Right now I'm loving Sunday Dinners - the sort that require no planning just a bit of what ever is in the fridge and of course toast. When I asked Little E what she wanted for dinner, she leant in close and whispered in my ear "dippy eggs" so that's what we had* - soft boiled eggs with toast and wedges.

Growing up, Sunday dinners were always some form of cheese on toast, possibly in front of quality TV like "A Dog's Show". I used to imagine that one of our dogs was good enough to star. Could you even imagine dog trials on TV now? i guess, it's like some form of rural reality TV.

*Wedges can make for a pretty cool gluten free dipping alternative when pressed too.

Perhaps, I should learn to walk before trying to run with needles. In hindsight combining both my first attempt to read a cable pattern and using circular needles was not the wisest idea. I was a little disappointed when the first glove didn't fit, but when the second was perfectly snug, I could see something was up.

A lovely parcel arrived on my doorstep this week. Stella sent a parcel of kitchen goodies as part of the vintage kitchen swap. On Monday, little E ran off with her egg cup before I could make lunch and filled it with flowers. Today, Miss H joined in too. The egg cups are a sweet folk art painted pair in the cheeriest red and yellow.


Also in the parcel was a blackboard jar - now holding our fridge letters. There was a host of other little treats too. Miss H is seen here shaking the salt and pepper shakers. If you put them together you can see they make a bank.


You can see more the vintage kitchen swap over here.

In a few weeks time, I get to be an auntie and my girls get to be cousins. Over the last week we have been sorting through the baby bedding and putting a care package together for my sister in law*. Of course, the package had to be topped with a new quilt for the baby. The girls are also pretty excited about getting a cousin.

Sorting through the bedding I realised that I really do have a lot of baby quilts. It got me to thinking about what makes a good baby quilt and this is what I came up with:

• Baby's are not always clean - make the quilt washable
• Mum's are often pushed for time - make it MACHINE washable, quilt it tight so that it will hold up to the machine.
  
• Some Mum's are scared of what the machine might do - prewash and dry the quilt so all the shrinking is over and done with.
• Babies love cuddles and soft things - consider using flannelette backing.
• Babies temperatures are very sensitive - use materials that will breathe, avoid polarfleece or polyester batting.

And most of all, make something you enjoy making.


*For those of you who were at the engagement party on the weekend and are wondering where the bump was, all I can say is it's the OTHER sister in law.

For the second time this winter, it is snowing. This is close to miraculous.

My children are keen on reminding me it's a miracle every half hour. They are checking the snow regularly and every time exclaiming anew "It's snowing!" as if I didn't hear them the last time. It's akin to a happy form of dementia.


Grandma returned from her holiday to find the only way home was a train. After a hairy trip to the station and a break in the clouds, the kids were able to attempt a snowman. If we hadn't had that little spot of blue sky I'm sure they would still be clambering at the door.


This doesn't happen often. The last time it snowed here, I was 16. I remember walking out of an exam to drifting flakes and amazed exchange students who had never seen snow in July. I've managed to capture the moment, just in case it snows again. Little E will be able to chime in with me by adding " I remember the last time it snowed. I was 4"

I'm loving the dizzy giddiness of clothes-lines on a sunny morning. Watching my kids spin faster and faster and making little fairy circles on our lawn is so much fun. It makes me just want to join in before one of them goes spinning off in a different direction.

I'm one of those people who listens out for the lyrics.

Much of the 80's was spent rewinding and replaying songs I had taped off the radio in order to scribble down and unfathom their meanings. Granted, Tiffany didn't have much of gravity to say, but I helped when we came to sing along in the car.

Sometimes there were lyrics that would just pop into my head and it would take me days or months to work out where they were from. A vague recollection of Bono muttering "I'm not sleeping" or wondering exactly what "she sees a hat and easy for the top shelf" means. That would later turn out to be "Bad" (brilliant song) and "She seams to have an invisible touch, yeah". So I don't always hear the right lyrics, but untold years on I an still listening and still surprised.

Today I was listening to Avalanche City sing You and Me and was certain I must have misheard the words, imagining in their place what I would like to hear. I flicked it back a bit and pulled out the liner notes. Have a listen for yourself..




Can you believe it? He really did sing

"If you were addicted to fabric,
you could fill a whole room in our house"

Brilliance!!

Have you found any surprising lyrics lately?

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We've spent our Sunday afternoon digging. Spring is a long time away, but in the hopes of being prepared we are getting the garden beds ready.

There were little hands and little helpers, all of which needed essential marshmallow and fizzy juice type fuels to keep going*. You can see the cast aside spade in the background.

The beds were in a sorry state. When we built them, I was concerned about stale water sitting in the base, so the beds were lined with newspaper . I thought I was being incredibly sustainable and respectful of the soil as a living organism. I forgot to consider that plants grow both up and down. The surrounding trees discovered the cornucopia we had built for them, sending up masses of roots, and stripping the soil. Three years later, after wrestling with root bound beds, our afternoon was spent digging out a bed, laying down some weed mat and then filling it up again.

Our compost heap has been decimated and carefully layered into the refilled bed. Next on the list is to gather together some luscious organic sheep cr*p and dags to give the soil a bit of a help along. At the rate of one bed a weekend, we might just get there in time for September planting.

*I was having doubts about sharing our adventures as it's not a typically wholesome adventure and probably wouldn't get into the pages of a high class parenting magazine anytime soon. Little E even ran off with the camera in order to capture the wonder of her purple and pink toes nails. I might be tempted to say that we drank home made lemonade and ate oatmeal cookies, but I finished the lemonade myself the night before and prefer my oatmeal served as porridge.

It's funny that I should be second guessing the sharing of our adventures on the basis that they are not fashionably eco enough. Yes, I paint my daughter's toes (fantastic sugar free coaxing) yes, we drink fizzy on special occasions and yes, the kids had a great time, outside in the ever so brief winter sun. All round it was a great time and quite honestly, next sunny weekend, we'll be lining up to do it again.