Visiting family.

Ben got home from work nice and early on Friday evening, we had dinner, said goodbye to my eldest, as she went off home for a few days. Packed up the car, sorted the animals, locked up and off we set for Cheltenham. With one quick stop for more nappies and bubba milk.
We did hit some traffic on the M26 and M25 but all in all made good time and arrived about 10.30pm
Molly was tuckered right out and went straight to bed (good girl) but that little Daisy gave it her all until 1ish am. Then just gave in. I think the look on my face was what did it lol that Mummy look, you all know the one! lol We fell into bed and woke nice and early the next day.

Got some breakfast, washed and dressed and went out for a nice walk with the girls. Before all of us and Ben's Mum went round to visit Ben's sister and her husband at their new house. They are so lucky to have found this lovely little place. It's just right for them and they've made it home already. After a nice lunch we all went off down the Bath Road and I popped into Rosablue's to see the owner Penelope and give her the packs of pegs, I'd made for her and my photoed price list which she'd requested. I was very excited to have my pegs in her shop and smiled even more when she told me she'd be placing a full order very soon :) I left with a very big smile on my face and an address for a Christmas fair she wants me to attend. So a very good visit and nice to see her again. Worth a look http://www.rosablue.com/ beautiful items.
Business done, time for family fun.

Here we are in a lovely park just round the corner from Ben's sister's new house. And in the background behind me is Ben's old junior school. I can't imagine him so small. When here he is with his own 2 gorgeous girls playing on a swing. I wonder if it's odd for him coming back here now he's all grown up and a Daddy.

This big dish swing was great fun and after the girls a Ben had been on it, I just couldn't resist having ago myself. Everyone enjoyed themselves, so much that no more photos where taken (sorry) we just had to much fun to stop and think about it. And after we'd done with every swing, slide and climbing frame, it was back home for drinks and ice-cream. And meet Grandma who'd gone to the shops because it was to hot for her at the park.

I left Ben and the girls with his family and popped back out to the shops for a little me time. Picked up this bubblegum pink Gerbra for the garden. I'd been looking for one this colour for ages. So home it came.
And this handmade lavender heart with the words Bless this house on it. It now has pride and place with all the other hearts hanging on our fireplace. I'm not religious in any way but the words are kind of sweet. And it's pink and dotty so it called to me lol "I need to come home with you" and so it did.
We ended our day out with a yummy Chinese take out and Grandma and Auntie giving the girls a bath, and putting them to bed, while Ben and I went out for a couple of hours. We drove out to the country side which there is a lot of here. Parked up and walked through a wood, up a field full of sheep, a badger and 2 foxes lol and at the top got the beautiful photo at the beginning of this post. You can see for miles and it was so peaceful. A bit further on there was a burial mound. I'm not very good at remembering names of places, so I'll have to get back to on that one. It has been there for hundreds of years and had pretty flowers growing all over it. It was a little spooky walking back to the car as the sun was setting and the wood path was very dark. Lol what a couple of wimps hehe

Back at Ben's Mum's the girls where bathed and fast asleep. Awww! thanks for babysitting Grandma and having us to stay. x We ended our weekend away by visiting Ben's step mother and having a lovely Sunday lunch with her. It was good to see everybody in such a short visit, it's good to catch up with them all. And we look forward to next time.

We where very lucky with the drive home, no traffic at all. Straight home in under 3 hours. And the cats waiting at the back door to greet us. Well not really, all they wanted was their tea, cheeky things lol

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Catch up with you all soon.

Catherine x

Just a quickie!

Well here she is with a fancy new hair style and She's so pleased with it. I think it makes her look a lot older. But she's happy and that's all that matters.

Just a quickie today, we're off to Cheltenham for the weekend. All packed and ready to go.
So enjoy your weekends and I'll see you all on Monday.

Catherine x

Muffins, apple sauce and pussy cats!

At home again today just catching up on the washing and cleaning, so not very interesting sorry. I must try and get some new items made today. (make note to myself)
As promised here is the recipe for Banana Muffins / Cupcakes. Thankyou to all of you that have left lovely comments and requested this recipe.

For muffins/cupcakes:
225g (8oz) Unsalted Butter, softened
225g (8oz) Caster Sugar
225g (8oz) Self-rising Flour
4 Eggs
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
225g (8oz) Ripe Mashed Bananas

For the frosting:
1oz Unsalted Butter, softened a little
4oz Icing Sugar, sieved
1 tsp Vanilla Ess
1-2 tsp Lemon Juice Mix all together until thick enough to spread onto of the cakes. Add a sugar flower of slice of banana to decorate.


Preheat oven 175C (350F) Gas mark 4. Place 12 muffins cases or 18 cupcake cases in tins. Then combine the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and nutmeg in a large bowl until smooth then add the mashed banana combine well. Spoon the mix into the cases and bake for 20/25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Once cold decorate with the icing and serve. I hope you all enjoy them as much as we do.



