Enjoying Some Sun

For this past week our family has been enjoying some sun down south! Our summer in Vancouver has been so disappointing, cool, cloudy and rainy. We decided to escape to sunny California where we have been enjoying the sun!

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Bear with me as I most likely won't be posting again until Sunday when another stupendously talented Canadian comes to visit! There are so many amazing Canadians, my list is long!

**edited Sunday, August 31. Finally got some free wi-fi and my So Canadian eh? post isn't quite ready. My family is waiting for me to grab breakfast so we can head on the road back home!
What a long drive home!

Hugs to all.

XO Barbara 

Summer Fun : Camping

We enjoyed some family fun camping with neighbours this past weekend, not without some glitches along the way. Each girl took a friend and one friend accidentally had her mom's passport, which she discovered when we were about 5 cars from the border crossing. After that was resolved, I was driving along the I-5 when all of a sudden a bike flew off the bike rack. Thank God, it didn't result in an accident! The next day we all had a good laugh:)

Once our camp was set up, the fun began!

Hikes along the beach..

Gathering firewood...

Gorgeous views....

Amazing sunsets.....

Exploring the rocky shore.....

Friends.....

We had a wonderful time. 

Now onto folding 10 loads of laundry......

XO Barbara

Golly Gee, I Won!

I am thinking a lottery ticket purchase is in order!

 I won two giveaways in the past two weeks. I won a colour/interior consult from my wonderful blogging friend, Anne-Marie at 10 Rooms.

Finally, someone to help me decide how to make my living/dining room sparkle! I am my worse enemy when it comes to deciding on colours, etc!

Sad, unedited photo, aren't all before photos supposed to look blah?

THEN....

On Sunday I read that I won a cache of LePage products at Rambling Renovators!
Let the glueing begin!

And..


I am finished Roman blind #2!

With a little help of course...that is what happens when you lay nice clean fabric down on floor!

I am working on the tutorial and hopefully will have it up Friday!

Finally...
My daughters have one more day of school.
Yes! Two less lunches to make
{I am making quite "boring" lunches according to the youngest one.}

My son finishes the 29th and then he is off to high school in the fall. I will have all 3 children in high school for one year. I just hope the weather will warm up for us to enjoy summer. So far, not so good.

How is your week thus far?

XO Barbara

Amy Butler Fabric: Pillows

While I have been procrastinating with my own to-do list I have been helping my sister (another famous procrastinator  - she will be mad at me for this comment) finish her projects. It always more fun working with someone on their projects instead of your own. A while back I wrote about how we went shopping for fabric for her room, but we haven't tackled any sewing until now.

 Procrastination is our middle name.

This week she brought over all the fabric for the duvet and throw pillows for her bed. During our shopping trip we chose some Amy Butler fabrics from her Midwestern Modern Line that would go well with the robin's egg blue herringbone toss pillows she had by Nate Berkus' from the now defunct Linens and Things.

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I managed to sew her some throw pillows for her bed this week! 

Life isn't all play, I have managed to do something productive, even though it isn't tackling my own to-do list.

 We used inexpensive pillow inserts from Ikea, the larger one is down and cost $6 while the smaller polyester fibre-fill pillow was about $2. 

 (This wasn't planned but I noticed once I posted the photo that in the background is my sister on her wedding day!)  

The piping around the pillow was made from the contrasting fabric,  the backing was made from a robin's egg blue fabric.

I made covered buttons for the enclosure.

Here is a sneak peek at our other project we worked on this week!

I know, I know.....

 I should be working on my own projects. Good news though....I have started working on the upholstered headboards for the girls' rooms. Hopefully I can get them finished before we head on our vacation!

Joining:

SNS@Funky Junk Interiors
Met Monday @ BNOP
Frugal Friday@The Shabby Nest
edited: Nov 5: air your laundry @ freckled laundry

Proud Mum.

Who would have thought that this cheerful toddler........


........would grow into a 6'4" Master of Physics and now is starting a PhD, (something to do with condensed matter/micro technology).

I was such a proud mum at Vytas' graduation at Leicester University this summer. (Don't look at my hair, the rainy weather turned me into a total frizzhead). Vytas is still living in Leicester with Kate who is doing a Masters at the uni. Sorry guys, I just had to put your photos up. When Vytas told me this morning that he'd got his PhD place I was so excited. I celebrated in the accepted fashion at work by taking in cakes and chocolate biscuits.

The weather is wet, and very windy though the wind which was coming from the west was surprisingly warm. I taught in the afternoon, all the kids were dressed as gardeners or flowers or scarecrows to celebrate Harvest Festival. Although many parents like uniform I think it regiments the children and I much prefer it when we have non-uniform days.

