AUGUST!

It came................

Warm sunshine and a family holiday in Turkey

 Making sand castles 

Eating far too many desserts

Making a big splash on the flume rides

and even making a new friend, fondly named Dobbin who fortunately didn't require much feeding but always needed a bed for the night with Granny and Grandad 

Enjoying a wonderful day in London to celebrate VJ Day with my Dad starting on Horse Guards

then joining in with the parade passing the Cenotaph

followed by afternoon tea in the gardens by Westminster Abbey.

Very scrummy indeed!

Our  grandchildren's sunflowers have brightened up our garden a treat

Charlotte's grew to about 8ft so she was very pleased hers was a winner!

Finally this charming chappy was spotted at RHS Hyde Hall yesterday while we were there to wander the craft fair and the gardens. The sculpture  by Robert James is there to commemorate 150 years of Lewis Caroll.

And then it went .............

Goodbye August, hello September.

Hope your August was as wonderful as ours.

VJ DAY 70TH ANNIVERSARY

70 years ago this young man was stationed in Burma.

On Saturday, he was in London to mark the 70th Anniversary of VJ Day, 

for my son and myself it was a great honour to walk beside him.

We had such an emotional and wonderful day.

Well done Dad!

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, 
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

SHOPKINS BIRTHDAY CAKE

 Having been spurred on by cheery words which, I thank you for from fellow bloggers I was finally ready to jump back on my roller coaster ride of amateur cake making.

Charlotte in her role of cake designer had specific ideas of what she wanted and had given me a drawing so I had something to work from

and once I'd stopped panicking in the end, I came up with this!

The bottom cake is plain sponge and the top tier, chocolate. I think the bright colours of the icing really set it off and I am so pleased with the result.

My daughter in law literally worked her socks off organising the children's parties this year. Charlotte's friends arrived in the afternoon, using up some energy on the bouncy castle and enjoying crafts like face painting and tattoo transfers.
As the afternoon moved into evening and after feasting on BBQ food they lounged indoors with popcorn and watched a movie.
Then before finally crashing out in the tent in the garden, they danced the night away in the spare room that had been stripped bare of furniture other than a glitter ball, disco lights and sound system.
Were they exhausted, unfortunately, not quite!!

When the morning came, breakfast was consumed and by lunchtime a sleepy bunch of Charlotte's friends went home.

After a quick tidy round preparations were again soon under way and as 1pm approached Jessica's friends arrived for a tea party for the afternoon. More fun was had on the bouncy castle and lots more face painting.

I had made another cake and this time it did look more like a teddy bear.

The children's birthdays and parties are now over for this year, no more 'till next March.
A good time was had by all  and my daughter in law now deserves a rest. Me, well I"m pleased to say I have washed and ironed my "pinny" and it's neatly folded back in the drawer.

I have also managed to do some knitting, I've just finished my hat.

I sat last night with needles and yarn ready to start a hat for baby Alfred ready for the autumn but did not even get to the casting on stage. As the end credits of Ripper Street rolled, I found I'd dozed off instead, totally missing out on the program and the knitting!

Enjoy your weekend, fingers crossed for some summer sunshine!

BACK IN MY COMFORT ZONE!

Mid July and another birthday in our family, on Friday we celebrated Charlotte's 9th birthday. Another cake was called for and I have to tell you I was much happier making this cup cake than that bear type monster creation that I made for Jessica.

I felt back in my comfort zone!

As I sat with the cake perched on my lap en route to her tea party there was a brief sense of relief on my part when my husband commented that my birthday cake making season was at least over for another year.

This may not however be strictly the case.

The girls are having a joint party at the end of the month and they've asked me to make a "shopkins" cake.

 Do you know what they are?

I actually don't know myself yet but I have thought briefly about purchasing one already made.

The only thing is that my grand daughters have come to love my take on their birthday novelty cakes even though they are often lopsided and not totally recognisable.

I think I'll do some research of what the cake should be like before I decide, to buy or not to buy!

As part of Charlotte's birthday present, I gave her her finished cardigan

and by the skin of my teeth I managed to finish this one for Jessica.

This has turned out so much better that I thought it would. I ran out of yarn (Drops Muscat)  and couldn't get another ball of the same dye lot so ended up taking a chance with a different one. Thankfully, it's not noticeable at all and it looks really lovely on Jessica.

So now I am moving on to a quick little project, using this Pam Murray yarn that I bought while on holiday in the Orkneys.

When I find the right pattern, the right needles (you never have the right ones, do you!) I will be making myself a hat!

Enjoy your Sunday!

WHAT IS IT?