Last night I cooked pork chops, mash and veg. And I rustled up some homemade apple sauce to go with it. I made enough for half a jar full, although you wouldn't think I had. My lot loved it and ate loads. Daisy was eating it before it had even cooled down.
Have ago at this one, it's very easy.
For half a jar this size:
2/3 large cooking Apples, peeled and cubed
1/2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
Mix together in a pan until soft enough to mash with a fork (leave some lumps in for a little texture)
Leave to cool and serve. Store in a air tight jar for 4 weeks.
There you go enjoy everyone x

I wanted to share a couple more photos with you. Here's Megan and Thomas, they're so lovely and both have very different ways. Thomas is a real softly and as you've seen will let you dress him and lay on his back while waters poured over him to cool him down in the hot weather. And he licks anything and everything, including us. First thing in the morning, if he thinks your taking to long to get his breakfast, he'll just follow you round and lick you feet and legs. It's very funny when I hear Ben yelling Argh! get off Tom lol I know what he's up too hehe

And Megan, well she likes to bring you presents of the furry kind. We normally wake to a mouse or 3 on the patio. Just last week she brought a mouse in and dropped it next to her food bowl. She then sat next to it, looked up at us, as though to say, "I'll have that for dinner please!"

Cats! who'd have them? lol

This posh puss is my Mum and Dad's cat Zag, she's a real little madam and has my Dad wrapped around her paw. He gets up at what ever time of night, she fancies going out. They don't have a cat flap.
There she is all wrapped in a warm towel, just after she's been dried off. She was soaking wet from the rain. Pampered puss. That's my Mum. Say hello! And I'll be seeing you soon. x

Not sure what we're up to tomorrow apart from a trip to the hairdressers for my oldest, so I'll get her to show off her new hair style. And maybe I'll have made some new stock to show you all. Have a good evening.

Catherine x

I love finding bargains.

Yesterday we popped off to Maidstone market, hadn't been for about a year so thought it would make a nice day. Didn't find any goodies there, lots of stalls but full of rubbish :(
Walked into the town and found these lovely vintage cushions. So I just had to have them. Going to use them for the chairs outside in the summer and pop them on the reading chair for the winter. Bargain price too only £2.99. I think they look very cute on the my favourite chair, all the patterns seem to go.

Saw these pretty pink daisies only 2 for £1 so grabbed a couple for the pots in the garden. Only thing is the bunny likes the taste of them lol So they may not last very long.
Nothing much to tell about today, just went out down the town to post a couple of things, get some bunny food and bedding then back home for a lazy afternoon of reading, blogging and a little stock painting.
I had to show you all this photo of Daisy with her and her sisters new headband, it's pink with polka dots and I think she looks like a little pirate arh arh! She's ready for another trip to the seaside to look for gold lol

While drinking my afternoon coffee, I looked through some old photos on here and found this one of Dougal hehe! I hope it makes you laugh as hard as we did then we took it. Silly old puss, you can see he's loving every minute of it. He's just thinking Get it off! and I'd better get a treat for doing this! I'm off now to get another coffee, so enjoy the sunny weather everyone.

And I'll be doing a PIF sometime this week, so please join in x

Best wishes.

Catherine x

A full weekend.

How odd is this sky? I took this photo Friday night from our garden, the whole sky was an orange colour, it was like someone had put a coloured bulb in and turned it on.

Woke up early Saturday and left Ben in bed for a lay in. I got myself busy after breakfast and made some yummy banana muffins. Molly was there testing them before they'd even cooled.
Here they are all finished with their frosting and sugar flowers. Once again I thought the cake stand had been left empty for to long.
When everyone had got up and had breakfast, we set off for Knoll Park in Sevenoaks. Picked up some food from Waitrose and spent the rest of the afternoon in the park with the wild deers. LOL We had a bit of trouble sitting down at first and eating our food. This baby stag fancied it all for himself. But Ben moved him away and we enjoyed our food in peace.
Molly and Daisy loved having it so close and stroked his nose gently. No photo of that all of us didn't want to take our eyes off him. You have to be careful with them and the girls are only small. Lucky for us he was a nice stag and only wanted the food lol
This is Jade trying to move him away from us with a bit of fresh fruit, but he just wanted more and chased her round and round. A very funny sight.

Once we'd eaten and had fun with the deer, we took a walk around the grounds and house garden. I just love this huge lantern, it's very beautiful.

If you're in this area I recommend a visit and the parking is only £2.50 for the whole day, so a cheap day. Just watch out for the hungry deers. lol
After preparing a yummy picnic and packing the car with suncream, blankets, towels, bucket and spades and excited children, here we all are at last on one of Broadstairs bays. It felt like we where in the car forever, flaming traffic. Because it took so long to get there I said to everyone that I'd miss my craft fair and we should just go straight to the beach and settle and have fun. There will always be another fair I can go to. But the weather is always changing and can't be missed. As you can see the sky was so blue and not a cloud to be seen. Just lovely.

