Just a little quick post

I am slowly ticking all the boxes on my things to do list. We had the teddy bear festival on Saturday, at which I was doing Teddy Bear Portraits. It was a lovely day, and the kids had a ball. The portraits have been processed, ordered, and as soon as I get them I'll mail them off to all the teddy bears and their owners ;-)

I found this fun website called Wordle. It's great fun, you can enter a block of text of your own, or use the URL from your blog, and it generates a wordle, or word picture of random words from your blog. It's fun trying to remember which post some of the words come from!

I have a busy week ahead of me, I'm processing the images from the newborn twin shoot - I hope to have a few on my photo blog by the end of the week.
I'd like to get started on the mural at preschool too, although I'm still debating what paint will work the best for it. Acrylic, or regular wall paint? At some point I'd love to get my hair cut too, I think it's almost longer than Holly's now and needs to go - this heatwave is making me long for a shorter, lighter do!

Ballet Exam

Doesn't she look sweet? Holly had her ballet exam for primary grade this afternoon. It was her first exam, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. She said the examiner was very friendly and smiled a lot. She also loved how hard her hair felt with all the hairspray we used! I hadn't done a proper ballet bun with nets and grips since I did ballet, which is too far in the past to even think about, but, it all came back and I did Holly's hair and her friend's, which was no mean feat as her friend's hair is in a bob! They looked so pretty, I'm sure they all danced like little angels.



I loved how they sat around Rachel listening to her read a story, while they were waiting for their turn to go in. This shot also demanded to be in B&W as the blocks they were sitting on were primary colours!

Sports Day

It was my daughter's sports day at school today. They are so sweet, everyone cheers for everyone, they make mistakes, they fall down, they keep going and they all have fun! Holly did the obstacle race and the bat and bean bag race, and they all do the final sprint at the end. I can't believe that next year, I'll be rooting for both my kids, because Liam will be in Reception year!
(Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

A Me Day

I had a Me day today. I had no processing to do, no washing, no shoots scheduled, so I had a day of doing what I wanted to. Okay, I could have done the ironing, but I'll do it in front of the telly later.
So, I finally caught up with finishing these little guys. You know how when you start something, if you don't finish it completely it just never gets done? Well, I decided to give my elves some eyes, finish off their bases, and do the last of the stripes. Now I just need to varnish them and that's it - Hooray! I'll shoot them properly when they're varnished - their colour comes out so nicely afterwards, but here's a quick shot of them standing on my desk. There's Pip, Alfie, Bea, Gus and Tilly.


And here's a shot of my messy messy desk! My second Graze box came today - fresh baby cherries, pina colada mix and dried cranberries - yum! My favourite song playing through Spotify. Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from the movie Once. Oh. My. Gosh. It is beautiful, you must listen to it. (I've hyper-linked it for you, click on the song title) That's all I'm going to say. Just listen to it. And then, if you haven't seen the movie, get it out! Oh, and my reference for the elves' colour open on the computer. They're the original Maileg elves.

And here's a shot of one I made for a Pea friend Heather. She organised the Peapal list and pairing (kind of like penpals but with Peas from the TwoPeas forum!) She's clutching a letter to her chest, and I like to think it's one she's sending to someone she really really likes.

Otherwise, I've been out to buy the Little Guy's new mattress, we're getting him a cabin bed to free up some floor space in his tiny little room, and I think he'll love it! Now I just need to collect the bed, and hopefully I can put it all up in his room and surprise him.

Graze

This came in the mail on Thursday.



Have you heard about Graze yet? I found out about them on Sarah's blog, where she was sharing a code to get your first box free and your second box half price. Thereafter, they go up to £2.99 a box with free delivery. You get to rate the products on their website so that you can 'bin' the items you don't like, and they'll never send you that ever, 'try' the items you're not sure about, and they're likely to send you at least one in your box, and 'love' the items you want to see lots of!
Everything about them is natural, recyclable, wholesome and delicious! The little guy and I shared the pineapple slices and goji berry salad, (I kept the hazelnuts well away from him because he's allergic) and it was really tasty! I highly recommend you try them out if you live in the UK.
Use this code :

free box code:

GLLG4KBE

to get your first box free and your second one half price - if you really don't want to continue you can cancel after your second box. Mine's due on Tuesday - I can't wait to see what I'll get!
Oh, and if you do sign up, please let me know by commenting here - everytime someone uses that code, I can get £1 off a future box, or donate £1 to the Rainforrest Alliance. There's no limit to how many times the code gets used either. Happy Grazing ;-)

Miniature Inspiration

I was blog hopping the other day and literally fell into my idea of heaven in a blog! Liberty Biberty is written by Mercedes, who is someone that sounds a lot like me. She's a mother, she's a scrapbooker, she's a crafter. But most importantly, she is a miniaturist extraordinaire! (And that's the part I want to be when I'm bigger!)

Her doll's house is breathtaking, the attention to detail, the level of finish, the style...I could go on and on! I knew there was a reason why I haven't jumped head first into building my doll's house - I was waiting to find Mercedes and her blog full of incredible inspiration so that when I do build my house, I can try to make it just a little bit as pretty as Mercedes'.

Tristan's aunt Sharon asked me what style I'd be decorating the house in, whether Victorian, Georgian, or Tudor, and I've not been very keen on any of them. Mercedes's house sums up exactly the kind of look I want : some old style cottage bits, some antique heirlooms, and lots of shabby chic county charm!

Here's a quick pic of the outside of her house. Isn't it the prettiest little house? Go and visit her blog, if you're anything like me, you'll be lost there for hours!

Ahoy There!

The little guy is officially four years old! What fun to have your birthday fall on a Saturday, so that your party is on the same day. We woke up this morning and gave him his super cool Lego Police Station, built the vehicles and then got ready for the party. Don't you like his invites?

Note to self : Do not be mistaken, when you invite 20 kids do not expect that half will have something else on. Expect to have 20 kids on your hands for two hours. Also, living in England, do not expect that the glorious sunshine you have been enjoying for weeks will hang around for a party. Expect rain, rain and more rain.
But, knowing that you've given your kid his first proper party with kid friends and kid games and kid food, you'll have the happiest kid on the planet makes it all worthwhile. For a day.

The cake. Lemon Madeira cake is so firm and dense, it holds it shape really well. Chocolate flavoured regalice, crushed biscuits for sand, gold chocolate coins and some plastic jewellery and voila! A perfect Pirate Treasure Chest! I think it turned out pretty well.

The map. We marked a cross on the back of the map, gave the kids stickers with their names on, and had them stick them where they thought the pirates had hidden their treasure. At the end of the party we stuck a tiny sword through from behind, piercing the name of the winner! Tris outdid himself on the details, I almost wished the kids could read!

The table. I love my "PARTY" plates, my mom gave them to me years ago, and they're so fun to brighten up a table. The kids did well and had a well balanced lunch of sandwiches, sausages, fruit, cupcakes, sweets, crisps, and cucumber!

Captain Jack Sparrow and his big sister, Firstmate Holly, at the table, moments before the madness began!