As another day’s plans for the holidays are changed due to the wet, grey weather I simply have one plea this morning, come on Spring do your thing. Lets see some blossom, feel the warmth of the sun on our faces, play on the grass, wear sunglasses and a flirty skirt, hear the birds, enjoy lighter days and simply have a skip in our step. Spring its time to shine…..
A flashback to the 70s today as I’m sorting through old photos at my parents’ home. I have seen sepia, black and white and colour images but nothing quite beats the 70s for the colours and patterns. The curtains, the wallpaper, the dress, I think the carpet was bright and swirly too!!
For me Dippy the dinosaur is an iconic character. I have happy memories of childhood trips to the Natural History museum and he appears in so many stories and films that Dippy is a national treasure and the exhibit whom has captivated so many children. I was a little sad when he was retired from his London home, thinking my children would never get the opportunity to see him and to get the sense of awe and curiosity which generations have experienced on seeing the model.
However Dippy is on tour and this week we had a day trip to meet him. I was a tad worried that Dippy would be different to what I remembered, not so impressive or just a little tired, however I can happily report that he is just as captivating and interesting as I remembered. I was star struck! Fortunately it was not just me as the children loved him too. The hall he is in has two floors and to walk along the gallery is mind boggling as his body takes up the whole hall space and you really get the scale of the size of a dinosaur. Downstairs you can measure yourself against his leg and feel so tiny but for me the gallery view was incredible. At one end you come face to face to Dippy and it’s fascinating, his head seems quite small in comparison to the body.
It was great to see Dippy drawing in the crowds, I booked tickets in advance as many slots for the holidays are already fully booked. Entrance to the Dippy tour was free and it gave us so much pleasure and delight, a treat for all the family.
For Little Miss one of the delights of school holidays is painted nails. In the days before she breaks up Little Miss will be deciding on the shade and counting down the minutes until she can have her manicure and varnish.
Earlier this month I did a Body Shop order and needing to spend £1 to get free delivery I searched for a product at this price and discovered a nail art pen in the sale for this exact sum. OMG we are loving this tool and it’s becoming one of the best pounds I’ve ever spent!
After our first few experiments with dots and stripes, we progressed to a simple flower this holiday. We have our own nail art inspiration board on Pinterest and have big ideas for the coming holidays, special effects including marbling (bubble wrap, genius idea) a fruity theme for the summer, Halloween art for October etc..
I suppose nail art and make up are becoming the new crafting for tweens, with the skills being transferable experimenting with colour, textures etc.. I am embracing nail art because it gives me much cherished time with my daughter, music in the background, the gentle touch of a hand massage, manicure etc .. and the time to sit still and talk. I’m sure in the coming years it’ll be a routine done with friends over teenage gossip so I’ll enjoy every little manicure until then and yes I’m proud to wear my daughter’s designs on my nails.
Yes this really is an electric whisk. I’ve exhausted my Easter photos in the previous post and wanted something original in this series. Oddly, before January I had never owned an electric whisk and since I’ve had it my recipes have become more adventurous and technical, soufflés, meringues etc .. I love it and it’s made cooking just a little more fun.
With Easter falling so early, I felt that I had not quite had the build up and excitement to the season this year. Easter is one of my favourite times of the year, I find it a very spiritual time and to me the religious celebration is at the heart of our Easter. Easter is a time of homemaking, a spring clean, followed by decorating the house and a time to enjoy new recipes and menus. It has less of the pressure of Christmas and the lighter days and glimpses of spring make it a more inspiring holiday.
I have only bought a few new Easter decorations this year as I’ve not really had the time to shop for Easter as I normally do. I did discover HomeSense and am so pleased with the wreath, bunny plate and basket I purchased there, I also got a new Happy Easter garland in Waitrose. The wreath and garland are hung in my kitchen feature window and of all my Easter decorations this window is my favourite.