We set ourselves up on a nice bit next to the cliff and was lucky to have some shade too, for the girls to play in. They spent some time digging and filling their bucket and shapes up with sand. And of course Daisy ate some too! lol
Buttercup bunny joined in the fun and got buried in the sand. I did this without Molly seeing was she would of been cross with me. I showed her the photo and she "you're a naughty mummy!" hehe
I just had to take this photo of Ben, he's looking out to sea and looking all model like lol. He'll kill me for saying that. lol But to me he's just gorgeous and I had to say thank you for taking us out for a lovely family day. I don't drive so he has to do all of it and even when he's tired, he gets us home safe and sound.
A big kiss for you Ben X your the best Daddy and a fantastic partner. x

Well here they all are, fast asleep and tucked out after a fun day of sun, sand and sea. Bless!
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and enjoyed the sun as much as we did. I look forward to catching up with all your blogs.

Best wishes.

Catherine x

Tents, bunting and bunnies!

Stayed in today to enjoy the lovely weather once again. Maybe at last the summer is here.
After getting a load of washing out on the line I put together this little tent for the girls to sit in and play picnics with their bunnies. Molly was the first in it and began to sort out all the toys.

She made me a cuppa and then some toast. The bunnies had to wait in a row for theirs. lol
Molly soon sorted them out with food and cups of tea too. They have this cute little kettle from ELC it makes a boiling sound and when you pour it, it sounds like the waters coming out into a cup. Both my girls love it and we get made endless cups of tea and coffee. Bless them.

Here they both are enjoying a snack together. This is really everything we did today. Just had fun at home.
While Daisy had her afternoon nap I did get time to finish this bunting I'd started last week. And am very pleased with how it looks. I've never made any before and don't own a sewing machine, so it was all hand sewn. I'll be putting it up in the girls room and having it down for birthday's and Easter next year. You can't really see some of the pattern but 2 of the pink ones have dots on to. I love having lots of different bits of fabric together, they always seem to work.
This made me laugh, Molly had put all the bunnies onto my chair and they just looked like they where waiting for something to happen. ( I don't know what though) any ideas? please post x
Lets hope this gorgeous sunny weather continues over the weekend. No plans for Saturday but off to my favourite place on Sunday. Broadstairs here we come again, picnic, blanket, towels, suncream, bucket and spade, camera and cash for craft fair. Plus car full of happy girls just chomping at the bit to get there and a Daddy hoping I remembered to pack the head ache tablets lol

Have fun what ever your doing.

Catherine x

Sunny days!

Sorry it's been a couple of days since my last post but you know how it is with the summer hols, the days just run into one another.
Tuesday was another sunny day and spotted these lovely flowers we bought on Sunday had broken out into bloom. What a gorgeous colour, I want to grow some gerberas in this colour but just haven't found any yet.

Tuesday was spent off at ELC for a bit of playtime and then off to the library. I got this book the relaxed home by Atlanta Bartlett. It has this yummy looking chair on the front cover. I'd give my right arm for one of these in my front room lol. Maybe one day we'll get one and then they'll be fights for who gets to sit in it. Doesn't it just look like it's saying "come and sit in me and don't move for the whole afternoon" Very tempting!

Wednesday saw us setting off for a walk up to Rochester Castle grounds for a picnic and look at the shops on the way back. A few more clouds today but it was still nice and warm.
The girls enjoyed some sausage rolls, crisps and cake. And had fun just running around on the grass.
Here's Thomas that morning getting a cooling off from Molly. Silly cat just laid there and let her pour water over him. lol He's as mad as a hatter that cat. Soppy thing.
After our time at the Castle we stopped off at the local play ground for some fun on the swings. Daisy just screamed with delight everytime she was pushed. They had a race on to see who could go the highest. But we kept them the same so no one was upset.

More fun for Daisy and Jade on a rocking bike. All in all it was a lovely day and lots of good fresh air and exercise. We were all tuckered out by the time we got home and just about ready for tea.
Today started off lovely and sunny and while I sorted out the sand and water pit, the girls enjoyed a breakfast of strawberry jam on toast and bananas. And watched Pinocchio on DVD.
Another good find from the library. Don't they have a good choice? and only £1.25 for a week much cheaper than some other places ( I won't name names) but it starts with a B. lol
I'll end today with this cute photo taken this morning of Megan the cat and Daisy bunny. Silly old things, I never thought I'd see them like this. Normally the bunny chases Megan out of her hutch lol. Just goes to show everything needs a cuddle at sometime or another awww!
Enjoy the rest of the day, it's a little over cast now, so out come the crayons and paper and more master pieces to hang up will be created.

Bye bye.

Catherine x