I love October half term, it’s a mix of holidays, Halloween and family birthdays which make it a lovely little holiday. This week we have been preparing for Mr S’ big birthday celebrations, decorating for Halloween and paying a visit to my parents for a few days, a very busy time and a lot of lists for the planning! This week my made section is bursting and the creative tasks have definitely dominated my time in preparation for party time at the weekend.

READ

All my free time this week has been devoted to my makes so I have read very little. However, The Girl on the Train I ordered from the library is ready for me and I am looking forward to some quiet reading and relaxing next week.

LISTENED

I do have a bit of a girl crush on Zoe Ball, she’s fabulous on ITT Strictly and she’s been doing the mid morning show on Radio 2 this week. I like listening to her she’s fun, witty and in the nicest possible way remarkably ordinary. I also listened to Desert Island Discs with Keith Richards, I discovered he’s far from his rock star character / persona and was really taken by his passion and knowledge of music from all genres.

WATCHED

This may seem a bit arty but at Bristol Museum I watched an ‘art installation’ called Erdkunde. It was a short film but so much more. It’s difficult to describe in words, but it encouraged you to look, create and be imaginative with your environment. It was very simple and the children enjoyed and interacted with it too.

MADE

There’s been a lot of makes this week, so here are a few highlights. On Tuesday afternoon when we were at Bristol docks we came across a wild life project which was part of Bristol’s green year. We made hedgehog and snail wild flower seed pods, you shaped clay and then rolled with seeds ready to plant in your garden and also made bee hotels with bamboo sticks and cardboard. It was a lovely session and we all learnt a lot about our environment and how to make it animal friendly.

As its Mr S’ big birthday celebrations over this weekend including going out for dinner on Halloween, we are not going for the full monty with Halloween this year. The little ones will be dressing up on Saturday afternoon and doing a few fun activities but we don’t have the sweet treats and Halloween specialities this year. This hasn’t stopped us decorating the house and carving our pumpkin. It would be rude not to! Little Man helped me this year, by looking on the internet for inspiration and then with some careful hands, he helped to carve the pumpkin. We’re both proud of our work.

Finally, I have been working on table decorations for the birthday dinner. This is to take place in a very nice hotel in a neighbouring village so I need something tasteful to complement the balloons I have ordered. I have played around with old photos and reduced the size to enable me to create a centre piece. I have taken the photos, laminated them and then stuck them back to back onto straws to be grouped together to give the impression of an explosion of photos and memories. The photos are brilliant and will cause amusement to all at the dinner as all are featured in the photos too, there are some fantastic 70s and 80s fashions!

WORE

Clothes have been a bit of an obsession this week, trying to get everyone ready for the afore mentioned dinner. There is a smart dress code and purchases have been made accordingly. However I have been stuck, I scoured the shops in Bristol, ordered a few dresses from Next, browsed my Mum’s wardrobe (LK Bennet, Jigsaw, Hobbs – when did she become this stylish?) but could not find ‘the’ outfit so have finally decided on an old favourite, a wrap over dress and my strappy sandals. My problem is I never do smart and feel at odds with the delicate, elegant clothes I’m trying to wear, I want to wear the clothes not the other way.