This year we have followed our family traditions, the Easter bonnet parade at school (recycled bonnets from last year, Easter simply arrived too early for inspiring craft times!) hot cross buns bought on Good Friday from our local baker and our Easter egg hunt with a hand drawn clue sheet by me. I’m a rubbish artist but I love doing this, I look back on every year’s sheet and am proud of the care and effort I made with each one. We’ve also tried new things this year. This morning, we rolled eggs at the Downs. I had experimented with the nail varnish marbled eggs flooding Pinterest boards, but they were a disaster and Little Miss and I still have the stains on our hands. We ended up decorating our eggs with Sharpies and they looked just fine. The fun of the activity was in the egg rolling, it was simple good fun and the children loved it, definitely one to do again nest year. I sent my mum a short video and she was reminded of her childhood Easters too. The other new activity was an Easter piñata. We do have the most amazing neighbours so this morning we discovered a bunny piñata hanging in our garden, a present from them. When we told Little Man there was a rabbit in the garden he wouldn’t believe us, thinking it was an April fools. Our neighbours came over this afternoon to see the piñata being bashed, it was so funny and again one to enjoy again.
I wanted to create a fresh, spring menu our Easter lunch. I will often make a nut roast, or pastry main course for special menus however Mr S asked for a simple Quorn roast. Initially I was a bit hesitant as it seemed a bit like cheating but it meant that I spent more time focusing on the flavours of the vegetables and a special pudding. The honey and nutmeg glazed baby carrots were stunning whilst fresh, perfectly cooked asparagus is always tasty and a star of any meal.
Little Miss and I set ourselves the little challenge of making a meringue dessert from scratch. Little Miss really enjoys cooking with me and we do like to try more demanding recipes; we got the meringue recipe from the Good Food website and it was a 5 star recipe rating from us. I am really proud how much of the recipe Little Miss was able to do independently, she is a great little sous chef and its lovely to be in the kitchen working together.
With Easter starting our holidays, we now have a fortnight to enjoy some spring sunshine and inspired activities. We’re off to see Peter Rabbit at the cinema this week and some local attractions have Easter themed trails for us to enjoy too. I’ve checked the calendar for next year and its a much later Easter in 2019, so we will have the time to prepare and be inspired by Easter.
Happy Easter x
Hot cross buns are my favourite Easter treat. For me nothing compares to a simple, freshly baked bun with soft, slightly spiced dough and plump fruits, fresh from the bakers on Good Friday.
I’m not tempted by the supermarkets with their fancy flavours, to me a hot cross bun is the delight of a simple recipe. From childhood to adulthood, I have always queued up on Good Friday morning at the local baker for fresh hot cross buns, packaged in a white paper bag. A hot cross bun is one of life’s simple pleasures.
So a new strategy with #littleloves as I love the concept but have struggled to find the time to write weekly, I’m now going to try and write it monthly so I still get to record what I’ve enjoyed most during the month.
March has been a funny old month, after a grey, cold and wet winter I had hoped that we would see the first signs of spring this month, but March turned out to be the most extreme month of the winter. We had two big snowfalls in three weeks and arctic weather which left us all so cold and miserable. I’ve lots of books on my post this month as it really was a month for keeping warm and cosy indoors.
Away from the weather which dominated many conversations, March was a busy month in our household, there was lots of dance this month as Little Miss had exam classes, a ballet exam, show rehearsals and normal classes, our boys had a weekend at Grandad’s and we had a surprise tea out with my parents who were on a day out nearby and made a detour to see us. I also finally joined the gym after threatening to do it all winter, I’m loving it and am feeling so much better for it.
As I mentioned earlier, its been a good month for reading, lots of cosy nights in to escape the arctic weather outside. I’ve completed A Life in the Day by Hunter Davies, I feel Bad about my Neck by Nora Ephron, Some Kind of Wonderful by Giovanna Fletcher, Happy by Fearne Cotton and Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift. Hunter Davies’ autobiography was my favourite book of the month, but I also want to mention Giovanni Fletcher, it was the first book of hers that I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. At bedtime, Little Miss and I are reading Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2, it is as brilliant as the first and so inspiring and powerful, such an original and simple idea. I have also been reading the daily essays in Simple Abundance, each day is a piece on how to live an authentic life. I read this book 20 years ago and it had a big impact on me then. However I then lent it to a friend and lost my original, so it’s been a delight to revisit it.
