Bo and Ted

I can't remember how Julia and I became friends but somewhere between years 9 and 10 of High school we did.  Maybe it was because we both liked Phil Allan or was it because we sat next to each other in English? I can't remember but something clicked.  We had some very fun times together Julia and I, the first time I vomited from alcohol was in her house one half term...good times, we went camping on the Duke of Edinburgh Award together and hung out in the music room at break time (yes I was a band geek at school).  Anyway at some point after year 13 Julia and I lost contact and through the power of Facebook just over a year ago we got back in touch and met up for a coffee.  Who would have thought that so many years had passed?  The chat came easily.   Thank you Facebook, finally after years of making me feel like everyone else was having more fun, you brought something good into my life. 
So what is the point of me telling you all this? well, turns out my friend Julia is pretty crafty of the knitting and sewing variety, she has a shop on ebay called Bo and Ted selling some really lovely knitted pram blankets and some other gorgeous items (which seems to be selling pretty quickly might I add, two items already sold since I last looked.) and I thought I would share them with you, take a look:

 

 

 

 

I am sure she would love it if you took a look, amazingly she is offering free postage!!

Welsh Wedding

A couple of weeks ago the hubby and I took ourselves off the the beautiful Welsh Valleys for the wedding of my old Uni house mate Anj.  It was truly a beautiful day and a wonderful wedding, so much love and happiness.  Her new husband is a dairy farmer so there was a lovely little bit of a milkmaid theme going on with mini milk jug favours and large milk jug flower arrangements. There was a delicious buffet dinner with the most amazing tasting potatoes I have even tried, no joke, then later on a hog roast and a delectable ice cream stand selling the most tasty mint choc-chip I think I have ever tried.
Here are some pics:

I really wish them both the most wonderful marriage because they are such a lovely couple.

Youth Group painting

I have recently been helping run my church youth group on Sunday evenings and I was given the responsibility of  organising a group painting.  We decided we would create an image similar to that of the church logo which is a tree with people underneath it, the kids at youth group all designed their own logo and we combined them to create a new logo.  I was worried about being too "teachery" in the evening, but the girls who I help run the group with said I was really good.  It gave me a real boost to have people tell me I did really well because positive praise and encouragement like that rarely/never happens at school.  Also all the kids really enjoyed the painting, they tried really hard and were really appreciative, (again another thing that rarely happens in school)  All in all it was a really rewarding experience and is definitely the sort of thing I would like to do more of.

Here are some pics:

And the finished painting:

Birthday photos

Sorry I haven't been around lately, had things on my mind , which I will probably share with you at some point.  I have noticed that talking about things that are going on help me to understand how I feel about them.  Just last night I was talking to a very old friend on Facebook and told him all about my life at the moment, it was nice to talk to someone who is out of my immediate loop, gives me a different perspective.
Anyway, I thought you would like to see some photos from my birthday weekend because I have a lovely lovely time.
I went to stay with my friend Hannah and two of her lovely sisters (all of whom I have known since they were born!) in London.  On Friday night we went to a fabulous cafe called Drink, Shop, Do.  I had been wanting to go there for ages after seeing a fellow blogger had been there.
Basically it is a cafe, which contains all vintage and mid-century-modern furniture.  We had an afternoon tea which arrived on a cake stand made from all different vintage plates, the tea was served in all different vintage tea pots and with all mis-matched cups and saucers, it was sooo cool.  The decor inside was absolutely my taste, I kept gasping every time I turned my head and saw another fabulous thing.  The melamine tables alone were enough to give me palpitations.
I had Earl Grey and cornflower tea which was delicious and all the sandwiches were so cute with their crusts cut off, by the time we got to the delicious selections of cakes we were stuffed!  (Mostly with tea of which I consumed 7 cups!)
The to top it all off we finished the lunch with a wonderful glass of cava.  Oh yes it really was wonderful.

For some reason if feels necessary to put on a silly face when pouring the tea!

Then we went for dinner and decided to go to a bar or cocktails, on the way we stopped at Platform 9 3/4 and adopted another silly pose:

Next morning we had a lovely fry up courtesy of Hannah and her kitchen:

All in all a really great weekend.

I love my friends!

Being creative with others is more fun

My friend Hannah and her husband came over on Saturday; I would have to say that she is probably my best friend, I have known her since I was a baby, we grew up together and even though we sometimes go for quite long periods of time without seeing each other, whenever we are together it is like we have never been apart. I feel like I can talk about anything with her and she won't judge, criticize me or think I am crazy, she is also full of good advice and always looks on the positive side of things.  She really is a lovely and good person and I am so glad to have her in my life, she is every thing that a good friend should be.
I was showing her my decorative letter in my bedroom and she commented on the painting above the bed, she said that she wished she could paint, and excitedly I said "You can!" and then "in fact I have a spare canvas, lets do one now!".  It was a totally spur of the moment thing and it meant we didn't end up eating dinner till about 10.00pm!
It was a really good experience for me because I have never really tutored an adult through a painting before, hopefully I was a good teacher, I thought she came up with a really lovely painting, her are some pics of the process, I made a painting along with her:

Isn't she gorgeous!

It made me think about one day doing an e-course for painting.  

A really great long weekend

My weekend began on Thursday when I travelled with some lovely girls from Church to Watford for Naturally Supernatural, I wasn't keen on going initially, it has been a long time since I have been to a large Christian gathering but somehow the girls coerced, cagouled, persuaded, encouraged me to go.  I was really worried, but I am so glad I went because I had a really amazing (and emotional) time.  I am feeling really fired as a Christian now and positive about the future.
Then on Friday we had the lovely Matt and Elora over to stay for the rest of the weekend. She really appreciated my fawn bookends, I knew she would!  We went out for dinner and drinks on Friday and went to my favourite cocktail bar in town called The mix.  I really love the styling inside, it feels very girls and Sex-And-The-City-ish, I tried to take some photos but obviously it was dark and I didn't have my good camera, here is an idea of what it was like:

See that drink I am having...here is a close up:

And look what it's called!!

On Saturday we went to Oxford and visited the Pitt Rivers Museum, I have been there lots of times before when I was at Uni, but it is always worth going again because I have seen something new each and every time I have visited.  I would love to go again with my sketchbook and do some drawing of the artefacts that were in the museum, there is some really incredible things including a bottle apparently containing a witch, a huge to totem pole, shrunken heads and nose flutes!  Here are some photos from the natural history bit, sadly it was too dark in the Pitt Rivers museum to take photos.  

Also went to the Cath Kidston shop and bought this:

All in all a really excellent weekend, and the end to a really wonderful week off from school. I can't say I am thrilled about going back but at least I feel rested.