Sometimes, things go so well and sometimes things go oh so badly.

On this occasion it was the latter.

Jessica celebrated her 6th birthday on Friday and as is the tradition Granny was asked to make the cake. I was all prepared in advance, making the cake a couple of days beforehand and keeping it in the freezer.

On Friday, all I had to do was decorate it, what could go wrong?

Well, basically everything!

My, I have all day to decorate it turned into just 1 hour.

To add to that, it was such a hot day but I shouldn't really use that as an excuse.

The picture that I had in my head, did not materialise as I imagined on the cake

and I thought it looked hideous.

Have you guessed what it is yet?

We soldiered on, taking the cake to Jessica's tea party and were met by oohs and arrhs from Jessica and even an, "amazing!" from her Mummy.

In the end, I asked everyone if they knew what it was supposed to be and they got it right straight away - it's a teddy bear!

I wonder did you guess that?

Next week, I'm supposed to be making a cake for 30 people for my son to take to work for his birthday and Charlotte wants a Shopkins cake, which she has designed herself and I have the drawing attached to my fridge freezer.

I am beginning to wonder if my novelty cake making skills have now been stretched to their limit. Perhaps it's time to hang up my hand mixer. 

Getting away from cake making, I have finished this cardigan for Charlotte and I'm really pleased with it. It is a Drops pattern, using their muscat yarn.

This is the colour Charlotte chose herself and I have another on my needles for Jessica but in orange. Her choice again but extremely bright, hopefully that will be finished sometime next week and I'll include it in my next post.

I received lots of lovely comments on my last post, thank you very much.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

DEDHAM VALE

When England gets it right  it couldn't be finer.

The last day in the month of June when the sun shining brightly in the cloudless sky lingered on well into the late evening.

It was our wedding anniversary, only 36 years and with us both being so busy recently, me with my parents and grandchildren and he at work we wanted to head to somewhere quiet and peaceful to eat, chat and while away a couple of hours.

We found the perfect place, The Boathouse at Dedham to do that very thing.

Doused in insect repellant,

(I have to say driving up their with the air conditioning on the pungent smell was unfortunately  a little intense for my liking.)

we managed to get a table outside right by the river.

There were swans and their cygnets to see but by the time I'd got my phone out of my handbag to take this photo they had passed and were probably half way along to Flatford Mill.

We always enjoy being in Dedham and the surrounding area and we had such a nice evening here, the food and the service at this restaurant was lovely and I would definitely recommend it.

Today, Michael is off to work again and I'm ironing!!

Yes, ironing on the hottest day of the year.

However I'm also taking time out to write this post, eat my lunch and watch a little tennis.

I have finally put buttons on my 2 finished cardigans.

This one is for Alfred

and this one is Jack's.

Jack's is quite thick  so will be ok for later in the year.

I really like the yacht buttons 

but ........

I also liked the football buttons that I bought originally for it, but bought five instead of six.

I'm always doing that!!!!

Thank you for all your comments, I really appreciate them.

Enjoy the sunshine!

A CRAFTY WEEKEND WITH THE LITTLE ONES!

 It's school sports day today and I've just returned home for a short break between junior and infant races. With a cup of coffee by my side I thought I'd just keep you up to date with my blog before heading off again.

The life of a busy grand parent!

We've had little people staying with us for the weekend. We collected the two girls straight from school on Friday and Jack earlier in the day.  Pre weekend I'd made my mind up to ensure that I'd got lots of things planned to do either indoors or out and a fridge/cupboard full of a variety of things that they might like to eat.

I didn't want them to get bored and I didn't want them to go hungry either, I needed them to be three happy children and for the most part they were so, I think I should get a star for that!

I popped into my local Hobbycraft the other day hoping to pick up some nice things for them to do and saw these knitting and crochet basket kits, half price. They were a must have as I knew the girls would love them and was really pleased that Charlotte had a good try with a hook and yarn and learnt to chain and DC stitch.

They brought nail varnish with them to decorate stones, that kept them busy for an hour or so, making ladybirds. 

Grandad was kept busy too. Alas, he had no time to work on his boat this weekend

but I ensured he had a little boat project to make for Jack.

We planted four sunflowers, one for each grandchild and while I headed to the park with Jessica and Jack, Charlotte and Grandad made these wooden labels. The nail varnish came in useful again!

While Jessica was happy to play and draw Charlotte sewed this pencil case together. 

When the little people went home last night, everything was again quiet in our home.

We had a really lovely weekend but boy, were we shattered.

Our bed beckoned early and we overslept this morning.

I think I need another coffee!