I finally got to watch The Greatest Showman at the cinema this month, even though it came out in December. The film didn’t disappoint, I love a film that is visually stunning and packed full of music and the Greatest Showman had it all. I’ve been playing the soundtrack a lot and This is Me has become a bit of an anthem in our house. I did a little research on Barnum after and he wasn’t quite as nice as the character in the film but the poetic licence made for a fantastic film.
I made the children’s costumes for World Book day this month and then it got rearranged due to a couple of snow days (the children have had a few days off this month thanks to snow and broken boilers) When it finally took place, Little Miss was the White Witch from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Little Man The Wimpy Kid. Little Miss loves to dress up and we spent lots of time, crimping her hair, spraying it blue and then adding glitter spray too, she also had lots of glitter and blue lipstick on her face to complete her look. Little Man went for the simplest option as he doesn’t quite share his sister’s enthusiasm for dressing up.
This month, I also got to make snowballs and a snowman on the second snow fall. We were house bound on the first snow fall because of black ice, it wasn’t much fun and a bit disappointing however on the second occasion, we just had snow and spent a brilliant morning in the garden, happy days.
This month, it was all about the layers and hats and scarves. It was so cold. Next winter, I am going to buy the warmest coat I can find with the biggest pockets and cosiest hood.
This was the month, when I finally replaced all my old make up and have been wearing cruelty free brands after discovering that many companies test on animals as consequence of selling their products in China. I have replaced my favourite Estee Lauder foundation with the Body Shop version and it is really impressive. I’ve bought a couple of lipsticks this month and just that little pop of colour has lifted my mood on some mornings.
As I’m back in the gym I’ve been making some cheesy playlists on my Spotify account, its what helps to keep me happy as I exercise. I just hope that my headphones never fall out for everyone to hear my choices! Wham have been a guilty pleasure this month.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06tk8hw
I also listened by accident to this drama on Madness’ Sugg’s life , I was looking for Women’s Hour on the radio 4 schedule and chanced upon this instead. It’s brilliant and has a strong message about family, as well as some atmospheric acoustic songs.
So March is over and now its Easter and the holidays. I have a few ideas for the holidays but until I have a few dates confirmed I can’t make definitive plans, not great for the planner and organiser in me but I’m trying hard to simply go with the flow…
#littleloves is the linkie created by Morgana at coffee work sleep repeat
It’s funny how traditions and special moments can evolve. What started as a reaction to a bad day at work has become a weekly tradition and a highlight of my working week, Tuesday lunchtimes are walk and talk.
Over a year ago, my colleague and I were both having a v bad day, it was overwhelming and on a whim we decided to walk to a favourite cafe and get a takeaway coffee. When we arrived the smell and look of the daily soup was too good so we swapped for this and since then every Tuesday lunchtime we go and collect homemade soup and bread from our little cafe. It is the best cafe I know, the food is amazing and it’s always full of locals so invariably we stop and chat to a neighbour or friend too. However we never stop for lunch it’s always takeaway as my colleague and I walk and talk. We have resolved so many of our department’s problems on these weekly walks, planned special events and thought of new ideas. Sometimes we’ve been joined by colleagues who are always welcome and they too walk and talk .
Tuesday’s walk and talk is an inspiring and calming hour in our week, it’s the only day I take a lunch break and definitely helps keep balance in my working week. It’s useful as we have never returned with something unresolved and always feel so much better for fresh air and a healthy hearty soup. Tuesday’s walk and talk is a simple pleasure in a busy working life.
It’s that confusing day of the year when my body clock is out of sync with the time. However today heralds the start of summertime and the promise of longer and warmer days.
Seaside Sparkles 