Kids are funny, I was doing an RE lesson about Joseph and Jacob and they got fixated on the blood on Joseph's coat. They wanted to know all the gruesome details , we didn't go into that, and then someone said 'they murdered the sheep', so I had to divert into talking about the fact that meat on the table is the result of animals being killed. A difficult concept at the best of times and with a recent bereavement in the class it was a fine line between truth and skipping over the facts. I hope I got it right.

The wind is howling outside this evening. Soon it will be time to light the woodburner for some extra warmth. The cats are starting to curl up together cutely by the rayburn in the kitchen.

This morning Donovan was on the tv, promoting his new album. It's funny to see how much he has changed but when he sang the voice was still the same.As a child of the 60s his music brought back memories so I've included an old clip for anyone else who remembers those times.

Airsoft Assault.

No, we've not been invaded. Romas, Linas and some friends ( not sure who's who under all that gear), are spending the weekend here , running around shooting each other with their new air guns. There is a very handy overgrown native woodland plantation just right for combat just across the stream. The kitchen looks like an arsenal at the moment but it's only for the next few days. I've been doing the earth mother thing with good home cooking. It was worth it to hear, "Is that the cake you made last time? It was AWESOME." Later their other friend said it was the best he had ever eaten. What was it? Only plain old chocolate chunk cake. My sort of cake, all you do is add the ingredients in turn and mix together. No separating, sifting or folding , just mixing. I used to do it by hand but now I use a hand held mixer as it's a bit quicker. What makes it taste so good? Just sugar, butter, our own free range eggs and of course chunks of value chocolate bar which I started using because it is a lot cheaper than chocolate chips. Eating it still warm from the oven is the best way. I carried on with the home cooking theme by making pizzas from scratch. I used to make bread quite often but when value bread was 20p and my time was limited I would only make it in the holidays. Now value bread is 30p-60p and often sold out and most bread is £1.40-£1.90! perhaps I'll start making bread again, at least while I'm working part-time. Overcome with their appreciation for my cooking I've made an apple and blackcurrant (homegrown) crumble which is in the oven as I type. I'll run out of steam soon.

Looking down into our valley.

We are hidden somewhere in the trees.

Nearly had some good wildlife shots today. I took some pictures of a pheasant in the garden but they weren't that good. Going up the drive this morning a fox suddenly appeared on the road. I had the camera on the dashboard but the only shot I got was too small to post.

Instead, some more garden pictures showing what a lovely sunny day it was today. I did some gardening but mostly reading and enjoying the sun. Lazy old me. Poor old Pete has to work this weekend as the PCT is moving premises yet again and everything needs to be up and running by Monday.

Quick Visit to Saunton Sands.

Linas went to Plymouth a week and a half ago and today he is back home again. Did he miss the comforts of home or his loving family? Actually no, he and a group of friends had ordered some air-guns and he needed to collect them from Braunton. He came by bus and met me at work. As we were going that way I thought we could pop down to Saunton Sands. Before we moved to Devon , we would come with children and dogs to spend 3 weeks each summer in a chalet on the edge of the dunes. I loved the wildness of the dunes and especially appreciated the fact that it was just a short walk to the beach.

Saunton has a open beach which can be very windswept. We now usually go to Putsborough Beach, 2 headlands further round the coast, which has excellent surf, more shelter, less people and better toilets. (The header photo was taken at Putsborough one evening when Romas was surfing.)

Now for some pretty pictures.

..... and then there was one..

Yesterday, Linas set off for his new life at Plymouth University.

He and Pete loaded all of life's essentials; computer, guitars, amplifier, server, more computer stuff, more guitars, oh and some clothes, into the car. Actually it didn't all fit and Pete will drop some off next week when his work takes him down south.

A bit of a mix-up with the letting agents and we had a long wait out in the street. The house is 5 minutes from the university and the whole area has a campus feel with students wandering around and live Irish music floating up from one of the several nearby pubs. Ideal ..... if you're a student.

This is the house and LOOK, blue skies! It was actually really hot and my sources tell me it was the same in North Devon. Shame it's raining again today.

An easy 2 hour drive home, unlike the 4 hour slog home from Leicester to drop Vytas off at uni. Driving back down the Link road, Devon was bathed in a golden light. Coming down from the high rolling hills there were amazing views, reminiscent of Chinese watercolour landscapes. Spread out below could be seen the typical Devon patchwork of fields with each range of hills beyond being a misty golden grey fading away into the distance. Unfortunately this is a no stopping road and the only parking places were down in the valleys or surrounded by trees so I couldn't take pictures. The picture above was taken near home when it was getting dark and the golden light had gone.