold down the mixture and they stayed in shape that way

I actually placed these in the fridge as its so humid here at the moment and as I made them the day before the party I didnt want them to be sticky for the event


A really economical project with a total spend of just £1.39 for the seed and 39p for the lard

This is a classic fatty ball recipe, so could easily be rolled up into balls and placed in a metal holder to hang from the tree also

One Year Party Evening

Our little shop has now been open for one year! one whole year!
We are so proud of how far its come and we've worked so very hard to get here

As a thank you to our sellers we held a little one year party with pimms and cake to say a HUGE thank you

This schloer is a limited edition, raspberry and rhubarb, I urge to go buy, its gorgeous and so refreshing in this heat

 Pimms darling! I had to leave the making of this to Rona as I rarely drink and struggled to get the taste right lol!

 The sliding carrot cake, it was so hot it just kept moving lol but it was delicious as well

 You have to have pretty napkins

 and a few savouries to soak up the pimms

 My favourite though was the schloer and I was all vintage and drank it out of my tea cup :)

So much has happened in one year of running a retail shop, lessons have been learnt in many ways, I cant wait to see what another year brings

You can follow our shop journey here on facebook and we have a website if your too far away to visit too

How Much!

The £75 grass seed removal! I even got to keep them as a souvenir!

On a good note, the pooch is feeling much better, he was super drowsy yesterday when he returned home and very sorry for himself, but all is good now

will i break!

im sure im tested quite a lot, you know the invisible sort of tests that are thrown your way
the ones that either build up and you snap or ones that are just slam dunked in your face and your left feeling 'what the hell was that all about!'

today has been tough, i havent had a 'big' anxiety since last november so to be faced with one today really threw me off the radar! how i managed the school run is beyond me! lots of breathing, a burst of tears to the teacher and lots of breathing to run in and hide in the comfort that is called home

it gets so tough at home at times, with appointments here and there for little man, but still no one actually saying anything! all these consultants know each other by name, so why in the world dont they meet in the same room and discuss, it wouldnt take as much time im sure and would be far less stressful for us as a family

he is super sweet and super kind and super hard work, hes really not enjoying school at the moment, so i'll be honest i'm dreading the summer holidays not for the length of it, more the returning to school, you see he loves home that much going back to school is going to hit him hard and i feel like it will mean going back hundred paces

i am super lucky to have a good supportive network around me, without them i couldnt do it! just offloading sometimes helps so much

so thats me today, no hiding, no photos, no cute makes just a mess - tomorrow is a new day, see you then x

oh deer sweet deer

My lovely friend who I've mentioned many a time on here about her fabulous journals has come up trumps again
Last year she gifted me the cutest little deer journal and because I am the complete list maker that I am I fully used up all the paper which was sewed in
I asked if she could refill it for me and she came up with the even better idea for list makers like me and upcycled it again into a notebook holder
Nope she couldnt stop there either - look at the pretty packaging  - sweet deers

and she had enough of the deer fabric left to create the pockets for the notebook too

 You can see alot of her jounals on here facebook page here, happily we sell alot in our shop too x

New Rhonna Designs App

Oh my goodness, I mean I toally love my A Beautiful Mess app but I've just found the Roanna Designs App
its fantastic, its more expensive than the ABM but still at £1.49 its a real bargain, you get soooo much with it design wise, I'm still finding my way around it
I believe Im going to have lots of fun with this as I'm planning on making a summer instagram book, so cant wait to play

Read up about it here
Find it on your iphone app store now and you wont be disappointed x

slumber

The weekend was spent with me in my little shop on saturday and then home to friends and eating pizza in the garden
The gorgeous weather continued into sunday where Riley played on a water slide all day, and I mean all day and Jack spent time between outside on the water slide, scoring in his new basketball net (he had it for his birthday in January! first time we've had good weather to be able to get it out)and the obvious teenage addiction the xbox! (the basketball net is quite a stress buster you know! you should try it!)

The evening was spent well and truly slumping on the sofa

Wicket clearly wouldnt move so he was literally lying underneath me!

Yesterday was a toughie as it was two years since losing one of my closest friends, I cannot believe its been that long already, sometimes it feels so far away and other times it feels so close!
I miss her dearly and spent the day more than most remembering the fun times we had x

Picnics and Sunshine

oh wow the sun has shone today whilst i've been working away in my little shop, lots of lovely handmade teacher gifts been given out this year
and to top my day off my lovely friend turned up with a superb picnic lunch :)

still on the tea cups!

Most of my time in the studio today has been spent pricing everything up ready for my visit to restock my vintage retreat pod

I've packaged up the sewing kits for my tea cups, I really like how they've turned out

In house news is, we are pretty excited as daddy is home tomorrow from his bike trip, so we're super excited to see him and hear about his travels 

On a totally different note, I saw this poster on pinterest and just love it

be kind x