plump pudding

A Day at the Beach

Today was Stephen's birthday and he had a rare day off work - which meant a day out for all of us.

I hadn't been to Tenby for so many years and we had never taken the boys there.  So in the name of reminiscing, that was our destination.

And it didn't disapoint.

From the pretty painted houses to the ones perched just above the beach.

 

After buying some new buckets and spades, there was no stopping them.

Plus some obligatory rock climbing

The only downside was that the tide came in rather quickly at about 4pm.

So we left the beach and headed into the town for blue (yes, blue) Mr Whippy ice creams and sticks of rock to take home.

You just can't beat a day at the beach can you?

Seduced

A chance comment by a friend led to the discovery of a Borders not too far from me.  With a Paperchase thrown in for good measure.  How could I resist?

Well, I couldn't.  Although I did err on the side of caution and ended up bringing this book home

I spent well over an hour in the shop, thumbing through all the craft/home books.  The photographs were beautifully staged, but there didn't seem to be anything fresh and innovative in them. 

What clinched this for me was a combination of the beautiful photographs and styling and the fact that there were ideas plus instructions on how to carry them out.

So instead of keeping it all to myself, I'll show you some of the highlights.

Such a simple but effective idea - and great ideas on how to use smaller scraps of fabrics.

Maybe a good idea for school fairs etc?

I have oilcloth on my table - but when your children doodle on it, it's not so wipe clean then!

 

My favourite: scanning in vintage fabric and then printing it to use for wrapping paper.

Bargains

I have been having problems connecting from one of the computers - so after installing the photograph software, am back to blogging.

Thankfully the weather has held and the boys, myself and my parents all went out to Penarth on Friday afternoon.  We ended up at the Pier for an ice cream and a wander on the beach.

After that I took the boys in to Cardiff where is is the Big Weekend.  We were lucky enough to have free tickets for the rides. Nine for each of the boys.  I just stood and watched - got pretty nercous watching and then treated them to a hot dog each on the way home.

The real treat for me was that the boys slept over my parents on Saturday night as they were going to Wembley on Sunday, to watch the Manchester United and Chelsea football match.

So of course that meant a trip on my own to the car boot sale.  Not an overwhemling success, but I did manage to find a few bits and bobs.  First off some fabric.  The floral stripe above and this pretty red and cream stripe

To add to my growing collection, I bought this vintage tin.  The top is pretty plain and distressed, but the outside is very pretty and inside is the stunning part.

My random buy was these door handles.  I think they are 1930s because of their shapes - but then again they could be 1950s.  I haven't a clue what to use them for, but how could I resist?